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More on public (and private) employee unions
Started writing a response to comments on my last post, and it just got longer and longer, so I'm turning it into a separate post…
Responding to what several of you have said: Yeah, I'm almost positive we DON'T, and CAN'T, have public-employee unions in SC, and normally I would just say that flat-out. But something I read not long ago confused me on that point.
Here's what shook my confidence on that (which I was half-remembering when I wrote this post last night — a friend reminded me enough of the details that I was able to look it up)… It was in a story during the city elections in Columbia last year:
VanHouten and three other police officers have formed a chapter of the Southern States Police Benevolent Association, and their first public act was to endorse Steve Benjamin's candidacy for mayor…
The police officers say they want to model their organization after the Columbia Firefighters Association, which doesn't practice collective bargaining or negotiate contracts with the city but does call itself a union. That organization has been active since the 1960s but only recently has begun to flex its political muscle….
This is enough to send me on a whole new rant. Let me see if I have this straight: A few city policemen are forming an organization that will certainly NOT be a union, because there's no collective bargaining. But they say they want to model it on the firefighters' organization, which does CALL itself a union, but isn't one, because of course there's no collective bargaining.
This boggles the mind: Why on Earth would anyone in South Carolina want to CALL their organization a union — which brings all sorts of calumny and resentment down upon their heads in this right-to-work state, which means they get all the BAD PR from being called that — when they get none of the ADVANTAGES of actually BEING a union, i.e., collective bargaining? You got me.
Anyway, though, I think I can go back now to saying confidently that we DON'T have public employee unions in South Carolina. My point is, we don't have 'em, and don't need 'em.
As for Kathryn's suggestion that you only get lousy employees if you don't have unions, I disagree: We have many very fine, dedicated, smart people in state government in South Carolina. You just don't hear much about them because they keep their heads down and do their jobs and try not to draw the attention of the crazies at the State House — the people you DO hear about.
However, let me say that I DO share Tired Old Man's concern about the fact that in state government, we've had a " series of digressions from past personnel policies that protected state employees."
I believe strongly in good pay, good benefits and good working conditions for public employees. I think, as an expression of the values of society, we should treat them better in many cases than employees are treated in the private sector (I hear tell that sometimes they even get laid off, ahem). And in the past, we had a consensus for that, in SC and elsewhere in this country — before despising people who dedicate their lives to public service became a political movement. Their pay was never good, but the benefits were, and so was the job security, so there was a balanced tradeoff. Personally, I want any society I'm a party of to treat its employees far better than private companies who lay people off to get an uptick in the stock price. (In fact, I'm marveling at what's happened to our society that private companies are unashamed to do that. I remember when executives took pride in taking care of their employees. But then, I'm getting long in the tooth.)
That's what worries me about the proposed pension changes — which I plan to question Nathan Ballentine (a sponsor) about when I see him later this week. There are some public benefits I think are TOO generous — such as full retirement after 28 years. But in general, I want the people loyally working for ME and my fellow citizens to get a decent, fair deal. The last thing I want is to have a union turning that relationship into an adversarial one. Which is what unions do.
By the way, I used to work for a publisher who had a saying, which went something like this: "Companies that get unionized usually have asked for it." (It was therefore his strategic aim never to give employees such motivation.) I agree. Ditto with public entities, going back to Tired Old Man's point. To me, when you get to the point that a union comes into your company, something that is essential to civil society is lost. Yes, I realize that the bosses usually started the downward slide in civility, but the formation of a union is to me the last nail in that coffin.
I think it would particularly be tragic for state employees in SC to become unionized. There is already suspicion, and sometimes hostility, between them and the Republicans who run this state. My God, can you imagine how that would be escalated if the anti-government ideologues were actually able to call them, accurately, UNIONS? Warring camps, that's what we'd have, and the ugliness in the air (already pretty unpleasant after 8 years under a governor who despises the state employees who worked for him for the simple fact that they WERE state employees) would be far worse than anything we've ever seen here. The very air of Columbia would smell and taste of bile, permanently. Oh, and for my liberal Democratic friends who think that's worthwhile, let me clue you in on something: The unionized state employees would LOSE that bitter, adversarial battle. Over and over and over again.
I believe in treating public (and private) employees right, to the point that they don't want a union. I think that's smart, but I also think it's the right thing to do.
Is that a promise, Sen. DeMint?
Sun-Times lays off entire photo staff
Last night's debate news (or part of it) this morning — another problem for what's left of newspapers
I want my, I want my, I want my Wikipedia
Kevin says I 'attacked' Free Times. News to me…
Robert Ariail's take on the anniversary
The new normal: This is what a complete network TV crew looks like today
A window on the endangered world of the MSM
Recalling the national overreaction to that Edwards column
That'll show them Yankees!
This entry was posted in Blogosphere, Business, Civility, Media, South Carolina, The Nation, Unemployment, Working on February 22, 2011 by Brad Warthen.
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50 thoughts on "More on public (and private) employee unions"
Phillip February 22, 2011 at 12:56 pm
From Pete Williams at MSNBC: "34 [states] specifically require school districts to engage in collective bargaining with government workers, and 11 others allow collective bargaining. In those 45 states, including Wisconsin, laws specify which issues can be subject to bargaining, such as pay, benefits, hours, and tenure. The other five states — Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia — prohibit collective bargaining by any public employees, including teachers."
So I gather you think that Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, these "leaders" in education and public services…should be the model the rest of the country should emulate?
Brad February 22, 2011 at 1:35 pm
Phillip, that's a silly question. Obviously, those states have a lot of good things SC doesn't have, because of the leadership decisions that have been made there.
That has ZERO to do with the fact that there are public employee unions there.
Only if you think in partisan terms do you see a more progressive outlook toward economic development, public infrastructure and education goes hand-in-hand with unions (as in, "Let's see, Democrats are for all of those things, so they're all good" — or all bad, if you're a Republican).
Me, I'm for a far wiser course than SC has followed on economic development, infrastructure and education — and I'm opposed to public employee unions. Because I can see the things have nothing to do with each other. (This, by the way, is one of the reasons I oppose parties so much — they aggregate a bunch of positions that have zero to do with each other, and pretend they all go hand-in-hand with a unifying ideology, as in "all right-thinking people are for good public schools, and all right-thinking people are for public employee unions," when they don't when they just don't add up at all.)
So the question you raise makes no sense to me. Sure, I'd like us to do a lot of the things that people in those states have been smart enough to do. But I don't want to buy the trouble they have with public employee unions, thank you very much.
I know that to a partisan ear, that sounds inconsistent. But it isn't.
Stuffed Suits February 22, 2011 at 12:51 pm
Well said Brad.
I wrote something of my experiences with unions last night after reading your post. The happenings in WI definitely give us an opportunity to use this as a battleground and begin ridding our society of unions.
bud February 22, 2011 at 2:07 pm
Much of the terrible treatment of employees in both the public and private sectors could be eliminated if the economy turned around. I saw that in my part time job over the five years I worked there. When the economy boomed we were treated reasonably well because it was difficult to hire replacements. As the economy soured so did the companies treatment of employees because it would have been easy to find replacements. I finally quit when the money was just not worth the crap. But others didn't have that option. It's a shame when corporate greed results in such sorry treatment of workers. The one best defense against that kind of abuse is a union. It's called countervailing power. As long as one side has power and chooses to abuse it they suffer no consequences. The cynic in me believes that companies don't want the economy to improve because then they'd have to deal with labor issues again. Right now the corporate elite pretty much hold all the cards.
Jack February 22, 2011 at 2:12 pm
I appreciate (and agree with) your comment about avoiding the need to trigger the formation of a union. But I am curious about whether that implies you think there is a threshold of behavior on the part of an employer that would require employees to act, particularly if the employer is the State or Federal government. It seems like the converse of your comment.
I'm not sure I agree that forming a union is the last nail in the coffin of a civil workplace. Doesn't that imply the ultimate decision for uncivil behavior always originates in the workers? That doesn't seem fair.
By the way, not to play "gotcha" here, but there actually is a civil service workers union in the UK that is ~ 90 yrs old. Their website is interesting (http://www.fda.org.uk/).
jfx February 22, 2011 at 2:15 pm
ZERO?
I'll allow, it's hard to say, empirically, what the actual net effect of public-sector unions in WI is, with regard to impact on institutional excellence or competence. Definitely worth studying. But, when I look at WI's public-sector institutions, and compare them with SC's…it's very clear that one of these states has their house in much better order, and it ain't us. To say the collective bargaining agreements have ZERO to do with that seems, errr, hasty, and faux-omniscient. We should study that relationship more.
Brad, when I listen to you pontificate with some condescension on these entities with which you have no serious experiential familiarity, I am reminded of the virgin who didn't much care for sex.
Kathryn Fenner (D- SC) February 22, 2011 at 2:40 pm
Brad– Nobody on this blog will defend more vigorously the quality of our state's and especially our city's (well, MY city's) employees. SC is a right-to-work state, so there are no meaningful unions in the private sector to lure away more qualified employees!
As far as what an employee association wants to call itself–for a lot of us, "union" isn't a dirty word.
Lynn T February 22, 2011 at 2:46 pm
I fail to see why public employees should be unable to join together to negotiate. It is much too late to worry about unions creating an adversarial relationship between public employees and taxpayers. Elected officials (especially Republicans) have long since taken care of that, demonizing public employees at every opportunity. It helps to distract people from the real causes of their problems. Furthermore, money taken from the pay or pension of a public employee can equal another special interest tax break, which can equal another campaign contribution.
Actually, the development of bureaucracies was a crucial step toward the modern state, providing necessary stability even when leadership changes. Something is seriously wrong when "bureaucrat" is automatically taken as a negative term.
Actually, it is. In South Carolina, it is. Argue all day about whether it SHOULD be, but there's no question that calling yourself a union has a political cost in this state, just as if you'd used the F word in public. OK, maybe not that bad… more like saying "bastard," or "bitch." That's the level of heat you're asking for when you use the word.
My point, however, is that it's extraordinarily foolish. It's completely unnecessary to call yourself that, especially since you AREN'T that. The word carries a cost, so who on Earth would want to create an additional problem by using the word?
If you DO form an actual union — a bargaining unit, which you've decided you need because you can't get what you need any other way — then you probably ought to go ahead and call it that, just to be honest. Sure, you'll take a lot of heat, but you've decided that it's a necessary course of action, and the potential benefit is worth the trade-off.
But to take that heat for NOTHING? It makes no sense.
In a related issue, there is a great deal of discussion on the web of late about the income distribution in the USA. As measured by something called the GINI coefficient income distribution has become decidedly more skewed in favor of the wealthy since about 1967. Even more interesting our GINI ranking among the nations of the world is falling. Nations like Sweden and Japan have far less income disparity than we do. Traditional high disparity nations like Brazil and Mexico are closing the gap with the US. This trend coincides with a dramatic drop in union participation. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Lynn February 22, 2011 at 3:42 pm
Workers banding together to advocate/campaign for better working conditions, wages, and benefits that as an individual, I can't achieve. A review of history shows us how important the labor movement was for all modern working folks. Let's see: minimum wage, 40 hour work week, child labor, pension plans, work safety, health insurance to name just the big ones. None of that would be a reality today with organized labor.
If you don't think worker safety is an issue look at the track records for WVa coal mines that are unionized and those that aren't. It's a substantial body count we got there. The difference is like night and day between unionized mines and nonunion mines.
In SC if we did away with unions half the law firms would have to lay off staff retained to prevent unions.
So what do we call the organization that get the part-time members of the Lege generous pay, per diem expenses, pension and health benefits — not a union but a political party.
Can we call the SC Medical Association what it is–a doctor's union.
Its all in how you look at it and what you name it.
No, actually, the SC Medical Association is a professional association, just like the SC Education Association, which (and this is going to come as a shock to some of the haters of public education) is NOT a union…
Oh, you'll love this: when you search for the SCEA on Google, the little blurb you get describes it as "Union representing public school teachers in the state. Affiliated with the National Education Association."
I browsed around briefly on the website to see if the SCEA is foolish enough to call ITSELF a union when it has no collective bargaining, but couldn't find it. A gold star to anyone finding it (because, unfortunately, I fear it might be there — which would be a sign of great foolishness, as with the firefighters).
Steve Gordy February 22, 2011 at 4:08 pm
Brad, having lived in both Wisconsin and South Carolina,, it pains me to see you playing along with the Know-Nothing contingent in our state leadership, even if it for your own principled reasons. I am no fan of unions. I belonged to one briefly but did not enjoy the experience. However, many years of experience have taught me the lesson that in any advanced society, the most effective way to humble the exalted pretentions of the wealthy and powerful is to carry a big enough club to inflict pain on them if needed. It's needed now and the ordinary employee hasn't a club handy.
Burl Burlingame February 22, 2011 at 3:09 pm
Sounds like the police group should have called themselves a "guild."
Anyone who thinks that unions are anti-business and anti-government hasn't dealt with many. Union members are American citizens like everyone else, and it's the guilds that insist on professional standards, not just from their membership, but from management as well. Unions force managers to deal with employees honestly and fairly. That's what it's all about.
I work at a newspaper that was due to be put out of business by illegal collusion on the part of the owners and managers. The newspaper guild, with its national membership and legal access, went to bat for us and saved us, creating a business plan that allowed us to survive. Anti-business? Hardly. Unless your idea of proper business is for corporations to destroy their own products in favor of momentary executive compensation.
If these newly elected "responsible" governors really want to run local government on a businesslike basis, they'll start firing American employees and outsourcing public services to India.
http://www.thescea.org/home/359.htm
MYTH: I oppose unions. Isn't that what we are?
FACT: Technically, no. We are an association of people who come together who share common interests and a goal of improving the public education system, for students and for educators. But, if you believe that people that organize themselves to advocate for students, for members, and for public education makes up a union, then yes we are a union.
Haha! Their answer is, no, we are not a union. But, yes, we are.
Yes, that word "union" is toxic, just like "liberal". Sad.
Anyway, at least SCEA is a shade more honest than SCMA.
Good points. The doctors are organized. Big business is organized through the chamber of commerce. Big Pharma and insurance have their own lobbying efforts because they are organized. Rank and file labor is repressed due to a lack of organization. Hence the poor GINI rating. Time to bring back and enhance Unions. No more of a dirty word than liberal.
Mark Stewart February 22, 2011 at 5:11 pm
There is a huge difference between the rationale for private and public sector unions.
Let's not mix apples and oranges over this – from either perspective.
Jim Duffy February 22, 2011 at 8:21 pm
Again, I repeat that as a taxpayer, and thus the payer of the salies and wages of those persons employed in the public sector I find it improper that I would be supporting a union that did not have the same interests as as I. herefore, in a sense this would be the same as forced taxation without representation that was one of the basis for beginning this nation as a Republic. A private sector union is an entirely different matter.
Herb Brasher February 22, 2011 at 11:34 pm
David Brooks has an interesting commentary on public vs. private sector unions and the situation in Wisconsin.
Abba February 22, 2011 at 11:46 pm
@Jim Duffy – Because you are a taxpayer does not mean that your interests are precisely the same as those of government employees, who of course are also taxpayers. The interests of employer-taxpayers and employee-taxpayers may converge in the desire to provide good government, but they are not the same. At its most extreme, the interests of the employer-taxpayers would be to pay nothing for government services, while of course the employee-taxpayers are interested in being paid for their work. There is an inherent tension between these two roles.
Second, I disagree that public unions cause something similar to "forced taxation without representation." Taxpayers have representation in negotiations with public unions – their elected government officials. If taxpayers are unhappy with what their elected officials do, the remedy is to vote them out of office.
Pat February 22, 2011 at 11:47 pm
Any group can advocate – even lobby – but only a bonafide union can bargain collectively. The SCEA is not a union – no matter what Google pulls up.
Burl Burlingame February 23, 2011 at 12:04 am
It's probably no coincidence that the states that ban unions for public employees are former slave-owning states.
"I find it improper that I would be supporting a union that did not have the same interests as as I…."
How do you feel about corporations and groups like the Chamber of Commerce spending billions on political interests that you might not agree with? Every time you spend a dollar on gasoline, a few cents goes toward lobbying against the public interest.
bud February 23, 2011 at 10:51 am
According to UN data the U.S. ranks 73rd in the world in income equality based on the GINI coefficient. We rank between those powerhouse progressive countries of Turkmenistan and Senagal. Most of the modern world including Japan, France and Germany rank far ahead of us on the list. The UK, is probably the closest western nation to us but is still about 20 slots higher than us. The gap between the wealthy and the poor and middle class has gradually widened since 1967 and has generally widened at a faster pace during Republican administrations.
As long as we have a media that tries to balance the scales by falsely claiming the right and the left in this country are equally irresponsible we will continue to see most of America suffering through wage stagnation while a tiny fraction of the population grows fabulously wealthy.
This can only change if the voters are properly informed and organized. But as long as the media shills continue to equate the two parties as just two sides of the same coin, when in fact they are not, we will continue down this path toward a full-blown plutocracy.
It's a sad thing to watch this great nation being taken over by the gilded class who has no regard for either the safey or economic well-being of most hard-working Americans. But it's not too late. Americans have shown a resiliency in the past to troubling events. But it generally takes a wake-up call. This diabolical slow boiling of the frog has rendered most of the working class ignorant of what is occurring. Let's hope that Americans wake up so that wealth can be shared in a responsible manner rather than hoarded by the few. It's a fight that the folks in Wisconsin are waging. And it's a fight well worth waging.
Lynn February 23, 2011 at 11:18 am
Economists define "unions" as an organization that through collective bargaining between workers and management/business owners establishes an agreed upon price of labor and supply of labor.
I think SCMA meets that definition of a union they set prices (though it is illegal for them to collude) and the fix the supply of physicians. Maybe guild is a more acceptable term.
Brad February 23, 2011 at 12:00 pm
I thought of a better way to put, simply, the problem with public-employee unions. This is not a new thought; it underlies all that I've said. It's just that it's so automatic with me that I didn't set it out in words. So now I'll do so:
A union is about gaining coercive advantage in an adversarial relationship. (If you doubt this, read some of the pro-union comments that make reference to need a union to FORCE someone to do something. Burl, in fact, actually used the word "force." I'm not saying people are wrong to say that; I think they're accurately portraying what a union is for.) You may regard this as necessary, given the assumption that without a union, the employee is at a power disadvantage with the employer. The assumption is that the employer can make the employee do things, but the employee can't MAKE the employer do anything. So, under the strength-in-numbers concept, a union is formed to give the employees that power. But the assumption here is that this is an ADVERSARIAL relationship, and that coercive leverage is needed. With me?
OK — what I'm saying is that that is ENTIRELY inappropriate in the relationship between public employees and their employers, because their employers are the PEOPLE of the state, city, nation, what have you. (The bosses of these employees are merely agents, or employees, of the polis of the given community.) When you set up a public-employee union, you are setting up an organization that exists to have power in MAKING the polis do what the union wants it to do. It's setting up a power that exists to gain advantage in an ADVERSARIAL relationship with the public.
That is entirely inappropriate. It's the wrong kind of relationship, not at all the sort of relationship that should exist between the public and what we quaintly call public servants.
That's what I mean with my own, quaint comments about SERVICE. I was implying the above. I hope that saying it more overtly explains my position better.
bud February 23, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Public employee unions help foster a more effective means of fairly compensating employees who have earned the right to pay and benefits. The same cannot be said for the politicians who make the rules. They get elected on the basis of promises to reduce spending and taxes and that can result in a discreminatory scheme that unfairly works against labor. This in turn reduces the ability of the public sector to leverage better pay and working conditions for private companies who face less competitive pressure since workers have fewer options. The result is a downward spiral of wages in both the public and private sector. As profits soar as a result the income inequality between the haves and have-nots increases. Soon there will be nowhere for workers to go. In the end the middle-class is destroyed. Sadly we are now about 44 years into this transition to a plutocracy with momentum building all the time. The destruction of public sector unions is one more nail in the coffin of middle-class prosperity.
OK, I'm just being pedantic here, not argumentative (I was being argumentative everywhere else, so this is an exception). But words and concepts interest me, so…
I often hear people say what Bud just said, about union membership being a key to middle-class status.
But… just to be Percival Pedant here for a moment (which I realize is not a turn-on for the babes, but I can't help it) … isn't that sort of a contradiction in terms? I mean, doesn't union membership preclude membership in the bourgeoisie, even the petit-bourgeoisie? I mean, isn't social class more than incomes, even in America?
I'm trying to use Marxist terms here (as I tried to employ feminist concepts back here), and I'm not fluent in that system (or in feminism, hence the above parenthetical about the babes), so I may have these terms wrong…
bud,
You said: "Public employee unions help foster a more effective means of fairly compensating employees who have earned the right to pay and benefits."
I know you know better. Unions support seniority. It would go against everything to promote based on merit. So they don't. And that's the problem.
Therefore, public unions are a classic example of two wrongs making a whopper of a wrong.
Proposing to overpay people to create some kind of middle-class utopia is not a sustainable plan over the long term. Union's promote the status quo and even an erosion of productivity in many ways (while I do agree that they tend to improve safety). We require innovation and hard work to ensure a prosperous future for ourselves and our society. Stifling union work rules and other sorts of foot-dragging, however unintentional, have proven time and time again to be an impediment to growth and prosperity.
I will grant you that an extreme collapse in wealth to a small percentage of the population is also a very harmful thing and should be addressed.
I don't think the term "public servant" really applies to garbage collectors and parking monitors. It applies to policy makers—people who get props for voluntarily being paid less, if anything, to make the political body better. They receive "magic beans" instead of making reams of dough. Not so for the rank-and-file, who are already the whipping boys and girls for pandering pols and angry taxpayers.
Teddy Kennedy was a "public servant." Henry McMaster, who now gets 6 figures for a part-time gig, was a public servant. Laborers and office drones whose employer happens to be the government, not so much.
Mark, what you are correctly pointing out is that unions can and do go too far. They can stifle individual initiative and thwart hard work. But they don't necessarily reward seniority. Or at least they shouldn't.
Yet I believe unions serve such an important function as a countervailing force to draconian safety and compensation attitudes by both corporate elites and government power brokers that they are more of a force for good rather than an anchor preventing progress.
Doug Ross February 23, 2011 at 9:26 pm
I'm trying to understand the difference between the Tea Party and the union workers protesting the government… Please try to describe one group in a way that doesn't describe the other.
Motivated by self-interest? Check.
Feeling oppressed by the government? Check.
Angry? Check.
Any job where the worker is paid based on seniority instead of performance will result in the least efficient output. The only area where unions should be involved should be in workplace safety… and no worker should ever be forced to be a member of a union in order to be eligible to work.
Kathryn Fenner (D- SC) February 24, 2011 at 11:40 am
Uh, the workers are asking for decent treatment on the *job*. The "government" is their employer…and they're just asking for the same rights people who have a different employer have in civilized societies.
I'd say that's a significant distinction.
Seniority in union shops is there to provide a counterweight against managers firing experienced, professional workers and hiring newbies in their place, or even outsourcing labor.
@Burl
If a newbie can do the same job as an "experienced, professional worker", then maybe that job doesn't require experience or professionalism.
All the Wisconsin protesters should be forced to watch "Waiting For Superman" before being allowed to carry a sign.
The part in "Waiting for Superman" that cannot be defended is where a bureaucrat describes the 23 step process that is required to remove a bad teacher. That's what unions get you.
kc February 25, 2011 at 1:55 pm
Unless your idea of proper business is for corporations to destroy their own products in favor of momentary executive compensation.
What a great line. I think that IS, sadly, some people's idea of proper business.
Another great line. I may have to steal it . . .
Managers just *think* the newbie/overseas person/robot can do the job the "same." Having spent a great deal of time trying to deal with service people in Bangalore and robo-phone trees with only inapplicable choices, if Apple, who hires and retains quality, personable native English-speaking humans, ever starts selling automobiles, appliances, internet service, cell-phones (oh yeah–they do, but only fancy ones), cell-phone service, etc., I'm going all Apple, all the time.
I guess Doug would rather be operated on by interns than doctors, if it saves a buck.
Uh, no. You said that experienced professionals would be replaced by newbies. Since doctors truly are experienced, professional, and non-union that wouldn't happen. But if we are talking about the guy installing a headlight in my car, a newbie is fine.
What union job is one where seniority results in better performance? Are the best teachers always the ones who are closest to retirement? That hasn't been my experience after three kids go thru 13 grades each… And that was in nonunion schools.
Doug: "But if we are talking about the guy installing a headlight in my car, a newbie is fine."
How about if he's rebuilding your engine? Or repairing your wife's brakes?
The point is that both Doug and Burl are correct. We need the appropriate level of competence. I would argue that over time the free market will do the better job providing appropriate and relevant knowledge.
This is the one argument that has me favoring seniority in government; because there is no alternative competitive entity. But I do believe with some positions such as teachers
this simple logic breaks down.
Sorry for the post mess, dog jumped on my arm and fired off the phone.
@Brad
Are those union jobs? I don't think so.
Are the engineers who design the brakes unionized? Probably not. Because that is a job that requires skill and experience.
I'm waiting for someone to provide a union job where seniority is more important than ability to perform the job.
My best personal experience with unions was when I was consulting with the US Postal Service. In Minneapolis, they had computer programmers who were members of the postal employees union. When they weren't taken their twice daily bargained smoke breaks or refusing to apply fixes to the programs that would take seconds to do but were not in the specific work orders, they would also purposefully put bugs in the program in order to be paid overtime to fix them. These were all employees with more than 10 years "experience". I did the same work four of them were doing in one quarter of the time…
Unions are just about controlling dues and pensions. They enforce a mentality of laziness and have a long history of utilizing violence to get their way.
Doug, I wasn't talking about union vs. non-union there. I was responding to your saying "a newbie is fine," which is a separate subject.
I was thinking more of the conversation we have so often about public officeholders — how you want them ALL to be newbies, and don't believe that experience in public life is valuable. Whereas I disagree…
Doug Ross February 26, 2011 at 10:58 pm
How many years experience does it take to understand how to be a state legislator? If it takes more than six months to learn a part time job, then maybe we're electing the wrong people (oh, yeah, we are).
You try to balance the conflicting view that our state government is broken but the people who have been running it for decades have the experience we need to make it work. The career politicians ARE the reason the system is broken.
If you want your government services run like a business, then outsource it all to India.
Installing brake systems IS a union job a lot of places–like automotive factories. I guess I'd rather have the senior guy install it.


Faculty interested in partnering with SORCE researchers and staff should contact SORCE@OBFUSCATEuw.edu with a brief description of anticipated work and timeline for completion.
Research Coordinator / Senior Research Project Manager (2 positions). This Senior Research Project Manager position will manage multiple health services and outcomes projects, including the recently awarded CISTO study. The incumbent will be responsible for successfully facilitating and addressing technical development and timely completion of scientific objectives. In addition to research project administration and personnel management, this position will also involve human subjects research coordination. Questions may be directed to SORCE@uw.edu. Interested applicants may access the full posting and submit their application at the UW employment website by searching requisition 162377 or 163507: http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/jobs/.
Research Coordinator / Research Project Manager. This Research Project Manager position will provide coordination and management for multiple health services and patient-centered outcomes research projects panning internal and external sites, multiple investigators, multiple clinical disciplines, and multiple areas of primary focus. This Research Project Manager position is a blend of research of research coordination and research team management. A successful candidate will have 4-5 years of experience with human subjects research coordination, preferably in an academic or healthcare-related setting, and preferably in health services and outcomes projects, as well as progressive and demonstrated responsibility in staff and team management. Interested applicants may access the full posting and submit their aplication at the UW employment website by searching requistion 163680: http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/jobs/.
Public Information Specialist / Grant and Technical Writer. This Grant and Technical Writer position will support SORCE and collaborating faculty by coordinating the development, writing, and submission of funding proposals, including editing proposal narratives and writing supporting documentation. This position will also assist in the preparation of manuscripts and presentations, editing for consistency, clarity, grammar, and syntax. Candidates must be proficient in proposal development and possess the ability to work both collaboratively and independently in order to achieve stated goals. Questions may be directed to SORCE@uw.edu. Interested applicants may access the full posting and submit their application at the UW employment website by searching requisition 162914: http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/jobs/.
Research Project Coordinator/Recruiter Grade 6 (2 positions) (Research Team). These Research Project Coordinator positions will report to a senior Research Project Coordinator, with matrixed oversight from Research Project Managers. The positions will join a team of participant recruiters and will provide coordination for multiple projects spanning multiple investigators and multiple clinical disciplines. As part of this team, the incumbents will be responsible for successfully recruiting patients from local emergency department and other clinical study sites, sharing in a rotational schedule with shifts primarily during business hours and some during mornings, evenings, and weekends. In addition to completing recruitment activities, projects could also include coordination of regional and national quality improvement (QI) registries (such as SCOAP, VQI, NSQIP, or MBSAQIP). SORCE is committed to encouraging diversity and inclusion and to being a workplace where such values are at the forefront of our daily interactions and our work as a research center. We value and seek diverse team members who are passionate, innovative, and collaborative. Questions may be directed to SORCE@uw.edu. Interested applicants may access the full posting and submit their application at the UW employment website by searching requisition 157009: http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/jobs/.
Project Coordinator/Recruiter Grade 7 (2 positions) (Research Team). These Research Project Coordinator position will join a team of participant recruiters and will provide coordination for multiple projects spanning multiple investigators and multiple clinical disciplines. As part of this team, the incumbent will be responsible for successfully recruiting patients from local emergency department and other clinical study sites, sharing in a rotational schedule with shifts primarily during business hours and some during mornings, evenings, and weekends. In addition to completing recruitment activities, projects could also include independent coordination of regional and national quality improvement (QI) registries (such as SCOAP, VQI, NSQIP, or MBSAQIP). SORCE is committed to encouraging diversity and inclusion and to being a workplace where such values are at the forefront of our daily interactions and our work as a research center. We value and seek diverse team members who are passionate, innovative, and collaborative. Questions can be directed to SORCE@uw.edu. Interested applicants may access the full posting and submit their application at the UW employment website by searching requisition 157155 or 163508: http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/jobs/.
We welcome resumes from candidates not necessarily qualified for any of our currently open positions at any time. Resumes and letters of interest may be emailed to SORCE@uw.edu.


COUNCIL SUBCOMMITTEES OTHER COMMITTEES . . .
If you wish to attend a public meeting and, due to a disability, require assistance to understand or participate in the meeting, please contact the City Clerk's office at (805) 388-5353 at least 48 hours prior to the meeting to enable the City to make reasonable arrangements to ensure accessibility to the meeting.
Please be advised that any communication submitted to the City of Camarillo, Councilmembers, staff or City consultants is a public record under the Brown Act and California Public Records Act. This means that any information contained in the communication, including personal information, may be subject to public disclosure.


text:
Posted 10:23 pm, November 26, 2019, by Elle Thomas
MURRAY, Utah – One of Utah's largest animal shelters is running out of pets just before the holidays, but they say rows of empty kennels is an amazing problem to have!
At the Humane Society of Utah, you'll find it all -- toys, bowls, beds… everything a dog, cat, bunny or guinea pig could need.
"We house up to 250 animals at our facility each day," said Humane Society of Utah's director of marketing and communications, Deann Shepherd.
But room after room and kennel after kennel, there is just one thing missing – the pets.
"Let's see who is left in here," Shepherd said as she turned the corner towards a row of kennels. "This is a rare sight to see, an empty room of kennels."
"These are supposed to be where the larger dogs are housed, and [they] look empty and clean, ready to take an animal in from another shelter," Shepherd smiled as she opened the door to a green kennel in another room.
Following a successful adoption event that placed 163 animals in new homes last weekend, the pet pickings are slim right now.
But, believe it or not, this is a good thing.
"I'm trying not to cry," Shepherd said. "We love to see this, it really hits the staff hard when we walk through a room and see empty kennels like this because we know that that pet is in its loving new home and in its new bed."
Shepherd said their goal is always to clear the shelter, but their excess spaces wouldn't be possible without the animal lovers who choose to adopt, not shop.
"So, this is Ruby," one woman said as she sat behind her new rescue pet. "Daddy likes the Utah Utes, he's a Utes fan, so Ruby is for red," she laughed.
Stephanie Alder has adopted from the Humane Society in the past, she said for her family adopting isn't an option but a necessity.
"I've worked in the industry before and have seen what high kill shelters can do and it's heartbreaking, so to give them a home, to free up a space for another dog that really needs it, is important to me," Alder said as she choked back tears.
"I like knowing that somewhere down the line, somewhere in this circle of shelters we are saving somebody and helping, somebody that needs it," Alder continued.
Now, with every pet that goes out the door, a new one can come in.
"Prancer and Comet and Dasher, Blitzen and Vixen," Shepherd said as she read off the names of the new puppies they received Monday from a shelter that was at capacity.
"Some Border Collies, and they're all named after Thanksgiving food — so Potato, Turkey, Yammy, Cranberry, Beans," she smiled as she pointed to the other half of the puppy-filled room.
The shelter said at the end of the day, each empty space means one more animal getting a second chance, and one more family opening their hearts and homes to a rescue pet.
"This place is full of best friends, and there is bound to be a love connection for anybody who is looking," Alder smiled. "We found a love connection."
Any dogs that are not adopted by end-of-day Wednesday will be sent home with more than 40 volunteers as part of their 'Home for the Holidays' program, giving each of their shelter dogs an opportunity to spend the night in a warm, loving home.
They are still looking for volunteers to take pets home for the Christmas holiday. You can register to be a volunteer on their website.
Filed in: Local, News
Find your soulmate at the 'Fall in Love' adoption event
Dog that spent five years at shelter adopted just in time for Christmas
13 Days of Giving: Calling All Dogs partners with Humane Society of Utah
Puppy Abandoned in Hurricane with note taped to its body
400 cats in four weeks: How a local shelter is making it easy for you to adopt a feline
Dog who has spent entire 7-year life at Arkansas humane society still looking for loving home
Utah, Wyoming near bottom of animal protection law rankings
Dog in shelter for 5 years will soon become star of new billboard to find forever home
After hitting a dog with his car, a Canadian man drove it to safety. Turns out it was a coyote
CNN honors 10 men and women for making the world a better place
Dangerous and Illegal: DWR warns of growing wild pet trend after Utah boy is attacked by neighbor's raccoon
Salt Lake County swears in 'PAWlitical' mayor and council to advocate for pet adoption

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Most companies hesitate to introduce cloud services to their company's IT strategy due to certain fears. Although the process of incorporating cloud backup comes with challenges, proper management of the cloud data backup services will help you realise your goals.
Below are the various ways you can use cloud backup to your advantage.
Integrating your data and applications with native interfaces allow you to backup and recover your tasks and data within the cloud interface. That means you can enjoy secure connections from the cloud providers, as external gateways do not exist in such interfaces.
Backups are part of an IT job and that involves creating schedules for backups. It is not a guarantee that once you backup your data, the process will be successful. You could be using a backup tool that does not offer full details of the backup. Nevertheless, getting backup services will help you manage the process of your backups. You can see the multiple data operations and their status in real time.
Once the process is done, you will be notified of the completion of the task. You can also set the specifics of the data storage.
Having two products to manage cloud backup and on-site backup is a challenging task. Understanding the different interfaces, documentation, and schedule maintenance could take time. There is also the possibility of human error that could interfere with the effectiveness of the product. However, backup services allow for easy switching between the on-premises and the cloud backup. You can view both backup data on one platform.
The cloud offers an opportunity for IT experts to transfer data, increase work efficiency, and reduce operating costs. Consider getting cloud backup services for your applications, data, and workload to reach your business goals faster.
With all the salons and spas out there, it can be hard to stand out among them. This is why you need to come up with something that will make you more recognisable. Luckily, there are tons of ideas you could use to make that happen, and here are a few of them.
Hot towel therapy provides numerous benefits to your skin and hair. It stimulates healthy hair growth as well as improves blood circulation, which makes your clients look younger and refreshed. Offering this as a complimentary service is a great way to keep your customers loyal to you. For this, you might need to buy towel heaters for your beauty salon to quicken the preparation period.
Scalp or hair massage is another great complimentary service you could offer to your customers. It is best to do this after they have gotten a haircut or treatment. This makes them feel more at ease and relaxes their nerves, which is basically the most common reason why people visit a salon.
If you want people to stick to your salon, having a loyalty program would certainly do the trick. Providing them with a list of services or treatments they could enjoy for a number of visits would definitely seal the deal. Most importantly, do not forget to keep the quality of service you are giving them so that they could keep coming back to your salon.
The use of raffle entries and coupons is also a great gimmick you could try. Utilise your social media pages to help spread the word. Everyone loves a good raffle, especially if it means that they could be pampered and treated to a salon service for free. Do it now and then, and they will surely keep on watching out for this one.
These are just some of the salon marketing ideas you could try so that customers will continuously love you. Other than these suggestions, feel free to try and experiment with other concepts to increase customer loyalty.
Business owners look for people to create and design promotional products for them. For example, some need to get shirts or tote bags printed with business logos for distribution. This presents screen-printing business openings for those interested in catering to these company owners.
New businesses should also have employees who can do tasks well. Staff members in charge of serving customers in a shop have to be accommodating and quick on their feet when it comes to concerns. Having competent staff ensures that quality products are created and that excellent service is done.
Modern equipment is also essential for business leaders to invest in. For example, a diner or a bakery should have stuff that is up-to-date with current trends or technology. This is necessary because other competitors outrank businesses who stick to outdated equipment.
Lastly, business owners are expected to take advantage of the Internet because many people are online nowadays. Creating a website or a social media account for a store or shop will increase its reach to potential customers.
In conclusion, running a business entails hiring people, promoting products and engaging customers in person or online. Hence, services on the market can design promotional products for business owners or hire employees on their behalf. These must-haves for businesses are essential to their success.
Plumbing is one of the areas you don't pay attention to until it's too late. Notably, homeowners have a few plumbing tools to fix minor issues, such as plungers and elbow grease. However, plumbing repairs, such as clogged drains and leaky pipes are best fixed by certified plumbers.
Unfortunately, homeowners don't know when to call a plumber, and they end up waiting until the problem has outgrown, which becomes expensive and time-consuming to fix. Well, this article highlights warning signs to look out for in your plumbing systems such as coloured water and noisy toilets.
You need to be sure that the water flow rate is consistent when you turn on faucets in tubs, sinks, and showers. Mineral build-up or clogged aerators are some of the reasons that you experience a low flow rate from one faucet.
Notably, the accumulation of minerals might worsen with time if you don't address the issue by calling a professional plumber.
Besides the water flow rate, you also need to be on the lookout for a continuously running toilet. Don't ignore a noisy toilet because it will increase your monthly water bills. A professional plumber will quickly detect the problem and repair it immediately to save several gallons of water.
The other warning sign you should never ignore is when your bathroom or kitchen sinks take longer than usual to drain. A certified plumber has the skills of discovering the clog source and repairing it. It is not advisable to try to release the clog because it can result in more pipe damage than before.
It is vital to take immediate action when you notice any of the signs discussed in this article, rather than trying to fix the issue on your own.
Therefore, if you need a plumber, hire a licensed and experienced one for quality plumbing services. Besides, proper maintenance of plumbing systems is essential in preventing emergency plumbing faults.
In the industrial setting, efficiency is the key to success. When things are running smoothly, you're making money. But in the flow of machinery and manpower, it's easy to forget about safety.
Workplace accidents are some of the biggest causes of loss in the manufacturing industry. When a worker is injured—or worse killed—it could put your business in financial ruin. This is why Australian safety supplies are all the more important in high-risk areas.
But more importantly, a keen eye and alertness are important to combat workplace hazards. Here are some things you can use to keep vigilant.
Order must always be observed at the workplace. All employees on the factory floor must wear protective gear at all times. These include hard hats, eye protection, and face masks. Also, passageways and hallways must be clear of any obstruction to prevent slips and falls.
It's important to remember that equipment should always be used properly. Horseplay should not be tolerated around heavy machinery and equipment especially during work hours. This could make your business liable for any injuries that occur.
The best way to prevent this is through proper training. Training your staff in the correct use of equipment will ensure that they are armed with the knowledge they need to do their job correctly.
In case of emergencies, your factory needs to have a contingency plan in place. This includes easy, unobstructed access to fire escapes as well as fire extinguishers or sprinklers.
Prevention is always better than cure, however. To prevent fires, only keep a manageable amount of flammable materials on hand. Always store these materials properly, away from any sources of heat. Waste should be properly stored and disposed of in metal containers, especially when hazardous.
These are just some of the ways you can avoid serious workplace injury. Remember that you're responsible for your employees' safety and must always be vigilant and alert to prevent and serious hazards or emergencies.
Why Enjoy a Healthy Relationship with Your Logistics Provider?
A carrier-shipper relationship is important, especially towards building communication and respect between two parties. Also, excellent flow of communication between partners minimizes disagreements, as information from one end to the other is well understood. Furthermore, the carrier works towards your best interests and vice-versa.
In most cases, renewing your contract with a logistics provider requires that you restructure plan designs together. You need to negotiate on the rates and come to an agreement before signing any papers. With a deeply established relationship, reverselogix.com says that customers have better experiences, especially with the rapid growth of the returns market.
An excellent carrier-shipper co-existence helps both parties pay more attention to the advantages that come with the service. From accurate data to delivery receipts and invoices, a carrier also strives to do timely deliveries. At the same time, they will ensure to protect your products from damage. This implies that none of you can hurt the other's business.
With a long-standing relationship between logistics partners, the carrier feels free to speak well to customers about you and your products. They can even go ahead and answer customer queries about the products supplied. On the other hand, you feel at ease to provide the carrier with leads to potential shippers for contracts. As a result, you both prosper and flourish in different ways.
Like any other venture, an outstanding relationship between logistics stakeholders is fundamental to the success of all parties involved. Not only does it promote teamwork, but it also provides an excellent working environment.
Among other things, technology can also augment the relationship between carrier, shipper, and other parties such as purchasing agents. The streamlining of a workflow process, such as a reverse logistics platform, can make things easier and cost-effective. This can only be made possible through the combined efforts of both carrier and shipper.
If you're planning to start your own business, a barbershop can be a lucrative venture as most men get haircuts once every three to six weeks. However, there are still many other things that you need to take care of to make this kind of business succeed.
One of the first things you should do when planning to open a barbershop is to search for the most suitable location for the business. As your target market is composed of men, consider opening your shop near other establishments that men frequent.
Situating your barbershop across public basketball courts, for example, is a feasible option. Also, you may not want to set up your business near other barbershops, so take note of the ones already in your area.
A barbershop, of course, requires different kinds of tools. This doesn't mean, however, that you'll just purchase the first items you come across. Do your research to find out the best appliances, equipment, and supplies you can get to your shop.
There are actually online stores where you can review and buy items like Wahl clippers, shears, combs, and even barber chairs. Other items you'll need include trimmers, razors, blow dryers, brushes, and hair products (pomade, styling cream, hair wax, etc.).
The right atmosphere will help your barbershop stand out above the rest. Apart from having barber's pole and mirrors, you should design your barbershop with your target market in mind.
For instance — using the previous example of opening a shop across public basketball courts — you can decorate your shop with framed jerseys of LeBron James and Steph Curry or photographs of Kawhi Leonard with his braids and James Harden with his beard.
A barbershop is a great idea for opening a business, and you can improve the chances of your very own succeeding by having the best location, tools, and atmosphere.


Norwegian Americans gather in Minnesota to celebrate a century of Bygdelagenes Fellesraad.
I was one of the over 500 people from all across the U.S., Canada, and Norway who attended the Norway to America: Memories and Dreams conference from May 5 to 8, in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. This celebration of Bygdelagenes Fellesraad's centennial was held at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel and the Earle Brown Heritage Center in Brooklyn Center. It had been in the planning for two years.
The festive tone of the celebration was created by colorful bygdelag banners, national costumes called bunader, flags, Norwegian music, and dancing. Twenty-five speakers from Norway, Canada, and America spoke on the themes of Norwegian-ness past, present, and future; twenty-first century Norwegian family history; and the celebration of the centennial.
Norwegian music helps to capture the theme of Norwegian-ness Past, Present, and Future.
The highlights for many were the festive activities on Saturday, which included a luncheon honoring direct descendants of bygdelag charter members. Attendees ranged in age from six weeks to ninety-nine years of age. The evening included a banquet with speaker John Tunheim, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, plus a colorful bunad parade. The Norwegian Day Camp for young people included folk dance lessons, singing, art projects, Norwegian history, and even a visit from a ventriloquist!
In addition to the centennial celebration, the Norwegian Memorial Church of South Minneapolis, called Mindekirken, welcomed visitors to their Norwegian and English Sunday services. Next door to Mindekirken is Norway House, a national educational center where many visitors enjoyed seeing the educational rooms, gallery, coffee shop, and gift shop.
The Stoughton Dancers help celebrate the event.
In 1899 early Norwegian immigrants who had a strong desire to socialize with people from their home districts of bygd in Norway began the formation of bygdelag. Today there are 28 national bygdelag that remain active. They host annual conventions (called stevner) that focus on genealogy research and Norwegian heritage. They also host tours to their home area in Norway and have genealogists available to help members with their family roots.
Previous story Nils Anders on the town: Poulsbo, Wash.


Renew Wales supports community based action on climate change across Wales through a growing network of experienced mentors. In this guest blog Jackie Charlton (above centre in the picture), member of community woodland Llangattock and voluntary Llais y Goedwig Board Director, give's her personal insight working as a RENEW Mentor supporting community woodland work.
Interested in becoming a mentor, or applying for funded assistance by a mentor? Contact RENEW for details.
At Llangattock Green Valleys Community Interest Company we have two mentors who have been appointed by RENEW Wales to support new or growing community groups with an agenda related to climate change.
My own particular expertise is in developing community woodland groups. Here I can give my person al account of how the RENEW mentoring scheme work with one project I worked on as a Mentor, with Crickhowell High School.
'Renew Wales was set up by a group of community practitioners to help 200 community groups tackle the causes and impacts of climate change through advice, training, mentoring and technical support from other experienced Community Practitioners.
In 2013 Crickhowell High School supported an idea around setting up a small woodland group and potential environmental classroom as part of the School Eco Club. Some development work was undertaken by The Green Valleys CiC in the Co-ordinator role working on the principle of peer to peer support. The Co-ordinator then called in Llangattock Green Valleys as a Mentor, once the activity moved forward.
Students met regularly and set their own agenda on projects they wished to undertake.
Now, working with schools is not easy. There are specific timetables which students and teachers need to work with and any outside community involvement is often at the bottom of the agenda so the first consideration is time. This included when to meet, for how long and the best way to fit with the school timetable. All groups in the voluntary sector have to grapple with time and as a Mentor you really need to work with the group and their timetable.
Crickhowell High School discussed what they wanted to do with The Green Valleys Co-ordinator and when they had some ideas an Action Plan was delivered. As Mentor I was then required to provide guidance to enable the group to work through a process.
There were many obstacles to overcome the major one being access. The group came up with its' own idea on how to access the site which is leased from a large estate by Llangattock Green Valleys. The main issue in this instance was achieving disabled access across a stream which flows into the River Usk a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Consultation was important and as the Mentor encouraged the Eco Club to negotiate and consult with Brecon Beacons National Park and the local Town Council and County Councillors. They all supported and contributed to the project.
So how does this work for the 'mentee'? Well, hopefully they are able to choose what support they feel is appropriate to their group. However, when you are working with limited time and a group of students much more input is required. As the Mentor I wanted the students to take control of the project so they could take ownership. But that just didn't happen as there were end of term activities, half term, holidays and, well, school work to do. They were a great asset though when it came to sharing their ideas with Councillors and decision makers such as the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority.
As with any kind of project there are good things and bad. As you can see from the above the difficult part is trying to get groups to take ownership and delivering their ideas with confidence. Students are surprisingly confident but delivery was not a concept they took well to outside of their peer group. Having said that when they committed themselves to doing something they did get down and do it. As the Mentor the aim is to instil confidence and get the job done.
Being a Mentor is about challenging and supporting people to achieve the goal they have set for themselves. Hopefully this happened with Crickhowell High School Eco Club and there will be a sustainable woodland group, although small, and an environmental classroom fitting well with the aims of RENEW Wales.


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Current research is quite clear: it's the plants inability to uptake micro nutrients through the roots.
But why? And how do we get off the carousel and grow better plants. To get a better picture we need to look at some simple soil chemistry and micro nutrient fertilizer technology of today.
A simple answer to the question of why plants have an inability to uptake micro nutrients is soil pH.
We know ideal soil pH is 6.5 and this pH allows for the availability of all the essential nutrients balanced for proper plant growth.
As our soil pH deviates from this ideal, we come face to face with the micro nutrient uptake problem.
Less than ideal soil pH equates to either Acidic or Alkaline soil. We lime the acidic soils and acidify the alkaline soils. These processes are expensive and short lived as all soils want to return to their natural state. With that door closed, agricultural scientists have looked to supplementing crops with direct applications of micro-nutrient fertilizers.
Current technology offers us multiple forms of micro nutrients to apply to our soil and plants, either inorganic or organic materials.
The inorganic materials can be further divided into water-soluble and non-soluble compounds. We have inorganic options: sulfates, chloride, nitrate, oxide. While these options are the cheapest per pound of material they are also the least efficient and in some cases a waste of money all together when you consider the amounts needed and the binding these nutrients to the soil (remember the pH issue!).
Organic materials are either synthetic chelate or natural organic complexes made of: EDTA, DTPA, EDDHA, NTA, and HEDTA. Chelates are ring-type chemical structures formed around a polyvalent metal. Chelated micronutrients are of interest because they tend to remain soluble longer when applied to the soil, giving time for the plant to take up the desired nutrient. However, these materials are expensive and have a tendency to leach from the root zone.
With current technologies seemingly hitting their limits, how do we get off the carousel and grow better plants and feed the hungry planet?
Nanoscale foliar sprays are already making an appearance in the market place and first results are very encouraging.
Due to a much larger surface area coverage, they are less bulky and therefore easy to handle and transport. Application is also convenient as they can be tank mixed with other products.
The process where carbon dioxide is converted to soil humus has been occurring for millions of years, sequestering atmospheric carbon in soil as humified organic carbon restores natural fertility cycles, increase water-use efficiency, improves farm productivity, and provides resilience to climatic variation. Biological carbon capture and storage begins with photosynthesis, a natural process where green leaves transform sunlight energy, carbon dioxide and water into biochemical energy.
Carbon fixed during photosynthesis can be stored in a more a permanent form, such as wood (in trees or shrubs), or as humus (in soil). Humification is a process where carbon compounds are joined together into more complex and stable molecules in the soil from the exuded plant sugars. The formation of humus requires a vast array of soil microbes, including mycorrhizal fungi, nitrogen fixing bacteria and phosphorus solubilising bacteria, all of which obtain their energy from plant sugars (liquid carbon). Under appropriate conditions, 30-40% of the carbon fixed in green leaves can be transferred to soil and rapidly humified, resulting in rates of soil carbon sequestration in the order of 5-20 tonnes of CO2 per hectare per year. In some instances, high soil carbon sequestration rates have been recorded where there were virtually no 'biomass inputs', suggesting that the liquid carbon pathway was the primary mechanism for soil building. Understanding the soil building process is therefore of fundamental importance to the future viability of agriculture.
Silicon (Si) has been studied and observed in a wide variety of plant species. Under the new definition of plant essential elements, Si is included, due to deficiency causing various abnormalities in plant growth and performance (Ma and Takahashi 2002; Epstein and Bloom 2003). The beneficial effects of Si are usually expressed more clearly in Si-accumulating plants under various abiotic and biotic stress conditions.
Silicon is effective in controlling various pests and diseases caused by both fungi and bacteria in different plant species (Bowen et al. 1992; Menzies et al. 1992; Datnoff et al. 2002). Silicon also alleviates effects on various abiotic stresses including salt stress, metal toxicity, drought stress, radiation damage, nutrient imbalance, high temperature, freezing (Takahashi 1966; Ma et al. 2001). These beneficial effects are mainly attributed to the high accumulation of silica on the tissue surface although other mechanisms have also been proposed.
To obtain plants resistant to multiple stresses, genetic modification of the root ability to take up Si has been proposed in addition to soil and foliar applications.
For more information regarding the role of Silicon please see the article Role of Silicon in Enhancing the Resistance of Plants to Biotic and Abiotic Stresses.


text:
package org.broadinstitute.hellbender.tools.walkers.haplotypecaller;

import htsjdk.samtools.SAMSequenceDictionary;
import htsjdk.variant.variantcontext.VariantContext;
import org.apache.commons.lang3.tuple.Pair;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.LogManager;
import org.apache.logging.log4j.Logger;
import org.broadinstitute.barclay.argparser.CommandLineException;
import org.broadinstitute.hellbender.engine.AssemblyRegion;
import org.broadinstitute.hellbender.exceptions.UserException;
import org.broadinstitute.hellbender.utils.SimpleInterval;
import org.broadinstitute.hellbender.utils.Utils;

import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.SortedSet;

/**
 * Helper component to manage active region trimming
 *
 *

 * It receives the user arguments that controls trimming and also performs the trimming region calculation.
 *
 * @author Valentin Ruano-Rubio <valentin@broadinstitute.org>
 */
public final class AssemblyRegionTrimmer {

    /**
     * Holds the debug flag. If {@code true} the trimmer will output debugging messages into the log.
     */
    private boolean debug;

    /**
     * Holds the extension to be used based on whether GGA mode is on or off.
     */
    private int usableExtension;

    /**
     * Records whether the trimming intervals are going to be used to emit reference confidence, {@code true},
     * or regular HC output {@code false}.
     */
    private boolean emitReferenceConfidence;

    private AssemblyRegionTrimmerArgumentCollection assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs;

    private SAMSequenceDictionary sequenceDictionary;

    /**
     * Holds a reference the trimmer logger.
     */
    private static final Logger logger = LogManager.getLogger(AssemblyRegionTrimmer.class);

    /**
     * Initializes the trimmer.
     *
     *

     * This method should be called once and only once before any trimming is performed.
     *
     * @param assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs user arguments for the trimmer
     * @param sequenceDictionary dictionary to determine the bounds of contigs
     * @param debug whether to show extra debug log messages.
     * @param isGGA whether the trimming region calculator should act as if we are in GGA mode or not.
     * @param emitReferenceConfidence indicates whether we plan to use this trimmer to generate trimmed regions
     *                                to be used for emitting reference confidence.
     *
     * @throws IllegalStateException if this trim calculator has already been initialized.
     * @throws IllegalArgumentException if the input location parser is {@code null}.
     * @throws CommandLineException.BadArgumentValue if any of the user argument values is invalid.
     */
    public void initialize(final AssemblyRegionTrimmerArgumentCollection assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs, final SAMSequenceDictionary sequenceDictionary, final boolean debug, final boolean isGGA, final boolean emitReferenceConfidence) {
        if (this.assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs != null) {
            throw new IllegalStateException(getClass().getSimpleName() + " instance initialized twice");
        }

        this.assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs = Utils.nonNull(assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs);;
        this.sequenceDictionary = sequenceDictionary;

        checkUserArguments();
        this.debug = debug;
        usableExtension = isGGA ? this.assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs.ggaExtension : this.assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs.discoverExtension;
        this.emitReferenceConfidence = emitReferenceConfidence;
    }

    /**
     * Checks user trimming argument values
     *
     * @throws CommandLineException.BadArgumentValue if there is some problem with any of the arguments values.
     */
    private void checkUserArguments() {
        if ( assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs.snpPadding < 0 ) {
            throw new CommandLineException.BadArgumentValue("paddingAroundSNPs", "" + assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs.snpPadding + "< 0");
        }
        if ( assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs.indelPadding < 0 ) {
            throw new CommandLineException.BadArgumentValue("paddingAroundIndels", "" + assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs.indelPadding + "< 0");
        }
        if ( assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs.discoverExtension < 0) {
            throw new CommandLineException.BadArgumentValue("maxDiscARExtension", "" + assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs.discoverExtension + "< 0");
        }
        if ( assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs.ggaExtension < 0) {
            throw new CommandLineException.BadArgumentValue("maxGGAAREExtension", "" + assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs.ggaExtension + "< 0");
        }
    }

    /**
     * Holds the result of trimming.
     */
    public static final class Result {

        /**
         * Indicates whether trimming is required per data and user request.
         */
        protected final boolean needsTrimming;

        /**
         * Holds the input active region.
         */
        protected final AssemblyRegion originalRegion;

        /**
         * Holds the smaller range that contain all relevant callable variants in the
         * input active region (not considering the extension).
         *
         */
        protected final SimpleInterval callableSpan;

        /**
         * Maximum available range for the trimmed variant region.
         */
        protected final SimpleInterval maximumSpan;

        /**
         * The trimmed variant region span including the extension.
         */
        protected final SimpleInterval extendedSpan;

        /**
         * The ideal trimmer variant region span including the extension.
         */
        protected final SimpleInterval idealSpan;

        /**
         * Returns the ideal trimming span.
         *
         *

         * The ideal span is the one containing all callable variation overlapping the original active region span
         * (without extension) and the applicable padding {@link #getPadding()} in both sides.
         *
         *
         * @return never {@code null}.
         */
        @SuppressWarnings("unused")
        public SimpleInterval getIdealSpan() {
            return idealSpan;
        }

        /**
         * Holds the flanking spans that do not contain the callable variants.
         *

         * The first element of the pair is the left (up-stream) non-variant flank, whereas the second element is
         * the right (down-stream) non-variant flank.
         */
        protected final Pair<SimpleInterval, SimpleInterval> nonVariantFlanks;

        /**
         * Holds the collection of callable events within the variant trimming region.
         */
        protected final List<VariantContext> callableEvents;

        /**
         * Required padding around the variant trimming region.
         */
        protected final int padding;

        /**
         * Returns the required padding around callable variation.
         *
         *

         * Notice that due to the limiting span of the original active region (including its extension) it
         * is possible that the resulting final trimmed variant region span does not satisfies the padding. However
         * that should be rare.
         *
         * @return 0 or greater.
         */
        @SuppressWarnings("unused")
        public int getPadding() {
            return padding;
        }

        /**
         * Holds the maximum extension around the original active region span considered for the trimmed
         * variation region.
         */
        protected final int usableExtension;

        /**
         * Returns the maximum extension around the original active region span considered for the trimmed
         * variation region.
         *
         *

         * From time to time, the trimmed region may require a span beyond the input original active region's.
         * For example when there is a callable event close ot one of its ends and the required padding makes it
         * round beyond that limit.
         *
         *

         * Notice that due to the limiting span of the original active region (including its extended region) it
         * is possible that the resulting final trimmed variant region span goes beyond this extension including more of
         * the original active region own extension.
         *
         * @return 0 or greater.
         */
        @SuppressWarnings("unused")
        public int getUsableExtension() {
            return usableExtension;
        }

        /**
         * Holds variant-containing callable region.
         *

         * This is lazy-initialized using {@link #callableSpan}.
         */
        protected AssemblyRegion callableRegion;

        /**
         * Non-variant left flank region.
         *

         * This is lazy-initialized using
         * {@link #nonVariantFlanks}.{@link Pair#getLeft()} () getFirst()}.
         */
        private AssemblyRegion leftFlankRegion;

        /**
         * Non-variant right flank region.
         *

         * This is lazy-initialized using
         * {@link #nonVariantFlanks}.{@link Pair#getLeft()} () getSecond()}.
         */
        private AssemblyRegion rightFlankRegion;

        /**
         * Whether the variant trimmed region is going to be used for emitting reference confidence records.
         */
        private final boolean emitReferenceConfidence;

        /**
         * Creates a trimming result given all its properties.
         *
         * @param emitReferenceConfidence whether reference confidence output modes are on.
         * @param needsTrimming whether there is any trimming needed at all.
         * @param originalRegion the original active region.
         * @param padding padding around contained callable variation events.
         * @param extension the extension applied to the trimmed variant span.
         * @param overlappingEvents contained callable variation events.
         * @param nonVariantFlanks pair of non-variant flank spans around the variant containing span.
         * @param extendedSpan final trimmed variant span including the extension.
         * @param idealSpan the ideal span, that contains.
         * @param maximumSpan maximum possible trimmed span based on the input original active region extended span.
         * @param callableSpan variant containing span without padding.
         */
        protected Result(final boolean emitReferenceConfidence,
                         final boolean needsTrimming,
                         final AssemblyRegion originalRegion,
                         final int padding,
                         final int extension,
                         final List<VariantContext> overlappingEvents,
                         final Pair<SimpleInterval, SimpleInterval> nonVariantFlanks,
                         final SimpleInterval extendedSpan,
                         final SimpleInterval idealSpan,
                         final SimpleInterval maximumSpan,
                         final SimpleInterval callableSpan) {
            this.emitReferenceConfidence = emitReferenceConfidence;
            this.needsTrimming = needsTrimming;
            this.originalRegion = originalRegion;
            this.nonVariantFlanks = nonVariantFlanks;
            this.padding = padding;
            usableExtension = extension;
            callableEvents = overlappingEvents;
            this.callableSpan = callableSpan;
            this.idealSpan = idealSpan;
            this.maximumSpan = maximumSpan;
            this.extendedSpan = extendedSpan;

            Utils.validateArg(extendedSpan == null || callableSpan == null || extendedSpan.contains(callableSpan), "the extended callable span must include the callable span");
        }

        /**
         * Checks whether there is any variation present in the target region.
         *
         * @return {@code true} if there is any variant, {@code false} otherwise.
         */
        public boolean isVariationPresent() {
            return ! callableEvents.isEmpty();
        }

        /**
         * Checks whether the active region needs trimming.
         */
        public boolean needsTrimming() {
            return needsTrimming;
        }

        /**
         * Returns the trimmed variant containing region
         *
         * @throws IllegalStateException if there is no variation detected.
         *
         * @return never {@code null}.
         */
        public AssemblyRegion getCallableRegion() {
            if (callableRegion == null && extendedSpan != null) {
                //TODO this conditional is a patch to retain the current standard HC run behaviour
                //TODO we should simply remove this difference between trimming with or without GVCF
                //TODO embracing slight changes in the standard HC output
                callableRegion = emitReferenceConfidence ? originalRegion.trim(callableSpan, extendedSpan) : originalRegion.trim(extendedSpan);
            } else if (extendedSpan == null) {
                throw new IllegalStateException("there is no variation thus no variant region");
            }
            return callableRegion;
        }

        /**
         * Checks whether there is a non-empty left flanking non-variant trimmed out region.
         * @return {@code true} if there is a non-trivial left flank region, {@code false} otherwise.
         */
        public boolean hasLeftFlankingRegion() {
            return nonVariantFlanks.getLeft() != null;
        }

        /**
         * Checks whether there is a non-empty right flanking non-variant trimmed out region.
         * @return {@code true} if there is a non-trivial right flank region, {@code false} otherwise.
         */
        public boolean hasRightFlankingRegion() {
            return nonVariantFlanks.getRight() != null;
        }

        /**
         *  Returns the trimmed out left non-variant region.
         *

         *  Notice that in case of no variation, the whole original region is considered the left flanking region.
         *
         *  @throws IllegalStateException if there is not such as left flanking region.
         */
        public AssemblyRegion nonVariantLeftFlankRegion() {
            if (leftFlankRegion == null && nonVariantFlanks.getLeft() != null) {
                leftFlankRegion = originalRegion.trim(nonVariantFlanks.getLeft(), originalRegion.getExtension());
            } else if (nonVariantFlanks.getLeft() == null) {
                throw new IllegalStateException("there is no left flank non-variant trimmed out region");
            }
            return leftFlankRegion;
        }

        /**
         *  Returns the trimmed out right non-variant region.
         */
        public AssemblyRegion nonVariantRightFlankRegion() {
            if (rightFlankRegion == null && nonVariantFlanks.getRight() != null) {
                rightFlankRegion = originalRegion.trim(nonVariantFlanks.getRight(), originalRegion.getExtension());
            } else if (nonVariantFlanks.getRight() == null) {
                throw new IllegalStateException("there is no right flank non-variant trimmed out region");
            }
            return rightFlankRegion;
        }

        /**
         * Creates a result indicating that there was no trimming to be done.
         */
        protected static Result noTrimming(final boolean emitReferenceConfidence,
                                           final AssemblyRegion targetRegion, final int padding,
                                           final int usableExtension,final List<VariantContext> events) {
            final SimpleInterval targetRegionLoc = targetRegion.getSpan();
            final Result result = new Result(emitReferenceConfidence,false,targetRegion,padding,usableExtension,events,Pair.of(null, null),
                    targetRegionLoc,targetRegionLoc,targetRegionLoc,targetRegionLoc);
            result.callableRegion = targetRegion;
            return result;
        }

        /**
         * Creates a result indicating that no variation was found.
         */
        protected static Result noVariation(final boolean emitReferenceConfidence, final AssemblyRegion targetRegion,
                                            final int padding, final int usableExtension) {
            final Result result = new Result(emitReferenceConfidence,false,targetRegion,padding,usableExtension,
                    Collections.emptyList(), Pair.of(targetRegion.getSpan(), null),
                    null, null, null, null);
            result.leftFlankRegion = targetRegion;
            return result;
        }
    }

    /**
     * Returns a trimming result object from which the variant trimmed region and flanking non-variant sections
     * can be recovered latter.
     *
     * @param originalRegion the genome location range to trim.
     * @param allVariantsWithinExtendedRegion list of variants contained in the trimming location. Variants therein
     *                                        not overlapping with {@code originalRegion} are simply ignored.
     * @return never {@code null}.
     */
    public Result trim(final AssemblyRegion originalRegion,
                       final SortedSet<VariantContext> allVariantsWithinExtendedRegion) {

        if ( allVariantsWithinExtendedRegion.isEmpty() ) // no variants,
        {
            return Result.noVariation(emitReferenceConfidence, originalRegion, assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs.snpPadding, usableExtension);
        }

        final List<VariantContext> withinActiveRegion = new LinkedList<>();
        final SimpleInterval originalRegionRange = originalRegion.getSpan();
        boolean foundNonSnp = false;
        SimpleInterval variantSpan = null;
        for ( final VariantContext vc : allVariantsWithinExtendedRegion ) {
            final SimpleInterval vcLoc = new SimpleInterval(vc);
            if ( originalRegionRange.overlaps(vcLoc) ) {
                foundNonSnp = foundNonSnp || ! vc.isSNP();
                variantSpan = variantSpan == null ? vcLoc : variantSpan.spanWith(vcLoc);
                withinActiveRegion.add(vc);
            }
        }
        final int padding = foundNonSnp ? assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs.indelPadding : assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs.snpPadding;

        // we don't actually have anything in the region after skipping out variants that don't overlap
        // the region's full location
        if ( variantSpan == null ) {
            return Result.noVariation(emitReferenceConfidence, originalRegion, padding, usableExtension);
        }

        if ( assemblyRegionTrimmerArgs.dontTrimActiveRegions) {
            return Result.noTrimming(emitReferenceConfidence, originalRegion, padding, usableExtension, withinActiveRegion);
        }

        final SimpleInterval maximumSpan = originalRegionRange.expandWithinContig(usableExtension, sequenceDictionary);
        final SimpleInterval idealSpan = variantSpan.expandWithinContig(padding, sequenceDictionary);
        final SimpleInterval finalSpan = maximumSpan.intersect(idealSpan).mergeWithContiguous(variantSpan);

        // Make double sure that, if we are emitting GVCF we won't call non-variable positions beyond the target active region span.
        // In regular call we don't do so so we don't care and we want to maintain behavior, so the conditional.
        final SimpleInterval callableSpan = emitReferenceConfidence ? variantSpan.intersect(originalRegionRange) : variantSpan;

        final Pair<SimpleInterval, SimpleInterval> nonVariantRegions = nonVariantTargetRegions(originalRegion, callableSpan);

        if ( debug ) {
            logger.info("events       : " + withinActiveRegion);
            logger.info("region       : " + originalRegion);
            logger.info("callableSpan : " + callableSpan);
            logger.info("padding      : " + padding);
            logger.info("idealSpan    : " + idealSpan);
            logger.info("maximumSpan  : " + maximumSpan);
            logger.info("finalSpan    : " + finalSpan);
        }

        return new Result(emitReferenceConfidence,true,originalRegion,padding, usableExtension,withinActiveRegion,nonVariantRegions,finalSpan,idealSpan,maximumSpan,variantSpan);
    }

    /**
     * Calculates the list of region to trim away.
     * @param targetRegion region for which to generate the flanking regions.
     * @param variantSpan the span of the core region containing relevant variation and required padding.
     * @return never {@code null}; 0, 1 or 2 element list.
     */
    private Pair<SimpleInterval, SimpleInterval> nonVariantTargetRegions(final AssemblyRegion targetRegion, final SimpleInterval variantSpan) {
        final SimpleInterval targetRegionRange = targetRegion.getSpan();
        final int finalStart = variantSpan.getStart();
        final int finalStop = variantSpan.getEnd();

        final int targetStart = targetRegionRange.getStart();
        final int targetStop = targetRegionRange.getEnd();

        final boolean preTrimmingRequired = targetStart < finalStart;
        final boolean postTrimmingRequired = targetStop > finalStop;
        if (preTrimmingRequired) {
            final String contig = targetRegionRange.getContig();
            return postTrimmingRequired ? Pair.of(new SimpleInterval(contig, targetStart, finalStart - 1), new SimpleInterval(contig, finalStop + 1, targetStop)) :
                                          Pair.of(new SimpleInterval(contig, targetStart, finalStart - 1), null);
        } else if (postTrimmingRequired) {
            return Pair.of(null, new SimpleInterval(targetRegionRange.getContig(), finalStop + 1, targetStop));
        } else {
            return Pair.of(null, null);
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
China's Ambassador Sun Weidong is an icon of Pakistan - China friendship
ISLAMABAD: The Parliamentary Committee on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Friday honoured the outgoing ambassador of China, Sun Weidong with a presentation of a special plaque in recognition of his services to strengthen Pakistan-China relations.
Chairman of the Committee Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, honoured the outgoing ambassador of China to pakistan, sun weidong with a presentation of a special plaque in recognition of his services to CPEC and strengthening pakistan-china `all weather friendship'.
Senator Mushahid Hussain sayed also referred to the contribution of outgoing ambassador's father, who served in the Chinese embassy in Pakistan from 1952-58, saying that their family had served pakistan-china friendship from `generation to generation.'
While commending the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Mushahid said there was a complete national consensus on CPEC amongst all the political forces and provinces.
Meanwhile, ambassador sun weidong said Pakistan-China people to people exchanges were already being broadened and more than 200,000 visitors from both countries visited each other in 2016, adding that about 22000 Pakistani students studying in China, including 5000 on official scholarships.
The ambassador further said that rewards of CPEC is already evident in that it had helped to resolve pakistan's chronic electric power shortage, adding that Pakistan's growth rate was an annual 3.6% but now with cpec underway, it had gone up to 5.3% despite many challenges. Sixty thousand job opportunities have also been created.
Responding to a question of Mehmood Achakzai about the leadership role of China as a peace maker in the region, ambassador sun weidong said peace was like oxygen, fresh air for development and that was why China believes in partnership, dialogue and cooperation in promoting connectivity among countries and all issues left over by history, like kashmir, need to be resolved through dialogue and negotiations, he added.


text:
Home > Back to Search Results > Funeral of President Garfield...
Funeral of President Garfield...
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, October 8, 1881 Front full pg. illus. of "The Funeral of President Garfield - The Catafalque at Cleveland." Inside is a 1/2 pg. illus. of "The Funeral of President Garfield - Night View of the Catafalque." 1/2 pg. illus. of "Chateau of Senator Edmund de Lafayette." Full pg. illus. pertaining to "The New Baltimore Water Supply." Full pg. illus. of "The Funeral of President Garfield - Services at the Receiving Vault, Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland."
Full pg. illus. of "Reunion of the Army of the Cumberland - Confederate and Union Soldiers Raising the Stars and Stripes." Full pg. illus. of "American Opium Smokers - Interior of a New York Opium Den." 1/2 pg. illus. of "The Rate Between the 'Madge' and the 'Schemer'." 1/2 pg. illus. of "Sergeant Mason and the Jail Where Guiteau is Confined."
Complete in 16 pages.
Please Read Note Concerning HW Images & Supplements!
Category: 1880-1889
Or Buy This Item second rate for:
Displayable football print...
Item from Sojourner Truth...
Marking out Santa's route from the No...