text:
American military success, Dry Bones |
Most worrisome is the fact that instead of eliminating the Iranian nuclear industry American officials at best just mumble about letting Israel, one of the smallest countries in the world, "take care of it" if Israel really feels in danger. Duh! Iran is anti-American even more than anti-Israel. For Americans to rationalize that and lie to themselves that Iran would only use weapons against Israel is totally unrealistic and very dangerous. In Israel Hayom, David Weinberg wrote of how the Americans are hoping to ignore the dangers of Iran to world peace.
The United States is back in its pre-World War Two isolationist mode for sure. The United States had hoped that it wouldn't be "dragged into" war with Hitler. It tried being accommodating, and there were many prominent Americans who didn't find Hitler problematic. They certainly didn't mind his anti-Semitism.Now, Pickering is back at the head of a panel of former senior U.S. officials and outside experts called "The Iran Project," urging U.S. President Barack Obama to drop sanctions and covert action against Iran, and instead negotiate more intensively with Tehran."I fundamentally believe that the balance between sanctions and diplomacy has been misaligned," says Pickering. He and his colleagues (who at the time included Chuck Hagel, now defense secretary) write that the sanctions policy seems to be backfiring and has "contributed to an increase in repression and corruption within Iran." They worry that sanctions "may be sowing the seeds of long-term alienation between the Iranian people and the United States."In an interview with The New York Times, Pickering also contends that Obama should review the covert program against Iran -- which reportedly has included computer sabotage of its nuclear facilities -- to "stop anything that is peripheral, that is not buying us much time" in slowing Iran's progress.
Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post |
"To threaten an immediate attack on Iran is not beneficial to Israel," Dagan said. "It transferred the Iranian issue from a worldwide issue to an Israeli issue. I would have been happier had [US President Barack] Obama made his announcement that he would not let Iran get nuclear weapons in Riyadh and not in Jerusalem."
I must admit that I don't agree with much else that Dagan stated. He's total unrealistic when it comes to the chance of "peace" with Arab terrorists.
When you look at the big picture, it's clear that the Arab terrorism that targets Israelis is also related to the Arab and Islamic terrorism that can be found even in the United States, such as the Boston Marathon bombing.
It's a very dangerous mistake that Israel is accepting foreign advice/instructions/ideology to do everything it can to make peace with the Arab Terrorists. It is totally impossible to make peace with terrorists. Consider it against their religion!
The bottom line is that the world is in big trouble!


text:
Hi, I'm Benjamin. A photographer based in Madrid, Spain but originally from a little town in the South of France. A town called Six-Fours Les Plages.
Over the last 5 years, I travelled over 30 countries and lived in a few of them for a little while. Its during this period abroad, visiting different places and cultures that I decided to buy my first Camera. During this time, I've learned how to use my camera viewfinder to find the image that will match my expectation.
Today, I have an honest passion for the art of photography. Such as starring at landscapes for hours (especially during sunrise & sunset), doing originals photoshoot session, walking in the streets and getting inspired.
I am an easy going and friendly guy. I'm always happy to meet new people in life, as I have the same approach with my business partners.
Regardless of the size of the project I am involved with, I bring the same energy and consistency to every job I attempt. When wrapping up a project, my main goal is to ensure every party is fully content with the final product.
Megan Core
Musician - Newcastle, Australia
Benjamin was so professional and organised during our photoshoot. He had plenty of creative ideas and his friendly personality made the experience really fun and relaxed. I would definitely use his talents again!
Secretary of the Newcastle University Psychology Society - Newcastle, Australia
Ben is easy to get along with and has you feeling at ease and comfortable around him; relaxed and ready for a fun shoot that I promise will be filled with laughter and creativity. He has an artistic mind where you can see him always thinking of something new to try with new clients. Loved my shoot so much.
Business Student - Newcastle, Australia
Great freelance photographer, superb photoshoot, really professional and creative. I would be honoured to collaborate again with Benjamin.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Emotional intelligence of nurses are affected by age, gender, and length of experience. All of these can influence the level of Emotional Intelligence in individuals. Which of these factors affect your EI?
As we mature, emotional intelligence can develop. This is probably the reason why older people tend to have higher emotional intelligence. This only means that as nurses age, emotional intelligence can also score higher. However, a study in 2011 by Codier, Freel, Kamikawa & Morrison demonstrated that there is no substantive differences in EI abilities among 3 different generations of nurses namely: the Baby Boomer Age group, Generation X, and the Millennial Age.
Emotional Intelligence also improves as we develop our maturity. This type of intelligence is critical to the professional nurse's personal growth and success. Through motivation, we can develop our emotional intelligence. We have to be open-minded as our professional coaches or mentors evaluate us objectively because this also helps in our growth which eventually can sharpen our EQ.
Research studies found that women are better than men in accurately identifying the feelings of other individuals. Do you agree? This could indicate that women have more empathy, than men. Empathy is a component of Emotional Intelligence that refers to the ability to put oneself in other people's shoes. In other words women have more awareness of other people's feelings and are able to listen more carefully as well as observe others better than men. Perhaps this could also mean that women nurses might have higher EQ than male nurses.
Since women generally possess greater intuition than men, it can be an influencing factor for the potential of having higher EI scores among the female nurses. To support the view of women as having greater intuition than men, Moir and Jessel (1994) as cited by McKinnon (2005), showed in their research that "the more bulbous corpus callosum consistently found in women suggest greater capacity for interplay between specialized centres in the right and left hemispheres of the brain." This implies that women have superior predisposition toward more accurate interpretation of people's actions. I wonder if male nurses would agree to this. Perhaps more investigations on EI between male and female nurses should be done by nurse researchers today.
Length of Experience
Some people think that experience is the best teacher. I think I agree to this. Emotional intelligence is more than just a concept. It is a phenomenon in our lives that we can only harness and master through our lifespan's experiences.
We usually attach our emotions to our experiences and these continue to influence our decision-making skills (Reeves, 2005) and even our problem-solving skills. We become better nurses as we grow in experience within our respective fields. With the lessons we learn from our experiences of achievements and failures and even among those around us, we learn to put ourselves on other people's shoes, we learn to really hear them and can even predict outcomes both good and bad.
Regardless of which factor influence your level of emotional intelligence, it is important that as a professional nurse, you are not only intellectually mature but should also have high emotional intelligence. After all, our profession is beyond health care cost and technical efficiency. The very essence of nursing will always be caring and this requires emotional intelligence.


text:
Typeface for monetary inscriptions
Elvire Volk Leonovitch zoomEn collaboration avec le Département des monnaies, médailles et antiques de la Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), l'Institut de recherche sur les Archéomatériaux (IRAMAT) et le Centre d'Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale (CESCM), dans le cadre du plan triennal de la recherche 2013–2015 de la BnF
The PIM research project (Font for Monetary Inscriptions) initiated by Florence Codine, curator in charge of the Merovingian coins at the department of coins, medals and antiques from the National Library of France (BnF), aims at producing a tool suitable for transcribing the information contained on monetary inscriptions, beyond their semantic content. When studying a coin, the textual information it carries provide many clues regarding its origin. But the graphic features of the inscription (structure, weight, terminals, …) also provide valuable information. Unfortunately, there is currently no digital font capable of fully rendering these specificities.
Therefore, a partnership between the BnF and ANRT has been set up with a view to develop a typeface that brings together, in a unified form, all identified stylistic variants. Based on the classification of the letters found on these coins, which was conducted by a team of researchers, it was possible to deduce an accurate and relevant interpretation of the various letterforms. This step questioned the level of information that should be represented by the glyph. Which details belong to the structure? How could endings or thickness of stroke appear, and should they appear? Where should the line be drawn between interpretation and transcription of the sign? Throughout this first stage of work, it was necessary to keep in mind the graphic unity of the typeface. This led to a reflection on the coherence of the letterforms within the font. How can glyphs, whose structure and appearance vary greatly, work together? Up to which point can the shapes be standardized, while remaining compatible with the project's aim? Composed mainly of capital letters, the typeface, whose primary use would be for scientific publications, questions the readability and identification of each glyph independently of the others within a text.
Currently, the Meroweg typeface is designed without serifs to emphasize the multiple letter structures. It is designed with a fairly heavy weight and a very low contrast, to distinguish it from other text typefaces that might be used to set the text around it. Lighter variants of the letters are also integrated to the font, to mark the missing structures, ligatures and damaged letters… The aim is to expand the character set further.


text: Show 100 5 10 15 20 50 100 250 Sort by year (new to old) Actions Download search results Subscribe to news feed Your filters: cql: author=" Campinoti, Sara" or (type any "bookEditor issueEditor" and editor=" Campinoti, Sara") Add to list Conference Paper C3 Development of ECM mimicking 3D-hydrogel scaffolds for liver tissue engineering Nathan Carpentier (UGent) , Sara Campinoti, Luca Urbani, Peter Dubruel (UGent) and Sandra Van Vlierberghe (UGent) (2022) JOURNAL OF HEPATOLOGY. 77(S1). p.S734-S735


text:
A newlywed story: Ty and April
by Mahkesha Hogg
LGBT Black Issues Columnist
To my pleasure, I am hearing more and more black people speak openly about their LGBT love life. At work, I noticed Ty, a confident young woman, as she mentioned her wife in our training class. Instantly, my ears perked up and I took interest. I knew that I would be speaking to her later about her love, but waited until I got to know her a little longer.
Ty is one of two 20-something black open lesbians in my new training class. The company we work for supports the LGBT community and has participated in several OKC Prides. The welcoming atmosphere allows the LGBT employees freedom from fear of being fired for their orientation.
What interested me most was how unashamed she was about stating that she had a wife and I thought to myself, "We are making progress in the black community with confidence amongst our LGBT brothers and sisters."
Ty mentioned that she had just gotten married in November of 2015. Newlyweds have a special kind of gleam in their eye and Ty definitely had that sparkle. When the time was right I asked Ty if I could interview her and her wife about their life together. She immediately said, "Sure."
Her wife's name is April. Their story shows me that black LGBT couples, especially in Oklahoma, can live freely without shame.
They started off being best friends and years later it turned into a romance. Ty stated that her family "has always been supportive" of her lifestyle and relationship with April. She has never had to hide anything. April expressed the same response, noting, even the [family members] I assumed wouldn't be supportive.
The couple has three daughters ages 9, 13, and 17 (biologically born to April) who April was the most concerned about being accepting of the relationship, but they too have had no negative issues. Ty aspires to carry a child for them in the near future.
When I asked them if they felt that acceptance of black LGBT people, within the black community, is getting better, Ty replied, "I definitely think acceptance is better within the black community for the LGBT. We've never experienced disrespect or harassment."
April's assessment was very similar. She stated, "Looking at the progression that I have seen over the years, we have come so far." Indeed, we have come very far and still continue to open hearts and minds.
I was interested in knowing what they say to people who speak negatively about their sexual orientation. Both Ty and April said that those people have no relevance when it comes to their personal preference because it is not their lives to live and they are entitled to acknowledgement.
Lastly, I asked the newlyweds, "What is the greatest part about being married?" April's response was, "I married my best friend and now I get to spend the rest of my life with her."
Ty remarked, "Our relationship is five years strong. She is my best friend and my corner I turn to for everything." I wish many years of love to this strong couple.
The Gayly - 1/06/2016 @ 11:44 a.m. CST


text:
We build partnerships with organisations that we believe share the same values as us here in Allianz. Organisations that especially celebrate diversity and want to make a positive impact on Irish society through innovation and change.
More importantly we want to support those who display acts of courage both big and small. Allianz is proud to partner with some of the nations most inspiring and influential organisations including the GAA and Paralympics Ireland.


text:
On June 14, just 15 days away, Russia will kick off the 2018 World Cup against Saudi Arabia. Will it be a glorious, unmissable festival of football? Or will we remember the tournament for hooliganism and racism?
Yes, just 15 days. On Thursday, June 14, the World Cup will get under way at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium. Russia's game against Saudi Arabia kicks off at 4pm UK time and billions of people around the world will tune in.
Four days later, and more than 600 miles down Russia's E119, England starts its campaign against Tunisia. The tournament ends on Sunday, July 15, with the final back in Moscow. What sort of tournament will we have seen and, most important to this writer, will England still be involved? Or will Harry Kane and friends be on the beach, enjoying a holiday but trying to forget another inglorious exit?
Rather more worrying, will we be looking back on a tournament that was blighted by hooliganism and racism? Worries like this are almost traditional before a World Cup, but this time it really could be different. The early signs are not good.
Racial tension
Sadly, you have to say that a tournament tainted by racism is a real possibility. Russian fans do not have the best reputation for racism, something FIFA was well aware of before it handed the tournament to Russia.
In March, Russia played France in a friendly in St. Petersburg, a stadium that will host seven World Cup games, including Russia's game against Egypt and a semi-final. During the game, racially offensive chants were aimed at several French players, including Manchester United's Paul Pogba. FIFA came down hard on the Russians, fining them £10m ($13.3m) and stripping them of the right to host the World Cup.
Actually, as any football fan knows, FIFA administered the lightest possible slap on the wrist, fining the Russian Football Federation 30,000 Swiss francs (£22,000; $29,214) – a fine which, it said, reflected, "the gravity of the incident, but also the limited number of fans involved".
So that is all right then. But racism in Russian football is so prevalent that it has its own Wiki entry, with more than 100 incidents reported between 2012 and 2014 and countless high-profile players being the subject of abuse from right-wing groups. The Russian Football Federation recently fined both Zenit St Petersburg and Spartak Moscow for racist chants from supporters.
The problem of racism seems deeply embedded in both Russian society and Russian football. There seems to be no reason at all why it should stop during the World Cup. Players in Italy have already set a precedent by walking off the pitch in protest at racist chanting. Do not bet against racial abuse leading to the abandonment of a game in this year's World Cup.
The hooligan problem
The last major football tournament in Europe was Euro2016, the European championships held in France. Newspapers were rife with stories of Russian hooliganism, including reports of 150 "trained Russian hooligans" who flew to Marseilles especially to fight English fans before and after the teams met in the tournament. English fans described the Russians as "savage and organized".
We may need to sound a note of caution. "English warned, be prepared to die" is a headline that will sell far more newspapers than "Russian security forces crack down on potential hooligans".
"This year," warned one Russian fan, "We will do more than just sing. Fighting is in our blood." Russian "ultras" have been organizing themselves on Vkontakte.com (Russia's alternative to Facebook) and they are apparently planning to lure English fans to Reutov, a small town near Moscow for "stienka na stienke" – literally translated as "wall to wall" fighting.
On the other hand, another Russian fan described the violence in France as "nothing personal" and promised that the 2018 World Cup would be "the safest ever." Apparently, it will be if the Russian security forces have their way, with some group of ultras already reporting extra security initiatives and "harassment from the police" ahead of the World Cup.
In truth, everything depends on the attitude of the Russian police and the FSB, the state security organization. Logically, you would assume that the Russian authorities would not want the World Cup to be remembered for either violence or racism. But, in Vladimir Putin's Russia, logic may have nothing to do with it.


text:
In some sections, the Mother Road is as worn out as an old woman. Weathered. Wrinkled. Worried. With many years of experiences and stories to tell. One may find sections that have recently been refreshed, giving the appearance of a younger mother. But most sections are as tired as a mother with a passel of children and a young one on her hip. Unfortunately, we did not have the time to drive the whole true Route 66 through Oklahoma. We are traveling full-time with a 27' Airstream and we don't feel comfortable towing her on roads that may be fractured, bouncy, or narrow. As we have done so many times before (in 26 states so far), we leave Betty Jo (the Airstream) behind at RV Parks, such as the Mustang Run Rv Park in Yukon, OK while we explore. I saw a few travel trailers on the historic route and for the most part, most sections of the route are fine for towing. Finding gas stations (especially diesel) are few and far between. There were RV parks on the older route, but many of them looked as old as the route they were on. We are traveling Route 66 from Cuba, MO to Barstow, CA. We hit the Mother Road on March 7th and arrived in Oklahoma City on March 15th. We travel mostly by Interstate Highway, the "newer Route 66," while towing. This allows us to park Betty Jo and travel as much of the original routes as we can with our truck, with a lot more flexibility and the ability to stop suddenly whenever something strikes our fancy - and needs to be photographed. The curse of being photographers is your creative eye is always on the lookout for that next shot. In Missouri, we parked Betty Jo at the RV Express RV Park in Marshfield, MO. From there we ventured out on the older Route 66 in that area. We then stayed at the Coachlight Rv Park in Carthage, MO and explored Route 66 around Carthage, Joplin, Webb City and Galena, Kansas. I found the Route in Missouri, confusing and discombobulated. There were so many versions of the Route; The original route (1926), newer routes (1958), while various byways of the route kept appearing. They all seemed to go in different directions - east/west, north/south. We often missed something because the old was mixed in with the new and so we would miss it. I often felt like it was going in circle. Ah, the fun of exploration. In Oklahoma, the route seems more straight forward. I enjoyed this much more. There are still many of older sections (the Original), they are mostly short in length, while weathered and worn, which makes for a bumpy ride. We drove the main Historical Route from El Reno to Tulsa, seeing a lot of back country areas the Interstate misses. For the most part it was easy to follow, they have signs saying "Historical Route 66" about every 1/2 mile or so, also indicating if it's "original, addend or bypass," but I still relied on Google Maps to make sure we were on the route for I found it would often take turns without any warning. What I enjoyed most about the route in Oklahoma was our ability to stay on the route. They really promote the route in Oklahoma and each town tries to stay somewhat authentic. It was a fun and easy-going ride, through small towns and bits of countryside, some of it weaving through the larger towns like Oklahoma City and Tulsa where you can still can find history mixed with urban development. There always seemed to be something new or unique around each turn, you just had to keep your eyes open. Traveling Route 66 is Okay in Oklahoma and worth the time, no matter how you do it.
As a child my fondest memories were road trips. And Route 66 is the Ultimate Road Trip. Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Join Us
As we roam the roads and highways, looking for that next fantastic stop, keep track of our travels in our Airstream - Betty Jo Archives
October 2023