Georgie Watts, our guest blogger is never not scheming, plotting and planning for her next trip. She is always day dreaming of unique destinations & experiences.
Georgie LOVES AUSTRALIA, and is determined to see as much of it as possible… she also loves many other places, that are not Australia!
She is excited by cultural experiences, by food, sights and smells! Georgie is also mum to two junior frequent flyers, Wolfie and Kinga and her all time favourite travel companion is her love, Merrick.
Click through to enjoy Georgie's account of all things KIDS and FOOD and make sure you follow her continuous adventures here on Instagram.
I remember being a fussy eater as a child. I didn't like fish. I am not sure I liked meat, apart from chicken. Anything that wasn't chicken was sold in as tasting like chicken. Of course I didn't like vegetables! As a parent now I can see how tricky this must have been for my parents to navigate. And I am grateful to have kids who are not fussy, who enjoy meal times, and who are willing to try most things at least once. My children constantly surprise me with their food choices; my son loves sashimi and sushi, olives and congee. My daughter who is five recently decided to be a vegetarian, but had to abandon her new food philosophy as she loves her dads chicken schnitzels too much!
I am not a nutritionist, but I understand the importance of feeding children real and whole foods. They require fuel to play, grow and learn, and nourishing them with real food helps to establish good eating patterns.
But food is not only nutrition and fuel. Food can be a gateway to learning about other cultures…for instance, not everyone eats with cutlery. In Asia, the Middle East and Africa it is common to eat with the fingers of the right hand (never the left as this is considered disrespectful, and food should never touch the palm of the hand!) in other Asian cultures a spoon and fork are used, and in others chopsticks! In some cultures foods are eaten for breakfast that Western cultures might not consider breakfast foods, such as Vietnamese Pho, though in our house it's a special breakky treat and also 8 year old Wolfies favourite meal ever, no matter the time of day.
Food is central to creating your own food culture, and history. It is a large part of our social interactions. In this day and age when we are so time poor, coming together at meal times to reconnect, to debrief on our day, and share a meal together is a great way to create ones own food culture. We come together for special meals at times of celebrations and at times of sadness and loss. We associate certain foods with family members and have memories associated with grandparents of meals they once prepared for us. Passing down recipes from generations, and preparing those meals together further adds to an individuals food culture. My mothers chicken soup has always been my favourite. Now I always have chicken stock in the freezer, and though my version is very different to my mothers, it has become a firm favourite with my children.
Food can transport us, as if by magic to other places, and times in our life. We all have those meals on holidays; remember that lime and chilli squid we had at that stall on the side of the highway in Thailand? Or the first time we had steaming hot and fragrant pho in Saigon all those years ago? That pot of mussels and carafe of rose in Marseilles on honeymoon? I do! And if I smell or taste those meals, I'm taken back to those places, if only for a moment. This is true too for my kids, who are just as fond of a South East Asian breakfast buffet as I am! They often remind me of their own food moments, I don't always remember them as they do.
Travel and food are intrinsically linked for our family…destinations are always considered on their gastronomic merit! What's the food like, and what will we eat are the questions we ask each other.
It is important to remember that food and the act of preparing it and eating it is about pleasure! There is nothing my daughter loves more than a Saturday gnocchi making and eating session with her dad followed by a slice of brownie they've baked together.
What does food mean to you and your family?


text:
Dividing Roadmaps by Timezones: 10 years of moving pictures 2000-2010
super 8, 16mm, video, and performance
This 10 year retrospective of films was first presented by the Canadian Film Institute as a part of their Café EX screening series at Club Saw in 2009.
The original screening at the CFI included a handmade zine with an essay and drawings by Amanda Dawn Christie.
Films that have been part of this program include:
(The original program was a collection of films from 1999-2009. In subsequent screenings the selection of films has varried slightly from venue to venue.)
He Drives (super 8 colour, live sound, 3 min, 1999)
Here (super 8, BW, 3 min, 2000)
Turning (16mm, BW, silent, 8 min, 2004)
Forever Hold Your Peace (16mm, colour, hand scratched optical sound, 1 min, 2004)
Playing Jacob (16mm, colour, optical sound, 2 min, 2005)
Knowledge of Good and Evil (16mm, colour, silent, 2 min, 2005)
16mm Postcard(16mm, BW, optical sound, 2 min, 2005)
Mechanical Memory (16mm, BW, optical sound, 6 min, 2005)
3part Harmony: Composition in RGB #1 (16mm, colour, optical sound, 6 min, 2006)
Mechanical / Animal Memory (16mm on DVcam, BW, sound, 6 min, 2006)
This Unnamable Little Dream: or a traced sketch of two brothers (super 8, BW, silent, 3min, 2006)
A Maternal Record Not Fully Recorded (super 8, colour, live sound, 3 min, 2006)
Fallen Flags (16mm, colour, optical sound, 8 min, 2007)
v=d/t (16mm, colour, optical sound, 8 min, 2008)
Circadia (digital video, colour, sound, 5 min, 2009)
A - > B (super 8, BW, sound on CD, 3 min, 2009)
Transmissions (solo performance for two 16mm projectors, loops, optics, shorwave radio and kaoss pad, 15-20 min, 2010)
Lovesongs for Lost Endings (solo performance for super 8 projector and optics with stereo sound, 10 min, 2011)
Detailed information and links to preview films in this program:
note: most super 8 films have not yet been uploaded - contact Amanda for the password
also note: many of the 16mm video transfers were done by taping off a wall, so some images are soft - these are for preview only.
Halifax, NS, Canada 2004
9 min. 324 feet (97 metres)
16mm BW handprocessed
silent (no dialogue, no subtitles)
-- originally projected onto a wall of ice as a part of the Quiet Triptych performance --
Throughout the journey, meanings that symbols once held for us shift and change as black and white blend to form grey. We see ourselves reflected in the world around us and the world around us envelops us. Things that were once threatening become comforting arms of solace while things that were once sanctuaries threaten to drown us. Water has the power to cleanse as well as the power to drown while the forest is both protective and foreboding.
16mm Color Hand Scratched Sound
Live actions with hand scratched sound, this film presents the frustration of feeling the need to speak with nothing to say. Filmed by the artist's husband at the time, the film also relates to subtle complexities of communication within marriage.
3 min. 100 feet (30 metres) [1 daylight spool]
16mm Color with Optical Sound
Loosely exploring the historical weight of institutionalized religion in a postmillennial society, and its relationship to individual spirituality, the filmmaker places herself into the Jacob myth of the Pentateuch. She plays the role of Jacob in an attempt to come to terms with her religious upbringing, and her anxious ambivalence towards her own agnosticism. Inspired by the in-camera techniques of the early cinema of Meliese, the film and all of its special effects were shot and edited entirely in-camera in one take.
Vancouver, BC, Canada 2005
1:25 min, 51 feet (15.5 metres)
16mm colour, silent
Knowledge of Good and Evil is an abstract exploration of the tension surrounding women and stereotypical representations of their knowledge. This film was created from footage shot at Phil Hoffman's independent imaging retreat (aka "the film farm") in Ontario as well as from footage shot in Vancouver (where I had given myself the challenge of shooting 100 feet of film every month). All of the footage was hand-processed, and some of it was contact printed by hand and treated in baths of potassium ferricyanide. The final film was created through various optical printing techniques.
3 min. 100ft (30metres) [1 daylight spool of 3378]
16mm BW with optical sound
A diaristic film in which the filmmaker comes to terms with her new life in Vancouver, "16mm Postcard" is a bittersweet letter back home to the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative in Halifax. Life in any letter, it becomes painfully obvious that one can never fully communicate, and the result is a series of random tidbits that point to a larger experience.
5 min. 180 feet (54.8 metres)
English, No Subtitles
16mm BW with optical mono sound
Created from super 8 footage that was shot in the 1970s of the family dogs and the trains that my father worked on, this film explores the decay of memory and image. The super 8 film grew fungus while stored in a basement. It was then optically printed up to 16mm and slowed down so that the snowflake shaped fungus could be studied. Narration presents fragmented stories of childhood memories. This film was created as a source film, which was later physically cut up and reprinted with a flashlight to destroy the image and sound for the subsequent film "Mechanical/Animal Memory" which is owned by the NFB.
Vancouver, BC, Canada 2006.
6 min., 216 feet (65.8 metres)
16mm color with mono optical sound (no dialogue)
This experimental dance film employs a bastardized version of the 1930s three strip Technicolor process. Shot entirely on black and white film through color filters, the images were recombined into full color through optical printing techniques, one frame at a time. The gestures in this dance work explore the psychological fracturing and reunification in representations of the female body.
A Maternal Record Not Fully Recorded
(super 8, colour, live sound, 3 min, 2006)
A look at our attempts to preserve the past in home movies and photographs, and the disparity between the actual lived events and the mnemonic objects. Super home movies from the 1970s show my mother and myself as a toddler, blowing bubbles and riding horse back. The original super 8 footage was transferred to video, then filmed back onto super 8 from a television monitor in an attempt to translate the memories from medium to medium degenerating and deteriorating with each transfer.
8:10 min. 294 feet (89.6 metres)
16mm Colour with mono optical sound (no dialogue)
A layered tapestry of trains and underwater footage exploring the realms of fear death and transience, this film places the traces of human voices amidst the flickering light and shadows of empty passenger cars. This film Stems from a train trip from one end of Canada to the other and back again, and the loss of a friend in a drowning accident. This project was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and involved 15 days of train travel from Vancouver to Halifax and back again (1200 km in total). This film is one of the meditations resulting from that trip. A "Fallen Flag" is the railroad term given to a discontinued rail line.
The first minute and the last minute are entirely black with soundscape only.
Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2008
7:36 min. 273 feet (83 metres)
16mm, color with mono optical sound
v=d/t is the physics formula which calculates velocity by dividing the distance traveled by the time required to travel that distance. This film explores the possibility of measuring distances between loved ones through time zones. The sound track is comprised of personal and tragic phone messages left on voicemail when individuals could not connect due to great time zone differences, while the visual elements present simple and contemplative images of antique telephones.
This film was created at the WORM.filmwerkplaats, during a one month artist residency at the 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam. This handmade film incorporates various contact printing and optical printing techniques in addition to chemical manipulations. This is the first film that I made since Helen Hill passed away, and her influence comes through in my use of text. I have always avoided adding text to my films because I had a real problem with the concept of narrative. After Helen passed away, I watched "Scratch and Crow" over and over again many times over and I was really struck by her use of language both in terms of its content and graphic structure.
solo performance for two 16mm projectors, loops, optics, shorwave radio and kaoss pad, 15-20 min, 2010
An improvisational performance for analogue and digital technologies that explores radio waves and dreaming; satellites and ideas; wireless internet and cell phones; television and radio broadcasts; all of these signals contribute to complex interconnected webs of invisible landscapes and invisible architectures passing through our bodies in every time and in every space. The analogue aspect of the live performance involves the manipulation of 16mm film loops through the use of prisms, mirrors, and lenses, which distort the images while sending them beyond the rectangular perimeter of the screen. The digital aspect of the live performance involves the real time processing of short wave radio sounds through the use of a kaoss pad.
This performance bridges the gap between contemporary digital technologies and anachronistic analogue machines. People often equate interactivity with digital technologies and yet this improvisational performance finds a way to interactively engage with 16mm film loops in real time through the use of glass and mirrors. It ironically presents analogue images of digital devices while simultaneously incorporating digital manipulation of analogue source sounds.
Lovesongs for Lost Endings
solo performance for super 8 projector and optics with stereo sound, 10 min, 2011
The detritus of displacement lingers in the liminal space between the mnemonic device of the home movie and the fleshy body of the operator behind the mechanical projector. In this panegyric for the odds that escape the landfill to linger like fossils for future explorers in the archaeology of junk shops, the body of the projectionist is present in the cinematic space intervening with the flickering images between the lens and the screen; mirrors, prisms, and glass are used to distort and throw the images into deviant spaces like memories disfigured over time through the acts of fact and fabulation. As we move from year to year, place to place, chapter to chapter, we shed our objects like snakes shed their skin and like deer shed their antlers; dead bone to the ground, divining the shed-hunters.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Our review of the 2017 Chicago Cubs Top 10 Prospects is now available.
You can see the Chicago Cubs 2016 Prospect List here.
do you see the CHC being able to replenish going forward selecting at the end of rounds 1 and 2?
How do they play Zobrist with this talent still coming and sitting on the line?
There will be no Kris Bryant but I think it can be done…plus, they have the money to sign free agents, unlike small market teams.


text:
AventaMed to achieve FDA clearance with help of €1.8M HBAN-backed funding
HBAN (Halo Business Angel Network), the all-island organisation responsible for the promotion of business angel investment and a joint initiative of Enterprise Ireland and InterTradeIreland, today announces a €1.8 million investment in Cork-based medtech company, AventaMed.
A spin out company from Cork Institute of Technology, AvantaMed was set up by co-Founders Olive O'Driscoll and John Vaughan in 2013 to find a method of inserting ear tubes, or grommets, in children without requiring general anaesthetic. The insertion of grommets is used to treat recurring ear infections and hearing loss in children and adults. It is one of the most common surgeries carried out on children worldwide. AventaMed expects the Solo TTD to have wide spread appeal globally.
The five-strong company has spent the last four years developing the all in one handheld Solo device which simplifies the implantation process, reduces costs and improves patient outcomes. AventaMed is now looking to enter the US market, for which it requires FDA clearance.
We are already treating patients in Europe with the Solo device; both parents and surgeons have experienced first-hand the benefits of placing grommets without the need for a full general anaesthetic. We are thrilled to close this investment round as it will enable AventaMed to obtain FDA clearance for the device so that patients in the USA may also benefit from our innovative technology.
"A lot of our investors come from very senior positions in multinational and Irish medical device and healthcare companies. They are always available to AventaMed to offer expert advice and make critical commercial introductions, which is hugely valuable as we execute our commercialisation strategy in Europe and the USA'.
- Olive O'Driscoll, co-founder and CEO, AventaMed
The investment – which includes €1.6 million angel funding, the largest single HBAN angel investment to date – will fund AventaMed through FDA (Food and Drug Administration) clearance and commercialisation of the Solo Tympanostomy Tube Device (Solo TTD) which enables the quick and simple insertion of ear grommets.
Jack Cashman, AventaMed chairman, lead angel and member of HBAN MedTech Syndicate & Irrus Investments, said: "I first met the co-founders in 2014 and was very impressed by the team and the device that they had developed. From a very early stage, they showed the potential to grow from a small research project to a lucrative medical devices Company, with pipeline products already on the drawing board.
"After the first round of funding I was asked by the co-founders to take on the role of Chairperson and I readily agreed. The other investors and I are providing AventaMed with 'smart money', using our knowledge of the medical devices and wider healthcare industries to assist the company and its commercial traction."


I've taken a scrapbooking hiatus for a little while... okay, like years. My laptop died way-back-when and I started using Kevin's old Macbook. Because Mac is different from Windows and his version of Photoshop was different from mine, I felt like it took me forever to do anything and I got frustrated. So, I kind of quit.
But, now that Baby is on the way, I want to get back into it because as we all know... she will be the most photographed child in the world. For my first project, I am making a custom baby book... here are my first two page layouts.
Today was a great day! Went for my second anatomy scan (last time they weren't able to get a good look at the heart.) Baby's heart looks great and we got some cool (okay, creepy) 3-D pics that we weren't expecting. Then I decided to stop at Subway on the way home to congratulate myself and found out that it's free cookie day! It just doesn't get better than this!
I came home from Lowes a couple weeks ago with a stack of at least 100 light blue paint chips. What can I say, I like to be thorough. Kevin looked through the first 12 in the stack and slapped one down on the table, "This one." Valspar's Paradise Blue. I liked it, too, but I was afraid it was going to be too dark, so I chose a lighter one called Breakwater and got samples of both.
After I got them on the wall, there was no contest. Kev was right. (Did I say that out loud?) The lighter one said "I wanted to paint my daughter's room blue, but I didn't want to be too weird about it, so I went with a 'safe' blue." The darker one said, "Yeah, I painted my little girl's room blue. Whaddyagonnadoaboutit?"
Still trying to decide what to do about the chair rail... do I paint the wall underneath white? The same color blue? I don't know, we'll see.
I also found some beautiful sheer fabric that I plan to use as a window valance. My sewing skills are almost nil, so that should be interesting and generate a lot of colorful language.
We have another ultrasound on Monday... probably the last time we'll get to see our little one before she joins us in June. Will post pics if we get any good ones!
This is not the first time I have posted this recipe, but I haven't made it in several years. When I tasted it again tonight, I realized just how good it was... why have I waited so long to make this again?? This time I followed the instructions to bake it and it turned out great. Nice and crispy! Still a little messy to flip (I turned it halfway through), but otherwise a quick and easy meal. Serve with extra salsa on the side!
Today was a good day... it snowed on a weekend! That doesn't seem very exciting, but for me it is! You see, I LOVE to bake when it's snowing. But with my luck, it seems to always snow on a day I have to go to work. So when I looked at the weather report on Friday and saw that we were expecting snow this weekend, I stopped by the store on the way home and stocked up on butter and eggs.
First I made Chocolate Banana Bread. Kevin likes to take bananas in his lunch, but sometimes we end up with some that don't get eaten. So when they're looking a little less than stellar, they go into a ziplock bag in the freezer, so I am always stocked up for banana bread.
Then I decided to make some of his favorite cookies for Valentine's Day. This recipe is from a cookbook called A Peak at the Springs from the Colorado Springs Junior League. They were giving out samples of these cookies a couple years ago when Kevin and I went to their Kitchens With Altitude event, which is like the Parade of Homes, but with super high-end kitchens. I'm not a fan of coconut, but you can't really taste it in this cookie.
The recipe makes 4 dozen... I asked Kevin if he was going to take them to work and he said "No. That would be sharing." LOL I guess that means he likes them.


For the past several months we've been craving the burst of color that Spring brings to Connecticut. Now that the warm days are here, it's time to get outside! One place to really soak in the sunshine, newly emerging greenery and spring flowers is Stamford's huge botanical garden. The Bartlett Arboretum and Gardens is a 91-acre natural oasis well worth exploring.
Bartlett Arboretum and Gardens is a stunning natural environment open year-round. But during the Spring, this glorious 91-acre sanctuary just begs for a warm weather visit.
With 12 different gardens and hundreds of plant species, this huge botanical garden is an entrancing feast for the eyes.
Stroll through the gardens taking your time. There are even benches scattered throughout the property so you can soak in your incredible surroundings.
The botanical garden isn't just groomed gardens. Enjoy taking a hike on the miles and miles of wooded hiking trails.
With so many sights to see, the Bartlett is a wonderful spot for families to visit. You can even bring the four-legged family member to enjoy the trails. Just remember to keep your pup on a leash.
One of our favorite places on the property is the delightful boardwalk wetland walk. This trail is like discovering tropical jungle right here in Connecticut.
The Bartlett also has plenty of classes, activities, and tours taking place. Admission to the botanical garden is free, however, certain special events may require a purchased ticket.
Start planning your visit to Bartlett Arboretum and Gardens now. You can visit this gorgeous place between dawn and dusk every day.
Bartlett Arboretum and Gardens can be found at 151 Brookdale Rd., Stamford, CT. Learn more by checking out their website or Facebook page.
Have you ever visited this extraordinary botanical garden? If you're inspired by Spring flowers, you'll want to visit this dreamy park with over 600,000 daffodils. And if your searching for cherry blossoms, visit this colorful neighborhood.


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Släktet innehåller bara arten Mesalgoides oscinum. Mesalgoides är enda släktet i familjen Psoroptoididae.

Källor

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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


TheBiggestJesus: "Why did you start there?"
"Why did you start there?"
Will God save all people? Or will most suffer in incredible misery forever? Or will most be utterly annihilated?
Your starting point in the Bible on this important subject is vital in determining what conclusions you will come to. Your starting point will also greatly affect your understanding of God and His ultimate purposes for all people.
"Everybody else starts here. Right?"
It's possible, and sometimes pretty easy, to use the Bible to justify almost any belief imaginable. The Bible is a big book that speaks to almost every area of life. And one verse or a handful of verses skillfully plucked from the Bible can be made to look like a rock-solid foundation on which to build a complete set of beliefs about God, man and life. People who are at polar opposites on a biblical subject can simultaneously sound very convincing with their arguments, leaving someone seeking the truth confused.
I know from personal experience that choosing a side on important biblical subjects can be difficult when opposing sides present their cases very well. I've been deceived before. There may be things in my life right now that I am deceived about. Never forget that our enemy, Satan, is the master deceiver. But I will continue to seek the truth. And I encourage you to do the same.
"Do I want any of my beliefs to be based on verses that contradict God's clearly revealed will?"
I hope your answer is a reasonably loud, but not obnoxious "No!"
The point of this article is to ask, "Why do you start where you do in the Bible on this issue?". I also want to tell you my reason for starting where I do.
There are three main camps trying to make their voice heard on the subject of the duration of God's judgment on those who are not followers of Jesus.
Annihilation - the eventual complete destruction and non-existence of mortal people who didn't know Jesus in this life. They won't live again after their annihilation, thus their judgment is eternal.
Jerry Walls, Professor of Philosophy and author of the book Hell: The Logic of Damnation, said it very well in the documentary Hellbound?.
"Any honest person has to recognize that there are three kinds of texts in the Bible. There are texts, which on the face of them, clearly seem to teach eternal conscious misery. There are texts, which on the face of them, seem to teach annihilation. There are texts, which on the face of them, seem to teach that everybody's gonna be saved. No matter what position you've got and you take, you've gotta find a way to making those three sets of texts coherent and consistent with each other."
To make all of these texts coherent and consistent with each other, as well as the rest of the Bible, is not easy. But if it's true that "God is not the author of confusion" (1 Corinthians 14:33), and that He does not contradict Himself, then you should believe it can be done and strive to do it. The reward of a coherent belief system is worth the effort.
Each set of verses above is not exclusive to each group. As a Christian universalist, I believe all of these Bible verses. But I may not believe a particular verse as it's written in the King James Version or the New International Version of the Bible. Sometimes you have to dig a little deeper than what a particular version of the Bible says. When this is done, all of these texts can be made coherent and consistent with each other. But the key is having the right starting point.
I've spent time in each of these three camps. In my opinion, all three groups have convincing arguments.
I first believed, taught and preached for about 17 years the eternal misery of those who do not believe in and follow Jesus in this life. Then for about a year and a half I believed in the ultimate annihilation of unbelievers. I am now a "judgmental universalist" and have been since 2009. As a judgmental universalist I believe that God will save all people and reconcile them to Himself. But I also believe that before they are saved, those who don't follow Jesus in this life will go through God's proper judgment. It will be very horrible (Romans 2:1-11), but also tolerable (Matthew 11:24). Their judgment is a result of their unforgiven sin due to the fact that they did not come to know Jesus in this life.
Contrary to this, there are many universalists who think God will save all people, but that He won't judge anyone. They believe God is smiling down approvingly on all people as mankind lies, hates, kills, rapes and abuses its way through history. Make no mistake - God will properly judge all sin.
[God our Saviour] will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
In this verse the Greek word that is translated as wants in the NIV and will in the King James actually means that God is determined to save all people.
If you believe in annihilation or eternal torment, the question you must answer is, "Why can't the Almighty God get all that He is determined to do?". Maybe you've never thought about your beliefs in this way. If you believe in eternal torment or annihilation, you are - probably without realizing it - essentially saying that God is not sovereign, or He is lacking in some other way, making Him unable to achieve His perfect will. The end result in your belief system is that God fails - He does not get what He's determined to do and has worked throughout history to achieve. Christian universalists believe that God is eventually one hundred percent successful in His plan to save all people through the work of Jesus.
Do you have a solid biblical reason why the Almighty God can't do what He is determined to do with His own creation?
I discussed some verses about universal salvation with a man who has been a pastor for over 40 years. At the end of our discussion he said that maybe we just don't know what God wants. Really? His reasoning wasn't very biblical. Is 1 Timothy 2:4 unclear? Though there are many mysteries in the Bible, God does make many aspects of His will crystal clear. And when He does we better pay attention.
Are you going to tell God He can't save all people because it's just too hard?
The reason I chose this verse as a common-ground starting point is that Christians on all three sides of this very important issue believe that God wants to save all people. This is because no one can honestly ignore the power of this one verse. I have yet to meet a Christian who says God does not want to save all people. So this is our point of agreement.
You'll notice if you look at the Scriptures listed under Eternal Conscious Misery, they all seemingly contradict God's desire/will/determination from 1 Timothy 2:4.
Why would anyone base their beliefs on verses that seem to contradict God's clear desire? I think tradition, limited information, and peer pressure could be the main culprits. There are surely others.
I'm not picking on anyone who believes this way. I believed in eternal conscious misery for many years. I was never taught the other sides - annihilation or the salvation of all. When I first encountered them, I was resistant to believing tham because they went against everything I had been taught up to that point. Plus, I didn't personally know anyone who believed these teachings. "What would my friends think?" "Will they reject me?" These are all very real and very powerful emotions and questions I struggled with. Some people never get past these initial questions, and out of fear, don't pursue the issue any further. But I realized I needed to "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). This is how I became a Christian universalist.
You'll also notice as you look at the verses listed as starting points for those who believe in the salvation of all, they are all in agreement with God's desire/will/determination from 1 Timothy 2:4.
If your starting point is contradicting God, I urge you get a new starting point, regardless of what you see "everybody else" doing. You won't be alone, though you will be in the minority. There are a lot of people who do believe that the Almighty God will accomplish His will and save all people.
I ask you to try to understand the seemingly contradictory Scriptures in light of the verses that are in agreement with God's plan. From my study of this subject, if you dig deep enough, you can harmonize all of these verses with God's determination to save all people and bring them to the truth.
If you don't feel like digging that deep (it is a lot of work), or don't know how, I suggest my book - Jesus and Hitler - at the top of this blog. It's a deep look into the Scriptures to see the big picture of God's plan to save all people. Click on the book above and you will go to Amazon where you can get a paperback copy or download to your Kindle.
Please let me know your starting point on this important issue. Also, let me know what you think of this article.
I occasionally offer the Kindle version of Jesus and Hitler for free download. Click on the book above.


We go below the surface. At Caldwell Tree Care, our goal is to provide you with exceptional service and care with our team of certified arborists who will go beyond just taking care of surface-level problems with your trees or plants. Whether you have an emergency tree situation or a property full of plants, shrubs, and trees needing regular care, Caldwell Tree Care will provide you with comprehensive service that takes a forensic look at your unique situation to identify current and potential issues, resulting in quality care for you and your horticultural needs.
Caldwell Tree Care is proud to serve Atlanta area and Metro Atlanta area residents. Our team of certified arborists and crew members are trained to address and care for any tree or plant life project.


text:
RAFAEL escreveu:
We have been traveling in Australia for roughly two months now. The first place we visited was Parkes in New South Wales, then we went to Melbourne in Victoria, to Port Augusta and Adelaide in South Australia, and finally to Kununurra and Yuendumu in the Northern Territory. In these places, we met people that worked respectively, on Wiradjuri, Woiwurrung, Barngala, Kaurna, Miriwoong and Warlpiri. These places and languages are listed in the same order as our trips, that also being the order of vitality of the languages: only the language mentioned last, Warlpiri, is still being spoken by children; the language mentioned next-to-last Miriwoong, still has some elderly native speakers, and all the other languages are being revived from written sources. The fact that the vitality of these languages coincides with the order of our trips is not a coincidence, but is rather connected to the fact we first travelled to urban places near Canberra and then to gradually more isolated and harder to reach places.
As we reported in previous blog posts, our encounters with mobs working on language revival taught us just how hard it is. Though it is undeniable that language revival efforts have an important effect on the self-esteem of Aboriginal people and on school attendance, numeracy and literacy rates among Aboriginal kids, it is undeniable too that in none of the cases we learned of was an Aboriginal language revived beyond the knowledge of fixed expressions and of isolated words. What our experience emphasizes to us is just how important it is to support the transmission of Aboriginal languages whose full speakers are still around.
In Kununurra we met a mob working on boosting the transmission of an Aboriginal language, the Miriwoong language. Among the Miriwoong people, only a handful of elders are full speakers of their language, a few middle-aged people are good passive speakers of it, and younger Miriwoong people have had little or no exposure to the language. To remedy the situation, the Mirima Language and Culture Centre is working on two fronts. They have already been for some time running a program targeted at young adults, which consists of organized sessions in which the Miriwoong elders teach the language to the younger adults. The Miriwoong language center recently started a program targeted at children, consisting of lessons taught at childcare centers and kindergartens. It is too early to access how the child-directed efforts are going to fare. As for the adult-directed efforts, they don't seem to have resulted in the restoration of the use of the Miriwoong language in daily situations.
This experience showed to us that even when full speakers are still around, restoring a language once direct transmission has been broken is no easy business (though we can't disregard the non-linguistic positive impact of restoration efforts on Aboriginal people).
My personal point of view is that the focus should be dislocated from the restoration of languages and cultures to the underlying, far more complex and long-standing problems the brutal British colonization brought onto the native peoples of the Australian continent. Drug abuse, domestic violence and cultural disintegration are but the symptoms of Aboriginal peoples' dispossession, hopelessness and lack of control over their own lives.
In the Warlpiri community of Yuendumu, we learned about some recent actions of the integrationalist program of the Northern Territory government on Warlpiri schools. After a few productive decades of autonomous development of the Warlpiri school curriculum, with hundreds of books produced locally in Warlpiri language, the NT government effectively imposed English as the school language. In the same vein, by enforcing stricter requirements on teacher certification, the NT government managed to reduce the presence of Warlpiri teachers in the school to only two. Take into consideration the fact that Yuendumu is the largest Warlpiri community of Australia.
Of course the situation is more complicated than anyone is able to grasp, and an interesting collection of points of view on the demise of the education of Aboriginal children in their mother tongue can be found [here](http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2009/s2683288.htm).
My personal point of view comes from the comparison of the situation of the Australian Indigenous peoples with that of the Brazilian Indigenous peoples. In Brazil Indigenous peoples have the constitutional right to self-determination, and even though that right is often illegally violated, it is notory that in Australia the subjugation of the indigenous peoples is constitutional.
Symptomatic of the state of subjugation of the Australian Aboriginal peoples is the fact that in Yuendumu the principal of the local school is not a Warlpiri person. Nor are Warlpiri the people in leading positions at PAW, the modern incarnation of Warlpiri media. This state of affairs must be contrasted to that of Indigenous schools and media associations in Brazil, where teachers, principals and media makers are Indigenous.
In the last stop of our trip, in Alice Springs, we learned about innovative uses of new digital media for the conservation and documentation of Aboriginal languages in the "Getting in Touch" workshop.
Foto do acervo da AIATSIS, exposta na inauguração da Conferência Internacional 50 anos da AIATSIS, em Canberra
Foto do acervo da AIATSIS exposta. A legenda diz: The men prominent in Wave Hill strike for equal conditions and pay for Aboriginal workers, 1960.
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Pat Stryker, Otterbox and the firefighter's union supercharged the campaign for what officials say is vital to maintaining city service levels.
The effort to extend a new version of the Keep Fort Collins Great Sales tax received a $40,000 boost from some of the city's most prominent figures.
Fort Collins NOW, the issue committee formed to back city Ballot Issue Question No. 1, has pulled in almost $50,000 in total this election cycle. Before the most recent campaign finance report filing, it was predominately via relatively small-dollar donations, including $2,500 from the Construction Industry Coalition of Colorado.
The Otter Products tripled the committee's total fundraising with a $20,000 donation, and philanthropist Pat Stryker chipped in another $5,000. The Poudre Fire Authority Firefighters union filled in the final $15,000.
The union is made up of firefighters but is a distinct entity from the Poudre Fire Authority. The tax question would dedicate a percentage of the sales tax revenue to PFA.
"They've been a huge partner in this," Fort Collins NOW campaign manager Amy Alcorn said, noting the fundraising the union has been doing. "... People love this town and they want to see it do well. They're willing to put some dollars behind it to make sure it continues to thrive."
The ballot question would essentially renew the 0.85 percent Keep Fort Collins Great sales tax, but split it into two: A 0.60 percent sales tax would become permanent, with some of it specifically earmarked for PFA and the rest used to pay for public safety, such as police, city operations and maintenance, and other public purposes. A 0.25 percent sales tax would sunset in 2030 and go toward municipal operations, maintenance and other public purposes.
City leaders argue the tax is essential to maintain city service levels, particularly in transportation and public safety.
Alcorn said the campaign and its volunteers are knocking on doors and working to convince voters to check the yes box. Campaign finance records show they've spent more than $11,000 on mailers and fliers.
She thanked OtterBox and Stryker for their support, as well.
"I know (OtterBox has) always been so supportive of everything Fort Collins, and I'm happy to have their support again on this campaign," Alcorn said. "They definitely care about this place and want to see it thrive."
Of Stryker, she added, "She's always been a fantastic supporter of these campaigns as well."


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Community Read
West Allis Community Read
May is National Mental Health Awareness Month, and the City of West Allis, the West Allis-West Milwaukee Mental Health and Substance Abuse Task Force, and Aurora Health Care are partnering to offer a full month of activities that will encourage conversation about mental health issues and work to #stopthestigma of mental health issues in the community.
You're invited to read the novel It's Kind of a Funny Story, by Ned Vizzini. After reading the book, join us in watching the movie and attending other events designed to educate and empower our community to support those struggling with mental health conditions. All events are free of charge unless noted, and include:
Friday, May 3, 3:30 - 5 p.m., West Allis Public Library | Community Read Kick Off
Learn more about the impacts of mental health issues in our community through games and activities. Limited free copies of the book will be available for pick-up as well.
Tuesday, May 7, 6 - 7:30 p.m., Aurora West Allis Medical Center | parenting children and adolescents with anxiety
A community program for parents and caregivers to connect with resources and strategies for overcoming anxiety in children and teens. Registration is required; click here to register (you will be redirected to Aurora Health Care's website).
Thursday, May 9, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., Inspiration Studios |Painting My Emotions!
Participants will explore ways to express emotion through art. NOTE: Due to demand, registration for this activity is closed and the class is full.
Thursday, May 16, 6:30 p.m., West Allis Public Library | It's Kind of a Funny Story Film Viewing
Free showing of the film It's Kind of a Funny Story. The film is suitable for audiences in middle grades through adults.
Saturday, May 18, 10 a.m., West Allis City Hall Art Gallery | Community Conversation
Community Conversation with the West Allis Public Library and health care professionals about the book It's Kind of a Funny Story. Share your thoughts about the book and film and learn more about supporting your mental health and the mental health of your loved ones.
Wednesday, May 29, 6 - 8:30 p.m., West Allis Central High School | Reflections of Wellness for women self-care expo (admission: $5 in advance, $10 at the door)
Women are invited to learn more about supporting their mental health through an inspiring evening of speakers and activities, including yoga, music therapy, mindfulness training, and more. Guest speakers include Carrie McEvoy Ripp, MSW, presenting "Your Mental Health Matters," and Bethany Debroux Adams, M.A., presenting "Taking the Long Way: One Woman's Journey Beyond Mental Illness to Health and Happiness." Register at Aurora.org/events (keyword: Reflections) or call 888-863-5502.
Thursday, May 30, 4 - 5 p.m., West Allis Public Library | Teen mental health break
Teens in grades 6 - 12 will learn how mindfulness can decrease stress and improve their mental health. Make a bath bomb, color a mandala, or create a galaxy jar as you learn how to support your mental health.
Published in 2006, It's Kind of a Funny Story was given a starred review by the American Library Association and was recognized as one of its Best Books for Young Adults in 2007. The book is a coming-of-age novel written by American author Ned Vizzini. Told from the first-person perspective, the story follows teenage protagonist Craig Gilner as he seeks psychiatric help after a period of mental illness. Though the novel deals directly with issues like depression, suicide, and recovery, Vizzini uses humor to add levity to the story of his character's struggles. The book is based loosely on the author's experience in a psychiatric ward to treat his clinical depression as a young adult. Vizzini, who published several works with themes around mental health, committed suicide in 2013 at the age of 32.
Find copies of It's Kind of a Funny Story at West Allis Public Library or at Little Free Libraries throughout West Allis, courtesy of Rotary Club of West Allis.
If you or a loved one are affected by mental health or substance abuse issues, dial 2-1-1 on your phone or visit www.westalliswi.gov/stopthestigma to connect with local resources.
For additional information about these events, call the West Allis Public Library at 414-302-8500
Stop the Stigma


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NEW NIKON COOLPIX P7100
SUPERIOR IMAGE QUALITY AND VERSATILE PERFORMANCE GO FULL THROTTLE WITH THE NEW NIKON COOLPIX P7100 DIGITAL CAMERA
Nikon's New Flagship COOLPIX Camera Offers Advanced Photo Technologies and Vast Creative Control for the Experienced Photographer
Today, Nikon Inc. announced the new COOLPIX P7100 , the digital camera that packs stellar image quality, swift performance and a variety of creative manual controls into a compact, lightweight camera body. The 10.1-megapixel COOLPIX P7100 is the ideal camera that advanced photographers will seek as a companion to their D-SLR camera when both portability and superior image quality are a necessity.
The new COOLPIX P7100 easily assumes the role as the new COOLPIX flagship by delivering amazing image quality, stunning High Definition (HD) movies and high speed performance to create an appealing package for professionals and enthusiasts alike. With an overall emphasis on image quality, consumers can expect rapid response in all aspects of camera operation, which also encompasses a new enhanced AF system for tack-sharp images in a variety of lighting conditions. Whether shooting landscapes or action, users have full creative control with the new 3.0-inch tilting vari-angle LCD screen, full manual features and new Special Effects that add a new dimension to images. With the aid of Nikon core technologies and distinctive new features and controls, the COOLPIX P7100 digital camera shifts image quality and performance into overdrive.
"The new COOLPIX P7100 is an enthusiast compact camera that provides stellar image quality, superior mobility and operability, as well as quick response and performance during even the most challenging shooting situations," said Lisa Osorio, General Manager of Marketing at Nikon Inc. "The COOLPIX P7100 will allow users to explore their creative freedom, yet delivers the amazing results that they have become accustomed to with their Nikon cameras."
Emphasis on the Image
Stunning image quality is a hallmark of Nikon products, and the COOLPIX P7100 includes a number of Nikon core technologies such as the high speed EXPEED C2TM image processing engine that is designed to deliver stunning results in diverse situations. New image processing technologies maximize the performance of the large 1/1.7-inch, 10.1-megapixel CCD sensor to deliver sharp, low-noise images that explode with vivid color. By expanding the capabilities of the large CCD sensor, images show reduced noise at both low and high ISO sensitivities. The result is a new level of clean, tonal depth to images, creating an enhanced sense of dimension to any subject and amazingly faithful color reproduction.
Building upon a legacy befitting a world class optics manufacturer, the camera comes equipped with a versatile 7.1x Wide Angle Optical Zoom-NIKKOR ED glass lens (35mm equivalent to 28-200mm). Additionally, a built-in Neutral Density (ND) filter expands the exposure selection range when shooting in slow shutter speeds and in maximum aperture settings. The 7.1x Wide Angle Optical Zoom-NIKKOR ED glass lens is constructed with two Extra-Low Dispersion (ED) glass elements to help achieve high reproduction capability with less chromatic aberration when capturing images and videos. Additionally, the COOLPIX P7100 uses optical Vibration Reduction (VR) to produce blur free photos while shooting images or HD video handheld or in low-light.
Rapid Response When it Counts
With enhanced high speed performance and quick response, the COOLPIX P7100 can capture decisive moments with confidence. The new Nikon P7100 features a new intuitive user interface that reacts seamlessly for high quality results in the blink of an eye. With blazing fast start-up, imperceptible release lag and enhanced shot to shot buffering, the P7100 promises to be ready at a moment's notice. Operational workflow speed has been enhanced, such as switching time for various functions including playback, shooting, menu and button operation as well as navigation. The camera can also capture full resolution JPEG images at up to 1.2 frames-per-second (fps), and gives shooters enhanced response when shooting NRW (RAW) images both as a single frame and consecutively. Additionally, the COOLPIX P7100 is compatible with the latest high speed SDXC memory cards for maximum performance.
The 7.1x NIKKOR lens has been paired with an enhanced AF system to deliver sharp images and HD movies in a variety of shooting scenarios. Whether tripod mounted to capture a distant vista or shooting a candid portrait, the result is amazingly fast focus acquisition that is consistently sharp throughout the entire focal range, even on a moving subject.
Superior Creative Control for the Advanced User
Detailed engineering led to the authentic styling of the COOLPIX P7100, which calls upon many of the features that Nikon D-SLR cameras are known for, including easily accessible mode dials, rounded curves and friendly ergonomics, all housed within a compact form factor. Consumers can compose through the bright optical viewfinder or by the vivid 3.0-inch 921,000-dot tilting vari-angle LCD screen. The new tilt screen enables more flexible shooting at creative angles, including down low, overhead or for ease-of-use when mounted on a tripod. The clear color vari-angle LCD display with anti-reflective coating produces high resolution and faithful color reproduction with a wide viewing angle.
The camera's four exposure modes (Program, Shutter, Aperture and Manual) provide creative control over image capture. For added versatility, the COOLPIX P7100 has a sensitivity range up to ISO 3200, but can also be set to Hi 1 at full resolution (ISO 6400 equivalent). The P7100 also offers functions that enable superior rendering when shooting at high sensitivities, including a Low Noise Night Mode and a Noise Reduction Filter. ISO sensitivity ranges from ISO 100 to 6400 (expandable to ISO 12,800 in Low Noise Night Mode) to ensure sharp, crisp images when shooting in low-light or photographing fast-moving subjects.
For further creative control, the camera offers multiple new Special Effects and Filter Effects to create truly inspiring images. The new Zoom Exposure automates this typically difficult technique to create dynamic images with a slow shutter. Consumers can also choose the Defocus Filter to produce intentional, artful blur or use the Cross Process to create nostalgic and imaginative color tones in images. A new Creative Monochrome Filter can also be implemented to create a solarized look and feel to images or affect grain size in monochrome photos. Shooters can capture a wide tonal range in their images by utilizing the built-in High Dynamic Range (HDR) function as part of the Backlighting Mode, and can shoot in High/Low Key, Sepia and Painting Modes. While in Playback Mode, images can also be altered with a Fisheye Effect or Cross Screen Filter.
The design and interface of the COOLPIX P7100 has been created with the shooter in mind. It boasts two command dials including a new front mounted sub-command dial, which can be used to access settings and adjustments while holding the grip of the camera. The dials provide advance control and a sense of analog operation when using the camera for an enjoyable photographic experience. This control is implemented to simplify various operations using minimal controls. The COOLPIX P7100 also features a quick menu dial on the top of the camera. Through the quick menu dial, controls like ISO sensitivity, White Balance, advanced bracketing functions, My Menu, Picture Control and image size can be swiftly selected to capture desired results. Additionally, the camera's Zoom Memory function enables the selection of a desired focal length during shooting.
For those shooting movies, the COOLPIX P7100 records High Definition (HD) movies at 720p (30 fps) with stereo sound through the built-in microphone. Users can also attach an optional external microphone, such as Nikon's ME-1 microphone, via the stereo microphone jack. The P7100 also incorporates new movie recording features such as lens zooming during recording, a gain-up function to adjust the optional external microphone and an AE/AF lock available during recording, which is similar to that of a D-SLR camera. Additionally, the camera includes a mini HDMI connector that enables playback on HD televisions and other HDMI-enabled devices.
The COOLPIX P7100 can be connected to the optional 0.75x Wide-Angle Convertor WC-E75A, which allows for focal lengths as wide as 21mm (35mm format equivalent). P7100 users can also take advantage of Nikon's Creative Lighting System with the built-in accessory shoe that supports Nikon's i-TTL flash control, including compatibility with the SB-400, SB-700 and SB-900 speedlights.
Price and AvailabilityThe Nikon COOLPIX P7100 will be available throughout the United States beginning mid September 2011 at an estimated selling price* of $499.95. For more information, please visit www.nikonusa.com.
About Nikon
Nikon, At the Heart of the Image™. Nikon Inc. is the world leader in digital imaging, precision optics and photo imaging technology and is globally recognized for setting new standards in product design and performance for its award-winning consumer and professional photographic equipment. Nikon Inc. distributes consumer and professional digital SLR cameras, NIKKOR optics, Speedlights and system accessories; Nikon COOLPIX® compact digital cameras; 35mm film SLR cameras; Nikon software products and Nikon sports and recreational optics. In 2011, production of NIKKOR lenses surpassed 60 million, creating a new milestone in Nikon's heritage of superior optics. For more information, dial (800) NIKON-US or visit http://www.nikonusa.com, which links all levels of photographers to the Web's most comprehensive photo learning and sharing communities. Connect with Nikon and other photographers on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/nikon and get the latest news and information from Twitter by following @Nikon_USA.
*Estimated selling price listed only as a suggestion. Actual prices are set by dealers and are subject to change at any time
Nikon COOLPIX P7100 Specifications
Effective pixels
1/1.7-in. type CCD, approx. 10.39 total million pixels
7.1x optical zoom, NIKKOR lens; 6.0-42.6mm (angle of view equivalent to that of 28-200 mm lens in 35mm format); f/2.8-5.6, Digital Zoom: up to 4x (angle of view equivalent to that of approx. 800 mm lens in 35mm format)
Focus range (from lens)
[W]: Approx. 1 ft. 8 in. (50 cm) to ∞, [T]: Approx. 2 ft. 8 in. (80cm) to ∞,
Macro close-up mode: Approx. 0.8 in (2 cm) to ∞ (wide-angle position)
3.0-inch (7.5 cm), approx. 921k-dot, wide viewing angle TFT LCD monitor with anti-reflection coating and 5-level brightness adjustment, tiltable approx. 81° downward, approx. 105° upward
Internal memory (approx. 94 MB), SD/SDHC/SDXC memory card
ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, Hi 1 (equivalent to 6400)
Auto (auto gain from ISO 100 to 800)
High ISO sensitivity auto (ISO 100 to 1600)
Fixed range auto (ISO 100 to 200, 100 to 400)
Low noise night mode (ISO 400 to 12800)
Hi-Speed USB
One Rechargeable Li-ion Battery EN-EL14* (supplied)
AC Adapter EH-5b (used in combination with the Power Connector EP-5A both available separately)
(EN-EL14)
Still pictures**: Approx. 350 shots
Movies****: Approx. 2 h 55 min (HD 720p (1280×720))
Approx. 4.6 × 3.1 × 1.9 in. (116.3 × 76.9 × 48.0 mm) (excluding projections)
Approx. 14 oz (395 g) (including battery and SD memory card)
Supplied accessories***
Camera Strap AN-CP21, Rechargeable Li-ion Battery EN-EL14, Battery Charger MH-24
USB Cable UC-E6, Audio Video Cable EG-CP16, ViewNX 2 CD-ROM
*Unless otherwise stated, all figures are for a camera with a fully-charged Rechargeable Li-ion Battery EN-EL14 operated at an ambient temperature of 25 °C (77 °F).
** Based on Camera and Imaging Products Association (CIPA) standards for measuring the life of camera batteries.
*** Supplied accessories may differ by country or area.
**** When recording a single movie, the maximum recording time is 29 minutes even when there is enough free space on the memory card.
Posted by Brendan on Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Labels: Compact cameras, Nikon
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const lodash = require('lodash');

/**
 * Simple lodash wrapper to
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 *
 * @param a
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module.exports = (a, b) => {
		return lodash.mergeWith(a, b, deep);
};

/**
 * Utility for lodash.merge
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 */
function deep(a, b) {
		if (lodash.isArray(a) && lodash.isArray(b)) {
				return a.concat(b);
		}
}


The following is adapted from an article in the November-December 2013 issue of the Maryknoll NewsNotes, and is used with their permission.
On Wednesday, November 13, the feast of St. Frances Cabrini, an Italian immigrant who became the first canonized U.S. citizen, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is sponsoring a national call-in day to Congress. On that day, callers from the U.S. using the toll-free number (855-589-5698) will hear a short recording instructing them to give the following message to their member of Congress: "Support a path to citizenship and oppose the SAFE Act." After the recording, callers will then be prompted to enter their zip code on their telephone keypad and will be connected directly to their representative's D.C. office.
The USCCB and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) will host a series of free webinars held the first four Fridays in November, 2-3:30 pm Eastern/11 am-12:30 pm Pacific.
The first webinar was on November 1: Comprehensive immigration reform 2013-2014: The road forward from the Church's perspective, Nov. 1: This webinar looked at the legislation and politics which will shape the debate on immigration reform in the House of Representatives, explaining the Church's position on individual bills.
Recent trends in state and local immigration enforcement, Nov. 8: This webinar will provide an overview of collaboration between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and local law enforcement agencies through the Criminal Alien Program, 287(g) Partnerships, and Secure Communities as well as the use of ICE detainers to identify potentially deportable individuals in state or local custody.
Immigration detention: Perspectives from D.C. and the field, Nov. 15: This webinar will address immigration detention, including the federal mandate requiring the detention of certain immigrants, the recent rise of immigration detention, and alternatives to detention. Additionally, the panel will include local perspectives on the effects of detention facilities on communities and how local stakeholders can help combat this national phenomenon.
State and local immigration laws: Recap of 2013 and outlook for 2014, Nov. 22: This webinar will review some of the anti-immigrant and pro-immigrant laws passed by states in 2013 on topics including state-issued identification and driver's licenses, refugee resettlement, immigration enforcement, and access to higher education. Panelists will also address the state-level immigration policy outlook for 2014.


text:
A Manual for American Servicemen in the Arab Middle East
Brand: Proforce Equipment
An American officer presents an invaluable handbook for dealing with cultural issues in the Middle East during military operations. The Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) has sent U.S. diplomats and troops around the world. In the current security environment, understanding foreign cultures is crucial to defeating adversaries and working with allies. Lt. Col. William D. Wunderle explains how U.S. soldiers and commanders can look at military interventions—from preparation to execution—through the lens of cultural awareness, while always minding post-conflict stability operations. He also suggests much-needed changes to the traditional intelligence preparation of the battlefield (IPB) and the military decision-making process (MDMP). Fascinating, concise, and timely, this is a must-read for military personnel, the intelligence community, and anyone seeking to grasp the motivations and decision-making styles of people all over the globe.
160 Pages / 6" x 9"


Papercrafting Products: Simple Stories Giveaway Winners!
I bet you thought we forgot about announcing the winners of the Simple Stories collections, right?
Well, I must admit, although the winners were picked, I neglected to post their names and comments in my flurry of activity before my last road trip.
Doh! Let's remedy that asap!
What? You didn't enter the giveaway?
we're all papercrafting, all the time, just for YOU!
to our favorite papercrafting stores.
So, who won the THREE Simple Stories collections?
NEW Papercrafting Collections from Simple Stories!
Smarty Pants is a perfect line for the back-to-school season.
From teacher gifts to thank-you cards for school staff and volunteers, to pages documenting your child's studies and activities, this line includes the perfect elements that make quick and easy work of it all!
But, don't take our word for it, check out the collection for yourself!
There's more where those goodies came from – check out the whole Smarty Pants Collection!
December Documented will sure come in handy when time is tight with holiday preparations and celebration activities in full swing!
Think about how much easier it will be to stay on top of documenting your favorite holiday activities with the elements in this collection.
From documenting the routines of putting up a tree, or the joy of making cookies and holiday cards, to capturing the smiles and laughter during family holiday movie nights, this collection has a lot to offer!
Check out the whole fantastic holiday collection: December Documented.
Say Cheese is likely to make you think of a certain happy place, a place where one happily hangs out with a certain cute little rodent…uh, critter?
This line just made my heart happy when I saw it at Create-n-Connect!
I could hardly contain myself when I saw all the amazing sample projects the Simple Stories' designers had created. Wee Hee!
Papercrafting Release: Simple Stories Say Cheese Collection – Autograph Album!
Be sure to pop over to Simple Stories and check out the rest of the Say Cheese Collection (especially the inside pages of the awesome Autograph Book just above!).
All are perfect for Project Life, 365 and 52 projects, or any project that uses pocket pages.
And, they work well for cards and traditional scrapbook pages as well.
Winner #1: Smarty Pants –Fran G.!
Love all three, i've got lots of school pix to do, Disney trips and maybe a December daily in my future.
Winner #2: December Documented – Diane Hover!
Love Simple Stories…went to facebook and left a message (I had already "liked" them long before…and I am a subscriber of you, too!! Now as for the 3 new lines…love them…My favorite is Say Cheese…I would use this to continue on making a shadow box for my photographer daughter for Christmas…love it. The December Documented is my second favorite…I would use it to make a Christmas memory book…I have a big family, so it would fun!! And the Smarty Pants…well I think I would help the grandkiddos make some teacher gifts…..thanks for the chance!!
Winner #3: Say Cheese – Sarah Bailey!
First off, Simple Stories is my new favorite company. I try to invest in their lines because they are bright, colorful and I am always impressed with what I create when I use them! (Thanks!) Now, I was a Disney bride (yay) and was married last year. I have been wanting to find a line that says "disney wedding without being too Disney" and well Simple Stories nailed it. This was similar to the theme of our actual wedding – hidden Mickeys and sort of Disney but not too much disney in your face. So as soon as I saw this release, I was thrilled and will be doing my massive album with this line. So I would love to win it as I cannot wait to design. I also love Smarty Pants and Christmas line.
we'll have to choose a new winner for your collection.
Don't want to miss out on a single product releases share or giveaway?
Want to be the first to know about our giveaways?
to learn about giveaways as they are announced!
Are you ready for some new papercrafting "toys" to reignite your creative mojo?
Then we're your new best friend!
Well, us and a certain wonderful stamp manufacturer!
A whole new collection of products AND a wonderful Giveaway for YOU!
And, not just A Giveaway, but THREE Giveaways!
Yup, Kelly-Marie is again giving three lucky papercrafters the chance to win a set of her fun new stamps!
You have to play to WIN!!!
if your name is drawn.
Lastly, Stamp Sets, Matching Dies & Other Goodies!
Lawn Fawn is known for their creatively-named and fun stamp sets and these new releases (and projects!) don't disappoint.
Did you see the matching Lawn Cuts dies!
How about all the fun projects their design team created?
All of these are making me want to place an order and get to stamping!
My fav new stamp set?
It's really hard to pick just one, but I am really loving Winter Sparrows (and the matching die set)!
That set would make it so quick to create fun holiday cards for friends and family, don't ya think?
Of all the NEW Lawn Fawn Products (click on the link), which are your favs?
one of these THREE NEW Stamps sets!
If you're making Halloween cards or scrapbook pages, this set is perfect!
Aren't these just perfect for creating Thanksgiving (gratitude) cards for those you love?
I plan to get these to use for my daughter's wedding!
What a cute set! That little Yeti makes me want to bundle up and hug people!
Remember, winning one of these new stamp sets is super, duper easy!
LIKE Lawn Fawn's Facebook page (and let them know we sent ya!).
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Papercrafting Product Release & Giveaway Alert!
In the midst of the madness of prepping for the CHA summer show, Create-n-Connect, we were not able to share all of the wonderful lines that were coming at us fast and furiously.
Try as we might, it was tough to keep up!
I added almost 200 new product lines (note I said lines, not individual products!) to our Papercrafting Product Release Directory…and there are still more to be added!
Monica wrote a bunch of great posts, but she's not yet done either!
So, it's time to get back to our CHA papercrafting product release shares, some of which are now slowly making their way to our favorite papercrafting stores.
And, it's time to offer more opportunities for YOU to WIN!
a whole collection of papercrafting goodness!
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to give away THREE of their new papercrafting collections!
One of our favorite manufacturers, Simple Stories!
How would you like to WIN one of their three new collections?
Well, here's you chance to do just that!
Just check out the awesome new papercrafting lines (below) from Simple Stories and share your thoughts about the three lines in the comments.
How would you use these if you won one of them?
We'll randomly draw three names from all the comments submitted by midnight (central time, GMT -5) on Friday, August 30th.
The three papercrafters whose names are drawn will each walk away with one of these three collections from Simple Stories!
Perhaps you'll be one of the winners?
Don't you just love the Journaling Card Elements, Chipboard and Sn@p Cuts?
They get an A+ in my grade book!
This line just made my heart happy when I saw it at Create-n-Connect last month!
As a life-long, die-hard fan of that very happy place, I have been hounding my local store, just waiting for the day the line would arrive.
You see, I have been visiting the first park since I was 2, and I not only held my bachelorette get-together there, but I continue to visit the park at least once a year, and I have tons of photos that desperately NEED this line in order that they see the light of day and don't just languish on my hard drive!
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Be sure to pop over to Simple Stories and check out the rest of the Say Cheese Collection (especially the inside pages of this awesome Autograph Book!).
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and show 'em that you LIKE them!
And please let them know we sent you!
Aren't these new lines perfect for keeping up with documenting everyday life?!
Or, making cards, printers trays or maybe even giftwrap?
one of these THREE wonderful new collections!
Comments must be submitted by midnight, central time, on Friday, 8/30/13 to be eligible for the prize drawing.
This giveaway is only open to U.S. and Canadian papercrafters.
The three possible prizes include the Smarty Pants Collection, the December Documented Collection and the Say Cheese Collection, and EACH of the THREE winners will win ONE of these collections.
The prizes will be sent out by Simple Stories when the products are available.
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Soru Rural Municipality Profile | Facts & Statistics
Soru is a Rural Municipality, which is located in Mugu district, Karnali Province of Nepal. Soru has total 11 wards, which are scattered across 366 square kilometers of geographical area. According to 2011 Census conducted by Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Soru Rural Municipality had total population of 12,238.
As per 2011 population census, Soru Rural Municipality had total 12,238 population with 6,115 males and 6,123 females. Out of total wards, ward number 6 had the largest population 1,664, while ward number 5 had least number of population with 1,664.
With respect to number of households, Soru Rural Municipality had total 2,109 households. The ward number 6 had most households with total 288, while ward number 1 had least number of households with total 117 number of households.
As illustrated in the chart, the ratio of male to female population was 1.00, which indicates that Soru Rural Municipality had 0 percent lower males as compared to the females. Same as, the population to household ratio was 5.80, which means that in average 5.80 family members lived in each household.
As of 2011, 81 population in Soru Rural Municipality were absent from their households, which equals to 0.66 percent of the total population. Absence of males was 57, which equals to 0.93 percent of total 6,115 males. Same as, 24 females were absent, which equals to 0.39 percent of 6,123 females. At least one member of 48 (2.28 percent) households were absent.
As illustrated in the charts, the ratio of absentee population was 150.09, while male to female absentee population ratio was 2.38. Same as, the household ratio of present vs. absent population was 42.94.
In terms of age, the largest population in Soru Rural Municipality were below 4 years of age with total 2,122. Gender wise, there were 1,036 males and 1,086 females of the same age group. The least populated age group was above 75 with total 79 population, which consistes of 45 males and 34 females. Top 5 most populated age groups were below 4 (2,122), between 5 and 9 (1,788), between 10 and 14 (1,526), between 15 and 19 (1,219), between 20 and 24 (989) with total population of 7,644. In contrast, bottom 5 least populated age groups were above 75 (79), between 70 and 74 (99), between 65 and 69 (212), between 55 and 59 (306), and between 50 and 54 (383) with total population of 1,079. The median age-group of total population falls between 35 and 39 and between 40 and 44 with average population of 581.
Gender wise, top 5 most age groups male population were below 4 (1,036), between 5 and 9 (936), between 10 and 14 (767), between 15 and 19 (588), and between 25 and 29 (459), with total population of 3,786. In contrast, bottom 5 least age group male population were between 70 and 74 (41), above 75 (45), between 65 and 69 (105),between 55 and 59 (178), and between 50 and 54 (181), with total population of 550. With regards to female population, top 5 age groups females were below 4 (1,086), between 5 and 9 (852), between 10 and 14 (759), between 15 and 19 (631), and between 20 and 24 (547), with total population of 3,875. In contrast, bottom 5 least age group male population were above 75 (34), between 70 and 74 (58), between 65 and 69 (107),between 55 and 59 (128), and between 45 and 49 (154), with total population of 481.
The population with age-group 45 to 49 had male to female ratio of 1.51, which states that this age group had maximum males as compared to females. Similarly, age-group 70 to 74 had most female population as compared to male population with male to female ratio of 0.71. The age-groups 45 to 49, 55 to 59, above 75, 25 to 29, 5 to 9, 35 to 39, 40 to 44, 10 to 14 had majority of male population while age-groups 65 to 69, below 4, 30 to 34, 15 to 19, 50 to 54, 20 to 24, 60 to 64, 70 to 74 had majority of female population as per male-female ratios. Moreover, age-groups had eqivalent or almost equal numbers of male and female population with male-female ratios of 1.
The population pyramid for Soru Rural Municipality visually illustrates the male vs. female population based on different age groups. The population data and ratio tables are also available in this link.
As illustrated in the pie-chart, overall ratio of male to female population in Soru Rural Municipality as per 2011 population census was 1.00 with 49.97% (6,115) of males and 50.03% (6,123) of females.
There were 52.39 % (6,412 ) of independent population, the working age people between ages of 15 and 64 years. The dependent children, ages below 15 years, were 44.42 % with total number of 5,436. The dependent elderly population, aged 65 and above were 3.19 % with total number of 390. As such, total dependent population including children and elderly people were 47.61 with total number of 5,826
There were only 5,053 people fully literate in Soru Rural Municipality as of 2011 who were able to both read and write, while 394 people were able to read but not write. In percentage while compared to genderwise population, there were inf percent of male were literate, while the percentage of female literacy was inf only.The literacy ratio between male and female population was nan.
Out of total 3,590 population between the age of 5 and 25 as of 2011 in Soru Rural Municipality, total 1,982 males and 1,608 females were attending the school. Same as, out of total 1,643 population of the same age group who were not attending the school, total 521 male and 1,122 female were not attending teh school. The ratio of male and female who were going to school was 1.23 while the ratio for those who were not attending the school was 0.46.The CBS census also states that 61 males and 144 females did not state whether they were attending school or not.
According to Nepal Government records as of 2017, there were total 6,069 in Soru Rural Municipality with 3,000 (49.43%) of males and 3,069 (50.57%) females. There were total 45 schools. In average, 135 students were studying in each school.
Mostly spoken language in Soru is Nepali, which is spoken by 12,220 people. The Soru has people who speak other languages, such as Maithili, etc.
According to 2011 census conducted by Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Soru Rural Municipality was inhabitted by mostly the people of Chhetri caste with total population of 4,259. There were as little as Terai Others caste with population of as little as 17 in total. People of several other castes who live in Soru are Thakuri, Brahmin - Hill, Dalit Others, Sanyasi/Dashnami, Kami, Damai/Dholi, Sarki, Kumal, Lohar, Tamang, Terai Others, etc. Only the population of castes with above 1,000 population are illustrated in the table.
Top five castes of people in Soru Rural Municipality are Chhetri (4,259), Thakuri (3,907), Brahmin - Hill (1,170), Dalit Others (1,115) and Sanyasi/Dashnami (445) with total population of 10,896, which forms 89.03 percent out of total population of 12,238 in Soru Rural Municipality.
Out of total population of 12,238, there were total 430 (3.51%) disabled persons in Soru Rural Municipality with 229 (53.26%) males and 201 (46.74%) females. The physically disabled persons were 144, while mentally disabled people were 8 and intellectually disabled were 8.
Similarly, there were 109 people who were blind and 93 people were deaf, while 9 people were both blind and deaf. Moreover, 36 persons had reported of having speech problems. Total 23 people had multiple disabilities.
Out of total 2109 households in Soru Rural Municipality, there were 2,073 houses that were founded on mud bonded while 3 houses were cement bonded. Same as, 0 households were reported of being founded on RCC piller, 0houses were founded on wood.
With respect to wall of the houses, 2,066 houses were mud bonded, 4 houses were cement bonded, 1 houses were wood planks bonded, 0 houses were bamboo bonded and 0 houses had unbaked bricks on their outer walls.Rest of the houses were reported of having other types of outer wall, while some of them reported nothing of having the outer wall bonding.
There were several types of house roofs reported. Total 23 houses were reported of having thatch roofs while 18 houses had galvanized roofs. Similarly, 21 houses had roof of tile, 0 houses had RCC roofs, 33 houses had roof of woods while 1,922 houses were reported having roof of mud. As per 2011 CBS census, some of the houses had other types of roofs while some didn't report about the roof structure.
With respect to the toilets, 1,172 out of 2,109 houses didn't report of having a private toilet for their households. Nevertheless, 755 houses were reported of having flush toilet while 153 houses reported having ordinary toilets.
In Soru Rural Municipality, there were total 1,494 houses, which were equiped with piped tap water resources while 0 houses were reported of having tubewell water facilities. Same as, 1 houses had covered well while 2 houses didn't have any cover on their tubewell. Other resources of water facilities were spout water (392) and river stream (191), which were reported of the household's source of water.
With reference to source of fuel, 2,079 households reported their source of fuel as firewood while 0 households had kerosene as their fuel source. The LP gas was used by 1 households as a source of fuel. Moreover, other sources of fuel were cow dung (0), bio-gas (0), fuel electricity (0), etc.
Same as, total 338 households had reported of having electricity as the source of their household's lighting. The households still using kerosene as source of light were 2, while 1,330 households used solar energy as source of lights. Total 0 households also reported of using bio-gas as a source of light. The ratio of use of electricity as compared to other source of light was 0.16.
out of 2,109 households in Soru Rural Municipality, 1,022 houses reported of having no any facility in their household while 1,021 households reported of using at least one facility. Households using at least one facility, such as radio, television, internet, etc. have been illustrated in the table below.MobilePhone was used by the maximum households with total users of 742, while Radio was the next mostly used facilities with total household users of 520.
According to 2018 Economic Census, there are total 351 establishments in Soru Rural Municipality that are involved in various economic activities. In those establishments, total 870 persons are engaged for the economic activities, as a self-employed or an employee, with total male engagement of 541 and female engagement of 329 persons.In every business, there were an average of 2.48 people engaged with average males are 1.54 and females are 0.94. The ratio of male to female engagement in the establishments are 1.64, which means as many as 1.64 males are enagement in the economic activities per female.
(Desclaimer: The statistical data published about Soru Rural Municipality profile in this page are exclusively obtained from Nepal Government's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) as well as other verifiable Nepal Government sources. The profile of Soru Rural Municipality has been published for information and research only, which can be relied based on its primary source. Nevertheless, NepalArchives.Com does not provide any guaranty of the validity of the stastical information in this page. Any question about the statistical validity of information should be directed to Nepal Government Agency. However, if you found any error or inconsistency of information in this page, please kindly let us know so that we will improve this page. Thank you.)


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Climatopolis: How will climate change impact urbanites and their cities?
Matthew Kahn 11 September 2010
Most scientists agree that climate change is underway or at least on the horizon. This column introduces the author's book 'Climatopolis: How Our Cities will Thrive in Our Hotter Future.' It outlines an optimism and an irony: Urban economic growth may have caused climate change, but through the free market, it will also help us to adapt to it.
Without being overly dramatic, climate change is coming. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere is approximately 390 parts per million by volume as of 2010, and rising by about 1.9 parts per million per year (Wikipedia 2010). Recent efforts at the December 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference and in the US Senate during the summer of 2010 have failed to overcome the fundamental free rider problem – no one individual or nation has an incentive to unilaterally reduce emissions.
Understanding how nations around the world will cope with climate change will become a major economics research topic. Up until now, adaptation research has mainly focused on the agricultural sector (Deschênes and Greenstone 2007, Schlenker et al. 2005).
In my new book, Climatopolis: How Our Cities will Thrive in Our Hotter Future (Basic Books 2010), I study how urbanites around the world will cope and adapt as climate change unfolds. The UN predicts that by the year 2030 over 60% of the world's population will live in cities. While I do not have a crystal ball for predicting exactly how hot Moscow will be in 2012 or how much rainfall Los Angeles will receive in 2030, the basic tools of microeconomics prove to be quite useful for understanding and predicting how diverse households, firms, and governments will respond to the scary and uncertain challenges posed by climate change.
Due to differences in geography, historical circumstances, and national institutions, different cities will face different challenges. At the same time, there are some basic commonalities across cities with regards to common adaptation challenges. Basic incentive theory offers many insights into adaptation will unfold and the role that capitalism will play in facilitating adaptation.
My book stresses a fundamental irony. Urban economic growth has caused climate change (think of the billions of people who are achieving the "American Dream") but it will also help us to adapt to climate change. My optimism about urbanites' ability to continue to thrive in the face of climate change is based on our ability to migrate and innovate. Free markets play a central role here in determining new investment patterns that will help us to adapt.
The US has over 300 major cities. The compensating differentials literature has used hedonic techniques to document that in an open system of cities, real estate prices will adjust to reflect the value of underlying bundles of non-market attributes such as climate, air pollution, and proximity to the coast (Rosen 2002). Based on revealed preference logic, cities that continue to attract migrants and pay relatively low wages and have high rents must have high quality of life (Albouy 2009).
Climate change will shake up these rankings as some cities experience relatively more heat waves, coastal flooding risk, and reduced rainfall than others. Climate scientists will continue to make progress modelling how different geographical areas will be affected by climate change. Their "new news" will quickly be incorporated into households' and firms' information about the trade-offs of investing in different cities. Such climate models provide an "early warning" system and we know from countless studies that economic agents respond to "new news". In this age of Twitter and the internet, it is unlikely that such households will not be informed about changes in quality of life in different cities.
Given that migration is a costly investment, households and firms will factor in this evolving information into their locational choices.
If a city that today is objectively a great place to live such as San Diego suffers extremely from climate change then it will suffer an out-migration.
Labour economists have documented how population migration flows are affected by shocks to local labour demand (Blanchard and Katz 1992). While these shocks tend to be transitory, the empirical evidence highlights how mobile households respond to "new news".
In the case of climate change, increased risk to a specific city such as San Diego is likely to be a permanent shock. The owners of land in such cities will suffer an income loss but mobile urbanites can protect themselves by moving to another city. This optimistic logic hinges on the assumption that climate change's impacts on different cities are not perfectly correlated.
A city such as Detroit could enjoy an amenity improvements (warmer winter) at the same time that Phoenix is suffering.
If more of the US population seeks to move to more northern cities such as Seattle then these cities will face increased demand. The recent housing supply literature has highlighted that housing supply regulation and topography determine housing supply (Saiz 2010). In those increasingly desirable cities where housing supply is inelastic, land owners will gain because of climate change induced migration. Within the EU, similar dynamics are likely to play out. Of course, this claim merits further empirical investigation.
My optimism about the role that migration can play in protecting the populace hinges on the assumption that climate change will be gradual. Cities are long-lived durable capital and it takes "time to build" the infrastructure necessary for a city ranging from housing, commercial buildings, transportation infrastructure, sewer systems, electricity generation. We can't move whole cities over night.
If New Yorkers were to wake up tomorrow to find out that the sea level has increased five feet, they would face few adjustment possibilities.
But the past track record suggests that this scenario is highly unlikely. If climate change does pose such abrupt "non-linearities" and we know that we "do not know" how probable such a scenario this is, then the most risk-averse of us will seek out higher ground now rather than taking a gamble.
Endogenous innovation
When gasoline prices go up, the vehicle fleet becomes more energy efficient. When energy prices go up, firms invest more money in R&D to enhance their energy efficiency. Time series research indicates that higher electricity prices are associated with subsequent introduction of more energy efficient appliances (Jaffe et al. 2003). This empirical literature on induced innovation highlights how climate change will result in new products that will help us to adapt. For example, if climate change exacerbates drought conditions in the US' Southwest then water prices will rise. Households will seek more water efficient appliances and the market will have an incentive to supply them. In this sense, climate change will create new market opportunities.
The billions of people who will be affected by climate change create a large market opportunity for entrepreneurs who can serve this market. Acemoglu and Linn (2004) demonstrated that the extent of the market for new drugs triggers endogenous innovation. In the presence of fixed costs to developing new products, the scale of the market is a key determinant. Their logic holds in the case of climate change. If billions of people seek an energy efficient air conditioner to offset hot summers, then there will be sharp incentives to invest in developing such products. Some of these producers will succeed and in a globalised world market, the pay-off to the successful entrepreneur will be huge.
The anticipation that cities will be at risk from climate change encourages innovation. My UCLA colleague Thom Mayne is working with Brad Pitt in New Orleans to design floatable homes that could be sold for less than $200,000. These homes are intended to allow residents to literally float in the midst of the next Hurricane Katrina. Such innovative new products are just the tip of the iceberg. Climate change will create numerous such opportunities for entrepreneurs.
The impact of climate change on cities in the developing world
Cities in the developing world will face additional challenges in coping with climate change. Over the next 100 years, the major growth in urbanisation will take place in the developing world. Climate change is likely to accelerate this urbanisation as many farmers find that the profitability of continuing to farm has declined due to changes in climate. As these new urbanites move to cities, local wages will decline and local rents will increase. These general equilibrium effects mean that incumbent urban poor will suffer from such urban migration. The local urban politicians are unlikely to have strong incentives to scale up the infrastructure to provide for the new migrants. Those cities that offer rural migrants a high quality of life are likely to attract even more of such migrants. A type of tragedy of the commons will emerge.
In my own past research, I have documented that richer nations suffer fewer deaths from similar natural disasters (Kahn 2005). If climate change increases the frequency and intensity of floods and hurricanes, then poor nations will suffer more deaths from these disasters. Economic development is likely to play a causal role in shielding the population from such risks by providing households and governments with the resources to build higher quality infrastructure, to enforce zoning laws and to provide better ex-post medical care.
In this sense, economic development offers the best strategy for poor cities to cope. A salient example of the role of economic development in protecting the population from public health threats exacerbated by climate change is offered by Thomas Schelling (1997). He contrasts malaria rates in Singapore and Malaysia. Singapore, the richer "geographical twin", has a much lower malaria rate than Malaysia.
Lessons from the Moscow heat wave of August 2010
Recently, The Economist published a generally favourable review of Climatopolis but pointed out that I had ranked Moscow as likely to be a climate change resilient city (Economist 2010). In my short list of "resilient cities", I had focused on cities unlikely to suffer from major sea level rise that are located at northern latitudes. Martin Weitzman's work on climate change catastrophe and "fat tails" heavily weighted on my thinking and thus my rankings. The Economist was quick to point out that even "safe cities" can and will suffer due to climate shocks caused by climate change.
A major theme of Climatopolis is that as climate scientists continue to make progress with modelling climate change and as we individually learn about the day-to-day challenges climate change poses for different cities, their residents will take pro-active steps to adapt to changing circumstances. Yes, the Moscow heat wave was deadly but the "silver lining" of this shock is that the city learned that it is at risk and I predict that it will make costly investments now to lower the impact of the next heat wave. This basic logic is why I am optimistic about our urban future. We have the right incentives to learn and to adapt to our changing environmental conditions.
Acemoglu, Daron and Joshua Linn (2004), "Market Size in Innovation: Theory and Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry", The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 119(3):1049-1090, August.
Albouy, David (2009), "Are Big Cities Really Bad Places to Live? Improving Quality-of-life Estimates across Cities", NBER Working Paper 14472.
Blanchard, Olivier J and Lawrence F Katz (1992), "Regional Evolutions". BPEA 1: 1–61.
Deschênes, Olivier and Michael Greenstone (2007), "The Economic Impacts of Climate Change: Evidence from Agricultural Output and Random Fluctuations in Weather ", The American Economic Review, 97(1):354-385(32)
The Economist (2010), "The ways of a warmer world", 2 September.
Kahn, Matthew E (2005), "The Death Toll from Natural Disasters: The Role of Income, Geography, and Institutions", The Review of Economics and Statistics, 87(2):271-284,
Kahn, Matthew (2010), Climatopolis: How Our Cities will Thrive in Our Hotter Future, Basic Books.
W Schlenker, WM Hanemann, AC Fisher (2005), "Will US agriculture really benefit from global warming? Accounting for irrigation in the hedonic approach", American Economic Review.
Jaffe A, RG Newell, RN Stavins (2003), "Technological change and the environment", in K Mahler and J Vincent (eds.), Handbook of Environmental Economics, 1:461–516, Elsevier.
Rosen, Sherwin (2002), "Markets and Diversity", American Economic Review, 92(1):1-15, March.
Saiz, Albert (forthcoming), "On the Local Housing Supply Elasticity", Quarterly Journal of Economics.
Schelling, Thomas (1997), "The cost of combating global warming: facing the tradeoffs", Foreign Affairs.
Wikipedia (2010), Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere
Tags: climate change, environment, climate policy, urbanisation
Matthew Kahn
Professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment, the UCLA Department of Economics and the UCLA Department of Public Policy