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Whether you go to New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival for one day or all seven, you want to make the most out of the experience—especially when it comes to catching all the great live music you have at your disposal. With thousands of musicians to see across 12 stages, you could use a few tips to keep you from wasting any time and instead maximizing it so you can enjoy all of the food and music you can handle.
Research Ahead of Time
While it's definitely fun to just aimlessly walk around Jazz Fest, if you want to see as much on the Jazz Fest music lineup as possible, like anything, it's going to take a little planning. You may already have in mind a few artists you want to see, particularly some headliners, but what about the rest of the day? Maybe you've heard of some local musicians, but maybe you haven't.
If not, to make these musicians stand out more than simply names on a page of cubes, you can check out some of the local media, many of whom feature musician profiles and interviews, show reviews and festival previews. For example, Where Y'at has already listed its picks for Weekend 1 in its latest issue and on its website, with Weekend 2 to follow.
Plan a General Schedule
Now that you know more about the musicians performing on the day(s) you are attending, now you can make a plan. This doesn't have to be set in stone, but even some semblance of a plan will give your day a little direction besides wherever your ears may take you (which can also be just as fun). Know which musicians you want to see and on what stage they're performing, and take a look at the festival grounds map to get an idea of context. You can block out times that you want to see certain sets and set others for free time when you can wander, grab a bite, browse the crafts booths and so on.
Ring Around the Track
Jazz Fest covers a lot of ground, so unless you want to spend half of your day walking and pushing through thick crowds rather than listening to world-class live acts on the Jazz Fest music lineup, you need to make the most of how the festival is laid out. The fest is spread out across the Fairgrounds race track, and as such, the festival is situated in a large ring around the track. You can hit certain stages in the same area heading around this ring when heading from one stage to the next, particularly if you are traveling between the two main stages.
For example, on the outside of the track near the Sauvage Pedestrian Entrance is Heritage Square, where the Gospel, Blues and Zatarain's/WWOZ Jazz Tents are all situated in a line from the middle of the fairgrounds stretching to just about even with the Acura stage at one far end of the grounds. In between these three stages are crafts and the Heritage Square Food area, so this makes Heritage Square a great area to wander around if you're looking for plenty to do in a short period of time. Plus, these three stages are covered and air-conditioned, which is perfect if you're looking to beat the heat for a set or two. But know that you're not the only one with this information, so often these stages are pretty packed.
Take a look at the festival schedule and map in tandem to set out a plan that gives you a chance to see all of the Jazz Fest music lineup you want in the time you have to be there. And don't forget to save room for food, drinks and crafts!


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Summer Reading for fun, learning and graphic inspiration
Learning happens. We're in the summer travel times and have vetted these books for family fun, learning and a little bit of preoccupation! "When will we get there" is a common question, but when you've got some really great project books like these, you've always got an answer.
- Roadside Attractions Coloring Book: Weird Wacky Landmarks Across the USA!
- Creative Haven Art Nouveau Fashions Coloring Book
- Masterworks: Color Your Own Cezanne Paintings
- Animals of the Forest, Wetlands and Desert
- Tarot Designs Coloring Book
- Butterflies Coloring Book

subset: commoncrawl


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NEW, Item royrtg36
Call 708-354-1265
Shipping Fee# will apply
Pick Up in Coutryside, IL is available
Model# RTG-36
this is a NEW item, in its original package. If its damaged please give us a call
NEW 11" low profile
NEW large 1 1/2 gallon capacity stainless steel grease can.
Compact heavy gauge chassis for long life.
Stainless steel sides, front valve cover and ledge.
Double wall panels for cooler sides.
Aeration panels between the burners for added efficiency.
Steel "U" shaped burner every 12" rated at 30,000 BTU/hr.
Energy saving thermostat is adjustable from 150 - 450 degrees F.
3/4" thick griddle plate with polished cooking surface, 1" thick plate.
Thermo control to operate every two burners.
4" wide S/S grease trough with large drain opening for easy cleaning.
stainless steel tubing for pilots.
4" high adjustable heavy duty legs included.
NAT GAS, total BTU 90,000
size: 36" w, 32 1/2" d, 11" h
weight: 300 lbs
Used Restaurant Equipment, Restaurant Equipment
Phone 708-354-1265 or Fax 708-354-1361
Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CSTSaturday by appoinment only
Copyright © 2002-2050 Pierce Food Service Equipment Corporation Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Pierce Chef's Mart (TM) is a division of Pierce Food Service Equipment Corporation, Inc.
UPS, the UPS brandmark and the color
brown are trademarks that are used with permissionby the owner,
United Parcel Service of America, Inc. All rights reserved.


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This is White Flame mixtape
Produced by Lil B
[Verse: 1]
White Flame mixtape I'm surely blessed
I come from BasedWorld
I just show respect
I damn near lost my life over 20 times
Niggas that I hit licks with they still robbing
I think about my life and all the people in it
A lot of people, a lot of people changing
The ones that help me keep it real the ones that never sweat
The hardest nigga out, used to be a bitch
But I keep the list on the down low
I'm a hired hitman, with no income
The people judging by the way you look on the outside
In my heart I'm silent bro I never lie
Keep it lit, I'm still corporate with the street shit
Them suckers watching man I'm finna make them eat shit
Them haters watching me, them faces all up in my dreams
While you hating on me, I'm thinking violent things
I get scared when the days turn to nighttime
I stay strapped up, I'm not down to die
How the hell did I live longer than my friends?
I've been out the streets, and want to do me still
Can please everybody, somebody , hate me
You don't name a million, somebody still shake
Act like you ain't thugged out to get your shit together
Bitch I'm down for shaking shit, I'm down for whatever
This is a real, cry for help
I got no friends, I'm bad, and I'm sick
Everyday man I pray I'm a live forever
I love my mama man I wish we could die together
Could leave without her hear that be a lie forever
I love my mama man that's 100 shit
You fuck with me or fuck with her I'm on some dumping shit
You feel me? That's real love shit
I'm doing everything man
For my motherfucking family and for BasedWorld
I'm done take one
For my loved ones
You feel me?
They not feeling me though
You could never stop the BasedGod
You'll never stop Lil B
Look at my face, oh my God my face
If you ever a fucking problem with Lil B
I'm done against that motherfucking case, you fucking bitch
I line up
Daytime, nighttime, anytime
Off of Lil B's White Flame mixtape
This song basically explains about his opinions about his life, family, friends, fans, and haters. This song is known to be the start of Lil B's emotional phase. The video above's title says "Lil B – Im Down 4 Hire VIDEO WOW THINGS GETTING SUPER EMOTIONAL *WHITE FLAME" The White Flame Mixtape should be released in early 2012.
-Lil B "The BasedGod"


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There has been a resurgence in the wearing of hats by some women, including me, and you saw one of my current hats in the RED Saturday Photo Hunt.
Despite moving to two different countries in the meantime, I still have one hat from my youth in Australia, all those many years ago. I bought it for the wedding of a university friend who married the year we graduated, in 1957. So fifty years old, and rather OLD FASHIONED, but still quite lovely, may I present this hat which I do wear very occasionally.


text:
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Do you have anymore questions? Then call us: 02041-1727870
Yes! You can order samples on the product page for a fee, for this there is an extra button.
Please note that you can order a maximum of 3 samples per order!
Yes, the minimum order quantity is on the product page below the "Sample order" button.
Delivery is by parcel service. For larger orders or bulky goods possibly also by forwarding.
An exact delivery time does not exist, but with finished goods this is usually delivered within 3-4 weeks after release. Neutral goods take about 3-4 working days.
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text:
Next Episode of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries is
not planed. TV Show was canceled.
Drama series about upper-crust DI Thomas Lynley and working class DS Barbara Havers, based on the novels of Elizabeth George.
Shaun Parkes(DC Winston Nkata)
Sharon Small(Sergeant Barbara Havers)
Lesley Vickerage(Helen Clyde)
Paul Hickey(Lafferty)
Catherine Russell(Helen Lynley)
Nathaniel Parker(Inspector Thomas Lynley)
Anjalee Patel(Hadiyyah)
Looks like something went completely wrong!
But don't worry - it can happen to the best of us,
- and it just happened to you.
Please try again later or contact us.


text:
Statement by John J. Callahan,
Acting Commissioner, Social Security Administration
before the House Ways and Means Committee
Subcommittee on Social Security
July 23, 1997
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
A large and growing number of people with disabilities can work, and want to work. With the Americans With Disabilities Act, changes in societal attitudes, and advances in technology, it is clearer than ever that being disabled does not mean that you can't contribute to our nation's economy. However, people with disabilities face a variety of complex barriers to work. Now is the right time to launch new initiatives to help break these barriers.
Today, too few of our approximately 8 million Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability recipients leave the disability rolls each year because of work. In fiscal year 1996, SSA paid State vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies about $65.5 million for their services provided to approximately 6,000 beneficiaries with disabilities who worked at least 9 months earning more than $500 per month. However, many State VR agencies have waiting lists for services, and many more of our customers with disabilities tell us they want to work and will do so if the incentives are right and the services they need are available. We look forward to working with Congress, the Rehabilitation Services Administration, and other Federal agencies to turn our customers' dreams of economic independence into reality. I am enthusiastic about the possibilities for the future, particularly the President's "Ticket to Independence" proposal.
This plan creates new ways to help people find work and achieve their goals. The Administration looks forward to working with the Hill to enact these proposals. Since there are members of Congress from both sides of the aisle who are also working to solve this problem. we are looking forward to a constructive dialogue with you on this issue that will lead to the enactment of legislation, and we believe that our proposal merits your support. The "Ticket to Independence" is a public-private partnership designed to expand opportunities for individuals with disabilities, including individuals who are blind. This partnership would give people receiving disability payments what they want and need--the control and flexibility to secure services tailored to their individual requirements from their choice of providers. The Ticket is fiscally responsible, since providers would be paid only for results, i.e., placing individuals in jobs and eliminating Federal cash assistance.
Some have been critical of the current system for not improving the work capacity of our beneficiaries. We know that many highly skilled, outcome-focused agencies and professionals could be successful in assisting our diverse beneficiaries to return to work and that individualized planning and support is essential to successful work re-entry. The President's proposal builds on this knowledge.
We believe that the "Ticket to Independence" proposal will result in more opportunities for our beneficiaries to receive the services they need in order to work. We must keep in mind, however, that many of our beneficiaries have disabilities so severe and permanent that they will be unable to work even with the best VR services.
The "Ticket to Independence" Proposal
Included in the President's fiscal year 1998 budget is a historic proposal to help more beneficiaries achieve their goals of obtaining a job and leaving the benefit rolls. This is the first time that a President has submitted a proposal to significantly expand return to work efforts. The"Ticket to Independence" is grounded in a four part vision.
- Customer Choice: SSA's customers desire and need maximum flexibility and choice in pursuing services which will help them to become gainfully employed. Beneficiaries with disabilities will receive a "Ticket to Independence " to use with a participating public or private employment or rehabilitation provider of their choice. Our experience indicates that customer choice is a key element in their decision to seek services.
- Encouraging Innovation: The Administration's proposal seeks to encourage widespread innovations in the private and public sectors by creating opportu nities for Federal and State agencies, local non-profit and for-profit providers, employers, and beneficiaries to work together.
- Paying for Results: Beneficiaries and providers alike should focus on the goal of stable employment. The provider will be paid only when the beneficiary's earnings from work result in benefit savings. The "Ticket to Independence" rewards success and frugally uses public funds in an accountable and targeted way. And, since stable employment is the only goal that reaps a financial return, fewer resources are needed to monitor methods, expenditures, case files, etc.
- Health Care Incentives: Health care security is viewed by beneficiaries as an essential factor in deciding whether or not to try to work. Opportunities to obtain employment should be as health-care neutral as possible for individuals with disabilities. As you know, the President's Budget proposal included two new approaches to removing disincentives to returning to work. We are pleased that the Senate Reconciliation bill includes a proposal similar to that proposed by the President that would permit states to allow workers with disabilities to buy into Medicaid. The Administration has urged the Conferees to adopt the President's version which would not limit eligibility for this program to people whose earnings are below 250 percent of poverty. Unfortunately, the Administration's proposal for a 4-year demonstration to extend premium-free Part A Medicare eligibility for beneficiaries who leave the cash benefit rolls and continue working beyond the current period of Medicare eligibility (39 months) was not included in Reconcili ation. The Administration continues to believe that such a demonstration, coupled with the "Ticket to Independence," is good policy and continues to support changes in Medicare to reduce disincentives to return to work.
How the Ticket Will Work
After SSA determines that individuals are eligible for benefits, we will issue them tickets. The beneficiary may still apply to the State VR agency for services regardless of whether it is participating in this program, or give the ticket to another participating provider of his/her choice in exchange for rehabilitation and employment services. If the beneficiary returns to work and benefits cease due to earnings, the provider holding the ticket will receive a portion of the savings for a fixed period of time.
Phased Roll-Out
SSA will select 5-10 States to begin. Tickets will be issued and providers will he solicited for participation. State VR agencies and alternate providers will have the option to participate in either the "Ticket to Independence" or the current SSA VR Reimbursement Program.
For State VR agencies or alternate providers which choose to participate in the pilot, claims filed under the current program prior to the start of the pilot will continue to be processed under that program. Also, the State VR agencies in pilot States will not have first priority access to referrals of beneficiaries who have tickets.
All disability beneficiaries in roll-out States, except those whose medical conditions are expected to improve, will be eligible to receive a ticket. Beneficiaries who are expected to improve will be eligible for a ticket if their benefits are continued as a result of a continuing disability review.
Providers must satisfy certain criteria to be enrolled and eligible to receive payments from SSA. Providers must be eligible to conduct business in the State where they enroll by whatever criteria are used in that State. SSA will not certify, license or regulate organizations or businesses.
Using the Ticket
A beneficiary may activate a ticket at any time by giving it to an enrolled provider, who then registers it for 1 or 2 years, at the beneficiary's discretion. The ticket can be transferred to another provider only if the original ticket holder agrees (except in situations where disputes between a beneficiary and a provider are resolved by withdrawing the ticket). The terms of transfer of the ticket from one approved provider to another, with the beneficiary's consent, are entirely up to the respective parties. Providers receiving tickets from other providers must notify SSA of the change to be eligible for payment. At the end of the period of registration, if no provider is being paid under the expired ticket, the beneficiary may request a renewed ticket and that ticket may be registered for 1 or 2 years with the same or a different provider. Only one ticket will be issued to a beneficiary at a time and only one provider may hold a beneficiary's ticket at a time.
Paying the Provider
When SSDI benefits or an SSI beneficiary's federally administered benefits stop due to earnings, the provider is paid a portion of each monthly benefit not paid to the beneficiary during a specified continuous period.
The provider payments begin with the first month that Social Security disability insurance benefits or Federally administered SSI payments are reduced to zero, due to earnings, after the ticket is registered.
Administering the Ticket
SSA will award a contract to an administrator to manage the enrollment of providers, the system of referrals, ticket registration, and to assist in paying providers. The administrator will also develop a data collection system incorporating information required for management reports, a beneficiary tracking system, and the evaluation of the impact of the "Ticket to Independence."
Evaluation and Expansion
The Commissioner of Social Security will report to the Congress on the operations of the "Ticket to Independence" Program. At the end of the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 10th year of the pilot, the Commissioner will evaluate and report on the impact of the program and work activity of beneficiaries with disabilities. Based on the results of the evaluation, the Commissioner will determine whether to continue and expand to other States (if the ticket system has been sufficiently successful), to modify aspects of the models to gain better results (such as the payment formula or the length of the payment period), or to discontinue the project.
Protection and Advocacy
SSA will supplement the funding of the existing State Protection and Advocacy (P&A) system with funds specifically designated for assisting SSA beneficiaries when disputes with providers occur. The State P&A System is a long established federally mandated system operating in each State and territory that investigates, negotiates and mediates solutions to problems that certain persons with disabilities cannot resolve on their own.
The "Ticket to Independence" is a cost effective, results oriented innovation that can:
- Create a public-private partnership between Social Security and public and private providers with the goal of supporting beneficiaries who want to work.
- Offer potentially significant savings to the SSA trust funds by helping persons with disabilities to work.
- Give beneficiaries the control and flexibility they need in securing services they want.
- Minimize bureaucratic involvement.
Mr. Chairman, let me reiterate. We want to work with you to design new programs that can result in jobs for persons with disabilities who would otherwise remain dependent upon disability benefits. We believe the President's "Ticket to Independence" begins a deliberate process to roll out a federal initiative to achieve that end. I thank you for your attention and would be happy to answer any questions.


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The American Singer Katy Perry
Personal Details
Birth name: Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson
Born on: October 25, 1984 (1984-10-25) (age 26)
Place in: Santa Barbara, California, United States
Genres: Pop, pop rock, dance-pop, electropop, europop, CCM (early)
Occupations: Singer-songwriter, actress
Instruments: Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active: 2001–present
Labels: Red Hill, Island, Columbia, Capitol
Website: katyperry.com
The one of the famous celebrities Katy Perry is an American singer-songwriter and film actress. As Katy Hudson, she released a self-titled gospel album in 2001, which outstanding to the closing of her record label, was believed ineffective.
She later recorded an album with manufacture team The Matrix. Perry was credited as a guest referee on the seventh series of British TV show The X Factor; has released a delicate scent called "Purr".
Awards and Nominations
No Awards and Nominations
For More News About: Katy Perry


text:
It's no secret the fashionistas of Hong Kong have an insaitable appetite for designer goods. Yes, we all covet the big names, but they often come with heavy price tags. Read on to discover some new online shopping platforms that made their debut in recent months, offering discounts, private sales and second-hand designer goods.(Better apologise to your credit card in advance.)
If like us, you can't miss out on a good ol' pop-up sale, then you can't miss out on OnTheList. Founded in 2015 in Hong Kong, OnTheList host invite-only pop-up sale all over the city. Don't miss out on their sales from brands like Karen Millen, ba&sh, Sinequanone, Louella Odié & Hipanema, and nab some pieces at a fraction of the original price. You will need to register to get the invited to these fabulous sales, but it's worth it.
French e-commerce site Collector Square, popular for selling vintage and preloved designer goods, has launched in Hong Kong. We spent a few hours browsing on Collector Square and spotted some vintage Hermès, Chanel, Rolex, and Patek Philippe – win! Prices, as expected, are on the higher end of the scale but if you're having doubts on spending HKD$50,000 on a vintage Birkin, Collector Square compares prices with big auction houses such as Christie's and Sotheby's to lead you into temptation.


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Chanel Plumes Précieuses Holiday 2014 Makeup CollectionCategories:Fashion
The Chanel Plumes Précieuses holiday 2014 makeup collection is definitely lighter than a feather! Packed with graceful and feminine makeup shades and products that feel as light as a feather, this collection comes to secure your absolutely stunning and glamorous looks for the magical Christmas night and not only. Inspired from the feather's softness, the new Chanel beauty collection features subtle shades and lightweight textures, all embellished with gold and silver. That's the recipe to the stunning holiday makeup!
This delicate illuminating powder from Chanel comes embedded with precious shimmer in a platinum shade, promising to brighten up your complexion and make your looks to bits.
Chanel Les 5 Ombres In Oiseau De Nuit ($70.00)
Perfect Christmas makeup requires perfect eyeshadow hues, and Chanel's new collection has the most sizzling eye palette for you. The palette houses five timeless and versatile shades, ranging from silvery white and antique gold to a duo of precious grays and soft charcoal tones. You just need to rely on your fantasy and makeup application skills, and blend your favorite shades for the most awe-inspiring sculpted looks!
Chanel Illusion D'Ombre Eyeshadow ($38.00)
Just in case your makeup needs some extra shimmer, here you have this mono eyeshadow from Chanel. The shade available is:
• Envol – Peach shimmer
Chanel Joues Contraste Blush ($48.00)
To give that healthy glow to your cheeks, make sure you get this wonderful blush tone that will serve as a final brushstroke for your evening makeup.
• Caresse – Soft and neutral peach with silver pearl
Chanel Rouge Allure Lipstick ($40.00)
So if you opt for intense smokey eye makeup looks, you certainly should know the rule of matching this style with more delicate lipstick shades. Going for this lovely nude pink tone, you are sure to make your look perfect to bits!
• Volage – Fresh, peachy pink
Chanel Rouge Allure Velvet Lipstick ($40.00)
On the other hand, if you give preference to placing the focus on your lips, go for a lighter eye makeup and finish it all with this sassy red lipstick.
• La Flamboyante – Fiery red
Chanel Stylo Yeux Waterproof ($30.00)
To make your eyes look bigger and brighter, you always need to apply some lighter colored eye pencil. Chanel's new beauty line has a shimmery golden kohl pencil that will add the perfect glitzy glam vibe to your peepers.
• Or Blanc – White gold
Chanel Le Vernis ($29.00)
Finally, don't forget to take care of your nails and apply the most ideal nail lacquerer shade that will scream Christmas: red.
• Phénix: Blazing red
The Chanel Plumes Précieuses holiday 2014 makeup collection is set to hit all Chanel counters and the online market on November 3rd, 2014. Save the date to be the first to experiment with the magic of these products!
Tags: Chanel Plumes Précieuses


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How to Get Your Employees Suggesting Ways to Improve Your Business
Crypto Wallet 101: the Basics and How It Works
Asbestos, Hidden Danger in Your Home
How to Find the Best Wedding Expo Near You
Top Social Media Marketing Trends
How to Fly a Drone Safety?
Money is at Your Fingertips – Learn about these Apps
9 Simple Hacks to Write Great Papers at University
Does Managing IT In-House Cause Added Stress?
How to check the battery life of an iPhone in 2019
9 Free Kids Clothing Catalogs for Your Little Ones
Music Production Careers You Need to Have Knowledge About
What Is the Best Musical Instrument to Learn Easily and Quickly
9 Places to Get Free Music Downloads You Didn't Know You Could Use
Top 10 Sources for Free Classical Music Downloads
10 Platforms to Listen Music Online for Free Legally
Free Cloud Storage Services That You Should Try If You Need to Store Your Files Online
9 Best Free PDF Readers for Windows and Mac You Didn't Know You Needed
The 5 Best Free Torrent Clients That You Didn't Know Existed
15 Best Free Antivirus Software's for 2017 You Haven't Heard Of
8 Best Free Video Downloader – Many Android Users Are Unaware Of
Never Run Out of Lunch Ideas With the Best Lunch Recipe Apps
9 Best Free Article Rewriter Tool and Spinner Tools for 2017 that you can try
8 YouTube Downloader for Android You Haven't Taken Advantage Of Before
Tips On Writing Up Your Amazon Affiliate Small Business Passive Income Summary
7 Business Ideas to Inspire You to Become Your Own Boss
5 Tips for Launching a Thriving Ecommerce Business
Technical Approach to Business Startup and Database Monitoring
What is the importance of renting a dumpster and how is it helpful?
Tips on How to Create a Cozy and Welcoming Guest Bedroom
Work at Home Jobs That Are Easy and Fill People's Budget
Hiring For Your Small Business: What Should You Look For
Drugs And How They Can Negatively Affect Your Work Performance
Avoiding Workplace Exhaustion: Workplace Injuries, Disabilities To Watch Out For
How To Use HEALTHY HEMP OIL To Desire
Hibiscus Oil: The Holy Grail for Hair
Benefits Of Amla Juice For Healthy Smooth & Shining Hair (Updated Info)
Balayage Hair Types and Colors That Are Absolute Trends Right Now
Irresistible Mother's Day Gift Ideas That Make an Impact
The List of Best Plus Size Clothing for Women in Every Summer
The Traditional Bundhosen: Dress like a Local at Oktoberfest
Free Clothing Catalogs That'll Help You Follow the Latest Fashion Trends
How to Hem Pants on Your Own Like a Pro
5 Benefits of Properly Brushing Your Teeth
The Benefits of Extra Firm Mattresses
Living a Prosperous Life – What You Need and How to Reach It
Cannabidiol or CBD – General Facts You Need to Know!
Tips And Guidelines To Follow To Exercise Safely
Easy No Bake Desserts Everyone Can Make In No Time
What is Superfood and the Most Delicious Types You Should Try
Top 8 Tips to Choose the Best Catering Service in 2018
How to Get the Best Event Catering for Your Office Party
Tastiest Christmas Dinner Ideas That'll Make Your Holidays Special
Pasta Salad Recipe, Simple, Easy And Delicious Tuna Recipe
Dog Treats Recipes, Your Dog Will Love You For These Treats
Chili Lava Fries Recipe, The Best Recipe To Enjoy Your Fries
Memphis BBQ Chicken Pizza Recipe, Insanely Delicious and Tasty Pizza
Thanks to the free perfume samples you get a chance to have your favorite fragrance around you all the time. With them, people shouldn't buy whole...


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We don't have the best view of the center of our galaxy from Earth.
It's some 27,000 light years away, and shrouded by thick clouds of gas and dust. To get around the dust astronomers must observe light at longer wavelengths, principally in the infrared, that is not scattered by dust articles. With a longer wavelength that visible light, infrared light is used for a variety of purposes on Earth, including night vision.
Now two teams of astronomers using telescopes at the European Southern Observatory in Chile have been able to get a much better look at the bulge of stars at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, enough to make a three-dimensional map of its structure.
And lo and behold, it looks like a large peanut. An artist's concept of what our galaxy would look like from an observer outside it is below.
The findings are important because computer models have predicted a peanut-shaped bulge such as this should exist due to buckling of the centermost region of the galaxy under strong gravitational forces. And now astronomers have observed it.
Tis a beautiful galaxy that we call home.


text:
Mark Gerstein, PhD
Albert L Williams Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Professor of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry, and of Computer Science. Co-Director of the Yale Program in Computational Biology & Bioinformatics
Departments & Organizations
Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
Center for Medical Informatics
Center for RNA Science and Medicine
Keck: High Performance Computation | NHLBI Proteomics | NIDA Neuroproteomics Center
Program in Neurodevelopment and Regeneration
Yale Cancer Center: Genomics, Genetics, and Epigenetics
Yale Combined Program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS): Biochemistry, Quantitative Biology, Biophysics and Structural Biology (BQBS) | Computational Biology and Bioinformatics | Molecular Cell Biology, Genetics and Development
Office of Cooperative Research
After graduating from Harvard with a A.B. in physics in 1989, Prof. Mark Gerstein earned a doctorate in theoretical chemistry and biophysics from Cambridge University in 1993. He did postdoctoral research in bioinformatics at Stanford University from 1993 to 1996. He came to Yale in 1997 as an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, and since 1999, in the Computer Science Department. He was named an associate professor in 2001, and the following year became co-director of the Yale Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Program. Gerstein has published appreciably in the scientific literature, with >400 publications in total, including a number of them in prominent venues, such as Science, Nature, and Scientific American. His research is focused on bioinformatics, and he is particularly interested in data science & data mining, macromolecular geometry & simulation, human genome annotation & disease genomics, and genomic privacy.
Education & Training
|Cambridge University (1992)
|Postdoctoral Fellow
|Stanford University


text:
19-24 April 2015
Russian ruble (RUB)
Samoa 2019 Closing Ceremony held after sporting action ends
At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Iranian judoka Arash Miresmaeili was disqualified for weighing in at nearly four pounds above the limit for his weight class of his under-66 kilograms match against an Israeli opponent Ehud Vaks in the first round. It was claimed Miresmaeili had gone on an eating binge to protest the International Olympic Committee's recognition of the state of Israel. Iran does not recognise the state of Israel, and Miresmaeili's actions won praise from high-ranking Iranian officials. Mohammad Khatami, the country's President at the time, was quoted as saying Miresmaili's actions would be "recorded in the history of Iranian glories". He was later awarded $125,000 by the Government - the same amount given to Olympic gold medallists.
Limelight Sports - Senior Account Manager (Nike) - London , United Kingdom
Limelight Sports has an exciting opportunity for a Senior Account Manager to join its Campaigns team working primarily on the Nike Account. The role would suit an individual who understands and is passionate about the active world and has a track record of managing and nurturing client accounts in order to expand the business. As the Senior Account Manager, you have an active role in developing the account and developing relationships throughout Nike in order to grow Limelight's business. You are very target driven and have excellent relationship management skills both internally and externally.
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Tokyo 2020 will celebrate the one-year-to-go milestone before next year's Olympic Games this week. Mike Rowbottom explores the lie of the land as the countdown approaches.
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Is French Polynesia a credible candidate to host surfing at Paris 2024?


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Wednesday, 10 July 2013
Intelligent Life
Posted by Peckham in Furs at 10:17
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Poets and their Cats: links to poetry websites Book Reviews Photos of miffed Cats and slutty Cats Anarchy, Bodily Fluids, Hatred of Boris Johnson and all his ilk, The Bat Plant and other Dark Images. The Black Arts; kitsch images; Black Humour; Against Capitalism; for slackers, Wastrels; Against Dynamic growth; for long-lingering- malingering -cultivation through book reading. Will contain blasphemous images of Jesus. Against religion.


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How Much Do You Owe?
Before you start paying down your debts, you first need to start by figuring out how much you owe on auto loans, credit cards, and other obligations and create a debt repayment plan. Use the calculator below to get started, it will help you understand your debts and make better payment decisions.


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"I'll start studying for my exams after I finish watching this YouTube clip of a baby biting his brother's finger…or maybe after I read this bit of juicy celebrity gossip…"
Sound familiar? That's right; it's the comforting voice of procrastination.
You drink a cup of coffee, check your email, gaze outside for a few minutes doing what you like to call "brainstorming," check your email once more and before you know it, two hours have passed and you haven't even put one word down on the page.
Procrastination isn't usually seen as a good thing, and a quick Google search for the word will bring up thousands of hits on how to beat procrastination and get on with the more important things in life.
But there is a positive side to procrastination that is less often discussed—namely, creative procrastination. Sounds great, right? Now you can write off all that time you spent playing video games or shopping online as "creativeness"!
Well… not exactly. John Cleese, quoting research by academic Donald McKinnon, says that most creative professionals tend to play around with a difficult problem before they try to resolve it. Ultimately, this makes their solution more creative than most, because they've had that much more time to mull over it.
In a recent interview with Smithsonian Mag, Frank Partnoy, author of the book Wait: The Art and Science of Delay, discusses how procrastinating helped him make his way through college, law school and even succeed at his academic career.
His new book discusses how putting things off can help us make better decisions and even improve the quality of our lives.
Of course, like it or not, you're going to have to buckle down at some point and study for your finals, write that blog post or reach out to that new contact. But sometimes your mind might just need a break to eventually be productive again.
Good procrastination vs. bad procrastination
So where do you draw the line between creative procrastination and negative procrastination?
According to some scientists, there are two main types of procrastination: passive procrastination and active procrastination.
Passive procrastination is the kind we're most familiar with, when you put something off but don't replace it with a useful task. During active procrastinating, however, you're fully aware that there's something you should be doing, but you've decided that what you're doing instead is more important and will pay off in the long run.
Active procrastinators tend to delay things because they work well under pressure and are motivated by the fact that a deadline is coming up. (Although obviously this tactic can only work if you have a good sense of how long a task will take to complete.) Active procrastinators have lower levels of stress and more belief in their own ability to succeed than passive procrastinators.
Clearly, the main difference between the two groups of procrastinators is that one eventually gets the task done (and possibly even a few other tasks along the way) while the other puts it off, worries about it and often ends up not finishing at all.
When procrastinating points to something bigger
And here's one more benefit of procrastination: it might give you insight into why you're avoiding what you're avoiding.
Take a minute to think about why you're putting something off. Perhaps the reason you can't seem to focus on your textbook is because it's just not the right subject for you, even if you initially thought it was. Or maybe you're stuck on that chapter you're writing because your idea isn't good enough. Or, if you aren't replying to that client's email, there's a good chance that subconsciously you don't want their business.
Sometimes your procrastination is telling you something important, and you might benefit from taking the opportunity to think it over.
So if you're a chronic procrastinator, figure out how to make this seemingly negative attribute work for you instead of fretting about how much you aren't getting done as you check your email for the seventeenth time.
And with that, I'm off for another coffee and brainstorming session before my next deadline…
Tess Pajaron is part of the team behind Open Colleges. She also has a background in business administration and management, having worked for their family-owned business for nine years.
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Twins Tess and Jenna Luzi, juniors at Clarence High School, took part in the Walk to End Alzheimer's last Saturday, where they placed second in team fundraising with a total of $6,265.
The girls lost their grandfather, Frank Luzi Sr., to Alzheimer's disease, and saw firsthand how the disease gradually took his life and affected the lives of all those around him.
"We do a lot of community service and thought entering the Walk to End Alzheimer's as a team would be a great way to honor our grandpa and help raise money to fund research for a cure at the same time," the girls said in an email.
"We initially set a goal of $1,000 and were able to reach it in a day," the girls continued. "We set a new goal of $5,000 and were able to reach that toward the end of our fundraising efforts."


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vPath: The Secret Sauce to Enabling Virtual Network Services
Wow, there's been a lot of news in the SDN and virtual networking space in the last week or so! VMware acquiring Nicira, and Oracle acquiring Xsigo are testimony to how important virtual overlay networks and virtual switching infrastructure has become for data center vendors, and how integral they are to each company's strategy. Speaking of our own Nexus 1000V-based virtual networks, last week I provided an overview and some new resources on Virtual Extensible LANs (VXLAN) for Nexus 1000V virtual switches. That turned out to be quite a popular post, so I'm following up this week on another fundamental component of Nexus 1000V-based virtual networks, vPath, the secret sauce that allows us to deploy virtual network services in the data center.
What is vPath? Well, if VXLANs can set up secure tunnels over a shared, multi-tenant virtual network, vPath is a feature of the Nexus 1000V virtual switch that can redirect traffic to virtual application services before the switch sends the packets down into the virtual machine. Very important stuff, but how does it do that? I find that my blog posts are more popular the less I type, and the more I embed cool TechWiseTV videos that illustrate the concept, so I'm dusting off this classic from the TWTV team on just how vPath does that with our Virtual Security Gateway (VSG). Take it away Robb…
But wait, there's more… VSG was the first virtual service node that supported vPath, but in the last 18 months we've really rounded out all the key application networking and security services you could expect. Starting with vWAAS for WAN optimization, we then announced the ASA 1000V cloud firewall which is shipping this quarter (for more details on how the VSG and ASA 1000V firewalls complement each other, check here). At Cisco Live in San Diego, we demoed a virtual version of our ACE application controller for the first time. And more vPath-integrated virtual services are in the works. Imperva announced they were bringing their web application firewall to the Nexus 1000V environment, including vPath integration down the road.
Because of the mobility of virtual machines and virtual services between servers and even between data centers, and the rapid proliferation of east-west data center traffic (between VM's), the challenge of diverting traffic to the right service nodes, in the right order, depending on the specific application policy, is complex. vPath is the most mature and advanced service routing technology doing this today, and it's uniquely available in the Nexus 1000V. One of the most frequent questions I get asked when talking about vPath is if it will support physical appliances in addition to all of our virtual services, e.g. physical ASA firewalls and ACE load balancers. Cisco has had various service routing protocols for physical devices in the past, but consolidation around a single architecture for so many products has proven elusive. With the importance of virtual networking and the co-existence of virtual and physical data center services, it's certainly an interesting strategy for us to pursue with vPath, although we've announced no such physical appliance integration to date.
The other frequent question we get is if vPath is going to be a standard, given its widespread adoption through the more than 6,000 Nexus 1000V customers to date, and its advanced status in the industry. Again, this is a very interesting question, but one we haven't taken a definite position on yet. This multi-vendor market is still relatively nascent, and it's probably premature to predict which virtual infrastructure vendors would be interested in a standard service routing infrastructure, what services would support it, what the benefits would be to the industry, or the benefits would be to Cisco.
Another question that we usually head off before being asked is, "Given all these vPath-enabled services being deployed now, where do they usually get hosted? On application servers alongside the virtual applications?" Well, what most of our customers do is deploy them on the Nexus 1010 virtual services appliance, rather than application servers. This actually gives more control to the networking teams to manage deployments and policies on these services, as well as offloading the mission-critical application servers. For more information on the Nexus 1010 role in deploying application services, click here and here.
Finally, as we circle back around to the recent acquisition news, the conclusion that I draw is that network virtualization infrastructure is strategically very important, but it may not be a company-maker itself like originally thought. And it could be highly competitive with some expensive reinventing of wheels. There will likely be a great deal of interoperability between various network virtualization "stacks", which are increasingly built on open interfaces and protocols, like VXLAN. Value-add and differentiation (and the bulk of revenue) will be determined by higher level services as well as other applications and cloud orchestration suites built on top of the virtual infrastructure. Today those are represented by Cisco's vPath-enabled virtual services described earlier, and applications like our Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud (CIAC), as well as future cloud orchestration apps built on the OpenStack API on the Nexus 1000V.
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North Topsail Beach has developed a plan to construct the town�s Phase 2-5 Beach Project later this year. The project length is 9.6 miles and requires 2.6 million cubic yards of sand. The estimated construction cost is $30 million dollars.
To the editor:
North Topsail Beach has developed a plan to construct the town�s Phase 2-5 Beach Project later this year. The project length is 9.6 miles and requires 2.6 million cubic yards of sand. The estimated construction cost is $30 million dollars.
The Phase 2-5 project is vital to the preservation of the town�s economic base and to the protection and survival of the town�s residences, rental properties and public infrastructure. The state of North Carolina has estimated that the $850 million overall property valuation of the town is responsible for more than $60 million dollars of annual tourist related economic activity important to Onslow County and the creation of 950 local jobs.
Eighty-five percent of the 2500 residential properties in North Topsail Beach are beach-rental properties owned by non-residents. The town has a relatively small resident population of 750 people.
The beach is the principal recreational amenity for Onslow County. The town and county maintain nearly 1000 parking spaces, 49 public beach accesses and 12.1 miles of beach to accommodate visitors to North Topsail Beach. As many as 15,000 to 20,000 people have been estimated to visit the town and its beaches. All of the above is threatened and at risk unless the town takes the necessary action.
After Hurricane Sandy, neither North Topsail Beach nor Surf City could fully restore their dune lines because there was not enough excess sand on the beach. The need for our town-wide shoreline protection project is immediate.
Finding a method to finance a town-wide shoreline protection effort has not been easy. The town has but one solution that fits its needs and complies with the N.C. General Statutes and policies of the North Carolina Local Government Commission. That solution includes 30-year USDA financing with the issuance of special obligation bonds, a reduction in project costs and adequate funding contributions from all beach stakeholders.
In our new plan, we have $2.2 million of new annual revenue to fund our project and have removed an estimated $7.5 million or 20 percent from the costs of the project.
Our funding plan is in line with recommendations made by PARC, an outside consultant hired by the town. During the past year, PARC worked with town residents, non-resident property owners and Onslow County government. The final report and recommendations are available at www.ntbnc.org.
Funding actions taken have resulted in $2.2 million of additional revenue for the beach fund. The beach fund will have sufficient revenue to pay the debt service on the Phase 1 and Phase 2-5 projects and the periodic 5 year costs required to maintain the beach in its restored condition.
When the Phase 2-5 project is completed, the entire town will have a FEMA qualified beach that would be eligible for federally funded sand replacement for any storm emergency.
The town is pursuing 30-year USDA financing as it is the only source of long term financing that the town has been able to identify. Long-term 30-year financing is necessary because of the limited availability of town funds and the need to protect the entire town now.
The town�s residents elected a board and mayor who are strongly in support of shoreline protection. Four of the five members of this board, unlike the prior board, are taking shoreline protection needs seriously. The board has worked to find the right project plan, solve revenue issues, raised taxes, searched for the necessary financing and got all those who have a vital interest in North Topsail Beach involved.
Some individuals who don�t like the findings of the PARC Report have requested that a local referendum decide whether or not the town should proceed with its shoreline protection program. The Board of Aldermen has decided that this suggestion is not appropriate because a much larger number of interested stakeholders are paying for this project and could not participate in that process.
Daniel Tuman
North Topsail Beach
Editor�s note: Daniel Tuman is mayor of the Town of North Topsail Beach.


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Parents may request to send their child to an elementary school other than the one that serves their regular attendance area. Requests for open enrollment must be made using the link button "Open Enrollment Applicationâ at the bottom of this page. You can access the application by following the. Requests will not be accepted earlier than January 31 or later than July 1. Parents enrolling into the district after July 1 but prior to the end of the first quarter may request open enrollment for their child at the time of registration.
Consideration for open enrollment requests will be determined by the following criteria:
Once a student has been accepted into a building under the open enrollment option, that student will be permitted to remain until the end of 5th grade unless revoked for cause stated above. The student will not be permitted to transfer to another building within the district at any time during that school year.
Parents must assume full responsibility for transporting their child.
Parents should seriously consider open enrollment requests to elementary schools where students matriculate into their resident middle school since there is no open enrollment at the secondary level.
Open Enrollment Application
Rev. 1/2019


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Dickey, offense carry Jays past Giants
Toronto, ON – Toronto put six runs across in the first inning and never looked back as the Blue Jays routed the San Francisco Giants behind R.A. Dickey, 10-6, in the opener of a two-game set from the Rogers Centre.
Dickey (3-5) struck out a season-high 10 in six innings of six-hit, two-run ball for Toronto, which has won three in a row after dropping its previous three.
"I felt like I had a pretty good knuckleball today," said Dickey. "I was getting a lot of swings and misses."
The Jays brought 11 batters to the plate in the opening frame and put six runs across, giving Dickey an early cushion. Pablo Sandoval's throwing error allowed leadoff hitter Melky Cabrera to reach base. Jose Bautista then drew a walk and Edwin Encarnacion and Mark DeRosa followed with RBI singles.
Two batters later Colby Rasmus delivered an RBI poke to right and following a Henry Blanco strikeout, Emilio Bonifacio and Cabrera plated runs with sharp liners that fell in front of the Giants outfielders. Toronto did not have an extra base hit in the frame.
Cabrera paced the Jays' 18-hit attack with a 4-for-5 effort which included two RBI and two runs scored against his former club. Encarnacion also drove in two and scored twice, while Brett Lawrie had a season-high three hits.
"We got some big hits the other way," said Jays manager John Gibbons. "We were staying on the ball and that's what good hitters do."
Barry Zito (3-2), who had allowed more than one earned run just once all season, was tagged for eight runs -- five earned -- on a season-high 12 hits in 5 2/3 innings.
"They hit a fair amount of my pitches tonight," admitted Zito.
Trailing 6-0, Nick Noonan put San Francisco on the board in the top of the second with an RBI single to right.
The Giants tacked on another run in the fourth when Brandon Belt clubbed his fifth of the season, a solo shot to right field.
Zito, who had settled down after the six-run opening stanza, was pulled with men on the corners and two down in the sixth inning. George Kontos took over and on his second pitch, Encarnacion ripped a two-bagger over the head of Hunter Pence in right field. Pinch-hitter Adam Lind then singled off Kontos' foot, plating another run, and Lawrie capped the three-run inning with his RBI double to right.
The Jays' final run came in the seventh inning. With two away, Bonifacio singled and Cabrera plated him with a double to deep right field.
San Fran got things going late with four runs in the final two innings. The first came in the eighth on a Belt RBI double, and the final three in the ninth on Sandoval's three-run shot to left field off Brad Lincoln.
Game Notes
Marco Scutaro went 3-for-5 and extended his hitting streak to 13 games. Scutaro has at least two hits in nine of his last 10 ... Toronto improved to 5-8 all-time against San Francisco ... The Jays went 8-for-17 with runners in scoring position.


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Baruch College Students Ready to Prepare Tax Returns at Six Locations Around Town
Unlike most New Yorkers, Baruch Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) volunteers love preparing tax returns; this year, some 320 Baruch College students have been IRS-certified as tax preparers through the VITA program. They will begin doing returns for the public on Thursday, February 4 and continue right up until the April 15th tax deadline.
The VITA tax program is free and no appointments are necessary. This year, for the first time, Saturday hours have been added to the Baruch College site, conveniently located on the ground floor of the College's library and technology building at 151 East 25th Street (between Lexington and Third Avenues.) Tax preparers will be on the job Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, noon to 8 pm; Friday, noon to 7 pm and Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm.
In addition to their Baruch College headquarters, volunteers are also offering weekend staffing at five other locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Because of the College's remarkable ethnic diversity, students can often assist New Yorkers in their native language. For example, the Mott Street location will have Chinese-speaking students on hand who can communicate in both Cantonese and Mandarin. (See below for complete list of locations, hours of operation, and languages available.)
Most Baruch tax volunteers are majoring in Finance or Accountancy. They will prepare federal tax forms 1040 and 1040A and New York State tax forms IT 201 and IT 150, as well as all accompanying schedules. Baruch tax preparers can also assist international students with their special tax filing requirements. VITA coordinator, Diana Liang BBA 2010, points out that this year, a new tax credit designed to help students defray the cost of textbooks has been introduced.
The VITA tax program welcomes all comers, but is specifically aimed at immigrant and low-income New Yorkers who may not be able to afford commercial tax services and may face language barriers when trying to decipher IRS forms. Last year Baruch VITA coordinators
filed more than 6,000 returns for clients.
In addition to providing an important public service, the VITA program provides students with valuable career experience and helps build leadership skills. This is Diana Liang's third consecutive year as a VITA volunteer, and like her, most students who work as tax preparers do so for multiple years. 2010 is the 19th consecutive year Baruch VITA has been in operation. Questions? Email VITA coordinators at: firstname.lastname@example.com
Click here for 2010 VITA locations and hours


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I met a professional paleontologist recently. We seemed to share some similar opinions on the Texas State Board of Education. But we parted views when I heard that he has presented before to Evangelicals, and that he has told them, when confronted, that he cannot comment on the validity of the theory of Intelligent Design.
"Really?" I asked. "You can't assess the validity of ID as a theory? But it's not falsifiable—it makes no predictions."
He said that Evolutionary Theory makes no predictions. And this stunned me. He qualified it by restating it "makes only contingent predictions."
We were walking as we talked, and had to quickly part ways based on where we were each headed, but I decided to look up his statement to see the meaning of "contingent prediction." It appears that this means that it doesn't make predictions along the lines of a physics formula—mathematically precise. I found this odd, because this, to me, would be an irrelevancy whether true or not true.
The actual concern, in my view, is that we do know there are things about this world that would be very different, indeed—demonstrably so—if evolution were not a reality. And the same cannot be said for Intelligent Design—because the mechanism—the intelligent designer—is not examinable. Evolution as a mechanism, on the other hand, is very much examinable.
If evolution were untrue, for example, I would not expect to have successful domestic breeding programs. How would breeding individuals with certain, specific phenotypes even hope to produce increased numbers of offspring that also demonstrate those phenotypes, if phenotypic data is not relayed by reproduction in some fashion? If humans did not observe or discover that you can relay traits from one generation to the next with increased frequency by artificially selecting for them in breeding—domestic breeding would never have even been attempted. Evolution through artificial selection is tried and true. Who could possibly deny it?
Or, what if we had discovered that organisms of different species, at a genetic level, bear no evidence of relationships to one another? What if my biology was incomparable to that of a chimpanzee? As distantly related as to a squid or a fly? Or what if none of us appeared to be related at all? Why should some animals be more or less "like me"? Why would we do medical testing, for drugs or treatments ultimately intended for use in humans, on animals like rats and chimpanzees and pigs, rather than spiders or goldfish? Would you feel as safe using a drug that was tested on a spider prior to use in humans, rather than on another mammal?
Or, how is it that, in digging for fossils, field scientists can predict the types of life forms one will find in a given area at a given depth representing a specific point in our Earth's history? Would you think it a good prediction that we would find human fossils digging in a location known to represent the Mesozoic Era? Why not?
How has speciation been observed in both natural and laboratory environments—if it doesn't occur naturally via evolution? How did it happen?
Any of these things, and I'm sure many others not mentioned, would be a problem for Evolutionary Theory if it had turned out to be different than it was. That is because Evolution does predict a particular type of reality that can absolutely turn out to be different than predicted.
But what does Intelligent Design predict? What sort of world is not the type of world an intelligent god would produce? Would horrid birth defects throw a wrench in it? Would flightless birds? Blind fish with residual eyes? Volcanoes? Tsunamis? Earthquakes? Plagues? Famine? Pestilence? Utopia?
Seriously—what is the difference between a world nature and natural laws would have generated without an intelligent designer, and one that a god—or intelligent designer—would have produced? What would falsify Intelligent Design? Evolution has put its cards on the table; and, over the decades, the findings have only upheld Darwin's core concept: Populations absolutely change over time due to variation in information that is passed from one generation to the next.
Evolution is a reality—a fact anyone can observe. We all understand—or should by this time—that we don't find the exact same sets of animals going back through the fossil record, as the ones we have today. The changes have been demonstrably grand, resulting in very different life forms in our modern world than what existed long, long ago.
I wish I would have had time to ask on what grounds a man of science scoffs at the Texas State Board of Education for it's handling of biology textbooks, if he truly believes that science cannot assess the validity of something like Intelligent Design, and also that it offers no more in the way of falsification than Evolution? Since he and I agree the Board mishandled the biology standards—what is his basis for his view, if religious "theories" are just as valid, in his professional opinion as a paleontologist, as demonstrated models used in modern biological research?


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Stephen A. Paget, MD: My name is Dr. Stephen Paget. I'm the Chief of Rheumatology at Hospital for Special Surgery. It's a pleasure today to introduce to you Dr. Lisa Sammaritano, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Weill Medical College at Cornell University. Lisa has had a particular interest, over the past few years, in the area of pregnancy, specifically related to musculoskeletal and autoimmune disorders. And today we are going to address some of the issues that physicians and patients have to consider in the presence of such problems.
Lisa, if you could give me some idea about the things that patients and physicians need to think about when a patient becomes pregnant, specifically related to either their autoimmune disorder or musculoskeletal problem.
Pregnancy Considerations for Patients with Autoimmune Disorders or Musculoskeletal Problems
Lisa Sammaritano, MD: The first thing is thinking about it before the patient becomes pregnant. For patients with any underlying illnesses, but especially in autoimmune disease, you really need to plan ahead of time. A lot of medications can have effects during pregnancy and some, in fact, need to be discontinued up to three months before becoming pregnant. That is one issue.
The next issue I think is trying to assess the risk of pregnancy for a given patient. The nature of the diagnosis, how active the disease is, and other factors help a physician to guide a patient in terms of deciding how risky a pregnancy is. They need to decide whether now is an appropriate time or would it perhaps be better to wait and try it at a later time when the disease is not quite so active.
Stephen A. Paget, MD: What is the difference between a woman who is pregnant and a woman who is not pregnant with regard to the hormonal system, with regard to their immunology? Why is it important? Is it that different a state?
Lisa Sammaritano, MD: It is. It's tremendously different in terms of immunology. When pregnant, women have a very big change in their immune system -- and although it is still not completely understood -- overall the effect is that of immunosuppression. There are some infections, for example, that pregnant woman will get or be susceptible to that, when not pregnant, they were able to fight off. That is felt to be because of the need to tolerate the fetus, since the fetus genetically is somewhat different from the mother. Because of that, there is an increased susceptibility to certain infections, and medications may have a different effect. You need to think about the effect of the immune change on the underlying disease and vice-versa.
Other changes are important as well, and they relate more to organ systems. The kidney, for example, in pregnancy has to filter up to 50% more blood than it does otherwise. For women with lupus who have underlying kidney problems, it is important to evaluate ahead of time whether or not their kidneys are up to that, because it is a stress on the kidney. Again we come back to the idea that it is important to check things ahead of time, to measure kidney function ahead of time.
On the issue of hormones, they obviously change dramatically during pregnancy, and we are not quite sure how these affect autoimmune diseases. Clinically, we know that in rheumatoid arthritis, for example, pregnancy tends to induce a remission in many patients. On the other hand, in lupus, although there is a lot of controversy about it, many people do believe that, especially in the later part of pregnancy, there is an increased risk of a lupus flare, and that has been related at least in part to changes in levels of estrogen. Estrogen can actually be pro-inflammatory. The sex hormones have their own effects on the immune system.
Rheumatoid Arthritis and Pregnancy
Stephen A. Paget, MD: It would be helpful now that you have given that basic information to go over various types of problems that some of our patients and physicians are dealing with and then try to see whether there is some specificity to the way in which you have to address that person's illness during the pregnancy state. Let's begin with rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disorder. It gives joint inflammation in the upper and lower extremities. What happens during pregnancy, and what facts have to be taken into account during pregnancy?
Lisa Sammaritano, MD: During pregnancy, for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, it is often a wonderful time for a patient because she is often able to discontinue medications. About 75% of patients with rheumatoid arthritis will have at least a partial remission in their disease activity during the pregnancy itself. So the issues for pregnancy tend not to depend so much on the activity of the arthritis, but on the structural changes that may have occurred already because of arthritis. For example, if someone has instability in their cervical spine, the issues are regarding anesthesia at the time of delivery, total joint replacements, and things of that nature.
In general, within six to eight weeks after delivery, a woman with rheumatoid arthritis will have a recurrence of the pre-pregnancy disease activity, and that is important to realize too. Patients are often so happy that their disease is quiet that it can be difficult sometimes to help them understand that really one should start on medication again right after delivery to try to prevent that kind of a rebound effect.
Stephen A. Paget, MD: Are there any medications a patient with rheumatoid arthritis can take during the pregnancy?
Lisa Sammaritano, MD: Sure there are, and when talking about medicine and pregnancy, I guess overall the idea is looking at it as a spectrum. There are medications that have been around for a long time, such as corticosteroids, where we observed patients for many, many years and feel that low to moderate doses, especially, are fine during pregnancy. They have their own set of side effects in terms of internal problems, but in terms of fetal development and fetal problems, they tend not to affect the fetus. So, when possible, we rely on low-dose steroids during pregnancy for women with rheumatoid arthritis, unlike pre-pregnancy or postpregnancy.
There are other medications. The common medication used for rheumatoid arthritis, methotrexate, merits special attention, because that is actually contraindicated totally during pregnancy. It causes craniofacial and limb deformity in developing fetuses, and so that needs to be stopped three months before one becomes pregnant. It is important for patients to realize that ahead of time, and it is actually something that I address with patients when I start them on a remittive drug. You know, since a lot of these woman are young, of child-bearing age, it is important to address this even when making a decision about what medication might be best to start with.
Stephen A. Paget, MD: So, in general, in most patients with rheumatoid arthritis you try to stop all of the medications except the steroids?
Lisa Sammaritano, MD: I do. Anti-inflammatories are not as well studied during pregnancy as is aspirin, which has been around for a long time. They are probably okay to take during pregnancy up until the last couple of months; at that point you need to worry about affects on the fetus in terms of ductus arteriosis and premature closure that can cause pulmonary hypertension in the fetus. And they can also prolong labor. Before that, a lot of patients will take anti-inflammatories if needed; probably ibuprofen is considered the safest one. Personally, I have found that for the degree of response, 5 mg of prednisone tends to give a better response in many patients, probably with less potential for side effects.
Stephen A. Paget, MD: What about some of our newer medications, the anti-TNF medications such as etanercept and infliximab? Is there is enough information to demonstrate safety or lack of?
Lisa Sammaritano, MD: No, there is not enough information to demonstrate either of those. I think that, in general, one would hope that just by virtue of remission occurring that it would be possible to discontinue that medication. It is difficult to note, because it is so new. And it's not that a controlled study will ever be done on these medications during pregnancy. I think the FDA has actually classified Enbrel as Category B in pregnancy, which means actually that there is no data that says it's a bad thing, no data in animals, for example, that show a lot of deformity or other problems. I try to stop it. If the patient has very severe disease, though, I think you have to weigh the potential risks versus the benefit and make that decision.
Stephen A. Paget, MD: What about in the post-partum state, when the woman is nursing -- and obviously some women nurse for a shorter period of time and others longer -- relative to transferring antibodies and protection. What do you usually recommend there as far as the reinstitution of medicines?
Lisa Sammaritano, MD: Well, again, it depends on the patient and on the medication. Steroids are considered -- again low-dose is optimal -- safe for women who are breast-feeding. Anti-inflammatories are in the middle, and we usually recommend ibuprofen and try to time the breast feeding about four hours after taking the medication to minimize the amount of ibuprofen in the breast milk. Other medications are considered relatively safe, for example, heparin in patients who need to be on that for some weeks post-partum. Interestingly, for patients who have problems with blood clotting during pregnancy who don't take warfarin (Coumadin) during the pregnancy, Coumadin is actually considered okay for women who are breast-feeding because it really doesn't go into the breast milk to any significant degree. So you have to decide how great the risk of increased disease activity is, how great a desire the patient has to breast feed, and then try to balance things between that.
Generally hydroxychloroquine and gold salts, people don't like to have their patients breast feeding on those medications, but if the patient insists sometimes you try to work out a compromise.
Stephen A. Paget, MD: If we could move to systemic lupus erythematosus for the last part of this, what are the problems that a patient with lupus can have and how much can they be anticipated before, during and after the pregnancy?
Lisa Sammaritano, MD: Well, unlike rheumatoid arthritis, the concern with lupus is that the disease activity will worsen significantly during pregnancy, especially during later pregnancy, and, as you know, years ago women with lupus were told not to become pregnant. If they did become pregnant, they were advised to terminate the pregnancies for medical reasons. I think that with more information, better medication and obstetrical care, that has changed. The most important thing to consider and evaluate in deciding whether or not now is a good time for a pregnancy in a woman with lupus is to look at the few things that have been clearly shown to have an impact on outcome of pregnancy, in terms of the fetus, pregnancy outcome itself, and maternal problems or morbidity.
The first is activity of disease, and it has been shown time and time again that patients with inactive disease at the time of conception overall do better. They have a much lesser chance of having a flare during a pregnancy if things are quiet when they start. Those studies suggest that disease should be inactive for six months prior to conception.
The next important point to consider in terms of assessing risk for pregnancy for a particular woman is what her renal function is. We had talked about what a stress pregnancy puts on the kidneys, and if a woman with lupus has renal insufficiency, it is important to assess her kidney function ahead of time. Based on that, one can give some estimate of how likely it is that kidney problems can become an issue during pregnancy. For some women with very limited kidney function, pregnancy really is contraindicated since it may worsen to the extent that they would require dialysis.
There are a couple of other very important factors that impact more on the pregnancy outcome and the newborn itself. One is anticardiolipin or antiphospholipid antibodies. These antibodies, present in about a third of patients with lupus, have a tremendous effect in terms of risk for miscarriage or fetal loss during the pregnancy. Years ago, it was felt that much of the adverse outcome in pregnancy really was due to the presence of these antibodies. And these antibodies can predispose the patient to blood clot formation or fetal loss, presumably because of blood clot formation in the placenta, although there clearly have to be other mechanisms that are acting earlier.
Identification of the antibody ahead of time is really critical, because there are several great studies that have been done recently that show that if a woman has suffered fetal losses from this antibody, treatment with medication -- aspirin and heparin -- through the pregnancy can improve viability and survival from 25% to 75%. So it is incredibly important to identify, and there are patients who are referred to rheumatologists from their obstetricians because there are patients who only have this antibody and it's a sort of limited autoimmune disease. They don't have underlying lupus, but they are identified because of their obstetrical history, and they benefit greatly from this kind of therapy.
I guess the last thing to mention, in terms of lupus for a pregnancy, is that there are other antibodies present in lupus -- anti-Ro and anti-La -- that can increase the risk for an inflammatory, although usually short-lived disorder, in the baby, called neonatal lupus. This can cause rash, change in blood counts or liver function, and, in very severe cases, can affect the conduction system of the heart so that the baby's heart rate can be affected. Again, that severe manifestation is very rare, and it only has happened in women who have this particular antibody. So, testing for it ahead of time and knowing ahead of time allows us to be more vigilant during the pregnancy.
Stephen A. Paget, MD: If you make a decision in concert with the patient, the woman who has lupus and who wants to become pregnant and their significant other, to go ahead with pregnancy, and there is some activity of the lupus, can they take medications safely in order to try to dampen the inflammatory response and improve the outcome?
Lisa Sammaritano, MD: Sure, for lupus, particularly, so many patients are on some dosage of steroid for active disease and, in general, will continue that. Some practitioners have felt that when a patient with lupus becomes pregnant, you should actually start corticosteroid just in case they develop a flare. We don't do that here. If a patient is on a dose of steroid, it doesn't seem to be the best time to try tapering it and, in general, we'll continue at a low dose during the course of the pregnancy.
I already mentioned methotrexate as inadvisable. Cyclophosphamide is also not medication that one can take during pregnancy unless perhaps towards the very end. It really is contraindicated. Azathioprine (Imuran) can be taken safely during pregnancy, and it is probably the only immunosuppressive that we feel comfortable allowing a woman to continue with, because there really are no reports of fetal anomalies based on that. If possible, that would be a medication in addition to steroid that one could consider during pregnancy.
Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) has been quite controversial as to whether or not it's something that could be taken during pregnancy, and I think most recent evidence suggests that it probably is safe to continue if the patient really requires it for control, especially of there is severe discoid or other lupus rash. There is even some evidence that it may be beneficial in pregnancy in terms of decreasing risk of flare occurring during the pregnancy itself, but that is preliminary and from small studies.
Stephen A. Paget, MD: If anticoagulants are needed, you would more often use heparin than Coumadin during the pregnancy?
Lisa Sammaritano, MD: I only use heparin. Coumadin can cause an embryopathy. It's well recognized, and, in general, that occurs when it is given during the first trimester. In some countries outside the United States, it is used, and they will use it during a later period in pregnancy when it is felt not to have a potential to do that. In the U.S., standard practice is not to use it during pregnancy, and so we switch patients who are on Coumadin to heparin during the pregnancy or if they have the risk factor or cardiolipin antibody, we then will put them on heparin along with aspirin. Heparin has its own set of side effects, especially over the long-term - risk of osteoporosis in a woman who is already at risk for that because of the pregnancy. But fortunately the heparin molecule itself, even the low molecular weight, heparin, is too large to pass through the placenta; so it really doesn't represent a risk to the fetus. That's one great benefit of using it.
Stephen A. Paget, MD: Finally, do you find that it is best to have a multidisciplinary team, especially in high risk patients with lupus, in order to follow the patient through and bring them through safely?
Lisa Sammaritano, MD: Definitely. I think that who is a part of that team depends on the patient and their particular problems, but at the very least, it has to involve the rheumatologist and, for most patients, a high-risk obstetrician. In a patient with fairly uncomplicated lupus, I don't know that that is necessary, but certainly high-risk obstetricians have more experience with this. If someone has underlying renal disease, it is very important to have her nephrologist involved. The risk of preeclampsia is increased in patients with renal disease, whether or not they have underlying lupus, and so it is important to start off with baseline levels of protein, 24-hour urine protein.
Updated: 12/31/2009
From an interview with Dr. Lisa R. Sammaritano by Dr. Stephen A. Paget


text:
Equity and Excellence Strategy
Grad Nation
PROMISE Program
Mega-States Results
Odds and Ends
Quote to Note
Upcoming Events
Today, absent any last-minute action by Congress, automatic, across-the-board federal spending cutsalso known as the sequesterwill go into effect. These cuts will have real consequences, especially for young children in low-income families, students with special needs, and teachers. Last month, Secretary Duncan testified before the Senate about the negative effects of sequestration. This week, he appeared on "Face the Nation", noting, "We don't have to be in this situation. This is not rocket science. We could solve this tomorrow if folks had the will to compromiseto come to the table and do the right thing for children and to try and keep growing the middle class." Also, the White House released new state-by-state reports showing how the sequester will impact jobs and middle class families, and the Department issued Title I and special education impacts by state and Title I impacts by the nation's 100 largest school districts.
Meanwhile, at a White House dinner on February 24 and meeting on February 25, President Obama discussed sequestration with the nation's governors. The President also emphasized some areas where states are making strides that can be replicated across the country, including education. "I want to partner with each of you to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America," he said. "This is an area where we've already seen great bipartisan work at the state level. All of us want our kids to grow up more likely to read and write and do math at grade level, graduate from high school, hold a job, and form more stable families of their own." (Note: Later this morning, Secretary Duncan and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will visit a preschool and Head Start classrooms in Takoma Park, Maryland, to highlight the importance of early learning.)
Equity and Excellence Strategy
On February 20, after two years of work, the Equity and Excellence Commission formally presented its report to Secretary Duncan. The 27-member commission, including scholars, state and local educators, union leaders, and education reformers and advocates, was charged to provide advice to the Secretary on the disparities in meaningful educational opportunities that give rise to the achievement gap, with a focus on systems of finance, and ways that the federal government can address such disparities. "For Each and Every Child" explicitly offers a five-part framework of inter-related recommendations to guide policymaking, targeting: equitable school finance; teachers, principals, and curricula; early childhood education; mitigating poverty's effects; and accountability and governance. The commission was autonomous, and its recommendations do not necessarily represent the views of the Department, but "The Commission has sounded a powerful and important alarm about the distance we still have to go to improve education for every American child," the Secretary declared upon receiving the report.
Grad Nation
According to a report update released at the third annual "Building a Grad Nation" Summit, the U.S. is on track to meet the national Grad Nation goal of a 90% high school graduation rate by the Class of 2020. The national high school graduation rate has increased 6.5 percentage points since 2001, to 78.2%, with an average growth of 1.25 points each year from 2006 to 2010. As a result of this acceleration, more than 200,000 additional students received diplomas in 2010 than 2006. In large part, the growth was driven by significant improvements in African-American (from 59.2% in 2006 to 66.1% in 2010) and Hispanic (from 61% in 2006 to 71.4% in 2010) graduation rates. The South also contributed to this growth, with five of the top 10 states with the greatest improvements since 2006. In addition, the number of "dropout factories"high schools in which twelfth-grade enrollment is 60% or less of ninth-grade enrollment three years earliertotaled at 1,424 in 2011, down from a high of 2,007 in 2002 and 1,550 in 2010.
At the summit, Secretary Duncan and Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) Wendy Spencer announced a competitive grant program that will provide $15 million in public funds over three years to reinforce and accelerate intervention efforts in the nation's lowest-performing schools. The new School Turnaround AmeriCorps will support the placement of a dedicated cadre of AmeriCorps members in persistently under-achieving schools. This approach seeks to increase student achievement, attendance, and graduation rates, as well as college- and career-readiness in those schools. Since 2009, the Department has invested $4.5 billion in more than 1,300 of the nation's lowest-performing schools. Currently, CNCS programs have a presence in a quarter of schools eligible for School Improvement Grant (SIG) funding. School Turnaround AmeriCorps will augment these investments, expand opportunities for national service, and supply struggling schools with new talent to support the implementation of school improvement plans. The program also extends the efforts of Together for Tomorrow, a cooperative initiative among the Department, CNCS, and the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships to boost community engagement in improving outcomes at chronically under-performing schools. A notice of intent to apply must be submitted to CNCS by April 2. Applications are due April 23.
PROMISE Program
The Department has posted a Public Input Notice (PIN) for a new competitive grant program. The purpose of the Promoting Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income (PROMISE) is to fund model demonstration projects in states to promote improved outcomes for children who receive SSI and their families. Under PROMISE, projects must form strong and effective partnerships among those state agencies responsible for programs that play a critical role in serving SSI recipients and provide coordinated services and supports designed to improve the education and employment outcomes of SSI recipients. Governors' officesidentified as required partners in the PINand other agencies and organizations are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the PIN, participate in webinars, and submit written comments on the PIN blog. All comments must be received by March 17 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Note: The next webinar is this afternoon from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. ET. Another webinar will be offered on March 5 at the same time. Instructions on joining the webinars are available here.)
Mega-States Results
For the first time, a new National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report card summarizes results in several subjects from multiple statesand holds clues from which other states may learn. "The Nation's Report Card: Mega-States" presents achievement results for students in California, Florida, Illinois, New York, and Texasthe five most-heavily populated states, serving nearly 40% of the nation's public school studentsin grades 4 and 8 in reading, mathematics, and science. The findings include average scores among the five states, as well as national averages and results among various subgroups. Results are also reported at or above Proficient achievement levels. Overall, progress toward proficiency is promising in math but mixed in reading.
Odds and Ends
On February 26, the White House honored 10 Americans as "Champions of Change" for their work in promoting educational excellence for African-Americans in their communities and announced David Johns as the Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African-Americans.
On February 27, some 100 leaders came to the White House for a discussion about how to make schools, institutions of higher education, and houses of worship safer through the creation of high-quality emergency management plans.
Then, on February 28, First Lady Michelle Obama kicked-off Let's Move! Active Schools, a collaboration to bring physical activity back to America's schools. The initiative offers simple steps and tools to help schools create environments where students get 60 minutes of physical activity before, during, and after the school day. The ambitious goal is to engage 50,000 schools in this program over the next five years.
The new Green Strides: Environment, Health, and Facilities at ED web page provides school communities with access to tools to move toward the three pillars of the agency's Green Ribbon Schools recognition award: reducing environmental impacts and costs; improving the health and wellness of schools, students, and staff; and providing effective environmental and sustainability literacy.
Also, the Department recently launched version 3.0 of ED Data Express, an interactive web site aimed at making accurate and timely K-12 education data available to the public. ED Data Express consolidates relevant data collected by the agency from several different sources and provides a variety of tools that allow users to explore the data and create individualized reports. Specifically, the latest site includes a revised home page and State Snapshot page with improved visualizations and more intuitive navigation.
Prior to his third appearance in the NBA Celebrity All-Star Game, Secretary Duncan sat down with current and former NBA and WNBA players to speak with five high school student-athletes about the importance of education and how sports can play a critical role in maturation on and off the court.
Then, about a week after President Obama proposed redesigning high schools to equip graduates with the skills employers demand in his State of the Union address, the Secretary visited Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, which prepares students for future success through restoration of the local marine environment.
In a February 28 letter to Chief State School Officers, the Secretary requested immediate action to reduce gender-based violence in schools and ensure all students are safe. The letter was released at a White House event on teen dating violence prevention. The Department's National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments also released a new training module, "Get Smart, Get Help, Get Safe" to help school nurses, counselors, and psychologists identify and respond to signs of abuse.
The College Board's latest "Advanced Placement Report to the Nation" shows 19.5% of the Class of 2012 achieved mastery (at least a 3 on a 5-point scale) on one or more AP exams.
"Dual Credit and Exam-Based Courses in U.S. Public High Schools: 2010-11," an update to a 2002-03 survey by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), supplies data on dual credit course enrollment, the types of institutions in dual credit courses, and expenses paid by students and parents.
Quote to Note
"Unfortunately... Congress is poised to allow a series of arbitrary, automatic budget cuts to kick-in that will slow our economy, eliminate good jobs, and leave a lot of folks who are already pretty thinly stretched scrambling to figure out what to do.... Thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off. Tens of thousands of parents will have to deal with finding child care for their children. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose access to primary care and preventive care like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings. Now, these impacts will not all be felt on Day One. But, rest assured, the uncertainty is already having an effect. Companies are preparing layoff notices. Families are preparing to cut back on expenses. And, the longer these cuts are in place, the bigger the impact will become."
|President Barack Obama (2/25/13), addressing governors at the White House on the impact of sequestration
Upcoming Events
The first event in the Department's 2013 Community College Webinar Series is scheduled for March 7, from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. ET. Experts from the field and local practitioners will discuss transforming adult education to better prepare adult learners to successfully transition to postsecondary education and training.
On March 12, at 11:00 a.m. ET, NCES will release "Algebra I and Geometry Curricula: Results from the 2005 High School Transcript Mathematics Curriculum Study." The report looks at the math course-taking patterns of America's high school graduates to examine the content and challenge of algebra and geometry courses in our nation's public high schools.
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