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(CNN) — Popes John XXIII and John Paul II will be declared saints in April, the Vatican said Monday.
The announcement came after Pope Francis met with cardinals to discuss the planned canonizations of two of his predecessors. The ceremony will take place on April 27.
It will be the first time two popes will be canonized at the same time.
To be named a saint involves a series of steps, but the qualifications are straightforward, according to the veteran Vatican analyst John Allen.
"You put a holy life and two miracles together, according to the Catholic system, you've got a saint," he said.
The calls to canonize John Paul II began even before he had been buried. People attending his funeral in 2005 held banners saying "Santo Subito," short for "make him a saint now."
Their call was heard.
Bypassing the normal five-year waiting period, Pope Benedict XVI set in motion the process to canonize his predecessor.
John Paul is said to have miraculously cured Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, a French nun stricken by Parkinson's disease, several months after his death.
The church says the second miracle occurred when a Costa Rican woman with a brain aneurism recovered after praying to John Paul.
John XXIII, revered for his role in the Second Vatican Council, is only recorded as having performed one miracle after his death in 1963.
"Pope Francis has decided that there already was a decree of heroic virtue saying that the man had lived a holy life," Allen says. "There already was one miracle certified for his beatification in 2000, so Pope Francis has decided he doesn't have to pass go, doesn't have to collect $200, he can go directly to sainthood."
In fact, canonization by the Catholic Church simply formalizes on earth what is already in place in heaven, Allen points out.
"It's not like Karol Wojtyla, John Paul II, will suddenly become a saint when the canonization ceremony occurs," he says. "The belief would be he is already in heaven with God, living the life of a saint. All that's going to happen when the ceremony occurs is that the church will officially recognize that."
CNN's Hada Messia contributed to this report.
™ & © 2013 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.


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Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition caused by a traumatic experience. Symptoms including anxiety and difficulty in sleeping can be reduced when using our medically graded handmade Weighted Blankets. The weight of the blanket provides a calming reassuring pressure that can help someone relax and unwind.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Greece needs growth to get out of crisis, France's Hollande says
French President Francois Hollande used a visit to hard-hit Greece on Tuesday to press his pro-growth agenda, saying fiscal reform could not be achieved by austerity alone.
He offered to help the twice bailed-out country - in a deep economic depression - with privatisations, tourism and a public sector overhaul.
"We must make sure that growth and jobs come back in Greece," Hollande said. "We need more growth in Europe. That's how we'll reach our public deficit reduction goals."
Athens, whose euro zone partners and the International Monetary Fund unlocked bailout aid in December after a six-month stalemate, hopes Hollande's one-day visit will spur badly-needed investments to ease record-high unemployment.
"I didn't come to sell weapons ... we have to show the Greeks solidarity, support and also confidence that will allow growth to come back," Hollande said in a joint news conference with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras after talks.
Samaras praised Paris for having helped Greece stay in the euro zone, despite its debt crisis.
"France has given us vital support over the past few months to stay in Europe and is supporting us today to exit the crisis," he said.
Greece's economy has shrunk by about 20 percent since the recession began in 2008, with its downturn exacerbated by fiscal austerity demanded by its international lenders to shore up public finances and attain a primary budget surplus in 2013.
Unemployment hit a euro-area record 27 percent in November.
"Greece should make efforts, it should meet its commitments, but its efforts have been considerable," said Hollande. "No people in Europe have undergone such a test, so we must be at the side of Greece", he added.
Greece's deteriorating economy and fears of a euro zone exit prompted French banks Credit Agricole and Societe Generale to sell their Greek units to local peers.
But Hollande said on Tuesday he expected French companies to return to Greece and bid for state firms being sold as part of the country's multi-billion euro privatisation plan.
The two leaders also signed an agreement to boost the flow of French tourists to Greece. Tourism is the country's biggest money spinner but French visitors were less than 7 percent of total arrivals last year, half as many as from Germany.
French civil servants are advising Athens on how to reform its inefficient state machine and how to draw up a national land registry - a task Athens has failed to complete for decades despite dozens of millions of euros of aid from the EU.
With Greek journalists on a 24-hour, anti-austerity strike, Hollande's visit was not getting extensive local coverage.


text: PORTABLE Portable and effective High vacuum systems for the removal and filtration of welding fumes in confined and other hard to reach spaces are designed for light duty welding applications. MOBILE The Mobiflex® 200-M and 400-MS are low vacuum systems for welding fume extraction and filtration. Their size and mobility make them ideal for smaller manufacturing facilities. STATIONARY The Statiflex 200-M, 200-M Dual Arm and 400-MS are stationary, wall-mounted low vacuum systems intended for light to medium duty extraction and filtration of welding fume. FILTRATION Custom engineered fume extraction solutions for the removal and filtration of welding fumes include circulator systems, push/pull systems, and high and low vacuum central systems.


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'The Irish Travelling People. A Resource Collection Volume 8 Part Ka: Education Miscellaneous items. 'St Patrick at St Paul's 8K92
Full description:IR/TC/Box6 (5) The Irish Travelling People. A Resource Collection. Volume 8: Education Part H. Breda McGeown. Annual report (April 1981) of The Northern Ireland Council for Travelling People. 8H4 - 8H6 Aileen L'Amie estate
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text:
Almost any book about engine rebuilding says, over and over again, "Tag your hoses and lines, and take pictures!" It's good advice. No one wants to forget how things go back together and end up with a pile of extra nuts and bolts.
A 28-year-old Triumph enthusiast from the U.K. took his reference photos a step further. Here's how he describes it:
Started out as just a collection of snaps as I stripped down an engine bought off ebay. (To replace my old engine, which had suffered catastrophic failure). The snaps were so that I remembered how everything went, so I could put it back together again.
Then I realised it'd be quite cool to make it an animation. found some suitable music, rekindled my ancient knowledge of Premiere, storyboarded it, shot it as I worked on the engine (my poor DSLR got covered in engine oil), this [video] was the result.
Using thousands of pictures to document an 11-month rebuild, the whole process is animated and set to "In The Hall Of The Mountain King" from Edvard Griegs "Peer Gynt Suite." It's brilliant.
Of course, even though he took all of those photos for reference, he still ended up with six extra nuts, bolts and washers. But in the animation, they just slithered away, like all good leftovers should do. (Hat tip to goodoldluck/reddit!)


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News tagged with cochlear implants
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Cochlear implant
A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The cochlear implant is often referred to as a bionic ear. Unlike hearing aids, the cochlear implant does not amplify sound, but works by directly stimulating any functioning auditory nerves inside the cochlea with an electric field. External components of the cochlear implant include a microphone, speech processor and an RF transducer or primary headpiece coil. A secondary coil is implanted beneath the skull's skin and inductively coupled to the primary headpiece coil. The headpiece coil has a magnet by which it attaches to another magnet placed on the secondary coil often beside the cochlear implant. The implant relays the incoming signal to the implanted electrodes in the cochlea. The speech processor allows an individual to adjust the sensitivity of the device. The implant gives recipients additional auditory information, which may include sound discrimination fine enough to understand speech in quiet environments. Post-implantation rehabilitative therapy is often critical to ensuring successful outcomes.
As of 2006, approximately 100,000 people worldwide had received cochlear implants, with recipients split almost evenly between children and adults. The vast majority are in developed countries due to the high cost of the device, surgery and post-implantation therapy. A small but growing segment of recipients have bilateral implants (one implant in each cochlea).
There is disagreement whether providing cochlear implants to children is ethically justifiable, renewing a century-old debate about models of deafness that often pits hearing parents of deaf children against the Deaf community.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA


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New York has announced plans to sue Bank of America and Wells Fargo over their alleged failure to comply with last year's National Mortgage Settlement.
In February 2012, federal officials and attorneys general from 49 states announced a $25 billion settlement with five of the nation's largest banks over robo-signing and other wrongful foreclosure practices. As part of the agreement, the banks agreed to reform their business practices related to loan servicing and foreclosures.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman alleged Monday that Bank of America and Wells Fargo have repeatedly violated this agreement, claiming to have documented 339 cases involving various homeowners. His planned lawsuits mark the first legal actions from federal or state officials over banks' alleged non-compliance with the settlement.
"The five mortgage services that signed the National Mortgage Settlement are legally required to take specific, rigorous and enforceable steps to protect homeowners," Schneiderman said in a statement. "Wells Fargo and Bank of America have flagrantly violated those obligations, putting hundreds of homeowners across New York at greater risk of foreclosure."
Bank of America (BAC) said in a statement that it had "provided relief for more than 10,000 New York homeowners through the National Mortgage Settlement, totaling more than $1 billion."
"Attorney General Schneiderman has referenced 129 customer servicing problems which we take seriously and will work quickly to address," the bank said.
Wells Fargo (WFC) declined to comment.
Related: Obama's pick for housing agency faces big headaches
Under last year's settlement, the five banks -- BofA, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan (JPM), Citi (C) and Ally -- agreed to pay $5 billion to the states and the federal government, with the rest coming in the form of non-cash relief for homeowners like refinancing and principal reduction.
The banks also agreed to implement a package of standards for the handling of homeowners seeking loan modifications.
Schneiderman said BofA and Wells Fargo violated the standards by not acknowledging modification applications within the specified time frame, failing to notify borrowers about deficiencies in their applications in timely fashion, not giving borrowers the allotted 30 days to correct their applications, and failing to make decisions about modifications within 30 days.
"Violations of the timeline standards increase the likelihood that distressed homeowners will lose their homes," the statement from Schneiderman said. "Additional fees, penalties and interest accrue during periods of delay, making a modification more difficult and pushing homeowners closer to the brink of foreclosure."


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Sarasota, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - The Baltimore Orioles signed pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez to a four-year contract on Wednesday.
The 30-year-old is coming off a strong rebound season, posting a 13-9 record and a 3.30 earned run average over 32 starts with the Indians and striking out 194 batters in 182 2/3 innings.
Jimenez finished third in the National League Cy Young Award voting in 2010 after amassing a 19-8 record with a 2.88 ERA with the Colorado Rockies, but went just 19-30 with a 5.03 ERA over the next two seasons prior to last year's bounce-back campaign. He led the majors with 17 losses in 2012.
Over eight major league seasons with Colorado and Cleveland, the Dominican right-hander has gone 82-75 with a 3.92 ERA.


text:
Disturbing Realism Recorded in Chronicle
- Susan Ellingburg Crosswalk.com Contributing Writer
- 2012 9 Feb
DVD Release Date: May 15, 2012
Theatrical Release Date: February 3, 2012
Rating: PG-13 (for intense action and violence, thematic material, some language, sexual content and teen drinking)
Genre: Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
Run Time: 83 min.
Director: Josh Trank
Actors: Dane DeHaan, Michael B. Jordan, Alex Russell, Michael Kelly
It's a story of friendship found and lost. A story of ordinary mortals turned superheroes (of a sort). A story of what might happen if immature, adolescent boys were given overwhelming powers. Things go about as well as you might expect... which is to say, not well at all.
Andrew (Dane DeHaan, TV's In Treatment) is the misfit of the group, a slightly creepy loner with a dying mother, abusive alcoholic father, and a new video camera. He decides to 'chronicle' everything and takes his camera everywhere, which is how we manage to get in on the action. Andrew first uses the camera as a barrier to keep a safe distance from other people but before long, he's living vicariously through the lens and hardly seems to exist off-camera, even in his own mind. (It's a credit to DeHaan's skillful performance that we easily follow his emotional journey even while he holds his feelings so close.)
Andrew's only claim to friendship is his cousin Matthew (Alex Russell), a likeable boy who tries to drag his lame cousin out of his shell. Matthew drags Andrew along to a party (camera in tow) where they join forces with popular "vote for me" Steve (Michael B. Jordan, Red Tails) to explore a... thing. What the thing is remains unclear, but it gives the three boys bloody noses—and supernatural powers.
The three boys do a stellar job of making their "types" into believable characters navigating the swirling waters of high school with various levels of success. They seem normal, even when playing football in the clouds or building Lego structures sans hands. There's no comic book "we can save the world" kind of plot twist here, just the logical progression of boys who discover they have singular powers. What average guy wouldn't use that gift to play a few practical jokes or try to break into the popular crowd and get in good with the ladies?
Former victim Andrew revels in his new-found power and popularity. Matthew is the conscientious one, trying to impose rules and sanity on the group, while Steve just wants everybody to be happy and have a good time. The story follows the arc of the three boys' unlikely friendship until it all goes horribly wrong. How could it not? Power corrupts, and when power is given to boys with minimal moral standards (not to mention raging hormones and emotional issues), misuse and mayhem is inevitable.
Impressively, especially for a teen film, the dialogue is unforced and sadly natural ("sadly" because while the language is often coarse, it's also typical of many high school-ers). The "found film" documentary style of Chronicle could have been annoying, but instead manages to appear remarkably realistic. It helps that Andrew soon learns to hold his camera through telekinesis, resulting in a steady picture. Even later, when our young protagonists are too busy to hold a camera, we keep up on the action through security camera footage, camera phones, and the like. While this may sound contrived, it doesn't feel that way.
Unfortunately, all this realism makes the film sometimes hard to watch. Andrew's dysfunctional home life has left him so emotionally crippled he doesn't seem to grasp the concept of right and wrong. He has a lot of rejection and pent-up anger to manage—and that, coupled with the ability to crush a car with one hand, is an explosive combination.
Adding to the discomfort is the plight of Andrew's mother, a chronically-ill woman who can't afford her pain meds. (A bit of a political statement with this subplot?) It's her situation that finally pushes Andrew over the edge. Without his frightful powers he still might have become a serial killer; he gives off that kind of vibe. But with them... let's just say that at the end of the film the city of Seattle has some serious rebuilding to do.
- Drugs/Alcohol: Implied drug or tobacco use; alcoholic (and frequently drunk) adult shown surrounded by beer bottles; much discussion of drunkenness; adults drinking; teen drinking at parties. Terminally ill woman shown needing medication the family can't afford.
- Language/Profanity: Profanity not constant, but common. Sh**, pus**, ***hole, dou***bag, bi***, bullsh**, scre** up, son calls father "idiot", the Lord's name taken in vain several times in a variety of ways, violent nosebleed referred to as a "face period," significant hostility, disrespect, and name-calling even when not using profanity.
- Sex/Nudity: Sex is much discussed, sometimes accompanied by lewd gestures; boys describe themselves as another boy's "mistress" in response to his girlfriend's jealousy; camera lingers on cheerleaders in uniform and miscellaneous 'booty'; girls' skirts are blown by fan to show underwear; teen boy shown apparently in between sexual encounters with a girl; teen described as "becoming a man" as he is presumed to be losing his virginity at a party; girl shown leaving room after failed intercourse, the boy is pulling up his pants (wearing underwear), he appears to have thrown up on her; scantily-clad girls at various parties; girl drapes herself over boy; several couples shown leaving parties to have sex, kissing, foreplay . . . in short, there's a lot of teen sex either wished for, talked about, attempted, or accomplished throughout the film.
- Violence: Abusive father slaps around son who later returns the favor; fistfights; one boy has teeth ripped out and we later see the perpetrator admiring his dental trophies; bullying accompanied by shoving and punches; car forced through guardrail into water; boy struck by lighting (fatally); boy hit by airplane and later by a bus; man blames son for wife's death; as time goes on the action becomes progressively more violent with guns, robbery, shooting, attempted murder, explosions, helicopter crashes, buildings demolished, bodies and vehicles tossed through the air and dropped from great heights; multiple instances of blood and injuries shown; one character impaled with a giant spear. Not for the squeamish.
- Spiritual Themes: One boy is fond of quoting philosophers. After a prank the boys say, "Ignore us, we're just Mormons." (To be fair, it might have been "morons" since their enunciation wasn't exactly clear.) The boys talk about going to Tibet to visit the "enlightened" monks there as a way to find peace. One character says "You're not a bad person and that's what matters" which is interesting considering the havoc wrought by said not-bad person. None of the characters have much of a moral compass.


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31 Jul
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Sunday, March 29, 2009
Urban wetlands
I'd recently visited the Hulimavu lake, a fairly large lake just half a kilometre from Bannerghatta road, one of the busiest roads in the city. This road is filled with apartment complexes and office blocks, with traffic that usually moves at 5 miles an hour on good days. Not surprisingly, this lake is under severe stress. There is plenty of legal and illegal construction all around the lake, and much of the lakebed has been encroached. Many of the other construction sites nearby use the lake as a convenient dumping ground for excavated earth. Along one channel, untreated sewage is slowly being discharged into the lake. A whole lot of people seem to use parts of the lakebed like a public toilet. And there are roads running all around the lake, on what clearly was the lake's spillover bed. As is sadly the case in most Indian cities, the local residents are either unaware or unable or unwilling to do anything about this.
In spite of this, there remains an incredible diversity of life in and around the lake. We decided to take our binoculars and see what birds still inhabit the lake. I was more than pleasantly surprised at what we saw. There were plenty of brown pariah kites, and a few magnificient copper and white brahminy kites (and we were also able to follow a couple of them to their nest, on a nearby eucalyptus tree). There were also plenty of cattle and little egrets all around the lake. In addition, we saw a couple of grey herons in statuesque stillness, waiting for their next fish or frog to swim by, and a good number of moorhen pottering around the wetland. In the lake itself there were a good number of Eurasian coots swimming around, as well as a few snake-necked darters out hunting. These were just the confirmed sightings in a span of about 15 minutes of standing by the lake with Salim Ali's indispensible handbook, which makes it more than likely that many more waterfowl inhabit the lake.
Urban wetland management unfortunately is not much of a concept in most of India. Yet this lake is just one example of the kind of diversity and richness of life in lakes around the city. It is also a fine example of a lake that could easily be made into a city nature park. To do that, only a little needs to be done to protect the wetland. Obviously, preventing encroachment around the lake would be a priority, as would be stopping the flow of untreated sewage that is choking the lake would be an obvious other step. In addition, the usual mismanagement of "lake development" that most city authorities eagerly embrace should be avoided. Usually, the city decides to build a big "garden" around lakes, which means manicured lawns, paved paths, lots of flowers and trees that don't usually grow in wetlands, and a complete destruction of the wetland around lakes. This usually ends up slowly killing the lake. Most of these birds live and nest amidst the reeds that grow in lake wetlands, nurturing a rich ecosystem that supports frogs, breeding fish, small reptiles and small insects. Unfortunately, "beautifying" or "developing" lakes by building parks only breeds mosquitoes (by killing off fish and dragonflies that eat them, and breed in the reeds). The Yediyur lake in Jayanagar was a thriving lake that was killed off by just this effort of "development". First came some lawns, and then there were motor boats and motor scooters, and now it is just a little swamp that breeds mosquitoes.
Instead, if the city could declare some of the lakes of Bangalore protected wetlands, and then spend a pittance on preserving the wetlands, we would be left with wonderful city parks where children and adults alike could spend evenings or weekends observing a diversity of birdlife and plant life (in addition to perhaps small amounts of regulated recreational fishing). It would be a chance to educate and enrich our own lives, and reconnect with nature in the heart of a stressful urban environment. A fond memory of mine is the environment around Lake Washington, in Seattle, right by the magnificent Husky Stadium. The wetlands around the lake are now carefully protected, and there is a beautiful little nature trail, with a description of the flora and fauna around the lake, as well as the importance of wetlands for human survival. People relax here now on weekends, paddle in little canoes, or walk around the unpaved nature trails, or spend lazy sunday afternoons trying to fish (with a permit). Yet this wasn't always so, and the lake and wetland had nearly been killed in the sixties, and a massive restoration effort of over twenty years revived it. Here, we have wonderful living lakes in the midst of a massive metropolis. Do we need to sacrifice them in the name of "development", or can we learn to live with them, and allow them to make our lives so much better?
7 comments:
- Meera Baindur said...
Good Blog. The values that you talk about in the lake are mainly aesthetic, inspired by an idea of nature being a place for relaxation.
When we did our project on hebbal we found that lakes which are stable are never water bodies like that of the US. They are rain fed and will dry up in summer. To expect them to be full, blue and clean and green all the time means they are to be " managed" or developed. Its right that the sewage and other urban effects need to be countered but also sometimes it still worries me that we buy into the romantic philosophy of landscapes or into functionality. I wonder if there ever be a middle path.
- Sunil said...
meera....thanks for your comments. I didn't ever mention that lakes in B'lore will remain blue, clean and green. Quite the contrary! Lakes are indeed rain fed and do dry up, but that is part of their natural system. What I said is that I hope to see them untroubled in the name of development, and I hope their lake bed (which is a large dry plain in summer) remains "undeveloped" in the typical sense here. Lakes, even in the US, are of very different types. Most lakes in Texas for example, are man-made, storing rainwater. On the other hand, in the northwest, you have spring and rainfed natural lakes, with a very different wetland system. So too are the lakes in Tennessee or Louisiana very different. The common theme there though is that they are all largely allowed to remain in their natural health, with their wetlands managed, even if they are in the midst of a large urban area.
- xanindia said...
Good preservation scheme. At least the environment is now at the forefront of every concerned citizen. It takes courage to start restoring the "damage"
- Sanjeev Saikia said...
Hi Sunil,
Loved your article. I especially liked the bit about signboards near the Washington lake that explains the importance of wetlands in human survival. Maybe a low cost signboard campaign near all natural areas could make a difference. I will discuss with my friends in nature and birdwatching clubs here in Delhi.
Meanwhile do hop over to my blog www.sanjeevsaikiaart.blogspot.com and check it out. The post 'Spare sparrows' is actually about birdlife conservation.
- bnihal.com said...
you website have great content!
- This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
- Unknown said...
Dear members,
I just created a new website dedicated to all aspects of urban hydrosystems worldwide (e.g. biology, ecology, biodiversity, conservation, restoration, urban arts, pictures, books reviews, events etc...)
I would like to publish the most impressive photos on urban hydrosystems within a special page on the site.
If you agree, you can send me your pics about urban streams with: your name, the name of the place where the pics were taken, the copyright and your e-mail.
at: firstname.lastname@example.com
Also, in the same way, you can send me your news, papers conferences annoucement, sites adress etc.. by using the same adress.
All content will be soon available!
It's a non profit-website!!
Nicolas Maughan
Urban Ecology
Université de Provence


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Tonight at nine o'clock EST, US president Barack Obama will lay out his governing agenda for the next year, taking advantage of the bully pulpit provided by the State of the Union address to make the case for his preferred policies. But he'll face a challenge leveraging public opinion simply because adding his name to bipartisan policies causes conservatives to drop their support like a hot potato.
Check out this polling from the Washington Post:
Obama can mobilize Democrats effectively, but the bigger problem is getting conservatives on board with ideas like a path to citizenship, the proposal at the heart of efforts to fix the United States' faulty immigration system. That reform seems tantalizingly within reach this year, thanks to Republican support absent from issues like climate change and gun control.
The president's advisors, under pressure from his party's leaders in Congress, will try to walk a fine line between offering "leadership"—support for specific policy proposals—and letting legislators come to agreement in such a way that Republicans can distance themselves from a White House that is radioactive among their party's base. On immigration, Republican Senator Marco Rubio is working as a trusted messenger to bring conservatives on board with an idea they distrust—the path to citizenship—and the White House will be loathe to hurt that effort.
This can be hard. During the health care debate in 2009, senior Republican senator Chuck Grassley told reporters that a mandate for citizens to purchase health insurance was "a bipartisan consensus," indeed, part of a long-standing series of conservative health care proposals. That policy became central to Obama's health care overhaul. The next year, Grassley said he considered it "unconstitutional," and the mandate was a key talking point in Republican opposition to the bill, eventually enacted on a party-line vote. Unfortunately, most legislation can't pass the Senate with Democratic votes alone, so Obama will need to couch his positions in ways that will make his hunt for Republican support easier.
So if you're reading the tea leaves tonight and are disappointed if Obama doesn't strongly endorse your favorite policy, remember that he might be doing you a favor.
More State of the Union notes:
- They usually don't change a lot of minds.
- Three asks from Bloomberg's editorial board: Immigration, inequality and climate change.
- Apple CEO Tim Cook will be there, of course.


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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush marked the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war on Wednesday by calling the debate over the conflict "understandable" but insisting that a continued U.S. presence there is crucial.
President Bush marks the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war with a speech Wednesday at the Pentagon.
"The answers are clear to me," Bush said in a speech at the Pentagon five years from the day the war began in 2003.
"Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision, and this is a fight America can and must win."
Almost 4,000 American troops have died in the war, a painful toll that Bush acknowledged.
"No one would argue that this war has not come at a high cost in lives and treasure, but those costs are necessary when we consider the cost of a strategic victory for our enemies in Iraq," the president said. Watch Bush say how the war must be won »
Bush said victory in Iraq demonstrates American resolve and will prevent attacks on targets in the United States.
"Defeating this enemy in Iraq will make it less likely we will face this enemy here at home," he said.
Bush contends the so-called troop surge he ordered in January 2007 has been a success and was necessary at a point when "the fight in Iraq was faltering."
"The surge has done more than turn the situation in Iraq around; it has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror," he said.
"For the terrorists, Iraq was supposed to be the place where al Qaeda rallied Arab masses to drive America out. Instead, Iraq has become the place where Arabs joined with Americans to drive al Qaeda out." Watch CNN correspondents recall "shock and awe" »
He called Iraq the first place where Muslims have participated in a "large-scale uprising" against Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.
"We will show that men and women who love liberty can defeat the terrorists," Bush said.
"A free Iraq will fight terrorists rather than harbor them."
Still, large-scale attacks by terrorists and insurgent groups continue in Iraq. Bombings killed six Iraqis and wounded 51 in northeastern Baghdad and Mosul on Tuesday, and the death toll from a Monday suicide bombing in Karbala rose to 50.
Bush said critics of the war -- such as Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- "can no longer credibly argue that we are losing in Iraq, so now they argue the war costs too much." Watch Obama blame war on Bush, Congress »
Earlier this month, two economists wrote a column suggesting that the war will wind up costing the United States more than $3 trillion.
The March 9 opinion piece in The Washington Post was authored by Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton, and Linda J. Bilmes, a former chief financial officer at the U.S. Commerce Department.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, has cited the $3 trillion figure when criticizing the Bush administration's position on the war.
In his speech, Bush called the projected cost "exaggerated."
But he admitted more costs and tough fighting remain, pointing to recent battles against extremists in northern Iraq. But he said any U.S. pullout would put peace at risk in the greater Mideast, emboldening al Qaeda and Iran.
Despite Bush's arguments, the war remains unpopular with Americans.
In a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted Friday through Sunday, fewer than one in three respondents -- 32 percent -- said they support the war, while 66 percent said they oppose it. Sixty-one percent of those polled said the next president should remove most U.S. troops from Iraq "within a few months of taking office."
Meanwhile, two of the world's leading humanitarian groups said this week the situation in Iraq leaves little room for optimism.
"Despite claims that the security situation has improved in recent months, the human rights situation is disastrous," Amnesty International says in a report titled "Carnage and Despair: Iraq Five Years On."
And the International Committee of the Red Cross, in a report called "Iraq: No Let-up in the Humanitarian Crisis," writes, "Despite limited improvements in security in some areas, armed violence is still having a disastrous impact." E-mail to a friend
All About Iraq War • Al Qaeda in Iraq


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Your Dream Kitchen Starts Here!
Your dream kitchen starts here! At Bestway Cabinets, we know that remodeling a kitchen can be stressful — but it doesn't have to be. Talk with one of our experts and we can help you with the entire process of selecting your Pickerington, OH kitchen cabinets. From helping you choose your cabinet style, to installation, our kitchen cabinet professionals are here to assist.
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One of the most sought after names in the world of denim, Kapital hail from the jean capital of Japan, the city of Kurashiki's portside Kojima district. Originally a sewing and dyeing factory that produced product for other companies, Kapital parlayed their years of hard won expertise into their own signature label, launched in 1996.
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Sindh, Pakistan – Shuhadah e Badar – FZHH Water Well# 1435
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
🌹Giving Charity for the Love of the Deceased 🌹
"The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (S.A.W) said, 'When a person gives charity on behalf of a deceased person, an angel comes to them and says, 'May your own charity be accepted, and may God forgive the one for whom you gave charity, and may He bring them into Paradise without any account being taken of their deeds.'" (Sahih Bukhari)
Dedicate your Charity for the Souls of those whom you love.
al Hamdulillah under the blessed guidance of Shaykh Nurjan Mirahmadi, FZHH & its Sindh, Pakistan volunteers participated in our Build a Well Project by installing another beautiful Water Well MashAllah.
MashAllah with Shaykh Nurjan's blessings, Water Well details are:
Well no 1435: This well is installed in Village Wali Muhammad Bhati , Kotdiji, Sindh. Dedicated by Shuhadah e Badar.
Shokran to all those who supported and participated.
Please continue with your support so FZHH can install many more Water Wells.
Build A Water Well
Over 1800+ wells have been installed! You can either donate to install well or send 29 USD to go towards repair work. Water is essential to life, yet millions of people live wi...Donate Now


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We interview highly respected experts about business, management, marketing, relationships and self-improvement all in 20-minutes or less. New Podcasts air every Mon-Wed-Fri at 7am Eastern. David Brower is a 5-time Voice Arts Awards Nominee, his most recent was for this Podcast. There are over 300 episodes and counting. You can always find us at https://www.davidbrowervo.com/your20minutepodcast/
Nov 29, 2019
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We have created over 350 interviews with experts about business, management, marketing, self-improvement, and relationships all in 20-minutes or less.
We quit producing new Podcasts 11/30/19 so we hope you enjoy the many that we have ready for your ears.
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Spy group has embedded tools in foreign networks, systems
A cyberspy group using tools similar to those of U.S. intelligence agencies has embedded spy and sabotage firmware in systems and networks in countries including Iran, Russia, Pakistan and China, a report by security vendor Kaspersky Lab claims. Kaspersky said that the tools can't be combated by antivirus products and are also able to stealthily obtain a computer's encryption keys in order to read otherwise protected data.
Sony forges ahead with its SmartEyeglass
Google may have backed off from Glass, but Sony is moving ahead with plans to get its own specs into the hands of developers. It said Tuesday that it will release its Android-compatible smart glasses for US$840 in early March, targeting developers and industrial applications ahead of a commercial release in 2016.
Infosys buy will let it automate some jobs
Tech workers' worries about jobs being outsourced seem almost quaint now that AI developments are leading to more jobs being taken over by machines. The latest indicator of the trend: To help boost its bottom line without adding headcount, Indian outsourcer Infosys will acquire U.S.-based Panaya, which sells technology for automated testing of enterprise software deployments.
Samsung is ready to push its chip manufacturing to the next level
Samsung Electronics is set to begin manufacturing chips with 14-nanometer process technology, and will likely use those processors in its next flagship phone, the Galaxy S due to debut at Mobile World Congress next month, re/code reports. The chips should be faster and more power-efficient in mobile devices than those such as Qualcomm's, which are manufactured at 20-nm.
Microsoft aims to prove its cloud is really private
In a move that is meant to assuage international customers' ongoing sensitivities over storing their data with American cloud providers, Microsoft said Monday that it has adopted a relatively new standard for cloud privacy. The British Standards Institute has verified that Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online, as well as Azure, are in line with the ISO/IEC 27018 code for protecting personal data in the public cloud. In practical terms, that also means the company is committed to notifying customers if a government requests their data.
Toshiba offers a peek at swappable camera component for Project Ara phones
Toshiba is showing off some prototype camera modules for forthcoming Project Ara smartphones, PetaPixel reports. The idea behind Project Ara is to create an ecosystem of smartphone components out of which consumers can assemble a handset that meets their personal specifications.
Apple Watch won't be the device originally imagined
When Apple's much talked about Watch goes on sale in April, it won't have all the functionality that its developers once dreamed of, the Wall Street Journal says. Ambitious plans for a more highly functional health monitoring tool ran up against technical limitations and regulatory concerns. The paper also said that Apple is asking suppliers to make between five and six million of the devices in the first quarter.
Watch now
… and listen now: Go on a binaural audio tour of New York City with the Verge.
One last thing
What's going on inside Google's Project X? The New York Times says that investors are asking that question with a tinge of impatience, after the labs' Google Glass failed to become a breakthrough success.


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Book review: Bizarre England by David Long
This fascinating fact is just one of a captivating cornucopia of England's most bizarre secrets and surprises unearthed for our entertainment and delight by writer David Long, a long-time admirer of the country's quirky history and habits.
From weird buildings and eccentric museums to the daftest laws and the most gruesome punishments, Long takes us on a journey through England's forgotten folklore, strange traditions, local myths, oddball attractions and extraordinary inhabitants.
We visit places like Devon's Gnome Reserve, a church for dragon slayers, a subterranean ballroom, Teapot Island and the White Hart in Canterbury, the only pub in England with a chute for dead bodies in its cellar.
Call in at Westminster Abbey where, at his coronation in 1821, George IV employed prizefighters as bouncers to prevent his estranged wife, Caroline of Brunswick, from gaining entry to the building.
Snigger at some of the country's rudest place names… Claggy Bottom in Hertfordshire, North Piddle in Worcestershire and Wham Bottom Lane in Rochdale, and enjoy some of our most bizarre museums… a gas museum in Leicester, a mustard museum in Norwich and Southport's very own lawnmower museum!
Discover some of England's most bizarre sporting moments, like a cricket match held at a private asylum in Wiltshire in 1849 billed as Sane v. Insane. Happily, the inmates were declared the winners by a margin of 61 runs.
Meet Tommy the 117-year-old tortoise who has lived with the same family in Surrey through the reigns of six monarchs, cost the princely sum of £1 at Croydon market and was not identified as a female until she laid several eggs a few years before her 100th birthday.
We are also a nation of great inventors, not least a square bullet patented in 1718 by English lawyer James Puckle who specified that they were to be used only for killing Ottoman Turks, and more recently, the world's largest fart machine invented by a Lincolnshire man who aimed it squarely at France.
Indeed, necessity has long been the mother of invention in England… Plasticine was invented in 1897 by an art teacher looking for some non-drying clay that his students could use for practice purposes.
But perhaps the true height of eccentricity was reached in London in 1834, the day before the statue of Lord Nelson was winched into place atop his iconic column in Trafalgar Square. Fourteen brave souls sat down to a windswept meal served on a platform at the very summit, making their al fresco dinner venue one of the world's earliest pop-up restaurants.
Long's amazing, amusing and thoroughly entertaining collection of English oddities is proof, perhaps, that England may be a small nation but its wealth and breadth of idiosyncrasies is truly boundless.
(Michael O'Mara, hardback, £9.99)


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Whales Sing When and Where They Wanna
Humpback whales sing most frequently where and when they breed. But researchers have discovered that whales can sing complex songs even when diving and foraging, when it's neither the time nor the place for mating behavior. The study is published in the journal PLoS ONE. [Alison K. Stimpert et al., Humpback Whale Song and Foraging Behavior on an Antarctic Feeding Ground]
Researchers tagged ten humpback whales with suction-cup sensors and tracked each mammal for a full day in Antarctic waters during the fall—the time and place when whales feed rather than breed. While the sensors picked up background song near all of the whales, two individuals performed long, complex songs more suited to mating behavior. They even sang while on feeding lunges more than 100 meters below the surface.
The fact that these whales can vocalize even under widely different water pressures may help us figure out how they produce their songs. And more important, the overlap in breeding and feeding activities proves humpback and other baleen whales are way more behaviorally flexible than we thought. Unlike some human singers, they are definitely not one-hit wonders.
—Sophie Bushwick
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
[Whale Audio Credit: Stimpert AK, Peavey LE, Friedlaender AS, Nowacek DP (2012) Humpback Whale Song and Foraging Behavior on an Antarctic Feeding Ground. PLoS ONE 7(12): e51214. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0051214]


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So, while I thought it was rather obvious that this wasn't signed off by a client in "file under not surprised", and DMVawter posted "Cannes Lions pedophilia ad: Demand a retraction or demand a refund." ... we're not quite done with this one yet. Lets poke at it with this here stick one more time.
The credits for the KIA ad according to this years Cannes Lions fest:
WWF 9/11 Tsunami
The credits for the scandalous WWF ad, which I've already told you it reminded me about according to the Clios awards 2009:
I heard from someone in Brazil that salaries (and jobs) depend on the amount of awards one can drag into the agency. This may or may not be true. The pattern with what happened with the WWF ad and this ad is much the same though. Ad is made, ad enters awards, ad is seen by American eyes. US Brand HQ spend massive amounts of time putting out the fires... Meanwhile in Brazil..?
The WWF scandal ended with One Show Banning scam ad entries for five years if they entered ghost ads. What will happen this time? And why does it keep happening?
This is ridiculous. Stupid people (or worse, perverted ones) will always try to get away with this bs, but aren't the judges issued guidelines to filter out this kind of glory-seeking claptrap? Come to think of it, are there no minimum requirements for judges? A) Do you have your own head? B) Does it work? C) Do you occasionally interface with reality?
I could go on. You get the picture. Cannes Lions 2011. Year of the Perv.
The insanity of this as a business model would appear obvious but I have heard that some of the network agencies evaluate performance at a fairly senior level based on the same measures. So the question that needs to be raised at the highest level is, what is the trade off between the alleged value of being able to recruit hot shot creatives, the feel-good factor when your agency hauls in a bunch of hardware at these shows, the glowing press in the trades etc etc, versus the damage the Kia, WWF and related smaller incidents we don't ever hear about do to our reputation as an industry?
In other words, what would you think about a law firm that submitted joke briefs to the court in the name of a client that had no idea it was being done? Or a surgeon who performed some completely unnecessary procedure because it was "edgy?"
As an industry we complain incessantly that clients don't listen. That they don't take our counsel. That they have given away our "seats at the big table" to consultants. That they don't want to pay us what our ideas are worth.
Wonder why?
What the boys in Brazil did to Kia, whether they were a party to it or not, was nothing short of malpractice. And if we say it doesn't matter, if we don't take that sort of thing seriously, then we might as well say that our business is one not to be taken seriously.
Maybe you can get this discussed more widely. It's long overdue.
The thing that angers me when I see stuff like this is that there are plenty of us who play by the rules, who only submit REAL work, and if none of the real work we've done is good enough, then we don't enter. Why? Because we have respect and love for our profession, and for the festival itself.
But that doesn't seem to be the case, even among the judges of these festivals. Do you really expect me to believe that the judges saw this and said "Oh, I'm sure this was real, I don't question it at all"? Give me a fucking break. Thanks to the asshole who entered this piece, someone else who entered probably a very decent piece and who played by the rules, got cheated out of an award that he/she deserved because they gave it to this clown.
Cannes itself doesn't seem to care that the reputation of the festival is going down the toilet. They refuse to punish offenders and cheaters with consequences. When the Mexican Scrabble piece that *almost* won a GP in print got revoked because the piece had been entered the year before as well, that agency (and any agency that breaks the rules) should have been banned from the festival for a couple years. Second time offenders 5 years. Third time offenders should be barred from entering again. But no, that same agency that cheated the year before, cheated **again** as you reported here:
And it even took home some metals. I can't help but question the authenticity of all of their pieces now. Sorry, but they've earned that reputation.
One Show and D&AD Awards have implemented more strict rules precisely because of fiascos like these. Cannes doesn't seem to care much.
I've never understood some of these people either. The biggest reason why I wanted to go into advertising, was because I wanted to see my work on the streets, on TV, in the magazines, etc. I wanted people to see it and to affect their thinking. I never dreamed of doing my "best" work so that it would never be seen by the target audience but only by the eyes of a few festival judges and ad peers. What the hell is the point of that? What satisfaction and gratification do you get, winning something that you cheated at getting and that gets you no respect, but scorn from your peers? It's absurd.
The real glory, comes from the public reacting and noticing your work, not from a roomful of judges
I have never won a Lion in Cannes as of yet. But if I ever do, I have these idiots to thank for really making it seem like an accomplishment that won't be so great anymore.
Now, I have no hard evidence to accuse anyone of anything, but given the track record, one can't be blamed for questioning someone's credibility. This same Brazilian CD who did the spots above (Rodolfo Sampaio), also won a Gold Lion in outdoor in 2007 for this piece:
Ads of the world mistakenly lists as it winning print, but it won outdoor (how you can expect to read an outdoor ad with that size headline is beyond me, but that's beside the point) as you can see in the official winners list:
Which, oddly enough, looks A LOT like this ad which was done the year before:
Coincidence? Maybe. I suppose anything is possible. But if you start building for yourself a reputation for cheating, perhaps you should always be presumed guilty until proved otherwise.
Cannes is one of the business world's great boondoggles, and from experience I can say it's a very pleasant one. As long as Sir Martin and his peers are willing to pony up the pounds to keep it running, that's great. But what isn't great is when scam work like the Kia ad, or the above, which is damaging on any number of levels, is lauded primarily for its ability to offend, and pushes out work done on behalf of real clients that took not only ingenuity to create but courage to sell. Unfortunately that situation will not change unless people start voting with their wallets, which is why I suggested those who lost out to the Kia Pedo-thon work demand their entry fees be returned. It's not too late!
Cannes will really only pay attention when the major agencies decided to boycott and not enter. Both the creative (semi) independents like Goodby, Wieden and Crispin plus at least one major holding company need to finally say "We're not wasting out money losing out to scam."
Only then will Cannes really do something about it.
Submitted by Dabitch on 30. June 2011 - 8:06.
I totally know you were, I was just thinking - hasn't that happened. We've seen good work stripped of awards for minor things, but Ghosts ads seem to get away with it. Or...?
Submitted by Neo on 30. June 2011 - 10:19.
You are dangerous, Dabitch
A friendly acknowledgment of skills.
Submitted by AnonymousCoward (not verified) on 30. June 2011 - 13:10.
The thing that angers me when I see stuff like this is that there are plenty of us who play by the rules, who only submit REAL work, and if none of the real work we've done is good enough, then we don't enter.
The real glory, comes from the public reacting and noticing your work, not from a roomful of judges
Submitted by AnonymousCoward (not verified) on 30. June 2011 - 13:13.
A good kind of dangerous...
A thoughtful remark followed by an afterthought adding to the above remark on skill at seeing past the hype and presenting a clear description of the situation.
Submitted by Dabitch on 1. July 2011 - 16:06.
Yes. We've exchanged. (doesn't mean he knows who on earth he was talking to, but the name "Dabitch" did not phase him ;) )
Submitted by AnonymousCoward (not verified) on 1. July 2011 - 17:28.
This is why you are dangerous.
17:28 hrs comment is a dig on 16:06 hrs comment from out of the blue -- Lurking Troll.
The only dangerous situation I see is the acceptance of "rules are made to be broken". Publishing the full story of an abuse of a client's goodwill and the rules of a contest is a perfect check on misplaced greed. Transparency makes the business of advertising less of a flimflam in the eyes of the public.
I expect that the job is removed already. Due to the obvious reasons:
From an agency point of view: The amount of time and money we spend on entering real jobs made for clients, based on real briefs, jobs that have been approved, jobs we have sold – is huge. It should be obvious that the competition should completely free from essays, ideas from the drawer, and fictive campaigns. Just out of respect for the real work that made it to the competition it should be removed. I guess that disappointment from the agencies that entered in that category makes them act. Loosing to a fictive idea must be completely unacceptable.
From a creative point of view:
If the competition opens up for drawer ideas, what's the point of competing, anyone can come up with a good idea..
From an award show point of view:
We have in CCA seen cheats and fictive work entered, and always removed the work immediately, and never been in a situation where cheats were repeated, if the job is removed, and the award given the the worthy, the case should be over.
@dasmussen – head of Creative Circle Award Jury and CD, (HK) JWT CPH


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The media likes to present the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community as if they speak with one voice, as a monolithic group. But more and more members of that community are speaking out in defense of marriage—between a man and woman.
Doug Mainwaring is one such advocate. An adoptive parent and openly gay man, he is perhaps the unlikeliest opponent of redefining marriage. But his own experience as a parent revealed to him that children need a mom and a dad, and that marriage is ultimately about putting the needs of children before the desires of adults.
In a recent article at Public Discourse titled "I'm Gay and I Oppose Same-Sex Marriage," Mainwaring makes the bold claim that:
To be fully formed, children need to be free to generously receive from and express affection to parents of both genders. Genderless marriages deny this fullness.
Mainwaring reflected on the day-to-day routines of mothering and fathering, and came away with the conviction that children should not be denied the uniqueness of what mothers and fathers bring to their upbringing. As Mainwaring says:
There are perhaps a hundred different things, small and large, that are negotiated between parents and kids every week. Moms and dads interact differently with their children. To give kids two moms or two dads is to withhold from them someone whom they desperately need and deserve in order to be whole and happy.
Mainwaring is also clear on what influenced his thinking about marriage: "Neither religion nor tradition has played a significant role in forming my stance. But reason and experience certainly have."
His reason and experience led him to conclude that marriage is about connecting children to a mom and a dad. As marriage goes before the Supreme Court in late March, it is time to focus on this central matter in the marriage debate. That issue is undermined if marriage is redefined to center the institution on adults, rather than children.


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Designed for 9 or 18 holes golf course fans, you will no longer be able to play without this golf score notebook. Jot down your Birdie, Eagle or Albatros and leave a permanent mark of those memories - sign of the time well spent with your friends and rivals. By going through the pages, you may compare your past achievements as well as your low performances and use these data to bolster up your game. Sheathed in genuine leather, this golf score pad is shipped with a pencil and its very practical size allows it to slip in any pocket. It is also the perfect gift for your golf course friends which may also be customized with an engraving for a more personal feel.
This score pad can record results for 53 rounds.
Labels are in English.
Closed size: 3.54 x 5.51 inches
Please note that the texts of the pages of the Lucrin golf scorecard notebook are in ENGLISH.


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An important column in today's Carolina Journal from Locke Foundation president John Hood, arguing that Governor Easley "has a significant public-relations problem on his hands," though he might not "fully comprehend its magnitude."
Hood took note of Easley's comments at NYU Law School, revealed on Saturday in a Neff/Niolet N&O article: that Nifong had promised not to run if appointed (an assertion reinforced by the language used in Nifong's appointment announcement); that Nifong's pre-primary publicity barrage was improper; that Nifong's behavior "looks bad for North Carolina. It looks bad for the DA's office. It looks bad for the criminal justice system in general."
The problem, Hood correctly points out:
As far as we know, the governor didn't attempt to rein Nifong in. A former prosecutor himself, Easley seems never to have intervened to encourage theNot an impressive performance, to put it mildly.
office to do its job properly. When the case took a turn for the outrageous, he didn't ask for Nifong's resignation. Durham
What's worse, when Nifong filed to run for DA last year and drew a strong challenge from Freda Black, Easley didn't bother to mention that Nifong had lied to him about his political intentions. Democratic primary voters might well have valued that piece of information. By the fall, when Nifong's malfeasance was clearly evident, Easley made no move to set the record straight. He did nothing.


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In France, A Muslim Offensive Against Evolution
A controversial Turkish-born preacher, who never appears live in public, is spreading a Koran-inspired defense of creationism. For some young French Muslims, this frontal attack on Darwin rings true.
ÉVRY – On a recent Friday evening, Maroua Gousa was standing behind the latticed wooden partition in the Évrymosque'ssection reserved for women, watching a presentation projected onto a screen below in the large prayer hall for men. Fond of exploring religious ideas and practices, the 19-year-old student is taking part in a debate with 200 other participants in this city just south of Paris.
The gathering is actually the most recent instalment of a new attack aimed at the science of evolution by Haroun Yahya, an outspoken Turkish-born Muslim advocate of creationism, who is considered widely controversial within the Islamic world.
Haroun Yahya, the pseudonym of Adnan Oktar, never presents himself in person, speaking either by video or through zealous representatives armed with grandiloquent tracts distributed for free. In France, he had already made himself known in 2007 when he attempted to introduce thousands of copies of his Atlas de la Création into French schools. His work purports to scientifically demonstrate "the frauds and dictatorship" of the evolution of the species theory.
But since January, the 55-year-old with a well-trimmed beard has launched a new campaign that is clearly targeting the Muslim faithful. Dressed in a traditional black robe decorated with rhinestones and a white veil that she wears "only" when she comes to the mosque, Maroua admits that she has always wondered about "the dinosaurs and the origin of man…but at school, it cannot be refuted: we're taught that man descended from monkeys. At home and in the Koran, we're taught that we descended from Adam and Eve, and that God created all living beings."
Ali Sadun Engin, Yahya's representative in the current tour of French mosques, seems to have convinced the young girl. "I find his explanations logical," she says. The proof for creationism is demonstrated with some perfunctory presentations of fossils, including bear, crocodile, and tortoise skulls, and can be summarized in a few brief sentences: "If fish left the water to walk, if dinosaurs were transformed into birds, then we should discover fossils of these beings in transition. However this is not the case. Science thus shows one sole truth: creation as we know it from the Koran."
Based on this fact, he jokes about "frogs transformed into princes." Ali Sadun Engin insists that a "Muslim cannot be a Darwinist." Yaha himself has promised seven million dollars to anyone who brings him a fossil from one of the transitional species.
The scientific content of these works by someone who has studied only art and philosophy in Istanbul was judged to be of "pathetically poor quality" by French academics appointed in 2007 by the Education Ministry to evaluate Atlas de la Création. His methods are nevertheless known to be as effective as those used by American evangelicals, and he isn't afraid to shock participants. Ali Sadun Engin invoked Hitler and 9/11 in order to declare that "all Darwinists are not terrorists, but all terrorists are Darwinists."
The discussion on the origins of life appears to hit its target in the audience, a mixture of "mainline" believers and devout fundamentalists. Amadou Bah, a 26-year-old student of finance, is happy to have these "clarifications." "Like all Muslims, I am a believer in the theory of creation, but I didn't have arguments to defend it," she says.
"At school, we believed the teachers, but here their theses are disproved: they don't have the truth," adds Yanina Gelassi, a 19-year-old student veiled in black. Nouri Hamid, 28, a doctoral student in genetics, is not "totally in agreement that there is a complete lack of evidence for the evolution of species," but he also declares that "science has never demonstrated the connection between homo sapiens and man."
Similarly, the "concordist" approach to the Koran, defended by the conference speakers, is popular among young Muslims. This concept states that the recent scientific discoveries only confirm the scientific content of the sacred book. "This proves to us that, despite all of the research, God has said and written everything down in the Koran nearly 1,400 years ago," says Najoua Oubaya, a 21-year-old saleswoman.
"These discussions are good for the people because they prove that the West has discovered nothing, and that Islam is superior, even scientifically," explained Nidhal Guessoum, a Muslim astrophysicist, in Le Monde in 2009. The author of Réconcilier l'Islam et la sciecne moderne: l'esprit d'Averroès (Reconciling Islam and Modern Science: The Spirit of Averroes), he describes the methods of Yahya as "do-it-yourself," and defends the search for connections between science and faith, just as has been done in Christianity. In 1996, John Paul II confirmed that the theory of evolution was "more than a hypothesis," but the Catholic Church maintains that science is not the sole contributor to the explanation of the origin of life, as Benedict XVI recalled in 2007.
"The scientific manipulations of Haroun Yahya are alarming for the Muslim community," says Saïd Branine, who runs the site Oumma.com, and organized a training on the topic.
Branine said he is worried by the lack of reflection among Muslims about the relationship between science and religion. "Creation is subject to faith, and many fear that by questioning this belief, they question the cause of their faith as well," he said. "This demonstrates the need to train Muslim intellectuals. All the more so because Yahya has abundant resources." The source of the funds that supports Yahya's Foundation for Scientific Research remains a well-kept secret.
photo - www.harunyahya.com


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Tuesday, December 29, 2009
11 comments:
I think the bird was just admiring the lovely Conti tire.ReplyDelete
Ooh, love love love the seagull shot. And the group near the bench really makes it. Nice angle!ReplyDelete
dteve/ or being narcissistic on those shiny fenders...ReplyDelete
thanks tamagosan ;-)
You picked my favorite touristy place in sf! Love! And the bird's so perfect too!ReplyDelete
palace of fine arts + bike = wowReplyDelete
very nice!
Sounds like fun. I enjoy taking touristy photos :)ReplyDelete
I know I'm probably looking at the wrong thing here but... is that a knitted cover I see on your D-lock?ReplyDelete
maryJo/ it is quite a fave of mine as well ;-)ReplyDelete
fridaycyclotourist/ thx!! <3
dottie/ he heee, much appreciated dottiez
natalie/ ah yes, a lovely gift from my busbozo, will post pictures shortly :D good eye!
Ooh, yes, would love more info re: U-lock cover (or link to a pattern so I could indenture my knitting friends into "surprising" me). Nice touch; those things get sooooo cold and I always seem to stub my finger, whatever that means, but you know how that happens... :-)ReplyDelete
Wow - stunning! There's so much to see/do in SF.ReplyDelete
'Mine' LOL. Totally made my day.
tamagosan/ yes, you saw that recent post :D that cozy will certainly be around in future pics ;-)ReplyDelete
christa/ little nemo is the best!!


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Webinar replay: Spring Boot - Simplifying Spring for Everyone
Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.Join For Free
Speaker: Phil Webb
Modern systems are no longer the monolithic deployments that they once were. The promise of true 'service oriented architecture' is finally here, and systems are now being composed from small, discrete, self contained units. But with more applications to write, and more deployments to manage, are you looking for something to help ease the pain? Are you fed up with searching stackoverflow for copy-paste configuration, do you want to write apps that can 'just run'? Perhaps you are just starting out with Spring and want a quick way to learn the basics without manually downloading and installing half the Internet?
In this webinar Phil Webb will demonstrate how Spring Boot can take you from zero to Spring with minimal fuss. We will look at how you can rapidly prototype Spring applications using Groovy, and how Spring Configuration in Java applications can be radically simpler. We will show how you can embed tomcat into your applications and turn a few lines of Java into a production ready, executable jar that is less the 8 Mb.
Published at DZone with permission of Pieter Humphrey, DZone MVB. See the original article here.
Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.


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First Watch: Family Band, 'Night Song'
For Family Band's Kim Krans, music and visual imagery are inexorably intertwined as means of expressing a dark, delicate vision. Recording with her guitarist husband Jonny Ollsin as Family Band, she's crafted a beautifully unsettling ballad in "Night Song," but it's almost difficult to imagine hearing it without the visuals she created for its video:
The video's concept, for those who haven't yet clicked the play button, is simple: As its director, Krans had cameraman Joshua Allen shoot footage of her face as she sang "Night Song," then laid a succession of drawings over her own image. Some of the drawings are sparkling or psychedelic; others are portentous, playful and even ridiculous. She's essentially drawing graffiti on herself — in the name of art, sport, even comedy.
The effect is a video that commands rapt attention and slow-motion study. We reached out to Krans to ask her about "Night Song" and the video which helps bring it to life:
Jonny and I wrote "Night Song" on a cassette four-track in our cabin last summer. He came up with a sampled beat and an ornate guitar riff, and I kept the lyrics and melody very stoic and mysterious. The repetitious beat always suggested a slideshow to me; that's where the vision for the projected drawings came from.
I usually make extremely detailed and refined drawings, so making these sort of stupid, crude images was such a release for me. Artists I love the most know when to use dumpiness and simplicity to their advantage — I'm namely thinking of Philip Guston and Louise Bourgeois. The narrative started to take a weird, dark turn toward consumption and feeling generally overwhelmed with all the things we are supposed to be, have, do, look like, feel like... and I just went with it.
Family Band's album, Grace & Lies, is out July 24. For more information, visit their website here.


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|Read the magazine story to find out more.
Minimizing Mining Damage with ManureBy Ann Perry
October 26, 2012
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) research confirms that the time-tested practice of amending crop soils with manure also can help restore soils on damaged post-mining landscapes.
Thousands of acres of land with little or no vegetation, once mined for lead and zinc, remain throughout an area of southwestern Missouri, southeastern Kansas, and northeastern Oklahoma. The mining activities also left behind a legacy of lead-contaminated acidic soils, toxic smelter sites, and large quantities of mine tailings called "chat."
Soil scientist Paul White at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Sugarcane Research Unit in Houma, La., was part of a team that studied whether adding beef manure compost to soil at post-mining sites would provide the carbon needed to support a healthy plant cover. The scientists also wanted to determine if the compost could reduce levels of lead and zinc that could contaminate runoff during heavy rain. ARS is USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency.
The team amended soils in experimental plots from the mine sites with 20 or 120 tons of beef manure compost per acre, and established a cover crop of switchgrass on all the plots. Then they took soil samples from the sites five times during the two-year study.
Two years after the study began, soils in the high-compost plots had significant increases in pH, plant-available phosphorus, total nitrogen, carbon and available water. High-compost amendments also increased microbial biomass, enzyme activity and nitrification potential, all of which create and support favorable conditions for plant establishment and growth.
High rates of compost also lowered lead and zinc availability by about 90 percent, which may reduce the amount of lead and zinc that could run off and pollute nearby waterways. Since high levels of bioavailable zinc inhibit plant growth, this binding action also helps to promote the establishment of a vegetative cover that minimizes runoff and soil erosion.
The team published its findings inApplied Soil Ecology in 2011.
Read more about this study in the October 2012 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.


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New California laws taking effect in 2017
A higher minimum wage, a ban on using "Redskins" as the name of a school team or mascot, and new restrictions on assault weapons are among the latest California laws taking effect with the new year.
Below, what to know about the new laws in California:
Minimum Wage: California's minimum wage will increase from $10 an hour to $10.50 for businesses with 26 or more employees under SB3 by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco. It will eventually rise to $15 an hour in 2022. The law delays the increases by one year for smaller employers.
Assault Weapons: Lawmakers passed a package of bills to strengthen California's already tough gun laws then voters reinforced them by passing even more measures. People who own magazines that hold more than 10 rounds will be required to give them up starting Jan. 1. Buyers must undergo a background check before purchasing ammunition and will be barred from buying new weapons that have a device known as a bullet button.
Gun makers developed bullet buttons to get around California's assault weapons ban, which prohibited new rifles with magazines that can be detached without the aid of tools. A bullet button allows a shooter to quickly dislodge the magazine using the tip of a bullet.
Handgun Storage: Law enforcement officers will be required to follow the same rules as civilians by securely storing handguns in a lockbox out of plain view or in the trunk if the weapons are left in an unattended vehicle. SB 869 by Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, closed a legal loophole that had exempted authorities and concealed weapons permit holders from those rules. The move came after stolen guns were used in high-profile crimes.
Sexual Assault Sentencing: Sexually assaulting an unconscious or severely intoxicated person will become a crime ineligible for probation — a change prompted when former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner was given a six-month jail sentence for assaulting an unconscious woman. AB2888 clarifies that a victim cannot consent to sex while unconscious or incapacitated by drugs, alcohol or medication.
Texting While Driving: Add using traffic apps or updating your Instagram account to the list of things you cannot do while driving. AB1785 by Assemblyman Bill Quirk, D-Hayward, updates California's existing ban on texting while driving to make it clear that state law prohibits the use of any hand-held device in a way that distracts from driving — not just while texting. Motorists can still use devices that are mounted or voice-operated and hands-free.
School Mascots: California public schools will be barred from using the name "Redskins" for sports teams and mascots under AB30 by Assemblyman Luis Alejo, D-Watsonville. American Indians regard the term as offensive.
Child Safety Seats: Children younger than 2 must be in rear-facing child restraint systems unless they weigh 40 or more pounds or are 40 or more inches tall under AB53 by Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, D-Bell Gardens.
Epipens: Businesses can stock EpiPens — used to treat people undergoing life-threatening allergic reactions — under AB1386, which allows pharmacies to dispense the devices to colleges, private businesses and other venues that have a plan in place for using them. Gov. Jerry Brown said he signed the bill because the move has the potential to save lives. However, he called out EpiPen manufacturer Mylan for what he termed "rapacious corporate behavior" by rapidly raising prices.
Building Safety: The state will attempt to better monitor potential safety issues in the wake of a fatal balcony collapse at a Berkeley apartment building that killed six young people in June 2015. SB465 by Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, requires better information-sharing between state and local agencies about contractors, convictions and legal settlements. A working group will have one year to decide whether changes are needed to state building codes after several structure failures.
Right-to-Try: Terminally ill California patients will be allowed to use experimental drugs that do not yet have full regulatory approval under AB1668 by Assemblyman Ian Calderon, D-Whittier. It authorizes but does not require health plans to cover investigational drugs and protects physicians from disciplinary action if they recommend them when other treatment options have been exhausted.
Human Trafficking: Young people under 18 cannot be charged with prostitution and will instead be treated as victims under SB1322 by Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles. It's one of several human trafficking-related bills that include raising the age kids can testify outside a courtroom from 13 to 15, protecting victims' names from disclosure and mandating that they have access to county services.


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A Short Story By O' Henry
Death and Dying:
Last leaf is a short story that entails the treasury of life and the existence of faith and hope. It need to the importance of living and how we deal with the hindrances we battle through our life story. It is a moving story across the traps that come across us in the most significant parts of our lives, the value of life is the centerpiece of story, where all the things go back and revolve…Apart of this story gives us a hint that God is the only one who knows that whether we ride on with life and chances or trail on and be drawn against the judgment, the melodramatic and picturesque setting of the story connects to the negative status of main character facing life and death subject matter.
Johnsy the main character seems to be a very pessimistic person. She has lost the entire positive attitude in life due to her disease and she is waiting for her death.
"Your little lady has made up her mind that she's not going to get well. Has she anything on her mind"
That is the first step of Jhonsy that she has made up her mind that she will die when the last leaf fall. That signifies the mental and psychological conditionn of her and is describing the theme of pessimistic.
"She was looking out of window and counting -counting backwards"
The psychological disturbances shown by O' Henry in these lines as she is tired of waiting that when the last leaf falls, she will be near to death.
"When the last one falls I must go, too."
Here in these lines Henry has showed extreme pessimism.
It is the last one, said Johnsy "I thought it would surely fall during the night. I heard the wind. It will fall today, and I shall die at the same time."
These words literated by jonsy again show her desperate and chaotic state of mind. She has supposed the things which have no logic and waiting for her death, or waiting for the last leaf to fall.
Mr. Behrman risks his life for Johnsy. He has sacrificed his own life, to give life to Johnsy the painting he made at the wall, shows his self sacrificing, kind and noble nature.
He himself catches the pneumonia and dies, but he didn't let Johnsy to die.
With the character of Mr. Buhrmann, O' Henry is showing the sacrificing mature of a man and it gives us a message that self sacrificing is a great deed and one has to kind and gentle towards others. "Mr. Buhrmann died of pneumonia today in hospital."
Theme of hope is very nicely presented in this story. Doctor is a very optimistic person and he tries to make Johnsy realized that is she has made her mind that she will die when the last leaf fall that could be harmful for her. He told her that he can only provide her medicine and that is effective as 50 cent, the next situation is in her hand.
"I subtract 50 percent from the curative power of medicines."
If you will get her to ask one question about the new writer styles in cloak sleeves I will promise you one-in-five chance for her, instead of"
So O' Henry conveys message one never let go for hope and optimist approach in life. It is out state of mind which can bring worse or better for us in our lives
"Sadie, someday I hope to point the bay of Naples"
These lines show Johnsy's desires and aspirations. It gives the picture of hope and this hope in life gives us the spirit of living in this world.
Love and Friendship:
In last leaf O' Henry describes friendship and bondage between two friends. They care and love each other, and she supports Johnsy morally when she falls ill. She proves to be great support for Johnsy and she tries her level best to bring back Johnsy towards life and in the world of optimism.
"Dear, Dear!" said she, learning her won face down to the pillow " think of me, if you won't think of yourself. What would I do?"
These lines show the effective relationship between two friends. Mr. Behrman also shows great deal of love for these girls. Although he is bit careless person but he really cared for Johnsy and his love is shown by his painting for the sake of Johnsy's life.


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NEW YORK, NY – The activity level in our solar system seems to be picking up!
There is growing concern on Earth about the Sun's increase in activity. Ill effects could be felt on Earth, promoting top scientists to meet Tuesday and discuss the best ways to protect Earth's satellites and other vital systems from the coming solar storms.
Solar storms occur when sunspots on our star erupt and spew out flumes of charged particles that can damage power systems. The sun's activity typically follows an 11-year cycle, and it looks to be coming out of a slump and gearing up for an active period.
"The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity," said Richard Fisher, head of NASA's Heliophysics Division. "At the same time, our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar storms. The intersection of these two issues is what we're getting together to discuss."
It's no surprise that 21st century societies rely heavily on technology for almost any task. Smart power grids, GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications can all be knocked out by intense solar activity. A major solar storm could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina, warned the National Academy of Science in a 2008 report.
The bright side of everything is that much of the damage can be mitigated if managers know a storm is coming. That's why preparation and research into the increased activity will be key.
NEW YORK, NY – The activity level in our solar system seems to be picking up!


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In the aftermath of the Civil War, legislators in the Nebraska Territory grappled with the responsibility of forming a state government as well as with the larger issues of reconstructing the Union, protecting civil rights, and redefining federal-state relations. In the years that followed, Nebraskans coped with regional and national economic collapses. Nebraska women struggled for full recognition in the legal profession. Meyer v. Nebraska, a case involving a teacher in a one-room rural Nebraska schoolhouse, changed the course of American constitutional doctrine and remains one of the cornerstones of civil liberties law. And Roscoe Pound, a boy from Lincoln, went on to become one of the nation's great legal philosophers.
Nebraska holds a prominent position in the field of Native American legal history, and the state's original inhabitants have been at the center of many significant developments in federal Indian policy. Nebraska Indian legal history is replete with stories of failure and success, heartache and triumph, hardship and hope. These stories are more than a mere record of the past, of treaties broken or trials won—they are reminders of the ongoing and sometimes tense relations among the many peoples and nations that make up the heartland.
Much of Nebraska law reflects mainstream American law, yet Nebraskans also have been open to experiment and innovation. The state revamped the legislative process by establishing the nation's only unicameral legislature and pioneered public employment collective bargaining and dispute resolution through its industrial relations commission and its relaxation of strict separation of powers. These seemingly contradictory trends, however, are but differing expressions of a single underlying principle inscribed in the state's motto: "Equality Before the Law."