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|Draft Local Government Best Value (Exclusion of Non-Commerical Considerations) Order 2001
Mr. Neil Turner (Wigan): How many chief executives do they have?
Mr. Clifton-Brown: I mean one of the directors. The council has one chief executive and only three directors, because it is well run and efficient. The chairman and one of the members of the committee that supervises the search department will also be involved in the investigation.
Two people from the best value directorate, three people from the council and two councillors will be involved. Those seven people will be tied up on an investigation of a tiny department that has a budget of only £80,000. That is bureaucracy gone utterly mad. I doubt whether more than a few hundred pounds, let alone thousands, can be saved from such a small budget, yet I would not be surprised if it cost £10,000. We shall be spending more on the best value initiative than could possibly be saved by making the council more efficient.
Mr. Waterson: My hon. Friend has shocked all Committee members with that vignette from the best value system. Is he aware that there is talk in the accountancy worlda concept with which to grapple in itselfof a national shortage of auditors, in large measure because of the audit culture that is developing under this Government?
Mr. Clifton-Brown: There has to be a balance between auditing and checking for improvements and efficiencyno one is against that. As a former member of the Public Accounts Committee, I know that the National Audit Office calculates a seven times ratio for operational costs and savings made, which is eminently sensible. I do not know whether the Audit Commission has a similar arrangement, but to judge by the way in which matters are progressing, the ratio seems to be the other way around: the best value initiative will cost seven times the amount that it will save.
Mr. Don Foster: I listened to the hon. Gentleman with interest and, like other members of the Committee I am taken aback, to say the least, by the example that he gave. Does he believe that this orderI presume that his remarks relate to itwill increase bureaucracy, or does he believeas I dothat it is a permissive order that will give local authorities greater freedom in determining contract specification? He implies that it will add to the bureaucratic burden, but in fact it will ease the burden on local authorities and give them greater flexibility.
Mr. Clifton-Brown: I am not surprised to hear what the hon. Gentleman, as a member of the Liberal Democrat party, says. He made it clear in his opening speech that he welcomes every word in the order. I become worried when I read that certain matters ``may not'' be considered by councils, because that implies that other matters may be considered.
Mr. Foster: I, too, become concerned when I read that certain matters may not be considered. However, does the hon. Gentleman acknowledge that the 1988 legislation was prohibitive and that this order will remove some of those prohibitions? A Conservative Government established that certain matters could not be considered.
Mr. Clifton-Brown: I hear what the hon. Gentleman says, although I was expecting the Minister to point that out. There is no doubt that an original idea has been hijacked and made more bureaucratic. It is necessary to rein it in, but it will take a little time to find out whether the order will achieve that. My suspicion is that an order that refers to ``matters that may not'' be considered will prompt many local government civil servants to say, ``Aha! This gives us a remit to do all sorts of things that we had not thought about.''
Under this best value initiative, those who make planning applications will have to fill in a huge form explaining their ethnic originsnot in generic but in precise terms. What on earth a planning application has to do with one's ethnic origin I cannot imagine.
Mr. Waterson rose
Mr. Clifton-Brown: I just want to finish this point. I refer members of the Committee to paragraph 46[Interruption.]
The Chairman: Order.
Mr. Clifton-Brown: I am grateful for your protection, Mr. Maxton. [Laughter.] I detect a certain levity in this Committee and I cannot understand why. These seem to me to be perfectly good, serious points. I would have thought that all hon. Members present would be grossly concerned to discover that the Government have tabled legislation that will increase costs to council tax payers in their constituencies. This year's increases in council tax will present a huge problem and I suspect that the Government are extremely worried about that. The best value initiative is one reason why council tax will increase, which may well be exacerbated by the order. I do not know why members of the Committee are treating that matter with such levity.
Anyone who submits a planning application to a local authority must complete a detailed form about his or her ethnic origin.
Mr. Waterson: I am sure that the levity to which my hon. Friend referred is explicable by some of us having escaped, albeit briefly, from the Standing Committee on the Homes Bill.
In line with his earlier remarks, when one is fortunate enough to visit one of our four excellent theatres in Eastbourne, one is asked to fill out a form to describe the experience that includes a question about one's ethnic origin. Does my hon. Friend find that equally bizarre?
Mr. Clifton-Brown: I agree with my hon. Friend that that is another example of the Government's creeping political correctness.
Mr. Alan Simpson (Nottingham, South): Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Clifton-Brown: No, I want to complete my argument, which I have tried to finish twice, about planning applications and the need to complete a detailed form on ethnic origin. Clearly, that type of unnecessary adornment of necessary regulations will continue. I refer the Committee to paragraph 46, which contains the type of creeping bureaucracy that I described earlier. It states what councils may not do, and I assume that that will encourage civil servants to find things that they may do. In terms of ethnicity in planning applications, paragraph 46 states:
That gives a green light to every local authority civil servant to ask as many questions on as many forms as they like.
We must stop this creeping bureaucracy, but I do not know how we shall do it. Perhaps if we have fewer civil servants sitting in less heated offices they will think up less bureaucratic schemes. It is the real people in the real world who must pay council tax to fund those schemes. We cannot go on doing this, whether we have this Government or any other Government. The citizens of Britain must say, ``Enough form filling is enough. Let us go out in the world to do a real job of work, and stop the bureaucracy.''
Mr. Simpson: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for allowing me to intervene on that point. Will he concede that one reason why local authorities have not complained is that the nature of the questions has allowed them to deal with serious allegations about de facto racial discrimination in the delivery of services? Following the introduction of the Race Relations Act 1976, every Government have stressed to local authorities that their duty is not only to deliver equality in access to public services, but to demonstrate that they are doing so. The underlying reason why local authorities have been keen to have a clear referencing process is that, in the event of a complaint that services are unavailable to specific ethnic groups, they will be in a position to demonstrate whether that is borne out by the evidence. Far from being an unnecessary burden, the process is an effective protection for local authorities that allows them to demonstrate that discrimination is not taking place.
Mr. Clifton-Brown: I am grateful for that constructive and serious intervention from the hon. Gentleman. The solution to the problem that he outlines is to give local authorities general powers to do the work necessary in their areaand I stress in their areawhen they think that they have a problem with racial discrimination, not to impose the powers on an authority such as mine, which hardly includes any ethnic groups and is extremely efficient anyway.
If the chief executive of an authority such as mine received a complaint from a Member of Parliament, or through the Commission for Racial Equality, or by any other method, he would be asked to undertake an examination in the first instance. If the examination were deemed unacceptableinsufficiently thorough or rigorousthe complainant could take his case to the local government ombudsman. That is the way to proceed.
The problem in this country is that we want to regulate for every eventuality. We must stop doing that, whether it is in tax, local authority law, or wherever. The Government are not doing that. Previous Conservative Governments were culpable in that respect too. That is a culture change that this place, our Ministers, our Government, and our civil servants have to make to their mind set. How much legislation civil servants produce is not a manifestation of how efficient they are. The efficiency of the civil service should be measured on how little legislation they produce, as long as that is compatible with local authorities and central government being effective and protecting taxpayers' funds. That is how we should measure the effectiveness of what we do.
The same messagewith a vengeancemust be got across to the European Community. We find in the regulations that we are hampered in our legislation by the public procurement policies of the European Union. That is an additional complication with which we must start to deal. We must get the message across to the European Union that it too must issue regulations and directives only where strictly necessary and refrain from legislation that covers every eventuality in all the 15 countries, which otherwise becomes so complicated and burdensome.
I ask the Ministerand the civil servantswhy not adopt our idea on EU regulations and directives and implement them only at the rate of the slowest EU country? In other words, we would not adopt any EU regulation until, for example, Greeceif it is the slowest memberhad adopted it.
|©Parliamentary copyright 2001
|Prepared 17 January 2001


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- slide 1 of 4
To develop a web poll you need to keep in mind that there should be four basic parts that should be included in any piece of HTML code for web polls. The first of these basic parts is the question that will be asked to the users.
The second is a multiple choice list of questions to choose from where the users should be restricted to choosing only one question.
The third item that must always appear in a HTML web poll is obviously a way of submitting the user answers. This is mostly achieved in the form of a HTML push button. There should then be a part of the web poll that is responsible for showing the results back to the user.
Finally you need a place to save the results of the HTML web poll. This would usually be a database stored on a web server.
- slide 2 of 4
The HTML Code
Let us get started with writing the HTML code for web poll. This will consist of a web form and a result panel. To create the web form you use standard HTML tags to create the form to hold the list of radio buttons that will represent the answers. Finally there should be a panel which will hold a list of the answers as placed by the other users in the form of percentages.
This is some sample HTML code for displaying the form.
<FORM METHOD="post" ACTION="server_file_to_process_form_data">
Do you like web polls?

<INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="answer" value="1">Yes I do

<INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="answer" value="2">No, I do not

<INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="answer" value="3">I dont know

<INPUT TYPE="radio" NAME="answer" value="4">depends on the question

<INPUT TYPE="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
This is as simple as it gets. Then there is the code template that represents the answers in the form of percentages based on the collective answers of the users. Take note that the HTML code below needs to be loaded dynamically based on the actual answers so that it can reflect the actual results.
Poll Results

Yes I do 50%

No, I do not 5%

I dont know 20%

Depends on the question 25%
- slide 3 of 4
Putting It All Together
Unfortunately, as beautiful as the HTML code above looks, it will be pretty much non-functional without the help of some server-side code to process the data collected. The reason is that HTML forms are designed to collect data but not to process it.
To process the data collected through the web poll, you need to collect the data on the server and increment a counter stored in a database. Get the averages of the counters for all answers then respond with percentages of popularity of each question. This processing can be done on any web server in a language that is compatible with that particular web server. Regardless of the language used, the general process is standard. Here is some sample pseudo code the illustrates what happens when the user submits the web poll.
if( Success in Opening database ){
temp_id = ID from web form
Enter database and Extract all IDs
while( ID <= 4){
array_count = current vote count from database
If(ID == temp_id){
array_count = array_count + 1
while(ID <=4){
vote_count_percentage_array = (current vote count / total vote count)x 100
while(ID <= 4){
print "
$Answer$ vote_count_percentage_array[ID]"
General Poll failure}
- slide 4 of 4
There are several variations to the way you can create web polls. Some include improving the appearance of the web poll by using JavaScript effects, graphics and dynamic data exchange using Ajax. Whichever method you choose to use, the methods described in this article form the basis for HTML code for web polls.

subset: commoncrawl


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Most customers at Rosie's Cafe in Independence walked right past the World War II warship when they came in one morning this week.
It was waffle day — they were absorbed. As in syrup.
It was later as they walked to the counter to pay that the nearly 8-foot-long model of a destroyer mounted on a stand in the corner caught their eye. They glanced, put down money and looked again while waiting for change.
Then they headed to the USS Stormes and into the mussed-hair, big-smile, Pacific-tan days of machinist's mate Ralph Wegener. Lean close. He climbed those gray steel ladders leading from the lower levels. He stood at the rails, wind in his face.
Wegener built the model in his Raytown basement. He did the same for another destroyer he served on, the USS Lawrence, which conducted escort and patrol operations along the west coast and into the Pacific.
While diners at Rosie's admired his work, Wegener, 88, soaked up runny yolk with toast in the dining area. Rosie Whitehead, the owner, said Wegener and his wife of 63 years were longtime regulars until Kathleen died in October.
"I know he misses her," Whitehead said. "He sits alone sometimes now. He's not a big talker, just a real sweet man."
Wegener was young back then, like the others in his old photos. By mid-1945, some of the new guys were hoping the war would last long enough for them to get there while probably praying it would not.
It ended, soon. The boys on those ships came home and worked jobs and raised families and now are mostly gone. Wegener built his ships for them. Not all saw combat, but they were brothers nonetheless, banded by possibilities.
He liked that people at Rosie's get a kick out of looking at his model, but he doesn't need the praise.
Because he knows what he did is right. He was a tool and die maker, a career disciplined by a ruler's smallest lines. He went through the National Archives to get the blueprints for the Stormes, which launched in 1944 from a Seattle shipyard.
Wegener's model is 1:48 scale. Length, width, height. Even the ladders, manholes and doors. The gun turrets elevate and rotate. A working crane lifts the seaplane off its perch.
Hull and body from balsa wood. Propeller out of brass. The lights in the bridge work.
Oh, and his ship is seaworthy. Or at least lake-worthy — he's had it there. That propeller is connected to a trolling motor operated by remote control.
"But how did you do the little guns?" Hal Hale, a diner, asked Wegener of cannon no bigger than coffee swizzlers.
Wegener looked up and wiped his mouth.
"Lathe," he answered.
"Oh, gracious," Hale, a Korean War vet, told Wegener. "You, sir, are an artist."
Wegener actually built the ship more than a decade ago after attending a Stormes reunion. Someone had brought his own model of the destroyer.
"He had a lot of things wrong," Wegener said. "But I didn't want to tell him that. I just came back and built my own."
Over the years, he's built four other ships, too, including the cruiser USS Wichita, his older brother's ship, which saw 13 major engagements.
"He lives in Lee's Summit, but only came to visit when I started making his ship," Wegener said with a smile.
Wegener likes to dig out the old worn photos of his war buddies.
Smiling in the sun, proud of where they are and glad to have each other.
"These guys are all dead now," he said at the dining table, leaning close and slowly drawing a finger to the young faces.
He grew up in the little town of Corder, Mo., in Lafayette County, the second of seven children and the son of a coal miner. When he was 16, his father died in a mining accident. Wegener quit school and soon joined the Navy.
His brother, William, was already serving on the USS Wichita. When Wegener's ship, the Lawrence, was decommissioned — it had launched in 1920 — he was assigned to the Stormes, which had needed major repairs from a Japanese suicide bomber attack.
When the war ended, the brothers returned home and picked up where they'd left off — racing motorcycles down the streets and back roads of Lafayette County. According to family folklore, a preacher in town didn't like the Sunday morning racket and complained to the boys' mother.
"Well, Grandma waved a finger in front of that preacher's nose and told him what they'd been through, and she backed him up all the way to the sidewalk," said Wegener's son, Stephen Wegener.
Time passed and Wegener went to work in the Kansas City area. He met Kathleen on a blind date and they married in 1951 and raised three children. They have eight grandchildren and a dozen or so great-grandchildren.
Wegener has spent a lot of time in the basement since retiring in 1987. That's his workshop with the shaper, lathe and the ships he's built, each taking a year or more.
The biggest is the German battleship Scharnhorst, sunk by the British in 1943 in the North Atlantic. Because of a battleship's size, the scale had to be 1:64. It's 12 feet long and weighs nearly a hundred pounds. Also, because of the different scale, the little men had to be altered.
"I cut their legs off a little to make it right," Wegener said.
But, Ralph, does everything have to be so precise? Do you ever cheat?
"No," he said with cannon quickness.
His son thinks he knows why Wegener took the Stormes model into Rosie's last week.
"Ever since Mom died, he's been pretty lonely," Stephen Wegener said.
Kathleen's photo still sits in the middle of Wegener's dining table.
Michael Ferrin, a machinist, bent to inspect the Stormes in Rosie's.
"Wow," he said, "just amazing detail. The time this took. The patience. Beautiful craftsmanship."
Lots of veterans go into Rosie's, 10690 E. U.S. 40. Luis Mejia Jr., 92, was one of those Tuesday. He was a gunner's mate during World War II, serving in both Europe and the South Pacific.
"We escorted lots of ships," he said, looking at the Stormes. "Might have done this one."
Another man just shook his head in awe.
"I don't have the patience for model cars, and some of those snap together," he said.
Nearly 70 years have passed since Ralph Wegener came home from the war. So many of his buddies are gone they don't even have reunions anymore.
The Stormes is gone, too. It served in Korea and Vietnam before being sold to the Iranian navy and then scrapped.
Wegener took a spill while running a snowblower in January and broke a hip, but is still going strong. This is a guy who rode a motorcycle and water-skied into his late 70s.
He likes that people get a kick out of his ship. He did everything he could to make it real for them — short of adding cold steel and wind.
Those two things just don't show up on a tool and die maker's gauge.


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I have a question about the recipe "Pistachio and Honey Crème Brûlée" from Ashley Rodriguez. Two questions - is the idea that the nuts will be strained out? and if i make it in advance, do i bring to room temp or leave chilled? thanks!
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Know more about this business than we do? Cool! Please submit any corrections or missing details you may have.Help us make it right
Since 1979017750attr:stoves192330attr:partsappliances majorrefrigerators & freezersrepairs
Commercial Restaurant, and in home domestic appliance repair. Including domestic parts sales.
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These are definitely not good people to deal with. I am not sure why this business still exists in Eugene. PLEASE DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH AAA QUALITY APPLIANCE FOR YOUR OWN SAKE!!! We had to sell our laundry machine and dryer before we move out, so we called this business to see if they can buy those items. The company sent Mark on July 6, 2010 at around 4:30 pm. He told us that they will...
Since 1979
Appliances major
Refrigerators & freezers
Commercial Restaurant and Home Appliance Repair Company.


text:
Who Decides your Online Fate
A question that really need to come up more often when websites are trying to value themselves and trying to figure out where they really stand in the online world is the question of who decides your fate of a website. Well lets look at exactly what goes into the life of a website and what makes it worth, anything. One interesting example to look at is the new Facebook stocks that are going to be released soon. While you might think that a website of that large size won't have any effect on smaller websites or any other type of website that falls into the less than a million users genre you are wrong. Let's take a look at how they are valuing the website at this point in time and this should help us figure out how many websites are valued incorrectly for a few different reasons. Basically Facebook is now being heavily over-valued over the amount of money that they are bringing in and this is only working for them because of the fact that they are the largest and strongest type of social networking website on the market. As you can tell with any type of social norm or fad… it is just that, over time people will fade away from the current ideas and typical items so Facebook will lose a large amount of its user base just because over time this type of thing happens. Nevertheless right now they are looking at making a large portion of the website's overlying company go public with trading and people are truly amazed at the sheer overvaluing going on with the website. It doesn't seem to make sense to most people, and the reason is that it is largely incorrect, so today we will hopefully help you gain a better grasp on how you can increase the value of your website without making the same mistakes as people like Facebook.
When trying to increase the value of your website you need to take a look at three things, the quality of your content, the amount of money you are currently bringing in, and then the size of your following. Let's take a look at the last item in this list first to make up an understanding behind the ideas of a valued and high quality website. Basically websites are made to be valued based on the amount of people that they can command, but this does not always stay true, as in our previous example of Facebook. You need to understand that this is normally the exception to the rule as Facebook has essentially countered the market in social networking while having a huge following, even if many people feel that they have been alienated due to the weird privacy concerns of many, not to mention the ever increasing number of advertisements on the website. Now it seems to make sense that Facebook would go down this route because the real cause for the creation of this website was to make tons of money, and they have accomplished this, but they really need to find the next best thing to include in the website every week or the speed at which the website will fall out of popularity will increase rapidly. It is extremely important to take into account the fact that Facebook in basically in control of the online lives of its users, and yet they are also creating this amazing targeted advertisement program for their partners, and even are able to control their own market because Google's attempt was fairly lackluster.
When it comes to owning the online world Facebook is one of the powerhouses that makes up essentially one of the top three most used websites at any time. Google is typically thrown at the number one spot there because of the fact that just so many people use their search, in fact basically everyone on the internet goes to Google for finding a website, or anything relevant to their interests or questions which means that Google has become a backbone to the Internet. It is very interesting that almost everyone thinks of the online world as a constantly changing dynamic environment that is not controlled by one person, or even any companies, but in reality Google has been able to combat this issue for the business side of the online world and has clearly defeated any and all opposition. When it comes to controlling the internet they have come pretty far, they are able to control the SEO or lack of SEO efforts on the part of different websites, and are able to fully control the flow of traffic to thousands if not millions of independent websites that rely entirely on the web traffic provided through Google's ad sense program.
To be fair the main idea that this promotes is one of web traffic being the backbone to everything online and that almost anyone will flock towards the best source of web traffic no matter what. If you are a website owner that wants free traffic you will hope that your website gains a lot of SEO effort on the part of your users and your own promotional campaigns, in whatever way possible, because you know just how large of a market Google has been able to make their search engines and this just proves the fact that people will always run to piggyback off of other sites than create their own innovative form of whatever they have come upon. In terms of searching the other engines are all but dead these days, when years ago it seemed like other websites such as AskJeeves or even Yahoo was prevalent. This is not to say that these two websites might be doing much worse these days, but in reality Google is a much more common term and company that is used in everyday speech while the other two are seemingly fading into the blackness of the internet. People will go towards the easiest and quickest way to get a few dollars so money, therefore in turn the people, run the internet and the skill of controlling people and essentially being able to market your website is a very powerful notion that you need to come upon to fully control your independence and future online.


text: While the church network is quite new, the Blue Ocean conversation itself has been going on for almost a decade among churches throughout America and beyond, which has led to some unique, widely-used resources. Hundreds of church leaders have read the (free) Blue Ocean Churches manual. Many congregations do yearly, Lenten Leaps of Faith and run frequent Seek classes for people exploring faith. Check out these and other resources in this section.


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These super quick, super tasty veggie combos are easy to love. We packed so much taste into 1 PointsPlus value that these recipes can be the center of your dinner. Serve them over rice or pasta, or add chicken, meat, fish or soy for a complete one-wok meal.
Each stir-fry we've developed can be adjusted according to what's in your fridge and which vegetables you like best. We give you the general instructions, tips on how to make it quickly, and recipes for different sauces. You mix and match.
Each from-scratch sauce takes about a minute or two to make. You can also buy a bottled sauce, but our recipe testing showed that you get tastier results (and often lower PointsPlus values) when you make the sauce yourself.
We also tested raw versus par-boiled vegetables. Although you can always just toss the vegetables in the stir-fry pan from start to finish, sometimes we like to parboil or steam the denser vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, parsnips and kale, first. When a vegetable is precooked, it only needs 1 to 3 minutes in the wok. That means you can prepare the vegetables ahead and finish the dish in 3 to 5 minutes.


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Talented Team of MBA Admissions Consultants
At Stratus, we match you with a Primary Counselor who will provide you with the BEST opportunity to get into the business school of your dreams. Your counselor will do more than help you with your application; he or she will be your mentor throughout the process. In addition, a Senior Strategist will provide feedback at key points in the process to ensure you get insight from multiple experienced perspectives. Finally, your Client Relationship Manager will provide the highest level of service to ensure our services meet your individual needs. Stratus' proven team-based approach has helped thousands of clients gain acceptance into top MBA programs around the world.
Our MBA Consultants: Who We Are
We are a team of thoughtful and experienced coaches who have graduated from top business schools. We have experience across a variety of functions, industries and geographies. We are former admissions officers at top business schools who have reviewed over 10,000 applications. We are mentors, professional coaches and strategists. We share our experience and knowledge with each other. Most importantly, we are a team dedicated to YOUR success.
About Counselor Availability
In order to provide outstanding personalized service, each of our counselors can only take on a certain number of clients. Please see below for counselor availability. Many are currently booked with clients. Limited availability means that the counselor has availability for fewer than five additional clients. However, almost all of our counselors are available for hourly packages.
Please note that many counselors, especially our senior counselors, will be booked for Round 1 2018 by or before March.
Senior MBA Consultants: Who We Are
Our Senior MBA Counselors have worked with hundreds of Stratus clients and have read thousands of applications. They have more than 15 years of professional experience as coaches and mentors across multiple functions and industries.
Our Senior MBA Counselors have extremely limited availability and their client rosters fill up quickly. Call 212-307-1788 to ask about working with a Senior MBA Counselor.


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Liu receives $51K 2017H2 Mozilla Research Grant
UTSA assistant professor of computer science Dr. Tongping Liu was selected to recieve a grant in the amount of $51,000 from the Mozilla Corporation's 2017H2 Mozilla Research Grants.
His project, titled "Guarder: Defending Heap Vulnerabilities with Flexible Guarantee and Better Performance," aims to design a novel secure heap allocator (called Guarder) that can significantly alleviate security attacks. Guarder will impose negligible performance overhead, while providing the highest security protection among all existing allocators. Liu and his group are working hard to make Guarder be integrated into Mozilla Firefox and other browsers, which will have a direct impact on everyone.
The 2017H2 Mozilla Research Grants is a competitive grant with the purpose of supporting projects that embody Mozilla's mission to make the Internet safer, more empowering, and more accessible. Liu is one of fourteen projects that have been funded this round.
The Mozilla Research Grants program is part of Mozilla's Emerging Technologies commitment to being a world-class example of inclusive innovation and impact culture-and reflects Mozilla's commitment to open innovation, continuously exploring new possibilities with and for diverse communities.
For the link to Mozilla's announcement blog, click here.
For more information about Dr. Liu and his research, click here.


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These convicted sex offenders want a big payday from ex-Gov. George Pataki for locking them in the nuthouse after they finished their time in the slammer — and say that when the case goes to trial this week, the disgusting details of their dirty deeds should not be heard by jurors.
Five men and the estate of a sixth are each demanding $10 million in damages from Pataki over his controversial 2005 decision to sidestep recalcitrant state lawmakers and order the "civil confinement" of dangerous deviants about to be paroled. Jury selection is set for tomorrow.
All were eventually released, but their Manhattan federal court suits say that their constitutional rights were violated and that they deserve payment for "extraordinary humiliation, emotional distress and emotional pain and suffering."
In a pending motion, lawyers for the plaintiffs also want to keep jurors from learning "lurid and explicit" information about their heinous crimes, saying it would "inflame the passions of the jury against the plaintiffs and confuse the relevant issues."
The sickos include serial pedophile Kenneth Bailey, 55, of Elmira, who admitted sexually abusing more than 20 prepubescent girls after he befriended their parents, often at church.
The creep even repeatedly sodomized his own 9-year-old daughter while undergoing sex-offender treatment, bizarrely claiming it was his way of showing the girl "love and affection," according to court papers that he wants kept under wraps.
Also suing is Robert Trocchio, a nutjob diagnosed with bipolar disorder who went to prison for forcing a 7-year-old girl to give him oral sex.
He was also busted as a juvenile for attempted murder with an ax, and the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office sent a 1988 letter to parole officials warning that everyone who worked on his case was "steadfast in their belief that Robert Trocchio would one day kill," an expert wrote.
Trocchio, 50, has been locked up in the Suffolk County jail since May after getting busted for a fight on Long Island.
The plaintiffs were among a dozen men locked up in high-security mental hospitals after Pataki ordered psychiatric evaluations of all imprisoned sexual predators before being released from custody.
The move came after a paroled rapist stabbed a woman to death in a parking garage at the Galleria mall in White Plains following failed efforts to get the Democratic-controlled state Assembly to pass civil-confinement legislation favored by the Republican governor.
New York's highest court ended the practice the following year, saying the rapists and pedophiles who were kept locked up deserved legal hearings where they could challenge findings that they were too sick to walk the streets.
State officials said a decision on whether Pataki would be personally on the hook for any damages would not be made until after the trial.


text:
Re-blog: Brad King - Shut Your Digital Native Piehole (52 of 90)
Some insightful observations. Why should we teach media literacy? Right here is a good reason.
These children have grown up with digital technologies, but in a very limited way. They know a few things quite deeply, but they – as we did at their age – have no great appreciation of the subtleties of the tools. The expanse and use of the tools. The possibilities for tools that don't yet exist. They can push buttons, but they can't make them.
Brad King: - Shut Your Digital Native Piehole (52 of 90).
Definitely poignant. How do we increase the literacy of kids? This is why we need media and digital citizenry taught in school. Kids grow up with computers, but they don't know how to really use all the tech that's out there. There is also Henry Jenkins' position of ethical standards not being learned in an always-on world. Being native doesn't equal being literate. And literacy has changed.


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Vets from the agency, tech and entertainment worlds have quietly launched a new shop with a decidedly social bent in San Francisco. The founders include CEO Allison Johnson, former Apple VP/Worldwide Marketing Communications, Creative Chairman Keith Cartwright, and former Katalyst head of digital Sarah Ross.
Cartwright most recently served as a GCD at The Martin Agency, with previous stints as a CD at Wieden + Kennedy New York, where his clients included Brand Jordan and at TBWA/Chiat/Day San Francisco, where he created campaigns for Adidas. Cartwright had known Johnson through mutual friends since his Chiat days and says conversations for him to join "happened very quickly." Johnson announced her departure from Apple at the end of March. There, she had signed off on the brand's advertising since 2005, but prior to that she was marketing chief at HP and steered the award-winning "Hands" campaign created out of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. Ross is perhaps best known as the woman who helped earn Ashton Kutcher make 1,000,000 Twitter friends. Before Kutcher had wooed her to join his team at Katalyst, she as CMO of TechCrunch and was a senior marketing director at Yahoo!
Prior reports about Johnson's departure from Apple noted the exec was considering partnership with former Facebook PR lead Brandee Barker, but Barker told Advertising Age that she has formed her own consulting firm where she will be "providing communications and social media strategy to early-stage and high-growth tech and consumer brands." Cartwright does say, however that his shop's other partners come from "social media companies you use every day."
According to Cartwright, the new company will be fully independent. It's also been previously reported that the shop's backers include Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and Malaria No More founder Ray Chambers but Cartwright could not confirm. The creative chairman says the company has already been operating "in stealth" on a number of projects for unnamed client and that the shop's name and details of funding will be announced in the coming weeks.
Like most new agencies these days, the new firm will be designed to address the full breadth of a client's advertising needs, from TV, print and design to digital and social media. However, Cartwright says the partners are determined to build the model "from the ground up" and implement into its approach the learnings and experience of its social media and tech world leadership. Or, as Ross' LinkedIn profile states, they're "creating a new paradigm/changing the world."Additional reporting from Alexandra Bruell.


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Monday, May 31, 2010
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This has got to be the most artful online demonstration I have seen of Exposed Tape Binding, that is, how to bind a book on exposed tapes. If you don't know what that is, just look at the pictures! lovely details! All is revealed!
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**ENTIRE COMMUNITY NEWLY REMODELED** Originally home to the St. Paul Rubber Company, this stunning 1905 revival building is anything but your basic downtown apartment building. One look is all you need to know you've found a place that is only one of its kind! From the highly desired Historic Lowertown location to the unique unit layouts that provide the perfect amount of flair, you won't be disappointed in making Lowertown Commons your new home. We've recently undergone a renovation! All of our units have been renovated to include gorgeous stainless steel appliances, granite counter tops, new kitchen cabinets & new bathrooms! We've even renovated our community room for our residents to enjoy. Aside from these great upgrades, we are also steps from the new light rail, which will make traveling through the Twin Cities a breeze! We are steps to the new St. Paul Saints Ballpark - as a resident of our community, you'll only be steps away from this attraction and so much more. The Lowertown Historic District is truly the place to be. Get a head start and make your move to Lowertown Commons and The Parkside today!
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Everything has been absolutely awesome and I would rate it excellent, but my air conditioning has been problem Read Moreatic and I'm beginning to think it's just a product of the central air infrastructure here. It's a shame because I struggle to sleep and it has tarnished my experience. They are working on getting it resolved...just hope it's something that can actually be fixed.
July 29, 2014
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I gave a grade good. The reason for doing so has to do with the age of the building. The staff here really doe Read Mores try to good by tenets.
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The staff are very attentive and I am enjoying the new interior changes.
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Office staff runs hot and cold, sometimes very helpful other times they act like you are bothering them. You Read Moretalk to them about concerns and they seem to go in one ear and out the other and get the standard response, we are aware of it and yet nothing gets done. Tired of the smokers ignoring the 25 feet from front door law and having to walk through a haze of smoke and the younger tenants treating the building like a dorm/fraternity/sorority and not respecting other tenants.
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The Western Mountaineering AlpinLite 20 Degree Sleeping Bag is a wider version of the super popular Ultralite sleeping bag. When it comes to loft, you're getting 5" of fluffy goodness to snuggle into during the night, thanks to it being packed full with 19 ounces of 850+ fill down. The full-length zipper is protected by a down filled draft tube while your neck is surrounded by a down collar. Rated to 20°F you can take this on your next backpacking trip and have plenty of room for your shoulders from day 1 to day 20.
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Today I am excited to release the 3rd edition of Transform Your Habits, my popular guide on habit change and behavior science. Transform Your Habits has been downloaded over 150,000 times and it is the highest-rated habits book on Goodreads.
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The BSA is a policy and research organisation. We bring together all those who are interested in delivering efficient, flexible and cost-effective service and infrastructure projects across the private and public sectors.
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Guide to Thomas Kuhns The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
1. Determination of significant fact: Attempts to increase the accuracy and scope with which facts like the specific gravities and compressibilities of material, electrical conductivities and contact potentials occupy a significant fraction of the literature of experimental and observational science. This kind of activity is largely independent of the reigning paradigm - the Newtonian measurement of specific gravities, for example, was unchanged by the advent of Einstein's theory of mechanics.
2. Matches of fact with theory: (p.26) "A second usual but smaller class of factual determinations is directed to those facts that, though often without much intrinsic interest, can be compared directly with predictions from the paradigm theory." In support of the claim that these cases are rarer, Kuhn mentions that (p.26) "No more than three such areas are even yet accessible to Einstein's general theory of relativity."
3. The articulation of theory, which is "... empirical work undertaken to articulate the paradigm theory ..." This is broken up into three sub-categories. (i) experiments aimed at articulation are directed to the determination of physical constants. (ii) experiments aimed at quantitative laws: E.g. Boyle's Law relating gas pressure to volume. (iii) experiments to choose among alternative ways of applying the paradigm to new areas of interest. (p.29)
This is one of the many places in which Kuhn might do well to make a distinction between theory and models. Let us stipulate that models are the sets of equations derived from theory plus auxiliary assumptions such that estimates of all adjustable parameters may be obtained from extant data (Kuhn uses the term model in a different sense). Thus, the set of Newtons equations of motion is not a model because it is impossible to make a precise quantitative comparison with data without (approximate) solutions of those equations. When Kuhn talks about the articulation of theory as a part of normal science, he is really referring to the development of models.
While normal science is a highly determined kind of activity, Kuhn is quick to deny that he is slipping back to naive inductivism: (p.42) In a footnote, Kuhn acknowledges the work of M. Polanyi, Personal Knowledge, Chicago, 1958, in which scientists success is said to depend on tacit knowledge acquired through practice, which cannot be articulated explicitly. The point, expanded in the postscript, is that scientists gain tacit knowledge of a theory through working through textbook or laboratory examples (called exemplars).
2. Normal Science Does Not Aim at Novelty: Contrary to a popular picture of science, Kuhn insists that (p.52) "Normal science does not aim at novelties of fact or theory and, when successful, finds none." This striking view challenges the critical rationalism of someone like Popper, who sees the heart of scientific rationality in the constant critical scrutiny of accepted scientific belief. Kuhn is concerned to dispel the idea that the common occurrence of scientific discoveries disproves his thesis. For if normal science aims at discovery, and discoveries are novel, then normal science aims at novelty. Kuhn claims that discoveries are always accompanied by changes in the prevailing paradigm. If he is right, then the existence of scientific discovery does not show that normal science aims at novelty, but only that novelty signals the end of normal science. Kuhn therefore views such discoveries as small revolutions.
In summary, Kuhns argument is something like this:
1. All novelties of fact (discoveries) or theory lead to the end of normal science.
2. Normal science does not aim at its own demise.
Therefore, normal science does not aim novelties of fact or theory and, when successful, finds none.
3. Discoveries are Rare Because Expectations Obscure our Vision: The fact the normal science does not aim at novelty, as Kuhn has argued, cries out for explanation. Briefly, Kuhns response is that scientists are entrenched within a certain way of seeing things, and this clouds their vision (they tend to see what they expect to see). As an instance of what Kuhn thinks is a general psychological phenomenon, he cites a study by J. S. Bruner and Leo Postman, "On the Perception of Incongruity: A Paradigm," Journal of Personality XVIII (1949) 206-23. In this psychological experiment, subjects are shown ordinary playing cards mixed up with some anomalous cards, like a black four of hearts. Roughly speaking, the results show that subjects initially see what they expect to see (either the four of spades, or the four of hearts).
In sum, Kuhn seeks to explain the difficulty of discovery as an instance of the general psychological fact that our expectations cloud our perception of the world.
4. No Paradigm Change without Crisis: Nevertheless, a paradigm (though resisting change) is playing an essential role in allowing a scientist to recognize something as anomalous, as contrary to expectation, and this is an important precondition for discovery (p.65). However, the process of improving fit between fact and theory is a part of normal science, so an anomaly, a failing of expectations, presents just another puzzle to be resolved by the construction of improved models. That is the standard fare of normal science. The point is that an anomaly is not by itself sufficient for paradigm change (that is the falsificationists folly).
For example, Ptolemys system of astronomy certainly faced discrepancies, but it was only when those discrepancies built up to crisis point that the conditions were ripe for change (p.68): "Given a particular discrepancy, astronomers were invariably able to eliminate it by making some particular adjustment in Ptolemys system of compounded circles. But... astronomys complexity was increasing far more rapidly than its accuracy and that a discrepancy corrected in one place was likely to show up in another." Notice that Kuhn mentions complexity as requisite condition for paradigm change in this example. It is a necessary part of what defines a crisis in normal science. For, a sufficient number of compounded circles would provide perfect fit with the data at any one time. That Ptolemaic model would provide no discrepancies with existing data. But the crisis is revealed by the way it changes over time, for as Kuhn puts it, the "astronomys complexity was increasing far more rapidly than its accuracy and that a discrepancy corrected in one place was likely to show up in another."
On the other hand, Kuhn presents the Copernican revolution as an example which the crisis in the reigning Ptolemaic paradigm was almost the only reason for the change (pp.75-6): "Copernicus more elaborate proposal was neither simpler nor more accurate than Ptolemys system. Available observational tests, as we shall see more clearly below, provided no basis of a choice between them."
5. In Normal Science the Theory is Not Questioned: The fact that anomalies are the driving force behind theory change does not mean that scientists are following a falsificationists methodology. "Though they may begin to loose faith and then to consider alternatives, they do not renounce the paradigm that has led them into crisis. They do not, that is, treat anomalies as counterinstances, though in the vocabulary of philosophy of science that is what they are." (p.77) Rather: "The decision to reject one paradigm is always simultaneously the decision to accept another, and the judgment leading to that decision involves the comparison of both paradigms with nature and with each other." (p.79): "To reject one paradigm without simultaneously substituting another is to reject science itself." For Kuhn, anomalies are only treated as counterinstances by supporters of the competing paradigm.
For example, "Copernicus saw as counterinstances what most of Ptolemys other successors had seen as puzzles in the match between observation and theory." (p.79) As Copernicus complained (quoted from Kuhn (1957), p.138), in his day astronomers were "so inconsistent in these [astronomical] investigations ... that they cannot even explain or observe the constant length of the seasonal year." "With them," Copernicus continues, "it is as though an artist were to gather the hands, feet, head and other members for his images from diverse models, each part excellently drawn, but not related to a single body, and since they in no way match each other, the result would be monster rather than man." Again, we may note that Copernicus is not complaining about discrepancies per se, but about the fact that discrepancies in Ptolemys system are only removed ad hoc adjustments to the model.
From within a paradigm, from the viewpoint of normal science, anomalies are not seen as testing the theory. Yet Kuhn concedes (p.80) that "Normal science does and must continually strive to bring theory and fact into closer agreement, and that activity can easily be seen as testing or as a search for confirmation or falsification." "But science students accept theories on the authority of teacher and text, not because of evidence." (p.80) Hence the standards of critical rationality ascribed by Popper are not present.
There is a need to clarify what Kuhn is saying here. While uncritically taking the background theory for granted, normal science does subject the models derived from the theory to severe critical scrutiny. None of Kuhns examples undermine that idea that models are falsified (although there are independent reasons for thinking that such a view is too simple). So normal science strives to bring theory and fact into closer agreement by calling its models into question without ever criticizing the background theory itself. Kuhn does make use of a distinction between "approaches to problems" (models?) and the paradigm later in the book. Thus, while scientists will (p.144) "try out and reject a number of alternative approaches, rejecting those that fail to yield the desired result, he is not testing the paradigm when he does so."
The same point that is now often used in criticism of Poppers falsificationism: Theories are never tested in isolation. And when they are tested, as in the Leverrier-Adams discovery of Neptune, it is the auxiliary assumptions (the assumption that Uranus was the outermost planet) that was criticized, and not Newtons laws of motion.
6. New Paradigms Place New Relations Amongst the Data: When normal puzzle solving fails to resolve anomalies, crisis looms, and the nature of scientific activity gradually changes. (p.91) "The proliferation of competing articulations, the willingness to try anything, the expression of explicit discontent, the recourse to philosophy and to debate over fundamentals, all these are symptoms of a transition from normal to extraordinary research."
When the transition is complete, the profession will have changed its view of the field, its methods, and its goals. One perceptive historian, viewing a classic case of a sciences reorientation by paradigm change, recently described it as "picking up the other end of the stick," a process that involves "handling the same bundle of data as before, but placing them in a new system of relations with one another by giving them a different framework." [Herbert Butterfield, The Origins of Modern Science, 1300-1800 (London, 1949), pp.1-7] Others who have noted this aspect of scientific advance have emphasized its similarity to a change in visual gestalt: the marks on paper that were first seen as a bird are now seen as an antelope, or vice versa. (p.85)
Butterfields description of theory change is an important clarification of Kuhns poetic reference seeing a duck and then seeing a rabbit. For there is a danger that we might take Kuhns duck-rabbit analogy too seriously, and view theory change as literally involving a change in perception, and therefore a change in the data themselves, rather than just a change in the relations amongst the data.
Another noteworthy feature of the above quote is the idea that the goals of science change when the paradigm changes. Presumably, this is because the goal of science is problem-solving, and this changes as the problems change. Yet one might also define problem-solving in a paradigm independent way (e.g., as the goal of finding predictively accurate models), in which case the goal would not change. But Kuhn does not appear to subscribe to such a view of science.
7. Science is Non-Cumulative Because Terms Change their Meanings: In the meantime, Kuhn mounts an attack on the common idea that scientific knowledge is accumulative. He begins with the often quoted idea that most often, "the new paradigm, or a sufficient hint to permit later articulation, emerges all at once, sometimes in the middle of the night, in the mind of a man deeply immersed in crisis." (p.90) If paradigms change in such a sudden way, how can they simply built on prior knowledge? For Kuhn (p.92), this indicates that scientific revolutions are "non-cumulative developmental episodes in which an older paradigm is replaced in whole or in part by an incompatible new one." Moreoever, paradigm choice in science are "Like the choice between competing political institutions, that between competing paradigms proves to be a choice between incompatible modes of community life." And the choice is a choice in community alliance, for "As in political revolutions, so in paradigm choice-there is no standard higher than the assent of the relevant community." (p.94) Kuhn, of course, is acutely aware of the controversial nature of his denying standards higher than the assent of the relevant community. Traditional philosophy of science is premised on the claim that the logical structure of scientific theories provides intrinsic reasons for theory change independently of the prevailing social conditions. Kuhn is quick to confirm the impression that he rejects this working assumption. (p.95)
8. Historical Examples Show that Science is Non-Cumulative: Kuhns hunch is that scientific change brings about a change in the entities that are taken to be primitive and unexplained. For example, Aristotelians said that a stone fell because of its nature drove it toward the center of the universe. Afterwards the normal seventeenth-century tradition of scientific practice insisted that "the entire flux of sensory appearances, including color, taste, and even weight, was to be explained in terms of the size, shape, position, and motions the elementary corpuscles of base matter." (p.104) The attribution of other qualities to the elementary atoms was a resort to the occult and therefore out of bounds for science. Famously, Molière ridiculed the doctor who explained opiums efficacy as a soporific by attributing to it a dormitive potency. (p.104) Kuhn sees this not as a criticism of postulating mystical entities per se but of postulating an entity not accepted as primitive at the time. In that vein, Kuhn remarks that "During the last half of the seventeenth century many scientists preferred to say that the round shape of the opium particles enabled them to sooth the nerves about which they moved."
9. Incommensurability: The lesson that Kuhn draws from these examples is that:
"... the reception of a new paradigm often necessitates a redefinition of the corresponding science. Some old problems may be relegated to another science or declared entirely "unscientific." [e.g. alchemy] Others that were previously non-existent or trivial may, with a new paradigm, become the very archetypes of significant scientific achievement. [e.g., tidology, the study of the tides] The normal-scientific tradition that emerges from a scientific revolution is not only incompatible but often actually incommensurable with that which has gone before." (p.103)
As far as the main conclusion is concerned, Kuhns argument is convincing. There is no doubt that the world view that emerges from a scientific revolution may be incommensurable in the weak sense described above - that new terms are not straightforwardly translatable, and the new paradigm leads to at least some incompatible predictions.
However, there is a concomitant claim that should not go unchallenged. Are there really no objective standards on the acceptance of primitive entities, as Kuhn insinuates? Surely, it is reasonable to demand that postulated entities can at least be measured. Isnt it conceivable that Molières disdain for the term dormitive potency arose from the fact that the label adds nothing but a new way of saying "soporific"?
10. Development of Sciences Problems and Standards is Also Non-Cumulative: Kuhn has been arguing against a straw man thus far, in that very few philosophers thought that theory change was cumulative in any naive sense. But far more did, and still do, hold dearly to the view that the standards by which scientific theories are judged (goodness-of-fit, simplicity, unification, and so on) are constant across theory change. Kuhn, on the other hand, develops a line of argument that is more or less an inference to the best explanation - if we suppose that problems and standards change across paradigm shifts, then we may explain why there is so often a breakdown in communication. In the first place, there will be disagreements about the what counts as a solution to a problem because the problems are different, or at least redescribed. (pp.109-10) Furthermore, they are unlikely to agree on what the important problems are. (p.110) However, Kuhn has no argument to show that models from different paradigms cannot be compared on grounds of fit, simplicity, or unification, at least in principle.
11. Paradigms Transform Scientists View of the World: Psychological experiments show that expectations cloud and obscure perception (§3), and a paradigm produces expectations, and so a paradigm may skew observation:
The man who first saw the exterior of the box from above later sees its interior from below. Transformations like these, though usually more gradual and almost always irreversible are common concomitants of scientific training. Looking at a contour map, the student sees lines on paper, the cartographer a picture of a terrain. Looking at a bubble-chamber photograph, the student sees confused and broken lines, the physicist a record of familiar subnuclear events. (p.111)
In one psychological experiment, volunteers fitted with inverting lenses report that everything appears up side down at first, but they grow accustomed to the inversion. They learn to accurately predict where their hand should move in order to intercept an object, say, and report the experience of seeing everything the right side up. (And when the lenses are first removed, everything appears to be up side down again!) According to Kuhn, (p.112) "literally as well as metaphorically, the man accustomed to inverting lenses has undergone a revolutionary transformation of vision." Yet Kuhn is quick to acknowledge that these known psychological facts about vision do not tell the affect, if any, of scientific training on vision. (p.113) And prima facie, it is somewhat implausible to naively extend the idea to, say, the convert to a new paradigm. For example, "Looking at the moon, the convert to Copernicanism does not say, I used to see a planet, but now I see a satellite. That locution would imply a sense in which the Ptolemaic system had once been correct. Instead, a convert to the new astronomy says, I once saw the moon to be (or saw the moon as) a planet, but I was mistaken." (p.115) At the same time, there are clear analogies to the psychological phenomenon of "seeing what one expects to see" as in the case of seeing a black three of hearts as a three of spades. For instance:
"Sir William Herschels discovery of Uranus provides a first example and one that closely parallels the anomalous card experiment. On a least seventeen different occasions between 1690 and 1781, a number of astronomers, including several of Europes most eminent observers, had seen a star in positions that we now suppose must have been occupied at the time by Uranus... Herschel, when he first observed the same object twelve years later, did so with a much improved telescope of own manufacture. As a result, he was able to notice an apparent disk-size that was at least unusual for stars. Something was awry, and he therefore postponed identification pending further scrutiny. That scrutiny disclosed Uranus motion among the stars, and Herschel therefore announced that he had seen a new comet! Only several months later, after fruitless attempts to fit the observed motion to a cometary orbit, did Lexell suggest that the orbit was probably planetary." (p.115)
The question is whether there is evidence for the more radical conclusion that new paradigms can change the way we see the world, as opposed to changing the way we interpret what we see. Or maybe we should say that new paradigms actually change the world in which scientists work?!
124. Paradigms Change the World in which Scientists Work: Kuhn is testing the waters, wondering how far he should go. Should he really irritate the philosophers by claiming that paradigms change the world itself?
Using traditional instruments, some as simple as a piece of thread, late sixteenth-century astronomers repeatedly discovered that comets wandered at will through the space previously reserved for the immutable planets and stars. The very ease and rapidly with which astronomers saw new things when looking at old objects with old instruments may make us wish to say that, after Copernicus, astronomers lived in a different world. In any case, their research responded as though that were the case. (pp.116-7)
Cautiously, Kuhn pushes the thesis a little further:
"At the very least, as a result of discovering oxygen, Lavoisier saw nature differently. And in the absence of some recourse to that hypothetical fixed nature that he "saw differently," the principle of economy will urge us to say that after discovering oxygen Lavoisier worked in a different world."(p.118)
So far Kuhn has provided no detailed argumentation to support his analysis. Those details are really quite interesting in their own right, irrespective of whether they actually succeed in supporting the stronger conclusion. By way of elaboration, Kuhn contrasts the Aristotelian and Galilean view of a simple pendulum:
"To the Aristotelians, who believed that a heavy body is moved by its own nature from a higher position to a state of natural rest at a lower one, the swinging body was simply falling with difficulty. Constrained by the chain, it could achieve rest at its low point only after tortuous motion and a considerable time. Galileo, on the other hand, looking at the swinging body, saw a pendulum, a body that almost succeeded in repeating the same motion over and over again ad infinitum. And having seen that much, Galileo observed other properties of the pendulum as well and constructed many of the most significant and original parts of this new dynamics around them. From the properties of the pendulum, for example, Galileo derived his only full and sound arguments for the independence of weight and rate of fall, as well as for the relationship between vertical height and terminal velocity of motions down inclined planes. [Galileo Galilei, Dialogues concerning Two New Sciences, trans. H. Crew and A. de Salvio (Evanston, Ill., 1946), pp.80-81, 162-66.] All of these natural phenomena he saw differently from the way they had been seen before." (pp.118-9)
But the conclusion drawn from this example is that "until that scholastic paradigm was invented, there were no pendulums, but only swinging stones, for the scientists to see. Pendulums were brought into existence by something very like a paradigm-induced gestalt switch." (p.120) This is a radical conclusion.
13. A Confusion between Seeing and Seeing As? At first glance, Kuhns extreme position appears to arise from a simple confusion between seeing and seeing as. Isnt the situation simply this: Both Aristotle and Galileo saw the thing that we now describe as a pendulum, even though Aristotle did not describe it in those terms. This is the same sense in which we say that someone totally ignorant of matters astronomical actually succeeds in seeing the planet Venus when they point to the evening star. On the other hand, Aristotle did not see pendulums as pendulums, in the same sense that our astronomical ignoramus does not see the evening star as the planet Venus. On this alternate view, our ignoramus sees the same thing as the expert astronomer - the difference is that the expert interprets what she sees as the planet Venus. But if this is the only alternative, then Kuhn thinks that we should continue to say the post-paradigm scientist literally lives in a transformed world:
"What occurs during a scientific revolution is not fully reducible to a reinterpretation of individual and stable data. In the first place, the data are not unequivocally stable. A pendulum is not a falling stone, nor is oxygen dephlogisticated air. Consequently, the data that scientists collect from these diverse objects are, as we shall shortly see, themselves different. More important, the process by which either the individual or the community makes the transition from constrained fall to the pendulum or from dephlogisticated air to oxygen is not one that resembles interpretation. How could it do so in the absence of fixed data for the scientist to interpret? Rather than being an interpreter, the scientist who embraces a new paradigm is like the man wearing inverting lenses." (pp.121-22)
14. Radical Incommensurability: When Kuhn asserts in the last passage that "the data are not unequivocally stable," he is stepping beyond the weak version of his incommensurability thesis. For if the data are incommensurable (because "A pendulum is not a falling stone, nor is oxygen dephlogisticated air"), then it would be false to claim that the two paradigms make incompatible predictions-the one is making predictions about a falling stone, and the other about a pendulum. The strong incommensurability thesis says everything the weak thesis says plus the claim that the empirical data for a given theory cannot be translated in a way that are neutral between competing theories. Of course, it is not hard to resist this stronger thesis (and so we should): The Aristotelian and Galilean predictions are about the same thing (an stone swinging on a rigid rod), even though they are described and even seen as differing in some respects (as a falling stone in the first instance, or as a pendulum in the second). There is no reason to deny that the predictions of the two paradigms are commensurable. Kuhns only argument to the contrary conclusion appears to revert back to his "gestalt shift" picture of paradigm change:
"Scientists then often speak of the "scales falling from the eyes" or the "lightning flash" that "inundates" a previously obscure puzzle, enabling its components to be seen in a new way that for the first time permits its solution. On other occasions the relevant illumination comes in sleep. Nor ordinary sense of the term interpretation fits these flashes of intuition through which a new paradigm is born. Though such intuitions depend upon the experience, both anomalous and congruent, gained with the old paradigm, they are not logically or piecemeal linked to particular items of that experience as an interpretation would be. Instead, they gather up large portions of that experience and transform them to the rather different bundle of experience that will thereafter be linked piecemeal to the new paradigm but not to the old." (pp.122-23)
The last sentence in the quotation is another reference to Butterfields description of theory change (§7, above). There is a sense in which this description strengthens the case against interpretation, since to exploit new relations is not to reinterpret old relations. However, it offers no support for a stronger incommensurability thesis. For the relations amongst data can change without the data themselves changing.
15. Need We Be So Concerned about Immediate Experience? Suppose we grant that "the immediate content of Galileos experience with falling stones was not what Aristotles had been." (p.125) But is experience at this personal level crucial to a deeper understanding of scientific change? In response to this objection, Kuhn emphatically denies that operations and measurements are paradigm independent, "the measurements to be performed on a pendulum are not the ones relevant to a case of constrained fall." (p.126) While Kuhn is undoubtedly right on this point, it is not enough to dismiss the objection. As philosophers of science, maybe we should discuss the concrete operations and measurements that the scientist performs in her laboratory even though they are paradigm dependent? Their paradigm dependence does not exclude them from being predicted by a competing paradigm. For example, it is perfectly sensible to ask whether Keplers laws predict the 3-D positions of Mars as inferred from the Copernican model better than the Copernican model best fitted to past data. There is nothing absurd about this, as Kuhn believes.
16. There Is No Such Thing as a Neutral Observation Language: Kuhn then goes on to argue against a second proposal to bypass consideration of "immediate experience": "[The analysis] might, for example, be conducted in terms of some neutral observation-language, perhaps one designed to conform to the retinal imprints that mediate what the scientists see." (p.125) Kuhns reaction to the neutral observation language proposal is that retinal impressions do not map one-to-one onto perceptual experiences: (pp.126-27) "The duck-rabbit shows that two men with the same retinal impressions can see different things; the inverting lenses show that two men with different retinal impressions can see the same thing." However, it is not immediately clear how this fact undermines the proposal. Maybe Kuhn thinks that the absence of such a mapping means that a description of retinal impressions could not be unambiguously understood by all sides. But I think this is false. A theory-neutral observation language is not needed to compare the fit of models from different paradigms. The merit of the model is measured by how well it allows past data to predict future data, and the success of models from different paradigms can be compared against a common data set even when the data in question is theory-laden.
17. Philosophers have Disguised the Confirmation Situation: In considering traditional philosophical accounts of scientific confirmation, Kuhn first complains that philosophers have misrepresented confirmation as a relation between theory and evidence. Kuhn disagrees on two counts: First the question should be one about scientific communities rather than theories: (p.144) "What causes the group to abandon one tradition of normal research in favor of another?" Second, (p.145) "testing occurs as part of the competition between two rival paradigms for the allegiance of the scientific community." Thus, confirmation or verification is not a relation between a theory and evidence, but a process of selection from amongst rival candidates: (p.146) "Verification is like natural selection: it picks out the most viable among the actual alternatives in a particular historical situation." Kuhns point about the comparative nature of confirmation is a good one.
Other philosophers of science, like Popper, have denied the existence of any verification procedures at all. Theories are never justified (because of problems with induction), but they may be disproven. Poppers philosophy is that of falsificationism: Theories should be severely criticized in an attempt to falsify them. Survivors of such critical scrutiny are rationally acceptable, and are said to be corroborated.
"... the role thus attributed to falsification is much like the one this essay assigns to anomalous experiences, i.e. to experiences that, by evoking crisis, prepare the way for a new theory. Nevertheless, anomalous experiences may not be identified with falsifying ones. Indeed, I doubt that the latter exist. As has repeatedly been emphasized before, no theory ever solves all the puzzles with which it is confronted at an given time; nor are the solution already achieved often perfect. On the contrary, it is just the incompleteness and imperfection of the existing data-theory fit that, at any time, define many of the puzzles that characterize normal science. If any and every failure to fit were ground for theory rejection, all theories ought to be rejected at all times. On the other hand, if only severe failure to fit justifies theory rejection, then the Popperians will require some criterion of "improbability" or of "degree of falsification." In developing one they will almost certainly encounter the same network of difficulties that has haunted the advocates of the various probabilistic verification theories." (pp.146-47)
18. Incommensurability is a Cause of Communication Breakdowns: Almost by way of review, Kuhn recalls that (p.148) "We have already seen several reasons why the proponents of competing paradigms must fail to make complete contact with each others viewpoints." The three reasons for communication breakdown are all "fundamental aspects of incommensurability." First, not all past successes are recognized as relevant problems in the new paradigm. For example, Cartesian vortex theory had a ready explanation of why all the planets revolve around the sun in the same direction. The problem was seen as extraneous to mechanics by the Newtonians who considered it as a question about the origin of the solar system. This is an example of what some refer to as Kuhn loss (I heard the example and the term from Alan Musgrave):
"In the first place, the proponents of competing paradigms will often disagree about the list of problems that any candidate for paradigm must resolve. ... Lavoisiers chemical theory inhibited chemists from asking why the metals were so much alike, a question that phlogistic chemistry had both asked and answered. The transition to Lavoisiers paradigm had, like the transition to Newtons meant a loss not only of a permissible question but of an achieved solution." (p.148)
The second fundamental aspect of incommensurability might be called meaning variance, and is often simply equated with incommensurability:
"Communication across the revolutionary divide is inevitably partial. Consider, for another example, the men who called Copernicus mad because he proclaimed that the earth moved. They were not either just wrong or quite wrong. Part of what they meant by earth was fixed position. Their earth, at least, could not be moved." (p.149)
The third and most fundamental aspect of the incommensurability of competing paradigms might be referred to as world changes:
"In a sense that I am unable to explicate further, the proponents of competing paradigms practice their trades in different worlds. One contains constrained bodies that fall slowly, the other pendulums that repeat their motions again and again. ... in some areas they see different things, and they see them in different relations "one to the other." (p.150)
I will not repeat what has already been said about the merit of these theses.
19. How Communication is Restored by Conversion to the New Paradigm: What I want to highlight here is the further thesis that (p.150) "before they can hope to communicate fully, one group or the other must experience the conversion that we have been calling a paradigm shift." For example, (p.151) "Max Planck ... sadly remarked that a new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." Or, (p.152) "Conversions will occur a few at a time until, after the last hold-outs have died, the whole profession will again be practicing under a single, but now different, paradigm." Partly by way of explication, and partly by way of argument, Kuhn tells us how conversion is induced and how resisted. There are three things that commonly sway scientists towards conversion.
The first is the claim to have solved crisis-provoking problems:
"Probably the single most prevalent claim advanced by the proponents of a new paradigm is that they can solve the problems that have led the old one to a crisis. ... Copernicus thus claimed that he had solved the long-vexing problem of the length of the calendar year, Newton that he had reconciled terrestrial and celestial mechanics, Lavoisier that he had solved the problems of gas-identity and of weight relations, and Einstein that he had make electrodynamics compatible with a revised science of motion." (pp.153-54)
The second road to conversion follows a claim to novel predictions:
"... particularly persuasive arguments can be developed if the new paradigm permits the prediction of phenomena that had been entirely unsuspected while the old one prevailed.
Copernicus theory, for example, suggested that planets should be like the earth, that Venus should show phases, and that the universe must be vastly larger than had previously been supposed. As a result, when sixty years after his death the telescope suddenly displaced mountains on the moon, the phases of Venus, and an immense number of previously unsuspected stars, those observations brought the new theory a great many converts, particularly among non-astronomers. In the case of the wave theory, one main source of professional conversions was even more dramatic. French resistance collapsed suddenly and relatively completely when Fresnel was able to demonstrate the existence of a white spot at the center of the shadow of a circular disk. That was an effect that not even he had anticipated but that Poisson, initially one of his opponents, had shown to be a necessary if absurd consequence of Fresnels theory." (pp.154-55)
The third and final category of claim that may cause conversion is the claim to simplicity:
"Fortunately, there is also another sort of consideration that can lead scientists to reject an old paradigm in favor of a new. These are the arguments, rarely made entirely explicit, that appeal to the individuals sense of the appropriate or the aesthetic-the new theory is said to neater, more suitable, or simpler than the old. Probably such arguments are less effective in the sciences than in mathematics. ... Nevertheless, the importance of aesthetic considerations can sometimes be decisive. ... To see the reason for the importance of these more subjective and aesthetic considerations, remember what a paradigm debate is about. When a new candidate for paradigm is first proposed, it has seldom solved more than a few of the problems that confront it, and most of those solutions are still far from perfect. Until Kepler, the Copernican theory scarcely improved upon the predictions of planetary position made by Ptolemy. ... In short, if a new candidate for paradigm had to be judged from the start by hard-headed people who examined only relative problem-solving ability, the sciences would experience very few major revolutions." (pp.155-57)
These three considerations are parallel those put forward by William Whewell circa 1840, and predate that time. Whewell referred to the three tests of hypotheses as being (1) the prediction of phenomena of the same kind as those which the hypothesis was invented to explain, (2) the prediction of facts of a different and novel kind (the consilience of inductions), and (3) the tendency to simplicity and unity.
20. The Evaluation of Paradigms is Future Oriented: Kuhn correctly points out that new paradigms, when proposed, are not veterans in the problem-solving business, and cannot compete on the basis of current problem-solving accomplishments. Rather, they are selected on the promise of future success. Such promises are hard to assess, which is why it is so rare for new paradigms to take hold unless the old one is in crisis (see §5). (pp.157-58) The further claim that such decisions can only be made on faith is the substance behind charges that Kuhn sees science as an irrational or arational enterprise on a par with religious conversion. However, Kuhn adds that there must be a basis for this faith, though it need not be a rational basis:
"... crisis alone is not enough. There must also be a basis, though it need be neither rational nor ultimately correct, for faith in the particular candidate chosen. Something must make at least a few scientists feel that the new proposal is on the right track, and sometimes it is only personal and inarticulate aesthetic considerations that can do that.... When first introduced, neither Copernicus astronomical theory nor De Broglies theory of matter had many other significant grounds of appeal. ... This is not to suggest that new paradigms triumph ultimately through some mystical aesthetic. On the contrary, very few men desert a tradition for these reasons alone. Often those who do turn out to have been misled. But if a paradigm is ever to triumph it must gain some first supporters, men who will develop it to the point where hardheaded arguments can be produced and multiplied." (p.158)


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It is our ambition, as a committed and responsible corporate citizen, to bring quality technologies and expertise to the non-profit community working on climate change.
The projects benefiting from Planet Action grants reflect the complexity and interactions at stake in shaping a future based on sustainability. We are grateful to them for their work and feedback. We also appreciate the strong relationships that help us share knowledge within the Planet Action's community: non-profits and NGOs, technology providers (ESRI, ITT, Trimble), experts, and outreach partners.
We hope this Annual Report presents an accurate picture of our activity and our personality.


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Green Chemistry Principle #2
Atom Economy
Synthetic methods should be designed to maximize incorporation of all materials used in the process into the final product.
Contributed by Michael Cann, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry, University of Scranton
The second principle of green chemistry can be simply stated as the "atom economy" of a reaction. Atom economy, which was developed by Barry Trost1, asks the question "what atoms of the reactants are incorporated into the final desired product(s) and what atoms are wasted?"
Traditionally, the efficiency of a reaction has been measured by calculating the percent yield. Let us assume that the following substitution reaction gives 100% yield. While this is admirable, we can shed more light on the efficiency of a reaction by calculating the "percent atom economy" as follows:
% Atom Economy = (FW of atoms utilized/FW of all reactants) X 100
The percent atom economy is simply the formula weight of the desired product(s) (compound 4, 137 g/mol) divided by the sum of the formula weights of all the reactants (275 g/mol), which gives 50% in this case. Simply put, even if our percent yield is 100%, only half the mass of the reactants atoms are incorporated in the desired product while the other half is wasted in unwanted by-products. Imagine telling your mom you baked a cake and threw away half the ingredients! Thus chemists must not only strive to achieve maximum percent yield, but also design syntheses that maximize the incorporation of the atoms of the reactants into the desired product.
Principle #2 deals with the reactants. However, as those of us who have run a chemical reaction know, we usually use other materials such as solvents and separating agents during a synthesis. These materials usually make up the bulk of the material input, and thus we must also account for the waste that is produced from them. Stay "tuned" as you will see these discussed in subsequent Principles of Green Chemistry.
More Resources & Examples:
Atom Economy: A Measure of the Efficiency of a Reaction. Michael C. Cann and Marc E. Connelly; Real-World Cases in Green Chemistry; ACS, Washington, 2000.
1998 PGCCA Winner: Professor Barry M. Trost of Stanford University, "The Development of the Concept of Atom Economy."
Articles Cited:
1. The Atom Economy-A Search for Synthetic Efficiency; Barry M. Trost; Science 1991, (254), pp 1471-1477.


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April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. Become a Prevention Champion by Learning More About Protective Factors:
Number 1: Social and Emotional Competence of Children
Early identification and assistance for challenging behaviors or delays, to help children interact more positively with others, self-regulate and communicate their feelings.
Number 2: Knowledge of Parenting and Child Development
Accurate information about healthy development and appropriate expectations at every stage of childhood can come from family members, education classes and reliable sources.
Number 3: Parental Resilience
Ability to handle challenges, find solutions, establish trusting relationships-including with their child-and knowing when and how to seek help.
Number 4: Social Connections
Access to a network of friends, family, neighbors, and community members who provide emotional support, advice and direct help, when needed.
Number 5: Concrete Support for Parents
Services in place to provide stability, treatment and support for family members going through a crisis such as domestic violence, mental illness or abuse.
In New York State, 65,000 children suffer abuse each year. In the U.S., five children die each day
from injuries related to child abuse. April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month and Tim
Hathaway, Executive Director of Prevent Child Abuse New York (PCANY) says there are five key
steps we can all take to better protect all children:
1. Build relationships with children in your life. Whether family members, neighbors or
children you see at church, start a conversation. Then, Hathaway says, listen more than talk,
ask open ended questions, avoid judgment, pay attention to any behavior changes, know
their friends and show you care about their world. Children need adults outside the home
that they can trust.
2. Connect with people. Too often, we close the garage door behind us or stay glued to our
phones – never speaking with our neighbors. Hathaway points out the abuse in California
happened for years, right under peoples' noses. He suggests getting to know those living
and working around you, walking around your neighborhood, making eye contact in your
building and starting conversations.
3. Be aware of resources. Support local groups that are creating positive experiences for kids
and families, through donations, volunteering or spreading the word. Know where to go for
support and be ready to direct others, if needed. New York State offers a free, confidential
24-hour helpline: 1-800- CHILDREN (or 1-800- 244-5373). If you or someone you know
suspects child abuse, it can be reported at: 1-800- 342-3720.
4. Vote – and hold elected leaders accountable. Ask what your local, state and federal
representatives are doing to help children and families. Hathaway suggests signing online
petitions, calling and writing to legislators in support of policies and funding that help kids.
To schedule advocacy training in your community, contact Jenn O'Connor at:
firstname.lastname@example.com. To stay on top of issues, sign up for PCANY's free e-
newsletter at: preventchildabuseny.org.
5. Raise awareness through "Pinwheels for Prevention." A pinwheel, Hathaway explains,
represents carefree childhood and serves as the national symbol for preventing child abuse.
In 2017, over 200 groups created "Pinwheels for Prevention Gardens" in public spaces
across New York State to raise awareness. Talk to your town, club, school or sports program
about joining the effort. Visit: preventchildabuseny.org for a free seed kit.
"These five tips are actions that we can all take to make our communities stronger and safer for
children," Hathaway says. "Every child deserves to grow up safe and happy. If we pledge to be
more aware, share information and support organizations, policies and programs that benefit
families, we can prevent child abuse in New York State."
Help us raise the leaders of tomorrow.
Every child deserves a healthy, nurturing childhood and the opportunity to grow to become a caring, productive adult. Unfortunately, the toxic stress of child abuse and neglect can damage a developing child's brain in ways that create poor outcomes that last a lifetime.
Abuse harms more than just an individual child's chances for success—it harms a community's economic prosperity and quality of life.
The good news is that child abuse is preventable!
Prevent Child Abuse New York, a state chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America, is on the forefront of a growing movement to stop child abuse and neglect before it has a chance to start. We serve as a resource for parents and families, connecting them with help, support and resources. We advocate for programs and policies that support families and prevent abuse. We foster a statewide network of individuals and organizations committed to prevention.
Please join us in our work to give every parent, child and community in New York a healthy and successful future. The leaders of tomorrow are counting on us.