text:
Last year,we celebrated with a cake and Ajay was pleasantly surprised.This year,however I don't think the surprise element is there.I bake whenever I feel like and a cake inside the fridge or one in the oven late night doesn't excite him any more than it did last year.I have not been baking much off late and the reason to bake for Valentines day was enough to shake me off my slumber existence.
The recipe for this cake is from a Cake book I bought during my grocery shopping trip to Nilgiris.[Folks in Chennai,do check out the book section in Nilgiris,there are some amazing cookery books on their shelf].The main attraction point of this book was that it uses one basic cake mix for 50 different Cakes.This is the first recipe I am trying out and no prizes for guessing why I chose this particular cake:)
The cake was very light,surprisingly with all that butter and fluffy.The ganache gave me a bit trouble since it became runny.I whipped it up once and refrigerated it overnight which made the frosting job a bit easier.But if you ask me,I prefer the dark chocolate ganache,with its deep chocolate flavor.
White Chocolate ♥Valentine's♥ Gateau
Recipe courtesy " 1 Mix,50 Cakes" by Christine France
Plain white flour – 175 gms/6oz
Baking powder – 1 tbsp
Unsalted butter,softened – 175 gms/6oz
Caster Sugar – 175 gms/6oz
Eggs – 3,beaten
Vanilla extract – 1 tsp
White chocolate grated – 55gms/2oz [ I used equivalent amount of white chocolate chips]
Oil or butter for greasing the cake tin
White chocolate – 200gms/7 oz,broken into pieces
Milk – 2 tbsp
Cream – 200 ml/7 fl oz
Preheat oven to 170*C.
Grease /line two 8' cake tins.[you could also use a heart-shaped tin to bake which would be more appropriate;)]
Sift the flour and baking powder together.
Cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs one at a time and add the vanilla extract.
Add the flour in 3-4 turns and beat well.
Fold in the grated chocolate[or white chocolate chips]
Divide the batter into the two pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until risen,firm and golden brown.
Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes,then turn out onto a wire rack.
For the frosting,melt the chocolate with the milk in a double boiler OR in the microwave.
Remove from the heat and stir until smooth then leave to cool.
Whip the cream well and fold into the cooled chocolate mixture.
Fill and frost the cakes and decorate with sugar flowers and/or silver dragees.
Sending this cake to Nina of Confessions of a Bake-a-holic for her Valentine's day Special event!!


text:
Knoxville 2014 Walk to Cure Diabetes
The JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes is a fun, happy, healthy, and effective way to show your support for all those living with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and to raise funds for JDRF—the leading global organization focused on T1D research.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which a person's pancreas loses the ability to produce insulin—a hormone essential to turning food into energy. More than 15,000 children and 15,000 adults in the United States receive a diagnosis each year. That's why JDRF holds more than 200 Walks nationally every year that connect walkers to an extensive community of families, volunteers, and donors who are committed to fighting this serious disease.
The JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes has raised $1 billion to date. Your generosity helps us continue to accelerate progress in T1D research and keep people with T1D healthy while we work towards a cure.
More Information Online Here

subset: commoncrawl


text:
A top Obama administration official says no one, not even children trying to escape violent countries, can illegally enter the United States without eventually facing deportation proceedings.
But Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson basically acknowledged Sunday that such proceedings might be long delayed, and he said that coping with floods of unaccompanied minors crossing the border is a legal and humanitarian dilemma for the United States.
"Our border is not open to illegal migration, and we are taking a number of steps to address it, including turning people around faster," Johnson told NBC's "Meet the Press." At the same time, he said, the administration is "looking at ways to create additional options for dealing with the children in particular, consistent with our laws and our values."
Repeatedly pressed to say whether thousands of Central American children will be deported promptly, Johnson said, "We need to find more efficient, effective ways to turn this tide around generally, and we've already begun to do that."
The legal, political and logistical constraints of immigration policy dominated the Sunday talk shows.
More than 50,000 unaccompanied minors have been caught on the U.S.-Mexico border this year. Most are from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, where spikes in violence and poverty are prompting parents to send their children on difficult and dangerous journeys north.
Their numbers have overwhelmed federal agencies. When 140 would-be immigrants — mostly mothers with children — were flown to southern California to ease an overcrowded Texas facility, angry residents of Murrieta, California, greeted the bus as it pulled into town, complaining that they were being saddled with more than their share.
"This is a failure of diplomacy. It is a failure of leadership from the administration," said Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who sought the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.
Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, said the administration "is one step behind" a major dilemma that was foreseeable. The number of children coming from Central America without adults has been rising dramatically for several years.
A George W. Bush-era law to address human trafficking prevents the government from returning these children to their home countries without taking them into custody and eventually through a deportation hearing. Minors from Mexico and Canada, by contrast, can be sent back across the border more easily. The administration says it wants more flexibility under the law.
Johnson said the administration has dramatically sped up the processing of adults who enter the country illegally, and it is opening more detention facilities. He acknowledged that the unaccompanied children from Central America, some 9,700 taken into custody in May alone, pose the most vexing problem.
Unaccompanied Central American children generally are being released to relatives already in the United States. Mothers with their children often are released with a notice to appear later in immigration court.
Meanwhile, word of seemingly successful border crossings reaches their home countries, encouraging others to try.
Johnson said the U.S. government is trying to send the message that all people who enter the country illegally will face deportation proceedings eventually. In Central America, he said, "the criminal smuggling organizations are putting out a lot of disinformation about supposed free passes into this country" that will expire soon. "We're cracking down on the smuggling organizations by surging law enforcement resources," Johnson said.
Johnson and others are warning of the dangers that immigrants, and especially children, face when the try to reach the United States on their own. Johnson is scheduled to meet with Guatemalan officials later this week.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said children entering the country illegally must be sent home. If not, Graham said, "you're going to incentivize people throughout that part of the world to keep sending their children here."
Graham said foreign aid should be cut off to countries that don't do more to discourage illegal immigration to the United States.
Perry appeared on ABC's "This Week"; Cuellar was on CNN's "State of the Union"; Graham was on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Follow Charles Babington on Twitter: httpss://twitter.com/cbabington.
Copyright © 2013 Capitol Hill Blue
Copyright © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights


text:
High-flying Apple hit by investors' tax fears
Consumer electronics giant's market value takes a dive as investors prepare for potential hike in capital gains tax next year.
Apple, the largest US stock by market value, was headed toward its eighth straight week of declines on Friday, as the rush to secure profits before a potential hike in capital gains taxes next year has investors dumping the market favourite.
Since hitting a record high of $705.07 a share in September, Apple has lost about a quarter of its value. The stock's descent has vastly outpaced those of the S&P 500, which is down just under 7 per cent in the same time frame.
"No individual investment can defy gravity," said Erik Davidson, deputy chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank, in San Francisco.
The declines have shaved about $170 billion off the company's market capitalization - or just a bit more than the entire value of Coca-Cola. Apple is still currently worth about $493 billion, about $100 billion more than the second-most valuable US company, Exxon Mobil.
Apple on Friday afternoon was little changed, up 0.2 percent at $526.59.
Taxes on capital gains and dividends are likely to rise next year as part of an expected deficit-cutting deal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff of scheduled tax hikes and spending cuts.
With a stock like Apple, where investors may have large embedded capital gains as a result of its stellar run, selling now locks in gains and offsets the possibility of higher taxes next year.
Get the ITPro. daily newsletter
Receive our latest news, industry updates, featured resources and more. Sign up today to receive our FREE report on AI cyber crime & security - newly updated for 2024.
The uncertainty over the outcome of talks in Washington over the fiscal cliff has sapped the natural inclination to buy declining shares.
"Some of the selling is being driven by these tax decisions, but the flip side is there is not a lot of buyers because the buyers are procrastinating to see how the negotiations come out," said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama. "You probably have an inordinate effect to the downside because of these tax strategies."
The current 15 per cent tax rate on dividends and capital gains is scheduled to expire at year end, and the two items are to revert back to being taxed as ordinary income, which means the highest earners would face rates of 35 per cent.
The recent plunge is a reversal of fortune for high-flying Apple, though the shares remain up about 30 per cent for the year so far. Apple shares have risen every year since 2003 with the exception of 2008, when the market was struck by the global financial crisis.
"If you've got all these gains - which a lot of Apple investors have because it's done very, very well - then you're going to see selling in the likes of Apple and other companies that have had good runs," Davidson said.
Apple's stock has been below both its 14-day and 50-day moving average for over a month, suggesting both the short- and mid-term momentum is negative.
Despite the declines, Thomson Reuters StarMine estimates the stock's intrinsic value is about $833.90 a share. That figure is derived from analyst estimates for growth over the next five years and StarMine's expected growth rates for several years after that.
Given that the stock is likely worth more than where it is trading, tax concerns are probably playing into the recent weakness, said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors, in New York.
"I think the stock is worth $750," said Orlando.
"If you are sitting here looking at Apple trading at $500, you say, 'Well the stock ought to be 50 per cent higher over the course of the next year or two,' so the stock looks pretty attractive."


text:
What's Sweat?
You're biking up a hill, pedaling as hard as you can. You're almost there and — what's this? Your back is all wet and so is your face. Don't sweat it — it's only sweat!
Your body works best when its temperature is about 98.6ºF (37ºC). When your body gets hotter than that, your brain doesn't like it — it wants your body to stay cool and comfortable. So the part of your brain that controls temperature, called the hypothalamus (say: hi-po-THAL-uh-mus), sends a message to your body, telling it to sweat.
Then special glands in your skin called — what else? — sweat glands start making sweat. Sweat is also known as perspiration (say: pur-spuh-RAY-shun), and it is made almost completely of water, with tiny amounts of other chemicals like ammonia (say: uh-MOWN-yuh), urea (say: yoo-REE-uh), salts, and sugar. (Ammonia and urea are left over when your body breaks down protein.)
The sweat leaves your skin through tiny holes called pores. When the sweat hits the air, the air makes it evaporate (this means it turns from a liquid to a vapor). As the sweat evaporates off your skin, you cool down.
Sweat is a great cooling system, but if you're sweating a lot on a hot day or after playing hard you could be losing too much water through your skin. Then you need to put liquid back in your body by drinking plenty of water so you won't get dehydrated (say: dee-HI-drayt-ed).
Why Does Sweat Smell?
Sweat isn't just wet — it can be kind of stinky, too. But the next time you get a whiff of yourself after running around outside and want to blame your sweat glands, hold on!
Sweat by itself doesn't smell at all. It's the bacteria that live on your skin that mix with the sweat and give it a stinky smell. And when you reach puberty, special hormones affect the glands in your armpits — these glands make sweat that can really smell.
Luckily, regular washing with soap and water can usually keep stinky sweat under control. Many teens and adults also find that wearing deodorant (say: dee-OH-der-ent) or antiperspirant (say: an-tee-PUR-sper-ent) helps.
So don't worry about a little sweat — it's totally normal and everybody sweats. Sometimes too much sweating can be a sign that there is something wrong in the body, but this is rare in kids. If you notice more sweat, it's usually just a sign that it's time to start using a deodorant or antiperspirant. But if you think you have a sweat problem, talk to your parent or your doctor about it.
Note: All information is for educational purposes only. For specific medical advice, diagnoses, and treatment, consult your doctor.
© 1995- The Nemours Foundation. KidsHealth® is a registered trademark of The Nemours Foundation. All rights reserved.
Images sourced by The Nemours Foundation and Getty Images.


text:
2 Comments
3/4 of a billion dollars in private money? For the Kings? And I thought half a billion was a head scratcher. Assuming said money is on a solid foundation and the ownership group checks out the NBA has a choice to make. Ultimately it's what's best for the NBA in the long term. Still think in that scenario that Seattle is the better option but I thought that comparing Seattle to OKC.
Art, was there that clause in the Sonics' owners' deals, where a minority owner had FROR to purchase them 7 years ago? If not, why not? If so, why didn't anyone 'pop' for them them?


text:
With the 2X Points Package, you can book your next trip twice as soon.
Your next trip could be twice as rewarding with the 2X Points Package when you book your stay at participating Conrad Hotels & Resorts. Book that weeklong vacation you've been planning, escape for a weekend, or make the most of your next business trip.
With this package, earning Double Hilton Honors Points every night brings you that much closer to your next reward night. And if you're not already a Hilton Honors member, don't forget to join before your stay.
Offer valid at participating hotels in the Hilton Honors portfolio. Subject to availability. Rates do not include taxes, gratuities, incidental charges or resort fees (if applicable). Each hotel's change and cancellation policy varies. Please contact the individual hotel to confirm their policy. Offer components are non-transferable or redeemable for cash, and cannot be applied toward future stays. This offer may not be combined with other select promotions, offers or discounts and is not valid for groups. If you are making this reservation by phone, please call our Internet Customer Center at +1-800-HHONORS or view a complete list of Hilton Honors Reservations phone numbers. When booking by phone, please request "2X Points Package" or Plan Code.
"Double Hilton Honors Points" means you will receive a bonus equal to the number of Base Points earned during a stay. Bonus Points earned on Base Points do not count toward elite tier qualification. Please allow up to eight weeks from completion of your stay for points to appear in your Hilton Honors account. You must be a member of Hilton Honors to take advantage of this exclusive opportunity. Hilton Honors membership, earning of Points & Miles and redemption of points are subject to Hilton Honors Terms & Conditions.


text:
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: June 25, 2013
Price: DVD $22.97, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $24.97
Studio: Warner Home Video
Steve Carell (Date Night) and Steve Buscemi (The Big Lebowski) get their glitter on for comedy movie The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.
Carell and Buscemi play superstar magicians Burt Wonderstone and Anton Marvelton, respectively. After a street magician's (Jim Carrey, Mr. Popper's Penguins) stunts make their show look stale, they decide for ramp things up by staging their own daring stunt, in an effort to salvage their act and their friendship.
The PG-13 film also stars Olivia Wilde (Deadfall), James Gandolfini (Killing Them Softly), Alan Arkin (Stand Up Guys) and Jay Mohr (Hereafter) as the wonderfully names Rick the Implausible.
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone was directed by Don Scardino, who's known for helmer TV shows including 30 Rock, and written by Jonathan M. Goldstein (Horrible Bosses) and John Francis Daley, best known as Dr. Lance Sweets on TV's Bones, but also a writer on Horrible Bosses.
Burt Wonderstone didn't conjure up a hit in theaters, grossing $22.4 million. But reviews weren't great. Wasington Post critic Ann Hornaday described the movie as, "A generic, fitfully funny mainstream comedy that doesn't nearly get the best from its name-brand players but doesn't qualify as a desecration, either."
Check out the film's trailer:
Buy or Rent The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
DVD | Blu-ray/DVD Combo |
DVD | Blu-ray/DVD Combo | DVD | Blu-ray/DVD Combo |


text:
Ad Age just unveiled its " top 10 female ad icons of all time" list:
-- Morton Salt's 'umbrella girl"
-- Betty Crocker
-- Miss Chiquita
-- Rosie the Riveter
-- Josephine the Plumber (Comet cleanser)
-- Mrs. Olson (for Folgers coffee)
-- Madge the manicurist (Palmolive soap)
-- Rosie the waitress (Bounty paper towels)
-- Clara Peller (Wendy's "where's the beef?" lady)
-- Flo (for Progressive insurance)
Flo seems too new to have made the list, in our humble opinion. Especially since among those who didn't crack the top 10 are:
-- Little Debbie
-- Elsie the cow (Borden milk)
-- The Ivory soap baby (no, porn star Marilyn Chambers was never the baby, but Snopes.com says she was one of the "mothers" on the soapbox)
-- Aunt Jemima
-- Mrs. Butterworth
Who else is missing? Suggestions are welcome in the comments thread.
Update at 3 p.m. ET. Some Excellent Suggestions.
From the comments thread:
-- "Winfield Scott" offers eight.
1.) Mother Nature, played by Dena Dietrich on the Chiffon margarine commercials in the '70s and '80s... "It's not nice to fool mother nature!"
2.) The Coppertone Girl
3.) The Doublemint Twins
4.) The Gerber Baby (Drawn by Dorothy H. Smith of her neighbor's baby, Ann Turner.)
5.) Wendy (of Wendy's Hamburgers fame)
6.) The Sun Maid Raisin Girl
7.) "Sarah Tucker" for Cool Whip, played in the '60s by Marge Redmond
8.) The Sunbeam Bread Girl
-- Several readers mention the "Pine-Sol lady."
-- Several also reminded us about Land O'Lakes butter's Native American woman.
-- "Kathy Moberg" thinks the Sun-Maid raisin girl should be on the list.
-- "Art Aficionado" nominates the St. Pauli girl.
Keep checking the comments. We bet there will be more.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
The debate over how to provide better legal protection to victims of sexual violence rages on in India, with rights groups vociferously objecting to a new antirape ordinance that the government enacted over the weekend. After being approved by Cabinet last week, India's President Pranab Mukherjee signed a bill on Sunday designed to toughen up existing laws by permitting capital punishment in rape cases in which the victim is murdered or left in a "persistent vegetative state" and allowing harsher punishment for crimes like acid attacks, sexual harassment and stalking.
The bill was no doubt envisioned as a quick, high-level response to the Dec. 16 gang rape that shocked this country and sent thousands of protesters to the streets to call for greater safety and justice for women. But rights groups have been quick to cast doubt on the move, calling it hasty and incomplete. On Jan. 23, a specially convened committee headed by former Supreme Court Chief Justice J.S. Verma, known as the Verma commission, submitted a 657-page report to the government suggesting a broad and ambitious rethink of Indian criminal law relating to sexual violence, calling for faster justice and harsher punishment.
(PHOTOS: In India, a Rape Sparks Violent Protests and Demands for Justice)
The commission made more than 80,000 recommendations in its report. Among its key recommendations was that marital rape be made a criminal offense punishable with prison time. It also called for other legal changes that spoke to more fundamental cultural shifts, such as including domestic helpers in a pending sexual-harassment bill, an end to the humiliating and maligned "two-finger" test by which a doctor examines whether a rape victim has been sexually active before being attacked, a crackdown on the informal male-run village governance bodies called khap panchayats that have often called for regressive action toward women in rural India, and for military members accused of sexual attacks to be tried in civil courts. (Read more of our coverage on the Verma commission here.)
The ordinance signed over the weekend, which must be approved by Parliament within six months, reflects the government's approach to use harsher punishments as a deterrent to help reduce violent crimes against women. It also echoes widespread calls from many Indians for capital punishment for the five accused men the Delhi gang-rape case, who are currently on trial in a court in the capital. (A sixth suspect is expected to be tried separately in a juvenile court.) While permitted in the constitution, the death penalty is rarely used in India. In its report, the Verma commission, responding to input from several rights group and the broader social debate about the death penalty, advised against its use in rape cases, instead recommending that the minimum sentences be extended and life sentences be better enforced.
(MORE: Panel Calls for Legal and Social Changes in Wake of Delhi Gang Rape)
This discrepancy and others between the commission's recommendations and the ordinance have caused several women's and human-rights groups to speak out. "The ordinance falls short of the Verma-commission recommendations," Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said on Monday. "We hope that there will be a robust discussion in Parliament before this law is enacted, and that amendments will be made to ensure that the hard work of the commission and protests by citizens hoping for change are not wasted." Others in the capital have reportedly called for protests this week in response to the bill.
Officials, meanwhile, have defended the government's quick action, telling the media on Monday that the ordinance is a "first step" and assuring that recommendations made by the Verma commission that were not included in the bill will be debated in the session of Parliament scheduled to begin later this month.
MORE: India's Shame


text:
Welcome to Slickcar.com. The premiere automotive lighting store on the internet, where all of our automotive lighting accessories are sold at our famous everyday low prices.
Give your vehicle that euro or JDM look with a set of our angel eye lights. The headlights come in black or chrome so you can get the style you want when customizing your Subaru.
You can also check out our halo headlights with angel eyes to give your Subaru that slick, euro import look. Another advantage with the halo headlights, is that you will be able to see better and farther at night, improving the over all safety of you and your family.
Have you ever driven down a dark, desolate road that was poorly lit or not lit at all and wished that you could see a farther distance than with your factory headlights? We have the projector headlights for you that will allow you to do just that. Maybe you have a broken your factory head lamp and are needing to replace it. Well, look no further than right here at Slickcar.com. You can get a pair of LED front lamps that will not only improve your night visibility, but our angel eye lights will give your Subaru that custom look that you want . Our projector lights will literally project light down the road in a more focused area than factory halogen lamps and will not lose most of the light to what is known as scatter loss. These lamps have a stronger output than factory headlights and will make it so much easier to see, that you will be able to drive at night with a bolstered confidence.


text:
This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Celeste Headlee in Washington. The anxious eyes of world leaders are now focused on three areas. In Mali the French continue their airstrikes in the northern part of the country in hopes of stopping the advance of armed Islamist rebels. In Syria, the death toll rises, and the conflicts between the government and opposition enter what the International Rescue Committee calls a staggering humanitarian crisis.
And in Afghanistan, questions about the ongoing transition of power remain as troops withdraw from that country and the threat of militant activity remains. All three countries have prompted debate over whether or not the U.S. needs presence there and why the conflicts matter to the American people.
So if you talk with people in Mali, Syria or Afghanistan, what are you hearing about what's going on? Is it different from what you hear in the news? Our number is 800-989-8255. Our email address is firstname.lastname@example.com. And you can join the conversation at our website. Go to npr.org and then click on TALK OF THE NATION.
Later on in the program, self-tracking technology, it's complicating even the most basic question of all: How are you? But first, what's at stake in Mali, Syria and Afghanistan? J. Peter Pham is with the Atlantic Council, where he directs their Africa Center. He also serves on the senior advisory group of the U.S. Africa Command. He joins me here in Studio 3A.
And also with me in studio is NPR's Pentagon correspondent, Tom Bowman. Thanks to both of you for being here with me.
J. PETER PHAM: Good to be with you.
TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Pleasure.
HEADLEE: And also with us from member station KUOG in Norman, Oklahoma, Joshua Landis, associate professor and director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oklahoma. He also runs the blog Syria Comment. Josh, nice to talk to you again.
JOSHUA LANDIS: How are you, Celeste? It's good to be here.
HEADLEE: So let me begin with you, Peter. Let's begin in Mali. The French government has said they will increase the number of troops that they send there. What's the current state of the conflict?
PHAM: Well, the French deployment last week and the bombing runs that they've had over rebel positions have stopped an offensive that the Islamist rebels in - who have controlled the northern two-thirds of Mali since last spring were making into government-held Southern Mali.
However, the - at the same time the Islamists have shown that it's a whack-a-mole situation. Overnight a different column of Islamists went, bypassed the French and Malian government positions, and came to within 200 miles of Bamako, the Malian capital.
They're not going to be able to hold that town that they took, Diabaly, but they made their point, that the deployment so far has not been sufficient to stop them and in fact may have stirred them up.
HEADLEE: You've had a lot of criticism for the French intervention into what's going on in Mali in terms of whether or not it could be successful. And yet if no one intervenes, what happens?
PHAM: Well, let's be clear about a couple things, Celeste. First, the presence of the Islamists in Northern Mali is a security threat. Not...
HEADLEE: For the world.
PHAM: Really for the - yes, for the world, and especially for the countries in the region, and we cannot forget the people who are being - having this brutal Islamist rule foisted upon them - brutal amputations, stonings, floggings, destruction of centuries-old Muslim shrines. All this is taking place, not unlike Afghanistan before 9/11, one might say.
But all that being said, the threat could have been contained because the threat really grows out of a pathology in Malian society, a crisis that's political, social, as well as security. And it cannot be sustainably solved with purely military means.
HEADLEE: Meaning that diplomatic means have to be brought to bear, even though the government that's in the capital of Mali right now is not the elected government.
PHAM: And that's part of the problem. The French have intervened in support of a government that's not an elected government. And there's been no progress made and no incentives made or pressure to reform that situation. So without a legitimate government in Mali, you're not going to get anyone rallying to the colors to fight for an illegitimate government.
You're not going to be able to put proposals on the table that are credible to people who might be peeled away from the Islamists. And then the neighboring countries themselves are hesitant. They've put together a supposed plan that was approved by the U.N. Security Council last month to deploy 3,300 African troops, but 3,300 troops to take an area the size of France, the size of Texas, it's an - it's delusional at best and possibly a very sick joke on the poor soldiers who'd be sent there.
HEADLEE: That's Peter Pham, who's with the Atlantic Council. Let me ask, direct a question to our Pentagon correspondent, Tom Bowman. I mean some of the Islamist groups that are in the northern part of Mali have ties to some people who threaten the United States. In fact they may be tied to the group that assassinated the U.S. ambassador in Libya. What is the appetite in the Pentagon for intervening in Mali?
BOWMAN: Well, there's no appetite in the Pentagon for intervening in Mali. They will offer, it looks like, the French some sort of assistance. The French need cargo aircraft, C-130s, and other aircraft that would carry French troops and supplies into Mali. They're also looking for refueling planes for French warplanes.
And they're also looking for intelligence gear, basically either satellite imagery of some of these locations in the northern part of Mali or signals intelligence intercepts of some of the, you know, radio and phone conversations.
But you know, they've repeatedly said there will be no U.S. troops on the ground here, and it looks like, you know, the American military was somewhat taken by surprise by the French going in so quickly. Just last month General Carter Ham, who heads African Command, was in Washington, speaking at George Washington University.
He talked a lot about Mali, about the concerns about the groups there with ties to al-Qaida. And there's really a rim around the northern part of Africa with a lot of terrorist groups, al-Qaida affiliates up there. And General Ham was talking about how they're all coming together.
They're sharing information, weapons and tactics, and there's a real concern there about them just kind of, you know, coordinating much more than they did in the past. But it was interesting - when General Ham was here he talked about hopefully some sort of a negotiated settlement in Mali and maybe, possibly there would have to be some type of military intervention.
He talked about the French taking a lead here, actually - I'm sorry.
HEADLEE: Maybe a NATO intervention.
BOWMAN: Well no, he talked about France assisting an African-led operation at that time, and the Americans may or may not help, maybe some logistics help like I just mentioned. But the sense we got when General Ham was here was this is down the road a bit. Some talked about maybe even into the fall of this year.
And all of a sudden we see the French jumping into Mali quickly and now calling for U.S. support.
HEADLEE: All right, well, let me turn to Joshua Landis, turn away from Mali for just a moment and talk about Syria. Maybe you could give us a quick update on Syria as well. I mean we know that the casualties are rising. Where does that conflict stand?
LANDIS: Well, it's - the big debate is how long is this going to go on. And many people, me included, have suggested that it could go on into 2014. The death rate is well above 60,000 people so far. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled out of the country and are in these terrible camps, particularly the ones in Jordan, which are underfunded.
There was just flooding weather that swept away many people in the camp, and they had to pull back their - get their tents up again. It's freezing cold. There's snow in some of these camps. There's no money. And the country is locked in this brutal conflict.
Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, gave a major speech the other day in which he said - he called the opposition terrorists. He said he would speak to people who did not have blood on their hands and that they could have some dialogue, but anybody who had been fighting, he said, are terrorists, and they're agents of foreign countries, and he's going to destroy them.
So he was pretty - pretty unbending, and the opposition...
HEADLEE: Meaning, Joshua, that all of the diplomatic outreach to him has done nothing. I mean he basically said I will stay here, period, I'm not going anywhere.
LANDIS: Right, yes, he has said he's - he was born in Syria, and he's going to die in Syria. And the opposition, for their part, for the most part, say that they're not going to have any dialogue with Bashar al-Assad except for about how long the rope is going to be that's going to hang him.
So he's under no illusions that he's going to - you know, he's going to fight to the end. And his system, his regime is very brittle. It's very narrow at the top. If the family goes, the regime probably falls apart. He knows that. And there are about 2.34 million Alawites who could face revenge if this regime collapses.
And in the meantime, the Sunni majority is being, is being just pummeled with this air force. And it begs the question of, you know, should America go in and take out the air force or get involved in Syria, and that's the big question.
HEADLEE: Yeah, and that's the question I have, and again, the same question here, but this time in Syria: What is the appetite on the part of the American military? You're shaking your head already, Tom Bowman. Any possibility of military intervention?
BOWMAN: The same appetite they have about Mali. They don't want to get dragged into Syria. And one of the reasons is they look at the ethnic makeup of the country, and military officials you talk with privately say: Do you see any connection here? It's similar to that of Iraq. And what happened when we went into Iraq? We threw out that government, and then we spent a decade there trying to rebuild the place.
So there's no appetite for intervening in Syria. What the military has done so far is offer humanitarian assistance in Turkey, in Jordan, and also what they call non-lethal assistance to the rebel groups: communications equipment, radios and so forth. No arms at all at this point.
And you know, there is a lot of talk about what can the U.S. do. Could they basically, you know, create a no-fly zone? But as Defense Secretary Robert Gates mentioned for the Libyan operation, you have to understand creating a no-fly zone means going to war, because you're taking out radar, you're taking out missile defenses and so forth.
And the problem for the military is also is that Syria has one of the strongest air defense systems in the world, maybe third to Russia and China, they say. So it took weeks if not months in Libya to take that government down. They say it would be as long if not longer to deal with that situation in Syria.
The big concern for the U.S. military and some of the allies in the region are the chemical weapons that Assad has. He has tons of Sarin agent, the nerve agent. And they're worried about that either being used against the population, against the rebels, or frankly what's more concerning is that stuff leaking out of the country and getting into the wrong hands, wrong hands of course meaning al-Qaida.
HEADLEE: Right, if there's chaos, someone picks it who shouldn't.
BOWMAN: The other concern they have - we can talk about it...
HEADLEE: Yeah, we'll get right back. We're going to take a short break, and we'll have more with my guests, Peter Pham from the Atlantic Council, Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oklahoma, and NPR's Pentagon correspondent, Tom Bowman.
We want to hear from you. If you talk with people in Mali, Syria or Afghanistan, what are you hearing about what's going on? 800-989-8255. Or send us an email, email@example.com. I'm Celeste Headlee. This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
HEADLEE: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Celeste Headlee in Washington. Mali, Syria, Afghanistan, three countries enduring various levels of conflict. In Mali, a French-led bombing campaign may soon be followed by troops on the ground. In Syria, deadly explosions at the main university in Aleppo are just the latest violence in a war that's been raging for nearly two years now.
In Afghanistan, the role of U.S. troops going forward is still uncertain. Today we've invited our guests, Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council; Joshua Landis of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oklahoma; and Tom Bowman, Pentagon correspondent for NPR, to talk about what's at stake.
And we want to hear from you, especially if you hear from people in one of these countries, Mali, Syria or Afghanistan. What are you hearing about what's going on? Is it different from the media coverage you hear? 800-989-8255. Our email address is email@example.com. And right now we have a phone call from Zach(ph) in Damascus. What are you hearing from people in, I guess, Syria?
ZACH: I need to clarify. That's Damascus, Oregon; not Damascus, Syria.
HEADLEE: Right.
ZACH: Yes, I would say I'm hearing about the exact opposite that's being told on the radio.
HEADLEE: In what way?
ZACH: As far as the violence and the terrorism that's going on, I think - I was just at my mother's house a half-hour ago and she told me there's about 100 people who were gunned down in the line to buy bread. This just happened yesterday. And also recently there is an old crusaders' castle, it's called El Hisn(ph), I think in French is called Krak des Chevaliers, and right now it's besieged by Islamic terrorists, and the army has surrounded it.
And this is actually pretty close to a lot of the Christian villages in the area. They have surrounded it, but they have refused to fire on it because it's a national historic monument. So their plan is just, is pretty much just to hold out as long as it takes, that hopefully they'll run out of food and simply surrender with no bloodshed.
HEADLEE: Zach, are you wishing that the U.S. or NATO or the U.N. would intervene?
ZACH: The problem with that is that everybody needs to know - I mean, changes need to happen, but the way they're going about it with terrorism does not work. So when the U.S. wants to intervene, it just concerns me that they just want to put up a government, which they don't really fully understand their agenda and so forth.
And it's a lot of the Christian seculars that are afraid in that country because they don't want to live under Islamic law. Women there right now are afforded many, many rights, in my opinion not even close to what they should be, of course me living in America, but they're especially afraid.
You know, women can go to college, they can fly airplanes, they can drive cars, and all of that life would come to an end, and everybody there knows it. And that's one of the biggest fears of all.
HEADLEE: OK, thank you so much, that's Zach calling from Damascus, Oregon. Let me get your response to the things that Joshua said there - I mean to things that Zach said, Joshua.
LANDIS: Well, it's true that the United States has been spooked by the rebels that they are allied with, and many of the - there are at least 1,000 militias in Syria today that have emerged. There are a number that are quite big. There's a lot of little ones. But many of the most competent militias, like Jabhat al-Nusra, which is allied with al-Qaida and was recently proscribed by the U.S., called it a terrorist organization, they're the best fighters and often they're seen as the most honest militias because like Hezbollah in Lebanon, they have not stolen from people.
They've understood that the way to win hearts and minds is to set up soup kitchens and to try to be honest with people. And so increasingly, these Islamic militias, some of them quite Salafist, are winning the popularity game, and many of the more secular militias are turning out to be not so good.
So the United States is confused about what to do because they want to destroy the Assad government, but most of the minorities, the Christians, and I could tell that your caller was very worried about what's going to happen to Christians and these minorities in Syria once the Sunnis win.
And so I think America has been paralyzed in a sense. They want to destroy Assad because he's a friend of Iran, and he's been an enemy of Israel, but at the same time they don't really want the rebel militias to win. And they're worried about chemical weapons getting into their hands. And so I think America's become paralyzed.
And many people in the region believe that America has abandoned them.
HEADLEE: Well, let's move to Mali because that's what this caller here, Jeff(ph) in Madison, Wisconsin, wants to talk about. Jeff, you lived in Mali for a while, right?
JEFF: I was a Peace Corps volunteer 1,000 years ago but had occasion to return just last year with the United Nations. I was there - well, it's a year now, it was last March. I was there literally four days before the coup in Bamako and left just before it.
While there I had dinner with a friend, a Malian friend who's been in the government for a long time, not in the security part of the government but another part of the government. And he told me quite unequivocally that the Malian military would never be able to defeat these northern fighters. This was four days before the coup in Bamako, so four days before the Malian military shot itself in the foot, before it was divided by this coup.
So he was saying even when it was still an institution somewhat together, they - it was impossible that they would be able to defeat these northerners. The outside intervention, I hate to say it, is likely the only way things will be changed there. It's highly unlikely that West African countries, although there's a lot of talk about that in the media, will be able to send forces to do anything constructive.
They do not have the experience fighting in those conditions. Probably the only ones who do are the Chadians, and they're unlikely to send anybody just because of internal reasons. So it is, unfortunately, outside intervention that would change things there. The French have started it. I have no idea where it's going, but that was just my - yeah.
HEADLEE: Well, let me put that question, Jeff, for you. Thank you very much - that is Jeff calling from Madison, Wisconsin, who clearly pays very close attention to what's going on in Mali. But let me put that to you, Peter Pham. Your response to Jeff saying that there has to be outside intervention?
PHAM: Well, Jeff's points are very well made. I would add to it - not only was the Malian military ineffectual before the coup, but the political establishment itself was becoming increasingly rotten from dirty money coming in from drug smuggling. In fact some members of the government that was overthrown were actually in business with the Islamists, encouraging them because they were business partners in narco-trafficking.
That's how bad the situation has become, which is why it will take time, it would take time to rebuild the Malian military, but in order to do that, you have to rebuild a government people will trust in, will fight for. And that - time is required.
And he's absolutely right: The West Africans have not stepped up to the plate here. The plan they put forward is not a realistic plan. However, that's - if we want African-led, that's what we're going to get. So the question is going to be the political will.
France has stepped in, but unfortunately they don't seem to have the wherewithal to finish what they started. And now the pressure is going to be on other members of NATO and other partners to do something, because France's timetable that the French government is still speaking about is really not serious. The timetable will be gone in a few weeks.
They're actually going in. They've got 750 troops on the ground now. They're saying they're going to bring it up to 2,000. That's not enough to retake the north. But they also can't leave. The African troops will not be ready to deploy any time in the next few weeks.
HEADLEE: Doesn't that sound familiar to anyone who's covered Afghanistan? I mean, there is one other big elephant in the room here, which is the longest war the United States has ever been into. We have to talk about Afghanistan. It's what our next caller wants to talk about, is Paul in Sun Valley, Idaho. And Paul, you actually have a brother serving in Afghanistan right now.
PAUL: I've got a brother who's a POW too. His name is Beau(ph). Where is he? You know, what Hegelian principles have we started across the world, and why are things working out so bad, to secure a pivot for a pipeline? How can you fight an enemy when he's really not there?
HEADLEE: Well, this is the problem anywhere. I mean the problem with all these three conflicts that we're talking about, Tom Bowman, let me put this to you, is - I said earlier that there's a common thread here, extremism and terrorism. This is one of the reasons that NATO might be interested. It's one of the reasons the United States might be interested in these conflicts.
And it appears to me, correct me if I'm wrong, that very often the strategy of extremist groups is they find a government that's weak in a nation where perhaps the citizens don't have a lot of resources, and they try to establish a home base. It is like whack-a-mole.
BOWMAN: That's right, and that's a concern they have particularly in Africa with some of these areas, as General Carter Ham said, the head of African Command. He's worried about this rim of states in Northern Africa and some of these terrorists, al-Qaida affiliates, coming together, organizing, sharing information and weapons, and having this whole part of Africa just become basically a huge failed state region.
But, you know, if you look at Syria - if you look at Mali, if you look at Afghanistan, in some respects, you know, they have parallels that you basically have a government that people don't trust, or a failed government, and you have to rebuild the military. I mean, it's something you're seeing in Afghanistan right now. The reason you have insurgencies is because you have a government that's either nonexistent or predatory, or just, you know, just isn't there for people.
That's what we're seeing in both Mali and Afghanistan. You still don't have a lot of support for the Afghan government. That's one of the particular problems with building security forces in the country, in getting your average person in the country to support the Karzai government, which is widely viewed as ineffectual and corrupt. Now, of course, Syria is a different story.
HEADLEE: Yeah.
BOWMAN: You have a government that, you know...
HEADLEE: The United States supported heavily.
BOWMAN: Absolutely. Supported, yeah, for a long time. And now you have a huge effort to oust the Assad government, and the United States, rather than wanting to intervene, is basically looking to Russia to help out in this situation, to push...
HEADLEE: But both Russia and China are remaining obstructionist in the U.N. Security Council.
BOWMAN: ...Assad aside, which is clearly not happening. And so, as a result, people I talk at the Pentagon say things are going to get worse before they get better.
HEADLEE: Let me go back to you, Joshua Landis, because I'm interested in what the caller Zach said about the fact that he is not sure Syrians would want any outside intervention. This is something we've heard argued between Syrians. Do they need outside help? Do they not? What do you think? Is it more like the caller said about Mali, that at some point, there has to be outside intervention - whether it be the Arab League or somewhere else - in order to resolve it?
LANDIS: You know, Syrians are very divided, and unfortunately, Syria - like most of these other countries we're talking about - are not really - is not really a nation. There are many different groups. They have very starkly different ideas on what they want to see for their country. And that is at the heart of the problem. That's why it's crumbled, and that's why the opposition in Syria is so fragmented and hard to help in many ways. But there are - there is a large section of the middle class in Syria that would pray for anybody today to put boots on the ground and to provide them with food and electricity and just some safety, because the country is falling apart.
The economy has collapsed by half. There are 24 million, 23 million people trapped there, and they're beginning to starve to death. There's no electricity. They're freezing. There's no heating oil. It is - you know, we are seeing a failed state, you know, just popping up in front of us. And there's going to be millions of people - there are already half-a-million people who've fled. There's almost two million displaced internally, but many of those people are going to begin to flee out of Syria, particularly as this winter goes on. And there's no food.
So, you know, unfortunately, I fear what we're getting, to a certain extent - there's been a lot of good news in the world in a sense that China, India, the Brit countries are growing at close to 10 percent. It's extraordinary, but there are countries that aren't making it. And we're adding about a billion people on this Earth in the next decade, and the competition for resources is phenomenal...
HEADLEE: Yeah.
LANDIS: ...you know, and we know how commodity prices have been screaming up, whether it's oil, whether it's wheat. Oh, there are many other things. It's becoming more expensive to live, and there's a lot more competition. And the countries that have ineffective governments that cannot provide and that don't have growth rates that can keep up with this are going to turn into failed states. And I think...
HEADLEE: Yeah.
LANDIS: ...we're going to see - what we saw in the Arab Spring, I think, we're going to see is just the canary in the mineshaft, to a certain degree. We're going to see this with other African and Middle Eastern countries...
HEADLEE: As we have.
LANDIS: ...that just cannot make it economically.
HEADLEE: You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News. Let me bring this back to you, then, Peter Pham. How much of this do you recognize? When he's speaking of Syria, how much of this is also true of Mali? If there is no outside intervention, if the military there is not able to cope with this, if the government is not stable enough to cope with it, then what?
PHAM: Well, I think the international community - and in particularly the United States - needs to ask itself the question which, by the way, the French did not address in their intervention: What are the objectives? What are our national security interests? Certainly, the national security interests of the United States and France in Mali and - by, you know, linkage analogy, perhaps - Afghanistan, certainly to prevent extremists from gathering and creating a safe haven. But is it necessarily to also - that objective is limited, and can be achieved.
But does it require restoring Mali's territorial integrity? Does it require getting a constitutional order back in place in Bamako? And if one is being frank - and this has to be part of the dialogue and conversation - we can secure our security interests. We can prevent Northern Mali from being a safe haven without necessarily putting Mali back together again.
HEADLEE: Ah. Yeah. All right. Well, let's bring it back, as we begin to close this conversation to Afghanistan. We have a call here from Wolfgang in Princeton, New Jersey. And you wanted to talk about the long war in Afghanistan.
WOLFGANG: Yes. Good afternoon. The issue I hear from Kabul and - well, I've lived there, in Mazar-i-Sharif - is that our ongoing discussion about an accelerated withdrawal and the withdrawal of the Afghans experienced already from - by the French and by other ISAF members has unbelievable economic ramifications. And that is that any - even weak - direct foreign investment or, you know, other international initiatives on a private base to build up new businesses is basically dying off now. And...
HEADLEE: Yeah.
WOLFGANG: ...people pack up and leave, and will stop their programs. And the (unintelligible) what was not discussed at all in our ongoing debate here in the States and in other ISAF members is that the PRTs, the provincial reconstruction teams, which have been on 30 or 40 old cases, major investment vehicles are stopping and shutting down the office. And so it leads to an even more far-ranging unemployment and really despair...
HEADLEE: Yeah.
WOLFGANG: ...on the behalf of many of the young Afghans.
HEADLEE: Which is understandable. That's Wolfgang, calling from Princeton, New Jersey. Let me give the last minute to you, Tom Bowman. Maybe Afghanistan is what, in some way, also makes the United States and other countries hesitant to intervene in a place like Mali or Syria.
BOWMAN: Oh, absolutely. And clearly, you know, the United States signed a 10-year security agreement with the Afghan government. So there will be some presence, certain amount of money sent to Afghanistan in the coming years. But there's absolutely no question that the Obama administration wants to, you know, fairly quickly move out the bulk of the U.S. forces, have some sort of a small mission there. You're not going to see the kind of money thrown around that we've seen in the past 10 years, and that could have a huge ripple effect across the economy and a brain drain, a lot of young people basically saying: I'm getting out while I can.
HEADLEE: That was NPR's Pentagon correspondent, Tom Bowman. He was here with me in Studio 3A, as was Peter Pham, with the Atlantic Council. He also serves on the senior advisory group of the U.S. Africa Command. And Josh Landis joined us, as well, associate professor and director of Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oklahoma. He runs the blog Syria Comment, and he joined us from member station KGOU in Norman, Oklahoma. Thanks to all three of you.
BOWMAN: You're welcome.
PHAM: Thank you.
HEADLEE: After a short break, we'll talk about all the ways we break down our days into hours deep sleep, steps walked, calories consumed: the quantified self. Stay with us. I'm Celeste Headlee. It's TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


text:
Higgs Boson—The "God Particle"? (2nd Update)
[EDITOR'S NOTE: A.P. staff scientist Dr. Miller holds a Ph.D. from Auburn University in Mechanical Engineering with emphases in Thermal Science and Biomechanics.]
[NOTE—For the original article and a previous update, see Higgs Boson—The "God Particle"? and Higgs Boson—The "God Particle"? (Update), respectively]
We have been closely monitoring the progress of the search for the elusive "Higgs Boson" particle—presumptuously dubbed the "God Particle" by many scientists (see Miller, 2011a and Miller, 2011b for previous discussion). The hunt has been a roller coaster ride, with scientists thinking they have found the particle and then changing their minds time and again. The Higgs Boson particle is "thought to be the fundamental unit of matter" ("Has Quest for the Elusive…?" 2011). In theory, it could explain how other elementary particles have mass. The particle is a theoretical elementary particle that is predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics, but which had yet to be observed by physicists through experimentation, until now—or so scientists hope.
Scientists awaiting the latest update in the search for the Higgs Boson at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, July 4, 2012. [Image credit Associated Press, 2012] |
On July 4, 2012, scientists sent shockwaves through the world as they announced that they believe, with well over 99% certainty, that they have found the Higgs Boson particle using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator located in Switzerland ("The Elusive Particle…," 2012; see May, 2012 for more information on the LHC). How significant is this find to the believer? If there is a "God Particle," does that mean the "Big Bang" is true? Does it mean that this particle can create matter? Does it mean that there is no God?
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located in Switzerland |
Why do many call it the "God Particle"? Technically, according to the National Post, the name "God Particle" is an abbreviated form of its original, profane designation—"The God-d*** Particle" (a name used by Nobel physicist Leon Lederman as a draft title for a book), referring to the frustrations scientists have been going through trying to find the Higgs Boson. So, it actually had nothing to do with God. Apparently, however, the name was abbreviated to "The God Particle" to avoid offending readers—as though the abbreviated description is any less profane ("Higgs Boson Hunt Over…," 2012). The result of this name designation has been to give the impression that the particle is "God-like" and somehow eliminates the necessity of a God in creating the Universe, while substantiating the Big Bang Theory. So, to Big Bang-believers today, the Higgs Boson is not just an energy particle which they believe gives an object its mass, but rather, it is "a theoretical energy particle which many scientists believe helped give mass to the disparate matter spawned by the Big Bang" ("Scientists Close In…," 2010, emp. added). Big Bang theorists consider its existence "crucial to forming the cosmos after the Big Bang" (2010, emp. added). Therefore, the particle is "god-like" to such sadly deluded individuals, since it, in theory, "gives mass" and helped "form" the cosmos.
Former CERN director general Christopher Llewelyn-Smith, standing left, Lyn Evans, scientific director, standing second left, Herwig Schopper, standing center, Luciano Maiani, standing second right, and Robert Aymard, standing right, wave after the presentation of results during a scientific seminar to deliver the latest update in the search for the Higgs Boson. [Image credit Associated Press, 2012] |
In reality, the existence of the Higgs Boson in no way eliminates the need for God. Consider the following. In the 1600s, Creation scientist Isaac Newton, after observing an apple falling to the ground, "deduced that the same force which caused the apple to fall to the ground causes the moon to orbit the Earth" (Pinaire, 2000). From this concept, in time, Newton formally articulated what we now call "Newton's Laws of Motion," the second of which says, in essence, that the force an object applies is equal to its mass multiplied by its acceleration. So, an object's weight on the Earth (i.e., "applied force" on the Earth) is equal to its mass times its acceleration (i.e., the acceleration due to gravity at the location where the object is on the Earth). Question: By discovering gravity, did Newton discover the "God Force" that keeps humans tied to the Earth? Did he disprove the need for God? Certainly not, and no one even suggested such an idea. He merely discovered one of the characteristics of the created order—one of the "ordinances" that God set up to have "dominion over the Earth" (Job 38:33).
A di-photon event from a Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment in search of the Higgs Boson. Also, the purpose of studying LHC particle collision events, according to teh European Organization of Nuclear Research (CERN). |
According to Rolf Heuer, the director of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) (the research center that houses the LHC), whether or not scientists have truly discovered the Higgs Boson still needs to be verified. Heuer said, "It's a bit like spotting a familiar face from afar. Sometimes you need closer inspection to find out whether it's really your best friend, or your best friend's twin" ("Higgs Boson Hunt Over…," 2012). Assuming the find truly is what it purports to be, the particle will simply be another step in expanding our understanding of how God set up the Universe. Newton discovered that force is equal to mass times acceleration. But the logical next step is to answer questions like, "How is there mass? What gives an object mass?" If scientists' theory is correct, the Higgs Boson will simply help shed light on those questions—i.e., how did God set up the Universe in such a way that an object has mass? In other words, the Higgs Boson may help us to understand more about how God "framed" "the worlds"—showing us more about how "the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible" (Hebrews 11:3).
Also, the existence of the Higgs Boson in no way violates the First Law of Thermodynamics (i.e., creating energy or matter from nothing). In nature, nothing can be created or destroyed, but can only change forms, according to the First Law of Thermodynamics (Miller, 2007). So, only a Supernatural force can create something out of nothing. The Higgs Boson particle is not God.
And further, the existence of the Higgs Boson in no way disproves the existence of God. Someone had to create the Higgs Boson in the first place. And the existence of the Higgs Boson in no way verifies the Big Bang Theory, which is riddled with problems—as atheistic scientists themselves highlight frequently (see, for example, the recent article in New Scientist titled, "Bang Goes the Theory" [Gefter, 2012]).
As stated above, evolutionists consider the existence of the Higgs Boson "crucial to forming the cosmos after the Big Bang" ("Scientists Close In…," 2010, emp. added). Notice that without the existence of this particle, Big Bang theorists recognize that the Universe could not even form after the Big Bang theoretically occurred. Its existence does not prove that the Universe did form in the manner suggested by the Big Bang Theory. Its existence does not even prove that the Universe could form after a hypothesized Big Bang occurred. Further, its existence does not prove that the Big Bang itself could occur at all. Its existence does not prove that matter could exist forever or pop into existence out of nothing, either one of which must be true in order for the Big Bang even to get started. And its existence certainly does not prove that the scientific laws governing the Universe could write themselves into existence. However, without the existence of the particle, theorists know that fundamental tenets of the Big Bang Theory could not happen. It's another thing to say that they could happen. Thus, the discovery of the particle's existence does not prove anything in the end, but only allows atheistic cosmologists to cross one of the many chasms that stand in the way of their theory even getting to the starting line in being considered a remote possibility. In other words, the Big Bang has not even reached square one in the realm of proof. It remains firmly in the realm of impossibility. Bottom line: the Creation model still stands as the most logical explanation for the origin of the Universe—the model that is in keeping with all the scientific evidence.
Much more is missing in the quest to substantiate the Big Bang than a little particle can solve, and the list of those missing entities continues to grow, and will continue to do so, until true science—science that is in keeping with the evidence—is allowed to flourish. It has become increasingly popular for cosmologists to label many of these missing "somethings" with the first word, "Dark." The list of "dark," missing entities is growing. In truth, if the scientific community would only let the "light" of truth into the picture, the darkness would disappear.
"The Elusive Particle: 5 Implications of Finding Higgs Boson" (2012), Fox News, July 5, http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/07/05/elusive-particle-5-implications-finding-higgs-boson/.
Gefter, Amanda (2012), "Bang Goes the Theory," New Scientist, 214[2871]:32-37, June 30.
"Has Quest for the Elusive 'God Particle' Succeeded?" (2011), Fox News, April 25, http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/04/25/quest-elusive-god-particle-succeeded/?test=faces.
"Higgs Boson Hunt Over: CERN Scientists at Large Hadron Collider Find 'God Particle'" (2012), National Post, July 4, http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/04/higgs-boson-hunt-over-cern-scientists-at-large-hadron-collider-find-god-particle/.
May, Branyon (2012), "Is the Large Hadron Collider a Big Bang Machine?" Reason & Revelation, 32[4]:38-45, April, https://apologeticspress.org/apPubPage.aspx?pub=1&issue=1026.
Miller, Jeff (2007), "God and the Laws of Thermodynamics: A Mechanical Engineer's Perspective," Reason & Revelation, 27[4]:25-31, April, https://apologeticspress.org/articles/3293.
Miller, Jeff (2011a), "Higgs Boson–the 'God Particle'?" Reason & Revelation, 31[6]:53, https://apologeticspress.org/apPubPage.aspx?pub=1&issue=977&article=1500.
Miller, Jeff (2011b), "Higgs Boson–Update," Reason & Revelation, 31[10]:101, https://apologeticspress.org/article/4120.
Pinaire, Chris (2000), "Isaac Newton," Wichita State University Department of Mathematics and Statistics, http://www.math.twsu.edu/history/Men/newton.html.
"Scientists Close In on God Particle" (2010), Fox News, July 27, http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/07/27/scientists-closing-god-particle/.
REPRODUCTION & DISCLAIMERS: We are happy to grant permission for this article to be reproduced in part or in its entirety, as long as our stipulations are observed.


text:
Loan Officers
Education & Credentials
Educational Requirements
High School or less
Education level attained (national data)
Work Experience and Training Requirements
Nationally, this career typically requires:
- No related work experience for entry.
- Moderate-term on-the-job training to become competent.
Current Training Opportunities
Related Programs
Click on any of the Majors listed below to find out more about preparing for this career.
Transfer Options
Licenses are knowledge and skill credentials that are legally required in some careers.
This occupation requires a license.
Residential Mortgage Education Course Approval
Residential Mortgage Loan Originator License
Residential Mortgage Originator or Servicer License
Helpful High School Courses
Examples of helpful classes that help you prepare for this career:
- Accounting
- Algebra I and II
- Business Law
- Business Management
- Composition
- Economics
- International Business
- Marketing
- Office Procedures
- Public Speaking
- Statistics
- e-Commerce
In Minnesota, your school may have developed a Program of Study in this career area. A Program of Study is an academic and career plan developed by your high school to help move you towards a career and college path. A Program of Study can help you:
- Select high school classes that prepare you for college and getting a job
- Understand how the classes you're taking in high school lead to a career
- Identify extra-curricular activities that are related to your career interest
- See what classes at your school offer early college credit that will save you time and money towards your college expenses
- Graduate from high school prepared for your next step toward the career you choose
This page includes information from the O*NET 24.2 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Source: You can learn about our data sources in the About Us section.


text:
NEW YORK (AP) — Soda makers, restaurateurs and other businesses sued Friday to try to block the city's unprecedented move to restrict sales of super-sized, sugary drinks, an effort the city called a coup for public health but the industry views as unfair and undemocratic.
"For the first time, they're telling New Yorkers how much of certain safe and lawful beverages they can drink," said Caroline Starke, a spokeswoman for the business groups, whose complaint also faults the city for making the decision through an unelected board. The groups include the American Beverage Association, the National Restaurant Association, a soft drink workers union and groups representing interests ranging from movie theater owners to Korean-American grocers.
A spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the regulation's chief champion, called the lawsuit a groundless effort to stop a groundbreaking policy.
"This predictable, yet baseless, lawsuit fortunately will help put an even greater spotlight on the obesity epidemic," said the spokesman, Marc LaVorgna, who noted that the city also won fights over outlawing smoking in bars and offices and forcing fast-food restaurants to list calorie counts on their menus.
The beverage industry hinted it was considering a suit as soon as the city Board of Health approved the regulation last month. The rule would stop restaurants, cafeterias and concession stands from selling soda and other high-calorie drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces. It's set to take effect in March.
Bloomberg has called it a reasonable way to fight an obesity problem that takes a toll on many New Yorkers' health and city hospitals' budgets.
The measure keeps people from drinking extra calories without thinking, he says. For someone who drinks a soda every day, for example, downing a 16-ounce Coke instead of a 20-ounce one trims 14,600 calories a year, or the equivalent of 70 Hershey bars.
"Nobody is banning anything," the mayor said when the plan passed, noting that someone who wanted a second soda could get one.
The soda makers and sellers say the city is being a nanny-like nag to consumers and imposing an unfair, uneven burden on businesses. Manufacturers will have to get new bottles, and eateries will lose sales to competitors that aren't covered by the rule, they say. A customer who couldn't buy a 20-ounce soda at a pizzeria would be able to get a Big Gulp at a 7-Eleven, for instance, as convenience stores are under different regulations.
"(The rule) unfairly harms small businesses at a time when we can ill afford it," the suit says.
It also says the Bloomberg-appointed health board shouldn't dictate the size of soft drinks. Ten City Council members signed onto a July measure calling on the health board not to approve the rule; a New York Times poll in August showed that six in 10 New Yorkers opposed it.
The city says the board, made up of physicians and other health experts, is exactly the panel to make such decisions. It has held sway over matters ranging from milk inspection in the 1870s to banning lead paint in 1960, the city notes.


text:
Thank you very much for downloading Supercourse Original PowerPoint files.
Please inform Supercourse Team at firstname.lastname@example.com if you have ever teached with the use of slides from this lecture.
If you indicate the author and title of the lecture as well auditorium, we will be able to acknowledge the author.
The slides can be used by anyone wishing to compose a lecture, although the author receives full credit and can retain copyright.
32751 | An Introduction to Cancer Therapy With Hadron Radiation |
Search inside of Supercourse and lectures in HTML and PPT format


text:
Home ›› Content and Copy ›› Content as Conversation
Content as Conversation
by Ginny Redish6 min read
Thinking of content as a two-way conversation with users for better, friendlier interactions.
Every use of your website is a conversation started by a site visitor.
Think about it: why do people come to your site or app?
IA, Search, Design, and Technology All Support the Content
Site visitors and app users come for the content. Of course, the information architecture (IA) and the site search must make that content easy to find. The design must be attractive and usable. The technology must work.
But IA, search, design, and technology are all there to support the content that people come for: the words and images that make up the conversations between your visitors and your site or app.
Planning Successful Conversations
Planning is critical for successful conversations. I find that answering these three questions helps greatly for everything I write (even emails):
As you state your goals, make them specific, measurable, and focused on what you want your site visitors to do.
We want to tell people how great our services are.
We want people to choose our services.
To have people to converse with, you need personas. You probably have personas for your site or app, but do you converse with them? As you plan, organize, and write each bit of content, think about which persona (or a new persona) is going to come for that content. "Hear" that persona's conversation. What question is she asking? What words are in his head as he searches for what he needs?
When and why will they come?
Focusing on your site visitors' or app users' top tasks and questions will make you a good conversational partner. The Kelly Blue Book site—the place to go to find out the value of a used car—does that well:
Writing Successful Conversations
Many of the guidelines for good web writing come from research in linguistics where people study successful (and less successful) conversations. Let's look at four guidelines:
Take turns with headings
Don't hog the conversation. Headings, especially question headings, are your site visitor's turns in the conversation. Headings break up the information, create visual separation, make information manageable, and provide context (assuming they are relevant and well written). The headings in this content from NetDoctor in the UK show how to converse well on health topics:
Headings don't have to be questions. Great headings can also be:
Converse with personal pronouns
Your website or app is your customer service department, your marketing department, and your ordering department. Websites and apps are meant to help people serve themselves. They are the way you have a phone conversation without the cost of the call. Write as if you were speaking or texting with your customer.
The student must register and the fee payment process started before the first day of classes or the student will be purged from classes.
You must register and arrange to pay before the first day of classes. If you don't, we will take you off the class list.
Invoke action with verbs
A usable website or app is one in which people can:
You want people to act—to buy, donate, join, understand and use information. You probably have action buttons on your site or app. Do you also promote action with your writing or do you bury the action in nouns?
Upon successful completion of the online renewal transaction, printing your membership card will be an option.
Renew online. Then print your membership card.
Write visually with fragments and lists
In conversation, we don't always speak in complete sentences. We answer with pieces of information (fragments). We tick items off on our fingers (lists). Do that in writing, too.
People don't come to your site or app because they want to spend time reading (with obvious exceptions such as news sites or eBooks). They come for information.
When you come to blogs or an online magazine like UX Magazine, you are probably coming to get new ideas to help you act and to improve your own work.
Consider the following example in which the writer is soliciting comments. Which version does a better job of meeting both site visitors' needs and the writer's goal?
As you write, think through the conversation you are having with your site visitor.
Marketing at the Right Time in the Conversation
Marketing online is different from direct mail or email marketing. When you send out mail, you start the conversation. But when someone comes to your site or app, they start the conversation.
Yes, you can distract some people with marketing on the home page, but most site visitors will bypass marketing that's not related to their needs. Their goal on the home page is to move beyond the home page. They want to click onto a good path to just what they came for or have search find good results for their keywords.
You must first satisfy the conversation your site visitors came with before they are ready to "hear" marketing messages from you. When they are ready, you have a "marketing moment"—a time in the conversation when site visitors are most open to new suggestions. Watch for these moments.
Amazon.com is a master of both satisfying the customer's conversation and then capitalizing on marketing moments.
Satisfying the conversation
Customer: Should I buy this?
Amazon: It gets five stars. That's the best.
Customer: What do other people think of it?
Amazon: Look at the customer reviews. They're right here.
Customer: Am I getting a good deal?
Amazon: You're saving 3%.
Customer: How quickly can I get it? Should I just go to a store?
Amazon: It's in stock. Don't go to the store. We can get it to you tomorrow.
Customer: It's a gift. When I go to the store, they wrap it for me. Will you?
Amazon: Sure we will. "Gift-wrap available."
Customer: Can I get something less expensive?
Amazon: Check out Outlet Toys.
Customer: What do I do if I want to buy it?
Amazon: Right here. Add it to your cart.
Capitalizing on marketing moments
And then Amazon adds to the conversation:
Amazon: Not ready to buy it? Add it to your wish list.
Amazon: Now that you've decided to buy that, don't you also want these other puzzles? Other people also bought these.
Walking Personas through Their Conversations
You can also use the conversation model to get an early check on whether people will be able to find, understand, and use what you have in your website or app.
I hope you are usability testing your site or app, watching and listening as relevant people work with the site or app. And you may be doing A/B testing, trying out different versions in the marketplace.
You should do both usability testing and A/B testing. But first, get a good idea of how your site or app is doing by walking your personas through their conversations.
Who would come to your site or app? Why would they come? What task do they want to do? What question are they asking? What words are in their minds? What attitudes and motivation do they bring (frustrated, anxious, curious, busy, tired)?
Select a persona. Be that persona. Get into the persona's mind and life. Then go to the site or app as that persona with the persona's attitude, motivation, knowledge, vocabulary, and task or question.
How well does the site or app converse with you as you channel the persona? Would the persona quickly and easily find what they need, understand what they find, and know how to act?
Wrapping Up
Think of your website or app as replacing not file cabinets but phones. Whether you text or talk on your phone, you're conversing. You interact with people. You help them achieve what they came for.
Websites and apps are our modern equivalent of phones. You create them so that people can serve themselves. Make your site or app a good conversational partner
More Stuff I Do
More Stuff tagged conversation , content creation , ux writing , content design
See also: Content creation & management , Writing content
MyHub.ai saves very few cookies onto your device: we need some to monitor site traffic using Google Analytics, while another protects you from a cross-site request forgeries. Nevertheless, you can disable the usage of cookies by changing the settings of your browser. By browsing our website without changing the browser settings, you grant us permission to store that information on your device. More details in our Privacy Policy.


text:
Member since 2010/09/08
No story posted
No favorites.
Do you write sex stories or sex-related texts? submit them to us! Register here to post
Back to the Sex Stories - Visit XNXX.COM - Bookmark XNXX Stories - Set us as your homepage - Submit a text - Contact us
Copyright 2000-2006 © XNXX-PiCS. All rights reserved.