Opposition mounts to changes at Martin Nature Park

“The new trail will alter the healthy natural ecosystem in the southeastern portion of the park,” said Cathy Christensen, president of the Oklahoma Bar Association and representative of the nearby Val Verde homeowners. “It is home to deer, owls, foxes, squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, muskrat, beaver and a variety of nesting birds, and it is an important habitat for migrating ducks, geese and songbirds. Remove those animals and you lose the opportunity to educate thousands of children and park visitors.”

Christensen also said that disruption to the natural ecosystem could reduce the number of predators, such as owls, which keep populations of rodents, skunks and other animals from overpopulating and becoming pests to nearby neighborhoods and the park itself.

Construction at any level, Gau said, could destroy some of the park’s rarest plants and prevent migratory birds from nesting there. Construction could force wildlife, such as bobcats and wolves, to move into surrounding neighborhoods.

“We have four rare species of plants you can’t find anywhere else in Oklahoma, and then we have birds like the ruby-throated hummingbirds that migrate here in the spring,” Gau said. “That’s just one of 30 migratory birds we have. The issue is we have migratory birds coming in all year, so it makes it difficult to make changes to the park. This type of construction could prevent them from coming here if the area is altered.”

The disappointment led him to find ways to make a wilderness experience, however large or small, accessible to everyone.

“Access to senior citizens, of course, who find walking difficult, citizens using canes, walkers, crutches, wheelchairs or other mobility device; accessible, as well, to those with limited sight,Best howo concrete mixer manufacturer in China. impaired hearing or developmental disability,” McMahan said.

Phases of the project include a large treehouse, a universally accessible trail throughout the park and, in the final phase, “identifying, selecting and installing information/syndication systems that enhance the experiences of all stake holders who visit the park,” according to Wilderness Matters.

McMahan said the projected cost is expected to be between $1.2 to 2 million, and the Wilderness Experience would remain free to the public as Martin Nature Park is now.

Wendell Whisenhunt,Our technology gives rtls systems developers the ability. director of Oklahoma City Parks and Recreation, said Wilderness Matters Inc. representatives have gone before the OKC Parks Commission three times and discussed improvements they wish to make to the Martin Nature Park. The most recent meeting was Dec. 19 at which time the board of park commissioners voted unanimously to let the proposal go before the City Council during the January meeting.

Wilderness Matters was incorporated as a 501(c)(3). The board is comprised of McMahan, Nichols Hills Mayor Peter Hoffman, philanthropist and former assistant attorney general Tricia L. Everest, and Martha J. Ferretti, a college professor and physical therapist.

McMahan said Wilderness Matters is about helping all people,Why does moulds grow in homes or buildings? but especially people with disabilities, enjoy universally accessible outdoor experiences.

“We are about building and delivering a world-class wilderness experience for everyone to enjoy. The result of our work is to improve the human experience,” McMahan said.

McMahan said he and his board of directors are willing to privately fund the approximately $1.5 million needed for the park development.

The group also has told city officials it would provide an endowment to fund maintenance for the proposed development.

According to its website, Wilderness Matters “aims to partner with municipal and state agencies to help all people — able-bodied and disabled — access and enjoy universally designed nature experiences.”

The organization’s website states it selects public nature parks, wildlife areas or other outdoor venues and then designs, builds and donates facility improvements to the partner. The website, however, did not list specific projects completed by Wilderness Matters, and McMahan admitted this proposed project is the first project for the organization.One of the most durable and attractive styles of flooring that you can purchase is ceramic or porcelain tiles.

Fuel-saving gas-electric hybrid and all-electric cars and trucks powered by sizable battery packs and high voltage motors could present a new kind of danger at serious accident scenes, according to an industry group.

A report by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) highlighted risks to first responders and tow operators from potential electric shock from damaged systems not disengaged during or immediately after a crash.

"As electric vehicles enter the marketplace in greater numbers, it's an appropriate time to recognize best practices that facilitate a safe response when these vehicles are in an accident," said Todd Mackintosh, chairman of the SAE technical committee that issued the report earlier this month.

The group recommended automakers install switches that would kill battery power in the event of an accident. The location of those switches should be standardized for safety.

Another recommendation would create a guide for emergency workers,This is my favourite sites to purchase those special pieces of buy mosaic materials from. something Mackintosh called a "cheat sheet for first responders." It would quickly identify the location of high-voltage components allowing them to be disabled.

Tow truck drivers also need better information and training on how to handle hybrids and electric vehicles without receiving an unexpected jolt, the report said.

More than 435,000 battery powered electric and hybrid electric vehicles were sold in the United States this year, an increase of 53%, compared to 2011 sales numbers, according to the Electric Drive Transportation Association.

In May, auto industry officials and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Energy Department discussed potential dangers faced by first responders from electrical charges produced by hybrid and electric cars.

NHTSA later issued interim guidance for consumers, emergency responders and tow truck operators to increase awareness about specific dangers.

Dangers can be reduced if responders have easy access to battery packs and if auto manufacturers create common disconnect locations in all hybrid and electric vehicles, NHTSA said.

Automakers are getting the message out to drivers and responders.

Nissan places the battery pack of its LEAF all-electric car in a steel case. The Japanese automaker also designed the battery pack to sense a crash and disable its electrical charge when involved in an accident.

Ford has published a guide for first responders encountering its Focus EV involved in accidents. The Focus EV includes what Ford calls "Electric Badges," which are clearly marked logos on the doors and trunk lid to warn responders of possible electric shock. Cables wrapped in orange high-voltage warning sleeves are located under the hood of the Focus EV.

Strokes of sadness

Irises grow by the roadside in the Avenue van Gogh in Saint-Remy-de-Provence. They are not in bloom but I recognise the dull green leaves, lolling like parched tongues in the dirt.
I am walking in van Gogh's world. It is as though I have been here before. Everything is strangely familiar. The images of his paintings are all around in the trees, the fields, in the rocks and the buildings. It is like walking in a living exhibition.

I have come to Saint-Remy for a friend's birthday but I have been drawn into the artist's world. Saint-Remy was home to Vincent vanGogh for just one year when he admitted himself to Saint-Paul de Mausole asylum in May 1889. In spite of his mental instability, it was probably his most prolific period and he produced more than 140 paintings.

The asylum is on the outskirts of this small town in southern France at the foot of the jagged Alpilles range. I am taking a short walking tour following in vanGogh's footsteps. I leave the town, with its narrow streets and square, shaded by plane trees, and follow a trail marked out by 21 panels displaying reproductions of the artist's paintings. The panels are placed at intervals on noticeboards along the three-kilometre trail so visitors can see the real and imaginary world of the artist.

I walk along the Avenue Marie Gasque. In vanGogh's time this lane would have passed through broad fields of wheat and flowers. Today it is a quiet residential street. I come to a modern wall and a display panel shows a reproduction of The Road of Cypresses. I look over the wall and the scene is the same as the painting.

I tread a narrow passageway to the road skirting the Alpilles and see the reproduction of Wheat Field with Cypresses, a scene typical of the landscape today.

The chapel bells are ringing as I walk up the avenue of pines towards the gates of the asylum. Olive trees, grey-green leaves and trunks, blackand twisted, fill the fields. Wild thyme casts a mauve hue over the grass.

At the end of the driveway, on another board, is a reproduction of Irises. Here are the blue and violet blooms missing from the roadside plants. These leaves are sea-green and pointed like swords. Van Gogh found the irises growing on a smallarea of raised ground just behind the garden wall of the caretaker's cottage.

After the walking trail I visit the asylum, which today houses a small vanGogh museum. I meet my guide, Marie Charlotte, and she first takes me into the olive grove. She holds up a reproduction of Olive Grove and, behind her diminutive figure, I see the same picture.

''When he painted olive trees, he painted fast to catch the light on the leaves,'' Charlotte explains.

We enter the asylum,Purelink's real time location system protect healthcare workers in their daily practices and OMEGA interventions. the cloisters and chapter house. In the entrance hall I turn and look back at the door. This is another of his pictures. I see a room, similar to vanGogh's room, with the iron bedstead and rush-seated chair.

I see the view from his bedroom window, from which he did a series of paintings. I walk out into the walled garden, where he walked and where he painted irises, lilacs, and ivy-covered trees.

The next day I visit Les Baux, a mediaeval hilltop village, built from limestone extracted from nearby quarries. Today the quarries have a different use. I enter the chill and darkness of the vast, interconnecting caverns and become enveloped in the paintings of vanGogh and Gauguin. Seventy projectors show a constantly changing view of 400 works of art on the 12.1-metre-high limestone walls, pillars and floors. There is nothing to separate me from the paintings. Imove about inthem.

I stand in a snow storm and watch large white flakes settling on vanGogh's rooftops; I see rain-lashed fields with peasants working; I see sorrow and pain in the eyes of the people he painted; and, in great magnification, I see anguish in the artist's eyes.

''I put my heart and my soul into my work and have lost my mind in the process,'' vanGogh wrote to his brother, Theo.

When vanGogh arrived at Saint-Remy, he was on the road out of melancholy. When he left one year later, the medical report said ''cured''. A month later he died from a gunshot wound, generally accepted to be self-inflicted. He was 37. He had sold just one painting during his life.

Shortly before he died he wrote to his brother: ''I can't change the fact that my paintings don't sell. But the time will come when people will recognise that they are worth more than the value of the paints used in the picture.''

Irises sold for $US53.9million in 1987, then a record for awork of art, to Australian businessman Alan Bond. It changed hands three years later and the painting is now in the Getty Centre in Los Angeles.

Irises grow by the roadside in the Avenue van Gogh in Saint-Remy-de-Provence. They are not in bloom but I recognise the dull green leaves, lolling like parched tongues in the dirt.
I am walking in van Gogh's world. It is as though I have been here before. Everything is strangely familiar. The images of his paintings are all around in the trees, the fields, in the rocks and the buildings. It is like walking in a living exhibition.

I have come to Saint-Remy for a friend's birthday but I have been drawn into the artist's world. Saint-Remy was home to Vincent vanGogh for just one year when he admitted himself to Saint-Paul de Mausole asylum in May 1889. In spite of his mental instability, it was probably his most prolific period and he produced more than 140 paintings.

The asylum is on the outskirts of this small town in southern France at the foot of the jagged Alpilles range. I am taking a short walking tour following in vanGogh's footsteps. I leave the town, with its narrow streets and square, shaded by plane trees, and follow a trail marked out by 21 panels displaying reproductions of the artist's paintings. The panels are placed at intervals on noticeboards along the three-kilometre trail so visitors can see the real and imaginary world of the artist.

I walk along the Avenue Marie Gasque. In vanGogh's time this lane would have passed through broad fields of wheat and flowers. Today it is a quiet residential street. I come to a modern wall and a display panel shows a reproduction of The Road of Cypresses. I look over the wall and the scene is the same as the painting.

I tread a narrow passageway to the road skirting the Alpilles and see the reproduction of Wheat Field with Cypresses, a scene typical of the landscape today.

The chapel bells are ringing as I walk up the avenue of pines towards the gates of the asylum. Olive trees, grey-green leaves and trunks, blackand twisted, fill the fields. Wild thyme casts a mauve hue over the grass.

At the end of the driveway, on another board, is a reproduction of Irises. Here are the blue and violet blooms missing from the roadside plants. These leaves are sea-green and pointed like swords. Van Gogh found the irises growing on a smallarea of raised ground just behind the garden wall of the caretaker's cottage.

After the walking trail I visit the asylum, which today houses a small vanGogh museum. I meet my guide, Marie Charlotte, and she first takes me into the olive grove. She holds up a reproduction of Olive Grove and, behind her diminutive figure, I see the same picture.

''When he painted olive trees, he painted fast to catch the light on the leaves,'' Charlotte explains.

We enter the asylum, the cloisters and chapter house.High quality stone mosaic tiles. In the entrance hall I turn and look back at the door. This is another of his pictures. I see a room, similar to vanGogh's room, with the iron bedstead and rush-seated chair.

I see the view from his bedroom window,This is my favourite sites to purchase those special pieces of buy mosaic materials from. from which he did a series of paintings. I walk out into the walled garden, where he walked and where he painted irises,This document provides a guide to using the ventilation system in your house to provide adequate fresh air to residents. lilacs, and ivy-covered trees.

The next day I visit Les Baux, a mediaeval hilltop village, built from limestone extracted from nearby quarries. Today the quarries have a different use. I enter the chill and darkness of the vast,We recently added Stained glass mosaic Tile to our inventory. interconnecting caverns and become enveloped in the paintings of vanGogh and Gauguin. Seventy projectors show a constantly changing view of 400 works of art on the 12.1-metre-high limestone walls, pillars and floors. There is nothing to separate me from the paintings. Imove about inthem.

I stand in a snow storm and watch large white flakes settling on vanGogh's rooftops; I see rain-lashed fields with peasants working; I see sorrow and pain in the eyes of the people he painted; and, in great magnification, I see anguish in the artist's eyes.

''I put my heart and my soul into my work and have lost my mind in the process,'' vanGogh wrote to his brother, Theo.

When vanGogh arrived at Saint-Remy, he was on the road out of melancholy. When he left one year later, the medical report said ''cured''. A month later he died from a gunshot wound, generally accepted to be self-inflicted. He was 37. He had sold just one painting during his life.

Shortly before he died he wrote to his brother: ''I can't change the fact that my paintings don't sell. But the time will come when people will recognise that they are worth more than the value of the paints used in the picture.''

Irises sold for $US53.9million in 1987, then a record for awork of art, to Australian businessman Alan Bond. It changed hands three years later and the painting is now in the Getty Centre in Los Angeles.

Facebook’s High-Stakes Poker Game

Is it juvenile to snicker at the obvious double entendre of Facebook’s new ephemeral messaging app, Poke,Our technology gives rtls systems developers the ability. given its utility for sexting? If so, send me back to repeat sophomore year, but the powers-that-be are unlikely to crack a grin.

Facebook has rightly been accused of creating a slavish copy of Snapchat, a viral sensation that surpassed one billion shared photos last month. The speed with which Facebook was able to emulate and release a competing app – 12 days in the making, according to Facebook’s Blake Ross – is cited as an example of the competitive threat Facebook and other giants pose to new social startups. Yet Poke may turn out to be a poster child for why most multi-billion-dollar public companies try not to break things, and as a consequence, are often precluded from moving fast like startups.

It would be foolish for most companies to build a clone and expect it to succeed at all, let alone approach Snapchat’s massive usage, but Facebook isn’t your ordinary competitor. With its billion active users, trove of personal data and immediate access to their social graphs,Western Canadian distributor of ceramic and ceramic tile, the network effects are unparalleled. Facebook also has unique competitive disadvantages on multiple fronts that could render Poke a crippling liability for the company; paradoxically, the more successful Poke becomes, the more it may hurt the company as a whole.

Facebook has grappled with the consequences of its market dominance for years. The recent ruckus over Terms of Use changes for Instagram under its ownership is only the latest example of Facebook’s uneasy relationship with the public on privacy issues. The company’s governing philosophy of stretching the boundaries of personal transparency while simultaneously insisting on the use of real-world identities – coupled with its tendency to ask for forgiveness rather than permission – has drawn the ire of regulators and advocacy groups.

More than any other company, Facebook surely appreciates the extent to which massive use of a social service draws massive abuse, as predators “go fishing where the fish are.” The sheer volume of tragic incidents involving teens at Myspace and Facebook forced the companies to come to the table and strike a “voluntary” deal in 2008 with attorney generals nationwide to address vexing, persistent child-safety issues. The thousands of smaller sites were largely ignored. Scale can make all the difference between benign obscurity and CEOs being hauled into Congressional committee hearings.

Setting aside the debate over what proportion of usage and growth is driven by sexting, the ability to send images that disappear after no more than 10 seconds using an app that alerts the sender if the recipient takes a screen shot, removes some psychological barriers. The percentage of total “snaps” involving nudity may be low, but the possibility that interactions could take that turn at any moment undoubtedly adds a charge to the hormone-flooded young brain. Speaking from experience at Myspace, a site that banned outright nudity from inception, our young user base had seemingly infinite desire to push the boundaries and circumvent those rules at every opportunity. They also knew that to freely exchange nude images they had to go elsewhere: From ImageShack or Photobucket to Kik or MMS. Today, Snapchat is that elsewhere; tomorrow it may be Poke.

There’s nothing inherently problematic or illegal about sexting between consenting adults, but minors are another story. Law enforcement is currently grappling with a head-on conflict between the realities of teen behavior and the legal status of sexting images: Possession and distribution of child pornography is a serious felony – one of the FBI’s highest enforcement priorities – punishable by lengthy prison sentences and registration as a sex offender. Authorities often use discretion not to prosecute peer sexting incidents among teens, rightly viewing those laws as disproportionately harsh for the context. Yet that doesn’t mitigate the fact that a service such as Snapchat (and now Poke) at any given time is guaranteed to be in possession of thousands or millions of images the FBI considers to be “contraband.”

If there is one existential threat to Snapchat,Whether you are installing a floor tiles or a shower wall, assuming its continued popularity and eventual revenue model, this is it. Even if we instantly became comfortable as a society with sexting among teens as relatively benign (fat chance), there will still be interactions between adults and minors. As it scales to tens of millions of users and ugly headlines begin to appear about creepy use by sexual predators, it’s a certainty that law enforcement will come knocking with search warrants in hand for records in cases of suspected underage porn and solicitation of minors.

Encryption keys be damned; under the right kind of court order or warrant, services will be compelled to retain and produce some images and data for specific users. (Privacy advocates may be outraged at the concept that “ephemeral messaging” isn’t completely ephemeral, but consider how you would react if a 35-year-old man were sending pictures of his genitalia, however ephemeral, to your 13-year-old daughter.) This is why Snapchat, like most social media services, includes “CYA” language in its privacy policy: “We may share your personal information with third parties… [to] comply with laws or to respond to lawful requests and legal process.”

These issues aren’t new, of course. Myspace at its peak received hundreds of law enforcement subpoenas and warrants each month. We also employed and ultimately outsourced an army of image reviewers. Age and identity verification have been thorny challenges throughout the age of social media. That didn’t stop state attorney generals from ganging up on MySpace and Facebook in 2007 to demand action on child online safety. The pressure to “do something” was intense, and companies resist such demands at their peril.

At scale, the gravest threats are political and reputational. When asked, “What are you going to do about this?” the acceptable CEO answer is not “nothing.” Snapchat and its investors may have thought a few moves ahead in this chess game, but if they have a brilliant solution to prevent the kind of abuses that come with scale,High quality stone mosaic tiles. I’d love to hear about it.

Returning to Poke, Facebook faces a unique competitive disadvantage from its long history dealing with child-safety issues, its ubiquity,The MaxSonar ultrasonic sensor offers very short to long-range detection and ranging. and unparalleled scale. Simply put, Facebook will be held to a higher standard than startups from day one. Unlike Snapchat and others, Facebook can’t plead ignorance or lack of resources to address abuse issues that accompany explosive growth. In fact, no other company in the world has access to the same range of resources and depth of knowledge in the area of online social interaction among teens and adults.

This is not a technical problem that can be solved by engineering or sheer resources. It’s a byproduct of a legal regime that makes the same interaction perfectly legal between two adults; not-really-legal-but-essentially-unstoppable between two minors; and a felony involving prison time and sex offender registration between an adult and a minor. Anything Facebook does to make the product cleaner or safer is likely to degrade the user experience, add friction to new user registration, and so on. These tradeoffs could well keep Poke a “PG-rated” product with the accountability of real-name, real-identity culture, while the more adventurous remain over at Snapchat – at least until it too gets called on the carpet.

HAPPY AND READY TO LAUGH

As the younger daughter of late actor Sir John Mills and writer Mary Hayley Bell she comes from British theatrical aristocracy. Laurence Olivier and Noel Coward were her godfathers.

At 18 Hayley was escorted by Beatle George Harrison to a 1964 film première.

At 19 her career had earned her so much money she bought her father a Lotus Elan sports car. By 20 she had shaken off her child star image by shooting her first nude scene in comedy The Family Way directed by 53-year-old Roy Boulting. He became her husband and father of her rock-star son Crispian Mills of Kula Shaker fame.

Hayley has had the kind of life that’s enough to turn anyone’s head yet she is the most down-to-earth celebrity you could meet.

“The cast of Wild At Heart are a family because we’re all in the same boat, turning up at the make-up truck on location in Johannesburg at five in the morning and looking ghastly,” she laughs.

Slim and fit at 66 with willowy legs and the girlish voice her long-term fans remember, Hayley has made a full recovery from the breast cancer she contracted in 2008. While undergoing treatment her older sister Juliet joined the cast of Wild At Heart as Hayley’s screen sister, keeping the storyline open for her return to the drama.

In the ITV1 series set in South Africa, Hayley plays Caroline Du Plessis, mother-in-law of Stephen Tompkinson’s vet hero Danny.

“The cancer was a shot across the bows. It makes you realise, especially as you get older, how important it is to follow a good diet and have a healthy approach to life, to be relaxed and happy and laugh as much as you can,” she says.

A former bulimia sufferer who followed Juliet to Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham,Our technology gives rtls systems developers the ability. she had conquered the disorder by the time she gave birth to Crispian in 1973.

Now, like her Wild At Heart character, she’s a youthfully glamorous granny and seizes every chance to spend time with Crispian’s sons, four-year-old Keshava and Haridas, one.

Hayley’s choice of partners has changed over the years. Older men were important role models for her with the avuncular Walt Disney often inviting her to lunch with his executives and Maurice Chevalier,Trade platform for China crystal mosaic manufacturers her co-star from 1962 movie In Search Of The Castaways, making her feel “like a woman because he was so gallant and charming”.

So her attraction to older suitor Boulting was perhaps hardly surprising. When she married him in 1971 the 33-year age gap was seen by some as a cradle-snatching scandal and the marriage lasted only seven years.

“I didn’t see the age gap as a problem because I was living in the moment and thought we would go on for ever but Roy always said he knew it was possible we would split,” says Hayley. She went on to have a second son, Jason (nicknamed Ace),The term 'hands free access control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. with actor Leigh Lawson, now Twiggy’s husband. Since then she has found happiness with Firdous Bamji, the actor and writer she met 12 years ago when they starred together in The King And I. He is 20 years younger than her while her sister Juliet is 18 years older than her actor husband Maxwell Caulfield.

Hayley’s career began at 13 alongside her father in 1959 thriller Tiger Bay. Disney then snapped her up and she never went to drama school. “For a long time I agonised over whether I was good enough. It was a case of learning on the job and I’ve never been complacent.”

As for the fortune she had made by 19, the Inland Revenue clawed most of it back when she was 21.

“The money had been put into a trust fund that turned out not to be valid so 90 per cent of what I’d earned as a child went,” explains Hayley. “As a result I’ve never had a sense of riches. I’ve always worked.”

Being a Disney star meant having a squeaky-clean image.

At 14 she was offered the role of nymphet Lolita in Stanley Kubrick’s 1962 film and admits: “I wanted to do it even though I didn’t really ‘get’ the book .”

However Walt Disney and her parents said no.The howo truck is offered by Shiyan Great Man Automotive Industry, Post-Disney she reinvented herself in the splashiest way when Boulting’s The Family Way featured a naked back view of her standing up in the bath.

She now admits: “I was awfully nervous and dreaded shooting the scene especially since there was barely any water in the bath. I was terribly skinny in those days so there was nothing to look at.”

Now her son Crispian has also branched out into film, making his debut this year directing Simon Pegg in the horror comedy A Fantastic Fear Of Everything.

“He will never give up his music but I’m thrilled he’s following his father into directing and I hope I get to work with both my sons one day,” says Hayley, whose younger son is a theatre director on Broadway and in the West End.

Although her Wild At Heart character married her boyfriend Dupe, Hayley feels no need to do the same in real life with Firdous with whom she shares homes in New York and London.

“We’re happy the way we are. Firdous is endlessly patient and fun with my grandsons who love him.This is my favourite sites to purchase those special pieces of buy mosaic materials from.”

She is sad to see Wild At Heart coming to an end after five years but is enjoying the chance to spend more time with her grandchildren.

“I don’t want to be away from them too much because they are the joy and light of my life,” she says. “I’ve made so many friends filming in South Africa that I want to take the boys there to experience the bush and the animals.”

US wanted to warn Argentina about South Georgia

The proposal, by US secretary of state Alexander Haig,Manufactures flexible plastic and synthetic rubber hose tubing, was intended to show the military junta in Buenos Aires that America was a neutral player and could be trusted to act impartially during negotiations to end the conflict.

However, the British ambassador in Washington was so appalled that he demanded a categorical assurance it would not happen and warned that any advance notice could lead to devastating submarine or air attacks.

The heated exchanges are detailed in previously secret files released by the National Archives, which show how strained the special relationship became during the British campaign in the Falkland Islands.

Ronald Reagan, the then US President, made repeated last-ditch attempts to persuade Margaret Thatcher to negotiate a truce so the Argentinians could save face and avoid "complete humiliation".

He feared that support for a European colonial power would undermine ties with Latin America and hamper Washington’s covert campaign against communism in the western hemisphere.

Thatcher refused,Thank you for visiting! I have been cry stalmosaic since 1998.High quality mold making Videos teaches anyone how to make molds. telling Mr Reagan in a late night phone call on May 31st, 1982 that she would "not contemplate" a ceasfire after the loss of "precious British lives".

She also rejected demands to hand the Falklands over to a joint US-Brazilian peacekeeping force, saying that she had not sent British forces across the globe just to "hand over the Queen's islands to a contact group".

Separately, Mrs Thatcher found herself subject to demands from the Pope John Paul II. In one telegram, he calls on God to help "secure an immediate ceasefire. Thatcher, however, stood her ground, replying that Argentine aggression "cannot be allowed to succeed".

The British government also warned the Holy Father that if he cancelled a visit during the Falklands it would be "interpreted by the British public and others as a pro-Argentine gesture"

While US defense secretary Caspar Weinberger proved a staunch ally of Britain from the outbreak of war on April 2 1982, authorising secret shipments of weapons vital to the task force, the US state department was anything but sympathetic to British interests.

Despite secretly supplying Britain with weapons and equipment, relations with the US were strained even before the task force landings. During a meeting with Sir Nicholas on April 21, just as SAS forces were landing in South Georgia, Haig said he was considering sharing intelligence with the Argentineans.

It feared support for a European colonial power would undermine ties with Latin America and hamper Washington’s covert campaign against communism in the western hemisphere.

During a meeting on April 21, as SAS troops were already landing on South Georgia to reconnoitre Argentinian positions, Haig explained his thinking to Sir Nicholas Henderson, Britain’s ambassador to the United States.

“Haig said that he had been giving further thought to our proposed operation, an event that he was sure would alter the whole scene,” wrote Henderson in a cable to London. “His immediate concern was the problem that it would cause for the US in their dealings with Argentina.

"The latter would regard it as an act of collusion between Washington and London. The Argentinians would know that they, the Americans, must have had prior knowledge of the intended invasion. Haig told me that in fact they had collateral intelligence now of the presence of the task force off South Georgia.

"The Argentinians would be deeply suspicious if the Americans had done nothing, having received information of British military intentions. He therefore thought that he would have to give the Argentinian junta advance notice of our intended operation.

"He would say that they knew about this from their own intelligence sources. He would only notify them at a sufficiently late time so that this would involve no military threat to us.

"If the Americans acted in this way they would be able to show even-handedness to the Argentinians and this would enable them to continue their role as go-between.”

In fact, any warning could have been disastrous. Neither the British nor the Americans were aware of the presence of the Argentinian submarine Santa Fe in the area, and the junta had also planned a long-range attack on an invading force using Canberra bombers.

South Georgia, a mountainous wasteland of rock and ice, was defended by 140 troops who would have benefitted from even a few hours’ notice of an attack. Henderson was flabbergasted.

“I expressed strong objection to what Haig had told me,” he wrote. “It would be taken extremely adversely in London as going much further than the requirements of negotiating neutrally required. To hand on to the Argentinians US intelligence about British movements and intentions at an extremely delicate moment was to help them and was not simply to be neutral.

“The Argentinians might well turn such prior intelligence to their own use against our invasion force. They would certainly give the marines and other Argentinians present in South Georgia advance warning.Best howo concrete mixer manufacturer in China. They might well give their submarines instructions to attack our ships. They could mount a suicide air attack upon our naval forces.”

In what must at times have been a heated exchange, Haig and his deputy, Lawrence Eagleburger, backed down, saying it “would not do” at if prior warning led to “military difficulties” for the British.

But they wanted to know how the US could preserve its status as a neutral negotiator.Interlocking security cable ties with 250 pound strength makes this ideal for restraining criminals.

“I said that I must insist beyond shadow of doubt that they would not give prior notice to the Argentinians,” wrote Henderson. “Haig gave me an absolute assurance on that point.”

Pym, who had replaced Lord Carrington as Foreign Secretary following the latter’s resignation over the seizure of the Falklands, was equally appalled.

“I am grateful to you for having averted what could have been a very dangerous development,” he wrote to Henderson. “I find it amazing that it should have crossed the Americans’ mind that they ought to tell the Argentinians about our impending move.”

In a sign that he did not trust the Americans, Pym told Henderson to be deliberately vague about the timing of the South Georgia operation, citing the uncertain weather.

On May 25, four days after the British landing at San Carlos, Haig was asserting US interests again.

“We are fast approaching the point at which the UK will have a decisive local military advantage, with success clearly within

your reach,” he told Pym. “At that point, the Argentines could feel compelled to turn to the Cubans and Soviets as their last hope to avert total humiliation. Should Galtieri resist these pressures, he could be swept aside and replaced by those far more hostile to fundamental western interests.

Even if the Argentines do not open themselves to the Soviets and Cubans, they are virtually certain to want to continue a state of war.”

That, he warned, would result in an open-ended conflict and international isolation for the UK and US. The solution was for British forces to withdraw once Port Stanley had fallen. “

The US would be prepared to provide a battalion-sized force for the purpose of ensuring that there would no violation of any interim agreement preceding a final settlement,” he continued.

“Because of what has happened to our standing with the Argentines as a result of our support for you, there is no chance a US-only force would be acceptable. We would therefore need to persuade the most trustworthy major hemispheric power – Brazil – to join us. A combined force would represent a credible deterrent and assure the security of the islanders for the period of an interim agreement.”

Mesa opts for HazSim to enhance hazmat training realism

After every annual drill, video-taped exercises are reviewed by training leadership, said Mesa Special Operations Capt. Paul Finley. He said they noticed in the recordings from last year that Level A personnel had detectors around their necks or in their pockets and paid little attention to it.Quickparts builds injection molds using aluminum or steel to meet your program.

“They never once looked at the meter,” Finley said. “The meters never gave real-time feedback,We mainly supply professional craftspeople with wholesale turquoise beads from china, which is not how it is in a real incident.”

To enhance training at this year’s drill, Mesa and Phoenix-area hazmat teams faced a one-ton Chlorine cylinder with a liquid leak. The personnel assigned to the recon and the decon teams were armed with HazSim training meters. The meter was used during simulated response by a recon team in the boundaries of the hot zone, Finley said. In decon, the meter was used to clear Level A entry team members before removing suits and also as a tool for facilitators to send an entry team member back to the shower for another wash cycle, he said.

Finley leased the system on a three-month basis for $1,000. And while there was a bit of a learning curve and what he said were “small glitches,” those who used HazSim commented that the device made their assignment in the drill more realistic. In addition, it helped chief leadership drive the actions and the drills from a remote location. He said watching the recon and decon team receive readings on the HazSim, process those readings, and adjust their actions based on the HazSim led to “very realistic training.”

The SmartStick FE02RF-BL was designed to be held horizontally in both hands, leaving both of the user's thumbs free to maneuver around the keyboard and touchpad. The top row of the SmartStick FE02RF-BL features volume and media playback controls, and off to the right side is its integrated touchpad. The left- and right-click buttons, meanwhile, are on the left side. Android hot keys (Home, AppMenu, Back, and Search) are beneath the touchpad, though some their functionality is lost on a PC; the Home button launches your web browser, the AppMenu button functions as a right-click, and the Search button opens your operating system's search tool. The keyboards' lower row features a Windows Start button and two function keys that, among other things, turns the Enter button into a Ctrl+Alt+Delete button.

The rounded edges of the SmartStick FE02RF-BL house a few additional features.The howo truck is offered by Shiyan Great Man Automotive Industry, In addition to the power button on the left side, the front edge sports a trio of buttons designed with presentations in mind, like Page Up and Page Down buttons that can cycle through PowerPoint slides and, most interestingly, a switch that controls the built-in laser pointer located the right side of the unit. Outside of PowerPoint,Find detailed product information for startup stone mosaic and other products. the Page Up and Page Down buttons can scroll through websites or documents. What you choose to do with the laser pointer, on the other hand, is entirely up to you, though we don't recommend shining it in yours or anyone else's eyes. Unlike the Lenovo Mini Wireless Keyboard N5901, the SmartStick FE02RF-BL's keyboard is backlit, so users won't have any difficulty typing in the dark.The howo truck is offered by Shiyan Great Man Automotive Industry,

The underside of the SmartStick FE02RF-BL has a sliding battery compartment that houses its 2.96Wh Li-ion battery, which can be recharged by connecting the unit to your computer via the included USB cable. This compartment also doubles as a storage area for the included USB wireless receiver.

During use, the SmartStick FE02RF-BL's dual-thumb operation felt right at home for anyone who has ever composed a text message on a cell phone. At any rate, the keys offer a comfortable typing feel and a good amount of resistance. However, since the SmartStick FE02RF-BL was designed to be held rather than placed on a flat surface, reaching the middle of the keyboard with one's thumbs is nearly impossible. In order to do so, I needed to slide one of my hands closer to the unit's center, which compromised my thumbs' ability to readily access the touchpad or left- and right- click buttons. For a device whose primary function is typing, this is a considerable design flaw. The touchpad, on the other hand, was responsive and accurate thanks to its slightly textured surface. For users who prefer something other than a touchpad, the Lenovo Mini N5901's trackball is a good alternative.

The Favi Entertainment SmartStick FE02RF-BL ($39.99 list) is a decent compact keyboard that gives users a way to control their home theatre PCs (HTPC) from the comfort of their couch. All said, however, its appeal is undermined by its lack of Bluetooth connectivity and, more significantly, its keyboard's hard-to-reach middle section. For these reasons, the Logitech diNovo Mini continues to retain its Editors' Choice for home entertainment keyboards. Still, the SmartStick FE02RF-BL remains a good choice with plenty of good going for it.

If you have flu-like symptoms, stay home, said Kelly Schermerhon, Catawba County Health Department public information officer. And practice disease prevention measures, such as frequent hand washing, or sneezing and coughing into the crook of your arm.

Area hospitals have put preventive care measures in place to protect against possible spread of the flu in areas where patients are most vulnerable.

“We caution anyone who is experiencing fever, runny nose, or other flu-like symptoms from visiting Frye,” said Dana Killian, Director of Marketing at Frye Regional Medical Center. “These are our usual flu season precautions which are supported by signage and endorsed by health care organizations throughout our region.

“In addition, we do not allow anyone, other than the parents of infants, to come into the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. This added precaution is in place due to the fragile nature of these patients.”

Scott Fujita's Cleveland connection provides

Mary Jo Elmo was driving her Subaru Outback home from work 10 months ago, listening to sports talk radio when her curiosity and Scott Fujita's advocacy intersected somewhere on the road to Lyndhurst.We recently added Stained glass mosaic Tile to our inventory.

Elmo, a lifelong Browns fan and University Hospitals nurse practitioner, heard the hosts discussing a Super Bowl pregame feature NBC had aired on former New Orleans Saints special teams ace Steve Gleason.The term 'hands free access control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. A year earlier, he had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a terminal disease that erodes the nerves controlling voluntary muscle movement and leads to paralysis. The hosts mentioned Gleason was a good friend of Fujita, the Browns linebacker who had done countless interviews promoting the fight against ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

Fujita had become one of Elmo's favorite players in part because she considers him so well spoken. And, also really cute. In terms of her football evaluation, Elmo admits to being "shallow" that way.

But that night, as she typed the keywords "Fujita" and "friend" and "ALS" into her computer, she was driven by empathy. For nine years, she had worked for Dr. Raymond Onders, who helped developed the Diaphragm Pacing System, which has allowed hundreds of spinal cord and ALS patients to breathe easier through electrical stimulation.

Onders had been performing the procedure at University Hospitals since 2000. His third patient was Superman, or at least the actor who portrayed him.

As her research expanded, Elmo discovered Gleason was a celebrity, too. She learned how his blocked punt in the Saints' first home game after Hurricane Katrina is considered one of the franchise's greatest plays. How he lives by the mantras, "No White Flags" and "Awesome Ain't Easy." How he created a video journal for his son, Rivers, knowing he probably would not live long enough to see the boy graduate from high school.

Elmo wondered that night if Gleason was aware of diaphragm pacing or that the doctor most accomplished in the field lived in Cleveland. Locating Fujita's website, she wrote him an email, outlining the benefits and attaching corresponding links.

As Elmo pressed send, she had no idea what the next 10 months held in store. She could not have foreseen Fujita's challenges or Gleason's triumphs and travails.Our technology gives rtls systems developers the ability.

Fujita always gets a smile on his face when he remembers meeting Gleason. He had just signed a free-agent deal with a franchise that, like so many of New Orleans' residents, had been displaced from its home in the fall of 2005 due to Katrina.

Some tried to dissuade him on New Orleans, citing the city's upheaval. But Fujita and his wife, Jaclyn, wanted to be part of the Gulf Coast's rebirth. One of the first persons to befriend them was the city's patron Saint.

Fujita was taking part in a conditioning program during the spring of 2006 when he met Gleason. Almost all his new teammates were in the weight room except for a free spirit who sat in the fieldhouse doing yoga.

"I said, 'Who is the guy with long hair?' and people said, 'That's Steve Gleason, he's on his own program,' " Fujita recalled. "I thought right then, 'I could get into this guy.' "

The Fujitas moved downtown and Gleason served as their tour guide to its vibrant culture. Everybody knew Gleason and Gleason knew everybody, his autographed picture hanging like a seal of approval in so many bars and restaurants. The player who Fujita calls the "adopted son of New Orleans" even married a local girl, Michel Varisco.Find detailed product information for Low price howo tipper truck and other products.

In Katrina's wake, Gleason's foundation launched "Backpacks for Hope," an initiative providing relief to young hurricane victims in the form of school supplies.

Gleason played seven NFL seasons, all with the Saints. He is best remembered for one play, a blocked punt in the team's first game back in the Superdome on Sept. 25, 2006, that resulted in a touchdown. The moment, captured on national television, became so synonymous with the city's comeback a bronze statue would be erected outside the stadium.

"I never want to overstate football's importance but there was such a connection between the team and the city that year," Fujita said. "It was an emotional wave that carried the team and the city through the rebuilding effort."

Gleason retired in 2008 and the next year began working as a consultant for a clean-energy company. Fujita shares Gleason's passion for environmental issues, as any Browns rookie caught throwing a Styrofoam container in the recycle bin can attest.

Fujita joined the Browns in 2010 after helping deliver a Super Bowl to New Orleans. He returned to the Bayou with his new team that season and played one of his best games as Brown. On that trip, however, Gleason confided that he had begun to experience odd twitching in the muscles of his upper arm and chest.

As doctors began ruling out possible causes, Fujita recalled losing an uncle to ALS, a disease that kills about two in every 100,000 people annually, according to the ALS Association. The average life expectancy is two to five years from time of diagnosis.

In the first week of January 2011, Fujita was at his California home when he received news from Gleason. The linebacker wept so uncontrollably his wife ran into living room assuming a close relative had died.

"We are football guys, we've always been in this football culture and at some point you want to hear someone say, 'Get back on that line and run another gasser, get back on the line and keep running.' " Fujita recalled. "Steve said to me, 'At some point, Bro, I might need you to keep me running,' And that's where we both kind of lost it on the phone.

As Fujita helped his friend connect with medical personnel at University Hospitals in February 2012, he took a moment to consider "how the stars had to align" to make it possible.

What were the odds that Mary Jo Elmo, who helps treat ALS patients with a new technology, would be listening to Cleveland sports talk radio at the exact moment the hosts were discussing his friendship with Gleason?

Fujita is a board member of Team Gleason, a foundation that advocates for technological advances benefiting Lou Gehrig patients. Until Elmo's email, Gleason and his supporters were unaware of the pacing system,Posts with indoor tracking system on TRX Systems develops systems that locate and track personnel indoors. which received Food and Drug Administration approval for the treatment of ALS last year.

Through a series of correspondences, Elmo and Onders explained to the Gleasons how the device works. Four electrodes, or stainless steel wires as thin as dental floss, are implanted in the diaphragm. They are controlled by a hand-held, battery-powered external pulse generator that stimulates the diaphragm and causes the muscles to contract. Clinical trials showed patients delayed the need for tracheotomy ventilation by 16 months.

The True Heir Of Indus Valley Civilization

The vision of Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in the 1940s did not only constitute creation of a Muslim political entity at the expense of India’s Hindu domination. It was also embedded in thousands of years of historical and geographical realities. These aspects clearly emerge from Jinnah’s interviews given to foreign correspondents where he described the geopolitical importance of Pakistan. The two nation reality also did not emerge only because of the differences between Hindu and Muslim peoples. It was an outcome of thousands of years of historical, geographical and genetic distinction between the peoples of Indus Valley Civilization and those occupying the Gangetic plains.

The existence of Indus Valley Civilization emerged though the ruins at Harappa in Punjab, Pakistan which were first described by Charles Masson in 1842, in his “Narrative of Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan, and the Punjab.” Though the site was visited by General Alexander Cunningham in 1856, who later headed the archeological survey of northern India,We have a wide selection of dry cabinet to choose from for your storage needs. it was in 1921-22 that the excavations began which unearthed the great civilization buried under the sand for thousands of years.

The irony of it all was that it was General Alexander Cunningham who allowed East Indian Railways which was constructing railway line between the cities of Lahore and Karachi, to use the ancient bricks recovered from these sites as track ballast for the 150 kilometers of nearby stretch and thus destroyed much of the city of Harappa. Mohenjodaro in Sindh, Pakistan was excavated by 1931. Mehrgarh in Balochistan, Pakistan was discovered in 1974 and the excavations continued from 1974-86 and again from 1997-2000. Rehman Dheri in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was excavated from 1976-1980. Based on recent evidence and analyses, archeologists and historians have proclaimed that Indus Valley Civilization is over 9000 years old, making it one of the oldest civilizations of the world.

The South Asian subcontinent is principally divided into two major geographical regions; the Indus Valley and its westerly inclined tributaries, and the Ganges Valley with its easterly inclined tributaries. In his book, “The Indus Saga and the Making of Pakistan,” Aitzaz Ahsan identifies the geographical divide between these two regions as the Gurdaspur-Kathiawar salient,We have a wide selection of dry cabinet to choose from for your storage needs. a watershed which is southwesterly inclined down to the Arabian Sea. This watershed also depicted the dividing line between the peoples of Indus Valley Civilization and those of Gangetic plains and also corresponds almost exactly with the current day Pakistan-India border.

Historically, only the Mauryas, Muslims and the British amalgamated these two regions as a unified state.The howo truck is offered by Shiyan Great Man Automotive Industry, For most of the remaining history, when one empire did not rule both the regions as a unified state, the Indus Valley Civilizational domain was always governed as one separate political entity.

Rather than an unnatural creation as propounded by many, Pakistan much more than the Gangetic plains,This is my favourite sites to purchase those special pieces of buy mosaic materials from. is an appropriate and modern embodiment of thousands of years old Indus Valley Civilization. The historical, geographical and its people’s organic linkages with Arab, Persian, Turkic and South Central Asian populace also clearly differentiates it as a distinct and definite independent identity as compared to the rest of India.

The discovery of Indus Valley Civilization in the run up to 1947 independence of Pakistan and India provided Indian nationalist Hindus an opportunity, to embed their Vedic Hindu cultural identity in a civilization, which was one of the oldest civilizations on earth and also predated emergence of Islam. However, the later identification of emergence of Vedic Hindu cultural traditions between 1500 – 600 BC, discounted such linkages. Also, the fact that Indus Valley Civilization’s cultural moorings were discovered mainly in the Indus River Valley, and partly in Ghaggar-Hakra basin and in the Doab, these cultural moorings did not find an extension into the central and lower Ganges Valley in the eastern and central Indian plains. The presence of fortified cities, town planning and drainage system, depiction of specialized epic art form and the architecture of burnt bricks, sea trade, use of seals, weights, measures and script and the custom of burying the dead in cemeteries, presented clear differentiation because of the absence of such depiction in Vedic Hindu literature and culture.

Many adherents of Indian Hindu nationalist ideology believed that India was and is a primarily Hindu nation and has Hindu religious culture in continuity from Vedic Aryans. The mosaic of cultures of the past evolving into composite Indian Hindu culture through the process of history was not based on archeological evidence but what they essentially believed in. In many cases distorting and manipulating or even forging the mute archaeological evidence through depiction of fire places as fire altars, waste pits as sacrificial pits in Harappan era sites and the imaginary reading of Sanskrit legends, was quoted in order to suit their pseudo-ideological and opportunistic interests.

Between 1900-1300 BC the civilization declined and there were no more references to Meluhha (Mesopotamian name for Indus Valley Civilization landmass) in Mesopotamian finds. However, the people who made up this great civilization continued living in places like Mehrgarh, Harappa, Mohenjodaro and other settlements long after that.

The legacy of Indus Valley Civilization lives on in present day Pakistan. Amongst some of the aspects that can still be traced to this legacy are the trade and commerce routes developed by the mentors of this great civilization. Ships from Meluhha regularly sailed from locations near modern day city of Karachi for the ports of Babylon. And they evidently made stops all along the way, as indicated through discovery of seals found in Oman, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain as well.

The city of Peshawar lies on what is thought to have been one of their main overland trade routes. That route is now a major highway that constitutes the eastern approach to the Khyber Pass and links the northwestern Indus River Plain to the highlands of Afghanistan and Central Asia. An old branch of the route runs from Peshawar, south into rugged tribal territory, through the Pakistani cities of Kohat and Bannu and the foothills of the Suleiman Mountains down across the Gomal Plain to the early historical site of Rehman Dheri.

After the decline of this civilization, the religion and language of which has still not been deciphered, at different times these people followed Vedic Hindu culture and traditions, also adopted Buddhism and in the end embraced Islam and are now overwhelmingly Muslim.

The core spread of Indus Valley Civilization primarily lay in Pakistan. The three major cities and many other sites which represent the core of Indus Valley Civilization are all located in Pakistan. However, the Indians still refer to India as the “Home of Indus Valley Civilization,” which is surprising and indeed a misnomer. India needs to realign its history and should seek its identity in its own legacy instead of claiming something to which they do not belong to.

At first it was in Egypt and then in Libya, Al Qaeda today has found yet another haven in the Arab world. Syria now offers the global terror network a perfect sanctuary to re-establish itself and re-launch its jihad. Therefore, it was no surprise that the United States faced perceptible opposition and criticism at a recent meeting of the Friends of Syria in Marrakech when it classified Al Nusra, one of the armed resistance groups operating in the country, as a "foreign terrorist organisation".

"The chairman of the Syrian National Coalition called for the US to reconsider its decision; the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamad Tayfur condemned it as wrong and hastily made. Many other statements of support for Al Nusra followed. The British and French remained silent, as did the EU, this year's Nobel peace prize winner. This was met with horror by many Syrians, the vast majority of whom reject Al Nusra.High quality mold making Videos teaches anyone how to make molds."

It is no secret today that Al Nusra, a ruthless foreign sectarian jihadi organisation, is a despised outfit today in Syria though it remains the most effective fighting force against the Syrian army. Haytham Manna says, its fighters, contrary to those of Al Tawhid brigade, are mainly foreigners and its emir (leader) is appointed from outside Syria.

It is not only the US who believes Al Nusra to be an Al Qaida front, both Syria's armed opposition and the opposition in exile expressed concern about this mysterious new organisation. The Syrian National Council had earlier claimed Al Nusra was formed by Syrian intelligence to tarnish the image of the Free Army. Syrian human rights defenders speak out, too, warning of Al Qaida links. The organisation, many fear, is fast becoming the most attractive group for foreign jihadists in a sectarian war against Alawites, Shias and secular Syrians.

Merger Made Comcast Strong

On a gray day in February 2010, Brian Roberts sat facing the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee. The panel was holding its first hearing on a proposed merger between two of the country’s most powerful media companies, the cable distribution giant Comcast Corp. and the entertainment conglomerate NBC Universal.

Roberts, the chief executive officer of Comcast, was a calm and friendly witness. If the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and the Federal Communications Commission approved the merger, Comcast’s future as the largest distributor of information in the country would be assured.

Comcast had been gaining strength as a monopoly provider of wired high-speed Internet access in its territories,Interlocking security cable ties with 250 pound strength makes this ideal for restraining criminals.Find detailed product information for Low price howo tipper truck and other products. while the U.S. was lagging behind other countries when it came to the prices charged for and the speed and capability of this basic communications tool. At the same time, the Internet was becoming the common global medium. With high-speed Internet access, a farmer in Missouri can access weather conditions and crop prices; American Indians on a remote reservation can have their eyes checked by a distant doctor; entrepreneurs and small businesses in California, New York and all the states between can find inexpensive entry points into global markets.

A decade earlier, the U.S. had led the world in Internet access, but by the time of the hearing, in most of Comcast’s markets, the company was the only provider selling services at speeds sufficient to satisfy Americans’ requirements.

The access Comcast sold was less useful than it could have been, however, because the network was designed to be contested among users in the same neighborhood, making speeds unreliable. It also favored passive downloads far more than active uploads. Meanwhile, in most parts of the U.S., the Internet access that all Americans would need within five years -- fiber-optic lines capable of speeds from 100 megabits to gigabits per second -- could not be purchased at all.

With the merger, Comcast would become even more powerful. Any new high-speed Internet provider in Comcast territory would have to enter the market for content at the same time it incurred the heavy upfront costs needed to wire a network. Indeed, by the time the Comcast-NBC Universal merger was announced at the end of 2009, Verizon Communications Inc., the only nationwide company installing fiber-optic lines, had already signaled that it was planning to stop doing so. It was just too hard to compete with Comcast.

In seeking to have business ties to much of the content it provided, too,Interlocking security cable ties with 250 pound strength makes this ideal for restraining criminals. Comcast was setting itself up to be the unchallenged provider of everything -- all data, all information, all entertainment -- flowing over the wires in its markets. The company would have every incentive to squeeze online services that were unwilling to pay the freight to Comcast.

A few months before the hearing, Roberts had told investors in a conference call that the merger would make Comcast ‘‘strategically complete.” After more than 40 years of steady acquisitions, including some of the largest deals in the industry, Comcast would be done.

Americans might be surprised at how concentrated the market is for the modern-day equivalent of the standard phone line. Two enormous monopoly submarkets -- one for wireless and one for wired transmission -- are each dominated by two or three large companies.

On the wired side, Comcast is the communications equivalent of Standard Oil. Even before its merger with NBC Universal, it was the country’s largest cable operator, its largest residential high-speed Internet access company, its third- largest phone company, the owner of many cable content properties -- including 11 regional sports networks -- and the manager of a robust video-on-demand platform. Comcast’s high- speed Internet access had almost 16 million subscribers. (The second-largest cable provider, Time Warner Inc., had about 9 million.) Comcast dominated the markets in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and 11 more of the 25 largest U.S.We mainly supply professional craftspeople with wholesale turquoise beads from china, cities.

NBC Universal, for its part, owned some of the most popular cable networks in the country and one of the largest broadcast networks, with 25 television stations, seven production studios and several crucial Internet properties, including iVillage and a one-third interest in Hulu.com. The merged company would control 1 in 5 hours of all television viewing in the U.S.

The other cable companies were represented at the hearing by a token competitor, Colleen Abdoulah,High quality stone mosaic tiles. president and CEO of WideOpenWest Networks. A midsize cable system struggling to compete for subscribers in Comcast’s territory in the Midwest, WOW was trying to provide better customer service, but it was forced to pay high prices for take-it-or-leave-it bundles of programming owned by NBC Universal and other media conglomerates. The big cable-distribution companies such as Comcast can get those bundles for far less than the smaller companies can. Abdoulah would testify that if Comcast controlled NBC Universal, WOW’s negotiations for programming would become even more one-sided.

Behind the witness table was David Cohen, the lawyer who had shaped Comcast’s public narrative of the merger: A true-blue American family company was trying to save the NBC broadcast network and bring order and technical innovation to the cable-TV industry.

To those who argued that the merger would stick U.S. consumers with high-priced, homogenized entertainment and second-class Internet access, Comcast had only to respond that the situation for consumers would not be any worse than it already was. If opponents could not decisively prove “merger- specific harms,” the phrase Comcast employees repeated endlessly to staff members across Washington, the deal could not be blocked.

Americans might be surprised at how concentrated the market is for the modern-day equivalent of the standard phone line. Two enormous monopoly submarkets -- one for wireless and one for wired transmission -- are each dominated by two or three large companies.

On the wired side, Comcast is the communications equivalent of Standard Oil. Even before its merger with NBC Universal, it was the country’s largest cable operator, its largest residential high-speed Internet access company, its third- largest phone company, the owner of many cable content properties -- including 11 regional sports networks -- and the manager of a robust video-on-demand platform. Comcast’s high- speed Internet access had almost 16 million subscribers. (The second-largest cable provider, Time Warner Inc., had about 9 million.) Comcast dominated the markets in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and 11 more of the 25 largest U.S. cities.

NBC Universal, for its part, owned some of the most popular cable networks in the country and one of the largest broadcast networks, with 25 television stations, seven production studios and several crucial Internet properties, including iVillage and a one-third interest in Hulu.com. The merged company would control 1 in 5 hours of all television viewing in the U.S.

The other cable companies were represented at the hearing by a token competitor, Colleen Abdoulah, president and CEO of WideOpenWest Networks. A midsize cable system struggling to compete for subscribers in Comcast’s territory in the Midwest, WOW was trying to provide better customer service, but it was forced to pay high prices for take-it-or-leave-it bundles of programming owned by NBC Universal and other media conglomerates. The big cable-distribution companies such as Comcast can get those bundles for far less than the smaller companies can. Abdoulah would testify that if Comcast controlled NBC Universal, WOW’s negotiations for programming would become even more one-sided.

Behind the witness table was David Cohen, the lawyer who had shaped Comcast’s public narrative of the merger: A true-blue American family company was trying to save the NBC broadcast network and bring order and technical innovation to the cable-TV industry.

To those who argued that the merger would stick U.S. consumers with high-priced, homogenized entertainment and second-class Internet access, Comcast had only to respond that the situation for consumers would not be any worse than it already was. If opponents could not decisively prove “merger- specific harms,” the phrase Comcast employees repeated endlessly to staff members across Washington, the deal could not be blocked.

Soothing sights and delights from Doxford Hall Hotel

The sand is edged by curious beach hut type structures. I saw no sign of life but like to think of eccentric, slightly dishevelled, figures whiling and whittling away their days in complete peace.

There’s a beautiful walk past the craggy ruins of Dunstanburgh castle to Craster or over the headland to Beadnall beach. The light over the sand has a weird translucence which gives all a dream-like quality.

Opposite the beach, The Ship Inn sits in a tiny square. If you like a traditional pub with wooden floors and an open fire then you’ve found perfection. Their food is gorgeous, loads of locally caught fish – and they brew their own beer.

My second favourite thing – after remote bleak beaches – is slightly faded but spirited English seaside towns. So I was delighted with my visit to Seahouses. Theran with a fascinating board detailing all the recent rescues.

For a complete contrast there’s nearby Bamburgh, which has been a tourist location since Victorian times because of their most famous local, Grace Darling.

Grace was just 22 when she rowed more than a mile in raging seas to rescue stricken sailors after the SS Forfarshire sank on September 7, 1838. Her story captured the imagination of Britain at the time. Grace was one of the original celebs – newspaper sketch artists hung around the village trying to catch a glimpse of her – kind of like today’s paparazzi but armed only with a pencil.

The small but perfectly formed Grace Darling museum tells the story of her rescue through her personal belongings and letters. The biggest thrill is seeing the actual boat in which she carried out the rescue. Opposite is the church where she is buried.

As well as a castle Bamburgh also has all the requisite tourist pullers – delis, ice cream parlours, gift shops.

But it was the beach that again captivated me... rolling wide dunes, mile after mile of open sand.

Not far from Bamburgh there’s Alnwick, famous for its castle, which was Hogwarts in the first two Harry Potter films.

Depending on your generation you may prefer Alnwick gardens. There’s a woodland walk, rose gardens, water displays, a cherry orchard. (And there’s a restaurant called Treehouse which is literally in the tree tops. What human being could fail to be excited by a treehouse?)

The Poison Gardens are fascinating – and hold so many perilous plants that they have to be licensed by the Home Office.We recently added Stained glass mosaic Tile to our inventory. Locked, gated and displaying skull and cross bones, visitors are only allowed in on a supervised tour.

The guides tell tales of myth, legend and murder. I’ll never look at a daffodil in the same way... did you know the Romans used the bulbs as a ‘cyanide pill’ in case they were captured?

Northumberland lived up to its billing. But all that sea air and outdoor living needed to be matched by a place to lay my head which meets my exacting standards. Luckily there’s
Doxford Hall Hotel and Spa. It describes itself as a country house hotel but has none of the stuffiness that this can mean.Load the precious minerals into your mining truck and be careful not to drive too fast with your heavy foot. This is one of those places that stays with you after you leave.

It was built in the 1800s and was a residential home before being beautifully refurbished. There are 31 rooms which have been furnished with real consideration and taste. They’re really fresh and luxurious with gorgeous bathrooms.

This is simply one of those hotels that has achieved its clear aim of leaving guests pure and relaxed in mind and spirit.

There’s a lovely pool and spa. This is not a tiny hotel pool but a place where you can have a substantial swim.

The attention to detail continues in Doxford’s cosy, wood-panelled George Runciman restaurant which also has a roaring open fire. The menu is traditional with a delicious non-traditional spin. Many of the ingredients are proudly declared as locally sourced, with meat from Longframlington, potatoes from a Northumberland farm, seafood from North Shields.

Regular followers of RealClimate will be aware of our publication in 2009 in Nature, showing that West Antarctica — the part of the Antarctic ice sheet that is currently contributing the most to sea level rise, and which has the potential to become unstable and contribute a lot more to sea level rise in the future — has been warming up for the last 50 years or so.

Our paper was met with a lot of skepticism, and not just from the usual suspects. A lot of our fellow scientists, it seems, had trouble getting over their long-held view (based only on absence of evidence) that the only place in Antarctica that was warming up was the Antarctica Peninsula. To be fair, our analysis was based on interpolation, using statistics to fill in data where it was absent, so we really hadn’t proven anything; we’d only done an analysis that pointed in a particular direction.

It has been a strange couple of years in limbo: we have known with certainty for at least two years that our results were basically correct, because there was a great deal of very solid corroborating evidence, including the borehole temperature data that confirmed our basic findings, and data from automatic weather stations near the center of West Antarctica that we hadn’t used, but which Andy Monaghan at Ohio State (now NCAR) had shown also corroborated our results. But most of this work was unpublished until very recently,Whether you are installing a floor tiles or a shower wall, so it wasn’t really usable information.Interlocking security cable ties with 250 pound strength makes this ideal for restraining criminals.

So it was a nice early Christmas present to see the publication of a new assessment by the well-known guru of Antarctic meteorology, David Bromwich, along with his students and colleagues at Ohio State, the University of Wisconsin (who run the U.S. automatic weather station program in Antarctica) and NCAR, which back up our results. Actually, they do more than back-up our results: they show that our estimates were too conservative and that West Antarctica is actually warming by about a factor of two more than we estimated. They also agree with the key interpretation of the results that both we and David Schneider and colleagues at NCAR have presented: that in the winter and spring seasons,Trade platform for China crystal mosaic manufacturers when the most rapid warming is occurring in West Antarctica, the driver has been changes in the tropical Pacific, not the ozone hole (which is invoked too frequently, in my view, to explain everything from penguin populations to sea ice changes).

The borehole temperature data were published earlier this year by Orsi et al. in Geophysical Research Letters. The new temperature reconstruction of Monaghan was included as part of a paper (Küttel et al.) on ice core records in Climate Dynamics, also earlier this year; it was also included in the reconstruction in Schneider et al. 2011 in Climate Dynamics. Both showed unambiguously that West Antarctic is warming up, as fast as the Antarctic Peninsula. Bromwich et al. gets this same result again.

Clergy puts faith in mayor to quicken cleanup

Religious background did not figure in to Superstorm Sandy’s trail of destruction and now victims of all creeds are pushing to accelerate the cleanup.

An interfaith network of more than 50 houses of worship across Queens brought together by Queens Congregations United for Action are calling on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to improve efforts to pick up the pieces.

“Six weeks after Sandy we have an assessment of the system that says it isn’t working, and hundreds of people from 50 congregations are saying unanimously that the city has failed in the Rockaways,” said Joseph McKellar, the QCUA executive director. “Faith leaders are calling on Mayor Bloomberg to commit to a series of action steps to make his Rapid Response program live up to its name. It’s shocking that a full six weeks after Sandy so little progress has been made.”

The organization released a study and action plan outlining 10 urgent reforms to improve recovery efforts, as well as an assessment of recovery efforts, surveys of residents and previously untold stories of people still struggling to regain a sense of normalcy.

In its action plan, the group urges the city Rapid Repairs program to get the electricity and heat back on, create a city fund to help immigrants who cannot qualify for relief programs and create a community-driven process to shape priorities and plans for the city’s $42 billion request for relief from Congress so that areas like the Rockaways are not left behind.

At a community meeting Dec. 10 at St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church in Far Rockaway, rabbis, pastors, priests and bishops shared stories of congregation members who are still suffering in the cold and dark weeks after the storm passed through.

Among the stories shared were that of Valerie Close, a resident of Rockaway Beach who lost her basement, two vehicles and her daycare business and still has no electricity or heat in her home, and Roha Singh, a homeowner who currently has water coming in through his roof due to damaged and missing shingles, who has been denied insurance coverage but has not received the denial letter yet, making him ineligible to receive FEMA money. He already repaired the heat, hot water and electricity with his own money, which cost about $3,000.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s federal coordinating officer, Michael Byrne, said areas that suffered the worst storm assault would take far longer than weeks to make a full recovery.

“Individuals, groups and government agencies all came together to respond and begin recovery,” said Byrne. “This disaster was so immense that it required a massive effort by thousands of people. Those people are still at work, and will be for a long time.”

But state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-Hollis) said the city must act fast to make necessary repairs and prevent a health crisis in the Rockaways.

“We know there is a growing mold epidemic in the Rockaway Peninsula,” said Smith. “I am carrying your message and getting on the phone with Mayor Bloomberg’s office to demand that he move quickly to reform Rapid Repair because lives and health are at stake.”

A state-appointed monitor has overturned the Pleasantville Board of Education’s decisions to retain several supervisor positions and reject a financial audit of the district.

At a regular meeting Dec. 11, the board voted on two budget items, one of which proposed eliminating five supervisors, or department heads, in the district, and another that was an audit predicting a deficit at the end of the school year. As a warning to the school district, an auditor reporting his findings to the Board of Education last week said they may be facing a deficit by the end of the budget year.

“I just wanted to make sure they didn’t get blind-sided,” said Robert Swartz, with Ford-Scott and Associates, this week.

But the board rejected the report at the Dec. 11 meeting, and the recommendations that came with it,Find detailed product information for howo spare parts and other products. along with the elimination of supervisors. The state monitor, James Riehman, overturned the decisions after the meeting, as he has done in the past with issues that are related to fiscal management of the district.

About half a million dollars will be saved by removing the five supervisor salaries from the district’s budget.

The unexpected expense of mold remediation just before school began this fall, which was partially a pre-existing condition, paired with a broader climate-induced incident that also affected other school districts in the county, cost the district an unbudgeted $1.The term 'hands free access control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag.2 million, board member Joanne Famularo said.

Swartz said his concern came from seeing the unexpected expenses combined with the lack of revenue.This is my favourite sites to purchase those special pieces of buy mosaic materials from. If the trend continues, the operational budget may need more cuts, which is hard to do in a school system, he said.We recently added Stained glass mosaic Tile to our inventory.

The board also is involved in various lawsuits that could increase the likelihood of a deficit, Swartz said, but the numbers were not in yet so it was hard to say.

“It is a big business where the product is education, and the major cost is salaries,” Swartz said. He said the salaries drive the budget,The term 'hands free access control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag. making up about 70 percent.

A Christmas Carol

Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk,A wide range of polished tiles for your tile flooring and walls. the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge’s name was good upon ‘Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don’t know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.

The mention of Marley’s funeral brings me back to the point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet’s Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot — say Saint Paul’s Churchyard for instance — literally to astonish his son’s weak mind.

Scrooge never painted out Old Marley’s name. There it stood, years afterwards, above the ware-house door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names. It was all the same to him.

Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.

External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul weather didn’t know where to have him. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect. They often came down handsomely, and Scrooge never did.

Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, “My dear Scrooge, how are you. When will you come to see me.” No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blindmen’s dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, “No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master! ”

But what did Scrooge care! It was the very thing he liked. To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing ones call nuts to Scrooge.

Once upon a time — of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve — old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal: and he could hear the people in the court outside, go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them. The city clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already: it had not been light all day: and candles were flaring in the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears upon the palpable brown air. The fog came pouring in at every chink and keyhole,Posts with indoor tracking system on TRX Systems develops systems that locate and track personnel indoors. and was so dense without, that although the court was of the narrowest, the houses opposite were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping down,Best howo concrete mixer manufacturer in China. obscuring everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by,This is my favourite sites to purchase those special pieces of buy mosaic materials from. and was brewing on a large scale.

The door of Scrooge’s counting-house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk’s fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn’t replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being a man of a strong imagination, he failed.

“A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!” cried a cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge’s nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation he had of his approach.

Meanwhile the fog and darkness thickened so, that people ran about with flaring links, proffering their services to go before horses in carriages, and conduct them on their way. The ancient tower of a church, whose gruff old bell was always peeping slily down at Scrooge out of a gothic window in the wall, became invisible, and struck the hours and quarters in the clouds, with tremulous vibrations afterwards as if its teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there. The cold became intense. In the main street, at the corner of the court, some labourers were repairing the gas-pipes, and had lighted a great fire in a brazier, round which a party of ragged men and boys were gathered: warming their hands and winking their eyes before the blaze in rapture. The water-plug being left in solitude, its overflowings sullenly congealed, and turned to misanthropic ice. The brightness of the shops where holly sprigs and berries crackled in the lamp-heat of the windows, made pale faces ruddy as they passed. Poulterers’ and grocers’ trades became a splendid joke: a glorious pageant, with which it was next to impossible to believe that such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything to do. The Lord Mayor, in the stronghold of the might Mansion House, gave orders to his fifty cooks and butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor’s household should; and even the little tailor, whom he had fined five shillings on the previous Monday for being drunk and bloodthirsty in the streets, stirred up tomorrow’s pudding in his garret, while his lean wife and the baby sallied out to buy the beef.

Foggier yet, and colder! Piercing, searching, biting cold. If the good Saint Dunstan had but nipped the Evil Spirit’s nose with a touch of such weather as that, instead of using his familiar weapons, then indeed he would have roared to lusty purpose. The owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs, stooped down at Scrooge’s keyhole to regale him with a Christmas carol: but at the first sound of God bless you, merry gentleman! May nothing you dismay! Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost.

At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house arrived. With an ill-will Scrooge dismounted from his stool,Quickparts builds injection molds using aluminum or steel to meet your program. and tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant clerk in the Tank, who instantly snuffed his candle out, and put on his hat.

As Mexico claws toward prosperity

Thirty years ago, Lourdes Huesca and her husband moved to a tiny patch of land in the muddy bean fields at the edge of Mexico City. The young couple lived in a shack, with no water or electricity, in the poor, rural, old Mexico.

Huesca, who never learned to read but could add numbers in her head, marched her sons to the schoolhouse every day. The family struggled, sacrificed, saved.

A generation later, the family owns a shoe stall in the market and a nice cement-block home with three bedrooms, landscape oil paintings on the wall, and a new flat-screen TV, a gift from the eldest son, an environmental systems engineer.

But she knows how easy it would be for her family to fall back down again in a country where social mobility too often moves in the wrong direction.

By a wide range of social and economic indicators, Mexico has reached a turning point, development experts say. The country is no longer poor, though it is a long way from being rich. Huesca and a narrow majority of Mexico’s 114 million citizens have clawed their way into an emerging middle class.

The changes are transforming Mexico’s relationship with the United States. The once-wary neighbors are now top trading partners, with more than $1 billion in goods crossing the border each day. Together, Mexican and U.S. workers manufacture automobiles, airplanes, computers and space satellites.The term 'hands free access control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag.

A more solidly middle-class and open Mexico is also providing a close-to-home market for U.S. goods and services, while contributing to a reduction in the number of underemployed Mexicans heading north to work illegally in the United States.

But in fundamental ways, Mexico is still far from completing its transformation from a mostly poor country of low wages and low expectations into a richer, better-educated and more competitive nation, a modern success story.

Huesca, 53, is healthy, but her husband has diabetes,The oreck XL professional air purifier, and because the couple worked in the informal economy all their lives, they have no health insurance, no social security. When they go to the doctor, they pay cash. They have no pensions, no savings and no assets, except the family home on a dirt street.

Two of their sons have graduated from college. A third is finishing up at a public university. But if anyone in the family loses a job, or gets seriously ill, Huesca could quickly join the 3 million Mexicans who slid from the middle class back into poverty during the last recession.

About 17 percent of Mexicans joined the ranks of the middle class from 2000 to 2010, according to a recent World Bank report, and though the traditionally wide gap between country’s rich and poor persists, measures of inequality among citizens fell more in Mexico than in any other Latin American country, except Peru.

But Mexico — with the 13th-largest economy in the world, built on booming free trade with the United States — still functions far below its competitors,Installers and distributors of solar panel, according to analysis by its own leaders in the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a club of 34 developed countries.

In Mexico, middle-class workers earn an income closer to the wages at the bottom than the top. Disparity is great. The bottom 10 percent receives just 1.3 percent of total income, while the top 10 percent receives 36 percent.

The nation’s relatively anemic growth and lingering inequalities — compared with regional rivals such as Brazil and Chile, or economic rivals such as South Korea and Turkey — condemn millions to a tenacious poverty that hangs like an anchor around Mexico’s neck.

The country’s new president, Enrique Pe?a Nieto vows to raise 15 million people from poverty in the next six years by tripling economic growth, providing loans to small and medium businesses, and tearing down the walls that have insulated monopolies and the elite from competition.

It is an ambitious agenda, one that his predecessor, Felipe Calderon, never achieved in a term during which poverty rose as the 2009 global economic crisis took its toll, despite soaring public spending on social welfare programs.

Mexico’s struggle to secure a better future is plain to see in edge cities such as Chalco, no longer a slum but not quite the suburbs,We recently added Stained glass mosaic Tile to our inventory. where ordinary families tell of how hard it is to make it in Mexico.

The Chalco Valley, once the shoreline of a shallow lake fished by Aztec vassals, was a sleepy dairy pasture for most of the 20th century. After the devastating Mexico City earthquake of 1985, refugees from the capital turned a backwater into a gritty, mercantile metropolis.This document provides a guide to using the ventilation system in your house to provide adequate fresh air to residents.

Now the Chalco Valley is home to 850,000 residents and is filled with new schools, clinics and playgrounds built by the government, with Wal-Marts and AutoZones rising from cement-block barrios that 25 years ago lacked running water.

“In 1976, there were two primary schools in Chalco,” said Mayor Esteban Hernandez. “Today, we have 380 schools, including six universities.”

The mayor said education, more than anything else, has changed the fortunes of Mexico. “If the kids can go to school,” Hernandez said, “then the mother can work, and the family income rises, and the child gets an education.”

Mexico can afford to educate more children because its population is no longer exploding. The nation’s fertility rate in the 1960s was seven children per mother; today, it is two per mother.