Virginia Commonwealth University received a letter from Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli requesting that the Commonwealth’s public universities and colleges rescind policies that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

The University’s senior leadership team and I are examining the issue closely. Provost (No name) is planning forums to provide students, faculty and staff an opportunity to discuss the implications of the Attorney General’s request.

What is there to consider? If the University feels that holding public forums about the implications of removal of discrimination policies is even a thought worth having, the university is misguided and in desperate need of a Truth Session.
As I am an alumnus of this school, and a verbal activist against discrimination of all kinds, yes, Ahem, Mr. University president, I for one think that removal of any policies that discriminate for any reason, unless those reasons deal with academic merit should be removed as soon as possible.

Virginia has for years been a state that takes a long time to get with the times. We still have politicians that think that a law that allows for the beating of one’s wife on the court house steps is cool, that gender discrimination might be a good idea, and that some people with disabilities are a punishment from god just because their parents felt it was a good idea to have an abortion at one time or another.
Oh, I am proud to be an American, but I am getting sick of a state that is so antiquated and full of dunderheads. I am not sure if other states have this problem, but Virginia needs a reform of politicians, public law, and a resurrection of common sense.

Wake up Commonwealth!

For exampled, in the House of Delegates session, it is almost as if their rules of “order” cause more disorder. Take this situation. If a delegate yields the floor, anyone can talk. This includes questions, criticism, parliamentary inquiry, and or the yawning the speaker.
One would think that the people in government are exhausted persons. The honorable delegate from Jackass Flats, or the distinguished gentilman from Bumpass. This is not the case. They are regular people like you and me. They have arguments, raise their grand children, worry about schools and teachers, and most of all they have regular jobs that pay the bills.
They just are regular people who one a popularity contests so that they could govern. Many of them have not lost touch with their roots. I have to ask myself, what keeps me from doing their job?
The answer is simple, I don’t’ want to have that much responsibility. I would rather remain a simple social worker, helping a few people gain self-sufficiency in a trouble world. I don’t’ want a bunch of pissed off citizens breathing down my neck because I made a bad decision. I would probably do a better job, but my brain goes to sleep when they mention millions of dollars.
Who knows, Delegate, senator, or even president Kevin may be one day. Not anytime soon though, so politics is safe.

“The Indonesian government’s policy… simply weakens the software industry and undermines its long-term competitiveness by creating an artificial preference for companies offering open source software and related services, even as it denies many legitimate companies access to the government market.

Rather than fostering a system that will allow users to benefit from the best solution available in the market, irrespective of the development model, it encourages a mindset that does not give due consideration to the value to intellectual creations. As such, it fails to build respect for intellectual property rights and limits the ability of government or public sector customers (e.g., State-owned enterprise) to choose the best solutions.

What in hell are you talking about? Just because it is suggested that rather than paying out of the nose for a piece of software, free alternatives with the same or better capabilities should be investigated, does not reduce intellectual copyright. In fact, the open source world keeps such a hard hold on intellectual copyright, that any violators are scorned, and called out for phonies within a matter of minutes. The open source world also has multiple licenses for sharing software, so that the credit remains with the developer, and that the distribution is monitored to meet with the mission and vision of the innovators intent.
In a nutshell, if using free, or open source alternatives becomes a crime where in you have to go to jail, or become an enemy of the state, let me be the first to say I like my jail cell clean thank you. I will continue to support new ideas and innovations that are free to the public. I mean hell, if open source software is wrong, why the hell does the IIPA have a website, on this open source platform known as the internet.

You are driving home from work looking forward to spending a quiet and relaxing evening with your family. When suddenly, BANG, you get rear-ended by the vehicle behind you. You are shocked. What just happened? How did it happen? What was that driver thinking about.. Oh man, now what?

Does that sound familiar to you? It does to me. I think back and remember the confusion, anger, and annoyed feeling I had at the time of my accident. Not to mention the pain in my back and neck as the minutes and hours went by..

Most people really don’t have any idea of what they should do at the time of an accident. Trust me, a lot of things go through your mind. It’s too late to be concerned about your auto insurance policy. That should have been taken care of a long time ago. (this will be a topic for another article).

Your primary concern after an accident should absolutely be your health and well-being. I know, the car is a mess. But don’t worry about the car at that moment. Take stock of what you are feeling so that you can report any immediate symptoms to the emergency professionals who arrive on the scene. While it is not always necessary to be transported to an emergency room, if you have ANY doubts about your injuries, make sure you follow the paramedics advice in that regard.

Let’s say you were lucky. You got banged up a bit, perhaps even have a sore neck or back pain. But you didn’t need to go to the emergency room. That’s great, but don’t delay in calling your local chiropractic physician. It’s very important to find out what structural damage may have occurred in order to give yourself the best opportunity to recover from your injuries. Don’t be fooled by the lack of symptoms at the time of the accident because it can fool you into believing you have no injuries at all. Many patients report symptoms that increase over the first few weeks after the accident, even if they are getting the correct type of treatment! My experience shows me that this is more the norm rather than the exception.

Most states require that you wear a seat belt, by law. So let’s say you were following the law and wearing your seat belt. When your car was hit from the rear, your seat belt prevented your body from hurling into the dashboard and steering wheel. That’s a good thing. However, once your car came to a complete stop, the laws of physics made your neck snap back. That’s why this injury is typically called a whiplash injury, because of that snapping back motion. Quite frankly, there is really no way to prevent the injury from happening. To help make the injuries a bit less, always be sure to have the head rest high enough so that the back of head is resting on it. The whole purpose of the head rest is to prevent severe hyperextension of your neck, which would create an even more dangerous injury.

Years ago many physicians used soft cervical collars on whiplash patients. Twenty nine years of treating whiplash patients have taught me that its more important to create mobility for most whiplash patients, not immobility. So in my office, it is a rare sight to see a patient with a soft cervical collar.

In most cases the combination of physical therapy on the muscles of the upper back and neck, gentle chiropractic adjustments to increase spinal mobility, and then rehabilitative exercises to strengthen the affected muscle groups are the key ingredients for recovery in many whiplash cases.

Dr Santoro has been in active practice since 1981. For more information on the benefits of chiropractic care and a great resource for many health related topics visit http://www.DrSantoro.com

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Youve-Been-Injured-in-an-Automobile-Accident---Now-What-Do-You-Do?&id=3137813] You’ve Been Injured in an Automobile Accident – Now What Do You Do?

The priorities, the working assumptions, and the cultures of organizations can make risk control difficult. Risk control operations may run up against built-in assumptions of trust performance” in meaningful and persuasive ways. Interventions must be designed, and their effectiveness measured (to the extent possible) a long way back in a chain of possible events. All control work has to be conceived, organized, and conducted far back in the development of the threat.

Analysis is fundamentally important in breaking the risk and its precursors into elements that can be controlled or reduced. Organizations may prefer to sacrifice individuals who fall over the edge rather than give up the performance gains associated with risky practice.

Investigation and punishment, after a fall, may turn out to be window-dressing, as the organization may well be reluctant to give up the performance gains. The organization may be unwilling or reluctant to devote resources to audit, surveillance, and enforcement. Officials responsible for customer service and process management may end up opposing, sabotaging, or sidelining the risk control operation.

At a minimum, a risk-management system must have the following components:

• A Nomination System which generates and funnels nominations for risks to be addressed.
• An Assignment System for committing personnel/ resources to risk-mitigation projects.
• Project Records: project files, paper or electronic, organized around risks or risk-concentrations (rather than around cases, programs, systems, or functional divisions).

More and more agencies are learning how to organize resources around important risk areas and to respect the natural shape and size of problems they seek to address, rather than forcing them into the existing organizational apparatus.

In reflecting on their hard won successes, agency executives usually discover that the following observations apply to their successful risk-control initiatives.

• Neither the specific components of the risk, nor the solution, were conceived anywhere in the agency legislation. The solution of the problem or the mitigation of the risk required neither a change in legislation, nor any change in the agency general policies.

• The “problem” or “risk-concentration” was identified, managed, and solved below the level of strategic planning. Although the agency mission statement, authorizing legislation, and strategic plans might specify broad classes of risk, successful projects usually address carefully delineated.

• The risk performance measures (indicators of risk-reduction success) were specific to the project and were selected before developing the action plan. Designing relevant metrics took as much creativity and imagination as the action plan itself.

Real world problems come in awkward shapes and sizes, which do not fit established groups or units. Dealing with them properly requires coordination and commitment across different units and agencies.

• Management does not understand this kind of work, and fails to support those who try to do it.
• Problem – solving and risk-mitigation work brings an unfamiliar degree of discretion, and uncertain degrees of authorization.

Pioneering agencies find this work to be different, unrelentingly difficult, and intellectually demanding. Many government agencies, especially regulatory and enforcement agencies, are adopting risk-management frameworks to reorient their core businesses. Many others are recognizing the need to use formal risk-management approaches to protect their personnel, their clients, their resources, and their ability to carry out their primary missions.

Visit the Artur Victoria sites http://sites.google.com/site/cliptheschoolbeginning/ http://sites.google.com/site/arturvictoriasite/

Article Source: http://www.upublish.info

My father who, please do not misunderstand is a great guy, urged me not to obtain this major. He pushed me to go for a degree, any degree, but Spanish. This man who had been pushing me for years to return to school, was now telling me not to get a degree in the subject I was good at.

As it happened, for a variety of reasons, I became a history major, which greatly pleased my dear old dad. Now, I find myself in the position of needing to drop a class and finding one to replace it with. I mentioned to my dad during our weekly chat, that I was thinking about Mandarin. His response both shocked and offended me. “oh, come on! Don’t waist your time with that. You should take a class that will really help you in life.” Being an easy going guy, and not in the mood for a fight with Uncle Jimbo, I let it slide. Hopefully, most of you can see why I was annoyed by what my dad said, but just in case some of you are a bit dense, I’ll explain.

Like it or not, the world has shrunk. If one country sneezes, a lot of other countries can catch a cold. We are for better or worse, in a global economy. If a country wants to compete, we Must be able to communicate. That means, learning the language of our neighbors, and of our competitors. A lot of schools here in California are at least toying with and some have already started insisting upon the teaching of Mandarin to children in early grade school.

China is just one of several rising powers, both militarily, and economically. To urge someone not to learn another language, is urging that person to be stupid. To urge a person not to learn a major world language, is urging that person to be a bloody retard.

I have argued before for a multilingual society, and the fact is, if America wants to compete in this new century, increasing the math and science scores of our students will help. However, if they can not speak the language of their international piers, regardless of their grades in all other subjects, they will almost certainly fall behind.

The old America is gone. White people now wash dishes, we do (menial) work, and this white boy would be thrilled to do it. That in English boys and girls is what they call a pay check. When you haven’t seen that many of them in recent years, believe me, there is nothing wrong with a pay check!

Can I get a job with a history degree? You bet I can! I can get a job teaching, or dusting old artifacts. Yes, I can get a job as an annalist, or more interesting positions, but in general, the major job for a history major is teaching. Companies Love history majors, and a history degree will really teach you how to logically interpret everything you see. But businesses want something else with it. With a language degree, if you are good, you can be on the way to writing your own ticket. You can teach, you can interpret, you can get a much wider variety of jobs with the state department, ETC. Yes, both go much better with a degree in something else, but both are Extremely valuable.

For my father to argue that I would be wasting my time learning any language, shows his ignorance. It is that ignorance that is holding America back. Not that the Chinese are better in science than we are, it’s that they can communicate with their competitors. We can and often do have the brightest people in the world. But with out the ability to communicate, or to interpret what your competitor is doing, America is and always will be just second best.

If you want to get ahead, if you can, Please, learn a language. Any language will do, but Spanish and Mandarin are damn good places to start. History? If you want to be middle class, that’s fine. But if you aspire to being among the upper-class, you had better learn more than the king’s English. My father will retire in another year or two, but if he was just ten years younger, if he didn’t have a language skill, he might very well be facing retirement just a year or two away, and one that how ever welcome on a cold morning, might not be all that welcome when the greedy tax man comes around with his hand out.

Today, there are many Celebrities who are seen as an icon by millions of people worldwide. Their fans look up to these stars for their glamour and attractive style that make everyone crazy for them.

Celebrities are the biggest attraction in this world. These popular figures are chased by their fans and media. They follow them wherever they go.
People are always waiting for the latest news, gossips and of course, pictures of their favorite celebrities in different poses. And, many times the border lines are crossed by the media, yes stars do not like any kind of privacy invasion, but still it happens many times as the paparazzi cannot stop themselves from taking celebrity pictures that the whole world wants to see.

Today, anyone can join the paparazzi bandwagon which characterizes celebrity’s pictures if you have the camera and ingenuity to be unique in the act. You can actually make thousands of dollars on celebrity pictures especially if you caught a celebrity in an unpleasant situation {remember people want to have a first-hand story and prove of such stories on their favorite celebrities}. If you happen to be in the right place at the right time, there are few steps you need to take before taking pictures of celebrity.

Avoiding the crowds is the first thing you must ensure when taking celebrity pictures. Do not engage in taking pictures when the paparazzi are around, and that is because they will have similar pictures to yours. The real valuable celebrity pictures are those taken in casual or intimate settings {uncommon pictures}. Getting the pictures when there are no crowds is the best possible way of getting such unique pictures. Secondly; you need to do some research about celebrity hang-outs, their daily routine, and where they spend their vacations. You can ask taxi drivers, and ask the hangout venues where they hang but keep your identity secluded.

Your celebrity picture gallery must tell unique stories, especially when you catch the celebrities in an uncompromising situations. Celebrity pictures of less damning situations can also be very valuable. Catching a celebrity in an uncompromising situation can fetch you a great fortune. Celebrity photos can be sold directly to tabloids and magazines who will offer you the best financial reward for your efforts. If the celebrity pictures are not up to standards, you can contact middle-men agencies who can shape your pictures up to the desired standards.

You need to sell your celebrity picture gallery as soon as possible because the longer you stick to them, the less valuable they become. Working with a professional photo market place which specializes in the marking of celebrity images will be ideal for you, they can help you get your celebrity pictures directly to publications {the failure to send pictures early may make such pictures absurd and your news may become an old one}.

When selling your celebrity pictures, you need to ensure that you understand the sales contract, most importantly; you must verify that the celebrity pictures are used as agreed in the contract.

Collect your famous celebrity hot photos, Collectphotos.net has latest collection of female celebrities photos like Paris Hilton, Hayden Panettiere , Jessica Alba, Kate Beckinsale, Angelina Jolie and many more!

Article Source: http://www.upublish.info

“Let’s meet our responsibility to the people who sent us here,” says the President. “To do that, we have to recognize that we face more than a deficit of dollars right now. We face a deficit of trust — deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years.” Sadly True. It is time for greater transparency, accountability, and a realistic sense of feasibility.

After the recent fall in obama’s popularity pole, I guess he’s figured out that talking loud and doing nothing only works in the movies. Calling for change, as his campaign, is all well and good, but don’t make the people thing that change will happen over night.

Obama, getting this message, reminds the country that change is a process that takes time. It’s a process that requires assistance from both sides of the isle, and one that without total support from within the nation and from our friendly nation states is impossible.

He understands the nation’s mood. While healthcare is important, he did make the claim that job creation was the top priority of his administration. To this end he has made countless strides toward job creation and job assurance.

2009 marked the start of the modern day depression. Jobs have disappeared, the nations unemployment rate is above 10 percent millions do not have proper health care, and people are so frustrated that they have stopped seeking a better life.

Wake up Barak! If you are not careful, the lyrics of the national anthem will be changing. Pride and loyalty will be replaced with self-preservation. I hear it now.

I was born by the river in a little tent
And just like the river, I’ve been running ever since
It’s been a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come

It’s been too hard living, but I’m afraid to die
I don’t know what’s up there beyond the sky
It’s been a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come

I go to the movie, and I go downtown
Somebody keep telling me “Don’t hang around”
It’s been a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come

Then I go to my brother and I say, “Brother, help me please”
But he winds up knocking me back down on my knees

There’ve been times that I’ve thought I couldn’t last for long
But now I think I’m able to carry on
It’s been a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come.

Gmail, whose ads were decent in the past, now says that if we cannot find a relevant advertisement to your message, we will pull out an advert for another message and display it. Excuse me? Um, what kind of logistical sense does this make?

Yes, Google has the rights to put advertising in its website. Hell, it even has the rights to select ads by whatever method it chooses unless that message infringes on the user’s privacy, But is Google so profitable now that they can say now, “Oh, we can afford to put crappy ads on your pages. We are Google, assimilation is futile.”

For some reason I get the feeling that, not too many people will notice this shift in common sense. Me on the other hand, I am a victim of logic. If the ads relevance is not good enough, I am not going to click on the link. Hey Google, you get paid when I click, please remember that.

Look close here and know that I am shy. It’s not that I deny, but I just don’t’ know why, how who did what so saying nothing just feels right. If you feel that I am floating down the river Styx, that I am falling on life’s bricks, reach out. I am open. Friends are my treasure, and yes, they bring me pleasure. I hide none from my friends. They are with me until the end. And with them, none but my family will contend.