text:
A student came to my office last week to give me a paper she had written for my graduate class this semester. She apologized when she handed me her paper, which was to be a short, 2-3 page paper; hers was 7 pages in length. This was the third paper she had submitted in the course, Art as History; the first two papers took my breath away; I told her that in 48 years of teaching I had never seen papers like the ones she had written for me. I would guess that she is in her forties; at any rate, whatever her age and background might be, she is brilliant. And she loves learning, as she has said several times. She loves doing academic work; she is completely in her element taking graduate courses, which she has done in several disciplines, including English, art history, and history.
After discussing her paper we talked about art and history and other topics of common interest. She is extremeely well read and interested not only in academic subjects but in today's world, which we discussed in a wide-ranging conversation that touched on the contemporary American scene, the state of our schools, our foreign policy, the wars we are waging, and more. Then I noticed that she saw someone outside my office, a student that she suspected was waiting to see me. This was indeed the case, and the woman with whom I had just had a bracing, engaging conversation quickly left; she didn't want to continue the conversation if someone else wanted to see me.
The student who wanted to see me next is in one of my undergraduate classes this semester, History through Opera. This is the first time I have offered this course, and it will be the last, as I will be retiring at the end of the coming fall semester. I honestly don't know if I would offer the course again if I were to continue teaching; it has had its highs, and it has had its lows. At any rate, the student who wanted to see me felt that the grade on her last paper was lower than it should be, so I re-read her paper. I agreed with her, and changed the grade. I then asked her how the course was going for her, a question that has been in mind since the beginning of the semester. I understand full well that opera is well beyond the interests of today's college students, and that offering a course on History through Opera was a gamble. But I thought it was a gamble worth taking. I can't say at this point if I was mistaken or not when I decided to offer the course.
When I asked the student whose paper I had just re-read about her response to the course she said it enlarged her understanding of opera. But there was a problem: a student who sits behind her plays music —I don't want to know who this student is, and I certainly don't want to know what music he plays during class—on his headphones, and that hearing it when I play operas is distracting. I was stunned. How can this be? To tune out opera, he tunes in his preferred music. I understood that some students might not buy into opera, but I said to myself that if they didn't like it they would know this in the first week of the semester and drop the course, as I urged them to do. I also felt that since students knew the course was about opera that they would be willing to give it a try; my hope was that I would win students over, and that they would be enlarged by the course. And I feel certain that many have. I was not prepared for a student who listens to his music while I am playing operas in class.
Why does he come to class? I suppose because of my attendance policy; students who don't show up for class will suffer a grade reduction at the end of the semester. I would be curious to know what is going on inside the mind of this student. He didn't have to take a course on opera, and he could easily have dropped it. He needed 3 credits and the course fit into his schedule, I would assume. But are there no other courses that he could have taken? Does he like any courses? Does he have any interest in or commitment to academic study? In my many years of teaching I find myself asking this question about students who give no evidence of caring even a little about my courses; are they ever engaged? I might mention that the student who asked me to read her paper again said that she is distracted by the student who sits next to her. I gather that he is so bored that he makes it known to others. Is he engaged by any courses that he takes?
The spectrum of engagement among the students I have had in the classroom over the years has been very broad, broader, I feel, than it should be. Many have been as good as it is possible to be. I received an email three days ago from one of my former undergraduate students who did his Ph.D. at Oxford in 2009. He revised his dissertation on Emerson and submitted it for publication to an English press. This student sent me the reader's report, which said that he expected the book to be one of the most important studies on Emerson in the last ten years. My graduate assistant this semester was just awarded a prize in the History department for the best paper by a graduate student this academic year. I received an email early last week from a former undergraduate student who has a $20,000 endowed fellowship at the University of Rochester; he has completed 3 out of 5 chapters in his dissertation. One of my former graduate assistants who is coming to pay me a visit next week was just awarded a national prize for the best book in her field for the current academic year. Yet another of my former graduate assistants will publish her first book, a revision of her dissertation, this spring. I could go on interminably, but won't. UAlbany attracts superb students, undergraduate and graduate; also, as at colleges and universities elsewhere, students enroll here who have no interest whatever in academic study. What a waste.


text:
Giving young children small amounts of peanuts can prevent them from developing a peanut allergy in later life, according to a new study.
Findings of research of 600 children aged between four and 11 months appeared to contradict traditional wisdom about how to avoid the potentially fatal condition.
The children studied were at high risk of developing peanut allergies but when they were given a regular diet of at least 6g of peanut protein per week they appeared to be protected from developing the immune reaction.
The children, who already suffered from eczema or egg allergy and so were prone to developing a peanut allergy, were split into two groups.
One followed existing advice and avoided peanut protein, while the rest of the children were fed a regular diet of peanut protein.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, said that by the age of five, some 17 per cent of the children in the avoidance groups had developed peanut allergy, compared with 3 per cent in the exposure group.
Professor Gideon Lack, of King's College London, said: "For decades, allergists have been recommending that young infants avoid consuming allergenic foods such as peanut to prevent food allergies.
"Our findings suggest that this advice was incorrect and may have contributed to the rise of peanut and other food allergies."
Peanut allergies, which have doubled over the past few decades and affect about one per cent of the population, can cause hives, abdominal pain and severe anaphylaxis, which can kill if left untreated.
Professor Lack added: "This is an important clinical development and contravenes previous guidelines.
"While these were withdrawn in 2008 in the UK and US, our study suggests that new guidelines may be needed to reduce the rate of peanut allergy in our children.
"The study also excluded infants showing early strong signs of having already developed peanut allergy; the safety and effectiveness of early peanut consumption in this group remains unknown and requires further study.
"Parents of infants and young children with eczema and, or egg allergy should consult with an allergist, paediatrician, or their general practitioner prior to feeding them peanut products."
The co-investigator of the study, Dr George Du Toit, a consultant in paediatric allergy at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and an honorary senior lecturer at King's College London, said: " [We] will continue to monitor those children who consumed peanut to see if they remain protected against allergy even if they stop consuming peanut for 12 months."
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Couple travels globe on 11 month mission trip
Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, May 13, 2010
Jared Christian described a jail in Mozambique, Africa as "the driest, hottest place I've ever been on earth." Prisoners at the jail could only eat if their family brought them food, just as hospital patients in the country relied on relatives to feed them. Christian, along with his wife Amy, brought food and prayers to the prisoners and the sick during their stay in Mozambique.
The Christians — who have been married 2 1/2 years — spent the past 11 months traveling the globe as missionaries. Part of a team of 36 — 26 finished the tour — the couple devoted almost a full year to a Christian mission trip called The World Race.
"The purpose of this trip was to show all the different areas where you can do missions," Jared said of the interdenominational organization. "This trip was designed to take people — even new believers — who wanted to do something for God."
Participants range in age from early twenties to thirties; members of the Christians' team were 21 to 33. Those who sign up for the adventure live out of a backpack for 11 months as they travel to 11 countries to help people at churches, orphanages and schools.
World Race missionaries keep in touch with family and friends at home through social networking sites like Facebook and web-based phone services such as Skype. All participants also are required to keep a blog during the trip with stories and photos from their travels.
"Everybody has to blog," Amy explained. "All the stories from the whole year are still up on the site."
While the couple's itinerary included stops in 11 countries, they ended up going through 15 countries due to "surprises, detours and political unrest," they said.
"They were in Guatemala during the time when the Honduras president was ousted," said Amy's mother, Midlander Susan Hanson.
The team started their trip in Guatemala where they worked in children's homes and visited a garbage dump where children and families live.
"We brought them food and gave them love," Jared said.
Both Jared and Amy — along with several of their team members — became ill in Guatemala as they struggled to acclimate to the differences in regional food. For the remainder of the trip, the Christians were careful to eat nutritious foods and seek out fresh fruits and vegetables.
Their next stop was Romania, which the couple agreed was their favorite destination during the trip. In the Eastern European country they visited a children's hospital and brought clothing to the patients. They also worked closely with the Gypsy population in the country.
"Then we went to Turkey and Israel," Amy said, explaining they taught English classes to the mostly Muslim populations.
The group then headed to Africa where they spent time in Mozambique, Malawi and South Africa working in orphanages and hospitals and going door to door to pray with the people.
"It seemed like most people we were with in Africa had AIDS," Amy said.
After their stay in Africa, the team journeyed to Asia where they stayed with hosts who own a restaurant in Malaysia.
"The only way to have a church there is to have a business and invite a church in," Jared explained. Their hosts conducted church services for the large homeless population in the country and the missionaries helped in the restaurant and in the services. They also prepared food and served it to people living on the street.
After Malaysia, the team traveled to the Philippines where they visited an orphanage that also held summer camps and other programs for area children. More than 100 children came to the orphanage each Saturday for their free programs. The children who stay at the center include both "true" orphans who have lost their parents as well as those children whose parents can't afford to care for them.
"Some of them didn't have their parents, but most of them are just poor," Amy said.
Their final destination was Thailand where the team split up into a "man-istry" and a women's group. The men set off to a church built by an American couple who came to the country to minister to the people. Team members painted the church and planted bushes around the grounds for privacy. They also hosted a two-day Bible school for the youth.
The women went to the city of Phuket where they visited bars and nightclubs trying to reach out to girls in the sex trade.
"We would just go in and offer the girls a way out," Amy said, explaining they worked with an organization that would offer the girls housing and a salary and teach them a new trade. "It's really hard though, because they want that job just because they'll make more money."
Many of the girls said they were unable to leave prostitution because of a "debt" owed to the person who brought them there. The couple said it was common for families to sell their daughters into the sex trade after being promised their daughters would become educated and successful. Part of the ministry of the American couple's church, Jared said, was to teach the families the reality of the sex trade and show them other options to support themselves.
The Christians returned to the United States April 29 and began another trip — this one more relaxed — to visit family around Texas. Currently they are spending time with Hanson in Midland and soon they will travel to Southeast Texas to be with Jared's family.
The Christians also are expanding their own family as they recently learned they are expecting their first child.
When asked if they would like to plan another mission trip for the future, their answer was clear.
"Absolutely," Jared said.


text: On Tue, 22 Apr 2008, Claude Charpentier wrote: > i try to build latest current version but i got an error with > lib/libsa/memcmp.c. After discuss on #netbsd, someone tell me that memcmp.c > is no more available in sources. So i try this rm -rf /usr/src and sync > again my source tree with csup. I launch again build of ditribution and got > the same error. That sounds like a stale dependency. Did you remove your object directories and/or make cleandir? --apb (Alan Barrett)


text:
FOUR cyclists will begin a 6,000- mile bike ride from Bury St Edmunds to Rwanda tomorrow.
The riders will officially launch their trek from the Abbey Gate at 1pm and aim to reach their destination in 70 days.
The challenge is part of the Sport For Rwanda fund-raising appeal to amass £80,000 to provide 140 schools in the country with sports equipment and training materials.
Those taking part in the ride are Pete White, of Great Whelnetham, Neil Dykes, of Tostock, Julian Claxton, of Oulton, and Pete Goodwin, of Colchester.
They will be joined at the Abbey Gate by two dignataries from the Rwandan High Commission – His Excellency Rwamuvyo and General Frank Rusagara – as well as the Mayor of St Edmundsbury Cllr Christopher Spicer.
Bury will host the Rwandan Olympic and Paralympic teams Pre-Games Training Camp this year.
For further details visit www.sportforrwanda.org/cycle-to-rwanda


text:
This year has been slow going for for some of the biggest brands on Facebook, with top retailers experiencing a drop in engagement and volume despite ramping up the number of posts and luxury brands emerging as marketing leaders on the site.
That's according to the Fan, Actions, Volume and Engagement Retail Index Data Report from social media management firm Expion, which analyzed the Facebook activity of the top 50 U.S. retailers during the first half of 2013. Expion CEO Peter Heffring says the findings demonstrate the value of quality over quantity:
Key findings showcase that compelling content is still king, and brands that organically are tied to style and pop culture, like luxury brands, tend to benefit from the strongest engagement with their fans.
The report released recently examined the top 50 retail brands and their performance, naming luxury brands Tiffany & Co. and Victoria's Secret the retail industry leaders in Facebook engagement. With their content-is-king style, luxury brands edge out the quantity approach employed by Walmart, the report says.
Some more interesting findings:
- There was a 50/50 split across retailers in terms of volume growth. Twenty-five saw an uptick in social volume, the other half saw a decline. Coach and Guess were the only two top 10 brands with positive growth.
- Video didn't kill the picture star. Despite the growing popularity of video sharing, image posts still reigned on Facebook, representing 80 percent of the content those 50 retailers posted during the study's timeframe. Video posts made up a measly 3 percent of posted content.
- Luxury brands dominate Facebook marketing because of their captivating products (like jewelry and purses) and ties to pop culture. Drug stores, supermarkets and value stores that depend on mass appeal pool up at the bottom of the rankings.
- Head-to-head comparisons show which retailers lead their given sectors. In terms of user engagement, Whole Foods lost to Publix and Kohl's lost to Macy's. To beat the competition, brands should take a page from leading competitors, diversify content and stop putting up posts that just push products.
- Bath & Body Works raised the bar on user participation, engaging more than 250,000 fans with product promotion leading up to Mother's Day. It garnered fives times more shares than any other single post, proving that contests that are easy to enter encourage Facebook users to share content.
- Timing may not be everything, but it's worth minding. The month of June, pretty much every Friday and daily between 2 and 5 p.m. were over-saturated with marketing posts (poor performing ones at that). Paying attention to the month, day and times of day can boost user engagement if done correctly.
Want to read the entire report?
Just click here and have at it.
Top image courtesy of the Tiffany & Co. Facebook page. Other images courtesy of Expion.


text:
CONCORD — A Virginia couple is flying here Tuesday to learn how the man's 86-year-old mother slipped out of her adult care home Sunday before being found dead at a nearby elementary school playground.
The family of Yolanda Membreno has questions about how her exit apparently went undetected, why it took nearly an hour for staff to call police and why they were told she had died in her bed peacefully.
"We were not told the horrible details about what was really going on until we had a coroner call us this morning and told us quite a different story," said a distraught Sabrina Sanchez, Membreno's daughter-in-law.
Caretakers at Julia's Home, 1020 Hampton Drive in Concord, noticed Membreno was missing about 4:30 p.m. Sunday and conducted a search of the neighborhood before calling police about 5:30 p.m. A police dog traced a scent to the playground of Fair Oaks Elementary School, where officers found Membreno's body at 7 p.m.
Julia's Home, a single-story home on a residential street with six beds, abuts the school, which is located in Pleasant Hill. The playground is about 100 yards from the home.
According to Membreno's family, the owner of the home contacted them about 10:30 p.m. Sunday and told them the woman died of a heart attack in her bed. The family said Julia's Home owner Roy Roberto backed away from those statements Monday morning.
On Monday, Roberto flatly denied saying any such thing to Membreno family members.
"I never said that she died in her bed at all," said Roberto. "I never used those words."
Roberto said he called the family Sunday to say Membreno had died. He said he gave no details because he was told police would do so.
"I have nothing to hide here," said Roberto. "I followed my procedures and protocols."
The coroner said a cause of death is unknown pending an autopsy Monday and that the results may take up to three months to process.
Foul play is not suspected, and it isn't known whether Sunday's high temperatures may have played a role in the woman's death.
Membreno, an Alzheimer's patient who also suffered from terminal heart failure, came to live at Julia's Home in February 2010, Roberto said. Membreno would on occasion hide in corners of the house or behind trees in the backyard, but never left the property until Sunday, Roberto said.
The facility has a chime that sounds when the door is open, but by law is not allowed to be a locked-down facility, the owner said. There are two or three caretakers at the home 24 hours a day, he said.
The family picked the facility for Membreno because of the chime system, said Sanchez.
"If it was working, she's not a marathoner, she's 86 years old. If she got out the door, why is it an hour before you call police?" asked Sanchez. "Something is not adding up."
Born in Nicaragua, Membreno moved to the United States 55 years ago and raised her two children as a single mother in the Mission District of San Francisco, working in a local hotel.
Contact David DeBolt at 925-943-8048 or Twitter.com/daviddebolt. Contact Erin Ivie at 925-847-2122 or Twitter.com/erin_ivie.


text:
The premier event for microenterprise development practitioners.
Find SEEP members & organizations. Explore Now>>
Meet the Practitioners at SEEP 2011
Video Interviews by MicroLinks
Dr. Rashid Bajwa, Pakistan Microfinance Network
Lisa Kuhn Fraioli, Freedom from Hunger
Debora Randall, Independent Consultant
Dr. Sankar Datta, The Livelihood School, BASIX India
Kate Druschel Griffin, Grameen Foundation
Rosita Najmi, Financial Access @ Birth Initiative


text:
Pizza Hut Launches New Pizza Scented Perfume
Here's something that may or may not be on your Christmas list– new perfume with a pizza scent.
Pizza Hut is launching its own perfume to smell like a fresh baked pizza pie. Company officials say the scent boasts "notes of freshly baked, hand tossed dough."


text:
|Apache Web-Serving With Mac OS X, Part 5
|weird stuff!!!
|2003-05-14 06:41:59
I have today installed and configured apache, php, shtml, phpmyadmin, mysql, tomcat and everything was working like a charm (I thought). I made accounts and set it up so that only I and a friend of mine could log in on our sites and edit them and stuff....he got his own account and I had mine....well...ofcourse for a real newbie as I am I was jumping in the air and waving my hands and I was telling everybody how great I am (newbie stuff....).
Ofcourse....this didn't take a long time...I restarted again the apache server for the last time just to see if everything would still work (and they all really did before!) and I just wanted to restart my computer also....and now the socket thing of the mysql is wrong in some way.
I pico'ed the error file in the mysql/data and as expected there was something wrong with the port number.....OR I had 2 mysql's running sort of.
Now I found that in my /usr/local/ there is a mysql but also in the /Library/MySQL....what is this last one? How did it get there? I'm kindof sure that I didn't put it there...could that be the problem?
Hope someone can help...or maybe I could just change the port of the mysql database....but how?
I know most people would say....just remove everything and try again....but I can't I also have my normal work that I gotta do so I'm doing this in every second that I have some spare time...and to remove everything...well...then it would be safer to format my computer and install a fresh OS again...I guess....
Long story...sorry....help me!
1 to 1 of 1
weird stuff!!!
2003-06-13 06:52:36 anonymous2 [View]
weird stuff!!!
2005-01-09 08:13:12 frustrated [View]
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text:
Welcome to Caraway Kennels!
Boarding, Grooming and Daycare
We are a family owned and operated facility, offering superior care for your pet since 1979. We cater to the needs of your family pet with an emphasis on attentive and loving care at reasonable rates. You and your pet will enjoy that our kennel is tucked away in a beautiful country setting with large exercise yards.
Please check out our new deposit and cancellation policy page for rules about holiday reservations.


text: /* * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS HEADER. * * Copyright 1997-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. * * The contents of this file are subject to the terms of either the GNU * General Public License Version 2 only ("GPL") or the Common * Development and Distribution License("CDDL") (collectively, the * "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the * License. You can obtain a copy of the License at * http://www.netbeans.org/cddl-gplv2.html * or nbbuild/licenses/CDDL-GPL-2-CP. See the License for the * specific language governing permissions and limitations under the * License. When distributing the software, include this License Header * Notice in each file and include the License file at * nbbuild/licenses/CDDL-GPL-2-CP. Sun designates this * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided * by Sun in the GPL Version 2 section of the License file that * accompanied this code. If applicable, add the following below the * License Header, with the fields enclosed by brackets [] replaced by * your own identifying information: * "Portions Copyrighted [year] [name of copyright owner]" * * Contributor(s): * The Original Software is NetBeans. The Initial Developer of the Original * Software is Sun Microsystems, Inc. Portions Copyright 1997-2006 Sun * Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. * * If you wish your version of this file to be governed by only the CDDL * or only the GPL Version 2, indicate your decision by adding * "[Contributor] elects to include this software in this distribution * under the [CDDL or GPL Version 2] license." If you do not indicate a * single choice of license, a recipient has the option to distribute * your version of this file under either the CDDL, the GPL Version 2 or * to extend the choice of license to its licensees as provided above. * However, if you add GPL Version 2 code and therefore, elected the GPL * Version 2 license, then the option applies only if the new code is * made subject to such option by the copyright holder. */ package org.netbeans.lib.profiler.results; /** * * @author Jaroslav Bachorik */ 00048 public interface CCTProvider { //~ Inner Interfaces --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- public static interface Listener { //~ Methods -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /* void cctEstablished(RuntimeCCTNode appRootNode); * * in order to fix the issue #114638 i need to introduce the "empty" flag * it should be removed once this code is cleaned up */ void cctEstablished(RuntimeCCTNode appRootNode, boolean emtpy); void cctReset(); } //~ Methods ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ void addListener(Listener listener); void removeAllListeners(); void removeListener(Listener listener); }