text:
Successful societies have always respected what the the wise can teach us. But it's not easy to learn directly from people whose grasp of any subject well exceeds our own, in part because person-to-person learning is easily supplanted by online engagement.
I spend plenty of time staring at screens, yet I know from years of facilitating non-violence workshops that something important happens as we discuss, practice, and hone our skills together. Real learning is like a spark transferred. Going online is practically a reflex for us, but if our learning is confined there what's lost is rich perspective and valuable hands-on experience.
If you know where to look you can find sculptors, farmers, astronomers, welders, storytellers, clock repair experts, and cartoonists right in your community. Let's take my hometown of Cleveland as an example. I can learn glass blowing at the Glass Bubble Project, eviscerate and stuff a rat to look like a tiny tie-wearing butler during a taxidermy workshop at Sweet Not Salty, apply Brian Swimme's cosmology to my life direction at River's Edge, make pasta by hand at Loretta Paganini School of Cooking, march with the Red Hackle Pipes & Drums band as I learn to play bagpipes from a former Pipe Major of Scotland's Black Watch, drop my kids off where they can partner with working scientists at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History's future scientist program, volunteer to rehabilitate injured birds at the Medina Raptor Center, and learn to make handmade books at the Cleveland Institute of Art. Museums, libraries, colleges and universities, cultural and ethnic organizations, recreational centers, and plenty of other places in your neighborhood are brimming with great workshops and classes too.
This can happen more informally as well. As homeschoolers, we've found it doesn't hurt to ask people to share a little of what they know. The owner of a steel drum company explained the history and science of drum-making, talked about the rewards and risks of entrepreneurship, then encouraged us to play the drums displayed there.
A NASA engineer took us through a testing facility and showed us how materials are developed for the space program. A potter talked to us about the nature of clay, taught us how to form vessels on a wheel, then invited us back for the opening of his kiln to see our creations emerge.
We've spent days with woodworkers, architects, chemists, archaeologists, stagehands, chefs, paramedics, and many others. Despite offers of barter or pay, we've gotten all this expert instruction for free. People rarely turn us down when we request the chance to learn from them. Perhaps the desire to pass along wisdom and experience to the next generation is encoded in our genes. If someone possesses knowledge or abilities you'd like to gain, try asking. And don't forget to look close to home. You might master pinochle while spending time with your brother-in-law, learn cake decorating from your sister the caterer, gain new appreciation for fly fishing from your dad's business partner, pick up horse-racing lingo from your neighbor, and as we all know, learn more from your own kids than you'd ever imagined.
Of course, there are all sorts of platforms promoting person-to-person wisdom. Here are a few.
DIY and Maker movements have opened all sorts of avenues, with Maker Faires happening in more and more places. (Not in your area? Check out the Mini Maker Faire Starter Kit.) Find hackerspaces like Noisebridge, Pumping Station One, NYC Resistor, TechShops, and Artisan's Asylum. Or start your own hackerspace.
Trade School is a barter-based learning space, meaning you don't have to pay to learn. You might barter for a class with a homemade pie or art supplies or research help. The founders describe it as "a global movement for community, connection, and educational justice." The first Trade School was started by three friends in a NYC storefront in 2010. Now self-organized Trade Schools are opening up or running in places like Milan, Cologne, Virginia, Oakland, Singapore, New Delhi, and Paris. Want to start one in your area? Here's how.
The Amazings offer non-traditional workshops and classes set up by "amazings," people over 50 with a passion to share what they know. Their site explains, "We want to make learning more fun, more friendly, more social, and more personal." So far they have 45 people offering expertise in areas such as bookbinding, perfume making, foraging, carpentry, jazz guitar, philosophy, and corset making. The first branch is based in London, but they're open to starting more around the world.
FreeSkools are created by participants. There's no central organizing manifesto on one site or in one book. Some are informal gatherings to share knowledge, others are active networks meeting in parks, living rooms, and community centers. All are devoted to learning freely. You'll find them in Ithica, Santa Cruz, Asheville, and dozens of other cities in the U.S., Canada, and U.K. Check out piece in Yes! about what to consider when setting up a FreeSkool.
Skillshare is like the eBay of localized education. You can learn what you want from someone in your community as well as teach others what you know. Some of the classes offered right now are Building Mobile Apps for Android Devices, Rock Poster Design from Concept to Execution, and Launch Your Startup for Less than $1,000. There's a fee and many of these classes aren't taught in person, but online.
The School of Life is teeming with great stuff. They feature secular sermons with big thinkers talking about big ideas. Classes by experts with titles like Office Politics, How to Have Better Conversations, and Finding a Job You Love. Bibliotherapy: basically book prescriptions custom-designed with your reading history, dilemmas, and desires in mind. The place is also teeming with activity beyond the sit still and think variety. There are engaging programs with transformative potential and weekend adventures developed by scientists, artists, and others. Oh, and what they call Utopian Feasts. So far there's one in London with a branch opening in Australia.
Citizen Circles are small groups of people who meet to learn together for a limited period of time with an emphasis on collective learning and action. There's no fee. Some Citizen Circle topics have included women as social innovators, systems dynamics, exploring indigenous knowledge, and design thinking. There's plenty of information to help you start your own.
(un)classes are casual ways to meet and learn from local people. So far the idea has taken root in the San Francisco area. Any fees go to a designated charity and participants walk away with new knowledge as well as new connections. A recent class taught how to make gnocchi while benefiting the area food bank while another taught documentary photography while benefiting a scholarship program.
School of Everything, based in the U.K., connects those who want to learn with those who can share what they know. In Glasgow, for example, you can find instructors to teach you Mandarin, classical piano, acting audition techniques, hypnosis, and the tango. Some instructors charge for classes, others do not.
Go ahead. Get your hands right in that dirt, clay, dough, or paint as you build your expertise. Feel the spark. There's else nothing like it.


text:
Taking a shortcut off the Santa Monica Freeway down Normandie Avenue was nothing out of the ordinary for 33-year-old Reginald Denny. In the late afternoon of April 29, 1992, he had simply loaded up his 18-wheeler and headed down the road, driving for his employer Transit Mixed Concrete. Little did he know that he would drive smack into the middle of an angry mob looking for vengeance.
As his rig crossed Florence, a group of rioters enraged over the Rodney King verdict rushed toward him, pulled him out of the cab and beat him to within an inch of his life. The attack ended when Damian Monroe Williams took a cinderblock and bashed Denny's skull, fracturing it in 91 places and causing severe brain damage.
The only reason he probably did not die that day was because four South Central residents, Bobby Green, Lei Yuille, Titus Murphy and Terri Barnett, who saw the entire incident on television, raced to the scene. Despite the risk to their own lives, they grabbed Denny, put him back into his cab and drove him to a nearby hospital where doctors were able to save his life.
Denny had to undergo years of rehabilitative therapy, but his speech and ability to walk were permanently damaged. After the trial of his assailants, he approached their families in a gesture of forgiveness. He later appeared on the Phil Donahue show to shake hands with one of them, Henry Keith Watson, and finally make peace.
Today, Denny has left Los Angeles behind. TIME made many efforts to contact him through intermediaries but they were unsuccessful; Denny largely avoids the media and rarely speaks about his ordeal. He works independently as a boat motor mechanic in Lake Havasu, Ariz., where he moved after the 1993 trial of his assailants and an unsuccessful lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles. Friends say he has gone on with his life and has even begun to drive again. "He's doing better," says one local who knows Denny. "It's slow for him, but he's getting better."
Madison Gray
Next DARYL GATES

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Physicist Costas Soukoulis and his research group at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory on the Iowa State University campus are having the time of their lives making light travel backwards at negative speeds that appear faster than the speed of light. That, folks, is a mind-boggling 186,000 miles per second – the speed at which electromagnetic waves can move in a vacuum. And making light seem to move faster than that and in reverse is what Soukoulis, who is also an ISU Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said is "like rewriting electromagnetism." He predicted, "Snell's law on the refraction of light is going to be different; a number of other laws will be different."
However, neither Soukoulis nor any other scientist involved in efforts to manipulate the direction and speed of light can do so with naturally occurring materials. The endeavor requires exotic, artificially created materials. Known as metamaterials, these substances can be manipulated to respond to electromagnetic waves in ways that natural materials cannot. Natural materials refract light, or electromagnetic radiation, to the right of the incident beam at different angles and speeds. However, metamaterials, also called left-handed materials, make it possible to refract light at a negative angle, so it emerges on the left side of the incident beam. This backward-bending characteristic of metamaterials allows enhanced resolution in optical lenses, which could potentially lead to the development of a flat superlens with the power to see inside a human cell and diagnose disease in a baby still in the womb.
The challenge that Soukoulis and other scientists face who work with metamaterials is to fabricate them so that they refract light negatively at ever smaller wavelengths, with the ultimate goal of making a metamaterial that refracts light at visible wavelengths and achieving the much-sought-after superlens. Admittedly, that goal is a
ways off. To date, existing metamaterials operate in the microwave or far infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The near infrared region of the spectrum still lies between the microwave and visible regions, and the wavelengths become ever shorter moving along the electromagnetic spectrum to visible light. Correspondingly, to negatively refract light at these shorter wavelengths requires fabricating metamaterials at extremely small length scales – a tricky feat.
However, recent research by Soukoulis and his co-workers from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, published in the May 12, 2006, issue of Science demonstrates they have done just that. "We have fabricated for the first time a metamaterial that has a negative index of refraction at 1.5 micrometers," said Soukoulis. "This is the smallest wavelength obtained so far." Small, indeed; these wavelengths are microscopic and can be used in telecommunications. Soukoulis' success moves metamaterials into the near infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum – very close to visible light, superior resolution and a wealth of potential applications!
In addition, Soukoulis and his University of Karlsruhe colleagues have also shown that both the velocity of the individual wavelengths, called phase velocity, and the velocity of the wave packets, called group velocity, are both negative, which Soukoulis said accounts for the ability of negatively refracted light to seemingly defy Einstein's theory of relativity and move backwards faster than the speed of light.
Elaborating, Soukoulis said, "When we have a metamaterial with a negative index of refraction at 1.5 micrometers that can disperse, or separate a wave into spectral components with different wavelengths, we can tune our lasers to play a lot of games with light. We can have a wavepacket hit a slab of negative index material, appear on the right-hand side of the material and begin to flow backward before the original pulse enters the negative index medium."
Continuing, he explained that the pulse flowing backward also releases a forward pulse out the end of the medium, a situation that causes the pulse entering the front of the material appear to move out the back almost instantly.
"In this way, one can argue that that the wave packet travels with velocities much higher than the velocities of light," said Soukoulis. "This is due to the dispersion of the negative index of refraction; there is nothing wrong with Einstein's theory of relativity." (These effects are clearly seen in the simulations that accompany this press release. Go to: Light Movies)
The Basic Energy Sciences Office of the DOE's Office of Science funds Ames Laboratory's research on metamaterials. Ames Laboratory is operated for the Department of Energy by Iowa State University. The Lab conducts research into various areas of national concern, including energy resources, high-speed computer design, environmental cleanup and restoration, and the synthesis and study of new materials.
From Ames Lab


text:
The Canterbury Tales (unsourced)/The Nun's Priest's Tale
THE PROLOGUE[edit]
'Ho!' quod the knight, 'good sir, na-more of this:
That ye han seyd is right y-nough, y-wis,
And mochel more; for litel hevinesse
Is right y-nough to mochel folk, I gesse.
I seye for me, it is a greet disese
Wher-as men han ben in greet welthe and ese,
To heren of hir sodeyn fal, allas!
And the contrarie is Ioie and greet solas,
As whan a man hath been in povre estaat,
And clymbeth up, and wexeth fortunat,
And ther abydeth in prosperitee,
Swich thing is gladsom, as it thinketh me,
And of swich thing were goodly for to telle.'
'Ye,' quod our hoste, 'by seint Poules belle,
Ye seye right sooth; this monk, he clappeth loude,
He spak how "fortune covered with a cloude"
I noot never what, and als of a "Tragedie"
Right now ye herde, and parde! no remedie
It is for to biwaille, ne compleyne
That that is doon, and als it is a peyne,
As ye han seyd, to here of hevinesse.
Sir monk, na-more of this, so god yow blesse!
Your tale anoyeth al this companye;
Swich talking is nat worth a boterflye;
For ther-in is ther no desport ne game.
Wherfor, sir Monk, or dan Piers by your name,
I preye yow hertely, telle us somwhat elles,
For sikerly, nere clinking of your belles,
That on your brydel hange on every syde,
By heven king, that for us alle dyde,
I sholde er this han fallen doun for slepe,
Although the slough had never been so depe;
Than had your tale al be told in vayn.
For certeinly, as that thise clerkes seyn,
"Wher-as a man may have noon audience,
Noght helpeth it to tellen his sentence."
And wel I woot the substance is in me,
If any thing shal wel reported be.
Sir, sey somwhat of hunting, I yow preye.'
'Nay,' quod this monk, 'I have no lust to pleye;
Now let another telle, as I have told.'
Than spak our host, with rude speche and bold,
And seyde un-to the Nonnes Preest anon,
'Com neer, thou preest, com hider, thou sir Iohn,
Tel us swich thing as may our hertes glade,
Be blythe, though thou ryde up-on a Iade.
What though thyn hors be bothe foule and lene,
If he wol serve thee, rekke nat a bene;
Look that thyn herte be mery evermo.'
'Yis, sir,' quod he, 'yis, host, so mote I go,
But I be mery, y-wis, I wol be blamed:'--
And right anon his tale he hath attamed,
And thus he seyde un-to us everichon,
This swete preest, this goodly man, sir Iohn.
THE TALE[edit]
A povre widwe, somdel stope in age,
Was whylom dwelling in a narwe cotage,
Bisyde a grove, stonding in a dale.
This widwe, of which I telle yow my tale,
Sin thilke day that she was last a wyf,
In pacience ladde a ful simple lyf,
For litel was hir catel and hir rente;
By housbondrye, of such as God hir sente,
She fond hir-self, and eek hir doghtren two.
Three large sowes hadde she, and namo,
Three kyn, and eek a sheep that highte Malle.
Ful sooty was hir bour, and eek hir halle,
In which she eet ful many a sclendre meel.
Of poynaunt sauce hir neded never a deel.
No deyntee morsel passed thurgh hir throte;
Hir dyete was accordant to hir cote.
Repleccioun ne made hir never syk;
Attempree dyete was al hir phisyk,
And exercyse, and hertes suffisaunce.
The goute lette hir no-thing for to daunce,
Napoplexye shente nat hir heed;
No wyn ne drank she, neither whyt ne reed;
Hir bord was served most with whyt and blak,
Milk and broun breed, in which she fond no lak,
Seynd bacoun, and somtyme an ey or tweye,
For she was as it were a maner deye.
A yerd she hadde, enclosed al aboute
With stikkes, and a drye dich with-oute,
In which she hadde a cok, hight Chauntecleer,
In al the land of crowing nas his peer.
His vois was merier than the mery orgon
On messe-dayes that in the chirche gon;
Wel sikerer was his crowing in his logge,
Than is a clokke, or an abbey orlogge.
By nature knew he ech ascencioun
Of equinoxial in thilke toun;
For whan degrees fiftene were ascended,
Thanne crew he, that it mighte nat ben amended.
His comb was redder than the fyn coral,
And batailed, as it were a castel-wal.
His bile was blak, and as the Ieet it shoon;
Lyk asur were his legges, and his toon;
His nayles whytter than the lilie flour,
And lyk the burned gold was his colour.
This gentil cok hadde in his governaunce
Sevene hennes, for to doon al his plesaunce,
Whiche were his sustres and his paramours,
And wonder lyk to him, as of colours.
Of whiche the faireste hewed on hir throte
Was cleped faire damoysele Pertelote.
Curteys she was, discreet, and debonaire,
And compaignable, and bar hir-self so faire,
Sin thilke day that she was seven night old,
That trewely she hath the herte in hold
Of Chauntecleer loken in every lith;
He loved hir so, that wel was him therwith.
But such a Ioye was it to here hem singe,
Whan that the brighte sonne gan to springe,
In swete accord, 'my lief is faren in londe.'
For thilke tyme, as I have understonde,
Bestes and briddes coude speke and singe.
And so bifel, that in a daweninge,
As Chauntecleer among his wyves alle
Sat on his perche, that was in the halle,
And next him sat this faire Pertelote,
This Chauntecleer gan gronen in his throte,
As man that in his dreem is drecched sore.
And whan that Pertelote thus herde him rore,
She was agast, and seyde, 'O herte dere,
What eyleth yow, to grone in this manere?
Ye been a verray sleper, fy for shame!'
And he answerde and seyde thus, 'madame,
I pray yow, that ye take it nat a-grief:
By god, me mette I was in swich meschief
Right now, that yet myn herte is sore afright.
Now god,' quod he, 'my swevene recche aright,
And keep my body out of foul prisoun!
Me mette, how that I romed up and doun
Withinne our yerde, wher-as I saugh a beste,
Was lyk an hound, and wolde han maad areste
Upon my body, and wolde han had me deed.
His colour was bitwixe yelwe and reed;
And tipped was his tail, and bothe his eres,
With blak, unlyk the remenant of his heres;
His snowte smal, with glowinge eyen tweye.
Yet of his look for fere almost I deye;
This caused me my groning, doutelees.'
'Avoy!' quod she, 'fy on yow, hertelees!
Allas!' quod she, 'for, by that god above,
Now han ye lost myn herte and al my love;
I can nat love a coward, by my feith.
For certes, what so any womman seith,
We alle desyren, if it mighte be,
To han housbondes hardy, wyse, and free,
And secree, and no nigard, ne no fool,
Ne him that is agast of every tool,
Ne noon avauntour, by that god above!
How dorste ye seyn for shame unto your love,
That any thing mighte make yow aferd?
Have ye no mannes herte, and han a berd?
Allas! and conne ye been agast of swevenis?
No-thing, god wot, but vanitee, in sweven is.
Swevenes engendren of replecciouns,
And ofte of fume, and of complecciouns,
Whan humours been to habundant in a wight.
Certes this dreem, which ye han met to-night,
Cometh of the grete superfluitee
Of youre rede colera, pardee,
Which causeth folk to dreden in here dremes
Of arwes, and of fyr with rede lemes,
Of grete bestes, that they wol hem byte,
Of contek, and of whelpes grete and lyte;
Right as the humour of malencolye
Causeth ful many a man, in sleep, to crye,
For fere of blake beres, or boles blake,
Or elles, blake develes wole hem take.
Of othere humours coude I telle also,
That werken many a man in sleep ful wo;
But I wol passe as lightly as I can.
Lo Catoun, which that was so wys a man,
Seyde he nat thus, ne do no fors of dremes?
Now, sire,' quod she, 'whan we flee fro the bemes,
For Goddes love, as tak som laxatyf;
Up peril of my soule, and of my lyf,
I counseille yow the beste, I wol nat lye,
That bothe of colere and of malencolye
Ye purge yow; and for ye shul nat tarie,
Though in this toun is noon apotecarie,
I shal my-self to herbes techen yow,
That shul ben for your hele, and for your prow;
And in our yerd tho herbes shal I finde,
The whiche han of hir propretee, by kinde,
To purgen yow binethe, and eek above.
Forget not this, for goddes owene love!
Ye been ful colerik of compleccioun.
Ware the sonne in his ascencioun
Ne fynde yow nat repleet of humours hote;
And if it do, I dar wel leye a grote,
That ye shul have a fevere terciane,
Or an agu, that may be youre bane.
A day or two ye shul have digestyves
Of wormes, er ye take your laxatyves,
Of lauriol, centaure, and fumetere,
Or elles of ellebor, that groweth there,
Of catapuce, or of gaytres beryis,
Of erbe yve, growing in our yerd, that mery is;
Pekke hem up right as they growe, and ete hem in.
Be mery, housbond, for your fader kin!
Dredeth no dreem; I can say yow na-more.'
'Madame,' quod he, 'graunt mercy of your lore.
But nathelees, as touching daun Catoun,
That hath of wisdom such a greet renoun,
Though that he bad no dremes for to drede,
By god, men may in olde bokes rede
Of many a man, more of auctoritee
Than ever Catoun was, so mote I thee,
Than al the revers seyn of his sentence,
And han wel founden by experience,
That dremes ben significaciouns,
As wel of Ioye as tribulaciouns
That folk enduren in this lyf present.
Ther nedeth make of this noon argument;
The verray preve sheweth it in dede.
Oon of the gretteste auctours that men rede
Seith thus, that whylom two felawes wente
On pilgrimage, in a ful good entente;
And happed so, thay come into a toun,
Wher-as ther was swich congregacioun
Of peple, and eek so streit of herbergage,
That they ne founde as muche as o cotage,
In which they bothe mighte y-logged be.
Wherfor thay mosten, of necessitee,
As for that night, departen compaignye;
And ech of hem goth to his hostelrye,
And took his logging as it wolde falle.
That oon of hem was logged in a stalle,
Fer in a yerd, with oxen of the plough;
That other man was logged wel y-nough,
As was his aventure, or his fortune,
That us governeth alle as in commune.
And so bifel, that, longe er it were day,
This man mette in his bed, ther-as he lay,
How that his felawe gan up-on him calle,
And seyde, 'allas! for in an oxes stalle
This night I shal be mordred ther I lye.
Now help me, dere brother, er I dye;
In alle haste com to me,' he sayde.
This man out of his sleep for fere abrayde;
But whan that he was wakned of his sleep,
He turned him, and took of this no keep;
Him thoughte his dreem nas but a vanitee.
Thus twyes in his sleping dremed he.
And atte thridde tyme yet his felawe
Cam, as him thoughte, and seide, 'I am now slawe;
Bihold my blody woundes, depe and wyde!
Arys up erly in the morwe-tyde,
And at the west gate of the toun,' quod he,
'A carte ful of donge ther shaltow see,
In which my body is hid ful prively;
Do thilke carte aresten boldely.
My gold caused my mordre, sooth to sayn;'
And tolde him every poynt how he was slayn,
With a ful pitous face, pale of hewe.
And truste wel, his dreem he fond ful trewe;
For on the morwe, as sone as it was day,
To his felawes in he took the way;
And whan that he cam to this oxes stalle,
After his felawe he bigan to calle.
The hostiler answered him anon,
And seyde, 'sire, your felawe is agon,
As sone as day he wente out of the toun.'
This man gan fallen in suspecioun,
Remembring on his dremes that he mette,
And forth he goth, no lenger wolde he lette,
Unto the west gate of the toun, and fond
A dong-carte, as it were to donge lond,
That was arrayed in the same wyse
As ye han herd the dede man devyse;
And with an hardy herte he gan to crye
Vengeaunce and Iustice of this felonye:--
'My felawe mordred is this same night,
And in this carte he lyth gapinge upright.
I crye out on the ministres,' quod he,
'That sholden kepe and reulen this citee;
Harrow! allas! her lyth my felawe slayn!'
What sholde I more un-to this tale sayn?
The peple out-sterte, and caste the cart to grounde,
And in the middel of the dong they founde
The dede man, that mordred was al newe.
O blisful god, that art so Iust and trewe!
Lo, how that thou biwreyest mordre alway!
Mordre wol out, that see we day by day.
Mordre is so wlatsom and abhominable
To god, that is so Iust and resonable,
That he ne wol nat suffre it heled be;
Though it abyde a yeer, or two, or three,
Mordre wol out, this my conclusioun.
And right anoon, ministres of that toun
Han hent the carter, and so sore him pyned,
And eek the hostiler so sore engyned,
That thay biknewe hir wikkednesse anoon,
And were an-hanged by the nekke-boon.
Here may men seen that dremes been to drede.
And certes, in the same book I rede,
Right in the nexte chapitre after this,
(I gabbe nat, so have I Ioye or blis,)
Two men that wolde han passed over see,
For certeyn cause, in-to a fer contree,
If that the wind ne hadde been contrarie,
That made hem in a citee for to tarie,
That stood ful mery upon an haven-syde.
But on a day, agayn the even-tyde,
The wind gan chaunge, and blew right as hem leste.
Iolif and glad they wente un-to hir reste,
And casten hem ful erly for to saille;
But to that oo man fil a greet mervaille.
That oon of hem, in sleping as he lay,
Him mette a wonder dreem, agayn the day;
Him thoughte a man stood by his beddes syde,
And him comaunded, that he sholde abyde,
And seyde him thus, 'if thou to-morwe wende,
Thou shalt be dreynt; my tale is at an ende.'
He wook, and tolde his felawe what he mette,
And preyde him his viage for to lette;
As for that day, he preyde him to abyde.
His felawe, that lay by his beddes syde,
Gan for to laughe, and scorned him ful faste.
'No dreem,' quod he, 'may so myn herte agaste,
That I wol lette for to do my thinges.
I sette not a straw by thy dreminges,
For swevenes been but vanitees and Iapes.
Men dreme al-day of owles or of apes,
And eke of many a mase therwithal;
Men dreme of thing that nevere was ne shal.
But sith I see that thou wolt heer abyde,
And thus for-sleuthen wilfully thy tyde,
God wot it reweth me; and have good day.'
And thus he took his leve, and wente his way.
But er that he hadde halfe his cours y-seyled,
Noot I nat why, ne what mischaunce it eyled,
But casuelly the shippes botme rente,
And ship and man under the water wente
In sighte of othere shippes it byside,
That with hem seyled at the same tyde.
And therfor, faire Pertelote so dere,
By swiche ensamples olde maistow lere,
That no man sholde been to recchelees
Of dremes, for I sey thee, doutelees,
That many a dreem ful sore is for to drede.
Lo, in the lyf of seint Kenelm, I rede,
That was Kenulphus sone, the noble king
Of Mercenrike, how Kenelm mette a thing;
A lyte er he was mordred, on a day,
His mordre in his avisioun he say.
His norice him expouned every del
His sweven, and bad him for to kepe him wel
For traisoun; but he nas but seven yeer old,
And therfore litel tale hath he told
Of any dreem, so holy was his herte.
By god, I hadde lever than my sherte
That ye had rad his legende, as have I.
Dame Pertelote, I sey yow trewely,
Macrobeus, that writ the avisioun
In Affrike of the worthy Cipioun,
Affermeth dremes, and seith that they been
Warning of thinges that men after seen.
And forther-more, I pray yow loketh wel
In the olde testament, of Daniel,
If he held dremes any vanitee.
Reed eek of Ioseph, and ther shul ye see
Wher dremes ben somtyme (I sey nat alle)
Warning of thinges that shul after falle.
Loke of Egipt the king, daun Pharao,
His bakere and his boteler also,
Wher they ne felte noon effect in dremes.
Who-so wol seken actes of sondry remes,
May rede of dremes many a wonder thing.
Lo Cresus, which that was of Lyde king,
Mette he nat that he sat upon a tree,
Which signified he sholde anhanged be?
Lo heer Andromacha, Ectores wyf,
That day that Ector sholde lese his lyf,
She dremed on the same night biforn,
How that the lyf of Ector sholde be lorn,
If thilke day he wente in-to bataille;
She warned him, but it mighte nat availle;
He wente for to fighte nathelees,
But he was slayn anoon of Achilles.
But thilke tale is al to long to telle,
And eek it is ny day, I may nat dwelle.
Shortly I seye, as for conclusioun,
That I shal han of this avisioun
Adversitee; and I seye forther-more,
That I ne telle of laxatyves no store,
For they ben venimous, I woot it wel;
I hem defye, I love hem never a del.
Now let us speke of mirthe, and stinte al this;
Madame Pertelote, so have I blis,
Of o thing god hath sent me large grace;
For whan I see the beautee of your face,
Ye ben so scarlet-reed about your yen,
It maketh al my drede for to dyen;
For, also siker as In principio,
Mulier est hominis confusio;
Madame, the sentence of this Latin is--
Womman is mannes Ioye and al his blis.
For whan I fele a-night your softe syde,
Al-be-it that I may nat on you ryde,
For that our perche is maad so narwe, alas!
I am so ful of Ioye and of solas
That I defye bothe sweven and dreem.'
And with that word he fley doun fro the beem,
For it was day, and eek his hennes alle;
And with a chuk he gan hem for to calle,
For he had founde a corn, lay in the yerd.
Royal he was, he was namore aferd;
He fethered Pertelote twenty tyme,
And trad as ofte, er that it was pryme.
He loketh as it were a grim leoun;
And on his toos he rometh up and doun,
Him deyned not to sette his foot to grounde.
He chukketh, whan he hath a corn y-founde,
And to him rennen thanne his wyves alle.
Thus royal, as a prince is in his halle,
Leve I this Chauntecleer in his pasture;
And after wol I telle his aventure.
Whan that the month in which the world bigan,
That highte March, whan god first maked man,
Was complet, and [y]-passed were also,
Sin March bigan, thritty dayes and two,
Bifel that Chauntecleer, in al his pryde,
His seven wyves walking by his syde,
Caste up his eyen to the brighte sonne,
That in the signe of Taurus hadde y-ronne
Twenty degrees and oon, and somwhat more;
And knew by kynde, and by noon other lore,
That it was pryme, and crew with blisful stevene.
'The sonne,' he sayde, 'is clomben up on hevene
Fourty degrees and oon, and more, y-wis.
Madame Pertelote, my worldes blis,
Herkneth thise blisful briddes how they singe,
And see the fresshe floures how they springe;
Ful is myn herte of revel and solas.'
But sodeinly him fil a sorweful cas;
For ever the latter ende of Ioye is wo.
God woot that worldly Ioye is sone ago;
And if a rethor coude faire endyte,
He in a cronique saufly mighte it wryte,
As for a sovereyn notabilitee.
Now every wys man, lat him herkne me;
This storie is al-so trewe, I undertake,
As is the book of Launcelot de Lake,
That wommen holde in ful gret reverence.
Now wol I torne agayn to my sentence.
A col-fox, ful of sly iniquitee,
That in the grove hadde woned yeres three,
By heigh imaginacioun forn-cast,
The same night thurgh-out the hegges brast
Into the yerd, ther Chauntecleer the faire
Was wont, and eek his wyves, to repaire;
And in a bed of wortes stille he lay,
Til it was passed undern of the day,
Wayting his tyme on Chauntecleer to falle,
As gladly doon thise homicydes alle,
That in awayt liggen to mordre men.
O false mordrer, lurking in thy den!
O newe Scariot, newe Genilon!
False dissimilour, O Greek Sinon,
That broghtest Troye al outrely to sorwe!
O Chauntecleer, acursed be that morwe,
That thou into that yerd flough fro the bemes!
Thou were ful wel y-warned by thy dremes,
That thilke day was perilous to thee.
But what that god forwoot mot nedes be,
After the opinioun of certeyn clerkis.
Witnesse on him, that any perfit clerk is,
That in scole is gret altercacioun
In this matere, and greet disputisoun,
And hath ben of an hundred thousand men.
But I ne can not bulte it to the bren,
As can the holy doctour Augustyn,
Or Boece, or the bishop Bradwardyn,
Whether that goddes worthy forwiting
Streyneth me nedely for to doon a thing,
(Nedely clepe I simple necessitee);
Or elles, if free choys be graunted me
To do that same thing, or do it noght,
Though god forwoot it, er that it was wroght;
Or if his witing streyneth nevere a del
But by necessitee condicionel.
I wol not han to do of swich matere;
My tale is of a cok, as ye may here,
That took his counseil of his wyf, with sorwe,
To walken in the yerd upon that morwe
That he had met the dreem, that I yow tolde.
Wommennes counseils been ful ofte colde;
Wommannes counseil broghte us first to wo,
And made Adam fro paradys to go,
Ther-as he was ful mery, and wel at ese.
But for I noot, to whom it mighte displese,
If I counseil of wommen wolde blame,
Passe over, for I seyde it in my game.
Rede auctours, wher they trete of swich matere,
And what thay seyn of wommen ye may here.
Thise been the cokkes wordes, and nat myne;
I can noon harm of no womman divyne.
Faire in the sond, to bathe hir merily,
Lyth Pertelote, and alle hir sustres by,
Agayn the sonne; and Chauntecleer so free
Song merier than the mermayde in the see;
For Phisiologus seith sikerly,
How that they singen wel and merily.
And so bifel that, as he caste his ye,
Among the wortes, on a boterflye,
He was war of this fox that lay ful lowe.
No-thing ne liste him thanne for to crowe,
But cryde anon, 'cok, cok,' and up he sterte,
As man that was affrayed in his herte.
For naturelly a beest desyreth flee
Fro his contrarie, if he may it see,
Though he never erst had seyn it with his ye.
This Chauntecleer, whan he gan him espye,
He wolde han fled, but that the fox anon
Seyde, 'Gentil sire, allas! wher wol ye gon?
Be ye affrayed of me that am your freend?
Now certes, I were worse than a feend,
If I to yow wolde harm or vileinye.
I am nat come your counseil for tespye;
But trewely, the cause of my cominge
Was only for to herkne how that ye singe.
For trewely ye have as mery a stevene
As eny aungel hath, that is in hevene;
Therwith ye han in musik more felinge
Than hadde Boece, or any that can singe.
My lord your fader (god his soule blesse!)
And eek your moder, of hir gentilesse,
Han in myn hous y-been, to my gret ese;
And certes, sire, ful fayn wolde I yow plese.
But for men speke of singing, I wol saye,
So mote I brouke wel myn eyen tweye,
Save yow, I herde never man so singe,
As dide your fader in the morweninge;
Certes, it was of herte, al that he song.
And for to make his voys the more strong,
He wolde so peyne him, that with bothe his yen
He moste winke, so loude he wolde cryen,
And stonden on his tiptoon ther-with-al,
And strecche forth his nekke long and smal.
And eek he was of swich discrecioun,
That ther nas no man in no regioun
That him in song or wisdom mighte passe.
I have wel rad in daun Burnel the Asse,
Among his vers, how that ther was a cok,
For that a preestes sone yaf him a knok
Upon his leg, whyl he was yong and nyce,
He made him for to lese his benefyce.
But certeyn, ther nis no comparisoun
Bitwix the wisdom and discrecioun
Of youre fader, and of his subtiltee.
Now singeth, sire, for seinte charitee,
Let see, conne ye your fader countrefete?'
This Chauntecleer his winges gan to bete,
As man that coude his tresoun nat espye,
So was he ravisshed with his flaterye.
Allas! ye lordes, many a fals flatour
Is in your courtes, and many a losengeour,
That plesen yow wel more, by my feith,
Than he that soothfastnesse unto yow seith.
Redeth Ecclesiaste of flaterye;
Beth war, ye lordes, of hir trecherye.
This Chauntecleer stood hye up-on his toos,
Strecching his nekke, and heeld his eyen cloos,
And gan to crowe loude for the nones;
And daun Russel the fox sterte up at ones,
And by the gargat hente Chauntecleer,
And on his bak toward the wode him beer,
For yet ne was ther no man that him sewed.
O destinee, that mayst nat been eschewed!
Allas, that Chauntecleer fleigh fro the bemes!
Allas, his wyf ne roghte nat of dremes!
And on a Friday fil al this meschaunce.
O Venus, that art goddesse of plesaunce,
Sin that thy servant was this Chauntecleer,
And in thy service dide al his poweer,
More for delyt, than world to multiplye,
Why woldestow suffre him on thy day to dye?
O Gaufred, dere mayster soverayn,
That, whan thy worthy king Richard was slayn
With shot, compleynedest his deth so sore,
Why ne hadde I now thy sentence and thy lore,
The Friday for to chide, as diden ye?
(For on a Friday soothly slayn was he.)
Than wolde I shewe yow how that I coude pleyne
For Chauntecleres drede, and for his peyne.
Certes, swich cry ne lamentacioun
Was never of ladies maad, whan Ilioun
Was wonne, and Pirrus with his streite swerd,
Whan he hadde hent king Priam by the berd,
And slayn him (as saith us Eneydos),
As maden alle the hennes in the clos,
Whan they had seyn of Chauntecleer the sighte.
But sovereynly dame Pertelote shrighte,
Ful louder than dide Hasdrubales wyf,
Whan that hir housbond hadde lost his lyf,
And that the Romayns hadde brend Cartage;
She was so ful of torment and of rage,
That wilfully into the fyr she sterte,
And brende hir-selven with a stedfast herte.
O woful hennes, right so cryden ye,
As, whan that Nero brende the citee
Of Rome, cryden senatoures wyves,
For that hir housbondes losten alle hir lyves;
Withouten gilt this Nero hath hem slayn.
Now wol I torne to my tale agayn:--
This sely widwe, and eek hir doghtres two,
Herden thise hennes crye and maken wo,
And out at dores sterten they anoon,
And syen the fox toward the grove goon,
And bar upon his bak the cok away;
And cryden, 'Out! harrow! and weylaway!
Ha, ha, the fox!' and after him they ran,
And eek with staves many another man;
Ran Colle our dogge, and Talbot, and Gerland,
And Malkin, with a distaf in hir hand;
Ran cow and calf, and eek the verray hogges
So were they fered for berking of the dogges
And shouting of the men and wimmen eke,
They ronne so, hem thoughte hir herte breke.
They yelleden as feendes doon in helle;
The dokes cryden as men wolde hem quelle;
The gees for fere flowen over the trees;
Out of the hyve cam the swarm of bees;
So hidous was the noyse, a! benedicite!
Certes, he Iakke Straw, and his meynee,
Ne made never shoutes half so shrille,
Whan that they wolden any Fleming kille,
As thilke day was maad upon the fox.
Of bras thay broghten bemes, and of box,
Of horn, of boon, in whiche they blewe and pouped,
And therwithal thay shryked and they houped;
It semed as that heven sholde falle.
Now, gode men, I pray yow herkneth alle!
Lo, how fortune turneth sodeinly
The hope and pryde eek of hir enemy!
This cok, that lay upon the foxes bak,
In al his drede, un-to the fox he spak,
And seyde, 'sire, if that I were as ye,
Yet sholde I seyn (as wis god helpe me),
Turneth agayn, ye proude cherles alle!
A verray pestilence up-on yow falle!
Now am I come un-to this wodes syde,
Maugree your heed, the cok shal heer abyde;
I wol him ete in feith, and that anon.'--
The fox answerde, 'in feith, it shal be don,'--
And as he spak that word, al sodeinly
This cok brak from his mouth deliverly,
And heighe up-on a tree he fleigh anon.
And whan the fox saugh that he was y-gon,
'Allas!' quod he, 'O Chauntecleer, allas!
I have to yow,' quod he, 'y-doon trespas,
In-as-muche as I maked yow aferd,
Whan I yow hente, and broghte out of the yerd;
But, sire, I dide it in no wikke entente;
Com doun, and I shal telle yow what I mente.
I shal seye sooth to yow, god help me so.'
'Nay than,' quod he, 'I shrewe us bothe two,
And first I shrewe my-self, bothe blood and bones,
If thou bigyle me ofter than ones.
Thou shalt na-more, thurgh thy flaterye,
Do me to singe and winke with myn ye.
For he that winketh, whan he sholde see,
Al wilfully, god lat him never thee!'
'Nay,' quod the fox, 'but god yeve him meschaunce,
That is so undiscreet of governaunce,
That Iangleth whan he sholde holde his pees.'
Lo, swich it is for to be recchelees,
And necligent, and truste on flaterye.
But ye that holden this tale a folye,
As of a fox, or of a cok and hen,
Taketh the moralitee, good men.
For seint Paul seith, that al that writen is,
To our doctryne it is y-write, y-wis.
Taketh the fruyt, and lat the chaf be stille.
Now, gode god, if that it be thy wille,
As seith my lord, so make us alle good men;
And bringe us to his heighe blisse. Amen.


text:
- New engine installation, delivering 430 hp and 440 Nm
- New design generating 220 kg of downforce
- 407 hp per tonne provides unrivalled performance
- 0-60 mph in 3.2 secs, dry weight from 1,056 kg
With 55 hp, or 13%, more power than the limited production Exige Cup 380 model it succeeds, and 220 kg of downforce, it's a monster of a car. Compared to the Exige Sport 350, it has 24% more power and generates the same downforce at 100 mph as the Exige Sport 350 does at its maximum speed of 170 mph.
Focused fairly and squarely on aggressive track performance and point-to-point supremacy, the new Lotus Exige Cup 430 is capable of covering the Hethel circuit in 1 minute 24.8 seconds – the fastest production car to lap the famous circuit – 1.2 seconds faster than the Lotus 3-Eleven (Road).
Jean-Marc Gales, CEO, Group Lotus plc said, "This is the car that we have always wanted to build, and I am sure that all Lotus enthusiasts will be delighted with the end product. As well as a significant power hike, the Cup 430 has benefited from extensive development in areas essential to Lotus' DNA, in order to ensure that the full potential of the Exige's incredible chassis can be exploited. This car has no rivals – inside or outside of its price bracket – and it's no exaggeration when we say that nothing can keep up with this Exige on the road or track."
Lotus' most extreme Exige packs the company's most potent powertrain into its smaller vehicle architecture to provide a level of performance that is a step beyond what most drivers can exploit. The car's distinctive and aggressive new styling perfectly matches the character of the new Exige Cup 430.
Signalling the most motorsport focused models in Lotus' range, the Cup variants are centered on only the essential. Extending this philosophy to its limit, the new Cup 430 is at the apex of the Exige line-up – with only a track-only racer capable of exceeding the car's abilities.
With the Exige already regarded as the standard for purity of purpose, Lotus' engineers have built upon this benchmark, ensuring that the application of more power is complemented by a class-leading handling balance, characterised by precision and tactility.
At the heart of the car lies Lotus' most formidable engine, a 3.5-litre supercharged and charge cooled V6 producing 430 hp and 440 Nm.
Unapologetically aggressive, the Exige Cup 430's 220 kg of downforce is developed through the careful management of airflow under and over the car. Vital in keeping the Cup at the top of timing sheets, it's designed to make the most of 440 Nm (325 lbft) of torque delivered from 4,000 rpm, and delivering the lowest of lap times not matter the track. This not only includes the new front clam panel, incorporating a new design of splitter and carbon fibre air blades, but also the high mounted rear wing. The new body introductions combine form and function, with the new hybrid carbon composite panels not only saving weight, but also delivering the car's distinctive new styling and aerodynamic set up.
Balancing downforce over the entire car was a priority with, when compared to the Exige Cup 380, a greater percentage of downforce allocated to the front to ensure accurate high-speed turn in (36% increased to 45%). The new front splitter with trailing lip helps separate and speed airflow under the car and the inclusion of new air curtain elements into the front clam panel efficiently moves air though to the front wheel cavities to help reduce turbulence and drag generated by the front wheels. The front louvers reduce the pressure within the front wheel arches, increasing downforce. The cut-out sections behind the rear wheels, also reduce wheel arch pressure, whilst the new lightweight aluminium diffuser is 1 kg lighter. Crowning all of this is the carbon fibre straight rear wing, raised higher to further boost downforce, clearly signaling the car's aggressive intent and pursuit of aerodynamic excellence.
As you would expect, the intense use of ultra-lightweight carbon fibre only adds to the overall performance, as well as reinforcing the Exige Cup 430's physical presence. The hand-made composite components include front splitter, front access panel, roof, diffuser surround, large aperture air-intake side pods, one-piece tailgate and the race derived rear wing.
Scratch the surface of the Cup's capabilities, and you'll find its motorsport-derived credentials. In addition to revised steering arm geometry, to increase bump steer, the car's handling characteristics can be altered via the introduction of new Nitron three-way adjustable dampers (adjustable for rebound and low and high-speed compression, giving the ability to fine tune the damping) and Eibach adjustable front and rear anti-roll bars, both as standard.
The substantial Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres (215/45 ZR17 front and 285/30 ZR18 rear) are fitted to ultra-lightweight forged alloy wheels, available in red, black or silver as standard.
The faster the car, the better the brakes need to be, and the Exige Cup 430 uses some of the largest calipers and rotors of any Lotus road car. With forged, four-piston AP Racing brake calipers and new performance two-piece, J-hook brake discs (with higher thermal capacity) front and back, the system is designed to give improved bite and debris clearance and reduce distortion and vibration and to deliver consistent pedal feel and stopping power lap after lap.
The Cup 430 also comes with a tremendously strong, yet light, T45 steel roll over bar, new seatbelt anchorage frame (saving 1.2 kg), a Lithium-Ion battery and front towing eye as standard, as well as a host of options including, a dealer fit FIA compliant roll cage, electrical cut-off and fire extinguisher controls, airbag deletion and a non-airbag steering wheel.
Key to the Cup's potency is the Exige's newly-developed powertrain. Based on the benchmark engine from the recently launched Evora GT430, it features an Edelbrock supercharger and water to air charge cooler to generate more power through cooling the higher pressure charged intake air. Specifically developed for the Exige, the engine's calibration allows for a redline of 7,000rpm, helped in part by a new intake system and larger throttle body. In order to handle the extra power, a new oil cooler configuration and uprated clutch are required.
Available as standard with a close-ratio, six-speed manual transmission, the Exige range features Lotus' acclaimed open-gate manual gearbox design. Precisely aligned for fast and seamless shifts, it has recently established itself as a favourite of Lotus customers. To transfer the increased power and torque from the engine to the gearbox, a new 240 mm diameter clutch has been fitted (up 12 mm compared to the Exige Cup 380) which increases the clutch surface area by 11%.
Engine note and tone also play big parts in the Cup's repertoire. With the new induction and supercharger configuration, and a high-flow titanium exhaust system as standard, the Cup 430 sounds like no other Exige at speed. In addition, the titanium exhaust removes 10 kg from beyond the rear axle,
The Lotus Exige Cup 430 includes a variable traction control function, linked directly to the ECU. The six-position rotary switch is located on the steering column, and only active with ESP switched to off, with five pre-set traction levels (1%, 3%, 6%, 9%, 12% slip) as well as "off", displayed via the instrument cluster.
The composite concept continues into the Cup's cabin with visible-weave, handmade sections including a new lightweight carbon fibre binnacle surround, Lotus' bespoke carbon race seats, with new lightweight seat runners, and carbon door sills. Colour keyed inserts for the revised lightweight sports seats, transmission console, HVAC surround and window switches are also standard, along with a centre console, door cards and dashboard trimmed in Alcantara®, with leather or tartan as a no cost option, along with contrast stitching and an Alcantara® steering wheel. In total, the lightweight interior of the Exige Cup 430 is 2.5 kg lighter than on the Cup 380.
All the lightweight standard items help reduce the total mass by 29 kg which more than offsets the increase in weight from the chargecooler and cooling system (+15 kg), new higher rated clutch (+0.8 kg) and wider brake discs (+1.2 kg) resulting in an unladen weight of 1,093 kg and 1,059 kg dry. By selecting the airbag deletion option, the customer can take the lightest possible dry weight of the Exige Cup 430 to 1,056 kg.
For owners wanting to brand the new Exige their own, the Cup 430 can be personalised through Lotus' Exclusive programme. Combining traditional British craftsmanship with modern design, the service inspires customers to spend time tailoring the character of their Lotus with a comprehensive array of options. Since its introduction this has proved increasingly popular, with over 25% of all new cars undergoing some form of personalisation.
Launching the new Lotus, Jean-Marc Gales said, "The Exige continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in terms of performance, agility, aerodynamics and rapid covering of ground from A to B in a production road car. There isn't another car on sale that can match the new Exige Cup 430; it will go down as a ground-breaking car in the history of Lotus."
The Exige Cup 430 is available as a series production car and can be ordered now, priced £99,800 including VAT (UK) and €127,500 (Germany) and €128,600 (France).


text:
The Primary Teaching Easel from Copernicus is a valuable teaching tool that can be used by the teacher or student. One side features a magnetic whiteboard, the other an adjustable felt board. Two chart paper/accessory hooks above the whiteboard will display flip charts or large posters. And the premium book ledge doubles as a marker tray. Below you'll find four small tubs and a book storage rack. The Primary Teaching Easel rolls on four locking casters for convenient classroom mobility.
Key Features
- Magnetic whiteboard writing surface
- Adjustable felt board surface
- Four colorful tubs
- Book storage rack
- Book ledge/marker tray
- Frame material: Powder-coated steel
- Tub material: Plastic
- Work surface material: Whiteboard/Felt board
- Height: 57"
- Width: 30"
- Depth: 28"
- Whiteboard dimensions: 28" x 40"
- Felt board dimensions: 24" x 32"
- Lifetime warranty on tubs
- Ten-year frame warranty
- Assembly required
- Estimated Lead Time: Ships within 2 weeks
- Shipping Method: Ground
- Weight: 44.00 pounds


text:
The Wall Street Journal tries to find a story in bloggers being on the advisory board of FON and blogging about it but they don't come away with much because most of those bloggers disclosed that they were on the advisory board.
This raises a question about conflict of interest — a question with a pretty simple answer: Disclose.
But it raises a bigger question about whether all these bloggers are trying to be journalists. They're not. Some are just people. Some are advocates. Some are journalists. Newspapers tend to think that if it has words it must be somebody trying to be like them. But that's not always the case and it's a mistake to think that all bloggers are trying to be minimedia. They are what they are: people.
And those people do, indeed, need to care for their credibility. If a neighbor told me to go buy tile at a great store and didn't tell me he owned a piece of it, I'd be pissed if I found that out after I had a problem with the place; I wouldn't trust his next recommenation much. Credibility and trust matter in life as they are supposed to matter in journalism. Trust is the organizing principle of life.
But that doesn't mean that we all have to take some journalistic vow of uninvolvement. What, David Isenberg can't both write about open networks and be involved in them? Of course, that's ridiculous. David Isenberg has a stance on networks and I expect him to live and talk from that perspective.
Similarly, considering my health hiccup of late, I've been reading lots of sites and blogs and articles and PowerPoints by lots of people, including some from the company that makes the drug that I'm taking now. I know their perspective. I take that into account. But I find them all valuable. In fact, I find what some of the affiliated people have to say more valuable than some of the unaffiliated precisely because I do know their perspective.
The secret to this is disclosure. And the irony of this is, of course, that journalists are the worst at disclosing. They think they shouldn't or don't have to but they are the ones who demand that everyone else should disclose. Doctor, take your own medicine.
: Don Dodge also writes about how much easier it is to launch a company today in part because you don't have to do through the gatekeepers of the press. Witness the launch of CoComment this week, upon which I commented along with many others. They launched via blogs and they got help doing that from the guy who understands spreading a message via blogs better than most anyone: Hugh MacLeod. Says Dodge:
We now live in a meritocracy. Money, VCs, and the press no longer decide what will be successful. Great products/services with intuitive designs that solve a real problem win.
The people who are in the best position to know what's good are often those are most deeply involved in the arena a company is entering. Once I know their relationship, I can judge what the say accordingly, can't you?
: And here is my disclosure.
: LATER: David Weinberger responds to the article. He's nicer about it than I would have been. But then, he's nicer than I am.
: Doc has links to much more discussion.


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"A person's a person, no matter how small" was the refrain from Dr. Seuss' famous children's story Horton Hears a Who! Horton the elephant has to convince his fellow jungle-dwellers that there really are tiny people on a speck of dust. When they find out Horton is right, they're ashamed of their efforts to destroy the microscopic town of Whoville.
Well, if only modern ethicists were so ethical.
Two professors from the universities of Milan and Melbourne recently published an article in the online Journal of Medical Ethics entitled "After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?"
"We claim that killing a newborn could be ethically permissible in all the circumstances where abortion would be," write Drs. Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva.
How do they justify this conclusion? By agreeing with what Christians have been saying all along: that a newborn is no different from a baby in the womb. But instead of accepting that both have a God-given right to life because they're human, these ethicists argue that it ought to be legal for parents to kill either at their discretion.
If reasons like cost, stress, and inconvenience are good enough to justify an abortion, say Giubilini and Minerva, then they're good enough to justify infanticide, or, as these ethicists call it with a straight face, "the killing of [a] potential person."
Folks, this kind of logic isn't new. It goes back to pre-Christian Greece and Rome, where leaving babies out to die of exposure was commonplace. In the Greek city state of Sparta, in fact, it was mandatory to kill weak or imperfect infants. And in Rome, unwanted, healthy babies were routinely thrown into the river to drown.
But as Alvin J. Schmidt describes in his book, How Christianity Changed the World, it was the church which first challenged this practice. The old images of Christians with nets fishing Roman infants out of the Tiber are as moving today as the reality was almost two thousand years ago.
Happily, Giubilini and Minerva's article is getting a lot of attention -- and exposing their deadly logic. This is a chance for the world to see abortion for what it really is: the killing of innocent human beings, whether in the womb or just born.
Many of our laws in this country are built upon the fantasy that birth, not existence, bestows a fetus with personhood. If you kill a newborn in the United States, as infamous Philadelphia abortionist Kermitt Gosnell did for decades, you go to jail. But just minutes prior, that same act of killing can be legal.
This is nonsense. I'm praying that articles from ethicists like Giubilini and Minerva will wake people up to the reality of what they're justifying.
If enough people start to get it, then it won't matter what a few academic elites think. Legal abortion will crumble before the outcry of decent, moral people, just as it did when early Christians dared to speak out against infanticide and abortion in their time.
Tell your friends about this. Press people on it. If they're not willing to condone infanticide, how can they favor abortion? Maybe they'll be willing to admit that a person really is a person — no matter how small.
Chuck Colson's daily BreakPoint commentary airs each weekday on more than one thousand outlets with an estimated listening audience of one million people. BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends via radio, interactive media and print.
Publication date: March 20, 2012


text: LegalNewsWatch was launched in 2002 as a news digest that covered stories that impact consumer rights. It started as a weekly, and quickly became a daily news site. It became more than just a medium for broadcast as people started to share their comment on the news and share their personal stories. LegalNewsWatched ceased publication in 2009.


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Welcome to the Aleph Sector Campaign blog, Sheffield University Wargames Society's narrative based campaign set in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 universe. If you are new here, have a read of the Aleph Sector Campaign System. This will explain what the campaign is, how it works etc. If you are really keen you can download the entire ten year history of the campaign! If you are a new student in Sheffield, visit the Wargames website from the links section on the right to get involved!
Sunday, July 04, 2010
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Customize your JAMA Network experience by selecting one or more topics from the list below.
Author Affiliations: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, Maryland.
Objective To examine associations of television viewing with eating behaviors in a representative sample of US adolescents.
Design Cross-sectional survey.
Setting Public and private schools in the United States during the 2009-2010 school year.
Participants A total of 12 642 students in grades 5 to 10 (mean [SD] age, 13.4 [0.09] years; 86.5% participation).
Main Exposures Television viewing (hours per day) and snacking while watching television (days per week).
Main Outcome Measures Eating (≥1 instance per day) fruit, vegetables, sweets, and sugary soft drinks; eating at a fast food restaurant (≥1 d/wk); and skipping breakfast (≥1 d/wk).
Results Television viewing was inversely related to intake of fruit (adjusted odds ratio, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.88-0.96) and vegetables (0.95; 0.91-1.00) and positively related to intake of candy (1.18; 1.14-1.23) and fast food (1.14; 1.09-1.19) and skipping breakfast (1.06; 1.02-1.10) after adjustment for socioeconomic factors, computer use, and physical activity. Television snacking was related to increased intake of fruit (adjusted odds ratio, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.02-1.10), candy (1.20; 1.16-1.24), soda (1.15; 1.11-1.18), and fast food (1.09; 1.06-1.13), independent of television viewing. The relationships of television viewing with fruit and vegetable intake and with skipping breakfast were essentially unchanged after adjustment for television snacking; the relationships with intake of candy, soda, and fast food were moderately attenuated. Age and race/ethnicity modified relationships of television viewing with soda and fast food intake and with skipping breakfast.
Conclusion Television viewing was associated with a cluster of unhealthy eating behaviors in US adolescents after adjustment for socioeconomic and behavioral covariates.
Dietary intakes of US youth fall short of recommendations for whole fruit, whole grains, legumes, and dark green and orange vegetables and exceed recommendations for fat, sodium, and added sugars,1-3 increasing the risk of obesity and chronic disease throughout the lifespan.4-12 Further understanding of the factors contributing to youth eating behaviors is necessary to improve dietary intakes and associated health outcomes.
Television viewing (TVV) in youth has been associated with unhealthy dietary intake and food preferences that may track into early adulthood.13 Positive associations have been found with intakes of fast food,14-18 soda,16,17,19-27 refined grains,28 and energy-dense foods,17,20,25,27,29,30 as well as with energy intake.6,16,25 In addition, TVV has been inversely associated with fruit and vegetable intake.16,19-21,25,27,31
A primary explanation for these findings is the impact of exposure to food advertisements, which highlight primarily energy-dense, nutrient-poor products and influence food preferences and intake in a variety of youth populations.32-34 Eating while watching TV is another hypothesized mechanism for observed relationships between TVV and diet,17,29,35,36 although, to our knowledge, this has not been tested in a nationally representative sample of US adolescents. In addition, despite evidence of sociodemographic differences in TVV37,38 and eating behaviors,39,40 few studies have investigated potential effect modification by these variables.6,41,42
The objective of this study was to examine associations between TVV and eating behaviors in a nationally representative sample of US adolescents. We also sought to investigate differences across age, sex, and race/ethnicity and to ascertain the role of snacking while watching TV. Specific eating behaviors examined included intake of fruit, vegetables, sugar-sweetened soda, and sweets; eating at a fast food restaurant; and skipping breakfast.
Study design and participants
The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study is a survey of adolescents conducted every 4 years in the United States beginning in 1995 to monitor and understand youth health behaviors, their social context, health, and well-being. Data collection and procedural details have been published elsewhere.43 We used data from the 2009-2010 US survey, which included a nationally representative sample of 12 642 students in grades 5 through 10 (mean [SD] age, 13.4 [0.09] years). The sample was selected using a 3-stage stratified clustered sampling procedure, with school districts as the primary sampling unit. The survey was administered in classrooms by independent research staff. Black/African American and Hispanic students were oversampled to produce reliable estimates for these groups. There was 86.5% participation among 14 620 eligible students. Questions were validated in several countries in target age groups. Youth assent and active or passive parental consent were obtained as required by participating school districts. The institutional review board of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development approved study procedures.
Television viewing time was assessed by asking (separately for weekdays and weekends), "About how many hours a day do you usually watch television (including videos and DVDs) in your free time?". Response categories included "none at all," "about half an hour a day," "about 1 hour a day," "about 2 hours a day," and so on to "about 7 or more hours a day." Similar questions and identical responses were used to assess computer use. The survey asked (separately for weekdays and weekends), "About how many hours a day do you usually play games on a computer or games console (PlayStation, Xbox, GameCube, etc) in your free time?" and "About how many hours a day do you usually use a computer for chatting online, Internet, e-mailing, homework, etc, in your free time?". Weekday and weekend responses were combined to obtain average daily hours of TVV and computer use. The combined variable for computer use for games and other purposes was used in final analyses because of the lack of an independent contribution of separate computer use variables in regression models.
Eating behaviors were assessed by asking, "How many times a week do you usually eat or drink . . . " followed by "fruits," "vegetables," "sweets (candy or chocolate)," and "Coke or other soft drinks that contain sugar" (soda), with response options for "never," "less than once a week," "once a week," "2 to 4 days a week," "5 to 6 days a week," "once a day, every day," and "every day, more than once." Skipping breakfast was assessed by asking (separately for weekdays and weekends), "How often do you usually have breakfast (more than a glass of milk or fruit juice)?". Weekday response options included "I never have breakfast during weekdays," "1 day," "2 days," "3 days," "4 days," or "5 days." Weekend response options included "I never have breakfast during the weekend," "I usually have breakfast on only 1 day of the weekend (Saturday OR Sunday)," and "I usually have breakfast on both weekend days (Saturday AND Sunday)." Weekday and weekend responses were combined to create a single variable indicating whether breakfast was skipped at least 1 day per week. Eating at a fast food restaurant was assessed by asking, "How often do you eat in a fast food restaurant (for example, McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell)?," with response options for "never," "rarely (less than once a month)," "once a month," "2 to 3 times a month," "once a week," "2 to 4 days a week," and "5 or more days a week."
Snacking during TVV and computer use were assessed in participants in grades 7 through 10 by asking, "How often do you eat a snack while you . . . " followed by "watch TV (including videos and DVDs)" and "work or play on a computer or games console," with response options for "never," "less than once a week," "1 to 2 days a week," "3 to 4 days a week," "5 to 6 days a week," and "every day." Leisure-time vigorous physical activity was assessed by asking, "Outside school hours: how many hours a week do you usually exercise in your free time so much that you get out of breath or sweat?," with responses for "none," "about half an hour," "about 1 hour," "about 2 to 3 hours," "about 4 to 6 hours," and "7 hours or more."
Students reported age, sex, race ("What do you consider your race to be?," with response options for "black or African American" [hereafter referred to as black], "white," "Asian," "American Indian or Alaska native," "Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander," and "other" with a blank space provided), and ethnicity ("What do you consider your ethnicity to be?," with response options for "Hispanic or Latino" and "not Hispanic or Latino"). We combined responses to create a 4-category race/ethnicity variable: non-Hispanic white (white), non-Hispanic black/African American (black/African American), Hispanic, and other. Socioeconomic status was assessed by the Family Affluence Scale, a measure with demonstrated content and external validity44 that was developed for the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study on the basis of responses to questions about computer and automobile ownership, whether the student shares a bedroom, and frequency of family vacations.
Statistical analysis
Descriptive statistics were calculated and compared by sex, age, and race/ethnicity using regression analysis for continuous outcomes and the Pearson/Wald test for binary outcomes. Multiple logistic regressions assessed relationships between TVV (hours per day) and daily intake of fruit, vegetables, sweets, and soda, as well as skipping breakfast at least 1 day per week and eating at a fast food restaurant at least 1 day per week. We examined interactions of TVV with age, sex, and race/ethnicity with multiplicative interaction terms and stratified analyses where warranted. Relationships between TVV and dietary behaviors after controlling for frequency of TV and computer snacking were explored in grades 7 through 10; we further examined the interaction of TVV and TV snacking in this subpopulation. All independent variables were continuous except sex and race/ethnicity. Analyses accounted for the complex survey sampling design using STATA, version 11 (StataCorp).
There were significant sociodemographic differences in most eating behaviors except fast food, which was not different by sex but was more frequent for older (aged ≥13 years) vs younger (<13 years) participants and for racial/ethnic groups compared with white youth (P < .001) (Table 1 and Table 2). Odds of daily intake of fruit and vegetables were higher for younger than older participants, for girls compared with boys, and for white and other groups compared with black and Hispanic youth. Odds of daily intake of sweets were highest for older vs younger youth, for girls vs boys, and for black youth compared with other racial/ethnic groups. Odds of drinking soda at least daily were highest for older vs younger youth, for boys vs girls, and for black and Hispanic youth compared with other racial/ethnic groups. Skipping breakfast was more common for older than younger participants, for girls vs boys, and for black, Hispanic, and "other" youth vs white participants.
Television viewing did not differ by age group but was lower for girls than boys (approximately 0.1 h/d) and higher for black participants vs other racial/ethnic groups (approximately 1.0-1.4 h/d). Computer use was lower for younger vs older participants, for girls vs boys, and for white vs other racial/ethnic groups. Television snacking did not differ by sex or age but was more frequent for black youth vs other racial/ethnic groups. Computer snacking was less frequent for girls than boys (approximately 0.25 d/wk) and more frequent for black participants vs other ethnic/racial groups (approximately 0.8-1.2 d/wk). Leisure-time vigorous physical activity was lower for girls vs boys (approximately 0.4 h/wk) and higher for white participants vs other racial/ethnic groups (approximately 0.2-0.4 h/wk).
Television viewing time was inversely related to fruit and vegetable intake and positively related to sweets and soda intake, fast food intake, and skipping breakfast in models adjusted for computer use, physical activity, age, sex, family affluence, and race/ethnicity (Table 3). Relationships differed by age and race/ethnicity (Figure); we did not find differences by sex. Relationships with soda (Figure, A) and fast food (Figure, B) intake and with skipping breakfast (Figure, C) differed according to race/ethnicity, whereas relationships with skipping breakfast differed as well by age (Figure, C). There was a positive relationship of TVV with soda intake for all race/ethnicities, although the relationship was weaker for black (adjusted odds ratio, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.05-1.21) compared with white (1.30; 1.22-1.39) youth (P = .001). Television viewing time was positively related to fast food in white youth (adjusted odds ratio, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.12-1.27) and in Hispanic youth (1.10; 1.05-1.15); the relationship with fast food was not significant for black youth. Skipping breakfast was not related to TVV in youth aged 13 or older (1.03; 0.99-1.07). In participants younger than 13, there was a positive relationship between TVV and skipping breakfast in white youth (adjusted odds ratio, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.12-1.31) but an inverse relationship in black youth and no significant relationship in Hispanic youth (1.01; 0.97-1.35) (Figure, C). Estimates were similar between white and other participants.
Figure. Associations of television viewing and eating behaviors by race/ethnicity and age. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) of (A) drinking soda (≥1 instance per day) among all youth (A), eating fast food (≥1 d/wk) among all youth (B), and skipping breakfast at least 1 day per week among youth younger than 13 (C) associated with television viewing time (hours per day) by race/ethnicity. Error bars indicate 95% CIs. Associations with soda intake were significantly different for black compared with white youth (P = .001). Associations with fast food were significantly different for black (P = .001), Hispanic (P < .001), and "other" (P < .001) youth compared with white youth. Associations with skipping breakfast were significantly different for black (P < .001) and Hispanic (P = .006) youth compared with white youth. Odds ratios were adjusted for computer use, physical activity, age, sex, and family affluence.
Television viewing time and TV snacking were independently related to eating behaviors in participants in grades 7 through 10 in adjusted models (Table 4). Television snacking was positively related to daily intake of fruit, candy, and soda and to fast food but was unrelated to vegetable intake and skipping breakfast. Independent relationships of TVV with intake of candy and soda and with fast food were moderately attenuated but remained statistically significant after adjustment for TV and computer snacking (relationships with eating behaviors unadjusted for TV and computer snacking were similar in participants in grades 7 through 10 as in the overall sample, so separate estimates are not reported). Independent relationships of TVV with fruit and vegetable intake and skipping breakfast were essentially unchanged after adjustment for TV and computer snacking. We found no interactions between TVV and TV snacking for any eating behavior (results not shown).
This study provides estimates of associations of TVV and eating behaviors in a diverse representative sample of US adolescents. Television viewing time was associated with lower odds of consuming fruit or vegetables daily and higher odds of consuming candy and sugar-sweetened soda daily, skipping breakfast at least 1 day per week, and eating at a fast food restaurant at least 1 day per week in models adjusted for computer use, physical activity, age, sex, race/ethnicity, and family affluence. The relationship of TVV with this unhealthy combination of eating behaviors may contribute to the documented relationship of TVV with cardiometabolic risk factors.4,45,46
Many of our prevalence estimates vary somewhat from previously reported findings, likely because of differences in assessment methods. Our estimates of TVV (2.4 h/d) and computer use (2.8 h/d) are similar to and more than an hour greater, respectively, than previous estimates.38,47 Reported vigorous physical activity in our sample is substantially lower than previous estimates of moderate to vigorous physical activity.38,47-49 Report of skipping breakfast in our sample (54.8% ≥1 d/wk) was higher than a recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey estimate (20%).50 In addition, our estimate of frequency of eating at a fast food restaurant is lower than findings of a study of California adolescents, in which 46% reported eating fast food at least 2 times per week51 and recent estimates from a nationally representative sample reporting a mean 2 to 3 fast food meals per week,52,53 although multiple fast food meals may be consumed on a single day.
Relationships of TVV with soda intake, fast food, and breakfast behaviors differed according to race/ethnicity. The relationship with soda intake was attenuated for black participants compared with white participants, although relationships were positive for all groups. In addition, the relationship of TVV with fast food was not significant for black youth, whereas this relationship was positive in other racial/ethnic groups. We found differential relationships of TVV with skipping breakfast by both race/ethnicity and age. Among respondents younger than 13, TVV was positively related to skipping breakfast in white adolescents but inversely related to skipping breakfast in black adolescents. There was no relationship in Hispanic adolescents or in those aged 13 or older of any race/ethnicity. These findings are potentially explained by a relationship of TVV with sleep duration and morning sleepiness in youth that may vary with respect to factors associated with child age and race/ethnicity.54 Our results indicated that relationships of TVV and intake of fruit and vegetables did not differ according to race/ethnicity, contrary to findings of a previous study using data from the 1999 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey.42 In addition, relationships were not different according to sex, as has been suggested in previous research.6,41 Likely because of the heterogeneous make-up of the "other" subgroup, we found few differences from white participants, apart from overall lower odds of drinking soda daily and higher odds of skipping breakfast. Differential associations by race/ethnicity suggest the importance of social, cultural, or other contextual factors42,55 that may contribute to variability in associations of TVV with eating behaviors. However, despite differential associations by sociodemographic factors, our findings of associations of TVV and eating behaviors across all races/ethnicities were nearly universally inconsistent with healthful eating patterns.
Our results demonstrated relationships of TV snacking with several eating behaviors after adjustment for TVV, computer use, physical activity, computer snacking, and sociodemographic characteristics. Although a measure of overall snacking frequency was not available, our finding of independent relationships of eating behaviors with both TV and computer snacking suggest that these measures represent specific modes of snacking rather than serving as proxies for overall snacking. Results indicating positive relationships of TV snacking with candy and soda intake and with eating at a fast food restaurant support previous research documenting adverse associations of eating while watching TV and nutritional quality of foods consumed.20,21,56,57 Previous experimental research has also demonstrated a positive association of eating while watching TV on food quantity consumed in undergraduates29 and children.36 This evidence suggests TV snacking may influence the amount and quality of food consumed.
Relationships of TVV with eating behaviors were essentially unchanged after adjustment for TV snacking, and we found no evidence of effect modification between TVV and TV snacking, suggesting that TV snacking does not fully account for relationships between TVV and eating behaviors. This evidence, together with our finding that TVV was strongly and positively related to the intake of highly advertised foods and either weakly related or unrelated to rarely advertised foods, supports a hypothesized influence of TV food advertisement exposure on dietary intake consistent with experimental research.58,59 Although data indicate a recent decrease in adolescents' exposure to candy and soda advertisements, exposure to fast food restaurant advertisements has increased.60 In addition, the nutritional quality of advertised foods is poor,33,34,61 and fruit and vegetable advertisements are essentially nonexistent.34,60,62-64 Alternatively, these findings may reflect a clustering of unhealthy behaviors related to unobserved factors, such as an increased tendency to snack during essentially unoccupied time or preferential selection of foods conducive to snacking. Associations of TVV and TV snacking with eating behaviors were evident after adjustment for several covariates intended to reduce confounding by characteristics such as general preference for health and related behaviors, although the potential for residual bias persists in observational research.
Interpretation of these findings must take into account the relative strengths and weaknesses of this study. Our findings rely on a brief assessment of dietary intake rather than a more detailed method (eg, food frequency questionnaire or dietary recall), which may have hindered our ability to detect significant relationships. An important limitation is the cross-sectional study design, which does not allow for determination of causality because of the inability to establish temporality and the potential for confounding by unobserved factors. Thus, we cannot rule out, for example, the possibility that youth with poor dietary behaviors, including a greater tendency toward snacking, are more likely to watch TV. However, previous interventions to reduce TVV in children and adolescents have shown evidence of a beneficial influence on eating while watching TV65,66 as well as on total energy intake41,67 and fruit and vegetable intake,41,68 supporting a causal role of TVV on dietary intake. In addition, the internal validity of our findings is strengthened by our adjustment for several behavioral and socioeconomic confounders. Our study is further strengthened by the high participation rate and the use of a representative sample of US adolescents, including oversampling of black and Hispanic youth to enable subgroup analysis.
These findings show that TVV is related to a cluster of unhealthy eating behaviors in US adolescents after controlling for TV snacking, computer snacking, socioeconomic variables, computer use, and physical activity. Relationships of TVV with eating behaviors were modified by age and race/ethnicity, suggesting the importance of cultural or social factors. Future research should elucidate the independent contributions of TVV, food advertising, and TV snacking on dietary intake in this population. If these relationships are causal, efforts to reduce TVV or to modify the nutritional content of advertised foods may lead to substantial improvements in adolescents' dietary intake.
Correspondence: Leah M. Lipsky, PhD, MHS, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 6100 Executive Blvd, Ste 7B13, Bethesda, MD 20852 (email@example.com).
Accepted for Publication: October 31, 2011.
Financial Disclosure: None reported.
Funding/Support: This research was funded by grant HHSN2672008000009C from the Intramural Research Program of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration.
Lipsky LM, Iannotti RJ. Associations of Television Viewing With Eating Behaviors in the 2009 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2012;166(5):465–472. doi:10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.1407
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Incumbent State Treasurer Pearce touts Vermont's bond rating
MIDDLEBURY — It was almost two years ago that Beth Pearce was appointed to the position of state treasurer.
Now the Barre Democrat wants to earn the job at the polls on Nov. 6, when she faces Republican challenger Wendy Wilton, the Rutland City treasurer (see relates story).
Pearce, 59, served as the state's deputy treasurer for seven years prior to being appointed to the top post in January 2011, by Gov. Peter Shumlin. Pearce replaced longtime Treasurer Jeb Spaulding, who stepped down from the office to become Shumlin's secretary of administration.
In her campaign, Pearce has touted her nearly 35 years of experience in government finance at both the state and local levels. As deputy treasurer, she oversaw administration of the three statewide retirement systems covering state employees, teachers and municipal employees. She also was responsible for unclaimed property, accounting, budget, debt and capital financing, cash management, investment of short-term funds in state custody and risk management, according to her campaign website.
Prior to joining the Vermont State Treasurer's Office, she served as deputy treasurer for cash management at the Massachusetts State Treasurer's Office from 1999-2003; deputy comptroller for the town of Greenburgh, N.Y.; and as the accounting and financial operations manager for the town of West Hartford, Conn. In addition, she has served as a fiscal officer with the Massachusetts Department of Social Services and as a project director for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Human Services.
In a recent interview with the Independent, Pearce did not mince words when asked about her top priority for the next two years and beyond: Maintaining the AAA bond rating (highest available) the state has earned from Moody's and Fitch Investor Services. Vermont currently has an AA+ rating from the third big ratings service, Standard & Poor's. She wants to see the state attain AAA ratings from all three agencies.
"It's important for a number of reasons," Pearce said of the superior bond rating. "It saves us money when we go out to bond … We are able to get a very competitive rate."
The state was recently able to refinance some old bonds and, thanks to its excellent rating, was able to save taxpayers $5.4 million in the process, according to Pearce.
"(The state bonding rating) also affects every person, nonprofit and business in the state," Pearce said. "We have something called 'moral obligation,' which means we put our moral obligation behind bonding for various state authorities. That lowers the cost of financing."
Specifically, the state's good credit has lowered the cost of affordable housing, as well as student, business and municipal loans, according to Pearce.
Also of prime concern to Pearce is the solvency of the state's retirement funds for state workers and teachers.
"We have an unfunded liability in the pension programs of about $1.2 billion and $1.8 billion on the health care side," Pearce said. "The health care side is a larger issue that we have to deal with. On the pension side, a lot of that unfunded liability resulted from investment losses during the great recession."
The state employee retirement system actually had an $11 million surplus in 2007, according to Pearce.
It is clear the state won't be able to make up the current liability through future investment returns, Pearce said. This will require some solutions, which the state began implementing in 2005, she noted. The Legislature has ramped up the state's contribution to the teachers' pension fund, which should help reduce the shortfall over time, according to Pearce. And workers hired after July 1, 2008, are having to assume a greater share of their retirement contributions.
"The end result is that we've reduced the cost to the taxpayers by about $20 million per year," Pearce said. "On the teachers' side, we did it by pushing out the age of retirement a little bit (from 62 to 65) … On the state side, the employees are paying more for their retirement, and that has netted around $5 million per year. All in, that's about $20 million of savings to the taxpayer. It's affordable for the taxpayer, it's affordable for the employee and it still provides an adequate and reliable income in retirement."
She noted roughly 84 percent of state retirees are drawing annual pension benefits of $25,000 or less.
Vermont has also tweaked its investment strategy to reduce the impact of large swings in a volatile stock market, Pearce noted.
If the state follows current plans, the unfunded liability in the state's retirement system should be retired by 2038.
"We have to continue to monitor it, make sure our assumptions are reasonable and that the structural changes we have made are continuing to yield the type of savings we expected them to," Pearce said.
"If we need to do more, we will."
Pearce described other priorities for the next two years, including:
• Instituting more financial literacy programs. The treasurer's office already sponsors such programs for children, adults and seniors through schools, libraries and on-line offerings.
"We want to help our citizens develop good financial management practices, so that they can have adequate income in retirement," Pearce said.
• Encouraging local investment.
"I think the more we can do investing locally in Vermont is important," Pearce said. "We obviously have to maintain our fiduciary responsibility and get a good rate of return on our investments, but we invest some of our trust funds and pension funds with local managers."
She noted the state has given Vermont investors first crack at around $27 million in bonds in $1,000 increments (instead of the usual $5,000 increments).
• Encouraging investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Pearce was a big supporter of the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program that has been adopted in six Addison County towns. It is a program that encourages investment in renewable energy systems for homes and businesses.
Pearce has two children and three grandchildren. She said she wants to continue to play a role in shaping the state's economic fortunes to benefit the future generations of Vermonters.
"I would like to make sure they have an economically prosperous future," she said.
Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].
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text: 26 Total net income or lossWarning: This information may not apply to the current year. Check the content carefully to ensure it is applicable to your circumstances. End of attention The amount shown at item 26 must be equal to the amount shown at item 24 Total of items 20 to 23, less any amount shown at item 25 Tax losses deducted. If at item 24 you show a net loss amount, the total shown at item 26 is the same. If at item 24 you show a net income amount, the amount at item 26 cannot be a loss since the total amount you can claim as a deduction at item 25 must not exceed the net income at item 24. Print L in the box at the right of the amount, if the amount at item 26 is a loss. Last modified: 12 Feb 2019QC 44346