Archive for May, 2008

Little North Western Railway; Bentham

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
For articles about other railway companies named North Western Railway, see North Western Railway (disambiguation).

The North Western Railway (NWR) was a British railway company. often known as the Little North Western Railway to distinguish it from the larger London and North Western Railway. It was absorbed by the Midland Railway in 1874. The section between Skipton and Wennington is still open. Beyond Wennington, traffic contines on what was the Furness and Midland Joint Railway to Lancaster

The first passenger service between Lancaster and Morecambe was on 12 June 1848; on 31 October 1849 Tatham Bridge near Wennington was connected, reaching Wennington on 17 November. A horse omnibus service operated to Skipton. On the 2 May 1850 saw passenger traffic between Wennington and Bentham, with the final link completed 1 June. It was originally a single line, the line was doubled in 1889.

The First section of track was built by a different company.


External links

  • http://www.railscot.co.uk/North_Western_Railway/frame.htm
  • http://www.residentialrail.co.uk/page.php?domain_name=residentialrail.co.uk&viewpage=history

Restore Our Associational Rights; can only pursue their

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008


Restore Our Associational Rights, Inc. (ROAR) was an organization formed by United States college fraternities to pursue legislation that would protect them from action by college administrations stifling students’ right of association. Headed by Delta Kappa Epsilon, ROAR achieved limited success by securing a clause in the Higher Education Act Amendments of 1998; the clause allegedly protects students’ right to associate with fraternies without fear of retribution from colleges that receive federal funding, but it has yet to be tested in a court of law.


See also

  • Collective rights
  • Individual rights

Lifetime income tax; income; if

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

A lifetime income tax is an income tax that would tax a person based on their cumulative lifetime income, rather than their yearly income as is currently done throughout the world. A lifetime income tax is currently just a proposal that has been made by some economists and politicians.

The main advocate of the idea is Roger Martin, Dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. Former Ontario health minister and Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate Tony Clement has come out in favour of reforming Canada’s tax code to embrace this notion.

Clement’s plan makes a good example of such a system. Those who have earned less than $250,000 over their life time wouldn’t have to pay taxes. Those who have made between $250,000 and $500,000 over their lifetime would be taxed at a 14% rate. Earners of a cumulative $501,000 to $750,000 would be taxed at a 24% rate, and those who had made $1 million over time would be taxed at 27%.

This system would have several advantages:

  • It would help the young, the portion of the population most likely to make new purchases and those that are struggling with high interest rates, student loans, and young families
  • It would put more of a tax burden on the middle aged and elderly who are more likely to save rather than spend and who have a generally higher standard of living.
  • It could help cure Canada’s “brain drain” of educated professionals emigrating to the United States.
  • It would protect people against fluctuations from year to year.
  • It would especially benefit those who have moved from a low income to a high income

The system would also have some disadvantages.

  • It would tax seniors more heavily than any other group, and many seniors are not well off.
  • It would reduce savings and thus decrease the amount of investment capital available in the society.
  • It would make someone having a poor year even worse off as they would be paying taxes based on a number of earlier successful years
  • It would hurt those who were once rich and are no longer wealthy

The system would maintain tax brackets that other alternative taxation schemes would do away with.

The implementation of the policy would also be difficult. Martin believes that before computers such a tax could not have been managed, but that it is today possible. The transition between systems would be difficult, taking many years. The politics of implementing such a system would also be difficult. Young people in much of the west are the least likely section of the population to vote, while seniors are the most likely, so that any system that transfers money from seniors to the young has a major hurdle to overcome.


Other proposed income tax systems

  • flat tax
  • negative income tax

Heritage Conservation and Recreation Services; remains always

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

Heritage Conservation and Recreation Services was a division that was created within the United States Department of the Interior that subsumed these functions from the National Park Service. It was created by the Carter administration in the late 1970s. When the Reagan administration came to power in the early 1980s, this division was eliminated and the National Park Service once again performed these roles.

During its brief tenure, Heritage Conservation and Recreation Services was consistently short of money and other resources and was never granted a leading role that its proponents advocated. During this agency’s existence, however, a remarkable number of publications and research on historic preservation issues were completed. To date, this level of productivity has not been matched by the National Park Service.

Within the HCRS was a “Policy on Disposition of Human Remains” that was a standard for other federal agencies that were also interested in studying the bones.

The policy was an early attempt at relieving tensions between Native Americans and the U.S. government. The HCRS called for the reburial of all remains that were in deliberate burials whose direct relation to modern relatives could be proven. Before the reburial, however, the U.S. government was permitted to study and document the remains.


Sources

Pauketat, Tim. North American Archaeology 2005. Blackwell Publishing

Denny-Blaine Park (Seattle); could consume

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

Denny-Blaine Park is a 2 acre (8,000 m²) park in the Denny-Blaine neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It is located on Lake Washington along and at the end of E. Denny-Blaine Place.

Those who frequent Denny-Blaine in the evenings will notice an interesting mix of people. Traditionally, high schoolers from the surrounding area (most notably Bush School) use Denny-Blaine Park as a spot to consume alcohol and smoke cigarettes and marijuana. These typically affluent white males are not alone, however–there is a surprisingly large contingent of crack heads. In addition to these two staples, there seem to be a large number of non-descript 25-35 year-olds who use the park in much the same manner.

After a large renovation project completed in 2004, the beach has seen much more traffic.


External links

  • Denny-Blaine Park

Rigor (medicine); an increase

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

Rigor is a shaking occurring during a high fever. It occurs because cytokines and prostaglandins are released as part of an immune response and increase the set point for body temperature in the hypothalamus.

The increased set point causes the body temperature to rise (pyrexia), but also makes the patient feel cold until the new set point has been reached. Rigor occurs because the patient is effectively shivering in a physiological attempt to increase body temperature to the new set point.


See also

  • rigor mortis

PithHelmet; The indirect utility

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

PithHelmet is an ad-blocking utility for the Apple Safari web browser.


History

PithHelmet began in January 2003 as one user’s utility to filter content in Safari and has since become a popular utility for other users of Apple’s web browser.

As of July 2007 PithHelmet’s most recent version is 2.7-78, a beta designed to work with the Safari 3 beta. The most recent official release is 2.6.7 from June 2006.


External link

  • PithHelmet

James Hall (singer); pleasure remains always

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

James Hall is American rock singer and guitarist best known for his gothic-style lyrics, distinctive voice, eccentric behavior and eclectic compositions.

Contents


Early career

Before launching his solo career in 1990, James Hall was the singer for Atlanta band, Mary My Hope, which released one full-length album entitled Museum in 1989 and one EP, 1990’s Suicide Kings, both on RCA/Silvertone. An expanded version of Suicide Kings appeared at the same time, called Monster Is Bigger Than The Man. This contained, in addition to the unreleased material and Museum album cuts, two live tracks recorded at the Princess Charlotte in Leicester (UK). In 1993, Hall’s My Love, Sex, and Spirit was put out by Daemon Records, Indigo Girl Amy Ray’s co-op effort. Three singles were released from My Love, Sex & Spirit, each containing non-album tracks. Subsequently, he signed to Geffen Records, and in 1996 his album Pleasure Club was released.


Pleasure Club

It wasn’t until 2002 that further evidence of Hall appeared with a new band named Pleasure Club. This band featured Hall on vocals and guitar, Micheal Jerome on drums, Grant Curry on bass, and Marc Hutner also on guitar. They released two albums, Here Comes The Trick and The Fugitive Kind. Here Comes The Trick has since been re-released as a double with a live album entitled Live: Out Of The Pulpit accompanying it. Pleasure Club have since disbanded and Hall has returned to his solo work.


Current projects

Hall has recently formed a working relationship with singer Jimmy Gnecco of the band Ours, and has collaborated on at least one song: Hall’s “Consenting Adults.” It is rumored that Hall will be featured on the upcoming Ours album.


External links

  • James Hall MySpace Page

Flavor of the Weak; imply desires and beliefs;

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

Flavor of the Weak” is a hit single sung by the Boston, Massachusetts band American Hi-Fi. It was recorded for the band’s 2001 self-titled debut album.

The title has often been incorrectly spelled “Flavor of the Week,” due to the resemblance to the phrase indicating a featured weekly item that is widely used in several ice cream chains and independent shops.

The song describes a man’s sorrow at seeing love interest and possible friend dote on her negligent boyfriend who keeps “posters on the wall/ of all the girls he wished she was” and “pictures on the wall/ of all the girls he’s loved before.” His neglect is immediately juxtaposed with how she cares for him, like “she knows all his favorite songs.”

Throughout the song, the girl’s ignorance of her boyfriend’s behavior is emphasized as she unsuspectingly goes about her business. “She paints her nails” and “she’ll wash her hair” while unbeknownst to her “he’s got her best friend on the phone,” which would imply that his neglect extends to unfaithfulness with her best friend.

The nature of the boyfriend’s actions is debatable. It could be that he neglects her and cheats on her because he is heartless and immoral as such a person is usually pictured. However, the lines describing
him as “too stoned/ Nintendo” may imply that he is simply selfish and inconsiderate that he doesn’t think to pay attention to his girlfriend and appreciate all she does for him.

The narrator’s position in the girl’s life is also not clear. It could be that he is a close friend or simply someone who loves her from afar. Repeating “I wish that I could make her see” could imply her refusal to acknowledge an obvious truth. Conversely, it could express the narrator’s desperate desire to be in a position to make her see the truth. Both situations, though, show his love as unrequited and secret, but the latter is somewhat more consistent with the American Hi-Fi style.

While the lyrics are interspersed with the narrator’s own woeful–and perhaps bitter–feelings concerning the situation, it is vague as to whether he actually attempts to make this girl see her boyfriend’s illicit exploits. The ending line “she makes me weak” could imply that he doesn’t have the heart to tell her how wrongly her boyfriend treats her because “he means everything to her” and apparently, she means everything to the narrator. Ultimately, that would turn the repeated “I wish that I could make her see” into a mantra of regret at having to stand by silently and let the girl he loves deify a guy that doesn’t care about her.


External links

  • Official American Hi-Fi website