#reading research

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Ascanio learned his first political lessons under the tyrannical regime of his brother, Galeazzo Maria, who kept his brothers away from power and alienated his father's major allies, King Ferrante of Naples and Louis XI of France. The triple alliance received a crippling blow, from which it never fully recovered, when Ferrante refused the duke's request to launch a major war against Venice to recover the former Visconti cities of Bergamo, Brescia, and Crema. Internally, the duchy was divided by a fractional nobility militating under various banners of competing interests and by the duke's ambitious younger brothers, Sforza Maria and Ludovico. The latter secretly plotted - with the apparent knowledge of Ascanio - to assassinate Galeazzo in June of 1476. Others succeeded in assassinating him six months later.

It seems that Ascanio did not draw the proper lessons from these fratricidal tendencies so reminiscent of his Visconti ancestors. Although outwardly he showed support for the regency of Duchess Bona, governing for the seven-year old Duke Giangaleazzo, in 1477 he secretly plotted with his brothers to form a new regency council dominated by themselves. The failed plot in time led to the beginning of the ascendancy of Ludovico, now in open competition with Ascanio, who wanted to share power with him in the council of the Regency and even replace him as Regent after 1480. For the next three years Ascanio was continually hatching plots against his brother with the aid of anyone in position to offer support, especially Ferrante and Venice. His wide reputation as troublemaker ready to betray friends and change sides almost cost him the nomination to the Sacred College as cardinal deacon in 1484. Ludovico took advantage of the nomination to impose his absence from Milan, and he even opposed his ambition to become archbishop of Milan.

As cardinal, Ascanio seemed to grow in the art of statecraft, though he never lost the habit of conspiring against his brother. His influence in the pontificate of Innocent VIII was limited by the fact that the pope was more prone to take the advice of Lorenzo de'Medici in foreign policy, but by the time of next conclave in 1492 he managed to control the largest number of votes and cultivate the friendship of the influential Vice Chancellor, Rodrigo Borgia. Only thirty-seven years old, Ascanio postponed his own ambition and backed Borgia, who offered him his own office and other benefits to defeat the hopes of Giuliano della Rovere. And he became pope-maker again when he engineered the election of Pius III in 1503. Yet, despite his many intrigues and betrayals, he tried to be faithful to one overriding principle in foreign policy - the preservation of the triple alliance as the best means of preserving the Aragonese and Sforza dynasties as well as the independence of the Holy See from rising French power in the peninsula.

from a review by vincent ilardi

Whole Language: Applying Reading Research to the Development of an Integrated Lesson Plan

Author page: http://goo.gl/Y4egDs   What can you do when your English language learner (EFL / outer circle) students are poor readers? I asked myself this question after half my sixth grade class in Santiago, Chile failed a reading test. For many students, reading is not only a problem in their second language (L2); but also it is a problem in their first language (L1). For example,…

Google has confirmed that one of its self-driving vehicles sustained significant damage in a traffic accident involving a commercial van on Friday, September 23.

The collision took place at the corner of W El Camino Real and Calderon Ave in Mountain View, California, when the driver of the van ran a red light and struck the passenger side of Google’s Lexus RX 450 SUV.

The car was operating in its autonomous mode at the time of the crash, but that didn’t stop the human driver from slamming on the breaks when he spotted the oncoming van. Unfortunately, his reaction was a little too slow.

The good news, however, is that no one sustained any injuries during the incident. Although, understandably the Google employee in the heavily modified RX 450 was visibly shaken.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time that one of Google’s autonomous vehicles have been caught up in a traffic accident.

Earlier this year, a Google-branded self-driving car was involved in its first and only at-fault accident when it hit a public transit bus while attempting to navigate around a sandbag in the middle of the road.

This latest incident wasn’t the autonomous car’s fault, though. In a statement issued to 9to5Google, the company revealed that the traffic light was green for at least six seconds before the vehicle entered the intersection.