text stringlengths 12 2.23M |
|---|
‘But Gorsuch’ Is More Than a Slogan
by Steven Greenhut
March 1, 2018, 12:00 AM
We’ve got a box of red balls at the office imprinted with a simple line drawing of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and the words, “But Gorsuch.” Whenever someone complains about President Donald Trump — and I routinely complain about his crude personality and some of his policies — we can chuck the ball at the wall and remind ourselves of a redeeming feature of his presidency. It was a fun idea, courtesy of the think tank that employs me.
This hasn’t relieved much stress, but reading about the latest high-court deliberations and realizing that Gorsuch is on the court has done wonders for my soul. This week, the court began oral arguments in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The case centers on these questions: Should public-sector workers be forced to pay dues, even though they might vigorously oppose the agenda of their union representatives? Does this violate their First Amendment rights?
Practically speaking, this case could — and probably will — dramatically roll back the power of government unions in non-right-to-work states. My writing focuses on California, where such unions essentially control all levers of government. The results are clear: massive pension and other debts to pay for crazy levels of public-sector compensation, the obliteration of public budgets and services, the protection of bad teachers and other workers.
The status quo dates back to the 1977 high court’s Abood decision. Back then, the courts “split the baby” in its decision surrounding similar questions. It ruled that workers were not required to pay for unions’ direct political activities, but must pay for those related to bargaining for contracts — even if they chose not to carry the union card. The justices were concerned that “free riders” would get the benefits of union membership without having to pay for them.
There have been myriad problems with this creaky court compromise. For starters, unions get to decide how much money goes to collective bargaining, and they reportedly have made it unreasonably difficult for conscientious objectors to opt out of their dues-paying. The bigger issue, however, is that everything unions do is ultimately political. Illinois municipal worker Mark Janus argues that he shouldn’t have to support any of the union’s activities given that everything it does involves a tug on public funds and has an impact on public policy.
If, say, a union secures a higher pension benefit in negotiations, that benefit is paid by public dollars and comes at the expense of other services. If a teachers’ union imposes an additional hurdle to firing a bad teacher, that undermines the education that’s provided in the public schools and harms society in general. Why should workers be forced to subsidize such things if they object to them? A few years ago, in a related case, the court encouraged a challenge on this point.
It looked like the days of mandatory union dues were coming to an end. The Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association case involving the identical issue was argued before the Supreme Court in January 2016, but then conservatives shortly thereafter lost their court majority with the untimely passing of Justice Antonin Scalia. The court subsequently deadlocked 4-4, thus leaving the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal’s pro-union decision in place.
After Gorsuch filled the vacancy, the court agreed to hear the Janus case. The new justice didn’t say a word during the hearing this week, but Justice Anthony Kennedy noted, “What we’re talking about here is compelled justification and compelled subsidization of a private party, a private party that expresses political views constantly,” according to a report in Reason. Court watchers on the Left and Right expect some rollback of mandatory union dues.
The unions know what’s coming down the pike. The California Teachers’ Association published a presentation during the Friedrichs deliberations titled, “Not if, but when: Living in a world without Fair Share.” (“Fair Share” is the term unions use to refer to such mandatory dues payments.) The teachers’ union document actually was rather thoughtful, in that it called on the union to do a better job marketing its services to potential members.
Some other unions have taken a similarly constructive approach, even as others have done some far-less admirable things. In California, Democrats passed a new law that gives government unions the right to hold recruiting sessions on work time at the workplace. Some unions have sent out contracts to their members with “trap language” that essentially convinces them to give up in advance (at least temporarily) any new rights they might get following a Janus verdict. Many unions and their advocates have depicted the case in overheated ways.
The court could take a variety of approaches, but ultimately any barring of mandatory union dues payments would revamp the current political landscape. Unions would certainly lose large portions of their membership, as we’ve seen in Wisconsin following Gov. Scott Walker’s notable reforms. Their budgets could plummet. They would have to spend more time focusing on providing benefits to members rather than in controlling state Capitols.
There might even be renewed competition. Currently, workers must pay dues to the union that has monopoly control over their bargaining unit. Depending on how the court rules, we could end up with a situation where multiple unions — even some conservative-minded ones — would vie for membership among various groups of workers.
In a separate case that’s coming to the California Supreme Court, the justices there are reviewing a union challenge to what’s known as the “California Rule” — a series of court decisions that bans state and local governments from reducing public-employee pensions even going forward. Even the Jerry Brown administration weighed in on reforming the rule.
I’m too much of a cynic to believe that union power will be totally neutered, but if these two cases are ruled as expected, it will certainly level the playing field. As I mentioned above, the state’s unions are the main impediment to any sort of fiscal reform, or to any substantive improvement in California’s decrepit public services. Nothing can be fixed until this special interest group no longer has a stranglehold on the state government.
The Janus case is the big one, though. And it might really help those of us living in blue states. It’s not the most watched result of the Trump presidency, but it could be one of the most substantive results of it to date. Anyway, waiting for the court’s decision certainly is more satisfying than throwing stress balls — or banging my head — against the wall.
Steven Greenhut is Western region director for the R Street Institute. Write to him at sgreenhut@rstreet.org.
Steven Greenhut
Follow Their Stories:
Steven Greenhut is a senior fellow and Western region director for the R Street Institute. Write to him at sgreenhut@rstreet.org.
Constitutional Opinions
What Deference Does It Make?
Judges Could Solve All Our Problems
by Marc Berman
California Watch
Sad, Dying Gasps of Pension Reform
Rescue Border Towns and Taxpayers With ‘Remain In Mexico’
by Betsy McCaughey
The Drive to Tame the ‘Administrative State’
by Brendan Kirby
American Saloon Series
Supreme Court Hits One Out of the Park
by Johnny Kampis |
Sick of Stocks? There Are Alternatives
by Don Duncan | Oct 26, 2011 | Articles |
Recent stock market volatility has prompted many investors to look for alternatives to equities as they build a portfolio. Alternative investments — such as real estate investment trusts, commodities, private equity, and hedge funds — may have appeal for certain individuals.
The stock market volatility of the past decade has caused many investors to question how much of their portfolios should be allocated to equities. If the equity markets are making you nervous, it’s important to understand that there are alternatives. Many investors are turning to alternative investments, which, when used along with stocks, may increase diversification and potentially lessen volatility.1
Alternative Investments Defined
Alternative investments take many forms, including the following:
Real estate investment trusts (REITs). REITs invest in groups of professionally managed properties such as office buildings, apartments, warehouses, or health care facilities. To qualify as a REIT, a company must invest at least 75% of its total assets in real estate, it must derive at least 75% of gross income from rents or mortgage interest, and it must pay at least 90% of its taxable income in the form of shareholder dividends. REITs trade on major exchanges and can be bought or sold as you would trade a stock.
Commodities.2 These investments include metals such as gold or silver, oil, and agricultural products. In the case of gold or silver, there are dealers who trade these precious metals. If you take physical possession of gold or silver, you will need to arrange for storage and insurance. Because many investors do not want to make these arrangements, exchange-traded funds have become a popular way to access commodities.
Private equity. Major categories of private equity include venture capital, leveraged buyouts, and mezzanine financing. Investors participate in private markets through collective vehicles such as partnerships that actively manage the investment assets on the investors’ behalf. Successful investing in this area requires the ability to assess complex financial structures, assume outsized risk in pursuit of superior reward, and tolerate extended periods of illiquidity. Private equity firms frequently require investors to make commitments ranging from $5 million to $10 million or more.
Hedge funds.3 The term hedge fund is a catch-all phrase describing funds that follow aggressive investment strategies such as intensive use of derivatives and proprietary computerized trading. Hedge funds typically are engineered to seek a more favorable risk-adjusted return than their investors might obtain from a fund that follows a standard market benchmark. These funds are offered to investors whose portfolios include more than $1 million in financial assets.
All investing involves risk, including loss of principal, and alternative investments by themselves can be highly volatile. But when used in combination with stocks or other assets, they may help to smooth out long-term returns and provide an alternative when stock returns are choppy. Be sure to consult with your financial professional before investing.
Source/Disclaimer:
1There is no guarantee that a diversified portfolio will enhance overall returns or outperform a nondiversified portfolio. Diversification does not ensure against market risk.
2Exposure to the commodities market may subject investors to greater volatility as commodity-linked investments may be affected by changes in overall market movements, commodity index volatility, changes in interest rates, or factors affecting a particular industry or commodity.
3Hedge funds often engage in speculative investment practices that may increase the risk of investment loss. Hedge funds can be highly illiquid; are not required to provide periodic pricing or valuation information to investors; may involve complex tax structures and delays in distributing important tax information; are not subject to the same regulatory requirements as mutual funds; and often charge high fees.
© 2011 McGraw-Hill Financial Communications. All rights reserved.
October 2011 — This column is provided through the Financial Planning Association, the membership organization for the financial planning community, and is brought to you by D3 Financial Counselors, a local member of FPA. |
The exchange rates are one of the most important macroeconomic variables influencing the economic activities of any country such as foreign trade, money and capital markets. From this aspect, examining the changes in exchange rates, which are considered as one of the indicators of economic stability, is of significant importance. The aim of this study is to test the purchasing power parity (PPP) hypothesis for E-7 countries between 1994 and 2017. Within the scope of this analysis, firstly the dependence between the cross-sections was examined. Then, the validity of PPP hypothesis was tested using SURADF (Seemingly Unrelated Augmented Dickey Fuller) panel unit root test developed by Breuer et al. (2001) and Carrion-i-Silvestre et al. (2005) panel unit root test (PANKPSS), which takes the structural breaks into consideration. According to the results of SURADF test, it was determined that the PPP is holds only in Russia and Turkey, but not in the other countries. According to the results of PANKPSS unit root test considering the structural breaks, however, it was found that PPP is holds in all the countries. |
Construction is expected to begin this fall on a $2.9 million facility that will give researchers a rare tool for studying off-highway equipment and provide students valuable experience. It also could lead to developments such as tractors with traction control.
Researchers from 14 land-grant universities, including Iowa State, are collaborating with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and international institutions to find innovative solutions to food safety and quality control issues, imperative to food security and human health.
Setbacks are to be expected when pursuing a goal, whether you are trying to lose weight or save money. The challenge is getting back on track and not giving up after a difficulty or crisis, says an Iowa State University marketing professor working on practical ways to help people stick to health-related goals.
The research of Stacy Cordery, professor of history at Iowa State University, suggests that while presidents have many more options open to them in their “retirement” than the rest of us, they find the transition difficult and their choices have run the gamut from the decent to the disastrous, from altruistic to avaricious.
Kirill Kovnir, associate professor of chemistry at Iowa State University, synthesizes new materials which can be used to turn heat into electricity. |
Record Number Of Migrant Children Held In Border Patrol Custody As Cases Climb Overnight
Mar 9, 2021, 12:08 PM | Updated: 2:00 pm
US Custom and Border Patrol facilities, designed for housing adults, are experiencing an influx of unaccompanied migrant children and set a record for housing minors on March 9 (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
(Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
BY PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN
The number of unaccompanied migrant children in US Border Patrol facilities intended for adults climbed on Tuesday, surpassing record highs from the previous day, according to new figures reviewed by CNN.
More than 3,400 unaccompanied migrant children were in Customs and Border Protection custody, according to the data dated Tuesday.
Of those, around 2,800 were awaiting placement in shelters suitable for minors, but there were just under 500 beds available to accommodate them — startling figures that demonstrates how deep the challenge is for the Biden White House.
More than 440 unaccompanied migrant children were arrested Tuesday, a CBP official said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to confirm Tuesday’s numbers or characterize this as a “crisis.”
“What I also think is important is to talk about what the root causes are here and what we’re doing from a policy standpoint to try and address the challenges that we’re facing and that these kids are facing as they come across the border,” she said Tuesday.
Psaki also said that the team of senior officials who traveled to tour facilities on Saturday still have not briefed President Joe Biden on the situation amid a surge of unaccompanied minors at the US-Mexico border.
“They are going to do a meeting, of course, and give the President a full rundown of what they saw on the ground, a trip that he asked them to take and I’ll let them do that before we have more specifics,” she said at Tuesday’s press briefing.
The growing number of unaccompanied children has raised alarm bells among officials scrambling to find shelter space to care for kids amid an ongoing pandemic that resulted in some locations keeping some beds unoccupied to comply with health guidelines.
This week’s data reveals the continued bottleneck in the system, with more children coming into custody than the US government is prepared to care for. It also emphasizes the hurdles facing the Biden administration as it tries to strike a more humanitarian approach on immigration while juggling the realities on the border.
The numbers are overwhelming. To compare, at the peak of the 2019 border crisis — when there were overcrowded facilities and children sleeping on the ground — there were around 2,600 unaccompanied children in Border Patrol custody, a former CBP official told CNN.
A myriad of reasons can account for the sudden rise in children at the US-Mexico border, including the pandemic’s dramatic toll on Latin America, where economies once projected to grow have been decimated, the results of two devastating hurricanes that hit the region, and a perception of relaxed enforcement by the Biden administration.
After being taken into Border Patrol custody, unaccompanied children have to be turned over within 72 hours to the Department of Health and Human Services, which is tasked with the care of migrant children, barring exceptional circumstances.
Once in care, case managers will work to place children with a sponsor, like a parent or relative, in the US, but as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and precautions to avoid spread of Covid-19, the department has until recently only been able to use a little more than half of the beds it has for children. |
You are here: Home / News and Events / REPs Ireland recognised by European Health & Fitness Association
REPs Ireland recognised by European Health & Fitness Association
November 27, 2013 by newsdesk
REPS Ireland (Register of Exercise Professionals) has been formally recognised by the European Health & FitnessAssociation (EHFA) as the National Competent Body (NCB) to quality assure exercise professionals and education and training providers in Ireland, in relation to industry occupational standards.
This announcement was made at the 4th EHFA International Standards Meeting in Budapest on Thursday 21st November.
As a result, all exercise professionals registered with REPs Ireland will now have direct recognition by the European Register of Exercise Professionals (EREPs), which will ensure mobility of employment across the European Union.
This is an addition to the already established access to other national registers worldwide that REPs Ireland registered professionals are entitled to as a result of REPs Ireland being a full member of the International Confederation of Registers ofExercise Professionals (ICREPs).
This new agreement ensures that REPs Ireland and its members will be at the forefront of all future developments in Europe. Mark McManus, the Registrar of REPs Ireland commented “This is an important step in the development of the Irish National Register of Exercise Professionals. Since the launch of REPs Ireland 5 years ago, great progress has been made in the development of Irish quality assurance procedures based around the EHFA occupational standards.”
Harm Tegelaars, President of EHFA, commented that “We are taking very careful steps to ensure we are building permanent structures and the addition of REPs Ireland marks very significant progress. Our standards council has done an incredible job in creating such a high quality outcome through our sector qualification framework, and the occupational standards we now have available are the backbone of this progress, as shown by this recognition of REPs Ireland.”
As a result of this recognition of REPs Ireland by EHFA, all exercise professionals and approved education providers will now be listed on the EREPs website and public register.
REPs Ireland can now offer their members and approved education providers, access to European and worldwide employment and business opportunities.
REPs Ireland independently operates the national register of exercise professionals on behalf of Ireland Active, which is the Irish national health and fitness representative body.
For more information contact REPs Ireland at info@repsireland.ie or call 00353 (0)21 4856460.
Filed Under: News and Events Tagged With: European Health & Fitness Association, Register of Exercise Professionals, REPs Ireland |
Big Data As a Marketing Strategy – SPOTIFY’s 2016 Campaign
By Lior Schneider
Big Data is the latest BIG word, as small data shows major insights teased from big data. One of the most prominent areas used in Big Data is marketing: The information we collect through various measurements and analyses of our audience and its actions allow us to gain insights into the brand performance. However, usually the data and analysis remain behind the scenes.
Brands thinking that the audience will not be interested in their insights. But recently, it seems this mindset is changing.
Last November, Spotify came out with a huge campaign, summarizing 2016 music. Billboards placed at key locations in 14 countries around the world, presented the funny, interesting and strange users habits of listeners throughout the year.
Spotify found these nuggets from the data they collected, such as the number of times users listened to certain songs, popular songs in various geographical regions, playlists users created and much more. The campaign has gotten both surprised and amused comments from people exposed to it, and praises from the media.
So what was so special about the Spotify campaign, and why did it get so much BUZZ?
Creating the campaign
The campaign began on November 28th, 2016, with billboards placed at key intersections, bus stops and subway stations in the United States, Britain, France, and Germany.
In New York, the following signs were set up
For those who find it difficult to read, the sign on the left refers to the blockbuster musical “Hamilton” on Broadway, which has a waiting list to stand for a few months at least : “Dear person in the Theater District who listened to the Hamilton Soundtrack 5,376 times this year, can you get us tickets?”
In another pair of signs, there is a reference to the hit “Panda” and to people who are starting to listen to Christmas songs in the summer:
A sign in London mentions one historical moment experienced by the UK this year – the Brexit
Later in the campaign more signs were placed in 10 other countries: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Denmark, Sweden, Indonesia and the Philippines. As you can see, part of the signs are more general, and some clearly refer to local events or trends.
Additionally, in some signs, there appears below the caption: “Thanks, 2016. It’s been weird” which is actually the unifying line of the campaign, that “winks” at the past year on a variety of bizarre and tragic incidents on the one hand, and on the other hand – to the soundtrack that formed our lives while we experienced those moments.
The creative team of Spotify in New York is responsible for the campaign, based on data received from Spotify’s teams all over the world, and is considered the largest global ad campaign from Spotify so far. Apart from billboards, the campaign included custom emails that were sent to users, as well as sponsored advertising on social networks and other digital means.
According to Seth Farbman, Spotify’s CMO, “the idea for the data-driven campaign originated with 2015’s end-of-year “Year in Music” campaign, as it transpired that data from listeners in different geographical areas provided some interesting insights. That led to the idea of reflecting culture via listener behavior.”
Campaign Results
The goal of this campaign was primarily to strengthen the brand; to preserve the 40 million existing users of Spotify and to attract new users, mainly due to the success of Apple Music, which recently opened to everyone and no longer restricted only to Apple’s users.
Did it work? It seems so. As expected, many people saw the billboards, took pictures of them and uploaded them to social networks, and thus contributed to the spread of the campaign. (Look at the number of shares)
One of the campaign shares on “Imgur” got more than 400 thousand views and 16 thousand upvotes ( the parallel of Facebook’s likes ). Also, the campaign got references from sites like Adweek, The Verge, The Independent, shows online, NBC, Business Insider and Bored Panda.
Market research firm, YouGov, which is investigating topics like brand perception and consumer behavior, analyzed the responses to the campaign and reached the following results: in the days after the campaign, ad index advertisements of Spotify among all respondents increased by 5 points. Among people under age 35, which are apparently the main target group of Spotify, the score rose even higher.
YouGov noted that during the campaign, Spotify also posted a special offer to sign up for their premium account – which must have led to increased public awareness. Another interesting statistic is the segmentation of Spotify, particularly about ads hanging out at public transportation, that was quite accurate: the data of YouGov suggests that users who considered register to Spotify belong more likely to the passengers of public transportation (This makes sense when one recalls that it was a young and Urban audience not holding a vehicle for economic reasons and/or for reasons of convenience and time savings);
The secret of success of the campaign
So how can we explain the success of Spotify’s campaign, connecting the modern digital services (music app) into a traditional marketing (billboards)? It seems like a combination of several key factors.
Creative use of Data. As mentioned above, this is not the first time Spotify uses the data it collects about its users for marketing purposes. Spotify rose on to something: the dry statistics can be found in surprising insights related to users’ emotions and behavior and in the broader prism – culture and history. The music we listen to and the way we listen to it (timing, frequency, repetition, and creating playlists according to different topics ) are determined mostly by our personal events in life. A clear example of this is what happens when a loved artist dies – not only radio stations plays his songs in memory, but we also like to remember and listen to his songs, even if we’ve not listened to them for a long time.
Relevance. The selected campaign slogan, “Thanks, 2016. It’s been weird” is not random. Over the last few months of 2016, many people around the world have expressed this sentiment. 2016 was a year brimming with tragedies – serious terror attacks from France to the United States, the death of beloved celebrities, and controversial world events, such as the Brexit in the UK and the US elections. Each time such an event has happened, social networks were filled with words of sadness, anger, despair and disbelief, especially craving for this year to be over. Spotify made an ingenious connection between the events that shaped 2016 and the soundtrack that accompanied its users throughout the year and often echoed the global events. Another aspect with the signs emphasizing their relevance was the adjustment of the physical location where the messages were placed: a message about “Brexit” in London, “Hamilton” in New York and so on. A man walking down the street or waiting for the train, looks up and sees before him a humorous statement that connects the music he listens, where he lives, and to the event that closes to him; And it produces in him a sense of closeness and intimacy with the brand.
Effortless. In this campaign, Spotify didn’t try to sell us something. It didn’t announce a new campaign or a new feature. It didn’t brag about the number of users. It didn’t compare itself to competitors. All it did was tell us fun trivia facts, quirky and interesting ways in which we used Spotify this year, and in a sense, even made a conversation. This is exactly the kind of small talk we will have with a colleague, laugh with friends or share on social networks. Spotify is already familiar enough to not be required to explain what it does – the logo is enough, and the rest of the ad can run wild.
The main message of the campaign is that sometimes, you do not have to look far: the best marketing idea lies in the data that we already have. The question is, of course, what to do with it. Spotify used it to “talk” with their users and to sum up the year with them.
What can you do with the data you have?
Overdrive Interactive is an award-winning digital marketing agency that helps leading companies compete and win in the online space. Founded in 2001, the agency has developed into an integrated digital shop that delivers brand building, customer acquisition and lead generation programs utilizing search marketing, social media marketing, online media buying, analytics and world class creative services.
Team Overdrive Takes Over Fenway Park
By arine fereshetian
The Overdrive team celebrated the end of summer in style by enjoying a full day of fun at Fenway Park. And honestly, what’s better than fantastic weather, cheering on the Red Sox, and a great team of coworkers to enjoy it all with? Not much, if you ask us. We started the day off with…
How AI is Reshaping Digital Marketing
Artificial Intelligence design studios are opening everywhere, adding to our marketing technology stack choices. Many platforms have already integrated components of AI into their existing marketing system offerings. Clients need to transform digitally, squared Today, clients are asking digital marketing and advertising agencies like Overdrive to embrace more technological change, as their marketing tech stacks grow…
Request: big-data-as-a-marketing-strategy-spotifys-2016-campaign
Matched Rewrite Rule: ([^/]+)(?:/([0-9]+))?/?$
Matched Rewrite Query: name=big-data-as-a-marketing-strategy-spotifys-2016-campaign&page=
Loaded Template: single.php |
Looking for ideal 2 Layer Matt Black PCB Manufacturer & supplier ? We have a wide selection at great prices to help you get creative. All the Urgent Matt Black Pcb are quality guaranteed. We are China Origin Factory of Urgent Ranger Board. If you have any question, please feel free to contact us. |
The ECF is a fund that the BSC holds specifically for financing projects that will decrease the energy or water use of a Co-op, thereby creating long term savings for the BSC. Houses should refer to their individual energy audit reports for guidance in prioritizing energy saving projects.
1. Would not otherwise be covered under by the BSC's existing sustainable purchasing practices (Section V.J).
2. Would not otherwise be prioritized in the BAPs process.
3. Are too expensive or complex for HAPS.
3. Money budgeted into the ECF by Board or FiCom during the regular budgeting process.
1. Projects must be primarily aimed at reducing the long term utilities consumption of a BSC Co-op.
2. Projects must be supported by reasonable projections indicating their payback period.
3. Projects must be permanent additions to the house, not portable or easily removable items.
4. 0.25% of the uncommitted balance may be used for educational products that show promise to reduce utility bills, as proposed by the Sustainability Coordinator and approved by the Capital Affairs Committee. Educational projects that produce long-term energy and water saving or waste reduction benefits are preferable.
Projects for the ECF can come from the five-year Energy Conservation Plan, the BAPS process, or from independent unit-level proposals.
i. The Capital Affairs Committee, based on recommendations of the Sustainability Coordinator, will propose a Five-Year :::Energy Conservation Investment Plan (”Plan”) which will identify specific projects for funding priority over each semester in the five year plan.
ii. Projects identified on the Plan will have priority for ECF funding in any year over other projects requesting ECF funding that may be approved through BAPS or other avenues.
iii. The BSC plans to allocate the majority of funding to five-year Energy Conservation Plan projects.
2. These projects are informed by the house energy audit, the Sustainability Coordinator, and/or another source of reliable data indicating which projects will be effective and affordable.
3. Projects are listed on the house's regular BAPs request list, but clearly indicated as intended for ECF funding.
4. BAPS projects not exclusively aimed at reducing energy consumption but that contain energy saving provisions can request partial ECF funding.
5. All energy conservation projects must be approved by house council along with the rest of the BAPS proposals.
Review and approval of projects proposed for ECF funding through the BAPS process shall take place as described in the BAPs policy (Section V.C).
1. Requests will include a detailed outline of the project, including estimated total project costs, how much money is being requested from the ECF, and the estimated payback period of the project through projected energy savings.
2. If the proposal is coming from a Co-op member or manager, the proposal must be approved by house council before being submitted.
3. Projects approved outside the BAPS process should be smaller, lower budget projects. Maintcom may refer major renovations or expensive projects to the next BAPs process.
4. Proposals are be submitted to the VPCA and the Sustainability Coordinator.
1. Proposals are reviewed by MaintCom in conjunction with the sustainability coordinator, to ensure that the project plans are financially sound, and that the projected energy savings are feasible.
2. When reviewing these proposals, the sustainability coordinator will be considered a voting member of MaintCom.
3. MaintCom, along with the sustainability coordinator, can decide to award a smaller sum of money to the project than initially requested.
4. Approved proposals shall be placed on the consent agenda for the next board meeting.
5. Projects that are more than $10,000 must be approved by CapCom before going on the consent agenda for the next board meeting.
6. Upon the completion of the project, a report shall be made to the sustainability coordinator by the proposer, documenting how the money was used. Before the end of each academic year, sustainability coordinator will compile all such documents to give a full report to the board.
7. If there is not enough time for MaintCom to review a request, CapCom has the authority to make a decision about the request.
This page was last modified on 31 May 2012, at 19:23. |
Evesplaining
Joe Biden Is the Last Person the Democrats Should Run in 2020
America's favorite 'Onion' character comes with way too much baggage.
by Eve Peyser
November 15, 2017, 10:17pm
Photos via Win McNamee/Getty Images, Wikimedia Commons, Bettmann/Getty Images
Welcome to Evesplaining, politics writer Eve Peyser's column about why everyone else is wrong and she's right.
On Monday, Joe Biden said he's "not closing the door" on a future presidential run. A new Politico/Morning Consult poll demonstrated why he's considering going for it by showing Biden leading Trump by 11 points in a very hypothetical 2020 matchup.
But don't be fooled by these numbers—the same poll found that a "generic Democrat" would fare even better against Trump. More to the point, to even find himself facing Trump Biden would have to win a likely packed-to-the-brim Democratic primary. And when a Resistance-drunk Democratic base looks at Biden, it's going to see a lot not to like. He'll face the same problems Hillary Clinton did in 2016, but magnified.
Let's begin by noting that Biden has already positioned himself as anti-populist Democrat in ideological opposition to Bernie Sanders, who according to some polls is the most popular politician in the US. In practice, this seems to mean going around saying things like "the wealthy are as patriotic as the poor," which seems slightly tone deaf considering he'd be competing to replace Trump and throw out his Cabinet of billionaires and hedge fund titans.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. Young people are probably more familiar with the memefied iteration of Biden, a silly foil to Barack Obama, who was the subject of numerous Onion parodies that portrayed him as a weed-selling, porn-loving "Uncle Joe" who threw parties at the White House when Obama was out of town. But as entertaining as the persona Biden has fostered since serving as vice president is, his past tells another story.
While Hillary was forever tied to the 1994 Violent Crime Control Act that her husband signed into law, Bill actually credited Biden with passing the legislation, which the former president later admitted made America's mass incarceration crisis worse. As recently as 2015, the bill that gave states financial incentivizes to incarcerate more citizens and instituted mandatory minimums for nonviolent crimes was referred to as “1994 Biden Crime Bill."
Biden's role in Anita Hill's 1991 sexual harassment hearing is also troubling. The then-senator led the proceedings as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and even though he ultimately voted against confirming Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, he was widely criticized by the left for "having mismanaged the allegations of sexual harassment made by Ms. Hill against her former employer, Mr. Thomas," according to a 2008 New York Times story. In a 2014 interview with the Huffington Post, Hill said that Biden did “a disservice to me, a disservice more importantly, to the public.”
On Monday, Biden offered up a half-baked non-apology for his conduct during the trial, saying, "I’m so sorry that she had to go through what she went through… I feel really badly that she didn't feel like the process worked."
Like Clinton, Biden voted for the Iraq War. He later said he regretted that decision—but in a contest with a fresh generation of Democrats who didn't vote for the Iraq War, it's almost certain to be another disadvantage.
He often presents himself as a champion of women's rights, having introduced the Violence Against Women Act in 1990 (it eventually passed as part of the 1994 crime bill), but Biden also voted in favor of banning so-called partial birth abortions and said that even though he believes in upholding Roe v. Wade, he thinks life begins at conception. Then there are all the photos of him touching women that look, well, creepy. No one has ever accused him of predatory behavior, but if 2020 is anything like 2017, those photos may skeeve out some Democratic voters.
These low points throughout Biden's long political career make him a less than ideal candidate for 2020, but did you know he's also known for making racist blunders? In 2006, he said, "You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking." When he announced his presidential bid in 2007, he called Barack Obama "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." And even after Obama had chosen him to be his running mate, Biden gave John McCain one of his main talking points when he said:
It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember, I said it standing here, if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.
If the primary gets ugly—and almost all close primaries get really, really ugly—you're also going to see people bringing up the reason Biden's first presidential run failed in 1987, which is that he stole a speech from a British politician.
There are many viable potential 2020 Democratic candidates, from Bernie Sanders to Elizabeth Warren to Kamala Harris. Voters will be spoiled for choice. Why would they pick Biden?
Follow Eve Peyser on Twitter.
Tagged:2020 electionjoe bidenPoliticsHillary ClintonDemocratsprogressives |
Good thoughts,and I just wanted to mention that you can do an online virtual cemetery for your loved ones at findagrave.com.You can post pics,leave virtual flowers,etc.You can look up their names first and see if anyone has listed them.If not then feel free to create memorials for them.
If someone has already listed them ( a lot of historical societies are doing that) then you can put in a request to the person that listed them and ask for the memorial to be transferred to you.
How interesting. I wasn’t aware. Thank you for sharing!
What you have written again is very true. My mother had 7 living children when she died. Yet, when the preacher asked if anyone wanted to share memories, none of us moved. Finally, one of the grandchildren that didn’t see her very often stepped up. All she could think of talking about was the pictures in the hall of my mother’s house. And all I felt was free. I couldn’t even cry. She lived a life of making others miserable. She had one favorite that turned out just like her. You’d think she’d want to mend her ways after seeing this. But narcissist are narcissist. Maybe, that’s why she still doesn’t get it.
That’s so sad. But, she has reaped what she’s sown, like my grandmother. |
Florida Boulevard's new food court, 'Millennial Park,' to open in early March
1 year 10 months 4 weeks ago Tuesday, February 18 2020 Feb 18, 2020 February 18, 2020 10:08 AM February 18, 2020 in News
Source: The Advocate
By: WBRZ Staff
BATON ROUGE - A former college athlete-turned-developer has an innovative idea for an area on Florida Boulevard.
According to The Advocate, Cameron Jackson is constructing a uniquely designed food court at 3817 Florida Boulevard, which is between Park Hills Drive and Wabash Boulevard.
But what makes this food court special is that instead of consisting of various brick and mortar buildings, or even food trucks, it will feature industrial shipping containers that have been converted into food stands.
The new site will be called 'Millennial Park,' and some are praising it as the sort of development this part of the capital city desperately needs.
Jackson said Millennial Park's concept was inspired by the outdoor food courts he'd seen in cities like Dallas and Houston. These areas were typically parks where food trucks clustered and where patrons who'd just purchased their meals could sit down to eat and relax.
But Jackson didn't want to make a carbon copy of what he'd seen in Texas.
Instead, he fused it with what he'd seen when he traveled to Jamaica, where lots of businesses set up operations in refurbished shipping containers.
Once Jackson's plan is completed Millennial Park will initially feature one shipping container restaurant specializing in Caribbean-style food and fried turkey wings.
He hopes other entrepreneurs or restaurants will see the success of the restaurant, which Jackson will manage, and then join in with more businesses housed in shipping containers.
When Jackson presented his plans to the Baton Rouge North Economic Development District, he was met with encouragement as most of the board's members were impressed with the idea.
Construction of the site is now in full swing and is expected to be completed in early March.
Click here for more information on the new development. |
You said (at 1:20) that “these are sites that have been built…” — but IMHO “sites” aren’t built (people generally use the term to refer to locations — i.e. “site” = “address”). In order to “clarify” this, we need to distinguish between the location and the data and/or code stored at that location (and that is what gets built). I have tried using the term “site” to refer to the location and “website” to refer to the code/data stored at that location (as this is actually the way people actually use those two terms), but people find the similarity between those two strings (and the apparent similarity between those two concepts) too confusing (nonetheless: when people talk about “building”, “creating”, “making”, etc., they usually talk about websites, not sites; and conversely, when they speak of linking or locating sources of information, they usually refer to sites, not websites).
Perhaps this ambiguity will be resolved as more and more genres of websites are created — e.g. “blogs”, “profiles”, “communities”, etc. (very much like we talk about “books”, “magazines”, “newspapers”, etc. WRT print). Now that I think about it, I’m thinking you may very well need to define such “data structures” for your “measurement” project (in order to avoid “OSFA” issues [let’s see if you can guess what that acronym stands for without me saying it explicitly yet again ;] ). |
Lilly Shoup
Lilly Shoup is Senior Director of Policy and Partnerships at Lyft. With a background in multimodal planning, performance management, and transit operations, she focuses on national transportation policy to re-connect communities with the world’s best transportation. Prior to joining Lyft, Lilly was a Principal at Nelson\Nygaard Consulting and served in the Office of Transportation Policy at the US Department of Transportation in Washington, DC where she managed the Partnership for Sustainable Communities. She is author of national publications and holds a Master in City and Regional Planning from the University of Maryland at College Park and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. |
We have a great selection of new, used and demo vehicles at Surf Toyota. We can also assist with finance, insurance, parts, accessories, service and fleet.
Black Toyota is home to Toyota vehicles in Dalby, QLD. Visit our showroom, view current offers, search our stock, book a service or order a genuine part.
Auto industry braces for electric shock" is also a good read. One quote is: "By 2050. Volt gets higher prices with more equipment." Toyota is currently ranked the number 10 in the global.
Click to get information and car insurance quotes for all Toyota models. You can also compare quotes from 30+ providers in just 3 minutes and save up to $1000.
Find out how the make and model of your car affects the cost of your auto insurance. Learn what you can do to lower your premiums.
How to get car insurance for Toyota vehicles. The best way to find insurance and the cheapest rates is to get a few quotes online as well as a local agent.
Toyota Fortuner at priceprice.com. Check the word-of mouth "COMPREHENSIVE CAR INSURANCE" of Toyota. If you are really looking now for the cheapest on line motor car insurance you have have a free quote in just few.
Toyota and TRD (Toyota Racing Development), Bass Pro Shops, 5-hour ENERGY, Auto-Owners Insurance, Furniture Row and Denver Mattress. “A heartfelt thank you to Joe Garone, Martin Truex Jr.
Toyota recalls over 7,000 vehicles in Canada If a wire core. and the president has called on Congress to change libel laws.
Get Toyota motor insurance by Toyota Insurance Calculator. Compare & estimate insurance price to buy/renew Toyota car insurance policy online.
Protect your vehicle from those unexpected bumps in the road. used by Toyota Motor Credit Corporation (TMCC), Toyota Motor Insurance Services, Inc. and its.
I have always lived with my own created quote – “Money saved today is money earned. drove 3–7–10 year old Ford F-150s or Chevy Silverado 1500s or a car like a Lexus or Toyota or Honda and an F-250/.
The new standard, imported from Japan, was the Toyota based 57 seconds per minute. This is a concentration of labour that. |
America First? China leads Asia into biggest free-trade deal.
China and 14 other countries agreed Sunday to set up the world’s largest free-trade bloc, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or RCEP.
Vietnam News Agency/AP
A virtual group photo of the leaders and trade ministers of 15 Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) countries hosted by Hanoi, Vietnam on Nov. 15, 2020. China and 14 other countries have agreed to set up the world’s largest trading bloc.
By Elaine Kurtenbach Associated Press
China and 14 other countries agreed Sunday to set up the world’s largest trading bloc, encompassing nearly a third of all economic activity, in a deal many in Asia are hoping will help hasten a recovery from the shocks of the pandemic.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, was signed virtually on Sunday on the sidelines of the annual summit of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The United States is not a part of the new accord.
“I am delighted to say that after eight years of hard work, as of today, we have officially brought RCEP negotiations to a conclusion for signing,” said host country Vietnam’s prime minister, Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
“The conclusion of RCEP negotiation, the largest free trade agreement in the world, will send a strong message that affirms ASEAN’s leading role in supporting the multilateral trading system, creating a new trading structure in the region, enabling sustainable trade facilitation, revitalizing the supply chains disrupted by COVID-19, and assisting the post-pandemic recovery,” Mr. Phuc said.
The accord will take already low tariffs on trade between member countries still lower, over time, and is less comprehensive than an 11-nation trans-Pacific trade deal that President Donald Trump pulled out of shortly after taking office.
Apart from the 10 ASEAN members, it includes China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. Officials said the accord leaves the door open for India, which dropped out due to fierce domestic opposition to its market-opening requirements, to rejoin the bloc.
It will take time to fully assess exact details of the agreement encompassing tariff schedules and rules for all 15 countries involved – the tariffs schedule just for Japan is 1,334 pages long.
It is not expected to go as far as the European Union in integrating member economies but does build on existing free trade arrangements.
The deal has powerful symbolic ramifications, showing that nearly four years after Mr. Trump launched his “America First” policy of forging trade deals with individual countries, Asia remains committed to multi-nation efforts toward freer trade that are seen as a formula for future prosperity.
Ahead of Sunday’s RCEP “special summit” meeting, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said he would firmly convey his government’s support for “broadening a free and fair economic zone, including a possibility of India’s future return to the deal, and hope to gain support from the other countries.”
The accord is also a coup for China, by far the biggest market in the region with more than 1.3 billion people, allowing Beijing to cast itself as a “champion of globalization and multilateral cooperation” and giving it greater influence over rules governing regional trade, Gareth Leather, senior Asian economist for Capital Economics, said in a report.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency quoted Premier Li Keqiang hailing the agreement as a victory against protectionism, in remarks delivered via a video link.
“The signing of the RCEP is not only a landmark achievement of East Asian regional cooperation, but also a victory of multilateralism and free trade,” Mr. Li said.
The agreement is expected to help China, Japan, and South Korea finally reach a trilateral free trade deal after years of struggling to bridge their differences.
Now that Mr. Trump’s opponent Joe Biden has been declared president-elect, the region is watching to see how U.S. policy on trade and other issues will evolve.
Analysts are skeptical Mr. Biden will push hard to rejoin the trans-Pacific trade pact or to roll back many of the U.S. trade sanctions imposed on China by the Trump administration given widespread frustration with Beijing’s trade and human rights records, and accusations of spying and technology theft.
Critics of free trade agreements say they tend to encourage companies to move manufacturing jobs overseas. So, having won over disaffected rust-belt voters in Michigan and western Pennsylvania in the Nov. 3 election, Mr. Biden is “not going to squander that by going back into TPP,” Michael Jonathan Green of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a web seminar.
But given concerns over China’s growing influence, Mr. Biden is likely to seek much more engagement with Southeast Asia to protect U.S. interests, he said.
The fast-growing and increasingly affluent Southeast Asian market of 650 million people has been hit hard by the pandemic and is urgently seeking fresh drivers for growth.
RCEP originally would have included about 3.6 billion people and encompassed about a third of world trade and global GDP. Minus India, it still covers more than 2 billion people and close to a third of all trade and business activity.
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, the retooled version of the North American Free Trade Agreement under Mr. Trump, covers slightly less economic activity but less than a tenth of the world’s population. The EU and Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, the revised version of the deal Mr. Trump rejected, also are smaller. RCEP includes six of the 11 remaining CPTPP members.
India balked at exposing its farmers and factories to more foreign competition. Among other concerns, Indian dairy farmers are worried about competition from New Zealand and Australian milk and cheese producers. Automakers fear imports from across the region. But overall the biggest fear is over a flood of manufactured goods from China.
Trade and investment flows within Asia have vastly expanded over the past decade, a trend that has accelerated amid feuding between the U.S. and China, which have imposed billions of dollars’ worth of punitive tariffs on each other’s exports.
The RCEP agreement is loose enough to stretch to fit the disparate needs of member countries as diverse as Myanmar, Singapore, Vietnam, and Australia. Unlike the CPTPP and EU, it does not establish unified standards on labor and the environment or commit countries to open services and other vulnerable areas of their economies.
But it does set rules for trade that will facilitate investment and other business within the region, Jeffrey Wilson, research director at the Perth USAsia Center, said in a report for the Asia Society.
“RCEP, therefore, is a much-needed platform for the Indo-Pacific’s post-COVID recovery,” he wrote.
ASEAN members include Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
This story was reported by The Associated Press. AP writers Hau Dinh in Hanoi, Vietnam; and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
U.S., China, Taiwan: Why the tense status quo may stick – for now
Why Midwest farmers are sticking with Trump
Cover Story Fueling US-China clash, years of disconnects
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2020/1115/America-First-China-leads-Asia-into-biggest-free-trade-deal |
Making Sense of a Vexing and Perplexing World
About Bracing Views
Books, Articles, Courses
Trump and the Afghan War
A slice of life in Afghanistan (Photo by Anna M.)
W.J. Astore
A concept that you learn quickly in the military is that you can delegate authority but not responsibility. The buck stops with the guy or gal in charge, and when it’s policy at the national level, that guy is the commander-in-chief, currently Donald Trump. Yet when it comes to the Afghan war, it appears Trump may be seeking to evade responsibility even as he delegates the specifics of strategy and troop levels to his “civilian” Secretary of Defense, retired General James Mattis.
That’s the news out of Washington: that Trump has delegated to Mattis the decision as to how many additional U.S. troops should be sent to Afghanistan, and what strategy they should employ in a war that Mattis admits the U.S. military is “not winning.”
Think about that. After nearly 16 years and a trillion dollars spent, the U.S. is “not winning” in Afghanistan, which is, to put it honestly, an admission of defeat. “Not winning” means we’re losing, yet how likely is it that the U.S. military, effectively under the command of retired General Mattis, is going to shift gears completely and withdraw?
Mattis testified to Congress that the Taliban “had a good year last year” and that “winning,” which we’re currently not doing, is a scenario in which U.S. forces, working with Afghan forces, are able to provide local security after several years of “frequent skirmishing” with the Taliban and other insurgent forces.
Yes — that’s the definition of “winning.” A long-term U.S. commitment of more troops and more money with continued internecine warfare in Afghanistan.
In the near-term, Mattis will likely send more troops (“trainers” and “advisers”) and more money, promising that this time American training and methods will work, that this time corruption will be curtailed, that this time the Taliban will be neutralized (I doubt Mattis is foolish enough to promise “victory”). Trump will rubber-stamp Mattis’s decision, which gives him the ability to blame his generals if and when the Afghan war takes yet another turn that is contrary to U.S. imperatives. (Recall how Trump blamed his generals for losing the Navy SEAL in the bungled raid on Yemen.)
As a candidate, Trump deplored the waste of America’s wars and suggested he would try to end them. As president, Trump is kowtowing to the Pentagon, ensuring these wars will continue. Worst of all, even as he delegates authority, he is evading responsibility.
It’s a recipe for incessant warfare, yet more suffering, and the continued erosion of democracy in America.
An Afterthought: Let’s suppose for a moment that Trump actually wanted to end the Afghan war. It would require considerable political capital to take on the national security state — capital that Trump currently doesn’t have, embroiled as he is in controversy (lawsuits!) and ongoing investigations. This is hardly ever remarked upon in the media: the fact that Trump, who ran on a platform that was often quite critical of conventional wisdom and wasteful wars, has little latitude to act on this platform (assuming he’d want to) when he’s constantly under attack in the media as a Putin stooge, or worse. Some would say he has only himself to blame here, but it goes deeper than that, I think.
Update (6/16/17): Surprise! News out of the Pentagon today suggests that another 4000 or so U.S. troops will be sent as a mini-surge to help train and advise Afghan forces. And so the “stalemate” in Afghanistan will continue.
As I wrote back in February for TomDispatch.com:
That a few thousand troops could somehow reverse the present situation and ensure progress toward victory is obviously a fantasy of the first order, one that barely papers over the reality of these last years: that Washington has been losing the war in Afghanistan and will continue to do so, no matter how it fiddles with troop levels.
Update 2 (6/16/17): Editorial title at the New York Times: Afghanistan Is Trump’s War Now. It reflects a major flaw and a fatal conceit — that Afghanistan is a war and not a country or a people, that it only matters as a war (at least to Americans), and that somehow Trump now owns it. Recall that before Americans wage war, it’s supposed to require a Congressional declaration. Wars are not supposed to be owned by presidents and waged at their whim. WTF, America?
Update 3 (6/17/17): Watching retired General David Petraeus last night on PBS was a grim experience. He spoke of a generational war in Afghanistan and a U.S. commitment that might come to rival our time in South Korea, i.e. 60+ years. Most revealing of all was the language he used. He spoke of achieving “a sustainable, sustained commitment” to Afghanistan. 4000 additional troops are part of that “sustainable, sustained commitment.”
There was the usual talk of regional stability, of maintaining a base against terrorism, and so on. But what the Petraeus interview revealed was the total bankruptcy of American strategy and thinking, encapsulated so well by the concept of a “generational war” modulated by a “sustainable, sustained commitment.”
Update 4 (6/17/17): Good god. At Fox News, retired General Jack Keane is calling for an additional 10,000 to 20,000 troops to change the momentum in the Afghan war. These troops will somehow change the “absolute disgrace” of the war (he mainly blamed President Obama for refusing to make the necessary commitment to win the war).
These generals never ask the question: Why are our “enemies” doing just fine without U.S. troops and billions of dollars in heavy equipment and air power? Whether in Vietnam or Afghanistan or elsewhere, the answer for these generals is always more: more U.S. troops, more firepower, more aid to our “allies.”
If these generals were investors, they’d keep funneling money to Bernie Madoff even after his fund had been revealed as a Ponzi scheme. After all, the initial returns were promising, and if we keep sending more money, this time, maybe this time, it won’t all be stolen …
Posted on June 15, 2017 June 17, 2017 by wjastorePosted in Asia, US Military, warTagged Afghan War, Afghanistan, commander in chief, James Mattis, Pentagon, Taliban, Trump.
Previous Previous post: Donald Trump and America’s Decline
Next Next post: National Insecurity
23 thoughts on “Trump and the Afghan War”
D. J. Manley says:
Just serves to point out that DoD is the fourth–and dominant–branch of the US government.
Noteworthy that we don’t even bother to feign the illusion of “civilian” control of the military any more; just have double-dipping retired generals segue into the SecDef slot.
mikestrong33 says:
Makes me wonder (as I have for many, many years) why do we think our advisers/trainers are superior and why does anyone want our advisers. We keep getting our rear ends kicked for a variety of reasons and we still think we have advice to give. Maybe we could hire advisers from all those folks who keep kicking our rears. What a win-win, in 1st Lt. Milo Minderbinder fashion. They get money, “we” get buy in (depending on who is “we” – could sell stocks). Everybody keeps their enterprises in business (literally, ah, me thinks that is a clue). Cheery thought, that. : – )
It is not clear that anyonee does want our advisors. More a case of us inserting our “advisors” (shit-disturbers) sub rosa, then finding a local surrogate who will take credit (in exchange for significant emoluments) for having “asked” for our “advice” (direction). From there on, they surge and escalate ad absurdum.
Indeed. Not only is the value of those ‘advisors’ doubtful as such, but remember that they hail from many different countries… Just imagine US army (or local US government) units being ‘advised & trained’ by ‘specialists’ from China, Uruguay, Finland, Serbia, Congo and a few more? Each with their own background, approach, experience, not to mention language. After all English and its various pidgin versions as spoken by multi-national ‘advisors’, is a foreign language to Afghans.
Generally in Afghanistan, we seem to be getting ever closer back to square one.
During the first few years of the US/NATO occupation civilians killed by random shooting, speeding army vehicles etc were common. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Shinwar_shooting.
Eventually the negative PR seemed to work and possibly military leaving for the ‘battlefield’ were less indoctrinated about how savage the country was to which they were being dispatched to heroically defend US values. The cause of civilian casualties shifted from trigger happy nervous recruits to night raids and other covert actions in remote areas where only embedded – and therefore loyal – press would be admitted – and of course Gen Petraeus’ embedded biographer, who seemed to relish in such bombing raids: http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/01/13/travels-with-paula-i-a-time-to-build/.
Ten years later, it looks like we’re indeed getting back to square one, including those panicking army kids : http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/06/man-sons-killed-troops-nangarhar-170612083754646.html. But that should not come as a surprise. After all, thanks to Rear Admiral Greg Smith we know that the US has its own amazing interpretation of self defense: “You don’t have to be fired upon to fire back. [sic]” … http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2010/03/14/nato-covered-up-botched-night-raid-in-afghanistan-that-killed-five.phtml
That this kind of ‘self defense’ only applies when we do the killing, goes without saying.
Clif Brown says:
I keep wondering – what is the point of our being in Afghanistan? I think about what winning means.
Consider for a moment the purpose of capitalism, to make a profit. Being in Afghanistan certainly brings profits not only to the the weapons manufacturers but also to the host of companies that provide services for our military there. Supporting the operation of bases, far removed from danger, doing laundry, serving food, providing supplies, driving trucks, etc. at inflated prices while employing local labor for very low pay, could business be any better? 16 years! In the States plenty of businesses can go bust over that period, but in Afghanistan, there’s business security in never-ending insecurity. It’s plain old vested interests. The Civil War and WW2 were over in a flash with epic destruction. Nobody for a moment thought about extending them! Now almost nobody dies and nothing of importance is at stake so why not let business be business?
If the real purpose of being in Afghanistan is business profits and having a mighty footprint for empire there, then are we losing? The training mission can go on forever and with military-parasitic businesses, who cares about the Taliban running around? After all, they provide the necessary enemy, just as in other places Russia or Iran can take on the enemy role we assign them regardless of their behavior. And just maybe we do score a final business win – McDonalds and ReMax Reality in Kabul! We know from long experience in Central and South America that any government will do. As long as business is welcomed, the status of the general public isn’t of any real importance.
Looked at in this way further base and troop deployments are just fine, so on and on it goes. Has anyone read Peter Van Buren’s, “We Meant Well”? A lot of Americans cleaned up in Iraq from our involvement and look how we seem to be leaking people back in while maintaining the world’s largest mall, oops I mean embassy, there. We aren’t really, seriously at war anywhere, but the infrastructure of war everywhere pays off if you know how to play it.
Gregory Herr says:
Clif…very much to the heart of the matter. And they are sure are playing it.
Monotonous Languor says:
The Roman Emperor Trajan is perhaps a leading candidate for the most accomplished Emperor and General in Roman History. He ended up conquering what we know today as Iraq. Hadrian, Trajan’s successor abandoned these Iraqi conquests. Modern historians acknowledge the difficulty of the conquest, but a permanent Roman garrison would have required more Roman Legions and a great expenditure. Thus, a pull back to a more rational border. Hadrian as Emperor could just give the withdrawal order, without the bother of political repercussions.
One haunted house from our own history is the, Who Lost China blame game after Mao’s victory in China. Some histories related LBJ feared a repeat of the blame game backlash if he withdrew from Vietnam.
If the US withdrew from Afghanistan, it probably would be only a matter of two months or so before the Taliban took over again. The fury of the Deep State would be immense. The Wars in the Mideast and Afghanistan are never, I mean never allowed to be debated as a part of the political process. The most that is said about these wars are some platitudes about how we have the best military, rah, rah, rah. Somehow the sheer sobering reality of if we have the best military, then why have we not wrapped these wars up with a victory, is not asked.
Some stupid new or rehashed old tactical plan will be dusted off and presented as a new improved victory model.
wjastore says:
Thanks for the great comments. Yes, war means big profits for some, even as it drains the American taxpayer. Another reason why these wars persist is that Americans are isolated from their effects. It’s an “all volunteer” military, after all, meaning no draft (and no draft protests). The media and military tell us that we must persist, else the scary terrorists will be back — that’s basically the rationale for Afghanistan — we haven’t been attacked from terrorists training in Afghanistan since 9/11, hence we’re winning the Afghan war! I’ve heard this said in Congress … no kidding.
Orwell said all that mattered is that war should exist — it’s a great prop to authoritarian states. Madison’s quote about liberty not surviving in a state that’s constantly at war is also telling. War is also an essential part of America’s violent heritage, our culture.
I know this is all a jumble, but when we ask why the Afghan war persists, we have to take a broad look. Profits, isolation (and ignorance), fear, war as a prop to authoritarianism and as a force against liberty, war as a part of American culture: all of these are involved, and more.
Succinct summary of the chief variables driving the militarization of American society. Keep up your great work!
Michael Murry says:
Some very good comments. I’d like to suggest some additional reading:
(1) Why Afghanistan? Fighting a War for the War System Itself, by Gareth Porter, antiwar.com (June 14, 2017)
(2) “The War In Afghanistan Is A Racket,” Moon of Alabama (June 14, 2017)
(3) “When Generals Make Policies – From Tactics To Strategy To Political Decision” Moon of Alabama (June 16, 2017)
Afghanistan means Vietnam in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains with the U.S. military doing what it does best: namely, what historian Barbara Tuchman called “working the levers” of a vast Rube Goldberg machine having no purpose other than its own careening destructiveness.
I’d like to comment on some of this reading, but I have to go to sleep now. Perhaps tomorrow when I have enough energy to deal with the dreary, dispiriting insanity.
Mike – I followed your link to the Porter essay “Why Afghanistan” and found it excellent. Here are two excerpts that stood out…
“…the Pentagon designed a massive $2.16 billion annual logistics contract in 2008-09 under which about 25,000 militiamen were paid by dozens of private trucking companies and security companies owned by the warlords. The warlords were paid tens of millions of dollars a year, further consolidating their hold on the society.”
As we know from medieval European history, mercenary armies do everything they can to give the appearance of making war while in fact avoiding it. Few die and the money keeps coming in.
and this which indicates how vested interests need not be financial.
“…the war has continued, because it serves powerful interests that have nothing to do with Afghanistan itself: the careers of the US officers who serve there; the bureaucratic stakes of the Joint Special Operations Command and the CIA in their huge programs and facilities in the country; the political cost of admitting that it was a futile effort from the start. Plus, the Pentagon and the CIA are determined to hold on to Afghan airstrips they use to carry out drone war in Pakistan for as long as possible.”
By coincidence, I was just reading this review of “War Machine” and noted this quote:
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/17/brad-pitts-war-machine-offers-an-absurd-and-scathing-critique-of-americas-delusional-generals/
One of the movie’s best scenes takes place in a conference hall in Germany, where Pitt is trying to drum up support for more allied troops to fight in Afghanistan. He comes armed with a whiteboard, and he deploys a bewildering flow chart about the dynamics of insurgency and counterinsurgency, but Tilda Swinton, playing a German member of parliament, blows it all to hell. She points out that the reason for invading Afghanistan was to crush Al Qaeda, which was based there with Osama bin Laden, and was pretty much chased out of the country in the first months of the invasion. After so many years of stalemate against the Taliban, what is the purpose of continuing to fight?
“As an elected representative of the people of Germany, it is my job to ensure that the personal ambitions of those who serve those people are kept in check,” Swinton says. “You have devoted your entire life, general, to the fighting of war, and this situation in Afghanistan for you is the culmination of all your years of training, all your years of ambition. This is the great moment of your life. It is understandable to me that you should have therefor a fetish for completion, to make your moment glorious. It is my job, however, to ensure that your personal ambitions are not entirely delusional and do not carry with them an unacceptable cost for everybody else.”
Back in 1970 as a 21 year old grunt, on night guard duty in the bush, I had occasions to have some thoughts other than sex, drugs and rock and roll. I wondered what am I doing here. I, the singular. Why was I sitting here, and someone else was driving some general around in jeep, or shuffling papers in Bien Hoa.
What was I fighting for?? The Army answered. We were fighting against Communism, better to fight them Reds in Vietnam. If that reason did not work. Reason # 2 was, it is your patriotic duty, just like the previous generation, or some crap like that.
At least back in Vietnam days we had anti-war songs. “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag” by Country Joe and Fish. (Selected Lyrics below)
Well, come on all of you, big strong men,
Uncle Sam needs your help again.
He’s got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Vietnam
So put down your books and pick up a gun,
We’re gonna have a whole lotta fun.
And it’s one, two, three,
What are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
Next stop is Vietnam;
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.
Well, come on generals, let’s move fast;
Your big chance has come at last.
Now you can go out and get those reds
‘Cause the only good commie is the one that’s dead
And you know that peace can only be won
When we’ve blown ’em all to kingdom come.
Come on Wall Street, don’t be slow,
Why man, this is war au-go-go
There’s plenty good money to be made
By supplying the Army with the tools of its trade,
But just hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,
They drop it on the Viet Cong.
We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, was another popular song for us Vietnam.
Thank you for watching the David Petraeus thing on the PBS Newshour. I saw the program segment listed but couldn’t stomach the thought of actually listening to General Dave babble his perfunctory post-modern platitudes. Did he really utter the anemic phrase, “a sustainable, sustained commitment”? How pathetic. I would have suggested something like “a perpetually prolonged period of pointless parasitic profligacy periodically punctuated by predictable promotion of the professional partcipants.” When it comes to alliteration, this guy couldn’t pass the entrance examination to Poetry PreSchool. He sounds as if he has his Newspeak euphemisms and Thought-Terminating Clichés specially designed for him at the American Enterprise Insitute by neocons like Robert Kagan and Victoria Nuland. As far as strategic substance goes, this fatuous fraud has nothing to offer America but more tactical ticket-punching and greasy-pole-climbing careerism perpetrated upon the taxpaying public in the form of endless Ordnance Expenditure Expeditions and Enlisted Casualty Campaigns fueled by Commendation Accumulation Syndrome. And let us not overlook the Entrenched Economic Entitlements lavished on our military’s attendant dogs-of-war mercenaries and crony-corporate camp followers. It escapes me how anyone with half a brain and the ability to spell Vietnam can stomach a minute of General Dave’s drivel.
This whole dreary thing with the mission-creep troop reinforcements reminds me of that scene in Alice in Wonderland where the Queen shouts: “Sentence first, verdict afterwards.” As applied to our mediocre generals — like Secretary of War James “Mad Dog” Mattis — the rule sounds more like “troop deployments first, a plan for what to do with them, later.” And just the other day, Secretary Mattis proclaimed that he couldn’t see any sign that Russia wanted to cooperate with the United States. I immediately thought of those Russian rockets that ferry our astronauts up to the International Space Station and back, reliably and safely, year after year. I could multiply examples, but why bother? I think that ex-general Mattis should change his nickname from Mad Dog to Mr Magoo. If he really can’t see all the ways in which Russia has cooperated with the United States over the past decades, then he really needs to pull his head out of his ass an look around at the real world inhabited by the rest of us.
“Commendation Accumulation Syndrome” — CAS for short. Love it, Mike.
As I recall, we had CAS at the AF Academy, where it stood for Cadet Accountability System. Yes, I had to treat cadets like children, monitoring their attendance, whether they were late to class or sleepy or whatever, and punishing them in a paper-pushing bureaucratic process that belittled the cadets as well as the officers who administered it.
No wonder we’re losing …
For “belittled,” I meant “diminished.” The whole process of policing cadets made me feel like a teacher at kindergarten. I’m sure it made the cadets feel like children.
Guardian has an article today, ‘The war after Isis’: has Trump opened the door to conflict with Iran? I gather our Military and Political apparatus is preparing to announce another premature “victory” once Mosul and other cities are turned into dust and debris.
The Trump administration says it is still reviewing Iran policy but secretary of state Rex Tillerson told the Senate last week the US would “work toward support of those elements inside of Iran that would lead to a peaceful transition”. (Side Bar Satire- perhaps this is what the Russians were doing in our election.)
The emphasis was on peaceful change but to Iranian government ears, that sounded like a reversion to the spirit of regime change of the Bush era and even more distant memories, of a CIA-engineered coup in 1953. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/18/donald-trump-syria-iran-isis-james-mattis
SNAFU or FUBAR is a better more accurate description of our strategy. Next week on CNN, MSNBC and FOX the “news” will be dominated by more endless speculation on Trump-Russia, Russia and Trump. Wolf Blitzkreig, Anderson Cooper, Rachael Maddow, Chris Matthews and the FOX Five will never leave their air conditioned studios and go to the front lines in Afghanistan, or the Middle East and report. No Ernie Pyles or Bill Mauldins in our media today.
Congress will have no open hearings on our world wide wars. No generals or senior political types will be called to task on why they have failed. If there are any public hearings it will be a demonstration of boot licking by our elected officials.
Combat boot licking — great point.
I recall watching generals testify before Congress — and each member of Congress took his or her turn to praise the military and “our” troops before tossing mostly softball questions to the brass. So much for Congressional oversight.
Speaking of those farcical “Congressional oversight” — i.e., Military Idolatry — rituals, see:
Why Does Congress Accept Perpetual Wars? To exercise real oversight, our representatives must take ownership of unpopular foreign entanglements, by Andrew J. Bacevich, the American Conservative (February 17, 2017 )
And another piece to go along with the one above:
The Never-Ending War in Afghanistan, by ANDREW J. BACEVICH, New York Times (March 13, 2017)
The late Sri Lankan Ambassador Ananda W. P. Guruge certainly had it right when he told me once why his government had refused America’s offer of military aid against the Tamil insurgency in that little island country: “If the Americans come, they will just draw an arbitrary line through a temporary problem and make it permanent.” Rest in peace, Dr. Guruge, and thanks for the timeless wisdom.
Mike: Guruge’s comment is spot on. I know you’ve cited it before, and it’s worth citing, again and again, because it remains true.
The name J. William Fulbright came to my mind. Fulbright had his faults, but he was right on about some issues.
In his book, The Arrogance of Power, Fulbright offered an analysis of American foreign policy:
Throughout our history two strands have coexisted uneasily; a dominant strand of democratic humanism and a lesser but durable strand of intolerant Puritanism. There has been a tendency through the years for reason and moderation to prevail as long as things are going tolerably well or as long as our problems seem clear and finite and manageable. But… when some event or leader of opinion has aroused the people to a state of high emotion, our puritan spirit has tended to break through, leading us to look at the world through the distorting prism of a harsh and angry moralism.
Power tends to confuse itself with virtue and a great nation is particularly susceptible to the idea that its power is a sign of God’s favor, conferring upon it a special responsibility for other nations—to make them richer and happier and wiser, to remake them, that is, in its own shining image. Power confuses itself with virtue and tends also to take itself for omnipotence. Once imbued with the idea of a mission, a great nation easily assumes that it has the means as well as the duty to do God’s work.
Fulbright’s quote on Power is a near perfect description on what we now know as American Exceptionalism, the exercise of power without virtue, morals or constraints.
I still cringe whenever I think of that rhetorical motor-mouth Barack Obama claiming “I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being.” For eight long years I waited for at least one sentient carbon-based life form in the press corps to ask him: “Well, then, Mr President: would you tell us how many fibers your being has? I mean, since you know every one of them, surely you know their number.” But I waited in vain. It seems that the tolerance of the American people for vapid verbal diarrhea knows no limit. I even wrote a few terza rima stanzas on the subject matter quite some time ago:
A Disassembled Dialectic
(From The Triumph of Strife: an homage to Dante Alighieri and Percy Shelley)
The mawkish milquetoast mavens mildly moan
And mumble mealy mouthfuls of their mush
Mellifluously masking grammar’s groan
As if our very words they wish to crush.
Beneath a fog dispensed to hide the stink
Of language that would make Rasputin blush,
They make it near impossible to think,
But praise with faint damnation published loud.
In weakly written, waffling wretch-stained ink,
They preach their penchant for pedantry proud.
Their panchromatic paradigm of gray
Describes in blended black and white the cloud.
The metaphysics of the middle they
Debate with dialectical dismay.
They start assuming what they wish to know
These salesmen of the syllogism flawed
Then postulate the hope it may be so
Whatever frozen fact they have unthawed
They legislate a logic lunatic
Inductive inference they have outlawed
Whatever both implausible and thick
They fantasize as fabric for their fraud
And then segué to sell the simply sick:
Suggestions subtle as a cattle prod
Designed to stir stampede instead of thought
They bask in their own bombast overawed
With what their obloquy has sold and bought
They premised nothing and concluded naught
Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright 2006-2010
Follow Bracing Views on WordPress.com
The Democratic Debate, Part 7
Trump’s Wall and Its Meaning
The Welfare Myth: Confessions of a Former Caseworker
America is a force for good …
Trump Wishes Peace to Iran while Accusing Democrats of Enabling Attacks on U.S. Troops
Anti-war Pragmatists and Pro-war Fantasists
Ready for War with Iran?
Americans want free stuff!
Wars, Secrecy, and Lies
Hating America?
Afghanistan Afghan War American culture American Empire American exceptionalism American society Barack Obama Bernie Sanders bombing citizen-soldier Cold War Congress David Petraeus defense budget defense spending democracy Democratic Party Democrats department of defense Donald Trump drones Dwight Eisenhower education F-35 fear foreign policy forever war George W. Bush global warming guns Hillary Clinton Ike Iran Iraq Iraq War ISIS James Madison Joe Biden Liberty militarism Military-Industrial Complex military service national security National Security State NFL Nick Turse Nuclear Weapons Obama Orwell patriotism peace Pentagon Petraeus presidential election 2016 Republican Party Republicans Russia sports Syria Taliban terrorism torture Trump Trump Administration Tulsi Gabbard Vietnam Vietnam War violence War War on Terror warrior weapons weapons sales World War I World War II
America’s Cascading Disaster in Afghanistan
“Unquestionably Syme Will Be Vaporized”: Lessons from Orwell’s 1984
Trump's Wall and Its Meaning
Joe Biden: Clueless and Incoherent
Nine Rows of Ribbons!
Why is Petraeus an Expert on Mosul?
The Death of Education in America
Michael Murry on The Democratic Debate, Part…
greglaxer on The Democratic Debate, Part…
wjastore on The Democratic Debate, Part…
Follow Our Latest on Facebook |
After months of negotiations, President Donald Trump on Monday announced the United States and Mexico have come to an agreement on revisions to key parts of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) - a trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico. Trump has frequently condemned the 24-year-old NAFTA trade pact as a job-killing "disaster" for the United States. "We're going to call it the US-Mexico Trade Agreement".
"They used to call it NAFTA", Trump said".
Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo told reporters Monday morning that a NAFTA announcement was likely shortly as he headed into a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
The agreement comes after a year of re-negotiations with Mexico, and the President said negotiations with Canada will begin soon.
New name: The new deal between the US and Mexico will aptly be called the United States-Mexico Trade Agreement, doing away with the NAFTA name, which Trump claims has "bad connotations", per Reuters. Under U.S. trade law, Congress must be notified 90 days before voting on the deal, meaning notification must happen this week to meet the timeline. Significant breakthroughs between Mexico and the USA came during the past several days on automobiles and energy. The big question now is whether Canada, the third party to the original deal, will come onboard.
Daily Hive has reached out to the office of Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland for comment. They will also be required to use more local steel, aluminum and auto parts, and have a certain proportion of the vehicle made by workers earning at least $16 an hour, a boon to both the United States and Canada.
But Freeland also said, "We will only sign a new NAFTA that is good for Canada and good for the middle class". "It has a bad connotation because the United States was treated very, very badly for NAFTA".
"I believe the president is on the phone", Trump said, getting no response. A draft fact sheet specified the content would be made in the United States and Mexico.
Advisers of incoming President Lopez Obrador hailed the new deal, saying it represented progress on energy and wages for Mexico's workers. "Canada's signature is required".
But exactly what kind of announcement remains unclear. Other key issues are Chapter 19 anti-dumping panels, which the US wants to kill but which may be a deal-breaker for Canada, as well as Canada's protected dairy sector, which Trump is targeting to dismantle. |
HomeAnalysisLawful Gun Owners Defended Their Lives and Livelihoods
Lawful Gun Owners Defended Their Lives and Livelihoods
Heads up for the bad guys
September 29, 2019 This article was posted by TLB Staff Analysis, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT 0
Lawful Gun Owners Defended Their Lives and Livelihoods in August
by Amy Swearer
It seems as though every day another celebrity or politician demands that we place more severe restrictions on the ability of law-abiding citizens to exercise their constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
Unlike many of these celebrities and politicians, most of us do not live in safe, gated communities or spend much of our day protected by professional armed security.
Our deep respect for law enforcement does not negate the fact that police officers do not serve as our private protection details, and cannot always be there to assist us in moments of serious danger.
America is currently in the midst of a decade of historically low rates of violent crime, including gun-related crime, but Americans still use their firearms to defend themselves between 500,000 and 3 million times every year.
Congress is trying to ramrod through increased gun laws upon the American people. But will that really stop the rise of gun violence? Find out more now >>
This is not just some conservative talking point, either, but a reality that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a 2013 report, concluded has been found “by almost all major studies” on the issue.
Moreover, while the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms does not depend on a balancing test between criminal and lawful uses of firearms, law-abiding citizens use firearms for lawful purposes far more often than criminals use them to commit crimes.
Every month this year, we’ve highlighted just a handful of the numerous times that law-abiding Americans have exercised their Second Amendment rights in defense of themselves or others. Just like January, February, March, April, May, June, and July, August was full of examples of how the right to keep and bear arms is essential to the protection of individual rights.
Aug. 1; Nashville, Tennessee—A restaurant employee stopped an armed robber in his tracks by retrieving a co-worker’s handgun and opening fire on the robber, causing him to flee the restaurant. No employees or patrons were injured, but the robber was struck by the employee’s rounds and later died of his wounds.
Aug. 7; Lake City, Florida—A man used his firearm to protect his home against an intruder, attempting to hold the intruder at gunpoint while calling the police. The intruder fled but was later captured by law enforcement officers. An investigation later determined that the intruder, who had a lengthy criminal record, had been in the process of stealing rifles and a hunting knife from the homeowner.
Aug. 8; Espanola, New Mexico—A woman called police to report that two men impersonating FBI agents were trying to kick open her apartment door. Another tenant in the apartment repeatedly warned the fake agents that he was armed and tried to stop them from coming inside, but they nonetheless kicked down the door. The resident saw that one of the fake agents was armed and used his firearm to defend himself and those in the apartment, killing one intruder and sending the other running.
Aug. 14; Phenix City, Alabama—The owner of a jewelry store defended himself, his mother-in-law, his employees, and his family business by shooting at two armed men who tried to rob his store. Both men immediately fled the scene, and the only loss to the store occurred when one of the men accidently knocked over a glass case in the process of fleeing. The owner’s mother-in-law expressed her gratitude, telling reporters, “You can replace material things, but you can’t replace a life.”
Aug. 18; Spartanburg, South Carolina—A shopper successfully protected himself outside of a Lowe’s Home Improvement store, shooting and killing a man who appeared ready to attack him with a 4-foot-long piece of lumber. The attacker had earlier been confrontational with the shopper inside the store, but appeared to leave after the shopper started walking down different aisles to avoid him. However, he had only gone to the parking lot to grab the lumber from his truck, and waited until the shopper came out of the store to threaten him again.
Aug. 20; Washington, D.C.—A concealed carry permit holder shot at two armed men who approached him at a bus stop and threatened to rob him. The would-be robbers blocked the permit holder’s path, telling him not to move while brandishing a gun. The permit holder then drew his own firearm and fired several rounds, striking one assailant in the arm and sending both fleeing.
Aug. 21; Pasco County, Florida—A local community is hailing one of its own as a hero after a man intervened with his firearm to defend a neighbor from domestic violence. The Good Samaritan was mowing his lawn when he heard a woman screaming in a nearby house and ran to assist her, first removing the children from the dangerous scene to ensure their safety and then attempting to de-escalate the situation. The domestic violence suspect ultimately tried to shoot the Good Samaritan and the woman, but was instead shot and killed by the Good Samaritan.
Aug. 27; Akron, Ohio—An elderly homeowner told journalists that a would-be burglar “picked the wrong house” after being caught by the homeowner and held at gunpoint until police arrived. The house had been broken into just days earlier, and some of the homeowner’s firearms and ammunition had been stolen. Since other valuable items had been left behind, the homeowner feared that the burglar might return to finish the job armed with one of the stolen guns. This time, however, the homeowner was ready.
Aug. 28; Dallas—An 84-year-old man protected himself and his sleeping wife by shooting an armed home intruder, who then fled the property. Burglars had targeted the couple in the past and the man told journalists that he had decided not to be a victim anymore. He explained that the police can’t be everywhere at once, so “sometimes you’ve got to take responsibility of your own to protect your own.” The neighborhood crime watch leader agreed, saying: “If more people would shoot at the robbers or invaders, they would think twice about breaking into their homes. [They would think,] ‘Hey this person might be armed.’”
These examples show that when firearms are in the hands of law-abiding citizens, the public is more secure. When the Second Amendment is flippantly treated as an antiquated measure and serious burdens are placed on the right to keep and bear arms, the people with the most to lose are not criminals, but jewelry store owners protecting the family business and elderly Texans defending their wives during home invasions.
We all want safer communities, and everyone agrees that criminals or objectively dangerous people should not have access to weapons. For the ordinary Americans most likely to face these threats and least likely to live in gated communities or afford armed security, the right to keep and bear arms is not an abstract ideal. It is, rather, an important tool in an everyday battle to secure their rights against those who care little for the life, liberty, or property of others.
(TLB) published this article from The Daily Signal with our appreciation for the coverage.
Amy Swearer@AmySwearer
Amy Swearer is a senior legal policy analyst at the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
Other articles about the 2nd Amendment from The Liberty Beacon
Stay tuned to …
Amy Swearer
gun owners
The Daily Signal
Resistance Building To Coronavirus ‘House Arrest’ Orders… “It’s About Time!” [Video]
Media Platforms go on a Purge & Ban extravaganza
Trump fires back at NY Gov. Cuomo – How about those nursing homes? |
All five people — a pilot and four passengers — aboard a Cessna 401-A were hurt when the plane crashed during a failed landing in east Texas. Initial investigative reports indicate that the aviation accident may have been caused by weather conditions or mechanical difficulties.
The twin-engine aircraft went down as it touched the ground at an airport in Gladewater, Texas. Witnesses said the plane skidded off the runway and slid backwards through a brushy area for more than 100 yards. The nose of the Cessna tore off, increasing the chance for the multiple passenger injuries.
All four passengers and the out-of-state pilot were transported to nearby hospitals. Investigators say the pilot was released after treatment. One state police officer said it appeared the pilot broke his finger in the crash. The severity of the passengers’ injuries was not reported.
Those on board told Texas investigators the engine quit just before the plane’s touchdown on the runway. People on the scene at the time of the attempted landing said it appeared that the landing gear never released.
Area pilots, who were familiar with the weather conditions at the airport that Saturday afternoon, speculated that turbulent crosswinds or tailwinds may have contributed to the accident. One experienced Gladewater pilot stated the Cessna 401-A attempted to land during a direct, dangerous crosswind.
The Federal Aviation Administration promised to investigate the initial opinions about the crash. The FAA estimates it will take between three and four weeks to compile a report that determines what happened during the ill-fated landing.
The National Transportation Safety Board is sending separate investigators to take a look at the wreckage. The investigation may be able to provide answers as to what caused the crash. That information can be crucial if the victims in the crash decide to seek compensation for their injuries. |
From Petersburg to Novosibirsk, the former Soviet Union boasts some of the world's most unique and ambitious metro systems. Built at command-economy speed, these metros were the result of a political ideology that placed heavy emphasis not only on infrastructural prowess and efficiency (could communism be, dare we say, green?) but also on military readiness. Indeed, subways were seen as a crucial transport link for soldiers, and some of the USSR's metro stations were intended to double as bunkers in the event of war. Even if many of the subways have suffered from the financial and political turmoil left in the wake of the Soviet Union, they are still crucial modes of public transit -- and awesome eye candy for underground architecture buffs. |
Minnesota Vikings linebacker Desmond Bishop…
Minnesota Vikings linebacker Desmond Bishop relieved to get first game behind him
Buffalo Bills’ Tashard Choice (20) is tackled by Minnesota Vikings’ Audie Cole (57) and Desmond Bishop (55) during the first half of an NFL preseason football game Friday, Aug. 16, 2013, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Bill Wippert)
By Ben Goessling | bgoessling@pioneerpress.com |
PUBLISHED: August 16, 2013 at 11:01 pm | UPDATED: November 7, 2015 at 2:37 pm
The moment Desmond Bishop had been anticipating for more than a year had come and gone, and the Vikings linebacker felt the wash of relief that came from returning to the field, playing in a game and making it back to the locker room without an injury.
That milestone reached, Bishop could get to work assessing how he played in the Vikings’ 20-16 preseason loss to the Buffalo Bills on Friday night, a game in which the linebacker showed some of the qualities that convinced the Vikings to take a chance on him while playing most of the second half.
Bishop reflected on the game in his typically frank manner.
“I was a little rusty,” he said. “I think my adrenaline kind of got the best of me on the first couple plays. That first drive, that first time I got in there on a long drive, it was kind of hectic. But it was fun.”
The Vikings have two more exhibition games to evaluate Bishop as they decide whether the former Packer can be part of their defense a year after he tore a hamstring in the first preseason game.
Friday’s game was Bishop’s first since then, so the Vikings will probably need the time. Friday helped him get comfortable on the field again, but it didn’t answer the question of whether the 29-year-old can help the Vikings more than some of the young linebackers battling him for a roster spot.
Bishop made four tackles, playing mostly in the nickel package the Vikings used for most of the second half, and gave them a taste of his pass-rushing ability when he sent a blocking back staggering with his shoulder and met safety Andrew Sendejo in the backfield to share a sack of Buffalo quarterback EJ Manuel.
But Bishop said he missed a couple tackles early, as the Bills’ no-huddle offense kept the Vikings’ nickel package on the field without a break. He also was the closest player to Buffalo wide receiver Brad Smith when Manuel found him in the corner of the end zone in the third quarter, though Bishop chuckled and said Smith was “absolutely not” his responsibility on the 4-yard touchdown pass.
“There were a couple plays I wanted back,” Bishop said. “Those kind of nullified my sack a little bit. It’s all part of the game. Every single snap I had, I was just grateful for them.”
Bishop missed the Vikings’ first preseason game because of a groin injury, and the problem facing the team’s decision-makers now is this: They have two more games to determine whether Bishop can regain the form he had in Green Bay in 2010 and 2011, when he played near a Pro Bowl level, or whether his injuries will prevent that from happening.
They also have a slew of other linebackers to consider. Marvin Mitchell has started both preseason games at weak-side linebacker, Tyrone McKenzie and Audie Cole could be useful reserves, rookies Gerald Hodges and Michael Mauti have shown potential in training camp and Larry Dean has kept a roster spot in the past because of his work on special teams.
None of those linebackers has necessarily set himself apart from the group so far, and the Vikings figure to use plenty of them in each of their last two preseason games, while they rest starters like Erin Henderson and Chad Greenway in the final contest. But the group is deep enough that Bishop either will have to beat out a returning player from the 2012 roster or a draft pick the Vikings like.
Now that his return is over, the rest of his work can continue.
“You could see he was a little rusty early on,” coach Leslie Frazier said. “But then he settled in and began to make some plays and got comfortable communicating, as well. As much as anything, it was good to see him out there running around so now he can assess where he is, and so can we.”
Wide receiver Jarius Wright suffered a concussion in the second quarter of Friday’s game, and will have to be cleared by an independent neurologist before he is able to return to practice.
Follow Ben Goessling at twitter.com/BenGoesslingPP.
Ben Goessling |
Hi guys! So last week I attended Full Figured Fashion Week. I have to admit that I enjoyed myself a little too much. Unfortunately I did not assist all of the events and fashion shows since I waited to long to buy the tickets. However the four events that I did assist were very fun. Next time I will do it on time so that I can go to every single one of them. Todays post is the first event I went to which was a shopping event at Curvaceous K boutique. I went in trying to discover a new brand and to socialize with other bloggers, which I did, but I did not expect to shop! They blind sided me with two amazing skirts which I bought without think twice about it. Thats all I have for part I of FFFWeek.
Stay tune theres much more to come!
Hola chiquillos! La semana pasada me la pase de maravilla asistiendo a los eventos de Full Figured Fashion Week, que es la semana de la moda de talla grande. Por desgracia no logre ir a todos los eventos ya que espere demasiado para comprar los boletos, pero les aseguro que para la proxima sere la primera en comprarlos. El primer evento al que fui fue a una tienda llamada Cuvaceous K a la cual fui con planes de conocer a otras bloggeras y no ha comprar. No me pude resistir y compre dos faldas de las cual estoy enamorada. En fin esten pendientes que pronto subire la segunda parte de FFFWeek!
Here im with the lovely Anjula Sharma from Shop F3, and yes this is one of the skirts I bought. The second one is my favorite I cant wait to wear it.
Thank you darling! And yes I thought of so many other ways to style the dress. You will be seeing more of it!
Thank you for your lovely email. It was so nice to hear from you! And thank you – it was so great to meet you too!
I apologise for not getting back to you sooner. I haven’t been doing a whole lot of work on my computer since I’m out and about so much.
In regards to meeting up for coffee the next time I’m in NYC, I will be back at the end of July so I’ll make sure to send you an email!
You have great taste in clothes 😉 I bought that polka dot skirt from Curvaceous K too!!! ha ha ha! |
Welcome to Tiny Web Wednesdays! It's where we talk a tiny bit about web development every Wednesday.
Using pre-processing tools such as Sass or Less or PostCSS.
Using CSS custom properties AKA CSS Variables.
If you go to any website out there such as this, you'd see that there are many things that repeat throughout the page. Properties such as colors, font sizes, icon sizes, padding, and margins are all values that repeat throughout a webpage.
Writing in Sass can make your CSS much more organized and easier to understand, but it's a language that your browser can't read. If you look at the example above, you'll see variables such as $yellow, $teal, and $blue. These are things that we can use throughout the code! Codepen processes this for us, and you can click on the button called "View Compiled" to see the CSS that's been made!
Sass not only gives us variables but other features as well such as the @each directive which makes our code extra sweet.
If you don't want to deal with any pre-processing and you want to use variables in your CSS, then you can use CSS Variables! Just be aware that not every browser supports this—that has to factor into your decision!
Finally, know that you don't have to choose between one or the other—you can use both! In this talk, Lea Verou explains that the syntax of CSS Variables was chosen because people should be free to use them in conjunction with CSS pre-processors out there.
If you liked this series, I'd love your support! You can get the episode early, get mentioned in the show, and show your love at Patreon! 🎉 Don't miss out and sign up for my newsletter, too!
Newbie here. I'm learning CSS in the last few months. One of the hardest part for me, after learning the basics, is organizing the CSS files. After doing some research, two ideas seems to be commonly used, component-first, BEM-style vs. utility-first approach. What's your take on this? TIA.
By utility-first do you mean something like tachyons.io/? Because I do love that. Makes it so easy to style and maintain something. I use BEM at work too, and I love it.
I haven't used components much—I've only used it on friendstalkfrontend.com/ and it was hard to write for me. It's not clicking yet in my head so I can't comment on that much.
What people in the team (if there is one) are comfortable with.
If you're starting from scratch or if you have an existing codebase.
I love tachyons too! I'm a newbie so I don't know if it is advisable to use for learning.
I can't understand components too though I already tried BEM. |
Browse Departments & Services
Bringing Something New to AU
You are here: American University Campus Life News Bringing Something New to AU
Campus Life Home
About Campus Life
OCL Departments
Vice President’s Reports & Announcements
Student Job Openings
Social Media Tips for Students
Student Organization Status
Give to Campus Life Fund
Bias Education and Response
campuslife@american.edu
Monday-Friday 9:00a.m. - 5:00p.m.
Butler Pavilion, Room 400
Office of the Vice President of Campus Life 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20016-8127 United States
4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20016 United States
Bringing Something New to AU Student Creates the First Asian-Interest Sorority at AU
By Raheem Dawodu Jr. | April 21, 2017
Meet Kirsten Jay. Photo by Raheem Dawodu Jr.
Being a trailblazer means that a person is ready to start a new path for others to follow in the future. Kirsten Jay, a print journalism junior who is also minoring in entrepreneurship and management in the Kogod School of Business, is a trailblazer.
In addition to her academic responsibilities, Jay is president of the Asian American Student Union. One would think Jay’s plate is already full, but she has decided to take on another challenge— establishing AU’s first Asian interest sorority. “It is kind of surreal. I never saw myself being part of Greek Life,” Jay said. “And it is a unique opportunity to bring something new to AU.”
Jay’s idea of launching this sorority came from the Marvel Comics universe when one of the characters on the Netflix show Luke Cage made a reference to Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., or AKA. That excited one of Jay’s friends, who happens to be a member of AKA and was watching the show with her. Jay said it made her wonder, “Why don’t we have an Asian-interest sorority on campus?” After thinking it over, Jay said to herself, “I might as well just do it.”
With that in mind, the San Mateo, Calif, native embarked on a journey to establish the first Asian interest sorority at AU. She put flyers around campus to recruit interested students. Seven other women joined Jay, and they embarked on finding the right sorority. After the group of eight interviewed several Asian interest sororities, they unanimously decided on a sorority.
“The sorority we chose, really stood out to me personally because of how connected all of the sisters are and how much they value taking care of each other, encouraging leadership development, and their emphasis on service.
“That type of community that is focused on personal growth — i.e., sisterhood — and focused on community engagement — i.e., service — all influenced by the group's focus on cultural diversity, really made us feel that this particular sorority was the perfect fit for us and for AU,” Jay said.
Currently, the women are organized as interest group officially known on campus as AU², but that will change if the group is approved at a the sorority’s national convention this August. “There will be a thousand people in the room,” Jay said, laughing while recognizing what is ahead.
The group will be allowed to begin new member education this fall to let potential members know about the values of the organization before officially calling themselves the name of the chosen sorority, in Spring 2018. The approval process also includes a presentation in front of AU’s Intercultural Greek Collective (IGC) steering committee. The presentation had two important guests.
“The president and vice president of the national organization actually live in the D.C. area, and they were in attendance for the presentation. That was a little intimidating but very exciting because they are the people we must get approval from at the national conference in August,” Jay said.
Jay is aware of the impact of establishing this sorority in the long run. “Having this sorority be available—fingers crossed—for future students is exciting,” she said.
Jay sees AU², as something important for the entire campus community, not only Asian students, because a student does not have to be Asian to pledge the sorority.
Jay hopes AU² can provide students who are interested in a sorority to have more options. “We aim to remind people that there are Asian students on this campus. Also, there is this part of Greek Life that is focused on your culture, and how you grew up and your shared experiences, which I think is not something you get in non-cultural group Greek Life. So that unique space, I hope, will bring awareness to the campus about diversity, sisterhood and belonging.”
The reactions from Jay’s friends and classmates have also helped propel her forward in this process. “When you hear people say to me, ‘Oh that is so great, I wish that started when I was a freshman,’ or people I don’t even know talking to my friends about the group, I think that makes it all worth it.”
Find out more about Fraternity & Sorority Life at AU.
Visit AU |
Home>Basketball> Luka Doncic Reacts To Recent LeBron James Comparisons
Luka Doncic Reacts To Recent LeBron James Comparisons
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
Luka has been nothing short of dominant this season.
Luka Doncic has been one of the best young players in the NBA ever since he was drafted back in 2018. Coming from the European leagues, there was no guarantee that Doncic would be as good as he is now. Regardless, Doncic has surpassed all expectations and if he leads the Mavericks to the playoffs, there is a real chance he could win NBA MVP. At just 20 years old, Doncic is receiving some pretty lofty comparisons, particularly to guys like Michael Jordan and LeBron James.
Doncic has been fairly humble about his success and recently spoke about his feelings towards these comparisons. The Mavericks superstar is fairly reserved about the LeBron comparison and believes he still has a long way to go before he can receive such an honor. After all, it's only his second year in the league.
Tom Pennington/Getty Images
“I’m nowhere near that,” Doncic said per Dwain Price of Mavs.com. “I’m 20 years old and this is my second year in the league. Anything can happen, so I’ve got to prove a lot.”
If you're a Mavericks fan, the future is certainly bright in Dallas. Kristaps Porzingis and Luka Doncic are a great one-two punch and are in a great position to create a Western Conference contender for years to come.
Basketball Sports News LeBron James Luka Doncic los angeles lakers lakers Dallas Mavericks mavericks nba nba basketball Comparisons
Derrick Henry Delivers Expensive Gift To Titans O-Line After Huge Win
Russell Westbrook Welcomed Back To OKC With Awesome Tribute Video: Watch
BASKETBALL Luka Doncic Reacts To Recent LeBron James Comparisons |
Q: Java and C# communication via message queue I have an application in C#, which is extracting some data from files. I want to send this extracted data to Java application via message queue. I have no experience with message queue. I don't want to use web services.
*
*Which message broker will be the best one?
*I have domain models in C# which I need to send to Java app. How to do it? These are just plain POCO classes. Should I serialize them to XML, then to string, the send as a byte array, and in the Java side do the reverse order?
A: You can use RabbitMQ .It's easy to use and also support huge number of developer platform.
|
Dogging Tales
Info steegee909 Exhibitionist & Voyeur Group Straight
It takes a lot to shock me. I’m an open-minded person and whilst I don’t agree with a lot of things people say or do, I respect their right to do them, within reason. Normally, illegal activities piss me off. I think that if most villains spent an equal amount of time and effort earning money legally, they’d be just as rich! However, there is one thing that’s illegal here in Britain that I have a different attitude to.
My name is Mark and I’m in my thirties. I took up road cycling not that long ago in an attempt to improve my fitness. I used to play rugby but had to quit after a bad knee injury. Swimming and cycling isn’t as stressful on the knees as running, so they are my chosen methods to stay fit. Swimming is OK, but it's a lot of faff sometimes and requires a very early start if I want to get a session in before work. Cycling, however, suits me better. I now ride to and from work so it’s a double benefit, helping me stay fit and saving fuel costs!
Anyway, that’s enough about my physical regime. This story is about how I discovered the delights of dogging! For those who might not have heard of it, dogging is the practice of having sex in public places, usually with audience participation! I believe it got its name from guys claiming to be out walking the dog but actually meeting up for sex in secluded public places. It is, of course, illegal to fuck in public in Britain as it is in most countries. The only legal public fucking allowed is when the Revenue send you your annual tax bill. Pay it or don’t pay it, either way, you’re fucked!
I digress. When I started cycling again, I would often ride along the country lanes about 3 miles from my house where there was hardly any traffic and the scenery was pleasant. I would call in at a little café and pick up a sandwich then ride on to a picnic area where I’d stop to eat. I’d done this a few times and had met some nice people passing through, most of which would stop and chat. There was a gate at this picnic area that led into a field with a large sign saying “Private Property. No Trespassing”. It was always closed and not being the nosey type, I never thought to open the gate and go exploring. After all, you’ve seen one field, you’ve seen them all and it was private land, I had no reason to venture in. However, on one occasion, I rolled into the parking area and noticed there were more cars than usual there, but no people around. That was strange in itself as it’s in the middle of nowhere, so it isn’t used as a car park for anything other than having a picnic or a cheeky toilet stop if you don’t mind peeing in the bushes. Then I noticed the gate was open and I could see footprints in the soft ground. Obviously whoever owned the cars had parked up and gone into the field, for what purpose, I had no idea.
I mused on this as I ate my sandwich. Curiosity got the better of me, so I locked up my bike and decided to investigate further. I wandered into the field, following the footprints. All was quiet until I heard the occasional voice not far from where I was standing. I came across a thickly wooded area and that’s when I saw a small group of about ten people standing in a little clearing. They were standing in a loose semi-circle, facing away from me. Whatever were they doing, I wondered? I got a bit closer and it suddenly dawned on me what they were up to. The semi-circle of people were all guys and most of them had their cocks out and were jerking themselves. There seemed to be some kind of show going on, so I crept around the perimeter of the wooded area to get a better view. Sure enough, a couple were standing in front of the masturbating guys, naked from the waist down, fucking vigorously. I watched, fascinated by this public sex show, but concealed from view of the watching group. The couple fucking certainly couldn’t see me; they had other things on their minds!
They started to reach their crescendo and were really going for it and I have to admit, it was quite arousing. The girl was about my age and quite pretty with a very nice ass. The dude fucking her seemed to know what he was doing and obviously loved being watched while doing it. He started to thrust really hard and the girl bent herself right forward, her hands between her legs frigging her clit furiously as he pounded her. She let out a muffled yelp, which I figured was her cumming, then the guy pulled his dick out of her, turned her around to face him and shot a generous load of cum over her pretty face. I then heard a lot of grunting and looked at the jerking onlookers, who, one after the other, started to cum, some dribbling, some really shooting a big load. It was a surreal scene but I realised as I scurried back to the car park to beat the rush that my own dick was hard. I’d heard of the dogging phenomenon but figured it was just out-of-shape middle-aged swingers meeting in dark car parks for a fumble. I was quite shocked to find a full public show with good-looking people in a pretty part of the countryside, but very aroused too.
I got back to my bike, unlocked it and sat on the saddle, taking a drink from the plastic container I always carried. I decided to stay and watch the guys return to their cars, to see if they looked sheepish. Only three guys returned within 5 minutes, all of who quickly got into their motors and drove off. What about the others, I thought to myself. Maybe there’s a ‘round two’? I decided to have another peek, so I locked my bike again and went back to my vantage point. Wow, the girl was now completely naked, on her knees being fucked by one guy and sucking another guy’s cock! They had laid a blanket on the ground and were fucking with abandon. I felt my cock stiffening again and was considering whether or not I should jerk off while watching them when I heard someone behind me. I turned to see a guy in his forties, grinning as he saw me. “Hey, man, you don’t have to hide. Come and watch my wife get her rocks off with these guys. She loves it, I love to watch, no problem!”
Wow, was this for real. “Um, oh, right. Hi, sorry but I’ve never done this before, I was kind of nervous.” The guy chuckled. “That’s OK, we’re a friendly bunch. I’m Paul and my dirty cow of a wife with two cocks in her at the moment is called Jill. I reckon she’d like you, you’re a good-looking guy. It’s nice to see a new face, come and join us.” With that, he scurried back to the clearing where there was now about six guys watching the threesome in front of them. I tentatively followed him, my cock bulging rather obviously in my cycle shorts. All six of the audience were jerking themselves off and weren’t fazed by my presence in the slightest. One or two of them acknowledged me, but the others were concentrating on the show. It appeared the two guys with Jill had swapped places. The cock sliding in and out of her greedy mouth was noticeably larger than before and she was straddling one guy on the ground, bouncing up and down on him eagerly.
I’ve never been one to be nervous in the changing rooms, being fairly blessed in the dick department. Not that anybody was looking at me anyway, but I decided if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em and whipped little Mark out from my shorts and started to stroke myself. It was quite an erotic feeling, exposing myself in the open air. I was the only one of the crowd in sports gear, so I stood out a bit. Perhaps that’s why when the guy who was having his dick sucked came with a loud grunt then backed away from Jill, she looked up at the group, caught my eye then motioned for me to join her. Shit, having a public wank was one thing, but getting my cock sucked by a total stranger in front of an audience was another thing entirely. Did I have the balls? A thrill shot through me as Paul said “Go on son, she wants your big cock!”
So with my cock sticking out, I nervously approached Jill and the guy being straddled. “Hey Baby, I haven’t seen you before. Your cock looks amazing,” and she reached her hand out to grab it. She wasted no time in jerking my foreskin back, then dipping her head to take me into her mouth. I had my back to the group, so she manoeuvred me around so they had a better view. My cock had never been so big or hard and she expertly worked her lips and tongue around the head before taking my full length into her throat, gagging noisily for maximum performance impact. I glanced over to see all the group, including Paul, masturbating furiously. The guy beneath Jill was obviously about to cum and she abandoned my cock for a moment while she reached down to tickle his balls. One fierce grunt and he was spent, although Jill continued to grind on him for a minute or two. “Fuck me!” I heard him gasp and Jill eased herself off him. His condom-covered cock was limp and he struggled to his feet, pulling the condom off as he went.
Jill turned her attention back to my cock and started to suck me harder and more urgently while frigging her clit fast. She was obviously going to cum again soon and I was close too. “Oh Baby, cum on my face and I’ll cum too,” she breathed. I pulled my cock out of her mouth and stroked it pornstar-like, aiming at her face. A quick glance to my left to see that my audience was ready and I gave my cock one final stroke. Oh my God! I unleashed what felt like two weeks- worth of cum over poor Jill’s face. She squealed with delight as stream after stream completely covered her, splashing her forehead, her nose, her cheeks and her mouth. She slurped greedily as it ran over her lips and she came hard, gasping for air, her one hand between her legs, the other hand kneading her breast. She leant back towards me and took my cock back into her mouth to lick up the remnants of my huge orgasm, cleaning my cock nicely. I heard a few comments such as “Good job” and “Great load, man!” then one by one, the little group dispersed, leaving only Paul and Jill with me.
“Make sure you take your used condoms with you guys, and don’t leave any litter,” I heard Paul say as the guys left the clearing. “See you all next week.” He approached me and extended his hand for me to shake. I was hesitant as I knew what had been in his hand a few moments before! He chuckled and said “Don’t worry, wet wipes!” and I laughed too, shaking his hand. Jill was straightening herself out, getting dressed and I felt her walk up behind me. “Wow, that was fucking awesome,” she said. “Haven’t you cum for days?” I smiled at her and said “Nope, that’s just the way I cum. Oh, nice to meet you, Jill, Paul invited me over, I hope you don’t mind?” Jill giggled as she said “Mind? Are you kidding me? You saw how hard I came didn’t you? That was because I love getting covered in a strangers cum and you nearly fucking drowned me! No, thank-you for ‘coming’!” It was such a surreal situation for me, chatting with a husband and wife having only minutes ago jerked off onto that wife’s face with hubby watching. Now we were chatting like we’d just met down the pub. Paul said “This is Mark, by the way. It’s his first time.” I nodded and said “I’ve stopped in this picnic area many times over the last few weeks but I had no idea what was going on just a few yards away. If I had done, I would have joined you before!”
The three of us wandered back to the car park, chatting and laughing. They told me they’d been doing this for about three months and let people know when they are going to be there via a website. “We’ve never had any trouble,” said Paul. “We tidy up after ourselves and the guy who owns the field was one of the spectators. As long as the Police don’t get wind of it, we should be fine to continue. Same time next week?” I was bemused with how well they had this planned. It was public sex but on private land, so no chance of any unwanted passers-by. Just a group of people enjoying their voyeur/exhibitionist fetish, I guess. I was slightly puzzled that Paul actually enjoyed watching strangers fucking his wife though. She was pretty and fit and Paul was a decent-looking guy, not at all what I would have expected from a swinging couple. We all see the ‘swingers’ in the porn movies but I cynically thought real life wouldn’t be like that. It just goes to show, one should never presume anything. Just before Paul climbed into his car, he said “Hey, Mark. Are you married? You can always bring your wife next week, the guys would love another female to play with!” I laughed, replying “I am, yeah, but I’m not sure she’d be up for it, don’t hold your breath!” He chuckled and said “Worth a try!” and with that, Paul and Jill drove off. I was now alone in the car park. I sat on my bike, trying to get my head around what I’d just experienced. I heard heavy footsteps behind me and turned to see one of the audience members standing on the other side of the now-closed gate. “Hey, man, I’m Brian, I own this land. You won’t tell just anyone about what you saw today, will you? We like to keep it just between us.” I shook my head and said “Mum’s the word, Brian,” and mimed zipping my mouth closed. He gave me the thumbs up and said “You’re welcome back any time buddy, that cum shot was outstanding!” I returned his thumbs up and rode off, with a slightly numb feeling in my crotch.
I knew I’d return and despite having a healthy sex life with my wife, I couldn’t think about much else all week. I always take Friday’s off now my business is doing well. It gives me the mental space I need without encroaching on family time. I had considered changing this to a mid-week day, but now I’d discovered something more interesting to do on a Friday other than swimming and cycling, I decided not to change. The only dilemma I had now was whether or not I’d tell my lovely wife Claire about this. She used to love fucking in the car when we first got together, saying the chance of getting caught used to turn her on. She is also a terrible flirt when we go out, enjoying the attention of other guys although she always reassures me it’s innocent. Hmm, I wonder…
I decided I’d go to my new favourite picnic site again before I broached the subject. I wanted to be certain everything was as it seemed and that Paul, Jill, Brian and the gang were all decent people, apart from their little fetish, that is. I set off a bit earlier on the next Friday morning. I have to admit, I also had a condom in the pocket of my shorts, just in case! I could tell Jill fancied me and I reckon she wanted my big cock in her pussy as well as her mouth. Paul had said they were always looking for ‘more’ females to join them. I wondered if there had been others that came to play or if Jill was the only girl in the group. I was to find out this very day.
When I rolled in to the car park, there was only one other vehicle there. A couple were in the car chatting and I thought at first they had nothing to do with the group. The driver’s window was wound fully down and the chap in the car said Hi as I pulled up. I didn’t want to be too obvious so I just said Hi back and started to do some totally unnecessary maintenance on my bike. I glanced up to the car, checking out the girl sat in the passenger seat. Hmm, not bad. She was quite curvy and had a pretty, round face. I couldn’t see her body or what she was wearing, but I secretly hoped they were actually members of the group. When another car pulled up, the driver got out and walked over to the first car, chatting to the driver through the window. The couple got out of the car and stood chatting for a minute or two, then another vehicle pulled in. The driver got out and joined them. This looks promising, I thought. A third car arrived and I recognised the driver as one of the guys from last week. He got out and joined the other four. I saw him point to me then motion for me to join them. I locked my bike and wandered over, as nonchalantly as I could manage!
“Hey, buddy, I was just telling the guys about you from last week. Great to see you’ve come back. Brian should be here any second and we’ll walk over. I take it you’re going to join us?” I grinned and nodded. The curvy girl said “Oh goody!” and rubbed her hands together. Just then, Brain appeared behind the gate and swung it open. “Hi Guys, “ he half-whispered, in a conspiratorial way. Without any more words, he turned and walked towards the clearing. I was wondering where Paul and Jill were when I saw their rather flashy Mercedes turn into the car park. I waited for them to get out of the car and said hello as they walked up to me. Paul extended his hand for me to shake and Jill was less formal, slipping her arm around my back and giving me a kiss full on the lips. “Hiya Mark,” she purred. “I’m so glad you decided to come back.” She turned to Paul and said “Do you think we’ll be able to persuade him to fuck me today?” I’m sure I blushed but I tried to remain calm. I took the condom out of my pocket and waved it at them. “Awesome!” I heard Paul say.
We caught up with the others as we made our way to the clearing. They were all chatting as if they were bumping into old friends at the supermarket. I loved how relaxed they all were. Was I the only nervous one in the group? Curvy girl welcomed Paul and Jill with a big kiss for each of them and turned her head towards me. “Who’s the new guy?” she asked. Jill quickly replied “That’s Mark, he’s got a huge cock and cums bucket loads!” Curvy girl couldn’t take her eyes off me and squeaked her delight at this news. A few other guys joined us and nodded their hellos. Both girls walked into the middle of the clearing and started to kiss each other. The show had begun. It was another warm day so I wasn’t at all surprised to see the clothes coming off. Jill pulled Curvy’s top over her arms and head and revealed her large soft breasts barely contained by her white bra. The bra quickly came off too along with her skirt. Her huge breasts with very long hard nipples were begging to be fondled and sucked and Jill was only too happy to oblige. She was also down to just her thong panties and made a big show of sucking Curvy’s long nipples. Each of the guys took their cocks out of their trousers and started to jerk themselves, so I followed suit. The guy Curvy had arrived with nudged me and said “What do think of my wife’s body? Fucking hot, isn’t she?” I nodded and was shocked to hear him follow up with “You can fuck her if you want to, she’d love that. I’m Pete, by the way, and the Misses is Cheryl.””
My new friends were a liberal bunch, to say the least. I was already on a promise from Jill, now I had an invitation to fuck the delightfully buxom Cheryl too. I suddenly felt guilty. A quick BJ in the woods from a stranger seemed harmless, but now I was intending to be unfaithful to my beautiful wife with two different girls on the same morning. I decided there and then that I wouldn’t take things further today, as tempting as it was. I loved my wife and would never do anything to upset her. If I was ever to return and fuck these two lovely women, I would have to get Claire’s agreement first. I made a big fuss about my phone ringing “Oh shit, who the fuck is this,” I said, as I took my phone out of my back pocket. “Hello? Yes? One second,” I tucked my cock back into my shorts and moved a few yards away from the others. I continued my fake phone call “No way! OK, well thanks for letting me know. I’ll get back to the office as soon as I can. Bye.” I sidled up next to Paul and said “Sorry man, I have to go, something’s come up at work. Say sorry to the girls for me?” Paul looked crestfallen. “Bummer,” he said, “we were both looking forward to you fucking Jill, and Cheryl is up for it too. You’ve missed a fucking treat, son!” I shook my head in genuine disappointment. “Yeah, me too. But I should be around next week if you’ll be here?” Paul nodded and quickly returned to watching the girls go at each other’s bodies. They were now laid down on the blanket, 69ing each other noisily. Damn, my cock was hard and now I had to cycle off with a boner! I knew I was doing the right thing though.
My next problem was how to bring the subject up with Claire. Perhaps while we were getting amorous ourselves? It’s not really a dinner table conversation. I woke early the next morning, Saturday. I had dreamt about fucking two hot girls in the woods and woke up with my own wood! Claire and I were snuggling, relieved that we didn’t have to get up at 6.30 like normal. She wiggled her ass into my crotch as we were spooning and felt my cock twitch. She was awake! “Oh my, what’s this Baby?” she asked, groping around behind her and feeling my already hard cock through my boxers. Claire loves morning sex almost as much as I do, so I reached around her and started to caress her tummy while deliberately poking my erection into her bum cheeks.
“I just dreamt I was fucking two girls in the woods with a gang of guys watching,” I told her. “It was hot as fuck and now I’m horny as hell.” Claire turned to face me, pulling my throbbing cock out of my boxers and kissing me passionately. “You’re so naughty, I thought exhibitionism was my thing! Oh my God, imagine being watched by a load of strangers while being fucked. No wonder your cock is so hard!”
Wow, did she really just say that? I practically came in her hands with the thought of it and she must have heard me sigh. “Oh, you like that idea?” she asked. “Oh, Baby,” I replied, “that would be so fucking hot!” I managed. I reached my hand in-between Claire’s legs and felt she was already sopping wet. “Wow, you really fancy it too, don’t you?” I said, as I pulled her on top of me and let my cock slide into her. She sighed as it slid fully in to her hot, wet pussy and she moaned, breathing huskily “Oh fuck, yes. A group of guys taking it in turns to fuck me while being watched. Amazing!” I lifted her nightie up so I could better grope her breasts. I flicked and pinched her nipples and enjoyed the pleasing squelching sound coming from Claire’s pussy as she smashed herself up and down on me. I was amazed how much this fantasy was turning her on and how quickly she started to cum. She leant forward and kissed me hungrily and let out a huge moan as her body started to convulse. The contractions of her pussy around my prick had me cumming moments later and as she eased herself off me so we could cuddle again, she said “Shit, that was a real quickie. Let’s do it again later and take more time.” I wasn’t about to argue.
I knew the idea of being fucked in public would percolate in her mind throughout the day. I needed to be careful not to bring it up again or when I eventually told her about my ‘gang’ in the woods, she would know it was contrived. I needn’t have worried. I was using the PC in the study during the afternoon, looking to buy a new lawn mower. I’d been online earlier in the week and I was trying to find a particular mower that I’d seen but forgot to bookmark. I clicked the ‘History’ tab and got the surprise of my life. The first twenty or so pages were all from a Dogging website! I clicked through them and it looked like Claire had been doing some serious research. She had also viewed about ten different videos, so I had a look. Wow, all sorts of people wanking, sucking and fucking in public. One looked very similar to the group I had stumbled upon. It was in a clearing in the woods with a group of guys watching a couple fuck on a blanket. I had to have a double-take to check there wasn’t a guy wearing cycling gear in the audience! The girl being fucked even looked a bit like Jill, except she wasn’t quite as pretty. The guy that came over her face wasn’t a patch on me (ahem!) but he did his best. Jesus, Claire had watched these. I wonder what she thought of them?
We went to bed a little earlier than usual that night and while I was on my knees and had my cock in Claire’s mouth, I started to tease her. “So, you fancy going dogging, do you?” She nearly choked on my cock then looked up at me. “Oh fuck, did I forget to clear the history?” I grinned down at her. “Yes, but don’t worry, I watched those videos too. They were really fucking horny, no?” She giggled and said “promise you won’t laugh?” I nodded and she said “The kids were outside playing so I thought why not have a look? I was so fucking turned on I brought myself off watching them!”
“No way!” I said, pretending to be shocked. “Jeez, you always were a dirty cow!” She playfully slapped my hard cock and said “Hah! You’ve never complained about how dirty I am before,” and slid my cock back into her mouth. OK, I had to strike while the iron was hot. “Funny you should be thinking about dogging,” leaving that statement to hang in the air. She looked up at me inquisitively, her lips still wrapped tightly around my thick shaft. I thrust my hips a little to encourage her to continue her first-class blow job. “I only stumbled across a group of doggers when I was out on my bike the other week. You know that little picnic spot halfway to Calworth?” That was a village about three miles from our house. I heard her say “Uh huh,” which was about all she could say with my big cock tickling her tonsils. “Well, I pulled in for a pit stop and saw the gate was open. I wandered into the field out of curiosity and walked into one of your porn videos!” Claire looked up at me and was about to speak when I continued “Yes, it was almost exactly like that video with a group of guys watching a couple fuck on a blanket in a forest clearing.”
Claire stooped sucking me for a second and said “No way!” When she resumed, I told her how it had panned out. She was now sighing and sucking me at the same time and recounting the experience got me over-excited very quickly. As I got to the part where I saw the first guy cream on Jill’s face, I came suddenly and filled poor Claire’s mouth with cum, almost choking her. Bless her, she swallowed as much as she could, but came up for air coughing and spluttering. “Oh my God, what the fuck was that? I reckon you find this as horny as I do!” I was breathing hard from my amazing orgasm, but managed to reply “You’re damn right I do!” Claire smiled and said “Are you going to tell me you joined in? Did you get a BJ from a stranger? If you did, I won’t be mad, just fucking envious!” I looked her in the eyes and smiled. “You bastard!” she said. “and when were you going to tell me about this?”
Time for a bit of honesty, I thought. I told her exactly what had happened, how I’d met Jill, Paul and Brian and how I was invited back for more. I told her about Pete and Cheryl and that I’d been asked to fuck both girls. I even admitted to taking a condom out with me but quickly added “It’s still in my cycle shorts, honest. I could never cheat on you, so I thought I’d tell you all about it instead. I hoped you’d be turned on but I had no idea how much you’d like the idea.”
“Well, from what you’ve said, that must have taken some will power to walk away from the chance to fuck two girls in the woods – Ah! Your dream this morning. That explains it!” The penny had dropped. She kissed me and said “You owe me one,” and pointed to her pussy. “No problem,” I said, as I moved my body around so I could reach her pussy with my mouth. “But you gotta tell me what you’d do in the woods with me and a load of strangers watching, OK?” I started to lick her pussy lips and parted them with my fingers so I could flick her clit. Claire moaned appreciatively, then tentatively started to talk. “Mmm, it would be so hot. I’d like to sit on one guy’s face while sucking another guy’s cock. Oh my God, yes, that’s good, don’t stop.” I was running a finger up and down her ass crack as I pushed my tongue deep into her. “I think I’d cum so fucking hard if I looked up and saw five guys jerking off while watching me. Oh shit, imagine if they all walked up one at a time and shot their cum on my face!” Trust her to take the fantasy even further than the reality! Still, it did the trick. That and my expert tongue work, no doubt. She started to writhe around and I felt her buttocks clench as she came, her breathing became laboured and she whelped as I slipped a finger into her bum, which always makes her orgasm stronger. “Oh fuck, Mark, you sod, that’s amazing!” I stroked the inside of Claire's thighs as she came down from her shuddering climax, then I turned myself around so I was face to face with her and kissed her. She reached down to feel that my cock was already stiff again and she whispered “I want you to fuck me hard!” I knew she must have been extra horny by all this dogging talk. It was only when she was really turned on that she wanted me to fuck her immediately after she’d just cum. Still facing each other, lying on our sides, I moved my hips closer to Claire’s and used my left hand to rub my swollen knob all along the length of her soaking labia. She let out a long “Mmmmmmm” as I did this and when my cock slipped in-between her slippery pussy lips and I thrust hard, she breathed “Oh my fucking God!”
We kissed like a couple of teenagers in the back row of the movies, not coming up for air. I fucked her with long, deep strokes and having just both cum not long before, I knew this would be a slow build up to a hopefully mind-blowing orgasm for us both. “Mmmm, imagine me fucking you from behind and a stranger jerking off over your face.” I teased. “Oh fuck, yes!” said Claire. “Or how about Jill lying on the ground, legs apart, you licking her pussy while I fucked you up the bum?” I added. “Oh, for fucks sake, you’re even dirtier than me! That would be so fucking hot, I’d cum over and over!” Claire replied. “In fact, I’m about to… oh shit!” and with that, I felt her cum again. She wrapped her legs around mine and held my ass as I hammered into her pussy as hard as I could. She actually screamed and I’m sure she squirted as she came. My cock slipped out of her pussy with the force of her orgasm, just as I was tipped over the edge and I sprayed a huge spurt of cum up her body, covering her tits, followed by at least four more spurts, coating both her belly and the bed sheets. We’d tried dirty talking during sex before, but it had always felt contrived. This time, it was the words, the thoughts and the superb deep-fucking that had us both cumming harder than ever before. Considering the fact that we’ve been together for ten years, that’s not bad!
We held each other tightly, still kissing, our bodies welded together with sticky cum, a huge wet patch on the bed by Claire’s groin. “I think you made me squirt!” said Claire, seemingly amazed by her own body. “You certainly made ME squirt!” I said, slightly mocking her. I got a slap for that jibe, but it was only a playful one. We kissed lovingly for several minutes, then Claire suddenly pulled away.
“Promise me one thing, Mark?” she asked.
“What’s that, my Love? I asked by reply.
“Don’t go back to the woods, Babe… not without me!” |
Back to dossier
Background 13 Dec 2018
Get it right from the start
The first week of life is crucial for developing a robust intestinal mucosa and ensuring a good gut health. By feeding the intestinal cells from day 2, a novel isotonic protein drink boosts villi development, and later encourages feed consumption, with positive effects that persist up to slaughter.
The modern piglet faces many challenges, even in the first week of life. Piglets are born with a relatively undeveloped intestine which grows tremendously right after birth. A piglet’s intestine must develop as much in 3-4 weeks as much as a foal, calf or human intestine would ordinarily develop in 6 months. Studies have shown that the total surface area of a piglet’s small intestine doubles by day 10, and the number of enterocyte cells (absorptive cells that line the villi of the small intestine) doubles in the first 3 days. This growth requires substantial amounts of nutrition and energy that are not always available from the sow in modern production systems. Piglets do not always get access to (or do not consume) sufficient amounts of colostrum or milk in the farrowing house. Even during short periods of starvation that occur during weaning and transportation, the small intestinal mucosa quickly atrophies, with negative effects being visible within hours of food withdrawal. The lack of nutrients in the intestine can disrupt the barrier functions of the gastrointestinal tract, resulting in gut atrophy, luminal starvation, bacterial translocation, and impaired immune functions.
Feeding the intestinal cells right after birth is a key step in preserving gut health. Photo: Tonisity
Micro-enteral nutrition
Various strategies are used to try to overcome the key stress points of production – pre-weaning mortality, post-weaning diarrhoea and long-distance transportation. Milk replacer, electrolyte solutions, and quick-start drenches are all used by producers to give extra energy and fluids to piglets. Antibiotics, probiotics, prebiotics and plant extracts are all used in an attempt to modify the intestinal microflora. However, none of these strategies actually improve the essential function of the enterocytes, which are the engines responsible for absorbing nutrients. A more focused approach called ‘micro-enteral nutrition’ aims to feed the intestinal cells themselves and help those cells to do a better job of absorbing any available nutrients. By feeding the intestinal cells, the integrity of the intestinal barrier is also maintained which is key to maintaining gut health.
Micro-enteral nutrition is the delivery of small amounts of water, electrolytes, and readily absorbed nutrients (glucose, amino acids, and small peptides) directly to the gastrointestinal tract. These simple nutrients are delivered in solutions that are absorbed, and utilised directly, by the enterocytes to do their essential work – which is to absorb all of the other nutrients that the body needs. Micro-enteral solutions generally contain very simple sugars and single amino acids or small peptides and are also typically isotonic, with an osmolarity of about 300 mOsm/l. This ensures that they are quickly absorbed without creating further sodium or water loss. Such solutions have been successfully used to manage sick animals, particularly in the case of diarrhoea or other digestive disorders in dogs. A novel approach, combining previous knowledge in both human and canine micro-enteral nutrition, has resulted in the development of an isotonic protein drink for swine, Tonisity Px. This innovative solution is preferably delivered in open pans to facilitate the pigs’ natural curiosity and remove the learning and tactile barriers to drinking caused by mechanical nipple drinkers. Furthermore, this drink, being very attractive, is consumed in significant volumes, even by piglets less than one week old. By feeding the enterocytes, the drink has a positive effect on gut health and brings several clear benefits to the swine producer. One of the most visible impacts is the reduction of pre-weaning mortality.
A recent meta-analysis of 21 trials across Europe, Asia and the USA, involving 17,725 piglets, showed the positive impact of the solution on pre-weaning mortality, when given to piglets from day 2 to day 8 of life, at a rate of 500 ml per litter each day. On average, a 27.5% reduction in pre-weaning mortality vs. controls (8.80% vs. 12.14%) was observed, which equals +0.5 pigs per litter or +1.2 piglets per sow per year. The reduction of mortality was most likely due to the fact that the protein and amino acid profile of this isotonic protein drink delivered key energy-producing substrates to the enterocytes, leading to a positive impact on intestinal morphology and nutrient absorption. Indeed, histopathology analysis revealed that piglets receiving the drink from days 2-8 of age had significantly greater villus height, villus density, and crypt density that persisted until at least 28 days of age, regardless of what creep feed they were given (see Figure 1). Those pigs also tended to have superior intestinal mucosal thickness.
Figure 1 – The isotonic solution helps maintaining larger villi in the post-weaning phase.
Increased feed intake
Besides a clear reduction in pre-weaning mortality when given during the first week of life, the solution encourages feed intake by the piglet, especially if it is distributed around weaning. Maintaining feed intake around weaning is a key step in preserving gut health. This was recently demonstrated in an independent trial using a total of 1,034 piglets from 78 litters, which was supervised by Dr Tomasz Schwarz from Krakow Agriculture University, Zootechnics Department in Poland. In the experimental group, the Tonisity Px solution was given from day 2 to day 8 of life (500 ml per litter and per day) and as a gruel before and after weaning. While the average number of piglets per litter and the average body weight at day 2 were the same in both groups, it was observed that the piglets receiving the solution were 290 grams heavier at weaning (P< 0.001) and increased their advantage up to slaughter, reaching the target weight one week earlier than the control group. Their feed conversion rate during the fattening period was also significantly better (2.74 vs. 2.79, P=0.02).
By applying the concept of micro-enteral nutrition to pigs, the solution was developed to improve gut health especially in pre-weaning pigs. This novel isotonic protein drink delivers key energy-producing substrates to the enterocytes, leading to a positive impact on nutrient absorption and intestinal morphology and as a consequence, pre-weaning mortality is significantly reduced. Another benefit of the micro-enteral nutrition approach is the increase of feed intake and weight gain around weaning and during other stressful events, leading to faster growth up to slaughter and resulting in a clear and positive impact on the economic performance of the operation.
References available on request
Authors: Mathieu Cortyl, Ava Firth and Christina Higgins, Tonisity
contributions from various companies
Phytogenics
Exploring the digestive tract of weaned piglets
One of the main challenges in the swine industry is the reduction in antibiotic use and also, in some regions,...
On 13 Dec 2018 In Feed additives
Support sow longevity with probiotics
Optimal body condition score at the end of the lactation period positively influences the longevity of the sows....
Bacillus subtilis for an improved microbiota
Managing gut health is key to allow poultry to express their full genetic potential. Any compromise to gut...
The maternal influence on intestinal health
Intestinal health is a prime focus for all species. Interventions usually start at an individual level via feed... |
Jalan Sultan Ismail, Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur (Above Starbucks, Bukit Bintang Street, Bintang Walk) #MY001
Malaysia Digital Billboard Advertising, Malaysia Outdoor Advertising, Malaysia Out of Home Advertising, Malaysia Digital Billboard, Malaysia LED Billboard Ads, Malaysia Ooh Advertising, Malaysia LED Screen Advertising
Screen Location : Jalan Sultan Ismail, Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur (Above Starbucks , Bukit Bintang Street, Bintang Walk)
Monthly Exposures : Minimum 10,200
Size : 60'(W) x 40'(H)
Pixel : 1680 x 1080
GPS Coordinate : 3.146519, 101.710997
Large Big Outdoor LED Digital Media Electronic Mobile Screen Billboard Panel Display TV Advertising Advertisement Ads Agency Agent Space Slot Rent Let Rental
Bukit Bintang KL Digital Billboard Advertising, Bukit Bintang KL Outdoor Advertising, Bukit Bintang KL Out of Home Advertising, Bukit Bintang KL Digital Billboard, Bukit Bintang KL LED Billboard Ads, Bukit Bintang KL Ooh Advertising, Bukit Bintang KL LED Screen Advertising
The LED screen that is mounted to the building gives impact impression as it is located on the four-way intersection that is bustling with people. Not only that, the screen is above Starbucks therefore, people with the intent to go there will see the screen and be aware of it. People taking the monorail will also the sign as it passes by above the intersections.
Bukit Bintang (Bintang Walk) is well-regarded as Kuala Lumpur’s trendiest shopping and entertainment district, offering everything from sleek shopping centres and five-star hotels to all-day restaurants and vibrant nightclubs. Thanks to its central location, it is also fairly easy to get to Bukit Bintang from anywhere in Kuala Lumpur via public transportation, including monorail, taxis, and buses.
It is undeniable to say that LED screen advertising is a successful marketing tool as it is able to generate an estimated traffic of ten millions per month in the area. The brand gains competitive advantages when it is exposed to the public more frequently compared to the competitors.
Digital Screen Advertising
Malaysia is the 66th largest country by total land area, with a land area of 329,613 km. It has land borders with Thailand in West Malaysia, and Indonesia and Brunei in East Malaysia. It is linked to Singapore by a narrow causeway and a bridge. The country also has maritime boundaries with Vietnam and the Philippines. The land borders are defined in large part by geological features such as the Perlis River, the Golok River and the Pagalayan Canal, whilst some of the maritime boundaries are the subject of ongoing contention. Brunei forms what is almost an enclave in Malaysia, with the state of Sarawak dividing it into two parts. Malaysia is the only country with territory on both the Asian mainland and the Malay archipelago. Tanjung Piai, located in the southern state of Johor, is the southernmost tip of continental Asia. The Strait of Malacca, lying between Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia, is one of the most important thoroughfares in global commerce, carrying 40 per cent of the world's trade.
Malaysia is a relatively open state-oriented and newly industrialised market economy. The state plays a significant but declining role in guiding economic activity through macroeconomic plans. Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with GDP growing an average 6.5 per cent annually from 1957 to 2005. Malaysia's economy in 2014–2015 was one of the most competitive in Asia, ranking 6th in Asia and 20th in the world, higher than countries like Australia, France and South Korea. In 2014, Malaysia's economy grew 6%, the second highest growth in ASEAN behind the Philippines' growth of 6.1%.[ The economy of Malaysia in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity (PPP) in April 2019 was estimated to be $999.397 billion, the third largest in ASEAN and the 25th largest in the world.
In an effort to diversify the economy and make it less dependent on export goods, the government has pushed to increase tourism to Malaysia. As a result, tourism has become Malaysia's third largest source of foreign exchange, although it is threatened by the negative effects of the growing industrial economy, with large amounts of air and water pollution along with deforestation affecting tourism. The tourism sector came under some pressure in 2014 when the national carrier Malaysia Airlines had one of its planes disappear in March, while another was brought down by a missile over Ukraine in July, resulting in the loss of a total 537 passengers and crew. The state of the airline, which had been unprofitable for 3 years, prompted the government in August 2014 to nationalise the airline by buying up the 30 per cent it did not already own. Between 2013 and 2014, Malaysia has been listed as one of the best places to retire to in the world, with the country in third position on the Global Retirement Index. This in part was the result of the Malaysia My Second Home programme to allow foreigners to live in the country on a long-stay visa for up to 10 years. In 2016, Malaysia ranked the fifth position on The World's Best Retirement Havens while getting in the first place as the best place in Asia to retire. Warm climate with British colonial background made foreigners easy to interact with the locals.
Malaysia LED Screen Advertising Agency, Malaysia Digital Billboard Advertising Agency, Malaysia LED Billboard Advertising Agency, Malaysia Outdoor Digital Advertising Agency, Malaysia LED Advertising Screen Agency, Malaysia LED Advertising Agency, Malaysia LED Screen Advertising Company, Malaysia LED Panel Advertisement Agency, Malaysia LED Display Ads Company, Malaysia Digital Advertising Boards Agency, Malaysia Digital Screen Advertising Company, Malaysia Digital Outdoor Advertising Screens Agency, Malaysia Outdoor Advertising TV Screen Agency, Malaysia LED Digital Screen Advertising Company, Malaysia Electronic Advertising Screens Agency, Malaysia Outdoor Digital Advertising Screens Agency, Malaysia Large Advertising Screens Agency, Malaysia Outdoor Advertising Screen Agency, Malaysia Digital Advertising Screen Agency, |
Tausende belagern Rammstein-Sänger in Moskau
Bonn, Non 19 (deutschenews24.de/dpa) - Fire and flame for their idol: Thousands of fans of the German rock group Rammstein have been sitting in Moscow for hours to sign a new poem by singer Till Lindemann (53). The work "On Silent Night" was published in German and Russian in a first edition of 10,000 copies, which according to the Moscow publisher Eksmo was immediately out of print. Already on Friday afternoon, around 4000 fans crowded in front of a bookstore in a large shopping center. Until the evening the snake was not shorter.
With tears in his eyes, the coveted book in his hand, Alina Salimova (20) came out of the shop. "I am studying German because of Rammstein," the student said, who had traveled 1,200 kilometers from Ufa in the Urals. For six years she was a fan of the rock group. "The lyrics are very strong," she said, and Till was "the best man ever."
Rammstein ( "mother") is extremely popular in Russia. At concerts, thousands of Russians are singing the German-language songs textsicher - similar to the pop group Tokio Hotel. Especially the gloomy at Rammstein attracted young Russians, analyzed the machine builder Boris Krestinin from Moscow. "I`m close to Till`s look at life. For people in Russia, Rammstein means a valve for negative energy, which can not be got rid of otherwise. "For the book of his idol Krestinin had stood for seven hours.
"The first were there before the opening of the shop, around half past nine," said a publisher. It was not until the afternoon that the signing session began, during which Lindemann had to do hard work. "Till promised everyone would get an autograph." The evening before, the Rammstein frontman had read from the book in the Moscow Gogol Theater.
"I saw him for the first time," Inna Mikaznikov (21) from the Rostov-on-Don town of Rostov. Her Lindemann had been quiet, pleasant, reserved, and not exactly the picture the singer gave on stage. But the darkness of the world at Rammstein does not disturb the psychologist: "From the darkness one can see the light better," she said.
The volume "In still Nights" contains texts and drawings. Since in the poems also swear words occur, the book is released after Russian law only from 18 years. In 2002 Lindemann`s first poem «Messer» was published. This volume has not yet been translated into Russian.
Mehr Nachrichten von Meinungen
FIZ – für die Opfer des Menschenhandels in der Schweiz
Die Lebenslüge der Bundesrepublik
Donald Trump und die neue Wirtschaftsordnung
Kann Fillon Le Pen schlagen?
Das letzte Bollwerk gegen den Populismus
Die nächste Krise der Eurozone muss jetzt verhindert werden
Der Dezembertag der Abrechnung in Europa
Referendum in Italien: Demokratie als Hindernis für Entwicklung?
Pilotenstreik geht weiter - Wieder 100 000 Passagiere betroffen
EU-Parlamentspräsident Schulz geht in die Bundespolitik
Meinungen all news |
James Batchelor, Director of CIRU, and EDGE Knowledge Officer, Dave Osler, attended the 2015 Annual R&D Forum. This took place at the Mercure Manchester Piccadilly Hotel on the 5th and 6th May 2015. The event was for everyone who is involved in the planning, managing and delivering of R&D in the NHS.
The forum was extremely informative and acted as a fantastic opportunity to meet new people and catch up with a number of R&D professionals from across the UK including Research Nurses, R&D Managers and Research Governance Officers. |
Putin’s other hand hovers over Moldova
As the West fixates on what Vladimir Putin is doing in eastern Ukraine, perhaps not enough attention is being paid to his other hand, which is hovering greedily over neighbouring Moldova.
Moldova and its three-and-a-half million people, sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine behind the north-west shore of the Black Sea, has not had an easy time since it reluctantly emerged as an independent nation in 1990 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is the poorest country in Europe.
Deputy Gheorghe Ghimpu replaces the Soviet flag on the Parliament with the Moldovan flag on April 27, 1990. Source: Wikipedia, Creative Commons.
It got off to a bad start when independence led almost immediately to a civil war when the pro-Russian people of Transdniestr – that long sliver of Moldova lying east of the Dniester River – rebelled against the possibility of the country joining Romania. Intervention by Russian forces – 1,500 of them are still there – brought a peace deal in 1992, but Transdniestr and its 500,000 people remain a breakaway region, yearning either for recognized independence, a customs union with Moscow or absorption by Russia. The takeover of the Ukrainian province of Crimea, just round the Black Sea coast from Moldova, by Putin has encouraged many of Transdniestr’s people to hope that they may be next on the Russian President’s shopping list.
As well as already having troops in Transdniestr, Moscow gives about $1 billion a year in cash and natural gas subsidies to the Transdniestr government and parliament in the territory’s self-proclaimed capital Tiraspol. Moscow also tops up the pensions of retired people in Transdniestr with supplements of $15 a month.
Nostalgia for the certainties of life in the old Soviet Union runs high everywhere in Moldova, but particularly so in Transdniestr. The territory continues to use the hammer and sickle on its flag, status of Lenin abound and Transdniestr has turned its preservation of life in the hay day of the Soviet Union into a popular tourist attraction.
But for the Transdniestr politicians, uncertainty about their legal status as a nation is a constant concern. Last week, the parliament passed a resolution calling for international recognition of Transdniestr as an independent state. This was seen by some, especially in Western Europe, as a prelude to calling for absorption by Russia, and Putin responded carefully when asked about the resolution.
“Transdniestr people should be able to decide their fate,” Putin said, reminding everyone of the swift and decisive referendum he engineered in Crimea. However, he stopped short of giving official Moscow recognition to Transdniestr’s independence. It has become a classic Putin tactic to camouflage his intentions with as much uncertainty and ambiguity as possible until he is ready to act.
Moscow’s opaque intentions are adding to anxiety in Transdniestr that if civil war breaks out in eastern Ukraine, it will spill over despite the Kiev government’s efforts to keep the border secure. The population, despite its pro-Russian sentiments, is split roughly evenly between Moldovans, Ukrainians and Russians, and there is concern ethnicity may trump political aspirations if fighting starts.
Of equal immediate concern is the firmly pro-European drive of the Moldovan government in the capital Chisinau. In August the Liberal Democrat government of Acting Prime Minister Iurie Leancă, who was appointed today after his predecessor resigned in March after being caught in one too many scandals, is due to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union, a key step on the road to membership.
But enthusiasm for joining the EU, even in pro-European parts of Moldova, is waning fast. This shift stems from witnessing what has happened in other former Soviet states, especially Hungary and Bulgaria, where membership appears to have brought only debt and unemployment.
A recent poll found that only 44 per cent of Moldovans favour EU membership, while support for a customs union with Russia has grown from 30 per cent a few months ago to 40 per cent now.
Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation photo, Creative Commons
Elections for the Moldovan parliament are due in the fall, and there is some expectation that the Communist Party will return to power. So, even if Chisinau does sign the Association Agreement with the EU in August, a new Communist government could annul it later in the year.
If Putin can keep Moldova out of Europe and within Moscow’s sphere of influence, either through a customs union or a Crimea-style takeover, it will be a significant check on the eastward march of the EU, and, for that matter, NATO.
A region of Moldova where EU scepticism is strongest and where Russian agents are said to be most active, levering open social and political fissures, is Gagauzia in the country’s south-west. The Gagauz are strong supporters of either independence, like their neighbours in Transdniestr, or union with Russia.
The President of the Gagauz autonomous region, Mihail Formuzal, recently staged a referendum asking if people wanted to join the EU or establish a customs union with Russia. The result has no legal status, but was 98.5 per cent in favour a customs union with Moscow – 68,000 votes for union with Russia against 1,900 for joining the EU according to the official count.
Moscow is said to have financed the referendum with a $73,000 donation to Formuzal.
SPREAD THE WORD: To tell others about this column, please “share” our Frontlines post about it.
Independent, non-partisan and employee-owned, F&O performs journalism for citizens, funded entirely by readers who buy a subscription or a $1 site day pass. We do not carry advertising or solicit donations from non-journalism foundations or causes. Sign up here for email notices of new work with the subscribe form on Frontlines, where we also post small stories. |
Theater|Review: A One-Act Marathon Anchored by the Armageddon
Review: A One-Act Marathon Anchored by the Armageddon
Plays in this Ensemble Studio Theater series include stories of the Second Coming told seven ways and two women in search of a hot duck.
Amber Reauchean Williams, left, Aadya Bedi and Ethan Hova in “Jesus in Manhattan” at the Ensemble Studio Theater.CreditCreditJeremy Daniel
By Elisabeth Vincentelli
37th Marathon of One-Act Plays: Series C
Off Broadway, Play
Ensemble Studio Theater, 549 W 52nd St.
Of course a story about the end times is going to be the centerpiece of any theatrical evening: How could it not?
It helps that Kate Attwell’s “Jesus in Manhattan” — in which the son of God’s return, in the form of a little girl, prefigures the apocalypse — is also the most ambitious of the five entries in this last installment of Ensemble Studio Theater’s marathon of one-act plays.
Ms. Attwell tries to conjure a mounting sense of doom through a fractured narrative: Confusion and awe turn into urgency and dread, then resignation and perhaps even acceptance as seven actors take turns playing various characters in brief, seemingly unconnected scenes.
A woman who only speaks Hindi tries to convince an American visa officer that she absolutely needs to see the brother she hasn’t bothered to visit in 20 years. Another woman panics because her farm’s animals have vanished while rats are everywhere. Eventually, we are told that humanity is condemned to 150 years of darkness — literal darkness that, naturally, includes the EST theater.
As memorable as isolated moments can be, however, “Jesus in Manhattan” is too scattershot, the sum of its parts adding up to less than a satisfying whole. It is also hampered by its short length, coming across like the kernel of a longer piece rather than as a self-contained one-act.
The other four plays in the omnibus, which is presented along with the Radio Drama Network, function better as stand-alones. This does not automatically make them any good, mind you.
Julia Specht’s “i believe in a republic in which money has a great deal to say.” and Stephen Brown’s “The Tourists” both mine a broad comic vein with their satirical aspirations.
From left, Megan Tusing, Patricia Randell and Delphi Harrington in Julia Specht’s “i believe in a republic in which money has a great deal to say.”CreditJeremy Daniel
In the first, a trio of Gilded Age socialites prepare for a forthcoming ball in Newport. They dream up outlandish festivities while belittling and humiliating the maid, Bess (Megan Tusing).
But Bess’s impulse is not to plot a revolution: All she wants is to one day become just like these women. It is a pointed observation, but the rich ladies’ outré cartoonishness dulls the blade.
Mr. Brown goes even bigger with two middle-aged Tennessee women on the loose in Paris, caricatures of the “ugly American” tourist complete with jokes about farting in front of the Mona Lisa. The extroverted Debra (Talaura Harms) is engaged back home but still flirts with the handsome, impossibly sweet French bellhop (Marshall Taylor Thurman). Debra’s friend, Peggy (Helen Coxe), watches the rosé-fueled evening devolve — Ms. Coxe’s awkward dance to Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” is the single funniest thing in the entire show — and eventually comedy gives way to sentimentality. It is not an upgrade.
Lloyd Suh’s “Mandarin Duck” and France-Luce Benson’s “Fall” strike a decidedly more melancholy note. Mr. Suh introduces us to a pair of Asian women trying to spot the titular fowl in the Central Park pond where it has taken up residence. (This is inspired by the real story of a mysterious Central Park interloper last year.) Clutching birding binoculars, they forge a tentative bond as Youni (Soomi Kim) relates her feelings of invisibility to the more rooted Grace (Cindy Im). Youni is fascinated by the duck because she identifies with it, vulnerable and alone in a crowd. It is a sweet tale, but evaporates into thin air.
In “Fall,” a Haitian-American caretaker (Lori Parquet) is looking after the dementia-afflicted mother (Elizabeth Van Dyke) of a successful African-American businesswoman (Suzette Azariah Gunn). The younger women are at each other’s throats, though eventually acrimony gives way to sentimentality. That is not an upgrade, either.
Through June 29 at the Ensemble Studio Theater, Manhattan; ensemblestudiotheatre.org. Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes.
Ensemble Studio Theater
549 W 52nd St.
"Jesus in Manhattan" written by Kate Attwell, "Fall" written by France-Luce Benson, "The Tourists" written by Stephen Brown, "i believe in a republic in which money has a great deal to say." written by Julia Specht and "Mandarin Duck" written by Lloyd Suh
This information was last updated on May 31, 2019
A version of this article appears in print on , Section C, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: The Apocalypse, in Just One Act. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe |
Hayward, Amanda. (x) ›
Powers, Hiram, 1805-1873. (x) ›
Galushia, Julie. (x) ›
Spafford, John, b. 1810. (x) ›
Baxter, Horace Henry. (x) ›
Proctor, Redfield, 1831-1908. (x) ›
Barton, Theodore. (x) ›
Barton Family Correspondence
William Henry Barton (known as Henry) was born on April 5, 1826 in Moriah, New York, the son of William A. and Electa (Taylor) Barton. By 1860 he had married Abiah Elliott. He enlisted in the 5th New York Cavalry, Company H on December 14, 1863 and was discharged in July, 1865. He fought in the...
Show moreWilliam Henry Barton (known as Henry) was born on April 5, 1826 in Moriah, New York, the son of William A. and Electa (Taylor) Barton. By 1860 he had married Abiah Elliott. He enlisted in the 5th New York Cavalry, Company H on December 14, 1863 and was discharged in July, 1865. He fought in the Battle of the Wilderness, Battle of Spottsylvania Court House, and Ashland Station. His brother, Hiram Horatio Barton, was born on August 20, 1836 in Moriah, New York. He enlisted in Company C, 96th New York State Volunteers. He fought in the Battle of Fair Oaks, the Battle of Kinston and at the Seige of Petersburg, where he was wounded. He was also at Fort Harrison. He was discharged on January 11, 1865. He married Jennie Abbie Johnson on September 5, 1869 in Bridport, Vermont. He died at there of cerebral abcess on April 6, 1903, and was buried in the Bridport Village cemetery. Lyman Barton was born on April 29, 1839 in Moriah, New York, He enlisted on July 7, 1862 in Winsted, Connecticut in Company K, 8th Connecticut Infantry Regiment. He fought at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Petersburg, and Fort Harrison. He was discharged on June 6, 1865. He died in Crown Point, New York on August 14, 1936. Theodore Taylor Barton was born on September 15, 1842 in Crown Point, New York and enlisted on May 1, 1861 in Company H, 34th New York State Volunteers. He was in the Battle of Fair Oaks, Antietam, and Chancellorsville. He was discharged on June 30, 1863, but returned to Washington, D.C. as a teamster and later reenlisted in the Veteran Volunteers. He was discharged in February, 1866. In 1867, he married Augusta Wooster Barton, the widow of his older brother James Bradshaw Barton, who was killed at the Battle of the Wilderness. Theodore moved to Lansing, Michigan and died there on January 2, 1928. Civil War letters written by four brothers, William, Hiram, Lyman, and Theodore. Many of the letters were written to their sister Mary Melissa Barton while she was living at Larabee's Point in Shoreham and the rest of the letters were written to each other. They were all in different units in Virginia and North Carolina. They write of camp life, troop movements, and descriptions of the country side. They also, at times, graphically describe the aftermath of battles. There is a description of the fiasco at the Crater. There is also a patriotic poem by William Izzard.
Theodore Barton to Sister
Topics include the journey from Harrison's Landing to Boliver via Newport News and Alexandria. Names several wounded and deceased soldiers, perhaps known by his sister. Concludes with a somewhat gruesome description of "picnic."
Barton, Melissa. (1) + -
December 15, 1861. (1) + -
Morale. (1) + -
Peninsular Campaign, 1862. (1) + -
Barton Family Correspondence (1) + - |
Every summer, when zucchini are in season, I make this pickle, which was adapted from Judy Rogers' brilliant Zuni Cafe Cookbook. It's my favourite pickle to put in a hamburger or eat alongside a platter of cold cuts. These pickles keep well in the fridge for a few weeks.
1. Slice the zucchini and golden shallots on a mandolin into two-millimetre slices. Toss the sliced zucchini and shallots together with the salt and leave in a colander to drain for an hour.
2. Meanwhile bring the pickle solution ingredients to simmer in a large non-reactive saucepan. When the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat and leave to cool to room temperature.
3. After an hour, rinse the zucchini and shallots of excess salt and pat dry. Transfer the salted zucchini and shallots to sterilised preserving jars. Pour the cool pickle solution over the sliced vegetables. Refrigerate overnight before using. |
O Grêmio Recreativo Escola de Samba Caprichosos Saada é uma escola de samba da cidade de Bragança Paulista, no interior do estado brasileiro de São Paulo.
Até 2010, era chamada Caprichosos Saada Abi Chedid.
História
Em 2008, a representante da Caprichosos, Rosângela Alves Neto, foi escolhida "Garota do Carnaval de Bragança" para 2009.
Em 2008, foi a terceira colocada do Grupo Especial.
Esteve por um ano afastada dos desfiles oficiais, e em sua volta, já com o novo nome, foi apenas a terceira colocada do grupo de acesso.
Carnavais
Ligações externas
Escolas de samba de Bragança Paulista
Fundações em São Paulo em 1995 |
Blog »Back to Victorian times in so many ways
Back to (mid) Victorian times
The BBC reports new research that finds the life expectancy gap between rich and poor in the UK is now widening, especially for men, for the first time since the 1870s. Could this be the long-term impact of hopelessly misguided neoliberal economic policies playing out in relatively shorter lives for the poor and longer lives for the rich? It would be a shocking turn in British history, the end of a 130 year positive social trend, and all the more so as we have known the causes of health inequalities for at least half a century: economic and social inequalities. The paper suggests that differences in 'lifestyle choices' between groups could be partly to blame, but Michael Marmot's work on health inequalities shows we must focus on the 'causes of the causes'.
The effects of social and economic inequities take time to accumulate in us and emerge slowly as generations mature. This means that some of the harms of inequality being visited on current generations can never wholly be undone, and that the social gains that will accrue from a more equal society will inevitably take time to become visible.
As a start let's hope that this week we manage to elect a new Mayor who understands that creating a fairer society is vital to our future health and prosperity, and that changing the direction of economic and social policy will take sustained long-term commitment.
Sadiq Khan for Labour has committed to creating an economic equity team right in the Mayor's office, if he is elected. The Green Party's manifesto for it's candidate Sian Berry, puts economic equality at the centre of their economic plans for London. Harder to see recognition of the issue's importance for London in Caroline Pidgeon's Lib Dem manifesto for London, although she spoke very well on the subject at the launch of the London Fairness Commission. Zac Goldsmith's manifesto doesn't mention economic inequality, and he didn't show up at the Fairness Commission's launch event.
If you haven't yet had time, please read our manifesto, sign our on line petition, and email the candidates to ask them to sign up to '5 steps for a fairer city'.
The BBC report is here.
The Health Gap: the challenge of an unequal world, by Sir Michael Marmot, is published by Bloomsbury
@FairLondon tweeted this page. 2016-05-03 19:43:34 +0100
Back to (mid) Victorian times http://www.myfairlondon.org.uk/back_to_victorian_times_in_so_many_ways?recruiter_id=169 |
Photos from the show at Hulen, Bergen Friday the 23rd of September 2011. All pictures by Jarle. H. Moe. |
The Macallan Gift Guide 2021
Distinction through Diversity: The Whisky Glass Guide
E600CA23-A5CF-4F30-BC0F-7E8B830451E0@2x Jun 04 · 5 min read
Making an Informed Decision: Types of Whisky Glasses
We’ve curated the essential details on the top six whisky glasses used today, so you can elevate any occasion or further appreciate the moment when you are drinking your Macallan.
The Glencairn Glass
With an elegant, classic shape, the Glencairn whisky glass is highly popular with distilleries and whisky connoisseurs across the world, despite its relatively recent origins. It was designed in collaboration with the master blenders from five of Scotland’s largest distilleries in the early 2000s.
Made for whisky, it’s not as ornate as carved crystal glasses, such as the old fashioned. The shape is inspired by the traditional nosing copitas scotch whisky distilleries and labs use when making whisky. In contrast to other glasses, the softly fluted tulip form enables the glass to hold the delicate aromas, focusing them and ultimately changing the overall experience of the whisky.
The Tumbler Glass
Also known as the ‘old fashioned’, ‘lowball’, or ‘rocks’ glass, the tumbler may be considered the iconic whisky glass. Holding between 4-10 fluid ounces, the slightly tapered bottom is weighted with thick glass to ensure a stable drink, and enables cocktail ingredients to be mixed. It’s shorter than the highball glass, and ideal for distilled spirits as it keeps the liquid close to the nose. You can enjoy single malt whisky and bourbon both neat and on the rocks in a clean-cut tumbler; glasses classified as ‘old fashioned’ tend to be made of finely-cut lead and lead-free crystal. In contrast to the Glencairn, the open cylindrical shape isn’t designed to hold the aromas, but is perfect for adding ingredients in making cocktails.
The Snifter Glass
The ‘snifter’ is distinguished by its wide-bottom, narrow-top bowl shape set on a short stem. A unique feature of the glass is found in its rotund design: when filled with a serving of whisky, the liquid doesn’t spill when laid horizontally on a surface level. The short stem enables the glass to be cupped in the hand, warming the liquid and changing the experience, as the narrow rim captures all the aromas. This glass is perfect if you want to experiment with how subtle changes in heat impacts the aromas and flavours of your whisky.
The Tulip, or Copita Glass
For those who wish to appreciate the true nuances and depths of single malt whisky, the Tulip glass, or the ‘Copita’ is the vessel of choice. Its roots are found deep in the sherry bodegas of Spain, as the slim stemmed glass is traditionally used in sampling sherry. Master distillers and connoisseurs tend to use it as the stem–longer than that of the snifter– keeps the hand from warming the liquid. Alternatively, the glass can be cupped if desired, and the slightly narrowing shape up to the rim is perfect for both swirling and capturing the aromas. From nosing to tasting, the Copita is a versatile choice for whisky drinkers who appreciate a refined, understated experience.
The Highball Glass
Taller than the lowball tumbler glass, the highball has the same heavy bottom to allow for mixing. The increased height and capacity means that you can build serves designed for more ice. As a ‘highball’ is defined by its two-ingredients made up of a spirit and carbonated mixer, you can appreciate the simplicity of a scotch and soda or lemonade, perfect for a summer evening.
Space to Experiment
Whether you tend to enjoy your single malt whisky on the rocks, neat, or with a mixer, the details matter. Perhaps try the same whisky in different glassware, noticing how the nosing aromas and flavours change with the temperature, shape and material of the vessel you choose. Through refining your understanding of what influences the entire experience, each moment is appreciated and celebrated. |
The Senate last month unanimously passed a compromise version of a bill that would restrict public access to information about the risks of chemical accidents, especially data in electronic form.
The measure, an amendment to the 1990 Clean Air Act, would prohibit for one year the disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act of any information that describes what could happen if toxic chemicals were accidentally released into the environment. Meanwhile, the Clinton administration would study whether the benefits of disclosure outweigh the risk that disclosure could lead to terrorist attacks on U.S. industrial sites, and it would write regulations based on its findings.
The information is contained in reports that the Environmental Protection Agency requires some companies that use toxic chemicals to submit. The reports outline the consequences of an explosion or other disaster. The EPA is keeping the information in an electronic database, and federal law enforcement officials fear that opening this database to the public, such as making it accessible over the Internet, would give terrorists too much information about potential targets in the United States.
According to the bill, until final regulations are issued, the public would not be allowed to obtain information about specific manufacturing plants. Afterward, individuals could get paper copies of reports about a limited number of sites. The bill also requires the EPA to create a publicly accessible database from which the public could view data but not print or copy it.
Rick Blum, a policy analyst with OMB Watch, a government watchdog group, said the bill "creates a dangerous precedent" for public access to federal data by establishing a "new category" of information that is neither public nor classified. He said the measure contradicts an existing law that says the government cannot put restrictions on the public's ability to redistribute published government data.
New provisions of the bill [S.880] approved last month attempt to address objections to an earlier version of the bill. Those objections came from state and local government officials who wanted input into the disclosure rules and from environmentalists who argued that the Clinton administration had not proven that disclosing the information posed security risks.
According to Jody Westby, general manager with In-Q-It, an information technology research firm that works with federal intelligence agencies, the measure is "a step in the right direction."
But Westby said the bill still is unlikely to keep the most sensitive information off the Internet because paper copies of documents could be scanned and put online, and information from a database could not be completely protected from copying.
The House has yet to act on its version of the bill [H.R. 1790], which is being considered by the House Commerce Committee, but sources familiar with the debate expect the bill to pass eventually. |
Acronym for Extensible Markup Language. XML is an information format that can be understood by virtually all computer users, regardless of their particular platforms. XML is used to share information in a consistent manner. |
End of preview. Expand
in Data Studio
README.md exists but content is empty.
- Downloads last month
- 6