Friday, August 22, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
We are only given so many Breaths- Protect and use them Wisely
Malignant mesothelioma, also known as mesothelioma cancer is a fatal cancer that affects the lining of the lung (pleura), the lining of the abdominal cavity (peritoneum), and the lining of the heart (pericardium). The most common form of mesothelioma is pleural mesothelioma, although pericardial mesothelioma and peritoneal mesothelioma are less frequent. The main cause of mesothelioma is exposure to asbestos, although other factors such as smoking may result in additional complications. For more detailed information on mesothelioma, browse our website and fill out our form for a free book and detailed packet that you or your loved one can read at home.
Mesothelioma Treatment Options
Mesothelioma treatment is critical when a mesothelioma diagnosis occurs. Throughout our site, you'll find lists of mesothelioma hospitals and mesothelioma treatment centers. You'll also find information about mesothelioma doctors such as Dr. Sugarbaker, a mesothelioma expert. New Mesothelioma drugs and mesothelioma treatments, such as Alimta are being used to fight mesothelioma lung cancer. A mesothelioma biopsy is often used to determine if a loved one is affected. If you or a loved one may be facing the reality that mesothelioma cancer treatment is necessary, fill out our form to receive the latest treatment options and mesothelioma clinical trials information.
Asbestos and Mesothelioma
Asbestos cancer, also known as mesothelioma is caused by asbestos exposure, typically found in particular asbestos jobsites. Mesothelioma found in those working at particular jobsites such as shipyards can quite often be easily traced to the asbestos products that were present in these locations. For instance, a navy veteran diagnosed with mesothelioma could have worked at Brooklyn Navy Yard outside New York or Todd Shipyards in New York City or California where they came into contact with various products containing asbestos materials. We have an extensive lists of mesothelioma shipyards and mesothelioma jobsites within our site.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
WINDSPIRE by MARIAH POWER Debuts in Manistee!
| Tuesday, August 12, 2008 Windspire Rotor - Vertical Wind Energy For Urban Settings | |||
| MANISTEE - Southern Exposure Renewable Energy has developed the Windspire, with vertical rotors that catches wind energy and drive a high efficiency generator to produce electric power. A built-in smart inverter converts this power into a regulated form that is readily connectable with the electric grid. To learn more about this urban friendlier wind-power generator listen to this GreenTech edition of News Maker interview recorded at the Michigan Energy Fair. To listen, click on MITechNews.MediaRica.Com | |||
Author: Mike Brennan Source: MITechNews.Com |
Monday, August 11, 2008
A "Ticket to Ride!"
IN OUR OPINION
United Way takes lead in preventing dropouts
August 11, 2008
Leadership requires more than just talking about a problem. It takes commitment and action.
The United Way for Southeastern Michigan is truly taking a leadership role in attacking the issue of high school dropouts, a critical challenge for the economy and well-being of this region.
For the second time this year, the United Way is putting action behind its expressed concern for improving the educational outcomes of students in high poverty districts. The first step was to host a first-of-its-kind regional summit, to expose the painful societal costs of having 30 of the nation's so-called dropout factories right here in metro Detroit.
The event was an eye-opening success for participants who realized the dropout problem is not confined to Detroit.
Last week came the United Way's tangible long-term commitment to solutions, with the creation of the $10-million Greater Detroit Education Venture Fund to help high schools with dropout rates of 40% or more. The money will be disbursed in competitive grants of up to $80,000 per year over five years and paid to well-vetted third-party educational companies that the United Way will designate to partner with schools.
Ideally, the United Way is looking to align troubled schools with companies nationally recognized for turning them around in cities such as Chicago, Miami, New York and Cleveland. The goal is for the companies to help schools identify their students' challenges and then customize a learning environment that could involve breaking a large school into smaller ones within it.
The project should be a good complement to Gov. Jennifer Granholm's smaller school initiative. And it's likely to have a faster impact, given the absence of partisan bickering and general government bureaucracy. In fact, United Way's fund is already approaching the halfway point toward its $10-million goal, with $4 million committed, including a generous $1-million pledge from AT&T of Michigan and investment from the Skillman Foundation.
AT&T Michigan president Gail Torreano said the company's commitment will come from $100 million that AT&T is donating nationwide to efforts to improve educational preparedness, a key workforce issue for employers.
"We ought to have the expectation as a region that we can create change, a better outcome for students," United Way CEO Mike Brennan said in an interview last week. "This is an urban and a suburban issue, one we are collectively accountable for."
Bravo to Brennan for speaking the truth and for being so committed to leading the region in a united way.
Test scores show need to get more help to students
August 11, 2008
The results from the latest Michigan Merit exam once again expose a gaping hole in the state's strategy to turn out a smarter class of high school graduates.
With more than half the high school juniors tested showing failing scores, the State Board of Education needs to take a closer look at whether school districts are identifying struggling students early enough and linking them with tutoring resources that are supposed to be available under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Michigan can't leave this question unanswered after finally installing one of the nation's toughest high school curriculums. The change remains a smart one for Michigan, but if it's going to pay off, the state has to be equally tough and insistent about aiding students who need help making the academic leap.
The dismal scores students are posting under the tougher exam are somewhat to be expected and will probably improve as school districts more closely align their lesson plans with the state objectives.
But the sea change Michigan is trying to lead in its schools also demands a level of coordination and strategic planning that frankly should include an examination of whether middle schools are adequately preparing students or simply passing future failures off to high school.
Paying more attention to what's happening in middle school strikes at the heart of the state's other academic high hurdle -- stemming the tide of high school dropouts. The decision to quit rarely comes suddenly in high school; it's a product of long academic frustration that can be spotted by looking at indicators much simpler than test scores, such as attendance.
The best way to prevent dropouts is to identify the potential failures early, well before they reach high school. That's also the smartest way for Michigan to protect its investment in the more rigorous curriculum and merit exam.
Friday, August 8, 2008
A Students 2.0 Perspective on THINKING DIFFERENTLY and a PREREQUISITE for INNOVATION!
Posted: 07 Aug 2008 11:14 AM CDT
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy. How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels? We make tools for these kinds of people. While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
Some of you may recognise that as the famous Apple ‘Think Different’ text, others may not, but I guess whether you’ve read it before or have read it for the first time there, we can pretty much all agree that it’s an inspiring piece of text. The thing that surprised me was that when reading through it I realised that all you need to do is change one tiny piece of the text to change the whole context of it.
“We make tools for educate these kinds of people”
In my mind, that’s now one hell of a motto for a better education system.
Let’s face it; the current education system just doesn’t know how to handle these kinds of people. “The round pegs in the square holes,” as Apple refers to them. The system doesn’t understand creativity. It robs all students of their creative consciousness and replaces it with structure, structure, and more structure, only to prepare them for a 9-to-5 job, Monday to Friday, every week of every year for the rest of their lives. Art, Music, Drama… you name it, the current system has a course for it. But that course doesn’t do any form of justice to the many greats that have over hundreds of years created amazing works and done incredible things, demonstrating how beautiful these arts can be. Students aren’t told to let passion drive them forward, or let their inspiration flow and their imagination stop at nothing. They are told to follow the rules, and do whatever it takes to get a ‘pass.’ Where would we be if Bach was told his Brandenburg concertos ‘didn’t quite meet the required standard’? What would have happened if Van Gogh was told his paintings just ‘didn’t make sense’?
It doesn’t stop at the arts. The suppression of creativity is seen in all fields of learning within the current system, giving no room for our real geniuses to shine. And why? Because the system has an obsession with testing, and at the end of the day you can’t test real genius, because you just can’t grade it. Who really has the right to say that a piece of music is an A or B or whatever else? Why should someone sitting in a fancy government office be able to sit there and write the rules that decide whether this piece of writing would make the grade or not? Why can’t the people deciding our futures for us be content with having some classes that have no exams? Classes that are solely there to help stimulate the different skills we all possess, without having to put us under the constant pressure of being bombarded with test after test and grade after grade. Do they see this as ‘non-educational’?
Think of the wealth of talent that is being and has been squandered due to this system. How many people would have become the next great composer if they had been given just that little bit more leeway? How many people would have had the courage to write their own novel, because they wouldn’t have been told they ‘weren’t good enough’? How many people failed to ever recognise their own potential because they were too busy striving for the best grades possible? Only so they could get a ‘good’ job in an office, with a ‘good’ salary.
Don’t get me wrong, we need the people in offices to do the things that keep our public services running and our economy going, but we also need the people who create, invent, and change things. We need the people who “sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written,” because Apple is right; they push the human race forward, and have done for as long as the human race has been around. But they can’t continue to do so if we don’t help them realise they are capable of doing so. They can’t invent the cure for cancer, or compose a great symphony, or write a magnificent piece of literature if our education system tells them exactly how everything should be, and what they should learn, and what they are aiming to do with their lives. Give them the opportunity. Let them decide.
We make the mistake of thinking that the people that do well in school are the ‘smart’ ones, but that isn’t always the case. These people may just be good at retaining information and reciting it back under pressure, or may just be good at problem solving. Our schools teach these kinds of people well, because they know how to deal with them. All you need to do with these people is throw facts and figures at them and tell them they need to know them to pass, and get become qualified to get a good job... which is not even proper learning. There is no regard there for our creative ones, or even the ‘smart’ ones who can probably do so much more given the opportunity. There is no other option, no fork in the road, not even a way to have the best of both worlds. Just one path for everyone to follow, with the same goal in mind—to fit in, and become another round peg in a round hole.
Let me make myself clear right now that this is not a dig at teachers, who do a superb job. What it is, however, is a cry out to the people in suits who decide what we learn and how we learn it to change their philosophy. To realise that some people can achieve more, and that the people who will eventually find the cure for cancer, or create the next breakthrough piece of technology, or discover new planets and galaxies are in our schools. These children/students or whatever you want to call them are waiting on these people to realise and do something to help them on their way to greatness. To give them the opportunity to shine, and achieve things that both us and them can’t even imagine yet.
It really is time for our education system to start ‘Thinking Differently.’
The Bass Player
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Waves of Generation
Take a minute out to check this site out and watch his video. What ideas do you have that could add answers to any of lifes persistent problems.
Go to- http://swellfuel.com/en/cms/?751&gclid=CNDIoYG--5QCFQVvFQodhEvRqw
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Friday, August 1, 2008
FUNDING FOR A GOOD IDEA!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
By JIM IRWIN
Associated Press Writer
DETROIT (AP) Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Thursday announced the launch of a program aimed at attracting, retaining and developing small to medium-sized businesses in Michigan.
The Invest Michigan program is financed with $300 million of the state's $58 billion in pension fund assets, divided into two funds of $150 million each.
The Growth Capital Fund will make direct investments of $2 million to $7 million in venture capital and expanding companies, while the Michigan Opportunities Fund will make direct investments of $10 million to $40 million in potential acquisitions and buyouts.
A Business Leadership Council chaired by Penske Corp. CEO Roger Penske will assist the fund managers. Penske, who appeared with Granholm at Thursday's announcement, said the council would review investment proposals, evaluate management and capital requirements and meet with entrepreneurs to discuss their companies' goals and strengths.
Information technology, health care and automotive components are among the businesses that could benefit from the infusion of investment capital, Penske said.
State Sen. Nancy Cassis, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, raised several questions about the Invest Michigan program's goals, risks and effectiveness.
''Once again, state government is picking winners and losers instead of providing relief to all struggling businesses,'' Cassis, R-Novi, said in a statement. ''Is this plan safe? That's the most important consideration at a time of great economic uncertainty, when pen its efforts. He also noted that Goodyear's shift away from low-end tires to high-end tires with higher profit margins also helped improve earnings.
Goodyear's international businesses increased sales 18 percent over the same quarter last year and represented about 60 percent of the company's sales for the current quarter. That made up for poor sales from the North American Tire division, which fell 6 percent.
Deutsche Bank analyst Rod Lache wrote in a report Thursday that Goodyear's international results were so strong that the company should post earnings of more than $2 per share for the year even without contributions from its North American segment.
Earnings from continuing operations were up 159 percent from the same period a year ago. The company sold its engineered products business last year, which accounted for $27 million in profits in the 2007 second quarter.
Shares of Goodyear rose 10 cents, or 0.51 percent, to $19.66 in afternoon trading.
Goodyear has about 70,000 employees and makes products in more than 60 factories in 26 countries.
On the Net:
http://www.goodyear.com
(Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)