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Water SA
On-line version ISSN 1816-7950
Print version ISSN 0378-4738
Water SA vol.34 n.1 Pretoria Jan. 2008
Pollution menacing Lake Victoria: Quantification of point sources around Jinja Town, Uganda
Hannington W OguttuI; Fred WB BugenyiII; Heinz LeuenbergerIII; Markus WolfIV; Reinhard BachofenV
IFisheries Resources Research Institute, FIRRI, Jinja, PO Box 343, Jinja, Uganda
IIMakerere University, Department of Zoology, PO Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda
IIIVNCPC, Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Hanoi University of Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam
IVUniversity of Applied Sciences Basel, Institute of Environmental Technology, St. Jakobsstr. 84, CH-4132 Muttenz, Switzerland
VUniversity of Zurich, Institute of Plant Biology, Zollikerstr. 107, CH-8008 Zurich, Switzerland
Lake Victoria is Africa's largest tropical freshwater lake, important as a source of drinking water and as a source of food for the population in the surrounding region. Due to increased human activities in agriculture and industry during the past decades a continuously increasing inflow of agricultural runoff has been observed, and lately there have also been increased discharges of municipal effluents and industrial wastewater into Lake Victoria. This paper summarises the results of a one-year (1997 to 1998) environmental and ecological study of industrial wastewater point sources in the Jinja (Uganda) catchment area. Main industries concern food processing, textile, leather and paper production and metallurgy. One fish- filleting factory showed the highest annual nutrient loads with 0.13 t NO3-N, 0.20 t NH4-N and 0.77 t PO4-P, while another disposed of annual loads that amounted to 0.10 t NH4-N and 0.49 t PO4-P. From food-processing industries, the highest annual load of organic matter (COD) discharged to the lake amounted to 36.8 t. A tannery in Jinja released effluent with an extremely high mean concentration of the very toxic chromium+6 of 264 mg-t-1, which results in an estimated annual load of 2.2 t of Cr+6. Concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus from fish-filleting industries and chromium+6 from the tannery were far above the allowed effluent limits in Uganda, leading to enhanced eutrophication and bioaccumulation of Cr+6 in Napoleon Gulf, Lake Victoria.
The study provides information on point sources of effluent derived from Jinja's industrial sector in an effort to force resource users to move towards a more sustainable pattern of environmental management. The most appropriate way to reduce the ongoing eutrophication and pollution of Lake Victoria would be to reduce the releases of nitrogen, phosphorus, organic compounds and chromium into Napoleon Gulf by on-site pretreatment, so that they remain within non-critical levels. Industries must be required to monitor their effluents before these are discharged into Kirinya National Water and Sewerage Corporation oxidation ponds and finally into Kirinya West urban wetlands.
Keywords: industrial pollution, point sources, heavy metals, potential loads, hot spots, Lake Victoria, on-site pretreatment
"Full text available in PDF"
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SCHEREN PAGM, ZANTING HA and LEMMENS AMC (2000) Estimation of water pollution sources in Lake Victoria, East Africa: Application and elaboration of the rapid assessment methodology. J. Environ. Manage. 58 235-248. [ Links ]
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+41 44 634 82 80
Fax: +41 44 634 82 04
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Received 20 June 2006;
Accepted in revised form 29 November2007.


text:
We know that leadership and effective management of sustainability risks and opportunities are critical to the long-term success of American — and the vitality of our communities and the health of our planet. We strive to provide clear, transparent information about how we manage and address the range of sustainability issues we encounter in our business.
Maintaining robust governance practices is and has been a long-standing priority for American, and we regularly assess and refine our corporate governance policies and procedures to take into account evolving best practices.
Building a great airline requires a strong commitment to our customers, team members, shareholders and business partners. This commitment is founded on a value system we all share, one based on integrity, honesty and the commitment that every decision we make is a responsible and ethical one.
We recognize that air travel impacts the environment, and we are committed to minimizing those impacts. Climate change, in particular, is a pressing issue, and we support the industry's ambitious targets to mitigate CO2 emissions from air travel — but we also know that we have to do more to reduce our carbon footprint.
Our goal is to create a consistent and exceptional experience for customers across our network, and we have invested billions in new products and services, both on the ground and in the air.
Making culture a competitive advantage at American means creating an environment that cares for our team members, invests in their development and provides industry-leading benefits.
We strive to be a place where people of all generations, races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, gender identity, disabilities, religious affiliations and backgrounds feel welcome and valued.
We work to give back to our communities through volunteerism and support for nonprofits that help children, communities and military service members.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Student Spotlights
47 results found
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Sort by: RelevanceRelevance Newest Oldest Alphabetical (A - Z)
TagAll (275) J. Reuben Clark Law School (4) College of Nursing (3) ExL Spotlights (31) Family, Home, and Social Sciences (68) Field Studies (3) Fine Arts and Communications (36) Fulton College of Engineering (15) Health and Human Performance (1) Humanities (18) Internship (237) Life Sciences (54) Marriott School of Business (30) McKay School of Education (23) Mentored Research (3) On-Campus Internship (6) Physical and Mathematical Sciences (14) Practicum (20) Student Spotlights (274) Student Teaching (1)
Andrew interned at Nebo School District during Winter Semester 2022.
Hannah completed an internship at Canyon Elementary as a 3rd grade teacher. Here is what she has to say about this experience:
Melanie completed an internship with the BYU Speech and Language Clinic as a graduate student clinician. Here is what she has to say about this experience:
Katherine completed an internship with Suncrest Elementary as a 2nd grade intern. Here is what she has to say about her experience:
Kaylee completed an internship with Orchard Elementary School as a teacher. Here is what she has to say about her experience:
Roger participated in practicum by taking SFL 403R.
Nathan completed a Mentored Learning Experience by taking PWS 494R.
Savanna participated in practicum taking COMMS 497R.
Hannah completed an On-Campus Experiential Project by taking MSB 494R.
Savanna participated in an on-campus internship by taking MSB 491R.


text:
Essential Book Holder
Easy Book Clip is light weight and portable.
Works for hardbacks, paperbacks, piano and sheet music, cookbooks,
magazines and more.
Avid readers enjoy its simplicity, hands free reading and ease of use.
Also known as ez clip.
The perfect travel accessory!
Book Holder
Quality and Durability
Made of durable high-quality spring steel wire.
modern book holder
Book Clip
The Essential Book Holder
Purchase Information
everybody, do you believe that
My inventive niece likes to have her book really flat
|Contact Us
|© Copyright 2000 - 2012 by EZ Book Clip
Easy Book Clip (TM)
|US Patents 6,357,796, D458,307 and D473,591
Updated 01/14/2017
EZ Book
Clip - the essential book holder.
Works as a page holder, book stand and book mark.
Pretzel Fingers
Pretzel Fingers are the result of Muggle people straining their fingers by holding books with one hand. The fingers become contorted into pretzel-like shapes and are sometimes painful. Over time they become, ah, well, um...not a pretty sight. Wizards and Hogwarts students don't have this problem, as they can use the book-hold spell.
We are not advocating the use of magic by Hogwarts Students during summer vacation. An EZ Book Clip would serve them well during times when they are forbidden the use of even easy spells. We would not want to come afoul of the Hogwarts authorities.
Some helpful ergonomic sites
Quotes from Dr. Scott Fuller's site:
"When you are reading, especially lighter materials such as paperwork, newspapers, and light books, lift them up so you are looking straight rather than looking directly down on to a flat surface. These posture techniques, although simple, are very effective and can add years to your life and reduce needless suffering.
"Many experts recommend use of a document holder or other device that will put the reading material at eye level or slightly lower to avoid bending forward or stooping to read from a lower surface." Top
EZ NOTE: Clipped books can be placed in document holders for reference while performing computer tasks. Or they can be stood up on their own near the computer for easy reference. Top
stretches at the desk:
You may enjoy reading this delightful article about finding a comfortable arrangement for a 10-year old to read. You won't find a reference about EZ Book Clip. This article was written before EZ Book Clip was manufactured.
The Uncomfortable Reader - How do you arrange your body so you can lose yourself in a book?


text:
Barren County, Kentucky Felon Guilty Of Operating Sophisticated Marijuana Grow Operation In His Home
– Among the largest marijuana indoor grow operations discovered in
Western District of Kentucky by Kentucky State Police
– Produced up to ten pounds of marijuana every two weeks
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The last of eleven defendants charged in one of the state's largest indoor marijuana grow operations pled guilty this week in United States District Court before Chief Judge Thomas B. Russell to manufacturing and distributing a controlled substance, money laundering and possession of firearms by a convicted felon, announced David J. Hale, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.
According to information presented in court, Dallas Norris, age 70, of Barren County, Kentucky, and ten co-defendants operated a sophisticated indoor marijuana grow operation, considered by Kentucky State Police (KSP) to be one of the largest of its kind discovered in the Western District of Kentucky. An initial tip to KSP led troopers to Norris's Glasgow, Kentucky home, where they discovered 1,267 marijuana plants on November 12, 2011.
"The successful prosecution of this multi-defendant drug production and distribution organization was made possible by a collaborative law enforcement approach," stated David J. Hale, United States Attorney. "We are grateful for the good work of the State Police, the ATF and the Warren County Drug Task Force. As drug organizations become more sophisticated and often more brazen, we will rely on effective cooperation between federal and state authorities to protect the public and prosecute the offenders. Our communities are safer as a result of these efforts."
"Kentucky State Police is committed to combating the marijuana drug trade," said Rodney Brewer, KSP Commissioner. "These enterprises have no limits and further fuel other illicit criminal organizations and their violence."
The investigation by KSP, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Warren County Drug Task Force revealed that the grow became operational in 2008 and had been producing seven to ten pounds of marijuana approximately every two weeks. Court records allege that Norris was selling the marijuana for $2,500 to $3,000 per pound and that he had taken elaborate measures to avoid detection of his operation including: illegally tapping the local power company main line to power the grow; and pumping and purifying cave water located on the property to water the extensive grow operation.
According to the plea agreement, between February 1, 2011 and November 12, 2011, Norris was the leader of the conspiracy involving ten indicted co-defendants and others to manufacture over 1,000 marijuana plants at premises maintained by Norris for the purpose of manufacturing, storing, and distributing marijuana. Between February 28, 2008 and March 12, 2008, Norris structured three transactions with financial institutions by purchasing three cashier's checks each in the amount of $9,000. Norris used the cashier's checks and an additional personal payment of $6,114 to purchase a 2006 Ford truck. Norris admitted to structuring these transactions to evade bank reporting requirements. At the time of his arrest, Norris, a convicted felon, based upon his previous conviction for manufacturing marijuana, was in possession of two firearms.
The ten co-defendants, charged in a May 16, 2012 federal superseding indictment, have pled guilty for their roles in the conspiracy and await sentencing. The defendants are Josephine Polan of Flagler Beach, Florida; Roger L. Goheen, Shelli Goheen and Dennis Cain Goheen of Wellston, Ohio; Darryl G. Newsome, Kimberly Newsome, and Darryl Allen Newsome of Springfield, Ohio; Vanessa Golden of Covington, Kentucky; and Gary and Victoria Kampschaefer of Louisville.
At sentencing, Norris faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, supervised release of five years, and a fine of $21,500,000. Norris will forfeit to the United States, a 2006 Ford F-250 truck, property located in Barren County, Kentucky and Jackson County, Ohio, $22,621 US currency, and miscellaneous farm equipment and collectibles.
All defendants are scheduled for sentencing on March 5, 2013, before Senior Judge Russell in U.S. District Court, Bowling Green, Kentucky.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mac Shannon and was investigated by KSP, ATF and the Warren County Drug Task Force.


text:
The two best-known social networks that primarily rely on a synchronous relationship are Facebook and LinkedIn, preceded by sites like Friendster and MySpace. In September, Facebook introduced a "Subscribe" feature, which is asynchronous, but to be counted as "friend", the connection must be mutual. LinkedIn connections are also mutual.
Other services, including, most notably, Twitter, but also FriendFeed and Google+, have used asynchronous relationships. For Twitter and FriendFeed, anybody who ran into your content, whether following you directly, or discovering it through search or friend recommendations, could respond to it via a Like, a Retweet, a Comment or Share. The same is true for public posts on Google+, while sharing to limited circles on Google+ reduces the visibility to those you have explicitly selected.
(Disclosure of course: I am on the Product Marketing team at Google+, and joined in August. Comments I make about the service and other social products are done with the best of intentions to be fully accurate.)
That people you don't explicitly know or have a mutual relationship with can engage on your content can be a surprise, or even unnerving, to some users. While Twitter has seen user following numbers vault into the tens of thousands or even millions for some celebrities, not all have embraced the interest of being followed by the masses, who are often simply people interested in you or your content, not necessarily bad actors. Not blurring the lines of a "friend", Twitter calls them "followers", while FriendFeed calls these people "subscribers", relating a connection between the individual and your content, not necessarily you.
Those used to an asynchronous model are used to connections with strangers, while others used to a synchronous model are often quite verbal about what is perceived as an onrush of random connections. As Google+ has been in the market for about six months, many users have been quite surprised at the high number of people who have them in circles, and I've seen some say they block those they don't know. But as someone who has engaged in both models, the value comes from learning who sees your content, and what that means - especially on a network like Google+, where you can fine tune what content reaches which people.
Who Are These People Following Me? (via SocialStatistics)
For me, the overwhelming majority of people I interact with on social networks are people I met first through the web. I have made tremendous real-life friendships that started out as an online only relationship to start, through reading one another's blogs, leaving comments, following people on Twitter and Google Reader, or any other myriad of places. Many of the colleagues I have now at Google are people who I knew years prior through FriendFeed, Twitter and their blogs, helping me continue the conversation when we finally met, rather than starting cold.
Not all online relationships turn into real life relationships later, of course, and not everything you share should reach everyone, particularly people you don't know well.
On Twitter, if someone follows you, and your feed is public, your content is shared with them. The exception is when you may be doing @replies to a person they don't follow as well. It makes sense to share on Twitter what you assume all your followers would see.
On Facebook, your publicly shared content is available to your friends and those who are subscribers to your public content. To share more selectively, choose one of the lists you have created. Strangers who follow you should not have access to this content, so you are at lower risk of oversharing if you use lists.
On Google+, your publicly shared content is available to all people who have you in circles, anyone who browses your profile or anyone who has a direct link to your content. To share your content without reaching strangers, you have multiple options, including sharing to any individual, any circle, to all your circles, or even extended circles, which reaches all those people you follow and those they follow. You can share as widely or as thinly as you like, and keep your content safe.
The goal is to share the right content with the right people. As people who you may not know add you, they are opting in to your public content, and nothing more. They don't get any additional access to your contact information, photos or shares, and like Facebook and FriendFeed, you can moderate any comments in your stream, to remove spam or other unwanted feedback.
There's no downside to new people asking to have access to your public shares, even if you don't know them yet - and you just might be surprised about the relationships you build in the future. The requirement on your end, on any service, and trust me, I've tried just about all of them, is knowing what you are sharing and with whom. It's our job, and those of other products on the web, to make this simple and easy.
You can connect with me on Google+ by going to http://www.louisplus.com. Howdy, stranger.


text:
A Guest Editorial by author and NYU media professor, Mark Crispin Miller...
"Strategists say that Mr. McCain can now count on a more motivated social conservative base to help him in areas like southern Ohio, where the 2004 race was settled."
--The New York Times, Sept. 7, 2008, A1
"In investigating the 2004 election in Ohio--examining pollbooks, talking to pollworkers and election officials, as well as reading local newspaper accounts --we could find no data of a late surge to the polls by born-again Christians. What we did find is certified voting totals in areas favoring Bush that didn't match the number of voters who officially signed-in on the poll sign-in sheets."
--Email from Bob Fitrakis of The Columbus Free Press, Sept. 7, 2008
To understand how Team McCain intends to get away with stealing this election, we must recall how Team Bush got away with it four years ago. (Those aren't two different teams.)
The plan for stealing this contest has everything to do with the ostensibly surprising choice of Sarah Palin as McCain's VP.
Here's why...
1. Election Day, 2004: The Myth of Bush's Christian "Surge"
First, let's recall that, after the 2004 election, everybody said that Bush had won because the true believers of the Christian right had come out--or, rather, poured forth--in unprecedented numbers, often at the last minute, to support him. Of course, by "everybody," I'm referring to the entire commentariate, both mainstream and left/liberal. On TV and in print, in news analyses and op-ed articles, they all said that Bush/Cheney had been re-elected by America's "values voters."
And they said it with a certain awe--as well they should, since Bush's victory was a sort of miracle. He had disapproval ratings in the upper 40's: higher than LBJ's in 1968, higher than Jimmy Carter's in 1980. Nor was he very popular in his own party, as many top Republicans came out against him--including moderates like John Eisenhower, rightists like Bob Barr, and many others such as William Crowe (chair of the Joint Chiefs under Ronald Reagan), General Tony McPeak (former Air Force chief of staff and erstwhile Veteran for Bush), libertarian Doug Bandow, neocon Francis Fukuyama, Lee Iacocca and Jack Matlock, Jr. (Reagan's ambassador to the USSR); and many other, lesser figures in his party also publicly rejected him.
And so did sixty (60) newspapers--all in "red" states--that had endorsed Bush four years earlier: two thirds of them now going for Kerry, the others none of the above. American Conservative, Pat Buchanan's own magazine, ran endorsements of five different candidates, only one of them for Bush. And 169 tenured and emeritus professors from the world's top business schools all signed a full-page ad decrying his economic policies, adducing them as reasons not to vote for him. (The ad was written by top faculty at his own alma mater, Harvard Business School.) The ad ran in the Financial Times, which, like The Economist, endorsed John Kerry.
And still Bush won, despite such big defections, thanks to that enormous turnout by the Christian right, as everybody kept on saying--even though there were good reasons to be very skeptical about that notion.
2. Election Day, 2004: There Was No Christian "Surge"
First of all, that talking point came from the Christian right itself, whose members certainly had every reason to exaggerate their clout. That they thus credited themselves, and that the claim was duly amplified by their own party and its propaganda organs (Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, et al.), should have been enough to make all non-believers doubtful.
And non-believers should have been especially suspicious of that claim because there's not a shred of evidence to back it up. On the other hand, there's solid evidence that that immense, last-minute vote for Bush was nothing but a propaganda fiction, cooked up by Karl Rove to mask his party's theft of that election.
To begin with, that fiction is preposterous on its face, since there were nowhere near enough of such right-wing believers to account for the incumbent's staggering advance, as Bush reportedly received 11.5 million more votes than he had won four years before. And how many evangelicals did that surge include? According to Karl Rove himself (among others), there were 4 million evangelicals who had not voted for Bush/Cheney in 2000. So, even if Rove managed to get every single one of them to vote for Bush this time around (and it's unlikely that he did), they could not possibly have made so big a difference--unless, of course, their numbers somehow magically increased inside the polls, like Jesus's loaves and fishes.
In any case, Bush seems to have done worse with evangelicals than he had four years before. Consider how his "base" performed, in fact, on that Election Day, as measured by the National Exit Poll (and scrupulously analyzed by Michael Collins, whose essay, "The Urban Legend," is included in Loser Take All). Close study of the numbers in 2004 reveals that there was no big national surge of "values voters": on the contrary.
First of all, the nation's rural vote declined, dropping from 23% to just 16% of the overall national vote; and Bush's total rural vote went down from 14 million to just under 12 million. And while the nation's small town vote increased substantially--by 88%--those voters did not favor Bush as they had done four years before, but opted in near equal numbers for John Kerry. Of those 9.5 million votes, Bush got 4.9 million, while Kerry got 4.7 million. (In 2000, Bush had won 3.1 million small town votes, to Gore's 2 million.) And then there were the voters in the suburbs, who did come out for Bush in greater numbers than four years before--but hardly by enough to make for a decisive jump of any kind, as Bush won 28.3 million of those votes, to Kerry's 25.6 million.
On Nov. 11, Pew published the results of their most precise survey of the electorate. Having asked Americans to name the issue that most concerned them as they cast their ballots, Pew found that Iraq was Number One, noted by 25 percent, followed by "jobs and the economy," noted by 12 percent, with 9 percent invoking "terrorism." Only 9 percent named "moral values" as their main concern--with only 3 percent of them referring specifically to "gay marriage" (and another 2 percent referring to the candidates' own private lives).
Those numbers tell a very different story from the one hyped proudly by the men atop the Christianist machine. In particular, they said that they helped Bush prevail through their well-managed opposition to gay marriage--which Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, called "the hood ornament on the family values wagon that carried the president to a second term." That there was evidently no such wagon did not blunt the impact of such theocratic propaganda, which quickly resonated all throughout "the liberal media," so that it now stands as the truth.
Indeed, it was accepted as the truth so quickly that it went unquestioned even after the dramatic mass reaction to the Terri Schiavo case a few months later, when Bush and the Republicans in Congress intervened in that domestic tragedy, trying to force the very outcome that the Christianists were calling for: "Americans broadly and strongly disapprove of federal intervention in the Terri Schiavo case," ABC News reported. The public supported the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube by 63% to 28%, according to the network's polls.
And so it was throughout the media. According to USA Today, 76% disapproved of Congress's handling of the case, while only 20% approved. CBS News found that 82% believed that Bush and Congress should have stayed out of it. And so it went, with poll after poll confirming that the Bush Republicans' attempt to force their "moral values" on the situation was appealing only to a small minority, a/k/a the fringe. "When nearly 70 percent of the American public disagrees with you," wrote Eric Boehlert at the time, "you're out of step with the mainstream."
That strong reaction by (at least) two-thirds of us was far more telling than the press, and most top Democrats, were willing to perceive, and so they couldn't, wouldn't see the awful truth: Either We the People had abruptly given up our "moral values" since Election Day, or our apparent vote for Bush was a deception, based on vote suppression and election fraud committed in Ohio and elsewhere throughout the nation.
Thus the myth of that immense, last-minute Christian turn-out was a rationale concocted to "explain" Bush/Cheney's re-election--and the US press immediately bought it, out of a clear eagerness to close the book on that election right away, and thereby black out all the glaring signs of fraud throughout Ohio (and Florida, and elsewhere). Indeed, the press at once laughed off the "theory" of widespread election fraud, dismissing all the facts as fantasy; and in their place it offered fantasy as fact (as they had done before, and have done since).
And so, because the media never did revisit the 2004 election, that groundless "explanation" quickly hardened into gospel (so to speak)--which brings us to the present, and the strategy for stealing this election, too.
3. Election Day, 2008: Another Christian "Surge"?
The choice of Sarah Palin has been widely and repeatedly assailed as evidence of John McCain's "bad judgement." Certainly that choice was very bad. Indeed, it may prove to be catastrophic. But to take it as a sign of John McCain's mere recklessness is probably a big mistake. First of all, there is no reason to believe that the decision really was McCain's, since Karl Rove's minions are in charge of his campaign, which means that Rove himself is running it (as he evidently has been from the start). And while it surely was a rotten choice in moral and/or civic terms, it certainly was not an instance of "bad judgement" in Rove's moral universe, where winning is the only thing that counts; and Sarah Palin was selected so that (she and) John McCain could "win"--and, even more important, get away with it.
They picked Palin not because she is a woman, and might therefore appeal to diehard Hillary supporters. They picked Palin because she is a theocratic true believer, who has the Christianists all swooning at the prospect of her reign (which will commence as soon as Jesus answers all their prayers for John McCain's quick death). To get some sense of their millennial excitement, read this excerpt from an email recently sent out by one of them, to others of her kind:
Dutch was traveling to Texas on Friday and when he landed in the airport his wife called and told him to get to the TV asap. He watched McCain introduce Governor Palin and he said he began to weep, even though he knew nothing about her. He asked God, "What is the significance of this 44-year-old woman?" And he saw the clock said 4:44. He asked the Lord what that was all about and the Lord said, "Ezekiel 44:4." "He brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple; so I looked, and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD; and I fell on my face. NKJV ..... North gate representing Alaska [sic].
And so on.
Such fervor, which now unifies the Christianist community, was not stoked merely by the sight of Palin's glowing kisser on TV. More importantly, the governor became the instant darling of the Christianist far right once all the top dogs of the theocratic movement looked at her, and pronounced her good. To some extent, she was their choice--and so it's wrong to claim, as some indignant pundits have, that Sarah Palin "was not vetted." The governor was vetted by the Council for National Policy, the secretive and highly influential steering committee of the Christianist far right, which seeks to junk the Constitution and replace it with Leviticus and other flights of Holy Writ.
They approved this choice, because Sarah Palin is quite willing to promote the Christianists' apocalyptic program with a brazenness, and comprehensiveness, unprecedented in the history of American political campaigning. Her disparate crackpot policies are all expressions of the same extremist creed. There are, of course, all her Levitical sexual proscriptions: no abortions even for those women who've been raped (or raped by their own fathers); no sex education; no condoms. There are her incremental steps to Christianize the public schools: her moves against their secular librarians; her readiness to get Creationism into the curriculum. And then there is her mad anti-environmentalism: her tacit eagerness for further global warming, and, therefore, her passion for oil-drilling everywhere; her opposition to clean water legislation; her willingness to see the polar bears die off; her letting hunters gun down wolves and bears from low-flying planes, etc. All such reckless policies derive from an apocalyptic wish to see the planet die, so that Lord Jesus will come back here, and start kicking ass and taking names. (Palin's pastor holds that He will set up his command post in Alaska.)
None of this insanity appeals to anyone outside the Christianist community, which is no larger than it was when Bush tried to "save" Teri Schiavo from "judicial murder"--or when he was anomalously "re-elected" by those legions of fictitious "values voters." The choice of Sarah Palin, therefore, surely was not based on any rational calculation of some real electoral advantage; for that ferocious bloc is far too small to pull that off, no matter how firm their conviction that God wants them to.
In fact, the only way that Palin and her doddering partner can prevail in this election is by stealing it, as Bush and Cheney did (both times). Certainly the ground has been prepared for yet another stolen race, Bush/Cheney's party having made enormous strides in sabotaging our election system (while the Democrats just sat there, whistling). Now, from coast to coast, it's far more difficult (for Democrats) to register to vote, and far more difficult (for Democrats) to cast their votes, while countless (Democratic) voters have been stricken from the rolls, through purges carried out by the Department of Justice.
Thus Bush's government has legally diminished the electorate (the Roberts Court approving every step). Meanwhile, the regime also continues to suppress the (Democratic) vote illegally, either through voter "caging" prior to Election Day--or, far more effectively, by fiddling with the numbers electronically at every level, and/or simply dumping countless names (of Democrats) from the electronic voter rolls, and/or putting far too few machines in (Democratic) polling places, and/or disinforming (Democratic) voters as to when and where to cast their votes, and/or simply scaring (Democratic) voters into staying home.
That is what it takes to steal elections in America--all of that, and also something else: a quick-'n-easy explanation for the outcome. For if those final numbers are surprising, there must be some rationale that can (apparently) account for them. And that is why the Bush machine put Sarah Palin next to John McCain. By arousing the hard core of vocal Christianists, they prepared the ground for the eventual redeployment of the same canard with which they justified their last unlikely "win": that millions of believers did the trick.
Indeed, it was not just the choice of Sarah Palin, but the whole convention, that was clearly calculated not to pull in undecided and/or independent voters, but to get the fringe alone to stomp and holler for the ticket. The party platform--crafted under the command of Christianist election-rigger J. Kenneth Blackwell--is a (literally) scorched-earth "faith-based" document, calling even for a ban on stem cell research in the private sector. And the convention spectacle itself was basically one long display of cultural resentment, with lots of loud, self-righteous jeering from the stage and on the floor (with an epic show of ridicule by that fine Christian, Rudy Giuliani).
It was strongly reminiscent of the GOP's 1992 convention--a show that very clearly turned the nation off, and helped defeat Bush Sr.'s bid to stay in office. Team McCain decided to revive that model, not because the nation has turned Christianist since then, but as a way to motivate the fringe, and thereby make it possible to tell the pundits, on Nov. 5, that it was those Americans who turned the tide for John McCain.
4. A Word to the Wise
In fact, that claim will be the secondary "explanation" for McCain and Palin's "win." The first, of course, will be Obama's race, and the sad "fact" that America's just not ready to vote for a black man." We will hear endlessly (as we have already) about "the Bradley effect," and how it struck again, with millions of white folks who had openly approved Obama suddenly deciding, in the sanctum of the voting booth, to vote like Klansmen, thereby electing John McCain.
We'll hear from Clinton people that he lost because he didn't put her on the ticket. We'll hear from Michael Moore, Ralph Nader and The Nation that he lost because he ran too corporate-friendly a campaign. We'll also hear from Mark Penn and the Wall Street Journal that he lost because his campaign was too "populist."
George Lakoff will tell us that Obama lost because he failed to frame the issues properly, Thomas Frank will note that all those Kansas-types are still too dim to know what's good for them, and Thomas Friedman (among others) will point out that Obama lost because he never made that crucial "gut" connection with "Joe Six-Pack" (whom Friedman and those others know so well). Meanwhile, many others will ascribe Obama's loss to all the lies and slanders heaped upon him by McCain's campaign and its confederates, who, we'll hear repeatedly, "Swift-boated" him to death, just as they did to Kerry (as if Kerry really lost the last election).
Some of those assertions will be partly true--and all of them are sure to be irrelevant. For if McCain and Palin "win," that victory will either be a miracle (which is, of course, how some of their supporters will explain it) or just another massive rip-off, perpetrated right before our eyes. And no such miracle is likely; for there is still no reason to believe that that old man and his demented running mate have any broad appeal. The polls now putting them ahead are highly dubious, based on a ten-point over-sampling of Republicans, and crafted without any calls to cell phone users (who comprise a large part of Obama's base).
Otherwise there is no evidence of any large-scale movement toward McCain and Palin--who have to trek to theocratic enclaves, like Colorado Springs, in order to draw cheering multitudes, while Obama/Biden draw them everywhere they go. With Democrats all in a panic, let's recall how few Americans turned out to vote in the Republican primaries, and how few new voters the Republicans have registered to date. Compare that feeble record with the vastly larger numbers who came out for Obama (and for Clinton), and all those whom the Democrats have registered to vote. Since then, the prospects for McCain have not improved, regardless of the spin on Sarah Palin--for this economy is in the crapper, and he has said repeatedly that he just doesn't know about such things. That issue, and his wild commitment to a war that most Americans oppose, make his victory in November quite improbable, to say the least.
And there you have the reason why the GOP must, once again, deploy its giant criminal machine: to cut the Democrats' vast popular advantage. And it is happening right now, as you sit reading this, as each day brings in new reports of voters purged, machines "malfunctioning," ballots slyly misdesigned, and other measures meant to benefit McBush's party. (The fraud is not occurring "on both sides.") Such evidence is far more solid than the nervous speculation that Americans might vote on racial grounds--or the fantasy that Sarah Palin's co-religionists could really win it for McCain.
The theft of this next race is only possible because the Democratic Party and the media, and principled Republicans, have shut their eyes to this regime's crusade against American democracy. And now the only way to stop it--or, if it does happen yet again, resist it-- is to face it at long last, and talk about it openly. It's therefore not enough to raise more money for the Democrats, and not enough to get more voters registered, and get them to the polls; and not enough to spread the word about McCain and Palin, or to try to get the media to do a decent job; and not enough to fight the smears and lies about Obama, and to demand that he and/or the Democrats get tougher.
While all of those activities are crucial, they'll amount to nothing if the race is finally rigged, and most Americans don't know a thing about it. And so, whatever else we're doing, we must also speak out loud and clear about that possibility. Otherwise, if that disaster should befall us, we will be as much to blame for it as those Republicans who pulled it off, and all those Democrats who let them get away with it.
Cross-posted at Miller's "News From Underground"...
Mark Crispin Miller is the author of several books, including The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder and Fooled Again: The Real Case for Electoral Reform. A Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University, he runs the blog News from Underground. His latest book, Loser Take All: Election Fraud and the Subversion of Democracy, 2000-2008, is a collection of 14 essays by the leading figures in the election reform movement, including one by Brad Friedman and Michael Richardson of The BRAD BLOG.


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Bad Breath Toothpaste
Are you suffering from bad breath? Or, do you have a bestfriend who is affected by chronic bad breath? Well, bad breath is a very common condition that affects millions of people throughout the world. Both children and adults are affected by it, so you are alone. However, although bad breath is so common, it can be embarrassing and distressing for some. Indeed, bad breath is something that should not be ignored or left unattended. You should do something to prevent or treat it, and I'm happy to tell you that one of the most proven ways to eliminate it is to use bad breath toothpaste. More info here
The bad breath toothpastes are marketed throughout the world these days. It was in fact found out by certain researches that about $850 million was released for the toothpaste industry alone despite the wide agreement that many of the bad breath toothpastes have no significant effect on bad breath. Well, there's nothing wrong in trying to treat bad breath with toothpastes though, and I bet many have realized this as thousands of people today are looking for some bad breath toothpastes to use for their oral problems.
Now if you happen to be one of those thousands out there looking for bad breath toothpastes, I bet you would be happy to know that you've got the right page. I have actually stressed below some of the most purchased toothpastes for bad breath in the market. You might want to use them to treat your own bad breath, so please continued reading.
CLOSYS II Fresh Breath Toothpaste
The CLOSYS II is actually one of the highly marketed dental products in the world. This is marketed both offline and online, so don't be surprised to find them in some health care stores on the web. This product is said to possess a formula so powerful that it is protected by a hundred percent satisfaction guarantee. Click here
Also, it is considered as bad breath toothpaste knowing that it has the capability to freshen your breath, and at the same time whiten your teeth. It actually contains an oxygenating power of chloride dioxide blended with hydrated silicas that gives it the whitening and freshening power, so powerful that most dentists today prefer to use the CLOSYS II as a polishing agent. And, since it is scientifically formulated, it is no wonder that this product can somehow destroy the bacteria responsible for your bad breath. It is important to note that CLOSYS II fresh breath toothpaste is given for daily use.
PerioTherapy Toothpaste
The PerioTherapy Toothpaste is but another well-known dental product in the market these days that work miracles for bad breath. This bad breath toothpaste is designed to attack the anaerobic bacteria in your mouth that allow the initiation of gum disease that causes bad breath. What's more interesting to know about this bad breath toothpaste is that it is designed to treat your taste disorders. You can also use this daily. Click this link to read more info http://can-you-regrow-gums-naturally-0.launchrock.com/
There are other available bad breathe toothpastes out there on the market today. So if you want to try other products, simply search them online as they are highly offered by most dental stores on the web.


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As funny as it was in places, actor Peter Dinklage - who we know can really punch out some great lines - gave a surprisingly terrible performance in the Destiny Alpha. But it's OK! He's got plenty of time to make things right.
Destiny developers Bungie have provided a FAQ following the game's alpha, and part of that covers Dinklage's work as Ghost, your companion in the game.
Q. Hey, the Ghost dialog in the Alpha was totally final, right?
Hey, we read the same forums, my fictional, question formulating friend! In fact, the Ghost dialog has already been updated for Beta. It will be updated again for launch on September 9th, as well.
Funny thing about Alpha builds…they're not done. Please pardon our Moon dust!
If there is a video game God, he will leave the existing "Wizard came from the moon" line in there, and also add another which is the exact same sentence, only delivered with enough gut-wrenching drama that it drives grown men to tears.


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
Firefighters for Healing (FF4H) is a non-profit organization founded in 2010 by a Minneapolis fireman who tragically experienced firsthand what burn survivors endure. Their goal is to support burn survivors and their families in ways insurance companies and caretakers are unable to. With gracious donor and community help, they are able to replace some of the essential living items when all has been lost in a fire; additionally, they contribute financial assistance for corrective surgeries, support summer camp attendance for burn-injured youth, donate to local hospital burn units and provide other resources as needed. This year has been eventful as FF4H has acquired a lease on 3 apartment units across from HCMC to serve as a comfortable place to stay for loved ones when visiting family in the hospital. On the horizon is their dream to build a transitional care unit by 2020 that will serve burn survivors, their families, and all Minnesota firefighters. Visit the link if you'd like to be involved or learn more.
More information can be found on their website or Facebook page.
Firefighters For Healing is a non-profit 501(c)(3) Tax Exempt Status Organization EIN#80-0717709


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There is always something going on in Berlin, at any time of the day, every day of the year: events, entertainment and culture.
Here are the Berlin highlights, highly recommended by the Orania.Berlin team.
100 years of Bauhaus
2019 marks a century since the founding of the world-famous Bauhaus.
What makes Bauhaus the significant style it is today? Discover it in Berlin!
30 years fall of the Berlin Wall:
On 9th of November 2019, the pictures of the fall of the Berlin Wall are celebrating their 30th anniversary. On the occasion, a number of events will taking place in Berlin. Walking on the tracks of the Berlin Wall - directly in Kreuzberg!
You can find some of Berlin's most outstanding museums, including the Berlinische Galerie, showing art from 1870 to the present day, the Gropius Bau with temporary exhibitions, the Jewish Museum and the German Museum of Technology.
Or you can spend an exciting evening of contemporary dance, theatre and performance at one of the three Houses of the Hebbel am Ufer stages. The neighbourhood also houses the English Theatre Berlin, the city's only English-language theatre.
The Orania.Berlin is directly located in the centre of Kreuzberg at Oranienplatz. As anyone from the neighbourhood will tell you, this district is the most exiting in Berlin. Kreuzberg is also famous for its street fairs like MyFest and Carnival of Cultures.


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Training Videos
Videos not showing? Try the Chrome browser (videos might not work in Internet Explorer). Also, download Adobe Flash Player.
Several videos are close captioned in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. To see captions, start a video, and click CC (not all videos are captioned).
|Drive and Docs


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Another day, another cooking memoir, this time it's Beaten, Seared, and Sauced, the first book by Jonathan Dixon, in which he recounts his studies at the Culinary Institute of America (the other "CIA").
It's hard to read this book without comparing it to Michael Ruhlman's similar memoir of life at the CIA, The Making of a Chef. But whereas Ruhlman went into the CIA with the express intent of writing a book (it seems questionable whether he was even a matriculated student there; he was more an observer), Dixon appears to have been a true student. He was a former writer and professor who at age 39 opted for a second career as a chef, though likely with an eye toward the possibility of turning the experience into a paying gig much like Scott Turow did with Law School in One L.
Where Ruhlman's book is filled with awe and wonder at every crumb of culinary education, Dixon writes from the perspective of a real student, and a mediocre one at that. He struggles with classes and his culinary internship, he generally respects his instructors but also sees their faults, and with graduation one gets a sense of relief but also defeat. He may have won the battle of culinary school, but it seems unlikely that he's willing to enlist in the war that is regular culinary work.
The refusal to wax eloquent and instead stay grounded in the real world, including the burden of CIA tuition, provides exactly what was missing from Ruhlman's book: the feeling that, rather than observing with Ruhlman, you are standing right in class with Dixon. While reading the book, I actually dreamt that I was a culinary student, and it wasn't a pleasant experience.
While he is an engaging writer, Dixon comes up with a few groaners (in describing a class lecture: "I sat listening, burning with revolutionary fervor, like Bill Ayers in a toque.") and the occasional awkward phrasing (describing some past its prime shrimp as "beginning to throb with rot."). Overall though, he keeps you turning the pages with clear, crisp prose.
Beaten, Seared and Sauced, a title which alludes to its author as much as the food he learns to cook, would make a great summer read for anyone who's every considered dropping everything and picking up a chef's knife. Check it out!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Recent Reads: Beaten, Seared and Sauced by Jonathan Dixon
Labels: Reads
1 comment:
- Culinary School: Three Semesters of Life, Learning, and Loss of Blood said...
Been there, done that, and yes, I also wrote a book all about my time as a culinary school student: "Culinary School: Three Semesters of Life, Learning, and Loss of Blood" - http://amzn.to/oqXw1R. It's a good book if I do say so myself. Matter of fact, James Beard Award-winner John Thorne agrees, saying "I was moved by the book — a good step up from enjoying it, although I did that too."
- September 15, 2011 at 4:39 PM
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Presbyterian Panel Survey, February 2009 - The Sacraments, All
CitationMarcum, J. P. (2021, June 21). Presbyterian Panel Survey, February 2009 - The Sacraments, All.
SummaryThe Presbyterian Panel began in 1973 and is an ongoing panel study in which mailed and web-based questionnaires are used to survey representative samples of constituency groups of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). These constituency groups include members, elders, pastors serving in a congregation, and specialized clergy serving elsewhere. New samples are drawn every three years. The main goal of this study is to gather broad information about Presbyterians in terms of their faith (belief, church background and levels of church involvement) and their social, economic and demographic characteristics (age, sex, marital status, living arrangements, etc.). The February 2009 survey focuses on the sacraments. This dataset contains data from all sampled constituency groups.
The ARDA has added two additional variables to the original data set to enhance the users' experience on our site.
Data FileCases: 2453
Variables: 109
Weight Variable: None
Data CollectionFebruary-May 2009
Original Survey (Instrument)The Sacraments: The February 2009 Survey
Funded ByCongregational Ministries Division, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Collection Procedures"Questionnaires were distributed on February 27, 2009. Most panelists received their copy by U.S. mail, but a subset (n = 711, or 21%) that had signed up for the service was notified via email. Non-respondents were sent a postcard reminder on April 1. Panelists who had received email notification about the survey but had not yet responded also received three email reminders in late February and early March. Returns were accepted through May 27. Response rates for this survey are: members, 64 percent; elders, 71 percent; ministers, 75 percent. All panelists had the option of completing the survey on the web, and 12 percent of responding members, 16 percent of responding elders, 25 percent of responding pastors, and 22 percent of responding specialized clergy did so." (The Sacraments: The Report of the February 2009 Presbyterian Panel Survey)
Populations: "The Panel consists of three samples, each drawn from a separate constituency group, or population, of persons affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The PC(USA) consists of congregations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico." (Technical Appendix; see link below)
"The member sample was drawn from the population of all active members of congregations affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (i.e., persons listed on the active membership rolls of these congregations; see PC(USA) Book of Order, G-5.0202), with the following exclusions: elders currently serving on session and persons unable to complete a mailed survey. At the end of 2007, the total active membership of the PC(USA) was 2,209,546. Subtracting the 106,817 active elders, the approximate population was 2,102,729 members." (Technical Appendix)
"The population of elders is defined as the subset of active members of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations: (1) who have been ordained to the office of elder by a PC(USA) church (or a church affiliated with one of its predecessor denominations) and (2) who are currently serving on the session of a PC(USA) congregation. (See 'Book of Order,' G-6.0101 through G-6.0108, and G-6.0300 through G-6.0304.) At the end of 2007, the population of elders serving on session was 106,817." (Technical Appendix)
Ministers of the Word and Sacrament
"The population of ministers of the Word and Sacrament is defined as those persons who have been ordained to this office and continue to hold it as members of a presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). (See 'Book of Order,' G-6.0200 through G-6.0204.) Retired or emeritus ministers are excluded. At the end of 2007, the population of active ministers totaled 13,615." (Technical Appendix)
Sampling ProceduresNote: The description of sampling procedures below is quoted from the Technical Appendix of Religious Demographic Profile of Presbyterians, 2008: Findings from the Initial Survey of the 2009-2011 Presbyterian Panel.
"Three representative samples were drawn, one from each of the three populations, using probability techniques."
Members and Elders
"Lacking exhaustive, national lists of all members in PC(USA) congregations, we implemented a two-stage sampling process for members and elders. For members, we used proportional stratified sampling to draw a sample of 507 congregations from the national total of 10,792. Congregational strata were based on region, race/ethnicity and membership size. Each sampled congregation was then asked to draw eight member names, using a random process....
"A similar procedure was followed to sample elders. First, the number of elders was imputed for each congregations that had not reported a number for 2007, based on the mean number of elders for congregations of similar membership size. Then, using proportional stratified sampling, we drew a sample of 403 congregations from the national total of 10,792, based on region, race/ethnicity, and session size (i.e., number of elders currently serving on session). Each sampled congregations was then asked to draw eight elder names, using a random process....
"...A total of 228 congregations returned member forms, and 189 congregations, elder forms. A total of two member forms were unusable. The member forms contained 1,821 eligible and usable names, and the elder forms, 1,425."
[Note: See Page B-6 in Religious Demographic Profile of Presbyterians, 2008: Findings from the Initial Survey of the 2009-2011 Presbyterian Panel for more details on the random process used to generate these names.]
Pastors and Specialized Clergy
"A list of all ordained ministers of the Word and Sacrament is maintained by the Office of the General Assembly based on reports from stated clerks of presbyteries. A probability sample of 2,200 ministers was drawn using proportional stratified sampling. All active ministers (i.e., not retired or emeritus) resident in the United States or Puerto Rico were located in one of 56 unique strata based on their region of residence (Northeast, Midwest, South, West), their race/ethnicity (African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, Native American, white, other, not known), and their occupational category (pastors, specialized clergy; see definitions below). Random sampling was used within strata.
"For most analyses, the ordained minister sample is split into the sub-samples of pastors and specialized clergy. To ensure the greatest accuracy and most up-to-date classification, responses to Q7 through Q12 on the minister questionnaire rather than occupational codes in the denominational database were used to determine which ministers are pastors and which are specialized clergy in this report.
"Pastors include ministers who serve full-time in a congregation in an installed position, such as head of staff, solo pastor, senior pastor, associate pastor or interim pastor, or who serve at least half-time in one of these positions if not otherwise employed. This category does not include supply pastors. Specialized clergy include ministers serving full-time in a school or seminary, as a hospital or military chaplain, as staff of a governing body of the PC(USA), in an ecumenical agency, or in any other (church-related or not church-related) job or position. This category also includes persons who work part-time in a non-parish job if they have no parish employment, or if their parish work is part-time (e.g., tentmaker) or is of a limited, temporary capacity (e.g., stated supply)." (Technical Appendix)


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r_true = k1 * r + k3 * r**3 + k5 * r **5
where r_true is an idealised angular distance from the optical axis and r is the measured distance. k1 is the scale at the centre of the field, usually quoted in arcsec/mm.
WFCAM and VISTA are no exception and prior to on-sky measurements being available, ray-tracing enables an estimate of the expected field distortion to be made.
The above figure shows the non-linear distortion (ie. % scale change) expected for WFCAM as a function of wavelength. For VISTA there is negligible variation with wavelength and the following figure shows the tabulated K-band distortion, (red splodges), with an "r-cubed" fit superimposed (green circles).
In the K-band WFCAM and VISTA will have scales, ie. k1 values, of 22.30 and 17.09 arcsec/mm respectively. The term due to k5 is usually negligible and until real sky data is available is not worth pursuing, since other similarly sized distortions may be present. Rearranging the preceding equation to a more convenient form gives
r_true = r' * (1 + k3/k1**3 * r'**2) = r' + k * r'**3
where r' is the measured distance from the optical axis in arcsec using the k1 scale. If we convert all units to radians the "r-cubed" coefficient is conveniently scaled (in units of radians/radian**3 - honest!) and has values of 76.1 and 42.5 in the K-band for WFCAM and VISTA respectively.
[Measurements on real WFCAM data indicate that this coefficient is more like -50.0, ie. apart from the sign and magnitude it was about right. Note that subsequent numbers for WFCAM have been updated to correspond to the real on-sky values.]
Although this type of distortion generally presents no problem for accurate calibration of individual pointings, it can lead to various complications when stacking data taken at various locations, eg. dither sequences. This is caused by the differential non-linear distortions across individual detectors being comparable to, or larger than, the pixel size of the detector. In these cases stacking involves resampling and interpolation of some form. While these are inevitable in combining pointings to form contiguous tiled regions, they may be avoided at earlier stages, such as stacking individual detector dither sequences, by suitably limiting dither offsets and thereby both simplify and speed up the data processing.
The following figures demonstrate the level of this optical distortion over the field of view.
For WFCAM the non-linear term introduces a (pincushion/barrel) distortion amounting to roughly 10 arcsec from the centre to the edge of the 0.8 degree diameter field, denoted by the blue circle.
For VISTA the corresponding numbers are a distortion of around 25 arcsec at the edge of the 1.67 degree diameter field, denoted by the blue circle.
We can quantify this effect in a more useful manner by forming
dr_true/dr' = 1 + 3k * r'**2
which describes the local change in relative pixel scale as a function of radial distance. For example, for WFCAM at around 0.45 deg radius, the second term is about 1.0% in size (ie. 3x the radial distortion value shown in the earlier plots). This means that a 10 arcsec shift in the centre corrsponds to a 10.1 arcsec shift at the outer corners of the arrays. The majority (~90%) of this distortion occurs across individual detectors. Therefore, even after re-registering the detector centre, there would still be a distortion at the +/-0.05 arcsec level across it.
To first order the size of this effect clearly scales as the size of the offset (though of course the pattern induced depends on the direction). Confining dither offsets (and microsteps) to within +/-5 arcsec of a target centre (a reasonable practical compromise of various constraints) would enable nonlinear resampling for "dither" stacks of each detector to be avoided for WFCAM but possibly not for VISTA. Of course tiling contiguous regions by filling in the gaps between detectors with additional pointings will always involve non-linear resampling as will large offset pattern dither sequences.
(1 + k r'**2).(1 + 3k r'**2) =~ (1 + 4k r'**2)
or in other words roughly 4x the linear scale distortion.
At the corners of the field WFCAM has a worst case (K-band) linear scale distortion of about 0.3% leading to photometry systematics due to this effect of at most ~1.2% relative to the centre, and can probably be safely ignored for most applications. If required it is also feasible for this correction to be factored in with the "mesostep" correction for scattered light photometric systematics. To illustrate the effect the following colourful image shows the systematics in photometry that would arise from a standard WFCAM 4 pointing tile.
The systematics vary from 0% in the centre up to 0.5% lighter shades of green, through purple and red at 1.0% to yellow, 1.5% in the corners. The field of view shown is roughly 0.8 deg x 0.8 deg. The exposure map below shows how this relates to the final field.
Grey-green equates to 1; puprle 2; and yellow 4.
For VISTA however, the scale distortion at the edge amounts to some 0.8% - 0.9% implying worst case photometry systematics of order 3.5% from centre to edge of field.
Given that tiling of 6 pointings to create a "uniform" contiguous coverage of the 1.67 degree diameter field is likely to be the baseline mode of operation for VISTA, further modelling is required to see if the resultant systematics are large enough to warrant special attention during pipeline processing and at the mosaicing stage. Stacking individual detector dithers is not a problem (other than needing to cope with non-linear astrometric distortions). The next colourful image shows the systematics in photometry arising from a standard VISTA 6 pointing tile.
The systematics vary from 0% in the centre up to 1% lighter shades of green, through purple and red at 2-2.5% to yellow, 3% toward the corners. The field of view shown is roughly 1.2 deg x 1.5 deg. The exposure map below shows how this relates to the final field.
Green equates to 1; grey-green 2; purple 3; red; 4 and yellow 6.
CTYPE1 = 'RA---ZPN' / Zenithal polynomial projection CTYPE2 = 'DEC--ZPN' / Zenithal polynomial projection CRPIX1 = 3914.68291287068 / Reference pixel on axis 1 CRPIX2 = 2958.23149413302 / Reference pixel on axis 2 CRVAL1 = 325.5563 / Value at ref. pixel on axis 1 CRVAL2 = 0.2084674 / Value at ref. pixel on axis 2 CD1_1 = -1.4011089128826E-6 / Transformation matrix CD1_2 = -9.2625825594913E-5 / Transformation matrix CD2_1 = -9.2750922381494E-5 / Transformation matrix CD2_2 = 1.31362241659925E-6 / Transformation matrix PV2_1 = 1.0 / coefficient for r term PV2_3 = 220.0 / coefficient for r**3 termand is the style we are proposing to adopt for both WFCAM and VISTA.


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The Real Reason The Olympics Started On 08/08/08
The number eight is considered lucky in China, and so everyone assumed that's why the Beijing Olympics opened on August 8, aka 08/08/08. This little chestnut gave the media a mildly exotic (but easy to understand!) piece of Chinese culture to talk about in their inevitable stories on the Olympic host country, and also something interesting to say about the opening ceremonies before they happened. But NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol explodes the myth of 8-8-08 in the Times today, saying superstition is "not really why the Olympics started then." The real reason? Money. (Duh.)
Before it had the 2008 games sewn up, China planned to bid on then using a September start date. But this would collide with NFL coverage in the U.S. and thus dampen ratings, as occurred in the 2004 Olympics in Sydney. NBC, which already had TV rights to the 2008 Olympics, urged China to consider moving the date.
So China proposed a mid-August start date in its official bid, and won.
But it turned out that date interfered with the U.S. Open, meaning tennis stars would skip the Olympics, meaning more ratings pain.
China looked at the $894 million in NBC money it had already deposited into one of its banks and decided to accommodate one last change request from NBC, to August 8. Americans looked at the price of gas and the lack of money in their bank accounts and decided to stay home and watch the Olympics rather than go out at night or on vacation. Ratings soared and NBC was very "lucky" The End!


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Artisan cheese maker shares secret technology ingredient
Case Study: Gunn's Hill Cheese uses 15 variable frequency drives (VFDs) to improve consistency and quality. In one application, the installation of a variable speed system resulted in a 50% reduction in horsepower compared to a traditional fixed speed system.
Advanced automation helps bring quality and repeatability to recipes for cheese that are thousands of years old, passed down through generations and crossing continents, like the Swiss cheese recipes used by Shep Ysselstein, owner and "grand fromage" of Gunn's Hill Cheese in Woodstock, Ontario, Canada.
Located in the green-grass dairyland of Oxford County, two hours west of Toronto, Gunn's Hill Artisan Cheese is known for handcrafted, Swiss-style soft, semi-hard and hard cheeses. They are made from recipes that Ysselstein brought back from a one-year study of cheese making in Switzerland. That Old World recipe is now a New World reality thanks to a secret ingredient, variable frequency drives (VFDs).
Recipe for success
"Cheese making involves processing a lot of fluids," explained Ysselstein. "We're pumping thousands of gallons of milk in and out of different vats, stirring in different ingredients, maintaining precise temperatures in a clean environment and lifting and transporting wheels of cheese up to 55 pounds." These operations depend on VFDs.
Having earned a business degree several years earlier, Ysselstein opened the small, family-owned enterprise in October 2011. He sells cheese in a retail shop attached to the factory and wholesale. A family dairy farm, Friesvale Farms, located next door to the factory, supplies milk.
"Oxford County is famous for being the dairy capital of Canada," says Ysselstein. "Our family farm has been in business for over 60 years. The quality of the milk comes through in the cheese, especially in the curds. They are immensely rich in flavor and their 'squeak' can be enjoyed during a great snack."
Each of Ysselstein's three varieties of washed rind cheeses from cow's milk uses slightly different processes. [Natural rind (as opposed to applied plastic or wax) forms on the outside of some cheese as a natural part of the cheese-making process and is eaten by many.]
The soft cheese is modeled after a little known Swiss recipe called Mutchli. This mild, creamy cheese is excellent for serving or melting, developing a buttery flavor after just four weeks of aging. The semi-hard recipe combines traits from Gouda and another Swiss variety called Appenzeller. Its creamy, rich flavor has sweet overtones with distinctive eyes in the body of the cheese. The mild version is aged 5 months and the semi-hard version, 12 months. Finally, the hard variety is a Swiss mountain-style cheese with rich, dry, nutty overtones aged one year. An extra-aged style will be available in two to three years.
Fluid, motion control
The fluid and motion control required in the process can be seen in the many steps involved in making semi-hard cheeses. Whole Holstein milk is pumped into a cheese vat, where it is pasteurized at 145 F (63 C) for 30 minutes. Then, starter culture is stirred into the milk to turn the lactose into lactic acid. An hour later, rennet (a mix of enzymes) is added to thicken the milk into a mass, like gelatin.
When the milk is at the right thickness, it is cut into small pieces known as "curds." For semi-hard cheeses, the cut pieces are the size of a kernel. The curds are heated by adding hot water. The hotter the water, the drier will be the cheese as the curds shrink and separate from the liquid whey. The curds are then transferred from the vat to the drain table. Then the whey is removed, while the curds form a mass at the bottom.
Six hours after the milk was first pumped in, the curds are cut into squares and pressed into a round plastic mold, which squeezes out more whey. Pressing can take 20 minutes or overnight, depending on the desired hardness of the cheese. The round wheel of cheese is then immersed into salt brine for two days.
Finally, the cheese is lifted from the brine onto racks where it is aged to develop flavor. The aging room is kept at 54 F (12 C) and 90% relative humidity. The cheese is turned every other day and washed with a salt water solution. The outside surface turns an orange color from natural microbes, forming a natural rind, unlike the dyes used by other cheese makers. After the proper aging time, the cheese is ready to eat, the result of hand craftsmanship and advanced technology.
Throughout the operation, VFDs provide pumping and mixing capabilities.
Using variable frequency drives was recommended by Ysselstein's heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVACR) contractor, Ben Kungl, of Oxford Energy Solutions. "The drives operate our ac pump motors, letting us dial the right speed for a given task," Ysselstein said.
About 15 VFDs are used in the plant for a wide range of jobs, noted Kungl, who grew up on an Oxford County dairy farm. After getting technician's training at a local technical college and working for the award-winning Performance Dairy Centre, he started his own businesses: Oxford Energy Solutions and Oxford Refrigeration.
"There are a lot of old-school ideas about using fixed-speed pumps and motors in dairy processing equipment," said Kungl. "But in this day and age, you have to be as efficient as you can be." Variable speed motors can save up to 50% in energy use, compared to a fixed speed motor.
Energy efficiency ingredients
Kungl improved efficiency and process control with VFDs in three areas: fluid pumps, ventilation system, and cooling compressor.
He applied three VFDs to control the pumps used to off-load milk from the truck into the raw tank, transfer milk into vats, and for washing. "I can set three speeds without damaging the motors," said Kungl, adding that the drives are easy to program: "Pump control can be done either from the drive pad or a PLC. Plus, they convert single phase household ac current to 3-phase. That means we didn't need to rewire to supply 3-phase current for the heavy commercial motors."Kungl applied a drive to control the hoist motor that lifts cheese trays from the brine. Another drive is used for ventilation. Regulations require that a food plant have a positive air pressure inside to keep contaminants outside. A drive was applied to the reverse pressurized air handler that supplies the facility with fresh air.
"It was easy to wire the drive into a pressure transducer," explained Kungl. "That way, the air handler only needs to supply the make-up air to maintain positive pressure. You can get a small amount of inlet air using 30 hp, compared to an old-school fan system using 60 hp. That takes a lot of energy, considering you can do the same amount of useful work, get better results and use one-half the horsepower compared to a balanced system with fixed supply and exhaust fan systems."
Finally, Kungl applied a larger VFD in a NEMA 12 enclosure to modulate the compressor in the outdoor chiller. The drive serves a dual purpose: to save cost and give the customer a wide range of adaptability.
The chiller modulates between the process cooling for the building and direct cooling for the product after it has been pasteurized and needs to be cooled. The larger drive controls the scroll compressor speed and capacity, while two smaller VFDs control the Zeihl-Abegg condenser fan motors for a fully modulating system. These types of condensing units/chillers are a very common product made by Oxford Energy Solutions and have become popular in food processing and bio-fuel sectors.
Dependable drives
The industrial drives are reliable, have a large dc bus that gives them a large voltage tolerance, and are built in the U.S. Other sought-after features include dedicated algorithms for flow applications that simplify implementation, a proportional-integral controller, and logic controller that can often double as a programmable logic control for nearby processes. High-temperature rating of 122 F ambient temperatures (50 C) requires no special ventilation.
Efficiency and reliability of the VFDs help Gunn's Hill Artisan Cheese improve its products.
– Patrick Appleby is vice president sales – industry, Danfoss. Edited by Mark T. Hoske, content manager CFE Media, Control Engineering and Plant Engineering, email@example.com.
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Comp mentioned "Love Is All That Remains" in the other thread and it got me thinking. We've already got a thread discussing likely/deserving tracks for the next album...the frontrunners if you will. What about some dark horse candidates, songs that didn't make the cut before but...maybe should have?
The question of resurrecting an older "passed-by" track or a demo for inclusion as a bona fide album track is always an interesting one, and there is some precedent for it actually happening ("Walking On The Spot").
So whaddya say folks! If Crowded House were going to raise one bygone Finn song from the dead, dust it off, take a look at it and say "Let's put this one on the album!" - what would be your pick?
Original Post


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DirectorKaneto Shindo
Release Date(s)1968 (October 18, 2011)
Studio(s)Kindai Eiga Kyokai (Criterion - Spine #584)
- Film/Program Grade: A-
- Video Grade: B+
- Audio Grade: B
- Extras Grade: B
When you think of Japanese horror cinema, one of the first things that should jump to mind is ghosts. Japanese filmmakers seem to have cornered the market on spooky tales of restless spirits seeking vengeance from beyond the grave. While other cultures concentrate on making the audience jump, the Japanese focus on the more eerie aspects of ghost stories. Kaneto Shindo's Kuroneko may not be as well known in the U.S. as such films as Kwaidan, it's every bit as effective and disquieting as any Japanese horror film.
The movie opens with a band of samurai invading the home of a widow (Nobuko Otowa) and her daughter-in-law (Kiwako Taichi). The samurai rape and kill the two women, burn down their house, and disappear into the trees. Years later, a new house has appeared on that spot, inhabited by two ethereal but strangely familiar women. They begin luring samurai to their home and killing them one by one. The local warlord enlists a new samurai to deal with the threat: the son and husband of the women (Kichiemon Nakamura).
Kuroneko is a dark, haunting, often beautiful horror entry that emphasizes atmosphere over scares. Shindo films the action with an almost painterly eye, particularly in the film's many night sequences. The movie's stillness gives its sporadic bursts of violence even more power. When Nakamura enters the picture, it's fascinating to see both how he deals with these women who are clearly no longer the family he left behind, as well as how the spirits struggle with how to deal with him. Kuroneko is deeper and richer than your average ghost story, all of which just helps make it even creepier.
Criterion has been almost single-handedly responsible for proving that black-and-white movies have a place on Blu-ray. That track record continues here with a gorgeous new transfer. It's crisp and detailed with clean whites that truly sparkle. The uncompressed mono soundtrack is perfectly adequate. Extras include an hour-long interview with Kaneto Shindo from 1998 reflecting on his long, varied career and a 17-minute interview with film critic Tadao Sato on Kuroneko. Both are very interesting and worth your time. The booklet includes an essay by Maitland McDonagh and an excerpt from a 1972 interview with Shindo.
For fans of Japanese cinema, horror or not, Kuroneko is a valuable rediscovery. It's a chilling, provocative work that slowly creeps up on you. I'm surprised this gem has flown under the radar for so long. Thanks to Criterion for giving it another chance to find its audience.
- Dr. Adam Jahnke


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Tommy Pallotta
In 2001, Richard Linklater's Waking Life turned animation on its head and shook up what we thought about dreaming. Its success was due, in large part, to the immersive experience created by artist Tommy Pallotta, who says, "animation is really good at expressing a subjective reality." Pallotta met Linklater at the University of Texas, and since then he has created his own worlds with the documentary American Prince, about Martin Scorsese's lost doc American Boy and its subject Stephen Prince, and most recently his transmedia thriller Collapsus, which illustrates what could happen when the world runs out of oil. From his Los Angeles home, Pallotta discusses Collapsus, the influence of movies on dreaming, and how animation changes our perception of ourselves:
Why focus on the oil crisis in Collapsus?
Collapsus was a project I stepped into that was already in development. It started with a Dutch broadcasting company that was making a documentary for television about that subject. They found that the viewership for that type of programming has been decreasing and the age of the audience has been increasing. They approached Submarine, a production company in the Netherlands, about creating something that was somehow related to the television show that would attract a younger audience and was made specifically for the Internet. That's when I got involved. When I heard it was about peak oil, something I was interested in already—the post-apocalyptic world, which is looming right around the corner—my first thought was: It almost doesn't matter. We're imaging a dramatic scenario where things just stop working. That was my emotional hook.
When you got involved with Collapsus what were your first actions at that point? Was it your idea to do something with transmedia?
I don't really think about those things. There's a certain challenge presented to me, and it's a story form challenge and I think: What would be interesting to try? In retrospect it makes sense, but when you make this stuff it's plain instinct. This started in 2009, and Collapsus came out in the end of 2010. When I look back at it, transmedia wasn't much of a buzz word, but I'd been dealing with cross-media for almost a decade and Submarine had been doing it for even longer. Basically it's storytelling using technology. In retrospect the thing about Collapsus that is interesting and caused some controversy at the beginning was that there are strict guidelines on what is considered transmedia. I looked at Collapsus and thought: What hybrid genres could I create—mix documentary with fiction, animation with live-action, gaming with narrative? We talked to a lot of people and started going down roads and if we went down a road that didn't work we'd pull back and try another one. In terms of the interface with that we had a multiple platform experience jettisoned with destination. The problem I see with a lot of transmedia narrative storytelling is going to different websites and applications. I want to be able to play with it in a boxed in scenario. If you go to Collapsus.com you get this multiple platform experience through one interface. In that sense, the user interface and user experience becomes another storytelling tool, like a camera or editing. In terms of people who are interested in this space you have to think about UI [User Interface] in how that story is being told.
You said that you are interested in peak oil and that crisis. Where does that interest stem from and how do you balance that with your own carbon footprint?
I compartmentalize it. I don't have any doubt that the way we live our lives is going to drastically change in the next 20 years and, in many ways, fossil fuels have advanced civilization in a highly accelerated rate. There's going to be an adjustment period, which will probably have turbulence, but will be necessary. Every day I go turn on a switch and a light goes on and I'm amazed. I turn a faucet and water comes out. I have to think about how much fresh water I waste using the toilet. (laughing) There's embarrassment in the excess that we live in in this part of the world and we have to know that we're the minority. The majority of the world does not have those luxuries. We're still at the point where these things are expanding and increasing and more and more people are getting access to this, but there will be an adjustment period and that may decrease eventually. We don't know what is gonig to happen at that point. I certainly take advanteage of my carbon footprint and I'm guilty, as we all are, but if that all goes away then it's not the end of the world for me. I don't think we're necessarily happier because we have all these luxuries. I think about it a lot with my daughter because when you have a kid you really start seeing how many resources you're wasting. There's this little being and all of the sudden you're going through so many more resources than you could've imagined.
Getting into the technology of rotoscoping and your influence there, what has changed from your first experience working with rotoscoping to now?
No one's ever asked me that before. (pausing) Well, I've changed. At the core root of it, I'm not enamored with technology. I've never been bound by the rules of animation or filmmaking. My interest is in telling stories and I saw technology as a way that you can tell stories that didn't necessarily have a wide reach. If you do something unique with technology people will pay attention to it. The technology aspect to it is a tool. As for animation, I like for things to be beautiful and eye-catching and to help tell that story, but I always disliked how laborious it was. I started out rotoscoping because the idea was we could tell simple stories, quickly, and in a visually interesting way. Over the years we had pitted ourselves in a corner because of how much time it was taking. By the time we got to A Scanner Darkly, that was taking 500 man hours per minute, which, all of the sudden, was the exact opposite of how we started doing rotoscoping. So ever since A Scanner Darkly I've been trying to work in ways that maintain the design sensibilities, but make it a lot faster.
A Scanner Darkly. Image courtesy of WARNER INDEPENDENT PICTURES / THE KOBAL COLLECTION.
How have you made it faster?
Well, Collapsus was basically drawn frames that we put into motion with After Effects. That was a lot faster. When you rotoscope, every single element and every single frame is hand drawn. I've also been working on more and more technological programs that will look at animation in a much more egalitarian way. I want to give people tools that allow anyone to animate quickly and easily.
How do you think that animation changes how we perceive ourselves? What sort of impact does animation have versus live-action?
I like the first part of that question a lot. (pausing) I don't know. I'm making a hybrid movie right now that's a documentary—half animated, half live-action. When you go see a movie, you don't realize how much of that movie is animated. That's just a normal, live-action film. With any Hollywood film there's just so much more animation than what people are aware of, and they're trying to hide it. The stuff that I'm doing is hybrid, but I'm not trying to hide it. I'm doing a documentary on Somalia and survival in failed states and about the piracy and a lot of it is un-filmable. One of the problems with documentaries is you want to tell a story, but you don't have access to visuals of the whole story. How do you tell it? Do you do recreations? In this particular film I'm using animation to express subjective realities of the characters in the movie. For some reason it becomes really believable when you tell that graphically. If I did recreations of the film, in your mind you's think: It's recreations, they're trying to make it something that it's not. In animation somehow the mind accepts that, because it's so removed from the live footage, you understand that this is a subjective reality and you can enter into that person's mind. Animation is really good at expressing a subjective reality.
I'm trying to process that.
Me too. (laughing)
I also feel like animation creates barriers, though, because it's not how we see the world.
My dreams are like movies. I'll be able to edit my dreams. I'll be having a dream and I'll think: Oh no, that wasn't the best way to do the scene, let's go back and do that again. Movies are affecting the way that I dream. Movies are affecting the way that I see. Reality is affecting my subconscious in that sense—this is the power I have, and what's scary about that responsibility is that you can change the way people think about things or the way people see things.
Waking Life. Image courtesy of DETOUR / INDEPENDENT FILM / LINE RESEARCH / THE KOBAL COLLECTION.
I wonder if there's any way of knowing how people dreamed before movies.
I mean, my daughter dreams and I talk to her a lot about it and she completely understands… and she's two. I'll say: "Hey, were you scared in your dreams?" She'll say "yeah" and then tell me about it. Wow, how young can you do that? They know the difference between real and pretend in a really intuitive way.
Do you have any other thoughts?
I have lots of thoughts. (laughing) One thing I'm really grappling with, because I need to write a keynote for this, is I don't think technology and platforms are very interesting.
It's funny that you say that because I think a lot of people are interested and in love with the technology side of things, but are grappling with the storytelling side.
For me, technology is intuitive for me, but I'm 44 years old. I didn't grow up with technology and I'm not in love with it. Sometimes I'm so glad that Facebook wasn't around when I went to college and I feel sorry for people. The real issue is that the promise of technology was that it would make life simpler and bring us closer together. It hasn't done either of those things. Earlier I said technology is a way to tell stories and I grew up during the 70s experimental film era in America. It was huge explosion in American cinema at that time. People were pushing the envelope and making experimental films and the first wave of American independent cinema. We saw people like Martin Scorsese arise out of that. Right now, it's hard to do that. You will probably never be able to do that in the same format. With these new technologies there are no rules in terms of storytelling. Now is the time that people need to be experimenting with storytelling. It's really the only place that you can do that because you're not going to get the kind of money, resources or audience in the traditional platforms. We want to push the envelope and now is a great time to look at technology, transmedia, convergence or whatever you want to call it and find a new voice.
Experience Collapsus for yourself and don't miss our Keynote Conversation with Tommy Pallotta, which will kick off NYFF Convergence on Saturday, September 29.


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CRS: Allocations and Subdivisions in the Congressional Budget Process, June 17, 2008
From WikiLeaks
About this CRS report
This document was obtained by Wikileaks from the United States Congressional Research Service.
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Individual members of Congress will release specific CRS reports if they believe it to assist them politically, but CRS archives as a whole are firewalled from public access.
This report was obtained by Wikileaks staff from CRS computers accessible only from Congressional offices.
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For previous editions of this report, try OpenCRS.
Wikileaks release: February 2, 2009
Publisher: United States Congressional Research Service
Title: Allocations and Subdivisions in the Congressional Budget Process
CRS report number: RS20144
Author(s): William Heniff, Jr., Government and Finance Division
Date: June 17, 2008
- Abstract
- The annual budget resolution sets forth total spending and revenue levels for at least five fiscal years. The spending amounts are allocated, or "crosswalked," to the House and Senate committees having jurisdiction over discretionary spending (the Appropriations Committees) and direct spending (the legislative committees). The committee allocations provide Congress with one means of enforcing the spending levels of a budget resolution after it has been adopted.
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