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The Perfect Desktop - Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) (With The Ubuntu Classic Desktop)
This tutorial exists for these OS versions
- Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn)
- Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander)
- Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr)
- Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail)
- Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal)
- Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)
On this page
This tutorial shows how you can set up an Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge.
Ubuntu 11.04 will by default start the new Unity desktop which requires that your hardware supports 3D acceleration. If your hardware does not or you don't like Unity, you can still use the Ubuntu Classic GNOME desktop. I will use the Ubuntu Classic GNOME desktop in this tutorial.
I want to say first that this is not the only way of setting up such a system. There are many ways of achieving this goal but this is the way I take. I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!
1 Preliminary Note
To fully replace a Windows desktop, I want the Ubuntu desktop to have the following software installed:
- The GIMP - free software replacement for Adobe Photoshop
- Shotwell Photo Manager - full-featured personal photo management application for the GNOME desktop
- Google Picasa - application for organizing and editing digital photos
- Firefox
- Opera
- Chromium - Google's open-source browser
- Flash Player 10
- FileZilla - multithreaded FTP client
- Thunderbird - email and news client
- Evolution - combines e-mail, calendar, address book, and task list management functions
- aMule - P2P file sharing application
- Transmission BitTorrent Client - Bittorrent client
- Vuze - Java Bittorrent client
- Empathy IM Client - multi-platform instant messaging client
- Skype
- Google Earth
- Xchat IRC - IRC client
- Gwibber Social Client - open-source microblogging client (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
- LibreOffice Writer - replacement for Microsoft Word
- LibreOffice Calc - replacement for Microsoft Excel
- Adobe Reader
- GnuCash - double-entry book-keeping personal finance system, similar to Quicken
- Scribus - open source desktop publishing (DTP) application
Sound & Video:
- Amarok - audio player
- Audacity - free, open source, cross platform digital audio editor
- Banshee - audio player, can encode/decode various formats and synchronize music with Apple iPods
- MPlayer - media player (video/audio), supports WMA
- Rhythmbox Music Player - audio player, similar to Apple's iTunes, with support for iPods
- gtkPod - software similar to Apple's iTunes, supports iPod, iPod nano, iPod shuffle, iPod photo, and iPod mini
- XMMS - audio player similar to Winamp
- dvd::rip - full featured DVD copy program
- Kino - free digital video editor
- Sound Juicer CD Extractor - CD ripping tool, supports various audio codecs
- VLC Media Player - media player (video/audio)
- RealPlayer - media player (available for i386 systems only)
- Totem - media player (video/audio)
- Xine - media player, supports various formats; can play DVDs
- Brasero - CD/DVD burning program
- K3B - CD/DVD burning program
- Multimedia Codecs
- KompoZer - WYSIWYG HTML editor, similar to Macromedia Dreamweaver, but not as feature-rich (yet)
- Bluefish - text editor, suitable for many programming and markup languages
- Quanta Plus - web development environment, including a WYSIWYG editor
- VirtualBox OSE - lets you run your old Windows desktop as a virtual machine under your Linux desktop, so you don't have to entirely abandon Windows
- TrueType fonts
- Java
- Read-/Write support for NTFS partitions
Lots of our desired applications are available in the Ubuntu repositories, and some of these applications have been contributed by the Ubuntu community.
As you might have noticed, a few applications are redundant, for example there are two CD/DVD burning applications in my list (Brasero, K3B). If you know which one you like best, you obviously don't need to install the other applications, however if you like choice, then of course you can install both. The same goes for music players like Amarok, Banshee, Rhythmbox, XMMS or browsers (Firefox, Opera, Chromium).
I will use the username falko in this tutorial. Please replace it with your own username.
2 Installing The Base System
The installation of the base system is easy as 1-2-3 because the Ubuntu installer doesn't offer a lot of options to choose from, so you cannot go wrong.
Download the Ubuntu 11.04 desktop edition iso image from http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download, burn it onto a CD, and boot your computer from it:
Select your language and click on the Install Ubuntu button to start the installation:
On the next screen you see a few requirements for the Ubuntu 11.04 installation (the system should have at least 4.6GB available drive space, should be plugged into a power source (to make sure that the system doesn't shut down during installation because of an empty battery), and should be connected to the Internet). Please check the Download updates while installing and Install this third-party software (this will install the software necessary to process Flash, MP3, and other media files) checkboxes and click on Forward:
Now we come to the partitioning of our hard disk. Usually Erase disk and install Ubuntu is a good choice, unless you need custom partitions and know what you're doing. Erase disk and install Ubuntu will create one big / partition for us:
Select the hard drive that you want to use for the Ubuntu installation:
Then choose your time zone:
Change the keyboard layout, if necessary:
Type in your real name, your desired username along with a password, and click on Forward:
Afterwards, Ubuntu is being installed. This can take a few minutes, so be patient:
After the installation, you will be asked to reboot the system. Click on Restart Now:
At the end of the shutdown process, you are asked to remove the Ubuntu installation CD from the CD drive. Please do this now and press ENTER:
Your new Ubuntu system starts. Log into the desktop with the username and password you provided during the installation:
From the bottom panel, you can choose your desktop environment. By default, Unity will be started. If you want to use Ubuntu Classic (like I do in this tutorial), please select it (the system will remember your choice, so the next time you log in, Ubuntu Classic will be started unless you make another selection) and press the Login button (please note that if you want to use Unity, but your hardware doesn't support it, you will see the following error message: It seems that you do not have the hardware required to run Unity. Please choose Ubuntu Classic at the login screen and you will be using the traditional environment.):
This is how your new Ubuntu Classic desktop looks:
Now the base system is ready to be used.


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Political reaction to the decision to decriminalise homosexual acts by consenting adults in Ireland.
Homosexuality was decriminalised in Ireland with the passage of the second phase of the bill to decriminalise sexual acts between consenting adults under the Criminal Law Bill (Sexual Offences) in 1993.
Cathy Herbert reports for Morning Ireland with mixed messages of support and opposition from: Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, Minister for Justice; Gay Mitchell, Fine Gael; Paul McGrath, Fine Gael; Michael McDowell, Progressive Democrats; Eamon Gilmore Democratic Left; Mervyn Taylor, Minister for Equality and Law Reform; Noel Ahern, Fianna Fáil.
This edition of Morning Ireland was broadcast on 24 June 1993.
The accompanying image shows members of the Gay and Lesbian community celebrating outside the Oireachtas in 1993.

subset: commoncrawl


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Letitia Thomas-Rogers
Currently the Director of UB's Cora P. Maloney College (CPMC), Letitia L. Thomas-Rogers began her service to UB in 1993 as the Coordinator of the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program. She has also worked as an Interviewer for the Center for Research on Urban Social Work Practice and as Coordinator of the Minority Academic Achievement Program, both at UB. In 2000, she became the Director of CPMC, which offers programming in academic enrichment, cultural awareness, and other forms of student support. Thomas-Rogers also lectures in the Sociology Department and Cora P. Maloney College.
A Buffalo native, Thomas-Rogers graduated from City Honors High School before obtaining her B.S. in Biological Sciences from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.
Thomas-Rogers then earned master's degrees in Sociology and Education Administration, both from UB. Rogers is also completing a doctorate in Sociology at UB. Her professional affiliations include the American Sociological Association and the American Educational Research Association.
For her leadership and dedication at UB, Thomas-Rogers won the Educator of the Year award from INROADS Upstate New York, Inc. twice, in 1995 and 2002. She has also been honored by the Uncrowned Queens, a project to document and promote the individual histories of African American community builders in Western New York.
Letitia Thomas-Rogers has also been recognized as an Uncrowned Queen.
Affiliation(s): Cora P. Maloney College (CPMC), Sociology
Record Group(s): 34


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Dayton 45406 2301 Alpine Way
Improved Property PENNYMAC LOAN SERVICES LLC VS BRYAN K PEAK, et al. Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Case No. 2023 CV 01059 In pursuance of an order issued from Common Pleas Court, within and for the County of Montgomery, State of Ohio, made at the MAY term thereof, 2023, and to me directed, I will offer for sale online at https://montgomery.sheriffsaleauction.ohio.gov on FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2023 at 9 o'clock A.M. of said day, the following Real Estate, to-wit: SITUATED IN THE CITY OF DAYTON, COUNTY OF MONTGOMERY, STATE OF OHIO AND BEING LOT NUMBERED 63429 ON THE CONSECUTIVE NUMBERS OF LOTS ON THE REVISED PLAT OF SAID CITY Parcel No. R72 11407 0019 Improved with SINGLE FAMILY 1 STORY, 5 ROOMS(3 BEDROOMS,2 BATH), BRICK EXTERIOR, FULL BASEMENT, GAS FORCED HEAT, CENTRAL AIR, WOOD BURNING FIREPLACE, DETACHED 1 CAR GARAGE, BUILT 1947 Located at 2301 ALPINE WAY DAYTON, Ohio 45406 Said property has been appraised at $54,000.00 and cannot sell for less than two-thirds of appraisement. The appraisal is based upon a visual inspection of that part of the premises to which access was readily available. The appraisal did not include an examination of the interior of the property. The appraisers assume no responsibility for, and give no weight to, unknown legal matters, including, but not limited to, concealed or latent defects, and/or the presence of harmful or said chemicals, pollutants, or gases. Deposit required by ORC 2329.211. The purchaser will be responsible for the costs, allowances and taxes that the proceeds of sale are insufficient to cover. Subject to motion by plaintiff in the event of a no sale for lack of bidders there shall be a provisional second sale date under ORC 2329.52(B) which shall be held two weeks subsequent to this sale date. TERMS OF SALE: Down payment required; if the appraisal value is: Less than or equal to $10,000 = $2,000 deposit; Greater than $10,000 but less than or equal to $200,000 = $5,000 deposit; Greater than $200,000 = $10,000 deposit Rob Streck, Sheriff of Montgomery County, OH ATTORNEY: YANGFANG M RAMIREZ 3962 RED BANK ROAD CINCINNATI, OH 45227 513-322-7000 8-25, 9-1, 9-8/2023
Alpine Way
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EWG's Chemical Industry Exposed - Top Secret Chemicals | Press Release
Executive summary
The 33-year old law that was supposed to ensure that Americans know what chemicals are in use around them, and what health and safety hazards they might pose, has produced a regulatory black hole, a place where information goes in – but much never comes out.
The reason is that under the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the chemical industry has been allowed to stamp a "trade secret" claim on the identity of two-thirds of all chemicals introduced to the market in the last 27 years, according to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis of data obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). These include substances used in numerous consumer and children's products.
EWG's analysis also showed that:
- The public has no access to any information about approximately 17,000 of the more than 83,000 chemicals on the master inventory compiled by the EPA.
- Industry has placed "confidential business information" (CBI) claims on the identity of 13,596 new chemicals produced since 1976 – nearly two-thirds of the 20,403 chemicals added to the list in the past 33 years.
- Secrecy claims directly threaten human health. Under section 8(e) of TSCA, companies must turn over all data showing that a chemical presents "a substantial risk of injury to health or the environment." By definition compounds with 8(e) filings are the chemicals of the greatest health concern. In the first eight months of 2009 industry concealed the identity of the chemicals in more than half the studies submitted under 8(e).
- From 1990 to 2005, the number of confidential chemicals more than quadrupled – from 261 to 1,105 -- on the sub-inventory of substances produced or imported in significant amounts (more than 25,000 pounds a year in at least one facility). In July 2009 the EPA released the identity of 530 of these chemicals, lowering the number of these moderate- and highproduction volume secret chemicals to 575.
- At least 10 of the 151 high volume confidential chemicals produced or imported in amounts greater than 300,000 pounds a year are used in products specifically intended for use by children age 14 or younger.
TSCA is an extraordinarily ineffective law. Its failings have been repeatedly documented by the Government Accountability Office, Congressional hearings, and independent investigations. But it has generally been assumed that the law required an accurate public inventory of chemicals produced or imported in the United States.
As this investigation shows, it does not.
Instead we have a de-facto witness protection program for chemicals, made possible by a weak law that allows broad confidential business information (CBI) claims, made worse by EPA's historic deference to business assertions of CBI.
EPA data compiled in response to an EWG information request show that a large number of these secret chemicals are used everyday in consumer products, including artists' supplies, plastic products, fabrics and apparel, furniture and items intended for use by children. But EPA cannot share specific information on these chemicals even within the agency or with state and local officials.
Industry has a stranglehold on every aspect of information needed to implement even the most basic health protections from chemicals in consumer products and our environment. This must be changed. A chemical's identity and all related health and safety information must be made available to the public with no exceptions.


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How to remove Facebook friends from your iPhone's contact list
iOS 6 features tighter integration with Facebook, including adding your Facebook friends to your contacts list, not to mention adding their birthdays to your calendar. Learn how to loosen Facebook's grip on your contacts and calendar.
Perhaps I'm slow, but just I noticed that all of my Facebook friends are now littered throughout my iPhone's contacts list. This change is a result of iOS 6's tighter integration with Facebook, so I've been living with it for a few months now. (In my defense, allow me to state that for most calls, I use the Favorites list, where Facebook contacts don't show up instead of the All Contacts list, where they do.)
If you have been living with a contacts list inundated with hundreds of Facebook friends, there is an easy fix. Head to Settings and scroll down until you find Facebook. For the Facebook setting, you'll see a section titled Allow These Apps to Use Your Account. Tap the slider to Off for Contacts. Now, head back to the All Contacts list and you'll see your list returned to its state prior to iOS 6 -- listing only the contacts you entered.
Not allowing Facebook to access your contacts also has another effect: it cleans up the calendar app by removing birthday reminders for your Facebook friends. And if you'd like to keep Facebook events from showing up on your calendar, turn the Calendar slider to Off in Settings > Facebook.
For more, I would direct you to Jason Cipriani's post on Understanding Facebook integration on iOS 6.
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In everyday life, people often search their memory for specific information: "Where did I leave the car keys?" "Did I really turn the oven off?" Other times they actively reminisce about the past: "Remember that crazy night out last week?" Not all recall is a choice, however; some forms of memory are involuntary. Perhaps the most famous example is a scene from French novelist Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time (also called Remembrance of Things Past). As the narrator drinks some tea and eats a small, plump sponge cake known as a madeleine, the taste brings up a memory of eating the same treat at his aunt's house when he was young.
Researchers are beginning to study a related form of memory called mind pops, fragments of knowledge, such as words, images or melodies, that drop suddenly and unexpectedly into consciousness. Unlike the Proustian example, mind pops, a term coined by University of California, San Diego, emeritus professor George Mandler, seem completely irrelevant to the moments in time and thought into which they intrude. They are more often words or phrases than images or sounds, and they usually happen when someone is in the middle of a habitual activity that does not demand much concentration. (For example: you are doing the dishes when the word "orangutan" springs into your mind for no obvious reason.) Most notably, identifying a trigger for a mind pop in the surrounding environment or even in previous thoughts is extremely difficult—they seem to come out of nowhere.
Psychologists are discovering that mind pops are not truly random—they are linked to our experiences and knowledge of the world, albeit with hidden threads. Research on mind pops is preliminary, but so far studies suggest that the phenomenon is genuine and common. Some people notice their mind pops much more often than others, and frequent mind popping could quicken problem solving and boost creativity. Yet in some people's minds—such as those with schizophrenia—mind pops might evolve from benign phenomena into unsettling hallucinations.
Lia Kvavilashvili, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire in England, and Mandler propose that mind pops are often explained by a kind of long-term priming. Priming describes one way that memory behaves: every new piece of information changes how the mind later responds to related information. "Most of the information we encounter on a daily basis activates certain representations in the mind," Kvavilashvili explains. "If you go past a fish-and-chips shop, not only the concept of fish may get activated but lots of things related to fish, and they may stay activated for a certain amount of time—for hours or even days. Later on, other things in the environment may trigger these already active concepts, which have the feeling of coming out of nowhere." This phenomenon can boost creativity because, she says, "if many different concepts remain activated in your mind, you can make connections more efficiently than if activation disappears right away."
Recently Kvavilashvili and her colleagues published a study looking at a possible dark side of mind pops. The researchers wondered just how similar everyday involuntary recall is to intrusive thoughts and hallucinations observed in mental disorders such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The results, which appear in an April issue of Psychiatry Research, suggest that mind pops are more common among the mentally ill than among the healthy, but it is far too soon to definitely link the sudden memories to hallucinations.
Kvavilashvili has been working on more studies about the phenomenon, in particular one on musical mind pops and their relation to songs that continually replay in people's heads. "The study of mind popping is still in its infancy," she notes. "I got curious about them because they seemed so random, but these mind pops are genuine fragments of knowledge about the world. What it shows us is that our subconscious often knows the meaning of an experience, even if consciously we don't."


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"Its inspiration came from a bright chromolithographed letterhead designed around the turn of the century for the COLE BROTHERS traveling shows. … The letters are not very typographic, nor are they very consistent. They were drawn on a lithography stone and were 'cut-in', meaning that the lettering artist filled the panel background and left the letters showing in reverse." — John Downer
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Matereality releases DatabaseLite, a free material database for ANSYS Workbench
Ithaca, New York, October 13, 2011: DatabaseLite for ANSYS, a free material database, and CAE ModelerTM software from Matereality, LLC, allows users to explore the full power of linear and nonlinear simulation within ANSYS® WorkbenchTM. The combination of ANSYS (NASDAQ: ANSS) and Matereality technologies means engineers can have confidence that the products they design will behave as intended in the real world.
CAE Modeler is designed to operate within the ANSYS Workbench platform. It presents a highly interactive environment in which users can transform raw material data into an ANSYS material model and review, edit or update the model as needed, all within Workbench. Engineers can assess the quality of the material model by viewing the raw data and data certificates from test laboratories and suppliers. The resulting simulation can include an embedded link to the exact data source within Matereality, providing the ultimate in traceability for material modeling.
DatabaseLite for ANSYS contains free material data for about 50 highly relevant material models ranging from simple elastic material models to temperature dependent stress�strain data, MISO models, hyperelastic data inputs for rubber, fatigue data on metals, rate-dependent tensile data for ANSYS Explicit STR, and visco-elastic data and thermal properties on polymers. Materials include metals, plastics, foam and rubber. It can be accessed at https://my.matereality.com/Portal/DatabaseLite.aspx. All data is pedigreed.
To use DatabaseLite for ANSYS, there is no need for registration or software downloads. The user is led directly to an interface to search for material models ready for use with ANSYS Mechanical and ANSYS Explicit STR that can be exported in simulation-ready format. "ANSYS users often seek such data to enable their product development activities. While data on metals and linear analysis are generally available, the lack of design-relevant nonlinear data can limit the customer�s ability to perform real-life simulations," said Hubert Lobo, Matereality president.
A 2,000+ material models master database upgrade produced by Matereality, LLC is available for purchase. The upgrade includes plug-ins that permit CAE Modeler for ANSYS to operate completely within ANSYS Workbench. All data is pedigreed.
"Matereality is among the first partners to visualize and implement full integrated connectivity to ANSYS Workbench," said Josh Fredberg, vice president of marketing at ANSYS. "This partner integration will greatly enhance the ability of our users to try out the great capabilities of ANSYS Workbench as we bring in more and more multiphysics capabilities into this environment."
About ANSYS, Inc.
ANSYS brings clarity and insight to customers' most complex design challenges through fast, accurate and reliable engineering simulation. Our technology enables organizations ? no matter their industry ? to predict with confidence that their products will thrive in the real world. Customers trust our software to help ensure product integrity and drive business success through innovation. Founded in 1970, ANSYS employs more than 2,000 professionals, many of them expert in engineering fields such as finite element analysis, computational fluid dynamics, electronics and electromagnetics, and design optimization. Headquartered south of Pittsburgh, U.S.A., ANSYS has more than 60 strategic sales locations throughout the world with a network of channel partners in 40+ countries. Visit www.ansys.com for more information.
ANSYS, ANSYS Workbench, Ansoft, AUTODYN, CFX, FLUENT, and any and all ANSYS, Inc. brand, product, service and feature names, logos and slogans are registered trademarks or trademarks of ANSYS, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States or other countries. All other brand, product, service and feature names or trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
About Matereality, L.L.C.
Matereality, L.L.C., based in the United States, hosts cloud material databases for use in product design and manufacturing enterprises. Solutions range from small personal databases to Data Servers for large manufacturing enterprises. With this ready-for-deployment patented technology, every company can now afford to have a fully functional, secure material database that can grow proportionate to its needs and budget. The database can collect and store any properties of any materials. All databases are empowered by a suite of web-based software that allow users work to with material data, for trend visualization, CAE modeling and database building. Support services include material data loading and material testing to populate the database with accurate data. The company serves a diverse user base including automotive, appliance, tier-one, material suppliers and processors, electronics, mold makers, medical devices, and consumer product verticals.
For more information, visit www.matereality.com, telephone 1-607-257-1784, or send email to firstname.lastname@example.com.
Matereality and TrueDigital are trademarks of Matereality, LLC. All other trademarks or registered trademarks mentioned herein are the properties of their respective owners.
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Emma Kluge
95 Brown Rd. #102, Ithaca, NY 14850
Phone: 607 257 1784 Fax: 607 266 0168
Toll-Free (US only): 1 888 DATA-4-CAE
Email: email@example.com
© Matereality LLC, (2002-2011)


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Media Contacts: Steve Lyle, CDFA Public Affairs, (916) 654-0462, email@example.com,
SACRAMENTO, July 18, 2011– The California State Board of Food and Agriculture will address farm animal welfare at its meeting on Wednesday, July 27, 2011. The meeting will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the California Department of Food and Agriculture, 1220 N Street – Main Auditorium, Sacramento, CA 95814.
"Farm animal welfare is a priority for farmers and plays an important and visible role on the farm," said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. "Consumers should be aware that farmers and ranchers care about their animals and promote practices that ensure good animal management."
Consumer interest and awareness on animal welfare issues continues to rise. The state board's focus on farm animal welfare will allow California's agricultural organizations and other stakeholders' viewpoints to be heard, providing a better understanding of the initiatives, protocols and partnerships that have been developed to address the topic.
Scheduled speakers for the meeting include: Dr. Annette Whiteford, California State Veterinarian; Margaret Wittenberg, Whole Foods Markets; Melvin Coleman, Jr., Niman Ranch; Jennifer Fearing , the Humane Society of the United States; and Robert Shipley, California Poultry Federation. Additional invited speakers include representatives from the California Farm Bureau Federation, Center for Food Integrity, California Cattlemen's Association, Association of California Egg Farmers, and the California Dairy Quality Assurance Program.
"Consumers have a great interest in knowing where our food comes from, how it is produced, and how it is delivered to our table," said Craig McNamara, president of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture. "As farmers, we need to tell our story and demonstrate the great care and dedication we not only place in animal welfare, but in all of production agriculture."
The California State Board of Food and Agriculture advises the Governor and CDFA Secretary. The state board conducts forums that bring together local, state, and federal government officials, agricultural representatives, and citizens to discuss current issues of concern to California agriculture.
Follow the board on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/Cafood_agboard


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Microsoft is responding to a less than robust uptake of new Windows 8 devices by cutting the licensing costs for its original equipment manufacturing (OEM) partners.
The early numbers aren't looking good, with Windows 8 use trending lower than Windows Vista use at four months after operating system market launch, according to Net Applications' data. In February, Net Applications reported Windows 8 use at 2.3 percent of desktop use. In contrast, Windows 7 was trending at 9 percent of desktop use after four months of launch.
Microsoft officially launched its new Windows 8 operating system in October. The company has reported selling more than 60 million Windows 8 licenses by January 2013, although it's not clear that all of those licenses were activated. Some of the licenses may be stockpiled by OEMs.
There are many reasons for the lackluster Windows 8 adoption. Price is one of the factors, and Microsoft seems to be responding. The Wall Street Journal and DigiTimes, citing unnamed sources, both reported that Microsoft is offering its OEM partners discounted licensing on a Windows 8 and Office bundle for some touch-screen systems at a cost of $30, instead of $120.
Jay Chou, a senior research analyst for IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, confirmed that this discount was offered to OEMs.
"It was tough to get them [Windows 8 machines] down to a reasonable price," Chou said in a phone interview. "And this and the fact that Windows 8 itself has been hard to use for many people is part of the reasons why Microsoft is lowering its OEM licensing costs. This is mainly targeted at notebooks, and especially notebooks that have touch screens."
Microsoft had no direct comment on the purported discount to OEMs.
"As we've said before, Windows 8 was built to scale across all sizes of PCs and tablets -- large and small," a Microsoft spokesperson stated via e-mail. "We continue to work with partners to ensure that Windows is available across a diverse range of devices."
Veteran Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley has speculated that the OEM discount could be just the price for smaller devices, perhaps even for some sort of yet-to-be-announced "mini" Windows 8 tablet.
Touch-Screen Costs
One of the factors dogging Windows 8 is its touch-centric user interface, which has confused some users, according to Chou. Windows 8 was rolled out even though touch-screen hardware has been either unavailable or too expensive, he added.
"In October, when Windows 8 officially launched (the one that runs on x86), people also had trouble toggling between the user interfaces -- between the modern UI and the traditional one," Chou said. "There were also some cost concerns where Microsoft had positioned touch as the overwhelming feature advantage of Windows 8, but many PCs just did not have touch-screen capabilities. You'd go into stores and check them out and the ones that would be there would be too expensive. Even now, there just isn't enough capacity on the part of touch-screen manufacturers to make enough touch screens."
Possibly, some of those touch-screen costs will be coming down in the near future. A report by DigiTimes suggests that touch-screen costs will decrease at least 10 percent in conjunction with Microsoft's OEM license discount.
Can't Blame the Economy
IDC recently reported poor results for the global PC market overall, with an 8.3 percent decrease in shipments in Q4 2012, compared year over year. Could the current ongoing slump in the economy be a factor contributing to slow Windows 8 device sales? The economy is part of it, but it isn't the main reason, according to Chou.
"If you look back through 2008, 2009 and 2010, there actually was a good amount of PC volume growth worldwide," Chou said. "And, of course back then, we were pretty much back in the throes of the recession. A few things accounted for that. One was prices were dropping very rapidly back then. There were things like netbooks that helped to lower prices overall. And one bad legacy of that is that it permanently lowered people's expectations about how much a computer should cost."
Businesses are perhaps the exception. While they used to defer their PC refresh cycles to once every three or four years, that time period is being extended in this bad economy, according to Chou.
Another contributing factor slowing shipments is that tablets have "cannibalized" the PC market. People who buy tablets have just deferred on upgrading their PCs, Chou explained. And while many might expect Microsoft's Windows 8 launch to have boosted computer sales, especially during the December holiday season, IDC wasn't surprised when that didn't happen.
"It's not a huge surprise for us because we had actually predicted that it would be a very tough holiday quarter," Chou said. "Windows 8 arguably only took up two thirds of the quarter. And traditionally, we don't see a new operating system as being an overwhelming factor in driving in shipments, at least in the first quarter of its release. And then, on top of that, there were many mixed reviews of Windows 8 prior to its launch."
Microsoft took the initiative to produce its own PC hardware with Windows 8, which seemed to come as a shock to some of its OEM partners. Microsoft released its own "tablet/PC" devices -- namely, the "Surface Pro" (running Windows 8 on x86 hardware) and "Surface RT" (running Windows RT on ARM hardware). Microsoft's argument for doing so was it would show its hardware partners what was possible to do with Windows 8, including how to compete with Apple.
But really, the most important factor was always cost, according to Chou.
"Over the course of the recession, we've seen prices of computers drop significantly," Chou said. "People are accustomed to buying computers in the $500 to $600 range. That's pretty hard to do right now if you want to have a compelling Windows 8 computer that is thin enough, powerful enough, with good storage, and has touch. So I think Microsoft, while they have their frustrations [with OEMs], they are not in the shoes of these PC manufacturers who actually have to source and assemble all of this hardware and still try to make some margins."
Some OEMs might not go along for the full ride. For instance, Samsung has given signals that it won't build Windows RT devices in the U.S. market, nor in Germany.
About the Author
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.
Microsoft on Wednesday gave notice that its Exchange Online e-mail tamper protections are planned for completion in 2024, which may entail some backend changes by IT departments.
Azure Automation provide IT with the ways to make their jobs more interesting. Got a task you're sick of doing? Automate it away!
The new update, rolling out for some, includes a preview of Microsoft's AI-powered Windows Copilot.
Microsoft Mesh for Microsoft Teams will be arriving as a public preview in Oct. 2023, the company announced on Tuesday.
Microsoft announced on Monday that it plans to "retire" its Azure Database for MariaDB service on Sept. 19, 2025.
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Welcome to Allen's Chinese Restaurant
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Great chinese food local in Powhatan, Va. We offer a wide variety of cuisine to meet everyone's chinese food appetite. We have Chef's specials and daily specials. Spicy entrees are also available. Visit our menu to see all that we offer. No matter what the occasion, the staff at Allen's Chinese want's to make you a lifetime customer.
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text: Researchers at Michigan State University have shown a prebiotic may help the body's own natural killer cells fight bacterial infection and reduce inflammation, greatly decreasing the risk of colon cancer. Prebiotics are fiber supplements that serve as food for the trillions of tiny bacteria living in the gut. When taken, they can stimulate the growth of the "good" bacteria. The evolution of prebiotic supplements (as well as probiotics, which are actual bacteria ingested into the system) provide new therapeutic targets for researchers and physicians. In research published in the Journal of Nutrition, MSU's Jenifer Fenton reports that mice given the prebiotic galacto-oligosaccharide, or GOS, saw the severity of their colitis (one of the main forms of inflammatory bowel disease) significantly reduced. In fact, the mice fed GOS - a synthetic compound that is known to stimulate beneficial bacteria and is found in foods such as biscuits and infant formula - saw a 50 percent reduction in colitis. Research has shown certain types of foods and fibers can reduce colon cancer risk, said Fenton of the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. "There is something unique about certain types of fibers, such as GOS, and how they alter cells and influence the immune system to change disease risk, either for the good or bad," she said. "Our overall goal is to identify either dietary patterns or diet components to reduce inflammation and cancer risk. "In this case, we used prebiotics to stimulate changes in bacteria in the gut that may have a beneficial impact on the colon." Fenton worked closely on the project with Elizabeth Gardner, also with the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition and who previously has looked at the impact diet plays in fighting off the flu. In applying some of the lessons learned in those studies to mice with bacterially induced colitis, the researchers found mice given GOS had significantly less inflammation and fewer abnormal cells, two precursors for colon cancer. It appeared, Fenton said, the positive results were linked to the significant enhancement of the body's own natural killer cells, found in the immune system and crucial in fighting off new infections in the body. "Our results suggest GOS may be effective in reducing colitis severity by priming the innate immune system," she said. The next step is to verify how that mechanism works; finding that link could help researchers apply the lessons learned to other intestinal ailments.


text: The Equinox Marathon has enthralled and exhausted participants for 50 years. When University of Alaska Fairbanks ski coach Jim Mahaffey tasked two of his athletes, Nat Goodhue and Gail Bakken, with laying out a 26.2-mile trail in 1963, the concept was novel: only about a dozen marathons existed in the United States. Quickly the community embraced the event and it grew from 143 entrants to more than 1,000. Several times in the late 1960s, the Equinox exceeded even the famous Boston Marathon in participation.


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CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., and WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Sept. 27, 2013) – The ETSU men's and women's tennis teams completed the first day of play in their respective tournaments Friday. The men's team is competing in the UTC Fall Invite, while the women's team is participating in the Wake Forest Invitational.
ETSU saw four of its doubles teams advance to the quarterfinals in their respective flights of the UTC Fall Invite. Sebastian Yllera and Ricardo Pabon will face off against the No. 1-seeded duo of Yannick Born and Aaron Jumonville of Middle Tennessee State University Saturday, Sept. 28 in the quarterfinals of the No. 1 doubles flight.
The team of Joao Silva and Conner Huertas advanced to the quarterfinals of the No. 2 doubles flight, while Connor Knox and Paul Luzardo advanced to the quarterfinals of the No. 3 doubles flight.
Fernando Amon and Umberto Setter, the No. 1-seeded doubles team in the No. 4 flight, will play their quarterfinal match Saturday, as well.
View the updated tournament draws here.
Lyn Yee Choo continued her impressive fall season, advancing to the quarterfinals of the A singles flight with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Richmond's Melissa Kandinata.
Jessica Brumit also advanced to the quarterfinals of her flight, outlasting Elon's Taylor Casey, 7-6 (2), 1-6, 7-5, in a hard-fought three-set match.
"I was very proud of Jessica [Brumit] today," head coach Travis Sandlant said. "She showed great concentration and willingness to stick to a game plan and trust it."
Choo and her partner, Anna Gerbasi, suffered their first doubles loss of the fall season, losing to Atlantic Sun conference opponents Isabella Fernandez and Diana Bukajeva, 8-5.


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text: "Toastmasters is only for amateurs!" Several years ago I attended a National Speakers Association (NSA) meeting and that was the response when someone mentioned Toastmasters. Truthfully, I feel both organizations have their share of amateurs and professionals. NSA has a higher percentage of professionals and Toastmasters has mostly amateurs. But as a Toastmasters graduate and someone that attended many NSA meetings (I've qualified for membership since 2007 but never joined), I can see the benefit in joining either or both groups.


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North Carolina teachers demand better funding in large march
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Thousands of teachers filled the main street of North Carolina's capital Wednesday demanding better pay and more funding for public schools, hoping to achieve what other educators around the country accomplished by pressuring lawmakers for change.
City blocks turned red, the color of shirts worn by marchers chanting "We care! We vote!" and "This is What Democracy Looks Like!" An estimated 19,000 people joined the march, according to the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, which based its number in part on aerial photos.
"I feel the current politicians in charge of the state are anti-public education," Raleigh high school teacher Bill Notarnicola said as he prepared a time-lapse photo of the march. "The funds are not keeping up with the growth. We are seeing cutback, after cutback, after cutback."
Many teachers entered the Legislative Building, continuing to chant as the Republican-controlled legislature held short floor meetings to start its annual work session. Most teachers quieted down when asked, but a woman who yelled, "Education is a Right: That is why we have to fight," was among four escorted from the Senate gallery. No arrests were made.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper spoke at a rally across the street, promoting his proposal to pay for higher salaries by blocking tax cuts that Republicans decided to give corporations and high-income households next January. GOP leaders have flatly rejected his idea.
Cooper, who is working to eliminate the GOP's veto-proof majorities in fall elections, urged teachers to ask lawmakers, "are you going to support even more tax cuts for corporations and the very wealthy, or are you going to support much better teacher pay and investment in our public schools?"
Previous strikes, walkouts and protests in West Virginia, Arizona, Kentucky, Colorado and Oklahoma led legislators in each state to improve pay, benefits or overall school funding. Wednesday's march in North Carolina prompted more than three-dozen school districts that educate more than two-thirds of the state's 1.5 million public school students to cancel class.
But these Republican leaders appear determined not to change course under pressure, and North Carolina educators aren't unionized, so they have fewer options for organized protest than teachers in some of these other states. Some, in fact, had to seek personal days off Wednesday and pay $50 for a substitute before districts canceled class.
The demands of their main advocacy group, the North Carolina Association of Educators, include raising per-pupil spending and pay for teachers and support staff to the national average, and increasing school construction to match the state's population growth.
North Carolina teachers earn about $50,000 on average, ranking 39th in the country last year, the National Education Association reported last month. Their pay increased by 4.2 percent over the previous year — the second-biggest increase in the country — and was estimated to rise an average 1.8 percent this year, but that still represents a 9.4 percent slide in real income since 2009 due to inflation, the NEA said.
State Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, both Republicans, have made clear they have no plans to funnel more money to classrooms by postponing January's planned tax cuts, as Cooper has proposed.
And Republican Sen. Bill Cook said he thinks Wednesday's march was mostly about supporting the Democratic Party in a political season.
Republican legislators have focused on increasing pay based on merit, rather than treating all teachers as if they were equally productive, he said.
"A lot of people want to throw money at a problem, and that's helpful some times. But you've got to be smart about what you're doing with your money. What we've tried to do is put it into play in such a way that we reward people for doing a good job," Cook said.
But Rachel Holdridge, a special education teacher at Wilmington's Alderman Elementary School, said lawmakers have let teachers down by failing to equip them properly to do their jobs. Despite 22 years' experience, she said she drives for Uber to make ends meet.
"They keep giving tiny raises and taking so much away from the kids," Holdridge said outside the Legislative Building. She takes a sober view of how much the march will accomplish, but said: "You've got to start somewhere."
Barbara Faulkner, a 38-year-old English teacher at South Granville High School who makes $53,000 per year, said her house went into foreclosure because she had planned for a seniority-based raise plan that was stopped a decade ago.
But she's also concerned about basic school needs going unfunded.
"We have a library but no librarian. You can't check out books," she said. "The collection hasn't been updated. The library is for storage and meetings. The books are on the floor."
Associated Press writers Allen G. Breed and Jonathan Drew contributed to this report.
Follow Emery P. Dalesio on Twitter at http://twitter.com/emerydalesio . His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/emery%20dalesio


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The Finances of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Introduction: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a global organization established to promote international monetary cooperation, facilitate international trade, promote economic growth and stability, and reduce poverty. The IMF is funded by its member countries and has resources of over $1 trillion. In this article, we will discuss the finances of the IMF, including its income, expenses, and funding sources. IMF Income: The IMF generates income from several sources, including: a) Quota subscriptions from member countries: Each member country is required to contribute a certain amount of money to the IMF, known as a quota. The quota is determined based on the size of the country's economy and its relative position in the global economy. b) Interest income: The IMF earns interest income on its holdings of currencies, gold, and other financial assets. c) Charges on lending: The IMF charges interest on loans it provides to member countries. d) SDR allocations: The IMF


text: Search Only Images Visit Image Gallery FAQ page Visit Image Gallery FAQ imggal_sm2.png Beds (furniture) Download this image Image ID: SIL-SIL12-2-197 Cite this: 1839. Le garde-meuble. v. 3, Paris : D. Guilmard. Supplied Caption: Beds (furniture) Subject(s): Furniture design, Cabinetwork, Seating (Furniture), Draperies, Interior decoration Tag(s): Furniture and Interior Design, Renaissance Revival Collection(s): Le Garde meuble Topic(s): Interior Decoration Find in: Library Catalog Read: Full Text Download: Image No Copyright - United States Request copy of image How can I use this image? Discover more images tagged with Interior Decoration Chairs -- armchairs [389, 390]; Bookstands [392,393]; hanging cupboards Writing tables; Chairs -- armchairs Suites; Sofas; Chairs -- armchairs; Suites; Settees; Chairs -- armchairs Hanging cupboards Occasional tables Corner cupboards [373]; Chairs -- Wardrobes Fall-front desks Buffets Fall-front desks Fall-front desks Fall-front desks [383]; Pedestals [384] Desks and bookcases Chairs Chairs -- side chairs Fall-front desks [300]; fire screen [ Chairs -- armchairs; Chairs -- side Settees


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In her post yesterday on (sigh) bullet-resistant student whiteboards, Liana touched on the question of how to heighten safety precautions in schools without distressing students (not to mention faculty members). In a similar vein, middle school teacher Ariel Sacks recounts her experience of a new lockdown drill that her school has introduced in response to the Newtown shootings:
I was struck by the emotional content of practicing for this kind of threat. The students understood it was just practice, and most schools have some procedure for an 'intruder alert," but I had never been asked to practice before, and none of us had ever imagined the situation as seriously as we did now. We did not act in total seriousness. We followed the procedure correctly and tried to keep the mood light, to balance out the fear the situation invoked. Without going deeper into this topic, I'll just say, it feels like a new era.
What's happening at your school? How are you addressing these very sensitive issues?
A version of this news article first appeared in the Teaching Now blog.


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Solar Slim Watch With Scratch Resistant Sapphire Crystal 14427-265
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Could Joss Whedon have finally come to his senses and realized that cable TV will give him the chance to tell edgy stories without compromising and facing the constant spectre of cancellation? We can only hope. FX President of Entertainment John Landgraf told the TV Critics Association tour the other day that he's planning on having a lunch meeting with Whedon in a few weeks. Let's hope it's a fruitful meeting - we're excited by the idea of Whedon creating more online-only content like Dr. Horrible, but we need our hour-a-week fix of the Whedonverse. [Matt Roush on Twitter, thanks Bella_Vina!]
Meet Microsoft's New Surface Laptops


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Blue Rockfish taken during safety stop on the edge of kelp at Purrisima point CA,
This guy has a small scar behind its fin, looks like a close encounter with someone less friendly than a photographer! Taken at 23ft, Tajiguas, CA
Same guy a little closer! Tajiguas reef at 23ft,
Rainbow colors and rockfish off of Anacapa Island, CA
Kelp Rockfish 'heads up!"
Juvenile Kelprockfish perhaps? Anyone want to confirm? Taken on the south side of Anacapa Island CA, 90ft deep.
Eyeballing me from Naples Reef, CA
Relaxing on beautiful Naples Reef, CA
Life on Naples Reef
Anacapa Island, underwater pinnacles, Juvenile Rockfish though not sure which type?
Black Eye Goby and the Rockfish gang cruising the Brittle stars
Sebastes rosaceus or the Rosy rockfish stands out from the crowd in the Brittle star barrens, 90ft, Anacapa Island, CA
Rosy hiding alongside the Corynactis
Juvenile Rockfish (Kelp Rockfish?) Taken at 48ft, North Side of Santa Cruz at Pelican anchorage.
Hanging with the Brittle stars, this young rockfish tried to tuck itself away on the bottom, shy fellow!
Copper Rockfish, Sneaking a peek, Santa Cruz island, CA,
Copper Rockfish turning tale, Santa Cruz Island, CA
Bright Copper rockfish among the seastars and sponges of the reef, Santa Cruz Island, CA, 53ft,
Taken at Frenchy's cove at approx 55ft, great location for a variety of Rockfish.
Black & Yellow Profile at Forney's Cove, Santa Cruz Island, CA
Adult Brown Rockfish taken at Forney's cove, Santa Cruz Island, CA
Big Copper cruising Forney's cove, Santa Cruz island, CA
A juvenile Vermillion in amongst the algae and boulders, again at Forney's cove
Rockfish deep on a rig covered in metridium, 90ft deep
Blue Rockfish hanging at my safety stop off of Purissima point, CA
Blue rockfish schooling at 15ft below.
Perhaps a young Yellowtail or Olive rockfish cruising beautiful Naples Reef, CA
A juvenile Calico Rockfish on the sandy bottom off of Ellwood, CA
Kelp Rockfish Showing his best side!


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Where are you right now? Maybe you are at home, the office or a coffee shop—but such responses provide only a partial answer to the question at hand. Asked another way, what is the location of your "self" as you read this sentence? Like most people, you probably have a strong sense that your conscious self is housed within your physical body, regardless of your surroundings.
But sometimes this spatial self-location goes awry. During a so-called out-of-body experience, for example, one's self seems to be transported outside the physical body into a surreal perspective—some people even believe they are viewing their bodies from above, as though their true selves were floating. In a related experience, people with a delusion known as somatoparaphrenia disown one of their limbs or confuse another person's limb for their own. Such warped perceptions help researchers understand the neuroscience of selfhood.
A new paper offers examples of rare bodily illusions that are not confined to a single limb, nor are they complete out-of-body experiences—they are somewhere in between. These illusory body perceptions, described in the September issue of Consciousness and Cognition, could offer novel clues about how the brain maintains a link between the physical and conscious selves, or what the researchers call "bodily self-consciousness."
"These reports could be interesting for us to better understand how the brain produces ownership of the entire body—a sense that we have a body in the first place," says Henrik Ehrsson, a neuroscientist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden who was not involved in the new study.
Lukas Heydrich, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Brain–Mind Institute (B.M.I.) in Lausanne, Switzerland (which is part of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), and his colleagues recruited two epileptic patients from the University Hospital of Geneva. The researchers gave the patients a full diagnostic workup, including neurological and psychiatric examinations, various brain scans using electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), along with structured interviews focusing on aspects of bodily self-consciousness.
Patient 1 was a 55-year-old man who had suffered from epilepsy since he was 14 years old. For nine years the man also endured reoccurring attacks of strange bodily sensations that always followed the same pattern. First, without warning, he would feel an increasing pressure all along his left side, which escalated to the point that he was convinced a stranger had invaded the left region of his body. He would suddenly feel that the left half of his body no longer belonged to him—that the left half of his head, the upper part of his left trunk, and his left arm and leg were divided from the rest of his body. During an episode, the man believed himself to exist only in the right side of his body, although he remained calm and continued to function normally. Most people around him never noticed anything unusual, even if he was giving a lecture.
Patient 2 was a 30-year-old man suffering from epilepsy that resisted medication. Since age 11 the man experienced seizures characterized by an overwhelming sense of numbness in his legs, chest and neck. The numbness consistently became so intense that he lost awareness of everything below his chin, felt his head was detached from the rest of his body and experienced himself as simultaneously an observer of his body and the subject of observation.
"Clinical observations of disorders like these are very rare," says Olaf Blanke, a neurologist and cognitive neuroscientist at the Brain-Mind Institute (B.M.I.) and a co-author of the paper. "It's difficult even for a novelist or a fiction writer to come up with this."
Heydrich says that these patients provide new clinical evidence for the idea that bodily self-consciousness has three major components: self-location (where in physical space we experience ourselves to be located); first-person perspective (our primary viewpoint of the outside world from a place within the body); and self-identification (the degree to which we feel our bodies are part of us).
An out-of-body experience, Heydrich explains, warps all three aspects of bodily self-consciousness. In contrast, the two patients in the new study maintained normal self-location and first-person perspective even during an illusion. "They still perceived the world from their normal perspective, and they still felt they were in their bodies. But they had strong problem of self-identification. Patient 1 felt that…[the left]…half of him was a stranger and patient 2 felt that everything below his chin was no longer his."
Individuals who have trouble with only one aspect of bodily self-consciousness suggest that the three aspects can be dissociated, offering researchers an opportunity to determine which brain regions or networks underlie which components of self-perception.
An MRI revealed that patient 1 had a brain lesion in the right posterior intraparietal sulcus. In patient 2's brain, the researchers identified a concentration of aberrant electrical activity (the epileptogenic focus) in the right supplementary motor area (SMA) and right superior frontal gyrus. Surgery that removed patient 2's SMA and parts of his superior frontal gyrus cured the seizures and strange bodily perceptions, according to a checkup 15 months later. Heydrich says this implicates the SMA and premotor cortex specifically in the self-identification component of bodily self-consciousness.
"What we found is that the damage in these patients is different than what we find in other illusions, like full-body illusions," Blanke says. "We found damage in high-level motor cortex areas and in the intraparietal sulcus region—both are very multisensory regions," possibly explaining why they are implicated in the sense of self, which integrates many different bodily inputs.
Peter Brugger, a neuropsychologist at University Hospital in Zurich, is cautious about linking specific brain regions to particular kinds of self-perception. "If you operate in a certain region and observe a subsequent change in the behavior, you are very much seduced to think that the behavior resides in this location," Brugger says. "But because the brain primarily consists of connections, you have to think about whether you disrupted some kind of communication or cut faulty connections, not just a region."
Brugger agrees, however, that researchers need to pursue similar studies to better understand bodily self-consciousness. "We can learn and should learn much more from disturbances of bodily perceptions," he says.
Me, Myself and My Stranger: Understanding the Neuroscience of Selfhood
New case studies focus on rare illusory body perceptions that could answer questions about how we maintain a "self"
Where are you right now? Maybe you are at home, the office or a coffee shop—but such responses provide only a partial answer to the question at hand. Asked another way, what is the location of your "self" as you read this sentence? Like most people, you probably have a strong sense that your conscious self is housed within your physical body, regardless of your surroundings.


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Cat Girl Room Escape is type of point and click new escape game developed by games2rule.com. You are trapped inside in a Cat Girl Room. The door of the Cat Girl room is locked. There is no one near to help you out. Find some useful objects and hints to escape from the Cat Girl Room. Good Luck and Have Fun!
Home Uncategorized Cat Girl Room Escape


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Transportation Department
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) establishes overall transportation policy for the United States. Under the DOT umbrella are 11 administrations whose jurisdictions include highway planning, development, and construction; urban mass transit; railroads; aviation; and the safety of ports, highways, and oil and gas pipelines. Decisions made by the department in conjunction with appropriate state and local officials can significantly affect other programs such as land planning, energy conservation, scarce resource utilization, and technological change.
The DOT was established by Congress in 1966 (49 U.S.C.A. § 102) "to assure the coordinated, effective administration of the transportation programs of the Federal Government" and to develop "national transportation policies and programs conducive to the provision of fast, safe, efficient, and convenient transportation at the lowest cost consistent therewith." The department became operational in April 1967 with elements transferred from eight other major departments and agencies. As of 2003, it consists of the office of the secretary and 11 operating administrations whose heads report directly to the secretary and have highly decentralized authority.
Office of the Secretary of Transportation
The DOT is administered by the secretary of transportation, who is the principal adviser to the president in all matters relating to federal transportation programs. The secretary administers the department with the assistance of a deputy secretary of transportation, an associate deputy secretary, the assistant secretaries, a general counsel, the inspector general, and several directors and chairpersons.
Federal Aviation Administration
The federal aviation administration (FAA), formerly the Federal Aviation Agency, was established by the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 (49 U.S.C.A. § 106) and became a component of the DOT in 1967. The FAA is charged with regulating air commerce in ways that best promote its development and safety and fulfill the requirements of national defense; controlling the use of the navigable airspace of the United States by regulating both civil and military operations in that airspace in the interest of safety and efficiency; promoting, encouraging, and developing civil aeronautics; and consolidating research and development with respect to air navigation facilities.
The FAA is responsible for installing and operating air navigation facilities; developing and operating a common system of air traffic control and navigation for both civil and military aircraft; and developing and implementing programs and regulations to control aircraft noise, sonic booms, and other environmental effects of civil aviation.
In addition, the FAA operates a network of airport traffic control towers, air route traffic control centers, and flight service stations. It develops air traffic rules and regulations and allocates the use of the airspace. It also provides for the security control of air traffic to meet national defense requirements.
The FAA is responsible for the location, construction or installation, maintenance, operation, and quality assurance of federal visual and electronic aids to air navigation. The agency operates and maintains voice/data communications equipment, radar facilities, computer systems, and visual display equipment at flight service stations, airport traffic control towers, and air route traffic control centers.
The agency maintains a national plan of airport requirements, administers a grant program for the development of public use airports to assure and improve safety and to meet current and future airport capacity needs, evaluates the environmental impacts of airport development, and administers an airport noise compatibility program with the goal of reducing noncompatible uses around airports. It also develops standards and technical guidance on airport planning, design, safety, and operations and provides grants to assist public agencies in airport system and master planning and airport development and improvement.
The FAA provides a system for registering aircraft and recording documents that affect title or interest in the aircraft, aircraft engines, propellers, appliances, and spare parts.
Under the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 and the International Aviation Facilities Act (49 U.S.C.A. § 1151), the agency promotes aviation safety and civil aviation abroad by exchanging aeronautical information with foreign aviation authorities; certifying foreign repair stations, air personnel, and mechanics; negotiating bilateral airworthiness agreements to facilitate the import and export of aircraft and components; and providing technical assistance and training in all areas of the agency's expertise.
One important FAA function is the regulation and promotion of the U.S. commercial space transportation industry. It licenses the private-sector launching of space payloads on expendable launch vehicles and commercial space launch facilities. The FAA also sets insurance requirements for the protection of persons and property and ensures that space transportation activities comply with U.S. domestic and foreign policy.
Federal Highway Administration
The Federal Highway Administration became a component of the DOT in 1967. It administers the highway transportation programs of the DOT under Title 23 U.S.C.A., and other pertinent legislation. The administration oversees highway transportation in its broadest scope, seeking to coordinate highways with other modes of transportation to achieve the most effective balance of transportation systems and facilities.
The administration administers the federal aid highway program, which provides funding to the states to assist in constructing highways and making highway and traffic operations more efficient. This program provides for the improvement of approximately 159,000 miles of the National Highway System, which includes the 43,000-mile dwight d. eisenhower system of interstate and defense highways and other public roads. The federal government generally provides 90 percent of the funding for the construction and preservation of the interstate system, and the relevant states provide 10 percent. For projects not on the interstate system and most projects on other roads, 80 percent of the funding comes from the federal government and 20 percent from the states.
The administration is also responsible for the Highway Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Program, which assists in the inspection, analysis, and rehabilitation or replacement of bridges on public roads. In addition, it administers an emergency program to assist in the repair or reconstruction of federal aid highways and certain federal roads that have suffered serious damage over a wide area from natural disasters or catastrophic failures.
The Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) Program provides funding to reduce air pollution. Transportation improvement projects and programs that reduce transportation-related emissions are eligible for funding. Funds can be used for highway, transit, and other transportation purposes.
The administration is responsible for several highway-related safety programs, including a state and community safety program jointly administered with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and a highway safety construction program to eliminate road hazards and improve rail-highway crossing safety. These safety construction programs fund activities that remove, relocate, or shield roadside obstacles; identify and correct hazardous locations; eliminate or reduce hazards at railroad crossings; and improve signs, pavement markings, and signals.
Under the provisions of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982 (23 U.S.C.A. § 101), the administration is authorized to establish and maintain a national network for trucks, review state programs regulating truck size and weight, and assist in obtaining uniformity among the states in commercial motor carrier registration and taxation reporting. The administration works cooperatively with states and private industry to achieve uniform safety regulations, inspections and fines, licensing, registration and taxation, and accident data for motor carriers.
The agency also exercises federal regulatory jurisdiction over the safety performance of all commercial motor carriers engaged in interstate or foreign commerce. It deals with more than 330,000 carriers and approximately 36,000 shippers of hazardous materials. The administration conducts reviews at the carrier's facilities to determine the safety of the carrier's over-the-road operations. These reviews may lead to prosecution or other sanctions against violators of the federal motor carrier safety regulations or the hazardous materials transportation regulations.
The Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 (49 U.S.C.A. § 2701) authorizes the administration to establish national standards for a single commercial vehicle driver's license for state issuance, a national information system clearinghouse for commercial driver's license information, knowledge and skills tests for licensing commercial vehicle drivers, and disqualification of drivers for serious traffic offenses, including alcohol and drug abuse. The agency administers the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program, a partnership between the federal government and the states, under the provisions of sections 401–404 of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982 (49 U.S.C.A. §§ 2301–2304).
Federal Railroad Administration
The purpose of the Federal Railroad Administration is to promulgate and enforce rail safety regulations, administer railroad financial assistance programs, conduct research and development in support of improved railroad safety and national rail transportation policy, provide for the rehabilitation of Northeast Corridor rail passenger service, and consolidate government support of rail transportation activities.
The administration administers and enforces the federal laws and related regulations designed to promote safety on railroads and exercises jurisdiction over all areas of rail safety, such as track maintenance, inspection standards, equipment standards, and operating practices. It also administers and enforces regulations enacted pursuant to railroad safety legislation for locomotives, signals, safety appliances, power brakes, hours of service, transportation of explosives and other dangerous articles, and the reporting and investigation of railroad accidents. Railroad and related industry equipment, facilities, and records are inspected, and required reports are reviewed. In addition, the administration educates the public about safety at highway-rail grade crossings and the danger of trespassing on rail property.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) was established by the Highway Safety Act of 1970 (23 U.S.C.A. § 401). The NHTSA carries out programs concerning the safety performance of motor vehicles and related equipment and the safety of motor vehicle drivers, occupants, and pedestrians. The administration conducts general motor vehicle programs aimed at reducing the damage that motor vehicles sustain as a result of crashes. It also administers the federal odometer law, issues theft prevention standards, and promulgates average fuel economy standards for passenger and nonpassenger motor vehicles.
Under the NHTSA program, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards are issued that prescribe safety features and levels of safety-related performance for vehicles and motor vehicle equipment. Damage susceptibility, crashworthiness, and theft prevention are studied and reported to Congress and the public.
The Energy Policy and Conservation Act, as amended (42 U.S.C.A. § 6201), sets automotive fuel economy standards for passenger cars for model years 1985 and thereafter. The NHTSA has the option of altering the standards for the post-1985 period. The NHTSA develops and promulgates mandatory fuel economy standards for light trucks for each model year and administers the fuel economy regulatory program. The administration also establishes rules for collecting and reporting information concerning manufacturers' ability to meet fuel economy standards. This information is used to evaluate technological alternatives and manufacturers' economic ability to meet fuel economy standards.
The NHTSA maintains a national register of information on individuals who have had their licenses to operate a motor vehicle revoked, suspended, canceled, or denied, or who have been convicted of certain traffic-related violations, such as driving while impaired by alcohol or other drugs. The information obtained from the register assists state licensing officials in determining whether to issue a driver's license.
The Highway Safety Act provides federal matching funds to states and local communities to assist them with their highway safety programs. Areas of primary emphasis include impaired driving, occupant protection, motorcycle safety, police traffic services, pedestrian and bicycle safety, emergency medical services, speed control, and traffic records. The NHTSA provides guidance and technical assistance in all of these areas. The Highway Safety Act also provides incentive funds for encouraging states to implement effective impaired-driving programs and to encourage the use of safety belts and motorcycle helmets.
Federal Transit Administration
The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) was established as a component of the DOT in 1968. The FTA works with public and private
mass transportation companies to develop improved mass transportation facilities, equipment, techniques, and methods. The administration encourages the planning and establishment of area-wide urban mass transportation systems, helps state and local governments finance such systems, and provides financial assistance to state and local governments to increase mobility for older, disabled, and economically disadvantaged persons.
Maritime Administration
The Maritime Administration was transferred to the DOT in 1981. The Maritime Administration conducts programs to aid in the development, promotion, and operation of the U.S. merchant marine. It is also charged with organizing and directing emergency merchant ship operations.
Through the Maritime Subsidy Board, the Maritime Administration handles subsidy programs under which the federal government, subject to statutory limitations, pays the difference between certain costs of operating ships under the U.S. flag and foreign competitive flags. The government also subsidizes the difference between the costs of constructing ships in U.S. and foreign shipyards. The Maritime Administration provides financing guarantees for the construction, reconstruction, and reconditioning of ships and enters into capital construction fund agreements that grant tax deferrals on moneys to be used for the acquisition, construction, or reconstruction of ships.
The administration constructs or supervises the construction of merchant-type ships for the federal government. It helps industry generate increased business for U.S. ships and conducts programs to promote domestic shipping and to develop ports, facilities, and intermodal transport.
Under emergency conditions the Maritime Administration charters government-owned ships to U.S. operators, requisitions or procures ships owned by U.S. citizens, and allocates them to meet defense needs. It maintains a National Defense Reserve Fleet of government-owned ships that it operates through ship managers and general agents when required for the national defense. An element of this activity is the Ready Reserve Force, consisting of a number of ships that can be activated for quick response.
The administration regulates sales to aliens and transfers to foreign registry of ships that are fully or partially owned by U.S. citizens. It also disposes of government-owned ships found nonessential for national defense.
The administration operates the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York, where young people are trained to become merchant marine officers, and conducts training in shipboard firefighting in Earle, New Jersey, and Toledo, Ohio. It also administers a federal assistance program for the maritime academies operated by California, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, and Texas.
St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation
The St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation was established by Congress in 1954 (33 U.S.C.A. §§ 981–990) as an operating administration of the DOT. The corporation, a wholly government-owned enterprise, is responsible for the development, operation, and maintenance of the part of the St. Lawrence Seaway that is between the port of Montreal and Lake Erie and within the territorial limits of the United States. It is the function of the Seaway Corporation to provide a safe, efficient, and effective water artery for maritime commerce, both in peacetime and in time of national emergency.
The corporation coordinates its activities with its Canadian counterpart, particularly with respect to overall operations, traffic control, navigation aids, safety, navigation dates, and related programs designed to fully develop the seaway system. The corporation encourages the development of traffic through the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway system in order to contribute to the economic and environmental development of the entire region.
Research and Special Programs Administration
The Research and Special Programs Administration was established in 1977. It is responsible for hazardous materials transportation and pipeline safety, transportation emergency preparedness, safety training, and transportation research and development activities.
The september 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when four commercial airliners were hijacked by terrorists who flew two of them into the World Trade Center towers in New York City and one into the Pentagon (the fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania), had a significant impact on the Department of Transportation. In November 2001, Congress passed legislation that created within the DOT the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), an agency established to increase airport security. The following November the Homeland Security Act was passed, which authorized the establishment of the homeland security department. On March 1, 2003, the new department assumed management of the United States Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Administration, both of which had been operating administrations of the DOT.
Although no longer in charge of overseeing the protection of airline passengers, the Department of Transportation remained responsible for the safety of Americans traveling on the nation's highways. To that end the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) was making efforts in early 2003 to collaborate with other DOT components, federal agencies, state and local officials, business associations and the private sector to develop a plan for "emergency transportation operations preparedness." The purpose of the plan is to engage in regional and local cooperation and planning to facilitate the safe, continuous movement of people and goods during a national security event or emergency.
further readings
Cobb, Roger W., and David M. Primo. 2003. The Plane Truth: Airline Crashes, the Media, and Transportation Policy. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution.
Sweet, Kathleen M. 2002. Terrorism and Airport Security. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen.
Transportation Department. Available online at <www.dot.gov> (accessed August 14, 2003).


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Diesel Fuel at Chattahoochee River Whitewater
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Synergy 40 Leg Support Tights
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BARCELONA—ARM is promising close to 70 percent processor power savings with a new chip design called Big.Little, and mobile devices on display at the Mobile World Congress provided the first glimpse of how the technology works.
The concept of Big.Little revolves around off-loading mundane tasks like voice calls, SMS, and MP3 playback to low-power cores, leaving the high-performance cores to take on demanding workloads. The technology offers an alternative to today's ARM processor designs in which the most mundane tasks are designated to high-performance CPUs, which could consume excess power while processing.
The benefits of the chip design were highlighted in a quad-core smartphone shown by chip maker Renesas and a prototype tablet with a Samsung eight-core chip shown in ARM's booth. The Big.Little concept couples high performance with low-power cores in one chip, with tasks being assigned to specific cores based on their power requirements and priority.
Big.Little will provide longer battery life for mobile devices, according to ARM, which licenses its product designs to chip makers. Seven companies have licensed Big.Little.
How Big.Little works
The chip design pairs ARM's latest Cortex-A15 core with the new low-power Cortex-A7 core for mobile devices, and the processors will start appearing together in mobile devices later this year. In the future, ARM is matching the high-power 64-bit Cortex-A57 processor with the low-power Cortex-A53 core.
Big.Little has been licensed by seven chip makers including Renesas and Samsung, and a glimpse of the technology was provided in devices containing chips from those companies.
ARM showed a prototype tablet with Samsung's Exynos 5 Octa chip, which combined four Cortex-A15 performance cores with four Cortex-A7 cores. The tablet off-loaded some of the video tasks to the graphics core and sound and background tasks to the Cortex-A7 cores, leaving the four high-performance Cortex-A15 cores largely idle.
Eight cores is not overkill for a tablet, especially for users who need better performance and longer battery life, said Eric Gowland, senior engineer of applied system engineering at ARM.
The Android OS and programming tools will enable tablets to break up tasks effectively over the uniquely defined eight cores, Gowland said. Big.Little devices won't face the same problems PCs had with the advent of multicore chips, in which programmers made the daunting move from writing single-threaded applications to producing code that could be effectively broken down over multiple cores.
The Cortex-A7 is a fast performer but uses very little power, Gowland said. He showed smartphones running on Cortex-A7 chips, but added that Cortex-A15 processors are better performers.
There is also no magic formula to mix and match the right number of performance and low-power cores, Gowland said. In the end, the implementation of Big.Little will depend on chip makers.
Nvidia not using Big.Little
One of ARM's major licensees, Nvidia, has not adopted Big.Little, instead coming up with its own "4+1" design for its Tegra chips, which have four high-performance cores and one core for low-power tasks.
But Renesas showed how Big.Little could be used in smartphones with its upcoming MP6530 quad-core chip. The company coupled two Cortex-A15 cores with two Cortex-A7 cores in a prototype LTE smartphone, which was on display under glass at the company's booth.
Economics drove the company's decision to include two high-performance and two low-power cores in MP6530, said Ashley Wheeler, director of customer programs and support at Renesas Mobile Europe.
A quad-core chip is the right option for smartphones, so the best approach in the view of Renesas was to bring in two of each, Wheeler said. Any more would increase the size and cost of the chip, which Wheeler said was not an option, especially when smartphones are shrinking in size and consuming less power.
The Renesas chip will reach device makers by the end of the year and be in smartphones that become available next year.
The Big.Little design strikes the right mix of power consumption and performance on mobile devices, and seven customers licensing the technology is a good start, said Warren East, CEO of ARM, in an interview.
The technology has a lot of promise and there are many ways in which it could be implemented that ARM hasn't yet envisioned, East said. Implementations could change as Big.Little is adapted for embedded devices, servers and other computing products.


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Feinstein: Time to set drone rules
Sen. Dianne Feinstein called for regulation on drones use Thursday saying that the tool was the "perfect assassination weapon."
"In some respects it's a perfect assassination weapon. It can see from 17,000 to 20,000 feet up in the air, it is very precise, it can knock out a room in a building if it's armed, it's a very dangerous weapon. Right now we have a problem, there are all these nations that want to buy these armed drones. I'm strongly opposed to that," Feinstein, (D-Calif.), who is the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee told MSNBC'S Chris Matthews.
Feinstein said that without regulation, it could be quite possible someday to see drones "hovering over the homes of Hollywood luminaries, violating [their] privacy." She called it a "work in progress" and said that the Intelligence Committee is trying to draft legislation surrounding the weapon.
"This question has to be addressed and we need rules of operation on the border, by police, by commercial use and also by military and intelligence use. So this is now a work in progress," Feinstein said. "The administration is looking at a rules playbook as to how these won't be used and how they will be used. So It's a very complicated subject of new technology and I think we have to take a pause and get it right."


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Sony Ericsson announced today that it's cutting the cord with the Symbian operating system, a move that may put the platform on life support. Sony Ericsson's withdrawal of support for the mobile OS means that the only major player left building phones for the platform is Nokia, which is currently in troubled financial waters.
Some analysts haven't closed the lid on Symbian's casket yet, the Financial Times reports today. They calculate that Symbian could survive if Nokia makes some changes to the system. But the Finns have a tough row to hoe with Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems steadily gaining market share and Microsoft ready to enter the fray with elbows flying with the reboot of its mobile platform, Windows Phone 7.
In its announcement that it was deserting Symbian, Sony Ericsson said it wanted to focus on making Android phones, as well as handsets for Microsoft's WP7, the Financial Times reports.
Symbian is still the most popular operating system in the world but it has been unable to stem significant encroachment to its market position by Apple and Google, primarily because Nokia has been unable to deliver a product that can compete with the technology in the handsets of its foes.
Symbian is ostensibly an open operating system but Nokia has always played a big role in determining the direction of the platform. With Sony Ericsson's departure, a fine point has been put on that fact and some observers believe it may be time for Nokia to pull in the reins on the operating system.
One of the biggest questions before the current top dog at Nokia, Stephen Elop, is whether to seize control of all Symbian development in order to accelerate improvements that can make the system more competitive in the market, an analyst with CCS Insight, Ben Wood, told the Financial Times.
Sony Ericsson's abandonment of Symbian and its commitment to WP7 is no doubt good news for the crew at Microsoft. If Symbian goes the way of TRS-DOS, it will be one less operating system WP7 will have to compete with for market share.


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Each year, Michigan businesses sell approximately $6 billion in goods and services to Mexico-about 20 percent of Michigan's total export sales. Serious financial crises triggered by the collapse of the peso, however, have put those sales in jeopardy.
President Clinton responded to the crisis by arranging a $20 billion bailout for Mexico, paid for by American citizens. Though months have passed since it was announced, it has failed either to restore investor confidence or stabilize the Mexican economy. Skyrocketing interest rates in Mexico are preventing everyone, from large businesses to small credit cardholders, from making payments on their debts. As a result, Mexico's deteriorating banking system has become insolvent, prompting the government to rescue several banks. During the next year, Mexico's total debt of $160 billion could double in size, meaning that the U.S. package will not be enough.
The U.S. has tied its economy to Mexico through the North American Free Trade Agreement, and many Michigan jobs are linked to trade with our Southern neighbor. Unfortunately, there is little the U.S. can do to repair Mexico's broken economic system. For several years, Mexicans bought most of their American products with money borrowed from Americans. When these massive debts came due, Mexico found itself unable to repay them. Continuing to make bad loans in Mexico, this time from the U.S. Treasury, makes little economic sense.
If these new, very risky Mexican loans are not repaid, then essentially the money will have been given away, and the U.S. taxpayer will be left to pick up the tab. This has happened several times in the past, most notably in 1982. Mexico's failure to make payments on foreign loans that year prompted an international debt crisis. The bailout may just be sending good money after bad.
The Mexican government's harsh economic plan does little to resolve the country's massive debt problems. Instead it has produced a severe and prolonged recession by implementing wage and price controls, higher taxes on businesses and individuals, and burdensome measures to reduce the country's imports.
Without U.S. financial assistance, the Mexican government would be forced to take a heavy dose of fiscal discipline and sell off numerous publicly owned assets. Full privatization of state-run monopolies in telecommunications, electric utilities, and oil production would be painful to the politicians accustomed to their privileges, but would alleviate the economy's structural weaknesses, revitalize the private sector and renew prospects for economic growth. These reforms would also enable the government to borrow short-term funds from private credit markets, rather than the American taxpayer. The bailout, by infusing Mexico's bankrupt government with new funds, has given Mexico an excuse once again to postpone its long awaited reform measures.
The situation in Mexico is having serious repercussions. Large loans and guarantees to Mexico from the U.S. Treasury have put stress on the U.S. dollar, which recently fell to all-time lows against major currencies. When Congress failed to ratify the balanced budget amendment, currency markets questioned how the spendthrift U.S. government could justify making such risky loans to Mexico. Too many off-budget accounting gimmicks like the Mexico bailout have made the U.S. the world's largest debtor nation.
The collapse of the Mexican currency has also exposed similar but fewer severe problems in Canada, one of the largest external borrowers in the industrialized world. Canada's inability to come to terms with excessive government spending and debt has sent its currency tumbling too. Indeed, the Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso are the only major currencies the U.S. dollar has substantially outperformed in recent months.
Financial stability is vitally important to the U.S. economic relationship with its major trading partners. It cannot be achieved through the smoke and mirrors of taxpayer-financed bailouts and other gimmicks. The best thing the U.S. government can do to help its neighbors is to put its own house in order, and let the markets discipline other countries for their own mistakes.
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is a nonprofit research and educational institute that advances the principles of free markets and limited government. Through our research and education programs, we challenge government overreach and advocate for a free-market approach to public policy that frees people to realize their potential and dreams.
Please consider contributing to our work to advance a freer and more prosperous state.


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Christian History 78
From Tolkien Gateway
|Christian History: J.R.R. Tolkien (issue 78)
|Christianity Today International
Christian History 78 is an issue, dedicated completely to Tolkien, of the periodical Christian History.
Articles[edit | edit source]
- Chris Armstrong, Steven Gertz: "Windows on the life and work of J.R.R. Tolkien"
- Chris Armstrong: "He Gave Us Back Myth and with It, Truth."
- Clyde S. Kilby: "Meeting Professor Tolkien"
- Bradley J. Birzer: "Tolkien: The Man Behind the Myth"
- Steven Gertz: "Most Married Man"
- Tom Shippey: "A Feeling for Language"
- Clyde S. Kilby: "A Niggling Art"
- Joseph Pearce: "The Christian Humanists"
- David Mills: "One Truth, Many Tales"
- Thomas Howard: "SacramentaL Imagination"
- Ralph C. Wood: "Good and Evil in Middle-earth"
- Jennifer Lynn Woodruff: "The Inklings"
- Colin Duriez: "Tollers and Jack"
- Humphrey Carpenter: "Hobbits and Englishman"
- Aaron Belz: "Father of Epic Fantasy"
- Michael Foster: "An Unexpected Party"
- Humphrey Carpenter: "The 'idol' speaks"
- Steven Gertz, Chris Armstrong: "Understanding Tolkien"


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More info about the name "Ercole"
Ercole is an Italian variant of Heracles. Heracles originates in Greek language and means "Hera's glory". In Greek mythology, Heracles was the son of Zeus and Alcmene, hated by Hera. Being the Olympian order champion, he became a symbol of strength, courage and sexual fitness. In Rome, and later on in Western world, he is known as Hercules.