No shooting until EVERY member of your cast and crew has signed a contract.
Last week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a startling ruling in a case involving an independent film. In the Innocence of Muslims case, the Court ruled that an actress who played a small role in the film, may assert copyright ownership over her performance, and is thus able to require Google/YouTube to take the film down.
That's right. The actress owns a copyright interest in the film.
You see, she was working without a contract. When an independent contractor creates a work of original authorship, that contractor, rather than the 'employer' will own the copyright in what's created. Unless there's a written agreement specifying that the results and proceeds of the work are “works made for hire”.
So, when the actress learned that the film had changed dramatically from what she thought she it was going to be, she was unhappy. And, because she owns what she created… she was able to get it taken down from YouTube. And, presumably, she can obstruct distribution of the film in other ways.
Now, this is a case where “bad facts that make bad law”. She didn't have a contract, and the filmmaker decieved her… bad facts. But, now, we have a binding appellate ruling clearly holding that an actor can own her performance, even when others are responsible for the “fixation” of the material, etc.
So, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS get a written contract, signed by each member of your cast and crew.
And please don't use deception to induce people to sign these contracts. That won't fly either.
Just do things by the book.


Re: Clock skew too great / System vs Hardware clock problem?
what does the from/till timestamp in the AS_REQ say ?
"Michael B Allen" <email@example.com> wrote in message
> I'm trying to diagnose a "Clock skew too great" error between a CentOS
> 5.1 client and Windows 2003 R2 ADS.
> If we date 'date' on the Linux the time is within a few seconds of the
> clock on the Windows server. The Linux machine's /etc/localtime is set
> to PST8PDT. The AD server is set to Pacific time.
> So now what?
> Could it be that the hardware clock and system clock are not in sync?[color=green]
>>From experience it doesn't matter if the hardware clock is UTC or not.[/color]
> I'm stumped. Any ideas?
> Michael B Allen
> PHP Active Directory SPNEGO SSO
> Kerberos mailing list [email]Kerberos@mit.edu[/email]


This morning, most of the Western world woke up to the news that the Swedish Academy had awarded their countryman Tomas Tranströmer (again, not Bob Dylan) the Nobel Prize for Literature. Minutes earlier, however, Serbian newspaper readers were informed that their very own Dobrica Cosic had won the prize. As Jacket Copy reports, the culprit turns out to be a fake website (www.nobelprizeliterature.org) that was just purchased yesterday and mimicked the design of the real Nobel Prize homepage. The pranksters behind the site also emailed the announcement of his victory to news outlets. Now that nobelprizeliterature.org has been outed as a hoax, the group that created it — which bills itself as a “non-profit, self-organized group of web activists” — has posted a different message, in both Croatian and (somewhat broken) English. Read what they have to say for themselves after the jump.
We are a non-profit, self-organized group of web activists.
The purpose of our activity is to bring to the attention of the Serbian public dangerous influence of the writer Dobrica Cosic, who has been, again this year, proclaimed by some as a serious contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Dobrica Cosic, author and public political figure, active for decades, always close to the highest political power and those who exercise it, from the Communist Party of former SFRY, inspirators of their manifest of Serbian nationalism, infamous Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of sciences, former president of the Milosevic’s wartime SR Yugoslavia, to present alliance with reactionary and most dangerous Serbian pseudo-democratic circles in the new era.
We have registered the domain of this obviously hoax site on the 5th October 2011, as a symbolic reminder of that day eleven years ago, when Serbia missed a historic opportunity to create a different and better world. Today again, Serbia turns to war, terror and deadly kitsch of the nineties, violence towards diversity, nationalist conservatism and dishonest orthodoxy. We believe the political activity of Dobrica Cosic is still deeply intertwined with this hazardous value system, which does not cease to threaten us all.
Terrible consequences of decades of Mr. Cosic’s political, literary and public activity are felt to this day, both by his own country and throughout the region.
Dobrica Cosic is not a recipient of the Nobel Prize, although the general public in Serbia, and he himself, believed he is for 15 full minutes.
We find some solace in that fact.


Economists with The Conference Board are projecting a slow recovery for the global economy next year. Much of the growth will come from emerging and developing countries, while only moderate economic growth is projected for the U.S. in 2010.
The group also cautioned that the recovery will remain fragile, as growth in some sectors – such as capital spending by corporations – will be balanced out by continued retraction in others, like commercial real estate. Consumer spending is also likely to remain flat or below previous levels, which could reduce inventory replenishment activity—which is a major source of freight for truckers.
“The 3.5% expansion in third quarter U.S. GDP [gross domestic product] shows we have clearly begun to emerge from the trough,” said Bart van Ark, chief economist with The Conference Board. “But there’s still a long way to go, and we still don’t know enough about the sustainability of these recovery signals.”
He is, projecting fourth quarter GDP growth of 3.1% for the U.S. However, consumer spending is expected to fall flat during the holiday season, while exports will recover more slowly than in the third quarter this year. Finally, any modest uptick in investments in equipment and software will most likely be offset by continued declines in commercial real estate, van Ark added.
With all that being said, van Ark noted that The Conference Board predicts global growth should resume in 2010, with global output per head returning to pre-crisis levels.
“Looking further out, emerging and developing economies will account for a much larger share of the global pie; as much as two-thirds by 2016,” van Ark added. “And while China will surely be a major force in the unwinding of the crisis, we'll see other emerging markets increasingly fueling global growth.”
He said the advanced economies’ share of world GDP has fallen from two-thirds in 2000 to below 50% today and will hit one-third by 2016, according to The Conference Board’s Global Economic Outlook. China will remain a dominant economic force, but its growth will gradually slow as its transition proceeds to a consumer-driven economy, van Ark added.
For the U.S., economic growth is projected to start slow in 2010 and pick up speed in the second half of the year, with GDP climbing 1.2% in the first quarter, 1.8% in the second quarter, 2.1% in the third quarter, and reaching 2.6% in the fourth quarter of 2010.
For all of 2010, van Ark expects U.S. GDP to grow 2%, compared to a projected decline in GDP of 2.4% for 2009 and a meager 0.2% increase in GDP back in 2008.
“Though these are not sharp improvements, given the depth of the recession, these are clear indications that we are in a recovery mode,” he stated. “That said, shifts in the drivers of growth raise questions concerning the recovery’s solidity. A less powerful inventory boost with no positive offsetting contributors may well limit GDP growth to 1% in early 2010. [Also], the [consumer] savings rate will remain relatively high at 4.5% to 5% of disposable income, dampening improvements in real consumer spending.”
He also noted that consumer expenditures are likely to continue to show weakness as income growth remains slow or even shifts negative – due in part to an unemployment rate that will stay high at 10.5% for several quarters and not begin to decline before the end of 2010.
“The U.S. economy continues to look better than expected in the short term, but we have only just begun to emerge from the cycle’s trough and there is still a long way to go,” van Ark added.


Frost Campus (Lindsay)
Frost Campus is located on over 150 acres of land close to downtown Lindsay - a student-friendly community with a population of about 21,000. Lindsay, one of the communities in the City of Kawartha Lakes, is about a one-hour drive north east of Toronto, or four hours south west of Ottawa. Part of the Trent Severn Waterway, this region has over 250 lakes and plenty of green spaces - an ideal location to study and enjoy nature and the environment.
The campus is home to one of Canada’s leading environmental education institutions, Fleming College’s School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences - which offers over 20 exclusive programs in this fast-growing sector. For over 40 years, the school has been producing highly skilled graduates who work in the environmental and natural resource industries across Canada and around the world.
Student residences are located within steps of the main building. Recreational and athletic activities are available at the Fleming Field House and at the Lindsay Recreation Centre, which is directly adjacent to the campus. Downtown Lindsay is easily accessible via Lindsay Transit buses that stop at the campus entrance.
The Frost Sustainable Campus Initiative is a group of students and employees working to make Frost a model sustainable campus community. Recent initiatives include banning the sale of bottled water on campus, hosting a weekly on-campus Farmers’ Market, establishing a community garden and conducting energy audits. Frost Campus is also a member of the American Association for Sustainability in Higher Education.
Centre for Alternative Wastewater Treatment
The CAWT is comprised of a core group of scientists, faculty researchers, and technologists as well as a community of associates from academic, industrial, and private sectors. These professionals continue to expand the CAWT’s project base, research partnerships, and collaborations in the field of alternative wastewater treatment. Visit the CAWT website for more info
Frost Loggersports Team
Did you know that we are one of only three schools in Ontario with competitive men's and women's Loggersports teams? Find out more about these lumberjack competitions featuring our top notch athletes.
Features of the Frost Campus
- Environmental technology wing – features a green roof, geothermal heating and cooling and a constructed wetland for waste treatment. Part of the Trans-Canada Trail runs through campus
- Centre for Heavy Equipment Technology - sponsored by the Canadian Association of Equipment Distributors (CAED), Ontario Chapter
- Centre for Alternative Wastewater Treatment - internationally recognized for its applied research initiatives
- Geomatics Institute at Fleming – funded by industry and government partners to provide GIS laboratories, software, servers and data resources
- The Frost Campus Respect Campaign promotes respect for people, the environment, and property
Featured Programs Offered
Lindsay-Peterborough FSA Intercampus Shuttle Bus
The Frost Student Association (FSA) Shuttle Bus connects Frost Campus in Lindsay with Sutherland Campus in Peterborough, with stops along the way and in downtown Peterborough. It provides two-way, weekday and weekend service, and runs in conjunction with GO transit and Greyhound schedules from Peterborough to the GTA. See the FSA Intercampus Shuttle page for shuttle schedules, routes and costs.
Parking at the Frost Campus
Fleming College Campus Locations
Revised: November 27, 2015


The Environmental Protection Agency has authorized BP to use chemical dispersants to break up the oil sludge in the Gulf. But now, the agency has informed the company that it has 24 hours to identify a less toxic chemical for the job.
Because of its use in unprecedented volumes and because much is unknown about the underwater use of dispersants, EPA wants to ensure BP is using the least toxic product authorized for use. We reserve the right to discontinue the use of this dispersant method if any negative impacts on the environment outweigh the benefits.
The Washington Post had the scoop:
The move is significant, because it suggests federal officials are now concerned that the unprecedented use of chemical dispersants could pose a significant threat to the Gulf of Mexico’s marine life. BP has been using two forms of dispersants, Corexit 9500A and Corexit 9527A, and so far has applied 600,000 gallons on the surface and 55,000 underwater.
“Dispersants have never been used in this volume before,” said an administration official spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision hasn’t been formally announced. “This is a large amount of dispersants being used, larger amounts than have ever been used, on a pipe that continues to leak oil and that BP is still trying to cap.”
Earlier this week, ProPublica reported that the forms of dispersant currently used by BP are banned in the U.K., and added:
BP is using two products from a line of dispersants called Corexit, which EPA data appear to show is more toxic and less effective on South Louisiana crude than other available dispersants, according to Greenwire.
The EPA’s addendum to its original directive to BP can be read here:


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March 13th, 2000, 05:52 PM
Is there any way I can specify what the FROM section of the email I send via PHP is supposed to read? Right now, anytime I submit a form through PHP and have an autoresponder sent, the FROM reads my deafult server address. I want to be able to set the FROM to read a name instead. Is there any way to do this???
March 13th, 2000, 05:59 PM
You May Use mail($Recipient,$Message,"FROM : firstname.lastname@example.org")
This will send the message with email@example.com as the senders address.
Hope this solves your problem.
March 13th, 2000, 06:14 PM
Your sample fixed the problem!


When someone thinks of cereal, how the iconic tiger labeled box doesn't pop into one's head almost immediately is beyond me. The sweet frosting covering the crispy corn flakes is like the perfect marriage of sweet and crispy. The only way I anyone could make a similar combination of the two would be to directly wired ones mouth to some type of electrodes which simulate Frosted Flakes. This would probably take longer to set up than to actually just eat Frosted Flakes.
That being said, why would anyone ever want to try any cereal that’s not Frosted Flakes? If you don’t what a cereal that’s crispy, you should probably be eating oatmeal with the rest of the denture wearers. If you don’t want a cereal that’s sweet, you should probably be eating a toasted bread crumbs in a bowl of milk. Sounds delightful!
Perhaps your thinking some other cereal would provide another equally pleasant experience. You’d be wrong. Wheat and Rice based cereals get soggy far too fast. So all you’re really left with is corn. Yes, we know there are some of you out there that think cereal can be made from other types of grain that most people have never heard of, so, it must be good. But when it comes to food, the reason most people have never of it is because it sucks. The same reasoning behind spotted dick is not popular here in the United States. It’s horrid. To the point that I wonder if the people in the UK actually like it or they’re just making it as an excuse to say the name. End digression. As I was saying, you’re really only left corn.
Let’s suppose you want to make a cereal and your smart enough to use corn, but, you’re clueless on what style or shape. One idea to try could be the puffed/popped shape. If that’s the case, you probably like popcorn. And you have to make it sweet. So you’re going to have to make something like caramel or kettle corn. And you’re going to take this pour it in a bowl and add milk? If that’s a good idea, then, I suppose you’d also like the texture and taste of sugar coded Styrofoam. Aside from the possible poisonous side effects, I’m pretty sure it would amount to the same thing. If a cereal maker does figure out how to make edible Styrofoam he’s going to make a fortune off you.
Let’s face it, there are very few things in this life that a simple and great. And we as human being should be grateful that we have been lucky enough to find them. Of this short list in our long history, Frosted Flakes is among the top.


PROVO -- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may be settling what has been a decades-long cultural debate in wards everywhere: caffeine.
In a blog post on the LDS Church's mormonnewsroom.org site, the church indicated that caffeine is not explicitly against the church's Word of Wisdom -- a set of guidelines for members that forbids the use of tobacco, alcohol and "hot drinks."
The church was responding to a report on Mormonism on NBC's "Rock Center," which claimed that LDS faithful were prohibited from drinking caffeine. The church wrote in response:
"Despite what was reported, the Church revelation spelling out health practices (Doctrine and Covenants 89) does not mention the use of caffeine. The Church’s health guidelines prohibits alcoholic drinks, smoking or chewing of tobacco, and “hot drinks” — taught by Church leaders to refer specifically to tea and coffee."
That post originally included the sentence: "The restriction does not go beyond this." However, it was later re-worded. A church spokesman did not offer any further comment beyond the post.
The post has sparked a debate online and in Mormon neighborhoods about whether the Word of Wisdom ever did forbid caffeine. Many LDS faithful grew up believing caffeine was not to be consumed at all.
Others have always consumed Diet Coke and tea, but avoided coffee.
"For me it's more of I don't want to get addicted to it. I don't want to be like, 'I need my caffeine today,' " said Dave Rollins, who carried a caffeine-free Diet Coke.
Rollins said he has known many Mormon faithful who believe caffeine is forbidden by the LDS Church.
"In fact, I baptized a guy who worked for Coke and he was thinking, 'I might have to get a different job!' " Rollins said.
"You see people on both sides," said Mary Ellen Robertson, the director of Sunstone, a foundation that studies Mormonism.
"The folks who say, like I did, 'I grew up not drinking caffeinated sodas, I was told by my parents it was bad and it was OK to judge people harshly who did.' Then there are folks on the other side of the spectrum, for whom this was never an issue, who say I don't see this as an accurate measure for my religiosity the way it's come to be used."
At the LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University, caffeinated drinks are not sold. It is not because of a church or university edict, said spokeswoman Carri Jenkins, but customer demand.
"Dining Services has made the decision to not sell or serve caffeinated beverages on campus," she told FOX 13. "Simply based on what our customers want or do not want."
Jenkins said students would not violate BYU's Honor Code by consuming caffeine, nor would people be forbidden from bringing it on campus. The university would also revisit the sale of caffeine-full soda -- if it became an issue of demand.
"It's just something we'll have to look at," Jenkins said.


A federal judge’s decision Friday could fuel heightened tensions in the battle over the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The ruling on a Native American tribe’s request for a temporary restraining order on construction comes one day after Gov. Jack Dalrymple activated the state National Guard “in the event they are needed to support law enforcement response efforts,” according to a National Guard spokesman.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe filed an emergency motion Sunday asking the court “to prevent further destruction of the tribe’s sacred sites by Dakota Access Pipeline.”
A federal judge has denied the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s request to temporarily stop construction on the four-state Dakota Access oil pipeline near their reservation in North Dakota.
Tribal officials challenged the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners’ $3.8 billion pipeline that is intended to carry oil from North Dakota to Illinois.
Friday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg comes amid growing protests over the pipeline, which would cross the Missouri River less than a mile upstream of the reservation.
The tribe argues the pipeline could impact drinking water and that construction has already disturbed ancient sacred sites.
A lawyer for the tribe says the ruling will be appealed.
The pipeline’s developer, Energy Transfer Partners, has predicted the project would help the United States become less dependent on importing oil from unstable regions of the world.
The tribe wants to halt further construction on an area two miles west of North Dakota Highway 1806, near Lake Oahe, until the judge’s ruling.
The plaintiffs claim the tribe was not properly consulted before the US Army Corps of Engineers approved the pipeline project, which would run from North Dakota to South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois.
A US district court judge is expected to make a decision by Friday.
The Army Corps of Engineers has declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
On Thursday, a state National Guard statement said the governor had asked it “to support law enforcement and augment public safety efforts, in light of recent activity with the Dakota Access Pipeline protest.”
“The Guard members will serve in administrative capacities and assist in providing security at traffic information points,” the statement said. “The Guardsmen will not be going to the actual protest site. The governor also placed additional Guardsmen on standby alert in the event they are needed to support law enforcement response efforts.”
Thousands of people from more than 200 Native American tribes have supported the Standing Rock Sioux’s efforts to protect their lands, waters and sacred sites during construction of the pipeline, according to the tribe.
If completed, the 1,172-mile pipeline would carry 470,000 barrels of crude oil a day from North Dakota to Illinois.
Energy Transfer said the pipeline would bring an estimated $156 million in sales and income taxes to state and local governments. It would also add 8,000 to 12,000 construction jobs, the developer said.
But about 30 environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, have slammed the pipeline project, calling it “yet another example of an oil pipeline project being permitted without public engagement or sufficient environmental review.”‘
Protesters are also worried that digging the pipeline under the Missouri River could affect the drinking water supply if the pipeline breaks.
Protests turned violent over the weekend, with some demonstrators breaking down a wire fence and trespassing onto a construction area, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department said.
“Protesters physically assaulted private security officers hired by Dakota Access Pipeline. The security officers were hit and jabbed with fence posts and flagpoles,” the sheriff’s department said. “According to several reports from security officers, knives were pulled on them or they witnessed protestors with large knives.”
The sheriff’s department also said two guard dogs were injured.
But protesters disputed that account, CNN affiliate KFYR said. Demonstrators said the guards used pepper spray and tear gas on the activists, and some protesters were injured by the guards’ dogs.


Yes, it’s still true. The basic principles of mathematics and probability have not changed. Thus, it is surprising to read an article saying that requiring extraordinary evidence for extraordinary claims doesn’t make sense. At least, it’s surprising until you realize the person making the claim is probably an evangelical Christian with an extraordinary claim to promote. So, how should we respond? I’ll provide a short answer and a long answer.
The Short Answer
Bayes’ Theorem, which has been proven to be formally valid, tells us that extraordinary claims (things with very low prior probabilities) do indeed require extraordinary evidence. For example, imagine my friend tells me he won the World Series of Poker. I would first be struck by the improbability of such a claim considering the Main Event has over 6,000 entrants and this particular friend isn’t that good at poker. Even so, it’s not impossible and there is evidence which would overcome that initially low probability. Examples of significant probability-raising evidence would include if he had millions of dollars suddenly and if he had a WSOP bracelet. If you want to see this idea demonstrated mathematically, keep reading.
The Long Answer
This is Bayes’ Theorem:
P(h|e.b) = P(h|b) x P(e|h.b) / [ P(h|b) x P(e|h.b) ] + [ P(~h|b) x P(e|~h.b) ]
|~||Not (or the negation of)|
In English, this says, “The probability that a hypothesis is true, given available evidence and background knowledge is equal to [and then you have the equation].” To understand the equation, let’s dig into the details just a bit.
The first term you’ll notice once you read past the = symbol is P(h|b); this is the prior probability. This term is concerned with the probability that a hypothesis is true given your background knowledge. So, when we say that the virgin birth has an incredibly low prior probability, that means that based on everything we know about the world through science, history, etc. this sort of thing doesn’t generally happen. Quite simply, we understand how babies are made, and this isn’t it. Further, in cases where parthenogenesis does actually occur in other animals, the resulting offspring are always female. So, if true, this would seem to be a one-time thing. I have no idea how many humans have ever existed, but let’s say there have been 100 billion. This would make the prior probability 1/100,000,000,000. Note that this is prior to considering any evidence for the case in question, hence the term prior probability.
The second term above is P(e|h.b), meaning the probability that you would have the available evidence given your hypothesis and background knowledge. In other words, would the available evidence be expected under the hypothesis? For example, say someone claims they’ve been to the beach for the past few hours. You notice they are sunburned and in their car is a beach towel. These things fit the claim well and would merit a high number. On the other hand, the lack of sun kissed skin and a movie ticket stub from two hours earlier would not be the sort of evidence you would expect.
This covers the numerator. It is the prior probability multiplied by the likelihood of the evidence.
Now, as you keep moving from left to right, you’ll notice that the first term in the denominator is the entire numerator repeated. That’s why the theorem is sometimes shortened to P = A / A + B. So, what is B? It is basically the same as discussed above, only for ~H, rather than H. It is the probability that your hypothesis is false and the likelihood of the available evidence given a false hypothesis.
Let’s plug in some numbers using a very low prior probability and see the earlier claim in action.
- P = 0.01 x .9 / (0.01 x .9) + (0.99 x .75) = 1.2%
Here we see a low probability event where the evidence is almost nearly as well explained by negating hypotheses and the probability is slightly raised, but remains very low. Now, let’s slowly decrease the likelihood that the evidence can be explained by alternative hypotheses and watch what happens to the outcome.
- P = 0.01 x .9 / (0.01 x .9) + (0.99 x .50) = 1.8%
- P = 0.01 x .9 / (0.01 x .9) + (0.99 x .25) = 3.5%
- P = 0.01 x .9 / (0.01 x .9) + (0.99 x .10) = 8.3%
- P = 0.01 x .9 / (0.01 x .9) + (0.99 x .01) = 48%
We don’t see a substantial increase in probability until we get into very low ranges of likelihood for the same evidence to be observed on alternative hypotheses. In the last example, there is only a 1% chance that the evidence can be explained by alternative hypotheses. In cases of low prior probability, the evidence must be such that it basically rules out alternative hypotheses to a very high degree.
In other words, extraordinary claims really do require extraordinary evidence.


The Alaska State Archives has a couple helpful free genealogy resources for those with Alaskan ancestors in their family tree. The archives hold naturalization records 1880-1972, pioneer home residents 1913-1980, probate index 1883-1960, teacher records 1917-1959, World War I veterans 1913-1923 and vital statistics 1816-1998. Only two of these resources are available online at this time. You can submit a research request to the archives for lookups in the other collections. There may be a fee for this service.
The Naturalization Records Index offers quite a bit of information, more than you normally expect to find with an index. It gives you the name, alias, country, type, location, date, record type, precinct, case number, residence and occupation. It is a large PDF file so will take a few minutes to fully download. It is organized alphabetically by surname.
The Probate Index is also organized alphabetically by surname. It gives you the name of the individual, case number (when available), precinct, case type, date and information where the actual file is located.


F. Burnam Born 1820 Richmond, KY
This Biography is at the Kentucky Biography Project.
Burnam born 1830 Richmond, KY.
This Biography is at the Kentucky Biography Project.
C. Burnham of De Calb Co. Mo.
From "History of Missouri, Andrew & DeKalb County" Published 1888,
Goodspeed Publishing Company
S. Burnham of Milford, New Hampshire
This Biography is from, The History of Milford, New Hampshire
Burnham of Rockingham Co. NH
This Biography is on this site
From a book called "Life and Times in Hopkinton, N. H. in three parts"
by C. C. Lord published 1890
Illinois, History of Cass County, Illinois, ed. William Henry
Perrin. O. L. Baskin & Co. Historical Publishers, Chicago, 1882.
ALONZO F. BURNHAM, physician and
was born in Mason County, Ill.
June 29, 1853; son of Henry C. and Angeline(Currier) Burnham. Henry C. Burnham, a farmer
by occupation, was born at Hampton,Windham Co., Conn., Jan. 30, 1826, and has, since 1853,
resided in Salt Creek Township, Mason Co., Ill.; his wife was born at Canadaigua, Ontario, N.Y.
Dec. 16, 1825; they are the parents of seven children. The doctor received his primary education
in the country schools, and afterward attended an academy, after which he taught school and worked
on the farm.At the age of twenty-two he began the study of medicine with Dr. J. P. Walker, of
Mason City, Ill.; and attended the Rush Medical College three winter terms and one summer term,
and graduated in 1878. He came to Ashland, April 3, 1878, and entered into partnership with
Dr. John Walker; they practiced in company until October, 1880, when, on account of ill health,
Dr. Walker retired from the practice of his profession, and Dr. Burnham has since practiced alone,
meeting with good success. He was married Oct.29, 1879, in Mason Co., Ill., to Emma Blunt,
a native of that county, born Jan. 3, 1859, daughter of A. A. and Martha A.(Trailor) Blunt; he was
born in Hart Co., Ky., Feb. 21, 1831; she was born in Springfield, Ill., June 23, 1831; from this union
they have had one child, P. Garfield, born April 4, 1881, died Aug. 2, 1881. The doctor is a
Republican and a member of the I.O.O.F., the K. of H. and the A.O.F.
History of Trigg County, Historical and Biographical, Ed. W. Herrin Battey Pub. Co., Chicago, 1884 P.256 (Rock CastlePrecinet)
J.R.Burnam was born in North Carolina, October 4,1823. He is the son of Wilson and Elizabeth (Gambrel) Burnam both natives of North Carolina and of English desent. Wilson emigrated to Kentucky about the year 1830,and settled in Trigg County.He was a carpenter,and worked at his trade along with farming until his death in 1877 J.R. Burnam was educated in Trigg County and remained with his parents until 1850, when he married Sarah J. Holly a native of Kentucky. To them was born two sons and one daughter. Mrs. Burnam died some seventeen years ago and Mr.Burnam next married Lucy Hyden, a native of Tennessee. Two children bless this union,one son and one daughter. Mr Burnam is by trade a bricklayer and works his trade in connection with farming. He is a member of the I.O.O.F. at Rock Castle, also of the Blue Lodge, A,F.&A.M. at Parkersville,Kentucky. He is one of the leading men of the precinet and county.
Biographies were taken from the, Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of
American Biography of the Nineteenth Century.
All on Page 175
Hiram Burnham, soldier, was born in Maine. At the second battle of Fredericksburg he distinguished hinself for bravery
and courage, and again at Gettysburg. In April 1864, he was made brigadier-general, and during the campaign from the Wilderness to Petersburg he bore a conspicuous part. He was killed in battle September 29, 1864.
James C. Burnham, soldier, was born about 1820 in New York. After the fall of Colonel Baxter he commmanded the regiment at the storming of Chapultepec, was promated to be lieutenant- colonel Setember 27, 1847, and led the regiment through the several battles around the city of Mexico, distinguishing himself in the attack on the Belen gate. After the war Colonel Burnham was city marshall of New York under Mayor Wood, and was a prominent politician for several years. He died September 2, 1866, in New York.
John Howard Burnham, soldier, journalist, bridge builder, was born October 31, 1834, in Essex, Mass. He was captain in company A, thirty-third Illinois volunteer infantry, during the Civil War. In 1864 he was superintendent of public schools at Blomington, Illinois, where for several years he was editor of the Pantagraph. As a bridge contractor he has been instrumental in the building of some of the largest bridges in Illinois and the West.
Michael Burnham, clergyman, author, was born June 28, 1839, in Essex, Mass. This eminent congregational clergyman is now pastor of the Pilgrim church of St. Louis, Mo. He is the author of numerous pamplets and orations.
Samuel Burnham, author, was born in 1883, in Rindge, N.H. He wrote the history of East Boston, several small volumes for the American tract society on natural history, was one of the editors of the Congregationalist, literary editor of the Watchman and Reflector, a correspondent for peridicals, edited Charles Sumner's works,and at time of his death had nearly completed a history of the Old South church of Boston. He died June 22, 1873, in Boston, Mass.
Sarah Maria Burnham, author, was born in 1818, in Chester, Vermont. She is the author of Limestones and Marbles,their History and Uses: Struggles of the Nations, and Pleasant Memories of Foreign Travel: and other works.
Sherburne W. Burnham, astronomer,
born in 1838, in Vermont. He was astronomer at Lick Observatory
its foundation to 1892: and is now connected with Yerkes' Observatory
the universty of Chocago. He is the author of a number of scientific
and has contributed valuable papers to current magazines.
Thomas Brownell Burnham, manufacturer,was born in January 30, 1866, in New York city. He is a director in the Benedict and Burnham Manufacturing Co. Holmes, Booth, and Haydens, brass manufacturers, and the Waterbury Watch Co. all of Waterbury, Conn. He is also a large stockholder and director in the Sixth Avenue railroad of New York city.
Victor C. Burnham, farmer, lawyer, public official, was born April 23, 1851, in Wayne county, Mich. He graduated from the university of Michigan. He has served as mayor of Rogers City: has been city attorney: circuit court commissioner: and prosecuting attorney of Alpena county. He has served as city attorney and city judge of Alpena; and is also as United States commossioner.
Census Records | Vital Records | Family Trees & Communities | Immigration Records | Military Records Directories & Member Lists | Family & Local Histories | Newspapers & Periodicals | Court, Land & Probate | Finding Aids


There is a surefire way to ensure tyranny – undermine the education of the populace. When the people don’t have the tools required to determine truth from lies or to obtain their information from a variety of sources, they become dependent on the state to tell them “the Truth™”. We can see this currently happening in the Arab world, where state television in Libya is still being used to broadcast misinformation that is (perhaps fatally) undermining the cause of the pro-democracy rebellion.
One way to ensure a religious tyranny is to ensure that the populace doesn’t have access to adequate scientific information. Science is inherently hostile to religion, since the two are very different methods at arriving at answers. The scientific method involves testing repeated observations and inferring rules and laws from trends within those observations. The religious method involves arriving at a conclusion and then finding observations that support the a priori position. The problem with the latter method is that it is trivially easy to arrive at false conclusions and then justify them afterward. By ensuring that the public doesn’t have access to scientific knowledge, you can erode the cause of science and replace it with whatever system you like.
Enter the Conservative Party of Canada:
The public has lost free online access to more than a dozen Canadian science journals as a result of the privatization of the National Research Council’s government-owned publishing arm. Scientists, businesses, consultants, political aides and other people who want to read about new scientific discoveries in the 17 journals published by National Research Council Research Press now either have to pay $10 per article or get access through an institution that has an annual subscription.
Now this on its own is an incredibly minor development. The vast majority of people who access the scientific literature are scientists working at institutions that can afford to buy subscriptions. Furthermore, the lay public get most of their scientific information from people who interpret the studies that are now behind a paywall, so most people won’t notice the difference. This is not the straw that breaks the camel’s back by any stretch of the imagination.
However, erosion doesn’t work in giant leaps – it occurs gradually over time. One of the strengths of science is the ability of anyone who is curious to go back and investigate the source material. Someone tells you that a drug works to treat diabetes, you can go to the paper and check it for yourself. Someone tells you that homeopathy cures warts, you can go check it out for yourself. Someone tells you that the universe was created in the Big Bang, you can go read the papers. This process encourages skepticism and critical thinking, while increasing the trust that the public has in the scientific community (by increasing transparency).
By placing additional barriers between lay Canadians and the products of Canadian scientific researchers, the privatization of the National Research Council is inherently anti-transparent and anti-science. It discourages scientific scrutiny and question-asking, which are two things that the CPC really doesn’t like in the first place. If Harper can’t get a majority right now, at least he can do as much damage as possible with the limited powers he wields.
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Frontier Girls as an Alternative to Girl Scouts
Girl Scouts have been a part of American life for more than a hundred years. Most women today have wonderful memories of earning badges, going camping, singing Christmas carols, and learning a variety of useful skills within their scout troop.
According to the Girl Scout website, "Juliette "Daisy" Gordon Low assembled 18 girls from Savannah, Georgia, on March 12, 1912, for a local Girl Scout meeting. She believed that all girls should be given the opportunity to develop physically, mentally, and spiritually. With the goal of bringing girls out of isolated home environments and into community service and the open air. Girl Scouts hiked, played basketball, went on camping trips, learned how to tell time by the stars, and studied first aid."
Over the years the Girl Scouts have consistently changed their program in an attempt to keep up with the times and keep girls involved. Unfortunately, the newest program to evolve, Journeys, is no longer a good fit for many families seeking the traditional Girl Scout experience. For families searching for an alternative to Girl Scouts, we created Frontier Girls Clubs.
Frontier Girls is a scout like youth program for girls ages 3 - adult that we offer as an alternative to the Girl Scout program. We focus on patriotism, traditional values, community service and a love of learning. Patriotism is a character trait we take very seriously in Frontier Girls. All meetings begin with a formal flag ceremony and girls are taught a proper respect for both flag and country. We are also a strong supporter of our military personnel and veterans. Frontier Girls Clubs dedicates an entire section of its program to teaching the girls good character traits such as honesty, responsibility, modesty, and joy, and encouraging them not only to participate in community service projects, but to organize their own.
Through our youth program for girls, Frontier Girls Clubs offers over 1200 individual badges. With the invention of the Internet, most families, even in rural communities, have access to unlimited information, if not in their own homes, then at least through the public libraries. Because of this access to information, we are able to offer badges on virtually any subject a girl wishes to learn about. Girls today have more opportunities than at any other time in our history. Their interests vary from basic home skills and crafts to cutting edge science and technology. Whether a girl wants to learn about dairying and farming, or about aviation and rocketry, we offer badges for just about anything.
Frontier Girls Clubs are very flexible for busy families today. Our program is designed to work with multiple ages in a single troop, all working on the same badge at the same time, but at differing skill levels. Some troops are
large with a wide age range, while others are small and may consist of a single age group. Some troops meet every week, some just once a month. Many of our troops work closely with local Boy Scout or Cub Scout troops. Frontier Girls honors the badge requirements of other programs as long as they are age appropriate. Troops can therefore work alongside their local Boy Scouts and use their requirements to earn a badge through Frontier Girls.
While Girl Scouts still has a lot to offer the girls of today, each family is different and should research the various scouting style options that are available today. Frontier Girls is just one. Before making a decision for your family, you may also wish to look into:
Pilgrims of the Holy Family
Keepers of the Faith
Good luck and happy hunting!


Carbohydrates are found in a variety of foods including fruits, non-starchy vegetables, starchy vegetables, beans, lentils, legumes, grains, nuts, tofu, soy products and milk. Carbohydrates are also found in added sugars such as refined sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, honey, maple syrup, molasses and high-fructose corn syrup. Cucumbers are considered a non-starchy vegetable. In general, non-starchy vegetables contain very few carbohydrates.
CUCUMBER NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
According to the American Diabetes Association, your blood glucose levels are affected by both the amount of carbohydrate that you consume, and the type. In terms of amount of carbohydrate, cucumbers contain very little. A 1/2 cup of sliced raw cucumber with skin intact contains about 1.89 g of carbohydrate. Fiber provides the main source of carbohydrates in cucumbers and other non-starchy vegetables. Fiber, unlike sugar and starch carbohydrates, does not affect your blood glucose levels because it passes through your body without being broken down into sugar molecules.
YOUR BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS
After you eat cucumbers, the food material travels to your stomach in order to be digested. During digestion, the small amounts of sugar and starch carbohydrates in cucumbers get broken down into tiny sugar molecules. The fiber carbohydrates continue to pass through and out of your body without being digested. The carbohydrates that have been converted into sugar molecules go through the lining of your stomach and get absorbed into your bloodstream.
Cucumbers and all other non-starchy vegetables are an important part of a healthy, balanced diet. Cucumbers are a type of healthy carbohydrate because they are nutrient-rich, unlike carbohydrate-containing foods that are often filled with empty calories, such as foods made from refined grains and added sugars. The carbohydrates in cucumbers will provide your cells with the energy they need in order to perform their functions, without jeopardizing your blood sugar health.
- American Diabetes Association: Food and Fitness — Carbohydrates
- American Diabetes Association: Food and Fitness — Glycemic Index and Diabetes
- American Diabetes Association: Food and Fitness — Non-Starchy Vegetables
- United States Department of Agriculture Nutrient Database
- MayoClinic.com: Nutrition and Healthy Eating — Glycemic Index Diet: Losing Weight with Blood Sugar Control, Nov. 24, 2009
- MayoClinic.com: Nutrition and Healthy Eating — Healthy Diet: End the Guesswork with these Nutrition Guidelines, Feb. 22, 2011


Not all flowers are created equal. We're not just talking about size, shape and color. When it comes to flowers that will stand the test of time, there are only a few that thrive once they're cut for floral arrangements. And come Fall, the pickings are even more slim. But, we've got good news! These eight Fall flowering plants are perfect for any cut flower arrangement and we carry them all at GSCO!
If you like gardening, you probably also do your best to bring the outdoors in. On the third week of September, we celebrate National Indoor Plant Week not just because we love plants but because of the many benefits that come from those we bring inside to our homes and offices.
Think you need and excuse to add a little green to your indoor world? Check out these four interesting facts about houseplants:
Chances are you don't have to dig deep to bring to mind someone in your life who has or has been diagnosed with cancer at some point in their life. Perhaps this person is a co-worker or a neighbor. Perhaps this person is a parent. Perhaps this person is a partner. Or perhaps this person is you. No matter how far or how close your experience with cancer has come, we all can imagine the financial burden this c-word brings with it.
It's Labor Day weekend and that's cause for a neighborhood gathering to get your buzz on! Want to impress your neighbors? Try this garden to table (or should we say: bee hive to table) recipe using your own honey. Don't have your own bee hive just yet? Swing by GSCO and pick up a jar of our sweet stuff!
Going green has always been about giving back. Around the yard, in the greenhouse and at Garden Supply Company, we tend to think going green has to do with recycling plastic water bottles, planting our own fruits and veggies, saving the bees and collecting water in rain barrels. And it does. But we green thumbs have found another way to go about going green and we're excited to announce that you can be involved in this green project too.
There's something special about the path from the garden to the kitchen–picking fresh herbs with your own hands and bringing them inside to the kitchen to cook with right then and there. For many of us, this tradition comes and goes with the summer season. Our summertime herbs, like basil and cilantro, that don't like the cold, won't be with us too much longer. That is, unless we save them for cooler days. While freezing alone tends to yield strange-tasting and browned herbs, there's one simple trick to better preserving your summer yield–oil!
There is no greater gift we can give ourselves than the flowers we pick from our gardens. And while we love to gaze at them outdoors, the dog days of summer are here and that means it's time to–snip-snip–take them indoors! Try these simple steps when cutting your fresh floral arrangement for maximum viewing pleasure!
Many shade gardens don't get the color they deserve. Need to spice up your shady areas with a boost of color? Coral Bells are the perfect perennial addition for the fully shaded, partially shady and even the partially sunny spaces in your yard. Scroll through our slideshow below to view six gorgeous Coral Bell varieties that might just make your shade garden pop!
The dog days of summer are here, the North Carolina humidity is kicking and it's time to get out of the outdoors and off on your vacation. But as your well-awaited time away approaches, perhaps you're thinking you want to bring the outdoors in with an oasis of house plants. No need to sweat it out in the garden and there's no need to wait until after you get back from your week off of work! There are plenty of easy-care, indoor plants that are vacation-proof.
Read about these five plants that don't mind if you go:
Air plants–or tillandsias–can be found in the wild growing from the branches of trees in rain forests, rocky cliffs of mountain ranges and in the dry sand of deserts. In wild environments such as these, some 650 varieties of the bromeliad family evolved to thrive without soil. Those air plants that have roots, only use them to affix themselves to a host with optimal living conditions like a tree or rock.
Tomato (pronounced to-MAY-to)? Or Tomato (pronounced to-MAH-to)? No one really cares how we pronounce the name of our favorite garden veggie (even though, technically, a tomato is a fruit). What everyone really wants to know is how to grow the tastiest tomato for a dreamy summertime BLT. Looking for a few tricks to grow your own ‘maters? Try our tips below.


High horsepower outputs are all the rage these days; with hatchbacks boasting 300bhp and saloons 500bhp; hearing about supercars with astronomical power outputs is not new. But when you hear the power figure McLaren says its P1 will have, you can’t help but smile. McLaren isn’t messing about with this car, it’s out for blood.
Nine-hundred and three. That’s how many. And if you have to ask ‘what’, then you shouldn’t know. Sure, there are cars with more power, like the all-conquering Bugatti Veyron, but there’s something about a McLaren with 903bhp that tickles my senses. It’s probably because of the McLaren F1, that iconic super star of the car world. The P1 is set to be its successor, and in order to succeed, it needs to be outstanding.
The world of supercars is in the middle of an incredible shift towards crazier technologies, especially in terms of hybrid power plants. McLaren is no exception to this, and if anything is one of the leaders. Because this beauty is a hybrid, sporting petrol and electric motors combining to form that monster power figure. It really is gorgeous too. It truly embraces a new organic styling. But back to that engine. It uses a version of the McLaren MC4-12C’s twin-turbo 3.8 V8, but significantly reworked for durability and cooling. McLaren also worked very closely with Mobil 1 on bespoke lubricating, cooling and hydraulic fluids for the P1’s petrol engine. The peak figures for the rather small V8 are a very strong 727bhp and 530lb ft of torque, though.
Now, that electric motor. Developed by McLaren’s ‘Electronics’ division, it will add a certain character to the McLaren that few cars these days can claim to have: instant power. The great thing about electric motors is the fact that there’s no waiting for the engine to get to speed; the power and torque come immediately — all of it. So the figures of 176bhp and 191lb ft of torque that the motor produces may not sound that big, but in reality it’ll possibly be what sets this engine apart from all the other supercars.
Some of the crazy technology that will be found on the P1 will be in the form of its battery packs. It’ll have a 96kg pack located just behind the passenger cell and bolted onto the carbon fibre chassis. Setting it apart are the fact that McLaren say that its energy density is greater than any other car’s. On top of that, will be a system called Instant Power Assist System that will offer all of the electric motor’s power on command acting as a boost function. The system will apparently provide better throttle response, more akin to a naturally aspirated, and here’s where it get’s hectic: employs “instant negative torque at the point of shift” onto the gearbox to get the engine to its required speed to change gears. The electric motor will only do about 10km by itself, but no one will ever do that: fact.
The hybrid aspect isn’t only for ultra power figures, it’s ecological too. It only produces 200g/km of CO2 which is good for a supercar, very good. But not as good as that rear wing. No amount of ecological talk can turn my eyes away from wings like that. Especially when it is derived from the F1 style Drag Reduction System (DRS) wings. So with the push of a button the wing opens the aerodynamics and reduces drag by 23 percent. Slippery stuff, considering how much power will be propelling you forward.
Looking forward to seeing one of these? Heavens, it’s going to be an occasion.


The Bangs Sisters, Mary "May" E. Bangs and Elizabeth "Lizzie" Snow Bangs, were mediums from Chicago, who made a career out of painting the dead or "Spirit Portraits," without ever have met the fallen.
Elizabeth was born around 1860 to mother Meroe and father Edward Bangs while they were living in Atchison, Kansas. They moved to Chicago in 1861, and Mary was born there in 1864. Their mother was a medium herself, and soon got her four children (sons Edward and W.B.) into the act.
By the early 1870s the Bangs family were performing seances as described in the August 3rd, 1872, Religio-Philosophical Journal article by Steven Sanborn Jones called, "An Evening with the Bangs Children". People would pay to be entertained at the Bangs home. Messages from the dead would appear on slabs of slate as chairs and furniture would move about the room. The children were tied up in a cabinet, then a guitar inside would strum and hands would wave from within. For the finale, Mary would bring forward a shaved cat that was said to be a "spirit cat" from the afterworld. In the summer of 1881, May and her mother were arrested for "doing business without a license", but this was dismissed because they claimed to be evangelists, and such charges could not be brought against ministers.
| This page incorporated content from Bangs Sisters,
a page hosted on Wikipedia. Please consult the history of the original page to see a list of its authors. Therefor, this article is also available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License


The Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient is used to discover the strength of
a link between two sets of data. This example looks at the strength of the link
between the price of a convenience item (a 50cl bottle of water) and distance
from the Contemporary Art Museum in El Raval, Barcelona.
Example: The hypothesis tested
is that prices should decrease with distance from the key area of gentrification
surrounding the Contemporary Art Museum. The line followed is Transect 2 in the
map below, with continuous sampling of the price of a 50cl bottle water at every
Map to show the location of environmental gradients for
transect lines in El Raval, Barcelona
We might expect to find that the price of a bottle of water
decreases as distance from the Contemporary Art Museum increases. Higher
property rents close to the museum should be reflected in higher prices in the
The hypothesis might be written like this:
The price of a convenience item decreases as distance from the
Contemporary Art Museum increases.
The more objective scientific research method is always to
assume that no such price-distance relationship exists and to express the null
hypothesis as: there is no significant relationship between the price of a convenience item
and distance from the Contemporary Art Museum.
What can go wrong?
Having decided upon the wording of the hypothesis, you should
consider whether there are any other factors that may influence the study. Some
factors that may influence prices may include:
The type of retail outlet. You must be consistent in your choice of retail
outlet. For example, bars and restaurants often charge significantly more for
water than a convenience store. You should decide which type of outlet to use
and stick with it for all your data collection.
Some shops have different prices for the same item: a high tourist and lower
local price, dependent upon the shopkeeper's perception of the customer.
Shops near main roads may charge more than shops in less accessible back
streets, due to the higher rents demanded for main road retail sites.
The positive spread effects from other nearby areas of gentrification or
from competing areas of tourist attraction.
The negative spread effects from nearby areas of urban decay.
Higher prices may be charged during the summer when demand is less flexible,
making seasonal comparisons less reliable.
Cumulative sampling may distort the expected price-distance gradient if
several shops cluster within a short area along the transect line followed by a
considerable gap before the next group of retail outlets.
You should mention such factors in your investigation.
Data collected (see data table below) suggests a fairly strong
negative relationship as shown in this scatter graph:
Scatter graph to show the change in the price of a
convenience item with distance from the Contemporary Art Museum. Roll over image
to see trend line.
The scatter graph shows the possibility of a negative
correlation between the two variables and the Spearman's rank correlation
technique should be used to see if there is indeed a correlation, and to test
the strength of the relationship.
Spearman’s Rank correlation coefficient
A correlation can easily be drawn as a scatter
graph, but the most precise way to compare several pairs of data is
to use a statistical test - this establishes whether the correlation is really
significant or if it could have been the result of chance alone.
Spearman’s Rank correlation coefficient is a technique which
can be used to summarise the strength and direction (negative or positive) of a
relationship between two variables.
The result will always be between 1 and minus 1.
Method - calculating the coefficient
Create a table from your data.
Rank the two data sets. Ranking is achieved by giving the ranking '1' to the
biggest number in a column, '2' to the second biggest value and so on. The
smallest value in the column will get the lowest ranking. This should be done
for both sets of measurements.
Tied scores are given the mean (average) rank. For example, the three tied
scores of 1 euro in the example below are ranked fifth in order of price, but
occupy three positions (fifth, sixth and seventh) in a ranking hierarchy of ten.
The mean rank in this case is calculated as (5+6+7) ÷ 3 = 6.
Find the difference in the ranks (d): This is the difference between the
ranks of the two values on each row of the table. The rank of the second value
(price) is subtracted from the rank of the first (distance from the museum).
Square the differences (d²) To remove negative values and then sum them (d²).
Distance from CAM (m)
Price of 50cl bottle (€)
Difference between ranks
d² = 285.5
Data Table: Spearman's Rank Correlation
Calculate the coefficient (R) using the formula below. The
answer will always be between 1.0 (a perfect positive correlation) and -1.0 (a
perfect negative correlation).
When written in mathematical notation the Spearman Rank formula
looks like this :
Now to put all these values into the formula.
Find the value of all the d² values by adding up all the values in the
Difference² column. In our example this is 285.5. Multiplying
this by 6 gives 1713.
Now for the bottom line of the equation. The value n is the
number of sites at which you took measurements. This, in our example is 10.
Substituting these values into n³ - n we get 1000 - 10
We now have the formula: R = 1 - (1713/990) which gives a
value for R:
1 - 1.73 = -0.73
What does this R value of -0.73 mean?
The closer Ris to +1 or -1, the stronger
the likely correlation. A perfect positive correlation is +1 and a perfect
negative correlation is -1. The Rvalue of -0.73 suggests a fairly
strong negative relationship.
A further technique is now required to test the significance
of the relationship.
The R value of -0.73 must be
looked up on the Spearman Rank significance table below as follows:
Work out the 'degrees of freedom' you need to use. This is the number of
pairs in your sample minus 2 (n-2). In the example it is 8 (10 - 2).
Now plot your result on the table.
If it is below the line marked 5%, then it is possible your result was the
product of chance and you must reject the hypothesis.
If it is above the 0.1% significance level, then we can be 99.9% confident
the correlation has not occurred by chance.
If it is above 1%, but below 0.1%, you can say you are 99% confident.
If it is above 5%, but below 1%, you can say you are 95% confident (i.e.
statistically there is a 5% likelihood the result occurred by chance).
In the example, the value 0.73 gives a significance level of
slightly less than 5%. That means that the probability of the relationship you
have found being a chance event is about 5 in a 100. You are
95% certain that your hypothesis is correct. The reliability of your sample can
be stated in terms of how many researchers completing the same study as yours
would obtain the same results: 95 out of 100.
The fact two variables correlate cannot prove anything - only further
research can actually prove that one thing affects the other.
Data reliability is related to the size of the sample. The more data you
collect, the more reliable your result.


Drunkeness, thievery and health: the South African soap opera continues
The new twist in the tale is that the journalists of the Sunday Times, the Johannesburg newspaper which broke the stories of ministrial drunkness and thievery, are accused of obtaining and publishing Tshabalala-Msimang's medical records without her consent and are threatened with arrest. An alleged represenative of the medical community, speaking on anonymity, states that such uses of medical records are simply unethical, even if what they reveal is itself unethical behavior. Defenders of the journalists cite press freedom, while pointing out that the journalists and the newspaper seem to be subject to special government pressure: the journalists are now being watched by the South African secret service, and the government is threatening to withhold its advertizing from the Sunday Times. Interestingly, the executive director of the Freedom of Expression Institute argues that disclosure of private information can be justified in the light of a significant public health threat, and Tshabalala-Msimang should be considered just such a threat. It is unusual that a Minister of Health is viewed as analogous to multi-drug resistant tuberculosis or a toxic waste spill. But in South Africa, anything is apparently possible.


A recent thread on the NYC Celiac Disease Meetup message board prompted quite a discussion about the Gluten Free Certification Organization (GFCO). GFCO is a program of the Gluten Intolerance Group of North America (GIG). Cynthia Kupper, the Executive Director of GIG, took the time to address our thread and thoroughly answer many of our outstanding questions. Please see her Q&A below.
"I can only address the GFCO program and FDA. My knowledge of the CSA Seal of Recognition program is limited to the information made public through comments provided by CSA to the FDA."
Q: Do you know if GFCO plans to work with other programs, i.e. NFCA's G.R.E.A.T. program, to do trainings and establish standard protocols throughout the collective food industries?
A: GIG and GFCO do work in partnership with various members of the food industry already. Many agencies are working within and with the food industries to provide education and training related to gluten intolerances. Some of us are working together in this effort.
Q: Is it true that only people who work for the Orthodox Union and have no business conflicts are eligible to be trained to be GFCO inspectors?
A: GFCO contracts with third-party auditors, including the Food Services Inc, a part of the OU and other independent auditors who have expertise in manufacturing processes.
C: Right now smaller food companies don't have any easy route to certification from anyone.
R: GFCO's ultimate target is the raw materials suppliers, supplying ingredients to the companies making GF foods. Our goal is to make the food safe from the beginning of the food chain as well as the end product. GFCO works with companies of all sizes and has a small business package. GFCO works with small businesses and new companies to find a way to provide consumer confidence and assurance in their products.
Q: What is the GFCO Process for Certification?
A: Companies who certify with GFCO must complete an application. A risk assessment, independent audit and report are completed. If a company qualifies to be certified, a contract which includes: requirements for onsite testing, random testing from a point of sale; and unannounced plant inspections is signed. GFCO also maintains the right to take action to protect the consumer from fraudulent GFCO claims or Standards violations.
Q: If the FDA comes out with a definition of gluten-free being < 20 ppm, would we then be able to trust any product that declares itself gluten-free even if it is free of a certification label?
A: Yes. Any product labeled GF after the FDA regulation goes into affect will have to meet the standards set by the FDA. 20 ppm is a very safe level for celiacs and it is virtually impossible to consume that level of gluten, based on eating GF products.
Q: Would there still be a purpose to having certification by GFCO or CSA?
A: Yes. Certification is voluntary, as is labeling a product GF. Companies who certify their products believe in meeting higher standards and welcome third party oversight. External oversight is healthy and provides a higher level of accountability for manufacturers. Let?s face it, the FDA is understaffed and will not be able to provide adequate oversight for all companies.
C: The two companies out there CSA and GFCO do not make it convenient, easy, or cost-effective for small companies and almost impossible for non-dedicated facilities.
R: GFCO does work with small companies to make certification cost-effective. The challenge is to also make the program cover its own expenses. Companies who understand the value of third-party certification for organic or kosher also understand the value of GF certification. The overall cost of certification is pennies on the dollar. Unfortunately, certification may be out of the reach of small companies just getting started?but call GFCO?you may be surprised what can be done.
It is possible to certify non-dedicated facilities! There are a number of factors that go into certifying products in non-dedicated facilities, but it is do-able. GFCO audits and consults with co-packers on a regular basis. Many GF products are safely produced in non-dedicated facilities at no detectible gluten in their products.
Q: What about testing methods?
A: the Haven Flow-through is just one testing method available. Some are based on Skarrett and others on r-5 sandwich Elisa methodology. It is the r-5 that is being supported by CODEX. At this time we do not know what the FDA will use. There is on-going debate in the analytical community about the need for using both methods rather than just one. Each has its strengths and weaknesses when seeing specific gluten proteins. GFCO uses both methods.


Earlier this year, Saudi Arabian Airlines announced that they would not fly anyone with an Israeli passport on any of their flights. In addition, they said that they would not allow anyone with an Israeli stamp in any other countries passport to fly in or out of Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is a Muslim nation and it is ruled under very strict Muslim laws. They are also an ally of the US so the news of this discrimination was kept somewhat low key by the Obama administration who is also an ally to the Muslim religion.
Except for some Jewish residents in New York, I don’t recall hearing very many people, especially any Muslims complain about Saudi Arabian Airlines’ discriminatory process, especially considering the fact that they do fly commercially in and out of the US and will enforce their discriminatory practices here in our country. But when the najdi are on the other foot, things are different.
Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul, Islamic imams from Tennessee have filed suit against Delta Airlines and Atlantic Southeast Airlines, claiming that they were not allowed to fly because of how they looked and who they are.
According to their lawsuit, the two men were wearing traditional Muslim clothing and were on their way to an anti-Muslim bigotry conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. They passed through the TSA security, underwent several extra security checks and pat downs and were approved for boarding. At boarding they were pulled aside and again given another security check and allowed to board.
After being seated, they were again asked to provide a photo id, which they did. Then just as the plane began to taxi away from the gate, the pilot announced that they had to return to the gate where the two imams were asked to gather their luggage and disembark. TSA agents again searched their luggage and patted down the men and cleared them to board.
At this time, the pilot refused to let the two Islamic clerics back on board the plane. A Delta supervisor was called in and he had a rather heated discussion with the pilot and then tried to smooth things over with the clerics. At this point, a higher ranking Delta supervisor was called in, but by the time he arrived, the plane had left the gate.
The plane was order back to the gate where the higher ranking supervisor had another heated discussion with the pilot. The pilot told him that he was uncomfortable with the two men being on his plane and thought that their presence would make other passengers uncomfortable. The passengers were asked and no one responded that they were uncomfortable with the two men on board, but the pilot still expressed his reservations. Finally, the flight was allowed to leave without the two imams on board.
I’m sure the pilot is going to have hell to pay for his actions, but we will have to wait and see.
I’m not one to favor discrimination, but if a Muslim run airline is allowed to practice ethnic discrimination for their flights here in the US, then hasn’t the legal precedent been set? If action is taken against the pilot of this flight, I hope they use the example of the Saudi Arabian Airlines discriminatory practices as part of their defense. Muslims many want it both ways, but hopefully they can’t have it both ways.


|Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow|
Nota bene: The following writing will not educate you on a few foundational premises. One of them is that indefinite solitary confinement is torture. Another is that the prison system as practiced in the U.S., and particularly in California, is not only egregiously punitive, it is run by profiteers who benefit from overpopulation, and it is organized in a way that capitalizes on racist narratives of criminality that are as ugly and diseased as any racist beliefs that circulated this country prior to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. If you have any remaining doubt about these premises, I implore you to educate yourself.
Alexander, who was bold enough to claim that “we have allowed a human rights nightmare to occur on our watch,” locates herself squarely in the business of educating people about the prison system, but she did not publicly recommend any particular course of action other than the building of a “large-scale social movement” to address the concerns of prisoners and their families. (At least, she didn’t in Los Angeles. I heard from comrades up North that in the Bay Area, she was using the word “revolution.” Hopeful? Maybe. Pandering to audience? Maybe. Who knows.)
|Juan Mendez, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture|
Some very well-respected people with heavy media connections are speaking out in public about solitary confinement and mass incarceration! That’s good! Isn’t it?
One of the most boring public debates is the one about how much is enough activism. How much work it will take to get any social justice actually visible on the ground. I’m not going to participate in it here. I’m glad that people like Alexander and Mendez are out there doing educational and solidarity projects with people who are making the painful move toward awareness of such injustice as California’s prisons. They both probably work as many hours as they are capable, and are pained by the information they are privy to, and so on. And even if they aren’t, they certainly are doing more to raise consciousness with their access to media than, oh, say, Gov. Jerry Brown.
The question I’m posing here is not one of degree. My question is actually about the foundational beliefs that undergird projects of prison reform, and particularly the movement to end solitary confinement. One of those beliefs, which I do not share, is that prison itself could ever be a just and appropriate answer to “crime” as we have conceived of it in this country. I do not believe that putting human beings in cages is a conscionable act. At all. Ever. This makes supporting anti-solitary confinement movement work feel, to me, like offering a self-loathing alcoholic a beer in the morning, out of deference to her hangover. (Which is not to pass moral judgement on self-loving functional addicts of any kind. I’m talking about giving drinks to a trapped, wants-to-stop-but-can’t alcoholic.) In other words, if we can begin to conceive of our country as dependent upon the carceral system, adjusting its severity here and there simply doesn’t satisfy the call for real change.
The nationally accepted concept of crime itself, the very category of action against law, is racialized and therefore unjust. Alexander acknowledges this, and reports on American’s racial biases and how they are institutionally supported in The New Jim Crow. Ninety-five percent of survey respondents describe a black person when asked who they imagine as a “drug user,” when consistently the statistics indicate that equal numbers if not more white people both use and sell illegal drugs? Let’s not even begin to head down the racist rabbit hole of why some drugs are legal and some aren’t.
Not only do I think cages are wrong, I think that asking a privileged class of people (Congress, lobbyists, policy makers, NGOs, and the like) what to do about crime is like asking the alcoholic what she’d like to do about her headache in the moment it hurts her the most. Oh, she’d prefer to drink more if her choices are drinking or not drinking? Well, yes. That makes sense. Prison reformists would prefer to put people in slightly less disgusting cages, if the choices are more or less disgusting cages? Hm. That seems right...if the choices really are that circumscribed.
The fact that our country was built on genocide and slave labor should tip us off that we might require an underclass to perpetuate our function as a superpower, and that our notions of what is possible for reform are defined by that need. California certainly creates, perpetuates, and profits from an underclass. Nationally, that class is made of 2.3 million people who are under the surveillance and bodily control of the state. Inmates are getting paid cents per hour to perform factory work for companies who profit simultaneously from lower wage expenditures AND from their stocks in private prison corporations, which are expanding faster in California than any other private sector is expanding. In Southern California, upon release, men are bused directly to Skid Row and then denied jobs and state aid based on their status as felons, for the rest of their lives.
We, as a country, need a huge prison population to support our power structure, and so anyone who wants to incite social justice movements around prison reform is in a terrible position: they must either ignore these facts in favor of continued American exceptionalism, or they must ask Americans to self-critically evaluate their own possessive investment in the continued functioning of the carceral state. Do you know how mass incarceration makes your daily life possible? Have you ever tried to figure it out?
Anyone can be against solitary confinement, and everybody should. It takes a much deeper level of self-imposed discomfort to realize that every day, you and I are living on the spoils of slave labor, contributing to the isolation and abuse of prisoners by allowing carceral facilities to operate totally para-legally and without oversight, and, that it is not just the prisoners’ or their families’ who bear the responsibility for upending the system as we know it.
Perhaps entering the prison abolition mindset via reformists like Michelle Alexander and Juan Mendez is possible. However, even the powerful reformists of the world are most likely not going to discuss the total dismantling of the neoliberal carceral state on camera, lest they be called socialists, hippies, idiots, or worse. But we will. And we must, or whatever gains the movement makes in ending solitary confinement will silence protest against the foundational and constituitive elements of the carceral state that allow it to function at all.
In addition to the terrifying statistics and horrifying anecdotes that illuminate the errors of the California Department of Corrections, there are moments of hopeful action in California that are deeply affecting and radically defiant. Communities are capable of creating real alternatives to incarceration. Self-determination in codes of conduct and self-defense against state-sanctioned fascist policing policies are foundational ethics in multiple communities within this nightmare. More than being anti-solitary reformists, we do have the option to be abolitionists, without all the answers, without all the plans, and with each other, not just the experts I heard over the weekend, as guides.
|Members of Break the Lock and allies at USC's 2013 Conference on Cruelty|
Read up at: www.tideturning/org (And come to the December gala!)


Last night, at the meeting of the Planning Commission, a representative from Hudson Solar presented plans to install a solar electric system at Basilica Hudson. He explained that the original plan was to install the panels on the roof of the main building, an action that did not require site plan review, but the nature of the building's steel and concrete roof made it easier and less costly to erect a new structure to hold the solar array.
The new structure being proposed is a covered, open-air car park to be located on part of the "triangle" of land along the railroad tracks, which was purchased from HCDPA by former Basilica owner Patrick Doyle in 2006. The 32 x 116 foot structure would be adjacent to the smaller building at the Basilica, sometimes used as a gallery and now being used by Kite's Nest. The spokesperson for the Basilica suggested that the new structure might be designated for handicapped parking or made available as a rainy day alternative for the farmers' market.
Cappy Pierro, Planning Commission member and Fifth Ward alderman, pointed out that the Planning Commission had already given site plan approval to an earlier plan for this space. Cheryl Roberts, counsel to the Planning Commission, indicated that it was "the applicant's responsibility to know if [the current proposal] is an amendment [to the original application] or a new application."
When the question of a public hearing on the project arose, Pierro and Planning Commission member Cleveland Samuels expressed the opinion that there didn't need to be a public hearing. Gossips, speaking from the audience on behalf of the public, urged that there be a public hearing, and Planning Commission member Laura Margolis agreed. The public hearing on this project and on the new bar proposed for 702 Columbia Street has been tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, January 9, at 6:30 p.m.


As GPS vulnerabilities to intentional jamming and unintentional interference become key factors for high-reliability navigation, inertial aiding to coast through outages becomes an important consideration for OEM integrators. Micro-electro-mechnical systems (MEMS) have been seen as offering the most promising, economical way forward for cost-effective, compact inertial and gyro solutions for almost every application going.
However, in the past, MEMS gyro and accelerometer components from which inertial and gyro systems are built have not provided performance anywhere near as good as laser gyros (ring laser gyros, or RLG) used in the majority of high-performance inertial systems. Now, as new MEMS inertial systems have begun to hit the market in recent months, the envelope appears to be opening up on achieving pretty high performance.
Gladiator Technologies, based in Snoqualmie near Seattle, Washington, is one of several companies currently supplying MEMS-based inertial/gyro systems for a wide range of applications. I came across Gladiator at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) convention in Washington, D.C., last August and decided to take a closer look at them as a typical supplier of new, compact, cost-effective MEMS navigation devices, which are becoming essential compliments to GNSS.
Gladiator has been around since 2005 and has continued to innovate each year, growing its product line and gradually improving performance. Right or wrong, as an “inertial layman” I’ve always used drift rates (bias) to assess inertial accuracy, and this is apparently directly related to the noise floor of the sensor device. Now Gladiator has released its latest Landmark 50 INS/GPS with low noise MEMS gyros and accelerometers and it claims 1 degree/hour drift rate in-run — as good as an 8-cm path length ring-laser gyro — something of an achievement for a MEMS-based device. (That’s a 2 Euro coin used in the photo for size reference.)
The product line goes all the way from automotive gyros up to the latest high-performance GPS/INS, and includes basic angular rate sensors and accelerometer packages. Applications include automotive testing, agricultural motion sensing, motorsport racing, instrumentation (including robotics and flight testing), rail, marine and energy motion detection, military land-vehicle and marine platform stabilization and navigation, electro-optical/infra-red targeting and stabilization, launcher and missile stabilization/navigation, and unmanned vehicles.
Gladiator integrates u-blox GPS receivers in its GPS/INS systems because of good environmental and test performance and good accuracy and navigation update rates. It’s possible in the future that airborne-qualified GPS or higher performance DGPS will find their way into new inertial variants, but for now Gladiator is very satisfied with u-blox receivers.
Applications may use a single/dual axis gyro or inertial measurement unit (IMU) where angular attitude outputs are required, such as image, attitude or weapons stabilization, or even packaged accelerometers.
And, of course, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are one of the target markets for these MEMS products — Gladiator has already had a lot of success in this segment. Its equipment is used on a number of unmanned vehicles, including fixed-wing and vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicles, as well as ground and underwater unmanned vehicles. These applications range from primary navigation/backup navigation to primary flight control/backup flight control, and include a large number of stabilization applications including electro-optical/infrared, LIDAR (light detection and ranging) and platform stabilization. Gladiator supplies these UAV applications with various inertial sensors (gyros) and inertial systems, including IMUs, vertical gyros (VGs), attitude heading reference systems (AHRS) and GPS-aided inertial systems. Customers in this market segment include Schiebel, U.S. Army, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, ST Aerospace, and others.
Gladiator is closely monitoring progress towards UAVs gaining certified access to civil aerospace, and the prospect of expanding civilian applications and markets that that will bring. The company feels that its skills are in and around inertial sensor technology and products, and its efforts towards civil qualification should focus on these elements. Therefore, Gladiator is are looking for a partner who would take on GNSS civil qualification for civil airborne GNSS/INS applications.
Gladiator is still a small outfit with around 30 people, with most of its engineering done in-house by a team of nine engineering staff supported by some external consultants. Senior management has more than 100 years’ experience in this field, and Rand Hulsing, the chief scientist, holds 68 patents in MEMS inertial sensors. New patents are currently pending on inertial-grade gyro and accelerometer designs. People on staff have gained significant experience working for companies such as Allied Signal, Sundstrand, Honeywell, L3, Systron Donner and Hughes.
I pressed Mark Chamberlain, Gladiator CEO, for details of which (bought out) OEM MEMS devices his company integrates into its systems, and I was quite surprised by his response — Gladiator designs its own high-performance MEMS gyros and accelerometers and uses a fabless model to produce them. Clearly, it is having great success with this approach as its product performance has improved to almost within reach of existing technology high-performance inertial systems. Some of Gladiator’s lower end systems do still use OEM MEMS sensors. Their manufacturing facility in Washington focuses on product assembly and test, including calibration and environmental test.
The systems Gladiator supplies are non-ITAR — which is short for saying that they can be exported to most friendly countries, and are not subject to special/restricted U.S. State-Department trade regulations.
Gladiator does around $10 million/year currently, and anticipate its growth to continue. It has a number of sales representatives in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia, so it is well known around the world, with more than 200 customers in 30 countries. I asked Mark about the possibility of an Initial Public Offering (IPO), but he is currently quite happy with the existing private ownership for the time being. The Gladiator board includes investor-directors from France and Germany, and the external directors also have impressive experience, so presumably board guidance has also helped Gladiator get where it is today.
So, we have almost-inertial high-performance products with integrated GPS, attitude-only products and accelerometer packages for almost any application you could imagine, and are quietly inching towards 1 deg/hour total within the next few years — MEMS devices really have come a long way in the last few years.