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To bring what you learn in the classroom into real-world practice, many courses have community-based fieldwork components. For example, in one journalism course, American and Ghanaian students are matched in teams and assigned to cover a specific "beat" for the semester, challenging each other to understand differences and probe similarities critically. In another popular course, American students read African theorists on representations of Africa in film and then collaborate with Ghanaian students on producing documentary films that represent their own experiences of Accra. Course work is often enhanced through visits to local museums and landmarks and trips to cultural events.
Because of student interest, community service is a very strong and exciting component of the study abroad experience in Ghana. Volunteers donate their time regularly to over a dozen meaningful service organizations. Past students have found this aspect of the program personally rewarding and a great opportunity to give something back to the society.
The following is a list of internship/service placements currently available to NYU Accra students. Please note that this list is subject to change. Additional opportunities may be available upon arrival in Accra.
AACT 's mission is to support the families of children with autism. In order to achieve this, AACT focuses on the following areas: promoting awareness and understanding of autism in Ghana and providing training and educational services to children with autism in order for them to function more effectively in society.
Autism is rarely known in Ghana and often linked to superstitious beliefs. Thus it is the prime objective of AACT is to provide a safe place for families to come for understanding, information and education about the disorder. Some of the work undertaken by the center include: public awareness to reduce the stigma around the disorder, life skills training, educational approaches to teaching languages and communication, art and music therapy, physical education, train care givers, field trips and extra curricular activities, respite care for families.
AACT is an interesting place for students undertaking various projects and research into disorders and disabilities in children especially in the area of autism.
La Enobal No. 2 Junior High School was established in 1957. It was founded by Mr. Okole and was later taken over by the government of Ghana. It has a student population of 300 students. It is located in the La community of Accra. As public school, it has served as a good resource for educating thousands of students since its establishment.
Some of the courses taught at La Enobal include, math, English language, social studies, cultural studies, integrated science, home economics, etc. Volunteers from NYU in Ghana have had wonderful moments undertaking tasks and duties on various activities such as teaching English, math, computer studies and sports.
• Teaching
• Implementation of educational projects (e.g. environmental club project)
• Sporting activities
• Creative art
• Please note that tasks may change depending on the needs
La Enobal is about 5 minutes drive away from the academic center.
The Morning Star School was founded in 1965 by the late Mrs. Esme Siribo. It began as a pre-school with seven pupils and jt has blossomed over the past years into one of the best first cycle Christian school in Ghana. The School has 1370 students enrolled ifrom kindergarten to the 9th grade. The school is located about 3 minutes drive from the Academic Centre on Labone Avenue.
Volunteers may assist a teacher to grade assignments, teach a lesson in English, Math and Science, Art etc or help out with any of the clubs in the school such as: School Choir, Gospel Band, Boys Scout, Girl Guides, Creative Writing, Needle work and craft, Pottery and Ceramics, Red Cross, Drama and Debate Flute Ensemble, Fitness Club and AFS.
New Horizon Special School, Accra Ghana is a purpose built establishment started by a mother with a handicapped daughter with the support of some parents and friends in January 1972. The school provides day school education for children and vocational training and employment for adults who are intellectually challenged. Persons with other disabilities - e.g. spastics, cerebral palsy, visually impaired hearing etc., are also admitted so long as their disability is a learning difficulty. Presently, over 140 students aged four through forty years attend the school. The school is located in Cantoments, about 5 minutes drive from the NYU in Ghana Academic centre. Volunteers may assist in the following areas:
State School for the Deaf is a public school within the Ghana Education service set-up. The School was established at Osu in 1965 by Dr. Seth Tetteh-Ocloo who is himself deaf and is now in America. The school was then known as Osu Deaf Mission Center. It was later taken over by the Government in 1969 and was renamed State school for the Deaf. The school is currently located at Ashaiman near Tema.
The school has as its objective the education of the deaf who for their severe hearing impairment, their educational needs, appropriate educational programs and other related services cannot be provided in the regular school. The State School for the Deaf program begins at the pre-school level and continues through Primary to the Junior Secondary school (JSS). Essentially, the academic curriculum is the same as that of the regular public school programs. Strong emphasis however is placed upon language and communication. The regular academic program is supplemented and reinforced by a pre-vocational program. Currently, the school is made up of 230 pupils and staff strength of 42.
Volunteers could work in the vocational department, teach sports and offer basic computer training to pupils or even help in the drama and dance department.
Osu Children's Home is a community for orphaned, abandoned and needy children from ages zero to eighteen years. It was started in 1949 by an NGO known as Child Care Society. It was then located in the premises of the present Cripples Home at Kaneshie, a suburb in Accra, the capital of Ghana. In March 1960 the government took over and moved it to its present location. It was put under the management of the Department of Social Welfare and has been as such up to date.
Volunteers are accepted from all over the world. Supervision for volunteers is provided by the home. Volunteers are expected to assist in areas of:
Beacon House is a home for biologically orphaned children (that is children who have lost both parents). Presently, there are 20 children living in the house and their ages range from 3 to 11 years.
It is not an institution and the atmosphere in the house is that of a home with many children. In order to provide the children with a warm, secure, and caring environment, the home has two house mothers (one for every 10 children), a cook, a housekeeper, a driver, a gardener, and security men for the night time.
Beacon House is looking for enthusiastic individuals to plan activities, teach, and play with the children. We particularly need assistance in the following areas:
• Assist in teaching the children in the schoolroom
• Teach drama
• Teach dance and music
• Sports and game teaching
• Help with IT, fundraising, administration
• Share professional skills with the staff
The orphanage's greatest need at the moment is a volunteer teacher. Most of the children come from northern Ghana so their primary language is Frafra. In order for them to integrate into the public schools system in Accra, they need to learn English. It is seeking to provide them with a solid background in reading, writing and arithmetic.
Volunteers should be aware that Beacon House is a Christian organization and the children are raised with Christian beliefs. Religious study is taught in the school, there are prayer sessions before bedtime, grace before mealtimes and the children attend Sunday school at a local Christian Center.
When thinking about how best to help and fit in as a volunteer, you should consider your stay as visiting someone's house. The day-to-day running of the home is done by the staff that has developed routines that work well for the children – providing a warm, secure, and stable environment.
GrassRootsAfrica was founded in 2002 and legally certified in June 2004 as a not for-profit organization. It has its head office in Madina in Accra, an officer for Northern Ghana and Burkina Faso located in Navrongo, Garu and Berekusu.
To create a just and fairer society in which the rights and well-being of citizens become the justification for the existence of governments and policy makers.
To provide research and advocacy in support of citizen's initiatives that promotes and protects rights, ensure personal security and enhanced well-being, particularly of the disadvantaged in society.
Thematic Areas
Trade and Economic Justice
At the international level the organization advocate for a flexible, transparent, equitable and just trading system with the objective of making trade work for ordinary people.
At the regional level, it advocates and campaigns for people-centered trade and economic integration and seeks alliances with international civil society formations for the purpose of advocating for equitable trade relations with the rest of the world.
We are also pursuing a campaign for total debt cancellation for poor countries, and advocating for pro-poor and gender sensitive planning and budget policies in Africa.
Grassrootsinitiative also works to influence policy in favour of small-scale producers in Ghana and Africa and for the recovery of the lost African market.
Rights, Civic Actions and Governance
Under this program it works to:
• Promote and consolidate the Rights of citizens to-
• Participate in governmental processes and to elect and be elected
Basic and essential services such as water, sanitation, health and education
• Improve transparency in government business through planning, budget and procurement transparency
• Enhance the capacity of citizens to hold public duty holders accountable
• Create platforms and opportunities for continuous dialogue between citizens, government and the private sector for purposes of equitable and sustained development.
Since its founding in 1976 by Millard and Linda Fuller, Habitat for Humanity International has built and rehabilitated more than 150,000 houses with families in need, becoming a true world leader in addressing the issues of poverty housing.
In Ghana, local and Global Village volunteers have built as many as 1,000 houses, mostly in neighborhoods on the outskirts of rural villages. The buildings are simple, made of mud-bricks mortared over with zinc or cement-tile roofing.
The houses would be built with no profit added and no interest charged. Building would be financed by a revolving Fund for Humanity. Financing of these projects come from the new homeowners' house payments, donations and no-interest loans provided by supporters and money earned by fund-raising activities.
JayNii Streetwise Organisation (JSO) is a registered entity G-23,946 with the Registrar General's Department, having a goal of promoting the welfare of vulnerable young ones in deprived communities through education, sports, arts and culture.
We are a Not-For-Profit organisation dedicated to keeping the children of Jamestown, Accra and its environs, off the streets and in school, providing them with an education and a chance for a better future.
Streetwise Project
Provide 50 children with all needed stationery, uniform, shoes, bags, and materials to attend school
Provide extracurricular activities for children in drumming, creative arts, reading, sports, dance and assist children with their curricular studies and homework after school
Provide accommodation, food, cloth, shelter, medical care, and pastoral care to needy children who wondered where the next meal was coming from
Counselling families on the importance of education, many of these children's parents are illiterate themselves and do not appreciate the value of education.
The scheme provides financial assistance for children who are in some of the most deprived and needy households in Ghana.
The scheme aims to provide at least nine years of formal basic education in Ghana from kindergarten to JHS for children from 4 to 16 years.
Needy children drawn from deprived villages and communities within which JSO works.
Orphans and Needy children under the care of single parents or incapacitated parents;
Children of economically overburdened and distressed families (Large families for
* Improve the quality of lives of young people
* Get children off the street and put them into the classroom
* Provide them with skills
* Create the opportunity for them to make use of their acquired skill
* Empower them to know they are talented and deserve to join the ranks of educated youngsters.
* Promote and encourage education for all children and help prepare them for a better future
* Promote global peace and understanding through children exchange programme.
* Create global awareness among children
* Participate in international children and youth conferences, seminars, festivals, campfires, retreats
* Enabling Africans to appreciate their cultural values
* Exposing the rich culture of Ghana to the world
The West Africa AIDS foundation is a registered NGO, and a partner of the Ghana AIDS Commission. WAAF believes that in providing education, counseling, care and support for the purpose of inducing behavioral change in sexual norms of the populace that are known to have a high incidence of HIV/AIDS in Ghana.
WAAF provides a wide range of services including:
HIV/AIDS education Information:
WAAF also specializes in voluntary counseling and testing.
Volunteers and Interns are the West Africa AIDS Foundation's greatest resource. These people usually assist in the following areas:
RESPECT Ghana is an affiliate of RESPECT International which is committed to raising awareness among international youth about refugees and refugee issues, encouraging activism among youth and further empowering refugee children and communities through letter and cultural exchange, through the donation and transport of education-related material aid. In line with the stated goals of RESPECT International, RESPECT Ghana is also poised to fully serve as the link between the international community and the refugee community in Ghana.
RESPECT Ghana has a team of volunteers currently running the affairs of the organization and has other volunteer experts who are contributing their ideas as to how programs and activities could be initiated to raise general awareness about refugee issues, to bridge the gap between students in developed worlds and refugee students as well as liaise with international affiliates to see how best refugees could be assisted.
RESPECT Ghana has also outlined a number of future programs and plans as well as its readiness to offer its rich human resource to work in partnership with any organization that seeks to be interested in refugee issues and matters relating to human rights and global peace.
United Way Ghana (UWG) is a not-for-profit organization that seeks to build community capacity for sustainable development in the areas of health, education, and income generation through collaborative efforts of all stakeholders.
UWG works with both donors and charities and is therefore, in a unique position to support the needs of both groups. For many corporate institutions, supporting communities in need is very much part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). United Way Ghana works through community based organizations to offer structured services to underprivileged communities. Through our Corporate Partnership Program, we custom tailor interventions to fit the level of community investment a corporate body wants to deliver.
UWG is a member of United Way Worldwide (UWW). Headquartered in the United States, UWW is a global network of 47 member countries with 4500 affiliate offices developing models for sustainability impact at the community level.
Child and Associates is a private health care center located in Accra.
To maintain the highest level of health and well being of children and their families in Africa.
To develop the human capital of West Africa to the highest quality of health both physically and emotionally.
Offer highest quality medical care to all families in West Africa.
Provide up to date medical education to parents
Provide Public Health support to families, schools and child-care agencies
To foster child advocacy in regional legislation and policy development
To provide preventive and curative medical care of the highest quality
Routinely, Child and Associates offers the following services to clients
• Trauma care
• Asthma
• Seizure disorders
• Medical evaluations
• Medi-evacuation
• House calls
• Skin repair clinics
• Hospital care management
Developmental & Behavioral assessment:
• Bedwetting (medical and behavioural management)
• Behavioral problems
• Chronic Constipation
• Eating Problems
• Learning Problems
• School delay
Public health services include
• Screenings
• Vacinations
• Consultancies
• Informational brochures
• Seminars
HIV Screening and Care
• Pre-employment/work permit medicals
• Travel medicine packs
• Study tour participant emergency care
• Postgraduate studentpre
• Pre-employment / Work permit Medicals
• Travel medicine packs
• Study Tour participant emergency care
• Postgraduate student preceptorship in Child Health, Nutrition, HIV, Public Health
GHANET is a group of non-profit organizations, community-based, public institutions and individuals living with HIV/AIDS. They have come together to form what is known today as the Ghana HIV-AIDS network (GHANET). The idea of a network was conceived in May 1996, when stakeholders in HIV / AIDS prevention in Ghana felt a gap in the co-ordination of HIV/AIDS activities, funding and program planning, with the result that there was gross duplication of efforts and waste of human and material resources. Access to information was also very difficult at the time. GHANET, as it is constituted now provides a forum mainly for information and experience sharing towards effective programming planning especially at the grass-root level. Members are encouraged to also share their human and material resources.
Specifically, GHANET's objectives are to:
1. Establish a broad-based forum for stakeholders to broaden members' understanding and knowledge of HIV/AIDS issue, in order to plan and execute more effective
HIV/AIDS programmes.
2. Promote frequent interaction and sharing of ideas, experiences, skills and best practices.
3. Fight all forms of discrimination and stigmatization against persons living with HIV / AIDS (PWLAs)
4. Conduct advocacy for prioritization of funding and use of resources.
5. When necessary to act as a pressure group.
Informed by the Millennium Development Goals for health, including maternal and child health, the Longevity Project for Africa (Longevity Project Africa) seeks to evolve as an effective umbrella organization for individual countries' efforts to increase the life expectancy and quality of life of their respective populations. The Longevity Project in Ghana, registered under the laws of Ghana in November 2004, will serve as a pilot for similar initiatives throughout Africa.
The project seeks to solve health-related problems in Ghana including the following;
1.Life Expectancy in Ghana: 56-58 years
2. Quality of Life: fairly low due to relative ill health, low productivity and resulting in poverty.
3. Infectious diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS (emerging epidemic)
4. Malnutrition
5. Maternal and infant morbidity and mortality;
6. Chronic, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, hypertension,
heart disease and cancer..
7. Lack of awareness of dangers that bad hygiene, poor diet, lack of physical
exercise and chronic stress pose to our health and quality of life.
The project is looking for volunteers to help with the following;
1: Increase public awareness of link between lifestyle choices and health
2: Support health and fitness efforts
3: Fund continuing research to increase availability of scientific health data specific to Ghanaians or Africans
4: Reduce impediments/barriers to health and fitness
5: Generate and raise funds to sustain and strengthen programs.
All fundraising efforts will have the dual aims of generating funds for set goals and objectives.
The Foundation for Contemporary Art was founded to create an active network of artists and a critical forum for the development of contemporary art in Ghana. It exists to raise awareness of, and develop critical thinking within contemporary art in Ghana by organizing exhibitions, seminars, workshops and publications.
Housed in the WEB Dubois Center for Pan African Culture, the FCA is looking for volunteers with proposal writing and fund raising skills, curators and people to work on newsletters/publications. NYU in Ghana students have in the past volunteered with FCA and found their experiences very rewarding.
Agoro Mmutae (Creative Zone) is a community -based organization that is committed to giving opportunities to young people to develop their skills in photography and to express themselves artistically.
The organization's activities include teaching young people how to use cameras, developing and printing of films, writing skills, how to make a story book, how to make a wall hanging, how to organize a photo shoot, and how to combine computer skills with photography. 'Agoro Mmutae' is an Akan expression meaning "learning with a purpose".
There is an also an Adinkra studio at Creative Zones which facilitates the activities and projects of the organization. Thus, the studio empowers young people who have dreams and creativity but are hindered by poverty. It offers them material support such as clothing, stationery, food, play tools, computers, education, etc. These underprivileged children are mentored, motivated and counseled as a way of granting them some psychological support.
Global Media Alliance Limited is an International Communications Company founded in 1998 in South Africa. GMA is a corporate member of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA). The company is specialized in the provision of a broad range of communication services to clients including:
Public Relations, Political Analysis and Positioning, Corporate Affairs Public Affairs, Events Management, Media Relations, TV Productions, Corporate Documentaries, Program Distribution, Media Consultancy Services, Community Relations, Publishing of Marketing and Promotional Materials, CEO Reputation, Management and Crisis Management.
GMA promises exciting vacancies for interns/volunteers in events organization, newsletters/publications, CNN monthly reports on Africa, a new TV production dubbed "The Nation Builders" etc.
Micro-Finance and Community Development Organization (MFCDO) is a non-governmental organization committed to poverty alleviation, community development and small-scale entrepreneurship through micro-finance services. It works in collaboration with its Community Based Organizations (CBOs) involved in various forms of community work. Our principal implementing partner is the Open-Heart Solution Agency (OHSA), which has been practicing micro-finance and community development programs and seeking to promote the culture of savings through what is known in Ghana as "Susu. Susu" - a savings mobilization from the informal sector in Ghana.
Other community-based projects include:
The organization provides opportunities for voluntary works, internships, study visits and other cross-cultural learning experiences.
Volunteers are likely to be involved in one or several of the following
Internship Seminar and Fieldwork
For students interested in a more formal, reflexive fieldwork experience, NYU Accra offers a credit-bearing seminar sponsored by the department of Social and Cultural Analysis and NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. While engaged in fieldwork at a selected set of community organizations and NGOs, students participate in an academic seminar that helps make sense of the issues that arise in their community work, the structure and methods of the organizations where they work, and their own place in the process.
Your experience as a community volunteer will be a highly individualized opportunity that enhances your cultural immersion. NYU Accra staff will help you select the appropriate organization for your volunteer experience, drawing on their relationships with local community organizations. For example, you may find yourself working with the Elim Cluster of Schools, where teach elementary students. At the West Africa AIDS Foundation, you'll assist with patient visits, counseling, and fund-raising events.


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Native GIS software for Ubuntu (Linux)? The most famous is grass and qgis but it is not the only GIS software, is it?
I use Quantum GIS, it is an excellent promising GIS package, has a very nice graphic user interface based on Qt, it can act as an interface to the venerable GRASS GIS tools too.
SAGA GIS which looks like a good second to Quantum GIS is available in the repositories. Do not forget Google Earth, even though it is not open source and have some limitations compared to a specialized GIS package it can be a very useful tool for some of your GIS work.
A useful set of command line tools to use for mapping and some GIS work are the Generic Mapping Tools GMT. The Geospatial Data Abstraction Library Utility programs are a must, you can get these by installing gdal-bin from the repositories.
There are many GIS options available on Ubuntu. As you note, GRASS and Quantum GIS are two of the most widely used applications. They are probably the most user friendly options as well.
Thuban (install ) is another desktop option.
Mapserve is a web-based GIS option available in the repos.
The Ubuntu GIS team has a PPA providing the most up to date versions of geospacial related software for Ubuntu. This would be a good place to start investigating further options. The Debian DIS team is relevant as well.
There is a very nice overview of open source GIS applications that run on ubuntu on the OSGEO live dvd, and it is also available here: http://live.osgeo.org/en/overview/overview.html
This live dvd is based on ubuntu so all discussed applications can be installed on ubuntu, although some installation programs are better integrated (eg packages through synaptic).
You can try gvSIG:
Not directly related to your question, but if you're looking to convert GIS formats, gpsbabel does a great job. It's likely to be a good complement to any GIS app that you use.
You could also check out the stackexchange GIS beta site http://gis.stackexchange.com/, to see if there are Ubuntu or Linux users there with tips.
One of the thread answers includes the Ubuntu GIS ppa that andrew mentioned : "The awesome Ubuntu GIS repository makes it really easy to install and keep updated with open source GIS software. Anyone installing an open source GIS stack on Windows will appreciate this."

subset: commoncrawl


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Spain's Red Fury Loses Some Fire
Feted National Side Looks to Have Hit a Turning Point After Successive Draws
Even the mightiest empires had turning points in their history. Setbacks, however minor, that eventually led to their decline.
Spain's "Furia Roja"—"The Red Fury", and rarely has a nickname felt so apt—have enjoyed an unprecedented hegemony over world soccer at the national team level for the past six years.
Before it, no nation had ever won three consecutive major tournaments: the 2008 and 2012 European Championships and the 2010 World Cup. Between March 2007 and June 2009, it put together a 24-game undefeated streak in competitive matches.
Impressive as that was, after its 1-1 home draw with Finland on Friday, Spain has now gone another 24 competitive games without a loss, dating back to June 2010.
Yet if celebrations were somewhat muted after the Finland game, it's understandable. It marked the second straight competitive game in which the Spaniards had failed to win on home soil (they drew 1-1 with France back in October).
The bulk of the Spanish team wasn't even alive the last time that happened—more than 30 years ago, at the 1982 World Cup, when it lost to West Germany (2-1) and then limped out of the tournament following a 0-0 draw with England, becoming the first host nation ever to bow out of soccer's biggest showcase in the first round.
That may well be a statistical quirk. What is less quirky—and rather more worrying—is the way Spain's qualifying group is shaking out. With four of its eight games already played, Spain is second with eight points, two behind table-topping France, whom it visits on Tuesday.
Given that only group winners are guaranteed a spot in the World Cup, with runners-up having to go through a two-legged playoff against one of the second-placed nations in one of the other European groups, things could get tricky for the world champions.
Defeat would leave Spain five points behind Les Bleus and almost certainly condemn Vicente Del Bosque's men to the playoffs. A draw would keep the two-point gap intact, but Spain would no longer control its destiny. The side would need France to drop points against its remaining opponents, Georgia, Belarus or Finland, which at this stage seems unlikely.
Slipping into the playoffs would be more of an inconvenience than a tragedy. But it does raise the question of whether Spain's Red Fury is on the wane.
As a group, it remains as deep as any in world soccer. In some areas—such as midfield—Spain is so stacked with talent that, at times, Del Bosque has famously opted for a formation without a designated striker just so he could cram as many midfielders as possible into his starting lineup.
Longtime stalwarts Xavi Hernandez and Xabi Alonso, who have an incredible 225 caps between them, may be the wrong side of 30, but the trio of Javi Martinez (24), Sergio Busquets (24) and Cesc Fabregas (25) are just hitting the prime of their careers.
Meanwhile, attacking midfielders like Isco, Juan Mata, Santi Cazorla and David Silva would probably be guaranteed a spot on most top national sides, but have to scratch and claw for playing time with Spain.
There's a similar abundance at goalkeeper, where as many as four different men could easily line up between the sticks without Spain missing a beat.
Yet elsewhere, options are comparatively limited. In central defense, once you get past Sergio Ramos and Gerard Piqué, you have to rely on folks like Carles Puyol, who turns 35 next month and appears to be on the slide. Or Raul Albiol, who isn't a regular at Real Madrid, as evidenced by the fact that, since June 2011, he has started as many games for Spain as he has league matches for his club: 12.
Up front, there are plenty of options, but none appears to fit the bill in terms of longevity, reliability and quality.
David Villa, Spain's all-time leading goal scorer, missed the first eight months of 2012 through injury and, since his return, has struggled to find space at Barcelona, lasting 90 minutes just six times in the past 15 months.
At 31, he's not getting younger either and, what's more, he is often deployed on the wing. Fernando Llorente, an old-school battering ram of a center forward, has been embroiled in a contractual dispute all season long with Athletic Bilbao. He'll be leaving via free agency in the summer and, as a result, has started just one league game this year.
The other Fernando, Torres, has been a byword for underachievement since his $75 million move to Chelsea in January 2011 and it's no coincidence he wasn't even called up to the latest Spain squad. Nor was Valencia's Roberto Soldado, a consistent scorer over the years at the club level but one who doesn't appear to fit the bill on the international scene.
Thus, apart from Villa, the only genuine striker included in the squad for these qualifiers was Alvaro Negredo, a fine player but also one whose club, Seville, is stuck in mid-table and who, at 27, probably won't make much more progress.
Spain showed at the Euros that it can win without a top-drawer central striker. And while there may not be much depth in central defense, the World Cup isn't a season-long competition: As long as your starters remain healthy and available for seven games, you're fine. What's more, reinforcements are on their way: Spain also happens to be European champion at the Under-21 and Under-19 levels, suggesting the pipeline isn't close to running dry.
That said, if the cycle does come to an end after three consecutive major titles, history may remember this past week as the turning point. Especially if Spain fails to win at the Stade de France on Tuesday.
—Gabriele Marcotti is the world soccer columnist for the Times of London and a regular broadcaster for the BBC.


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Last year four fellow hunters came together with the vision of reaching men with the Gospel through a shared love of hunting.
As a result they formed 318 Ministries (Genesis 14:14) with the belief that reaching men provided the greatest opportunity for reaching their entire family. On September 7, from 6-8 p.m. they are hosting the second annual Aim High Sportman Banquet at the El Dorado Civic center (201 E. Central El Dorado, KS) in partnership with the First Southern Baptist churches of El Dorado and Augusta.
That evening a meal of smoked brisket will be served and Dr. Grant Woods of www.growingdeer.tv will be the keynote speaker.
Tickets are $10 to help cover the cost of the meal and expand the ministry in the future. Bring the whole family-women are encouraged to attend too- as well as anybody you know who needs to hear a life changing message of truth.
RSVP would be helpful as seating is limited. Contact email@example.com, John Harms (316-323-8048) or Cale Magruder (316-847-2063) for advanced tickets. During the day they are also hosting the Whitetail weekend at the Butler County 4-H Building (206 N. Griffith El Dorado, KS) where there will be over 30 world class whitetail mounts on display along with vendors and an indoor archery range for the kids. Admissions is $5 at the door.
Location, ST | website.com


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As he was crucified, Jesus engaged in a conversation with one of the other thieves hung along side him. at the end is this pronouncement:
Luke 23:43 (ESV)
43 And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
This verse is often referenced to make a theological point about how people come into salvation and the absence of presence of ceremony/action in the process. However it seems to me that most usages of the verse are based on an interpretation that uses a theological construct or doctrinal position of some kind to interpret this verse based on their larger understanding of the concepts. For example:
- Protestants who believe salvation is entirely a work of God might say that this verse shows that Jesus pronouncement that this person was now heaven bound means that he can bestow salvation on whomever he pleases with them having to have done any works or go through an rituals. Paradise refers to Heaven and salvation (admittance) is a free gift.
- Mormons who believe that salvation is impossible without some accompanying works argue that this verse isn't talking about heaven at all but some other realm where that person would again have a chance to do good works. Paradise is not heaven and the gift given was a second chance to earn admittance into heaven.
Starting with the word Greek
παράδεισος and it's original meaning and how it would have been understood in context, what can a good hermeneutical approach to this passage show us? How would the original audience have understood this usage? Then bringing in other passages to bear on the issue, what relevant related texts do we have? At what point in the process of zooming out from the text must our doctrine formed by other sources become the determining factor in how we interpret this saying?
Note that I do not think interpretation based on other clearer passages or understandings is wrong, but part of my interest in asking this is understanding _where the line between that and textual analysis is drawn in this case. Is the word itself self-evident? If so why the dispute about what it means? If it's not self evident, when do we step back and apply other methods and what are those in this case?


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Recently I was introduced to the concept of Orthogonal Polynomials through the poly() function in the R programming language. These were introduced to me in the concept of polynomial transformations in order to do a linear regression. Bear in mind that I'm an economist and, as should be obvious, am not all that smart (choice of profession has an odd signaling characteristic). I'm really trying to wrap my head around what Orthogonal Polynomials are and how, if possible, to visualize them. Is there any way to visualize orthogonal polynomials vs. simple polynomials?
Helge presented the continuous case in his answer; for the purposes of data fitting in statistics, one usually deals with discrete orthogonal polynomials. Associated with a set of abscissas $x_i$, $i=1\dots n$ is the discrete inner product
$$\langle f,g\rangle=\sum_{i=1}^n w(x_i)f(x_i)g(x_i)$$
where $w(x)$ is a weight function, a function that associates a "weight" or "importance" to each abscissa. A frequently occurring case is one where the $x_i$ are equispaced, $x_{i+1}-x_i=h$ where $h$ is a constant, and the weight function is $w(x)=1$; for this special case, special polynomials called Gram polynomials are used as the basis set for polynomial fitting. (I won't be dealing with the nonequispaced case in the rest of this answer, but I'll add a few words on it if asked).
Let's compare a plot of the regular monomials $x^k$ to a plot of the Gram polynomials:
On the left, you have the regular monomials. The "bad" thing about using them in data fitting is that for $k$ high enough, $x^k$ and $x^{k+1}$ are nigh-indistinguishable, and this spells trouble for data-fitting methods since the matrix associated with the linear system describing the fit is dangerously close to becoming singular.
On the right, you have the Gram polynomials. Each member of the family does not resemble its predecessor or successor, and thus the underlying matrix used for fitting is a lot less likely to be close to singularity.
This is the reason why discrete orthogonal polynomials are of interest in data fitting.
Start here
I am not sure of your math-background, so I am trying to keep it simple, without oversimplifying some ideas. First off polynomials are nice for various reasons, e.g. a polynomial of degree $n$ has at most $n$ zeros. However, there are still many polynomials and it makes sense to choose VERY nice ones: orthogonal polynomials.
To choose orthogonal polynomials, one has a problem at hand, which comes with a way to measure functions $f: \Bbb R \to\Bbb R$ by an expression of the form $$ \mathcal{E}(f) = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} f(x)^2 w(x) dx, $$ where $w(x) > 0$ is a weight that satisfy $\int w(x) dx = 1$. One should think of $\mathcal{E}$ as an energy.
Now the orthogonal polynomial of degree $n$ can be defined as the polynomial $P_n(x) = x^n + a_{n-1} x^{n-1} + \dots + a_1 x + a_0$, where $a_{n-1}, \dots, a_0$ are real numbers, that minimizes $\mathcal{E}(P_n)$. It is this minimization property that is responsible for some of the power of orthogonal polynomials.
At this point let me also say that it is through the weight $w$ that your problem enters the definition of orthogonal polynomials. And that one also has orthonormal polynomials, which satisfy $\mathcal{p_n} = 1$. These are given by $p_n = \frac{1}{\sqrt{\mathcal{E}(P_n)}} P_n$.
I think of the space of polynomials on R as a set of graphs arranged round the real line like the pages of a book round the axis. Polynomials which have almost the same graph are close to each other; then orthogonal polynomials are those which fall at right angles in the picture, and the linear combinations generate the space just as the basis vectors of $\mathbb{R}^n$ generate $\mathbb{R}^n$.


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An answer on my question regarding the comparative magnitude of sins suggested that we should not sin so as to avoid damnation, I believe the contributor may amend that answer but it is something we seem to often hear.
Is this why we should not sin? Not to do good and shun evil for its own sake? Or do the two in fact exactly equate? If we avoid sin with the aim of escaping damnation are we doing it just for our own personal gain?


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Crissandra's Bag is absolutely fun and easy to construct and offers endless design possibilities. The purse body is assembled as any ordinary handbag and then adhered to a metal open-channel purse frame. Like magic you'll then have an elegant and sewphisi-cated bag you'll be proud to carry anywhere! Dimensions 12" wide x 6" high x 3/5" deep.
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Watertown girls (19-1) tune up for NVL tourney
WATERTOWN — Cohesiveness has defined the Watertown High girls basketball team this season. Watertown proved that on Senior Night, closing out the regular season with a 57-39 win over Wolcott on Thursday night to finish at 19-1 overall, 18-1 in Naugatuck Valley League games and a perfect 12-0 mark in the Brass Division.
"Even with the one loss (to Torrington on Jan. 11), what we accomplished this season feels amazing," said Watertown junior Meg Perrin, who led the Indians with 18 points. "We didn't want our two senior captains (Gabby Rinaldi and Jamie Zoldy) to leave here on a bad note."
Perrin credited Rinaldi and Zoldy, who were honored before the game, for having a big influence on the underclassmen.
"They taught us about communication," said Perrin. "They
See INDIANS, Page 5C
have looked out for everyone. They are the ones who have picked us up when we've been down."
Freshman Abigail Collier chipped in with 11 points for the Indians while Zoldy added 10.
Watertown's success this year has been based on team unity, said Zoldy.
"It was a total team effort," said Zoldy. "You hope to have leadership, but there are certain days when teams need help from the underclassmen. We've had leadership throughout our team. That's what makes us unique. We have worked hard to get where we are."
Watertown coach Ed Lopes agreed. Still, he is pleasantly surprised his team was able to battle through a competitive NVL campaign with only one loss. Watertown has now won nine in a row since the 55-47 defeat at Torrington.
"In the beginning of the year, if you said we would be 19-1 and the No. 1 seed in the NVL Tournament, I'd be just as shocked as anyone else in the league," said Lopes. "We play 10 deep. I'm just as comfortable with the players I put in as I am the starters. We have great players and great role players."
Kayla Breire scored a team-high eight points for the Eagles (10-10) and Madison Hanlon added seven points.
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A list of the top 100 all-time winningest prep football teams in Illinois has recently been compiled and Carmi-White County comes in tied with Harvard in 88th place. The list ranks teams by wins and ranks only teams with 350 or more wins. The list is actually larger than 100 teams, accounting for all 350-plus win teams.
The list was compiled by Ken Varney, site author of illinoishsglorydays.com, with the help of Illinois football historian, Tom Sikorski. The list was somewhat of a quest for Varney to put together, spending the past 19 month working on making it as accurate as possible.
Varney used the help from Sikorski as well as other historians, librarians and school administrators.
Varney hopes to re-release the list every summer to reflect the new numbers.
Other area schools of note on the list include Mount Carmel in 19th, Casey-Westfield in 20th, DuQuoin in 26th, Harrisburg in 31st, Benton in 58th, Flora in 69th, Johnston City in 71st, Lawrenceville in 105th, Mount Vernon in 114th and CZR in 116th.
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What iPhone / iPad applications do you use for your gaming? One per answer, please, and vote up ones you have used and like.
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closed as off-topic by doppelgreener, SevenSidedDie♦, SnakeDr68, Dakeyras, lisardggY Dec 12 '13 at 18:24
GoodReader is the home app for many of my game-book PDFs. It loads quickly, even with art-heavy works, and the bookmarking function is really useful.
Dropbox. I use it to sync my notes, books, and character sheets. For larger books, you can even send files from Dropbox straight to GoodReader if the Dropbox PDF viewer is too slow for your liking.
I just used Evernote at game night for the first time last week and was very impressed.
Using their desktop app on my home computer, I created separate notes for
Evernote took it all and slurped it up into its cloud. During the day I updated and tweaked things on my Android phone, iPad and work computer. When game time finally arrived, it was all ready to go on my iPad. It was the best combination of prepared and organized that I've ever felt. Best of all, the app is free up to 40Meg of upload per month. Unless you are uploading high res images that will be plenty to run a game on.
iPlay4e.com, which has an iPhone optimised website for 4e character sheets. Fantastic tool.
Just go to http://iplay4e.com on your phone.
Google Docs is a fantastic reference that is usually iphone renderable. I have my players maintain their character sheets and a time log that are accesable from iphone or laptop at the table.
Dicenomicon is a heavy-duty programmable dice emulator. It has the most extensive set of custom features that I've seen in such an app.
I use Mach Dice. Mach just recently added support for Fudge dice during the great Fudge dice shortage of 2010!
I have recently started using Notability for my games and prep.
I can type, write, draw, map, annotate, highlight, and record. I can import images and PDFs and web clips.
It can auto sync to a variety of cloud storage services including Dropbox and google drive, in your choice of several formats.
It's super-useful and for $0.99, it's a steal!
GMToolKit provides a basic die roller, a name generator, a room description generator, and a place-name generator based on random root-words translated into a variety of language "inspirations".
The place-name generator is by far the most interesting feature. It first generates a random combination of English words that would be suitable for a place (such as "pine meadow"), then it gives four variations built from a rough translation into German, Gaelic, Latin, and Old English (such as "Kieferwiese", "Cranncluain", "Agerpinus", and "Beamfeld" for "pine meadow".)
The room description generator is alright, but seems to have a limited variety of "pieces" to put together into a fixed skeleton. It's enough to give some inspiration and little bits of dungeon-dressing, but used too often it will get repetitive. I wouldn't use it verbatim.
The name generator is a little more random that I'd like, but is very quick. It might take more than a few taps, but eventually a name will jump out as being good-sounding.
The die roller is pretty basic. Enough for a single die throw of one or more dice of the same size, but nothing to compete with Dicenomicon or Mach Dice.
Ambiance has a huge library of free soundscapes, such as spooky graveyards, sci-fi laboratories, etc. I haven't used it in a gaming setting yet, personally, but you can easily plug it into a stereo or dock and use it to generate atmosphere for your game. It also supports iOS 4 multitasking, so the sounds continue to play even when you exit the app to do something else.
Simplenote is a free, light, bare-bones note-taking app, that syncs between your iPhone, the Simplenote website, various desktop apps, and other devices. Notes can be edited, tagged, searched, and restored to previous versions. While not specifically geared towards gaming, it's useful for pretty much everything, and serves as a much lighter version of Evernote.
I use i4e (nonfree, but cheap) and I'm absolutely delighted with it. It's local to the phone (but with a web-based importer) which means I don't have any lookup time when I'm using my powers. Furthermore, customizable descriptions are remarkably handy.
Pip is a good, simple dice roller with nice graphics and physics and no other frills. Here's a review.
I've been using Tap Counter for tracking Counts in Hackmaster. Simple to use and does the job.
RPGplane is an iOS app featuring 15 maps (some bigger then 6000 pixels) and the ability to set fog density, field of view, and grid size with a finger swipe.
It allows for unlimited checkers with individual size, colour, text, number, and field of view. Avatars and tokens are planned for a later release. There are objects such as treasure chest, coins, and weapons to represent rewards.
The next update will introduce dice rolling and the ability to load RPGplane maps pre-populated with monsters and objects by the publisher, for instant scenarios.
Feudz Dice. I haven't personally used it yet, but I've toyed with the app. I got it based on a friend's recommendation. He showed me how you can set up all kinds of crazy things. You can create a group of dicerolls (for example multiple characters). He set up his current character as a group and then you go in and he had all the various combat rolls he has all in one place.
I really like to use sounds, so I have an app called Resounder that lets me have a pretty huge Soundboard library. It actually lets you import your own sounds (wav, aiff, mp3). Very useful for laugh tracks, drum rolls, and failure sounds (waaa-waaaa).
If I need a simple counter for tallys and such, I use Score.
I've been using OmniOutliner as a campaign management tool for years, and recently I've been using the iPad version ($29.99) more than the Mac version. One OmniOutliner file can hold all the notes for an entire campaign, and because it's an outliner, you only see what you need to see for a given session, encounter, etc. While it does not sync to Dropbox, OmniGroup provides a free sync service called OmniPresence which works pretty well.
For our VTM 20 campaigns I created a webbased charactersheet tool in php and mysql. Is has the ability to create accounts for players who can all create very detailed public PC sheets and hidden NPC sheets. You can make and save notes in each sheet and send the to a list of fallen when they die. Id be happy to share it, pm me if interested.
A custom web app I wrote to do Savage Worlds character sheets and dice rolling. iOS devices do awesomely with HTML5/javascript stuff (except sound playing, which is a giant pain in the ass) and a good framework like jQuery Mobile makes writing your own snazzy thing pretty easy.


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Contributed Bank backs St. Vincent DePaul
Paul Scampolino, left, food service director of the St. Vincent DePaul soup kitchen, accepts a donation of $10,000 from Craig Porter, vice president and marketing director of Naugatuck Savings Bank. The Naugatuck Savings Bank Foundation gave $6,000 to the mission's homeless shelter and $4,000 to the soup kitche. "Our foundation has a long history of supporting organizations that make a difference in the quality of lives of the people in the communities we serve," said Chuck Boulier, president of Naugatuck Savings Bank. "St. Vincent DePaul Mission helps people achieve their highest potential of wellness and independence, and move them from poverty to an economically viable standard of living."
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Makes 2 ounces, enough for 1 nail soak for both hands
Pure molasses made from the juice of fresh sugarcane can be used as a soak to soften cuticles and strengthen and condition nails before a manicure. Like honey, molasses is an excellent natural humectant that will help restore lost moisture to the skin and nails.
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Paul Krugman reviews Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century:
Piketty discusses at length the lecture that the scoundrel Vautrin gives to Rastignac in Balzac's Père Goriot, whose gist is that a most successful career could not possibly deliver more than a fraction of the wealth Rastignac could acquire at a stroke by marrying a rich man's daughter.[...] You might be tempted to say that modern society is nothing like that. In fact, however, both capital income and inherited wealth, though less important than they were in the Belle Époque, are still powerful drivers of inequality—and their importance is growing. In France, Piketty shows, the inherited share of total wealth dropped sharply during the era of wars and postwar fast growth; circa 1970 it was less than 50 percent. But it's now back up to 70 percent, and rising. Correspondingly, there has been a fall and then a rise in the importance of inheritance in conferring elite status: the living standard of the top one percent of heirs fell below that of the top one percent of earners between 1910 and 1950, but began rising again after 1970. It's not all the way back to Rastignac levels, but once again it's generally more valuable to have the right parents (or to marry into having the right in-laws) than to have the right job.
The New York Times reports that Canada's median income is now at least as high as ours:
Although economic growth in the United States continues to be as strong as in many other countries, or stronger, a small percentage of American households is fully benefiting from it. Median income in Canada pulled into a tie with median United States income in 2010 and has most likely surpassed it since then. Median incomes in Western European countries still trail those in the United States, but the gap in several — including Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden — is much smaller than it was a decade ago.[...] The struggles of the poor in the United States are even starker than those of the middle class. A family at the 20th percentile of the income distribution in this country makes significantly less money than a similar family in Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland or the Netherlands. Thirty-five years ago, the reverse was true.
Louis Menand reviews a new biography of John Updike in the New Yorker:
Updike's justifications for scoffing and balking at liberal causes were weak. "I distrusted orthodoxies, especially orthodoxies of dissent," he pleaded in "Self-Consciousness," which is just a knee-jerk response to knee-jerkers.[...] Updike was not, of course, a racist, a sexist, or a militarist. He was reacting to what he saw as an attitude, but he reacted with another attitude. Contrariness is not a politics.
But contrariness is a literary motivation. Updike told his mother that he abandoned New York and his staff position at The New Yorker partly because he didn't want to become "an elegant hack." Updike was not a mere word processor. He had a cultural project. He wanted to rescue serious fiction from what he saw as a doctrinaire rejection of middle-class life and an apocalyptic interpretation of modern history.
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Fine article about Updike by Louis Menand. Menand says that for Updike, and Proust as well, writing literature is a kind of transubstantiation:
"Ulysses" begins with a mock celebration of the Eucharist—and so, in fact, does "In Search of Lost Time," a cookie dipped in a cup of tea. The idea is that literary representation is an act of transubstantiation. Literature pulls the real up out of the realm of temporality and insignificance and remakes it into a form that will never decay and never die. There is nothing doctrinally religious about this conception of the literary act. It is at the heart of modernism. "It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance," Henry James wrote to H. G. Wells. That's what Updike believed."
Not making God present, but somehow making people present for later times.
As one who is fairly conservative on economic matters, I approach Piketty with my guard up. But what seems to be his central point (based on reviews and articles I have read), that investors have been earning more wealth than wage workers for many years running now, with the result that inequality has been growing, seems difficult to deny. Not being a progressive myself, I don't see inequality per se as a problem, but as a Christian I am committed to a preferential option for the poor, and that the poor are stagnating or are worse off than was the case several decades ago, surely is a problem that should concern all of us of any political stripe.
Regarding Canada, Sweden, the Netherlands et al catching up to us: that's worth at least two cheers, that so many people are doing better than they were before. I expect the Fed could reverse that trend in five minutes or less if it wished, but I don't know why it would. If the newly prosperous denizens of these other lands spend their higher incomes on American exports, so much the better for us. A conservative might look at these income trends and inquire about rates of single parenthood in these various countries.
At first I missed your thread, as I saw Mollie's before it. The rest is , you might say, history. It is a shame that your thread got lost in the shuffle since it is as important, if not more because of the greater impact on everybody but the one percent. By the way, Jim P, don't you think it fascinating that you defend so strongly the 1 percent when they would not want you for dinner nor allow you to stay on the same floor of a hotel nor their clubs. Among other things. Further, donfirming Krugman you offer no counter to Piketty's book. At least you don't ridicule it.
We are unquestionably in a gilded age. If the US is to continue to thrive modifications must come. Better if they come voluntarily as seems to be happening in a few place. To wit the minimum wage increase breakout along with Walmart, Mcdonalds and other biggies supporting the piss poor Tomato Pickers by insisting that their rights as well as wages be increased. DeBlasio's election in NYC and the most gilded place--Manhattan- is another sign that people are trying to right the ship. And we know we can count of Jim P to help out the poor.
There is, of course, mus more to detail about the problem. But for the moment an incisive article in Vanity Fair, "Perfection Anxiety" should command our attention we always knew that the super rich lived empty lives. Just go ask Willie Shakespeare. But A.A. Gill who wrote the article has damning details:
" When you have 15 houses, yachts in three oceans, planes, cellars, mistresses, surgery, a library, and a personal charity, new purchases become just a matter of upgrading. And this is where the Perfection Anxiety kicks in. What you need is to have not just the most but the very, very best. The super-rich watch each other like envious owls, to see who's got a slightly better loafer, a pullover made from some even more absurdly endangered fur. They will go to any lengths to find the best tailors. I know of a man who gets his suit pants made in Italy and the jackets on Savile Row. In his underwear, he's short, fat, furry, and stooped."
Sorry. Not finished.
This is of course the fantasy that the one percent is happier. What does Paul the Apostle know that the 1 per cent do not, when he repeatedly writes: "Rejoice Always."
The most striking and funny part of the article, is also pathetic. Gill relates; "As one art dealer said to me, "If you want to know what God thinks of money, look at the people he gives it to."
" I don't see inequality per se as a problem"
Jim P. ==
I don't either. Bill Gates can own the whole moon, and that's fine with me. But inequality is only half (or less) of what Piketty is about. His biggest point seems to be that the inequality is both 1) inevitable long run AND 2) that inequality *inevitably* leads to the rich taking in so much profit that the middle class and poor ineviably become poorer and poorer and poorer to a vanishing point. It is unjust that both the poor and the middle-class people are being turned into poor people because the super-rich are greedy.
Another major point of Piketty's is that conservative economists have been spinning out theories and mathematical models to explain what is going to happen -- but their predictions have been patently *wrong*, yet they have not admitted their errors. He even give the example of a Nobel prize winning economist who *made up* a model without any figures to back it up, and then treated it as *more than a hypothesis* -- and it's wrong, wrong, wrong. That's crummy.
Krugman has been saying the same thing, and he adds that it is *dishonest* not to admit publicly that your predicitons were wrong, especially if you're an economist who puts him/herself out to the public as an expert. I agree, and I go a step further: if the economists whom you have allowed to form your opinions have been proven wrong about our own continuing recession, then you are morally obligated to look for some better economists to put your trust in (and that means dumping the conservative Chicago crowd including Milton Friedman, though he did admit he was wrong, God bless him). And, yes, I do think that people of ordinary intelligence are capable of understanding at least the basics of economics, at least when they're motivated. We have to know at least the basics to vote wisely, so we are obligated to learn them.
Interesting that all sorts of people are buying Piketty. I gues a recession has motivated all sorts of people to tey to understand it. Piketty is now Number One at Amazon, a best-seller by any standard. He must write extraordinarily clearly. No, I haven't read it. It's already out of print. And, Yes, I have read a couple of so-called "criticisms" of the book. Both avoided the big issues, which seems to be the conservative m.o. generally -- i've also read that the conservative politicians are trying to brand Piketty as a Marxist, but it seems he's far from one, though he seems to have some socialist leanings.
Please, go read Heilbroner's "The Worldly Philosophers" if you need a good economics book.
Not being a progressive myself, I don't see inequality per se as a problem,
There's only a finite amount of certain things, and the excessively rich take more than their share. For example, there are only so many apartments in Paris, and I think that something like 20% of them are sitting empty, bought by foreigners who don't live there, while the middle class are pushed out of Paris by scarcity and must spend hours commuting every day: the rich are making life more difficult for others, not to mention the poor who can't afford housing and sleep on the street outside those empty apartments. Because the supply of centrally located apartments is finite, when the rich grab more, the others suffer.
Claire, ditto in Manhattan.


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BELTON (October 9, 2012)--Women, Inspiring and Networking for Growth and Strength (WINGS) is a local class offered to women who suffer from various forms of abuse.
It is a four-part weekly class with each week to cover a different topic.
The first week will cover resources and the second week will cover police and courts.
Topics for the third and fourth weeks include children and family violence and "what now?"
The classes focus on helping women become stronger and the topics repeat after each four-week session.
The class is free and open to anyone wishing to learn more.
Classes meet at the Aware Central Texas building at 1003 N. Main Street from 5:15 p.m. until 6:45 p.m. on Mondays.
For more information, call the office at (254) 939-7582.


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I'm planning my trans-mongolian/siberian trip and I'll end up in Beijing. I want to know if it's possible to reach Japan without flying (ideally Tokyo).
There are ferries between at least these points, China on the left, Japan on the right:
Here's some other links with overviews and details:
Oh and I almost forgot my favourite! If by "mainland Asia" you want to include Siberia, there is even a ferry from Sakhalin to Hokkaido!
Alternatively, you could take the ferry from Tianjin to Incheon (South Korea), spend some time in Korea, wind your way down to Busan, and then take the ferry to Japan from there. See this excellent post for information on the ferry to Japan from Korea.
I recently met a German guy in Korea who was traveling around the world without airplanes, and that's what he did.


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This entry was posted on October 25, 2013.
Creepy Doll Head Salt and Pepper Shakers are a good thing to bring out when it's time for your guests to leave. When you look at old dolls, it's sometimes hard to imagine that they were made for children to enjoy. They definitely fall into that uncanny valley where they're just close enough to looking real that they make us uncomfortable.
Perfect for the haunted Halloween season, these undeniably creepy 3" ceramic doll heads will silently season your food and then stare at you while you sleep. That is, assuming you're able to fall asleep with them in the room.
Buy your own set here, if you dare.


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I always stumble when using abbreviations in a sentence, as they inherently contain a period in them. How do I use a comma or a semicolon after an abbreviation? How about a period?
E.g. (This is an example of my quandary)
I always stumble when using abbreviations in a sentence, as they inherently contain a period in them. How do I use a comma or a semicolon after an abbreviation? How about a period?
E.g. (This is an example of my quandary)
Based on the "Oxford Manual of Style" I changed my approach:
But, when I was reading Mathematics at university I was told to always add the sentence ending period whatever went before, so if an equation ended with ellipsis there would be four periods together.
Summary: it is a matter of style.
This pretty much explains who the period belongs to:
So, it really belongs to no one: it is shared. Your link would include the period.
To ensure that there is only one period; taken from Wikipedia:
I would go with the "clarity rule," use the punctuation that makes the most sense and makes your meaning easiest to discern.
In practice I try to structure my sentences to avoid having to place an abbreviation at the end, where the closing period would collide with the full stop at the end of the sentence, but otherwise use the periods and punctuate the rest of the sentence as required; if the sentence structure requires a comma or semi-colon after the abbreviation then I would place it after the period.
You could avoid the problem by removing the periods (or full stops). Eg: like so. In fact, the B.B.C. has completely done away with periods in abbreviations and acronyms in its writing, as have several other publications. If you do decide to include periods within your writing, you can simply place the punctuation directly after them, unless it is a period. For instance, an abbreviation for doctor is Dr. This sentence is a new sentence, but if I was talking about a Dr. and didn't have a capital letter, it is quite obvious that it is the same sentence.
So you have at least two choices:
p.s. E.g. (exempli gratia) is also an acronym.
Thank you for your interest in this question.
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The New School
History Talk: Constructing an Ethic of Death and Violence in Modern Japan
At the turn of the twentieth century in Japan there was a self-conscious attempt to formulate an ethical canon that could provide a codification of dutiful sacrifice, selfless violence, suicidal loyalty, and honourable death. In the context of deep contestation about the relationship between tradition and modernity, nationalism and imperialism, particularism and universalism, Japanese intellectuals rediscovered and (re)invented the so-called 'bushidô' tradition in an ideological move that sought to render Japan as a spiritual warrior tasked with the liberation of self and other.
Delivering a talk on this subject entitled "Constructing an Ethic of Death and Violence in Modern Japan," will be Chris Goto-Jones (BA, MA, Cambridge; MPhil, DPhil, Oxford) who is a professor of Comparative Philosophy & Political Thought at Leiden University, where he is also the dean of Leiden University College in The Hague. Recent work includes, Political Philosophy in Japan: Nishida, the Kyoto School and Co-Prosperity (New York: Routledge, 2005), (ed.) Re-Politicizing the Kyoto School as Philosophy (New York: Routledge, 2008), and A Very Short Introduction to Modern Japan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). He is presently completing a book for Cambridge University Press, Beyond the Samurai: Bushido as Politics, Philosophy, and Ideology (2013).
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Bharara Urges Class of 2013 to Take Up Public Service
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York asked graduates to dedicate five years of their careers to public service.
During their careers, Columbia Law School graduates will be placed at the pinnacles of power and will be presented with leadership opportunities available to no one else, said Preet Bharara '93, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, during his keynote address at Graduation 2013 this past May. Once in these roles, he added, graduates should consider working on behalf of the public good.
"The virtues of serving the public, I think, cannot be overstated," said Bharara, who challenged members of the Class of 2013 to dedicate at least five years to public service, no matter what their career aspirations. "Not only does the world benefit, but you benefit. You grow, and you gain, and the world gains, too."
The J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. candidates gathered on the South Lawn of Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus for Graduation 2013 hailed from 42 states and 23 countries; some were teachers, servicemen, engineers, and Olympic athletes before coming to the Law School. Dean David M. Schizer acknowledged the different paths the graduates will take in their careers, while highlighting the new opportunities that have arisen in the legal field since he graduated from law school two decades ago. Dean Schizer encouraged the graduates to take advantage of these opportunities, and to get the most out of the training they have received.
Professor Conrad Johnson, this year's recipient of the Willis L.M. Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching, also urged graduates to use their legal education to make a difference in the world.
"Your contributions are real, and we trust that you will carry the knowledge that you can make a difference wherever you go," said Johnson, co-director of the Law School's Lawyering in the Digital Age Clinic. "Don't let anyone tell you differently."


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Conference rooms and offices
The Airport Travel Agency (tel: (650) 877 0422) in the International Terminal provides fax and photocopying services. Basic business services and mobile phone rental is offered at TripTel in the International Terminal Main Hall. There are also workstations where laptops can be charged. Meeting and conference facilities are available at a number of local hotels, notably the Holiday Inn (tel: (650) 873 3550; www.holidayinn.com), as well as at the South San Francisco Conference Centre (tel: (650) 877 8787; www.ssfconf.com), which is also close to the airport.


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Apilco Gold Rimmed Salad Plates, Set of 4
Apilco's timeless white dinnerware is made exceptionally elegant with hand-painted rims in 10-karat gold. The silhouettes of each piece reflect the stylish simplicity typical of fine Parisian restaurants, with refined contours complementing the porcelain's lustrous sheen. As durable as they are beautiful, these restaurant-quality plates can be paired with different table linens, flatware and glassware in a variety of settings. Apilco, the renowned French manufacturer, has supplied chefs and home cooks with top-quality porcelain wares for over a century. Oven safe. Due to the gold detailing, the plates should not be placed in the microwave. Hand-wash. 8 1/2" diam. Set of four. Made in France. A Williams-Sonoma exclusive.
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Proenza Schouler
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Supple lambskin leather top zip pouch printed in an allover bike graphic. Leather lined interior. Polished gunmetal-tone hardware, with smooth tonal leather trim at topline.
In 2002, designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez combined their mothers' maiden names to create Proenza Schouler. The duo attended Parson's School of Design where their senior thesis became their first formal collection and was bought in its entirety by Barneys New York. Inspired by youth culture and modern art, the designers continually wow their worldwide following while using custom-developed materials to skillfully craft their womenswear, accessories and, of course, signature handbags.
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JBB Gold-Plated Pewter Snowflake Link
The intricate detailing in these gold-plated pewter snowflake links makes them a fun addition to any winter piece. Each geometrically shaped snowflake has 12 points features three small circles at each tip. These links could even be interpreted as sunbursts in the summer. Use jump rings to attach a bunch of them together for a unique necklace or bracelet, or use just one in your jewelry designs. Gold-plated pewter is great way to incorporate gold into your jewelry designs at a fraction of the cost. For other economical jewelry supplies, check out our large selection of
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Swarovski Ceralun Gold Epoxy Clay
Make your designs stand out with shimmering color by using the Swarovski Ceralun Gold epoxy clay. Ceralun is a versatile and powerful two-component, high-performance ceramic epoxy composite comprised of gold hardener and gold epoxy resin. It has been especially developed for the application of
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Narrow your search
Trying to find all the photos you've shared in a conversation on Facebook? These steps will show you how to access them on the Web and through your mobile app.
After announcing it had found a mystery buyer, the company again announces its plan to shut down at the end of the month.
A new photo-sharing app uses a common optical illusion to make your sent snaps a lot harder for the receiver to screenshot.
The little-known Panoramio service will eventually disappear as Google moves to a new Views option for sharing location-linked photos -- and adding imagery to Google Maps.
According to Business Insider, the tech giant has been in talks to acquire the startup, a Reddit favorite.
The additional manpower will contribute to Square's goal of tripling the size of its engineering team in New York within the next year.
Outage at Yahoo-owned site preventing users from uploading and browsing images.
Software allows for users to surf through viral images and share photos of their own. Several bugs from the beta versions have been fixed.
With no traditional menus, Analog Camera is all about swipes and gestures for sharing images quickly.
Ten years after launch, the professional social network is finally getting serious about new types of business content.


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Lena Crib Skirt
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A pretty pink, botany-inspired print gives this soft cotton sheeting vivid style. Pair it with a variety of designs for a unique nursery sleep space.
- Pure cotton percale
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- Four-sided skirt fits around the entire crib.
- Machine wash.
- Imported.
- Dimensions & Care
- View our nursery bedding safety tips.
- Four-sided skirt fits around the entire crib and is tailored with split corners for easy placement around posts.
Crib Skirt
- 28 x 52"; 16" drop
Crib Skirt
- Machine wash in cold water, gentle cycle.
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- Warm iron as needed.
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Gabrielle Giffords to college graduates: 'Be bold'
Former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' advice to college graduates on Saturday was the same she offered senators earlier this year as they prepared to consider gun-related legislation.
"Be bold. Be courageous," she advised graduates of Bard College in New York, repeating the words of her brief January testimony before the Judiciary Committee. "Be your best."
Giffords, who was shot in the head at a January 2011 event in her congressional district, has spoken publicly only a few times and appeared at the commencement ceremonies to receive an honorary degree. She resigned her congressional seat to focus on her recovery and her former chief of staff won election to the seat.
"Graduates, your future shines bright," Giffords said. "Find you purpose and go for it. Starting tomorrow, you can change the world. The nation is counting on you ... to create, to lead, to innovate."
Her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, spoke before her and urged the graduates to be ambitious.
He also criticized advocates for gun rights, charging "they've forgotten what they used to stand for" and now represent the interests of gun manufacturers rather than gun owners like he and his wife.


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14 Nov 2012 3:10 PM #1
Default focus on dialog open
When a new dialog is opened, e.g. PromptMessageBox, the field that is supposed to be in focus is not. This happens in the Explorer's MessageBox example too.
Is it a bug given that AbstractInputMessageBox calls setFocusWidget() for the field?
14 Nov 2012 11:56 PM #2
That sound an issue if the focusWidget is really set but ignored. I will move this thread to the bugs forum so we can have a look at it.
29 Oct 2013 1:28 PM #3
Is there a workaround for version 3.0.1?
5 Nov 2013 2:31 AM #4
Here we go again:
- Version in which the issue has been discovered is not mentioned.
- Version in which it has been fixed not mentioned.
@Colin: Seems like the header sync failed here aswell.
Well, it doesn't matter much, since this seems to be related to this thread.
@Colin: Maybe you should update the header over there, too?


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What are the theoretical and/or practical differences between shooting with different lenses at same focal length? For example, if we are shooting with a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens at 70mm focal length vs same focal length with a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, assuming identical quality of optics and camera settings, will there be any difference in the image produced?
What is the difference between shooting with different (but similar in quality) lenses at same focal length?
A perfect lens would give the same exact results but there is no such thing as a perfect lens. Even so, this would only be true when focused at infinity. At closer distances, there is shift in focal-length that depends on the lens design. So with two different lenses, one may shift differently than the other.
Practically, you will certainly see a difference, not just between a 24-70 and 70-200 but two 24-70 or two 70-200. There is sample variation in lenses far more than in sensors. I wish they could build lenses with the same precision as sensors but they cannot yet or not at prices anybody but NASA can afford.
The labelled focal-length is also often rounded. Some manufacturers go with even numbers, multiples of five while some have used half-millimeters. So a 24-70mm, could easily be a 23-69mm or 25-72mm when measured, again with the focus at infinity.
You might find some information by looking at a recent video on YouTube by ThatNikonGuy. Here he specifically addresses "focus breathing", but you may be able to see some other differences as well.
The focal length of the lens is typically rounded to a nice number. If memory serves, Nikon's 24-70 is actually 24-68 mm. Many (most?) lenses are not exactly the focal length they claim to be, but they are very close to it.
"Focus breathing" is another consideration -- where the focal length of the lens changes depending upon the distance to the subject. Macro lenses always exhibit this behavior when focused at close range, superzooms typically do, too. Nikon's 70-200 f2.8 VRII suffers from this pretty severely, with the 200mm end of the lens coming down to about 135mm.
So, yes, there is a practical difference between what the lens claims to be and what it actually is. Usually, the difference is pretty small. Also, if you can determine where your preferred focal lengths are you may find that missing some range could be something you don't miss.


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211: Hamster Ball Heist
|Hamster Ball Heist
Title text: First person to bring me Wayne Coyne in a hamster ball gets a free t-shirt! He gets one too.
[edit] Explanation
Wayne Coyne, the lead singer of the band The Flaming Lips, is indeed known to crowd-surf in a giant hamster ball.
This is one of several xkcd comics to feature a hamster ball, with the others including 152: Hamster Ball, 413: New Pet, and 442: xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel. This comic particularly references Cueball's wish to own a hamster ball from 152: Hamster Ball, as the first panel illustrates Cueball saying "Let's go." In response to the suggestion, they steal the hamster ball from Coyne. This comic outlines an elaborate mission to acquire a human-sized hamster ball by infiltrating a music concert and kidnapping the rock star, who would be structurally powerless to fight back while trapped within a spherical object.
The title text is one of Randall's many open promises. It almost certainly has not been fulfilled, but people may have attempted to kidnap Coyne.
Cueball paid a large settlement for this, as revealed in 577: The Race: Part 1.
[edit] Transcript
- Cueball: You know that giant hamster ball you've always wanted? I just found out that Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips crowd-surfs in one.
- Friend: Let's go.
- Some weeks later...
- [Wayne Coyne is, in fact, crowd-surfing in a giant hamster ball.]
- Cueball: Ready?
- Friends: Ready.
- [People on both sides shove the crowd out of the way, causing Coyne in his ball to fall to the ground.]
- Cueball: Now!
- Wayne Coyne: Hey!
- Friends: Shove.
- [Cueball and friends start pushing the ball away, as the crowd looks on.]
- Cueball: Okay, push!
- Wayne Coyne: What's going on?!
- [Some roll him up the ramp into the back of a semi, while others hold the crowd back and one stands by to drive.]
- Wayne Coyne: Help!
- [The truck drives off, leaving the audience in a cloud of dust.]
add a comment! ⋅ add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ refresh comments!
Unlike most of the comics featuring real people, this one had essentially zero followup. I can't find anything on anyone trying to do it, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened. Still, I don't feel that small blemish could make this explanation incomplete. --Quicksilver (talk) 04:34, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
I would like to see examples of attempted kidnaps of Wayne Coyne. 188.8.131.52 23:12, 13 June 2014 (UTC)
Oh wait never mind126.96.36.199 23:14, 13 June 2014 (UTC)


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CURTIS — Trains will be celebrated throughout the village of Curtis on Sunday, June 30. Local businesses will be serving up "All Aboard Burgers" or "HoBo" Stew , with a "Loose Caboose" or "Train Wrecks" to drink. View collections of train gear, date nails, train sets, maps and more-even Thomas the Tank engine and his friends will be here.
Mark Worrall, historian of Michigan railroads and rail wrecks, will speak at the Library at 3 p.m. Also at the library, are the Upper Michigan Central Model Railroad Club with their model train display, and Curly the Curtis Engine.
Curtis is a delightful village in the Upper Peninsula, where a great train day is being engineered. With "Express" sales throughout the village, free "scenic car" (pontoon) rides, Curtis is a train stop you won't want to miss.
Location, ST | website.com


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PRAIRIE HILL (February 24, 2013)--If the pews at Prairie Hill Baptist Church could talk, they might tell you a story or two.
The small church is a landmark in Texas, and is one year older than the Statue of Liberty. The church opened up shop in 1885 and has withstood the test of time.
But a different kind of milestone, one many probably don't know about, can be found inside the church every Sunday morning.
That milestone happens to be 83-year-old Pastor Fred Sain. Some preachers spend less than three years at a church before moving onto a different congregation.
Pastor Sain began preaching at Prairie Hill Baptist church 63 years ago and he never left.
He'll celebrate his 64th anniversary with the church in September.
Needless to say, he's seen America when she soared and when she stumbled from the eyes of the pulpit.
"It's just unbelievable how much the world has changed around me," Pastor Sain said.
"Everything moves so fast. It just seems like we don't have time to slow down to really enjoy the meaning of life nowadays."
Pastor Sain has preached thousands of sermons. He performed his 249th communion on Sunday morning.
His audience is a congregation of less than fifty people, yet he confessed that he still gets intimidated when writing for a Sunday morning crowd.
"It can be a totally different feeling. The church used to be viewed by most as a large sense of community and giving," Pastor Sain said.
"Today, everyone comes in a hurry on-time or five minutes late. If I preach too long they're ready to leave," Pastor Sain chuckled.
If you traveled back in time to 1949 to listen to Pastor Sain's first sermon, it would probably sound a little different.
But 63 years later, he says he hasn't changed his game-plan. He still sticks with the one book that has withstood the test of time.
"The bible is an amazing thing. I can read a passage today and it will say something completely different to me if I read it ten years down the road," Pastor Sain said.
"It's timeless, and I think it will endure forever."


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Tomb of the Golden Bird (Mass Market Paperbound)
Banned forever from the eastern end of the Valley of the Kings, eminent Egyptologist Radcliffe Emerson's desperate attempt to regain digging rights backfires--and his dream of unearthing the tomb of the little-known king Tutankhamon is dashed. Now Emerson, his archaeologist wife, Amelia Peabody, and their family must watch from the sidelines as Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter "discover" the greatest Egyptian treasure of all time.
But the Emersons' own less impressive excavations are interrupted when father and son Ramses are lured into a trap by a strange group of villains ominously demanding answers to a question neither man comprehends. And it will fall to the ever-intrepid Amelia to protect her endangered family--and perhaps her nemesis as well--from a devastating truth hidden uncomfortably close to home . . . and from a nefarious plot that threatens the peace of the entire region.
About the Author
Elizabeth Peters earned her Ph.D. in Egyptology from the University of Chicago's famed Oriental Institute. She was named Grand Master at the inaugural Anthony Awards in 1986 and Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1998. In 2003, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Malice Domestic Convention. She lives in a historic farmhouse in western Maryland.
Praise For…
"[A] grand adventure."
-Toronto Sun