text:
social media saturation
Just over a week ago I reached saturation point with social media. Particularly Facebook. I was suddenly totally sick of it – not just, 'that's enough now, thanks', but more, 'oh for God's sake will everyone just SHUT UP!'
This, of course, is my issue and not the fault of my Facebook friends. I wasn't irritated by any one person or few people, just generally by the whole notion that we all share so much so often. And personally I'd had enough of being constantly aware of so many things that so many people were doing, or the thoughts they were having or the way they were feeling or the things that they, their kids, their dogs, cats, mice and ferrets were eating or drinking or dancing at any one moment. It felt like just too much input.
I'll admit I'd been on Facebook far too often. If I'd just looked once a day it would have been fine, nice even to see what people were getting up to. But I'm not like that with it. I was checking my newsfeed all the time – like a nervous twitch, any spare moment – in the car waiting outside school, in a queue, while the kettle was boiling, on the loo… my phone would suddenly be in my hand and 'click' the hundreds of voices poured in. Sometimes I'd just glance, sometimes have a quick scroll but given the chance (in the evening) I could lose hours. The word 'feed' is far too accurate – it made me feel bloated and overloaded and sluggish. Like I'd gorged on something unhealthy. I had Facebook flab.
So I took a step back. Last week I buried the FB app in a seldom-visted backwater of my phone and I haven't looked at my newsfeed for over a week now. I've still popped to my groups when notifications have arrived but that feels much more controlled – more like nibbling on crudités than overeating. I've also still been on Instagram and Twitter but they've never had the psychological pull that Facebook has (let's call them the reasonably appealing yogurts of the metaphor) so I didn't feel the need to avoid them entirely.
And how have I found it? Well, in the most part good because I really do experience social media as noise and I like a bit of silence. There have been (brief) moments when I've luxuriated in it this past week. Since I've always prioritised real world interactions over the online world anyway (as introverts go, I'm a bit of a social butterfly) I've not felt lacking in interaction, there's just been less chatter in my head. I've been more able to hear myself think.
But… I'd be lying if I said it hadn't been odd. I feel a bit out of the loop – like I suddenly don't know what my friends are doing or how they're feeling about things. World events happen and I only know what a few people think about them. Things happen in people's lives and I don't have a clue. Or maybe nothing's happened and I don't have clue. The point is I don't have a clue. And when you're used to knowing things about a lot of people, that's a weird feeling.
It's made me realise though, that I don't actually need to know. If it's important then I'll find out. If our friendship is important they'll tell me the crucial stuff, as I will them. Even though social media has become a common way of making announcements, really, when relationships are genuine and when things are really important, we contact people personally. And the people who matter, matter regardless of what you know about what they're doing or thinking on any particular day.
Behind the scenes this week, I've continued to connect with people, if anything slightly more than I would have done if they'd been popping up in my feed. And I know that as time goes by I'll do that more and more: 'I wonder how so and so is doing? I know – I'll ask them!' It's a more genuine way to be a part of people's lives really isn't it? I've often thought that reading people's status updates gives you a false sense of having communicated with them – that we'd make more personal effort if we didn't have that tenuous connection.
Without social media we might know fewer people. But we also might properly connect with more.
So I'll be staying away from my newsfeed for a while longer. At least.


text: lol How smart is Your Right Foot? Just try this. It is from an orthopedic Surgeon........... This will boggle your mind and you will keep trying over and over again to see if you can outsmart your foot, but you can't. It's preprogrammed in your brain! 1. WITHOUT anyone watching you (they will think you Are GOOFY......) and while sitting where you are at your desk in front of your computer, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles. 2 Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand Your foot will change direction. I told you so!!! And there's nothing you can do about it! You and I both know how stupid it is, but before the day is done you are going to try it again, if you've not already done so.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
[CONTEST ALERT!] Frannywanny.com 6th Blog-niversary Giveaway
Presenting Frannywanny.com in Numbers:
Looking at these numbers still leaves me speechless. Six year ago, I began this blog simply because I love to write and I wanted to document my food adventures with Paul. Who would have thought that this blog has allowed me to try new things, visit a couple of awesome places and best of all, it has allowed me to meet new friends. I really am so thankful that despite being miles away from Manila, I can still strongly feel the love and support that you all have been sending my way. *big HUG everyone!*
As my way of saying THANK YOU, here's this year's Blogniversary Giveaway!
Since I've been writing a whole lot now about the restaurants and food items here in Singapore, I think it's just about time for me to share some of my favorite things with you! So, I will be surprising 6 lucky readers with an amazing Singapore foodie bag each that I'll personally put together just for you! Excited?
Let the game begin!
Some important reminders:
1) This contest will run from 09 September - 22 September, 2013
2) Contest is open to ALL readers in the Philippines. (To all my International readers, don't worry will be having more contests open for you soon!)
3) One reader can only enter ONCE.
4) Entries will be considered valid if participant has completed the assigned tasks.
5) The prize/s will be shipped via courier.
6) Announcement of the winners will be posted in this blog. I will also be sending an email to the winners as well.
7) Winners will be given 30 days to confirm otherwise, we will be choosing another winner.


text: Jill-e Clutch March 20, 2010 By Eric Reagan Alright ladies, here's a sneak peek at the upcoming Jill-e 'Clutch' for toting your compact camera with a little more style. I don't pretend to understand the female fashion world, but I'm told that this camera clutch is to die for. [Read more…]


text:
We recently had some articles about how to get your dogs to take their medication, but what about cats? Here is a helpful guest post for those of you who have cats too.
There is nothing as difficult as forcing a pet to take his or her medicine. They will claw and bite their way out just to avoid the medicine. At one time or another, you have been forced to do it because unless the pet takes their medicine, they might end up getting really sick. Cats are a prime example of how difficult it is to give them their medicine. While this is a very difficult process to undertake, there are some ways that you can employ to ensure that your cat gets the medication that he or she needs. The following are some of the tips that you can employ for pet cat medication.
The first method you can employ when giving your feline his or her medicine is to hide the pill in his or her food. Cats like dogs have a very strong sense of smell and are able to detect something amiss in their food from a mile away. So then how do you cloak the pill so that they don't get wind of it? Well, you can make an incision in a piece of meat or tuna and hide the piece of meat inside. You should make sure that you target when the cat is at his or her hungriest. Then you can be assured that the cat will gobble the food down as quickly as possible without realizing that the medicine was there. However, this method is tricky in that sometimes the cat will sense the medicine after they have ingested the food and will try to spit it out. Hence, it is recommended that you monitor your cat closely so that you ensure that they have taken their medicine.
Another method of ensuring that your cat takes his or her pills or capsule is to force it down. This method is especially delicate considering that it might result in a lot biting and scratching and will require two people in order for it be successful. Most vets will tell you that in order to force feed a cat a pill, you first hold it behind the head. You then make sure that you squeeze the lower jaw gently with your thumb and index finger and your compatriot should give the cat the tablet or capsule. You should then close the jaw until you see that the cat has swallowed the medicine. It is very important that you bind you cat's legs or have your friend hold them for you.
Most vets will use a pill gun. They usually say that it is the easiest method of ensuring that your pets take their medicine. Pill guns are available in any pet store. However you should ensure that you use it properly lest you end up injuring your cat.
The above are methods you can use to ensure that cats take their pills and capsules. When it comes to liquid medicines, you can use a syringe or a drenching gun to administer the liquid medication orally. A hypodermic needle can is used for medicines that require invasive administration. However, you should leave this method to the vets.
This is guest article provided by Vet-Medic, an online pharmacy store offering wide range of pet products and unlike other online stores you can also talk live to certified veterinary surgeon and pharmacists.
Tags: administer, cat, cats, feline medication, pet, pill gun, pill guns, vet medic, veterinary, vets


text:
[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/87301275" params="auto_play=false&show_artwork=false&color=ff7700" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]
By Jamie Gumbrecht, CNN
(CNN) - As Quanesha Wallace remembers, it was around this time last year when the idea first came up at Wilcox County High School. It was nothing big, just chatter about prom, school, what comes next, what they'd change.
If things were different, someone said, we'd all go to the same prom.
For as long as anyone could remember, students in their South Georgia community went to separate proms, and homecoming dances, too. White students from Wilcox County attend one. Black students, another. They're private events organized by parents and students, not the school district. Schools have long been desegregated, but in Wilcox County, the dances never changed.
The friends all agreed they'd go to an integrated prom, Quanesha said, and when they asked, others said, "Yeah, I'd go, too."
"We are all friends," Quanesha's friend, Stephanie Sinnot, told CNN affiliate WGXA-TV in Macon, Georgia. "That's just kind of not right that we can't go to prom together."
So now it's April, and prom is coming up, and these black and white friends, longtime pals who go to classes together and play sports together and hang out together, are going to prom together, too. For the first time, students are organizing an integrated dance, one that welcomes any of Wilcox County High's 400 students.
"This is going to be the biggest prom ever to come through Wilcox County," said Quanesha, one of the event's organizers.
The theme will be "Masquerade Ball in Paris." There will be an Eiffel Tower and Mardi Gras-style masks, dancing, flowers, catered food and a clubhouse in nearby Cordele. They're expecting gowns, ties, manicures, up-dos, sparkle. Quanesha has a date, although she hasn't decided on a dress.
"If you want to get fancy, get fancy," said Quanesha, 18. "If you don't, that's fine."
Attendees will vote on a king and queen but also cutest couple, best smile, best dressed. They'll do a recognition ceremony for a classmate who died. They'll start a new prom tradition: a unity toast.
By Thursday afternoon, about 50 tickets had sold for the integrated prom. They're aiming for 100. They're not sure they'll make it.
Not everybody is excited about the idea. Posters for the integrated prom were torn off the walls of the high school. Students who usually plan dances didn't get involved with this one. Nothing was different about this year's homecoming dances: Quanesha, the queen, is black. The king, white. She thought she might get an invite to the other prom, but they went to separate dances, and appear in separate yearbook photos, she said.
In a statement posted on the school district's website Thursday, Wilcox County Superintendent Steve Smith stressed the segregated proms aren't organized by the school.
When students approached him about hosting an integrated prom, Smith wrote, he and the county's board of education "not only applauded their idea, but we also passed a resolution advocating that all activities involving our students be inclusive and nondiscriminatory.
"I fully support these ladies, and I consider it an embarrassment to our schools and community that these events have portrayed us as bigoted in any way."
The statement was no longer on the schools' website Thursday night, but a new statement posted by Friday morning said the high school's principal "will place the 2014 Prom on its agenda for its next meeting."
Smith did not return CNN's phone calls or e-mails.
Wilcox County is not the only place with a racially segregated prom, nor is it the only one that's attracted widespread attention in recent years. In the 2009 documentary "Prom Night in Mississippi," director Paul Saltzman followed the preparations for the first integrated prom in Charleston, Mississippi. Actor Morgan Freeman, a native of the area, offered in 1997 to cover the cost if the school board would hold an integrated prom, but the offer wasn't accepted till 2008.
Students and parents say it's hard to spark conversation that breaks what's now seen as tradition.
"I've lived here all my life. Nobody pushed the issue. This year, these children - we didn't have any idea it was going to go as it did," Quanesha's mother, Linda Wallace, said Thursday. "Before we knew it, it was like a wildfire."
Indeed, Wilcox County's integrated prom has gotten a lot of attention this week. Schools in the county of about 9,000 residents are on spring break, but while classes were out, the prom story appeared on the local news, and the story spread. They'd been raising money for the prom all year, and some donations helped, but they've picked up a lot in the last few days. The prom's Facebook page drew thousands of fans since it was set up Wednesday.
Most of the comments are positive. "Your efforts will open the eyes of many. I applaud your courage and hopefulness. Continue your fight for change this year and every year, not just in your school but throughout your community. It just takes one person to change the world," one person wrote.
"You are civil rights leaders of 2013!" another wrote. "I am so encouraged by what you are doing. I believe that your generation has the power to make things better. Keep going and never give up."
Still, Quanesha is a little nervous about returning to school Monday. A lot of parents and students support them, she said, but she knows some don't. Why else, after all these years, were they still holding dances that segregated white and black students?
"I'm all about sticking together, reasoning with each other," Quanesha said. "We have very strong-minded students at Wilcox County. I hope they're there to back each other up."
The friends and organizers are trying to enjoy it. Soon, most of them will be graduating. Quanesha plans to go to college to study psychology. She said she's not going too far from home for now. She wants to make sure the prom keeps going, and she can come back to help encourage the underclassmen who will have to take it on next.
"I don't want to just leave them hanging. I know we're going to leave them a little money," Quanesha said.
"New tradition. Leave them a little something so it won't be so hard for them like it was hard for us."
Follow us on Twitter @CNNschools.
Thats so stupied to do seperated proms whats wrong with the parents and students these days to come up with with that irresponsible idea smh yeah IRRESPONSIBLE!!!
I thought I was reading Ripley's Believe or Not. In this day and age to hold two separate proms is preposterous.
Would somebody – please – just applaude these jung people for changing the tradition! The shame is on all the proms and dances held until last year. Everybody who organised and attended the separate events in the past has to be embarassed for the rest of their life that they did not have niether the vision nor the courage.
Get your priorities right!
How backwards some parts of the USA unfortunately are, in New Zealand we have been integrated with our native people the Maoris since the historic signing of the 1840 Treaty.
...are you kidding me? In the time I've spent in New Zealand, living in a district with nearly 0% white people in the neighbourhood I haven't seen any efforts made by the government to raise living quality or solving the drug & alcohol issue. Segregation though is another level of stupidity still beiing displayed by some parts of the U.S.
When you think about what Rosa Parks had to go through I am amazed this is going on in 2013. Disgusting!
Hard to believe this still goes on, what....40-50 years after the fact of integration in some of these areas. Well, regardless, I hope that the integrated prom is a success. Best of luck.
I have 4 children and in my home they have been taught that everyone is the same, and they are welcome to have friends over no matter their race. This fight has been ongoing and may never really be over, you cant change someones view points no matter how ignorant you find them to be! We are welcome to voice our opinions though and one I have recently heard still makes me wonder...She pointed out that it's always been "white v. black", but is that always just the way it is every single time or does it go both ways? She pointed out that they have BET and they do not have many "white" people in their movies and she doesnt allow her children to watch that channel because of this. She says she doesnt discriminate BUT she doesnt see why the finger is always pointed at us she feels that it obviously must go both ways?...She ask me a question that I had no answer to, what happened if 10 years ago we as the "whites" had our own channel something like BET, would people being calling discrimination? I had never realy thought of this until she pointed it out. Its really a touchy subject and nobdy will ever have all the answers but Im truly happy that these children will be able to finally experience the same education and events that my children will do and my question to this is why did it take until 2013 to do this? The school says they are not responsible so that means that the parents are raising them to have these viewpoints...is this really fair to the children? Why did the school let this continue for so long? I dont think we will ever have answers to any of these questions, despite the struggles throughout our history. Maybe today although most of us dont want to see it maybe more people than we thought still feel color is important...
What an incoherent, rambling post
This is shameful we should be beyond this! so sad
Most of these people have no idea what they are talking about. I have lived in Georgia my entire life, and the only time I have experienced any sort of racism was when some black guys yelled at me and called me a "white @ss Mother-effer" for talking to a black girl, and that girl went on to reprimand the guy. I also found it quite humorous that as I was reading this article and comments, there were white guys and black guys bro-hugging, and white and black girls hugging and talking right in front of me. The south is a very hospitable place, and race is only an issue that comes up when the media finds a story to make a big deal about. There is racism everywhere, and it's no worse in the south than anywhere else in the country.
It just seems lot of people in the north that I have talked to (not making a blanket statement) seem to have an elitist mindset that they are somehow superior to, or more intelligent than, anyone from the south, when that's not the case at all. Having that sort of mindset is a form of racism in its own right. Actually, I have some black friends that moved here from New York, and they have only had praise for the state because, in their own words, "people are so much nicer here than in NYC".
Anyway, we really do live in a great country. Yeah, it has its faults, but those aren't going to be fixed by name-calling on news articles (from CNN no less) over the internet. If you really want to make a difference, take action. My class at GSU, one of the most diverse universities in the country, in the past few weeks has raised over $10,000 for charities ranging from helping breast cancer patients, schools and orphanages in Kenya, people suffering from cerebral palsy, feeding and helping homeless children, scholarships for low income Latino communities, and animal shelters, just to name a few. If you really want to see change, get out from behind your computer and do something about it.
Well while some of the things that you say are true but I have to disagree as a black person that was raised in the north and has lived in the south for a while. while there is racism everywhere, I would have to say, especially as black person, that it is way worse in the south compared to most of the north. I went to school in south GA and please believe that old JIM CROW sentiment is still alive in many small cities and towns.
However I do agree that many people of all colors can guilty of discrimination, lets not pretend that it occurs to equal extents. When your in ATL its totally different. your in a diverse city that is way more tolerant than many pockets of the more rural south. And again, I really want to stress that I do believe that all people can feel that affects of racial bigotry. but, if you were a person of color in the south and confronted with the daily and life long obstacles that come just because of your ethnicity you would have a TOTALLY different perspective!!! This town needs to step into the twenty first century its a damn shame!! WE ARE ALL A PART OF THE HUMAN RACE!! after al it is 2013!!! SMFH!!
I just want to say that I find the claims of people trying to project this idea that racism is long over and gone to be preposterous. Of course, if you come to the Black Mecca of Atlanta, then you'll find that the racism that's present will be less extreme simply because there are so many more black people than you'll find in the average setting. Also, you see the dynamic where the communities are completely separated. As a black girl in Atlanta, all my life I've only gone to school with black kids. My onle extensive encounters in my day to day life in Atlanta with anyone that wasn't black have been with two white kids. Yes, I admit; the two of them , in each case being the only white person on the room, exhibited no racist qualities. In the rurals where progress has been much slower, unfortunately racism is very real (speaking on simply the social level and not focusing on it in the work force and its effects) . These few stories that become sensations are not the outliers; rather they are one of many instances that just haven't gotten enough publicity to become an issue that attracts the attention of the public. I'm proud of what those kids are doing. It's a step. But consider this; that is an entire town. They have to fight the town to get an integrated prom off the ground...because many of those town members are racist, or see nothing wrong with the idea of the town being integrated Do you believe that this town and this town alone has developed in its own little bubble of isolation since the civil rights movement? This single town is the place in the country where all the racists and bigots have decided to live? Well what about Trevon Martin(R.I.P.) ; what about those 3 Black boys shot in Texas by some trashy men with nothing better to do than hate? What about the countless instances of police brutality? Or the targeting of Blacks and Latinos in the New York stop and frisks... Anyone who says that racism is long over and dead is in denial. They desperately need to wake up.
Thats wrong. As a black person living in the south my entire life I will be the first to tell you RACE IS AN ISSUE EVERYWHERE IN THE SOUTH. It does not matter where you go in the south there is still a since of I don't like you because you are black and I dont like you because you are white. Race plays a huge part. As a matter of fact my fiance' and I can not tell her family that we are engaged yet because I am black. ITS STILL AN ISSUE
What a shame its 2013!! I bet there are still more stories like this happening out there in the US and A...
This just goes to show you can change laws but you can't change people. That goes for BOTH sides people..


text:
iPhone gaming's great and all, but it's still hard to get over the on-screen touch controls when the screen's only 3.5 inches. Ion's new iCade Mobile lets you basically jam your phone into the body of a PSP and play without cluttering your screen with your own damn fingers.
It works with the iPhone or the iPod Touch, tightening up its grip with a rubber insert. It's a lot like the adorable iCade box—which itself also got a refresh—for iPhone and iPad that turns your devices into an arcade machine, except now it's more like an impromptu PSP Vita.
It looks pretty cool, and the buttons feel good enough for gaming, though not quite as solid as an actual PSP. It also rotates around to portrait mode, for vertical-only games (like Doodle Jump? I'm terrible at that). But for stuff like Infinity Blade, it should help a lot, even if you have infamously tiny fingers like me. It'll be $79 and ship in May.


text:
Do you think BNP will participate coming election?
Total Voters: 44
Start Date: December 17, 2017 @ 5:58 pm
End Date: No Expiry
Will you agree with the statement of BNP general secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir that Government try to give big budget to cut pockets of the hostage people?
Total Voters: 10
Start Date: May 31, 2017 @ 8:43 pm
End Date: No Expiry
Do you think dialogue with president will be beneficial for political party's?
Total Voters: 8
Start Date: December 17, 2016 @ 2:00 am
End Date: No Expiry
How Is My Site?
Total Voters: 0
Start Date: December 17, 2016 @ 1:55 am
End Date: No Expiry


text:
President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney face-off at the first presidential debate Wednesday -- an important moment for both candidates, but especially critical for Romney.
Presidential debates tend to reinforce, rather than sway, voter opinions. But in some instances, they can affect the dynamics of a race, boost voter enthusiasm and provide a candidate an opening for a comeback.


text:
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/04/22/art.obama.0412t.gi.jpg caption =" President Barack Obama on Saturday strongly deplored the massacres of Armenians in the final days of the Ottoman Empire, but again avoided using the controversial term 'genocide' to describe it."](CNN) - President Barack Obama on Saturday strongly deplored the massacres of Armenians in the final days of the Ottoman Empire, but again avoided using the controversial term "genocide" to describe it.
In a statement commemorating Armenian Remembrance Day, Obama solemnly labeled the massacres and death marches as "one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century."
Tackling an issue fraught with political landmines, Obama referred to the event as "the Meds Yeghern," a term that means the "great catastrophe" and one that is used by Armenians to describe the killings.
Turkey, a moderate Muslim state and a strong ally of the United States, fiercely denies that a genocide occurred during the days of the crumbling Ottoman Empire.
Ankara argues that Muslim Turks and Christian Armenians massacred each other on the killing fields of World War I.
Historians have extensively documented the Ottoman military's forced death march of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenians into the Syrian desert in 1915. The massacres decimated the Armenian population in what is modern-day eastern Turkey.
Turkey pushes back against this characterization, and Ankara recalled its diplomat from the United States last month to protest the passage of a non-binding resolution in the House Foreign Relations Committee, which calls the 1915 killings a "genocide." Amb. Namik Tan has since returned to Washington.
Despite Obama's avoidance of the term "genocide," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said it regrets the expression of what it believes is a "wrong and one-sided political viewpoint" in the statement.
"Subjective memory records are the biggest enemy of historical facts. No nation can impose its memory records on another nation. Also, third countries do not have the right and authority to make judgments on the history of Turkish-Armenian relations based on political reasons."
Every year on April 24, Armenians around the world observe a remembrance day to honor the victims. For years, the Armenian government in Yerevan and influential Armenian diaspora groups have mounted a campaign to persuade other countries to formally label the events of 1915 "genocide."
The United Nations defines genocide as acts "committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."
Those acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm, or enforcing living conditions on a group of people "calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."
In Turkey's largest city of Istanbul on Saturday, people commemorated the event, saying "this pain belongs to all of us. This grief belongs to all of us." The event ended without incident as police circled the group to protect them. Nearby, a rival group waving Turkish flags and shouting nationalist slogans staged a counter protest.
As many as 200 people came out for the sit-in demonstration, led by mostly liberal intellectuals who are active in human rights issues. There were 20 to 25 counter-protesters.
When he was a presidential candidate, Obama said he would label the event a genocide, but like his recent predecessors he has not yet done so. In fact, the Turkish Foreign Ministry noted that "the written statements made by presidents of USA every year on April 24, has been made by President Obama this year."
However, Obama says his characterization of the event has been consistent.
"My view of that history has not changed. It is in all of our interest to see the achievement a full, frank and just acknowledgment of the facts," the president said in a statement released by the White House.
"The Meds Yeghern is a devastating chapter in the history of the Armenian people, and we must keep its memory alive in honor of those who were murdered and so that we do not repeat the grave mistakes of the past."
Obama praised Turks who saved Armenians in 1915 and said he was "encouraged by the dialogue among Turks and Armenians, and within Turkey itself" over "this painful history."
"Even as we confront the inhumanity of 1915, we also are inspired by the remarkable spirit of the Armenian people. While nothing can bring back those who were killed in the Meds Yeghern, the contributions that Armenians have made around the world over the last ninety-five years stand as a testament to the strength, tenacity and courage of the Armenian people."
Obama said he is joining Armenian-Americans and Armenians from around the world "to remember the awful events of 1915 with deep admiration for their contributions which transcend this dark past and give us hope for the future."
"The indomitable spirit of the Armenian people is a lasting triumph over those who set out to destroy them. Many Armenians came to the United States as survivors of the horrors of 1915. Over the generations, Americans of Armenian descent have richened our communities, spurred our economy, and strengthened
our democracy.
"The strong traditions and culture of Armenians also became the foundation of a new republic which has become a part of the community of nations, partnering with the world community to build a better future."
- CNN's Yesim Comert contributed to this report
The defenition of Genocide:While a precise definition varies among genocide scholars, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG). Article 2 of this convention defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group
Hey CNN, how about a page one story on the wide spread violence by Obamists in Phoenix ? The moment the governor signs a bill a riot breaks out amongst the Progressive elements, Obama's people.
If this had been Tea Party folk CNN would be hysterical. CNN and Obama seem to think violence is o.k., as long it is supportive of their Progressive ideals.
Yet the umptenth bait and switch by the God King Obama. After a while CNN you have to start calling this guy a liar and corrupt, not that he is just nuiancing his positions.
You can't keep it from happening again – "genocide" if you refuse to name it!
Character counts, and courage necessitates telling the truth! Obtuse, obfuscation is manipulative and misleading! 🙁
Just say the word!!!! It's finally time.
Ah, what convoluted phrases in order not to offend allies. The truth hurts.
Either Obama continues to be a little sissy wimp who won't stand up to anyone but American taxpaying citizens, corporations and allies; OR he is a Muslim sympathizer; OR both.
Which is it Barack Hussein Obama????
Why? Guess.
Careful...we need Turkey more than ever for a strong Muslim ally. No need to appease the Armenian-Americans by stirring up OLD controversy. Let the U.N. or some other organization get involved.
Whoever this terry va is. he sounds like a real piece of work , doesn't he. He sound like he just fell off the turnip wagon, and Obummie as you call him is too good to even have you shine his shoes.
How could this reflect badly on Turkey? The Ottoman Empire was a different political entity. Blaming this on the modern Turkish nationn would be like holding the USA accountable for atrocities committed by the government of His Majesty's Colony of New York during the French and Indian War.
Get on down the road!
According to the UN definition above, I cannot see the 1915 deaths of Armenians as anything but genocide.
Armenians survived, of course, but Hitler missed quite a few Jews, too.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
I think that Obama, probably wisely, sees bases in Turkey as beautiful.
But it was still genocide.
I do my best not to ruffle any feathers.
I have learned to get by in this world.
If we can even hope to eradicate genocide, we need to acknowledge it. I don't care if calling the mass murder of Armenians during World War I a genocide strains our relations with Turkey because I really don't feel we should be allied to a nation that refuse to acknowledge genocide. More importantly, if the United States and it's government are unable to acknowledge another nation's past atrocities, we will never acknowledge our own slaughter of Native Americans.
The ball is with Turkey.
They deny that it had happened or try (very poorly) to undermine its importance. They have to face it, and will eventually since their current stand is based in revisionist lies (and anyone, people or country, that bases his/her/its actions on lies is in for a though time when reality checks...).
Seems like that they are starting to do so.
Too bad that the POTUS didn't tried to use the USA's position in the world as the leader of the democracies and of the respect on Human Rights to put Turkey on the right path...
Wait a moment, the current POTUS is rebuilding such position since the last one did everything that he could to destroy it ('you're with us or against us' was soooooo diplomatic!!!)...
Once again, the "Chosen people" have a monopoly on genocide. These self-absorbed rats go out their way to control who gets to apply the term, lest it distract from their continuing swindle: accruing millions of dollars in the Holocost [sic] industry.


text:
Milton's republic – by Terry Eagleton, in the Guardian – "Our great dissident poet, born 400 years ago today, did more than just hymn the praises of revolt":
Most poetry in the modern age has retreated to the private sphere, turning its back on the political realm. The two intersect only in such absurd anomalies as the poet laureateship. But whereas Andrew Motion does his bit to keep the monarchy in business, one of the greatest of English poets played his part in subverting it. John Milton, who was born in Cheapside 400 years ago today, published a political tract two weeks after the beheading of Charles I, arguing that all sovereignty lay with the people, who could depose and even execute a monarch if he betrayed their trust.
We are not used to such revolutionary sentiments in our poets. When he left Cambridge, Milton refused to take holy orders and, in his first great poem Lycidas, he mounted a blistering assault on the corruption of the clergy. He was a champion of Puritanism at a time when that meant rejecting a church in cahoots with a brutally authoritarian state.
His political dissidence, however, had its limits: he defended the notion of private property, unlike the more communistic wing of the parliamentary forces. As for sexual politics, Adam in Paradise Lost is a priggish patriarch. Yet Milton was also an early advocate of divorce, claiming that a lack of love and companionship was a more important ground for separation than adultery.
At the heart of Milton's political vision lay a belief in liberty and self-government. Pressed to an extreme, this doctrine could appear anarchic: grace freed humanity from law and authority. He thus came to reject the Calvinist doctrine of predestination in the name of personal freedom. One of his most magnificent pamphlets, Areopagitica, inveighed against the state censorship of books. He denounced the censorship of works before publication as a strangling of free inquiry. "Almost kill a man as kill a good book," he observed. If truth were to be established, an open marketplace of opinions was indispensable. "So truth be in the field," Milton insisted, "we do injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her strength. Let her and falsehood grapple; who ever knew truth put to the worst, in a free and open encounter?"
In an era of civil war, such liberalism could be a revolutionary force. Milton placed his literary genius at the service of Cromwell's commonwealth, becoming secretary for foreign tongues. Yet as a staunch republican he also warned his master of the dangers of autocracy. He was aware that middle-class revolutions have a habit of selling out their left wing. Even as the restoration of the monarchy loomed, he published a reckless, despairing proposal for a new republican constitution.
Once the new royalist government was in place, Milton went into hiding, and some of his more offensive books were burnt. He was arrested and held in custody, but escaped with his life through the intercession of powerful friends. He then devoted himself to an epic poem mourning the loss of the paradise on earth in which, as a radical humanist and revolutionary Puritan, he had invested his fondest hopes. He is buried alongside his father in St Giles', Cripplegate, in the City of London, an interment in Westminster Abbey being politically out of the question.
Milton did more than hymn the praises of revolt, as Blake and Shelley did. He was also a political activist and propagandist, an architect of the modern liberal state. As a militant ideologue in the defence of liberty, he assisted in the revolutionary upheaval that brought modern Britain to birth – a revolution all the more successful for us having quite forgotten that it ever happened.


text:
Ushant ŭsh´ənt [key], Fr. Ouessant, island, 10 sq mi (25.9 sq km), Finistère dept., off Brittany, in the Atlantic, c.10 mi (16 km) from the mainland. A hazard to navigation and subject to intense fall and winter storms, Ushant has several lighthouses and marks the southwestern entrance to the English Channel. Sheep raising and fishing are economically important, as is summer tourism. In 1778 and 1794 naval battles occurred nearby between the French and English.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2023, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: French Political Geography


text:
Although in development since the 1960s, NASA has recently completed two years of cycling in low earth orbit to prove the sodium sulfur cell's viability for future space missions.
It uses sodium and sulfur as the electrodes, and a solid beta alumina ceramic as the electrolyte. The end result is a battery that produces 150 W-hr/kg on the cell level, and weighs half as much as nickel-hydrogen technology.
Chuck Donet, Air Force Research Laboratory, Space Vehicles Directorate, 3550 Aberdeen Ave. S.E., Kirtland AFB, NM 87117-5776; (505) 846-4899.


text:
U.S. Senate race profile: Being salesperson is part of Klobuchar's job
STACY, Minn. -- Amy Klobuchar's voice rose as she delivered an impassioned plea -- especially to high school girls -- to get involved in science, technology, engineering and math.
STACY, Minn. -- Amy Klobuchar's voice rose as she delivered an impassioned plea -- especially to high school girls -- to get involved in science, technology, engineering and math.
"We have to invent things again," she declared. "We have to make things again."
As an example of Minnesota's needs, Agco in Jackson cannot find enough welders to build Massey Ferguson and Challenger farm tractors, she told a group gathered to celebrate National Manufacturers' Day at Wyoming Machine, just north of the Twin Cities.
After her speech, Minnesota's senior U.S. senator chatted with high school girls, and a few boys, about prospects in what normally are not jobs girls investigate.
The 52-year-old Democrat sounded all the world like a saleswoman trying to recruit job candidates.
Being a saleswoman may not be what she expected when elected senator six years ago, after two terms as Hennepin County attorney, but she said that is part of the job.
"You have an obligation as a senator to point out where America has jobs," she said.
"We're trying to work with high schools all around the state," Klobuchar said, with one goal of getting students interested in attending two-year colleges.
"Not every senator can say this," Klobuchar said in an interview. "My dad went to a two-year college, Vermilion, and my sister went to a two-year college in Iowa."
Both went on to four-year schools, and her father became a well-known Minnesota sports columnist.
Klobuchar went into her re-election race with polls showing her the state's most popular politician and with plenty of money in the bank.
In campaign stops, she says little about Republican challenger Kurt Bills. Instead, she discusses things she has done in her tenure to help Minnesotans.
Bills criticizes her for not being a leader, but she counters by saying she works with senators from both parties and gets things done.
What some might consider minor issues -- like outlawing a dangerous type of swimming pool drain -- affect many Americans, she said.
For instance, a family adopted eight Filipino children from one family, but federal law did not allow adoption of a 16-year-old brother.
"We realized that was happening all over the place," she said.
She helped change the law.
Bills complains that Klobuchar talks about working with Republicans for bipartisan solutions, but 94 percent of the time she votes with Democrats.
Longtime Democratic activist Wy Spano, director of the University of Minnesota Duluth's Master of Advocacy and Political Leadership program, said most congressional votes are lopsided by party, so such a high percentage is common.
"My mission since I have gotten there is to find common ground," Klobuchar said.
While Spano said "that's just who she is," it helps her in politics. Spano said no big-name Republican wanted to take her on this year.
Klobuchar is in demand as a speaker around the country and other Democrats ask her to campaign for them.
At a recent event for Senate hopeful U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin in Hudson, Wis., Klobuchar refused to say how many states she has visited during the campaign, but said she helps her friends.
Her travelling only stokes the flames of what some see as a possible future presidential campaign. Major political publications have tossed around her name, including calling her one of the women most likely to run for president.
Klobuchar will not directly talk about any presidential dreams, including in 2016, and left the door open a bit when asked if she would pledge to serve out her six-year Senate term if re-elected: "Yeah, that is what I am planning on doing."
She said Minnesota has had a lot of senators in recent years and it is time for one to stay in office for a while.


text:
Following its success with Amazon Web Services, MongoDB's namesake database can now run on cloud services from Microsoft and Google.
"Amazon continues to be the dominant place to run applications in the cloud, but there is a lot of interest, especially from Microsoft shops, in running MongoDB on Azure. And there is significant interest from developers in what Google has to offer," said Matt Asay, MongoDB vice president of marketing and corporate strategy.
All three cloud-hosting services "understand developers and build the tools and infrastructure to make developers really happy," Asay said.
The company, estimates that 40 percent of MongoDB installations run on Amazon, which translates into "tens of thousands" of instances, Asay said. Rackspace, MongoLabs, MongoHQ, and ObjectRocket also offer MongoDB as a service, among others.
MongoDB is now available, in preview mode, on the Google Compute Engine as a managed virtual machine. This means developers can deploy MongoDB directly from within Google Cloud through a "click of a button," and not have to worry about managing any of the supporting software, Asay said.
Pricing for the Google service has not been established.
Microsoft Azure also now offers MongoDB as a managed service as well, as an add-on in the Microsoft Azure Store.
While the Google service is primarily for developers, the Microsoft service is better for production duties, given that it is based on the full MongoDB Enterprise commercial version of the software and includes support from MongoDB itself, Asay said. The Azure service also features associated replication, backup, monitoring and support services.
The cost of running the Azure MongoDB service starts at US$400 a month, for a three-node instance. Each node, running on a Linux virtual machine, comes with 1.75GB of RAM and 40GB of storage.
The services were announced at the MongoDB user conference Tuesday in New York City.
MongoDB will also be showcasing enterprise users at the conference, including clothing retailer the Gap; the financial services company Citigroup; investment banker Goldman Sachs; and agricultural machinery maker John Deere.
The MongoDB database has found favor with developers due in large part because of how easily it works with Web applications, particularly those encoding data in the JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format, which MongoDB can natively digest without the need for connectors or manual data remapping chores.
Dynamic schemas are another advantage MongoDB offers, Asay said. This feature allows developers to easily add another column into an existing database table, without the need to reformat the data already captured before the column was added.
While dynamic schemas may seem like a minor feature, they can be a huge time-saver, especially for organizations that have to frequently make changes to their databases.
Classified advertising service Craigslist found this feature handy, for instance, when adding a column to housing listings to say whether pets are allowed in an apartment. Such a feature would take months to add to a standard relational database.
"It's a simple thing. It probably took a developer 15 minutes to write that code. But it would take three months to comb through its terabytes of data to push out the columns, row by row, to have that one binary value, yes or no," Asay said.
At the conference, Facebook subsidiary Parse, a mobile analytics firm acquired by Facebook in April, will also unveil the open-source release of a number of tools related to MongoDB.
Parse has opened sourced Flashback, which developers can use to test and tune performance of their MongoDB databases, and Dvara, which can extend the number of active servers a MongoDB database can use.
Open-source data analysis vendor Pentaho also announced that the new version of its flagship product, Pentaho 5.1, comes with the capability to run code-free analytics directly on MongoDB data stores.


text:
For at least 50 years, business leaders, politicians and parents berated students to "Stay In School." Dropping out of high school condemned one to a life of economic uncertainty, welfare dependency or worse. Low dropout rates for high schools became a measure of school success, while high dropout rates were signs of failure. Where retention rates determined success, schools were expected to get all students to the goal of a high school diploma.
Recently "accountability" trends in education policy, culminating in the Bush administration's "No Child Left Behind" legislative mandate have shifted the focus from dropout rates to test performance. The results of such tests now determine which schools are "failing" and which are "succeeding." Administrative actions to "restructure" failing schools and to let the students choose other schools hang in the balance. In New York State, the newly revised Regents Exams is to become the graduation standard, despite the recent flap concerning the scoring of the mathematics exam and the recent and the continuing 55 percent passing grade. In effect, New York State and City already grade high schools based upon the students who can be tracked from 9th grade to 12th grade. The percentage of students who graduate in four years is computed. However, students who transfer out often are not found in these figures, and many of them could be dropouts stop-outs or push-outs. Though New York State does not report, "dropout rates" per se, many individual schools often do give their dropout rate. Yet, no school knows its true dropout rate unless it knows where every single non-returning student goes.
Recent stories in the New York Times plainly show that attempts to cut the test failure rate increased the number of students pushed out of school in both New York City and Houston, which is the school district that Lod Paige, US Secretary of Education, used to lead. But the practice of students being dropped from the rolls in Houston and then inaccurately reported as transfers seems also to be popular in New York City. Because of such misleading reporting measuring dropout rates becomes even more elusive. Though a very well known phenomena among education insiders, these discrepancies in reporting dropout rates are hidden from the public.
The Census Bureau provides an excellent measure of dropouts. Instead of asking school administrators for a number saying how many students dropped out and computing a rate based upon enrollment, the census tabulates the number of persons 16 to 19, who do not have a high school diploma and who are not enrolled in school. From this one can easily figure out what the proportion of dropouts or non-attendees there are. According to the 2000 Census one finds that the 11.05 percent dropout rate in NYC is somewhat higher than the New York State rate of 8.77 percent. For non-Hispanic Whites the rate is 4.51 compared to the state rate of 5.31 percent. For Hispanics both the city and state rate is 18.08 percent, while for blacks the rate is 10.65 percent, slightly lower than the state's 11.33 percent. Simply put, the dropout rate for Hispanics is about four times that for whites in New York City, while the rate for blacks is more than double that for whites.
Though it is based upon the neighborhood or city of residence (census tract or larger area), such a dropout rate becomes a very good measure in a setting where virtually all students go to public schools. Where many chose private or parochial school, the public schools still are the "last resort," since they are obligated to take all comers. Since it is computed for most census areas, it also can directly compare one jurisdiction with another.
Many educators despise this measure. Indeed, an official at the National Center for Education Statistics, which includes it in their census compilation of school district data, told me that an urban school administrator threatened to kill himself (they assumed he was joking but he was very upset) if they continued to include it. Yet, the patterns that the census finds become quite telling and raise an issue not usually addressed: To what extent is dropping out of school a school- based phenomenon? In other words, to what extent can schools affect dropout rate? Or do some students from some areas just have a high propensity to leave school without a diploma. The accompanying map shows the dramatic variations in dropout rate among neighborhoods. Dropout rates are more than 25 percent in the South Bronx, around Flatbush in Brooklyn, and also in areas of high immigrant concentration in the Corona area in Queens. Can one really expect schools in such areas with highly mobile populations of limited means and many of them non-English speakers, to have dropout rates as low as those in Bayside, Queens in the affluent portions of Manhattan and Staten Island, in Riverdale, and in Forest Hills?
From "stay in school" initiatives to performance tests, officials recognize a high school diploma and the skills associated with it as vital to a student's full participation in society. The judicial ruling (in PDF format) in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case makes this plain and a right. The new trend in grading schools by test scores and holding administrators accountable for them may encourage educators to get rid of the poorly performing students. Using the census data on dropouts, soon to be available on a continuous basis from the census bureau, will allow educators and concerned citizens to monitor dropouts more honestly.
Andrew A. Beveridge has taught sociology at Queens College since 1981. Since 1993 he has done demographic analyses and consulted for the New York Times. He has provided expert testimony in districting and redistricting, housing discrimination, and numerous other civil rights cases in the metropolitan area and elsewhere. The opinions expressed in Topics are his alone.


text:
There are no spoilers in the post—I promise!
Yesterday afternoon, I waited with a hundred or so other people and a small group of friends to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens in IMAX 3D. It was a fun experience and, though my expectations for this movie were low (see episodes 1, 2 and 3 to understand why) I was pleasantly surprised. It captured the essence of the original Star Wars trilogy balancing good humor and the fierce battle between good and evil.
The parallels between Star Wars and the Bible are many, but I'm going to focus on three in order to avoid spoilers.
Great people are forged in the wilderness of suffering.
Yes, I'm talking about the desert again.
The main character in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, has been caring for herself in a harsh desert climate since her youth. She scavenges for things she can exchange for food. The extreme environment conditioned her for the extreme battles to come. She was a fighter, but she also possessed humility and a steely resistance to evil. Luke Skywalker also grew up in the desert and it prepared him for his harsh future (though he was far less scrappy than the girl in the movie).
If you've read this blog for awhile, you know that I've been an exile in the desert for nearly 7 years. For a coastal kid like myself, this has been agony. Shortly after we moved here, I was doing my daily Bible reading and trying to find some good in this situation when this verse—addressed to the Israelites—came up in my reading:
"And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you."
Deuteronomy 8:2-5, ESV
I laughed out loud when I read those verses. I was being humbled too… In a literal and spiritual desert. Ah, the irony.
I knew it was addressed to the Israelites, but the timing was incredible. God through His Word was reminding me that these wilderness oddeseys have a purpose.
Jesus also spent 40 days fasting alone in the desert. He had just been baptized by John and the voice from the wilderness had said: "This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." He went from a glorious moment to a period of isolation and deprivation. When Satan came and tested Him, He was ready to do battle.
What verse does Jesus quote to Satan when he tries to persuade Him to turn stones into bread? "Man shall not live by bread alone…" Yes—The above passage!!
After he resisted temptation (using the Scriptures to refute Satan) the Angels came and ministered to him. He went on to do great things as we well know.
Use your difficult circumstance to draw near to the Lord. He has great things planned for you.
It may be that you live in beautiful surroundings, but your circumstances are a desert of suffering. It could be that you, like me, live in both conditions. Whatever the case, we have to allow God to shape us. He brought the Israelites through the desert to teach them to place their trust in Him. Unfortunately, the majority of them spent their time wailing, whining and rebelling. They allowed their circumstance to harden them against God. And as we see in Star Wars, a lot of desert dwellers were hard, ugly and downright mean.
While we are in the desert, we have to depend on God. We have to fight the urge to complain and rebel. He will provide in some way, a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night to guide us, He will sustain us wit's His word. Our job is to keep walking, keep trusting and keep obeying.
In Star Wars, the fight to survive prepared this character for the more critical conflicts ahead. Your desert experience is preparing you for greater things. Don't let it harden you against God.
#2 There is always a remnant
In this Star Wars movie just as in Episodes 4-6, the Jedi are few and far between. Yet even in the midst of the enemy there are people who know that there is something wrong. Even those who are the villains feel a slight pull toward the good side of the Force. And, even in remote places, there are people who believe in and are willing to fight for the good.
Maybe you feel, like Elijah, that there are none left but you. Maybe like Noah, you think, "surely someone besides the eight of us want to be saved?" Serving God can be a lonely walk at times. Jesus too went to the cross without His disciples. It was a lonely path, but He walked it for us.
Bring your loneliness to God. Ask Him to reveal to you that you are not completely alone. When Elijah sat, desperately depressed in his cave, he said to God "I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away." Then the Lord told him to go and anoint kings and his own successor (Elisha) and concludes with, "Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him." Seven thousand! That's not such a lonely number.
There is always a remnant.
#3: The fight against evil is ongoing.
As I promised, there won't be spoilers, but I'll just say that evil took another foothold in the galaxy and the Jedi are… few. It appears that evil will control everything. They are larger in numbers and firepower. What's a good person to do in the face of overwhelming evil?
I'm not talking about jihad or some holy war. I'm not encouraging people to pick up guns and start shooting up abortion clinics. I'm talking about resisting the pull of evil in how we live each day. Persuade people earnestly to get on the boat because destruction is coming. Take a stand against those who call evil good and good evil.
So many people think Christians are docile and weak, but a strong Christian possesses a warrior spirit against evil. We resist Satan even when the odds are overwhelmingly against us. Here is a list of people in the scriptures who were small in number, but fought and won, because they had God on their side:
- Joshua
- Gideon
- Hezekiah
- Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego
- Esther
- The Apostles
Battles take many forms. Often the battle rages in our own mind: Turn off that screen, don't say that word, refuse to go along with that, take a stand, speak out, be different. Fight Satan!
In the words of Yoda: "Do or do not, there is no try."
Fix your mind on doing what's right and put your trust in God. Don't just half-heartedly try. Do it.
Whenever they say goodbye in Star Wars, those who believe in the Force say, "May the Force be with you."
I believe in a stronger and real force called God. So, I say to you in conclusion:
May the Lord be with you!


text:
Get in touch
Aggreko Process Services (APS)
Aggreko Process Services (APS) combines the talent of senior process engineers with Aggreko's fleet of portable equipment to create engineered solutions to enhance productivity. APS works across a full range of industries, with an emphasis on to the massive and complex productivity challenges of the petrochemical refining industry.
Aggreko formed the APS division in 1990 as a dedicated operation to apply expert process engineering to analyse and develop creative and tightly engineered solutions to solve our customers' most intractable problems. When process productivity falls, it can be challenging to find the cause. APS process engineers have the expertise and the equipment to identify and fix process bottlenecks, inefficiencies, failing or underperforming equipment, and, above all, the high ambient temperatures that cause production and productivity to plummet.
Coping with the heat is the most common process problem, and the petrochemical refining industry has always suffered in the summertime. As temperatures rise, efficiency falls. High ambient temperatures and over heated process water cause process units to slow down, refining less crude and producing less gasoline, diesel and other products. As they slow, productivity and profitability slows with them. For decades, these hot weather slowdowns were a fact of life in the industry.
For almost three decades, APS has showed that with methodical process analysis and engineering and temporary portable cooling solutions, including Aggreko heat exchangers and chillers, refineries can operate at full capacity in the hottest weather.
APS process engineering teams and project managers work in close collaboration with plant engineers and maintenance to identify the bottlenecks and specify and deploy the right equipment from our specialized rental fleet to solve the problems.
Our eight-step, fully-documented process that ensures the best solution and engineering support from start to finish.
1. Inquiry
2. Technical response and cost estimate
3. Letter of intent
4. Onsite scoping study
5. Commercial proposal
6. Design package
7. Equipment mobilization and project management
8. After action report
The objective is to quickly identify the problems and implement a temporary solution immediately, while maintaining the paper trail that details every technical, safety and regulatory aspect of the solution. When time is money, the AES process is the fastest and most effective way to return to full productivity, as opposed to the time and expense of having an engineering firm design and implement new processes and new capital equipment.
Quickly identify your problems and implement a temporary fix as quickly as possible
The paper trail is a roadmap
In documenting every step of the process, the APS engineers not only identify critical aspects of the solution in terms of design, implementation, safety, and liability issues, but, through their analysis, provide an expert overview of your processes that can show you the way to future, long-term process improvements.
- Onsite Engineering Study – We work with your engineer's onsite to define the problem and develop and review engineering approaches and equipment options to meet objectives with a cost-effective solution.
- Process Design Package (PDP) – Once the project scope is defined and a solution selected, our PDP provides all the information required to meet Management of Change (MOC) requirements, conduct process safety reviews, operator training on the equipment, risk assessments and more. APS also provides all the engineering data and simulations that ensure that the installed solution meets required performance criteria.
- Project Management – APS provides on-site project management and works with your project managers to handle and oversee project installation and start-up.
- After-Action Report – Once the project is in place, APS issues a detailed formal report outlining the project's engineering and process-enhancement benefits, best practices, lessons learned, and our recommendations on future process improvements.
Why Aggreko Process Services?
- Cost Effective: Quickly return operations to full production
- Dedicated expert engineering teams
- Immediate access to full fleet of portable equipment
- Fast turnaround with full documentation
Explore our range of Petrochemical and Refining services
Petrochemical and refining
Explore our Refining and Petrochemical Plant solutions
Learn more
Learn more
Process enhancements
Overcome bottlenecks, seasonal changes and yield limitations
Learn more
Learn more
Tell us what you need
Get in touch and we'll help find what's right for you


text:
This post is a quickie to see what the current generation is like these days. I'm an old fart (not as old as many reading this post), but I remember when 5 1/4" floppy drives were "standard", and 3 1/2" were the new fad. Then came Iomega Jazz drives, and the like. CDRW hit the scene, never really went far, then USB storage was here, and here to stay.
At any event, in graphical user interfaces, you'll see floppy disks that represent saving a file to disk. It's very, very common, yet I doubt many of the younger generation has ever used one. So, how are they supposed to know what it does?
So, here's a poll for you to take. You'll need to take the poll at my site, as it uses Ajax calls to the page, which means it won't work in your RSS reader, or on any other site. I'm just curious to see what falls out.


text:
It usually takes hard work, dedication and long hours. But what if you could pay for that elusive gold medal. We asked skaters in Bryant Park how much they would pay for an Olympic gold medal in figure skating.
Comments are closed.
They are the biggest issues in your life: Your job, your savings, your home, and your debt. Christine Romans breaks down the business news of the week and shows you how it impacts your bottom line. Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. ET
Send Feedback | Subscribe


text:
Moving to Higher Ground
How Jazz Can Change Your Life
How Jazz Can Change Your Life
By Wynton Marsalis and Geoffrey Ward
By Wynton Marsalis and Geoffrey Ward
By Wynton Marsalis and Geoffrey Ward
By Wynton Marsalis and Geoffrey Ward
Category: Music | Arts & Entertainment Biographies & Memoirs
Category: Music | Arts & Entertainment Biographies & Memoirs
My Kind of Place
For the Music
Oh the Glory of It All
At Random
Price of Fame
Over the Top and Back
Kill 'Em and Leave
May Sarton
Up Home
"An absolute joy to read. Intimate, knowledgeable, supremely worthy of its subject. In addition to demolishing mediocre, uniformed critics, Moving to Higher Ground is a meaningful contribution to music scholarship."—Toni Morrison
"I think it should be in every bookstore, music store, and school in the country." —Tony Bennett
"Jazz, for Wynton Marsalis, is nothing less than a search for wisdom. He thinks as forcefully, and as elegantly, as he swings. When he reflects on improvisation, his subject is freedom. When he reflects on harmony, his subject is diversity and conflict and peace. When he reflects on the blues, his subject is sorrow and the mastery of it–how to be happy without being blind. There is philosophy in Marsalis's trumpet, and in this book. Here is the lucid and probing voice of an uncommonly soulful man."—New Republic
"Wynton Marsalis is absolutely the person who should write this book. Here he is, as young as morning, as fresh as dew, and already called one of the jazz greats. He is not only a seer and an exemplary musician, but a poet as well. He informs us that jazz was created, among other things, to expose the hypocrisy and absurdity of racism and other ignorances in our country. Poetry was given to human beings for the same reason. This book could be called "How Love Can Change Your Life," for there could be no jazz without love. By love, of course, I do not mean mush, or sentimentality. Love can only exist with courage, and this book could not be written without Wynton Marsalis's courage. He has the courage to make powerful music and to love the music so, that he willingly shares its riches with the entire human family. We are indebted to him." —Maya Angelou
"A joyful primer . . . Come blow your horn–and let the music begin."—O: The Oprah Magazine
"I think it should be in every bookstore, music store, and school in the country." —Tony Bennett
"Wynton Marsalis has been a beacon for music since his early twenties. In Moving to Higher Ground, he continues to exhort, elevate, and educate us."—Yo-Yo Ma
21 Books You've Been Meaning to Read
Become a Member
Start earning points for buying books! Just for joining you'll get personalized recommendations on your dashboard daily and features only for members.Find Out More Join Now Sign In


text:
Suburban mail carrier gets prison for thefts
A former mail carrier in suburban Chicago has been sentenced to 2½ years in federal prison for stealing mail containing more than $275,000 in charitable donations.
U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve sentenced 41-year-old Frederick Taylor of Chicago on Tuesday.
Taylor pleaded guilty in August to possessing stolen mail. He admitted then he had more than 29,000 donation envelopes at his home.
The judge ordered Taylor to begin serving his sentence on Feb. 21. She also ordered him to pay more than $275,000 in restitution to a third-party trust administrator that covered the charity's loss.
Court records say Taylor — a mail carrier in west suburban Berwyn — would open mail inside his post office vehicle and steal the contents, or take mail home and open it there.


text: About Cabinet Transformations Dark Kit You're just steps away from the kitchen you've been craving—without the cost and mess you thought it would require. Rust-Oleum® Cabinet Transformations® is a revolutionary do-it-yourself coating system that will completely change the look of your cabinets in three simple steps. Perfect for kitchen cabinets, bath vanities and furniture Easy to use, no special skills required No stripping, no sanding, no priming Optional Decorative Glaze lets you create your custom look


text:
This is the story of how a gooey green guy in a microwave, a pagan witchdoctor with a beating heart in his hand and that unlucky numeral 13 changed the way Hollywood makes its movies.
It has been two decades since the summer of 1984, when "Gremlins" and "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" caused an uproar among some parents who took their young children to the PG-rated films and walked out wishing the rating had suggested more guidance than just "parental guidance suggested."
Article continues below this ad
The solution became the PG-13 rating.
But instead of being solely an extra warning to parents, as it was originally conceived, it has evolved into the preferred rating of studios and filmmakers. As Steven Spielberg told The Associated Press recently, PG-13 puts "hot sauce" on a movie in the viewer's mind.
The genesis of PG-13 is directly linked to Spielberg, who in 1984 became a lightning rod for parental ire.
Article continues below this ad
"I created the problem and I also supplied the solution ... I invented the rating," Spielberg, the producer of "Gremlins" and director of "Temple of Doom," said in a recent interview.
With no middle-ground between PG and R, the ratings board of the 1980s frequently wrestled with the right way to classify movies that should and should not be viewed by children. The flaw in the Motion Picture Association of America's rating system was that it lumped all children -- from infants to 17-year-olds -- into the same group.
Maybe the "Gremlin" who met his steaming, grisly demise inside that kitchen appliance, or the chest-popping human sacrifice that put the doom in "Temple of Doom," were too graphic for grade-school kids, but what about the teenage couples looking for a scary reason to cuddle in the movie theater?
Ultimately, both movies made it to theaters with the PG designation.
Article continues below this ad
After "Temple of Doom" opened May 23, some parents complained to theater managers and the ratings board that their kids were mortified, and news reports began questioning whether the ratings board was being too lax.
Jack Valenti, the longtime MPAA head who recently announced his retirement, told the AP that the heart scene was the catalyst. "By today's standards it's not a big deal," he said. "But it was pretty off-putting. And there was a real problem about how to label that picture."
"Everybody was screaming, screaming, screaming that it should have had an R-rating, and I didn't agree," Spielberg said.
The debate might have faded there if not for "Gremlins," which came out two weeks later.
Article continues below this ad
Joe Dante, the director of "Gremlins," and later "Small Soldiers" and "Looney Tunes: Back in Action," blames the backlash on the early trailers.
They focused mostly on Gizmo -- a friendly, teddy bearlike creature called a Mogwai, which multiplies in water. But it neglected Gizmo's clones, which go through a metamorphosis that turns them into ghoulish, murderous troublemakers.
Dante said the spots also were deliberately "imitating the color and style of the 'E.T.' ads" from two years earlier, hoping to draw people in based on Spielberg's producer credit.
"So the idea of taking a 4-year-old to see 'Gremlins,' thinking it's going to be a cuddly, funny animal movie and then seeing that it turns into a horror picture, I think people were upset," Dante told the AP. "They felt like they had been sold something family friendly and it wasn't entirely family friendly."
Article continues below this ad
But it still became a hit, collecting $150 million. "Temple of Doom" earned $180 million, proving there was an audience that loved movies that mixed wholesomeness with horror.
Clearly there would be more films like this. "There was no way of going back and making the content less hard, because people did expect certain things from these pictures and you had to give them those," Dante said.
But there remained the problem of how to keep little kids away while attracting adults and teens.
Spielberg thought it was an easy fix.
Article continues below this ad
"I went to Jack Valenti, who's a friend of mine, and I said, 'Jack, why don't we do a rating called PG-13, which would suit films like "Gremlins" and "Indy 2"?' " Spielberg said. "So I called Jack, and Jack said, 'Leave it to me ... ' "
Valenti took the idea to the National Association of Theater Owners, Hollywood's writer, actor and director guilds, the studio bosses and assorted religious organizations.
"I didn't seek their approval or anything," Valenti said. "Didn't have to. But I certainly conferred with all of them."
He agreed to make the distinction at 13, saying that was an age when most kids knew the difference between fantasy and reality.
Article continues below this ad
"The child behavioral experts will tell you that not all 13s are alike, not all 14s are alike, not all 12s are alike," Valenti said. "In the end, as I have stated numberless times, it is the parent who has to make this judgment."
Aug. 10, 1984, marked the first debut of a PG-13 movie: "Red Dawn," about a Communist invasion of America and the high-school rebels who fight back. PG-13 ratings that year also went to the Gene Wilder comedy "The Woman in Red," the sci-fi epic "Dune," Matt Dillon's "The Flamingo Kid" and the mob farce "Johnny Dangerously."
Studios and filmmakers did not view the new rating as a potential punishment. Rather, it was liberating, Dante said.
Dante recalled an old B-movie saying: "An older child will not watch anything a younger child will watch, but a younger child will watch anything that an older child will watch."
Article continues below this ad
That philosophy transformed the PG-13 rating into a marketing tool. It promised edge without threatening offense.
"In a way it's better to get a PG-13 than a PG for certain movies," Spielberg said. "Sometimes PG, unless it's for an animated movie, it turns a lot of young people off. They think it's going to be too below their radar and they tend to want to say, 'Well, PG-13 might have a little bit of hot sauce on it.'"
The disposable income teens spend coming back again and again to their favorite flicks is the fuel that keeps Hollywood running. Would they have flocked to "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" in as many numbers if it had not been marked with the darker PG-13?
The PG-13 rated "Titanic" is the highest-grossing movie in history, and the top 10 includes four others -- both "Spider-Man" movies, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" and "Jurassic Park."
Article continues below this ad
PG, meanwhile, runs the risk of suggesting blandness.
That's the likely reason you'll see Will Smith's naked rear in "I, Robot," Kirsten Dunst's wet T-shirt in "Spider-Man," or the joke in "The Terminal" about Tom Hank's muddled English being mistaken for profanity.
Cutting those scenes may have improved the chances of getting PG ratings. But who wants that anymore?
"Kids don't want to feel like they're seeing pap," Dante said. "People will go out of their way to put one dirty word in it just to get the rating that they need to give the picture some legitimacy, so the kids won't feel like they're going to see their little brother's movie."


text:
The TED conference has given me a huge responsibility. They've handed me one of a small handful of press badges (as I understand it fewer than 10 are handed out every year). Regular tickets are $6,000 each and the conference was sold out more than a year ago (next year's TED is already sold out).
They do put a major restraint on the press covering the event: no filming, or recording of sessions. Another restraint? No computers in the main session unless you want to sit in the back row. OK, I can live with that. So I doubt you'll see a view of TED like I got of Chris Anderson, TED's curator, in photo above, while he spoke at LeWeb.
But, really, this isn't an event that generates news (except when last year Bill Gates released a bunch of mosquitos). If you've ever watched a TED Talk you'll know that this isn't about news, but is about expanding your mind. Coming up with new ideas. Hearing from people who are changing the world and being challenged to do the same with your own life.
In fact, they've asked me to not bring my computer or phones to the main sessions and just absorb the TED experience (Chris Anderson, the guy who runs TED, spoke at LeWeb a year ago and walked into the audience and told them all to close their laptops and listen, he really believes that we can't learn if we're multi-tasking and paying attention to email). As you might expect I'm thrilled at being asked to do this and I'm even going to report my time at the conference as vacation so that I won't feel pressured to take care of Rackspace business while I'm there).
But when people invite you to a conference that costs everyone else $6,000 they are laying a huge responsibility to that person.
The question is, what's the responsibility?
For me, I'm going to try to get as many interviews as I can outside of the main room. That's one way of delivering value to you. But that's just the baseline of the kind of responsibility that I'm feeling going into this. Can I step up my game this year? Can I improve the world my children are growing up in? That's a little closer to the weight I feel through this gift.
Why is this such a big deal? Well, when I was first on musician Peter Himmelman's show a couple of years ago I told him I try to live every day like a TED conference or a FOO Camp (O'Reilly's famous conference where they invite a bunch of geeks to camp out over a weekend). I've been very fortunate to have had tons of great people in front of my camera lens (my off-the-cuff work is on YouTube, my pro work with Rocky Barbanica as cameraguy and producer is on building43).
That's why I'm so excited and why I feel a ton of responsibility going into this event and I'll try to bring you into the event as much as possible.
One thing, watch Chris Anderson's Twitter account. He runs TED and is an inspiring figure in my life. He and his team has laid a heavy responsibility in front of me. How should I handle it? Here's the schedule, who would you like me most to interview?


text:
If you are reading this anywhere in America, you know firsthand that this summer has been a record-breaking sizzler. We could be living though the hottest summer season ever.
Think about what you've done to keep cool. You've turned on your air conditioner, or (if you don't have one) maybe you've gone to the movies to cool off. You probably drink lots of ice-cold beverages or jump into a swimming pool or cool shower. Perhaps, like my friend Lester, you drench a kitchen towel, twist it into a U shape and plop it in the freezer to hang around your neck when working outside.
Well, imagine you couldn't do any of those things. Imagine you were isolated in a 10-foot-by-12-foot space with no windows to open up to catch a cooling breeze. You had no fan, no relief and no escape.
That's what countless prisoners in America have had to endure this long, hot summer. In the past, their situation has proven deadly. In Texas, a lawsuit was filed after 10 inmates died from heat-related causes last summer. All were held in cellblocks without air-conditioning. The suit, filed by the Texas Civil Rights Project, focuses on what was called the "wrongful death" of inmate Larry McCollum.
Even though the federal courts have ruled that temperatures over 90 degrees violate the constitutional rights of an inmate, the Hutchins State Jail in Dallas where McCollum died of heat stroke registered an indoor heat index of almost 130 degrees. After he collapsed last July and was taken to the hospital, doctors found McCollum's body temperature still registered over 109 degrees!
The autopsy on the 58-year-old prisoner listed his cause of death as living "in a hot environment without air conditioning." One unnamed Texas corrections official was quoted saying about his prisoners: "I'm supposed to be watching them. I'm not supposed to be boiling them in their cells."
It's not just Texas where inmates are suffering and, in my opinion, being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. In sunny Florida, only 10 of the 140 state-run prisons have air conditioning. But in those facilities with air, the cool sections are limited to just a few. It is somehow ironic that in a state where they have prison classes to teach inmates how to install and maintain air conditioners there aren't any in the vast majority of their oppressively hot cellblocks.
In Chicago, this summer's life-threatening heat is the worst they've seen in more than a century. In the lockups that do have air conditioners, the units are reported to be breaking down from almost constant use. Add to that an outbreak of bedbugs within the system this year, and both inmates and prison personnel are left to face a duel threat — unsanitary conditions and heat exhaustion.
The union representing prison guards says the situation has create "extreme fatigue and dangerous conditions … a recipe for disaster." It's a reminder that it is not just prisoners who are affected by the extreme heat, it's also prison personnel. (At a prison near Rosharon, Texas, earlier this summer, a 58-year-old corrections official fainted, and the hospital ruled it was from heat exhaustion.)
In Iowa, cooling systems have kept many of the 8,300 inmates comfortable this scorching summer. But taken together the Mount Pleasant and Clarinda Correctional Facilities and the Anamosa State Prison have close to 1,900 inmates who have no air conditioning at all. In the prison at Mitchellville, where another 547 inmates live, there is no cool air in any of the older sections of the complex.
Imagine having to endure this summer trapped in a small, confined, almost airless space. We have strict laws against leaving a child or an animal in a hot, enclosed car. Put aside for a moment the crime committed that caused the prisoner to be incarcerated, and ask yourself: Shouldn't we also care about human beings confined in stifling, life-threatening conditions? Of course we should.
Officials in states across the nation say there simply isn't enough money in their budgets to retrofit all prisons with central air conditioning. So for now, they combat the threat of possible death by heat by catering, first, to those inmates with health problems (like diabetes and high blood pressure) and, second, to those locked up in the hottest sections of the prison. Electric fans, ice and water are being handed out to prisoners across the nation much more frequently than in years gone by.
I couldn't find a reported death of an inmate from heat exhaustion so far this summer. But that doesn't mean some prisoners aren't still being held in inhumane conditions. Who is out there taking the temperature inside every prison and making sure it doesn't go over the court-mandated 90 degrees? Nobody, that's who.
Look, I understand there are some people who think that once a criminal is convicted they should lose all their constitutional rights. In other words, if life is tough on the inside, so be it. But it's never been the American tradition to treat our own people worse than we would treat an animal. If climate change means every summer will be increasingly brutal, we better figure out a way to fix this — or there could be a flood of wrongful death suits to pay.
Rockland resident Diane Dimond is a syndicated columnist, author, regular guest on TV news programs, and correspondent for Newsweek/Daily Beast. Visit her at www.DianeDimond.net or reach her via email [email protected]