text:
NewsNation/World
Man allegedly buried dog alive after it didn't get along with new kitten
By: Tribune Media Wire
UXBRIDGE, Mass. – Kaylee Belanger's Facebook post begins with a trigger warning: What follows is the lengthy tale of a dog that was allegedly buried alive, rescued, and euthanized in Massachusetts.
The post was made Sunday night, hours after Belanger called the Northbridge Police Department to report that she found the elderly Shih Tzu buried alive in the woods.
She ended up there thanks to Richard Piquard, the 24-year-old Whitinsville man who has been charged with animal cruelty in the case. She writes that on Sunday morning Piquard messaged her to say his dog Chico had died the night before, which she found suspicious as he has been trying to unload the animal.
She says she convinced him to tell her where Chico had been buried so she could retrieve the body and have the animal cremated. After some fruitless searching behind Piquard's home, a noise was heard, and she says digging ultimately revealed a breathing Chico buried under 3 feet of dirt and a rock.
MassLive reports the dog was brought to the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and was ultimately euthanized. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette cites authorities as saying Piquard allegedly buried the dog because it was clashing with his new kitten and his ex-girlfriend, whose family had owned the dog, couldn't immediately take it.
Piquard was arraigned Tuesday and is free on $1,000 bail. He says he no longer has the cat but the judge granted the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals access to his home to verify that. Piquard has an Oct. 26 court date.


text:
Behind the Menu | Chef trades in fancy for home cooking at Jack's Diner
GARY SEMAN JR.
gseman@thisweeknews.com
Chris Kowalski is nothing if not humble.
The classically trained chef, who once worked with some of Columbus' top culinary talent, is the proud owner of Jack's Diner, serving up unapologetic breakfast and lunch fare Downtown.
"I'm just slinging burgers right now," Kowalski said. "It's a good gig."
Join the conversation at Facebook.com/columbusdispatch and connect with us on Twitter @DispatchAlerts
With no real interest in returning to fine dining, Kowalski prefers to keep his menu simple and his prices low.
There are no surprises with the double cheeseburger ($4.55), which offers two patties of grilled beef and traditional garnishes on a toasted bun. A side of crinkle-cut fries is an extra $2.
"That's been a staple of this restaurant for years," Kowalski said.
Many customers will order the burger with a no-nonsense chocolate shake ($3.50), made with real ice cream, whole milk and chocolate syrup — "all the good stuff," he said. (Strawberry and vanilla shakes also are available, as are malts for an extra 35 cents.)
The meatloaf ($6.95) is a proud tradition at Jack's, which has had several Downtown addresses since it was founded in 1942. Kowalski bought it 18 years ago.
Kowalski said the ground beef is seasoned with diced vegetables, Worcestershire, eggs, breadcrumbs and traditional spices, and sided with real mashed potatoes and green beans.
"It's a big portion for lunch, definitely," he said. "It fills you up."
He said the loaf is ladled with house-made gravy, which is a huge hit with customers.
"A lot of people will come in and get a double cheeseburger and gravy all over it," he said.
Among the more-popular breakfast fare, which is served all day, is the short stack of pancakes ($6.50) topped with whipped butter and maple syrup, a choice of breakfast meat and a beverage.
Those who want a gut-busting meal can opt for the breakfast special ($8): two eggs, house-made hash browns, a choice of meat, toast and a beverage.
Kowalski trained at the Columbus State Community College and did an externship at the Culinary Institute of America. He worked for chef Siegbert "Ziggy" Allespach and at Cameron Mitchell Restaurants and assorted country clubs in the area.
He said when the opportunity arose to purchase Jack's Diner, he jumped at it.
Every now and again, Kowalski flashes his culinary skills, but he stays away from fancy meals.
"I'll add stuff here and there," he said, "some different specials and things like that, but I don't do anything else, anything crazy."
onrestaurants@dispatch.com
Where: Jack's Diner
Address: 52 E. Lynn St.
Hours: 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays
Contact: 614-224-3655, www.jacksdowntowndiner.com

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This is a pretty quick and easy project.
Here is the situation. The family is growing; the old table isn't. Now, someday my wife and I would like to have one of those lovely double-pedastal oval tables with two leaves. The ones that expand to sit three families comfortably. But the reality is that our current kitchen wouldn't fit one of those tables. Also, our kids currently range in age from 0 to 6. They're hard on furniture right now. Maybe in 5-8 years we might be ready to look for a nice table. Right now we just need a bigger table.
So we've been toying with different ideas. I almost bought a new table in Costco once, but chickened out. The next week I went back, determined to buy it, but it was gone and hasn't been seen since. We've looked in the pennysaver (classified paper) a few times, but never actually called anyone. I even thought about building one, but I knew that could quickly balloon into a large, expensive, time-consuming project.
Next, my dad suggested that I just get a sheet of plywood and attach it to the present table. This would give us the slightly larger surface area we wanted. We actually kind of liked that idea. It was simple, cheap, and it made use of the existing table. The downside is that the current table has 4 legs and they are just a bit too close together for comfortably fitting two chairs on each side. This solution would give us a bigger table, but not any more room under the table.
So we stewed on it for a few more days. Then came trash day.
I love garbage day. Especially when people put out interesting stuff. Our kids have caught the bug too. They're always scanning the street when we are out driving the night before garbage day. A couple weeks ago someone around the corner from us tossed out an old kitchen table. The table was falling apart and deserved to be tossed. But it also came with a pair of perfectly good chrome pedestal-style legs. The owner had even, very nicely, separated the legs from the table and left them beside the trash.
Those legs followed me home and the plan for this table was firmed up in my head.
I have on my shelf a book by Thomas Moser entitled "Measured Shop Drawings of American Furniture". In the chapter on dining tables he provides helpful guidelines on table dimensions. Here they are, in essence: You need 25" vertical clearance under a table, to have room for your legs. The suggested height is 29-30", with 30" favoured, as we are taller than previous generations. You need 25-30" in width for each place setting, with 30" preferred.
My dimensions are as follows: 30" tall, 60" long, 42" wide. I'm making it out of plywood (Birch - same look as maple), with Cherry 1x2" banding applied vertically around the edges. In order to protect us from accidental bumping of kids heads and also to soften the lines of the table, I'm knocking off the four corners. I'll just measure back about 5" from each corner and cut off a 45-degree piece.
The chrome legs each have a mounting plate with 8 holes in it. I plan to put carriage bolts through a smaller piece of plywood and glue/screw/fasten that to the underside of the table. The bolts are then permanently captured in place. The legs could be easily removed by just unbolting them.
One 4x8 sheet of plywood is plenty for this project. At the lumber store, I had them cut three feet off the end of the plywood to make it easier for me to handle. Actually, because of the grain pattern, I had them cut two feet from one end, and one foot from the other. At home I cut the table top down to final dimensions. My goal is 42x60, so I cut it down to 40-1/2" x 58-1/2" to allow for the solid cherry which I'll be applyin to the edges. The cherry should end up being about 3/4-7/8" thick. The one 24"x48" piece of plywood is almost the perfect size for the underneath piece where I'll attach the legs. I cut it down to about 24"x42". The remainder of the plywood gives plenty of scraps to finish up. I'm gluing a 2" wide piece all the way around the edge of the table -- doubling the thickness of the table. This will strenghten the edge, and give a nice wide backing for the solid cherry banding. I will also be adding a 2-1/2" tall skirt around the "underneath piece". This should also add to the strength of the table, helping to resist any tendency to flex.
As I said at the top, this is a pretty quick and easy project. It's fun too, since it comes together so quickly. Having the legs means all I have to worry about is the top.
For the finish, I applied 4 coats of Flecto Varathane water-based diamond finish - semi-gloss. After the first three coats I lightly sanded as needed with 220 grit. After the final coat I wet-sanded with a scotch pad - equivalent to #0000 steel wool, which you can't use on water-based stuff.
Just for fun, here is a rough diagram (not exactly to scale, but close) of a 4x8 sheet of plywood, showing the cutting plan for my table. As I mentioned above, I had two cuts done at the lumber store, to make it easier to handle, and easier to get home. I was left with three pieces: 2'x4', 5'x4', and 1'x4'.
Out of the largest piece, I cut a 58.5"x40.5" piece for the table top. (My goal is 42x60, but I'm leaving an allowance for the cherry banding). Out of the second largest piece I cut a 24"x42" (approx) for the leg mounting plate, which is fastened under the table top.
That leaves 3 pieces of "scrap". If you are careful, that is plenty of wood for the other small bits that you need. I cut four long strips 1.5" wide, which I glued all around the edge of the table (including 4 short angled pieces across the corners) to double the table thickness at the edge. (Glue those on before cutting the corners.) These were cut from Scrap (b) and (c). I also cut four strips 2" wide to form the skirt, which was attached to the edge of the leg mounting pate. These were cut from Scrap (a) and (c).
Cutting the corners off of the table proved to be a bit of a challenge. I had originally intended to just clamp a straightedge and use my jigsaw. However, the more I thought about it , the less I liked that idea. I have had some blade-wander in the past when cutting thick items with my portable jigsaw and I really did not want to have that here. I don't have a large (huge, really) sliding table for my tablesaw. I thought about trying to cook up a temporary jig for the tablesaw. I tried attaching a large long board to my miter guage and then clamping the table top to that. However, when I tried to see how it would be to move it through the saw (practising with the blade lowered, of course) It just wasn't workable. The table is just too big, and the miter guage too small. Then I had an inspiration. Since I can't move my tabletop through the saw, can I move the saw through the tabletop? I'm only cutting a small piece (5x5") off of each corner... So instead of trying to push the tabletop, I instead positioned the tabletop very carefully on the tablesaw. I clamped it into position and then raised the sawblade up through the corner. Voila! I only have a 9" blade on my saw, so it wasn't quite cut all the way through, but it wa seasy to finish off the rest of the cut with a handsaw. I was left with four beatiful cuts. In order to avoid splintering I also tried the trick of putting masking tape over the cut line on the veneer. Worked like a charm.
One question I wrestled with was in what order should I attach the cherry edge banding? Long pieces first? Or the short corner pieces first? I ended up deciding to fasten the long pieces first. Then I could fiddle with getting the shorter pieces to fit snug. If I make a mistake, it is only a short piece of cherry that needs to be tossed. On the other hand, If I make a mistake with the long pieces it would be harder to replace. In order to simplify things, I decided that the short corner pieces would have a straight 90-degree cut. This actually simplifies cutting the longer pieces as well. Since a perfect 45-degree piece was cut off each corner of the table, choosing a 90-degree cut for the corner banding piece means that the miter angle I need to cut for the long pieces of banding is also 45 degrees. It is hard to convey in words what I mean; doodle it out on paper and it should become clear. Or, see the diagram to the right which is a top view of one of the corners.
See the bolts poking through, and then the legs attached.


text:
Q: Were lightsabers ever a "commodity"? Lightsabers seem to be somewhat labor intensive to build.  And, from everything I've ever seen or read, a Jedi was responsible for creating their own.  Anakin Skywalker is shown to have lost several of them in the films, which I would assume result in a lot of lost time rebuilding new ones.  Was there ever a point where they were mass-produced?  That is, could you ever go to "Crazy Yoda's House of Lightsabers" and just purchase one?  Or was building one from scratch the only way of ever procur

A: They are not usually found in other places such as a store or such.  They are mainly used by Jedi's or Siths so it's not common for you to find it in a store.  According to the Star Wars Wikia about lightsabers during the Clone Wars there as at least one that was sold in a store.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lightsaber

" At least one lightsaber was sold at a storefront for  credit 500,000
  at Pons Ora during the Clone Wars.[28]"
↑ TCW mini logo Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Missing in Action"

They were however mass-produced or at the very least common as it states here in the wikia

"When the Clone Wars began, Jedi lightsabers experienced a change in
  focus. Rather than being created as a meditative exercise, heavy-duty
  lightsabers built to stand up to the rigors of war became the
  norm.[26]"

So you can assume that they were mass produced for the Jedi's at around this point.  Previously they had only been for meditative purposes and not used for war.
After the Jedi Purge they were not that common though...

Rhinann: "The weapons of the Jedi were destroyed along with the Jedi.
  There are rumors that some lightsabers remain in the private
  collections of the extremely wealthy. But the only one that I am
  certain truly exists belongs to Darth Vader, and I doubt he'd part
  with it willingly."
Pavan: "A crystal then. I'll build my own. It'll be more in tune with
  my—"
Rhinann: "Adegan crystals, as well as Corusca, Ilum, and others, are
  under strict trade and commerce interdiction, per the orders of
  Emperor Palpatine."
Pavan: "I'll grow one, then."
Rhinann: "That may be possible. It will take some time, however, to
  assemble the necessary equipment and materials."
―Haninum Tyk Rhinann elaborates on the illegality of lightsabers to
  Jax Pavan

This implies that the necessary equipment and materials are rare at this point.
So overall before the Jedi Purge but after the Clone Wars there seemed to be a lot more than there was before the Clone Wars.

A: It seems that there are a very large amount of lightsabers, as shown in the second movie/episode Attack of the Clones, when Anakin Skywalker and Obi-wan were in the arena, the clones came to the rescue along with some jedis. They Anakin and Obi had lightsabers tossed to them. To me it seems like there might be a very large source of them, the most valuable resource needed is a Crystal.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: PHP JSON_ENCODE array doesn't return any response I have a simple PHP script which queries the database and is supposed to return a JSON response but it doesn't seem to be working.
On var_dump($players) here is a sample response
array (size=99301)
 0 =>
array (size=2)
  'guid' => string '?B937097' (length=8)
  'name' => string '�scar Benito (?B937097)' (length=23)
 1 =>
array (size=2)
  'guid' => string '?D841077' (length=8)
  'name' => string '�ngel Luis Diez Samper (?D841077)' (length=33)
 2 =>
array (size=2)
  'guid' => string '?N573092' (length=8)
  'name' => string '�lvaro Negredo (?N573092)' (length=25)
 3 =>
array (size=2)
  'guid' => string '?V565877' (length=8)
  'name' => string '�lvaro V�zquez Garc�a (?V565877)' (length=32)
 4 =>
array (size=2)
  'guid' => string 'AA101850' (length=8)
  'name' => string 'Andrew Ansen (AA101850)' (length=23)
 5 => ....

and here is the PHP script. No errors are thrown but no response is returned in JSON format.
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set("display_errors", 1);

require_once("db_config.php");

$conn = mysqli_connect(DBSERVER, DBUSER, DBPASS, DBNAME);

if(!$conn) {
    echo "Error: Unable to connect to MySQL." . PHP_EOL;
    echo "Debugging erron: " . mysqli_connect_errno() . PHP_EOL;
    echo "Debugging error: " . mysqli_connect_error() . PHP_EOL;
    exit;
}

$players = array();

$sql = "SELECT DataGuid, DataField1, DataField2 FROM data_1";
$query = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);

if($query) {
    while($res = mysqli_fetch_assoc($query)) {
        $players[] = array(
            'guid' => $res['DataGuid'],
            'name' => $res['DataField1'] . " " . $res['DataField2'] . " (" . $res['DataGuid'] . ")"
        );
    }
}
else {
    echo "Error.";
}

mysqli_close($conn);

header('Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate');
header('Content-Type: application/json');
echo json_encode($players);

I feel I am missing something obvious.


Rated 8.2 of 10 in 3564 reviews. 151 rooms.
Overlooking York Racecourse, the York Marriott Hotel offers free on-site parking and a 24-hour front desk. York Rail Station is just a 5-minute taxi journey away and Pike Hills Golf Club is less than 1-mile from the Marriott. Each spacious room includes a satellite TV, a hairdryer and tea and coffee facilities. Some rooms have a balcony and feature stunning views across parklands and the racecourse. Guests can enjoy 1 hour of free Wi-Fi access in public areas. Views across the racecourse can be enjoyed in the Cast Iron Bar & Grill which serves international dishes in a stylish environment. The sun terrace provides a quiet place to relax with a drink. An indoor heated pool, a sauna and a tennis court are among the facilities available in the Marriott's leisure club. York city centre, including the Jorvik Viking Centre and the York Dungeon, are within 2 miles of the hotel. York Minster is a 40-minute walk away.
Recently refurbished - great food and drink!
Just had a wonderfull sirloin steak cooked perfect medium rare. Well done chef.


This Louis Vuitton White Monogram Canvas Pochette Jour PM is from the Men's 2016 collection. Featuring red and blue strips with silvertone hardware. This handy pouch holds all your small essentials which fits nicely inside your favorite LV bag.
The exterior and interior is clean and beautiful with faint signs of wear. The hardware shows minor hairline scratches.


Sylvan Lake family physician Dr. Ray Comeau has embarked on several medical missions through A Better World Canada.
Last June, Dr. Comeau accompanied a group of University of Alberta medical students – including his own son – to Kenya.
This type of work really changes your perspective on what's important and what's possible.
See photos from Dr. Comeau's medical missions, including the recent trip to Kenya with medical students from the University of Alberta.
Dr. Ray Comeau is no stranger to working on international medical missions. The family physician from Sylvan Lake and his wife Deryl, a registered nurse, have made several trips abroad through their work with A Better World Canada , making nine trips to six different countries since 2002.
"This type of work really changes your perspective on what's important and what's possible," explains Dr. Comeau.
Last June, Dr. Comeau was able to share his passion for improving health care in developing nations with the next generation of physicians, when he accompanied a group of University of Alberta medical students to Kenya. Not surprisingly, the group included his own son.
"One of the mandates of A Better World Canada is to get young professionals exposed to overseas work," says Dr. Comeau. During the trip, the three students worked alongside Dr. Comeau, his wife and other volunteers to deliver much needed medical care to patients in a village outside of Nairobi and later at a hospital in Mombasa. It was an inspiring experience for all involved.
"The students were able to do investigations and develop treatment plans," notes Dr. Comeau. While there, they encountered everything from anthrax and leukemia to injuries and arthritis.


Letcher County Tourism will host a Free Business Retention and Expansion Workshop for business owners in Letcher County at the Pine Mountain Grill on March 26 & 27.
Offering different times each day to accommodate busy schedules, business owners can choose to attend the workshop on Tuesday, March 26th at 6 PM OR Wednesday, March 27th at noon.
The workshop will include a short, informative session and a survey lead by CEDIK (Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky) to discover what Letcher County businesses need to thrive in today's local economy.
The class will address specific issues faced by Letcher County entrprenuers and will open the lines of communication between existing businesses and the community, as well as provide the opportunity to strategize on ways to strengthen the business economy.
Every Letcher County Business Owner's feedback is imperitive for the success of this event.
If you are a business owner in Letcher County, pre-register for the date and time that best fits your schedule.
For more information, please email letchertourism@gmail.com or call 606-634-1814.


text:
- A John Deere Tractor (credit: getwallpapers.com)
The Amazing World of Tractors
After my recent trip to the Midwest, I thought about what I liked about tractors
Shane Dohrer posted in Today's Top News
Ultimate shoutout
Diddly Squat
4Love it!
A simple like
I recently went up the Midwest to visit family, many of which live out in the country. And after looking at the old tractors my family has, I became more interested in these machines. After all, without tractors we wouldn't have food on our tables. So, it makes sense to take an interest in tractors. Also, who doesn't love a big vehicle that runs on diesel. I know I do!
John Deere 6620 (credit: clarkemachinery.ie)
John Deere is an iconic American tractor company based in Illinois. It started out with John Deere creating an innovative steel plow used for farming in 1837. In 1918 John Deere began producing the Waterloo Boy, and John Deere tractors. During the Great Depression, John Deere also extended the payment terms for farmers. Making many farmers loyal buyers of the company. John Deere continued innovating throughout the 20th century, and even in the present day.
1918 John Deere Tractor (credit: blogspot.com)
John Deere's reputation for making good quality farm equipment is still present today. With one of the most modern advancements in farming being produced by John Deere in 2009; by manufacturing a cotton picker that makes round bales on the go. Increasing efficiency and allowing farmers to continue farming without stopping to bale the cotton.
2009 John Deere 7760 cotton picker (credit: John Deere Machine Finder)
However, John Deere has also run into some controversy in the modern age. With the increased machine's dependence on computer systems, John Deere has made it so only certain mechanics can work on tractors. This of course limits the farmers, who normally are used to doing the maintenance themselves, or having a small-town mechanic do it for them. This of course makes it difficult on the farmer, who now has to pay more money to transport and repair their tractor at a specified mechanic from John Deere.
Regardless of its controversies, John Deere remains popular among many farmers. With one of my family members, who is a farmer in the Midwest stating that he would love a John Deere if he could afford one. As farming is very expensive, and because John Deeres are high-end tractors, many farmers can't afford them. But the fact still remains that John Deeres are normally loved by their owners, and they are very good-looking tractors in my opinion.
New Holland T7.31 5HD (credit: used.russels.uk.com)
New Holland is probably not the first name that pops into your head when you think of tractors. But when I was a kid, they were my favorite tractors. Mainly because my favorite color is blue, but that's beside the point. New Holland came around in 1895, and they became famous among farmers for making good farming implements such as bailers. The company was bought out by the Sperry Corporation in 1947. And was later bought out by ford in 1985, then the company was sold to Fiat in 1990. Where it had remained to this day.
1895 New Holland Harvester (credit: equipmtl.com)
From its founding, New Holland has had one goal in its company, and that is to make things easier on the farmers. A quite noble goal if you ask me. And looking at their history they seem to have done that. New Holland is widely considered to be a good company if you ask many farmers, I asked one member of my family who owns a farm what he thought of New Holland when I was a kid.
And if I remember correctly New Holland was a good company, and if the dealership wasn't overpriced on the New Holland he was looking at, he would've bought it. So New Holland may not be as exiting, or as well-known as other companies like John Deere, but they still have made quite a contribution to the world of farming.
Kubota M7 Gen2 (credit: potatogrower.com)
Kubota is my current favorite tractor company. Primarily because most farmers in my family have them, and it is the one that I have driven. They are good and reliable tractors, and they work well for farm work. Which is why so many of my family in the Midwest drive them. They are also increasing in popularity from what I observed while up in the Midwest during Thanksgiving.
Kubota was created in 1890 by Gonshiro Kubota with the sole goal of stopping world starvation and making food more accessible. A quite commendable goal if you ask me. They became famous for creating small tractors that helped Japanese farmers who had smaller farms than other countries. Kubota also has gotten into making larger tractors to accommodate other markets such as the U.S. Another notable contribution Kubota has made to the world of farming is helping to produce tractors for the Indian market. Allowing for the expansion of Indian agriculture.
Kubota T15, their first tractor (credit: steenent.com)
A tractor worth mentioning is the Kubota T15. This was the first tractor Kubota made in 1960. Before it began making tractors, Kubota made things like engines and implements such as cultivators used in farming. But then it began making tractors, and like all Japanese imports to the U.S. it revolutionized its market. The T15 was a diesel tractor, which were considered unreliable for the time.
However, Kubota was different from other tractor makers, with its T15 being reliable and becoming fairly popular in the U.S. And by 1972, Kubota had sold 2,000 tractors in the U.S., quite a number for back then. Kubota was so successful in the American market, that it set up operations in Compton City, California to accommodate the American demand. In 1988, Kubota starting a manufacturing operation in America in Gainesville, Georgia as well. Kubota has not stopped innovating, in 1993, Kubota was the first diesel powered tractor to meet California's new increasing emissions standards.
If anything is clear by Kubota's history, it is this. Kubota cares about innovation and pleasing the customer. And it continues to do so to this day. Giving companies such as John Deere a run for their money.
Massey Ferguson Tractor (credit: masseyfurguson.com)
Massy Furguson is an interesting company, because when I looked into its history it wasn't what I was expecting. I originally thought that Massy Furguson was originally an American company and had remained like that to this day. But I was wrong, Massey Ferguson began as a Canadian company called Massey-Harris, and a British company called Ferguson. These two companies merged in 1953 becoming Massy Furguson.
The company was based in Ontario, Canada up until 1997 when they moved to Buffalo, New York in the U.S. The company is now based in Duluth, Georgia where it continues to produce tractors for markets in the U.S. and Europe. With factories all over the world from Minnesota, U.S. to Beauvais, France. It is no wonder why Massey Furguson is so popular in the world today.
Case IH tractor (credit: TractorData)
If you've ever heard the song International Harvester by Craig Morgan, this is the tractor he is talking about. And it is mainly because of that song that gives me and interest in this tractor, I mean what other song is better to have playing while driving through the countryside. Case IH is made up of a merger of two companies, Case and International Harvester. Both of these companies are famous in their own right, and many times Case IH's are often referred to by the name of their previous companies.
The Case part of the company started off by making a name for itself early on in the history of tractors. In 1869, J.I. Case and Company made the first steam powered tractor engine. This was not self-propelled however and needed horses to pull it. But it powered many other farm implements, making farming a far more efficient way of doing business. In 1876, Case built the first self-propelled tractor, adding onto the innovation of the company.
1976 Case Tractor (credit: caseih.com)
In 1902, International Harvester was found by J.P. Morgan after creating a merger between the tractor companies of McCormick, Deering, and a few other brands. International Harvester began creating larger tractors than the competition, such as in 1910 with the Titan tractor. International Harvester became famous soon after for creating large red tractors for only the most serious farmers.
In 1985, after some financial troubles, Case and International Harvester merged together to the company that we now know today. And they have been continuing to innovate and create good quality products for the farmers. With things such as the Magnum tractor in 1988, a quite large tractor that is still sold today. And continued innovation of combine harvesters and constant updates to old models such as the Farmall.
As you can tell, I love tractors and would love to learn more about them. Please feel free to let me know what you think of tractors, and your experience with them. Thank you for reading.
Sources: John Deere History | Tractor History | John Deere US and John Deere's Digital Transformation Runs Afoul Of Right-To-Repair Movement (forbes.com) and The History of New Holland Tractors - Reliable Aftermarket Parts, Inc® Blog and Kubota Tractor Information - History of Kubota Tractors (tractorjunction.com) and From tractors to utility vehicles, a look back at Kubota firsts - Steen Enterprises and A History of Massey Ferguson Tractors - Farm Tech Supplies and History | Case IH
Award Shane
Nolan Carter
Man, who doesn't love a good tractor?
Mark Pritchard
You can't have tractors without a little gray fergie, Heres mine. Its small, light and you can turn it easly round tight corners or field gates so perfect for small farms with little fields.
Hoyden Roccaas
Mandatory on this site
"Your tractor is TOO BIG you wanker". Also mandatory on this site.
Dave Mercer
Another very well-made, though not American tractor company is Lamborghini. Very high-quality machines in their own right. There are lots of good tractor manufacturers, some are a bit pricier than others and some are better made than others, one could argue. Though I haven't heard of them making tractors for agricultural use, Caterpillar makes some very well-made industrial tractors.
M Johnson
Driving your favorite tractor is way more fun than driving a Lamborghini
We've immortalised everyone's favourite Awards with some final DriveTribe merch
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INDY Autonomous Challenge @ CES at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Automatters & More
Foodtriber Migrations Update
Jeannine L


text:
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>

#include "vpx_config.h"
#include "vp8_opencl.h"
#include "blockd_cl.h"
#include "loopfilter_cl.h"

typedef unsigned char uc;

#define NUM_KERNELS 6
static VP8_LOOPFILTER_ARGS filter_args[NUM_KERNELS];

#define VP8_CL_SET_LOOP_ARG(kernel, current, newargs, argnum, type, name) \
    if (current->name != newargs->name){ \
        err |= clSetKernelArg(kernel, argnum, sizeof (type), &newargs->name); \
        current->name = newargs->name; \
    }\

void vp8_loop_filter_horizontal_edges_cl( MACROBLOCKD *x,
        VP8_LOOPFILTER_ARGS *args, int num_planes, int num_blocks
);

void vp8_loop_filter_vertical_edges_cl( MACROBLOCKD *x,
        VP8_LOOPFILTER_ARGS *args, int num_planes, int num_blocks
);

void vp8_loop_filter_simple_vertical_edges_cl( MACROBLOCKD *x,
        VP8_LOOPFILTER_ARGS *args, int num_planes, int num_blocks
);

void vp8_loop_filter_simple_horizontal_edges_cl( MACROBLOCKD *x,
        VP8_LOOPFILTER_ARGS *args, int num_planes, int num_blocks
);

void vp8_loop_filter_filters_init()
{
    memset(filter_args, -1, sizeof(VP8_LOOPFILTER_ARGS)*NUM_KERNELS);
}

static int vp8_loop_filter_cl_run(
    cl_command_queue cq,
    cl_kernel kernel,
    size_t max_local_size,
    VP8_LOOPFILTER_ARGS *args,
    int num_planes,
    int num_blocks,
    VP8_LOOPFILTER_ARGS *current_args
) {
    int err;
    size_t global[3], local[3];
    if (cl_data.vp8_loop_filter_combine_planes == 0){
        global[0] = 16;
        global[1] = num_planes;
        local[0] = 16;
    } else {
        global[0] = 32;
        global[1] = 1;
        local[0] = 32;
    }
    global[2] = num_blocks;
    local[1] = local[2] = 1;

    if (num_planes == 1){
        global[0] = local[0] = 16;
    }

    if (max_local_size < 16){
        if ((max_local_size < local[0] )){
                local[0] = 1; //drop to 1 thread per group if necessary.
                              //At this point it'd be better to probably disable CL
        }
    }

    err = 0;
    VP8_CL_SET_LOOP_ARG(kernel, current_args, args, 0, cl_mem, buf_mem)
    VP8_CL_SET_LOOP_ARG(kernel, current_args, args, 1, cl_mem, offsets_mem)
    VP8_CL_SET_LOOP_ARG(kernel, current_args, args, 2, cl_mem, pitches_mem)
    VP8_CL_SET_LOOP_ARG(kernel, current_args, args, 3, cl_mem, lfi_mem)
    VP8_CL_SET_LOOP_ARG(kernel, current_args, args, 4, cl_mem, filters_mem)
    VP8_CL_SET_LOOP_ARG(kernel, current_args, args, 5, cl_int, priority_level)
    VP8_CL_SET_LOOP_ARG(kernel, current_args, args, 6, cl_int, num_levels)
    VP8_CL_SET_LOOP_ARG(kernel, current_args, args, 7, cl_mem, block_offsets_mem)
    VP8_CL_SET_LOOP_ARG(kernel, current_args, args, 8, cl_mem, priority_num_blocks_mem);
    VP8_CL_SET_LOOP_ARG(kernel, current_args, args, 9, cl_int, frame_type);

    VP8_CL_CHECK_SUCCESS( cq, err != CL_SUCCESS,
        "Error: Failed to set kernel arguments!\n",,err
    );

    /* Execute the kernel */
    err = clEnqueueNDRangeKernel(cq, kernel, 3, NULL, global, local , 0, NULL, NULL);

    VP8_CL_CHECK_SUCCESS( cq, err != CL_SUCCESS,
        "Error: Failed to execute kernel!\n",
        printf("err = %d\n",err);,err
    );

    return CL_SUCCESS;
}

//Filters both Macroblock and Block horizontal/vertical edges
void vp8_loop_filter_all_edges_cl
(
    MACROBLOCKD *x,
    VP8_LOOPFILTER_ARGS *args,
    int num_planes,
    int num_blocks
)
{

    size_t local = cl_data.vp8_loop_filter_all_edges_kernel_size;
    if (local < 16){
        int iter = 0;
        int num_levels = args->num_levels;
        args->num_levels = 1;
        for (iter=0; iter < num_levels; iter++){
            //Handle Vertical and Horizontal edges in 2 passes.
            vp8_loop_filter_vertical_edges_cl(x, args, num_planes, num_blocks);
            vp8_loop_filter_horizontal_edges_cl(x, args, num_planes, num_blocks);
            args->priority_level++;
        }
        return;
    }

    vp8_loop_filter_cl_run(x->cl_commands,
        cl_data.vp8_loop_filter_all_edges_kernel,
        local, args, num_planes, num_blocks, &filter_args[0]
    );
}

//Filters both Macroblock and Block horizontal edges
void vp8_loop_filter_horizontal_edges_cl
(
    MACROBLOCKD *x,
    VP8_LOOPFILTER_ARGS *args,
    int num_planes,
    int num_blocks
)
{
    vp8_loop_filter_cl_run(x->cl_commands,
        cl_data.vp8_loop_filter_horizontal_edges_kernel,
        cl_data.vp8_loop_filter_horizontal_edges_kernel_size,
        args, num_planes, num_blocks, &filter_args[1]
    );
}

//Filters both Macroblock and Block edges
void vp8_loop_filter_vertical_edges_cl
(
    MACROBLOCKD *x,
    VP8_LOOPFILTER_ARGS *args,
    int num_planes,
    int num_blocks
)
{
    vp8_loop_filter_cl_run(x->cl_commands,
        cl_data.vp8_loop_filter_vertical_edges_kernel,
        cl_data.vp8_loop_filter_vertical_edges_kernel_size,
        args, num_planes, num_blocks, &filter_args[2]
    );
}

//Filters both Macroblock and Block horizontal/vertical edges
void vp8_loop_filter_simple_all_edges_cl
(
    MACROBLOCKD *x,
    VP8_LOOPFILTER_ARGS *args,
    int num_planes,
    int num_blocks
)
{

    size_t local = cl_data.vp8_loop_filter_simple_all_edges_kernel_size;
    if (local < 16){
        int iter = 0;
        int num_levels = args->num_levels;
        args->num_levels = 1;
        for (iter=0; iter < num_levels; iter++){ //Handle vert/horiz edges separately
            vp8_loop_filter_simple_vertical_edges_cl(x, args, num_planes, num_blocks);
            vp8_loop_filter_simple_horizontal_edges_cl(x, args, num_planes, num_blocks);
            args->priority_level++;
        }
        return;
    }

    vp8_loop_filter_cl_run(x->cl_commands,
        cl_data.vp8_loop_filter_simple_all_edges_kernel,
        local, args, num_planes, num_blocks, &filter_args[3]
    );
}

//Filters both Macroblock and Block horizontal edges
void vp8_loop_filter_simple_horizontal_edges_cl
(
    MACROBLOCKD *x,
    VP8_LOOPFILTER_ARGS *args,
    int num_planes,
    int num_blocks
)
{
    vp8_loop_filter_cl_run(x->cl_commands,
        cl_data.vp8_loop_filter_simple_horizontal_edges_kernel,
        cl_data.vp8_loop_filter_simple_horizontal_edges_kernel_size,
        args, num_planes, num_blocks, &filter_args[4]
    );
}

//Filters both Macroblock and Block edges
void vp8_loop_filter_simple_vertical_edges_cl
(
    MACROBLOCKD *x,
    VP8_LOOPFILTER_ARGS *args,
    int num_planes,
    int num_blocks
)
{
    vp8_loop_filter_cl_run(x->cl_commands,
        cl_data.vp8_loop_filter_simple_vertical_edges_kernel,
        cl_data.vp8_loop_filter_simple_vertical_edges_kernel_size,
        args, num_planes, num_blocks, &filter_args[5]
    );
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


I have spent the last couple of months addicted to Twitter and all the fantastic people I've "met" there. So much insight. So many ideas. So much hope for the future of education. It makes me smile. I am grateful for the hope that people such as Dan Meyer (@dydan), Illinois Teacher of the Year Josh Stumpenhorst (@stumpteacher), SLA Principal Chris Lehmann (@chrislehmann), Steven Anderson (@web20classroom) – and so many more – have inspired, and equally grateful for the websites, blogs, and electronic goodies they've shared.
There's a problem though. It has made it so I don't feel like I know what to do next. Ripley from Aliens said "Do Something!", but I feel like the lieutenant she's screaming at. Or maybe more like a fish.
I am confident that I am a good teacher. I see my students as people; I know about their lives if they want to share and I help or listen or whatever they need when I can. They aren't simply a number to make higher. I'm not perfect. But I want to be better.
Right now, I have MangaHigh set up for the last seven weeks for my seniors in Precalculus who are heading off to college. I also have the Khan Academy set up. (Side note: getting information out of the Khan Academy is definitely blood-from-a-turnip territory. It is there and available in a nearly useless form.) I also have me and my never-ending pile of stories to relate to whatever comes up.
I want to be less helpful. I don't want to be the "sage on the stage". I want them to discover their passion for (or at least something useful in) math(s). I also want to show them blogging and curating skills for college. I feel like they haven't seen even half of the stuff they need to have seen in order to do well on their next step, whatever it may be. I feel like it would take the last seven weeks of school just to set it all up.
It feels very overwhelming. Numbing, in fact. But have a go, I will.


It is my pleasure to introduce you to Marco Island, a sun-drenched island- jewel on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico in Southwest Florida. Marco Island features six miles of sandy beach and over 100 miles of waterways within its 24 square miles. Marco is the largest Barrier Island within Southwest Florida's Ten Thousand Island area, extending from MarcoIsland south to Cape Sable. With a permanent population of 15,000 and a peak winter seasonal population of 35,000, Marco Island's residents and visitors alike call this special Island------Paradise!
Our beautiful crescent beach is blessed with warm gulf waters and sunshine on almost every day. Our weather is almost perfect, with the coldest month being January, with average temperature at 71- degrees. Hundreds of condominiums are located directly on the beach and there are also several public beach access points, including parking and facilities for the entire population of Marco Island. Beach activities include sunning, shelling, fishing, parasailing, jet skiing, boating, sailing and much more. Be sure to lookout for the dolphins jumping out of the water, and manatees swimming slowly along the shore-line.
Marco Island is as the top of the list for spectacular sunsets. Every evening Mother Nature provides a different spectacular mural over the Gulf of Mexico. If you are a golfer, you will be thrilled to know there are over 160 golf courses, on, or within a short drive from Marco, providing one of the best golfing areas in the country. And if you enjoy shopping, Marco provides the perfect selection of Island Shoppes for you to visit, while nearby Naples, features many world class Brand Name stores like Nordstrom's, Sak's, and others. And if you enjoy dining out, there are a myriad of great restaurants of all kinds from beach side casual, to superb seafood favorites, to fine-dining establishments both on Marco and nearby Naples for you to enjoy.
I am confident that working together, we can accomplish your desired goal. Please contact me at your convenience.
This camera requires the latest Flash Plugin (http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ )for your web browser.


text:
Tropical island home just a short hop from the UAE
With its turquoise blue waters, white beaches and lush vegetation, homes in Eden Island, a 56-hectare housing and marina development in the Seychelles, should be an easy sell.
"Welcome to your home in Paradise", reads the slogan on the advertisements, displaying pictures of happy families sailing in yachts.
More than 400 of the 569 apartments and villas have been completed and are already occupied by homeowners or tenants. The first properties were handed over in 2007.
But, despite conforming to every picture postcard image of a tropical island retreat, global economic turbulence is rocking attempts to market the final 69 homes at the residential and commercial marina development, just 200 metres off the coast from the capital island of Mahé.
"The South African market originally accounted for 50 per cent of our sales. But the reality is that the strength of the dollar has affected the South African market. When we were selling in 2008, the rand to the dollar was about six, it's now 16," says Peter Smith, Eden Island's director, who is a South African.
"And when we started selling in Europe, the dollar to the euro was around 1.30 or 1.40, now it's almost on a parity."
With the UAE dirham pegged to the US dollar and, therefore, unaffected by currency fluctuations, Eden Island's developers, like others around the world, are hoping to make up the shortfall in sales with some heavy marketing in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Mr Smith also says that the decision to target the UAE comes at a time when interest in the Seychelles is increasing.
Certainly, over the past few years, the UAE government has ploughed billions of dirhams into Africa's smallest country, which includes Etihad Airways taking a 40 per cent-equity stake in Air Seychelles, Sheikh Khalifa, the President of the UAE, building a large palace in Mahe and Abu Dhabi's Urban Planning Council making its first international collaboration to produce a Seychelles 2040 plan.
Mr Smith says UAE investors account for 7 per cent of the total number of units sold at the development and 13 per cent by value.
Nonetheless these things do not come cheap. A one-bedroom apartment will set you back about US$500,000 while a six-bedroom villa is on the market for $5.3m.
But that money goes quite a long way on the private estate with perks for each buyer including 24-hour security, a golf buggy to get around (there are no cars on the island), a boat mooring and Seychelles residency for yourself and family.
How many people from the UAE visit the Seychelles?
The UAE is the fourth largest inbound tourism market with 13,845 visitor arrivals in 2014 and 21,178 in 2015, which is a 53 per cent increase year on year. Property owners include Sheikh Khalifa, the President of the UAE, who in 2010 built a vast new palace on a former US Air Force base. Etihad signed a tie up in 2012 with the national carrier, Air Seychelles, increasing the number of flights and visitors from the capital.
What do the locals think?
Opinions about international investment are mixed. While some are happy with the increased opportunities and jobs, others blame expatriates for pushing house prices up.
What sort of property rights do they have?
Property is sold freehold and, as an owner you, your spouse and minor children are also invited to apply for residency of, which is available for five years and renewable every five years.
How much of a return can I make?
According to Eden Island, since completion of the first home seven years ago, people have made up to 8 per cent a year growth. The developer also offers two-year rental guarantees on selected properties.
What about tax?
The purchase of a new home is free of any transfer taxes and sanction. However, tax is charged on rental income.
-Year 2018 (1)
-Year 2016 (352)
Marina, Dubai
Palm Jumeirah, Dubai
Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi
Dubai Marina, Dubai
AED 125,000,000


From steam tugs on the Thames to yachts in the Med.
An entertaining and perceptive tale of working and living afloat.
Part 1.Yacht skipper Anthony Edwards entertains us with stories of his early life in 1950's Gravesend, and tells of the momentous decisions that would change the course of his life.
An insightful account of working in the dangerous environment of Thames steam tugs in the 50's and 60's.
Christmas Eve in custody and other exploits and misunderstandings on trips to France and Spain, on what were precursors to modern package tours.
Part 2. An exciting change in direction, with a lucky break leading to a new life.
Navigating the French and Belgian canals en route for the Med in an ill-conceived and disastrous new pleasure yacht.
Is chartering meant to be like this? Charterers come in all types – perverted, demanding, terrified, selfish, and generous – but never boring.
Appreciating the S. of France life. The skiing, the parties, the food.
The book is a combination of travelogue and entertaining narrative about working on boats – but woven in there are insightful personal accounts of life and loves. From growing up in Gravesend in the swinging sixties and mixing with rough tearaways whose behaviour would most likely end them up in prison – to following intuition to escape to another life and another place. Some people might question whether climbing up a cliff face in the dark or being tossed around in a storm in the Bay of Biscay could be considered the dream, but at least he was doing what he wanted to do!


text:
Wilfried Kanon est un footballeur international ivoirien né le  à Taabo en Côte d'Ivoire. Il évolue au poste de défenseur au Pyramids FC.

Biographie

Carrière en club
Né en Côte d'Ivoire, il achève sa formation en Italie à Empoli avant de faire ses débuts professionnels en Roumanie et de se révéler aux Pays-Bas.

Le , il s'engage pour 4 ans en faveur du LOSC Lille, où il retrouvera Hervé Renard, ancien sélectionneur de la Côte d'Ivoire, qui l'a lancé titulaire durant la CAN 2015. Pour le coach lillois, Kanon peut évoluer central axial gauche mais également au poste de latéral sans toutefois posséder le profil d'un joueur se projetant vers l'avant et bénéficie encore d'une grande marge de progression. Le , le LOSC annonce que le transfert de Kanon ne peut se conclure, la visite médicale n'ayant pas donné satisfaction.

Carrière en sélection
Wilfried Kanon joue son premier match avec la Côte d'Ivoire le  contre le Nigeria.

Statistiques

Palmarès

En clubs

En sélection
 Côte d'Ivoire
 Vainqueur de la Coupe d'Afrique des nations en 2015

Notes et références

Liens externes

Footballeur international ivoirien
Joueur du Gloria Bistrița
Joueur de l'ADO La Haye
Joueur du Pyramids FC
Joueur vainqueur de la Coupe d'Afrique des nations de football
Naissance en juillet 1993
Naissance en Côte d'Ivoire

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Vrbová nad Váhom (, Hungarian pronunciation:) is a village and municipality in the Komárno District in the Nitra Region of south-west Slovakia. It lies on the Váh River.

Geography
The village lies at an altitude of  and covers an area of .
It has a population of about 565 people.

History
In the 9th century, the territory of Vrbová nad Váhom became part of the Kingdom of Hungary. After the Austro-Hungarian army disintegrated in November 1918, Czechoslovak troops occupied the area, later acknowledged internationally by the Treaty of Trianon. Between 1938 and 1945 territory of Vrbová nad Váhom once more  became part of Miklós Horthy's Hungary through the First Vienna Award. From 1945 until the Velvet Divorce, it was part of Czechoslovakia. Since then it has been part of Slovakia. The village was formed in 1968 from parts of Kameničná and Martovce.

Ethnicity
The village is about 90% Hungarian, 10% Slovak.

Facilities
The village has a public library, and a  football pitch.

External links

Villages and municipalities in the Komárno District
Hungarian communities in Slovakia


In an op-ed piece in The New York Times (available here; if you are unable to read the article run a Google search for the term 'The Mutual Fund Merry-Go-Round' and click through), David Swensen, author of Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment, rips into the mutual fund industry for putting its profits ahead of producing returns for investors. He charges the industry with abetting investors in chasing performance through marketing campaigns that prominently play up the mutual funds in the line-up that have managed to garner coveted four- and five-star ratings from Morningstar.
Unfortunately for investors, many of the newly-minted four- and five- star funds are successful in attracting a flood of new money but go on to post poor future returns. The fund company isn't suffering though. Some of the old dogs are now star mutual funds that can now be advertised with their recent performance prominently displayed and the process starts all over again.
Mr. Swensen offers a couple of suggestions for getting off the mutual fund merry-go-round. (1) Investors should learn to avoid the siren song of mutual fund advertisements and invest in a well-diversified portfolio of index funds such as those from Vanguard and (2) Aggressive policing of the mutual fund industry by regulators. Investors may be better off voting with their wallets now instead of waiting for regulators to do the job for them.
A recent survey of American motorists by The Allstate Corporation provided further evidence of how much we are prone to overconfidence. The survey found that while nearly two-thirds of American drivers rate themselves as "excellent" or "very good" drivers, they also say that just 29 percent of their close friends and 8 percent of drivers from other states are deserving of the same rating. More men consider themselves as excellent drivers (36 percent) than women (26 percent).
The survey also found that actual driver behaviour does not gel with the glowing self ratings. 45 percent of respondents said they have driven when excessively tired, 15 percent said they have driven when under the influence and 34 percent admitted to sending a text message or email while driving. More than half said they have been involved in an accident but only a quarter of them admitted the accident was their fault.
Like motorists, investors are also prone to overconfidence. We are confident that our stock picks will provide us with above average returns. Even worse, we fool ourselves into thinking that our investment returns are better than they actually are. Michael James recently quoted one such study that found that investors overestimated their returns by 11.6 percent a year.


text:
Human and animal GE - multiple items
PANTS ON FIRE -- VOTE!VOTE!VOTE!
March/April NOMINATIONS:
*1. The Institute of Public Affairs - smearing indigenous NGOs
*2. Scottish Enterprise - pushing BIO propaganda into schools
*3. The John Innes Centre - biospinology at its fines
human and animal GE items:
1. By banning cloning, we can avoid Brave New World
2. GM cow project being reconsidered
3. Gene therapy: treatment turns on targeted genes
4. Bresagen's pig cloning success raises disease spectre
+5. Australian researchers clone pig
Terry Eastland
The Dallas Morning News May 7, 2001
Americans overwhelmingly oppose human cloning - fully 90 percent, according to a recent CNN/Time poll. Oddly, however, the law has yet to prohibit cloning. Certainly, it should, and Congress now has before it a new bill - proposed by Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas and Rep. Dave Weldon of Florida - that would accomplish that goal. In case you are new to the story, human cloning is the fabrication of individuals who are genetically identical to other individuals, living or even dead. Scientists who have studied the cloning four years ago of Dolly the sheep know how it would be done: Take a donor egg. Suck out the nucleus and thus remove the DNA.
Place in the egg a nucleus taken from a cell of the person who is to be copied. Jolt it with an electrical current and then hope the renucleated egg, upon transfer to a woman's uterus, grows into the intended person. If you think human cloning is fantasy, not to happen ever, think again. The making of Dolly has inspired a race among a small but determined band of people with Ph.D.s or M.D.s after their names to become the first to clone a human being. An "infertility specialist" from Kentucky has formed a consortium to produce the first human clone. And then there is a Canadian cult that worships (appropriately) science: The Raelians, as they call themselves, actually are in the lab right now, according to recent congressional testimony by one of their scientists. Biotechnology specialists expect a human being will be cloned by someone somewhere within a few years, perhaps even months. Most people are revolted by the very idea of human cloning, and rightly so. To achieve "success," many nuclei will be needed to fashion enough embryos so that at least one of them might take hold of life in utero and finally be born. The line score on Dolly: 277 nuclei transferred, 29 clonal embryos implanted, one live lamb clone. There is no reason to think the numbers would be any different for human cloning.
Yet even if they were to "improve" over time, the entire business still would constitute a monstrously immoral experiment upon the person to be. Scientists agree that cloning carries with it, as Leon Kass of the University of Chicago points out, "massive risks of producing unhealthy, abnormal and malformed children." Even in the case of a healthy, normal child, there would be matters of identity and individuality. The child, possessing the genotype of someone else, would have been cloned for a reason and would be shaped by "parents" accordingly. It takes no great insight to see the narcissism cloning invites - to create the person I had the genes to be (a Dallas Maverick, say) but for some reason was unable to be (a career-ending injury). Human cloning constitutes a rejection of the wisdom of the ages: That the arrival of a newborn announces a future that will be different from the past, precisely because the lottery of sex has given the world a new creation. Here it bears emphasis that human cloning is asexual reproduction. It stands in contrast to natural procreation. Philosophically, not to mention theologically, the two are vastly different. In procreation, parents beget children. In the asexual affair of cloning, parents - or whoever - manufacture a child. What cloning proposes is nothing less than a new understanding of human nature - indeed, to borrow C.S. Lewis' haunting term, its "abolition."
You might think a prospect so severe would already have moved Congress to act. But there has been a major snag: Some members want a ban on human cloning to be written so narrowly as to sanction "therapeutic cloning" - the creation of cloned embryos for research purposes. Such cloning is quite attractive for many people: Stem cells from cloned embryos, it is said, might give us a cure for cancer or Parkinson's disease. There are moral problems with such cloning, not least that new life will be created only to be exploited. But the ultimate reason that "therapeutic cloning" also should be outlawed is that cloning a human being necessarily begins with producing cloned human embryos. Only by preventing the latter can we be sure that we are doing as much as we can to stop the former - or at least to make it less likely. The Brownback-Weldon bill would aim that broadly. A more narrow focus won't do. And meanwhile, in "undisclosed places," there are eggs being donated, nuclei being sucked, clonings being attempted. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World may be closer than ever, but the good news is that we aren't without means of preventing its arrival. Terry Eastland is a regular contributor to Viewpoints. L
The Evening Post (Wellington) May 7, 2001
AgResearch could know in about two weeks whether it has to destroy cows expecting genetically modified calves in a Waikato-based experiment next month.
In a decision last week, the High Court set aside Environmental Risk Management Authority (Erma) approval for field trials of the experiment in which a human protein was inserted into cattle embryos. Erma's decision was set aside because the High Court found Erma had not followed the proper procedures in its decision-making process. On Friday, AgResearch asked the High Court to stay the part of its decision setting aside Erma's approval for the field trial. The stay remains in force until May 18. LOAD-DATE: May 8, 2001 [Entered May 9, 2001]
3. Treatment turns on targeted genes
Eisai team finds way to control expression of therapeutic genes
The Nikkei Weekly May 7, 2001
ATSUNOBU TAKESHITA Staff writer
It is easy to get caught up in the heady promises of gene therapy and forget how daunting a task scientists face trying to introduce genes into the body to treat specific diseases.
Most of the gene therapy research carried out to date has focused on the creation of vectors - the vehicles that can transport therapeutic genes into cells. Working primarily with virus vectors, scientists have been trying to see just how many copies of the gene they can get into cells. But the success of any gene therapy will be measured ultimately by the extent of its side effects as well as by its efficacy. Administering a virus vector that injects its therapeutic payload into any cell in the body is an obvious invitation to complications. So another area of vital importance for successful gene therapy is the selective targeting of therapeutic genes to the specific disease-related cells. This latter challenge has become a growing subject of research in labs around the world. One strategy being taken is to target receptors on cells. An example of this is the vector based on the hepatitis-B virus developed by a group at Keio University. The HBV vector selectively introduces therapeutic genes into liver cells because that is the natural target cell of the virus. But Eisai Co. is working on a different approach that controls the expression of therapeutic genes at the genetic level inside cells. The strategy involves linking the therapeutic gene to a short DNA sequence called a promoter that only switches on the therapeutic gene inside certain kinds of cells. Although the human genome comprises a sequence of some 3 billion bases, only around 1.5% of these are for genes that code for proteins. The vast remainder is assumed to be junk, but among this noise are a number of short DNA sequences called promoters that reside near the actual genes and act like switches to turn the genes on. An activated promoter in turn activates its associated gene, promoting the transcription of deoxyribonucleic acid into ribonucleic acid, which then moves out of the nucleus where it serves as the template for the synthesis of the encoded protein. The human body is made up of some 60 trillion cells, and almost every cell has the exact same set of DNA. What makes the cells different? The identity of individual cells is determined by which promoters are switched on.
Artificial promoters Eisai's new method of targeted gene therapy is based on the introduction of artificial promoters that only switch on in specific kinds of cells.
The company is focusing on brain cells, seeking gene therapies for such disorders as Parkinson's disease. The method, however, has potential applications in gene therapy targeting any cell type for which a unique promoter can be found. Eisai has many years of experience researching the brain, as typified by Aricept, its drug for the treatment of the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. The company's discovery of selective promoters for different types of brain cells was born from this long tradition of research, combined with clever use of human genome data. The work was carried out by Eiki Takahashi and colleagues at the Laboratory of Seeds Finding Technology in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, a research unit set up in April 1999 to search at the genetic level for new biological targets. The calcium channel is a type of cell-surface receptor, and Eisai has been studying this protein since 1989 as part of its research into brain-related diseases. The Takahashi team was interested in learning why some brain cells have calcium channels while others do not, so it searched the genome for clues. The team discovered that the difference was related to the length of a certain promoter in the brain cells. Brain cells that have a lengthy version of the promoter, comprising a relatively long sequence of DNA bases, express the calcium channel on their surface. Cells with an abbreviated version of the promoter do not express this particular receptor. To verify this mechanism of action, the researchers linked promoters of different lengths to an enzyme called galactosidase and inserted the construct into fertilized mouse eggs to produce transgenic mice. When they did this, what they discovered was that the enzyme was active in one particular type of brain cell when the promoter was around 6,000 bases long, and it was active in a different type of brain cell when the promoter was around 3,000 bases long. In other words, the Eisai researchers had found a way to control the expression of genes in specific types of cells by using promoters of different lengths. So far, the company has only identified promoters for a few kinds of cells in the cerebellum. For full-fledged gene therapy it will be necessary to find promoters for a variety of different types of cells. But now that the human genome has largely been sequenced, there is a good chance that genome analysis can yield many more promoters. "It is a thread that we can follow to solve the (selectivity) problem of gene therapy," Takahashi explained.
4. WRAP-Bresagen's pig cloning success raises disease spectre
AAP NEWSFEED May 9, 2001,
General News; Finance Wire
MELBOURNE, May 9 AAP - Australia's first cloned pig was unveiled today, igniting debate about both the ethics and value of the new cloning process and raising the spectre of mad cow disease. The pig, a female named simply "Pig" from a group which has been isolated on Kangaroo Island, off South Australia for almost 200 years was borne from the joint efforts of listed Adelaide biotechnology company BresaGen Ltd and Melbourne's St Vincent's Hospital. Now five weeks old, the animal was healthy and growing normally in a company piggery in suburban Adelaide, BresaGen said today. Cloning program leader, Dr Mark Nottle, said the most obvious use for the pig cloning was livestock improvement, but the greatest potential was seen in the field of supplying transplant material for humans.
But genetic engineering campaigner Bob Phelps said there were grave dangers in using animal tissue in transplants.
Mr Phelps, the director of Australia's GenEthics Network, said prions, the agents believed responsible for mad cow disease, could be passed on in human surgery using animal tissue. "We should be very wary of any use of animal organs in humans because there is a high risk of the transfer of animal diseases. "It will be difficult to prevent viruses, bacteria and especially prions, which are not really understood at this point," Mr Phelps told AAP. Prions are the recently discovered agents for causing serious diseases like cancers and creutzfeldt jakob or mad cow disease.
"They seem to be a self-replicating protein so they may not be genes at all," he said. He called for a five-year freeze on commercialisation of the technology. "It is uncertain technology with uncertain outcomes," he said. Dr Tony d'Apice (pron: Dap-i-shay), of St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne, said the pig cloning technology would help identify the mechanics of organ rejection on a genetic basis. "The gene, called the 'Gal gene' is present in pigs, but absent in humans," Dr d'Apice said. "It will be possible to produce pigs without this gene and provide donor organs more compatible for human transplantation."
Overseas analysts have estimated that the market for organs alone was worth $US6 billion a year. Mr Phelps said the mechanism by which organ rejection worked was very unclear. "Rejection is a multifaceted mechanism and involves a complex of genes, not just one because you are basically trying to smuggle in a foreign organ."
He believed the Roslin Research Institute had abandoned work on identifying the genetic mechanics involved in organ rejection. BresaGen said the technology used to clone the Adelaide pig was very different to that used to produce Dolly the sheep in 1997. Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned, was unveiled by the Edinburgh-based Roslin Research Institute in February 1997. The institute has since followed on its success with Dolly by producing cloned pigs and chickens. BresaGen has applied for patents to the techniques employed in producing the pig. Critics of genetic engineering have also called into question the application of patent laws to medical techniques and discoveries. Research conducted in the United Kingdom last year showed that 9,364 patent applications had been lodged in 40 countries covering medical discoveries, over 60 per cent of them in the last three years. Mr Phelps said pigs were also involved in an incident in Adelaide during the 1980s in which 67 animals fattened using human growth hormones ended up in city butchers' shops. "We just don't want people experimented on," he said. Bresgen sahres closed up four cents to $1.27. LOAD-DATE: May 9, 2001
5. Australian researchers clone pig
BBC Online Sci/Tech
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1321000/1-1321470.stm] Wednesday, 9 May, 2001,
Australia has produced its first pig clone. The animal, which is now five weeks old, is said to be healthy and growing normally. The piglet was made using new technology that could help prevent animal diseases and aid human organ transplants, the biotechnology company behind the development claimed.
BresaGen Ltd, working with St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne, said it produced the clone from cells that had been frozen in liquid nitrogen for more than two years. The world's first pig clones were announced in March last year by researchers working for the Scottish biotechnology firm PPL Therapeutics. Last month, the commercial offshoot of the Roslin Institute said it had also managed to create gene-altered, or transgenic, pig clones as well.
Modification of the animals' genetic make-up is vital if pig organs are to be used successfully in humans.
Unaltered, animal livers, kidneys or hearts would be rejected by the human immune system. BresaGen said the technology it used to clone Australia's pig was different from that used to make Dolly the sheep, the first large animal to be copied from an adult cell. "Basically, what works in sheep doesn't work in pigs, so we had to start from scratch," said chief executive John Smeaton. The company said its pig cloning technology, like that of PPL's, was potentially life-saving, with thousands of people around the world dying each year while they waited for organ transplantation. "It is anticipated that the new cloning technology will have a major impact in guarding against the outbreak of animal disease and in the area of xenotransplantation - the use of animal organs for transplantation into humans," the company said in a statement.


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Врбица је насељено место у саставу општине Семељци у Осјечко-барањској жупанији, Република Хрватска.

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До територијалне реорганизације у Хрватској налазила се у саставу старе општине Ђаково.

Становништво
На попису становништва 2011. године, Врбица је имала 730 становника.

Попис 1991.
На попису становништва 1991. године, насељено место Врбица је имало 763 становника, следећег националног састава:

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Општина Семељци
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Насељена места у Осјечко-барањској жупанији
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Coldspring-Oakhurst High School business students attended the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Area 5 Competition in Houston on Saturday, Jan. 12.
Over 1,100 students competed in 75 different events grouped into three categories: Individual, team, and chapter. Individual and team events focused on skills useful in leadership and career development; chapter events recognized overall achievement and performance in chapter management and growth.
COHS senior Robert "Matt" Johnson won first place in Sales Presentation, and fellow senior Kayleigh Triggs took 5th place in Accounting. Both students will advance to State competition in March.
COHS junior Kai Caraballo also competed in Impromptu Speaking, and senior Ebony Green competed in Organizational Leadership. Congratulations!


text:
Bible > Commentaries > Exodus 28:34
◄ Exodus 28:34 ►
A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, on the hem of the robe round about.
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EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
28:31-39 The robe of the ephod was under the ephod, and reached down to the knees, without sleeves. Aaron must minister in the garments appointed. We must serve the Lord with holy fear, as those who know they deserve to die. A golden plate was fixed on Aaron's forehead, engraven with Holiness to the Lord. Aaron was hereby reminded that God is holy, and that his priests must be holy, devoted to the Lord. This must appear in their forehead, in open profession of their relation to God. It must be engraven like the engravings of a signet; deep and durable; not painted so as to be washed off, but firm and lasting; such must our holiness to the Lord be. Christ is our High Priest; through him sins are forgiven to us, and not laid to our charge. Our persons, our doings, are pleasing to God upon the account of Christ, and not otherwise.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
An habergeon - Corselets of linen, such as appear to be here referred to, were well known amongst the Egyptians.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
34. a golden bell and a pomegranate—The bells were hung between the pomegranates, which were said to have amounted to seventy-two, and the use of them seems to have been to announce to the people when the high priest entered the most holy place, that they might accompany him with their prayers, and also to remind himself to be attired in his official dress, to minister without which was death.
Matthew Poole's Commentary
No text from Poole on this verse.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate,.... First a golden bell and then a pomegranate, then a bell and then a pomegranate again, and so on:
upon the hem of the robe round about; all round the hem or skirts of the robe were they placed in this manner: the Targum of Jonathan says, the sum or number of them were seventy one; but Maimonides (c) says there were seventy two, thirty six in each skirt; and so says R. Levi Ben Gersom; but Clemens of Alexandria (d) has increased the number to three hundred and sixty six, according to the days of the year, and thinks they signified the acceptable year of the Lord proclaiming and resounding the great appearance of the Saviour: "golden bells" may denote either the intercession of Christ in heaven, which if not vocal, as on earth, has a speech or sound in it, which is understood: his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, call aloud for peace and pardon, and it is a sound that is always heard with delight; the matter of them being gold may denote the preciousness and excellency of Christ's intercession, and the duration of it; and being on the hem of the robe shows that Christ's righteousness is that on which his intercession depends, and from whence it has its efficacy: or else these bells may be an emblem of the Gospel, as preached by Christ himself, and by his apostles and ministers, compared to "bells" for sound; the sound of the Gospel being a sound of love, grace, mercy, peace, pardon, righteousness, life, and salvation; a joyful sound, like that of the jubilee, an even and certain one, different from that of the law, and exceeding musical and delightful; and to "golden" bells for the preciousness of it, and its truths, and for its duration; and being on the hem of the robe may signify that in the Gospel the righteousness of Christ is revealed and pointed at, and that faith in this righteousness comes hereby; "the pomegranates" on Aaron might be an emblem of his priesthood, and of the ceremonial law, and of the good things they were shadows and types of; and of Christ himself, and of the virtue, odour, and fragrancy of his sufferings, sacrifice, and intercession; and also of the church, called an orchard of pomegranates, Sol 4:13 consisting of various members, as the pomegranate of various grains; the juice of which the blood of Christ may resemble, in which those members swim and are washed; and who are of a grateful odour to God, and are surrounded by his power and love; and their hanging upon the hem of the robe may signify the acceptableness of them through the righteousness, sacrifice, and mediation of Christ, and the fruits of good works, which both the righteousness of Christ and the Gospel produce; and particularly the bells and pomegranates may signify that sound doctrine and a savoury life and conversation should go together in the priests of the Lord, in the ministers of his word.
(c) Hilchot Cele Hamikdash, c. 9. sect. 4. (d) Stromat. l. 5. p. 564.
A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe round about.
EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Pulpit Commentary
Verses 34, 35. - A golden bell and a pomegranate. Hebrew tradition gives a most uncertain sound with respect to the number of the bells. According to some, they were 12 only; according to others, 72; according to a third school, 3651 Equally conflicting are the explanations given of their symbolism -
(1) that they typified the proclamation and expounding of the law by the high-priest -
(2) that they were a musical offering of praise -
(3) that they marked kingly dignity, since Oriental kings sometimes wore bells - and
(4) that they were a call to vigilance and attention. This last view is supported by the words of verse 35 - it shall be upon Aaron to minister, and his sound shall be hoard, or "that its sound may be heard." The bells were a means of uniting priest and people in one common service - they enabled the people to enter into and second what the priest was doing for them, and so to render his mediation efficacious - they made the people's worship in the court of the sanctuary a "reasonable service." And hence the threat, which certainly does not extend to all the priestly garments, implied in the words, "that he die not." If the high priest neglected to wear the robe with the bells, he separated himself off from the people; made himself their substitute and not their mouthpiece; reduced their worship to a drear formality; deprived it of all heartiness and life and vigour. For thus abusing his office, he would deserve death, especially as he could not do it unwittingly, for his ears would tell him whether he was wearing the bells or not.
CHAPTER 28:36-38
Two golden rings were also to be put "upon the shoulder-pieces of the ephod underneath, toward the fore-part thereof, near the joining above the girdle of it," and to fasten the choshen from its (lower) rings to the (lower) rings of the ephod with threads of hyacinth, that it might be over the girdle (above it), and not move away (יזּח Niphal of זחח, in Arabic removit), i.e., that it might keep its place above the girdle and against the ephod without shifting.
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Nothing says "I love you" like a beautiful homemade gift! No one knows this better than an avid knitter. Valentine's Day is the perfect time to show your loved ones how much you care about them with some knitted gifts.
Check out these adorable knitting patterns that will make people feel appreciated!
The "All Wrapped Up in Love and Prayer" shawl makes a gorgeously delicate Valentine's Day gift for your mom or grandma. Get the pattern on Love Knitting.
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This adorable heart cowl will keep your valentine cozy until spring. Find the pattern on Knitty.
Lauren Riker's leg warmer pattern features adorable textured hearts that look stylish while they keep your valentine warm.
You'll get the fun of knitting this adorable pattern and your valentine will get the fun of wearing it! Check the pattern out on Lulu Knits.
Love Knitting's hearts headband pattern is the perfect quick (but adorable) project for friends and coworkers.
This comfy striped pillow is simple enough for you to create for multiple friends, but special enough that they'll feel appreciated! Get the pattern from Redheart.
This whimsical heart garland by Vickie Howell makes a nice little Valentine's Day favour for all your friends!
Craft Own teaches you the steps for making this festive, heart-shaped Valentine's Day bag.
Any knitter knows much time, effort, detail, and love goes into knitting an entire blanket. Show your valentine how much they mean to you with this pattern from Anjela Govan.
This squeeze-able heart by Cvetula Knits will give your valentine a way to de-stress and feel loved at the same time!
Smariek Knits shows you how to make these useful little Valentine's Day favours for anyone who deserves a little love that day.
These uplifting little trinkets by I Like Lemons are easy to make and hand out. Give one to each of your coworkers to make their Valentine's Day a little brighter.
This adorable sweater with the heart-themed cut outs will look adorable on your sister or best friend. Love Knitting shows you how it's done.
Mochi Mochi Land shows you how to create these adorable toys for the people who mean the most to you!
What presents have you knit for your valentines?


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H.H. (Herman) Jonker (Den Haag, 22 november 1948) is een Nederlands politicus van de PvdA.

Hij begon zijn loopbaan als adjunct-commies bij de Raad van State waar hij na verloop van tijd promoveerde via commies en afdelingshoofd tot directeur Ruimtelijke Ordening. Vanaf 1983 was hij voorzitter van de afdeling Gouda van de PvdA en in 1988 volgde zijn benoeming tot burgemeester van Vessem, Wintelre en Knegsel.

Op 16 september 1996 werd Jonker benoemd tot burgemeester van Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht. Hij volgde toen Jan Broekhuis op die burgemeester van Spijkenisse was geworden. In september 2008 is Jonker in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht voor de tweede keer herbenoemd. In maart 2011 heeft hij aangegeven op 1 december van dat jaar vervroegd met pensioen te willen gaan. Begin 2012 werd hij opgevolgd door Jan Heijkoop.

In 2015 werd Jonker Ridder in de Orde van het Heilig Graf.

Burgemeester van Vessem, Wintelre en Knegsel
Burgemeester van Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht
PvdA-politicus (Nederland)


However it got started, I just thrive in theocratic cultism. Knowledge and skill revered, the things of it kept in the temple and the best of ones works done for the glory of the God and in imitation. If aliens needed gold slaves 12,000 years ago and thats why people try to get something in the sky to come back, it translated into the sanctuary of knowledge and preservation in an outrageously uncooperative and beastly world. Writing, medicine, history, the sciences all came from the temple and it it is likely the temple will preserve them again. Beyond ones own divinity, if thats what it is, beyond others ideas of divinity, when they are even attempting to be honest, the tools of civilization, the pitfalls of it and its methods give religion real and practical value that is only temporarily assumed by societies. It is a well the upreaching seek to drink from.
This is all unhealthy imaginings. Stop using natives and the past as a deflection for truth and now in the self. Any place you have a population of 8 billion, they go insane and self destruct. Pretending to be big innocent babies as much as beasts. I am VERY TANNED and please stop this charade of using natives as some christ replacement to advertise yourself and everyone a martyr. The way of earth has always been the same. You don't say "here come the bloody brown and black men to destroy the country" Because you are being very phony and hypocrite. Its insulting to all peoples and a complete waste of living time that should be better spent.


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text:
Last updated on: 4/8/2016 7:15:54 AM PST
Are the Common Core Standards Good for Education in America?
"More broadly, Gov. Johnson believes there is no role for the Federal Government in education. He would eliminate the federal Department of Education, and return control to the state and local levels. He opposes Common Core and any other attempts to impose national standards and requirements on local schools, believing the key to restoring education excellence in the U.S. lies in the innovation, freedom and flexibility that federal interference inherently discourages."
Source: Gary Johnson 2016, "Education," garyjohnson2016.com (accessed Apr. 20, 2016)
"We've seen a common pattern with the education agenda pushed by Wall Street and standardized test corporations: high-stakes testing sets up public schools to fail, paving the way for the takeover of education by charter schools with their profits subsidized by taxpayer dollars.
Within two years after [former New York State Education Commissioner John] King's disastrous Common Core rollout, 20% of students were sitting out the tests in protest...
As President, I will halt the destructive push for high-stakes testing and school privatization. Instead of teaching to the test, we need to teach to the whole student for lifetime learning."
Source: Schools Matter, "Guest Post: Dr. Jill Stein: A Failing Grade for Obama's Education Pick," schoolsmatter.info, Mar. 27, 2016
"I'm a tremendous believer in education. But education has to be at a local level. We cannot have the beuraucrats in Washington telling you how to manage your child's education.
So Common Core's a total disaster. We can't let it continue. We are rated 28 in the world--the United States!--think of it!--28 in the world--and, frankly, we spend far more per pupil than any other country in the world by far, it's not even a close second. So here we are, we spend more money, and we're rated 28--third world countries are ahead of us.
We're gonna end Common Core, we're gonna have education an absolute priority."
Source: Donald Trump, Facebook post, facebook.com, Jan. 26, 2016
"When I think about the really unfortunate argument that's been going on around Common Core, it's very painful, because the Common Core started off as a bi-partisan effort — it was actually nonpartisan. It wasn't politicized, it was to try to come up with a core of learning that we might expect students to achieve across our country, no matter what kind of school district they were in, no matter how poor their family was, that there wouldn't be two tiers of education. Everybody would be looking at what was to be learned and doing their best to try to achieve that. Now I think part of the reason why Iowa may be more understanding of this is you've had the Iowa Core for years, you've had a system, plus the Iowa Assessment tests. I think I'm right in saying I took those when I was in elementary school, right — the Iowa tests. So Iowa has had a testing system based on a core curriculum for a really long time, and you see the value of it. You understand why that helps you organize your whole education system. And a lot of states, unfortunately, haven't had that, and so don't understand the value of a core in this sense a common core that then — yes of course you can, y'know, figure out the best way, in your community to try to reach."
Source: Valerie Strauss, "What Hillary Clinton Said about the Common Core State Standards," washingtonpost.com, Apr. 20, 2015
"[Chris Wallace:] You say opposition to Common Core educational standards is quote, your word, 'hysteria.' We had Bobby Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana, on here a couple of weeks ago and he said Common Core is a stalking horse for federal takeover of education.
[John Kasich:] Well, I mean, these were governors who helped create Common Core, Chris. The Common Core was written by state education superintendents and local principals. In my state of Ohio, we want higher standards for our children, and those standards are set and the curriculum is set by local school boards. Barack Obama doesn't set it. The state of Ohio doesn't set it. It is local school boards driving better education, higher standards, created by local school boards. I've asked the Republican governors that have complained about this to tell me where I'm wrong, and guess what, silence."
Source: Sam Levine, "John Kasich Calls out Conservatives Who Oppose Common Core," huffingtonpost.com, Jan. 26, 2015
[Editor's Note: On Mar. 26, 2015, Senator Bernie Sanders voted against S.Amdt.515, an amendment that allowed states to opt out of Common Core without penalty. In addition, in an Oct. 25, 2011 press release, "An Update on Overhauling No Child Left Behind," available at sanders.senate.gov, Senator Sanders' office expressed its support "for states, like Vermont, that have adopted the Common Core Standards so students are taught the skills they need to be in college and career ready."]
"Common Core is a disaster. And if I am elected president, in the first days as president, I will direct the Department of Education that Common Core ends that day.
Now, let me tell you why you can do that, because it's easy to talk about the problem, but you have to understand the solutions. The Obama administration has abused executive power in forcing Common Core on the states. It has used Race-to-the-Top funds to effectively blackmail and force the states to adopt Common Core.
Now, the one silver lining of Obama abusing executive power is that everything done with executive power can be undone with executive power, and I intend to do that.
Beyond that, though, Jake, I intend to work to abolish the federal Department of Education and send education back to the states and back to the local governments. "
Source: CNN Politics, "Transcript of Republican Debate in Miami, Full Text," cnn.com, Mar. 10, 2016


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text:
First case of coronavirus in NY contracted by 39-year-old health care worker
Around New York State
by: Kelly Khatib, Evan Anstey
Posted: Mar 1, 2020 / 07:57 PM EST / Updated: Mar 3, 2020 / 02:47 PM EST
(WIVB) — Governor Andrew Cuomo confirmed the first positive case of novel coronavirus — or COVID-19 — in New York State Sunday.
In an earlier statement, Cuomo says the patient is "a woman in her late thirties who contracted the virus while traveling abroad in Iran and is currently isolated in her home."
"The patient has respiratory symptoms, but is not in serious condition and has been in a controlled situation since arriving in New York ."
Monday morning on CNN, Cuomo confirmed that the 39-year-old woman is a health care worker, and that she took necessary precautions that will be advantageous for others at risk of contracting the virus.
The test was confirmed by New York's Wadsworth Lab in Albany. The Governor called for the public to remain calm saying the risk of contracting the disease still remains low.
"There is no reason for undue anxiety the general risk remains low in New York. We are diligently managing this situation and will continue to provide information as it becomes available."
According to Cuomo, the woman was not symptomatic on the plane back to America. When she arrived, she avoided public transportation.
During his CNN appearance, Cuomo said that a case was expected to be confirmed in New York, due to it being a major population center. Plus, many international flights come through the city's airports.
In response, Cuomo is mobilizing the state's public health system in an effort to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Test results in two other possible New York cases are still pending.
There are no cases of the virus here locally at this time, but Canisius College has announced they're canceling all school-sponsored international travel, including their study abroad programs.
Cuomo says those who are most vulnerable to contracting coronavirus are elderly people and those who have other illnesses.
Here's Canisius' full statement on their decisions regarding international travel:
"Canisius College has decided to prohibit college-sponsored or related international travel to any countries designated by the CDC as a Level 4 – currently only China; Level 3, including Italy, South Korea and Iran. This will involve trips over the college's upcoming spring break and during the summer."
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