community Service means Business!

3 September 2004

www.bidwell-training.org

http://www.bidwell-training.org/

Academic and Vocational Training
Bidwell Training Center's vision is to respond to employment markets in southwestern Pennsylvania by offering programs providing career paths and opportunities in the high-tech, culinary and medical fields. Bidwell believes that education offered in an intelligent, planned and financially sound manner will bear real results for our students and the entire community. For more information, call (412) 323-4000 or toll free 1-800-516-1800 or E-mail us at admissions@mcg-btc.org.. "

Regional Internship Center!


Welcome to the Regional Internship Center!
:

"We strive to increase the number of organizations in Southwestern Pennsylvania offering internships by actively working with employers to develop programs and connect them with potential interns.

You’re a student.
You’re busy juggling classes, studying, writing brilliant papers, and trying to maintain a social life. You know you should find an internship, but when do you have time to look for one?
That’s where the RIC can help.

You're an employer.
The RIC is your gateway to students. We work with 33 colleges and universities in Southwestern PA, and students from anywhere look to us to find internships.
We can assist you with putting together an internship or you can simply post your available internships on this website.

If you've never hosted an intern…
Or you would like assistance or advice regarding your available internships, contact employers@ric-swpa.org.




job index

job index:
"New Job. Better Job. Get A Job.

Whether you are searching for a new career opportunity or an internship you have come to the right place. Just enter a search word or two and let our spiders go to work searching more than 1,000 Southwestern Pennsylvania websites and return links to jobs for you. If you are searching for an internship type ``intern' in addition to a search term." (see more...)

no Mongol left behind...

HK volunteers impart innovative teaching methods

www.chinaview.cn 2004-09-03 18:55:18


HONG KONG, Sept. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- More than 180 English teachers from China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have acquired effective teaching methods during the past summer vacation offered by the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd), announced HKIEd here Friday.

Six lecturers in English and 12 student of HKIEd, together with17 volunteer helpers, have spent three weeks in Inner Mongolia in August to conduct the training program.

The academics of the HKIEd Department of English conducted lessons and tutorials aiming to enhance the Mainland primary and middle school teachers' English proficiency and to impart effective strategies for teaching English. The project was assisted by HKIEd students and volunteer helpers, who helped in both the lessons and after-class English learning activities.

The summer program was highly praised by the Inner Mongolian teachers. Many said they were inspired by the innovative interactive teaching methods and the specially designed teaching materials. They also valued greatly the chances of enhancing theirspoken English proficiency through the numerous learning activities in an English-speaking environment.

Coordinator of the program May Lee said the team had deliberately adjusted the teaching methods taught, so as to address the differences in the educational systems of Hong Kong and the Mainland.

"Our tailor-made program can help ensure that students are actually able to apply what they have learnt in their Mainland classrooms. Otherwise, we would be imparting nothing but textbook theories," said Lee.

Four outstanding Mongolian teachers participating in the program will also be awarded scholarship to attend a three-week course at the HKIEd in October this year.

got sumo?

top 10 questions for the Sumo fanatic:

Many thanks to all those fans who participated in our first sumo quiz and to Mark Buckton for compiling the questions and organizing the prizes. We hope to run another quiz during the September tournament.

1. The sport of sumo has how many divisions? Six (in ascending order) Jonokuchi, Jonidan, Sandanme, Makushita, Juryo, and Makunouchi

2. The current yokozuna is Asashoryu. What is his nationality by birth? Mongolian

3. Asashoryu is sumo's 67th, 68th or 69th yokozuna? 68th.

4. Asashoryu beat which ozeki on Day 15 of the March tournament to claim his second successive zensho yusho (undefeated record)? Chiyotaikai.

5. After winning the March tournament, Asashoryu collected 32 envelopes of cash for his troubles (provided by those represented on the kensho banners) but committed a faux pas. What was that supposed error? He collected the prize using his left hand instead of the traditional and supposedly 'cleaner' right hand.

6. Which yokozuna holds the record for emerging victorious from 69 consecutive bouts? Futabayama (the 35th yokozuna) who went unbeaten from Jan. 1936 to Jan. 1939.

7. The yokozuna who won the all-time record 69 consecutive bouts had just 9 complete fingers and one other major disability, kept quiet until after he retired. What was it? He was blind in one eye.

8. Sumo's latest stadium, the 3rd Kokugikan in Ryogoku, Tokyo, was first used for the January basho of which year? 1985.

9. The capacity of the current Kokugikan is closest to 9000, 10,000, 11000 or 12000? 11,000.

10. Taiho, the Showa era yokozuna who still retains the title of most basho won in the history of the sport was half Japanese and half what other nationality? Russian or more precisely Ukranian.
(more...)

yeah, it's still baseball....

Yomiuri boss hints Giants could move to Pacific League

The Yomiuri Giants or another Central League baseball club could move to the Pacific League if the number of teams in the latter drops from six to four after club mergers, former Giants owner Tsuneo Watanabe has told the Mainichi.

Watanabe, who stepped down as the Giants owner in August but as the Yomiuri newspaper group chairman is still influential in baseball circles, was believed to be spearheading a move to unite the two leagues into one since a merger plan between Kintetsu Buffaloes and Orix BlueWave came to light earlier this year.(more...)

CareerLink Pittsburgh

CareerLink Pittsburgh

See the September line-up for CareerLink events and services...

is there an infomercial in the house?

Ecstasy Of Movement
Zen Dancing
The first thing you hear is the music. The sound of North African drumming mixed with electronica and tunes from the Middle East transfixes you, tempting you to sway to the beat as you relax and listen. You move next to other dancers in a beautiful candle-lit sanctuary. Near the facilitator, you notice eco-alters with flowers strewn about. You close your eyes and begin the journey. For the rest of this session of Zen Dancing, you will shed your inhibitions and your rigid body movements. You will sweat, meditate, relax and restore your flow of prana or life force.

Incorporating elements of ecstatic dance, meditation and yoga, Zen Dancing works to dispose of all that the body no longer needs. Each session begins with an invocation in which the intention is stated and the group chants together, using various breathing, qigong and yoga exercises. Next, the dancers do some guided movements, helping to cement the unity of the participants and to create a shared dance vocabulary. This soon gives way to freestyle movement, using music and poetry in original ways. Usually, the ecstasy portion develops dramatically as dancers sweat and groove rigorously, allowing their bodies to compose new ways to respond to the moment.

Finally, the dancers slow down and shift from frenzied dance to meditation in a portion called Body Prayer Sound Garden. During this time, the musicians enter the dance space. They approach individual dancers and trace their movements using drums, flutes, Tibetan gongs, cymbals, chimes and seeds. Savasana, a lying down meditation, relaxes the dancers after the session, shifting the focus from energy to restfulness.

Using the languages of yoga and devotional dance, Zen Dancing can help participants undergo a similar shift in energy. Through movement, you can release withheld tension and sadness, which lead to rigidity. During the multi-sensory experience of Zen Dancing, you will have an opportunity to respond to the impulse to move and break free of repression. Ecstatic dance can be one path to increased trust in your body and stronger confidence in your internal self.

For more information visit Zendancing.com

ich weiss nicht!

German Language
Das Wort des Tages
German Word of the Day

umschreiben to paraphrase, rephrase, outline; refer to obliquely, skate around (fig.); circumscribe.

Der Ministerpräsident umschrieb das vorsichtig mit einer „großen Entfernung im Denken und Handeln“ zwischen Ost und West.
The governor cautiously rephrased that with a “large gap in thinking and acting” between East and West. (Brandenburg's SPD Gov. Matthias Platzeck)


RELATED: die Umschreibung paraphrasing, circumscription, oblique reference; rewriting, transliteration, adaptation

CareerLink Pittsburgh: Project GATE

CareerLink Pittsburgh
Project GATE

Date(s): Wednesday September 8

Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Highlights:
Growing America Through Entrepreneurship is designed to help people start and expand their own small business. Gate was created through a partnership of the Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration and the Small Business Administration. Participants will be given access to special training and assistance in applying for small business loans.

Location:
Allegheny West CareerLink (Robinson Towne Ctr.)
1950 Park Manor Boulevard
Pittsburgh, PA 15205

Location Contact:
Lisa Boylan
Phone - (412) 809-3513
Event Contact: Front Desk ReceptionistPhone - 412-809-3500

E-Mail - srankin@dhs.county.allegheny.pa.us

2 September 2004

been spending time on the other side...

'bout the 'Burgh.
lead lines from the New Pittsburgh Courier...thank you very much!

also- did anyone see the media clip of the Palestinian man stopped at the border Wall... he was held at gun-point, forced to strip. and when he got down to his scivvies, he was wearing a set of C-4 explosive drawers.
Security sent in a robot to apprehend the deadly 'drawls' and detonate these 'boxers of mass destruction in a less populated area of the city.
excellent footage.

"gung fu is, gung fu" - Cato 1968

Everything is sacred
In martial-arts films such as Hero, ritual finds its place again
Robert Fulford
National Post
Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Have martial-arts movies like Kill Bill and Hero arisen among us to satisfy
our ancient need for ritual? We methodically expel ceremony from most of
life, stripping church liturgy down to basics and draining the esoteric
meaning from royal and military rites. Egotism and TV have long since eroded
formal political tradition -- during Question Period, Parliament looks like
a yapping kindergarten class.

But in Zhang Yimou's Hero, ritual recaptures its old role as an essential
element in human society, at least for an hour and a half. Our secular
culture has been living through generations of (as they say in comparative
religion courses) "desacralization," turning public activity mundane,
formless and emotionally empty. The dean of religious anthropologists,
Mircea Eliade, gave in The Sacred and the Profane his opinion, since
frequently echoed, that "Desacralization pervades the entire experience of
the non-religious man of modern societies."

Not, however, the world imagined by directors such as Yimou, who made Hero
(his earlier films include Raise the Red Lantern and Red Sorghum). In
ancient China, he creates a stylized theatre of war where freelance soldiers
give sacred meaning to their every action -- even when, as in this film, no
formal religion is mentioned by name. These renegade killers commit
themselves first of all to refinement and style. For them, calligraphy
matters as much as swordsmanship; when you are practising one, you are
preparing for the other. The beauty of calligraphy will reappear in the
grace with which weapons are thrown and wielded.

They also believe in a chivalric warrior's code. Not surprisingly, these
Chinese virtuosi of the sword resemble the heroes who have always influenced
oriental action films, the gunmen of the American West, now relatively
unfashionable but once Hollywood's favourite protagonists. Even when their
lives were in danger, the western gunmen maintained (so the movie-created
myth tells us) a code of honour as strict as the Marquess of Queensberry
rules.

A true martial-arts warrior learns the nobility of restraint. In Hero, some
of the swordsmen who set out to assassinate the king of Qin, a tyrant,
decide instead to let him live. They recall the men in the Shakespeare
sonnet that begins "They that have power to hurt and will do none." In the
end they inherit heaven's graces: "They are the lords and owners of their
faces,/Others but stewards of their excellence."

The Chinese cinema has also borrowed one of the standard characters
developed for the imaginary Old West by John Ford's American generation of
legend-building directors: The renowned fighter who longs to hang up his
weapon and live in peace, a convention last put to good use by Clint
Eastwood in his classic Unforgiven.

To that tradition, China has added conventions of its own, including the one
that always looks as if it were borrowed from the Magic Realism of Latin
America: Great warriors not only use their weapons faster than the eye can
see, they also float through the air like birds, dancing over mountains,
sometimes even fighting in the sky. A martial-arts film director ignores the
surly bonds of Earth.

Yimou has said that he was inspired by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the
Ang Lee film that became famous for its highly aesthetic approach to martial
arts. As far as we can tell from Hero, Yimou lacks Lee's ability to import a
compelling narrative into an action film. Hero's plot sometimes becomes
engaging when the filmmakers tell and retell it in different versions, as
Akira Kurosawa did 54 years ago in Rashomon, the first Asian film to reach a
large audience in the West. Otherwise, the story verges on the
simple-minded.

But as a work of visual art, Hero effortlessly improves on its model. While
there's no denying the beauty of Crouching Tiger, Hero sets a higher
standard.

It exhibits the talents of four remarkable actors, but the real stars are
the cinematographer (Christopher Doyle) and the production designers (Huo
Ting Xiao and Yi Zhen Zhou). They show us so many magnificent images, and
use colour with such precision and imagination, that we never get around to
wondering why we don't care about the characters or the plot. They spell out
one scene in red, another in blue, another in white, and finally an
exquisite passage in pistachio green. At one point the designers make
vibrant art out of the movement of fabric falling to the floor. The garments
of the actors have an almost ecclesiastical dignity.

The foley artists who built the soundtrack intensify the experience; every
clank of swords, every crash of arrows hitting a building, creates a
slightly distinct aural effect. The swish of a sword coming out of its
scabbard becomes a little sound poem that could be the opening notes for a
modernist concerto. Tan Dun's music, with violin solos performed by Itzhak
Perlman, has a wondrous urgency.

An old rule holds that a movie doesn't work when you notice the sets, the
costumes and the music. That's true sometimes, but false in martial-arts
films. Not to notice such details here would be like not noticing the sets
of an opera or the costumes in a production of Shakespeare. It would be
missing the point, or part of the point.

But of course ritual must always be charged with meaning, and the ritual in
Hero is no exception. It carries a political message, and it's not at all
subtle. The theme is national unity. Warriors sacrifice themselves so that
the King of Qin can govern all seven Chinese kingdoms and thereby organize
for the first time (this is 2300 BC) a unified China, reverently described
in the subtitles as "our land." The hyper-efficient massing of soldiers and
their fanatic dedication provide a hymn to nationalism that recalls Leni
Riefenstahl's Nazi film, Triumph of the Will, or maybe the knockoff of
Riefenstahl in Star Wars. Today, computer enhancement makes those effects
even more powerful.

In the past, Yimou has had his troubles with the authorities in Beijing, but
they stand solidly behind Hero, for obvious reasons. It presents Chinese
unity as an unquestioned good. Chinese audiences have made Hero their most
successful film ever, and from a distance we can appreciate it as a work of
art. Residents of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Tibet may have a more sardonic
reaction.

http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/artslife/story.html?id=b9c2
c143-cd06-4494-a22b-ac6dfe399b2a

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go for the gold!

The Summer's Political Olympics

"This summer there were two Olympics. The Olympic Games in Athens, and the political Olympics in Boston and New York City. The Olympic Games are all about sportsmanship, stamina and athletic excellence. The political Olympics - the Democratic and Republican conventions -- should be about the democratic process and inspiring a vision of how our country can be."
(more...)

1 September 2004

stamp for the cure!

this is not an Urban Legend

WASHINGTON –July 29, 1998.
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Postmaster General William Henderson today issued a new postage stamp to help raise funds for breast cancer research. The issuance ceremony was held in the East Room of the White House, officially launching the first U.S. stamp in history to have its net proceeds above the cost of postage earmarked for research organizations.
"About 2 million American women suffer from breast cancer today," said the First Lady. "This deadly disease, which claims a woman’s life every 12 minutes, has touched the lives of so many American families, including the President’s own. I am proud to build on the President’s long-standing commitment to breast cancer prevention and research. This historic stamp will be invaluable in our efforts to increase research funding and save lives."
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blbcstamp.htm



THE BREAST CANCER POSTAGE STAMP AND THE INVOLVEMENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE BREAST CANCER RESEARCH PROGRAMhttp://cdmrp.army.mil/pubs/factsheets/bcstampfactsheet.htm
"The Breast Cancer Stamp. The Stamp Out Breast Cancer Act (Public Law 105-41) resulted from the work of advocates for breast cancer research. This legislation led to the US Postal Service's issuance of a new first-class stamp, the Breast Cancer Stamp, which costs 45 cents and can be purchased on a voluntary basis by the public. Net revenues from the Breast Cancer Stamp are used to support breast cancer research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the DOD. The DOD BCRP receives 30% of the monies raised from stamp sales. Thus far, the BCRP received 10 installments totaling $10,323,112. In July 2000 the Semipostal Authorization Act amended the Stamp Out Breast Cancer Act legislation by extending the sale of the Breast Cancer Stamp for 2 additional years through the summer of 2002. The Breast Cancer Research Stamp Act of 2001 (S. 1256 and H.R. 2725), enacted as part of the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act of 2002 (Public Law 207-67), extended the sale of the current Semipostal Authorization Act for breast cancer research to December 31, 2003. Currently, an extension of this Stamp Act is under consideration by Congress."



BREAST CANCER STAMP
http://www.bcsg-staug.com/Breast%20Cancer%20stamp2.html
"We need those of you who are great at forwarding on info with your e-mail network. Please read and pass on. It would be wonderful if 2003 were the year a cure for breast cancer was found!!!! This is one note I'll gladly pass on. The notion that we could raise $35 million by buying a book of stamps is powerful! As you may be aware, the US Postal Service recently released its new "Fund the Cure" stamp to help fund breast cancer research.
Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, Maryland designed the stamp. It is important that we take a stand against this disease that kills and maims so many of our mothers, sisters, and friends. Instead of the normal $0.37 for a stamp, this one costs $0.40. The additional $0.03 will go to breast cancer research.
A "normal" book costs $7.40. This one is only $8.00. It takes a few minutes in line at the Post Office and means so much. If all stamps are sold, it will raise an additional $35,000,000 for this vital research. Just as important as the money is our support. What a statement it would make if the stamp outsold the lottery. What a statement it would make that we care.

OFFICE TECH GRADS Posted by Hello

OFFICE TECH TEAM Posted by Hello

excellent career opportunity from YouthPlaces

YouthPlaces
Job Description
For
Coach
(Part-Time Position)

Location: 2934 Smallman Street, 2nd floor
Pittsburgh, PA 15201

Reports To: Program Director

Summary
YouthPlaces is a non-profit organization that services at-risk youth ages 12-18 in seventeen different City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County neighborhoods by providing after-school and summer programs. We promote positive development of youth as a means of enhancing their potential to become productive adults.

The Coach must:
· Actively work and involve youth in site-based programs that support their academic achievement and personal development
· Outreach and mentor to community youth and connect them with the curriculum and various resources.
Key Responsibilities:
· Help develop strategies to recruit youth to participate in youth programs year round.
· Help create effective skill building programs utilizing our curriculum .
· Facilitate group mentoring sessions a minimum of twice a week (with some sites up to four times).
· Monitor day-to-day behavior of youth & their participation in program activities
· Help develop goal plans/service plans with youth whom have been identified
· Review goal plans, attendance, participation, progress and create intervention & prevention plans with youth bi-weekly.
· Work with schools and site staff to assess and document youth progress

Additional Responsibilities:
· Work with and coordinate community partnerships/resources
· Work with site staff to develop and implement programs
· Complete required documentation and reports as required
· Must participate in monthly staff meetings, trainings, and site visits

Qualifications:
· Experience working with at-risk youth & community organizations would be a plus
· Degree in or majoring in Education/Social Service/Counseling, etc also a plus
· Must be able to pass act 33/34 clearances

Salary: $15/hour

Please send resume to Tyra Good, Program Director, via e-mail to tgood@youthplaces.org or via fax to 412-281-6683 by Friday, September 3, 2004.
DailyOM
today@dailyom.com
September 1, 2004

10 Steps To Finding Your Passion: Understanding Your Path

1. Before passion can be revealed, perspective must be sought. In order to listen to your heart, day-to-day stresses, fears and confusions must be put aside because that which is safe is not always satisfying to the spirit. (more…)

talking Japanese!

Talking on the Phone
Let's learn common expressions used on the phone. Don't be intimidated by phone calls. Practice makes perfect!

Even though you start understanding a language better, it is always difficult to talk on the phone in a that language. You can't use gestures which help lot most of the time. Also, you can't see the other person's facial expressions or reactions. You have to listen very carefully to what the other person says. Talking on the phone in Japanese might be especially harder, since there are some formal phrases customarily used in phone conversations. (The Japanese normally talk very politely on the phone unless talking with a friend.) Let's learn common expressions used on the phone. Don't be intimidated by phone calls.
Practice makes perfect!
(more...

odds and ends

Black and Muslim at the RNC
by Jean Chen [08/31/04]
How did a black Muslim from a mosque named after radical activist Malcolm X get invited to do an invocation for thousands of Republicans?......
more »

Young Republican Delegate
by Jacob Schneider, Youth Radio [08/31/04]
An interview with 24-year-old delegate Diana Bautista....
more »

So New York City
by PopandPolitics.com [08/31/04]
There's a bomb scare and people just don't care.......
more »

Personal Politics
by Joy Howard [08/31/04]
Peace activists speak from experience about the cost of an unjust war.......
more »

Tuesday Night on the Streets
by Jean Chen [08/31/04]
"Give the cops a raise! Give the cops a raise!" I had just emerged from the R train at West 34th and Broadway onto what appeared to be a police parade......
more »

Iraqi War Veteran in NYC
by DeSean Robinson-Walker, Youth Radio [08/30/04]
Youth Radio speaks to an Iraqi War veteran who served six months as a military police officer at Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad.......
more »

Ed Koch Goes Off
by Matt Margolis [08/30/04]
Hear audio from the former mayor of NYC on the hypocrisy of the Democrats and why he's supporting Bush....
more »

Day by Day
Politics and the workplace come together in this daily comic strip by Chris Muir.
more »

31 August 2004

back to school? Back to Work!

(need help finding job openings? Check-out these listings.

It's that time of year again- Labor Day! For you, or someone you know, it could be a new type of labor.

Do you know someone who needs a job?
Please have them apply at the community-based Gregg Services office nearest to them: Greensburg, Cranberry, Canonsburg, or Downtown Pittsburgh. We are continuously recruiting for all types of jobs, the ones listed below and various clerical, professional, light industrial, customer service, skilled trades, and other commercial positions. Please forward this e-mail and help to stimulate our region's economy.

To subscribe to this valuable job lead newsletter, please email shannong@greggservices.com.


GREGG SERVICES/INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYEES
Internal Position, 412-702-9000x218, 412-702-9011 fax, shannong@greggservices.com

Greensburg, 724-853-7710, 724-853-7720 fax, katie.

lakatosh@greggservices.com


Cranberry, 724-776-0400, 724-776-4477fax,
jrieger@greggservices.com


Canonsburg, 724-873-0990, 724-873-0993fax,
csmith@greggservices.com


Downtown Pittsburgh, 412-642-7422, 412-208-9011fax,

mwetzel@greggservices.com


GREGG PROTECTION SERVICES
412-702-9000 x208, 412-702-9011fax,

mwasilak@greggservices.com


we need more GOODWILL

"The teachers at Goodwill take time to talk to you, and they treat you like somebody."

After working for an employer for over 25 years, Barbara Talerico was laid off. She knew that she needed training in order to find another job, so she came to Goodwill and enrolled in the Goodwill Employment Training Center (GETC).
GETC is a state-licensed private school that offers several diploma programs of study to prepare students for graduation, as well as placement assistance. Barbara enrolled in the GETC's Word Processing Clerk Program.
After graduation she was hired for a data-entry position with Mellon Financial Services. Barbara ranks graduating from GETC as her greatest accomplishment in life.
(more...)


Calendar of Events
Welcome to the Goodwill Industries of Pittsburgh Calendar of Events.

September 30, 2004
Job Fair

Oct. 4 - Oct
Annual Great Book Sale at the U.S. Steel Tower

October 28, 2004
8th Annual Power of Work Awards

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