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Over the past two weeks, we've looked at various nutrients and how they may impact the health of your eyes. We'll wrap up this series with a look at some lesser-known nutrients (antioxidants, to be exact) and what their roles are in eye health.
Lutein: Lutein is a type of antioxidant called a carotenoid. Carotenoids are yellowish pigments that lend color to fruits and vegetables. Their role is to protect the organism from ultraviolet light radiation and oxygen. Lutein is found in corn, egg yolks, and green fruits and vegetables. It's also found in the macula of the retina to help filter out blue light and ultraviolet light.
-- Keep an eye on your vision! Learn about preventive steps and treatments for diabetic retinopathy from retinal specialist Dr. Charles Wykoff. >>
Several studies have linked a high intake of lutein with a lower incidence of age-related macular degeneration and cataract development. A Harvard study revealed that consuming 6 milligrams of lutein daily (the amount found in ½ cup of cooked spinach) lowered the risk of developing macular degeneration by 43%. Eating lutein-rich foods may also lower the risk of developing cataracts by up to 50%.
Zeaxanthin: Zeaxanthin is another kind of carotenoid that is found, along with lutein, in the retina. The same foods that are rich in lutein (primarily green vegetables and fruits, but also some yellow and orange ones) are also rich in zeaxanthin. These two carotenoids usually go hand-in-hand as far as protecting against macular degeneration and possibly cataracts. The message of the fruit and vegetable campaign "More Matters" is certainly applicable when it comes to eating for eye health.
Other nutrients: Many other nutrients are necessary for proper eye function. Vitamins A, C, E, and the B-complex vitamins, as well as zinc and selenium, all play a role in ensuring that eyes stay healthy.
There's still more work to be done in the area of nutrition and eye health, and despite all of the dietary supplements that have appeared on the market, there's not a lot of evidence that shows they can prevent eye problems. Taking a good multivitamin/mineral supplement, along with a fish oil supplement, may prove to be protective. In the meantime, focus on eating a variety of foods, with emphasis on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein sources, and heart-healthy fats.
A timely study has just been released by Australian researchers from the Centre for Eye Research Australia at the University of Melbourne. Their conclusion, after analyzing 11 studies involving about 150,000 people over the past nine years, is that dietary nutrients don't prevent age-related macular edema (AMD). However, not all researchers would agree. A seven-year study published by the National Eye Institute in 2001, called the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS), showed that high doses of vitamins C and E, beta carotene, and zinc reduced the risk of developing advanced AMD by 25%. Furthermore, data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data indicates that higher intakes of lutein and zeaxanthin may reduce the risk of advanced AMD in people ages 40-59. Other studies that have looked at lutein and zeaxanthin report similar results.
So, what should you make of all this? First, if you have or are at high risk for developing any kind of diabetes-related eye conditions, talk to your eye-care professional and the rest of your health-care team about steps you can take to keep your eyes healthy. Aim to get your HbA1c level as close to 7% (or your target goal) as possible. Include plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole-grain foods in your eating plan. Ask if dietary supplements are right for you. And finally, if you're a smoker, the health of your eyes is yet another reason to quit. Smoking can contribute to AMD, diabetic retinopathy, cataracts, and glaucoma.


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JEFFERSON CITY | On the weekend before his State of the State address, Gov. Matt Blunt convened his campaign team for a strategic retreat at a luxury Ozarks resort just south of Branson.
Confidence filled the room. Blunt's trusted advisers discussed a fundraising goal that could have shattered the state record, developed a TV ad blitz to begin airing before spring and honed a campaign message for a competitive challenge from Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon.
Although the Republican governor never said so directly, he left little doubt: Blunt was running for re-election, and he was running to win.
So perhaps no one was more shocked than those in Blunt's inner circle when, just 10 days later, Blunt announced his exit from the race.
"Everyone was convinced we would win this race," said John Hancock, a Republican consultant and pollster who attended the campaign retreat. Hancock, Blunt's campaign spokesman, learned the governor was not running just hours before he publicly announced his decision Tuesday.
The Associated Press confirmed Blunt's campaign retreat with multiple participants, several of whom recounted the details on condition of anonymity.
The gathering at the Big Cedar Lodge south of Branson included top-ranking staff from the governor's office, pollsters, media specialists, fundraisers and people responsible for Blunt's communications and grass-roots organizing. It had been a while since any similar such meeting. The gathering, in essence, amounted to a kickoff for the campaign year.
Participants described the governor as inquisitive, engaged, involved in all aspects of the planning.
Before their meeting, Blunt already had shot video footage for a first-round of campaign commercials. The plan developed that weekend called for Blunt's commercials to begin running before spring. The goal was to beat Nixon to the punch, to get a couple of weeks of uncontested air time in which Blunt could lay out his accomplishments directly to voters before they got bombarded with competing messages.
Blunt already had raised almost $10 million since he was elected in 2004, though his campaign had barely $4 million on hand as a result of previous expenditures and refunds required by a Supreme Court ruling. Blunt's campaign still needed to refund about $2.3 million, which would put him nearly even with what Nixon had on hand.
But Blunt had shown the ability to rake in large amounts of money before. Some people thought he could take in about $20 million — twice what he raised for the 2004 election and far more than the Missouri candidate record of almost $15.7 million set by Republican Sen. Jim Talent in his unsuccessful 2006 re-election campaign.
The campaign team discussed various factors that could influence the governor's race — even several initiative petitions being circulated, mindful of how a stem cell ballot initiative spilled over into the 2006 Senate race. Blunt also reviewed internal polling data, which meeting participants said showed him closing the gap, but still down, to Nixon.
Blunt's message, as sharpened during the meetings, would proclaim he converted a $1 billion inherited shortfall into three straight years of budget surplusses, significantly boosted education spending, presided over the creation 90,000 new jobs since he took office and transformed a broken health care system.
That same message formed the foundation for Blunt's televised State of the State address several days later, on Jan. 15.
Those who attended the campaign retreat believed it could be a successful message, even though Nixon would highlight Blunt's cuts to the Medicaid health care system, warn the economy was faltering and assert that the governor had not done enough for education.Read full post and comments:
"Blunt planned campaign just days before quitting" >>

subset: commoncrawl


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The Twitter micro-blogging and social networking service has been hit with a denial of service attack Thursday morning that rendered the site unavailable for users for a couple of hours.
Twitter reported the attack in a post on its blog and is continuing to deal with the problem.
"We are defending against this attack now and will continue to update our status blog as we continue to defend and later investigate," the company said.
In a status report about an hour following its acknowledgement of the attack, Twitter reported that the site was back up, but users still were having trouble reaching it.
The site itself was down for about two hours before it resumed service, although Twitter remained under attack and warned users in another status update that as it recovered, users would experience "some longer load times and slowness," as well as network timeouts.
A DoS attack is an attempt to make a Web site or service unavailable to intended users by flooding the service or site with incoming data requests, such as e-mails. Motives for DoS attacks vary, but perpetrators mostly target companies with high-profile, highly trafficked Web sites, and usually there is some kind of financial motivation for the attack.
Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant with security software vendor Sophos, said it's unlikely money is the motive here, since Twitter does not have much of its own to part with because the business is not yet profitable.
DoS attacks also can be politically motivated, he said, and while some countries' governments don't like Twitter—notably, Iran—he doubts the attack is politically motivated. "It's most likely to be a teenager in a back bedroom somewhere showing off," Cluley said.
When a site is hit with a DoS attack, administrators will try to distinguish between valid requests to access the site and malicious ones, and redirect the malicious ones to another domain if possible, he said. As Twitter's site was up and running a couple of hours after the attack, it's likely the company was able to do this, or the hacker may have simply ended the DoS attack, Clulely said.
Twitter had not yet provided an update on where it thought the attack was coming from or how it was handling the attack as of Thursday afternoon on the U.S. East Coast. The company's public relations team did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
In just three years, Twitter has become an enormously popular Internet service with about 30 million unique users and counting. In addition to being a social tool for people to share constant status updates about their activities, it also has become a tool for journalists, public relations specialists, businesses and public figures to share information with millions of users.
Like Facebook and Google, Twitter also has become an integral part of U.S. popular culture, with the slang word for posting something on Twitter, "tweet," becoming part of U.S. English vernacular.
Twitter is no stranger to outage problems, although it had been starting to improve its availability level in the past year. According to a report by Pingdom released in February, Twitter recorded 84 hours of downtime in 2008, but 84 percent of that was in the first half of the year. The site finished 2008 with uptime of 99.04 percent, which still lagged behind other popular social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.
Updated at 11:21 a.m. PT with more information throughout the story.


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How to beat jet lag
- How much one is affected by jet lag depends on time difference, departure time, and travel direction
- Adjust your waking, eating and sleeping rhythms before departure, and control light exposure
- Getting on the new time zone as quickly as you can is only right half the time, one expert says
Even astronauts have a difficult time getting over jet lag.
So much so that NASA has a fatigue-management team at the Johnson Space Center in Houston trying to devise strategies to deal with it. Astronauts are constantly traveling to space agencies in Germany, Japan and Russia for training.
And when they get there, "they have to hit the ground running," says Steven Lockley, a neuroscientist specializing in sleep medicine at Harvard University who does consulting for the team. "They can't spend two weeks adapting. They need to do training."
If you've ever traveled across time zones, you've probably felt the symptoms of jet lag: fatigue, trouble sleeping, digestive problems, headaches and irritability. Business travelers who have to drop into cities for a short period of time and be productive say it's a major problem.
"Jet lag is something I learned to manage for my health, productivity and sanity," says Stephanie Hackney, who has traveled to 43 countries as a travel blogger.
Research shows that jet lag affects how people work. For three weeks, participants in a study at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital were placed on 28-hour days with six hours of sleep to mirror the effects of jet lag. Their work production slowed down in that time.
Jet lag isn't good for leisure travelers, either. Who wants to spend their first day in Paris feeling disoriented?
In a British Airways survey of passengers, 67% said they didn't know how to manage jet lag. The airline has developed an online "Jet Lag Advisor" with British sleep expert Chris Idzikowski. Plug in some information about your sleep patterns, and you'll get a plan for combating the disorder.
Many other doctors and companies have tried to come up with remedies for jet lag. And some hotels are trying to do more than providing softer pillows to help travelers deal with jet lag. The MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, for instance, has introduced 42 "Stay Well" rooms with special lighting that is supposed to improve the body's internal clock and help regulate melatonin production.
But Lockley says there's no one quick fix. How much a person is affected by jet lag depends on several factors, such as the number of hours you're ahead or behind, the time of day you leave, and the direction you travel.
The rule of thumb is it takes about a day for each time zone you cross to adjust.
"If you're going to Moscow and have to sleep nine hours earlier, that's hard to do, and it takes about a day to equilibrate," says Smith Johnston, a flight surgeon and the chief of the fatigue management team at NASA. "You're there a week, you get in sync and now you're back."
Lockley has helped NASA develop strategies for their astronauts to fly all over the world and even beyond it. While they are tailored to each individual astronaut, Lockley says there are some principles that the average traveler can adapt to their bodies.
Your internal clock
First, Lockley says, any traveler should understand the science behind jet lag. Everyone has a circadian rhythm, or an internal clock.
Some people have shorter internal clocks and some have longer ones. Those who have shorter ones tend to sleep and wake up early. Those with longer ones stay up and wake up later.
When you travel westward, you have to delay your clock. Say you live in New York. That means people in Los Angeles are three hours delayed behind you. When you go east, you have to advance your clock. When you're just biting into dinner in Boston, people in London are off to bed.
Three-quarters of people have longer, or delayed, clocks. "That's why most people find it easier to travel westward," Lockley says. "Their body clocks are already going in that direction."
How can you use that to your advantage?
Lockley says that trying to adjust your clock even before you take that flight can make a huge difference.
"Think, what are those people doing in that time zone and start doing what they're doing," he says.
If you're going from New York to Los Angeles, you need to delay your system, so go to bed later than normal for several days before your trip. If you're going to London, go to bed earlier.
That's not to say you have to get to bed by 7 p.m. in New York rather than your usual midnight.
Shelby Harris, director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program at New York's Montefiore Medical Center, says adjusting your schedule by just 15 minutes each day in the days leading up to your departure is sufficient. "Even an hour or two can actually make a big difference," she says.
Changing your mealtimes can help with jet lag-induced indigestion, Lockley says.
Controlling your exposure to light is also crucial to fighting jet lag, as light is a trigger for your body to wake up.
"The way to think about timing is if you stay up late and see light later, you're delaying your bedtime and delaying your clock," Lockley says. "If we see light early, we wake up early and we're advancing."
Lockley gives a New York-to-London 7 a.m. flight as an example. You arrive at 7 p.m. London time. That's 2 p.m. in New York. You're trying to advance to London time, so you want to see light when you arrive. Stay awake for the next four hours.
If you leave New York at 7 p.m., you arrive in London at 7 a.m., when it's 2 a.m. in New York. You wouldn't want to wake up at 2 a.m. So Lockley advises getting as much sleep as you can on the plane with the use of sunglasses or an eye mask, then getting off the plane and keeping sunglasses on. At 11 a.m. London time, when it's 6 a.m. in New York, you're ready for light.
A typical traveler would try to expose him or herself to light right away to adjust to the new time zone.
"Simplistic advice, which is to get on the new time zone as quickly as you can, is only right half the time," he says.
If you have trouble sleeping, the use of melatonin, a natural sleep-inducer, or a sleeping pill such as Ambien could help, but experts say you should consult your doctor first.
Hackney, who averages about 150 days on the road each year, would rather try a more natural approach. She eats healthy snacks on the flight and limits the amount of alcohol she drinks.
And she tries to sleep as much as she can on the plane with the use of an eye wrap, blanket, travel pillow and noise-canceling headphones. "I would never travel without them," she says.


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Orphiro electric motorcycle set for September launch
While I'm a big supporter of the push for the electrification of the motorcycle, I'm not really a big fan of the sports bike or the street bike or off-road bikes - my tastes lean towards custom cruisers like the electric chopper from Orange County Choppers. Come September, the electric cruiser camp looks to be getting a new member in the utterly gorgeous shape of the Dutch Orphiro Electric Motorcycle. Unfortunately details are scarce at the moment, but read on for what we do know.
The Orphiro Electric Motorcycle is described as a wide body cruiser, and has been built from the ground up by Alexander Steegh and his team from the Fontys University of Applied Science - from the custom drivetrain to the tubular frame and panels. The five Li-ion batteries concealed behind smooth exterior covers are said to offer a range of 60 miles (100 km) and the 72V electric motor offers a top speed of 75 mph (120 kph).
A chunky belt drive connects the motor to the rear wheel, there's a "tank"-mounted console that shows speed and distance with a power switch underneath, and tire-hugging fenders sit atop classic spoked wheels. As you can see from the gallery, disc brakes also feature. Extended front forks, twin headlights and rounded mirrors complete the chopper aesthetic. The recharge time for the batteries is reported to be around 6.5 hours.
The speed and range is probably not going to persuade any hog owner to part with his gas-driven beast like, say, the Lito Sora might, but it does look the business nonetheless.
That's about as much as is being made available at the moment, although Motorcycle USA does say that a price of EUR 49,000 (over US$70,000) has been quoted - which suggests that mass production is unlikely.
You can follow the cruiser's progress towards availability at the Orphiro website.
Source: Wired


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This weekend Comfort, Texas, is remembering Union soldiers from the Texas Hill County who died in the Battle of the Nueces on 10 August 10 1862. These men were Union sympanthizers in a Confederate State. They were on their way to Mexico and were camped beside the Nueces River when Confederate forces attacked them.
On 10 August 1866 the Treue der Union Monument was erected as a memorial to these soldiers and a place for their remains to be laid to rest. It wasn't until after the war that family members were able to make the journey to the Nueces to gather their bones and return them to the Hill Country.
These men died on 10 August 1862: Leopold Bauer, Edward Degener, C. Schafer, F. Behrens, Pablo Diaz, L. Schierholz, E. Beseler, F. Vater, H. Steves, Ludwig Borner, A. Schriener, W. Telgmann, A. Bruns, J. G. Kalenberg, M. Weirich, Heinrich Degener, H. Markwart, H. Weyerhausen
These men escaped but were later captured and killed: W. Borner, H. Flick, L Rubsamen, T. Bruckish, F. Tays, A. Rubsamen, C. Bock, A. Luckenbach, H. Stieler
These men were killed on 18 October 1862 along the Rio Grande River: J. Elstner, Peter Bonnet, M. Weisz, E. Felsing, V. Hohmann, F. Weisz, H. Herrmann, Fritz Lange
The Handbook of Texas states, "It is the only German-language monument to the Union in the South where the remains of those killed in battle are buried, and where an 1866 thirty-six star American flag flies at half-staff."
"NUECES, BATTLE OF THE," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qfn01), accessed August 11, 2012. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
150th Anniversary of the Civil War Battle and Massacre at the Nueces River August 10th 1862. Commemoration Program for Events August 10th and 11th, 2012.


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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate's tax-writing panel voted to renew dozens of tax breaks for businesses like biodiesel and wind energy producers, even as the GOP-controlled House passed symbolic legislation to erase them and create a new tax code with lower rates and fewer special interest tax breaks.
The $200 billion-plus package was approved by the Senate Finance Committee Thursday on a bipartisan 19-5 vote. It was anchored by a two-year provision to protect middle- and upper-income taxpayers from being hit by the alternative minimum tax, shielding them from higher levies originally meant to prevent the rich from escaping taxes altogether.
The bill faces an uncertain future and is likely to get lumped into a year-end debate in which lawmakers tackle the so-called fiscal cliff — a combination of the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts and $110 billion in automatic spending cuts to the Pentagon and domestic programs that, taken together, have the potential to drive the economy back into recession.
The action came as Congress limped out of town for a five-week vacation. The House also passed drought relief legislation and reprimanded one of its members, while a cybersecurity bill ran aground in the Senate. The Senate Appropriations panel approved a $604 billion Pentagon spending bill while rejecting a bid by Republicans to require defense contractors to send out notices of possible job layoffs due to the possible cuts.
The cost of Thursday's package ballooned by more than $50 billion since its release on Wednesday, including a production tax credit for wind and other renewable energy producers of electricity criticized by presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney. That provision was initially targeted for elimination, but garnered critical support from Republicans like Charles Grassley of Iowa.
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., engineered the revival of a tax break for builders of NASCAR tracks and other motorsports facilities after it had originally faced the chopping block. He was one of five conservative Republicans who opposed the overall measure, however.
Panel members claimed the exercise in legislative sausage making was actually a step forward for tax reform because they had summoned the courage to allow almost 20 tax breaks to expire. They included a much-criticized tax credit for ethanol producers.
Top panel Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah — a longtime proponent of a popular tax credit for businesses that invest in research and development — said Thursday's developments represented progress given that the number of tax breaks in the annual "extenders" debate had ballooned from 42 in 1998 to 154 last year.
"The tide is turning," Hatch said. "For the first time in my 21 years on this committee, we are deliberately moving in the opposite direction."
"It's the first step in a long journey," said Kent Conrad, D-N.D., though he acknowledged "there is a certain irony" to claiming the renewal of all the tax breaks is a step forward for tax reform.
Opponent Tom Coburn, R-Okla., however, calculated that the Senate measure would only save taxpayers about $6 billion — a pittance compared with this year's expected deficit of $1.2 trillion. He said the panel's moves were a step backward for hopes of doing tax reform next year.
"That's better than nothing. But it ain't anywhere close to where we have to be if we're going to fix this country," Coburn said.
"You want the pressure jacked up to do tax reform? Don't renew any extenders," Coburn said. "That's how you get tax reform done."
The tax breaks package is advancing even as efforts to prevent the expiration of numerous Bush-era tax cuts have come to an election year impasse over whether to extend the full range of Bush tax cuts or allow expiration of those enjoyed by people earning more than $200,000 a year and couples making more than $250,000. President Barack Obama has demanded that these tax cuts be terminated.
The House voted to fully renew the Bush tax cuts on Wednesday. On Thursday, it voted along party lines 232-189 to pass legislation putting the House on record in support of tax reform that would lower the top income tax rate to 25 percent, financed by cleaning out the nation's loophole-cluttered tax code. The tax reform effort wouldn't begin until next year.
Democrats said the GOP tax reform plan would raise taxes on the middle class while awarding millionaires with disproportionately large tax cuts. To cut the rates so low would require eliminating popular tax breaks like the mortgage interest deduction, they say.
"The only way to finance these massive tax cuts for the highest earners is to eliminate or significantly curtail provisions that support the middle class," said Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich.
The getaway day action on Capitol Hill included:
—House passage of disaster assistance to livestock producers reeling from rising feed prices caused by the drought that has hit much of the nation. The Senate, pressing for action on an omnibus farm and food bill, didn't act on the measure.
—A GOP-led filibuster of Senate legislation to protect the U.S. electrical grid, water supplies and other critical industries from cyberattack and electronic espionage.
—A unanimous House voice vote to reprimand California Democrat Laura Richardson for forcing her congressional staff to do campaign work and violating codes of conduct for government service.
The Senate measure combined more than 50 provisions, including popular tax breaks for individuals like the deduction for state and local sales taxes in states without an income tax and a tax-free benefit for employees who take mass transit of up to $240 a month.
Popular business tax breaks in the measure include provisions to allow small businesses to write off purchases of equipment, tax credits for biodiesel, and a tax credit for producers of renewable electricity through sources like wind, biomass, geothermal energy and hydropower.
For his part, Coburn lost an attempt to kill tax credits for manufacturers of energy efficient appliances. Manufacturers of dishwashers can claim a maximum $75 credit but makers of refrigerators can get credits of up to $200, while manufacturers of clothes washers can reap tax subsidies of up to $250. He also lost a bid to scale back the wind energy tax break.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a longtime sponsor of tax reform, won a committee vote to revive a tax credit of $2,500 for purchasers of electric motorcycles. Oregon is home to two manufacturers of high-end electric motorcycles, Arcimoto and Brammo, Inc
"I've spent 10 years working for tax reform," Wyden said after the vote. "But until you get it, you're not a purist who sits around and says, 'Oh, my constituents don't matter.'"


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Security firm MessageLabs has detected a new variant of the IRCbot Trojan
disguised as the latest release of the popular Skype VoIP software client version 1.4.
More than 150 copies of the IRCbot, also known as Fanbot that is distributed via e-mail, have already been blocked by MessageLabs researchers.
MessageLabs has put a "medium risk" rating on the threat.
The malicious code disguised as VoIP software client, version 1.4, which was
first released last month . If executed, it attaches a malware program that displays a
fake "installation error" box.
However, it is actually installing itself as sysdir%remote.exe, altering the registry and shutting down shared access
and Windows update services, according to MessageLabs researchers.
Maksym Schipka, a senior antivirus researcher at MessageLabs, said the
latest phishing attack is the first case the company had seen that
specifically mentions Skype.
"It is another clear example of how malware writers are quickly exploiting
newly identified security holes, as we saw with the Zotob attack, and now,
new releases of popular software applications, in order to try and spread
their malicious payloads," he said in a statement.
The subject lines in which the code arrives has several variants including
"Hello. We're Skype and we've got something we would like to share with…"
and "Skype for Windows 1.4 – Have you got the new Skype?"
Researchers are also investing whether there is a link between the Chinese
group believed to have created the IRCbot trojan and a group of Brazilian
and Persian hackers who are known to deface Web sites (their homepage is
evil.co.sr, which is a Suriname domain), according to MessageLabs.


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Earlier this month Christo Fabricius and I were in Tajikistan to conduct participatory workshops with Mountain Societies Development Support Program (MSDSP) staff and community members from two rural villages in the District of Roghun as part of a resilience assessment that began with an initial visit to the area last October. Tajikistan is a fascinating place for a resilience assessment for many reasons. The first being that it is relatively under-studied in the context of applying emerging theories and tools for examining the biophysical and human dimensions of environmental change. The second reason is that the country and region in general is experiencing rapid change across a range of sectors.
Climate change impacts will vary across Tajikistan but the average annual temperature in the region is expected to increase greater than the predicted global average. Evidence of receding glaciers and land degradation are coupled with the start of a mass-migration of workers returning home from Russia, episodic energy crises, and large-scale industrial development. These current dynamics are layered upon its relatively recent independence from Russia, Civil war in the 1990's, and longstanding cultural traditions.
While the challenges to resilience can be readily apparent, there are also opportunities to draw upon the many forms of natural, social, and human capital in the region to build adaptive capacity. The resilience assessment process helps us to identify these opportunities and consider them in the context of existing constraints and the need to address imminent and expected system shocks alongside long-term uncertainty.
The resilience assessment in Tajikistan is focused on two rural villages (Kalay Nav and Kukobolukh) in the Roghun District east of the capital Dushanbe, in the Vakhsh River Basin. The foothills of the low mountainous area offer unstable slopes for crops and landslides occur regularly. Unreliable water and electricity supplies in the villages along with the poor condition of infrastructure and ecosystem degradation contribute to the village's vulnerability. A steadily growing population is stressing the natural resource system and a shock looms with the potential sudden return of more than half of Tajikistan's workforce over the coming months in response to Russia's declining economy.
Part of the resilience assessment process involved participatory workshops with village members. The workshop activities stimulated thinking about water availability issues in the villages in the context of dynamic change, taking into account past adaptations, and considering ways to increase their capacity and options for coping with future uncertainty. Village members who participated in these workshops were really engaged and the workshops yielded valuable insights. More information about the assessment will be available in the coming weeks on the RA website.


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Over the past decade, Australia's ERP has grown by 14.5% or 2.7 million people. The growth of Australia's population has two components: natural increase (the excess of births over deaths) and net overseas migration (i.e., net gain or loss of population through immigration to Australia and emigration from Australia). For state and territory estimates, a third component, net interstate migration, is also included. Since Federation in 1901, Australia's population has increased by 17.6 million people. Graph 7.2 shows the growth in Australia's population since Federation.
Over the last 50 years, population growth has occurred unevenly across the states and territories (table 7.3). Consequently, the proportion of Australia's population resident in each state and territory has changed over time. From 1958 to 2008, the proportion of the Australian population living in the following states decreased: New South Wales (from 37.5% to 32.5%), Victoria (from 27.6% to 24.8%), South Australia (9.1% to 7.5%) and Tasmania (3.4% to 2.3%). The proportion of Australia's population living in all other states and territories increased over the same period, with Queensland increasing from 14.6% to 20.0%, Western Australia from 7.1% to 10.1%, the Australian Capital Territory from 0.4% to 1.6% and the Northern Territory from 0.2% to 1.0%. Western Australia overtook South Australia to become the fourth most populous state in 1982.
Components of population growth
The Australian population has more than doubled from 9.8 million in 1958 to 21.4 million in 2008. Since the start of the ERP measure in 1971, natural increase has been the main component of population growth in Australia. However, in the last three years net overseas migration has been the larger contributor to population growth. Net overseas migration, is more volatile than natural increase, fluctuating under the influence of government policy as well as political, economic and social conditions in Australia and the rest of the world.
Annual growth at 30 June due to natural increase and net overseas migration from 1972 to 2008 is shown in graph 7.4.
In 1972, the excess of births over deaths resulted in a natural increase of 161,800 persons. Declining fertility led to a fall in natural increase at around 110,000 to 130,000 before peaking at 141,600 in 1991. Natural increase again dropped to a low of 114,420 persons in 2003. In recent years due to an increase in births, there has been a rise in natural increase to 145,600 persons in 2008. Since 2006, net overseas migration has contributed more people to the population than natural increase, adding 213,700 people in 2008.
In 2008 the crude death rate was 6.7 deaths per 1,000 population, falling from 8.3 in 1972. The crude birth rate declined from 19.9 births per 1,000 population in 1972 to 13.8 in 2008. The lowest crude birth rate during this period, 12.4 births per 1,000 population, was recorded in 2004. Crude birth and death rates from 1972 to 2008 are shown in graph 7.5.
Population age and sex structure
Over the last 50 years the absolute number of people increased in all age groups. However, the proportion of the population in older age groups increased while the proportion in younger age groups declined. Graph 7.6 shows the proportions of the population by age group and sex in 1958 and 2008, illustrating the ageing of Australia's population. Australia's population is ageing because of sustained below replacement level fertility, resulting in proportionally fewer children in the population, and increased life expectancy, resulting in proportionally more older people in the population.
In 1958 there were 110,800 more males than females in Australia's population, while in 2008 there were 109,900 more females than males. Since 1979 Australia has been home to more females than males. At 30 June 2008, the sex ratio of Australia's population was 99.0 males per 100 females.
In 1958 people aged 0-14 years represented 30.0% of Australia's population, while those aged 15-64 years represented 61.5%, those aged 65 years and over represented 8.5% and those aged 85 years and over represented 0.4%. Although Australia's population continued to grow since 1958, the proportion of children aged 0-14 years decreased to 19.3% by 2008. In contrast, the proportion of people aged 15-64 years increased to 67.5% and the proportion of the population aged 65 years or more increased to 13.2%. The proportion of those aged 85 years and over increased four-fold to 1.7% (graph 7.7).
The change in the age structure of Australia's population over time is illustrated by the change in the median age (the age at which half the population is older and half is younger). In 2008 the median age of the Australian population was 36.9 years, an increase of 5.3 years over the median age of 31.6 years in 1988. Graph 7.8 shows the median ages of the population of the states and territories in 1988 and 2008.
In 2008 the population of Tasmania had the highest median age of all states and territories (39.4 years), closely followed by South Australia (39.0 years). The Northern Territory (31.1 years) had the lowest median age in 2008.
Tasmania experienced the largest increase in median age over the 20 years to 2008, increasing by 8.0 years from 31.4 years in 1988 to 39.4 years in 2008. The next largest increase was South Australia, increasing by 6.3 years, from 32.7 years in 1988 to 39.0 years in 2008.
In 2008 there were just over 2.8 million people aged 65 years or more in Australia, an increase of 67,700 people (2.5%) over 2007. All states and territories experienced growth in this age group, with the Northern Territory experiencing the greatest increase (6.6%) (table 7.9).
The number of people aged 85 years and over in Australia has increased by 6.0% from 2007 to 2008, now equalling just over 362,000. Again, growth in this age group occurred in all states and territories, with the Northern Territory experiencing the greatest increase of 9.8% closely followed by the Australian Capital Territory (9.6%).


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|Library > Special & Area Studies Collections > Popular Culture Collections > Belknap Collection for the Performing Arts
The rhythmic beat of dancing feet punishing the parquet! The hills alive with the sound of music! The dulcet tones from the stage of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre! The flicker of light reflecting from the silver screen combined with a cast of thousands gathered together to bring the magic of the world of entertainment to life! The exciting and colorful history of theatre, film and dance, highlighting all the thrills, chills and adventure, is showcased in the BELKNAP COLLECTION FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, housed in the DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL AND AREA STUDIES COLLECTIONS at the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries.
Founded in 1958 by Sarah Yancy Belknap, a New York Librarian and an avid patron of the arts, the Belknap Collection is an eclectic mixture of mainly non-book, primary research materials. Nearly 85% of the collection is ephemera from 19th and 20th Century Europe and America. The archive includes more than 60,000 playbills, programs, costume and stage designs, sheet music, theatrical scrapbooks, prints, etchings, drawings, photographs, posters, and scripts spanning all of the performing arts. The Belknap Collection also includes essential reference books, rare and large pictorial books, and relevant performing arts periodicals. Our MISCELLANEOUS page includes circus ephemera, theatrical publicity and production photographs and various vertical files covering performing arts within the STATE OF FLORIDA and the city of GAINESVILLE.
For more information on the Belknap Collection for the Performing Arts contact:
Jim Liversidge, Curator
University of Florida
George A. Smathers Libraries
Department of Special and Area Studies Collections
PO Box 117007
Gainesville, FL 32611-7007
(352) 273-2759
email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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By Sir Andrew Green, Chairman
Migration Watch UK
8 February, 2012
The following is Migration Watch's response to an editorial in the Guardian edition of 2 February entitled "Immigration: dubious means to an uncertain end". We offered it to their web site "Comment is free" but it was rejected, apparently on the grounds that the web site does not publish comments on the newspapers editorials. The text is below:
The Guardian editorial of 2 February claimed that "The truth is that politicians worry about immigration more than the rest of the population do, not less". Nobody who took part in canvassing for the last election, for whichever party, would come to that conclusion.
The editorial recognises that immigration lies second only to the economy among "important issues facing the country". It also points out, correctly, that when asked about issues "facing you and your family" immigration is much further down the list. But the wording of a question and its framing are important. In this case, the reference to family is followed by a list of alternatives to choose from, most of which are clearly of direct family concern. The effect of this frame, therefore, is to skew the responses away from national issues. That does not mean that people are not greatly concerned. The very same question had crime level pegging with immigration. Is anyone arguing that politicians are unduly concerned about crime?
The title of the editorial "Immigration: dubious means to an uncertain end" points to further weaknesses in the argument. The dubious means is presumably a reference to the policy of greater selectivity announced by the Immigration Minister last week. However, any immigration system is, by its nature, based on selectivity since the alternative would be virtually open borders. Indeed, the Points Based System introduced by the previous government is based entirely on selectivity. The only remaining question is whether economic migrants should be selected on the basis of their earning capacity. The Migration Advisory Committee concluded that this was the only sensible yardstick.
As regards foreign students, their benefit is not in dispute – provided that they are genuine and that they intend to return to contribute to their own countries at the end of their studies here. Measures to eliminate bogus colleges and to weed out false applications should be welcome to the Higher Education sector whose long term future depends heavily on their reputation for excellence.
As for the "uncertain end", that is the precise opposite of the case. For the first time in British history, a government has set an overall objective for immigration policy to which individual measures will be addressed. Those who oppose this are simply in denial about the sheer scale that immigration has reached and its consequences, notably for our population. Net foreign immigration under the previous government was just over 3 million and last year's figure was just over 250,000 – the highest on record.
The latest population projections – which assume migration of 200,000 a year – show that our population will reach 70 million in just 16 years and two thirds of that increase will be a result of immigration. Those are the bare numbers. What it means is that we will have to find jobs, homes, school places hospital beds and transport capacity for the equivalent of an extra seven cities the size of Birmingham in just sixteen years. This, far from being an uncertain end, is a prospect which the vast majority of the public have consistently opposed.


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Farmstead Golf Links
Farmstead Golf Links is truly a cut above. Its most distinguishing feature is its mammoth 767-yard 18th hole, a par 6 that begins in South Carolina and ends in North Carolina.
While the dual-state 18th hole is the stuff that golf dreams are made of, it is complemented by 17 other holes that also deliver their own brand of charm and challenge. As the golf course layout rolls over the natural contours of the land, it provides countless views of the coastal Carolina's native grasses and sparkling lakes. Playable for golfers of all skill levels, this par 72 designed by Willard Byrd with enhancements by David Johnson offers five sets of tees and three par 3s on the backside.
The golf experience at Farmstead is crowned by an 8,000-square foot Georgian style clubhouse that includes a full-service pro shop, grille and lounge. The clubhouse features a veranda that offers a spectacular view of the first tee and 18th green, making it the perfect place for a post-round drink.
- Architect: Willard Byrd & David Johnson
- Opened: 2001
- Rating: 69.1
- Number Of Holes: 18
- Slope: 123
- Greens: Tif Eagle
Located at 541 McLamb Rd NW, Calabash, NC 28467


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Playing drums can be a physically demanding activity. Without preparing your body properly for playing you could do yourself permanent damage. Fortunately, doing a few simple stretches before you start playing will help you avoid injury and make your playing time more enjoyable.
This lesson shows you three basic stretches. Be sure to perform them gently so you don´t strain anything. You should also avoid 'bouncing´ the stretches as this can do more harm than good.
Once you have completed the stretches you will feel more loose, relaxed and ready to play. You will probably find that you play better as a result of this short sequence of exercises.
For more drum tuition check out our video lesson on matched grip.


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Transgender Texas student's tuxedo photo approved
HOUSTON (AP) – A South Texas school district reversed course on Friday, saying it will allow a photo of a transgender student wearing a tuxedo to appear in the teen's high school yearbook.
Jeydon Loredo, who grew up female but now identifies as a male, and his mother had said the school district was not allowing his photograph because it violated "community standards."
But after a meeting late Friday afternoon, the La Feria school district agreed to let the photo be used in the yearbook, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the district announced.
The law center had threatened to file a lawsuit if a decision allowing the tuxedo photograph to be included wasn't made by Nov. 21.
In a telephone interview, Jeydon said he was "pretty happy" about the district's decision.
"It was just very frustrating, the whole thing. To me, it was just a simple answer that I wanted. But we got the answer. So it's great, man," said Jeydon, who is a senior at La Feria High School.
La Feria, a town of about 7,300 residents, is located about 30 miles east of McAllen.
Alesdair Ittelson, an attorney with the law center, said the district's decision sends "a signal to other school districts that transgender students should be recognized as important members of their communities rather than ostracized and subjected to discrimination. We applaud Jeydon's courage in standing up for his rights."
School district Superintendent Raymundo Villarreal Jr. said the resolution "is in the best interest of the student and the school and the community."
In a statement, the district said Jeydon was never in danger of "being completely excluded from appearing in the portrait section of the high school yearbook."
"There were discussions between the student, the student's family and the administration on options affiliated with a dress code, including options which were gender neutral," according to the statement.
Jeydon's mother, Stella Loredo, said that during a meeting with Villarreal, she was told that the photograph of her son in a tuxedo "goes against the community standards."
Villarreal told her that "they were a conservative school and that (outfit) wouldn't follow the school policy as far as their dress code," she said.
Stella Loredo said she was told her son's photograph would be included only if he wore feminine attire, such as a drape or blouse.
"It was frustrating," she said. "This has never happened in our small town. I kind of expected that it wouldn't go smoothly. But I'm happy that it has been resolved. And we got just what we wanted," she said.
In its statement, the district said that dress code issues "can be difficult and complicated. Oftentimes, an administrator is called to balance perceived community standards and individualized requests."
Ittelson said the district's action violated Jeydon's right to freedom of expression under the First Amendment, as well as the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and Title IX, the law requiring gender equity in every educational program that receives federal funding.
Jeydon, his mother and Ittelson appeared before the La Feria school board on Monday to appeal the district's decision. The school board did not take any action.
Jeydon said his friends and classmates were very supportive and he hopes his experience will educate school districts and prevent other students from going through what he experienced.
Jeydon's case is similar to others around the country in recent years.
In 2010, Constance McMillen successfully challenged a rural Mississippi school district's policy that prohibited her from bringing her girlfriend to the prom and wearing a tuxedo.
Also, in Mississippi in 2010, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Copiah County School District on behalf of Ceara Sturgis. Sturgis' senior portrait was left out of the Wesson Attendance Center yearbook because she wore a tuxedo in the picture. The school district reached a settlement in that lawsuit.
Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter:
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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Search results for author:"Fu Kwun Huang"
Total records matched: 1 Search took: 0.094 secs
Internet-Based Science Learning: A Review of Journal Publications
Silvia Wen-Yu Lee; Chin-Chung Tsai; Ying-Tien Wu; Meng-Jung Tsai; Tzu-Chien Liu; Fu-Kwun Hwang; Chih-Hung Lai; Jyh-Chong Liang; Huang-Ching Wu; Chun-Yen Chang
International Journal of Science Education Vol. 33, No. 14 (2011) pp. 1893–1925
Internet-based science learning has been advocated by many science educators for more than a decade. This review examines relevant research on this topic. Sixty-five papers are included in the review. The review consists of the following two major...


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|Steve Israel
Washington (CNN) -- As it tries again in 2014 to win back control of the House of Representatives, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee says it's got its eyes on 48 Republican-held seats.
"We need 17 seats to pick up the House. So we begin with an early universe of 30 districts where the incumbent got less than 10 percent and an additional 18 districts that we think can perform better in an off year than an on year," DCCC Chairman Steve Israel told reporters Thursday.
Israel asserted Republicans will be most vulnerable in suburban areas and areas with a growing Latino population in the 2014 midterm elections.
Israel, the Democrat from New York, is returning for a second cycle as DCCC chairman. Democrats needed to win back 25 seats last month to gain control of the House. Although they fell far short of that goal, they did win back eight seats from the GOP. Republicans will have a 234-201 advantage next month when the new Congress is seated. Each party will have a vacant seat.
Israel said the DCCC has completed an initial review of what they did right and wrong in the 2012 cycle. While he wouldn't give specifics, Israel said strong recruitment is crucial.
"We've studied what we can do better. Now we are incorporating that into moving forward. The key issue here is that it all starts with recruiting," he said. "The reason we picked up seats in 2012 is because we aggressively began recruiting in 2010."
Israel also touted how the DCCC has already been aggressively going after Republicans since last month's election.
"The 2014 election began on Election Day in 2012. We started before the cycle was over. So before the bottom of the ninth with two outs, two strikes, we were already figuring out our batting order for the very next game," said Israel. "We hit the ground running. We have been on offensive."
The DCCC said Wednesday they would air radio ads against 21 House Republicans who have refused to sign a discharge petition advanced by Democrats that would allow a vote in the chamber on extending Bush-era tax cuts for households making less than $250,000 per year. The Bush-era cuts expire at the end of the year.
Israel also announced the DCCC's new leadership: Rep. Jared Polis (Colorado) as chairman for candidate services; Rep. Allyson Schwartz (Pennsylvania) as national finance chairwoman; Rep. Joseph Crowley (New York) as D.C. finance chairman and Rep. James Clyburn (South Carolina) as national mobilization chairman.
Israel also announced that Rep. Tim Walz (Minnesota) will chair the DCCC's Frontline program, which aids vulnerable incumbents, Rep. Donna Edwards (Maryland) will chair the recruitment committee, along with vice-chairman Gary Peters (Michigan); and Reps. Richard Neal (Massachusetts), Jim Himes (Connecticut) and Terri Sewell (Alabama) will be vice-chairmen of finance and will chair the committee's business council.


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Hey I apologize for Walter. Im glad to see everyone else rightfully criticized his post. We finally find something we can agree on and he just attacks you. I know that I get passionate from time to time but his comment was far beyond anything reasonable.


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Climate Deal in the Works?
December 3, 2012
As leaders in Washington obsess about the fiscal cliff, President Barack Obama is putting in place the building blocks for a climate treaty requiring the first fossil- fuel emissions cuts from both the U.S. and China.
State Department envoy Todd Stern is in Doha this week working to clear the path for an international agreement by 2015. While Obama failed to deliver on his promise to start a cap-and-trade program in his first term, he's working on policies that may help cut greenhouse gases 17 percent by 2020 in the U.S., historically the world's biggest polluter.
"We are making good progress, and I think we are on track," Stern told reporters today in Doha when asked if the U.S. can meet its goal even if Congress doesn't pass climate legislation this decade.
Obama has moved forward with greenhouse-gas rules for vehicles and new power plants, appliance standards and investment in low-emitting energy sources. He's also doubled use of renewable power and has called for 80 percent of U.S. electricity to come from "clean" energy sources, including nuclear and natural gas, by 2035.
"The president is laying the foundations for real action on climate change," Jake Schmidt, who follows international climate policy for the Washington-based Natural Resources Defense Council, said in an interview in Doha. "Whether or not he decides to jump feet first into the international arena, we'll see."
11 Responses to "Climate Deal in the Works?"
December 3, 2012 at 8:53 pm
[…] Bloomberg Business Week: As leaders in Washington obsess about the fiscal cliff, President Barack Obama is putting in place the building blocks for a climate treaty requiring the first fossil- fuel… […]
December 4, 2012 at 5:46 pm
Getting it through Congress is another thing. You think the Republicans are nasty on the Austerity Bomb wait till you hear the rant on the Environmental Bomb: They've proven often enough to convince me that you don't need to understand something you don't believe in.
December 10, 2012 at 2:02 pm
[…] 2012/12/03: PSinclair: Climate Deal in the Works? […]


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Good Causes Events Listing
Keep Polk County Beautiful, Inc. will hold its annual Awards Ceremony Dinner and Silent Auction Fundraiser at 6 p.m. Nov. 29 at Bok Tower Gardens. Awards will be given to businesses, community groups or individuals who have a goal of cleaning up and improving communities. Call 676-7019.
The Florida Public Relations Association Dick Pope Polk County Chapter is collecting hygiene products for the Project Fill-a-Bucket and Fill-a-Bag drive. Donations of new hygiene products will be collected by Nov. 28 to fill buckets and bags for needy students in Polk County Public Schools and Lake Wales Charter Schools. Small gifts parents can wrap as Christmas presents, as well as shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, brushes, combs, deodorant, wash cloths and other items can be brought to donation sites at Polk County Fire Stations and office locations, Community Southern Banks in Lakeland, Bartow and Winter Haven, the Lakeside Village campus of Webster University and A-C-T in Bartow. Call 206-6759.
Bring in a canned good and get a free drink through Dec. 15 at Grits & Stuff Café, 211 N.W. First Ave., Mulberry. The food will be donated to Mulberry Community Center. Call 425-5080.
The Mission in Winter Haven is collecting toys for the Children of the City Christmas Project. Last year toys were given to more than 2,000 children and the Mission hopes to reach out to those families that are new to having to ask for help at Christmas. Toys will be distributed Dec. 15. Families can register at The Mission daily.
This holiday season, Macy's Believe campaign will help support Make-A-Wish. Macy's invites believers of all ages to bring their stamped letters to Santa to their local Macy's, and for each letter received, Macy's will donate $1 to Make-A-Wish, up to $1 million.
Heartland for Children is holding its eighth annual Rudolph Round-Up Holiday Toy Drive to help make holiday dreams come true for nearly 1,500 children in the foster care system. Be a Rudolph Champion by making a monetary contribution, sponsoring an individual child by purchasing gifts on his or her wish list, sponsoring a toy drive, or donating toys for children in lieu of an office gift exchange. Contact Andrea Hagan, 519-8900, Ext. 214; email firstname.lastname@example.com.
Socks for Seniors is a community service project that collects new socks to be distributed to the elderly in nursing homes around the holidays. To host a sock drive or set up a collection box, visit www.socksforseniors.com.
Come watch how cane syrup is made during Kathleen Area Historical Society's Cane Grinding & Syrup Making Dec. 1. Breakfast will be served from 8-10 a.m. and fresh-made syrup will be available for purchase at Heritage Park, Lakeland. Call Audrey Davis, 858-5357.
[ Good Causes is a listing of upcoming fundraisers. Include a full name and phone number for publication. Address materials to GOOD CAUSES, The Ledger, P.O. Box 408, Lakeland 33802, fax to 802-7809 or email email@example.com. ]


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"New from hood to hitch"
The Chevrolet Silverado is all-new for 2014. With new muscular definition on the exterior and luxurious comfort on the interior, the Silverado is designed to do it all, at home and work, from dawn till dusk. On the interior, the crew cab doors are larger, easing entry and exit. The new hood features twin power domes to manage air flow and reduce cabin noise. Leather seats, increased legroom and other upscale features make the interior feel almost like a small sedan. Comfort was considered on the exterior as well, with a novel new addition to the bumper called a CornerStep. A cutout foothold and handhold on each rear corner makes climbing in and out of the bed a breeze for men, children and women — even while wearing high heels! Many new exterior body details were also added to improve aerodynamics, and the stronger foundation and redesigned box bring the Silverado's towing capacity to a best-in-class 11,500 pounds. Even with three cab, box and trim configurations, and the slew of all-new features, the 2014 Silverado will carry its base pricing over from 2013. The 2014 Chevrolet Silverado is available now, with a premium model, the High Country, debuting later this year. Don't miss them at the 2014 New England International Auto Show!


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blog, Everything's Relative - Researching Your Family History. I couldn't ever get the Wordle thingy to work, but this one worked for me. Thanks, Cindy!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Found This at Cindy's
4 comments:
Nice wordle....I could never get them to work, either. I'll have to go to Cindy's and have a look at her link. Thanks and Happy Halloween.ReplyDelete
Happy Halloween to you, too, Linda!ReplyDelete
I saw this at Cindy's and thought, nice heart but I'm happy with my Wordle. YOU had to post an apple and cause me to go off and play for an hour! LOL Thanks for the link.ReplyDelete
Oh, yeah! It is perfect for you, isn't it?ReplyDelete
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The knives are out for Google Chairman Eric Schmidt. Within hours of making comments to UK media during a press conference, major US rightsholders attempted to brand Google as an arrogant, out-of-control company bent on ruining American creativity and thinking itself above US law.
The Guardian transcribed a few of Schmidt's remarks on Internet blacklists. "If there is a law that requires DNSes [Domain Name System operators] to do 'x' and it's passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the President of the United States and we disagree with it then we would still fight it," he said at one point, apparently expressing opposition to the PROTECT IP Act recently introduced in the Senate. Any such system would be used as pretext for countries like China to engage in much more repressive website blocking.
That set off entertainment execs. Take it away, MPAA's Michael O'Leary:
Is Eric Schmidt really suggesting that if Congress passes a law and President Obama signs it, Google wouldn't follow it? As an American company respected around the world, it's unfortunate that, at least according to its executive chairman's comments, Google seems to think it's above America's laws. We've heard this "but the law doesn't apply to me" argument before—but usually, it comes from content thieves, not a Fortune 500 company. Google should know better. And the notion that China would use a bi-partisan, narrowly tailored bill as a pretext for censorship is laughable, as Google knows, China does what China does.
The RIAA asked whether "the head of a multi-billion dollar leading American company [is] openly suggesting they would defy the will of Congress AND the President?" A spokesperson added, "This is baffling. As a legitimate company, Google has a responsibility to not benefit from criminal activity. In substance and spirit, this contradicts the recent testimony of Google's General Counsel that the company takes copyright theft seriously and was willing to step up to the plate in a cooperative and serious way."
And the Copyright Alliance, currently headed by a former top lawyer for Time Warner, said that Google might be trying to "scare off officials eager to defend American creativity and American jobs." Schmidt's remarks "smack of corporate imperialism, and—delivered across the Atlantic in London—are a far cry from the tone Google's General Counsel took while testifying back home in America before the House Judiciary Committee a mere six weeks ago."
That appearance, by Google's Ken Walker, was generally quite politic, though Walker did warn of "shakedowns" from private companies wanting to force changes in Google's behavior.
"Legislation should not include a private right of action that would invite suits by 'trolls' to extort settlements from intermediaries or sites who are making good faith efforts to comply with the law," he added at the time. The PROTECT IP Act does include such a private right of action, however—and it explicitly names search engines as intermediaries required to help more in the War on Piracy.
Beyond this, Walker refrained from the kind of tough talk in which Schmidt engaged, thus giving critics little to latch onto. But Schmidt's blunter remarks were a boon to Big Content, which suddenly got a welcome chance to go after a key opponent of many PROTECT IP Act provisions.
For Google, the specific controversy over "not following the law" is ridiculous; all sorts of groups "fight laws" that they don't agree with through court action, lobbying, and protest. But the company says it's quite serious about its free speech concerns.
"Of course we abide by the law in every country we do business," a spokesperson tells Ars. "We respect what the PROTECT IP Act is trying to accomplish and we're working closely with Congress to make sure the bill targets sites dedicated to piracy while protecting free expression and legitimate sites."


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"The 77-year-old designer and former grande dame of Palm Beach entertaining—in the Sixties and Seventies, her kitchen sat 26 for dinner—awaits guests perched on a chinoiserie-covered bench. She wears white slacks and a vintage Lilly shirt printed with white and yellow daisies, her feet bare but for the bright coral polish on her toes," describes a new W magazine profile. Everybody knows Lilly Pulitzer prints — the pink and green WASP uniforms that have signified Palm Beach privilege for half a century. Most of us would never wear them — but there's something compelling about this quintessential story of privilege, independence and success. And Lilly Pulitzer herself — brisk, eccentric, sans underpants — is a character for the books!
Lilly Pulitzer herself had a textbook background: Chapin, Miss Porter's, marriage to a publishing scion, and a youthful life of wealthy eccentricity (Pulitzer is famous for going without shoes and undies and for keeping a menagerie as a young wife.) Then came anxiety attacks, a stay in what she terms "the nuthouse" - "I can't really remember how long I was there, but my cousin was there too, so that was nice" - and depression that led to the start of her "hobby," running a juice stand that called for a practical uniform of shift dresses that wouldn't show stains.
The rest is, of course, history: the gaily printed shifts became a sensation with the Palm Beach society set, former classmate Jackie Kennedy wore one in a magazine spread, and Lilly Pulitzer became a household name, selling not just pink and green dresses, but embroidered trousers and capris, sarongs, and all manner of sportswear. Pulitzer is often credited with creating the concept of "resort" - or, as she blithely put it, "it's always summer somewhere." Although she closed up shop in the businesslike 80s, she sold the brand in 1993 and has continued as a creative consultant in its new incarnation. The line currently has 20 boutiques, plus department store collections. According to today's WWD, "brand extension is a significant part of the growth strategy for Lilly Pulitzer as it begins its second half-century."
Of course, was Lilly Pulitzer really ever anything but a lifestyle brand? Did people ever really love wearing luridly-colored monkeys and sea-horses? Yes, the prints were cheerful, but when you see a Lilly Pulitzer, you think "Lilly Pulitzer" and that has surely always been the point. To wear one of her dresses was to momentarily be a part of a world where sporting goofy, unflattering clothes is a mark of dashing, privilege-bred confidence, the very definition of the uniform of an insider. Its appeal now is nostalgic. As W puts it, "the Palm Beach social swirl that Rousseau recalls—in which counts sat next to carpenters at her dinner parties and, as she relishes telling, Kennedy spoon-fed John-John on her kitchen floor—has an almost mythic quality, one she laments no longer exists." But to most of us, the nostalgic appeal is at least as much for a character like Pulitzer's as for anachronistic high society. She was, of course, inseparable from that privilege, and hers was a success inexplicably linked with her connections, friends, and lifestyle. But the old-fashioned no-nonsense sense of entitlement is also what allowed Pulitzer to build a successful business in a man's world, divorce her husband and move out on her own, where many women would have been happy to leave dresses as a pleasant sideline to a socialite's life. She took her lifestyle and made it a business. Everything about her story — from the world that inspired it, to the entitlement that encouraged it, to the scope of the achievement — is part of a long-gone world. This, as much as the unapologetic silliness of the clothes themselves, is a fascinating glimpse to another time for the rest of us.


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Well Said!
August 20, 2006 at 7:18 pm Janie Hermann 2 comments
I am bookmarking this brief interview with Dan Nova for reference in future classes, lectures, and workshops on 2.0 — it is concise and clear. In particular, I will be including Dan's way of explaining the key difference between Web 1.o and 2.0:
You talk a lot about Web 1.0, the Internet boom in the late '90s, and the next wave, Web 2.0. What's the difference?
When you look at 1.0, it was really the democratization of access to information. Whether you're sitting in a Harvard law library or a row house in Dublin or a grass hut in Africa, as long as you could access the Internet, you had access to the same information as everyone else.
And Web 2.0?
Web 2.0 is really the democratization of participation. When you think about the blogs and the wikis and the MySpaces, what's really happening is now everyone has a voice. Your currency in the 2.0 world is only based on the strength and credibility of your writing or your argument. We've gone from where it used to be "If you build it, they will come." Now it's "If they build it, they will come." I'm actually more excited about 2.0 than I was about 1.0.
Just thought I would share in case others wanted to bookmark it too.
Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: Uncategorized.
2 Comments
I just read the article, Janie, and I agree with you–the article interviewing Dan is short and very readable concerning Web 2.0. You can also almost hear the excitement in his voice! Thanks for sharing, and we should share it with librarians at our CJRLC meeting this week, too.
Good Plan Robert… just what I was thinking (and why I was looking too!)