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Earth Institute Supports Training Women to Battle Disease in Ethiopia
26,000 Women Training to Teach Disease Prevention to Underserved Rural Communities
Some Ethiopians endure dust storms and midday sun while walking to health clinics for treatment of diseases devastating Ethiopia that are preventable but fatal, such as malaria, typhoid, AIDS, and malnutrition. The Earth Institute has created the Center for National Health Development in Ethiopia to provide support for a program that will put health care within reach of 12 million Ethiopians.
Panel Series on NYC Public Waste, Public Health and Public Transport Finds Problems Intersect
Earth Institute experts discussed the 26,000 tons of garbage that New York City produces every day, and methods for its disposal that would lessen the impact on asthma sufferers in Harlem.
Michael Crichton's State of Confusion
Earth Institute climate scientist Gavin Schmidt responds to inaccuracies in Michael Crichton's new novel (reposted from
Michael Crichton's new novel
"State of Fear"
is about a self-important NGO hyping the science of the global warming to further the ends of evil eco-terrorists. The inevitable conclusion of the book is that global warming is a non-problem. A lesson for our times maybe? Schmidt thinks not.
Earth Institute Scientists Present New Research to the American Geophysical Union, December 2004
Presentations on global poverty mapping, climate change, seismic activity in Italy, and arsenic are just a few of the topics being presented by Earth Institute scientists at the annual American Geophysical Union.
Scientists Harness Energy from Urban Waste
The timing of an international conference on waste management was held just as the Bloomberg administration announced its 20-year plan to deal with New York City's residential waste by shipping the bulk of it elsewhere by barge and promoting more recycling. Both the announcement and the conference raised a host of environmental, intra-government and other concerns.
Columbia Team Shows How Stratospheric Conditions Affect Weather
Three members of Columbia's Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics have used a simple climate model to demonstrate how the weather systems and storms we experience may be influenced by disturbances in the Earth's stratosphere, the upper layer of atmosphere between 10 and 30 miles high.
The Anslope Expedition: Cruising the Antarctic
"A lot has happened since the last report three weeks ago. We visited the New Zealand port of Timaru to refuel the ship and then headed back south towards Antarctica. During our third crossing the usual strong winds and high seas caused the by now well-known seasickness."
Missed Opportunities for Economic and Community Development in the Dominican Republic
Lenora Suki, Associate Director at the Earth Institute at Columbia University's Center for Globalization and Sustainable Development, has completed an evaluation of financial institutions that channel remittances between immigrants in the United States to their friends and family in the Dominican Republic.
Ford Award Honors Carbon Cycle Pioneer
Taro Takahashi, a geochemist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, was presented the Ford Award in recognition of his contribution to understanding what happens to industrial CO
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Reducing Trace Gases is Key to Halting Dangerous Human-induced Contributions to Global Warming
Researchers suggest that reductions of trace gases may allow stabilization of climate so that additional global warming would be less than 1° C, a level needed to maintain global coastlines. Although carbon dioxide emissions, an inherent product of fossil fuel use, must also be slowed, the required carbon dioxide reduction is much more feasible if trace gases decrease.
Reports From the Field: Cruising the Antarctic
Three days ago we left our first working area near the Mertz Glacier Tongue. Since then we have again been steaming across the Southern Ocean. Luckily it showed its calmer side.
Our Energy Future: Learning on the Job
If China's increasing demand for oil to fuel its industrialization is the reason we are getting beaten up at the gas pumps now, get ready for a pummeling in the next few decades. The time for an action plan is now, and long overdue.
Reports From the Field: Antarctic Topography
In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, there is a ridge that sticks up from the bottom 1000-2000m. This is the mid-Atlantic Ridge, where two continental plates are moving apart at about 2-3 inches per year, which is about as fast as your fingernails grow.
New Study Reveals Hidden Pattern in Genetics of Indian Elephant Populations
The first population genetic study of free-ranging Asian elephant populations has unexpectedly revealed that elephants in Southern India evolved into two genetically distinct groups thousands of years ago.
James E. Hansen, Director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Speaks Out on Climate Change
"I have been told by a high government official that I should not talk about 'dangerous anthropogenic interference' with climate, because we do not know how much humans are changing the Earth's climate or how much change is 'dangerous.' Actually, we know quite a lot."
Earth Institute's Earth Clinic Opens for Business
The Earth Institute's Earth Clinic provides prescriptions to developing countries to relieve immediate economic and environmental problems and put them on a path of sustainable development. The Earth Clinic will address the many requests from presidents, prime ministers, and ministers of finance, environment, health, agriculture, among others, for science-based assistance to extremely urgent issues of economic development, public health, energy systems, water management, agriculture and infrastructure.
Global Natural Disaster Hotspots
Earth Institute project assesses disasters and risks to increase investment
A unique collaborative project assessing natural disasters and the risks to human populations and economic activity will provide a quantitative basis for risk-conscious investments in sustainable development worldwide.The final report, "Global Natural Disaster Risk Hotspots," will be published by The World Bank this winter.
The Anslope Expedition: Battling Rough Seas
Gerd Krahmann, research scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory,writes from the seas aroundAntarctica: "With everything safely tied to tables, walls and floors the huge waves were not able to cause any problems for our equipment. Unfortunately, this could not be said for the stomachs of some of us."
New Technical Support Centre Puts Theories into PracticeEnacting Millennium Development Goals to Reduce Global Poverty by Half
The Millennium Project has kicked into high gear with only a few months remaining until final recommendations are due to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in January 2004.
Drought in the West Linked to Warmer Temperatures
Historical study shows elevated aridity in periods of warming
Severe drought in western states in recent years may be linked to climate warming trends, according to new research, led by scientists from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, to be published in the journal Science.
Scientists Reconstruct the History of Drought for North America
Not enough is know about what triggers major droughts, yet they occur all across North America often having greater economic and social impacts than any other type of natural disaster. Researchers from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have used 835 annual tree-ring chronologies based on measurements from 20- to 30-thousand tree samples across the United States, Mexico, and parts of Canada to reconstruct a history of drought over the last 2005 years.
Through Ants and Plants, CU Undergrads Explore the Frontiers of Science
For the first time in the history of the University, undergrads are being taught a core curriculum science class. For part of the class, 550 undergrads will fan out into Manhattan green areas to collect data about urban biodiversity that has never been collected before.
Students From Five Continents Begin Ph.D. in Sustainable Development Program
Many of the most important policy challenges facing the planet require a central focus on sustainability and development. Columbia University's new Ph.D. in Sustainable Development program began this fall with six students from five continents and backgrounds in economics, environmental studies, chemistry and international development.
New Ship Promises to Unveil Secrets of Our Planet
The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has purchased a new research vessel to replace the Lamont-operated R/V Maurice Ewing, which has accumulated well over half a million miles of track in its service to science and exploration of ocean and deep Earth processes. Following a year-long outfitting with modern laboratories and scientific equipment, she will become the most capable academic research vessel utilizing acoustic and seismic technologies in the world.
Modeling Storms
IRI scientist maps hurricane probabilities
The birth of a hurricane requires the right combination of ocean water temperature and wind patterns. Suzana Camargo, a research scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI) uses this atmospheric data to create experimental hurricane forecasts that can be used to identify year-to-year variations, and ultimately develop tools to predict seasonal hurricane landfall probabilities.
Earth Institute Receives $4.2 M Grant to Break Down Barriers and Increase the Ranks of Women in Earth Sciences and Engineering
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded the Earth Institute at Columbia University a five-year $4.2 M ADVANCE Program grant to test methods to help women overcome barriers to advancing their careers in Earth sciences and engineering and making it into the ranks of tenured professors and senior research scientists.
Less Than 0.7 Percent of Rich-country GNP Could Spring Africa From Poverty Trap
Brookings report discusses cause of African poverty and calculates costs to address it
The United States and other rich countries have not delivered the promised foreign aid necessary to help many African countries escape grinding poverty, according to the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (August 2004.) The authors calculate the necessary amount to be less than 0.7 percent of the rich world's GNP.
Geologist Ascends Peaks and Dives to the Ocean Floor, Looking for Secrets of Earth's Crust
As a geologist, Peter Kelemen, who was recently appointed the Arthur Storke Memorial Professor of Geochemistry at Columbia University, has ascended to 7,500 meters on a Himalayan peak and plummeted into the Atlantic to 5,500 meters. He has worked as a consultant on mineral exploration projects where the terrain was too steep for average geologists. He has traveled via snowmobile, helicopter and climbing rope, all in the pursuit of secrets of the Earth's crust.
Ethiopian Meteorologist Wins Prestigious Scholarship to Attend Columbia's New Master's Program in Climate and Society
Diriba Korecha Dadi, team leader of the weather forecast and early warning unit at the National Meteorological Services Agency in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, arrived at Columbia this week to take part in the first class of Columbia University's new M.A. Program in Climate and Society on a Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship.
Earth Institute Supports Accelerated Expansion of Health System for Ethiopia
Center for National Health Development in Ethiopia to boost government capacity
In the summer of 2004 Professor Awash Teklehaimanot, a health expert with the Earth Institute at Columbia University and member of the Center for Global Health and Economic Development, launched the Center for National Health Development in Ethiopia, a project of the Earth Institute in support of accelerated expansion of primary health care facilities in Ethiopia.
São Tomé Set to Vote on Unprecedented Oil Revenue Laws
Earth Institute helped African island nation set up legal and governance framework to avoid "resource curse"
With its parliament set to vote in the next few weeks on tough new anti-corruption laws, São Tomé and Príncipe could avoid the "resource curse" that plagues many low-income oil exporters, whose newfound wealth often triggers corruption and social conflict.
Nature: Promiscuous Partnerships on Coral Reefs May Help Them Survive Climate Change
Scientists discover shifts to heat-tolerant algae may safeguard devastated reefs from extinction
Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) at The Earth Institute at Columbia University, and other groups have discovered that coral reefs nearly wiped out by climate change are recovering with unusual heat-resistant algae that may help protect them from future warming.
How Global Warming Causes More Bad Air Days
While researchers at Columbia's New York Climate and Health Project (NYCHP) were investigating the health impacts of climate change in the New York metropolitan region, they were simultaneously collaborating on a national report using their innovative modelling and prediction techniques. The national report, released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council, is called Heat Advisory: How Global Warming Causes More Bad Air Days.
Columbia University Investigator Receives NASA Grant to Map Carbon in Eastern Atlantic Waters
As part of its mission to fund scientific research that will provide a global census of various forms and quantities of carbon and the natural and manmade factors that regulate carbon, NASA recently announced a $671,000 grant to Ajit Subramaniam, a Doherty Associate Research Scientist with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, part of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
Jobs Offshored for Cost Savings and Quality
Seventy percent of companies that outsource report increases in quality of work, Columbia survey finds
Forty-five companies known for sending work outside of their own employee base for completion, surveyed by the Earth Institute at Columbia University, show that 82 percent are currently outsourcing jobs, 79 percent to offshore businesses. The majority not only report finding competitive prices but better work skills than at home. Seventy percent of those who outsourced reported that the quality of outsourced business processes had increased between 5 to 25 percent.
Drilling for Specimens in the Juan de Fuca Ridge
While the volume of water flowing through the mid-ocean ridge is believed to be the same magnitude as the water entering the oceans from all the world's rivers, virtually nothing is known about the chemicals and bacteria it contains, or how this system works. Many scientists believe that Earth's first organisms may have originated at locations like the Juan de Fuca Ridge. The scientific drillship JOIDES Resolution left Astoria, Oregon on June 27, 2004 for a two-month drilling expedition on the east ridge of the Juan de Fuca Ridge (known as IODP Expedition 301) to capture sample fluids that may contain new microbes and sediment that will help scientists better understand this system.
From Bumblebees in San Francisco's Urban Parks to Living With Leopards In The Himalayas - The 2004 Meeting of The Society For Conservation Biology Focuses on Conservation in an Urbanizing World
Freeway-hopping bobcats and urban forest restoration will be among the many topics discussed at the 2004 annual meeting of the Society of Conservation Biology held in New York City from July 30 to August 2nd. The meeting, hosted by the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, will bring together more than 1,700 scientists, conservation biology practitioners, and students from around the world to focus on this year's theme "Conservation in the Urbanizing World."
New Map of Antarctica's Lake Vostok Reveals Two Distinct Parts, With Possibly Differing Ecosystems
Deep in the Antarctic interior, buried under thousands of meters (more than two miles) of ice, lies Lake Vostok, the world's largest subglacial lake. Scientists believe that the waters of Lake Vostok have not been disturbed for hundreds of thousands of years, and there are tantalizing clues that microbes, isolated for at least as long, may exist.
UN Secretary-General Calls for 21st Century African Green Revolution
Scientists Say Technology to End Hunger in Africa is Ready for Deployment
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the launch of a "twenty-first century African Green Revolution" to end chronic hunger on the continent. Speaking at a special meeting of African heads of state and leading policymakers organized by the Ethiopian Government and the Hunger Task Force of the UN Millennium Project, Annan noted that, "Africa is the only continent where child malnutrition is getting worse rather than better."
African Governments and United Nations Leaders to Announce Action Plans to Cut Hunger in Africa
Two hundred million of the world's hungry live in Africa. Recognizing that a "business as usual" approach will not significantly reduce hunger, on July 5, 2005, an extraordinary gathering of African Heads of State, government ministers, world leaders and hunger experts will focus on practical, innovative solutions to halve the number of hungry and malnourished people in Africa by 2015.
New Observations on Shape of Ocean Mountain Ranges Turn an Old Idea Upside Down
What causes the peaks and valleys of the world's great mountains? For continental ranges like the Appalachians or the Northwest's Cascades, the geological picture is clearer. Continents crash or volcanoes erupt, then glaciers erode away. Yet scientists are still puzzling out what makes the highs high and the lows low for the planet's largest mountain chain, the 55,000-mile-long Mid-Ocean Ridge.
Earth Institute Scientist Awarded for Revolutionary Contributions to Soil Research
The University of Guelph, a renowned research institution in Canada, has awarded Pedro Sanchez, Director of Tropical Agriculture at the Earth Institute, an honorary Doctor of Science for his breakthrough research in tropical soil.
New Yorkers' Health Will Be Affected by Climate Change, New Study Shows Results to be discussed at June 25th event at Columbia University
New York will be hotter in the future, and some New Yorkers could be sicker as a result, according to a study to be released at an event on June 25th hosted by The Earth Institute at Columbia University and Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. The study, involving three years of research by Columbia's New York Climate and Health Project (NYCHP), investigated the health impacts of climate change scenarios in the region. On Friday June 25, the authors will launch the study with a summary and workshop on its major findings.
Fifty-Two Thousand Years of Marine Fertility Sheds New Light on Forces Behind Climate Change
For years, researchers have examined climate records indicating that millennial-scale climate cycles have linked the high latitudes of the Northern hemisphere and the subtropics of the North Pacific Ocean. What forces this linkage, however, has been a topic of considerable debate.
Tree-Ring Laboratory Receives $5.5 Million to Study Climate Dynamics
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded the Tree-Ring Laboratory of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, a $5.5 million grant to study one of the largest climate systems affecting the globe-the Asian monsoon climate system. This five-year study will apply the science of tree-ring analysis (dendrochronology) and its application to the study of past climate to key questions regarding the processes that drive the development of the monsoon and its various characteristics through different regions.
$15 Million Gift to Columbia University Ties Economics to the Environment
In a letter to the Columbia University community this week, President Lee C. Bollinger announced a gift of $15 million from University Trustee Gerry Lenfest (Law'58) to the Earth Institute at Columbia. Provided through the Lenfest Foundation, the gift will endow the first Earth Institute professorship, promote sustainable development, and advance solutions to two of the most pressing problems of our time: global climate change and acute global poverty.
Could Global Warming Mean Less Sunshine and Less Rainfall?
From 1960 to 1990, scientists have observed a 1.3% per decade decline in the amount of sun reaching the Earth's surface. This phenomenon, coined "solar dimming," is due to changes in clouds and air pollution that are impeding the sun's ability to penetrate. Scientists believe that the combination of growing quantities of man-made aerosol particles in the atmosphere and more moisture have caused the cloud cover to thicken.
Marine Scientists Discover New Undersea Volcano in Antarctica
After careful examination of data, an international team of scientists confirmed yesterday the existence of a major undersea volcano on the seafloor of the Antarctic Sound, near the northern-most tip of Antarctica. Scientists announced their discovery yesterday from the Research Vessel L. M. Gould which has been struggling through ice-covered seas in the Antarctic. The team is led by Hamilton College's Eugene Domack and includes Gerd Krahmann from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. (Krahmann is part of the CORC/ARCHES expedition and has written about this trip in his
Reports From the Field
Earthquakes and the Ramapo Fault System in Southeastern New York State
This fact sheet is intended to provide a concise summary of the state of knowledge about the Ramapo Fault System and earthquakes in the greater New York City metropolitan area. The Ramapo Fault System is part of the largest seismically active province in this region.
Heart Disease and Stroke Hit Younger In Developing Countries, New Report Shows Toll rises as treatment and prevention lags in developing countries
A new report to be released at Columbia University's Earth Institute on April 26, 2004 suggests that heart disease and stroke are far more urgent threats to global health than commonly appreciated.
download pdf of report
Reports From the Field: The Antarctic CORC/ARCHES Expedition
Dr. Gerd Krahmann of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is aboard the Research Vessel Laurence M. Gould heading to Antarctic's Weddell Sea. Krahmann is leading a group of five scientists and technicians from Lamont on an expedition to replace moored instruments deployed in the Weddell Sea.
How Long Can Earth Continue to Sustain the Human Race? PBS Program Uses Experts from the Earth Institute to Probe Surprising Population Trends and the Future of Humanity
It took all of history until the year 1804 for human population to reach its first billion. Now a billion new people are added every dozen years. NOVA explores these and other trends in the relationship between people and the planet in
World in the Balance
, with interviews with Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute, and Joel Cohen, director of the Laboratory of Populations at the Earth Institute and Rockefeller University. This two-hour Earth Day special, airing Tuesday, April 20, 2004, from 8 to 10pm ET on PBS (check local listings).
By Looking Back, Scientists See a Bright Future for Climate Change Forecasting
For scientists studying climate change, the past is often a key to understanding the future. Dake Chen at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory recently used more than a century of climate data to successfully test an improved model of ENSO, the El-Niño/Southern Oscillation that scientists believe is behind climate change in many parts of the world.
State of the Planet 2004 Conference: Best Practices Into Action
Over 1,000 students, scientists, policymakers and experts attended the State of the Planet 2004 conference, held at Columbia University. More than 50 leading scientists and policymakers, like Mary Robinson (pictured at right), worked to prioritize the best scientific practices and most urgent needs for investment in the areas of energy, food, water, and health. •
watch video of event
read consensus statement
read highlights from Day 1 speakers
Columbia-supported HIV/AIDS Initiative in Rwanda Gains Speed Country moves to large scale treatment and care for thousands
Ten years after the genocide in Rwanda, Columbia University is working closely with the Government of Rwanda and its partners to expand what is rapidly becoming one of the most successful HIV/AIDS initiatives on the continent. The Earth Institute at Columbia and the Mailman School of Public Health are supporting this initiative jointly.
Kenyan AIDS Orphans Pass National Exam with the Help of School Lunch Earth Institute scientist champions school lunch as one way to fight global poverty
Earlier this month a remarkable thing happened: all the 33 pupils from a primary school in Kenya who sat for the national exams passed. More remarkable still, half of the winners are AIDS orphans. The headmistress attributed this amazing success in part to the school lunch program she initiated through voluntary contributions of farmers in the community.
Are Earthquakes Related? Columbia Scientists Greatly Reduce Error in Locating Earthquakes in China, Discovering a Surprising Number are Close to Each Other
Finding the epicenter of earthquakes has not changed since the 1930s, and this method can result in errors of several miles. But seismologists David P. Schaff and Paul G. Richards, from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, part of the Earth Institute, have developed a method that increases scientists' ability to pinpoint an earthquake's epicenter, resulting in new findings in earthquake patterns in China.
Earth Institute Experts and President of Iceland Discuss Changing Polar Environments Meeting Focuses on Global Impacts
To foster discussion on changes in the polar regions, and in preperation for the planning of the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-08, Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute held a meeting of polar experts that was presided over by Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, President of Iceland, on Arctic and Antarctic issues that have both local and global impacts. Researchers from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, part of the Earth Institute, are participating in an ambitious effort to organize the International Polar Year scheduled in 2007-2008. Dr. Robin Bell, a Doherty Senior Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and a vice chair of the International Council of Scientific Unions, the organization that is spearheading international support and participating in this program, is quoted in an article by the journal Science.
read article
download pdf of article
Earth Institute Fights Poverty Worldwide Scientists target hunger, malaria, economic development
Directed by Columbia economists Nirupam Bajpai and Jeffrey Sachs, the Gujarat project is just one example of how harnessing science to fight global poverty lies at the core of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
NASA and Columbia University Find Common Research Areas in Sustainable Development
A one-day workshop hosted by Earth Institute and Columbia scientists explored research areas NASA has developed to sustain human life during long space missions-research that could prove life-saving to populations with no access to potable water, proper drainage or sewage systems.
Hudson River Estuary Enters Middle Age History of sediment accumulation points to a new phase in the formation of the lower Hudson River
The Hudson River Estuary, a stretch of the Hudson River from Troy, N.Y. to its mouth in New York Harbor, has begun a new stage of its life say geologists at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Queens College in Flushing, N.Y. Researchers at both institutions have found that, aside from a few very specific locations, the estuary may have largely stopped filling in with new sediment.
Earth Institute Fellows Address Questions of Sustainable Development
While modern society likes to think of itself as scientifically and technologically advanced, there are many questions critical to our survival that still can't be answered. The traditional academic fields helped develop the world we live in, and along with the wonders of the modern age, created the problems of environmental degradation. Unless we learn a lot more in a hurry, the way we live today will not be sustained in the future. That is the philosophy behind a new post-doctoral program at Columbia University called the Earth Institute Fellows that is trying to mobilize the sciences and policy to achieve a sustainable future, especially for the poor.
New York City Sustainable Development Initiative Launched
Last month the Earth Institute convened about a dozen senior scientists to explore projects central to the Institute's mission to achieve sustainable development, especially for the poor. Former Mayor David Dinkins chaired the discussion which focused on the idea of an Earth Institute New York City Sustainable Development Initiative. The session was hosted by Steve Cohen, director of the Earth Institute's educational programs, along with Jeff Sachs.
Earth Institute Convenes State of the Planet Conference; Will Bring World Science and Policy Experts on March 29-30 to Discuss Sustainable Development
Working to link global decision-making to the best of sustainability science, the Earth Institute at Columbia University will convene the third biennial State of the Planet conference on March 29 - 30, 2004. The conference will bring together an international roster of influential and innovative thinkers on issues critical to the well-being of the Earth and its inhabitants-specifically energy, food, water, and health.
National Garbage Survey Highlights Opportunities for Americans to Move from being Waste-Full to Waste-Wise
Landfills continue to be the final resting spot for most of America's waste, according to the results of the national "State of Garbage in America" survey conducted by BioCycle magazine and the Earth Engineering Center of Columbia University, a unit of the Earth Institute.
Links Between Erosion, Runoff Variability And Seismicity In The Taiwan Orogen
Results from one of the most comprehensive studies of erosion of the earth's surface have revealed the detailed spatial pattern of erosion in the Taiwan mountain belt. The findings, recently reported in NATURE, provide evidence that mountain erosion can be directly related to large earthquakes and storms. Taiwan is one of the most rapidly eroding mountain belts on earth, with average erosion rates of 3-6 mm per year and extreme rates of 60 mm per year in some areas of weak rock that have recently experienced large earthquakes and storms.
Columbia and Harvard University Researchers Conduct Study on Toxic Exposures in Urban Environments
Steel dust generated by New York City's subway system affects the amount of iron, manganese and chromium that commuters breathe
Columbia University researchers have found that steel dust generated in the New York City subway significantly increases the total amount of airborne iron (Fe), manganese (Mn) and chromium (Cr) that riders breathe. The airborne levels of these metals associated with fine particulate matter in the subway environment were observed to be more than 100 times greater than levels observed in home indoor or outdoor settings in New York City. Their research findings are scheduled to appear in the January 15th issue of Environmental Science & Technology, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.


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The Bumping and Banging is Back at Bristol
BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) - With a two-handed toss of his helmet, Tony Stewart brought back everything that had been missing at Bristol Motor Speedway.
It was the rock 'em, sock 'em style of racing that made the Tennessee bullring the toughest ticket in NASCAR, and fans fill the place for 55 consecutive races hoping to see bumping and banging on the track and the off-track drama it created.
Progressive banking added in 2007 diluted the action, and fans turned their backs on Bristol in droves. Yet another disappointing crowd in March was the final straw for track owner Bruton Smith, who ordered changes to the track surface in the hopes the action would pick up and the fans would return.
He got exactly what he wanted Saturday night, even if his idea didn't go exactly according to plan.

subset: commoncrawl


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Yonkers, Ny — Readers of Consumer Reports gave higher marks to private studios, nonprofit organizations, local community centers and office fitness facilities than to most national health-club chains.
YMCAs, Jewish Community Centers (JCCs), university rec centers and private studios for yoga, dance or Pilates fared better than all big chains except Life Time Fitness, Eden Prairie, MN, according to Consumer Reports National Research Center's first health club survey, which was published in the February issue of Consumer Reports. Life Time was the highest-rated national chain. Bally Total Fitness, Chicago, received the lowest marks of commercial chains.
More than 10,000 subscribers to www.ConsumerReports.org who used a gym in the past six months reported on staff, equipment, classes, crowds, cleanliness and billing issues. The 3,400 respondents who had canceled a membership at another gym during the past three years reported on why they left and whether or not it was easy to cancel.
Consumer Reports also sent 12 secret shoppers to major chains in nine states to ask about becoming a member.
"Consumers can pay up to $95 a month to join a health club and get certain extras like personal training sessions and spa services, but Consumer Reports' survey indicated that they might be happier spending a lot less," says Jamie Kopf Hirsh, Consumer Reports' associate editor. "There are some great values to be found at the gyms at Ys, community centers and JCCs."
Life Time received the second-highest reader score of 79, one point below yoga/dance/Pilates studios. Life Time had the best locker rooms and equipment variety, and it received high marks along with yoga/dance/Pilates studios in the categories of cleanliness, staff and classes.
Bally was criticized for wait times for machines, problems with contracts or fees, lack of cleanliness and less-than-adequate locker rooms. The survey was conducted shortly before Bally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July. Bally emerged from bankruptcy two months later.
Gold's Gym, Dallas, had a better-than-average variety of equipment but otherwise didn't stand out in the survey. Among the chains that received below-average marks for crowds were Bally; 24 Hour Fitness, San Ramon, CA; Town Sports International, New York; and LA Fitness, Irvine, CA.
Curves International, Waco, TX, received the second-highest reader score among club chains and was eighth overall in the survey. Curves joined yoga/dance/Pilates studios as being less crowded than most gyms and among the cleanest, but Curves also was cited for having limited workout options and substandard locker rooms.
The YMCA was the easiest place to cancel a membership, according to the survey. Ys and JCCs appealed to readers because they offer classes and are most likely tailored to specific groups, including kids, women and seniors, the survey found.
University rec centers provide greater access to large-scale athletic facilities such as basketball courts, running tracks and climbing walls, according to the survey. Thirty-two percent of school gyms in the survey had climbing walls vs. 10 percent of big-chain clubs.
Corporate and apartment facilities received high marks for convenience, but work gyms had more equipment options than apartment gyms. Work gyms also appealed to readers for providing access to a personal trainer or exercise classes.


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Problems with Pew's Mobile Privacy Study
A recent study examining how mobile phone users protect their privacy looked fine on the surface, but also tried comparing smartphone users with non-smartphone users. Security Watch outlines why that doesn't work.
Earlier this week, Pew Internet and American Life Project released a study examining mobile phone users and privacy. Approximately 88 percent of the U.S. population owns cellphones, and a little less than half, or 43 percent, download apps on to their phones, Pew found in its study. Of that group of app downloaders, a little over half, or 57 percent, said they have uninstalled or refused to install an app due to privacy concerns.
So far so good, but the study took a bizarre turn when examining what the users did with their phones. Pew reported that of all the surveyed cell phone owners, 42 percent backed up the contents of the mobile devices, 32 percent cleared browsing history, and 19 percent disabled location tracking. Since the percentages were higher among smartphone owners, Pew's researchers drew the conclusion that smartphone users were more privacy conscious than their non-smartphone counterparts.
"Smartphone owners are generally more active in managing their mobile data, but also experience greater exposure to privacy intrusions," the Pew report found.
Can't Compare The Two
The problem is, the survey attempted an apples-to-oranges comparison for each of those findings. Non-smartphones, or feature phones (often called "dumb phones") are a varied lot, including the likes of LG Rumor Reflex with a keyboard and touchscreen interface, and the far simpler Samsung Gusto 2, a clamshell phone with a basic Web browser and a camera, but nothing else beyond regular calling features.
Comparing usage between dumb phone and smartphone users "is pretty idiotic" since "dumb phones don't carry the same features or risks," Rich Mogull, analyst and CEO of independent security research and advisory firm Securosis, told Security Watch in an email.
While the survey questions weren't "terrible," Mogull was not sure if the users in the survey understood the questions to answer them appropriately. "I don't think the conclusions can be used to predict actual behavior," Mogull said.
Questions Don't Apply
For example, one of the questions referred to disabling location tracking. While GPS and family locator apps exist for some feature phones, several models have no GPS capabilities all. The way the question was phrased, users would have answered, "No" even if their phone didn't have GPS to begin with.
While most feature phones nowadays have a mobile Web browser, the browsers are often crippled, said Sascha Segan, the lead analyst for mobile at PCMag. Considering that most feature phone owners didn't pick their phones to surf the Web or send email, it's unlikely there would be a privacy reason to regularly clear the browsing history on these phones the way there is on smartphones.
Again, the way the Pew survey was structured, users would have answered "No" even if they never used the Web browser.
The difference in backup behaviors may boil down to the fact that smartphones have built-in methods to do so. "It isn't anywhere near obvious on many feature phones," Segan said.
Don't Want to Overestimate Smartphone Population
Pew acknowledged that some of the "No" answers include users who don't have the capability to perform those tasks on their phones in the first place. "However, part of the reason that these questions were asked of all cell phone owners, and not just smartphone owners, is that previous research of ours has shown that some people are still confused about whether or not they own a smartphone," Mary Madden, Pew's senior research specialist, told Security Watch in an email. Nearly one in ten cell owners are not sure if their phone qualifies as a smartphone, so the questions were designed in "an effort to be conservative and not overestimate the smartphone population," Madden said.
Madden acknowledged that the privacy implications of clearing browsing history and other acts varied between both groups. Addressing the differences was "out of scope" in this report, but will be addressed "in much greater detail in a larger study that we're planning for next year," Madden said.
Privacy Breach
The Pew report also noted that smartphone owners were "twice as likely as other cell owners to have experienced someone accessing their phone in a way that made them feel like their privacy had been invaded."
The difference had less to do with user behavior and more about the phone ecosystem. Feature phones are much more secure than smartphones as there are less downloadable apps, and even those apps that exist are much more limited when it comes to affecting user privacy, Segan said.


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Motels have lost their glow
Years ago I taught with a fidgety man who rolled his protuberant eyes when I mentioned a nice motel I'd stayed in at Lake Tahoe during a conference. He said he'd sleep in his VW Bug before a motel. Didn't I know that "motels" is an acronym for "many opportunities to ensure little sleep?"
No, I didn't. And did he know — as he smugly nibbled on an egg-salad sandwich he gripped with both hands — that he looked like a grasshopper? An unkind thought, I realize, but I enjoyed staying in rooms where someone else made my bed.
Lately, however, motels have lost their glow. My disenchantment began when their decorators became obsessed with pillows. I quail when I see a bed lined with four pillows of a decorative nature and six more labeled hard, medium, or soft. In my experience, they all feel the same, and they're all too small. Worse, there's no place to move them, and Joel frowns when I throw them on the floor.
I'm equally dismayed by motel coffee makers. They used to brew four cups, then two; and now they yield one stingy, six-ounce cup at a time — completely unsatisfactory for dedicated coffee drinkers. Mini-bars also seem useless. I sometimes examine their contents, but never consume anything. Their exorbitant prices make me squeal "eek" the way my dad did before he drove away from over-priced gas pumps.
The refrigerators found in motel rooms do have a purpose: storing food to forget; and most heating and cooling systems have one setting: goose bumps. The light switches are never where they should be, so I'm at risk every time I enter a blacked-out room, groping for a switch, while the door slams shut, blocking the hall light. Last winter, stumbling into a room, I tripped over an ottoman and sprawled on the floor, still gripping the handle of my wheeled bag, which toppled over on me.
Not a pretty sight.
Joel and I pulled into an isolated western town late one night, not knowing that festive folks had gathered from miles around to celebrate Pioneer Days. The first four motels we saw had no vacancies. At the fifth, we saw no sign indicating room availability; so Joel went to check while I stayed in the car, having a meltdown. When told there was one remaining room, Joel, wondering why, asked to see it. As he started to say the room looked fine, a giant cockroach lumbered across the bed's mountain of pillows. We drove on.
The desk clerk didn't argue as we left. He probably saw the insect as well and assumed we had a modicum of intelligence, unlike a night clerk in Indiana, who looked at our tired group — sunburned and dizzy after a long day on every waterslide and roller coaster at Holiday World — and assumed we'd need help to navigate his motel.
"You have rooms 302 and 303. Here's how to find them. All the rooms on the first floor are numbered in the hundreds: you know, like 101, 122, 148. The rooms on the second floor are numbered in the two hundreds: so rooms 203 or 217 would be found there. Get it? Your rooms, 302 and 303, are on the third floor. So in the elevator, push the number three. Then, on your floor, the room numbers are in order: 301, 302, 303, 304. Keep that in mind, and you'll be fine. I'll be right here if you run into trouble."
Wow! Who knew?
For a time, I preferred historic hotels to motels. But my interest in them dimmed when I discovered that though the ambiance may be interesting, the plumbing rarely works. Why stay in an elegant, restored hotel if you have to take the lid off the toilet's tank and jiggle its innards to make it flush?
So forget history: now I prefer motels so new that desk clerks have to explain the room-numbering system to dazed tourists with sunburned noses.
Fish, shoot at Saturday's Cast, Blast & Twang: Bulldog Sports — Week of June 19, 2019
The coming week in sports for Craig and Moffat County.


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Ridley Scott - W. R. Grace Deficit Trials by angelseyth
Real problems the national debt might cause
1. About 28% of the debt is owed to foreign citizens (that is according to the textbook by Tucker-it is probably closer to 30% now). When they get paid back, they come and buy American goods. That leaves fewer goods for Americans (who can't afford to buy as much due to higher taxes that were needed to pay back the debt). BUT THIS MIGHT NOT BE A CONCERN IF WE ORIGINALLY BORROWED THE MONEY FOR A GOOD PURPOSE.
People borrow money all the time to buy houses and cars. Then they pay it back to a person outside of their family or household. We don't consider this a burden since the money was put to good use. Right after World War II, the national debt was 120% of the GDP. This was much higher than it is now and we survived. No one complains that we borrowed to win the war.
2. Raising taxes might hurt economic incentives. At higher tax rates, people might want to work and invest less. Fewer businesses might expand and fewer news ones created since you will get to keep less profit. But again, THIS MIGHT NOT BE A CONCERN IF WE ORIGINALLY BORROWED THE MONEY FOR A GOOD PURPOSE. Also, if taxes only go up a little, and the debt is slowly paid off each year (like after WW II), it may not hurt too much.
3. We may have fewer government services in the future if we pay back the debt by lowering government spending. But this means that we are trading more government services today for fewer in the future. THIS IS NOT NECESSARILY A BAD THING IF THE MONEY IS SPENT WISELY (which everyone not might not agree on).
For more info ee Reinhart and Rogoff: Higher Debt May Stunt Economic Growth from the WSJ blog last year.
"To all the reasons to worry about the rapid rise in government debt in the wake of the financial crisis, add another: It'll stunt our growth.
In a new paper presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association, Carmen Reinhart of the University of Maryland and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard study the link between different levels of debt and countries' economic growth over the last two centuries. One finding: Countries with a gross public debt debt exceeding about 90% of annual economic output tended to grow a lot more slowly. For advanced countries above the 90% threshold, average annual growth was about two percentage points lower than for countries with public debt of less than 30% of GDP.
The results are particularly relevant at a time when debt levels in the U.S. and other countries at the center of the financial crisis are rapidly approaching the 90% threshold. Gross government debt in the U.S., for example, stood at 85% of GDP in 2009 and will reach 108% of GDP by 2014, according to IMF projections. The U.K.'s gross government debt stood at 69% of GDP in 2009 and is expected to reach 98% of GDP by 2013.
"If history is any guide," the rising government debt "is very troubling for the U.S. and other advanced economies," says Ms. Reinhart.
The relationship between government debt burdens and growth is even stronger for emerging-market economies, Ms. Reinhart and Mr. Rogoff find. For countries above the 90% threshold, average annual growth was about three percentage points lower than for countries with public debt of less than 30% of GDP. The countries above the threshold also experienced much higher inflation: prices rose more than twice as fast as in countries with small debt burdens."


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Russian State label Jazzers in India - whatever next!
A killer LP of funky big band grooves. As is so often the case with Eastern European releases in the 70s & 80s, musical trends tended to lag behind their western equivalents, both technologically and stylistically and this release is no different - so don't let the year fool you.
The Jazz Festival in Bombay is one of the most exotic in the world. Unusual combinations of musical cultures from Africa, America, Asia and Europe, the presence of many distinguished masters of jazz and a sensitive and sympathetic audience - all of which made the festival "Jazz Yatra-80" an extremely happy and colourful one.
The brochure issued by the organizers of the festival - National Jazz Committee of India, Secretary General Committee Narayan Dzhaverm quotes Mahatma Gandhi and has become the motto of the festival: "I want the windows and doors of my house to be wide open. I give the cultures of all countries free entry into my house". Bulgaria, Germany, England, Sweden, Poland, USA, Yugoslavia, Finland, the Soviet Union - this is far from a complete list of participating countries in the festival.
So, back to the album... Original compositions, funky basslines, tight jazzy horns and plenty of Moog. Completely delicious and further proof, should you need any, that exceptional music can have the most unusual origins.
1) Holiday
2) Opus N° 2
3) The Old Fort
4) Whirlpool
5) Remembering A Friend
6) Birds In The Window


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Adam Rhodes needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 428 designs submitted by 87 freelance designers.
Australian Reliance
We are an insurance broking company. We advise major companies on their risks and place insurance programs to cover those risks. We are an Australian based company taking on the global heavy weights in our industry. Our motto is "Better People, Better Solutions, Better Service".
Every company needs insurance. Our target audience is corporations around the world.
We want a logo that encapsulates several key features:
1. The renewable nature of insurance;
2. Our motto of "better people, better solutions, better service"; and
3. The global nature of our business.
We are a financial services company which wishes to portray ourselves as professional yet innovative.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Gulf Pines, FL Real Estate
Gulf Pines is a unique community of people, wildlife, and lush vegetation with 119 Homesites. Located on Sanibel's west end, residents of Gulf Pines enjoy community pool, tennis and clubhouse.
Search for properties in Gulf Pines
Gulf Pines947 Cabbage Palm Ct
Gulf Pines
Sanibel, FL
$995,000 | 3 Beds, 4 Baths Favorite
This listing is courtesy of SanCap Gateway Realty
Gulf Pines4345 Gulf Pines Dr
Gulf Pines
Sanibel, FL
$950,000 | 4 Beds, 4 Baths Favorite
This property is receiving international exposure through the John R. Wood Global Marketing Program.
Gulf Pines4339 Gulf Pines Dr
Gulf Pines
Sanibel, FL
$795,000 | 3 Beds, 2 Baths Favorite
This listing is courtesy of Premier Sotheby's Int'l Realty
The data relating to real estate for sale on this limited electronic display come in part from the Broker Reciprocity Program (BR Program) of M.L.S. of Naples, Inc. Properties listed with brokerage firms other than John R. Wood Properties are marked with the BR Program Icon and detailed information about them includes the name of the Listing Brokers. The properties displayed may not be all the properties available through the BR Program.
We're sorry, but no properties that meet this criteria are currently available.
We're sorry, but no properties that meet this criteria are currently available.


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One of the first things our nation's founders did was to establish schools and colleges. They believed that in order to pass the founding ideals to future generations, they needed institutions of higher learning to do it.
For example, those who conceived and built Harvard wanted their ideological legacy to continue:
"One of the next things we longed for, and looked after was to advance Learning and perpetuate it to Posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate Ministry to the Churches, when our present Ministers shall lie in the Dust."
Why an educated ministry? Ministers were often the only source of information in the colonies. "No other thinker had such as wide audience as did the preacher in his pulpit, and his printed sermons and treatises were the staple reading matter of his parishioners."1
Liberals understood that education was the way to change a nation from the inside. If you have control over the education of children and the content of the curriculum, you can change the direction of the nation without ever firing a shot. It takes time; but it can be done.
Muslims also understand this methodology. That's why they are setting up schools in the United States. They are using our freedoms against us.
The 66-acre former home of the Woodmont Academy, a Catholic school in Cooksville, Maryland, is in the process of being purchased by a Muslim group to build an educational center from kindergarten through college. The goal is to have a long-term national impact:
"We have to look at our community's growth in terms of the next 50 years to 100 years, not just 10 or 20 years down the road. This is an investment in the future of the community, for the Muslims who are here long after we are gone."
Their own Muslim publication, The Muslim Link, describes the educational center as "the "Largest Islamic Project in America."
Muslims understand that to put their children in a government school would mean that a large percentage of them would be lost to their Islamic ideals. In order to reshape America and make it Islamic, the process of Islamization must begin with the children. Year after year more Islamic-trained young people will make their way into American society and begin to take over the centers of power. We're already seeing it in politics. Presently, there are two Muslims in Congress.
It may take a hundred years. It's taken Islam more than a thousand years to get where it is today. Another hundred years is nothing.
- Richard B. Schlatter, The Social Ideas of Religious Leaders, 1660–1688 (New York: Octagon Books, [1940] 1971), v. [↩]


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Line-of-business applications have a notorious reputation for being all business and no pleasure. The fact is that "user experience" has never really been a top concern when developing line-of-business (LOB) applications. While many LOB-style applications are putting an increasing emphasis on usability, they often fall short on appeal. User experience is actually a combination of both usability and appeal, as in Figure 1.
LOB applications classically fall somewhere between "Please shoot me!", and "Day Job". But there's no reason they can't fall into the "First Love" category; a perfect mix of usability and appeal.
Getting Started
The first thing to remember about a Silverlight application is that your code is running mainly on the client-side. This setup requires a solid communication layer connecting the client and the server, which is typically accomplished through web services; mainly WCF. Whether your databinding, authenticating, or even validating, you'll be talking through a web service at some point. Of course, you could use AJAX (XmlHTTPRequest) to communicate with the server; scripting the results to your Silverlight code, but that's best left to the hard core scripters out there.
Any line-of-business application is going to have a requirement for some form of authentication. While Silverlight doesn't have authentication built into its core, you can easily re-use the ASP.NET authentication model.
Authentication for a Silverlight application is set up just like a typical ASP.NET application. Permissions can be set for pages and directories, using rules and roles through the web.config file. For most scenarios, Windows authentication will be used, for its tight integration between roles and ActiveDirectory. However, if you choose to use forms-based authentication, you'll need to add a way for the user to supply credentials to your application. This can be done through a typical ASP.NET login page which acts as the gateway to your application. However, if you're creating a full-screen Silverlight application, it's better to provide a login experience which more closely matches the rest of your application. Enter WCF once again.
ASP.NET 3.5 includes WCF services for Authentication, Roles, and Profiles. These services can easily be added to your application in a couple of steps. Because the service is already included in the .NET Framework, you simply need to create an endpoint for the service. The first step is to add the .svc file to your web site. You will want to add a plain text file in this case rather than using the "Silverlight Enabled WCF Service", since you don't actually need a code behind file. Listing One is an example of the AuthenticationService.
<%@ ServiceHost Language="C#" Debug="true" Service="System.Web.ApplicationServices.AuthenticationService" %>
Aside from creating the service wrapper, you must also enable the service in the web.config file. This requires adding the service definition, bindings and behaviors as well as enabling the AuthenticationService through the system.web.extensions tag. Full details can be found in Listing Two.
<system.serviceModel> <bindings> <basicHttpBinding> <binding name="authBinding"> <!-- Transport security is recommended --> <security mode="Transport"/> </binding> </basicHttpBinding> </bindings> <behaviors> <serviceBehaviors> <behavior name="AuthenticationServiceTypeBehaviors"> <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true"/> </behavior> </serviceBehaviors> </behaviors> <serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true" /> <services> <service name="System.Web.ApplicationServices.AuthenticationService" behaviorConfiguration="AuthenticationServiceTypeBehaviors"> <endpoint contract="System.Web.ApplicationServices.AuthenticationService" binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="authBinding" bindingNamespace="http://asp.net/ApplicationServices/v200"/> </service> </services> </system.serviceModel> <system.web.extensions> <scripting> <webServices> <authenticationService enabled="true" requireSSL="false"/> </webServices> </scripting> </system.web.extensions>
With authentication, role and profile services all in place on your web site, you can now add the appropriate service references to your Silverlight application and get to work writing some code.


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Find Your Perfect Home.
West Olive Real Estate
West Olive is located in Michigan. West Olive, Michigan has a population of 8,489. West Olive is less family-centric than the surrounding county with 32.91% of the households containing married families with children. The county average for households married with children is 37.24%.
The median household income in West Olive, Michigan is $69,507. The median household income for the surrounding county is $58,160 compared to the national median of $53,482. The median age of people living in West Olive is 38.4 years.
West Olive Weather
The average high temperature in July is 79.4 degrees, with an average low temperature in January of 18.4 degrees. The average rainfall is approximately 36.8 inches per year, with inches of snow per year.
View Homes for Sale in West Olive
West Olive Map
Real Estate Near West Olive
Nearby Cities
Nearby Cities Homes for Sale
West Olive Zip Codes


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Solid Waste Plans
Solid Waste Management Plan - The Solid Waste Management Plan updates the City of Seattle's programs and services to prevent waste, increase recycling and composting, and improve services.
Facilities Plan - The Solid Waste Facilities Master Plan was prepared to address the critical need to upgrade or replace the existing transfer stations before they fail.
Recycling and Waste Reduction Study (Zero Waste Study) - This study, completed in 2007, evaluated both new strategies and existing programs adopted previously under the guiding principle of "zero waste" as originally laid out in the 1998 Seattle Solid Waste Comprehensive Plan, "On the Path to Sustainability." Zero Waste and collection strategies, with the potential to divert significant tonnage away from landfill disposal, were identified in this five month comprehensive study.


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This February we are honoring Black History Month by going global. We're hearing from exciting voices with roots somewhere in Africa, but who are citizens of the world - people who are making an impact as part of the global diaspora. Today, we meet one of the biggest names in dance music in Europe. Paul Van Haver was born and raised in his mother's native Belgium speaking French. His father, whom he saw rarely, growing up, was from Rwanda. Now the bare-bones of the story are that he was not an avid student but his mother insisted he choose an instrument, and chose the drums, which would seem to have absolutely nothing to do with how it is that Paul Van Haver has become a major star on the European pop music scene, where he is known as Stromae.
MARTIN: And we were able to catch up with him on a brief visit to the U.S. after he attended the Grammys. He's with us now from our studios in Culver City, California. Welcome, thank you so much for coming.
STROMAE: Thank you for your time.
MARTIN: You know, your music has gotten a lot of attention for capturing kind of the mood of the continent. And a lot of the people who've written about your music, one of the reasons they say it really cuts through for people is that it really captures kind of where people are. And I wonder where that voice came from?
STROMAE: Actually I'm just like a photographer or like a director - of course, I have an opinion, but I don't think my opinion or what I want to say or what I want to give is so obvious 'cause that's not my job. My job is just to give a point of view not more than that.
MARTIN: You're like reporting, like reporting.
STROMAE: That's it.
MARTIN: You know how they used to say that rap is the CNN of the streets? You remember - did you hear that?
STROMAE: No, but that's true. That's so true, yeah.
MARTIN: Yeah. So that's how you feel? Like, you feel like you're reporting?
STROMAE: Yes, but not about a situation, it's about something that nobody cares about. For example, for "Formidable," this guy that I saw 10 years ago, which was a homeless, he was just asking to my girlfriend and me for coins or something to eat, and actually he was a little bit aggressive. And the problem is that this guy decided to say to us do you think you are beautiful, to my girlfriend and me, really aggressively.
And I wasn't really angry, I was just wondering why this guy decided to say it me at this moment. And later, like, 10 years later, I created the song "Formidable," which is like a mix between this guy, a friend of mine, which was a little bit drunk. And the drunk is not talking about drunk or drugs or stuff like - or marginal or, you know, somebody aggressive or - just sadness and loneliness. That's the meaning of my song actually.
MARTIN: Yeah, let's play a little bit for people who have not yet heard it. This is "Formidable." And I want to talk about the video, but let's play a little bit of it. Here it is.
MARTIN: It seems like a fellow after a bad breakup, and he's kind of reeling after a bad breakup. And there is that line that you mentioned from the encountered you had, where it says, hey, take a look at yourself, think your Mr. Handsome just 'cause you got married, this is but a ring, man, don't get carried away - she'll dump you like they always do - now about the other girl, did you tell her? So it goes on - it seems kind of - but the - a little intense. But the video...
STROMAE: Yes.
MARTIN: Has had something - what - like 60 million views on YouTube to this point, probably more by now. And it is you kind of stumbling around on the street in Brussels, and you seem like you're drunk, and the cameras are - I think they're hidden, they seem hidden - are filming the encounters that various people have with you. And some people seem to know you, like they're taking your picture...
STROMAE: Yes, it is.
MARTIN: Some people try to help you...
STROMAE: Exactly.
MARTIN: And the police come at one point, and they seem kind of nice. Was this all a put on? You were pretending to be drunk, right? Just to see peoples' reactions, correct?
STROMAE: Exactly.
MARTIN: So how did that idea come about? It's very really interesting.
STROMAE: This kind of video - like, real videos in the street - are maybe more interesting for people then when I'm trying to work on, you know, real creative works. And I was a little bit sad to know that, but actually we are like that - I'm like that too, I'm human. So I decided to...
MARTIN: So the idea of sort of catching a star, a celebrity like yourself, drunk and in the street was kind of more entertaining for people - even though you weren't drunk, just to clarify...
STROMAE: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...Was more entertaining than actually watching you film like a performed piece?
STROMAE: Yes.
MARTIN: How do people feel now that they know that it was really a performance, it was a performance? So are they OK with it or...
STROMAE: Actually I think that people were surprised. The only message is only that this video clip is a mirror of us. That's all.
STROMAE: We wanted to do this video and we didn't know what we could expect. And it was a big surprise to see that, yeah, we had, like, a policeman, we had three people who were, like, filming at me, somebody who was laughing about me, somebody who was trying to help me, somebody who was just ignoring me - and I think that's what we are.
MARTIN: If you're just joining us, we are speaking with Stromae. He's become one of the biggest names in dance music in Europe. And we were actually able to catch up with him on a visit to the U.S. There's another song that I really want to talk with you about, and it's "Papaoutai."
STROMAE: Yes it is.
MARTIN: And I just want to play a little bit and then I'll ask you to translate a little bit. Here it is.
MARTIN: And, you know, the video is devastating, if you don't mind my saying. As a mother it is devastated because it's a little boy who's trying to get his father to react. And the father is kind of like a mannequin, so he's there but not there. And the boy's going through all these - trying to get him to play soccer and kind of engage with him and he can't, of course, because his mannequin. The lyrics - do you want to translate? Do you want to translate a little bit for us, from what we just heard?
STROMAE: I'm just trying to ask what's our father's job. And that's the question. And I don't have the answer actually. Of course, my personal life is that I didn't really know my father. I met him, like, sometimes and he died in the Rwandan genocide. So that's why I was educated by my mother only. And, of course, it's a question that I have, but it's not because I didn't grow up with my father that I have this kind of question, it's just because I'm a man. The question is what's a good father, what's a father, what's a bad father? And actually the answer is we're just trying to do our best.
MARTIN: The chorus is where are you, papa, where are you?
STROMAE: Yes, that's it.
MARTIN: And one of the lyrics that I think really struck me is the, you know, come on, tell us who does, everyone knows how babies are made, but no one knows how fathers are made, Mr. Know-it-all - it's in our blood, that's it. And - it's, like I said, it's - how did your mother feel about it? If you don't mind my asking.
STROMAE: Actually, she was touched by the song, of course, because I'm his son. But she loved the song, yeah, she loved the song. She's a fan. I think she's my first fan.
MARTIN: Well, she's your mother, of course. You played the mannequin, just for people who haven't seen it yet.
STROMAE: Yes, yeah...
MARTIN: You play the mannequin - and quite a handsome one, if you don't mind my saying.
STROMAE: This kind of image of the father is beautiful because that's what we want of a father and that's what we don't want of a father. It's so paradoxal, of course, but I think we are paradoxal when we are children or teenagers. And actually that's the question that we ask always, all the time, to our father.
MARTIN: Did you ever ask him? Did you ever, before - you mentioned that, you know, your father was killed in the Rwandan genocide - did you ever have the opportunity to ask him why he wasn't more present in your life?
STROMAE: Maybe I asked the question, but I don't remember. He died when I was 9 so I don't have any precision in my souvenir? I'm sorry for my English, but...
MARTIN: No, no it's fine. I understand what you're saying.
STROMAE: You know, actually when I was a teenager, I was maybe a little bit angry. And until before I created the song I was still a little bit angry, but I decided to have less angry about my father and just decided to say, OK, I'm already 28 and I think I have to grow up because he's not there anymore. And I think that I'm and I have to do my best for the next one, that's all.
MARTIN: Well, what is next for you? I mean, as we mentioned, you are a very big star in Europe and, you know, as I said, not just millions - like, tens of millions of YouTube hits that your videos have been viewed, best-selling albums in, mainly, but not exclusively, French-speaking countries. I mean, in - you know, in France and Belgium, but also in, you know, the Netherlands and Israel, interestingly. So...
STROMAE: Germany.
MARTIN: And Germany, yeah, as one would imagine. And so what's next for you? Are you hoping to record in English? Are you hoping to, you know, cross the pond and do something in the U.S.?
STROMAE: I think I can come in the U.S. even if I speak French. I hope. That's my big hope actually. So, yeah, just continue to sing in French and to be listened by non-French people.
MARTIN: So is that the goal then? You want to sing in French and let people figure it out? Is that the plan? Just deal with it, right?
STROMAE: I think it's about the feeling more than a language. And I think that we and every culture in the world has to keep their own language just to bring something else. something different and show a different vision of the world actually. And that's why I'm trying to keep my language.
MARTIN: And what about being a man of color? Has that played a role in your career?
STROMAE: What does that mean exactly, man of color?
MARTIN: Man of color?
STROMAE: Yeah.
MARTIN: Interestingly, in this country, we use that to mean people who are not white, basically. That's pretty much it - not white.
STROMAE: OK, color. OK.
MARTIN: That's kind of how we use it.
STROMAE: The thing is - I'm not brown or white, that's the thing, I'm just half-and-half. My father is black - was black - my mother is white. And I don't think it's about color or something, it's just about feelings. And the thing is we - everybody lives exactly the same things. We are all humans, even if you speak Spanish or whatever you speak. That's just - we are humans, and that's really interesting. And I'm sure that we can understand each other even if you don't understand my language.
MARTIN: Paul Van Haver, known as Stromae, is a Belgian singer, songwriter, dancer. And he was kind enough to join us in our studios at NPR West, which is in Culver City, California. Stromae, thank you so much for speaking with us.
STROMAE: Thank you for your inviting me - for votre invitation (ph), pardon me.
MARTIN: And that's our program for today. I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Let's talk more tomorrow.
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A Brief History of Honda's American Manufacturing
Honda had painstakingly marshaled a reputation of superb quality for its made-in-Japan motorcycles. But in the '70s, consumers' attitudes had been hardened by years of disappointment and frustration in American-made products, best illustrated by General Motors' problems with the Vega, Ford's with the Pinto, and the AMF-built Harley-Davidsons of the time. Honda's first U.S. plant offered an opportunity to change consumers' minds about American quality. But the effort had to succeed. If it did, Honda could proceed with the $250-million auto plant it planned to build. If the Marysville Motorcycle Plant (MMP) failed because of quality problems, Honda's reputation, and its future, could have been damaged beyond repair.
Of course, as history shows, the Marysville experiment did everything expected of it: It upheld Honda's reputation for quality and allowed the company to expand with additional plants in this country. Although the MMP was built primarily for motorcycles, the plant was designed to allow production flexibility, including the assembly of ATVs. Ten years after the first motorcycle was assembled, the best-selling ATV in America--the FourTrax® 300--rolled off the line. Honda followed the MMP with the Marysville Auto Plant (MAP, the first Japanese auto plant in the U.S.), the Anna Engine Plant (AEP), Honda Engineering North America (EGA), the East Liberty Auto Plant (ELP), Honda Transmission Manufacturing (HTM), Honda Power Equipment (HPE), and Honda of South Carolina (HSC), the company's first exclusive ATV plant.
Several reasons account for the success of Honda's U.S. plants. Start with just the physical aspects. Both the 260,000-square-foot MMP and 280,000-square-foot HSC plants are far smaller than their counterparts in Japan. Japanese plants in particular were of little use as models, in part because of their vastly greater production capacity, and because of their hodgepodge nature; they had been built and then expanded repeatedly over the years.
What the American plants needed was the strictest efficiency and, in the MMP's case, flexibility to assemble different models. As Takao Shirokawa, one of the MMP's original team members, said, "The plant was designed to minimize traffic between adjacent departments, to try to minimize space, and try to maintain efficient logistics inside the plant. We tried to make the most efficient, but small, motorcycle plant. Profitability was the key to this plant. So the question was how to minimize the cost of assembly. We tried to pursue efficiency."
One crucial element of efficiency and quality control at HAM is the use of Honda's own assembly and production machinery. Tour the MMP and the HSC ATV plant, as well as Honda's other facilities, and you'll see the usual array of Japanese die-cast machines and American tubing-benders. But most of the high-tech precision equipment was designed and built by Honda Engineering. Welding equipment used for ATV frames, as well as stamping dies, injection molds and other machines, all bear the Honda Engineering stamp.
The American Advantage[edit]
Building machines to make machines also provides Honda with a rapid response time.
In a competitive market, the ability to respond quickly to customer needs has given Honda an invaluable marketing edge. At Honda Engineering-including Honda Engineering of North America--engineers work closely and early in the design process with those in R&D, saving time in creating new jigs, fixtures, stamps, and dies. The arrangement also allows better, more rapid maintenance, as well as kaizen--the Japanese word for improvement--of equipment and processes.
Physically, there's little else about the MMP and HSC that break new ground. The processes and the people make the greatest difference. Take, for example, the sophisticated powder-coat paint process used for FourTrax frames at both the MMP and HSC. This efficient, high-quality, low-emissions technology received the Ohio governor's award for Outstanding Achievement in Pollution Prevention in 1998.
Apart from such purely physical aspects, the attitude the region's inhabitants bring to their work is also crucial. Before construction began on the MMP, Honda officials visited several Midwest manufacturing plants, and were convinced the people there owned a work ethic similar to that of their Japanese counterparts.
What's more, Honda treats its associates in ways almost unheard of at other plants. For instance, open communication allows associates, as Honda's employees are called, to make assembly techniques more efficient. And every associate is treated equally, down to the seemingly minor detail of all employees sharing a single common lunch room, rather than being segregated into labor and management dining areas.
Honda also offers a single pay scale for all assembly associates, which facilitates movement from department to department. Such movement allows cross-training of associates, the development of new skills and a clearer vision of the entire assembly process that has led to many associate-driven improvements over the years. Keeping associates involved and satisfied is a key point in maintaining Honda's high level of quality.
Honda also ensures quality by working closely with its suppliers. At first that was difficult at the MMP because American suppliers were unwilling to supply Honda with parts because of the low production numbers (150 Gold Wings a day in 1981-1983 vs. 1000 units a day at one of Honda's Japanese plants). Suppliers were also unaccustomed to the level of quality Honda demanded, and were initially unwilling to make the investments necessary to provide such quality at such low volumes.
Honda persisted, though, offering training, advice, and even furnishing equipment--an unheard of relationship between client and vendor at the time, and still rare in this country. Yet most suppliers appreciated Honda's involvement, because it allowed them to improve their own quality, and so expand their business. These days, Honda of America Manufacturing (HAM) spends more than $6.4 billion on goods and services from some 450 vendors and suppliers.
The Honda Difference: Putting it Together[edit]
Perhaps the most important way Honda ensures the highest quality in its ATVs and motorcycles is by guaranteeing and monitoring quality every step of the way. "It starts with very high-grade materials," says one company spokesman, "continues with quality suppliers, and then, in a phrase we use, quality in the process. That means we have standards, measurements, repeatable and monitorable, whether it's for a weld, or for material specs for frame material, or the quality of the injection-molded plastic material, or how long it stays in the mold--all those things are very quantifiable for high quality and durability.
"Finally, the ultimate standard we apply is customer satisfaction, which has to do with the customers' expectations and how they use the product. If they put a premium on durability and longevity and performance, we have to think up what materials and processes will ensure those things that will satisfy the customer for many years of use."
At the outset, with the construction of the Marysville Motorcycle Plant, Honda took an enormous gamble. But Honda bet that the quality of its U.S.-assembled motorcycles and ATVs would lead to success, and so it ensured quality at every level, with people, processes, material, and machinery.
That commitment to quality led to the building of seven more facilities in this country over the following two decades, for a total of eight, with a total work force of more than 20,000 associates, and a capital investment of $4 billion in Honda's North American Manufacturing and R&D operations.
Honda built its reputation on that most enduring value--quality-from the very beginning, and never relented. Every motorcycle and ATV that rolls out of the MMP and HSC is a testament to that lifelong commitment.


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HARRISBURG - With another May primary at hand, Pennsylvania's scandal-plagued General Assembly is once again under fire.
And this time, it could get serious.
Four years ago, the public reacted to the legislature's now-infamous midnight pay raise by sweeping many incumbents from office. The pay raise was later repealed but the legislature's problems, it turned out, were just beginning.
Compare the size of states' legislative staffs
Since then, two legislative leaders have been convicted of using their offices for political or personal gain, while in the background firestorms of controversy have raged over things like budget delays, pensions and per diems.
All of which has fed public cynicism about state government and prompted a host of candidates to campaign on changing the way Harrisburg does business. The discussion so far has ranged from stopping questionable practices to full blown reform.
One area of focus is the size of the legislative branch. And, critics say, rightfully so.
"We need to scale back," said Eric Epstein, coordinator of RockTheCapitol.org. "Legislators and their staff need to live in the same world as the rest of us."
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Pennsylvania had the largest full-time and second most expensive legislative branch in the nation. The report, based on information from the 2008-09 fiscal year, is the latest compilation from the NCSL and does not necessarily reflect cutbacks some legislatures, including Pennsylvania's, may have made in the recent past. The NCSL report shows that Pennsylvania, while sixth in population, has a legislative branch of 253 lawmakers and 2,918 support staff, dwarfing those of larger, more populous states.
No other state even comes close to the size of its legislative operation. And the cost shows.
Only California outspent Pennsylvania on its legislature in 2008-09, said the NCSL, which used 2008 U.S. Census data for its report. Even then, it wasn't by much.
With 120 lawmakers and 2,067 legislative staffers, California spent $336 million on its legislative branch, compared to Pennsylvania's $319 million. But California, the most populous state in the nation, had 36.5 million people. Pennsylvania had 12.5 million.
And the drop-off in cost after Pennsylvania is dramatic.
The nation's third most expensive full-time legislature, New York, has 212 lawmakers and a support staff of 2,676. It spent $216 million in 2008-09, more than $100 million less than Pennsylvania, the NCSL reports.
The fourth, Florida, has only 160 lawmakers with a support staff of 1,457, the NCSL reports. It spent $175 million in 2008-09. Florida's population was 18.4 million in 2008, the NCSL noted. New York had 19.4 million people.
States with populations closer to Pennsylvania, like Ohio at 11.5 million and Illinois at 12.8 million, spent far less. Illinois spent $71 million; Ohio, $48 million. Illinois has 177 lawmakers and 980 staffers. Ohio has 132 legislators and 465 staffers.
The difference between full-time and part-time legislatures is even more stark.
Texas, for instance, with a 2008 population of 24.3 million, has the largest of all part-time legislatures in the country with 181 lawmakers and a legislative staff of 2,090. It spent $126 million in 2008-09, according to the NCSL.
Officially, New Hampshire has the largest state assembly in the country with a delegation of 424 lawmakers. But it, too, is part-time. With a support staff of only 147 people, it spent only $14 million on its legislature in 2008-09.
Only 10 of the country's 50 legislatures are considered full time.
The NCSL defines a part-time legislature as one in which delegates spend 50 percent or less of a work week on their legislative duties. In Pennsylvania, lawmakers spend an average of 80 percent of their work week in Harrisburg or their home offices, it says.
It wasn't always that way.
Four decades ago, Pennsylvania was a part-time legislature and, although no formal decision was ever made or approved, the General Assembly decided to turn itself into a full-time body in order to maintain status with the executive branch.
The legislature created a Commission for Legislative Modernization which recommended adding session days, hiring more staff, providing lawmakers with offices in the capital and in their districts, as well as other perks.
Legislative leaders took the recommendation and, beginning in the 1970s, the public began electing candidates who promised to be full-time legislators. Part of the consequences is that the legislative bureaucracy swelled from 532 staffers in 1969, to 1,700 in 1984 and close to 3,000 in 2003 while the number of lawmakers remains fixed at 203 House members and 50 senators.
Being full-time hasn't helped lawmakers solve some major problems such as overhauling school property taxes (notwithstanding the slots-funded relief averaging $200 this year for each Pennsylvania household), providing electric rate relief after utility caps were removed and consolidating the huge number of local governments.
However, during the past three years lawmakers successfully tackled a number of second-tier issues that are important to large segments of the population. These include tighter state regulation of home mortgage lenders, home contractors and kennel operators, an indoor smoking ban, covering autism and single young adults under family health insurance policies and creating an alternate energy program.
By 2008, the legislative expense involved translated into a cost of $25.40 a year for every man, woman and child in the state. It was the third highest per capita cost in the nation, behind Alaska at $57.72 and Rhode Island at $26.79.
New York's per capita cost, meanwhile, came to $11.11 in 2008 while California, by virtue of its large population, came to $9.19.
The base salary for legislators in both houses of Pennsylvania's General Assembly is $78,314 a year, fourth highest in the nation, behind California at $95,291, Michigan at $79,650 and New York at $79,500.
Salaries, however, are only a part of the actual costs. Factoring in health and pension benefits and other expenses, the real cost of the average legislator climbs to $125,000 to $150,000, depending on how much a legislator claims in reimbursements.
In response to the state's ongoing fiscal crisis, the state this year for the first time in memory actually cut what it spends on the legislature and related agencies, trimming about $31 million for a 2010 budget of $288 million.
The budget includes $184 million for the House of Representatives and $92 million for the Senate. However, about 70 percent of the legislative budget is eaten up by salaries and benefits, most of it for legislative staff.
Despite the large numbers, legislative spending is only a sliver of the state's annual $27.8 billion budget, major portions of which goes to medical assistance and public education.
The legislature also controls a $113 million surplus, even after drawing down about $87 million to pay for legislative salaries during a 101-day budget stalemate. Both lawmakers and state workers faced payless paydays for five weeks last summer until a stopgap budget was enacted. Gov. Ed Rendell removed legislative funding from the stopgap budge, but lawmakers drew on their surplus to pay salaries until a new budget was enacted on Oct. 9.
The budget delay isn't the only hit the legislature has taken since 2005.
In 2007, Attorney General Thomas Corbett launched "Bonusgate," an investigation into whether or not legislative staffers were used - and paid - illegally for campaign-related work done on state time.
So far, 25 people with ties to the Democratic and Republican caucuses in the House have been charged. Ten have pleaded guilty or been convicted, including former Rep. Mike Veon, D-Beaver, who was convicted on 14 counts and two acquitted.
Two former House speakers, Reps. John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, and Bill DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, also face charges. It remains to be seen if what Mr. Corbett has described as an ongoing investigation will now move into the Senate.
Last year, long-time Senate power broker Vince Fumo, D-Philadelphia, was tried and convicted of 137 counts of corruption and related charges. He is now serving a 55-month sentence at a federal penitentiary in Ashland, Ky.
And just recently state Sen. Jane Orie, R-Pittsburgh, and a sister were charged with using her senate office staff to help with political campaigns for her and a third sister, State Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin.
Closer to home, another veteran lawmaker, Sen. Robert Mellow, D-Peckville, has run into ethical questions of his own, after it was announced that he was appointed to a paid position on the board of Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Later, it was disclosed that for years he paid the rent on his district office in Peckville, which is financed by taxpayer money, first to a company made up of his then-wife and the wife of a former aide and later, after his divorce, to himself.
After 40 years in office, Mellow has decided not to seek re-election, as has another long-time Harrisburg fixture, state Sen. Raphael Musto, D-Pittston, whose home was recently searched as part of an as-yet unexplained investigation.
Meanwhile, two veteran House members, state Reps. Jim Wansacz, D-Old Forge, and John Yudichak, D-Nanticoke, have opted to forgo re-election and run instead for the vacant Senate seats of Mellow and Musto respectively.
Wansacz and Yudichak also had brushes with controversy when it was reported that both own homes in Harrisburg but still collect per diems. Yudichak says he plans to sell his house; Wansacz says he will stop collecting per diems.
The pending vacancies, however, has set off a scramble for seats in the Northeast. Whether or not the races will lead to any meaningful reform remains to be seen. But already candidates are pledging to put a stop to business as usual in Harrisburg.
Not all the state seems caught up in reform after an initial wave swept through in 2006. One-third of the 189 House members seeking re-election are unopposed. In the Senate, where even-numbered seats are on the ballot, nine senators have no opposition.
But even those facts might be misleading.
In a Quinnipiac University poll earlier this month, 49 percent of the respondents in Northeastern Pennsylvania said they disapprove of the way the legislature is doing its job. Thirty-nine percent said they approve and 12 percent say they have no opinion.
Statewide, 54 percent of respondents say they disapprove; 31 percent say they approve and 14 percent said they have no opinion. The poll surveyed 1,412 voters and contained a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.


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I have been very impressed by the uniform playability of the field layouts, but I just had this show up in SP--note that red is on offense. The defense can block the path from the two closest offensive players, gather the ball, and score a guaranteed 9 points. The only way for the original offense to win would, I think, have been to allow blue to get the ball on offense on its second possession (6 turns elapsed), get it back, pick up two points zones (plus any blue scored on its offensive turn), and score in overtime. At first thought, I think a requirement that the offense has the closest player to the ball (by enough to ensure he can get a pass off, making some assumptions about stats) may be called for.
(If anyone wonders about the score, the AI did not think of blocking at that passage and needed to throw to avoid a tackle, missing the points zone.)
Broken field layout?
Bug reports and technical support for Frozen Cortex.
Moderator: Admins
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Re: Broken field layout?
Thanks Blothorn.
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Obama gun proposal outrages some Texans, pleases others
FORT WORTH -- Jim Williams isn't sure that President Barack Obama's proposed gun law changes will work.
He sees pros and cons in the plan, which includes calling on Congress to create a universal background check for anyone trying to buy a gun and to restore the ban on military-style assault weapons and on high-capacity ammunition magazines.
"Something has to be done. There's no doubt," said Williams, 60, a Vietnam veteran and Fort Worth gun owner who was shopping at Elk Castle Shooting Sports on Wednesday.
"But Congress can't get together to pay our bills, much less go up against the NRA."
More than that, he said, the move will simply take guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.
"Criminals are still going to have theirs," he said. "They are going to get their stuff either way."
Others said Obama's plan -- which also includes 23 executive actions -- is a step in the right direction.
"There's a time to act and this is the time," said Marsha McCartney, a spokeswoman for the Texas chapter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
"How can we face more parents when they say goodbye [to their children] the way the Newtown parents had to?
"I think this is a remarkable day for America."
Gov. Rick Perry quickly weighed in.
"There is evil prowling in the world -- it shows up in our movies, video games and online fascinations and finds its way into vulnerable hearts and minds," he said. "As a free people, let us choose what kind of people we will be.
"...The Second Amendment to the Constitution is a basic right of free people and cannot be nor will it be abridged by the executive power of this or any other president."
Two of Texas' newest members of Congress -- Democrat Marc Veasey of Fort Worth and Republican Roger Williams of Austin -- had much different reactions.
"I believe in the Second Amendment but also believe there are reasonable ways to improve and reform our laws," Veasey said, adding that he applauds Obama for his response to violence.
Williams, though, said, "as a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, I am deeply concerned by the president's announcement today threatening to trample on our constitutional rights."
Taunting New York
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott kicked off an Internet ad campaign this week inviting New Yorkers worried about gun rights to move to Texas.
The ads, which pop up on The New York Times' website and others, are in response to new gun laws in New York that, among other things, expand a ban on assault weapons.
One of the ads says: "Wanted: Law-abiding New York gun owners looking for lower taxes and greater opportunity."
Clicking on the ads directs readers to a page that touts the benefits of living in Texas. "You'll also get to keep more of what you earn and use some of that extra money to buy more ammo."
Meanwhile, state Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, is working on a bill to make any new federal gun law null and void in Texas.
His "Firearms Protection Act" would make any federal law banning semiautomatic firearms -- or limiting the size of magazines -- unenforceable in Texas. And anyone trying to enforce a federal gun ban in Texas could face felony charges.
"The overreach of the federal administration's executive orders ... [is] not very popular here in Texas," Toth said.
Different opinions
The president's proposal is what many in the gun industry expected.
They've seen shortages for a while of items that could be affected.
"Speculation has already impacted business. People are afraid they are going to permanently take law-abiding citizens' rights away," said Eric Walsh, owner of Elk Castle Shooting Sports. "People are stocking up. We have inventory shortages.
"We were sold out of high-capacity magazines last month."
Jason Smith, a Fort Worth attorney and a father of 3-year-old twins, said Obama is taking the right approach.
Smith asked the Fort Worth City Council this week to require background checks and waiting periods for sales at gun shows in Fort Worth. Council members asked city staff to research their options.
"I'm glad President Obama is taking action to keep guns out of the hands of felons and crazy people," he said. "We've got to take some common-sense steps to end gun violence."
But gun owner Jimmy Vaughan, 64, of Cleburne isn't sure much will come of all this.
"I think it's all political because of what happened," he said.
"Congress will probably go back to the [assault weapons] ban, and they might do something about the clips.
"I don't think it's going to go much anywhere."
Washington bureau chief Maria Recio contributed to this report.
Anna M. Tinsley, 817-390-7610
Twitter: @annatinsley


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YEOVIL Town held on to gain a valuable point at play-off chasing Reading on Saturday, despite having three players sent off in the second-half.
The Glovers finished the game with just eight players after Byron Webster, Joe Ralls and Kieffer Moore all saw red after the interval.
Yeovil took the lead against the run of play when Shane Duffy headed home Luke Ayling's free-kick - but Reading equalised on 68 minutes as Lundstram knocked the ball into his own net, after Adam Le Fondre's spot kick had been saved by Marek Stech three minutes earlier.
Manager Gary Johnson had no complaints about the red cards and said his players fought 'lie Trojans.'
He said: "Of course you're pleased with a point when you have three sending offs and you've got to play half hour, twenty minutes and seven minutes added on at the end with eight men on the pitch.
"We've got to take the positives and it's a fantastic point given all the other results and supporters were fantastic, they knew we weren't going to up into their half much with eight men but every ball we cleared they cheered and it gave the lads more energy.
"We are looking solid and we are looking like everybody is giving it a good go - none more so than the eight left out there. We've got no worries with the decisions made there.
"The lads were like Trojans out there throwing themselves in front of everything."
Shane Duffy prevented an almost certain Reading goal in the seventh minute when he cut out Robson-Kanu's cross, with Le Fondre ready to pounce at the far post.
Despite early Reading pressure, Yeovil took the lead on 20 minutes when Shane Duffy rose above 'keeper Alex McCarthy to nod the ball into an empty net. Marek Stech saved well from McCleary on the stroke of half-time, but the Glovers held on to the break. The visitors were dealt a blow on 65 minutes when Webster brought down Drenthe in the penalty area.
The defender was dismissed but Stech was equal to Le Fondre's penalty kick as he saved well down to his right. But the hosts soon grabbed an equaliser as Lundstram's attempt at a clearance trickled over the line with Yeovil failing to clear their lines.
Just minutes later Town were reduced to nine men when referee Mathieson showed Ralls a straight red for a high foot on Drenthe. Stech was forced into a number of impressive saves as the nine-men struggled to deal with the Reading onslaught. With two minutes on the clock, Moore picked up his second yellow card for a mistimed tackle and the Glovers were left with just eight men on the field. The fourth official signalled seven minutes of added on time and despite the home side having two late corners Town held on to gain what could be a valuable point.