Angie, a child care teacher talks about the lack of standards in child care.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbm4qEC0rlk

Parents, are you looking for quality daycare or childcare?  Are you looking for someone who’s more than a babysitter?  Wondering what your states standards and regulations are?  Want your children to get a good early childhood education from a teacher who cares and is qualified?  Have you checked out your local Child Care Resource and Referral Agency (CCR&R) for quality childcare?

I hope by watching my videos I can offer some help and guidance for your childcare needs.

Stay tuned for more videos to come.

Angie

I should probably say going into this blog that I already have a very strong opinion and a VERY bad opinion of the public school system. I’m not looking for a debate, just stating my opinion. A new friend of mine kindly pointed out that not all public schools are as bad as what we have here in our little corner of the world, but our local public school has become an abomination. Maybe I’m cynical, but I believe they are all on the slippery slope nationwide toward that same end. Children are being ushered through the system without learning what they need to know. What ever happened to reading, writing and arithmetic? Are academics going the way of moral absolutes?

I’ve come to view public schools in general as little, high efficiency, indoctrination camps. Some all-knowing bureaucracy decides not only what they should know, but what is socially acceptable, what is ethical, what is open or closed minded, what is politically correct, what morality is, or isn’t. Other societies have used similar methods to undermine the masses and ride into political control on the back of the resulting wave. I don’t consider myself an alarmist, just a student of history and an observer of current events. The public schools are part of the fifth column in our country, along with big media and others. I’m not saying we’re setting up for another Hitler, but I’m not ruling it out, either. The politics are definitely at play in the big picture, and the children’s moldable little minds are always most highly sought after by the-powers-that-want-to-be.

Having said that, let me state that I we are a home schooling family. It’s funny how many people feel the need to comment to me about our decision to home school. Some of the comments and questions they ask me would probably really offend them if I turned around and asked them the same questions as it relates to them and their decision not to home school, but to use the public school system. I am frequently asked things like, are you smart enough to teach them? Are you qualified? Can you give them the variety and scope they need? Can they have the same advantages as they get in the system? (Making the assumption the system actually offers any advantages!) Won’t you ruin their futures? Aren’t you over protecting them? Won’t they be socially inept? Isn’t it a lot of work?

One of the things I’m constantly having pointed out to me as a home schooler, is that there is some great, nebulous experience that’s apparently only available to children in public school, called “socialization” that I’m accused of causing my kids to miss out on by keeping them at home. People tell me I should go ahead and send them for “the socialization”, and that we can overcome the negative aspects with a good home life. Well, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the idea of socializing to learn, practice, and acquire behavioral skills, attitudes, values, customs, and social skills? That is the point, right? So, I am to send them to school for the very things that I should then correct at home? That’s not even kind of sensible.

No, I don’t think I’ll be relying on the public school system for my children’s social development, thanks. The examples of socialization being given in public school are a huge part of the reason I don’t want my kids going there.

It’s sickening. It is abhorrent. There’s no order, or respect for authority taught, and any behavior can be justified and laid off on a need to express oneself or some other such nonsense. They are taught that there are no absolutes, and that all ethics are situational. Honor is absent. Morality is judgemental, and therefore intolerant and hateful. Children are taught to question or reject parental authority, and instructed from a very early age about what to do if their parents do something they don’t like. I remember one of my boys coming home from grade school one day and telling us he was going to call the police on us for grounding him.

When I was a child in school, we had counselors who were actually trained to make determinations based on physical, or behavioral evidence as to whether or not a child needed some kind of additional attention or even some intervention. However, now it’s just become a blanket practice throughout the entire system, for every child, regardless of whether or not they show any evidence of a need, to second guess their parents, and even suspect them of the worst. The school authorities, with their superior knowledge and understanding, have decided most parents are incompetent or bad, so all children should be warned and prepared to defend themselves against them. I’m sure some kind hearted souls were originally just hoping to give children from bad homes some options, some help. Unfortunately, the way they chose to do it, the way it turned out, is a really bad way. It’s a very poor, ineffective, hit and miss program at it’s best that we have now, and a insidious and undermining plan that destabilizes families and family values at the root, whether intentional or not, at it’s worst. This is just the socialization they are gaining from the staff.

On the milder side of the social scene from their peer group we have the kids, swept up in a current to fit in and be a part of trends that are shallow and superficial, such as fashion and entertainment. I was pressured to “be cool” when I was in school, as I’m sure all generations of kids have been, but some of the “trends” are more sinister now. Sure, sure, that’s what our parents told us way back when, but, actually, they were right, and so am I now. It was bad when I was in school, and it’s only grown steadily worse over the years. Of course home schooled kids will experience this to some degree anyway, but it really doesn’t factor in as heavily in a home school setting.

On the darker side of things, public school kids are regularly exposed, first hand, to drugs, alcohol, sex, violence, and crime. “Partying” is normal and acceptable, maybe even preferable, as is bad language, and casual sex, sexual experementation and alternate lifestyles, and a whole host of other vices. I could, and have been know to, go on and on about this, but I’ll spare the reader. To keep from getting even further into something so controversial, let me just say that we, for these and many other reasons, decided to home school.

Here’s another question I get asked a lot. “What about the home schooled kids who aren’t actually being taught?” First I’d like to ask them why is it up to each independent home schooling family to answer all of your niggling questions about the relatively few failures in the home schooling community. I don’t ask an accounting from each and every family with children in the public school system that I encounter why their schools are failing and their children are being hung out to dry by the bus load. The number of home schoolers who are in it for the wrong reasons, or who are doing a poor job, is so very much lower percentage wise than the number of public school children that are failing and falling through the cracks that it cannot compare. The public school systems are miserably failing the families in their districts. I think maybe the attention is deliberately being focused on home schoolers to sort of diffuse the spotlight that’s glaring in the face of the system, or else to relieve some sense of guilt that people feel for allowing their kids to go to the public school.

Having said that, I’ll go ahead and answer that question anyway. I think home schooling networks and support groups could help in this area as long as the almighty government doesn’t come along and start dictating a bunch of rules to them as well. These kind of groups are very interactive, and I find that the parents do tend to follow up with each other and hold each other accountable to some degree. People, communities, fellowships, “neighbors” can still be counted upon, believe it or not, to look after and check up on one another in most parts of our country. That’s all the more true when we break up into smaller groups of people with like interests. I realize the government agencies would be out of business if they acknowledged that we really are intelligent and capable enough to be trusted with these basic things, but I’d be willing to absorb the taxes that go toward their unemployment benefits. It would probably be less costly that the taxes that go towards their salaries, and it would be a more honest living, in my estimation.

The large majority of parents who home school are sincerely trying to do what’s best for their children. Maybe it sounds heartless, but there are many more kids falling through the cracks in the public system and being knowingly sent along on their merry way, than there are home school families that are slacking, so why is everyone spending so much energy looking into this problem? I’m sure there are some bad families who are failing their children in a so called home school, but it is certainly the exception. I don’t want even one child to be left out, but with a public school system in the miserable shape ours is in, I’d think the country would be thrilled at such a viable and successful, not to mention inexpensive, alternative. For sure, two wrongs don’t make it right, but neither does throwing the baby out with the bath water. I have said for years, and believe with my heart, that although my children are being very well educated at home, I’d rather they be poorly educated than wrongly educated. One can be much more easily remedied than the other.

I think that first and foremost, besides the fact that the system is failing, the main reason we pulled out of the public school system is because public school standards are not our own. I do not teach revisionist history or evolution as a science, and they do not teach Bible or absolutes as pertains to morality. The list goes on. The standardized tests are a problem only because the standard is being determined by people who do not share my family’s standards. I’m sure my kids would pass their little tests, but if they test on sex ed, or inclusion of alternate lifestyles, evolution as anything but shaky theory, then the test results might not be reflective of the truth. I’ve come to understand recently that most of the standardized tests actually don’t test on some of the more controversial things, so it probably would not be a problem for us, but they do teach it, and therefore they could at any time test on it. If they did, the test results would not be an accurate accounting my children’s proficiency in their studies. What’s the point in the test if it isn’t accurate?

I find it very distasteful that my family and I should have to have to check in with, and gain some kind of approval from a bunch of people that we so strongly disagree with in so many ways. The very people that sort of forced us to seek out alternatives, would now have us to come back to them for some kind of an inspection. I don’t feel it necessary to use any of their facilities, their curriculum, their tests, their equipment, or their standards, so why should I be answering up to them. They are still taking my tax dollars. Isn’t that quite enough?

Our home school teaches actual academics, the “three ‘R’s’”, but honor, standards, character, ethics, and God are our primary focus; we are raising up decent human beings. I can agree that their could possibly be a need for a test of some kind just because of the (very, very, few) home schooling families who really aren’t educating their kids, for whatever reason, but at this point I’d rather continue on without that test than to have my feet, and those of so many other wonderful families, held to the fire by a bunch of people who are part of the reason I chose to home school in the first place. Government has to stop thinking they are the only ones who know what’s right and best. I’d venture to say they are not even very near the top of any list that would name qualified judges. Also, I don’t think it’s right to penalize good parents and law abiding citizens in order to compensate for the tiny few, those who are not doing what they should. But that’s a whole ‘nuther blog.

Yesterday, I discussed layering Modal Popup Extenders with the Update Progress controls.  In IE7, FF3, and, well, most everything except IE6, it works like a champ as-is.

The “bug”?  After quite a bit of research, the problem revolves around the following issues:

• lack of support for the { position: fixed } property,
• lack of support for the { right; bottom} properties,
• … unreliable suport for {height: 100%, width: 100% } properties,
• general pain and suffering
• <SELECT> tags (or ASP:DropDownList objects) exist above any other z-index,

I’m sure there were other issues.  Really.

After spending a good part of the day trying code, looking it up on QuirksMode, and trying again, I have somewhat of a solution; however, I still greatly dislike how it works in IE6.

On the MasterPage, I have a single UpdateProgress that isn’t associated to a specific UpdatePanel.  Therefore, it’ll catch all Async postbacks (and I only have ONE UpdateProgress control).

<asp:UpdateProgress

runat="server" DisplayAfter="100" ID="UpdateProgress">

<ProgressTemplate>

<div class="UpdateProgressModalBackground"></div>

<div class="UpdateProgressPanel">

<h3>Please wait...</h3>

<img src="Images/ajaxbar.gif"
alt="Please wait..."

style="text-align: center; width: 100%; height: 10px;" />

</div>

</ProgressTemplate>

</asp:UpdateProgress>

This, again, references our UpdateProgressModalBackground and UpdateProgressPanel styles.  These two styles are unchanged from the post yesterday.  Here they are again for reference:

/* UpdateProgressPanel is above EVERYTHING ELSE,

even other modal popups */

.UpdateProgressPanel

{

       z-index: 99999999;

       background-color:#fff;

       color:#fff;

       width: 200px;

       text-align: center;

       vertical-align: middle;

       position: fixed;

       bottom: 50%;

       left: 45%;

       padding: 10px;

       border: solid 2px #5D7B9D;

}

.UpdateProgressModalBackground

{

    z-index: 99999998;

    background-color: #6D7B8D;

    position: fixed;

    top: 0;

    left: 0;

    height: 100%;

    width: 100%;

    min-height: 100%;

    min-width: 100%;

    filter: alpha(opacity=50);

    opacity: 0.5;

    -moz-opacity: 0.5;

}

The UpdateProgress and these two classes work just fine in IE7+, FF2+.  So, now to fix IE6..

So, what’s the difference in IE6?  Well, we can’t use the positioning attributes in the above classes–-they won’t work properly. 

Issue #1 – Fitting the Popup and Background Without Positioning Attributes

Searching the web, I found an article by Damien White discussing his his same pains with this.  His solution involved using the IE-specific CSS “expressions” to calculate the height and width of the window.

height:

expression(

        document.documentElement.scrollTop +

        document.documentElement.clientHeight + "px");

 

width: expression(document.body.clientWidth + "px");

However, at least for me, Damien’s expressions wouldn’t handle scrolling down the page.

Damien explains:

The thinking behind this was to take the window height (which document.documentElement.clientHeight gives us) and then add the scroll top position, which will give us the upper portion if the user scrolls up.  The problem shows itself when the user scrolls down; that area is not covered.  The good thing about this is that I didn't need to mess with the body height, but the solution isn't optimal in the long haul.

That’s a bad deal because that’s the whole point!  Reading a bit more, there was a comment from Kunal Mukherjee on Damien’s post that solved the problem.

Kunal’s expressions looked at the scrollHeight of the window as compared to the offsetHeight and returned the larger.

height: expression(

document.body.scrollHeight > document.body.offsetHeight
? document.body.scrollHeight
: document.body.offsetHeight + 'px' );

Actually, that works really well. Cool.

Finally, I’d recommend, as Damien did, breaking out your CSS into two files—one for “IE6” and one for everyone else.  This is easily done using the IE-specific conditional statements.

<!--[if lt IE 7]>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="App_Themes/ie6/ie6.css" />
<![endif]-->

I also included !important flags on each of the properties in the ie6.css file—just to be safe.

Issue #2 – IE6 Pushes <SELECT> tags above everything else…

This is where the solution gets dicey; however, I’m relying on Kunal’s solution again.  In his comment, he pointed out a way to hide <SELECT> tags in IE6 without causing the disappearing act that the ModalPopupExtender causes—cover them with an IFRAME.

To me, this hack seems… sketchy at best, but it works.

In the ProgressTemplate of the UpdateProgress control, add in the IFRAME.

<iframe id="UpdateProgressHideSelect"></iframe>

In the default.css (or the non-ie6.css, whatever you’ve called it), I recommend setting the iframe’s style to {display: none}—it isn’t needed outside IE6, don’t render it. :)

On the ie6.css, add the UpdateProgressHideSelect in—along with another expression to place the iframe over the entire page (like the standard BackgroundCssClass of a ModalPopupExtender):

#UpdateProgressHideSelect

{

    z-index: 15000;

    position: fixed;

    top: 0;

    left: 0;

    background-color: #fff;

    border: none;

    filter: alpha(opacity=0);

    -moz-opacity: 0;

    opacity: 0;

    height: 100%;

    width: 100%;

    display: inline !important;

}

* html #UpdateProgressHideSelect

{

    position: absolute;

    height: expression(

document.body.scrollHeight > document.body.offsetHeight

? document.body.scrollHeight

: document.body.offsetHeight + 'px');

}

The z-index of 15000 for the iframe ensures that it appears above the normal 10000 of a ModalPopupExtender panel; however, under our crazy high UpdateProgress control.

Problem solved—for now.

Here’s how they look, side by side.

FireFox 3:

Nice and clean, properly centered given the size of the box and window size.  Can see drop down lists and MPE behind the UpdateProgress, but cannot access them.

IE 7:

Output as expected and where expected.  Can see drop down lists and MPE behind the UpdateProgress, but cannot access them.

IE 6:

Output as expected—basically where expected.  Drop down lists are hidden behind the IFRAME to prevent input.  Other controls are visible, including the MPE, but behind the background.

What fun!

Today I want to talk about the power and beauty of the Availability Management Framework (AMF) Service, which is one of the many SA Forum AIS services. First let’s set some context.

It was mentioned in an earlier blog that the Service Availability Forum (SA Forum) is the primary source of standards for high availability middleware. Roughly the SA Forum specifications are broken down into two areas:

• The Hardware Platform interface (HPI) specification defines a set of APIs that abstract hardware platform resources (fans, blades, power supplies) so that any particular platform technology, such as ATCA, Compact PCI, BladeCenter or even proprietary, expresses itself in the same way to its clients. GoAhead’s SAFfire HA middleware is just such an HPI client. This is a big topic unto itself which we will leave for another day.
• Then there are the Application Interface Specification (AIS) services, each of which has the general goal of supporting the needs of a system and its embedded distributed applications in a highly available computing environment called a cluster. There are twelve AIS services today with more on the way. Example AIS services include Logging, Checkpointing and Messaging.

The Availability Management Framework (AMF) is by far the most important of these AIS services. AMF provides the core features that allow a system and its applications to achieve five 9’s or greater service availability. Roughly, AMF accomplishes this by coordinating a set of active and standby objects that provide service protection in the advent of a fault.

But how does AMF help achieve these system goals and how is it different from the other AIS services?

In some ways AMF is much like any other AIS service. Like other AIS services, AMF specifies the following set of things:

• APIs (Java coming soon!) available to participating applications
• Alarms and Notification events that others can subscribe to
• Objects that expose AMF’s configuration and runtime values
• Administrative operations that allow humans (or scripts) to control AMF’s activities

One thing that makes AMF so different from the other AIS services is that AMF’s APIs only expose the tip of a very large conceptual ‘ice berg’ that remains hidden below the surface from the AMF components that actually use the AMF APIs.

With other AIS services you can learn almost all there is to know about that service by carefully studying its APIs. For example, the APIs of the Checkpoint service tells us about checkpoints, their replicas, how they are structured and what operations one can perform on them, and that is about all there is to know about the checkpoint service.

Not so with AMF. The AMF APIs are only used by one rather basic AMF modeling object called a ‘component’ (which can be thought of as a Linux process). Through the AMF APIs an ‘SA-aware’ component is told when to go active, when to go standby, report health status or report failure. That’s about it. In fact, the AMF APIs are not even required for a component to participate since AMF also supports legacy ‘non SA-Aware’ components, whose code cannot be changed. In short, we don’t learn much about AMF by only studying its APIs.

Now for that portion of the iceberg hidden below the AMF API surface: The AMF APIs give little clue that there is a rich and elaborate world behind them. The lowly component is but a cog in a very big and elaborate machine whose configuration is expressed in something called the system model.

The component itself has little insight that it is participating in something called a Service Unit (SU), perhaps with other components, and that this SU may be one of many SUs that make up a Service Group (SG), some number of which in turn make up an application. This entire conceptual framework is captured in the system model.

AMF controls the component’s life-cycle. AMF knows when, where and why the constituent components of an SU are instantiated and terminated, as guided by information in the system model. The component has no clue.

AMF knows when, where and why to assign the constituent components of an SU the active or standby roles as well as how and when to healthcheck each. AMF knows if the component is participating in a 2N, N+M, N-way or one of the other redundancy models. Again, the component itself has little idea. All of this detail is in the system model.

In the advent of a fault, AMF knows how and when to initiate recovery and repair policies such as component-restart, SU or node failover, as explained in the system model. The component simply does whatever AMF tells it to.

In sum, AMF is by design minimally intrusive on the component writer and the coding effort in general. Implementing a component is relatively simple, straight forward and re-usable. No grand system insights are required. Once built, these components are like re-usable ‘atoms’ available for configuration to form new and interesting ‘molecules’ designed to fit a particular computing device.

The system model is the real beauty and power of AMF. The system model is like one big data driven policy engine that allows the ‘big picture’ system designer to properly assemble the components so as to capture the HA structure and policies suitable for the target device at hand. This is a configuration not a coding exercise. This allows for easy corrections, adjustments and tweaks as needed. This agility is particularly elegant, powerful and cost effective as the project (and its realities) transitions from paper design, to development, to system test and finally deployment.

O que são Web Standards?

"Web Standards são um conjunto de normas, diretrizes, recomendações, notas, artigos, tutoriais e afins de caráter técnico, produzidos pelo World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) e destinados a orientar fabricantes, desenvolvedores e projetistas para o uso de práticas que possibilitem a criação de uma Web acessível a todos, independentemente dos dispositivos usados ou de determinadas necessidades especiais." De seguida apresentamos algumas vantagens em respeitar os Web Standards:

1. Redução de custos com largura de banda e downloads mais rápidos:Código HTML Semântico e Estruturado traduz-se em ficheiros mais mais pequenos, o que significa carregamentos de páginas mais curtos e menos transferência de dados (custos de alojamento)
2. Custos de manutenção mais baixos:Como a estrutura é separada da apresentação, a futura actualização do website é muito mais rápida para programadores, copywriters e designers
3. Indexação aos motores de busca mais eficaz:Um website desenvolvido de acordo com os Web Standards, torna mais fácil o trabalho dos motores de busca a aceder e avaliar a informação nos ficheiros, melhorando a eficácia da indexação.
4. Mais acessibilidade a um leque mais vasto de utilizadores:O código html semântico e estruturado faz com que os diferentes browsers e dispositivos apresententem e intrepretem mais fácilmente o conteúdo do seu website
5. Compatibilidade:Existem cada vez mais utilizadores de internet utilizado cada vez mais diferentes plataformas, dispositivos e browsers, assim sendo os Web Standards são o único caminho a seguir de forma a garantir uniformidade.

There are three types of user requirements. The Animoto use case is clearly not in the first category but I am not convinced it's in the third one either.

1. The "pulled out of thin air" requirements that someone makes up on the fly to justify a feature that they've already decided needs to be there. Most frequently encountered in standards working groups.
2. The "it happened" requirements that assumes that because something happened sometimes somewhere it needs to be supported all the time everywhere.
3. The "it makes business sense" requirements that include a cost-value analysis. The kind that comes not from asking "would you like this" to a customer but rather "how much more would you pay for this" or "what other feature would you trade for this".

When cloud computing succeeds (i.e. when you stop hearing about it all the time and, hopefully, we go back to calling it "utility computing"), it will be because the third category of requirements will have been identified and met. Best exemplified by the attitude of Tarus (from OpenNMS) in the latest Redmonk podcast (paraphrased): sure we'll customize OpenNMS for cloud environments; as soon as someone pays us to do it.

I can absolutely attest to point number one as it pertains to standards groups. But its point number three that I wanted to highlight as it relates to a theme I have been discussing a lot lately. Namely that IdM is messy because enterprise software vendors in general won't externalize identity in their products beyond AD authentication.

Now I am not implying that enterprise software vendors are lazy. Rather it's a matter of priorities. Enterprise software vendors typically have a backlog of feature requests and fixes that they need to work on. The ones that they get asked for the most, or that they feel will give them competitive advantage, that will get the priority.

Like William says, it's not whether the customer wants a feature, but how much are they willing to pay for it and what other features would they give up in exchange.

Dave Kearns believes that if there is an IdM roadmap laid down, vendors that implement it will "reap the rewards" and those that don't will be destined for "where are they now". Perhaps Dave is right. But history shows us quite the opposite. Look at strong authentication for example. Despite dramatic reductions in cost and increased options, despite all the experts' advice, and the presence of a solid roadmap, the vast majority of authentication in enterprises is password-based. And very little enterprise software supports strong authentication out-of-the-box.

So what will it take to spur enterprise vendors to support externalized identity? I really don't know. Yet.

• http://news.mobile9.com/s60apps/2008/07/24/s60-browser-issues-part-2/
• http://news.mobile9.com/s60apps/2008/07/23/the-s60-browser-just-doesnt-cut-it-anymore/

I have a Nokia N95 myself (an S60-based phone, such as that mentioned in the articles above) and love it to death, except - and this is a huge exception - for the web browser.

Granted, while the S60 browser is leaps and bounds above the browsers on other non-smartphones and Windows Mobile devices (Pocket Internet Explorer blows!), it comes nowhere close to the browser on the iPhone. It's not just the lack of touch screen or having a smaller screen either.

I *can*, believe it or not, read non-mobile formatted websites on my N95. The core of the browser is actually very similar to the browser in the iPhone, and many iPhone-specific sites work quite well on the N95.

However, as you can see from these pictures (sourced from news.mobile9.com), the browser still has it's large share of rendering issues:

Desktop Browser:

S60 Browser:

Nokia, Symbian, for any of you out there listening, the iPhone is *slaughtering* you in terms of browsing capability. I've seriously considered selling my N95 to get the iPhone 3G, but I'm still very disappointed in the iPhone OS in general (way too locked down, Apple style; no background applications, etc.)

Please, please, pretty please, work on an update for the S60 browser that fixes the rendering issues and the frequent crashes! Thank you in advance!

North Rhine-Westphalia is one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its brand-new curriculum for learning and teaching English in primary schools is now available online.

By Abdul Manan (Daily Times)

LAHORE: Noise pollution in the city is on the rise with most residents complaining that the noise is becoming a public nuisance.

Dr Khursheed Ahmad, Department of Environmental Engineering head at the National College of Business Administration and Economics said: “Noise pollution is one of the main causes of hearing loss, cardiac disorders, epileptic seizures, emotional problems and restlessness.”

He said cars and other vehicles were a main cause of the noise. He said the total number of registered vehicles in the city had increased from 45,000 (1976) to 1.5 million in 2008. “Main residential areas such as the Defence Housing Authority, Johar Town, Township, Gulberg, Askari Flats, Faisal Town, and WAPDA Town have noise levels that exceed the National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQSs),” he said.

On August 29, 1993, he said, the Environment and Urban Affairs Division, through a notification, had enforced NEQSs at 85 decibels (dB). He said a recent survey had revealed that residential areas have NEQS levels higher than the permissible levels. He said, “People exposed to 85 decibels for 50 years or more can suffer a permanent hearing loss.”

To curb traffic noise, he said, the Motor Vehicles Rules had been enforced in Pakistan in 1969. He said, “According to the rules, every vehicle should have an efficient silencer. The law restricts the frequent use of horns – especially at midnight.” He said the rules should be modified and should prescribe maximum permissible noise levels for all the types of vehicles currently on the roads.

He said environment impact assessments of new road projects should be made mandatory.

Air ambient standards: Advocate Akhtar H Awan, who deals with environmental cases, said the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) should also establish air ambient standards keeping in view the noise pollution. “Unfortunately, the EPA relies on the World Health Organisation’s standards regarding noise pollution.”

Noise standards: EPA Deputy Director Naseemur Rehman said the EPA would establish the noise standards within a month. He said the EPA had been working to eliminate every type of pollution.

** I'm sorry about the video and audio delay.  I thought this was a good talk, but for some reason my audio and video started getting delayed as the video went on.  If anyone out there knows how to fix this or could let me know how to prevent this in the future that would be greatly appreciated.  Just leave me a comment or send me an email.  **

Angie, a child care teacher talks about the lack of standards in child care.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUMkjAmUjI8

Parents, are you looking for quality daycare or childcare?  Are you looking for someone who’s more than a babysitter?  Wondering what your states standards and regulations are?  Want your children to get a good early childhood education from a teacher who cares and is qualified?  Have you checked out your local Child Care Resource and Referral Agency (CCR&R) for quality childcare?

I hope by watching my videos I can offer some help and guidance for your childcare needs.

Stay tuned for more videos to come.

Angie

Angie, a child care teacher talks about the lack of standards in child care.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM8qAJzWFjg

Parents, are you looking for quality daycare or childcare? Are you looking for someone who’s more than a babysitter? Wondering what your states standards and regulations are? Want your children to get a good early childhood education from a teacher who cares and is qualified? Have you checked out your local Child Care Resource and Referral Agency (CCR&R) for quality childcare?

I hope by watching my videos I can offer some help and guidance for your childcare needs.

Stay tuned for more videos to come.

Angie

Don't you just love passionate people? And how it somehow always seems to work out for them. It's probably one of the reasons why I so thoroughly enjoy Bob Dylan and this album.

I assumed one thing when I started writing all these things on a blog: it's going to be selfish. Don't expect anything else but things that I and no one else cares about. Good comics for instance. Not 1 but at least 2 or 3. Expect "advice" you're not going to like, listen to or in fact give a damn about. It just has to go out there, or at least that's my feeling about it.

You know, sometimes you just can't let what you think remain inside the walls of your head. Most of the time it's not a bad idea, but there's things in there that could help other people... i guess.

What I'm trying to do most of the time is encourage you, whoever you are, to follow through. Partly, yes, because I am myself in need of such encouragement. Because I know that, without being a quitter, I still need to hear it or to see it written.

I'm puzzled by the fact that you never do hear positive things that aren't standardized anymore.

I'm an occasional church-goer in fact and most of the time, in spite of the beautiful service, I still hear dozens of complaints, from both God's staff and the public. The only supposedly motivating things out there are spelled out in steps and processes: how to become successful, how to build a business, how to handle an interview.

Ok, go for those as well, but i know and I hope I'm right, that deep down you are, in fact a human at your most beautiful. You've probably just forgotten that your best is more that you ever dream of. That you can shake off the tired off and the daily issues. Hell, even i do it successfully when I have to and I'm currently living well outside both my age and my income. There are just things that have to be done. Not because they happen to you. Nothing happens TO YOU. It is YOU that HAPPENS TO OTHER things. That's the good way around, the one to live in. Make your own decisions, change them if you must and live up to YOUR STANDARDS. It's not even as hard as it seems.

If you're at a low, of course the walls are high. Thing is, your natural position is on your feet, not on your knees. And walls, high as they may be, are still something to cling to, to scratch on, so you can get on your feet. And once you're there, take a walk, stretch those muscles, start running. The sooner the better, the faster the better, so far as you don't sprain a muscle.

Life is a constant effort to get better. Live by that. No, it's not richer, even happier. It's better.

You don't have to believe either in God, friendship, or love to accept it. Just in change, evolution, progress, call it what you want. It's both a Christian and an atheist's creed. It's simple and it only hurts because we bang our heads on the fact that real change certainly lacks imminence. It's conditioned by the persistence of effort and good will. You will, however, never tire from it. That I think I can promise.

Reference: 1216115924

Edit | 15th July 2008 at 10:58 BST by Nikki Ambler. Permalink.

Our client is seeking a Senior Control Systems Engineer based in Milton Keynes.

Location

Milton Keynes

Salary

Competitive salary depending on qualifications and experience

Job Responsibilities

Assist in the preparation and check of engineering procedures, specifications and standards.

Instrument Database Input.

Prepare and check the basis of design, specifications, data sheets, requisitions, technical bid evaluations, and drawings.

Check and review vendor proposals, documentations and drawings.

Act as Lead Engineer on Projects and Proposals.

Lead or participate in project, client and vendor meetings.

Provide input to proposals.

Prepare and check man-hour and material cost estimates.

Provide Input to Construction Sub Contract, evaluate bids and supervisor contractor.

Act as a mentor to other employees.

Execute other engineering activities specific to the Control Systems technical area such as P&ID Development, Logic/C&D Diagrams, Control and Protection narratives

Contact ERS on +44 (0) 1454 203 460 or submit your CV to CV@energyrs@co.uk to register your interest or apply for this position.

Reference: 1216115924

Edit | 15th July 2008 at 10:58 BST by Nikki Ambler. Permalink.

Our client is seeking a Senior Control Systems Engineer based in Milton Keynes.

Location

Milton Keynes

Salary

Competitive salary depending on qualifications and experience

Job Responsibilities

Assist in the preparation and check of engineering procedures, specifications and standards.

Instrument Database Input.

Prepare and check the basis of design, specifications, data sheets, requisitions, technical bid evaluations, and drawings.

Check and review vendor proposals, documentations and drawings.

Act as Lead Engineer on Projects and Proposals.

Lead or participate in project, client and vendor meetings.

Provide input to proposals.

Prepare and check man-hour and material cost estimates.

Provide Input to Construction Sub Contract, evaluate bids and supervisor contractor.

Act as a mentor to other employees.

Execute other engineering activities specific to the Control Systems technical area such as P&ID Development, Logic/C&D Diagrams, Control and Protection narratives

Contact ERS on +44 (0) 1454 203 460 or submit your CV to CV@energyrs@co.uk to register your interest or apply for this position.

Reference: 1216114411

Edit | 15th July 2008 at 10:33 BST by Nikki Ambler. Permalink.

Our client is seeking a Rotating Equipment Engineer to be based in Saudi Arabia.

Location Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia

Salary

Competitive salary depending on qualifications and experience

Job Responsibilities

Responsibilities: Supervise the day-to-day administration of the installation of all rotating machinery, e.g. pumps, compressors, fans, etc., including those fitted as part of a unit.

Ensure work of contractors is carried out safely and efficiently in a competent manner and that they adhere to the Permit to Work System.

Organize and direct the site engineers and inspectors controlling the works.

Resolve contractor raised queries in conjunction with technical support group, raise and close out engineering queries as applicable.

Witnessing of any testing as required in the codes and standards.

Ensuring correct compilation of certification by the contractor as agreed with the Completion’s Leader.

Compilation of punch lists in conjunction with the contractor and client.

Ensuring that the contractor generates the required as built drawings as required by the project procedures.

Carry out inspections, surveys and checks to ensure machinery installation and alignment pre and post pipe work testing is as per Project Specifications.

Assist in the resolution of interface problems with other contractors.

Ensure safety and security of all construction activities and workers under his control.

Advise site planners on the realism of construction programs and advising of amendments.

Ensure work is completed as per specification and drawings, and that the requirements of engineering queries are incorporated.

Progress and direct contractors to ensure work is completed in a timely manner.

Ensure costs are controlled and site instructions monitored during work progress.

Interpret contract documents and liaise with the contractor on all aspects of the work.

Undertake vendor inspection and testing acceptance as required.

To create a preservation and maintenance schedule, ensuring all equipment listed is preserved and maintained in accordance with the guarantee requirements of all Vendors.

Direct labor to carry out the preservation and maintenance of equipment in an efficient manner and as per schedule and contract requirements.

Co-ordinate Completion’s Groups responsibilities for providing "First Fills" of equipment as per schedule and contract requirements.

Overseeing the installation of all mechanical equipment, including organization and monitoring of vendor representatives´ site visits.

Assist contractor with the preparation of method statements to meet permit requirements.

Contact ERS on +44 (0) 1454 203 460  or submit a CV to CV@energyrs.co.uk to register your interest or apply for this position.

Reference: 1216114411

Edit | 15th July 2008 at 10:33 BST by Nikki Ambler. Permalink.

Our client is seeking a Rotating Equipment Engineer to be based in Saudi Arabia.

Location Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia

Salary

Competitive salary depending on qualifications and experience

Job Responsibilities

Responsibilities: Supervise the day-to-day administration of the installation of all rotating machinery, e.g. pumps, compressors, fans, etc., including those fitted as part of a unit.

Ensure work of contractors is carried out safely and efficiently in a competent manner and that they adhere to the Permit to Work System.

Organize and direct the site engineers and inspectors controlling the works.

Resolve contractor raised queries in conjunction with technical support group, raise and close out engineering queries as applicable.

Witnessing of any testing as required in the codes and standards.

Ensuring correct compilation of certification by the contractor as agreed with the Completion’s Leader.

Compilation of punch lists in conjunction with the contractor and client.

Ensuring that the contractor generates the required as built drawings as required by the project procedures.

Carry out inspections, surveys and checks to ensure machinery installation and alignment pre and post pipe work testing is as per Project Specifications.

Assist in the resolution of interface problems with other contractors.

Ensure safety and security of all construction activities and workers under his control.

Advise site planners on the realism of construction programs and advising of amendments.

Ensure work is completed as per specification and drawings, and that the requirements of engineering queries are incorporated.

Progress and direct contractors to ensure work is completed in a timely manner.

Ensure costs are controlled and site instructions monitored during work progress.

Interpret contract documents and liaise with the contractor on all aspects of the work.

Undertake vendor inspection and testing acceptance as required.

To create a preservation and maintenance schedule, ensuring all equipment listed is preserved and maintained in accordance with the guarantee requirements of all Vendors.

Direct labor to carry out the preservation and maintenance of equipment in an efficient manner and as per schedule and contract requirements.

Co-ordinate Completion’s Groups responsibilities for providing "First Fills" of equipment as per schedule and contract requirements.

Overseeing the installation of all mechanical equipment, including organization and monitoring of vendor representatives´ site visits.

Assist contractor with the preparation of method statements to meet permit requirements.

Contact ERS on +44 (0) 1454 203 460  or submit a CV to CV@energyrs.co.uk to register your interest or apply for this position.

So for my first post, I figure I'm gonna keep things light, and my next couple of posts will most likely be....MEATIER lol.  This summer, I have done nothing but work, work, work.  Although I will admit, I have managed to stay sane by actually going out with people this summer.  I've actually gone to the club (imagine that!), to a bbq (mm mm good!), a [so-called] beach party, even a POOL party!  That's right, and I even got in.  Those of  y'all that know me know that I don't do water, so I consider that an amazing feat.  Usually during the summer, I don't even go out, so I am very excited that I've actually been out in public other than to walk to/from my car.

I've also met some interesting people (a.k.a boys) this year, and of course I still have my mains, but I'm a little disappointed in the quality of people that have approached me....well, not all of them, but a few.  It can't be that my standards are too high.  I REFUSE to lower my standards....seriously, what's the point of having them in the first place if you're breaking them for every Tom, Dick and Harry that you meet?  Some people fail to realize the concept of having and maintaining standards, in all areas of their lives.  The best way I can put it is, if you have no standards, then you have nothing to strive towards.  Somewhat like goals or dreams.  I made a promise to myself to never, EVER settle for less than the best.  This is probably why I'm so damned tenacious in everything that I do...well, everything that I'm passionate about.  I know that I deserve everything I get because I work hard and earn my possessions, awards, and accomplishments. 

Speaking of accomplishments, I'm really hoping to achieve alot regarding my schoolwork this upcoming year.  It's grind time baby! I have to stay focused....sure there's nothing wrong with letting your hair loose every once in awhile and having some well-deserved fun, but my primary reason for being in college is to make good grades, get a degree, and get hired by the company of my choice upon graduation.  It's so disheartening sometimes to see how quickly these people forget that they're here to serve a purpose other than attending wild parties and building not-so-great reputations.  I KNOW what I want to get out of my college experience: [possible] life-long friends, millions of memories/stories/pictures/videos, and most importantly,  a career accompanied by a starting salary/benefits package great enough to help me achieve my lifelong goals.  Plain and simple.  I hate for people to lose sight of what's really important and immerse themselve in the drama, troubles, and other nonsense prevalent on today's campuses. 

All in all, I believe that I am well on my way to fulfilling all that God has set out for me to do.  In terms of school, I am getting good grades.  However, my goal this semester is to get GREAT grades! In terms of my religion, I feel that I have so much more growing to do.  I definitely feel the need to get more intimate with God, so that is the #1 most important thing on my to-do list in life.  In terms of my {future} career, I have obtained TWO internships, when most people are struggling just to get one.  Basically, if I do everything that I am supposed to do, I'm guaranteed a job right out of college, so even though it may be hard work now, it will definitely pay off later, if you know what I mean.  For this, I am blessed, and I vow to excel in all that I do.  In terms of my paper, I am trying to budget accordingly, save accordingly, and TITHE accordingly.  There are a list of things that I have planned to buy for when I go back to school, but no real tangible goals just yet.  I also want to have a little nest egg for when I go back to school, in case I don't feel like working.  Then again, I may just decide to work anyway, just so I can have some spending money in my pocket.  Gas ain't no joke these days!  Plus, I need money set aside for when I travel, which I plan to do EXTENSIVELY in the upcoming year. Lol yea, even though it seems like I make alot of money (well, more than the average student) it definitely wouldn't hurt to make a little more.  

Man, that was ALOT! I guess that's what years of not blogging will do to ya.  Lol, so much for not being meaty.  

"Til next time....."