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0.199795 | <urn:uuid:33512548-188d-41d7-b605-27e540be8c42> | en | 0.925869 | Sun (Paper Mario)
From the Super Mario Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the sun character from Paper Mario. For information about the enemy sun from Super Mario Bros. 3, see Angry Sun. For the character resembling a sun in Mario Party 6, see Brighton. For the star the Mushroom World orbits, see Sun.
The Sun.
The Sun, a.k.a. The Blessed Sun, is a celestial entity that lives in the Sun Tower at Flower Fields. The Sun is not the same sun found in the sky. It is simply a local sun that can provide extra amounts of sunlight to small regions (not entire planets).
During the events of Paper Mario, Bowser's minion Huff N. Puff covers Flower Fields with a continuous stream of clouds from his Puff-Puff Machine. The continuous cloud cover prevents the Sun's rays from reaching the floral residents of Flower Fields. If this continued for too long, all the plant-life of Flower Fields would wither away and die from lack of sunlight, allowing Huff N. Puff and his forces to rule the region unopposed.
Mario and his allies, with the help from their new comrade Lakilester, destroyed the Puff-Puff Machine. With the clouds gone, the Sun can return to the sky and restore Flower Fields. Additionally, with sunlight returned to the area, Mario can grow a magic beanstalk to take him to Cloudy Climb to fight Huff N. Puff and free the imprisoned Star Spirit Klevar.
In volume 26 of Super Mario-Kun, the Sun is first shown to be sick. After Mario and his partners, including Lakilester, destroy the Puff-Puff Machine, the sun is revived and helps them grow a beanstalk that takes them to Huff N. Puff.
[edit] Tattle
• "It's the sun. Some people call it the "Blessed Sun." It's the source of life for flowers and trees. If it doesn't come out, eventually all plants will wither away. Sunshine makes me happy, too."
[edit] Names in other languages
Language Name Meaning
French Soleil Sun | http://www.mariowiki.com/Sun_(Paper_Mario) | dclm-gs1-137830002 | false | false | {
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0.073798 | <urn:uuid:903fcca1-a2b3-4e57-a8c6-e164d7e9e984> | en | 0.988413 | post #21 of 21
I just wanted to pop in to give some encouragement.
I was a single mom of three for years. It was the most challenging time in my life. I've never lived off so little money. The kids went without the niceties for a while until I was "back on my feet". I did manage to survive without child support for a couple of years. My parents did help me a few times like when I needed a new car. They cut me an interest free loan and allowed me to make a very, very small monthly payment.
While I'm no longer single we now have two more children in our family and our income is just making it. I know this will be silly to some but I get much inspiration from the Duggar family, especially the early days when they weren't making nearly as much money. If they can feed and clothe all those children and have NO DEBT, so can I!
I wish you and your family the best.
s to you all | http://www.mothering.com/community/t/1224217/i-am-in-much-need-of-advice/20 | dclm-gs1-137910002 | false | false | {
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0.024742 | <urn:uuid:0cdea4cb-5e28-45f4-92da-2672815c1a35> | en | 0.985556 | My 100 Hands
Lauryn Marie Burks
What if you had so much to do that 2 hands were not enough? Would you invite all of your friends over to help? Would you bribe your brother or sister to do it for you? Would you wish that Mom and Dad would just say you didn't have to do it? Well, Lauryn Marie Burks knows what to do. She would have her 100 Hands do it for her.
Follow along with Lauryn's fun-filled imagination, as she describes how to put her little helping hands to work and make life easier. | http://www.my100hands.com/ | dclm-gs1-137930002 | false | false | {
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0.046613 | <urn:uuid:ac61b4bb-b613-4aba-a2e6-be14a5e1e311> | en | 0.973215 | Reply to a comment
Reply to this comment
philsco writes:
in response to lightray:
It's interesting to see the gloating from the leftists on this blog after they have just voted themselves into poverty and national chaos. I assume they learned nothing from Obama's failures in his first term, and want to ensure that things will continue downhill for America in his second term.
What do you lefties think will happen in the second term? Do you think the rich will become poorer and the poor will become richer? The reality is that all of us will become poorer because Obama's policies are anti-business and if businesses don't prosper, nobody prospers. Lefties don't understand how the middle class is created. A strong middle class trickles down from a healthy economy. We don't have a healthy economy and Obama is doing nothing to improve it.
Romney lost the election because people who don't understand how wealth is created and preserved now comprise the majority of voters. These people who don't understand business are now in charge of running the world's largest business.
We now have a situation in which those who are the most ignorant are electing those who reflect their ignorance.
Do you really think universal suffrage is a good idea?
Would you like for the kindergartners to elect the principal?
"worlds largest business"
Really! Every business is in business to make a profit, period. A country is not a business as it does not seek to make a profit.
All that aside, look on the bright side lightray. You'll still have the government to blame, for the next four years, for your impotence.
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0.026237 | <urn:uuid:f08f5a1e-242c-4559-980b-8fa9a8e3f8ae> | en | 0.970257 | Morsy advisor: Full 'military coup' is under way in Egypt
Published On: Jul 03 2013 12:00:23 PM EDT Updated On: Jul 03 2013 01:08:37 PM EDT
Egypt protests 12-6-12
Egypt's military's intelligence service placed a travel ban on President Mohamed Morsy and senior Islamist aides including the Muslim Brotherhood's Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, and his influential deputy, Khairat el-Shater, security officials said.
An adviser to President Mohamed Morsy suggested that a military coup was under way in Cairo on Wednesday. Essam al Haddad, Egypt's presidential senior adviser on foreign affairs said on a government Facebook page: "As I write these lines I am fully aware that these may be the last lines I get to post on this page. For the sake of Egypt and for historical accuracy, let's call what is happening by its real name: Military coup."
Morsy offered to form an interim coalition government until parliamentary elections can be held and the constitution can be amended.
"The presidency's vision includes the formation of a coalition government that would manage the upcoming parliamentary electoral process, and the formation of an independent committee for constitutional amendments to submit to the upcoming parliament," he said in a posting on his Facebook page.
"The presidency blames for the most part a number of political parties that boycotted all calls for dialogue."
It added, "To protect the blood of Egyptians, the presidency calls on all political and national forces to prioritize national interest above all other interests."
Morsy noted that hundreds of thousands of supporters and protesters had packed plazas around the country.
He urged that his countrymen be allowed to express their opinions through the ballot box.
The posting came as the nation's first democratically elected president and his supporters were facing off against demonstrators who had packed public spaces around the country to demonstrate their opposition to his government.
Whether his statement would suffice to stave off military intervention was not immediately clear.
Coup allegation
But an aide to Morsy, Essam al Haddad, said in a Facebook posting that a coup was under way.
"For the sake of Egypt and for historical accuracy, let's call what is happening by its real name: military coup," said al Haddad, who works in the office of the assistant to the president on foreign relations.
"Today, only one thing matters. In this day and age, no military coup can succeed in the face of sizable popular force without considerable bloodshed. Who among you is ready to shoulder that blame?"
On Tuesday night, Morsy had vowed that he would not comply with an ultimatum delivered Monday by the military demanding that he enter into a power-sharing agreement.
"There is no alternative to the constitutional legitimacy and to the constitution," he said in a televised address. "I will not allow for anyone to say things that will violate this legitimacy or to take steps that will shake up it up."
He added: "If the price of upholding this legitimacy is my own blood, I am, therefore, ready to sacrifice my blood for this country and its stability."
He demanded the military withdraw its ultimatum and return to its barracks.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Interior Ministry said in a statement that it was determined to maintain order. "The police force stands side by side with the armed forces in protecting the country and the citizens," it said.
Reports of a TV studio takeover
Reuters and several other news organizations reported that Egyptian troops had "secured the central Cairo studios of state television" as the deadline approached and that staff not working on live shows had departed.
Protest leaders have called for nonviolence.
"The hour of victory is coming," said Mahmoud Badr of the Tamarod opposition group. He predicted that the "illegitimate president" would be gone by the end of the day.
"Not America, not Morsy, not anyone can impose their will on the Egyptian people," Badr said.
Switching sides
With the ultimatum, the armed forces appeared to have thrown their weight behind those opposed to Morsy's Islamic government.
Early Wednesday, soldiers and police set up a perimeter around the opposition's central meeting point, Cairo's Tahrir Square, "to secure it from any possible attack," the state-run EgyNews agency reported.
It was the police who, on the same spot in 2011, killed hundreds when they fired upon democratic, moderate and Islamic demonstrators seeking to overthrow Hosni Mubarak, the country's longtime autocratic leader and U.S. ally.
Mubarak had long repressed the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic political movement that emerged as the nation's most powerful political force once Mubarak was ousted.
Many of the democratic reformers and moderates who accused Morsy's government of moving in an authoritarian direction now support former Mubarak allies and others fed up with the nation's direction in calling for the restoration of order through the military.
Brotherhood members have complained that police did not protect them. Some have taken matters into their own hands, in one instance firing upon vandals with shotguns, an international journalism association reported.
The military's plans
Military leaders have told Arab media that they plan to suspend the constitution, dissolve the parliament and sideline Morsy.
The military appears to be pressuring Morsy to restructure his government to reduce the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and include opposition members, a source close to highly placed members of Egypt's leadership told CNN.
That restructuring was already happening. Five of Morsy's ministers resigned this week, including Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr.
And former Prosecutor General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud will meet Thursday with the Supreme Judicial Council to be officially confirmed in the job.
Mahmoud's return appeared to signify a shrinking of Morsy's power and a tilt toward Mubarak-era officials over Muslim Brotherhood loyalists.
Morsy defends his presidency
The unrest prompted U.S. President Barack Obama to call Morsy on Monday and urge a less rigid stance. "He stressed that democracy is about more than elections," a White House statement said.
He pushed him to form a more inclusive government.
"We are saying to him, 'Figure out a way to go for new elections,' " the official said. "That may be the only way that this confrontation can be resolved."
The Egyptian leader's failings
That has disaffected many among Egypt's poor and middle classes, said Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics.
He called Morsy "incompetent" but said he doubted the military would depose him, adding that that would drive Egypt into an even deeper crisis. | http://www.news4jax.com/news/egypts-security-forces-place-travel-ban-on-president-morsy/-/475880/20823164/-/view/print/-/rpljxy/-/index.html | dclm-gs1-138000002 | false | false | {
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0.050538 | <urn:uuid:389b7813-c299-4b1e-83b5-7181224ee901> | en | 0.825827 | mark.texi [plain text]
@c This is part of the Emacs manual.
@c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions.
@node Mark, Killing, Help, Top
@chapter The Mark and the Region
@cindex mark
@cindex setting a mark
@cindex region
Many Emacs commands operate on an arbitrary contiguous part of the
you set @dfn{the mark} at one end of it, and move point to the other
end. The text between point and the mark is called @dfn{the region}.
Emacs highlights the region whenever there is one, if you enable
Transient Mark mode (@pxref{Transient Mark}).
You can move point or the mark to adjust the boundaries of the region.
It doesn't matter which one is set first chronologically, or which one
comes earlier in the text. Once the mark has been set, it remains where
you put it until you set it again at another place. Each Emacs buffer
has its own mark, so that when you return to a buffer that had been
selected previously, it has the same mark it had before.
Many commands that insert text, such as @kbd{C-y} (@code{yank}) and
@kbd{M-x insert-buffer}, position point and the mark at opposite ends of
the inserted text, so that the region contains the text just inserted.
Aside from delimiting the region, the mark is also useful for
remembering a spot that you may want to go back to. To make this
feature more useful, each buffer remembers 16 previous locations of the
mark in the @dfn{mark ring}.
* Setting Mark:: Commands to set the mark.
* Transient Mark:: How to make Emacs highlight the region--
when there is one.
* Using Region:: Summary of ways to operate on contents of the region.
* Marking Objects:: Commands to put region around textual units.
* Mark Ring:: Previous mark positions saved so you can go back there.
* Global Mark Ring:: Previous mark positions in various buffers.
@end menu
@node Setting Mark
@section Setting the Mark
Here are some commands for setting the mark:
@c WideCommands
@table @kbd
@item C-@key{SPC}
Set the mark where point is (@code{set-mark-command}).
@item C-@@
The same.
@item C-x C-x
Interchange mark and point (@code{exchange-point-and-mark}).
@item Drag-Mouse-1
Set point and the mark around the text you drag across.
@item Mouse-3
@end table
upper case, using the @kbd{C-x C-u} (@code{upcase-region}) command,
beginning of the text to be capitalized, type @kbd{C-@key{SPC}} to put
the mark there, move to the end, and then type @kbd{C-x C-u}. Or, you
type @kbd{C-x C-u}.
@kindex C-SPC
@findex set-mark-command
The most common way to set the mark is with the @kbd{C-@key{SPC}} command
(@code{set-mark-command}). This sets the mark where point is. Then you
can move point away, leaving the mark behind.
@kbd{C-@key{SPC}}) and then moves point (like @kbd{Mouse-1}). Both of
the mark; that gives behavior consistent with other window-driven
use keyboard commands to set the mark. @xref{Mouse Commands}.
@kindex C-x C-x
@findex exchange-point-and-mark
with the command @kbd{C-x C-x} (@code{exchange-point-and-mark}) which
reactivates the mark.
@kbd{C-x C-x} is also useful when you are satisfied with the position
is); do @kbd{C-x C-x} to put point at that end of the region, and then
move it. A second use of @kbd{C-x C-x}, if necessary, puts the mark at
the new position with point back at its original position.
@kindex C-@@
There is no such character as @kbd{C-@key{SPC}} in ASCII; when you
type @key{SPC} while holding down @key{CTRL}, what you get on most
ordinary terminals is the character @kbd{C-@@}. This key is actually
bound to @code{set-mark-command}. But unless you are unlucky enough to
have a terminal where typing @kbd{C-@key{SPC}} does not produce
@kbd{C-@@}, you might as well think of this character as
@kbd{C-@key{SPC}}. Under X, @kbd{C-@key{SPC}} is actually a distinct
character, but its binding is still @code{set-mark-command}.
@node Transient Mark
@section Transient Mark Mode
@cindex mode, Transient Mark
@cindex Transient Mark mode
@cindex highlighting region
@cindex region highlighting
Emacs can highlight the current region, using X Windows. But normally
it does not. Why not?
Highlighting the region doesn't work well ordinarily in Emacs, because
once you have set a mark, there is @emph{always} a region (in that
buffer). And highlighting the region all the time would be a nuisance.
You can turn on region highlighting by enabling Transient Mark mode.
This is a more rigid mode of operation in which the region ``lasts''
only temporarily, so you must set up a region for each command that uses
one. In Transient Mark mode, most of the time there is no region;
therefore, highlighting the region when it exists is convenient.
@findex transient-mark-mode
To enable Transient Mark mode, type @kbd{M-x transient-mark-mode}.
This command toggles the mode, so you can repeat the command to turn off
the mode.
Here are the details of Transient Mark mode:
@itemize @bullet
To set the mark, type @kbd{C-@key{SPC}} (@code{set-mark-command}).
This makes the mark active; as you move point, you will see the region
highlighting grow and shrink.
The mouse commands for specifying the mark also make it active. So do
keyboard commands whose purpose is to specify a region, including
@kbd{M-@@}, @kbd{C-M-@@}, @kbd{M-h}, @kbd{C-M-h}, @kbd{C-x C-p}, and
@kbd{C-x h}.
When the mark is active, you can execute commands that operate on the
region, such as killing, indenting, or writing to a file.
Any change to the buffer, such as inserting or deleting a character,
deactivates the mark. This means any subsequent command that operates
on a region will get an error and refuse to operate. You can make the
region active again by typing @kbd{C-x C-x}.
Commands like @kbd{M->} and @kbd{C-s} that ``leave the mark behind'' in
addition to some other primary purpose do not activate the new mark.
You can activate the new region by executing @kbd{C-x C-x}
@kbd{C-s} when the mark is active does not alter the mark.
Quitting with @kbd{C-g} deactivates the mark.
@end itemize
Highlighting of the region uses the @code{region} face; you can
customize how the region is highlighted by changing this face.
@xref{Face Customization}.
@vindex highlight-nonselected-windows
When multiple windows show the same buffer, they can have different
regions, because they can have different values of point (though they
all share one common mark position). Ordinarily, only the selected
window highlights its region (@pxref{Windows}). However, if the
variable @code{highlight-nonselected-windows} is non-@code{nil}, then
each window highlights its own region (provided that Transient Mark mode
is enabled and the window's buffer's mark is active).
When Transient Mark mode is not enabled, every command that sets the
mark also activates it, and nothing ever deactivates it.
@vindex mark-even-if-inactive
If the variable @code{mark-even-if-inactive} is non-@code{nil} in
Transient Mark mode, then commands can use the mark and the region
even when it is inactive. Region highlighting appears and disappears
just as it normally does in Transient Mark mode, but the mark doesn't
really go away when the highlighting disappears.
@cindex Zmacs mode
Transient Mark mode is also sometimes known as ``Zmacs mode''
because the Zmacs editor on the MIT Lisp Machine handled the mark in a
similar way.
@node Using Region
@section Operating on the Region
@cindex operations on a marked region
Once you have a region and the mark is active, here are some of the
ways you can operate on the region:
@itemize @bullet
Kill it with @kbd{C-w} (@pxref{Killing}).
Save it in a register with @kbd{C-x r s} (@pxref{Registers}).
Save it in a buffer or a file (@pxref{Accumulating Text}).
Convert case with @kbd{C-x C-l} or @kbd{C-x C-u} (@pxref{Case}).
Indent it with @kbd{C-x @key{TAB}} or @kbd{C-M-\} (@pxref{Indentation}).
Fill it as text with @kbd{M-x fill-region} (@pxref{Filling}).
Print hardcopy with @kbd{M-x print-region} (@pxref{Hardcopy}).
Evaluate it as Lisp code with @kbd{M-x eval-region} (@pxref{Lisp Eval}).
@end itemize
Most commands that operate on the text in the
region have the word @code{region} in their names.
@node Marking Objects
@section Commands to Mark Textual Objects
@cindex marking sections of text
Here are the commands for placing point and the mark around a textual
object such as a word, list, paragraph or page.
@table @kbd
@item M-@@
Set mark after end of next word (@code{mark-word}). This command and
the following one do not move point.
@item C-M-@@
Set mark after end of next Lisp expression (@code{mark-sexp}).
@item M-h
Put region around current paragraph (@code{mark-paragraph}).
@item C-M-h
Put region around current Lisp defun (@code{mark-defun}).
@item C-x h
Put region around entire buffer (@code{mark-whole-buffer}).
@item C-x C-p
Put region around current page (@code{mark-page}).
@end table
@kbd{M-@@} (@code{mark-word}) puts the mark at the end of the next word,
while @kbd{C-M-@@} (@code{mark-sexp}) puts it at the end of the next Lisp
expression. These commands handle arguments just like @kbd{M-f} and
@kindex C-x h
@findex mark-whole-buffer
Other commands set both point and mark, to delimit an object in the
buffer. For example, @kbd{M-h} (@code{mark-paragraph}) moves point to
the beginning of the paragraph that surrounds or follows point, and puts
the mark at the end of that paragraph (@pxref{Paragraphs}). It prepares
the region so you can indent, case-convert, or kill a whole paragraph.
@kbd{C-M-h} (@code{mark-defun}) similarly puts point before and the
mark after the current or following defun (@pxref{Defuns}). @kbd{C-x
C-p} (@code{mark-page}) puts point before the current page, and mark at
the end (@pxref{Pages}). The mark goes after the terminating page
delimiter (to include it), while point goes after the preceding page
delimiter (to exclude it). A numeric argument specifies a later page
(if positive) or an earlier page (if negative) instead of the current
Finally, @kbd{C-x h} (@code{mark-whole-buffer}) sets up the entire
buffer as the region, by putting point at the beginning and the mark at
the end.
In Transient Mark mode, all of these commands activate the mark.
@node Mark Ring
@section The Mark Ring
@kindex C-u C-SPC
@cindex mark ring
@kindex C-u C-@@
Aside from delimiting the region, the mark is also useful for
feature more useful, each buffer remembers 16 previous locations of the
mark, in the @dfn{mark ring}. Commands that set the mark also push the
old mark onto this ring. To return to a marked location, use @kbd{C-u
C-@key{SPC}} (or @kbd{C-u C-@@}); this is the command
@code{set-mark-command} given a numeric argument. It moves point to
where the mark was, and restores the mark from the ring of former
marks. Thus, repeated use of this command moves point to all of the old
marks on the ring, one by one. The mark positions you move through in
this way are not lost; they go to the end of the ring.
Each buffer has its own mark ring. All editing commands use the current
buffer's mark ring. In particular, @kbd{C-u C-@key{SPC}} always stays in
the same buffer.
Many commands that can move long distances, such as @kbd{M-<}
(@code{beginning-of-buffer}), start by setting the mark and saving the
old mark on the mark ring. This is to make it easier for you to move
back later. Searches set the mark if they move point. You can tell
when a command sets the mark because it displays @samp{Mark Set} in the
echo area.
If you want to move back to the same place over and over, the mark
ring may not be convenient enough. If so, you can record the position
in a register for later retrieval (@pxref{RegPos}).
@vindex mark-ring-max
The variable @code{mark-ring-max} specifies the maximum number of
entries to keep in the mark ring. If that many entries exist and
another one is pushed, the last one in the list is discarded. Repeating
@kbd{C-u C-@key{SPC}} cycles through the positions currently in the
@vindex mark-ring
The variable @code{mark-ring} holds the mark ring itself, as a list of
marker objects, with the most recent first. This variable is local in
every buffer.
@node Global Mark Ring
@section The Global Mark Ring
@cindex global mark ring
In addition to the ordinary mark ring that belongs to each buffer,
Emacs has a single @dfn{global mark ring}. It records a sequence of
buffers in which you have recently set the mark, so you can go back
to those buffers.
Setting the mark always makes an entry on the current buffer's mark
ring. If you have switched buffers since the previous mark setting, the
new mark position makes an entry on the global mark ring also. The
result is that the global mark ring records a sequence of buffers that
you have been in, and, for each buffer, a place where you set the mark.
@kindex C-x C-@key{SPC}
@findex pop-global-mark
The command @kbd{C-x C-@key{SPC}} (@code{pop-global-mark}) jumps to
the buffer and position of the latest entry in the global ring. It also
rotates the ring, so that successive uses of @kbd{C-x C-@key{SPC}} take
you to earlier and earlier buffers. | http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/emacs/emacs-41/emacs/man/mark.texi | dclm-gs1-138080002 | false | true | {
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0.04638 | <urn:uuid:80b8101d-ebe1-47a9-9742-c6c6fc9fa056> | en | 0.962812 | Kansas Republican Steve Fitzgerald Claims Democrats Cannot be Followers of Jesus Christ
article image
Republican Steve Fitzgerald, a candidate for State Senate in Kansas, recently claimed that Democrats cannot be followers of Jesus Christ, while speaking at a Polish American Club in Kansas City.
Fitzgerald is running against Democrat State Sen. Kelly Kultala, who happens to be Catholic.
Fitzgerald later told HuffingtonPost.com: "My main point is that the Democratic platform and policies nationally are an attempt to redefine marriage in effect to say what Christ has said about marriage is a lie."
"Christ said marriage is between one man and one woman and the Democratic platform said that it’s not true. So therefore, my point was that one cannot support the Democratic platform and be a follower of Christ."
The contention that I said that one cannot be Catholic or Christian and a Democrat is not an unreasonable summation of what I actually said. My actual message was fix the party or leave."
While Jesus Christ never advocated gay marriage, he never actually said that marriage was between one man and one woman, as Fitzgerald claims.
Kultala said in response: "I was so angry I was seeing spots. I was trying to be diplomatic and calm. I said that people cannot come into our house and disgrace our Democratic Party. My job as a senator is not to tell you what to believe."
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Neanderthal75's picture
Doctrinally speaking, given
Doctrinally speaking, given the CONTEXT (something which you bigoted, anti-Faith fascists refuse to understand or accept, due to a SEVERE lack of honesty), of his statements referencing the Democrat National Platform, recently adopted under the scrutiny of National Television (which rules the Mayor of LA HAD to VIOLATE, calling for a Voice Vote 3 TIMES, and in the end REJECTING the blatantly clear REJECTION of the Amended Plank as proposed by the Democrats on the Floor), Registered Democrats who AGREE with the DNC platforms and remain Registered Democrats, cannot, Biblically, be true followers of Jesus Christ.
Why not?
Because abortion is the murder of an unborn child, and from the Old Testament to the New Testament, unborn children are referred to as known individuals, persons in their own right, and created by God.
Registered Democrats in good standing, as far as I've seen, are FOR abortion and abortion rights.
Further, the DNC Platform is pro-homosexual and pro-homosexual rights, including homosexual marriage. These stances are all contra-biblical and thus, in direct opposition to the teachings of the Holy Spirit as evidenced in the doctrines taught by the OT prophets, Jesus Christ, and His Apostles.
The list could go on, but these two 'biggies' will suffice.
Hey, I didn't make the rules, I just try to live by them. His House, His Rules.
Oh yes, lest you anti-Faith bigots get upset about the relational comparison between Judeo-Christian doctrines, the Bible, and the Founding of the USA, please be so kind as to look up and read the First Inaugural Address of President George Washington before the First Joint Session of Congress, as well as the official public statements of the first 4 Presidents of the USA.
You won't like what you find, but hey, that's nothing new for those who despise freedom of conscience, speech, and religion.
You folks should be Muslims with your mindsets.
Neil's picture
Yet another plonker from the
Yet another plonker from the Republican party. I believe that if he takes a look at the whole Republican agenda he will find very little that Christ would agree with. Being Republican is mutually exclusive to being a Christian.
Kalthian's picture
Who cares if Democrats are
Who cares if Democrats are followers of a potentially imaginary figure? I'm so tired of the religious acting like being Christian is the end-all be-all for politicians. It doesn't matter. The bible was also against interracial marriage. Oh yeah, and how long did it take the LDS Church (Mormons) to allow African Americans to hold the priesthood? Religion promotes bigotry, and I for one am happy to see a political party fighting that history of bigotry, slavery, and hatred.
"How do you know so much about everything?'" was asked of a very wise and intelligent man; and the answer was "By never being afraid or ashamed to ask questions as to anything of which I was ignorant." - John Abbott (1821-1893)
Neanderthal75's picture
Kathleen......where to start
Kathleen......where to start when your post is so very full of doctrinal ignorance it boggles the mind!
Neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament ever forbade interracial marriages. They both forbade inter-religious marriages, but cared not one wit for the color of a person's skin.
You would know that if you were so filled with hate and bigotry against Jews and Christians, and in all probability, for various sects, both Biblical and Cult which became offshoots of Biblical Judaism and/or Christianity.
I note with no little humour you steered clear of mentioning Islam and Muslims referencing the issues at hand......very telling.
You really need to educate yourself as to what is and is not Biblical Doctrine, based in the dichotomy of Old Covenant vs New Covenant (these are the basic parameters as to why Tanach Jews differ from Biblical Christians).
Considering the content of your prose above, I don't hold out much hope that you're either interested enough to be correct in what you believe and say, or in your desire to better understand the world in which you live, but hey, I could be wrong.
Dan1979's picture
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0.065601 | <urn:uuid:b1d39c0c-60fa-487b-8086-256099853844> | en | 0.939409 | Unbiased information on organic food, benefits of food & home remedies
Health Benefits of Boron
Boron is a vital trace mineral that is required for the normal growth and health of the body. Many dangerous conditions like arthritis and osteoporosis are naturally managed by Boron, and it helps to reduce menopausal symptoms as well. It is believed that boron improves the natural ability of the human body to absorb calcium and magnesium.
Important Sources of Boron
Fruits like apples, oranges, red grapes, pears, plums, kiwis, sultanas, dates, as well as certain vegetables, soybeans and nuts are rich sources of boron. Chickpeas, borlotti beans, hazel nuts, currants, peanut butter, red kidney beans, tomato, lentils, olive, onion, potato wine, and beer are also notable sources of Boron. There are so many sources that there is no reason to ever suffer from a deficiency.
Deficiency Symptoms of Boron
Although all of the deficiency symptoms of boron are not fully understood, it is known that boron deficiency might result in the abnormal metabolism of calcium and magnesium. Some of the other symptoms include hyperthyroidism, sex hormone imbalance, osteoporosis, arthritis and neural malfunction.
Boron is an essential trace element that is largely overlooked. However, it is crucial to include boron in the daily diet to ensure a healthy and disease-free life. Some of its benefits include the following:
Health Benefits of Boron
Reduces Severity of Rheumatoid Arthritis: Boron greatly reduces the allergenic and inflammatory conditions that are typically associated with rheumatoid arthritis.
Used for Body Building: Boron is able to enhance the testosterone levels in males; this quality is increasingly taken advantage of by male body builders and athletes. Although some weight lifters prefer to take boron supplements to enhance their testosterone levels, there has been no concrete evidence or explanation of the mechanism by which is helps to make them any more successful.
Estrogen Production: Boron can improve the production of estrogen in menopausal women, and can bring back their sex drive within a few days of treatment. Boron increases the level of natural sex hormones in the body, thereby reducing the need for hormone replacement therapy or other pharmaceutical solutions.
KiwiEmbryonic development: Boron appears to be essential for reproduction and the development of the fetus, although not much information is available on this property, and research is ongoing.
Prevents Post-Menopausal Osteoporosis: Boron can ease the symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats that are typically associated with menopause, and it ensures that mineral levels remain at appropriate levels, since post-menopausal women often suffer from hormonal imbalances that can skew many of the body’s most important systems.
Proper Cell Membrane Function: Boron plays an important role in maintaining cellular and organ membrane functions and in stabilizing the hormone receptors so the bodily processes go smoothly.
Congestive Heart Failure: Boron can significantly alleviate the difficulties caused by congestive heart failure conditions.
Decreases Fungal Infections: Boron protects the body from a host of parasitic attacks such as Candida Albicans and other nasty fungal infections.
Brain Function and Cognitive Performance: Studies have shown that boron can enhance brain function, eye-hand coordination, short-term memory and the powers of concentration.
However, even good things should be consumed in moderation…
Symptoms of boron overdose toxicity would include nausea, vomiting, weakness, and dermatitis. In some cases, skeletal abnormalities are also experienced. Normally, boron is easily absorbed and excreted through the urine. However, in people with kidney problems, boron might accumulate in heart, kidneys, brain and tissues, so be aware of how much you are taking in, particularly if you are using high-concentration supplements.
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0.974615 | <urn:uuid:7c46ea92-d2f1-4644-9436-1a65825e1415> | en | 0.974051 | Home > Quotes > Doctor Who > Rory Williams > Main Page
Quotes from Doctor Who
Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill)
Series Five
Series Six
Series Seven
Series Five
Rory Williams: What are you doing?
The Doctor: Tracking the signal back—sorry, in advance.
Rory Williams: About what?
The Doctor: The bill.
The Doctor: It's a lot to take in, isn't it? Tiny box, huge room inside. "What's that about?" Let me explain—
Rory: It's another dimension.
The Doctor: It's basically another dimension— What?
Rory: What's with you and Amy? You said she kissed you.
The Doctor: Now? You want to do this NOW?
Rory: I have a right to know. I'm getting married in 430 years.
Amy: Why are those people waving at us?
The Doctor: Can't be. It is. It's you two.
Rory: No. We're here. How can we be up there.
The Doctor: Ten years in your future, come to relive past glories I'd imagine. Humans, you're so nostalgic.
Amy: We're still together in ten years.
Rory: No need to sound so surprised.
Rory: I promise you, Ambrose, I trust the Doctor with my life. We stick to his plan.
Restac: Do you understand who we are?
Rory: Sort of. A bit. Not really.
Rory: Doctor—
The Doctor: Hush, Rory. Thinking. Why leave a Cyberman on guard unless it's a Cyberthing in the box but why would they lock up one of their own? Okay, no, not a Cyberthing. But what? What? Oh! Missing something obvious, Rory. Something big. Something right slap in front of me. I can feel it.
Rory: Yeah. I think you probably are.
The Doctor: I'll get it in a minute.
The Doctor: Hello again.
Rory: Hello.
The Doctor: How've you been?
The Doctor: Rory, I'm not trying to be rude. But you died.
Rory: Yeah. I know. I was there.
The Doctor: You died and then you were erased from time. You didn't just die. You were never born at all. You never existed.
Rory: Erased. What does that mean?
The Doctor: How can you be here?
Rory: I don't know. It's kind of fuzzy.
The Doctor: Fuzzy.
Rory: Well I died and turned into a Roman. It's very distracting.
Rory: I don't understand. Why am I here?
The Doctor: Because you are. The Universe is big. It's vast and complicated and ridiculous. And sometimes—very rarely—impossible things just happen and we call them miracles. And that's the theory. 900 years, never seen one yet. But this would do me. Now get upstairs. She's Amy and she's surrounded by Romans. I'm not sure history could take it.
Rory: So the Universe ended. You missed that. 102 A.D. I suppose this means you and I never get born at all. Twice in my case. You would have laughed at that. Please laugh. The Doctor said the Universe was huge and ridiculous and sometimes there were miracles. I could do with a ridiculous miracle about now. The Doctor suddenly appears in a fez holding a mop.
The Doctor: Two thousand years, Rory. You won't even sleep. You'll be conscious every second. It would drive you mad.
Rory: Will she be safer if I stay? Look me in the eye and tell me she wouldn't be safer.
The Doctor: Rory, you—
Rory: Answer me!
The Doctor: Yes. Obviously.
Rory: Then how could I leave her.
The Doctor: Why do you have to be so... human?
Rory: Because right now I'm not.
The Doctor: So. Two thousand years. How'd you do it?
Rory: Kept out of trouble.
The Doctor: How?
Rory: Unsuccessfully.
Rory: It's the Doctor. How did we forget the Doctor. I was plastic...
Amy: Oy! Where are you off to? We haven't even had a snog in the shrubbery yet.
Rory: Amy.
Amy: Shut up! It's my wedding.
Rory: Our wedding!
The Doctor: Sorry you two. Shouldn't have slipped away. It's a bit busy. You know.
Rory: You just saved the whole of space and time. Take the evening off. Maybe a bit of tomorrow.
View all quotes from Rory Williams
Series Six
Rory: There's a boat. If we're going to do this, let's do it properly.
Amy: You're still talking, but it doesn't matter.
Rory: Hey! It mattered to him.
River: So it matters to us.
Amy: We have to tell him.
River: We've told him all we can. We can't even tell him we've seen his future self. He's interacted with his own past. It could rip a hole in the Universe.
Amy: Except he's done it before!
Rory: And in fairness the Universe did blow up.
Delaware: So what's going on here?
The Doctor: Uh... nothing. She's just a friend.
Rory: I think he's talking about the possible alien incursion.
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0.07934 | <urn:uuid:8c4ac5a4-a54e-4b7a-bad2-8c9dd5654cb8> | en | 0.969245 | Thursday, December 27, 2012 | Edited by Daniel Moores
Retailers Scramble After Lackluster Holiday Sales
While chains like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Gap Inc. are thought to have done well, analysts expect much less from the likes of Barnes & Noble Inc. and J. C. Penney Co.
Inventory crush
"You can't go wrong with that," she said.
"The government usually does not have a role in holidays but this year they did. They got right in the midst of it; the timing couldn't have been any worse," NPD's Cohen said.
Bright spots
Whether online or off, some of the winning retailers were expected to be Wal-Mart, which attracted shoppers with early deals on the night of Thanksgiving and kept its focus on value, and apparel chains like Gap Inc., whose bright sweaters were successful, according to analysts.
Toys sold well, and hot items that were harder to find later in the season included certain Mattel Barbie dolls and LeapFrog Enterprises Inc's LeapPad2 tablet computer, according to B. Riley Caris analyst Linda Bolton Weiser.
(Source: Reuters, 12/26/12)
Gen X Most Vulnerable Financially
Different generations responded differently to the recession, according to a study, leaving Generation X members the most vulnerable in terms of their lack of financial planning.
El Segundo, Calif.-based Financial Finesse studied the distinct financial issues, priorities, and vulnerabilities of Millennials, Generation X, Late Baby Boomers, and Early Baby Boomers, with a focus on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats each generation faces, as well as their distinct financial education and planning needs.
Millennials are managing their finances surprisingly well, despite having by far the lowest income levels, while Gen Xers are having a harder time with debt, making ends meet, and most aspects of overall financial planning.
Early and late baby boomers with minor children appear to be over-prioritizing college planning at the cost of their own financial security and leaving themselves very vulnerable to major catastrophic events as a result of not taking care of their own needs.
Liz Davidson, CEO and founder of Financial Finesse, says the report brought to light just how differently the characteristics of each generation impact financial behaviors and habits.
"When you look at the groups as a whole, you recognize that they are really dealing with issues stemming from perspectives and habits rooted in their generations," she said in a release. "Millennials entered the workforce during a time when it was 'cool' to be thrifty, Gen Xers lived in the shadow of the Boomers and have a generally cynical attitude toward achieving their goals, and Boomers, both late and early, are part of a generation that had everything tailored to their needs. This really creates a different set of issues as a result for each group."
Greg Ward, director of Financial Finesse's Think Tank and an 18-year veteran of the financial planning industry, says this is why it is crucial for financial professionals to reform their traditional approach to financial planning and adopt a new approach that targets younger generations' concerns.
"There is no one-size-fits-all formula to financial planning anymore," he says. "These younger generations, in a lot of ways, are relying on the industry to help them with what they don't know, and they need more targeted guidance that makes sense to the issues they face, not the ones their parents and grandparents dealt with. It's definitely time for society to recognize the specific financial issues of these groups."
Only 16% of early baby boomers and 10% of late baby boomers reported having a long-term care insurance policy even though the average cost of a private room in a nursing home is $90,520 a year according to the 2012 MetLife Market Survey of Long-Term Care Costs, making it one of the most significant threats to financial security in retirement.
Retirement planning remains the one issue all generations are most vulnerable in, even for late baby boomers that are on the cusp of normal retirement age. Within this group, 50% have not run a retirement projection, and only 25% know they are on target to retire comfortably.
While this is concerning, even lower numbers for younger generations could pose a greater threat considering that younger employees are less likely to receive full Social Security benefits and more likely to face higher taxes and inflation when they retire.
Davidson notes that the financial services industry hasn't typically recognized these differences, thinking of financial planning from a more analytical and technical perspective rather than relating to the different attitudes generations have about managing their money. This has been particularly costly to Gen Xers and Millennials, who are distinctly different than early and late baby boomers in terms of how they need to be approached.
There has been great emphasis on the significant challenges facing Boomers when it comes to retirement -- namely that more and more employees in this generation are being forced to delay retirement, or worse, are having to retire for health reasons with insufficient savings, but not enough emphasis has been placed on younger generations who are already struggling more than Boomers did at their age due to the recession, Davidson says.
"This is hugely concerning because there will be an even larger crisis if other generations, especially the Millennials who are now the largest generation in our history, cannot retire comfortably," she says.
(Source: Marketing Daily, 12/09/12)
Many Farms Have Become Very Successful Small Businesses
The American farmer might not be as poor as you think.
What makes them so successful?
And these large independent farmers often have the means to supply the big food companies like Tyson Foods or Dole with their raw product.
It's even harder for many of his neighbors.
(Source: CNNMoney, 11/27/12)
Daily Sales Tip: Overcoming Call Reluctance
Hesitation to make contact with prospective new clients causes more failures for salespeople than any other single factor. Why? Because if you don't approach enough people, it makes little difference how thorough your expertise is. Without a steady flow of prospects, your magnetic personality, credentials, product knowledge, and perfect presentations won't make much impact. Inactivity on the prospecting front nullifies your ability to engage these other strengths.
Successful selling usually involves five steps:
1. Identifying prospective clients (includes identifying referral sources).
2. Initiating contact with prospective clients and referral sources.
3. Introducing yourself, your products and your services.
4. Informing prospective clients of how you can help (giving your sales presentation).
5. Influencing the prospect's decision to buy from you.
Many salespeople are uncomfortable with steps 2 and 3, initiating and introducing -- but without them, informing and influencing can't happen! Ultra-professional presentation skills, dazzling rapport-building, detailed product knowledge and clever closes cannot and will not return a penny of profit if you don't have enough prospects.
The math is simple: Successful salespeople consistently initiate contact with more prospects than their less-than-successful counterparts.
Source: Sales coach/trainer Connie Kadansky
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0.02151 | <urn:uuid:a7f882d7-5b00-40f2-bb28-327a8ae71a74> | en | 0.897856 | Duck! Duck! SAFARI!
List price: $24.95
Price: $22.45
You save: $2.50 (10%)
Board Game ReviewsFive games in one - this game uses rubber ducky safari animals, a double-sided board, animal tiles, and some cards. The game provides rules for:
Safari Sprint - Pick your ducky and let the races begin!
Hi-Lo Hijinks - Play a card on the pile - if it's a match, you're good, but if it isn't, you take the whole pile! Every card you take counts against you, unless you have the most. So if you've got to take cards, go for broke!
Animal Hunt - An exciting kids game that captures the spirit of the classics "Concentration" and "Go Fish".
Savannah - Help the animals spread over the savannah in this puzzling game of matching sets. Find the unplayable spaces to earn a bonus. Once the savannah is full, earn even more points clearing it again!
Herds - Everybody likes to hang out with their friends. In the animal world, that means making herds! This rummy-style game offers all kinds of twists!
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0.653918 | <urn:uuid:69b1d44e-3b05-4852-a963-e7cca9bee26f> | en | 0.815235 | SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online
vol.19 issue1THE BUSINESS ACTIVITY OF THE COLLEGE GRADUATE author indexsubject indexarticles search
Home Pagealphabetic serial listing
Revista Facultad de Ciencias Económicas: Investigación y Reflexión
Print version ISSN 0121-6805
PAUTT TORRES, GELI. LEADERSHIP AND DIRECTION: TWO DIFFERENT CONCEPTS WITH DIFFERENT RESULTS. Rev.fac.cienc.econ. [online]. 2011, vol.19, n.1, pp. 213-228. ISSN 0121-6805.
This article does a reflection about differences between leadership and direction within organizations. For this, an analysis of what is and what makes a leader and what is and what makes an executive was made. It is outlined in the paper what characterizes each one of them and how they achieve different results in their teams. However, leadership and direction can be found in a complementary joint point that makes executives more efficient in organizational management.
Keywords : Leadership; direction; managerial leadership; management; organization.
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0.034752 | <urn:uuid:7e13ac5e-a036-46f5-9bcb-013d383489de> | en | 0.936515 |
Music for a Sunny Saturday
I’ve been out running errands and it’s just so goddamn nice in today. It’s sunny and breezy and not freakishly warm but not cold either. Just right for March. Anyway, I’m still supposed to be out there running errands (still have a few things on my to do list). I just stopped home for a second to drop something off and while I’m here I wanted to share this. I was listening to music while I was out and my ipod was on shuffle.
I was giddy when this came on. It’s Camera Obscura singing Books Written for Girls.
2 to “Music for a Sunny Saturday”
1. WiiAdam says:
I wanna go shopping with you.
2. SINgleGIRL says:
Shopping? You are strange one, WiiAdam. | http://www.simonegrant.com/blog/2009/03/14/music-for-a-sunny-saturday-2/comment-page-1/ | dclm-gs1-138410002 | false | false | {
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0.048733 | <urn:uuid:4cf05c53-4774-4127-8b02-0cc0dff125ed> | en | 0.949443 | View all economy growth
BEST OF THE BLOGS: What should I pay my new employee?
It’s a common problem for people running small businesses, especially as more and more jobs are created in new economy industries that don’t necessarily have an old economy precedent: What exactly do you pay your new social media content manager?
Our HR bloggers, Janelle and Abiramie, give us a quick and simple rundown on where to start when you’ve found that great new recruit but have to work out exactly what you are going to pay them:
Never assume what your employees' minimum entitlements are, always ensure you know for certain. We once worked with a client who set pay rates solely based on what they knew other similar businesses were doing. Unluckily for them, due to relevant legislation that kicked in after they had formed their business, they were paying hundreds of dollars over what they needed to pay their employees.
Knock, knock… what are you selling?
Door-to-door sales can be a largely thankless task but there are means and methods that can turn it into an effective way to generate more sales.
Behavourial economist blogger Bri Williams critiques two different approaches she encountered recently and finds that timing, props and manner can make all the difference:
By its nature, door-to-door sales is in-your-face selling. There’s a touch of the mercenary about it and its practitioners can sometimes end up antagonising potential clients rather than selling them anything. If your company uses door-to-door salespeople, it might be worthwhile reading this and assessing the means and methods used by your sales team.
Know your carrots so you don’t end up looking like a bunny
Sales specialist Trent Leyshan takes us deep into Bugs Bunny territory with his look at why you should always walk-the-walk when you talk-the-talk because, just like oils ain’t oils, carrots come in many different varieties:
There is nothing more disempowering than selling to a customer who has more passion for and a deeper understanding of your product than you. These customers can see things from a higher vantage point. The rabbit will know the finer details about carrots, like where to find more of them, what constitutes quality and how value is best measured.
So, even if carrots aren’t necessarily your thing and you’re a bigger fan of celery or leeks, it’s up to you as a sales professional to deliver the best possible sales experience for your potential client. Your client will soon see if you know your Altrinchams from your Imperators and call your bluff when you display little enthusiasm for discussing the finer points of a Langerote Stumfe.
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Game To Nominate: Can you name the Procedures Review-Corey, Mitchell, Debra, Mallory.?
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0.085627 | <urn:uuid:a7528e37-6a1a-448b-a874-6b797eee94f2> | en | 0.821723 | Published May 19, 2010, 08:37 AM
Spartan netters crush Central
The Superior High School boys tennis team defeated Duluth Central 6-1 Tuesday at the Superior Middle School.
Trent VanDamme, Zac Erickson and Steven Stien won singles matches for the Spartans while Corbin Walsh and Eric Berger, Aaron Emmert and Nick Goble and Shaun Matson and Luke Briemon and Shaun Mattson swept the doubles matches.
The Spartans are back in action at 4:15 p.m. Thursday at Ashland.
Superior 6, Central 1
1. Trent VanDamme, SHS, def. Andrew Fredrickson, 6-0 6-0
2. Zac Erickson, SHS, def. Ethan Meyers, 6-2 6-1
3. Steve Stien, SHS, def. Trevor Esson, 7-5 6-3
4. Joel Gustafson, DC, def. Weston Morris, 6-3, 6-2
1. Corbin Walsh/Eric Berger, SHS, def. Matt Beaulieu/Steve Knuth, 6-2 6-2
2. Aaron Emmert/Nick Goble, SHS, def. Caleb Reder/Matt Sluka, 3-6 6-4 (13-11)
3. Luke Briemon/Shaun Mattson, SHS def. Hank Sluka/Brent Engblom, 6-2 6-2 | http://www.superiortelegram.com/event/article/id/42554/ | dclm-gs1-138600002 | false | false | {
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Shellfish in winter: the recipes
Mussels in coconut broth
Serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a main with rice
2 tbsp olive oil
A few sprigs of fresh curry leaves
1 scant tsp of mustard seeds, ground
½ tsp ground coriander
¼ tsp turmeric
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 small green chilli, chopped
1 inch of ginger, chopped
350g mussels, washed and de-bearded
200ml light coconut milk
1. Heat the olive oil in a large pan and add the curry leaves and the spices. When they crackle and fizzle add the onion, ginger and chilli, and cook for around 10 minutes on a medium heat until soft.
2. Add the mussels and the coconut milk and cook for another few minutes covered with a lid until the mussels are open.
3. Serve straight away with wedges of lime.
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0.077415 | <urn:uuid:a24c8fe9-454a-4f40-86b2-21c975157bce> | en | 0.960369 | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
A pair of low-heeled slippers.
A slipper or houseclothes is a semi-closed type of indoor/outdoor shoe, consisting of a sole held to the wearer's foot by a strap running over (or between) the toes or instep. Slippers are soft and lightweight compared to other types of feetwear. They are mostly made of soft or comforting materials that allow a certain level of comfort for the wearer. This can range from faux fur to leather.
Most slippers are worn in late spring and summer and on occasion in other seasons. Slippers are cosy and most popular in cold countries.
In Japan, slippers called Uwabaki are meant to be used indoors.
In the Philippines, the Tsinelas Festival made Gapan the slipper capital of the Philippines.
There are many different types of slippers each with varying styles, materials, and purposes.
Slip on slippers; These slippers are usually made with a fabric upper layer that encloses the top of the foot and the toes, but leaves the heel open, allowing the wearer to slip into them casually. They are most likely the most common type of slipper as they are quite easy to put on.
Slipper boots; These slippers are made to look like boots. often favoured by females, they are typically furry boots with a fleece or soft lining, and a soft rubber sole. These slippers sometimes are worn outside of the house, as they resemble the sheepskin boots that have been the fashion lately.
Novelty slippers; These slippers are made to resemble something other than a slipper, and are sold as a novelty item. The slippers are usually made from soft and colorful; materials and commonly come in the shapes of animals or animal paws, vehicles, cartoon characters, etc.
Sandal slippers; or Birkenstocks; cushioned sandals with soft rubber or fabric soles. They are designed to be worn like sandals, but are made of fabric which indicates their use as house shoes.
Moccasins; These slippers closely resemble shoes, and are often made of a soft leather or pelt. They are typically found to have a hard rubber or leather sole,The slippers often have beads and are quite often made to look tribal and indigenous. These slippers seem well suited to outdoor usage as they are associated with the outdoors and are designed to do so.
Closed slippers; The slippers closely resemble open slippers, only these have a heel guard that prevents the foot sliding out from the slipper.
Soft-soled/soft-sided slippers; The slippers are made entirely of pliable materials, such as cotton, leather, or suede. The name is typically associated with children's indoor footwear since medical research suggests that a rigid sole is less advantageous to the proper development of newborn, infant and toddler feet. These slippers are also commonly referred to as bootie slippers (booties), padders, or treadders.
Ugg Slippers; Popular expensive designer sheepskin boot that comes in slipper variety. Most often the slip-on brown, tan or black sheepskin slipper shoe or the grey, pink, violet,cream knit pump with sheepskin on the inside.
The classic alternative in black-tie footwear is the elegant evening slipper. Also known as the Prince Albert slipper, this soigné accent is made of velvet with leather soles and features a grosgrain bow or a motif or the wearer’s initials embroidered in gold. These slippers share the same dark colors as the smoking jacket with which they make a perfect pairing. Like the smoking jacket, they are appropriate only for private occasions.
Slipper Socks; Though not technically a slipper, these versions of socks are usually thicker, more fluffy and have a set of rubber grips along the soles to provide traction. They would not be used as other socks would while wearing shoes. 1
There are many different categories and subcategories one could place slippers in. The above are the most common.
Health Issues
There are certain issues with wearing slippers that can arise in some situations. Some people also find slippers to be a type of safety footwear if they are the large overstuffed novelty variety because the stuffing can preclude injury from stubbing one's toe while walking in a dark room at night. Another form of safety can come in the protection from pathogens on the walking surface. Wearing slippers can be used as a way to keep feet clean.
There is also a sizing issue, as novelty slippers do not usually come in individual sizes, merely a sizing guide (e.g. 9-12). This can cause issues when trying to find a pair that fit properly. Also, the sheer size of the slippers can cause issues when walking, especially when trying to traverse up and down stairs.
A young man displays his Animal camper van slippers..
Animal Camper Van Slippers. While extremely comfortable, they can be tricky to wear..
Most styles of slipper offer too little or no support for the tender arch of the human foot. This is essential to children, whose young feet are still developing. The lack of support can allow the foot to roll inwards during walking, which can cause many health issues. Of course, opposing studies suggest that the introduction of rigid heels in slippers and shoes of infants and toddlers can actually inhibit a child's ability to learn to walk as quickly as they would otherwise.
Some British schools have rules that enforce the wearing of slippers indoors. While this is a good method of regulating hygiene, some rigid-soled slippers can inhibit the correct growth of the child's developing foot. This has caused some concerned parents quite some grief. While wearing slippers can offer comfort, it can also be a danger, in both terms of walking and movement, as well as the development of the young foot.
Slippers can also be essential to the health of the foot. Some Diabetics may be advised to wear slippers, as diabetes can have effects on blood flow to the extremities of the body. Wearing slippers can offer warmth and comfort that will allow a good flow of blood.
Slippers may also contribute to toenail fungus growth. For example, putting on slippers after a shower or bath, without completely drying the feet and toes produces a moist environment- optimal for toenail fungus growth. If slippers are to be worn following a bath or shower, it is recommended that special care is taken to completely dry the feet.
It seems to be becoming increasingly popular to wear slippers out in public, ranging from modest sheepskin boot slippers and moccasins, to vibrant, colourful and fluffy scuffs and even large novelty slippers.
University and College Campuses are common places in which slippers can be seen worn outside, mainly due to the elevated levels of both comfort and convenience, as it can be much more comfortable to wear them when moving short distances across campus.
Slippers are also seen to be acceptable to wear when making short trips, or on small errands. It is very common to wear slippers when walking a family pet short distances, making a trip to the local supermarket or fast food outlet, or even when making a longer trip to larger supermarkets.
Some young people have also taken to wearing slippers when "hanging out" in the nearby street or area. This is mainly down to comfort, or warmth, though can also be attributed to a statement of either fashion or personal attitude. The wearing of slippers in public can be seen as an act of passive aggression or even rebellion against society, though this is in no way an extreme act, merely a statement that the wearer holds no care for any person who disapproves of this.
Another growing trend is to wear slippers while at work. Some office workers have found it to be more comfortable to wear slippers when working at a desk for long periods of time. While some companies may issue warnings against this, wearing slippers can be seen as a health precaution when an alternative can be the wearing of heeled shoes which can cause health issues.
The popular sheepskin boot is very similar to a slipper, and the varieties that are slippers are often worn in public, either by accidental confusion with the outdoor variety, preference over the outdoor variety in terms of comfort or style.
Some hospitals provide a form of slipper sock that can be classed as a slipper. the sock will be thicker than a common sock, and more sturdy. a hallmark of this sock that places it between sock and slipper is the set of rubber grips along the sole that provide traction for patients, while also providing the comfort and sizing requirements of large scale usage by hospitals.
In popular culture
Novelty paw slippers
The fictional character Cinderella is said to have worn glass slippers; in modern parlance they would probably be called glass high heels. This motif was introduced in Charles Perrault's 1697 version of the tale, "Cendrillon ou la petite pantoufle de verre" ("Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper"). For some years it was debated that this detail was a mistranslation and the slippers in the story were instead made of fur (French: vair), but this interpretation has since been discredited by folklorists.2
The ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz sold for a record $165,000.4
Grandpa's Slippers is an award-winning book by Joy Watson.5
See also | http://www.territorioscuola.com/wikipedia/en.wikipedia.php?title=Slipper | dclm-gs1-138660002 | false | false | {
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0.01829 | <urn:uuid:6a38c1bc-8f06-4747-a1f2-e9391a7c86e0> | en | 0.960833 | Sunday, October 27, 2002
Incest and Gods Justice / Forgiveness
Incest and Gods Justice / Forgiveness
Ask the Rabbi
© (1998) By Rabbi Daniel Kohn
Q: My father is a religious man. He attends synagogue every Fri. night and Saturday. Lights candles, reads torah, but is also a man who is a pedophile. He sexually abused me nightly for eight years. I've had to work through my anger and pain on my dollar, and without any assistance from him. He denies his actions and will not speak of it. Every Rosh Hashana he calls and begs me to go to synagogue with him. I will not. My question is.. If there is a god, will he/she/? forgive him?? And how do I forgive god for bringing me into this horrifying experience of childhood. Am I supposed to believe that everything has its reason?
A: You are certainly entitled to never forgive this man who caused you such pain. As for whether God will forgive your father, I just don't know. Our tradition holds that somewhere, somehow, there is and will be divine, exact justice for all sins and crimes in this world. But how this judgment will be exacted is beyond me--or any other human being. All I can tell you is that I believe that the spiritual fate after death of any victim of a crime cannot be the same as the perpetrator of that crime. I desperately want to believe that the evil suffer for their crimes, whether in this world or somehow after this life. While I may not see this justice exacted, I certainly want to believe that God will ultimately seek recompense for all sins and crimes committed by humanity. While our tradition holds that God is merciful, justice is a far greater priority--this is how the Jewish tradition understands God.
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
Understanding and Helping The Suicidal Person
Understanding and Helping The Suicidal Person
American Association of Suicidology - October 23, 2002
Be Aware of the Warning Signs
A suicidal person might be suicidal if he or she:
1. * Talks about committing suicide
2. * Has trouble eating or sleeping
3. * Experiences drastic changes in behavior
4. * Withdraws from friends and/or social activities
5. * Loses interest in hobbies, work, school, etc.
6. * Prepares for death by making out a will and final arrangements
7. * Gives away prized possessions
8. * Has attempted suicide before
9. * Takes unnecessary risks
10. * Has had recent severe losses
11. * Is preoccupied with death and dying
12. * Loses interest in their personal appearance
13. * Increases their use of alcohol or drugs
What To Do
1. * Be direct. Talk openly and matter-of-factly about suicide.
2. * Be willing to listen. Allow expressions of feelings. Accept the feelings.
4. * Get involved. Become available. Show interest and support.
5. * Don't dare him or her to do it.
6. * Don't act shocked. This will put distance between you.
7. * Don't be sworn to secrecy. Seek support.
8. * Offer hope that alternatives are available but do not offer glib reassurance.
9. * Take action. Remove means, such as guns or stockpiled pills.
10. * Get help from persons or agencies specializing in crisis intervention and suicide prevention.
Be Aware of Feelings
1. * Can't stop the pain
2. * Can't think clearly
3. * Can't make decisions
4. * Can't see any way out
5. * Can't sleep, eat or work
6. * Can't get out of depression
7. * Can't make the sadness go away
8. * Can't see a future without pain
9. * Can't see themselves as worthwhile
10. * Can't get someone's attention
11. * Can't seem to get control
If you experience these feelings, get help!
If someone you know exhibits these symptoms, offer help!
1. * A community mental health agency
2. * A private therapist or counselor
3. * A school counselor or psychologist
4. * A family physician
5. * A suicide prevention or crisis center
Monday, October 21, 2002
Case of State of Israel Vs. a Sex Offender - Father / Grandfather
Haifa, Israel
A 68 year old Israeli religious man pled guilty to repeated rape and forced molestation of his granddaughter, now an adult, when she was 7-10 years old, and was sentenced to 19 years in jail. In a landmark judgement, the judges call his crime and any sexual assults on children "a soul murder in a body that keeps on living."
Table of Contents:
1. The District Court in Haifa (12/06/2001)
The District Court in Haifa
(Unofficial translation from Hebrew)
S. Jobran - Head Judge
Y. Grille - Judge
R. Shapiro – Judge
The State of Israel against: (name withheld for protection of the victim's—his granddaughter's—privacy)
1. The offenses the defendant was convicted of:
The defendant, born in 1933, was convicted through his own guilty plea of felonies referred to him in a revised accusation, of forced molestation, rape, and sexual assault. The victim of these felonies the defendant was convicted of was his granddaughter, born in 1980 ("the complainant"). The felonies were done in the complainant from the time she was 7 years old to the time she was 10. According to the Accusation, there were many incidents in which the defendant did the felonies he is accused of in his granddaughter, the complainant, felonies of which he pled guilty.
Let it be noted that the accusation refers to several different laws, due to changes in the penalty law regarding sexual offenses. The most severe charge referred to the defendant is a rape offense of inserting a finger into the complainant's genital, and this is a great number of times. It should be noted that the accusation does not relate to the popular term of rape (i.e. with a penis), but the actions admitted by the defendant are considered rape according to the law.
2. The victim:
Before we detail our considerations regarding the appropriate penalty in this case, we find it important to bring up some facts that are relevant to our decision, as related to the victim of the felonies as well as the defendant.
These facts, along with the total of facts presented to us, which we will not fully detail, faced us with a difficult deliberation regarding the severity of the penalty in this case. An unusual and a severe case in which a grandfather attacks his granddaughter and does in her sexual offenses of the kind the defendant plead guilty for.
Since the defendant pled guilty, it spared the complainant the need to testify. As noted, this is to the defendant's credit that he spared the granddaughter further suffering. At the same time, because of the guilty plea, the court did not hear the complainant's voice and we were not presented with the full factual picture, as it related to her hurt. Nevertheless, the prosecution presented to us evidence from which we learned to know the complainant, even if just a little bit. Under these circumstances, the court acquainted itself with the victim through the victim's report, the video confrontation, and other documents we received for review.
The complainant grew up in house next to her grandfather's house, the defendant. Life wasn't peaceful in her home. Her mother divorced twice. The conflicts in the mother's house included violence. Under these circumstances, the grandfather, who was a neighbor, was the dominant figure and a substitute father figure and a shelter in time of trouble. This is at least how the complainant felt until she realized that the grandfather, whom she loved and admired, made her into a service tool for his deviations.
The grandfather/defendant was a dominant and appreciated figure in the community where the family lived. We shall say more of his character later. It be noted that this is a lawyer who was one of the top lawyers in the North. In addition, the defendant is a learned man with many academic degrees in various topics, and was a teacher of the Bible, and a guide for many, in the legal community as well as outside of it. Under these circumstances, the grandchild's admiration of him was great. And as great the admiration and love, is the greatness of the loss, when she realized as a child that she was sexually exploited by the admired figure she loved most.
Later on, and as a result of many events, the mother left the town where she lived next to the grandfather, and moved with her children, including the complainant, to a near by Kibbuz. Where she created a warm home, and where the complainant matured.
The defendants' schemes and his hurt of the victim were already exposed in 1990. At the time, the committee that dealt with the case through the department of social services ("Ptor Committee"), decided to transfer the complaint to the police, and following the district attorney's office an investigation was launched. However, for various reasons it wasn't possible to take a deposition from the complainants, and as a result the investigation did not progress.
Although the defendant tried to repress the events she lived through in the presence of her grandfather/the defendant, she did not succeed. The emotional damage from the criminal actions of the defendants seeped through her and haunted her. On the night of 10/27/96, when she was about 16 years old, she decided to end her life. Before she attempted suicide, that luckily was not successful, she wrote in her diary a chapter of farewell from her family, and sort of a will. From her words, which make the reader shudder, it can be seen and understood how much damage the deeds of the defendant did to her:
"I stayed until the last night was swollen by the night. There is no symbolism in it. My colors faded and did not get swollen, but it doesn't matter. I am calm now, I have no anger at anyone and I hope that I brought the best and as much joy as possible to whoever I could. I am saying goodbye and asking that you not be angry. It is no one's fault. I have never seen myself being an adult, and now I know why. I will never be one. In spite of what I wrote earlier, I am not departing in sadness and pain, this is not a moment's decision, but something that has been in my for years and today reached it's end. I feel that I have finished my job and that there is not reason to linger in this borrowed time, happy I will never be. I am going happy now. I am filled with peace and I am feeling complete with myself. The only thing that I am sad for is that I will not be able to say goodbye to everyone, but I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart...."
Later on, the complainant bids goodbye to her family members, and in the end, she addresses the defendant:
"And finally, I just wanted to tell my grandfather: I wanted you to know that I forgive you. I don't know, maybe this is just a generous moment before the end, and maybe it is my famous forgiving nature. But I forgive you. I hated you for a long time, I thought of sweet revenge, toyed with ideas about placing complaints and hate letters, but no more. You did something that cannot be forgiven, a terrible, horrible thing. I want you to feel the deep pain of my parting. I want you to feel the deep and painful disgust of your deeds. That you'd ask yourself every morning how could you do what you did, But you are my grandfather, and in spite of it all I love you. Although you do not deserve it, I lighten your punishment and forgive you. Know that I dies with no hostility toward you. Now I will finish the book I am reading and take all the pills I have and some others I will find in the room—Acamol and Aspirins of kind. I am not sure where, but it will be tonight."
In the end, the complainant writes things (as she saw them then):
"Farewell to you, I lived with you like a wild flower,
I took the pills and it was so easy and simple.
Now I am going to sleep, good night world."
From the multitude of problems that accompanied the complainant through her childhood, it can be assumed that not only the deeds of the grandfather and his hurting of her were damaging. Her mother's double divorce, her violent stepfather, and the many hardships of the family contributed their own damage. However, it is especially in such a situation that the defendant, who raised the granddaughter as a child and father figure, had to know that he is the man she trusts and therefore that his hurting her and his exploiting her intensify the damage he did to her.
From looking at the multitude of evidence presented to us and from watching the confrontation video, a little of the terrible fracture in the complainant's soul can be felt, and one can try to estimate the intensity of damage that the defendant did to her in his deeds. We are talking about a youngster whose world was in ruins so much that she was ready to end her life. For all these years she needed various psychological treatments, and it seems she'll need support in the future as well. We are talking, and this is without exaggerating, of a soul that was murdered in a body that goes on living.
3. The defendant's character:
The defendant in this case is a special character. We are talking about a father of seven girls from his first marriage, and a grandfather to grandchildren, one of whom is the complainant. A learned man, with a BA and MA in law, degrees in literature, mathematics and philosophy. A second degree in bible, and a Ph.D. in Theology. In the past he was a known lawyer. He was a teacher and educator. In his past he served—before the state was established—in the Lechi, and in the army, in many public roles, some undercover. And more and more. No wonder that the learned defense attorney described him as "Ish Eshkolot."
According to him, the defendant was a victim of prolonged sexual abuse as a child. He claims that he did not know the impacts of his childhood events until, of his own will, and after he ceased contact with the complainant, he went for lengthy psychological counseling during which various events from his childhood were uncovered, including felonies that happened to him. And that maybe created what he calls "his soul corruption", and resulted in his hurting the complainant whom he defined in the confrontational video "a victim of a corrupted man who loved her."
From the facts as they were presented to us, it is seen that during the time the defendant sexually hurt his minor granddaughter, he developed a relationship with a young woman who was several years before that his student in school where he had taught. Later on, he separated from his wife and the mother of his daughters, and married that woman who testified before us. From his second marriage he has two children: A girl about 12 years of age and a boy whose 4th birthday will be celebrated in a few days. During his second marriage he underwent the lengthy psychological treatment, the same one he says uncovered the hurts he claims to have absorbed in his childhood.
The defendant does not try to reduce the severity of his deeds. According to him, he has no explanation to the hurt he inflicted in her granddaughter. He defines himself as having a corrupted soul and refers his deeds to the hurts he had as a child and which corrupted his soul. He does not wish this to be seen as justification, but an explanation. Otherwise, he says, he cannot explain how he—a man of law and books—who knew the severe taboos in the bible and in the religion and the law, would do the things he did.
To the defendant's credit, it should be noted that even at the opening of the confrontation with the complainant and before the accusation was presented to court, the defendant told the complainant that he will not make her be interrogated in court. His specific declaration that he believes her and will not put her through a cross-examination, stands to his credit when we come to judge him.
At the same time, we would like to press that while watching the video, we could not avoid feeling that even at this stage the defendant is trying, in a manipulative, complex way, through use of ambiguous language, to have his granddaughter, the complainant, to change the way she relates to him. It seems that the defendant is trying, along with taking responsibility for the complainant's loss, to place on her and on society the responsibility for his fall. It seems that he puts himself in the shoes of Jan Batist Klemens, the hero of Alber Kami's book "The Fall", where he desperately calls:
"Oh, young woman, throw yourself into the water again, so that I can have a second chance to save us both."
In fact, the defendant is asking, himself and through his wife who testified before us, that when we come to state his sentence, we think not only of his granddaughter as a victim, but also of him as a victim and of his two children from his second marriage. These children, too, are victims, having their father picked at noon from his family, without any previous planning and no explanation (as far as it such sad circumstances can be explained to children).
4. The court's considerations regarding the severity of punishment:
Sentencing is always hard, and ten times harder this time. As we said, the evidence is complex and we need to judge between options that each come with a heavy price and have painful impacts on the souls connected to the defendant, and who all will be, against their will or fault, victims of his criminal deeds.
In her opening for her statements regarding sentencing the defense attorney attempts to say, without reducing from the severity of the felonies committed by the defendant, that the defendant's deed might be a step less than those of other rapists. As said above, this is not a case of rape in the popular definition of the term, but under the circumstances that are defined in the law as rape. Under these circumstances, it was stated to us, the deeds need to be looked at as less than other rapes and the sentencing needs to be decided upon appropriately.
We think that it in not up to the court to place itself into the gradients of evil and to try and distinguish between degrees of depravity. It is not accidental that the law-maker defined various actions that involve penetration of the genitals as rape, and decided upon punishment that is appropriate for such actions. It is the direction of the law—which leads us as we come to give judgment—that we do not engage with the way and amount of penetration into the body. The punishment decided upon in the law it due to the depth of harm to the soul. And in that case, as is seen in the evidence before us, the severity of the defendant's actions is the maximal known to the law, and that we, too, who judge in similar cases, know.
The law-maker determined that long prison times be given for felonies that like the ones the defendant was convicted of. The ceiling of punishment for such felonies need to be our starting point, which we need to keep in front of us when we come to place our judgment. The law-maker determined a deterrent punishment so that criminals—either actual or potential—would see and beware. When we come to place our judgment we need to bring into manifestation the meaning of the law and it's goal in a way that the law will not be an empty slogan. This is especially true when we have in front of us a defendant that made serial offenses and who can never make up the accumulated punishment for all his actions, even if he was born today. What we are talking about it an accumulated jail time that exceeds the life expectancy of a man. Under these circumstances, and in order to clarify society's repulse of his actions, and to deter, it is the court's duty to judge in the severity determined by law. See:
(a reference to precedent case)
Beyond that, it is the duty of this court to protect the victims of the felony. Just as the defendant has the right that his rehabilitation and the needs of his family be taken into account as part of the reasons for the sentencing, so do the victims—those actually harmed by the defendant's actions—have the right for the court's protection. The more severe the actions of a defendant, the greater the need to put the emphasis on protecting the victims. See:
(a reference to precedent case), page 8-9, where the following was said, and that guides us when we come to place the judgment:
"When it comes to the public's interest, it is not enough to impress into the law standards of behaviors. The public needs to see them manifested at all times and to see them as an inseparable part of accepted social standards that protect the body, property, and dignity of each one in it. A forgiving punishment in cases of severe criminal behavior might result in a collapse of moral defenses and might be interpreted as compromising values and norms. It can damage the trust in the reality of the threat of punishment being manifested, and give a negative message to potential criminals predisposed to do similar felonies. In the same way that giving a real punishment is a sharp social manifestation of the condemnation that severe actions deserve, adopting a forgiving strategy would weaken the acknowledgment of the wrongness of the behavior."
But punishment is not only a matter of arithmetic. We are not dealing with the multiplication of evil, as it was detailed in the segments of the accusation, in years in prison mandated by the law, and then getting at a mathematical sum. We have to examine the punishment with its relative weight while also paying attention to the circumstances in each case and with each defendant.
In order employ the direction of the punishment law to the matter of the appropriate punishment, one needs to examine it in light of the legal directions of a constitutional law: man's dignity and freedom. The constitutional law declares guidelines that lead us in the process of manifesting the directions of the punishment law and determining the appropriate amount of punishment. The relevant directions for our matter are in the following segments:
(4) Protection of life, body, and dignity—Every person is entitled for protection of his life, his body, and his dignity.
(5) Personal freedom—One does not take away or limit the freedom of a person through imprisonment, lock-up, extraditing, or any other way.
(8) Damaging rights—One does not harm the basic rights in the constitutional law unless with a law that is appropriate to the values of the state of Israel, and that is meant for a good cause and in an extent that does not exceed what is needed or is according to the law and the power clearly invested in that law.
The constitutional law declares that the yardstick for punishment must balance the two that sometimes clash. On the one side, the duty in segment 4 is to protect society from the criminal. On the other hand, there is a rule about not limiting a person's freedom. It is understood that punishments, and especially punishments that include prison time, damages the basic right in segment 5. Therefore, the law-maker ordered that taking away the right for freedom—which is the criminal's right as well—will be done to manifest the legal duty in segment 4 of the constitutional law, to protect victims from the bad harm of the criminal. And would be done with attention to the direction in segment 8. That is, "to an extent that does not exceed what is needed."
Employing the fundamentals of the constitutional law onto the judgment calls for attention in sentencing, among other things, to the personal danger of each criminal. The amount of punishments needs to guarantee that the criminal will not harm others and will not offend again. When we come to judging the sentencing, we are not acting as the victims' messengers of revenge at the defendant. We judge the sentencing in a way that will guarantee, as much as it is possible—that the defendant will not be able to harm again. There are times when the personal details of a defendant will call for less punishment to reach that goal, and there are times when the personal details of a defendant make it necessary to sentence a longer imprisonment period.
This is especially true for sexual offenses. It these offenses the matter of age is a significant detail when we come to determine how dangerous the defendant is and how much to keep him away from society. Accordingly, we will not avoid making a difference between punishing a young man, who might repeat his offenses, and punishing an elderly man, whose chances of continuing his criminal deeds after completing the allotted jail time, are slight.
We reason that the duty of the law calls for a deterring punishment that sends an equivocal message: Whoever murders the souls of his children and/or grandchildren and does sexual offenses in them, be his social status as high as it might, one will be their judgment—be taken away from society and lengthy prison time. But the duration of the jail time will be derived also from the life expectancy of each defendant, and even more so, from their dangerousness expectancy.
Accordingly, and if a young criminal will come in front of us, we reason that under the right circumstances, and especially in cases like the one before us now, one should not keep from giving a long jail time, even longer than what is given to those with life-sentences. (See a reference to a file from 11/26/01). However, when in front of us is an elderly man of about 70 years, we surmise that we can accomplish the goal of law and the purpose of the punishment also by sentencing for jail time that is mathematically milder, but that for this defendant means, actually, a life sentence.
In summary, and when we come to sentence this defendant, we believe that he should be given a long prison time. This sentence will clarify that the policy for punishment is clear and consistent—removing rapists, especially those who hurt their children and grandchildren, from society. At the same time, the amount of the sentencing, and for this matter, the length of jail time, will be examined carefully so that it does not exceed what is needed. When the defendant is elderly, this amount is less than what he would be sentenced for had he been younger, since we reason that by the time he completes his jail time this defendant will not be able to repeat his actions.
Additionally, and against the severity of his actions, we suppose that two important factors need to be brought into the equation in regards to lightening the defendant's sentence. The first factor is his immediate admittance of the felonies applied to him, which beyond the legal meaning of saving a lengthy process was deeply significant for his granddaughter, the complainant. The other factor is the fact that the events that are the subject of this law suit happened over ten years ago. In the time since then, the defendant voluntarily went to psychological treatment and this after he realized that his deviation calls for appropriate treatment. Granted, this does not reduce the severity of the things he did, but we believe that a sex offender who acknowledges his deviation and seeks appropriate treatment, without any connection to a criminal process and when he has no threat of investigation or trial, needs to be given credit for.
We cannot ignore the request of the defendant and his wife, and to bring into our considerations the defendant's small children. Our heart goes out to his young daughter, who is yearning for his coming home, and to his son, who asked that his dad come to his preschool for his birthday, which falls soon. We are aware of the disaster that came onto these children, whose father was arrested and kept away from the family unit, without any warning. Truly, reality had made these children, too, victims of their father's criminal behavior, because of the things he did in his granddaughter from his first marriage and before these children even came to the world. We know that in this serious case we cannot sentence the defendant to a punishment that will reduce their pain even in a little bit. Our hope is that when it is time they will understand (even if not agree) that against us stood the duty to protect the dignity, freedom, and safety of every child and grandchild against harm and torment by a parent or grandparent or stranger.
5. Compensating the complainant.
The prosecution asks to require the defendant to compensate the complainant. The defense claims that the defendant himself did not negate the idea but claimed that the defendant gave all his assets to his daughters from his first wife and is today without any property. And that he especially would not be able to compensate the complainant if he is given a long jail sentence.
We are aware of the practical hardship of a prisoner to compensate the victims of his crime. However, the policy of appropriate punishment must establish yardsticks that would deter any criminal. One of which is the knowledge that the person who harms will have to compensate the victim for the damage he did.
In the case in front of us, no monetary compensation will even compensate for the damages incurred. At the same time, we believe that it is appropriate to judge in this procedure monetary compensation to the complainant that will take into account requiring the defendant to participate in the immediate costs of repairing the damage done. The complainant had needed years of psychological treatments and will need them in the future. It would be only right if from already at this phase we require the defendant to participate in these costs.
In is clear that in ruling for penalty we are not presuming to rule a compensation that reflects the magnitude of the damages. The complainant holds the right to pursue this matter in a civil suit in the appropriate court.
6. Summary of sentencing-
In summary, and after we weighed the multitude of factors above, we decided to sentence the defendant in the following way:
We sentence the defendant to 19 years imprisonment, our of which 16 are for active jail time, and the rest, 3 years probation. The probation being that the defendant will not commit any sexual offense within three years of his release from jail, including during vacations, if he gets one.
The counting of jail time is from 3/14/01, the date when the defendant was arrested.
The secretary will prepare a prison order accordingly.
We have to point out that if it wasn't for the defendant's old age and his guilty plea; and the fact that at least as this stage he decided to make things easier for his granddaughter and not put her on the stand, and not cause her further suffering—we wouldn't have hesitated from giving him a more severe sentence. And even then we wouldn't have assumed that it would express even a little of the suffering he caused her.
Additionally, we require the defendant to pay the complainant a compensation that will be a symbolic compensation only, in the sum of 50,000 shekels. This sum will carry interest and inflation rates according to the law from today and until the time it is actually paid.
Due to the nature of this procedure, the discussion in this case was done behind closed doors. However, now that the judgment was made, we believe that indeed the goal of this sentencing is to deter others so that they see and beware. Accordingly, we allow publication of this judgment.
If it were possible, we would have allowed the publication of the defendant's name and this is so that beyond the jail time we sentenced him for, his deeds would be public knowledge so that the sigh of Cain would be branded on his forehead. However, exposing his name would necessarily mean that the identity of his granddaughter, and would add onto the already great harm for his young children. Therefore, and to protect the complainant and the rest of his family, it is forbidden to publish any identifying details of the defendant and the family members.
At the end of this painful procedure, we want to address the complainant, the defendant's granddaughter. We do not presume with this punishment or any other punishment to heal the wound that the defendant did to your soul. It is not always possible to mend a wrong that was done by one man by the deeds of another man. Our hope is that the courage you had to bring this affair in front of the court and the deterring punishment, would save a similar fate, and even if for one girl or boy, and that this would be your comfort.
It was explained to the defendant that he has the right to appeal to the supreme court within 45 days from today.
It was given today, the twenty-first of Kislev, December 6th 2001, in the presence of the defendant, the defense attorney, and the representative of the prosecution.
Authorized for public from 12/6/01.
Tuesday, October 15, 2002
Basic Principles of Assertive Philosophy
Basic Principles of Assertive Philosophy
1. By standing up for my rights I show I respect myself and achieve respect from other people.
2. By covering up my feelings so as to never hurt anyone, I end up hurting myself and other people.
3. Sacrificing my rights usually results in destroying relationships or preventing new ones from forming.
4. Not letting others know how I feel and what I think is a form of selfishness.
5. Sacrificing my rights usually results in training other people to mistreat me.
6. If I don't tell other people now, that their behavior has a negative effect on me, we are denying them an opportunity to change their behavior.
7. I can decide what's important for me, I do not have to suffer from the tyranny of the should and should not.
8. When I do what I think is right for me, I feel better about myself and have more authentic and satisfying relationships with others.
9. I have a natural right to courtesy and respect.
10. I have a right to express myself as long as I don't violate the rights of others.
11. There is more to be gained from life by being free and able to stand up for myself and from honoring the same rights of other people.
12. When I am assertive everyone involved will usually benefit.
Saturday, October 12, 2002
Guidelines and Rules to Protect Children from sexual predators - Ad Hoc Bais Din of Chicago
The following statement was made public as a result of the Ad Hoc Bais Din of Chicago deliberated on what to do with the allegations of a rabbi/teacher sexual abused children at Jewish Day School in the Chicago area. Unfortunately, Chicago is like every other orthodox community. They attempt to do their own investigations when there are suspecions of abuse or neglect, instead of making hotline or police reports.
Please note in the following article the name of the alleged offender, Rabbi Tzvi Wainhaus's was never mentioned.
Guidelines and Rules Aimed at Protecting Our Children
Jewish Image Magazine (Page 46)
Fall 2000, Tishrei 5761
Rabbi Tzvi Wainhaus
Under NO Circumstances whatsoever may the perpetrator teach in any classroom situation or any private or tutorial situation with any students, nor may he enter any school building at any time under any circumstances. Included in school buildings are any kollel buildings (adult learning center) that are open during non-school hours, such as during the summer, all school holidays,as well as Sundays and after school hours. He may not go to any mikvah (ritual bath) anywhere in the world at any time, including erev Shabbos, Erev Yom Tov, erev Rosh Hashanah and erev Yom HaKipurim (the night before Yom Kippur begins).
He may not go to any J.C.C. (Jewish Community Center) or any swimming facility anywhere at any time. He many not sue the restroom in any synagogue, yeshiva, kollel, or any other Jewish facility at any time, even if this will force him to miss davening (praying) or krias HaTorah or learning. The only exception is during the times that it is permissible to be in a kollel as enumerated above. During those times, and those times only, it is permissible for him to use the restroom. No children, even his own, are allowed in his house at any time while he is present until the ad hoc bais din is advised to the contrary by his therapist.
He may not attend any simchas (celebrations), including weddings, bar mitzvahs, bas mitzvahs, kiddushim, brissim, vorts (lectures), banquets, or any other simcha anywhere or any time until the ad hoc bais din is advised to the contrary by his therapist. He must be engaged in regularly scheduled uninterrupted intensive therapy with a therapist with whom the bais din is advised to the contrary by his therapist.
The Bais Din (Jewish Court), after much deliberation, and taking into consideration his health problems, will allow him to daven in different area shuls on Shabbos, even though there are children present, with the understanding that every Rav (Rabbi) will be made aware of his name, and to make sure that there is surveillance whenever he leaves the sanctuary to use the restrooms or any other area of the building. Any Rabbi not wishing to take on this responsibility has the right to prohibit him from davening (praying) in their shul.
Rabbi Gedaliah Dov Schwartz
Rabbi Avraham Chaim Levin
Rabbi Shmuel Furest
Rabbi Zev Cohen
Tuesday, October 08, 2002
Medics probe boundaries of doctor-patient relationship
Wouldn't a rabbi having sex with congregants fall under the same category as a doctor having sex with a patient?
Medics probe boundaries of doctor-patient relationship
By Leslie Katz
Jewish Weekly Bulletin of San Francisco - October 8, 2002
It doesn't take a medical ethics board to conclude that a doctor having sex with a patient violates the trusted physician-patient relationship.
But what about other, less extreme behavior? Does seductive language constitute an ethical infraction? Can a physician treat the accountant who prepares his taxes? Can a doctor hug a patient at the end of a visit? Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Carol Nadelson explored boundaries in the doctor-patient relationship, and who might be most likely to cross them, at a session of the 10th annual International Conference on Jewish Medical Ethics last weekend. More than 400 attended the four-day conference, co-sponsored by the San Francisco Hebrew Academy.
Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb
Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, a congregational rabbi and psychotherapist in Baltimore, added a Jewish ethical perspective to the discussion at the Park Plaza Hotel in Burlingame.
The question "Who am I?" is paramount, the rabbi said. "Often the answer determines what is right. Out of the answer should come ethical guidelines."
He asked those attending the conference session to answer the question "Who am I?" 10 times in writing. People jotted down answers ranging from personality traits to nouns such as "father" and "daughter." "If one of the answers was `physician,' that means you have a higher standard, a different standard than other people," Weinreb said. "I stand in a tradition of physicians going back to Hippocrates, to Maimonides." Nadelson's overview made it clear that a discussion of doctor-patient boundaries comprises a broad rubric. "We have a spectrum that requires judgment and careful thinking," she said.
"An essential component of professional conduct is respect for the patient's dignity," she added. "This includes the physician's language."
Violations can be major or minor, she pointed out, ranging from the most extreme cases of sexual assault to the giving or accepting of certain kinds of gifts.
Even "calling a patient by their first name without asking for permission can be a problem."
In cases involving sexual contact, doctors are often clinically depressed or addicted to alcohol or drugs, said Nadelson, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Less often, they suffer from character pathologies, such as narcissism or paranoia.
As for the patients involved, "there is no one profile," she said. "Regardless of any patient provocation, it's always the doctor's responsibility." However, patients are likely to share common aftershocks: a sense of betrayal, abandonment, shame and guilt.
In assessing possible boundary violations, Nadelson stressed the importance of context. While taking a routine medical history, a doctor may ask a question perceived by a patient as offensive or irrelevant. For that reason, she said, "it's terribly important" that physicians explain why they're asking a given question. Similarly, a friendly or comforting hug may be uncomfortable for certain
patients. "Those with histories of sexual abuse may experience a hug or a kiss as an assault, a repeat of early boundary violations," she said. Like Nadelson, Weinreb considered the question of boundary violations in a broad context.
"I have seen sexual transgressions, but there are others for sure," he said. Among them is the failure to respect cultural diversity.
For example, Weinreb has been asked to serve as an expert witness in a case against a prominent psychotherapist in his area. Several patients were outraged when, speaking of spiritual aridity in their lives, the doctor suggested spiritual paths, including Jews for Jesus.
Surprisingly, however, Weinreb pegged arrogance as "the worst boundary violation of all.
"A passage in the Talmud says, `I can't live in the same world as an arrogant person,'" he said. "A humble person knows full well who he is. On the heels of humility comes true piety, true devotion."
Note from The Awareness
Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, the the former Executive Vice President of the Orthodox Union and formally was the rabbi of Congregation Shomrei Emunah in Baltimore.
Rabbi Weinreb, who earned a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Maryland, was a member of the Executive Committee of the Rabbinical Council of America and Vice President of the Rabbinical Council of Greater Baltimore. In addition, he is a member of the Ethics Committee of the Veterans Administration Hospital. A licensed psychotherapist, Rabbi Weinreb is also Rabbinic Liaison for NEFESH: North American Network of Orthodox Mental Health Professionals. Rabbi Weinreb is married to the former Chavi Taub. They have three children and nine grandchildren.
Confidentiality of Statements Made to Rape Crisis Personnel
Ill. Rev. Stat. Ch. 110, sec. 8-802.1; 735 ILCS 5/8-802.1
For more information contact:
Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault,
123 S. 7th St., Ste. 500, Springfield, IL 62701-1302
(217) 753-4117
(a) Purpose. This Section is intended to protect victims of rape from public disclosure of statements they make in confidence to counselors of organizations established to help them. On or after July 1, 1984, "rape" means an act of forced sexual penetration or sexual conduct, as defined in Section 12-12 of the Criminal Code of 1961, as amended, including acts prohibited under Sections 12-13 through 12-16 of the Criminal Code of 1961, as amended. Because of the fear and stigma that often results from those crimes, many victims hesitate to seek help even where it is available at no cost to them. As a result they not only fail to receive needed medical care and emergency counseling, but may lack the psychological support necessary to report the crime and aid police in preventing future crimes.
(b) Definitions. As used in this Act:
1. "Rape crisis Organization" means any organization or association the major purpose of which is providing information, counseling, and psychological support to victims of any or al of the crimes of aggravated criminal sexual assault, criminal sexual assault, sexual relations between siblings, criminal sexual abuse and aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
2. "Rape crisis counselor" means a person who is a psychologist, social worker, employee, or volunteer in any organization or association defined as a rape crisis organization under this Section, who has undergone 40 hours of training and is under the control of a direct services supervisor of a rape crisis organization.
4. "Confidential communication" means any communication between a victim and a rape crisis counseling in the course of providing information, counseling, and advocacy. The term includes all records kept by the counselor or by the organization in the course of providing services to an alleged victim concerning the alleged victim and the services provided.
(c) Waiver of privilege:
1. The confidential nature of the communication is not waived by the presence of a third person who further expresses the interests of the victim at the time of the communication; group counseling; or disclosure to a third person with the consent of the victim when reasonably necessary to accomplish the purpose for which the counselor is consulted.
2. The confidential nature of counseling records is not waived when: the victims inspects the records, or in the case of a minor child less than 12 years of age, a parent or guardian' whose interest are not adverse to the minor inspects the records; or in the case of a minor victim 12 years or older, a parent or guardian whose interests are not adverse to the minor inspects the records with the victim's consent.
3. When a victim is deceased or has been adjudged incompetent by a court of competent jurisdiction, the victim's guardian or the executor or administrator of the victim's estate may waive the privilege established by this Section, unless the guardian, executor, or administrator has an interest adverse to the victim.
(d) Confidentiality. Except as provided in this Act, no rape crisis counselor shall disclose any confidential communication or be examined as a witness in any civil or criminal proceeding as to any confidential communication without the written consent of the victim or a representative of the victim as provided in subparagraph (e).
(e) A rape crisis counselor may disclose a confidential communication without the consent of the victim if failure to disclose is likely to result in a clear, imminent risk of serious physical injury or death of the victim or another person. Any rape crisis counselor or rape crisis organization participating in good faith in the disclosing of records and communications under the Act shall have immunity from any liability, civil, criminal or otherwise that might result from the action, In any proceeding, civil or criminal, arising out of a disclosure under the Section, the good faith of any rape crisis counselor or rape crisis organization who disclosed the confidential communication shall be presumed.
(f) Any rape crisis counselor who knowingly discloses any confidential communication in violation of the Act
Commits a Class C misdemeanor.
Sunday, October 06, 2002
NCSY Conduct Policy and Behavioral Standards
NCSY Conduct Policy and Behavioral Standards
Table of Contents:
12. DATING
19. Procedures of the office of Ombudsman
NCSY Conduct Policy and Behavioral Standards
Orthodox - October 6, 2002
NCSY is committed to providing a safe and appropriate environment for all participants and employees. All NCSY Staff members are expected to positively contribute to this environment.
As part of NCSY's goal of deepening Jewish identity and encouraging greater Torah commitment, all NCSY Staff shall encourage participants' self-confidence, rooted in self-competence. NCSY should endeavor to help the adolescents in their charge grow and become who they can be within their familial context.
NCSY Staff must work to maintain and ultimately enhance participants' relationships with and respect for their parents, and work to help children learn how to develop a wide range of good relationships with peers, school personnel, and members of their community. When a conflict arises between NCSY and parents a mediating authority agreeable to both should be consulted. NCSY Staff should encourage respect for diversity and multiple sources of guidance in those NCSYers for whom they serve as mentor.
To achieve these goals, all NCSY Staff and NCSYers are expected to adhere to the Conduct Policy and Behavioral Standards in this document. This policy applies to all NCSY operations and programs, as well as to contacts between Staff, or between Staff and members, that take place outside the context of NCSY.
NCSY will send a copy of this Conduct Policy and Behavioral Standards to all Synagogue Rabbis, Presidents, and Youth Chairpersons of synagogues sponsoring Chapters. It is essential that all affected persons understand the policy and how to respond if they feel they are being harassed or abused.
NCSY as an organization, and all NCSY Staff as individuals, are committed to the NCSYers' physical safety, and to respecting modesty and dignity regarding all personal and sexual matters in both deed and word. NCSY Staff must refrain from any deed or word that is injurious or demeaning in these matters.
Any allegations of abuse or harassment should be reported promptly to the NCSY National Ombudsman at 212-613-8361, or if the complainant is more comfortable they can contact their Regional Director or the National Director according to the procedure at the end of this document.
None of the above-mentioned reporting normally constitutes impermissible Lashon HaRa or any violation of any other Jewish Laws of Proper Speech. NCSY will not retaliate in any way against any Staff member, NCSYer or parent who reports a violation, or who assists in the investigation of a complaint.
Reporting Abuse To The Government
Each Government and State has its own laws regarding the responsibility of reporting suspected abuse. Regional and Program Directors are expected to be aware of the law and are expected to follow it. The US Department of Health and Human Services offers the following web site and hotline for information on laws in each state or 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453). This hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Hotline can tell you where to file a report and can help make the report. Health Canada has a similar web site at
Halakha (Jewish Law) must be observed by all participants at all NCSY events. Shabbat must be observed at all times during a Shabbaton, whether during group programs or free time.
All halakhot of physical contact ("Negiah") must be observed at all times. Physical contact between members of the opposite gender is prohibited except to protect or safeguard someone in immediate physical danger, or to protect or safeguard synagogue or private property from immediate danger.
All halakhot of Yichud must be followed at all times. NCSY discourages activities and situations that leave two individuals alone, even when the technical violation of Hilkhot Yichud is not involved.
While respect can be communicated by gesture and tone of voice, language is the most powerful tool for conveying it. "Nekiyut HaLashon", cleanliness of language, serves as the standard that should guide everyone. Words should be chosen with regard to their impact upon the listener, and should confirm his or her sense of self-worth.
Unacceptable Behavior
While the overwhelming majority of interactions between NCSY Staff and NCSYers fall well within the range of normal healthy relationships, certain behavior should be regarded as incompatible with NCSY's goals and standards and therefore always prohibited.
The following behavior is incompatible with NCSY's goals and is therefore unacceptable:
mocking, ridiculing, berating, or any other speech that deliberately hurts the feelings of an NCSYer,
unwanted sexual attention in the form of remarks, jokes or innuendo about a person's body or clothing, or sexual activity,
denigration, public or private, of parents or their central role in the lives of their children,
denigration, public or private, of religious institutions or their leaders, including local synagogues and their Rabbis, as well as yeshivot and their administration and faculty, psychological manipulation or control of NCSYers by staff. Among the identifying hallmarks of this are attempts to restrict, rather than to widen, the range of resource persons with whom NCSYers develop relationships, and attempts to eliminate parents as critical influences in an NCSYer's life. The psychological health of each NCSYer must be protected just as their physical safety is protected.
Abuse or HarassmentChild abuse, Abandonment, Cruelty and Neglect, includes, but is not limited to, unwelcome physical and emotional harassment, and physical injury.
The United States Office of Civil Rights, under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, defines sexual harassment as unwelcome activity in two categories, which are described further below: "Quid Pro Quo Harassment" and "Hostile Environment Harassment."
• any demeaning or exploitative behavior of a sexual nature, including threats of such behavior,
• displaying demeaning, suggestive, or pornographic material,
• unwelcome physical contact, such as inappropriate touching, patting, pinching, punching, and physical assault,
• indirect or explicit invitations to engage in unwelcome sexual activities which may or may not include a promise of reward for complying or a threat of reprisal for not complying.
Sexual abuse or harassment shows no preference for age, race, appearance, or occupation. It usually happens to females, but males may be victims, too. The abuser/harasser and victim may be of opposite sex or the same sex. It may involve the abuse of:
• an NCSYer by a paid or volunteer staff member,
• an advisor by a regional or national staff member or another advisor,
• a staff member by another staff member,
• an advisor or staff member by an NCSYer,
• an NCSYer by another NCSYer.
Harassment is defined as unwelcome physical, verbal, visual, or behavioral mannerisms or conduct that denigrates, shows hostility or aversion towards an individual because of his or her sex or other legally protected characteristics, where
submission to or rejection of such conduct is made (explicitly or implied) a term or condition of employment, maintaining their volunteer position (chapter board, regional board, etc.), participation in NCSY activities or the granting of preferential treatment (awards, recommendations, scholarships, etc.) This is known as "Quid Pro Quo Harassment";
submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as a basis for evaluation in making personnel or leadership decisions affecting an individual. This is also known as "Quid Pro Quo Harassment";
such verbal or physical conduct has the effect of interfering with an individual's work, participation in NCSY activities, or living conditions, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment. This is commonly known as "Hostile Environment Harassment".
Conduct is unwelcome if the recipient did not request or invite it and regarded the conduct as undesirable or offensive. Acquiescence in the conduct or the failure to complain does not always mean that the conduct was welcome.
If younger children are involved, it may be necessary to determine the degree to which they are able to recognize that certain sexual conduct is conduct to which they may or should reasonably object and the degree to which they can articulate an objection.
NCSY is particularly concerned about harassment by a person in a position of authority, since in these cases victims often feel less able to express that the conduct is unwelcome.
Severity, Persistence and Pervasiveness
Hostile environment sexual harassment is created if conduct of a sexual nature is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive to limit the victim's ability to participate in or benefit from the educational program or to create a hostile or abusive educational environment.
Gender Based Harassment
Sexual harassment may occur between members of the same or opposite sex. Further, harassment based on a person's sex is not limited to instances involving sexual behavior. That is, harassment on the basis of sex may occur without sexual advances or sexual overtones when conduct is directed at individuals or groups because of their sex. This is often referred to as sex or gender harassment and violates this policy.
Indirect Harassment
A person does not have to be the direct and immediate target of sexual harassment to complain about it. Harassing behavior toward others may be so offensive, demeaning or disruptive as to constitute a hostile environment, though not specifically directed at the observer or individual lodging the complaint.
Power-Imbalanced Romantic Relationships
The difference in power and the respect and trust that is often present between an advisor and NCSYer, supervisor and subordinate, or senior and junior colleague in the same department or unit makes these sexual relationships especially vulnerable to exploitation. Those who abuse their power in such circumstances by, for example, granting preferential treatment to a member who has submitted to sexual favors may be found to have violated this policy. "Voluntary" participation in a romantic relationship does not alone demonstrate that a romantic partner's conduct was welcome.
Attempts by NCSY Staff to establish a dating relationship with an NCSYer are strictly prohibited, with no exceptions, as they are contrary to a healthy mentor-NCSYer or supervisory relationship. A dating relationship is not only incompatible with mentoring and supervising, but can also give the impression of coercion, and can lead to at least the appearance of playing favorites. In addition, a dating relationship between an NCSY Staff person and an NCSYer may fall into the category of a "power-imbalanced romantic" relationship.
Therefore, violations of this prohibition are grounds for immediate dismissal.
It is understood that dating between Staff members might also potentially fall under the category of "power-imbalanced" relationships. However, understanding the importance of such interactions, rather than prohibiting outright all such relationships, it is the responsibility of the Regional Director to the best of his or her ability to monitor all such relationships to assure that they not fail this critical test.
Permitted Physical Contact
NCSY Staff and an NCSYer of the same gender, or two NCSYers of the same gender, are welcome to engage in normal physical contact such as hugging or touching as an act of encouragement or consolation. This is permitted as long as the contact is both welcome and appropriate and not of a sexual nature.
Similarly, normal aggressive contact, such as that which would take place in a basketball or football game, or arm-wrestling is permitted as long as the activity is appropriate, welcome, and is not of a sexual nature.
All NCSY Staff present at an event are expected to help the program organizers run their programs. All NCSY Staff members are expected to keep order and usher NCSYers in a respectful but firm manner. Should an NCSYer remain uncooperative, the Staff member involved should inform the Regional Director or person running the event for disciplinary procedures.
Physical Force
Physical force may never be used other than to safeguard against immediate physical danger to another person, to a sacred religious object, or to property if the results of damaging the property would cause physical danger to an individual. It certainly may never be used as a means to discipline a recalcitrant NCSYer.
Manipulation and Control
NCSY is committed to fostering healthy teen development, development of Torah middot, respect for all parents, respect for Torah institutions, and respect for all people. While teenagers often begin to rely more on peers as they attempt to establish their independence, NCSY should encourage the long-term primary role of family in the NCSYer's life.
NCSY regards the following as important to healthy adolescent development:
Recognizing that the chief goal in parent-child relations is the transformation of the relationship from one in which parents decide for children to one in which children learn to make sound and informed decisions with their parents as their most valued advisors,
Helping the NCSYer to develop self-confidence rooted in self-competence as he or she expands the range of skills that he or she can successfully employ, and the range of people and resources upon which he or she can draw.
In keeping with these goals, all NCSY Staff should always speak respectfully when addressing or speaking about NCSYers, their parents, their schools, Rabbis, shuls, etc. In addition, they should be sensitive to issues that may arise and foster respect for a persons right to a varying point of view. NCSY staff should listen and help NCSYers clarify their thoughts, concerns and feelings and attempt to inspire greater Torah observance. However, they should avoid coercing NCSYers by:
Applying negative pressure and fear to achieve a desired result. For example making an NCSYer feel that he or she will not be accepted if an undesired conclusion is reached.
Exerting emotional encouragement so strongly that the individual perceives emotional pressure.
Making the NCSYer to staff relationship conditional upon their decision.
Adolescent life is often a time of turmoil, distress and conflict. Extreme reactions to people, places and things are quite common during this stage of development. NCSY Staff must be especially careful not to allow an adolescent's normal occasional tendency toward "hero worship" to be transformed into an unhealthy relationship with a member of NCSY Staff. NCSY Staff shall be sensitive to such situations as they develop, and will endeavor to see that NCSYers are referred to the appropriate resources for assistance in dealing with them.
If it is brought to the attention of an advisor that his/her attempt to recommend a particular school or program is causing conflict with the parents of the NCSYer then the advisor should inform the Regional Director who should then consult with the NCSYer's parents.
NCSY Participant Behavioral Standards
In addition to adherence to the above policies and standards, NCSYers also have a responsibility to conduct themselves properly at all NCSY events and in all NCSY interactions.
The most important elements in proper NCSYer behavior are to treat both NCSY Staff and each other with the personal respect that lies at the heart of healthy personal relationships, and to follow Staff directions and instructions.
Events, that involve both trips and multiple chapters present require tight organization and diligent compliance. Clear organization and complying promptly with directions and instructions are vital to both the success of the particular event and the safety of the participants.
If an NCSYer violates the rules, or in any emergency situation which occurs at such an event, the Regional Administrator in charge of the event shall take whatever action he or she deems necessary within the parameters of this policy, and as soon as possible afterwards shall report the entire matter to the Regional Director, who shall promptly report it to the local Adult communal leader of the NCSYer's Chapter, and if necessary, to the NCSYer's parents.
Adult communal leaders should take lead responsibility, in consultation with NCSY, to inform parents of serious NCSYer misconduct, especially any misconduct that may lead to an NCSYer's suspension or expulsion, even though the misconduct itself is not illegal. The Adult communal leaders may seek assistance, where necessary, from outside consultants and mental health professionals, as well as from NCSY Staff where appropriate.
Unacceptable Behavior
Beyond making mutual respect the cornerstone of personal relationships, and beyond following directions and instructions, there are specific behavioral standards that apply to NCSYers.
• NCSYer abuse of staff will not be tolerated.
• Any behavior that threatens the safety of program participants will not be tolerated.
• Violence, depending on the seriousness of the act, may also result in referral to law enforcement authorities.
• Foul, obscene or profane language of any sort (verbal, written or electronic) is unacceptable.
• Smoking at an NCSY event may be grounds for immediate dismissal from the event at the earliest practical time
• Drinking of alcoholic beverages at an NCSY event may be grounds for immediate dismissal from the event at the earliest practical time.
• Use of illegal drugs and controlled substances at an NCSY event is grounds for immediate dismissal from the event at the earliest practical time, and may be subject to further disciplinary action.
• Bringing illegal weapons (such as guns, switchblades, sharpened box cutters, and sharpened screwdrivers) to an event will result in confiscation of the weapons, expulsion from the event at the earliest practical time, and may also be referred to the appropriate law enforcement authorities. Other items that are intrinsically dangerous will be confiscated for the event, and those who brought them may be subject to further disciplinary action. (Swiss Army knives, or small pocket knives, which are as much tools as knives, are generally permitted. In specific situations, however, the Regional Administrator in charge of the event may confiscate them at his or her discretion for the period of the event.)
NCSY Staff shall be sensitive as to which breaches of standards indicate the need to refer the problem to professional outside resources for further resolution.
Procedures of the office of Ombudsman
I. Reporting Procedures
The Orthodox Union Board of Trustees through its subcommittee National Youth Commission created the Office of the Ombudsman ("Ombudsman") to receive reports or complaints of harassment or abuse or any violation of the standards herein from any individual or victim of harassment. If the complaint involves the Ombudsman, it should be filed directly with the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees.
Any NCSY student or staff member, who believes she or he has been the victim of harassment or any third person (including but not limited to a parent or guardian of a minor) with knowledge or belief of conduct that may constitute harassment should report the alleged acts immediately (or at any later date that he or she feels comfortable) to the NCSY Ombudsman as designated by this policy. Anyone with a complaint may also contact the Regional or National Director if that is more comfortable. NCSY encourages the reporting party or complainant to use the report forms available from any NCSY Regional Office; however, use of the formal reporting form is not mandatory.
Any NCSY staff member who has or receives notice that a student member has been the victim of harassment is required to immediately report the alleged acts to the NCSY Ombudsman as designated by this policy
NCSY will respect the confidentiality of the complainant and the individual(s) against whom the complaint is filed as much as possible, consistent with NCSY's legal obligations and the necessity to investigate allegations of harassment and take disciplinary and other appropriate action, as necessary. No person named in a complaint will have any part of the review of that complaint. Submission of a complaint or report of harassment will not affect the future membership or status of any individual with NCSY.
Complainants should report any alleged acts of harassment directly to the Ombudsman. However, if the Regional Director receives a report, the Regional Director must notify the Ombudsman within 24 hours without screening or investigating the report. The Regional Director may request but may not insist upon a written complaint. As soon as practical, the Regional Director will forward a written statement of the facts alleged to the Ombudsman. If the report was given verbally, the Regional Director shall personally reduce it to written form within 72 hours and forward it to the Ombudsman. Failure of the Regional Director or any NCSY staff member to forward any harassment report or complaint as provided herein, will be considered a breach of responsibility.
II. Investigation and Recommendation (back)
The Ombudsman, upon receipt of a report or complaint alleging harassment shall immediately conduct an investigation. Due to geographic constraints the ombudsman will arrange to have a group of three professionals recommended by the youth commission of each region outside the New York metropolitan area and approved by the Ombudsman, consisting of a rabbi, attorney and a mental health professional available to assist if necessary in the investigation supervised by the Ombudsman. Regions in the New York metropolitan area will utilize those professionals from among members of the National Youth Commission. The Ombudsman shall promptly notify the NCSY National Director and the relevant Regional Director once a complaint has been made and shall provide a written report of the status of the investigation to the NCSY National Director within 10 working days. If the report or complaint involves the National Director or the Regional Director, the Ombudsman shall notify the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees or its subcommittee National Youth Commission and provide the written status report to the Chairperson. The right to confidentiality of both the complainant and the accused will be respected consistent with NCSY's legal obligations and the necessity to investigate allegations and punish substantiated misconduct.
In determining whether alleged conduct constitutes harassment, the surrounding circumstances, the nature of advances, relationships between the parties involved and the context in which the alleged incidents occurred should be considered. Whether a particular action or incident constitutes harassment requires a determination based on all the facts and surrounding circumstances.
The investigation may consist of personal interviews with the complainant, the individual(s) against whom the complaint is filed, and others who may have the knowledge of the alleged incident(s) or circumstances giving rise to the complaint. The investigation may also consist of any other methods and review of documents deemed pertinent by the Ombudsman.
NCSY may take immediate steps, at its discretion, to protect the complainant, as well as other NCSY members, pending completion of an investigation of alleged harassment.
The Ombudsman shall make a report to the NCSY National Director and the Board of Trustees or its subcommittee National Youth Commission upon completion of the investigation. A verbal report shall also be given to the accused and the complainant and/or his or her parents. The ombudsman shall use discretion and seek legal advice to determine if the report will be presented in writing.
III. NCSY Action
Upon receipt of a recommendation that a report or complaint of harassment is substantiated, the Board of Trustees or its subcommittee National Youth Commission will take such disciplinary action as it deems necessary and appropriate, including issuance of a warning, a suspension or immediate discharge to end the harassment and prevent its recurrence.
NCSY will verbally report the result of the investigation and any disciplinary action taken as a result of the complaint to the accused and the complainant and/or his or her parents. The ombudsman shall use discretion and seek legal advice to determine if the report will be presented in writing.
NCSY would like to thank and give credit to all the many people who contributed to this document.
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0.020239 | <urn:uuid:f570f7f7-516b-4280-a30f-3c8af91e00c3> | en | 0.96818 | Panel says problem schools hurt nation's security
KIMBERLY HEFLING AP Education Writer Published:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's security and economic prosperity is at risk if America's schools don't improve, warns a task force led by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Joel Klein, the former chancellor of New York City's school system.
The panel makes three main recommendations:
Not all panel members agreed with all the task force findings. One dissenting opinion said a proposed national audit will only increase the pressure to focus on standardized tests and that money would be better used to improve the neediest school districts. That opinion was issued by Carole Artigiani, founder of Global Kids Inc., and agreed to by Stephen Walt, an international affairs professor at Harvard, and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
Weingarten, in another dissent, said that some elements of the report undermine schools, and that school choice options such as vouchers and charters, which use public funds but are run by a third party, have not proven to be sustainable or to improve schools. Artigiani and Walt supported that argument.
Council on Foreign Relations: | http://www.times-gazette.com/ap%20washington/2012/03/19/panel-says-problem-schools-hurt-nation-s-security | dclm-gs1-138770002 | false | false | {
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0.144926 | <urn:uuid:6b972d8f-517c-4edc-879a-6dc5517f4c96> | en | 0.84664 |
Lowa Camino LL Flex
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Free Shipping. Lowa Men's Camino LL FreeFlex Boot DECENT FEATURES of the Lowa Men's Camino LL FreeFlex Boot A close-to-foot fit, with Lowa Flex lacing which allowing the laces to easily pull through the ball bearing lace loops that are set on free moving tabs, reducing overall pressure against the foot The SPECS Weight: 1850 gram Upper: Nubuck/Cordura Lining: Glove Leather Climate Control: Yes Tongue Stud/X-Lacing: Yes C4 Tongue: Yes Flex Lacing: Yes Footbed: Balance Comfort Midsole: PU with SPS Cushion and Fluke Technology Outsole: Vibram AppTrail Flexfit: Yes Stabilizer: 5mm Nylon Heel/3mm Forefoot This product can only be shipped within the United States. Please don't hate us.
- Moosejaw | http://www.trailspace.com/gear/lowa/camino-ll-flex/ | dclm-gs1-138800002 | false | false | {
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0.296614 | <urn:uuid:0a83eb30-47aa-4a24-827d-9a72b01121aa> | en | 0.943481 | Re: Mixed up priorities
From: G. Adam Stanislav (
Date: Thu Oct 21 1999 - 23:51:06 EDT
At 17:19 21-10-1999 -0700, John Hudson wrote:
>Are there separate CH, Ch and ch keys on Slovak keyboards?
Of course not. Keyboards were designed in America. Besides, keyboards are
glyph-oriented, not character oriented. I am not aware of any operating
system that can display two glyphs for a single character (not yet,
anyway). Are we here to accept the status quo, or to internationalize
>Many languages, including English, make use of digraphs and trigraphs to
>represent sounds which are represented in other orthographies by single
Oh, yeah, it's all about English. The rest of us are idiots. English does
not consider digraphs separate characters, and English is right. The rest
of us should just assimilate. Resistance is futile.
Well, fine. Then let's declare Unicode the English way of transcribing
languages, and not call it an international standard of character encoding.
>In some languages these digraphs are considered to be
>individual letters, with specific sorting and hyphenation rules associated
>with them, but is it true that these sorting and hyphenation rules
>_require_ encoding of these digraphs as precomposed characters?
If they are considered individual letters by any language, yes, they should
be encoded separately.
>In some non-Slavic language adaptations of the Cyrillic script, up to four
>letters may be combined to represent a single sound, and these
>'quadragraphs' are often listed as single letters of the alphabet and have
>specific sorting and hyphenation rules. Are you suggesting that each of
>these sequences _needs_ to be encoded as a precomposed character?
I am not talking about transliteration. I am talking about native use. If
some language natively considers a quadragraph a character in its own
right, then yes, we need to encode it. Or we need to stop referring to
Unicode as CHARACTER ENCODING. Either solution is acceptable.
>>The fact that it can be constructed from two glyphs, C and H, is
>>irrelevant, many other characters can be so constructed (e.g. N with caron
>>can constructed from an N and a caron, yet it is a separate character).
>There are plenty of people on this list who would argue that it should not
But the fact is, it is. And as long as Unicode is to be thought of as
character encoding, it should be.
>Again, is it _necessary_ for this behaviour to be controlled by encoding
>these letters as individual, precomposed characters? If there are no CH, Ch
>and ch keys on Slovak keyboards -- as I suspect -- you would still require
>secondary text processing which would recognise the keying of c followed by
>h as ch. What have you actually gained?
Consistency. There is a DZ, for example. It is a character is several
languages (Slovak included). Consistency with Unicode being a character
encoding. Keyboards are not about characters, they are about glyphs. They
evolved from the typewriter, in which characters were not a concern. Glyphs
>Remember that Unicode is a standard for encoding _plain text_.
No, it is a standard for encoding _characters_. It states so quite explicitly.
> Unicode does
>not contain sorting rules for individual languages, nor does it contain
>hyphenation rules for individual languages.
I have never asked to have the CH encoded right after the H and before the
I. That would be sorting. I am not talking about sorting at all. I am
talking about a separate character, which just happens to consist of two
> Unicode provides a standard for
>encoding text which can then be properly handled by secondary text
>processing software, including dictionaries, language specific hyphenation
>algorithms, etc.. The kind of thing you are demanding belongs at this
>secondary level, not at the plain text level.
No, Unicode provides a standard for character encoding, not plain text
Yes, it is possible to encode the CH as the C followed by the H, and the N
caron by the N followed by some connection code followed by a caron. And it
is perfectly possible for software to handle it. But that would not be
CHARACTER encoding. Unicode clearly states its goal to be the encoding of
characters of all languages, existing and defunct. CH is a character is in
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0.995071 | <urn:uuid:eb6d518b-6b3c-439c-a35f-20dc16d2c472> | en | 0.930887 | Subscribe Feedback English
look up any word, like english breakfast:
1. Fitchett
Fitchett The abilty to determine the difference between wanker, wench and douche.
"Oh non-wanker/wench, I can sense your a douche, its my Fitchett blood"
"I can tell that I'm a wanker, because I am a Fitchett"
"Beardface, your wifes a wench! If i wern't an amazing Fitchett you wouldn't have known that"
"No really wench...your such a douche"
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0.313733 | <urn:uuid:d861f900-f2e9-41fe-9bdf-08d7246272a5> | en | 0.944255 | Subscribe Feedback English
look up any word, like fishermans haircut:
1. Woodfield
Among the Top 10 largest malls in North America. Woodfield Mall is located in Schaumburg, IL and is a focal point for activity in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago. It's not just any mall, since most people mention it by name rather than "the mall."
Hey, I'm probably gonna go to Woodfield wanna go with?
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0.773111 | <urn:uuid:ee9e8279-6bf3-4a7b-9665-6298b233bee5> | en | 0.963715 | Subscribe Feedback English
look up any word, like selfie:
1. homeless jesus
exactly what it says...homeless Jesus. God kicked him out after a wild party. Yes, there IS a story. Currently, it isn't posted online. However, that will change.
The bible was propaganda. Homeless Jesus is my homeboy.
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0.826234 | <urn:uuid:b3bde4b7-f07b-4211-a9d3-5cb20a95711a> | en | 0.911886 | Subscribe Feedback English
look up any word, like thot:
1. the wind took it
a blanket excuse to offset the blame for any kind of bad throw/kick/whatever in a ball or disc-centric outdoor activity. may even be used indoors.
Person 1: *serves a volleyball. volleyball goes backwards and lands on a roof.*
Person 2: you suck and volleyball and you suck at life! get off da field!
Person 1: the wind took it!
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0.728316 | <urn:uuid:9c72913d-6426-4198-9217-2086c45d392e> | en | 0.94353 | Freeing the Soul from Fear
Freeing the Soul from Fear
Robert Sardello - Author
Paperback | $20.00 | add to cart | view cart
ISBN 9781573228336 | 304 pages | 01 Jan 2001 | Riverhead | 5.23 x 8.03in | Adult
Summary of Freeing the Soul from Fear Summary of Freeing the Soul from Fear Reviews for Freeing the Soul from Fear An Excerpt from Freeing the Soul from Fear
"Robert Sardello is one of the most creative thinkers I know. He writes from a combination of breathtaking originality and heartfelt compassion." Thomas Moore Freeing the Soul From Fear
Questions for discussion
1. Describe in detail a situation in your life when you experienced fear. Focus on the following questions. What was the setting? How did that moment of fear change your perception of the world? How did your experience of time change? What did your body feel like? How did you feel when the fear was resolved?
2. Describe a situation in your life when you felt ongoing fear, a fear that you could not easily get rid of. How did you try to cope with it? How did it change you?
3. In the group, tell what you were doing when you heard about the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. What was your response? How has this event affected you? What have you done to balance the fear inspired by these events?
4. Sardello talks about how fear results in a constriction of the soul, a numbing of the senses, and tears at our relationships to other people in the world. Would you say that terrorism has succeeded in constricting the American soul? What should we be doing, as a country, to insure that our spirit remains open and free?
5. Sardello identifies four senses that define our experience of the body – our sense of touch, our life sense, our sense of balance, and our sense of movement – and says these senses become dulled when we live in fear over a long period of time. Have you experienced fear that affected one or more of your senses? Were you able to do anything to restore your connection to the world, or your own physicality, to help overcome the fear? What steps does Sardello offer for overcoming the loss of these senses?
6. The threat of bio-terrorism is more acute today than ever before. How has this fear affected you? What steps are you taking to deal with this threat? How might we collectively release this fear from our society?
7. One of our most common fears today has to do with time, the feeling that the world is moving too fast and is out of our control. Sardello explains how this fear can actually change our perception of time, and offers exercises to help restore our sense of duration. Can you think of a fear that has a direct influence over your perception of time? What changes might you make in your own daily routine to overcome such fears?
8. Sardello suggests that Technology has at best an ambiguous influence on our lives – it makes some aspects of our lives easier, while often creating problems too. Can you think of a technology that looks like progress but is actually bringing more fear into the world?
9. Fear can easily enter into a relationship when one partner’s expectations about the other aren’t being met, or the relationship is forced to endure some strife. Describe your most significant fears concerning a love relationship. How do these fears erode your capacity to connect with the other person? What steps might you take to understand the other person’s inner life so that the fear can subside?
10. Our relationship with money is a primal source of fear in our lives, and our tumultuous economy creates anxiety on a daily basis. Describe your own attitude toward money, and how it affects your life positively or negatively. What does Sardello suggest as a course for releasing money-related fears? Would such fears lessen if you found a more spiritual dimension to your work? How else might you restore a sense of balance toward the role of money in your life?
11. Sardello identifies a subtle process of coping with fear, called doubling, in which we become more and more disconnected from our inner lives. Explore with the group if and how you sometimes feel the tendency toward doubling. Relate a specific experience when fear drove you to act from a part of yourself that you did not recognize, and what you did (or didn’t do) to overcome that fear.
12. Based on the exercise sections in the book, create a meditative exercise using imagery that strengthens the soul and its capacity to meet suffering in a healthy way. Write down the exercise in detail, and explore with the group what happens after you perform the exercise together.
Please alert me via email when:
The author releases another book | http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781573228336,00.html?sym=REV | dclm-gs1-138890002 | false | false | {
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0.03296 | <urn:uuid:0e19435c-c9b3-4a8c-a371-2e16a83e2c3b> | en | 0.901315 | First: Mid: Last: City: State:
Donovan Amezquita
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0.041555 | <urn:uuid:0dbbb0b3-4950-482e-a333-7f07b07b8645> | en | 0.981057 | Prevent Wall Street From Crashing Our Economy Again!
Senator Elizabeth Warren is fighting back against Wall Street gambling with taxpayer money by introducing a 21st century version of the Glass-Steagall Act, which for years protected the banking industry from high-risk investment banking.
To help pass this bill, Sen. Warren has built a bipartisan team of co-sponsors, and momentum is growing. But she will need grassroots support to make this happen. Can you join me as a signer on the petition asking Congress to pass this critical legislation? Just click the following link and you can Help Elizabeth Warren Restore Sanity to the Banking System.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
My Thoughts On A Discussion With One Of The Liars Who Sold Us The Iraq War
The Americans outplayed themselves, nobody outplayed them. They believed their own propaganda ~ Ahmed Chalabi (dob 10/30/1944) an Iraqi politician who was interim oil minister in Iraq in April–May 2005 and December–January 2006 and deputy prime minister from May 2005-May 2006. This quote is from an interview with McClatchy in Baghdad that took place sometime during the week of February 22, 2010.
What happens when one of the bush war criminals shows up on a progressive talk radio program to promulgate the lie that ex-president GWb made the "right" decision when he ordered the invasion of Iraq? Answer; he's treated respectfully by the nation's top rated Liberal talker (which he doesn't deserve, but what are you going to do?). What follows is an excerpt from the Thom Hartmann radio program. Thom discusses the Iraq conflict with Douglas J. Feith, a politico who served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy under President George W. bush (from July 2001 until August 2005).
Feith's official responsibilities included the formulation of defense planning guidance and forces policy, United States Department of Defense (DoD) relations with foreign countries, and DoD's role in U.S. Government interagency policymaking (source: Wikipedia). This interview from 3/3/2013 has been edited by me for brevity and clarity...
Thom Hartmann: Welcome back, Thom Hartmann here with you. will recall, back in 2002 a very strong case was made for a war with Iraq against Saddam Hussein. One of the folks involved in making that case was Douglas Feith. [Currently] he is a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, and director at the Center for National Security Strategies. Author of the book War and Decision. Douglas Feith, welcome to the program.
Douglas Feith: Good to talk to you.
TH: Thanks for joining us. If I may, just to kind of start this thing out. Do you have any concerns or regrets regarding our nation having gone to war with Iraq?
DF: I think that the rational for the war was strong. Naturally one has regrets about various mistakes that got made. But, I think fundamentally the president made the right decision. That removing Saddam Hussein from power was important and valuable and that the risks of leaving him in power were very substantial.
TH: And, yet Saddam Hussein was the principal enemy of the Iranians. He had lost a million people and the Iranians had lost a million people in the war between Iraq and Iran. Saddam was our Sunni bulwark against that Shiite force. Former Congressman Bob Ney, who got taken down in the Jack Abramoff scandal... he's got a new book out. It's called Sideswiped. In his book, he talks about a conversation with Fouad al Zayat, who was basically an arms dealer who made airplanes, you know, weapons of war [Zayat denies being an arms dealer]. Zayat was meeting with Bob Ney in London to discuss Boeing and other contracts that had to do with Iran.
They were in the Ambassador Club dining room, a private club. And, if I could just share a couple of sentences with you, I'd like to get your take on this...
[Thom reading from Bob Ney's book] he said, Fouad turned to me and said something that is burned into my brain. He turned and pointed to two men who were sitting at the table near us and involved in an intense conversation. He said, "do you see those two men? Do you recognize them?" [Bob says] I knew one of them, to the left was King Hussein of Jordan's brother, the crown prince. But I didn't know the other guy. Fouad replies in a very calm but firm tone "that other man... this man will lie to your country. This man will catch the ear of your president. This man is a wanted criminal in Jordan, yet he sits with the King's brother here in London. This man is here in London carrying out one of the biggest schemes in modern history. This man will soon take your country into war in Iraq. His name is Ahmed Chalabi". [Thom finishes reading from Ney's book].
Do you think it's possible that you and all the other guys in the bush administration were conned by the Iranian government, through their agent Ahmed Chalabi, into taking out their principal enemy, Saddam Hussein on their behalf?
DF: No, I don't think that analysis is right. It's wrong in a number of respects. I don't think that the decision-making in the US government was driven by Chalabi or any one guy. I don't think that the United States was conned. It was not a con that Saddam Hussein was a very dangerous guy...
TH: [interrupts] Oh, come on! He was writing a romance novel. He had no weapons of mass destruction.
DF: [jumps in] It isn't true that he had no weapons of mass destruction. He not only had had weapons of mass destruction, but he had used them against the Kurds in Northern Iraq. He had used them against Iran. Saddam was the first person in history to use nerve gas on the battlefield.
TH: ...but the UN went in, and they took that stuff out. They destroyed it. The weapons inspectors said "it's not there anymore".
DF: No, that's not what the weapons inspectors said. I think that there is a lot of misunderstanding about the whole weapons of mass destruction issue. If your listeners are interested in the facts on this, what I would urge them to do is read the report of the Iraq Survey Group. They issued a three volume report, which is available on the internet, which explains the status of Iraq's WMD programs. Iraq was a country that had substantial weapons of mass destruction programs. The big mistake that was made by our intelligence services before the war was the belief that Saddam was maintaining chemical and biological weapons stockpiles.
[Douglas Feith brings up the war with Iran, the invasion of Kuwait and Iraq shooting at UN and US planes that were enforcing the no fly zone to argue against Thom's "Saddam was no threat to the United States" assessment].
DF: I think president bush made the right decision... but the argument that Saddam Hussein was not a threat to us, that we were not worried about him, that he didn't have WMD programs, that the whole thing was made up... is an argument that is not accurate. It's not based on the facts.
TH: OK. ... Mr. Feith, thank you for being on the program. [Thom ends interview giving Mr. Feith the last word... as he usually does... in order to make his guests feel they were treated fairly].
My Commentary: The argument that "the whole thing was made up" is HIGHLY accurate. Notice that the liar Feith continually refers to "WMD programs" and not actual WMD. And he mentions the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) report which he THINKS backs up his version of events. It does not. Following are some of the key points I have selected to rebut Mr. Feith's assertions...
Iraq Study Group key findings: [1] Saddam ended his nuclear program in 1991. ISG found no evidence of concerted efforts to restart the program, and Iraq's ability to reconstitute a nuclear weapons program progressively decayed after 1991. [2] Iraq destroyed its chemical weapons stockpile in 1991, and only a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions were discovered by the ISG. [3] Saddam's regime abandoned its biological weapons program and its ambition to obtain advanced biological weapons in 1995. While it could have re-established an elementary BW [biological weapons] program within weeks, ISG discovered no indications it was pursuing such a course.
Feith hinges his whole case (and the justification for bush's illegal war) on the Iraq "could have re-established an elementary BW program within weeks" portion of the report, but IGNORES the "ISG discovered no indications it was pursuing such a course". The FACT remains that the IAEA weapons inspections worked and the Iraq war was completely unnecessary. Not only was it unnecessary, but it was based on a lie. The IAEA inspectors on the ground at the time told bush they were not finding any WMD (although they did ask for more time to complete their inspections).
bush ignored them and informed the American people that we were invading (in part) to "disarm" Saddam (see my post "Intellectual Honesty Concerning ex-President bush's WMD Lies" for more details regarding how the ex prez lied us into war). The report issued by the ISG (the one referenced by Feith) confirms that Iraq had no WMD and that the sanctions worked (and bush LIED when he said the invasion was necessary to "disarm" Iraq).
It should be noted that the ISG report was issued on 9/30/2004 and that ex prez bush ordered the invasion on 3/20/2003. But the report only CONFIRMED what the inspectors had told bush BEFORE the invasion, which was that they were finding no WMD and that Saddam was (begrudgingly) cooperating. Sure, he fully intended to restart his WMD programs *if* we allowed him to do so (by not keeping the pressure on indefinitely), but surely that would have been less expensive (both in terms of the lives of our soldiers, the lives of innocent Iraqis and in terms of our "treasure").
A May 17 2003 poll of the American people confirms that "58 percent... say that considering its costs vs. its benefits the war in Iraq was not worth fighting..." bush, in lying to the American people (and the world) did NOT make the right decision as Feith suggests. Although many people are STILL not aware that bush lied when making his case for war. These people are still convinced that the intelligence was "wrong". Others, believe it or not, are convinced that bush "told the truth" and that WMD was actually found in Iraq.
These delusional fools are referring to the fact that "some misplaced or abandoned chemical weapons from before 1991 were found". Concerning these WMD, the ISG said "they were not the weapons which had been one of the main arguments for the invasion". Indeed they were not. bush scarred the American people with fantasies concerning mushroom clouds. bush and the other war criminals from his administration (including Feith) are liars who are still working to rewrite history.
As for the accusation that Ahmed Chalabi (working for Iran) duped us into the Iraq war... I've heard that one before (and believe it), although I think bush would have found other "evidence" if Chalabi hadn't happened along to HELP bush build a case for invasion. Vincent Cannistraro, a former senior CIA official and counter terrorism expert said (concerning the intelligence that was provided to us by way of Chalabi) that "[it] isn't reliable at all... [and that] much of it is telling the Defense Department what they want to hear (Chalabi's "intelligence" came to us via the Iraqi National Congress, which was "an umbrella Iraqi opposition group led by Ahmed Chalabi that was formed with the aid and direction of the United States government following the Gulf War, for the purpose of fomenting the overthrow of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein").
This account is, however, is by way of someone who (in my opinion) has a great deal of believability; former Congressman Bob Ney (account according to his recently released book, "Sideswiped"). Yes, Mr. Ney could be described as a "disgraced" former Congressman, but I see no reason for him to lie. In fact, it is my opinion that he is trying to set things straight on this matter. That the identification of Chalabi came from an accused arms dealer (Fouad al Zayat) is of no consequence, IMO, as much of what he said turned out to be provably true. What Chalabi told our intelligence services DID catch the ear of our president. He was wanted man in Jordan (in regards to the Petra banking scandal), and his intelligence (via the INC) did help the bush administration build the case for war with Iraq.
Mr. Chalabi denies that he was an agent for Iran, but I don't believe him. Fact is, Chalabi and the bush administration had a falling out way back in 2004. The allegations then came from bush Director of Central Intelligence, George Tenant, and resulted in a raid by US forces of Chalabi's Baghdad home... although (apparently) no evidence has ever been produced that conclusively proves Chalabi was an Iranian agent. Or the evidence was covered up by bushies who didn't want it widely known that the administration ALLOWED itself to be duped.
For the record Mr. Chalabi is a Shiite Muslism (Saddam was a Sunni Muslim and Iran is largely Shiite). When Chalabi was feeding his lies to our intelligence agencies he thought he might end up as the leader of Iraq. And there is also the fact that the bush administration paid him nearly 33 million dollars so he'd tell them things they wanted to hear.
There were those, however, who knew beforehand that Chalabi was a liar and not to be trusted. Bob Ney confirms this in his recent book... further proof that the bush administration cherry picked intelligence that supported their case for regime change in Iraq. But "cherry picking" is FAR to generous a term to use when it comes to the duplicity employed by the bushies when it comes to their pre-war lies and their continuing lies TO THIS DAY (exemplified by Mr. Feith). That there are those who continue to believe that bush did not lie in regards to WMD he knew Iraq did not have leaves me completely flabbergasted. These individuals truly have their heads buried deeply in the proverbial sand.
THP podcast info: This segment of audio is from the 3/6/2013 Thom Hartmann Podcast... 0:14 to 9:32 of hour 2.
1. It is unfortunate that the same lame intelligence system has driven the incompetent incumbent to seek war with Syria. It is a good thing Putin did a slap down on him because even the Obama press corps (anc, cbs, nbc, cnn, msnbc) couldn't make him look good attacking Syria.
At least Kerry and Clinton can't vote for it before they vote against it.
1. So, Skuddy, how long do you think we have before the shock and awe followed by an invasion and regime change? What has transpired so far seems to indicate that your predictions might not come to fruition. Seems to me it was the last incompetent incumbent that lied us down that road.
2. Life is good, I just fucked up a con over at one of the dummy cons blogs,
1. Good going Goerge! We love it when you stick it to the dummy cons! YeeeeeeeeHaaaaaaaaw!!!!
3. Do you think Mr. Sanders that anyone is concerned with this any longer other than yourself?
Inquiring minds want to know.
4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
1. Rusty STILL trying to sneak spoofed George Whyte comments by. Give it up Schmuckelford. Your spoofed comments are not welcome here.
2. Rusty, or whoever he is, has been all over the con blogs pretending to be me. You're the only one--the left-leaning blogger--who's been intelligent enough to see through his sham. There is only one thing that CANNOT be faked or changed and that is the date a blogger starts a profile. Mine has ALWAYS been August 2013, and the fake George Whyte's profile is either hidden or its date is May 2013. That piece of evidence seems to be too hard for the cons on the other blogs to understand, so they really believe the fake George Whyte is me! What is Rusty's point? And how old is he mentally? 13? Let him have his fun. All's he's doing is making fools of the idiot cons who haven't the brains to see what he's doing or who won't see what he's doing because they want to believe I'm writing the trash he's been writing. No wonder people think they're stupid. Who else but stupid people would do what he's doing?
5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
6. Comment above removed because... "The Blogger Profile you requested cannot be displayed", whereas the profile for other George Whyte comment above that CAN be displayed... The deleted one is a spoof, in other words. Probably Rusty again.
7. D.S. as you can see I've changed my avatar because the fake G.W. is all over the blogs impersonating me. the cons keep his fake comments up so I have to change my avatar. but as you can see, the date of my blog profile is still the same. what is wrong with these dunderheads? why do they do this crap?
8. Are you waiting for the mother ship to land?
9. Are you still waiting for the mother ship?
1. Rusty asks the same question twice... he must be really eager to get back to his home planet. I have no idea when the mother ship (from Rusty's home planet) might arrive... seeing as my home planet is earth. If anyone else has any info I encourage them to share it with Rusty... his leaving would (if only in a small way) be a blessing for the rest of us. Maybe "Just the Way it is" knows?
10. Dervish Sanders and George Whyte, I read ALL about this on "The Free Thinke"'s blog yesterday.
And my reply to this entire state of affairs is Who Really Gives A Shit?
1. Just because JTWII does not "give a shit", that doesn't mean nobody does. I do, George Whyte obviously does and so does Shaw Kenawe (she addressed the issue on her blog). So, while Rightwingers like you may not give a shit, that most certainly does not mean that nobody does (as you imply). What I wouldn't give a shit about is if anyone spoofed the account of "Just the way it is". That would actually be quite funny.
11. My thoughts on comparing Ed Schultz and Keith Olbermann with Glenn Beck.
Ed and Keith are liberals.
Glenn Beck is the reincarnation of Benito Mussolini. Five years ago, I promised Jesus Christ that I would never view Glenn Beck on TV or webcast. That's because Beck is satanic. Jesus told me that that was a very nice vow, and he expected me to keep it.
I have kept it. To the letter. It's nice to know that those dicksuckers SilverFiddle and Will, takes no shit off of liberals, Hart still are your friends.
Comments from anyone of any political stripe will be published as long as they follow my expanded commenting guidelines. All comments submitted will be subjected to these guidelines, whether you read them or not.
IMPORTANT: Comments from individuals whose profiles that are set to not display will likely NOT be published. Also, I CHECK profile links before publishing. | http://www.w-dervish.blogspot.com/2013/09/my-thoughts-on-discussion-with-one-of.html | dclm-gs1-138950002 | false | false | {
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0.067557 | <urn:uuid:53b71add-21a9-45cc-830e-3eb503a50367> | en | 0.920279 | Discussion in 'Fly Tying Step by Step / Video' started by GAT, Jan 20, 2013.
1. GAT Active Member
Posts: 2,985
Willamette Valley, OR
Ratings: +1,651 / 0
This is one of those fish'n flies that you probably wouldn't want to put in a frame but it does catch trout. It is based on a Turbo Leech pattern with the addition of a different color of marabou to the top of the body and tail. You can mix and match colors as you'd like. I'm using burgundy and brown colors for this one because it has served me well. I'm not really sure why I decided to tie a leech using two different colors but perhaps I'm covering two bases when it comes to what the fish see. Beats me. It was one of those experiments that worked.
Another good color combination is dark olive and light olive. You fish the fly it as you normally would any leech pattern in stillwaters. The use of a darker feather over a lighter colored feather of the same color may look like a bait fish to the trout. Maybe.
Hook: Daiichi 1270 (or any 3X long streamer hook) sizes 4-8
Thread: Brown 8/0 (or to match the general color of the pattern)
Bead: Gold (optional)
Tail/Body: 1 burgundy dyed blood quill marabou feather
Upper Tail/Body: 1 brown dyed blood quill marabou feather
Rib: Red wire (or copper or gold)
Step 1:
Install bead, clamp in vise, attach thread.
Step 2:
Lock down a length of wire. Run the thread to the rear and stop above the hook point.
Step 3:
Select a burgundy dyed marabou feather and tie in so the tail equals the hook length.
Step 4:
Run the thread forward to the bead.
Step 5:
Twist the butt ends of the marabou feather and wrap forward to create a body. Trim away excess butt ends.
Step 6:
Select a brown dyed marabou feather and tie in the butt end behind the bead so the fibers equals the the same length as burgundy dyed tail.
Step 7:
Hold the upper feather down and wrap the wire forward to the bead to create a rib and lock the feather fibers.
Tie off the wire. Trim the excess and whip finish the thread.
With this technique, you can create multi colored leeches by using additional upper marabou in different colors. I've tied a few three-tone leeches but they don't seem to work any better than the two-tone pattern.
2. Irafly Active Member
Posts: 3,088
Everett, Washington, USA.
Ratings: +596 / 1
This looks very much like a Rickards Stillwater Nymph. Rickards of course would never put a bead on his and he hackles his as well. I like the look of this bug.
3. Richard Torres Active Member
Posts: 1,337
Mill Creek
Ratings: +71 / 0
Gene I agree. I haven't seen a fish, prey or predator otherwise, that isn't two toned.
4. kelvin Active Member
Posts: 1,883
Ratings: +200 / 0
nice tie! | http://www.washingtonflyfishing.com/forum/index.php?threads/sbs-two-tone-turbo-leech.85792/ | dclm-gs1-138970002 | false | false | {
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0.039227 | <urn:uuid:b87af2db-e4d2-4383-ab9b-0041bf6efd0f> | en | 0.983901 | WBKO - News - Headlines
WKU Students Remember Cheryl Williamson
By: Lauren Forsythe Email
WKU student Cheryl Williamson, 24, died from a gunshot wound in Louisville over the weekend.
Police say Williamson was arguing with two men at a party when the argument turned deadly.
"I don't think that she would do anything to hurt anybody and from what i heard about the story. That's crazy," says Shade Blackman, who knew Williamson.
"It's crazy how people can't just have a disagreement without getting guns involved," Jessican Johnson, who also knew her, says.
WKU students are shocked after hearing about the death of their classmate.
"I met Cheryl here at school and we just became closer and closer," Marquis Scott says.
He says he was Cheryl's friend.
"She knew exactly what she wanted, and she knew she was close to her dream which was to graduate. After graduation she wanted to become big and glamorous," he says.
Williamson was a fashion major.
Friends say she made many of her own clothes, headbands and jewelry.
A professor says Williamson was expected to graduate in May, but that was cut short when she was shot at a party in Louisville Sunday morning around 3:30.
"It's disturbing and I think that it's just like something that's not understandable of why you know things like that happen, especially to nice people so soon. She had so much promise," Marquis says.
Police say Williamson was driven in a personal vehicle to the University of Louisville Hospital, where she later died in surgery just two hours later at 5:30 AM.
"It's just so sad. So, I just hope that everyone remembers Cheryl as she was. She was nice. She was loving. A girl who wanted it so much. And it was just unfortunate."
Marquis says he will always remember Cheryl for her smile, "She was just always loving, caring."
Police do not have any suspects in the case.
If you have any information, Louisville Metro Police are asking you to call 502-574-LMPD.
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0.362647 | <urn:uuid:11049268-feb0-41a6-8c0e-2f949b032e81> | en | 0.861342 | Page is a not externally linkable
- WebmasterWorld
-- Accessibility and Usability
---- Pagination
DrDoc - 5:12 am on Mar 10, 2006 (gmt 0)
How do you deal with navigation between sections? And how are summaries handled in case someone stumbles across a sub section before having read the article overview?
Thread source::
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0.025042 | <urn:uuid:5c79f034-47d2-407b-ab4a-73e5da304a69> | en | 0.96817 | Advertisers oppose tax-swap amendment listen
07/10/08 Seán Kinane
WMNF Drive-Time News Thursday
| Listen to this entire show:
Today the Tampa Bay Advertising Federation held a luncheon meeting to discuss the tax-swap amendment that will be on November’s ballot. Amendment 5 calls for a 25 percent reduction in property taxes. But local advertisers are concerned that up to $11 billion in new taxes would have to be raised, hurting their businesses.
If Amendment 5 passes, Floridians will no longer pay the Required Local Effort (RLE) portion of their property tax that goes toward funding schools. But the tax-swap amendment says that schools must be held harmless – the Legislature must make up that lost revenue. It’s likely that part of that gap will come from a new tax on services like advertising, according to Michael Anderson, the district government relations chair for the American Advertising Federation (AAF).
“I think it’s one of the biggest tax increases that we’re facing in Florida that could wreck our economy.â€
The tax-swap amendment could add an additional penny in state sales tax, but that would still leave a shortfall of up to $5.4 billion, making a new tax on services a near certainty, according to Jack Hebert, a lobbyist with the American Advertising Federation.
“We think that it ultimately leads to a services tax. We tried that experiment in 1987.â€
Hebert was referring to a 1987 tax on some services that was enacted by the state Legislature. "The net result was that it became such a nightmare," Herbert said, "that it became counterproductive and within six months the Legislature was forced to repeal it."
Florida’s advertising businesses would be especially affected if the tax swap amendment is passed and a tax on services is implemented, Anderson said. The ad industry could face $500 million in new taxes.
Hebert said a tax swap where Floridians pay less property tax and more in other taxes would reduce the federal income tax exemptions many homeowners claim for their property taxes – in effect reducing their tax savings by 18 percent. Hebert told the advertisers they should “create an atmosphere of fear and doubt†about Amendment 5 so that people will be inclined to vote “no.â€
Hebert said that removing tax exemptions for things such as ostrich feed and luxury sky boxes at sporting events would generate less than 1/20th of a percent of the revenues that would be needed to cover the lost property taxes earmarked for education.
State Sen. Victor Crist, a Republican representing parts of Pasco and Hillsborough, is in the advertising business and opposes Amendment 5. “It’s going to be very confusing, it is not a tax reduction.â€
WMNF asked Crist how the Legislature would make up the $11 billion shortfall if the tax-swap amendment passes.
"At this point it’s too early to tell. The scariest part of this is that they’re gambling on our children," Crist said. "This is a terrible idea."
State Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, told WMNF he is leaning toward voting against Amendment 5. “If I had to vote for it today, I’d probably oppose it.â€
Photo by Seán Kinane/WMNF
Amendment 5
previous WMNF coverage of Amendment 5, the “tax-swap†amendment
Protect Florida’s Future
American Advertising Federation, 4th district
Tampa Bay Advertising Federation
Sen. Victor Crist
Sen. Mike Fasano | http://www.wmnf.org/news_stories/5827 | dclm-gs1-139020002 | false | false | {
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0.087642 | <urn:uuid:329bbf12-0ec0-4378-8ffe-9a0ee1f8bd06> | en | 0.943505 | recent on-air advertisers
Now Playing
News/Talk Radio, WOKV
Where Jacksonville Listens ...
End of an Era For De Beers Diamonds
It's a business model that dates make 70 years. Ten times a year De Beers holds what are known as Sights. Traders are invited to view and hopefully buy their rough diamonds - this one's worth around $10,000 London's always been the sales venue - until now. Mihir Dalal's job is moving to Botswana. He's not going, but Varda Shine, head of sales, is.
Team Traffic
Avoid Traffic Delays
Tip Line: (904) 245-8672 | http://www.wokv.com/videos/news/end-of-an-era-for-de-beers-diamonds/vCDxHh/ | dclm-gs1-139030002 | false | false | {
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0.212358 | <urn:uuid:451a4b82-e608-4657-aeb0-3aa66cb3159e> | en | 0.957987 | Zach in Brasil//Lessons Learned: Jewtopia?
LESSON 1: Tofu
LESSON 2: Italians
Lesson 3: Atkins Diet
• Kate M
Loved this. Keep up the good work.
• Brazilian at Yale
Before making judgments about the Northeast of Brazil, it might be wise to broaden your circle of friendships, and try to visit as much of the region as possible. Your friends from Fortaleza may not know the difference between Jews and Israelis, but the Northeast of Brazil is actually the birth place of Judaic culture and settlement in the Americas, and the first American synagogue was actually built in Recife, where the Jewish population remains outstanding and lively. Also, just by the way, the Portuguese names for Jew (Judeu) and Israeli (Israelense) are no less different than in English.
But other than that.. hope you`re having fun.
• Ralph Maccio
But, I thought you were 110% Italian-American like me????
• Zach F.
That sentence was poorly phrased, I simply meant Northeastern Brazilians referring back to the Cearenses. I know that other parts of the Northeast have pretty substantial Jewish communities and Jewish histories, but Fortaleza (and Ceara as a whole) seems separate from that. There’s nothing here…and I’ve searched a ton.
• Steve Sacharoff
Well I know Brazil very well having been there and involved w/Brazilians for 30 years and I speak Portuguese well enough to be taken as a native- I don’t think there’s more anti-Jewish feeling even in the Northeast or Brazil in general than most other ” Catholic ” countries.Anyway Your poetry in Portuguese isn’t bad at all. Enjoy Brazil . | http://yaledailynews.com/weekend/2010/03/31/zach-in-brasillessons-learned-jewtopia/ | dclm-gs1-139120002 | false | false | {
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0.181642 | <urn:uuid:d3bc7426-38b0-42ae-8633-444a7b6b4c08> | en | 0.917593 | SliceTruck Coupons and Deals
found on BlackboardEats
Let us break down why this is the pizza you want. To start, the ratio of crust:sauce:cheese:toppings is pitch perfect. The crust (not too thick or thin) gets brushed with olive oil while maintaining a slightly crisp exterior, the sauce is made of San Marzano tomatoes (obviously) and the owners know not to waste time with anything but fresh whole milk mozzerella. Toppings are carefully curated and include standouts like crimini mushrooms and perfectly seasoned sausage (made in-house), but what really ties the za together is the final dusting of aged Parmigiano Reggiano and julienned basil at the end. Oh, and this cute, laid-back, neighborhood pizza joint becomes a zoo on the weekends so prepare to wait or go during the week to avoid a crowd.
Deal Price:
found on Groupon
Pizza is a party food, much like a piñata stuffed with miniature sausages. Break out the fun with this Groupon. Choose Between Two Options $30 for a pizza meal for four (up to a $63 value) Two three-topping 14-inch pizzas (up to a $46 value) One large house salad with red cabbage, olives, and pepperoncinis (an $8 value) Four housemade chocolate-chip cookies (a $4 value) Four cans of soda (a $5 value) $7 for $14 toward a whole pizza The menu includes traditional pizzas ($14 for 14”; $20 for 18”) with veggie toppings ($2–$2.50 each) such as cremini mushrooms and ...
Sponsored Links | http://yipit.com/business/business-record-310-944-2474/ | dclm-gs1-139130002 | false | false | {
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0.033841 | <urn:uuid:cf3bc191-3e4a-423f-bd7c-ab8625ae1095> | en | 0.684889 | zbMATH — the first resource for mathematics
a & b logic and
a | b logic or
!ab logic not
abc* right wildcard
"ab c" phrase
(ab c) parentheses
any anywhere an internal document identifier
au author, editor ai internal author identifier
ti title la language
so source ab review, abstract
py publication year rv reviewer
cc MSC code ut uncontrolled term
Growth dynamics of cell assemblies. (English) Zbl 1178.37044
The authors study an evolutionary network model of pulse-coupled neurons in which the changes of the evolutionary coupling strengths are based on Hebbian synaptic plasticity. Furthermore, the paper shows that the ongoing changes of the evolutionary network’s nodal-and -coupling dynamics will result in group synchrony and sync-dependent circuits.
37F20Combinatorics and topology
92B20General theory of neural networks (mathematical biology)
68T05Learning and adaptive systems | http://zbmath.org/?q=an:1178.37044 | dclm-gs1-139140002 | false | false | {
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0.026632 | <urn:uuid:447cadd6-e4ff-484b-be8f-b87cfd2e80b9> | en | 0.931982 | Previous Entry Add to Memories Share Next Entry
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Cod-liver oil For the Skin - the Best and Natural Way to Hold your Sight of the Skin Healthy and Young
You among thousand people which search for a magic wand which can smooth them, bright, and a shining skin? It is good, then you should arrive a correct place. In this article we will discuss, as cod-liver oil for a skin works.
Until recently, cod-liver oil additions have been connected with warm problems, neurobehavioral disorders, an incorporated pain, the Arthritis, etc. However, from late many scientific researches have proved that cod-liver oil for a skin actually works; again because of two essential omega3 fats DHA and EPA represent in oil.
You could know that DHA and EPA - necessary omega3 fats which are necessary a body, but cannot be made a body. Therefore, to wish levels of these fats, food addition of fish is necessary. Any deficiency of these fats leads to impetuous ignition in a body which is at the bottom of occurrence of spots, and other conditions as Psoriaz, Ekzema, etc.
Researches have proved that regular consumption of high cod-liver oil DHA for conditions of ignition of a skin can not only help to reduce to you a pain and testing itch in these conditions, but also will reduce risk of these disorders of a skin. It, because; after eaten, the body can transform DHA in from the medical point of view of the known antiseditious agent by name of Resolvin D2; thus, operates a cycle of ignition of a body.
Fats Omega3 help with a delay of signs of ageing - thin sides, wrinkles, buttercups, an age stain, etc. you will be surprised to know that one of the general original causes of all these signs - loss of collagen and elastin in a body; and cod-liver oil amazes a target apple, reducing free radical activity in a body which in turn prevents loss of collagen and elastin.
Also it is proved that omega3 fats raise collagen manufacture, thus help reduction of thin sides on the person, a neck, and a hand. It increases a blood-groove to a skin and keeps humidity in a skin; therefore force a skin to look softer and pliable.
As the best results search for cod-liver oil for a skin which has undergone to molecular process of distillation and is new. To check up freshness, you can be reduced the open soft gel containing oil and it to catch a test smell. It is a lot of times, manufacturers add artificial aroma to hide rancidity of oil. Besides, a suspicious eructation and long metal after taste, consumption of prorancid oil increases free radical activity in a body.
Bonus cod-liver oil for skin health has antigrowing old components as astaxanthin and lycopene; and they help with skin rejuvenescence from within and help you to reach a young and bright sight for which you grieved.
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0.125995 | <urn:uuid:ff138432-c335-4c8f-971f-196e13be39af> | en | 0.979239 | The Star (Nairobi)
Kenya: The Real Cost of Med School
How do you get into medical school? For a long time only government-sponsored students were given such an opportunity. These were the lucky few students who had not only outstanding grades but in addition had the fortune of being selected for the course.
I say lucky few as there were many who had the grades to qualify for medical school but were not fortunate enough to be picked by the Universities Joint Admission Board.
As such a medical class used to consist of approximately 80 students selected from the whole country where over 200,000 students sit for the national exams annually.
But what happened to that student whose dream was to become a doctor yet due to some unforeseeable misfortune is unable to perform to his capacity? What happened to that student with outstanding grades yet he was not selected amongst the 80?
Perhaps it is such questions that led to the introduction of self-sponsored students even in the school of medicine, though it took slightly longer in comparison to other courses. Finally, more students were availed the opportunity to pursue their dreams. But it's not that easy.
If you are fortunate and happen to be selected to pursue the course as a government-sponsored student, you have a lighter load to bear. In true definition of the term, the government pays for your accommodation and tuition fees.
You part with Sh28,500 in the first year and Sh26,000 for subsequent years and a little extra to meet your nutritional needs and supplementary books if you choose not to rely on the library.
Sometimes it's not really a choice as you shall find with only two copies of an 'in-demand' book, you can hardly claim to have a fully stocked library at your disposal.
Worse still, you can't brag of being 'up-to-date' as perhaps the most recent publication will be the daily newspapers, but luckily in the field of medicine, the location of the heart won't be changing in the next five or a hundred years, or we hope not. For Higher Education Loans Board beneficiaries, you simply part with Sh8,000.
Self sponsored students have to cater to their own needs. In the first year, you part with Sh 474,500 and for subsequent years Sh464,500. If you happen to be a Helb beneficiary, you will at least pay Sh400,000.
With accommodation, food and textbooks to buy, I leave it to you to make the final estimate. Do remember it takes five to six years of medical training before you can officially back up your claims of being a doctor with an authentic degree.
But why do I relate to you the financial burdens behind becoming a doctor? When word went around that there are 'plans' to increase the fees of medical and engineering students, the school or at least the student body was in uproar, more so the self-sponsored students.
The price for following their dreams was proving too costly and perhaps it was time for the students to stand together (read as walk together peacefully) in solidarity.
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0.260518 | <urn:uuid:076d55a9-0fda-4e27-b6d8-3ec2bf866cfb> | en | 0.937706 | Take the tour ×
Is there any app or setting that will automatically check in to foursquare when I arrive at a venue without having to take out the phone and click the app? Preferably something where I can mark "favorite" venues to check in to, such as work.
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There is an app for iOS called "Future Checkin" that does this. – Krampus Sep 21 '10 at 17:26
Won't this drain your battery in a hurry? Leaving the GPS as active would be brutal for battery life. Does foursquare accept cell network based location for checkins? – Josh Sep 21 '10 at 19:22
@Josh Yes, foursquare does accept cell network locations. I usually check in to work off the cell location because I don't get GPS inside the building and I forget to do it in the parking lot. Now, if I had an app that would check in from the parking lot automatically for me... ;-) – shimonyk Sep 21 '10 at 20:30
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5 Answers
up vote 5 down vote accepted
Tasker can do it, using the foursquare API and the HTTP POST task
In the http post task, fill out the form as follows:
1. Server:port -> user:pass@api.foursquare.com
2. Path -> /v1/checkin
3. data ->
vid is the numeric id you can get from foursquare.com by looking up the venue. I have it set to not share auto checkins with others. You can also use a tasker variable for VID and define the VID from other events.. IE, I have my office assigned by 'cell near', same with the park where I walk my dogs.. I just call the named tasker task and it checks me in when I get to that location. I follow it up with a 'Notify' action to let me know it checked it, and what venueid (this was mainly for testing..) You will want to use a phone number login for foursquare, not a emailaddress.. the @ sign in the email will confuse the http post function.
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That did it perfectly, thank you! – shimonyk Oct 25 '10 at 13:55
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Some of these may meet your needs better than others. Not all are free.
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Those are what I am looking for, but the reviews on all four each say they don't actually work. Have you used any of them, and what was your experience? – shimonyk Sep 21 '10 at 20:15
I've not. I'm not a big FourSquare user. – Krampus Sep 21 '10 at 20:36
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The old HTTP POST task method with Tasker doesn't work anymore, ever since Foursquare updated their api.
This FsIntents app does the job though. Works really well!
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I would also suggest Radii Auto Checkin.
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Your getting into Tasker or Locale territory here (both are apps you can download from the marketplace). Both apps allow you to configure anything you want on your phone and would probably allow you to configure this. You would need to setup GPS points and actions that are triggered by entering those GPS points in either app. Keep in mind this will increase battery usage as your GPS will have to beacon (per how you configure it) to determine if you enter those locations.
Might actually take less time and be all around easier to make a shortcut on your phone to Foursquare and just open it. Rather than go through and program one of those apps which would take some time.
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I have Locale, no idea how to hook it to foursquare though. Taking the phone out of my pocket to click the link is easy enough, but an annoying step and I sometimes forget. – shimonyk Sep 21 '10 at 17:26
Take a look at Tasker. It will cost a few dollars and have a very steep learning curve, but once you understand how it works it is easy to configure it to interact with other apps. I haven't used Locale before so I'm not sure step by step how to do what you want, but I think it can be done with Locale too. – Webs Sep 21 '10 at 18:19
So I am looking at Tasker, I can start the foursquare app, but I can't see how to make it actually check in. How exactly were you able to automate the check in part? Thanks – shimonyk Sep 23 '10 at 21:52
Sorry, I haven't tried this myself, I just know it's possible with Tasker. I'm not really an expert with either application so I may not be able to provide a lot of help in configuring tasker to do this. You might want to ask another question here for help with that if you can't figure it out yourself. – Webs Sep 27 '10 at 13:51
Fist time I have been let down on stack exchange. How do you ^know^ it is possible if you have never seen it done? Your answer was "spend some money on a wild guess I have never seen work" :-( – shimonyk Sep 27 '10 at 14:38
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0.022314 | <urn:uuid:52fed084-c1fe-46c9-ba87-33bac0b8af4b> | en | 0.958956 | Saudi Arabia plans for first elections
October 14, 2003
Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy, decided Monday to hold its first elections, announcing a vote to create local councils in the conservative Gulf monarchy.
The step comes at a time when the Saudi royal family is under pressure to bring democratic reform--especially since the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States.
The Cabinet did not say when elections would take place. Elections will be held in 14 municipalities throughout the country, with only half their members being elected, the statement said.
SCHNAPPS FOR THE CROW: German police apprehended a vicious crow by getting it drunk on bait laced with alcohol, authorities said Monday.
The bird eluded its captors after attacking a woman and a young girl over the weekend until cat food soaked in high-alcohol fruit schnapps proved too tempting to resist.
"The crow was completely smashed," said a spokesman for police in the western city of Dortmund.
Police said the crow was sleeping off its hangover in a local animal home.
COCAINE SEIZED: Spanish police have seized nearly eight tons of cocaine hidden in a Senegalese-flagged boat, the second largest haul in the country's history, officials said Monday.
Police arrested 31 people in connection with the operation, which brings the total amount of cocaine seized by Spanish authorities this year to more than 38 tons, sources working on the national drugs plan said.
BOLIVIA PROTESTS: Thousands took to the streets in the capital, chanting anti-government slogans despite an announcement Monday by Bolivia's president that he will shelve controversial plans for natural gas exports.
The plans to sell gas to the United States and Mexico had already provoked massive protests in which at least 16 people have been killed.
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Birds are the direct descendants of dinosaurs and, following the giant reptiles' sudden demise some 65 million years ago, their closest living relatives today. The only reason a robin, for instance, looks so different from a raptor is because, over time, it's evolved regulatory proteins to suppress hereditary dinosaur-like characteristics such as tails, teeth and forearms. Armed with that knowledge, palaeontologists at Montana State University in the United States are trying to reverse-engineer a hybrid dinosaur by tweaking a chicken embryo using gene therapy to revive several dormant traits inherited from its dino ancestors.
According to the researchers, obtaining a chickenosaurus or dinohen as they jokingly call it or any genetically do-it-yourself dinosaur put together using such techniques would be unlikely to be a perfect replica of the ancient animal and more liable to result in a smorgasbord prototype combining different features and forms. The scientists say that while the hybrid might have dinosaur characteristics, such as claws, fangs or even a tail-like appendage, there would be no Jurassic Park-style ending to the story, since they would only be playing around with the chicken's development and not its genome. That even if it somehow managed to escape, the chances of it reproducing successfully are zero and the results of mating would only be another ordinary chicken.
At the same time, it should be recognised that playing around is exactly what they're doing here because if the actions of some genes are enhanced, there's no telling of what could actually happen. Just because the technology is available doesn't mean maverick science ought to rush headlong into it without considering its consequences. Scientists, in fact, might do better using the time they have before such new things are possible to reflect on what they would mean, especially the ethical and environmental questions they might raise.
For example, while reverse-engineering a critically endangered species or an animal on the brink of extinction is certainly laudable, since it would bring it back into an already existing and compatible ecosystem, doing the same thing for something extinct for millions of years, whose ecological niche no longer exists, could be disastrous. Add to that the fact that the person in charge of the experiment also has to sell a book he has co-written, called How to Build a Dinosaur: Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever, and the whole project has unsavoury implications. | http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-03-11/edit-page/28031675_1_dinosaur-gene-therapy-ancient-animal | dclm-gs1-139240002 | false | true | {
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183 art quotes about Journey | Share this page of quotes about Journey on Facebook | Submit more Journey art quotes
To get where you want to go you can't only do what you like. (Peter Abrahams)
I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. (Fred Allen)
You won't arrive. It is an endless search. (Sherwood Anderson)
On this road we don't remember / Our beginning on this road / Life goes on beyond its end / Toward mysterious surprises... (Tony Anony)
Our old experiences, memories and fears guide us down the present path. It's not so much that you are the artist; you are the conduit. (Nick Bantock)
I feel a drastic turn in the road of my art coming soon. (Moncy Barbour)
If you keep following your own footprints, you will end up where you began, but if you stretch yourself your artwork will flourish. (Donna Baspaly)
There are roads out of the secret place within us which we must all move as we go to touch others. (Romare Bearden)
The life of an artist is a continuous journey, the path long and never ending. (Justin Beckett)
The detachment from my original place of birth leads me on a path of extended 'sense of home'... My sense of home is fragmented and compiled of numerous parts. (Anya Belyat)
She was wrapped up and sold coming back from an old fashioned walk. (Irving Berlin)
-A Point of Age
We must travel in the direction of our fear. (John Berryman)
road, n. A strip of land along which one may pass from where it is too tiresome to be to where it is futile to go. (Ambrose Bierce)
Nothing can happen nowhere. The locale of the happening always colours the happening, and often, to a degree, shapes it. (Elizabeth Bowen)
The truth is of course is that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time. (David Bowie)
-The Fall of Atlantis...
The road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler than the road built in despair, even though they might both lead to the same destination. (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
For some strange reason, no matter where I go, the place is always called 'here.' (Ashleigh Brilliant)
I'll walk where my own nature would be leading: It vexes me to choose another guide. (Emily Bronte)
In business or in life, don't follow the wagon tracks too closely. (H. Jackson Brown, Jr.)
The iron gate ground its teeth to let me pass! (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path. (Siddhartha Gautama, Buddha)
What ever our wandering, our happiness will always be found within a narrow compass, and in the middle of the objects more immediately within our reach. (Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton)
Only the journey matters. (Harry Callahan)
-Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance...
Walk with me to the edge of the city, / Take off your shoes and feel the earth. / Remember who you are. You are a star. / A mountain, that fountain in the sun. / Your heart is the velvet cave / Where birds sing. (Julia Cameron)
If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's. (Joseph Campbell)
The hero journey is inside of you; tear off the veils and open the mystery of your self. (Joseph Campbell)
I think of art and painting as a journey, not simply a destination. I believe an artist needs to start by painting 100 works. Love the journey. (Ken Campbell)
When I walk I leave the path behind. (Vittorio Canta)
Go as far as you can see; when you get there you'll be able to see farther. (Thomas Carlyle)
If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. (Lewis Carroll)
We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road - the one 'less traveled by' - offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth. (Rachel Carson)
It's got to be the going, not the getting there, that's good. (Harry Chapin)
Many a painting has taken me on a wild goose chase far from where I thought the destination would be. Sometimes these pieces turn out to be the best expressions of all. (Rod Charlesworth)
If you cry 'forward,' you must without fail make plain in what direction to go. (Anton Chekhov)
If you march your Winter Journeys you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin's egg. (Apsley Cherry-Garrard)
New roads: new ruts. (G. K. Chesterton)
Painting is a companion with whom one may walk a great part of life's journey. (Winston Churchill)
If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere. (Frank A. Clark)
Painting is a journey. It is the way I mark my path through life. (Virginia Cobb)
For the warrior, there is no 'better' or 'worse'; everyone has the necessary gifts for his particular path. (Paulo Coelho)
Allow yourself to enjoy the journey. Everything you draw or paint does not have to be a finished masterpiece. (Michele Cooper)
Imagine the wheel of time turning in a seemingly endless round, revealing that the beginning is the end of another beginning. This is the cyclic nature of the inward journey of creativity, which is by nature back and down - back in time and down into the soul's depths. (Phil Cousineau)
My body has certainly wandered a good deal, but I have an uneasy suspicion that my mind has not wandered enough. (Noel Coward)
Nothing shortens a journey so pleasantly as an account of misfortunes at which the hearer is permitted to laugh. (Quentin Crisp)
Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. (Anthony J. D'Angelo)
What a long, strange trip it's been. (Grateful Dead)
The trodden path of an Artist is paved by passion and commitment. It is a journey which eventually leads to the joy of bringing forth creativity in others. (Patrice Donnelly)
I feel more like I do now than when I got here. (David Dory)
They are not long, the days of wine and roses: Out of a misty dream our path emerges for a while, then closes within a dream. (Ernest Dowson)
How many roads must a man walk down / Before you call him a man? (Bob Dylan)
Is the end result of this journey an attractive piece of art? Maybe yes or no, depending on who has taken the time to view it. (Sterling Edwards)
Footfalls echo in the memory, / Down the passage which we did not take, / Toward the door we never opened / Into the rose-garden. (T. S. Eliot)
Home is where one starts from. (T. S. Eliot)
All the way to heaven is heaven. (Canon Farrar)
If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads. (Anatole France)
Every canvas is a journey all its own. (Helen Frankenthaler)
To create your own vision and nurture your growth as an artist while the world around you expects conformity is a difficult journey. Many take the easier route and give in to the expectations. (Nina Allen Freeman)
The only way round is through. (Robert Frost)
How often I found where I should be going only by setting out for somewhere else. (Buckminster Fuller)
Over the days of this journey a kind of energetic serenity has set in. Something happens with the mixture of space and time. I feel a sense of story. (Robert Genn)
A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective. (Andre Gide)
When you're lost in those woods, it sometimes takes you a while to realize that you are lost. (Elizabeth Gilbert)
A wandering minstrel I – / A thing of shreds and patches, / Of ballads, songs and snatches, / And dreamy lullaby! (W. S. Gilbert)
The most important thing for me as a painter is to get out of my own way. (David Lloyd Glover)
One never goes so far as when one doesn't know where one is going. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
The greatest explorer on this earth never takes voyages as long as those of the man who descends to the depth of his heart. (Julien Green)
It's the Journey that counts. (Rue Anne Hass)
One of the pleasantest things in the world is going on a journey; but I like to go by myself. (William Hazlitt)
One never reaches home, but wherever friendly paths intersect the whole world looks like home for a time. (Hermann Hesse)
Walking is man's best medicine. (Hippocrates)
Drive slow and enjoy the scenery - drive fast and join the scenery. (Douglas Horton)
We're still not where we're going, but we're not where we were. (Natash Jasefowitz)
It's not always a linear path. Sometimes you have to take a 5-year detour in order to finish properly what you've started. Time is relative. It hardly matters at all. (Melissa Jean)
I am no longer afraid of becoming lost, because the journey back always reveals something new, and that is ultimately good for the artist. (Billy Joel)
The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows whither he is going. (David Starr Jordan)
From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached. (Franz Kafka)
There is only one road to follow, that of analysis of the basic elements in order to arrive ultimately at an adequate graphic expression. (Wassily Kandinsky)
A smile goes a long way, but you must start it on its journey. (Helen Keller)
That is the road we all have to take – over the Bridge of Sight into eternity. (Soren Kierkegaard)
The only reason a road is good as every wanderer knows / Is just because of the homes, the homes, the homes to which one goes (Joyce Kilmer)
I guess when you turn off the main road, you have to be prepared to see some funny houses. (Stephen King)
Art leads the way. When I don't know which path to take, I look to art... (Laura Kruger)
Passage: atmospheric fluidity, the way from realism to poetry. (Andre L'Hote)
The trail was bigger and better... but it didn't lead home. (Debra Langille-Ballma)
Art has no beginning or end because it is a continuous journey. (Brian M. LaSaga)
We are all pilgrims on an elusive and endless road... Despite our attempts to build lives on stone foundations, our spirits continuously flow. Endless streams of consciousness ripple through our minds. (Anthony Lawlor)
It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters, in the end. (Ursula K. LeGuin)
It's not where you are today that counts. It's where you are headed. (Arthur F. Lenehan)
How to begin the journey? You need only to take the first step. When? There is always now. (George B. Leonard)
The safest road to Hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. (C. S. Lewis)
I will go anywhere, as long as it is forward. (David Livingstone)
Mistress eagle, where bound / so early in the morning, / so steadily flapping down highways of air? (Antonio Machado)
We advance on our journey only when we face our goal, when we are confident and believe we are going to win out. (Orison Swett Marden)
While traveling our separated roads through life, we are also either road signs or potholes on the roads of others. (Eugene J. Martin)
How do you expect to arrive at the end of your own journey if you take the road to another man's city? (Thomas Merton)
For this is the journey that men make, to find themselves. If they fail in this, it doesn't matter much what else they find. (James A. Michener)
-Tropic of Capricorn...
We must get going. Tomorrow, tomorrow... (Henry Miller)
Even on the road to hell, flowers can make you smile. (Deng Ming-Dao)
Mind and body have taken the journey, but the real home place is your own heart. It is infinite. And so wherever you go, you are always home. (Mooji)
If you aren't going all the way, why go at all? (Joe Namath)
When the wind calls, / You know, / That somewhere in the mountains, / It has found the answers that you were looking for. / The pull of the horizon overcomes the inertia of reason... / And you just have to go (Vikram Oberoi)
Along the road you travel, may the miles be a thousand times more lovely than lonely. (Douglas Pagels)
Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow. (Norman Vincent Peale)
Each one of us must make his own path through life... The journey of life is not paved in blacktop; it is not brightly lit, and it has no road signs. It is a rocky path through the wilderness. (M. Scott Peck)
Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance. (Alexander Pope)
Every path has its puddle. (English proverb)
Infinite are the paths and infinite the opinions. (Ramakrishna)
He who limps is still walking. (Joan Rivers)
It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go. (Jim Rohn)
Each of us must make his own true way, and when we do, that way will express the universal way. (Suzuki Roshi)
Does the road wind up-hill all the way? / Yes, to the very end. / Will the day's journey take the whole long day? / From morn to night, my friend. (Christina Rossetti)
There is only one search: wandering... no dogma and no heresy. (Rumi)
Depending on the path you blaze, the trail you leave for others to follow may be either well trodden or abandoned. (Ian Semple)
The moving toward one's inner self is a long pilgrimage for a painter. It offers many temporary successes and high points, but impels him on toward the more adequate image. (Ben Shahn)
Journeys end in lovers meeting. (William Shakespeare)
There are no shortcuts to any place worth going. (Beverly Sills)
Wherever I'm led, I'll go. (Mary Smart)
No journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within. (Lillian Smith)
The road of life is paved with emotion. (William Carmen Soyak III)
When the snake decided to go straight, he didn't get anywhere. (William Stafford)
If you are looking down while you are walking, it is better to walk uphill because the ground is nearer. (Gertrude Stein)
Home and journey together constitute the creative polarity of the heart, the two dimensions we must cultivate if we want to 'develop the heart.' (David Steindl-Rast)
Old and young, we are all on our last cruise. (Robert Louis Stevenson)
The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too. (Saint Teresa of Avila)
Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going. (Paul Theroux)
Our path is sometimes rough and sometimes smooth; nonetheless, life is a constant journey... whatever we do is regarded as our journey, our path. That path consists of opening oneself to the road, opening oneself to the steps we are about to take. (Chogyam Trungpa)
Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. (Mark Twain)
Get a bicycle. You will not regret it. If you live. (Mark Twain)
A driving ambition is of little use if you're on the wrong road. (Frank Tyger)
There are many paths leading to the top of Mount Fuji, but there is only one summit - love. (Morihei Ueshiba)
-written in the dust on the back of a bus, Wickenburg, Arizona...
It's hard to make a comeback when you haven't been anywhere. (Author unknown)
It is this broken road with pitfalls and sharp turns and unexpected traverses that has brought me joy and adventure. (Alice Walker)
Sometimes the journey is more rewarding than the destination, even those destinations that are never quite reached. (Clint Watson)
Our work is to make ourselves visible in the world. This is the soul's individual journey, and the soul would much rather fail at its own life than succeed at someone else's. (David Whyte)
My journey is technical complexity. (Peter Wolf)
You're either on the bus or off the bus. (Tom Wolfe)
You can't go home again. (Tom Wolfe)
I don't look where I'm going, I look where I've been. (Helen van Wyk)
If you ask me why I left China, it's just that I went for a stroll and strolled too far away. (Mu Xin)
When the elephant decides to walk through the village, all the dogs come out and bark. (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi)
The person attempting to travel two roads at once will get nowhere. (Xun Zi)
The truth is on the march and nothing will stop it. (Emile Zola)
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3 Answers
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How can I use autoclean for my repository? – sorush-r Mar 8 '12 at 5:46
Running the command doesn't work? Have you tried bleachbit ? apt-get install bleachbit. This is a cleanup utility that erases various caches, delete cookies, clears internet history, removes unused localisations, shreds logs, and deletes temporary files. It doesn't remove anything you can't live without, so it's safe to use and all it does is clear out logs and caches. [link] (bleachbit.sourceforge.net) 'BleachBit - cleanup tool for Ubuntu' – LnxSlck Mar 12 '12 at 14:11
I need to delete old packages from a local repository, say in /home/soroush/repo – sorush-r Mar 12 '12 at 18:03
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You are not saying what you used to make your local repository in the first place. I would recommend that you use apt-mirror
This can mirror whole Ubuntu distributions or just ppa's if you want.
It keeps the repo up to date, so you do not have to worry about deleting old packages manually, it does this for you.
You basically just need to run one command every time to update.
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For removing the obsolete packages, try
sudo apt-get autoremove
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0.148516 | <urn:uuid:0deb659c-510e-4936-b5ab-e3a9cb6a4114> | en | 0.971802 | WSJ: After Long Downturn, Beer Sales Are Back
Discussion in 'Beer News' started by dauss, Oct 3, 2012.
1. dauss
dauss Member
I'm not sure what they meant by "many specialty brews have a heavier taste". I believe it's called flavor.
2. leedorham
leedorham Member
It was a misprint. They meant "Many specialty brew drinkers have a heavier ass."
cavedave likes this.
3. racer2k
racer2k Member
I believe it was referencing the fact that specialty beer is real beer vs. BMC which is flavored carbonated water...
4. cevafm
cevafm Member
Just wait till consumers see the price increases this year. I just had to raise the price on Shocktop $3.00 a case from September to October because of increases from A-B
Bud and the rest are up almost a dollar a case. 30 packs of Bud will be almost $30 in the next few years. Craft brewers are doing a much better job keeping the increases under control and I think that is another reason why they are outpacing the growth of BMC.
5. Retail1LO
Retail1LO Member
I think what you're seeing is Bud and the rest using the craft brew market to take advantage of their market, which represents the vast majority of all beer drinkers. They figure if craft brew can exact "x" amoutn of dollars out of their loyalists, then why can't they? I mean...BMC operates with relative impunity the same way cigarette manufacturers do. They know their clientelle isn't going anywhere. They're hooked on the price, which is still lower than most other beers at similar volume. They have history on their side. When craft prices go gives BMC a chance to make more money. Price increases aren't likely to scare loyalists away until their prices surpass that of craft by a decent margin.
6. otispdriftwood
otispdriftwood Member
New York
7. Arbitrator
Arbitrator Member
I'm not sure I understand this. A few years ago, in my area, $6 to $8 six-packs for high-quality craft were common. Now the price has shifted upward about 20% for many of the same sixers, not to mention new breweries which seem to think they can command top dollar out of the gate ($15 for High Water, LOL). After the hop shortage, prices jumped up and never looked back.
I mean, I can and will afford it, but I don't subscribe to the notion that craft price increases are 'under control.'
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0.073808 | <urn:uuid:bb4641fa-12a9-460c-808b-6482d45eaa48> | en | 0.946619 | Juggle-Bandhi http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/feed/entries/atom 2013-12-12T16:25:28+05:30 Apache Roller (incubating) http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/aap_ki_seva AAP ki seva Jug Suraiya 2013-12-12T14:45:56+05:30 2013-12-12T14:45:56+05:30 <p>The results of the Delhi assembly elections have political-watchers wondering what’s up. Or rather, what’s AAP. Arvind Kejriwal’s fledgling party’s showing at the polls – in which it toppled the reigning Congress, and came to within a whisker of pipping the BJP at the post – has not only led to a hung assembly but has created an unprecedented situation in the hurly-burly arena of Indian politics: none of the contestants seems to be in any hurry to form a government and occupy the gaddi.<br /><br />The reasons for this uncharacteristic reluctance on the part of netas and would-be netas to seize the reins of power are not far to seek. Neither of the two parties which is in a position to try and form a government – the BJP and AAP – is eager to do so, because AAP has made it clear that it will neither support or seek the support of either of the two biggies, the Congress or the BJP. AAP appears to be hoping for a re-poll, in which it might well emerge with a workable majority.<br /><br />In the meantime, however, the Capital is witnessing a strange phenomenon: what might be called the politics not of competitive populism but the politics of competitive politeness, with each of the players urging the others to go first and occupy the seat of office.<br /><br />Remarking on the hustle and bustle – mainly the hustle, in all senses of the term – of political life, a British statesman once observed: “The halls of fame are always full./ Some go in by the door called ‘Push’, and some by the door called ‘Pull’.’’ Paraphrased to suit Indian conditions, the door marked “Push” would be changed to a door marked ‘Shove’, because when push comes to shove, that’s exactly what the inhabitants of the country’s corridors of power are wont to do.<br /><br />Will the ‘Pehle AAP’ climate that Delhi’s winter of discontent is currently witnessing be a fleeting trend or might it become an established trend, as the country looks beyond the state elections to the parliamentary polls next year? With wild cards – be it AAP or the yet-to-materialise Third Front – threatening to play spoilsport for both the mainstream parties, the country might well witness a lot of political skating on thin ice when it comes to the formation of minority governments with dubious life expectancies. <br /><br />In such situations, where only fools would rush in where angels fear to tread, politely urging one’s opponent to go first could become a part of survival instinct in India’s political community. If our body politic were to learn politesse, from the aftermath of the Delhi elections, it might be the first, though not last, seva that AAP will have done for us.<br /><br /></p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/aap_s_win_is_a_david_vs_goliath_story AAP’s win is a David-vs-Goliath story Jug Suraiya 2013-12-11T14:57:49+05:30 2013-12-11T14:57:49+05:30 <p>The Indian political scene is all abuzz at what’s been happening. Or, more aptly, what’s been AAP-ening. Arvind Kejriwal’s spectacular Delhi debut as leader of a movement that is in the process of becoming a proper party has political pundits and other crystal ball-gazers scratching their heads in bemusement. How did little, seemingly lightweight AAP take on not just one but two heavyweights, the Congress and the BJP, and knock one of them out for the count and give the other a black eye. Inevitably, AAP’s victory invites comparison with the Biblical story of David and Goliath, the small shepherd boy who, armed only with a slingshot, defeated the huge, heavily armed Goliath. <br /><br />Political analysts, military strategists and market researchers have all used the David and Goliath analogy to try and explain how and why it is that the little guy wins with surprising frequency over the big guy. Shorn of professional jargon, the answer seems to lie in a reverse asymmetry: Goliath’s overconfidence in his sheer size, and David’s can-do attitude which compensated for his smallness.</p> <p>Where spectators of the David-Goliath encounter saw a giant confronting a stripling, David only saw a target – all the better for being so big – for his slingshot. The moral of the story is that whether on the political battlefield or in marketing warfare, the smaller contender succeeds because of trying harder than the larger adversary. One of the most successful advertising campaigns of all time was that for the American car rental company, Avis, which was the second largest in the business after Hertz. Turning its apparent disadvantage – its smaller size – into an advantage Avis launched an advertising campaign which proclaimed: ‘No. 2 -- that’s why we try harder’.<br /><br />In boxing parlance there is an old saying: the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Proponents of guerrilla tactics have demonstrated the truth of this observation in fields as far-flung as Vietnam and Afghanistan. Widespread voter anger against rampant corruption and misgovernance led to the Congress debacle in Delhi, where the BJP narrowly missed being beaten by AAP, the perceived underdog whose USP – Unique Selling Proposition – is its promise to usher in a new style of politics which is not dependent on money or muscle power, both of which are the prerogatives of big parties.<br /><br />AAP is now planning to spread its wings and go national. Its growing number of supporters will applaud this decision. But what if, in time, AAP itself becomes a big party, with its attendant trappings of money and muscle, as Arvind Kejriwal’s mentor, Anna Hazare, had warned? Having beated Goliath, can David become a Goliath himself? Not necessarily. But should it happen, another David will turn up to challenge the neo-grant. The small guy, the aam admi, will always be the nemesis of the big guy, the corrupt and complacent neta.<br /><br /><em>jug.suraiya@timesgroup.com</em></p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/marketing_modi_the_product_that_the_pm_hopeful_sells_best_is_himself Marketing Modi: The product that the PM hopeful sells best is himself Jug Suraiya 2013-12-10T21:30:13+05:30 2013-12-10T21:30:13+05:30 <p>Even as the Congress party`s Akbar Road headquarters were shrouded in gloom following the results of state elections, the business community, not just in India but across the world, celebrated what was seen as a step forward for Narendra Modi in his march to claim the prime ministerial gaddi in Delhi. Indeed, even before the elections a multinational bank had in its official report endorsed Modi`s candidature as PM as being good for India`s investment climate, which has been suffering from a `policy paralysis` on the part of the incumbent government.</p> <p>In contrast to the Congress-led UPA government, the BJP and, in particular, its prime ministerial hopeful, Narendra Modi, are seen as being more business-friendly. Is the BJP`s 'business-friendly' image justified? Yes and no. Or rather, no and yes.</p> <p>First the 'no'. The BJP has persistently resisted one of UPA`s major economic reforms — foreign direct investment in retail. Advocates for FDI in retail have argued that if organisations like Tesco could enter the Indian market, it would help both farmers and consumers by cutting out exploitative middlemen who are largely responsible for high food prices — one of the primary reasons for the defeat of the Congress.</p> <p>Why has the BJP been against FDI in retail? Because one of its core consti-tuencies is that of the kirana shop community of petty retailers who fear they may lose out if multinational supermarkets — with their economies of scale which enable them to sell their products at very competitive prices — come into the country. Unlike supermarkets which accept credit cards, kirana shops largely deal in cash, most if not all of which is untaxed and flows into the so-called 'parallel economy'.</p> <p>Despite such anomalies, the BJP has managed to project a 'business-friendly' image. This is chiefly due to its having adopted Narendra Modi as its national mascot. Modi's claim to 'business-friendly' fame is mainly thanks to his much tom-tommed 'Gujarat model' of development and the foreign investment melas he has organised in the state which reportedly have yielded handsome dividends.</p> <p>Though his detractors have questioned both the 'Gujarat model' — which they say has increased economic and social inequalities — and the investment figures quoted by Modi, the Gujarat CM has succeeded in convincing many, if not most, in the business community that he is a man who means business, in all senses of that term.</p> <p>And of course he is quite right. Modi does mean business. And the first business he means is the business of selling his most important product: himself. Or rather, the image of himself that he has created in the public mind of being a good administrator who knows how to get things done and who can revive the country`s flagging fortunes.</p> <p>Today, the NaMo brand is bigger and more saleable than the BJP`s lotus brand of Hindutva. The post-Godhra riots? Snoopgate? Forget such minor glitches. NaMo is the man to put your money on to run the country.</p> <p>The NaMo brand has become an industry, selling everything from Modi face masks and Modi kurtas to children`s toys, coffee mugs and, reportedly, a range of hosiery which includes underwear.</p> <p>Whether or not he becomes PM, Modi is unquestionably worthy of one honour: The Salesman of the Year award.</p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/kashmir_s_article_of_faith Kashmir’s Article of faith Jug Suraiya 2013-12-07T10:01:56+05:30 2013-12-07T10:01:56+05:30 <p>In medical science, you can’t be partly pregnant; either you are pregnant, or you’re not. In politics, can a state be partly part of one country, and partly not part of it?</p> <p>This question has once again been raised in India in relation to Jammu and Kashmir and once again become the subject of an impassioned – and inevitably inconclusive – debate. This time around, PM-hopeful Narendra Modi’s remark that Article 370 of the Constitution – which provides special status for J&K – needs to be subjected to public debate.</p> <p>Immediately, Modi’s own party, the BJP, and other members of the sangh parivar clarified that the PM candidate’s remark did not in any way compromise the long-held saffron demand that Article 370 be scrapped; there was no question of debate about this.</p> <p>On the other side of the political fence, J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah challenged Modi to a debate on Article 370, which according to Modi had effectively kept the state out of the national mainstream and hampered its development.</p> <p>Article 370 is like one of those theological riddles that monks in medieval Europe endlessly discussed to help pass the time, a typical example being: How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? As angels are insubstantial beings, the answer could be anything from one to an infinite number.</p> <p>Article 370 is rather like that imaginary pin acting as a dance floor for angels. Constitutional experts, jurists, historians and scholars have endlessly argued about its validity and its implications.</p> <p>Shorn of jargon, Article 370 gives J&K special status in that, barring defence, foreign affairs, finance and communications, other laws passed by Parliament will be subject to ratification by the state Assembly. This was part of the deal, the Instrument of Accession, by which the pre-independent ruler of Kashmir, Hari Singh, agreed to join the Union of India.</p> <p>Kashmiri leaders have always argued that if India does away with Article 370, it simultaneously does away with the constitutional umbilical cord that links it with India. Critics of Article 370 have contended that it is discriminatory between residents of Kashmir and other Indians in part because non-Kashmiris cannot acquire immovable property in the state. Moreover, the state is not necessarily subject to the same laws to which other Indians might be. This is the political equivalent of part-pregnancy: being part of a nation, and yet not being part of it.</p> <p>Other Indian states – Nagaland, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh – also have special constitutional provisions which, among other things, bar other Indians from acquiring property there. But what makes the special status of J&K particularly controversial is the centre of the 60-year old dispute between India and Pakistan which continues to occupy what it calls ‘Azad Kashmir’.</p> <p>Pakistani’s newly-elected Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, rekindled the smouldering embers of the dispute by reportedly saying that the unresolved Kashmir issue could lead to a another war between the two nuclear nations, a statement later denied by Islamabad.</p> <p>New Delhi’s stand on Kashmir is clear: the state is an indisputable part of the Indian Union. Fine. The ambivalence arises because of the slippery nature of Article 370, which can – and has – been variously interpreted by various viewpoints to suit their own purposes. Just how much ‘autonomy’ can the state enjoy without jeopardising its relationship with the Indian Union? While politicians wrangle over this and similar points of constitutional law, the ground reality in Kashmir is grim.</p> <p>Thousands of Kashmiri pandits are in enforced exile in other parts of India and the world. While power-brokers and middlemen thrive on misappropriated Central funds – the ex-Army chief raised a furore by saying that the defence forces routinely gave Indian taxpayers’ money to Kashmiri politicians to ‘win hearts and minds’ – the plight of the average Kashmiri is miserable, often caught in the deadly crossfire between cross-border terrorists and Indian security forces which have virtually become an army of occupation in the state.</p> <p>Even those who do not otherwise agree with Narendra Modi will agree with him on this. We do need to have an open debate not just on Article 370 but on the entire shambles that the ‘Switzerland of the East’ has been reduced to by being used as a pawn by a succession of exploitative politicians on both sides of the border.</p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/riches_to_rags Riches to rags Jug Suraiya 2013-12-06T13:52:59+05:30 2013-12-06T13:53:00+05:30 <p>In the end it turned out to be a toofan in a chai cup. When the Huffington Post carried a report that the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, had a personal wealth portfolio amounting to some two billion dollars – which made her the twelfth richest political leader in the world, and richer than the queen of England – it raised both eyebrows and hackles.</p> <p>Following the Post disclosure, South Block may or may not have entertained apprehensions that the resident of Buckingham Palace might send an emissary to 10 Janpath seeking a loan to help tide things over till the next installment of the royal pocket money had been cleared by Westminster. But that eventuality apart, such a publicised abundance of riches belonging to the leader of a political organisation which over 60 years has been promoting itself as being pro-poor – if not pro-poverty – wouldn’t go down too well with the aam admi, particularly when India’s winter of discontent is crackling with the static electricity of election fervour.</p> <p>A suitably huffy Congress spokesperson promptly rubbished the report. As though on cue, the online publication retracted its earlier statement, and withdrew the Congress president’s name from its richy-rich list. Subsequently, the Indian media gave out details of the Congress leader’s financial status based on the pre-election affidavits she had filed, which turns out to be far more modest than what the Post had erroneously claimed.</p> <p>The episode suggests that we might be right in paraphrasing the poet and say that ‘There are no rich nor poor, but thinking makes them so’. Indeed, Sonia Gandhi’s overnight riches-to-rags (relatively speaking) downgrade might find a parallel in what used to be called India’s growth story and what might now more aptly be termed India’s growth which is history.</p> <p>From an internationally lauded 8-plus% growth a year, India is now limping along at an estimated rate which is on the wrong side of 5%, and the bouquets it formerly received from the community of global finance are in some danger of being morphed into BRICbats, with rating agencies threatening to demote the national economy to junk status.</p> <p>To compound confusion, the country’s two biggest political parties, the BJP and the Congress, are at statistical loggerheads as to which of the two authored India’s growth story and which of the two de-authored it, so to speak, like a Cinderella tale in reverse in which a princess ends up being a drab kitchen maid.</p> <p>The Huffington Post has acknowledged its role in turning Sonia Gandhi’s imagined gilded carriage into a mundane pumpkin. But who’s to take the rap for turning the India success story to the India sucks story? Ballot Box 2014 may well provide the answer.</p> <p><em>jug.suraiya@timesgroup.com</em></p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/let_s_face_it1 Let's face it Jug Suraiya 2013-12-05T22:13:54+05:30 2013-12-05T22:13:54+05:30 <p>The other day i chanced to overhear a group of people vociferously discussing plus and minus points of the two PM hopefuls. It seemed from the talk that both candidates were more or less running neck and neck until the question of being decisive came up: of the two, Rahul and NaMo, who had shown himself to be better at taking decisions?<br /><br />One of the top qualities needed in the next PM was decisiveness: everyone wants a guy who can take decisions, and act on them, not someone who's likely to sit on the prime ministerial chair doing heads-or-tails with a coin deciding which way to go while the country goes to hell in a handbasket for lack of any other decided destination. Yup, it was generally agreed that what the country needed was a decision-maker.<br /><br />And in the decision-making league, Modi scores over Rahul literally by a whisker. It isn't that NaMo has shown himself to be more decided in his views about things like FDI in retail, or Article 370 and the status of Kashmir, or whether Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was really Shyam Krishan Verma (or should that be vice-versa?), or if Alexander the Great had included Bihar in his itinerary when he took a package tour of India way back in 627 AD. <br /><br />No, in all these trivial details, Narendrabhai has shown himself to be of what might be called ambivalent mind. On any of these, and related issues, one day he might be on one side of the fence, and the next day on the other side, or maybe sitting on top of the fence, like a Humpty-Dumpty waiting to happen. But on the one major matter in regard to which NaMo – in sharp contrast to Rahul – has shown himself to be decidedly decided is on the question of facial hair: whether or not one should sport a beard.<br /><br />NaMo has a beard. There is photographic proof of it, as there is photographic proof of what looks like canals on the surface of Mars. Not only does NaMo have a beard, but he makes it look as though he's always had it, even when he'd been in Huggies with a rubber pacifier stuck in his mouth. This beardedness shows a decidedly decided bent of mind.<br /><br />Rahul, on the other hand (the other cheek?), can't seem to make up his mind on the subject of beards. One day he'll appear in public exhibiting what is sometimes called a 'designer stubble' – a sort of fungoid growth that cheese left too long in the fridge begins to sprout after a while – and the next day he'll show up with a face as slick and smooth as a baby's bottom. So, what is Rahul's official policy, his ideological stand on whiskers? Does he or does he not want to keep a beard? No one knows. Not even his supporters.<br /><br />Every time he rolls up his sleeves, no one knows what he's decided to do. Shave off his bristly growth, like the quills of a midget porcupine? Or let it all hang out and develop into an honest-to-goodness dadhi?<br /><br />To beard, or not to beard. That seems to be Rahul's Hamlet-moment. Which allows NaMo to romp home in the decision-making stakes. Poor Rahul. He doesn't seem to have realised the great advantage that cultivating a beard gives to male politicians: no one can call them bare-faced liars.</p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/no_defence No defence Jug Suraiya 2013-12-03T21:56:52+05:30 2013-12-03T21:56:52+05:30 <p style="text-align: justify;">Nineteen-year-old Ranvir (name changed) has a heartfelt ambition: he wants to join the Indian Army as a jawan and serve his country. Regrettably, his ambition is unlikely to be fulfilled. Because though the young man, who comes from a town near the foot of the Garhwal hills, has passed the required physical tests not just once but three times with flying colours, the official selectors refuse to recruit him unless he pays up Rs 1.5 lakh as an enlistment 'fee'. Ranvir's father, a hill taxi driver, doesn't have that kind of money at his disposal. So Ranvir's dream of becoming a soldier and helping to protect the country that he loves will probably never be fulfilled.<br /><br />Ranvir's case is just one of the numerous instances of corruption and graft at various levels that increasingly are staining the once unblemished honour of India's armed forces. In an overall national climate of corrupt practices, the defence services have long stood out as being an exception to the general rule of rapacious greed and rampant indiscipline that has become an inbuilt feature of Indian life.<br /><br />The stark contrast between the codes of conduct of life in uniform and the chaos of civilian India is obvious in the well-ordered cleanliness of cantonment areas as compared with the filth and mess of other neighbourhoods in any of our cities and towns. In what has been called the functioning anarchy of India, the armed forces have always been an exceptional example of not just outwardly manifest spit-and-polish discipline but, more importantly, of the unswerving dedication to duty that underlies the clockwork precision of parade ground drills.<br /><br />What with its power-hungry, money-grabbing politicians and rent-seeking babus, the country might seem to be sinking into the quagmire of despair, but the armed forces have been there as a solid rock of integrity we could depend on. Of recent times, however, that unshakable faith that the country has had in its defence services has been called into question by various scams and scandals.<br /><br />Most recently, an ex-army chief — whose retirement had itself become an ugly public wrangle — has suggested in his autobiography that the 'highest' political office in the land, together with complicit service officers, was involved in a shady deal involving the purchase of Tatra trucks for defence needs.<br /><br />When our men in uniform are charged with alleged misdeeds we tend to judge them more harshly than we would their civilian counterparts. Such double standards of judgment are obviously unfair, but perhaps inevitable. We set higher standards of honesty when it comes to judging the acts of those who have sworn to defend the nation, at the cost of their lives if necessary. Because they have taken the oath to make the supreme sacrifice if called for, we expect them to be better, more patriotic citizens than we ourselves are.<br /><br />Like our doctors, to whom we entrust our physical health, and our priests, to whom we entrust our spiritual well-being, we expect those to whom we entrust the security of the nation to be somehow different from us, better than us. And when they turn out to be just like us, we feel they have no defence. Like the country itself. For who is to guard the country if it has to guard itself against its guards?</p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/many_boycotts_now Many boycotts now Jug Suraiya 2013-11-29T14:29:24+05:30 2013-11-29T14:29:24+05:30 <p>Following the accusation of sexual assault made by a young woman journalist against Tarun Tejpal, editor-in-chief of Tehelka – and his subsequent attempts to intimidate the victim and members of her family – will many readers of the publication, which bills itself as being frank and fearless in its reportage, stop subscribing to it? Quite a lot, possibly.</p> <p>Already a number of senior staff members including the managing editor, have resigned, and others might follow in their footsteps, not wanting to be associated with a product whose promoter stand exposed not only as a sexual molester but as a hypocrite, as is ironically underlined by the fact that the latest issue of Tehelka features a lead story about the rape and murder of a young woman.</p> <p>Thanks to the disgraceful behaviour of its editor-in-chief, Tehelka could become the target of a boycott, a mass action which remains one of the most effective ways for the public to punish wrongdoers.</p> <p>The other day I came across another case of boycott, when at a lunch get-together a fellow guest refused the offer of a popular brand of beer made by the company owned by Vijay Mallya. “I refuse to patronise a product made by a man who’s called the ‘King of good times’, owns a yacht and palatial houses all over the world and has swindled the employees of his now defunct Kingfisher airlines of their salaries,” said the guest, turning down an empty glass to the proffered beer.</p> <p>Robber barons must have thick hides, and it’s doubtful if Mallya would even feel the tiniest sting of remorse at such token protests. But if enough customers of his products were to do it, it could eventually hurt him where it matters most – in his royal lifestyle which costs a king’s ransom to maintain.</p> <p>Arvind Kejriwal has also brought the concept of boycotting in the news by founding his Aam Admi Party and so giving voters an opportunity to reject – or boycott – parties like the Congress and the BJP who have been accused of corruption. Indeed, the Election Commission itself has embraced the idea of a boycott by allowing voters, for the first time, to reject all the candidates in a particular constituency by punching the button marked NOTA – None Of The Above – on the electronic voting machine.</p> <p>Named after a 19<sup>th</sup> century officer, Captain Boycott, who was shunned by his neighbours for political reasons, the collective refusal to have anything to do with an individual, institution or any other entity, was most successfully used by Mahatma Gandhi when he urged his fellow Indians to spin their own cloth and stop using fabric made in the spinning mills of imperial Britain. This impeccable lineage gives the boycott a moral legitimacy and authority at a time when such legitimacy and authority are so singularly notable for their absence in almost all spheres of public life, be in the realm of politics, media or business.</p> <p>What can make boycotts particularly effective today is social networking through the internet, Twitter and similar facilities which enable individual protest to snowball into collective action.</p> <p>So join the boycott club. And if the first thing you decide to boycott is this blog, that’s fine. Because it’ll prove just how effective boycotts can be.</p> <p><em>jug.suraiya@timesgroup.com </em></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/usurped_victory Usurped victory Jug Suraiya 2013-11-28T22:20:28+05:30 2013-11-28T22:20:29+05:30 <p>I'll always be grateful to Sachin. And the reason is that i was always totally useless at cricket. Of course, cricket wasn't the exception for me to be totally useless at. At school, i was also totally useless at hockey, football and ping-pong. We didn't have lacrosse or all-in wrestling at school. But if we'd had them, i'd have been totally useless at them too. But it was cricket which i was particularly totally useless at.</p> <p>The first - and last - time i played cricket, on seeing the chap throwing a red missile at my head, with obvious homicidal intent, i took prompt refuge behind a big man in a white coat and hat. It was later explained to me that the big man in the white coat wasn't there to take refuge behind but was called The Umpire, who did the umpiring, whatever the heck that meant. And the homicidal maniac who'd hurled the missile was called the bowler, and his intended target had been not my head but the three sticks behind me called wickets.</p> <p>I never went anywhere near a cricket pitch again. In a cricket-mad country like India this would have marked me out as not only a hopeless loser in the game of life but also an anti-patriot if not a downright traitor, a closet ISI agent who instead of rooting for Team India was probably a secret Pakistan XI fan. A fate worse than death. From which i - and other duffers like me who knew zilch about cricket and couldn't play the game to save their lives - was saved by Sachin.</p> <p>Single-handedly - or single-battedly - the little Master in his history-making career turned all our individual failures into a collective surrogate success. That's the true secret of the popularity not just of cricket but of all sport. You don't have to be good at it yourself to feel good about yourself. You feel good about yourself - you feel you've achieved something - by merely sitting on the sidelines and basking in the reflected glory of Sachin. Or of Leander Paes. Or Mary Kom or whichever sportsperson or sports team you choose to root for.</p> <p>That's why sports fans are so passionate about the players and the teams that they back. Because the victory of the player or of the team becomes the usurped victory of their fans, who themselves don't have to do anything to earn it except sit back and cheer their champions.</p> <p>This holds true of the spectator sport called democracy. Elections are like sports events in which competing participants - called parties - vie with each other to come out tops. The voters are like sports fans who urge their chosen team - be it the Congress, the BJP, AAP or whatever - to victory, which by extension is supposedly a proxy victory for the voters as well if their side wins.</p> <p>The trouble with the spectator sport called democracy is that you can never be sure your side will win. Worse, even if your side does win, you can never be sure that your side will remain on your side after it has won.</p> <p>So the umpires of our game of democracy have devised an electoral side (or should it be non-side?) which ensures that whoever loses, the voter still wins by having the last word. The last word being NOTA: None Of the Above.</p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/indian_males_can_t_help_being_sex_obsessed_it_s_in_their_genes Indian males can’t help being sex-obsessed; it’s in their genes Jug Suraiya 2013-11-26T21:51:07+05:30 2013-11-26T21:51:07+05:30 <p>Are Indian men sex-mad? Do they have uncontrollable libidos which compel them to make unwanted and unwarranted sexual advances towards women, even at the risk of having their own reputations and careers ruined?<br /><br />Such questions became central to a study conducted by a group of international scientists following media reports about a retired Supreme Court judge and the editor of a well-known publication who, in their own ways, had allegedly behaved in what can euphemistically be described as an ‘inappropriate manner’ with young women.<br /><br />That there is a lot of what presumably is consensual sex in India is evidenced by the country population of 1.2 billion, and counting. With so much of what might be called voluntary sex doing the rounds, why are there so many sexcapades – ranging from rape to stalking and other forms of harassment – in which women are the involuntary targets?<br /><br />What made the matter even more puzzling for the team of scientists was that it was only Indian men who seemed to have hyperactive libidos. Indian women seemed perfectly normal in this respect, cases of males being sexually assaulted by females belonging to the man-bites-dog category.<br /><br />The baffled scientists finally turned to genetics to find the key to the mystery. And it was deep inside the genetic structure of Indian males, encoded in their DNA, that they found the answer to their question.<br /><br />It had long been known to medical science that all Indians have a genetic bias towards cardiovascular disorders and diabetes. Similarly, the scientists discovered a genetic aberration in the chromosome of Indian males which predisposed them to uncontrollable sexual urges.<br /><br />The scientists named this genetic anomaly – which was not present in the chromosome of Indian females – MILTY and related it to another behavioural trait common to almost all Indian males but not to Indian females: the compulsion to do what in the vernacular is known as No. 1 in public.<br /><br />Experiments conducted under laboratory conditions had shown that, given a choice, seven out of ten Indian males would choose peeing in public rather than in a conveniently situated, free-of-charge, hygienic loo. It is not that they want to pee in public, any more than any of the male sex offenders want to be sex offenders. It is just that they are genetically programmed to do so, once again thanks to the MILTY factor.<br /><br />At a press conference in New Delhi which witnessed a record turnout, the leader of the team of scientists hinted that there had been talk of the researchers being awarded a Nobel Prize for their discovery, though it wasn’t quite clear whether it was to be the Nobel Prize for Medicine or the Nobel Prize for Peace, for having pinpointed a major cause of gender conflict in the subcontinent.<br /><br />When asked to do so by a correspondent, the head scientist obligingly spelt out the mysterious MILTY which is at the root of the Indian male’s full-frontal sexual exhibitionism: Mine Is Longer Than Yours.</p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/funding_funda Funding funda Jug Suraiya 2013-11-25T14:08:33+05:30 2013-11-25T14:08:33+05:30 <p>There’s a hue and cry being raised about foreign sources funding the election campaign of Indian political parties. It started with the Congress-led UPA government accusing Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Admi Party, AAP, of having received money from abroad to fill its electoral war chest, a charge that nimbly sidestepped the fact that AAP was the only party to have made a full disclosure of the foreign funds it had received.</p> <p>The sting operation to show that AAP members accepted under-the-counter cash donations has yet to be proved conclusively. Is it fact or fiction?</p> <p>However, neither the Congress nor the BJP, the two heavyweights on the political scene, have publicly declared the sources of their funds. Responding to a petition filed by an AAP member, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court has ruled that the issue was of public interest and turned the petition, which alleges that in 2012 the Congress and the BJP violated the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 (FCRA) and the Representation of People receiving Rs5 crore each from corporates with overseas connections.</p> <p>The argument against foreigners funding Indian elections is simple: If foreign funding were to be allowed, Indian democracy and its legitimate electorate would be hijacked by outsiders. In effect, India would surrender the independence from foreign rule that it had won 66 years ago, after a long and bitter struggle.</p> <p>However the law disallows foreign funding only from companies, not from individual donors. And thanks to the great Indian diaspora which has spread NRIs all over the world, there is no dearth of individual foreign funding available to our political parties, of all shapes, sizes and ideological hues. For example, AAP has declared that of the total of Rs17.1 crore it has raised, some Rs5 crore had come from 5,748 NRIs, most of them from the US and Hong Kong.</p> <p>Similarly, though BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, still can’t get a visa to go to the US, that doesn’t stop NaMo supports among the NRI community in that country from contributing handsomely to the saffron party’s coffers. Similarly, the Congress and other parties also benefit from NRI funding.</p> <p>Should the law be amended so that NRIs – and foreign individuals who may have a political axe to grind in India – who don’t have the right to vote in India are not allowed to contribute funds to political parties and thus indirectly influence the outcome of elections? Allowing such individuals – be they NRIs, or others – the right to fund elections is, by extension of logic, giving them the right to vote by proxy.</p> <p>However, such a law would have a loophole that would be hard to plug. For even if NRIs were proscribed from funding political parties, those determined to do so could use the route of remittances to relatives who could then channel the money to political use. Perhaps the pragmatic thing to do would be to allow foreign funding over the table, where it is accountable for, rather than under the table, where it would remain unaccountable.</p> <p>Everyone wants foreign direct investment (FDI) in Indian industry. Politics is arguably the biggest industry in a country which boasts being the world’s most populous democracy. So why not treat foreign funding of our political parties as a form of FDI and welcome it with open arms?</p> <p>For, one way or the other, foreign funds for political purposes will find their way into India. As they already do clandestinely from two countries who allegedly have been funding Maoist insurgents and separatist extremists: China and Pakistan.<br /> <br /><em>jug.suraiya@timesgroup.com</em></p> <div id="_mcePaste" class="mcePaste" style="position: absolute; left: -10000px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow: hidden;"> <p>There’s a hue and cry being raised about foreign sources funding the election campaign of Indian political parties. It started with the Congress-led UPA government accusing Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Admi Party, AAP, of having received money from abroad to fill its electoral war chest, a charge that nimbly sidestepped the fact that AAP was the only party to have made a full disclosure of the foreign funds it had received.</p> <p> </p> <p>The sting operation to show that AAP members accepted under-the-counter cash donations has yet to be proved conclusively. Is it fact or fiction?</p> <p> </p> <p>However, neither the Congress nor the BJP, the two heavyweights on the political scene, have publicly declared the sources of their funds. Responding to a petition filed by an AAP member, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court has ruled that the issue was of public interest and turned the petition, which alleges that in 2012 the Congress and the BJP violated the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 (FCRA) and the Representation of People receiving Rs5 crore each from corporates with overseas connections.</p> <p> </p> <p>The argument against foreigners funding Indian elections is simple: If foreign funding were to be allowed, Indian democracy and its legitimate electorate would be hijacked by outsiders. In effect, India would surrender the independence from foreign rule that it had won 66 years ago, after a long and bitter struggle.</p> <p> </p> <p>However the law disallows foreign funding only from companies, not from individual donors. And thanks to the great Indian diaspora which has spread NRIs all over the world, there is no dearth of individual foreign funding available to our political parties, of all shapes, sizes and ideological hues. For example, AAP has declared that of the total of Rs17.1 crore it has raised, some Rs5 crore had come from 5,748 NRIs, most of them from the US and Hong Kong.</p> <p> </p> <p>Similarly, though BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, still can’t get a visa to go to the US, that doesn’t stop NaMo supports among the NRI community in that country from contributing handsomely to the saffron party’s coffers. Similarly, the Congress and other parties also benefit from NRI funding.</p> <p> </p> <p>Should the law be amended so that NRIs – and foreign individuals who may have a political axe to grind in India – who don’t have the right to vote in India are not allowed to contribute funds to political parties and thus indirectly influence the outcome of elections? Allowing such individuals – be they NRIs, or others – the right to fund elections is, by extension of logic, giving them the right to vote by proxy.</p> <p> </p> <p>However, such a law would have a loophole that would be hard to plug. For even if NRIs were proscribed from funding political parties, those determined to do so could use the route of remittances to relatives who could then channel the money to political use. Perhaps the pragmatic thing to do would be to allow foreign funding over the table, where it is accountable for, rather than under the table, where it would remain unaccountable.</p> <p> </p> <p>Everyone wants foreign direct investment (FDI) in Indian industry. Politics is arguably the biggest industry in a country which boasts being the world’s most populous democracy. So why not treat foreign funding of our political parties as a form of FDI and welcome it with open arms?</p> <p> </p> <p>For, one way or the other, foreign funds for political purposes will find their way into India. As they already do clandestinely from two countries who allegedly have been funding Maoist insurgents and separatist extremists: China and Pakistan.<br /> <br /></p> <p>jug.suraiya@timesgroup.com</p> </div> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/swadeshi_lingo Swadeshi lingo Jug Suraiya 2013-11-21T21:50:11+05:30 2013-11-21T21:50:22+05:30 <p><em>Mulayam's demand to hatao angrezi from Parliament is quite needless.</em><br /><br />My pyare Mulayamji, aap ne bahut rightly demand raise kiya hai ki we should hatao Angrezi from Parliament. Sabse pehle, yani after all, France ke log unki parliament mein thodi Angrezi speak karte hain, aur Italy ki parliament mein unke log thodi Angrezi speak karte hain. Bilkul not.<br /><br />France ke parliament mein, as sab log are knowing, France ke log France speak karte hai, aur Italy ke parliament mein Italy ke log Italy speak karte hain. Yeh bahut obvious cheez hai. Sab place ki parliament mein sab log apni matrubhasha, yani mother tongue jisko kehte hain, use karte hain. Yeh hain reason kyun ki Bilayat ki parliament mein woh apni doh majority communities ki mother tongues ko use karte hain, yani Bangladeshi aur Pakistani.<br /><br />Toh fir, yani so again, hum ko bhi apni Parliament me apni mother tongue use karni better hain. Problem hai hum know nahin kar sakte ki humari mother tongue kya hai. Hum sab Indian hain, toh humari mother tongue Indian honi chahiye. But Indian mother tongue kya hain?<br /><br />Bangal mein jao toh Bangali log tell karenge unki Indian mother tongue Bangali hain. Maharashtra ke log tell karenge unki Indian mother tongue Marathi hain. Neeche dakshin, yani down south, jao toh Indian mother tongue Madrasi ban jati hain. But aur bhi confuse karne ke liye, down south mein Madrasi ko Madrasi call nahin karte hain. Madrasi ko Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam aur Konkani call karte hain.<br /><br />Hum log jo Hindi-Hindu hridaystan, yani Hindi-Hindu heartland, mein live karte hain are knowing Indian mother tongue Hindustani hain. But yeh fact aur sab log jo India mein live karte hain are not knowing.<br /><br />Is karan se, yani for this reason, jab humne Angrez log ko India se hataya humne unke saath Angrezi ko nahi hataya. Humne Angrezi ko retain kiya as link language, yani hum sab Indians ko aik doosre, yani one another, se link kare. But Angrezi bahut hard bhasha hain, uski spailing bahut tuff hain. Yeh kaisi ajeeb bhasha hai jis mein langvej ki spailing hain L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E? Yeh bilkul nonsense langvej hain.<br /><br />Isliye mein apse agree karta hoon ki yeh Angrezi ko Parliament se hatana must hain. But Angrezi ko Parliament se hatane mein aik problem hain. Problem yeh hai ki hum logo ne Angrezi ko sirf Parliament se hi nahi, but whole of India se already hata diya hai.<br /><br />Angrezi ko humne kaise hataya? Bahut simple. Humne pardeshi Angrezi ko swadeshi Hindlish se replace kiya. Jab hum logo ne Hindlish ko invent kiya, humne aik stroke mein Angrezi ko hata diya. Aur uske saath hi saath, yani together and together, humne Hindi ko bhi hata diya.<br /><br />So, Mulayamji, aap worry mat kijiye. Angrezi hatao? Woh toh done deal hain. Angrezi hatane ki koi need nahin hain. Angrezi toh hum logo ne hata diya. Phir aap itne Angryji kyun hotein ho?<br /><br />Aapka sachly, yani yours truly,<br /><br />Maha Konfused.</p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/sach_a_fuss Sach a fuss Jug Suraiya 2013-11-19T21:04:33+05:30 2013-11-19T21:04:34+05:30 <p><em>Media, advertisers and sarkar exploit the Little Master's 'retirement'</em><br /><br />Saturday, November 16, 2013 was, without doubt, an emotionally memorable day for cricket fans not only in India but the world over as Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, considered by many to be the greatest cricketer ever, took his final bow after playing a record 200 Tests.<br /><br />Sachin reportedly had tears in his eyes when he made his 'farewell' speech. So did many of the spectators at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium and the many more who were watching the event on TV.<br /><br />The next day the TOI headline read: 'Sachin Leaves India in Tears'. India in tears at the Little Master's last walk back to the pavilion? Cricket lovers in tears, probably. Sports lovers in tears, possibly. But India - all of India - including that very large part of India for which cricket is something as distant and alien as the surface of another planet - in tears? Hardly.<br /><br />India, all of India, has plenty of other things to cry about, starting, but not ending, with the shameful plight of only too many of its women, particularly girl children. This is in no way to begrudge Sachin the overwhelming send off - including the well-deserved award of the Bharat Ratna - that he received on the occasion. More than just a great cricketer, he is a great sportsman in all senses of that term, a rare character quality in today's increasingly cynical and opportunistic times.<br /><br />He is a true Indian icon, and if any tears were to be shed on his behalf they should have been tears of joy, for a richly rewarding career that has not only earned him international acclaim on the playing field but gained him a personal fortune of an estimated US$160 million. At 40 he is still a young man, and has many career options open to him. So though he is retiring from playing cricket, he will still have a role in the game.<br /><br />The over-the-top media hype over Sachin's 'retirement' once again raises the question whether the disproportionate national obsession with cricket is at the expense of other sports, be it hockey (remember Dhyan Chand), football, kabaddi, or chess. As world champion Viswanathan Anand, who is engaged in a board battle with Norwegian challenger Magnus Carlsen, put it: "There are other things (instead of Sachin) on my mind."<br /><br />Indeed, Sachin's 'retirement' has many exploiters, beginning with the media who in order to outdo each other turned it into an advertising revenue-generating tamasha. Media planners had been calculating for weeks and months beforehand just how many megabucks they'd be able to score from Sachin's last day as a Test player.<br /><br />The government's alacrity to declare the Bharat Ratna award for the cricketer even before Sachin's tears were dry on the single sheet of notes which he used to make a moving speech will also raise eyebrows. No one will for a moment deny that Sachin fully merits the country's highest civilian honour. Indeed, it had been hinted by official circles that the bestowal of the honour would be declared on the following Republic Day, as is the custom.<br /><br />Instead, in what looks like a populist, vote-catching move, the government bowled a googly by giving him the award on the day of his 'retirement'. As Sachin himself might say: 'That's not cricket'.</p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/is_the_bharat_ratna_becoming_a_political_football Is the Bharat Ratna becoming a political football? Jug Suraiya 2013-11-16T13:25:52+05:30 2013-11-16T13:30:02+05:30 <p>The Bharat Ratna is being treated like a football by politicians. Mumbai's Congress party president Janardhan Chandurkar demanded that Lata Mangeshkar, whose voice has thrilled and enchanted generations of fans the world over, should be stripped of her Bharat Ratna and Padma awards because she has publicly espoused "anti-secular" Narendra Modi as the country's next prime minister.</p> <p>This ridiculous charge drew sharp criticism not only from Lata's myriad fans but also from the Sangh Parivar as well as some of Chandurkar's own party colleagues.Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said, "These awards are not the property of Chandurkar's grandfather… If Chandurkar dislikes Lataji so much, he should stop listening to her songs."A Congress office-bearer is quoted as saying "It is silly on our president's part to target Lataji. Instead of strengthening our organisation, he is creating a perfectly avoidable controversy."</p> <p>The Bharat Ratna was also used as a political football by BJP Rajya Sabha MP and proprietor of the Pioneer newspaper, Chandan Mitra, who has said that the Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen should have the award, which was 'the jewel of the country', taken away from him because Sen had remarked that he would not like to see Narendra Modi becoming PM because the saffron 'strong man' had a 'terrible record' and made minorities insecure.</p> <p>Mitra tweeted "Is Sen even a voter in India? Next NDA government must strip him of his Bharat Ratna." He went on to advise 'Dr Sen': 'Don't peddle your unsolicited comments on India. We know you as an economist who sells Congress line for a living.'</p> <p>Mitra's wrath might have been dampened - or perhaps further fuelled - by the fact that it was Vajpayee's NDA government which gave Sen the award in 1999.</p> <p><br />As an artiste Lata Mangeshkar is perfectly entitled to have her views on Modi, or anyone else, just as Sen is entitled to have his. But such unseemly political wrangles over the country's highest civilian award bring to the fore a question that has been raised before: should prominent people in various fields of achievement accept state awards, which sometimes come with political or ideological strings attached?</p> <p>It is because of such apprehensions that state-conferred awards sometimes come with a political price tag - that some nominees for such honours have turned them down.<br /><br />This holds true not only in India and with Indian awards, but also for international awards such as the Nobel.</p> <p>North Vietnamese Le Duc Tho, who along with the US's Henry Kissinger, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for having brokered a ceasefire in the Vietnam conflict through the Paris Peace Accord turned down the honour, saying that the embattled country had yet to find peace.</p> <p>Perhaps the most famous refuser of a Nobel was French writer and existentialist philosopher Jean Paul Sartre who turned down the Literature Prize in 1964 saying: "It is not the same thing if I sign Jean Paul Sartre or if I sign Jean Paul Sartre, Nobel Prize winner. A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution, even if it takes place in the most honourable form."</p> <p>Will the recent undignified tussle over the Bharat Ratna between the Sangh Parivar and the Congress cause future candidates for state awards to think twice before accepting an honour which politicos might one day turn into dishonour?Sachin Tendulkar is tipped to get the Bharat Ratna come next Republic Day. Should the Lata-Sen hullabaloo give him second thoughts about accepting it?</p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/mangal_sutra Mangal sutra Jug Suraiya 2013-11-14T22:15:30+05:30 2013-11-14T22:15:30+05:30 <p><em>Isro's Mars mission is causing much disquiet on the red planet. </em></p> <p>Two Martians who look like pink polka-dotted octopuses.<br /><br />First Martian: The Indians are coming! The Indians are coming!<br /><br />Second Martian: Don't get your tentacles in a twist. What Indians are you carrying on about and where are they coming?<br /><br />FM: What Indians am i carrying on about? The 1.2 billion Indians that everyone — especially Pakistan — is carrying on about are the Indians i'm carrying on about, who else? And where are these 1.2 billion Indians coming? They're coming here, to our very own Mars.<br /><br />SM: Coming here? Why on earth — sorry, why on Mars — would they want to do that?<br /><br />FM: Well, for one thing, what with there being 1.2 billion Indians, India's got pretty crowded. So they have to put all those extra Indians somewhere , and i guess they felt that Mars is as good a place as anywhere else.<br /><br />SM: But couldn't they find somewhere closer to India, somewhere on Earth itself, to put all those extra Indians?<br /><br />FM: That's the thing. Thanks to something called the Great Indian Diaspora, India's extra Indians have already filled up all the places on Earth that are available for filling up. From A to Z, from Azerbaijan to Zaire, from Auckland to Zambia, the Earth is full of diasporaed Indians, who are also known as NRIs, or Non-Required Indians. So having run out of places on Earth to put more of their NRIs, India's planning to diaspora them here, to Mars.<br /><br />SM: OK, so we're going to get a bunch of NRIs coming here. So what's the big deal? Why're you getting so spaced out about it?<br /><br />FM: I'll tell you why i'm getting so spaced out about it. Because when they come here they'll bring their national pastime with them.<br /><br />SM: Their national pastime? You mean Bollywood? You mean all those sexy-wexy moves they do in what they call item numbers? Hey, how cool is that. With all my tentacles i bet i could do item number jhatkas and latkas with the best of them. Bring it on, Hrithik baby!<br /><br />FM: You can stop wriggling your tentacles. Bollywood and its item numbers are not the Indian national pastime i'm talking about.<br /><br />SM: Not Bollywood? Then it's got to be cricket, right? Cricket is India's national pastime. Tell you what, with Sachin retiring maybe we could get into one of those IPL or ODI deals that they keep having. Heck, if with just two arms to bat with the guy could be a Master Blaster, with our 12 tentacles each we could swing six bats at a time and hit six sixers in one shot and become Master Blasters six times over and get to advertise six times as many products.<br /><br />FM: Cricket, shricket. That's not India's national pastime. India's national pastime is something they call scams.<br /><br />SM: Scams? What in Uranus is a scam?<br /><br />FM: Scam is an acronym which stands for Stealing, Cheating, Amassing and Maroing, and that's India' national pastime. Except now that they're coming here, maybe they'll change it to Stealing, Cheating. Amassing on Mars.<br /><br />SM: Jeez! What're we going to do?<br /><br />FM: I don't know about you, but if Indians are migrating to Mars, i'm checking out the visa requirements for Venus...</p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/if_we_legalise_gambling_will_rape_cases_decline If we legalise gambling, will rape cases decline? Jug Suraiya 2013-11-14T13:24:06+05:30 2013-11-14T13:24:07+05:30 <p>The outspoken CBI chief Ranjit Sinha – who has recently been ticked off by both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and finance minister P Chidambaram for trying to overstep the jurisdiction of his agency and thereby adding to the climate of fear and ‘policy paralysis’ that has gripped the bureaucracy in the current season of scams and consequent witch hunts for culprits – has once again put his foot in his mouth, by comparing rape to illegal gambling.</p> <p>While women’s groups and others have vociferously protested this gross and unsavoury comparison, CBI spokespeople have tried to soothe ruffled feathers by explaining that what Sinha really meant was that since illegal gambling was too pervasive to be stopped by policing, it would be better to “lie back and enjoy it” – in other words, make it legal, which would enable the government to tax it and so open up an extra channel of revenue and would also permit an already overstretched police force to concentrate on trying to prevent more serious crimes, instead of wasting time and effort trying to stamp out various gambling rackets.</p> <p>Though unhappily phrased, Sinha’s remark deserves consideration. As evidenced by the crucial gaming episode in The Mahabharata, gambling is very much a part of the Indian ethos and has been so since time immemorial. Several Indian states have government-run lotteries which help them earn income. Horse racing and casinos are legal in some states, and again help to fill government coffers through taxes.</p> <p>So why not legalise other forms of gambling, such as matka, or betting on the results of cricket matches, or the outcome of elections? Illegal gambling is a multi-crore industry in India. If it were to be legitimised and given official recognition, it could prove to be a substantial source of funding for the government which could impose a hefty tax – as is the case of horse racing for example – on each recorded wager.</p> <p>Equally, if not more importantly, legitimising gambling could help to focus the attention of law enforcement agencies on more serious offences, like rape. As it is, police officers only too often plead lack of manpower for not allowing complainants to file FIRs (First Information Reports), even when the alleged offence committed is of a serious nature.</p> <p>In a recent ruling, the Supreme Court has decreed that any refusal to file an FIR about a serious offence will invite penal action against the police personnel concerned. The police and other hard-pressed law enforcement agencies – already inundated with investigations relating to a flood of scams and swindles – need to shed an unnecessary load that they may be carrying. Trying to put a stop to illegal gambling – an impossible task, in any case – is one such needless burden that they could well be relieved of.</p> <p>Never mind trying to apprehend illegal gamblers. Apprehend would-be rapists and murderers instead. This would help to make society a safer bet for all of us, gamblers and non-gamblers alike.</p> <p><em>jug.suraiya@timesgroup.com</em></p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/namo_s_mythology NaMo's mythology Jug Suraiya 2013-11-12T22:17:07+05:30 2013-11-12T22:17:52+05:30 <p>Can Narendra Modi legitimately lay claim to the political ideology of Sardar Patel, in whose honour he's erecting a huge, 2,500-crore statue made of pieces of iron collected from all over India as a symbol of national unity?<br /><br />An impassioned countrywide debate has erupted over the issue, with participants from both sides of the secular-vs-saffron fence citing historical facts - sometimes facts selectively chosen to buttress their arguments - to prove their point.<br /><br />This emphasis on historical accuracy, necessary as it is, misses a fundamental point. The figure at the centre of the controversy - Narendra Modi, not Sardar Patel, who played a major role in the unifying of modern India - has scant regard for history himself. As critics have pointed out, in his speeches Modi has confused the Gupta dynasty with the Mauryan, and has placed Taxila in Bihar, to name just two examples of the liberties he has taken with history.<br /><br />Indeed, Modi could well echo the words of Henry Ford, who famously said that history was bunk. NaMo has little time and less respect for that has-been called history. He's too busy creating a far more powerful and compelling narrative about himself: the narrative called mythology.<br /><br />In choosing to replace factual history with fabled mythology, Modi has struck a chord deeply embedded in the psyche of many Indians. It is often said that Indians, by and large, are an ahistorical people. The sorry state of our ancient monuments, which are vandalised or left to crumble in malign neglect, is a symptom of this indifference to the past. Instead of history, many Indians prefer mythology, which is history dressed up in a superhero costume, like Krrish-3.<br /><br />The Sangh Parivar and its followers have long favoured mythology over history, an example being their recreation of Lord Rama as a real being whose birthplace is Ayodhya. V S Naipaul has noted the preference of many Indians for mythology as opposed to history. He describes how when travelling on a local bus in Kashmir, they came across a dilapidated shrine. One of Naipaul's fellow passengers said the shrine was 5,000 years old. Another corrected him, saying it was 10,000 years old. Naipaul, who knew the history of the shrine, tried to tell them that it was in fact built in the previous century and was not much more than 150 years old. But he found no one was interested in this. After all, why settle for a mere 150 years when you could opt for 5,000 years, or even 10,000? Why shortchange ourselves with miserly history when we can indulge ourselves with the unlimited largesse of mythology?<br /><br />And that is exactly what Modi is doing. Urging us to break free from the confining shackles of history and emerge triumphant into the realm of mythology whose legendary vistas are not fenced in by the barbed wire of facts. As Vyasa and Valmiki did millennia ago, NaMo is scripting his own mythology for 21st century India, with himself as the central character.<br /><br />History? Take it out of the back door with the rest of the garbage.</p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/what_s_your_opinion What’s your opinion? Jug Suraiya 2013-11-08T13:11:16+05:30 2013-11-08T13:11:16+05:30 <p>The next time you’re talking with a group of friends and you ask them who they think will win the forthcoming assembly elections, or the general elections in 2014, you might incur the displeasure of Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh who has gone on record to say that opinion polls of any kind regarding the outcome of elections should be banned.</p> <p>Calling opinion polls a “farce” the Congress general secretary has said that “anyone can pay and get a survey on demand”. While the Congress has been the most outspoken in its opposition to such electoral surveys, Mulayam’s SP, Mayawati’s BSP, and Karunanidhi’s DMK are also said to be anti-opinion polls. The reasons cited are that the base of respondents on which such exercises are based is far too small to give an accurate picture of the actual outcome, and that findings can be manipulated to suit a particular party or parties.</p> <p>However, the BJP has said that the real reason for the antipathy to opinion polls – particularly in the case of the Congress – is that this time around such surveys have been showing the parties concerned in a poor light. The saffron party has gone on to make the point that a ban on opinion polls would be to curb the constitutional right of freedom of expression. If opinion polls are banned, what about press comments, blogs or tweets about election prediction? Can all these be banned too without also simultaneously banning democracy and a free society? </p> <p>As the law stands, opinion polls can’t be telecast 48 hours before voting begins and exit polls can’t be aired till voting is over. These restrictions are meant to ensure that opinion-gathering exercises don’t turn out to be self-fulfilling prophecies: if a poll shows that a particular party is going to win, it might influence voters into casting their ballots for that party – whether they agree with its professed agenda or not – for fear that otherwise their vote will be wasted having been cast in favour of a projected loser.</p> <p>However, the Indian electorate, as it has shown time and again, is a notoriously unpredictable entity, apt to confound any and all forecasts regarding the choices it might make, and the reasons for those choices. Time after time, Indian voters have baffled psephologists and crystal-ball gazers who have tried to predict their behaviour.</p> <p>Indeed, it might even be said that so contrarian is the Indian electorate that it will choose to do the exact opposite of what self-styled experts predict it will do. In that sense, opinion polls can act as the very reverse of a self-fulfilling prophecy which they are sometimes charged with being. They could be a self-unfulfilling prophecy, resulting in an outcome dramatically opposed to what was predicted.</p> <p>So let’s have as many opinion polls as possible, each contradicting the other. Who’ll win? The UPA? The NDA? The Third Front? Modi? Rahul?</p> <p>There are no sure winners. Except perhaps for the electorate itself, which will get the government it deserves. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Depends on your opinion.</p> <p><em>jug.suraiya@timesgroup.com</em></p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/it_all_ads_up1 It all ads up Jug Suraiya 2013-11-07T22:15:43+05:30 2013-11-07T22:30:56+05:30 <p>In the midst of the recent festive season, instead of leaving a newspaper on my doorstep, my newspaperwala left a telephone directory. Or, at least, something as thick and fat as what telephone directories used to be when we still had telephone directories before mobile phones, whose memory chips store all the numbers you’re likely to use, made telephone directories redundant.<br /><br />I looked closer and what i’d mistaken for a phone directory wasn’t a directory at all, but a newspaper. And not any old newspaper but the TOI itself. It said so, right there on the masthead on the front page, complete with the logo of the two elephants leaning their heads against a shield. Yep, it was the TOI all right. But what was the news it was featuring on the front page?<br /><br />The front page showed a youthful Mummy and Daddy, with their two baba log, all grinning fit to bust with the headline: SHOPPING MEIN CHANDI HI CHANDI. What on earth did it mean? Was it some sort of code? An encoded news report on the latest development in the coal allocation scam, maybe? Were the Mom and Dad and the two baba log thinly disguised illegal allottees of coal blocks and the babus who allotted the blocks to them, all happily chuckling away at the loot they’d made? Was it Coalgate in which there was CHANDI HI CHANDI? Maybe the full story would come out on the next page.<br /><br />I turned to the next page. All of which was taken up by a huge, larger-than-life picture of some sort of cellphone. What was a cellphone doing in the news? Was it the German chancellor’s phone which allegedly had been tapped by America’s spy agency, the NSA? Was it the phone Niira Radia had used to talk to all those people whose voices got taped?<br /><br />It took me a while to figure it out. The front page, and the next page, and the page after that, weren’t full of coded news. They were full of uncoded ads. And it wasn’t just the TOI whose front page, and subsequent pages, were full of ads. All, or almost all, the newspapers were similarly ad-justed to accommodate as many advertisements as possible.<br /><br />There was a time when newspapers, particularly the front pages of newspapers, were about news. Like wars being fought, and governments rising or falling, economies crashing, terrorist attacks. Those days are gone. Now the front page, and the following full pages, of newspapers are about: BARGAIN KA HANGAMA – HURRY TILL STOCKS LAST, and HONOLULU HAVELIS – LUXURY 2/3/4 BHK FLATS, GOLF COURSE ATTACHED.<br /><br />Wars, falling governments, crashing economics, terrorists? Go past the GOVERNMENT TENDERS and look for the fine print which says Trivial Topics. You’ll find wars, collapsing governments, crashing economies, etc, over there. If you use a magnifying glass.<br /><br />The reason that newspapers are looking like telephone directories on steroids is that they’re bulging with ads. Marketing people say that no newspaper can survive without ads. The point at issue now, however, seems to be whether newspapers can survive without news.<br /><br />I get out my magnifying glass and look for the news. NaMo says he’ll make everyone in the country rich. RaGa says he’ll shed a tear for everyone in the country. CPM says it’ll form a Third Front. Mulayam says ... Mamata says ...<br /><br />Uh, oh. More ads. Except they don’t call them ads. They call them poll promises.</p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/aspirational_admi Aspirational admi Jug Suraiya 2013-11-05T22:16:00+05:30 2013-11-05T22:16:01+05:30 <p> <div>Which is more effective? The Congress party’s pro-poor, aam admi campaign? Or the Modi-led BJP’s anti-poverty, growth-oriented strategy?<br /><br /></div> <div>The Congress’s pro-poor campaign raises the inevitable question: after almost 60 years of Congress rule – punctuated by relatively brief periods of other governments – why is it necessary to have all these special pro-poor schemes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the food security Act? Despite decades of slogans like Indira Gandhi’s ‘Garibi hatao’ why are there still so many hundreds of millions of citizens of this republic who continue to be abysmally poor?<br /><br /></div> <div>India’s pro-poor programmes are in actuality pro-poverty schemes, designed not so much to eradicate poverty but to perpetuate it, and with it perpetuate a vote bank of the poor who for the sake of a few handouts near election time will cast their ballot for a mai-baap sarkar.<br /><br /></div> <div>In sharp distinction, even critics of the BJP – particularly as represented by the socially divisive image of NaMo – might concede that Narendra Modi’s campaign which emphasizes the need for growth, development and prosperity is more effective as a popular crowd-puller. Modi’s campaign has not been anti-poor; it has been anti-poverty. In this sense it is not a negative, but a positive approach.</div> <div>Unlike the Congress campaign, it does not imply that India is a poor country, and will continue to remain poor. Instead, Modi’s campaign asserts that India is a country of potentially productive and prosperous people who have been kept poor by faulty policies and defective governance.<br /><br /></div> <div>Modi seems to have intuited an emerging truth of contemporary India: that within every so-called aam admi there is an aspirational admi struggling to come out. Yesterday’s have-nots – who were kept appeased by subsidies and freebies of various kinds – are fast becoming today’s will-haves, who do not supplicate the government for a better deal for themselves and their children but demand it.<br /><br /></div> <div>Unlike yesterday’s have-nots, today’s will-haves aren’t satisfied with the crumbs of the cake the sarkar might give them; they want a sizeable slice of a larger cake of national wealth which they want to help to make.<br /><br /></div> <div>Modi’s promise of prosperity addresses the aspirational admi, the will-haves, who – inspired by the consumerism they see all around them and watch reflected on community television screens – want not just roti, kapda and makaan, but roti, kapda, makaan and motor car. Or, at least, a two-wheeler.<br /><br /></div> <div>Can the BJP, spearheaded by Modi, deliver on its promises to the aspirational admi, the will-haves? That’s an entirely different question. As a deliverer of development, Modi is as controversial a figure as he is for his alleged communal bias. His so-called ‘Gujarat model’ of growth has as many detractors – who question its social indices, particularly among minority communities – as it has supporters.<br /><br /></div> <div>But one thing NaMo has unquestionably done: he has taken the genie out of the bottle. He has taken the will-have, aspirational admi out of the have-not aam admi: And no one will be able to put the genie back into the bottle again.</div> </p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/what_price_our_dead_netas What price our dead netas? Jug Suraiya 2013-11-04T14:12:39+05:30 2013-11-04T14:12:39+05:30 <p>Sardar Patel is caught in an unseemly tug-of-war between the Congress and the BJP. While Patel belonged to the Congress party, BJP’s PM candidate, Narendra Modi, is trying to lay claim to the Sardar’s brand equity as part of the BJP’s electoral campaign.</p> <p>Modi has publicly pronounced that if Patel, instead of Nehru, had been made the first prime minister of India, the country’s history would have been very different. This was an obvious reference to Nehru’s alleged ‘softness’ on the Kashmir issue and his left-wing, Russia-inspired ideology which made him follow socialist policies which some claim adversely affected India’s economic growth. In contrast, Patel is projected as a strong leader, with a right-of-centre economic views in keeping with Modi’s own business-friendly ‘Gujarat model’ of development.</p> <p>Modi wants to don Sardar Patel’s ‘Iron Man’ mantle. In order to do so, the Gujarat CM has tried to show that, thanks to its Nehru-Gandhi dynastic fixation, the Congress has sidelined other party leaders such as Patel.</p> <p>To prove his point, Modi said that, until this year, the Congress-led UPA government had ignored Sardar Patel’s birth anniversary, and had not taken out newspaper advertisements to mark the occasion. In this – as in several other statements he has made on development figures and on historical events – Modi got his facts wrong. Congress spokespeople were quick to point out that the government’s publicity arm had, in fact, over the years spent Rs 8.5 crore on advertisements commemorating Patel’s birth anniversary, a sum far in excess of what the BJP-led NDA government had spent under the same head when it held office.</p> <p>This might have left Modi red-faced except for the fact that the Congress has spent far more on commemorating the birth anniversaries of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi than on Patel’s anniversary, thereby revealing the family bias the Gujarat CM has accused the party of. Over the past four years, the government has spent Rs 21 crore on advertisements on Rajiv Gandhi’s birth and death anniversaries, and Rs 14.5 crore on Indira Gandhi’s anniversaries. </p> <p>It is often pointed out that our netas cost the taxpayer a lot while they are alive, what with the free, and often luxurious, housing and all the other perks that they enjoy. But it seems that even after death our netas – or at least some of them – can continue to cost us almost as much as they did when they were alive. </p> <p>Whose interest does it serve for the government of the day – whichever it might be – to shell out huge sums of public money – your money and my money – to bring out such commemorative ads? </p> <p>The stock answer to that from political parties would be that the nation should remember, and suitably revere, the memory of our national leaders who have contributed so much to the country’s history.</p> <p>Certainly no one, of any political persuasion, will begrudge the contribution made to India’s history by Sardar Patel, who played a pivotal role in shepherding the princely states into the national fold at the time of Independence.</p> <p>The contributions made by Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi are more open to question. But the argument that we need costly advertisements to remember our lost leaders is itself highly questionable.</p> <p>Instead of expensive, meaningless ads which nobody looks at and which serve no purpose apart from that of sycophancy, wouldn’t it be much better to spend the money on establishing a village school or a primary health centre, named if necessary after the person being commemorated?</p> <p>All netas worth their patriotic salt would approve of such an idea. Sardar Patel certainly would – a point that all those trying to appropriate his legacy would do well to remember.</p> <p><em>jug.suraiya@timesgroup.com </em></p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/time_stood_still Time stood still Jug Suraiya 2013-11-01T13:08:56+05:30 2013-11-01T13:08:56+05:30 <p>With Prem Chacha, as everyone in the family called him, punctuality was much more than just politeness. It was a grand passion. An elderly, semi-retired man, he led a life of such precision that it would have put a Swiss chronometer to shame. Other people might wake up at “about seven or thereabouts”, but Prem Chacha began his day at exactly 7.17 a.m. Not 7.16 or 7.18 but 7.17 on the dot, every day. Getting ready would invariably take him 54 minutes, and he was always at the breakfast table at the tick of eleven minutes past eight. He left for the office where he worked for half the day at ten and unfailingly got there at 14 minutes past.</p> <p>Used to his hyper-punctuality, the family took adequate care to keep in tune with Prem Chacha’s metronomic regularity. But guests and new servants often caused problems. No one would forget the day when the new cook arrived. He was carefully briefed. A packed lunch had to be ready every working day at exactly 9.30 a.m. for the saheb. On the very first day, breakfast over; the cook hurriedly began to get the packed lunch together. As the seconds and minutes ticked by the family watched in suspense. Would he make it? At 9.29 Prem Chacha went and sat in the car. At 9.29 and 45 seconds he started the engine. The cook, lunch ready in the nick of time, came dashing out of the house and ran to the car. His hand was on the door handle when Prem Chacha announced in tones of sepulchral finality, “It is one second past 9.30” and drove away, leaving behind his lunch and an astounded cook. </p> <p>“He has a quartz crystal for a heart and a mainspring for a mind”, friends and acquaintances grumbled. But you either learnt to keep pace with Prem Chacha’s punctuality or you got left behind – quite literally. And then his daughter got engaged. The fiancé was a large young man with a booming voice, a hearty handshake and a total disregard for time. He was invited formally to meet the family over dinner on the seventh at eight o’clock. The seventh came and went with no sign of him. He turned up the next day. “The seventh at eight o’clock? I thought you said the eighth at seven o’clock!” And he laughed long and loud at his own silliness while Prem Chacha gritted his teeth.</p> <p>A few days later the young man invited the family to see a film, arranging to meet them outside the hall with the tickets. When he finally showed up it was the interval and Prem Chacha’s blood pressure was dangerously high, “Sorry, but I forgot to mention that I always come late for films”, he said cheerfully. “Can’t stand these side shows and news reels”. “I trust you won’t feel similarly on your wedding day”, muttered Prem Chacha.</p> <p>“The boy must learn the value of time”, Prem Chacha added the next day. “And I hope this will teach him do so”. He produced the latest smartphone crowded with all sorts of apps, including an appointment reminder which could be set for a year in advance. It looked like something from the console of a spacecraft. The phone was given as a belated engagement present and a dinner appointment was fixed for the next week as a test case. “Now do try and be punctual this time”, said his fiancée to the young man, and he promised he would be.</p> <p>He arrived 46 minutes late according to a grim Prem Chacha’s computation. “I’m sorry but it’s not really my fault, you know”, the latecomer explained in the face of accusing glares. “It’s this phone you gave me. It’s so fascinating, what with all its apps which give you the time in New York or Yokohama or what phase the moon is in or when the next solar eclipse will be. I got so engrossed I totally forgot about the time”.</p> <p>Dinner was a subdued affair, but when the young man was leaving Prem Chacha, in a surprisingly mild tone, asked him to drop in next evening for another meal. “Thank you”, said the invitee. “Will eightish be O.K.?” And to the family’s amazement Prem Chacha quietly replied, “Eightish will be just fine!”</p> <p>Prem Chacha had finally got used to the concept of Indian Standard Time, in which time is pretty much what you choose to make of it.</p> <p><em>jug,suraiya@timesgroup.com</em></p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/hear_hear Hear, hear! Jug Suraiya 2013-10-31T21:45:41+05:30 2013-10-31T21:45:41+05:30 <p><em>Some of the things US spy agencies might hear if they tapped the phones of Indian netas.</em></p> <p>So far, there has been no indication that US snoops have been plugging into the conversations, telephonic and otherwise, of our netas. But if they have, they might hear something that goes like this:<br /><br />Flunkey snoop : Hey boss. It's that dame again, giving instructions to her Man Friday.<br /><br />Boss snoop : Yeah? What's she saying this time?<br /><br />Flunkey snoop : Same old, same old. Here she is...<br /><br />Woman's voice : ...and i hope you've been listening carefully and taking notes of all the pro-poor things that we've done so far and all the pro-poor things we've still got to do. We've got NREGA through, and that food security business. Now what else can you think of that we can do for the poor? How about a Land Acquisition Act? You think land acquisition is pro-poor? That's the trouble with the poor. Pretty soon you run out of things to do for them. I know of a pro-poor thing that we can do today! Poor Rahul's speeches are really poor, i mean really . So could you rewrite them and maybe make them a little bit less poor? Wouldn't that be a nice pro-poor thing to do? Oh, and while you're coming across to rewrite Rahul's latest speech maybe you could stop by at the sabzi mandi and buy some veggies for the Family. No onions, mind you. Otherwise we'll have to think up a pro-poor scheme for us .<br /><br />Silence : (Dead silence).<br /><br />Boss snoop : Why doesn't the guy reply?<br /><br />Flunkey snoop : He is replying. Silence to anything anyone tells him is his only reply. Sometimes he calls people on their phones and remains silent. Then they know it's him calling and they tell him what to do, and he goes and does it. Oh, here's the guy everyone calls RaGa...<br /><br />RaGa : Boo hoo! Boo hoo! My grandmother protected me. Boo hoo! She protected me from spinach. Or was it badminton? Boo hoo!<br /><br />Boss snoop : Who is he boo hooing to?<br /><br />Flunkey snoop : Someone he calls Aam Admi.<br /><br />Boss snoop : And is Aam Admi listening?<br /><br />Flunkey snoop : Nah. Aam Admi hung up on him. Aam Admi's got enough sob stories of his own to listen to anyone else's sob stories, whether they're about grandmoms, or spinach, or anything else. Now here comes that other fella they call NaMo...<br /><br />NaMo : Bhaiyo, aur Beheno, aur Minorityo, namaskaram! I don't know why this shehzada and his chamchas are always saying that i am against all minorities. That is totally false. I am not against all minorities, only some minorities. There is one minority i am very much in favour of. There is one minority that i want to see grow, and develop, and prosper. And who is that minority? Why, me of course! I'm the ultimate minority, a minority of one. Otherwise also known as NaMocracy — the new, improved substitute for that obsolete old thing called democracy...<br /><br />Boss snoop : Who's he talking to?<br /><br />Flunkey snoop : He's talking to the person he considers most important in the country — himself. Here's this dude called Elkayji.<br /><br />Elkayji : NaMo, NaMo, whyfore art thou to be PM, NaMo?<br /><br />Boss snoop : All these folk claim to be working for Aam Admi, but they seem to be working only for themselves. So what should they be called?<br /><br />Flunkey snoop : Dunno, boss. Harm Admi, mayb...?</p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/good_news_behind_rising_food_prices Good news behind rising food prices? Jug Suraiya 2013-10-31T14:16:12+05:30 2013-10-31T14:16:13+05:30 <p>Is there good news behind rising prices of food? Perhaps.<br /><br />Who’s responsible for food prices which keep going higher and higher and refuse to come down, no matter what? Hoarders and blackmarketeers are certainly responsible for soaring vegetable prices, particularly in the case of onions which rose in price by a whopping 322% between April and September this year.<br /><br />There are two main factors behind the high prices of onions: hoarding and above-normal rainfall which affected crops in Maharashtra, which accounts for 46% of the country’s onion output, and in UP, which contributes some 20% of this vegetable to the sabzi mandis. <br /><br />But the prices of other vegetables, not affected by aberrant rainfall or by hoarding, have also gone up drastically, as have the prices of almost all cereals, daals, dairy products, eggs, chicken and other non-vegetarian items.<br /><br />These rising food prices contrast sharply with the prices of other goods and services that have come down, some of them sharply so.<br /><br />For example, cement prices have come down by 3% and iron by 8%, suggesting a slowdown in construction activity. While this is an unwelcome symptom of a sluggish economy, technological advances have led to huge price cuts in products and services like computers, mobile phones and telephony.<br /><br />According to several economists, including Kaushik Basu, former chief economic adviser to the Indian government, persistently high food prices in the country – which has led to the coming of a new word, ‘skewflation’, or skewed inflation – could have a positive side. <br /><br />And the possible good news is that the rise in food prices is reflective of the rise in rural incomes, particularly thanks to programmes like the national rural employment scheme. Rising rural incomes mean increased consumption, as poorer households switch their dietary patterns from coarse foodgrains like bajra and millet to costlier cereals like rice and wheat, and also to dairy products and high protein foods, like eggs. <br /><br />This increase in demand, without a concomitant increase in supply, is in part the reason for high food prices. <br /><br />Studies have shown that even when India enjoys a good monsoon, as it has by and large done this year, food prices do not come down, despite bumper harvests of most, though not all, crops.<br /><br />Many economists believe that this is because of increased rural consumption, made possible by rising rural incomes, which in August 2013 registered a 13.1% increase.<br /><br />As the overall Indian economy is crucially dependent on the rural economy, which involves more than half the country’s population, the dark cloud of high food prices might have a silver lining. For it is not just the exploitative hoarder who is responsible for food inflation, but also the agrarian worker who is earning and consuming more. <br /><br />If higher rural consumption leads to higher rural productivity in food output, tomorrow’s India need never again shed tears over the prices of onions, or any other item of food.<br /><br /><em>jug.suraiya@timesgroup.com</em></p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/states_estates_india_should_offer_to_buy_azad_kashmir_from_pakistan States & Estates: India should offer to buy ‘Azad Kashmir’ from Pakistan Jug Suraiya 2013-10-29T20:46:20+05:30 2013-10-29T20:46:20+05:30 <html /> <p>To solve its dispute with Pakistan, New Delhi should offer to buy ‘Azad Kashmir’ from Islamabad. For over 60 years Kashmir has been the major bone of contention between India and Pakistan. No talks of peace can take place without settling what has come to be called the ‘Kashmir problem’.<br /> <br />To solve this long-standing problem, could India offer to buy Pak-occupied Kashmir from Pakistan? The idea might not be as outlandish as it sounds. Land Matrix, a global agency which monitors the acquisition of land across the world, has listed India as being among the top 10 countries – which include China, the US, the United Arab Emirates and the UK – to have bought or leased land from foreign countries in Asia and Africa, primarily for agricultural purposes.<br /> <br />Since 2008, there have been over 840 deals where countries have purchased, or leased on a long-term basis, land in other countries. In 39 deals, Indian companies have reportedly acquired almost 13 lakh hectare acres – more than nine times the size of Delhi – in African and Asian countries, mainly to grow foodgrains, oil seeds and sugarcane.<br /> <br />Why is the Indian state investing in real estate abroad? Because, as in the case of China, rapid urbanisation and industrialisation is eating up agricultural land in India, jeopardising the country’s food security. A professor of agro-economics at IIM, Ahmedabad, has been quoted as saying that in the past 20 years, India’s net sowing land has been reduced from 42 million hectares to 40 million hectares, owing to urban and industrial expansion.<br /> <br />Running out of farmable land of their own, countries like China and India have been buying or renting land in other countries, a trend which has several historical precedents. What is now called Manhattan was purchased in 1626 by Dutch colonists from the Lenape tribe of Native Americans for the equivalent of $24 (which at today’s prices would be worth about $1,000).<br /> <br />In 1803, the US bought the 2,140,000-square km territory of Louisiana from the French for a total sum of $15 million, which worked out to less than three cents an acre. At today’s prices, the deal would still be a steal, at $234 million, or less than 42 cents an acre.<br /> <br />In 1867, the United States – which should more aptly be called the United Real Estates – bought all of Alaska’s 1,518,800 sq km from Russia for $7.2 million, which worked out to two cents an acre. Closer to home, what was then called Bombay exchanged hands from the ruling Portuguese to the British as part of the dowry Charles II of England got when he married Catherine of Braganza. Charles rented Bombay to the East India Company for 10 pounds of gold a year.<br /> <br />Citing these and other examples, New Delhi could do worse than offer to buy Pak-occupied Kashmir from Islamabad. All that land currently occupied by terrorist training camps could be put to profitable use by converting it into farms and orchards to feed India’s growing and hungry population.<br /> <br />How would India pay for the purchase of Pak-occupied Kashmir? It would pay with the 1,000 tonnes of gold buried in Unnao, UP, that sadhu Shobhan Sarkar has dreamt up.<br /> <br />Buying Kashmir a fantasy? Fine. But so is the gold.</p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/namo_and_the_lotus NaMo and the lotus Jug Suraiya 2013-10-26T12:18:37+05:30 2013-10-26T12:18:37+05:30 <p>Will the 2014 elections see a battle of flowers, a battle between the Nehruvian rose, as represented by Jawaharlal Nehru’s great-grandson, and the BJP’s lotus, as represented by Narendra Modi, whom the saffron party has nominated as its prime ministerial candidate?</p> <p>That seems to be a more than possible scenario. But more than the thorns that roses have, along with their sweet fragrance, the BJP is reportedly beginning to fear that NaMo’s prickly brand image is what might puncture the party’s lotus symbol.</p> <p>More and more voters, it seems, have their eyes set so firmly on Modi as their choice of PM that they overlook the BJP’s lotus. This raises the worrisome question for the party’s think tank as to whether NaMo is getting too big not just for his own boots but for the BJP’s symbol. In other words, is Modi becoming bigger than the party he supposedly represents?</p> <p>In his election speeches, Modi has stressed good governance and development and kept discreetly away from issues like the building of the Ram mandir, a central tenet of the BJP as it is of its ideological mentor, the RSS. Indeed, Modi’s ‘de-saffronised’ version of Hindutva has already earned itself the name of ‘Moditva’.</p> <p>To bring the lotus back into focus in voters’ minds – and along with it the concepts of Hindutva and ‘cultural nationalism’ that it symbolises – the BJP is coming up with poster slogans such as : “Narendra Modi, Kamal Nishaan, Maang Raha Hai Hindustani”, (Narendra Modi, lotus symbol is what the country wants). At campaign rallies, giant lotus symbols will provide the backdrop to NaMo’s speeches so that in voters’ eyes Modi is seen as being synonymous with the BJP and not as an independent candidate.</p> <p>A party leader, Shahnawaz Hussain recalling the days of Atal Behari Vajpayee, has stressed the importance of convincing the electorate that now “the Modi nectar is being offered in the lotus”. The electoral power of symbols is crucial in a country like India with its high levels of illiteracy: voters put their stamp on recognisable symbols, not on names which they are unable to read.</p> <p>The lotus was picked as the BJP symbol in 1980 when it split from the Janata Party, and the farmer and plough symbol got frozen. Asked to choose from available symbols, the newly-formed BJP selected the lotus.</p> <p>According to folk lore, just before the 1857 war of independence, itinerant sadhus carried a lotus flower along with a roti as a secret symbol of an uprising against the British. Traditionally the lotus in India has been considered as an emblem of prosperity. The 1857 connection also makes it a symbol of patriotism. In yoga, the lotus-position is conducive to tranquility.</p> <p>This being the case, Modi shouldn’t begrudge the lotus backing him on his campaign. With one word of caution, however. According to the legend of Ulysses, lotus-eaters, people who ate the fruit of the lotus, got lost in a perpetual daydream.</p> <p>If NaMo is aware of this classical association, he might be apprehensive that his election promises might be seen by some to be nothing but empty pipe dreams.</p> <p> </p> <p><em>jug.suraiya@timesgroup.com</em></p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/let_s_stick_together Let's stick together Jug Suraiya 2013-10-24T22:48:48+05:30 2013-10-24T22:48:49+05:30 <p style="text-align: justify;">It was like a lathicharge set to music. Too cool. It was better than Robbers-and-Pirates which, at the age of 10, was the favourite game of me and my pals, involving the waving about of toy swords accompanied by the shrieking of bloodcurdling war cries and the groans of the mortally wounded.<br /><br />It was in the 1950s, on the terrace of a Gujarati neighbour in what was then called Calcutta, and i was watching my first performance of dandiya raas, the Gujarati folk dance in which male and female participants circle each other to the rhythmic sway of vocal music, each performer holding a pair of dandiya sticks which they clack together and against each other`s to establish a hypnotic staccato beat. To my 10-year-old, Robbers-and-Pirates-programmed mind, the objective of the exercise seemed to be for each dancer to thwack the others on their heads or limbs with the sticks they held in their hands. I waited for the first blow to strike home. But i waited in vain.<br /><br />It took a while for me to realise that what i was watching was not a battle royal with mini lathis but a dance. Since those far-off days, dandiya parties, particularly at about this time of the year, have become hugely popular affairs not just in the native Gujarat of their origin but across the country. Dandiya is the desi disco, part and parcel of the contemporary Indian culture of ethnic chic, which includes fashionable retro rituals like looking at the moon through a sieve on karva chauth, or lighting an LED diya for a made-in-China Lakshmi on Diwali.<br /><br />How did dandiya become so popular in Gujarat? A question which might give future sociologists much pause for thought. One of the reasons could be that, by and large, Gujarati society — as indeed Indian society as a whole — tends to be comparatively conservative when it comes to the social intermingling of young people of different genders, and tends to look askance at anything which might lead to what generically might be described as hanky-panky. But a too-strict segregation of the sexes also poses a problem. For if such a policy were to be carried too far, where would little Gujjus, or for that matter, any little Indians, come from?<br /><br />Dandiya was the perfect compromise for getting young people together for a bit of supervised hanky — or perhaps even panky — without risking it becoming the full Monty of hanky-panky. Dandiya is a courtship ritual, like the mating dances performed by peacocks, pigeons and other birds. It is a fertility rite in disguise. Dandiya underwrites the biological success of future generations of not just Gujjubhais and Gujjubens, but also of Punjubhais and Punjubens, and bhais and bens of all and any other persuasions who participate in it. May the dandiya tribe increase.<br /><br />However, with the advent of NaMo, dandiya might assume an entirely different, political significance, much more in keeping with my 10-year-old`s interpretation of it when i first witnessed it being performed.<br /><br />Proponents of Moditva might see the dance as being a form of martial arts conducted by other means. As in that old Gujju saying, slightly rephrased: Su chhe, minority chhe, dandiya lai ne maru chhe.<br /><br />Better than Robbers-and-Pirates? Decidedly so. Dandiya raas Modi-fied into dandiya baas.</p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/downsize_uncle_sam Downsize uncle Sam Jug Suraiya 2013-10-22T22:44:49+05:30 2013-10-22T22:44:49+05:30 <p style="text-align: justify;">Would you allow a hulking, physically violent, emotionally unstable and financially irresponsible teenager to run your household, creating disputes with your neighbours and playing merry hell with your daily hisaab? Of course you wouldn't.<br /><br />Yet this is exactly what is happening if you take the world as household and America as the uncontrolled teenager. Ever since the end of World War II, when it emerged as a nuclear superpower, the US has been running the global household according to its whims and diktats. Its pre-eminent position was further strengthened after the collapse of the Soviet Union — the other countervailing superpower — which made the US what a former secretary of state called "the only indispensable nation on earth".<br /><br />Like a teenage gangbanger, America aggressively interferes — to put it mildly — in the internal affairs of other countries, as it has done in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, to name just a few. It is said that one of America's biggest exports is war. America's largest industry is that of armaments and the US makes people fight with each other so that it can sell arms to both sides.<br /><br />The US regularly interferes in the domestic affairs of other countries even when it has no conscious intention of doing so. This is particularly true in the realm of finance and economics. When the US economy sneezes, the world economy catches dengue, as happened with the so-called subprime crisis in 2008, the repercussions of which are still being felt around the world.<br /><br />The slowing down of the Indian economy and the fall of the rupee against the dollar — which results in increased inflation in India — are partly due to American policy decisions regarding the economic mess the US has created for itself. All that the US Federal Reserve Bank has to do is hint that it might soon start 'tapering' its policy of buying American treasury bonds and a global panic is created which suddenly leaves a hole in your wallet, when the value of your hard-earned rupee overnight shrinks by 20% against the dollar.<br /><br />But all this is nothing compared to what happens when the US — because of its own political infighting — goes into 'shutdown' mode. The American government not working? It might default on its debt? Then who'll run the world? It's as though the law of gravity stopped functioning. What would happen to all of us? Would we all just drift off into space?<br /><br />In the end, a last-second deal was struck in Washington between the warring Democrats and Republicans and Apocalypse Now was averted. For now.<br /><br />Any crisis which erupts in America becomes a crisis for the rest of us. Is there any way that the world can prevent, or minimise, being affected by what happens in America? Is there any way to downsize Uncle Sam?<br /><br />Tough proposition. Not least because both 'downsize' and 'Uncle Sam' are Americanisms. The US controls not only the world's economy but also the world's vocabulary: the international language is no longer English; it is Americanese. The world speaks American, thinks American, and acts American, from wearing jeans to celebrating Halloween, from Bollywood increasingly imitating Hollywood to swadeshi netas flying to the US for heart surgery.<br /><br />Tough to downsize Uncle Sam. But perhaps we could make a small start by Indianising his name — Chacha Shyam, maybe?</p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/enslaved_by_india Enslaved by India Jug Suraiya 2013-10-19T12:38:18+05:30 2013-10-19T12:38:18+05:30 <p>One hundred and fifty years after slavery was abolished in America, after a murderous civil war had been fought on the issue, this form of inhuman bondage continues to flourish in India, 66 years after this country’s independence for foreign rule.</p> <p>According to the first Global Slavery Index, published by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation, India has an estimated 13.3 million to 14.7 million people – equivalent to the population of a large city like Kolkata – existing in conditions of slavery.</p> <p>The index identified modern slavery by including the incidence of bonded labour arising out of debt, child labour, forced marriage, the sale and exploitation of children, and human trafficking, particularly with regard to women forced into prostitution.</p> <p>Using these parameters, the index ranked India at the top of a list of 162 countries, with this country having almost half of the world’s 30 million slaves. Ironically, India’s supposed democracy has more slaves than totalitarian China, which has an estimated 2.9 million forced labourers, and authoritarian Pakistan which reportedly has 2.1 million.</p> <p>India’s age-old caste system is largely responsible for its high incidence of slavery. In many rural communities, landless Dalits are routinely subjected to forced labour, often without benefit of wages, by upper caste landowners.</p> <p>There are innumerable true-life stories about Dalits seeking to break away from bondage by escaping – often under the cover of darkness – to the caste-anonymity of cities being apprehended by their upper caste masters and forced back to their villages to continue to be slave labour for the rest of their lives.</p> <p>Child slavery is equally common, if not even more so. India has an estimated 12 million child labourers; many of whom are working in unregulated and hazardous industries, such as the manufacturing of fireworks. In a cruel paradox, India also has the largest number – over 200 – of any anti-child labour laws than any country in the world, though it is one of the few nations which has yet to ratify the Worst Form of Child Labour Convention.</p> <p>Entrenched poverty has made child labour into an economic necessity: if a child does not work, the family can’t afford to feed it. The free midday meal for schoolchildren has been of only partial help. The high rate of school dropouts shows that child labour continues to be an inextricable strand in the social and economic fabric of rural India.</p> <p>Indebtedness to village moneylenders, generally at usurious rates of interest, is another factor which fosters enslavement in the form of forced labour: unable to repay debts, whole families are forced to work free for generations for their creditors.</p> <p>Micro banking systems – which would help to free villagers from rapacious moneylenders – have sown the seeds of hope, but there remains much ground to cover before rural India can harvest the benefits of such schemes. </p> <p>But perhaps the most exploited group in India, rural and urban, are women. Much of so-called ‘women’s work’ – cooking, cleaning the house, looking after children, tending to the sick, ailing and elderly, fetching water or firewood, often from great distances – is unpaid, and often unacknowledged, labour. In short, slave labour. Rape is one of the more vicious symptoms of gender slavery.</p> <p>We claim to cherish both Bharat Mata and Mother India. When will we break the chains of slavery which bind them both?</p> http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/mms_should_retire_not_resign MMS should retire, not resign Jug Suraiya 2013-10-18T13:38:03+05:30 2013-10-18T13:38:04+05:30 <p>Can Sachin Tendulkar give a useful tip to MMS? Perhaps he can.</p> <p>The opposition, particularly the BJP, is again clamouring for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resign. The latest call for the PM’s resignation comes in the wake of the CBI filing an FIR against, among others, industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla of Hindalco and the then Union coal secretary, P C Parakh, for alleged ‘irregularities’ in the allocation of coal blocks in what has come to be called Coalgate.</p> <p>The FIR has sent shockwaves both through corporate boardrooms and the corridors of bureaucracy. Both Kumar Mangalam Birla and Parakh are highly respected among their peer groups, and are noted for their professionalism and integrity.</p> <p>The business community has said that the CBI’s charges will further undermine investor confidence, which has already been adversely affected by what are seen to be anti-entrepreneur policies such as the move to impose retrospective taxation. Bureaucrats feel that the CBI’s targeting of Parakh will add to the ‘policy paralysis’ as officials will be reluctant to take decisions for fear of future vicitimisation. “Bureaucrats will not take any initiatives now. They will do crosswords and play golf,” a former cabinet secretary is quoted as saying.</p> <p>In response to the FIR, Parakh is reported to have said, “If the CBI has come to the conclusion that allocation of…(coal blocks)...to Hindalco was a conspiracy, then they should have made the prime minister, who approved the allocation, as accused No. 1.”</p> <p>Parakh’s barb has struck uncomfortably close to home – or rather, close to the PMO – as MMS was the Union coal minister at the time of the allocation made to Hindalco, which would have required his approval. So if there is, in fact, anything fishy in the deal, Manmohan Singh can’t sidestep responsibility for it.</p> <p>The CBI’s FIR, and its backlash, has come at a particularly bad time for the Congress, coinciding as it does with a Times Now voter survey which suggests that the BJP is likely to emerge as the single largest party in the 2014 elections, even though its projected tally of 162 seats, as compared with 102 for the Congress, will leave it far short of a majority.</p> <p>The scam-tainted Congress needs a shot in the arm. Or, more appropriately, a scapegoat, a diversionary tactic to ward off the opposition’s attack.</p> <p>To this end, MMS could do worse than take a leaf from Sachin Tendulkar’s book and announce, not his resignation, but his retirement from public life.</p> <p>There is a significant difference between resignation and retirement. Resignation implies an admission of culpability, or of defeat. Retirement, on the other hand, has positive connotations of having earned a rewarding rest after a long innings, whether on the cricket pitch or on the PM’s gaddi.</p> <p>Like Sachin, MMS should opt for retirement. Who knows? Like the cricket star, he might make a secondary career for himself as an endorser of various products. Known for his masterly inactivity, the PM would be an apt brand ambassador for a popular make of tranquilliser. Or perhaps a restful sleeping mattress guaranteed to give you not just forty but eighty winks of sound slumber, undisturbed by any pangs of guilty conscience.</p> <p><em>jug.suraiya@timesgroup.com</em></p> | http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/feed/entries/atom | dclm-gs1-139430002 | false | true | {
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0.254556 | <urn:uuid:e560e305-f893-4bc0-82cd-620b5344e3a7> | en | 0.973862 | Wednesday, May 27, 2009
White Zombie
Lemme know if you wanna see my list of sources.
Friday, May 22, 2009
See the lengths I'm willing to go?
1. They can't go into water.
2. They can eat firearms.
4. They frequent red light districts.
5. They can attack in the day or night.
6. They can only be killed by fire.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Sharks in Venice
To Do List:
1. Teach non-descript class involving Oceanography, deep-sea diving, and shark attacks at University
2. Find Medici treasure from the 8th Crusade
3. Expose shark conspiracy in Venice canals
4. Run afoul of the mob
5. Avenge father's death
If this sounds like some sort of hackneyed Indian Jones 'to do' list, you're right, in that it's Stephen Baldwin's 'to do' list in Sharks in Venice. See if any of this sounds vaguely familiar: adventurer professor Dr. Daniel Franks (Baldwin) is summoned to Venice from his cushy teaching job at University because of a 'propeller accident' involving his adventurer professor father. Upon finding dad's apartment in shambles from someone searching for the late Dr. Franks' notes on sharks and Medici treasure, Daniel sets out to find out who or what killed his dear old dad. Seems he has some of the same spirit.
However, it seems some stock footage of great whites is stalking the canals of Venice, put there by the mob boss Clemenza, so divers won't be tempted to look for the Medici treasure. Actually, it's a combo of stock footage and a plaster looking orca (for the close up attack shots) stalking the canals of Venice, if you want to get technical. And by Venice, I don't mean Venice, Italy, I mean, that hotel in Vegas that you can ride the gondola through, computer generated images of Venice, and a sound stage in Bulgaria.
As menacing as all this sounds, Daniel, being the great adventurer professor he is and like his father was, finds the Medici treasure no problem, of course attracting the attention of Clemenza. (The scene where Daniel finds the treasure is strait outta Last Crusade - complete with booby traps, cobwebs, triumphant music, the whole thing, but instead of being pursued by Nazis, Daniel is pursued by great white stock footage.) He takes a cheap looking emerald to prove he's found the treasure and jumps back into the water, barely escaping with his life.
At this point, I was a little disappointed because we are yet to be treated to giant CGI sharks attacking people in Venice or sound stage in Bulgaria, whatever you want to call it. (I guess Sharks on Sound Stage in Bulgaria isn't as compelling a title as Sharks in Venice.) I won't be disappointed for long, though, as the movie (sort of) delivers, with three or four cheap looking digital shark attack effects. I mean, seriously, this is why I watch these types of movies, for the cheap CGI, not for stock footage of great whites, which I can see on the Discovery channel. But where can you see a whole CGI city? There are some scenes of Venice exteriors that are completely computer generated. I think it would have been easier to just spring for the actual trip to Venice and then CGI the shark in, rather than the other way around. But I'm not a stickler; it really just adds to Sharks in Venice's cheapie charm.
Anyway, Clemenza offers Daniel two million bucks (Aren't they in Europe though? Shouldn't it be euros?) to go back in the shark infested canal and find the Medici treasure again. Well, being a mob guy, he doesn't really offer, he more tells him he has to do it or else he'll kill his girlfriend, medieval history professor adventurer Laura. Sparing you the details, Daniel follows through, natch - he's a great professor adventurer, and Clemenza gets fed to the plaster orca and everyone hugs and gives each other kisses and calls it a day It's all wrapped up nice and neat, we breathe a collective sigh of relief that the canals of CG Venice are now safe, credits appear, and then, BAM! a shark attacks a gondola! We're not safe after all! Stephen Baldwin failed us again! If I had a nickel for every time someone's said that....
I might not be a great professor adventurer like Stephen Baldwin, but anything involving giant CG sharks is at the top of my 'to do' list.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Fiancee of Dracula
In case you were wondering what Jean Rollin's been up to the last five or seven years or so, you can stop wondering because he was obviously hard at work toiling away at making the masterpiece that is Fiancee of Dracula (2002). (I'm always wondering what people are doing right at the moment I think about them. Like I wonder what Michael Jackson or David Lee Roth are doing right now. I wonder the same about Jean Rollin, like what is he doing right this very moment? I don't really have a lot going on.)
Fiancee of Dracula is like most of Rollin's oeuvre - it's disjointed and surreal and features some lesbian vampirism, as well as some over-the-top situations involving nuns (not that a lot of the other work I've seen by Rollin has to do with over-the-top situations involving nuns, but that's what sets this one sort of apart, amongst other things, I suppose.) The film starts suddenly when we see two men, an old professor type and a younger curly-haired leather-jacket wearing gent, peering into a cemetery. We'll find out later that the professor is a professor who really wants to meet Dracula and the young man is Eric, his assistant. As they look into the cemetery, they see a dwarf in a jester outfit and his vampire lady friend traipsing about. The vamp gets nakey and drinks the dwarf's blood and as they are about to do sex to each other on top of a crypt, the Professor grabs the dwarf and demands to be taken to his leader, Dracula. He's pretty fearless in the presence of the vampire, perhaps he's done this sort of work before? He is a professor, I guess. The dwarf says he doesn't know where Drac is but if they go talk to this insane woman in the nearby village, she can tell them where to go.
Satisfied with this, Prof and Eric go off to find the village idiot. They meet her by a silo or a tower or something, and she rambles on about sharks, opium dens, and the Queen of Shadows, who is really the HBIC if you want to talk to Dracula. She also tells them that the Queen of Shadows is kept by the Sisters of the Order of the White Virgin and they should go to their convent if they want to talk to the Queen. She tells them all this while humming and dancing around foolishly, and none of it makes much sense, but the Prof trusts her, I mean, why not?, and they head off to wherever the hell the convent is.
Upon arriving at the convent, they meet Sister Pipe and Sister Cigar (an attempt at some kind of Freudian allusion?), who welcome the men into the convent because it's been awhile since they've seen mens. These are not your ordinary nuns - they make out with each other, lift up their habits to show the Prof and Eric their underwear, perform ritualistic gypsy pagan exorcism dances, and have oil paintings of naked ladies all over their ornately decorated convent. Oh yeah, and they also take care of Isabelle, the aforementioned Queen of Shadows, who we are told later is going to become Dracula's bride. When we meet Isabelle for the first time, she's wearing a sequin and tassel number and spouts all manner of nonsense about Jesus filling our hearts with whatever and then she retires to her jungle themed room for the Prof and Eric to come interview her. She's as crazy, if not crazier than the village idiot, and tells them all manner of things about how Dracula lives inside a clock and how he speaks to her telepathically and fills her with darkness.
The Prof tells her to get the eff outta dodge, but don't let anyone stop her so Eric and him can follow her to this clock where Dracula lives so they can talk to him about important Dracula stuff, I guess. He then casts a spell on her so she'll sleep until midnight, the appropriate hour to go see Dracula. Then two weirdos stop by the convent to talk to Mother Superior about claiming Isabelle as their daughter or relation or cousin, who knows. After Mother Superior lights a cig on an ornate light-up singing Crucifixion lighter, she tells them hell to the no, they ain't getting Isabelle. The weirdos vow revenge and take their leave. It's all very theatrical.
Meanwhile, the dwarf takes Isabelle to some castle ruins in the sidecar of his motorcycle with a white lacey bassinet on the back. They meet up with an Ogress (the same actress that played the village idiot - only now she's an Ogress, which there is no real indication of her Ogress-ness, except the fact that she tells us "I am an Ogress." She's got on a lot of eye liner and a sexy dress and she eats the baby in the bassinet. So we're, of course, supposed to believe she's an Ogress, then.) She tells the dwarf and Isabelle she'll eat up their bones but then Eric shows up and shoots her, which is awesome, because she talks waaaaay too much. They navigate through the castle to a courtyard and the dwarf and that weird revenge swearing couple bring out a coffin. A woman in a blue dress shows up and plays a violin. The the beautiful (subject to opinion) She-Wolf shows up, and much like the Ogress, we're merely told she's a She-Wolf, although she does have long fingernails and wears a red dress, two She-Wolf qualities if there ever were two. She's the MC for this unholy night and tells everyone that the nuns gotta be killed as the sacrifice to bring Drac back to life. She, like the Ogress and the vamp, aren't particularly frightening. At one point, the She-Wolf and the vamp make out, but in about the least erotic way possible. Some other stuff happens like a nun gets her heart ripped out and the vamp gets thrown off a stone wall by the dwarf, but none of that really advances what attempt, if any, at a plot.
We finally get to meet Drac at about an hour in, and he does indeed rest inside a clock, like one of those big grandfather clocks that could actually fit a human inside. I know this because when I was a kid my mom inherited a clock like that from her grandmother and I loved that clock because it was really ornate and had all these animals intricately carved into the wood. I was like seven then and I could fit inside the clock if I really smooshed myself in there. My mom caught me doing it and yelled at me because the clock was an antique. I wonder if she still has that clock, I haven't thought about it in years, but I would love to have it in my own house. Anyway...Drac presents himself, and checks out Isabelle in her wedding attire, which consists of some white netting and red flowers placed over her boobies and crotch. The Professor and Eric are still hanging around, as are the nuns who are carrying human skulls and wearing funnels on their heads (seriously), and now the Prof can apparently communicate telepathically with both Eric and Isabelle. The dwarf is still running around somewhere too, but now instead of being dressed like a jester, he's dress like a skin, with combat boots and a bomber jacket and braces.
Eric decides somewhere along the line that he's got to save Isabelle from Drac's clutches, because all this is a bunch of mumbo jumbo anyway, and he doesn't believe in it. Then why is he the Prof's assistant in the first place? The Prof looks into Isabelle's mind and sees terrible darkness and evil and the whole thing dissolves into a cacophonous craziness that I'm not really entirely sure I understood.
Christian said Fiancee of Dracula was as bad as Alien Blood, which also featured some non-threatening, non-vampire-acting vamps, but I'm not convinced. Yeah, it was bad, but in a pretty okay, kinda alright way, because it's just so damn surreal. It's like what were you thinking, Jean Rollin or guy that wrote this, did you really think this made sense? And then we're watching the credits role and I said something like, do you think that out of the hundreds of people that worked on this movie, not one person was like, hey, this doesn't make any sense? It's not nearly as erotic as Rollin's stuff from the seventies and it has a lot more dialogue, which isn't necessarily a good thing. But seriously, what other movie are you going to get an Ogress, a jester and skinhead dwarf, a vampire, a dracula that lives in a clock, a she-wolf, a random violiness, a Van Helsing, psychic connections, and some totally silly nuns? Where? Yeah, I though so.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Soledad Miranda's Hotness
Is there any limit to Soledad Miranda's hotness? I don't think so. This weekend, I watched She Killed in Ectasy directed by Jess Franco. It's a fairly simple murder revenge tale with Soledad as the beautiful angel of death hellbent on bringing her husband's tormenters and murderers to justice, read: death. And it has pickled deformed babies in jars in a lab-or-a-tory. How can I not love something with pickled deformed babies in jars in a lab-or-a-tory. Seriously, I'm having a hard time putting into words how freakin' awesome this woman is in this movie. (I had to abandon my note taking and picking apart that I usually do when I watch a movie, because I just wanted to absorb it.) Understately sexy and with unravelling sanity, this is the role that truly encaptures the talent and the extreme hotness of this woman. You might also know her as the extremely delicious Countess Nadia from Vampyros Lesbos. Watch this woman's movies. Watch them now. You will not be disappointed.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Flesh Eating Mothers
I'm gonna go drink more wine.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Sole Survivor
I wanted to see Sole Survivor for a really really really really long time. I can't even remember why I wanted to see it in the first place - the cover ain't even all that cool, and kinda gives me a science fiction vibe, which isn't really my normal fare, but I'm not opposed to a decent sci-fi flick, especially it it borders on horror. I think I wanted to see it because a.) Thom Eberhardt directed it and he directed the superb Night of the Comet and b.) Chris Alexander gave it a good write up when he still had his column in Rue Morgue, which btw, turned me on to The Brain, a wonderful Canadian flick from the 80's (Boglin Marsh, I'm looking at you). However, Sole Survivor is long out of print and hasn't been given a DVD release and I've had no luck locating a copy on ebay or Amazon, not that every moment of my life has been consumed by tracking down a copy of this movie for the last five years or anything, but still. I was pleasantly surprised when I happened upon a copy at the video store I blogged earlier about here. The guy wouldn't sell me his copy but he consented to renting it to me for a buck fifty and I agreed. It was also wholly satisfying to go to a video store straight out of the eighties and rent a VHS tape. How long has it been since I went to a video store and rented a tape and driven the tape back up to the store after I watched it, and deposited the tape in the drop box? Man, it took me back.
Good lordy, I love horror on VHS.
So, um, yeah, Sole Survivor. If you ever wondered where the guys that made Final Destination got their idea for Final Destination*, look no further than Sole Survivor. If you weren't wondering that, that's okay too, read on anyway. Karla Davis, an actress who has prophetic nightmares and hits the booze pretty heavily, has one of her prophetic nightmares about coffee commercial producer DeeDee surviving a plane crash. Seems DeeDee is the only one who survives the violent crash for whatever reason. Well, this scenario plays out in real life when DeeDee actually survives the crash much in the same way Karla dreamt it.
Needless to say, DeeDee winds up in the hospital, even though she's seemingly fine and is unaffected about what happened to the rest of the passengers on the plane. She even finds it appropriate to flirt with her doctor, who she later starts a sexy times relationship with, even though it's probably not in the Hippocratic oath or anything to get involved with patients. Doc warns her about Survivor Syndrome, where survivors of bad accidents often feel guilty about surviving or unworthy that they are still alive. Often this results in the patient's subconscious suicide - they drive too fast or put themselves in other dangerous situations to inadvertently kill themselves. You know, to deal with the guilt of being alive. All of this is part of a very slow build up that leads to more slow build up.
DeeDee leaves the hospital via the back entrance to avoid news reporters and sees a small child dripping wet and silent standing on a loading dock. (I got a real J-horror vibe here. Little creepy kid, water, maybe a curse or something going on.) DeeDee asks the kid if she needs help or wants her to take her back inside, but the kid just stares menacingly and causes a truck with no driver to almost crush DeeDee. Then Kristy, DeeDee's friend and neighbor, pops up to get DeeDee out of there in her bitchin' Camero. There's some more slow build up and the dorkiest coffee commercial ever, as well as a shot of a fabulous 80's answering machine.
We get the (obvious) sense that something is after DeeDee at the hospital but later again when she's driving and a dude just steps in the middle of the road, causing her to almost wreck. Later again, she's in a parking deck and hears some weird noises. Another scene pits her against an elevator that's acting mysteriously. Whereas FD had some pretty inventive kills from what I can remember, as well as some fabulous attention to detail (the first one), DeeDee thwarts death in some really unscary and stupid ways. Refusing to believe that she is suffering from Survivor Syndrome, DeeDee takes some anti-depressants and goes over to Kristy's for cocktails. Kristy manages to get herself killed in the pool (in a scene that is a little bit giallo-esque, at least in its POV shots), and returns as a corpse intent on killing DeeDee. So it seems the recently deceased, as well as mechanical equipment, can come back and kill DeeDee?
So, did DeeDee imagine all this? Is is just part of her suffering from Survivor Syndrome? Are the dead really returning to life and trying to kill her? Are elevators working for Death? Wait, why did DeeDee survive in the first place again? Do I care? I'm not saying that I regret having watched Sole Survivor, but I had this whole mythology built up in my mind about it, that it was going to be greater than the sum of its parts, especially since it seems to have had so much influence on future films, and culled from other genres as well. Sigh.
*FD is one of those movies that you talk about with people at work if you feel like talking about horror movies but you know everyone at work isn't really into horror movies like you are. Everyone's seen at least one FD movie and has some sort of opinion about it.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the town
Bloodthirsty elves
Are about to get down
I did not make that up, although I wish I had. This is actual copy from the back of the Elves (1989) box. Actual copy, people! I think I derived more pleasure from looking at the box and reading the description than I did from actually watching the film, although I did highly enjoy the movie, even though I was tired and it seemingly would not end, despite the fact it has an 89 minute running time. Looking at the cover and reading the description of Elves, I mused aloud, 'why would anyone want to get rid of their copy of this movie?' Probably because they have too many copies already and felt the need to bring a copy into the life of some less fortunate individual that already wasn't privileged enough to own one. Yeah, that had to be it.
Look no further. Elves is your movie, that is, if you enjoy the following:
1. Elves genetically created by Neo-nazis as the ultimate fighting machines because of their magical element. Magic = can't be harmed or killed. Sounds pretty obvious.
2. Dan Haggerty (Grizzly Adams*) as a chain-smoking, feather-haired, down-on-his-luck ex-detective sought to save the world against elf domination.
3. Incestuous situations involving father/daughter relationships for the sole purpose of impregnation so that offspring (lead character Kirsten) can be the perfect genetic specimen for elfen sex to create a Fourth Reich and perpetuate the master race. The father/grandfather is a wheelchair-bound, German-accented ex-Nazi who uses the word elfwooten on more than one occasion.
4. Many scenes filmed in 'elf vision.' These are scenes through the eyes of the elf, natch. Think a moving frame with a constant star wipe filter effect applied repeatedly.
5. Gun stores in malls. Never in my life have I been in a mall that housed a gun store. I always thought this odd when watching Dawn of the Dead, as well. Seems I read somewhere that those scenes in Dawn of the Dead that were in the gun store were shot at an actual gun store somewhere else in Pittsburgh, not one that was actually in the Monroeville Mall.
6. Speaking of Dawn of the Dead, more movies that rip it off. Elves does so when a suited Nazi type says, 'When there's no more room in Hell, elves will walk the earth.'
7. Toys and Christmas decorations that confound an elf, but don't stop them when it's time to don a Santa hat and get stabby.
8. Coke-snorting Santas**.
9. Dumb bitch ice queen mother figure who kills the family cat by drowning it in the toilet. Regular readers know that animal cruelty is something I am particularly squeamish about in my horror movies, especially when involving felines, being a crazy cat lady and all. So this is particular scene is not on my list of things I like to see in my movies, but it does much to illustrate how fucking horrible the mom is and really make it so you want her to die. Which she does. But later than I was hoping.
10. An elf being called a faggot. When Kirsten sends the elf back to Hell or wherever, she says, See you in Hell, Faggot. Yes, she calls the elf a faggot. Weird, I would have gone with motherfucker, personally, albeit that's a bit cliche.
Yes, I know, it seems flawless. However, the following are some concerns voiced by the audience during last night's screening (the audience consisting of Christian and myself and the screening taking place in my living room):
1. The title is misleading. From what we could tell, there is only one elf, singular. So the movie should have been called Elf. Being as how it was made in 1989, it would have preceded the Will Ferrell movie of that same title, so it would have been cool to just call it Elf. I guess it alludes to the Fourth Reich consisting of plural elves later on, but still.
2. The elf uses guns and knives to kill. It's a mean lookin mother too, so it would likely just use its claws and teeth. We were forgetting, of course, that the elves are trained as soldiers, so their use of weapons then is justified.
3. Kirsten, the perfect genetic specimen to give birth to the new world order, has a little brother. Is his grandfather and father the same wheelchair bound Nazi weirdo too? It would explain his tendency to spy on Kirsten in the shower.
So really, all concerns are alleviated, given the context. Except for:
1. There is no gratuitous nudity.
2. There is no gratuitous sex.
3. There is no reason for there to be a lack of gratuitous nudity and/or sex, given the time period in which this film was made and subject matter this film contains. Lack of these elements = disappointment.
4. There isn't really much 'true meaning of Christmas' bullshit, which is odd (there is a little in the beginning), but it's not really a Christmas movie persay, it's just set while Christmas is going on. Unless of course, you account for the fact that the elf must get his seed inside Kirsten on Christmas Eve at the stroke of midnight.
So the next time you're about to be inseminated by a Nazi elf and he stops raping you to offer you a cockroach to eat before eating it himself, stop and think about the true meaning of Christmas, would you?
*There's a guy that comes in my restaurant who we call Grizzly Adams. He looks just like him, except his hair isn't as perfectly coiffed, it's more frizzled. He comes in and gets a filet mignon cooked well and drinks an entire carafe of chianti at like 11 in the morning! He's pretty nice, but he'll sit at your table for like two hours, drinking and reading at the height of lunch rush and then leave like two bucks on a twenty-something check. And he says, Appreciate it, appreciate it every time you bring him anything. I don't think he's ever had to defend the world from the nazi elf invasion, though.
**Mrs. Claus comes in to find Santa's body all murdered and shit and his coke laid out in nice lines on the table. She doesn't take his coke and leaves it for the police to just lock away in evidence. Come on now, Mrs. Claus. You could have sold that coke to kids coming through Santa's magical village, or at the very least, used it to party with yourself later.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Piranha II Comma The Spawning
Calling your attention to the latest addition to the Cavalcade's vhs collection, Piranha II, The Spawning. Of particular attention and indication of my particular nerdish leanings, I will also call your attention to the title, Piranha II comma The Spawning. Why the comma? If any form of punctuation should be used, the more practical choice would be a colon. These are the things I spend most of my time contemplating. Grammatical errors also make me laugh. Like when I took this out of the envelope yesterday, I laughed and laughed at the comma for hours. Well, more like ten minutes, but still! There's something wrong with me, I know. Stupid comma aside, this is a sweet frickin' cover. I love the mean-as-the-devil lookin' flying piranha swarm attacking the beach goers. Hmm, new tattoo, maybe? Well, after I get Paul Naschy immortalized as the Hombre Lobo on my forearm. I probably won't get around to watching Piranha II Comma The Spawning any time soon, since the stacks upon stacks of movies are piling up in all the corners of my home, but thought the cover art was worth a mention here. That's why I bought the damn thing anyway.
The Demoniacs
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0.0187 | <urn:uuid:64675320-0e05-44e9-a556-2d16cc44f3c2> | en | 0.980347 | , Kickstarter, and Steampunk Toys
| By Jonathan Malm | Found in Design
A couple of former designers have begun designing toys. I had coffee with James and Chase last week over Skype, and we chatted about their idea and the Kickstarter campaign that first failed, then succeeded.
James Hugo and Chase Layman were a couple of friends working at and they had the idea to build some toys. They weren’t wanting to turn this into a business or even sell the toys to others, they just wanted to make their own toys they could be proud of. Unfortunately, they researched the project and found out how expensive it was – not exactly a hobby activity.
Fast forward a couple of years when they got the itch to start their own company. They’re both entrepreneurs and felt the need to let other leaders step up and fill their roles at the church. So last year they launched Wheelhouse – a graphic design company in Edmond, Oklahoma.
In their new roles at this studio, they found the time to work on their pet project – these steampunk toys. Thus the Rivals project was birthed. And this introduces their first struggle.
They took to Kickstarter to market and sell their product. They knew they needed funding. They set up the site, poured money into advertising, and waited for the dollars to roll in. Unfortunately, the Kickstarter deadline ended and they didn’t get funded. Crash and burn.
A few months later, though, they did another Kickstarter campaign. When this deadline finished, they were 235% funded. Here-in lies the story and the lesson we can learn.
Money and advertising doesn’t help you get the word out. That’s what they tried the first round. But the second time, they worked on relationship. They stopped thinking of their toy as a product to sell, they thought of it as something they wanted to make with the help of other people. They connected with folks on Instagram and Facebook. They let people become part of the project instead of just customers. It became the collective group’s product, not just James and Chase’s. And that made all the difference.
Their product ships in July. And it’s because they brought people into the experience. They made them part of the project.
How are you making your congregation part of your project? How are they buying into the vision – not just your vision, but the collective vision?
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0.31151 | <urn:uuid:49ebbf47-a2e5-48f3-9dfa-5a8e22c14e10> | en | 0.92824 | Flip This Lesson
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About TED-Ed Originals
Meet The Creators
Judy WaltonEducator
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Liesje KraaiArtist
Richard O'ConnorProducer
Additional Resources for you to Explore
The total number of delegates at the Convention was 55, and 12 of the 13 states were represented. The number of delegates from each of those 12 states was not equal. Research how each state decided whether to attend, how individual delegates were chosen, and which individual delegates were chosen. http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_founding_fathers.html/
In what ways did these delegates represent “the people,” and in what ways did they not? How did their life experiences prior to arriving at the Convention shape them for what would occur there? For those among them that did not endorse the Constitution when the Convention concluded, what were some of their reasons for refusing to do so?
Review Thomas Jefferson’s criticisms of the Constitution after its unveiling on September 17, 1787. http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/spring07/jefferson.cfm
How might the Convention have been different if Thomas Jefferson had been in attendance? As the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, what type of impact did his lack of enthusiasm for the Constitution have on his peers? On the average American? Think about one of Jefferson’s phrases in the Declaration of Independence: “It is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” Can you use that phrase out of its original context to justify the delegates stepping beyond the bounds of their original mandate? In what ways does the Constitution both deviate from and stay true to the principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence?
National Archives http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html
The Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/continental/constit.html
National Park Service http://www.nps.gov/inde/historyculture/stories.htm
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0.018121 | <urn:uuid:081bbfc1-d209-4532-ac20-c78769a39b5a> | en | 0.964957 | Grace of My Heart
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Grace of My Heart (film)
Theatrical poster
Directed by Allison Anders
Produced by Ruth Charny
Daniel Hassid
Martin Scorsese
Written by Allison Anders
Starring Illeana Douglas
Matt Dillon
Eric Stoltz
and John Turturro
Music by Larry Klein
Cinematography Jean-Yves Escoffier
Editing by James Y. Kwei
Harvey Rosenstock
Thelma Schoonmaker
Distributed by Gramercy Pictures
Release dates September 13, 1996
Running time 116 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $5,000,000 (estimated)
Box office $617,632 (USA)
Grace of My Heart is a 1996 film written and directed by Allison Anders, set in the pop music world, starting off in New York's Brill Building early 1960s era, weaving through the California Sound of the mid '60s and culminating with the adult-contemporary scene of the early 1970s.
The plot follows the personal life and career trajectory of its protagonist, Denise Waverly. The soundtrack features a variety of songs by such artists as Burt Bacharach, Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, and Jill Sobule, which replicate the musical style that emerged from the Brill Building, New York's music factory during the heyday of girl groups and "pre-fab" acts like The Monkees.
Edna Buxton (Douglas) is a steel heiress from Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, who wants to be a singer and enters a local talent contest. She plans to sing "You'll Never Walk Alone," until, backstage, she meets a blues singer named Doris Shelley (Warren) who is belting out "The Blues Ain't Nothin' (But a Woman Cryin' for her Man)." Doris advises Edna to follow her heart, so Edna sings "Hey There" instead and wins the contest. She uses some of her own money to record a demo of her first original song, "In Another World". Record producer Joel Milner (Turturro) likes the demo but says he cannot market a girl singer-songwriter. He becomes her agent, renames her "Denise Waverly" and invents a blue-collar persona for her. Milner also reworks her song for a male doo-wop group, the Stylettes, and the song becomes a hit.
Denise moves to New York and becomes a professional songwriter in the Brill Building. She worries that she will not be able to pen a follow-up to "In Another World," but Milner encourages her to look at the world around her. She meets fellow songwriter Howard Caszatt (Stoltz), and after a difficult first encounter she becomes professionally and romantically involved with him. She also meets Doris, an unsuccessful young singer, and persuades Milner to let Doris and her group audition. Milner likes the group and the song Denise has written, and he renames them the Luminaries.
The group is a success, and disc jockey John Murray (Bruce Davison) credits Denise with "sparking the craze for girl groups." Denise and Howard write a song about the condition of working class black girls in New York City. Denise then suggests that she and Howard should write a wedding-themed song for the Luminaries. Howard refuses, but when Denise reveals that she is pregnant with Howard's child - and is herself an heiress - they get married and have a daughter. However, Howard starts flirting with Cheryl Steed (Patsy Kensit), a newly hired English songwriter.
Joel asks Cheryl and her husband Matthew (Chris Isaak) to write a song for the Luminaries. The result becomes a hit. Howard, annoyed, concedes that Denise's instincts were right. Then Joel asks Denise and Cheryl to collaborate on writing a song for closeted lesbian ingenue singer Kelly Porter (Bridget Fonda). Denise agrees, even though she dislikes Cheryl, but when she arrives home unexpectedly and finds Howard in bed with another woman, she takes her child in a cab to the studio and tells Cheryl what has happened. Cheryl comforts Denise and the two become friends. She learns that she is pregnant with Howard's second baby; Cheryl convinces her to go to an obstetrician, who safely performs an illegal abortion.
Denise throws herself into her work and becomes a highly successful songwriter. Having broken up with Howard, she has a brief but unhappy affair with the married John Murray, which ends when he moves with his family to Chicago.
With the British Invasion, the Brill Building songwriting machine has become obsolete. Milner tells Denise she should not be so sad, because she forced him to take chances he would have never had the courage to tackle alone. He finally allows her to become a singer, and introduces her to Jay Phillips (Matt Dillon), the singer, songwriter and producer of a popular surf-rock group. Denise initially hates Jay's music, but agrees to let him produce her. She writes and sings "God Give Me Strength," and she is delighted when he gives the song a skilful orchestral arrangement. However, the record bombs, and Denise blames herself for making the song too personal. Denise and Jay become a couple and resettle in California at the height of the hippie movement. Cheryl is songwriting in Los Angeles. She and Denise collaborate on songs for a Bubblegum pop TV show called Where the Action Is.
Jay is affectionate but also childlike, reclusive and a heavy drug user, and becomes increasingly paranoid. He disapproves of Denise writing songs for the TV show, insisting that it's beneath her. His bandmates distance themselves from him, leaving him to work alone in his studio. In a fit of paranoia, he accuses Denise of stealing tapes from him, but when it turns out that he threw the tapes over the studio balcony in a fit of irritation and then forgot that he had done so, Denise is distressed. He also takes his and her children to the museum and forgets to bring them home. While Denise is at a club with Doris, Jay, directionless and in despair at his inability to be more responsible, wanders into the ocean and drowns. Numbed by Jay's death, Denise retires with her family to a hippie commune in the mountains above Palm Springs[1] and adopts yet another father-figure in the commune's guru.
Joel Milner visits Denise in the commune and takes her and her children out to dinner. That night, he confronts her with her constant reliance on men for guidance and her failure to take responsibility for her own talent. Denise's suppressed anger spills out, and she screams at Milner that he is a "fucking leech" who exploited her. He agrees with her, and the more he agrees with her the angrier she becomes, until he deliberately provokes her by throwing his drink into her face. She strikes him and then collapses in tears, grieving for Jay. Milner consoles her and the two are reconciled.
In the closing sequence, Denise is seen confidently recording and producing her first solo album Grace of My Heart with her extended family and friends in attendance.
Closing credits[edit]
Over the credits, Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello are shown singing and playing their own fully orchestrated version of their co-penned work "God Give Me Strength", which received far greater hit status in the real world than it did in the movie. As a result, over the ensuing two years, Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello expanded their collaboration to include an entire album Painted from Memory, which was itself covered to great success by jazz guitarist Bill Frisell.
Released in 1999 on Decca Records, The Sweetest Punch consisted of jazz arrangements of the Painted From Memory songs done by Frisell and his studio group, featured vocals by Costello on two songs, and jazz singer Cassandra Wilson on two songs, one of which is a duet employing both.
Real-life influence[edit]
The movie, although making no claim of having been inspired by real-life personas, does have some resemblance or connections to the lives of some of the most iconic American Pop singers-songwriters of the 1960s and 1970s, although such connections are intentionally blurred and at times cross-written between two different characters, or merged into one.
Goffin–King connection[edit]
In real life, Carole King and her first husband Gerry Goffin were based in the Brill Building and penned such hits as "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" (recorded by The Shirelles), "The Loco-Motion" (introduced by Little Eva, the Goffin-King's babysitter), "One Fine Day" (a hit for The Chiffons) and many others. In Grace of My Heart, "One Fine Day" is paid tribute in "Born to Love That Boy," the first song Waverly composes for The Luminaries (per the lyric, "I don't care what the other girls say/One fine day he'll marry me"). "Born to Love That Boy," written by Goffin and Larry Klein, also recalls the thematically similar "He's A Rebel," a Gene Pitney penned tune made famous by The Crystals, after being turned down by Vicki Carr. Louise Goffin, daughter of Goffin and King, shares songwriting credit with her father on "Between Two Worlds" (performed on the soundtrack by Shawn Colvin). The elder Goffin's stamp can also be found on "In Another World," the tune that establishes Waverly as a hit songwriter; the band Los Lobos also contributes to the track. Finally, the album that shares the film's name, Grace of My Heart, is analogous to King's 1971 breakthrough album Tapestry. The Grace of My Heart album is depicted as Waverly's second attempt to sing her own songs in a commercially viable way, and she succeeds on a platinum scale (sales over one million). In real life, Tapestry was King's second serious attempt to sing her own songs in a commercially viable way, and she succeeded on an even greater scale than is shown in the film, as Tapestry sat at U.S. #1 for 15 weeks and stayed on the charts for over six years, going platinum 10 times over.
Stand-ins for Phil Spector, Lesley Gore, Ellie Greenwich, etc.[edit]
Elsewhere, real life permeates Grace of My Heart in several forms, such as Turturro's character who invites comparisons to both Phil Spector and Don Kirshner, while The Luminaries' Doris Shelley suggests both Shirley Owens and Doris Coley of The Shirelles. Also, former teen duo, David and Andrew Williams (nephews of crooner Andy Williams), are featured as Everly Brothers soundalikes. Similarly, Bridget Fonda has an extended cameo as Kelly Porter, a dewey faced ingenue not unlike Lesley Gore, known for bubblegum angst like "It's My Party" and "You Don't Own Me." The lush ballad "My Secret Love" hints at Porter's lesbianism in a nod to Gore's own professed sexuality. Not incidentally, Gore herself co-wrote the song, which is sung on record by Miss Lily Banquette of retro-lounge band Combustible Edison. Furthermore, the radio moniker of Davison's character, John Murray, evokes memories of Murray the K. Just as in real life Murray the K was an early, ardent supporter of The Beatles, in the film John Murray explains to Denise Waverly how The Fab Four are about to revolutionize the music industry.
Besides King, Goffin and Spector, the Brill Building was home base for songwriting duo Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, as well as Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. In Grace of My Heart, these artists, and Greenwich in particular, are referenced musically via "I Do", The Luminaries' stylistic match for "Chapel of Love," originally written by Spector, Greenwich and Barry for The Ronettes but best remembered for the version produced by Leiber and Stoller for The Dixie Cups. The "doo-whaddy-whaddy" refrain of "I Do" also invites comparisons to Greenwich's "Doo-Wah-Diddy", which was recorded by The Exciters and Manfred Mann. Like King, however, Greenwich has no actual contributions to the movie soundtrack. '"I Do" is instead credited to Carole Bayer Sager and Dave Stewart (formerly of Eurythmics).
Brian Wilson Connection[edit]
Matt Dillon portrays a singer/producer later in the movie, with whom Waverly falls in love. His character, Jay, is the lead singer of a surf music band who is highly respected for his creative genius. However, he becomes obsessed with his latest musical project (replete with theremin) and becomes a self-destructive recluse. In all these aspects, his character begs comparison with real-life Beach Boys' driving-force Brian Wilson.
However, while in the movie his character becomes romantically involved with Waverly and eventually commits suicide by drowning, in real life Wilson and King were not romantically involved, and Wilson is still alive. (It is worth noting that his brother, Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson did perish in a drowning incident). In fact, the finale more closely parallels the classic closing scenes to the first remake of A Star is Born starring Judy Garland: suicide at sea, survivor talked out of her despondency by long-time professional friend, and a musical redemption (art triumphs over human frailty).[2]
In a scene where Jay is sampling his 'new sound' for band members, ironically it is a member played by J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. who comments on how "out there" the music is. J Mascis is almost singly responsible for bringing the extended guitar solo to grunge, and his experimental and soulful wailings make him an ideal 'tongue-in-cheek' commentator; furthermore, he wrote and recorded the song to which they are listening, Take a Run at the Sun.[3]
Though actress Illeana Douglas apparently sings throughout the movie, her singing is always dubbed by singer Kristen Vigard, notable for being the very first girl to portray Annie in the 1976 workshop production before going to Broadway the following year.
In the beginning of the film, her character Edna/Denise performs a version of "Hey There," which was originally heard in the musical The Pajama Game, and was later popularized by singers such as Rosemary Clooney. Another of Denise's big musical moments occurs when she goes into the studio to lay down vocal tracks for "God Give Me Strength," an expensively produced single that fails to generate much excitement on the charts, thus alluding to Spector's recording of "River Deep, Mountain High" for Tina Turner (written by Spector, Greenwich and Barry). Singer Elvis Costello, who co-wrote "God Give Me Strength" (with Burt Bacharach) for the film, also wrote "Unwanted Number," which, in the movie, is crafted by Denise and Cazsatt as a tune for The Luminaries. The song causes a scandal because it tells a sympathetic story of an unmarried pregnant preteenager — bold for the early '60s, though comparable to similarly groundbreaking real-life songs of the era such as "He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss)" about Little Eva, the Goffin-King's babysitter who was being regularly beaten by her boyfriend at the time.
Soundtrack CD[edit]
Although Grace of My Heart is chock full of musical sequences, the selections were pared down for the soundtrack CD. For instance, the fictional Luminaries, dubbed by girl group For Real, perform a half dozen tunes onscreen but are limited to three selections on the CD: Born to Love That Boy, I Do, and Unwanted Number. Likewise, the Williams Brothers, nephews of Andy Williams perform two songs in the film, Heartbreak Kid and Love Doesn't Ever Fail Us, but only the latter song appears on the soundtrack disc. Both Kristen Vigard's renditions of Hey There in the form of the contest version and the more polished demo are excluded from the CD, and her In Another World is jettisoned in favor of the fictional Stylettes' rendition (via Portrait). Vigard's performance of God Give Me Strength is also not on the soundtrack; instead the Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach performance appears.
Also on the CD, Jill Sobule sings the countrified waltz "Truth Is You Lied," complete with easy listening-style background chorus reminiscent of The Anita Kerr Singers.
Joni Mitchell[edit]
"Man From Mars" was written by Joni Mitchell, and the song appears on the CD with Kristen Vigard singing the vocal from the film (dubbing Illeana Douglas's performance). A version of the song which featured Joni Mitchell's vocal, with the same music, was on the initial pressing of roughly 40,000 soundtrack CD copies. This CD version was recalled and the soundtrack was re-released one week later with Kristen Vigard's vocal, as heard in the movie.[4] Mitchell later re-recorded the song with different-styled music for her 1998 album Taming the Tiger. The Mitchell version of "Man from Mars" from Grace of My Heart is very hard to come by.
The soundtrack was produced by Larry Klein, who had been Joni Mitchell's husband and producer for years but had divorced her prior to the making of this soundtrack. He contributed to the writing of several songs on the soundtrack and appears briefly several times in the movie as a recording engineer.
Additional credits[edit]
Martin Scorsese is listed in the credits as Grace of My Heart's executive producer, and the film was co-edited by Thelma Schoonmaker, who won Academy Awards for her work on Scorsese's Raging Bull, The Aviator, and The Departed. Francois Sequin is the production designer, and the costumes are by Susan Bertram. The cast is rounded out by Lynne Adams, Peter Fonda, Chris Isaak, Lucinda Jenney, Patsy Kensit, Christina Pickles and Richard Schiff.
The film was released in the fall of 1996, just ahead of Oscar winning actor Tom Hanks' directorial debut That Thing You Do!, which likewise covered the early to mid-1960s pop music scene and featured original, retro-styled songs on the soundtrack.
Grace of My Heart was Anders's fourth feature film, and followed her Border Radio (1987), Gas Food Lodging (1992), and Mi Vida Loca (1993).
External links[edit] | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_of_My_Heart | dclm-gs1-139630002 | false | false | {
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0.028877 | <urn:uuid:ccb4c1a6-2c6d-4f39-88d2-97d117f4333b> | en | 0.820411 | From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Pronunciations)
Jump to: navigation, search
A word can be spoken in different ways by various individuals or groups, depending on many factors, such as: the duration of the cultural exposure of their childhood, the location of their current residence, speech or voice disorders,[1] their ethnic group, their social class, or their education.[2]
Linguistic terminology[edit]
Syllables are counted as units of sound (phones) that they use in their language. The branch of linguistics which studies these units of sound is phonetics. Phones which play the same role are grouped together into classes called phonemes; the study of these is phonemics or phonematics or phonology. Phones as components of articulation are usually described using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).[3]
See also[edit]
1. ^ Beech, John R.; Harding, Leonora; Hilton-Jones, Diana (1993). Assessment in speech and language therapy. CUP Archive. p. 55. ISBN 0-415-07882-2.
2. ^ Labov, William (2003). "Some Sociolinguistic Principles". In Paulston, Christina Bratt; Tucker, G. Richard. Sociolinguistics: the essential readings. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 234–250. ISBN 0-631-22717-2.
3. ^ Schultz, Tanja; Kirchhoff, Katrin (2008). Multilingual speech processing. Academic Press. p. 12. ISBN 0-12-088501-8.
External links[edit]
• Inogolo — American English audio pronunciation guide
• Howjsay — Enter a word to hear it spoken. Over 146,133 words in British English with alternative pronunciations. | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciations | dclm-gs1-139650002 | false | false | {
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0.057358 | <urn:uuid:38869fc9-d984-4b52-ac19-f702ec4bea32> | en | 0.95754 | Back to Top
I can be distant
if “girls aren’t supposed to have body hair” then why do girls have fucking body hair?
(via gayleg2)
We have in fact, two kinds of morality. One that we preach but do not practice and one that we practice but seldom preach.
Bertrand Russell
(via americanjunk)
Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.Viktor Frankl on the human search for meaning. Pair with cultural icons on the meaning of life. (via explore-blog)
(Source: , via explore-blog)
my blog will make you smile♡ | http://epicsisters.tumblr.com/ | dclm-gs1-139670002 | false | false | {
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0.018452 | <urn:uuid:56fbca93-a089-49d7-b5f3-55048064feaf> | en | 0.938817 | Archive for hti
Catch and release, again
As explained in our recent post Fisheries Outpatient Center, we are currently conducting a study of trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) movements in a central valley watershed. We expected that we would be able to track fish throughout the watershed, but recapturing a tagged fish was unexpected. This female O. mykiss was first caught angling on March 23, 2010. It was approximately 20 inches (505 mm) in length and appeared to be post-spawn, due to the eroded caudal fin and lean appearance. We surgically implanted an acoustic transmitter (HTI LX tag) and released the fish in the same location where she was caught. Since her release we have been tracking her location using fixed and mobile hydrophone receivers. During the last 7 months she has remained within one third of a river mile (570 meters) of the site where she was originally captured and released. To our surprise, while out angling this fall for additional O. mykiss to tag, we managed to recapture this same fish (October 20, 2010). The incision was completely healed but, interestingly, a suture remained loosely attached (sutures usually dissolve within 90 days). The fish was measured and released, again.
Video source: FISHBIO
Fisheries outpatient center
Surgically implanting acoustic transmitters into fish requires considerable equipment, planning, and preparation. The task is difficult to accomplish in a laboratory environment, and even more complicated in the field. In the outdoor environment, it is just as important to ensure surgical equipment is disinfected and the challenge is to keep everything as sterile as possible. Before surgery a fish is introduced to a bath of anesthesia, where it will lose equilibrium and responsiveness in one or two minutes. Once the fish rolls on to its side, it is removed from the anesthesia, measured, weighed, and placed upside-down in a fish cradle. The cradle helps to maintain the fish in position during surgery and a tube with diluted anesthesia administered through the mouth keeps the fish motionless throughout the procedure. A 3-4 cm incision is made ventral to the mid-line and anterior to the pelvic girdle. The acoustic transmitter is gently inserted into the abdominal cavity and 3 to 4 sutures are used to close the opening. The fish is returned to a freshwater net-pen to recover before release. Given the size of the fish and the importance of a swift procedure, the surgery requires substantial practice, patience and skill.
The fish above is one of many trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) that are being implanted with acoustic transmitters as part of a research project to evaluate migration characteristics. Research questions include, examining factors that influence anadromous and resident O. mykiss life-history strategies, the response of individuals to environmental factors, and the extent of in-stream movements. The transmitters are HTI Model 795LX tags (Hydroacoustic Technology, Inc., Seattle, WA) that emit an underwater sound (i.e. “ping”) at a frequency of 307 kHz, which can be uniquely identified by an acoustic receiver (i.e. “hydrophone”). Each tag weighs 13 grams in air, and at a ping rate of 10 seconds pulse repetition interval (PRI) the average 795LX tag lasts 300 days. The tag “life” can be extended by increasing the PRI or decreasing the pulse width. In order to provide a unique signal for each tag, HTI programs the tags with slightly different pulse periods, an approach that differs from techniques used by other acoustic telemetry companies.
The movements of tagged fish are monitored with both mobile and fixed acoustic receivers. At fixed locations, solar powered monitoring stations record fish movement 24 hours/day, year round. A Model 295G data logger, above water, is attached by long cables to a hydrophone, strategically placed underwater, which detects and amplifies the signal. Fish movements are also evaluated intermittently using mobile tracking, in which a hydrophone is mounted to a raft as shown in the photo above. Depending on the relevant research questions, mobile tracking can provide an efficient way to increase coverage of a large study area by locating the fish even when they are out of range of the fixed stations – kind of like an at-home follow up visit.
Check the Field Notes page for a description of our solar powered tracking station in an upcoming post.
Photo source: FISHBIO
Remote acoustic tracking
One of the advantages of using acoustic tags to track fish movement is the ability to recover information from an individual fish without having to recapture it. Acoustic tags transmit an underwater sound signal or acoustic “ping” that sends identification information about the tagged fish. Hydrophone receivers can be deployed to remote locations where they “listen” for tagged fish 24 hours a day. At this particular location a single HTI hydrophone is tethered to an anchor in the middle of the river channel and a reader positioned on the bank records information gathered. A solar panel keeps a 12-volt battery charged and the detection station operational with minimal maintenance.
Photo source: FISHBIO
Mobile tracking acoustically tagged fish in the Delta
| http://fishbio.com/tag/hti | dclm-gs1-139700002 | false | false | {
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0.02328 | <urn:uuid:6e5a352c-5005-42a2-bab7-8c6fe194d9cd> | en | 0.985224 | 141435Bethenny Frankel has been doing her best to remain in the spotlight as she continues her quest to get people to buy her diet book, which we haven't read, of course, but sounds like a recipe for certain death considering it suggests eating less than 1,000 calories a day and never eating more than three bites of any one dish. Last week, she drummed up some attention by classily lifting up her dress for the cameras at a book party. She's hit up half a dozen events this week, stopping off at IFC's "America's Hottest Rocker Mom Contest" today (fitting since while she isn't a mom, she isn't a housewife either), and, last night, a party for Frangelico at STK. New York caught up with her at yesterday's party and asked her to recount a "scandalous story about herself from back in the day," a request she was happy to comply with, especially since those Jersey girls have kind of upped the ante with their tales of coke-snorting and stripping in recent days:
"I met Brett Ratner at the Palladium when I was 14," she told us. "He told me that his parents owned Arabian horses and that he was going to be a director. I was way too young to be there. He used to fly to New York and go to Sweet Sixteens with me."
Wow. That is kind of scandalous! How old was he then? we asked.
Oh, 15.
Like New York, we were a little disappointed by the lack of juiciness in her Ratner story. So as a public service, allow us to share a slightly more amusing tidbit from Bethenny's early days, per a reliable source who has known Bethenny for several years:
"You do know what Bethenny's first 'job' in the entertainment business was, don't you?"
No, what was it? we asked.
"She worked as a nanny for Jerry Bruckheimer and his first wife."
Bethenny Frankel Has a Scandalous Past Too, You Know [NYM]
Danielle Staub of 'Real Housewives of New Jersey' [NJ.com]
Bethenny Frankel's "Skinny" Book May Give You an Eating Disorder [HL]
Bethenny Frankel Finally Cracks [TMZ] | http://gawker.com/506046/bethenny-frankel-author-attention+seeker-ex+nanny?tag=brett-ratner | dclm-gs1-139730002 | false | false | {
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0.02253 | <urn:uuid:0269f146-ba15-4ba4-9e91-7af36b2988e1> | en | 0.845129 | Tell me more ×
I've got some SimpleFeatureCollections and now I want to get the Centroid of every SimpleFeature in the collection. Unfortunally I've only found a centroid method for Geometry.
Is there any way to get the centroid?
share|improve this question
Geometry geom = (Geometry) feature.getAttribute("the_geom"); System.out.println(geom.getCentroid()); this works for me – ABLX Feb 19 '12 at 2:27
add comment
Your Answer
Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question. | http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/20548/get-centroid-of-simplefeatures-in-geotools8 | dclm-gs1-139750002 | false | false | {
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0.957327 | <urn:uuid:669bcf62-279a-4532-b9f9-47e550cdff9f> | en | 0.943602 | Easy on the Pocket
You shouldn’t have to spend a lot of money on something called free time.
Owning an RV makes economic sense. You are able to travel while spending significantly less. You have unlimited flexibility, even on a limited budget.
Not only do other forms of travel cost more, the outlay typically covers only one vacation. Not so with an RV. It’s ready to go again and again, whenever you are. | http://gorving.com/affordability | dclm-gs1-139780002 | false | false | {
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0.166104 | <urn:uuid:6d27b039-aa57-4e87-b687-8b807d446c6a> | en | 0.968806 | XPlease update your browser for a better experience on Jalopnik.
1941 Studebaker Champion: The Jalopnik Classic Review
Remember the car you had at 16? I remember mine. A Wrigley's-gum beige 1968 VW Beetle I saved up $600 to buy when I was 15, then waited and stared at every day until I turned 16 and could actually drive it. Of course, it was wrecked within a year or so, because that's what usually happens to cars owned by 16 year old… Read… 2/04/13 2:20pm 2/04/13 2:20pm | http://jalopnik.com/tag/champion | dclm-gs1-139850002 | false | false | {
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0.295522 | <urn:uuid:b07fd2eb-ac42-4d3f-a230-e80cb999035a> | en | 0.898932 | XPlease update your browser for a better experience on Kotaku.
Nintendo Portables Are Breeding Grounds For Sexy Fun
In 2005, Nintendo released its new handheld, the Nintendo DS. The machine was a clean break from the Game Boy. But the difference wasn't just how players interacted with the portable, but how it opened up the flood gates for the inevitable boob touching. Read… 4/15/11 2:00am 4/15/11 2:00am | http://kotaku.com/tag/feel-the-magic | dclm-gs1-139920002 | false | false | {
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0.030913 | <urn:uuid:afbd367a-8c71-4f67-8403-ba5c6d2bf584> | en | 0.93306 | There are many styles of marching which were mainly derived from the legendary director, Dr. William P. Foster. Here are just a few of the styles created by him. These styles are used by several HBCU marching bands nation wide.
-Double time marching is a marching style which consist of 240 steps per minute.
-Another technique which is commonly used is a death slow cadence of 20 steps per minute or one step every three seconds.
-Correlation of instatement arc and knee lift is 30-45-60-90.
-Specific degree of arc in instrument movement is 30-45-60-90.
-A technique which is sometimes used is a format of 45" spacing (three steps in perpendicular lines and 67 1/2" spacing and two steps in horizontal lines.
-Many bands use a division of band into two equal band units for parading through narrow streets. Each band alternates in playing different matches and the percussion section picks up and plays cadence after the preceding band starts to play its march.
-Multidrill is a technique that bands use to combine precision drill, patterns in motion and circle drill into one coordinated and correlated drill routine.
-Facing movements are used on the halt therefore eliminating the need for signals by the drum major.
-Triple time marching is a technique of 360 steps per minute, this is also used in black college bands.
-Another general technique is use of simultaneous execution of multiple dance sequences.
Home | HBCUs | Dr. Foster | HBCU Bands | Styles | Photos | Audio | Poll | Activities | Team | References | http://library.thinkquest.org/trio/TTQ02134/styles.htm | dclm-gs1-139940002 | false | false | {
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0.021487 | <urn:uuid:2e7a9878-8964-4043-aa41-9cd7e93a0d5d> | en | 0.91546 | [Full-disclosure] Firefox Cache Hack - Firefox History Hack redux
pdp (architect) pdp.gnucitizen at googlemail.com
Fri Feb 23 12:32:29 GMT 2007
Inspired by Michal Zalewski recent Firefox bug hunt, I decided to give
particularly interested in finding specific browser bugs. However,
when you are in hackmode things like this don't really matter.
This vulnerability is not a reworked version of Jeremiah Grossman
new issue. The peculiar thing about this vulnerability is that it
tells you which URLs you have attended during the current browser
session (the last time you opened your browser). I am not sure how
useful this is.
Keep in mind that attackers can abuse this vulnerability in order to
extract valuable information about your browsing habits. They can also
use this hack to precisely detect whether you are logged into your
router management interface. They can use this hack to detect your
router type and version as well. Based on this information, they might
be able to compromise the integrity of your network.
pdp (architect) | petko d. petkov
Full-Disclosure is hosted and sponsored by Secunia. | http://lists.grok.org.uk/pipermail/full-disclosure/2007-February/052631.html | dclm-gs1-139960002 | false | false | {
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0.018765 | <urn:uuid:d984ac59-05dc-42eb-91d2-bc6dfe950f72> | en | 0.909638 | Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-xfce (6 mails)
< Previous Next >
Re: [opensuse-xfce] no options on settings manager (from Xfce 4.8 binaries)
El 01/02/11 15:46, Guido Berhoerster escribió:
* hector <hector@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> [2011-02-01 14:55]:
El 01/02/11 14:49, Guido Berhoerster escribió:
* hector <hector@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> [2011-02-01 13:25]:
As Xfce 4.8 was released two weeks ago? I would like to ask if the
binaries are going to be in the Xfce repos soon?
4.8 packages have been in the X11:xfce repo since the day after
the release.
My sincere apologies, I see them now in the Factory builds. I had been
checking the 11.3 builds where they have not been updated.
No problem, that's because publishing packages for 11.3 was
disabled. It's switched on now, please note that the packages
for 11.3 are not tested, receive frequent updates and may break
It installed them and everything is fine except that window of
xfce4-settings-manager has nothing in it. Then i compiled it from
sources and it shows accesibility, appearance, display, mouse, keyboard
settings (this dialogs come with the sources), but not the rest of
options that there used to be (session etc). They all work through their
xfce4-* commands though so it's not big deal...
I guess this doesn't happen with the Factory builds? I haven't found
reports for this so I'm wondering why it happens anyway...
< Previous Next >
List Navigation
Follow Ups | http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-xfce/2011-02/msg00004.html | dclm-gs1-139970002 | false | false | {
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0.191207 | <urn:uuid:dfcd9fa4-f0e4-48bf-9f08-2560808c18fa> | en | 0.924601 | Declaration of war
Volokh, Eugene VOLOKH at
Mon Aug 29 15:17:30 PDT 2005
Whether the President can act -- whether by ordering an attack on a
post manned by low-level soldiers, or an assassination of a
commander-in-chief -- in the absence of a declaration of war is
analytically separate, I think, from whether assassination as such is
unconstitutional (a rule that might not even be sensitive to whether war
is declared). It's a classic question, but one that I think is much
worth discussing. So, if I might ask:
What do people on the list who have studied the subject think about
the original meaning of the Declare War Clause? To what extent does it
limit the President's power to use military force in the absence of such
a declaration?
As I understand it, modern practice has generally settled that the
President does have broad power to use military force, even without a
declaration of war. But I'd love to hear what others think about the
original meaning.
-----Original Message-----
From: guayiya [mailto:guayiya at]
Sent: Monday, August 29, 2005 3:06 PM
To: Volokh, Eugene
Subject: Re: Robertson's urging the government to assassinate Chavez
This post appears to reflect an unstated assumption that the President,
unlike Congress, has power to do anything not expressly prohibited by
the Constitution itself. This assumption has no textual or structural
support, and does potentially boundless damage to the rule of law, the
separation of powers and individual rights, just as would a similar
doctrine regarding Congress.
The President strictly speaking has power to perform acts of war only
after Congress declares war. One who acts without the form of
authorization required by the Constitution has usurped power and must
"throw himself upon the country," i.e., fall back on
extra-constitutional arguments and hope for political, not
constitutional or legal, vindication.
It is obvious that Congress and the courts have failed to stand
consistently on these principles. That is a very serious matter, but it
does not amend the Constitution.
Daniel Hoffman
Volokh, Eugene wrote:
It seems to me that the Constitution does not prohibit the President
from authorizing the killing of foreign commanders-in-chief any more
than it prohibits the President from authorizing the killing of foreign
soldiers. I think such assassinations may be immoral in many instances,
and practically harmful in many others. But it seems to me that this is
a matter for political and moral controls, not constitutional or legal
-----Original Message-----
From: Lynne Henderson [mailto:hendersl at]
Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2005 6:08 PM
To: RJLipkin at
Cc: jca at; mschor at; Volokh, Eugene;
conlawprof at
Subject: Re: Robertson's urging the government to assassinate Chavez
"Almost never?" Obviously Hitler is the counter-example, but we were at
war (foramally declared) with Nazi Germany, and as I understand the law
of war, killing the enemy is justified. We might be sorely tempted, and
realpolitick might justify the murder of someone opposed to US
interests, but how can you distiguish among Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Saddam
Hussein, etc. Chavez doesn't even come close IMHO, although that is not
directly relevant. In fact, the law might very well (and rightly so)
prohibit assassination because we cannot come up with reliable criteria
for who should be assassinated when. Defenses can be carved out.
To cut to the con law chase, I guess, however, what the "rule of law" is
does matter. A basic point of "this is a government of laws, not men" is
that whim, caprice, power, or manipulation cannot override legal
obligation. That the *content* of legal obligation is contested doesn't
undercut the overriding claim of the "rule of law." If the President
decides, as Nixon did, that "if the president does it, then it is not
against the law", and you accept that, then we are well on our way to an
authoritarian/totalitarian state. If clever lawyers can find ways around
the purpose and intent of a legal prohibition, that doesn't negate the
purpose and intent. If there is "room for interpretation' or judges
exercising discretion (cf H.L.A. Hart, *The Concept of Law*), that
doesn't mean abandonment of the commitment of the duty to obey law (and
note the difference between legal duty to obey and moral duty to obey).
It amazes me how narrowly "positivist" the group members get--that is ,
what is declared, written, human law interpreted without spirit or
purpose--when they want one result, and how willing they are to depart
from the model when it suits their ends. Eg, there is no constitutional
provision explicitly prohibiting the President from torturing prisoners
of war, or assassinating foreign leaders, and there is no positive
domestic law "clearly on point", so therefore,torture is not prohibited,
or in this case it is permissible to assassinate a foreign leader.
The duty to obey the law can narrowly or broadly, but that doesn't
disocount Janet's broader point, that governments under the "rule of
law" have a prima facie duty to obey that law, no matter what their
preferences, whims, etc.
Lynne Henderson
Vis. Prof. Santa clara Uni. School of Law 2005-2006
To post, send message to Conlawprof at
or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
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More information about the Conlawprof mailing list | http://lists.ucla.edu/pipermail/conlawprof/2005-August/021652.html | dclm-gs1-139980002 | false | false | {
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0.030821 | <urn:uuid:8afb1182-0aa4-437f-825d-48170ecea7f0> | en | 0.974416 | Friday, June 21, 2013
Review: If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizen
Received from Netgalley for review
Nasrin could be beaten, imprisoned, even executed if their relationship
came to light.
So they carry on in secret—until Nasrin’s parents announce that
they’ve arranged for her marriage. Nasrin tries to persuade Sahar that
loving Nasrin exclusively—and openly.
is seen as nature’s mistake, and sex reassignment is legal and
her true self?
My Review:
A close friend of mine is Muslim so I when I read the description of this novel I knew I had to read it. This was a great novel about a very taboo subject. I'm sure there is no other novel about this exact subject out there.
Sahar and Nasrin have been best friend their whole lives.
They are both girls.
And they are in love with each other.
Not too big of a deal.
Until you realize they are Muslim and they live in Iran.
Now it's a HUGE deal.
They steal kisses and tell each other they love each other. They're not sure how they will always be together but they are sure that they will be.
Until Nasren's parents agree to have her become engaged. Sahar realizes that she is about lose the love of her life. Unless she can make the ultimate sacrifice and convicne herself that her love for this girl is worth everything, even her gender. Sahar finds out that sexual reassignment surgery is legal and even covered by insurance in some cases.
But Sahar is a girl. She is not a man trapped inside a woman's body. But she also knows that the only legal and safe way she can be with Nasren is by becoming a man.
What will Sahar choose? Will she make decide to sacrifice everything to become a man so she can be with Nasren? Or will be realize that sometimes the right thing to do is the hardest thing and sometimes you have to let go of the ones you love.
I spoke with my friend who is Muslim. She said that homosexuality if completely against their religion, but also that sexual reassignment is as well. But this novel tends to focus more on the laws of the country, not of the religion. In the Muslim community, when thinking of those living in Arab nations, one tends to confuses religion and government as the same thing and she set me straight and me it's not. The government is heavily based on the religion but not entirely.
I was totally wrapped up in this novel. I loved it. I highly suggest you give this novel a chance. You will never read anything else like it.
1 comment:
1. I have this book to read as well. My close friend is muslim. and I am always interested in reading more about them. People are so fast to judge which is why I love to read YA books like this because they always seem to try to be fair.
Great review I can't wait to read this! | http://lostinyawonderland.blogspot.com/2013/06/review-if-you-could-be-mine-by-sara.html | dclm-gs1-140000002 | false | false | {
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0.994928 | <urn:uuid:2ff0d5df-33d7-4002-9aad-6bc301d82405> | en | 0.887296 | 104.5 WSNX - All The Hits for Grand Rapids
Nicole Hughet journal
VID: Air Guitar Champion
VID: Air Guitar Champion
Ummmm... what? I understand that everyone has a thing, but how does one get into air guitar?! How is it a thing that garners a world championship and a large audience?! Better question, how long do you think this guy practiced "playing" his air guitar?
Video Credit: YouTube
More Articles | http://m.1045snx.com/articles/hughet-417286/vid-air-guitar-champion-11608613/ | dclm-gs1-140010002 | false | false | {
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0.02452 | <urn:uuid:d7516306-766a-40a7-8774-aa4d2b9fb45e> | en | 0.954733 | Scam targets elderly bank customers in Bellevue
Scam artists are targeting elderly people in Bellevue who are somehow convinced to withdraw cash from their bank accounts and hand it over.
In three recent cases, partners working the scam approached their victim near a bank entrance, telling them a story about wanting to donate a windfall to charity, according to police detective James Beck. They usually then ask for a demonstration that banks are trustworthy.
"So the victim, anxious to be charitable and to be helpful, will go into a bank, withdraw money, come back out, show the initial suspect and their accomplice [the money] to demonstrate that banks are trustworthy," said Breck.
The next phase of the scam involves the victim handing over his cash withdrawal to the scam artists, who ask for a demonstration that they can trust the helpful victim. Once the money changes hands, the thieves take off.
"Keep in mind that these fraudsters are very good at what they do, they're very friendly, they're very good at gaining trust and rapport with these people," said Breck. "Some of it could be being somewhat naive on the victim's (part)."
Most of the victims are elderly or people for whom English is a second language, according to police.
The scam artists usually work in pairs, sometimes male and female. Anybody with information about the scam is asked to call Bellevue Police at 425-452-6910.
Tim Haeck, KIRO Radio Reporter
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comments powered by Disqus | http://mynorthwest.com/11/2384150/Scam-targets-elderly-bank-customers-in-Bellevue | dclm-gs1-140090002 | false | false | {
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0.242205 | <urn:uuid:fc5fd5e5-8175-4396-89bd-81917d951622> | en | 0.954257 | BBC Homepage World Service Education
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Coruscating criticism of the free market ideology of the IMF 27/4/01
It's quiet now, but all police leave in the capital has been cancelled. They're taking no chances after last week's anti-globalisation protests in Quebec and the street wars on this spot during the same meeting last year of the IMF and World Bank. So what's their complaint? The protesters say that what we have here is a conspiracy - the World Bank, IMF and World Trade Organisation don't help the poor of the world, they crush them. Well, the bosses are here today, let's ask them. Mr Wolfensohn, the protesters say you are the chief of a secretive, undemocratic world government which has made poverty worse worldwide. How do you respond?
Well, I think it's nonsense. I've been accused of many things but I didn't know that was one of the accusations. I'm not sure where this government exists, but if I can answer the question more seriously, what I think is behind it, is that I'm very proud of the record of the bank.
But that's not what the insider says.
You shouldn't take advantage of someone who is down and out and squeeze the last blood out of them.
They were making the countries worse off.
And he charges the IMF actually encouraged corruption.
Step two - freedom to increase prices.
Step three - free trade for all.
Insiders saw how it worked in Russia.
How could the IMF let this happen in their privatisation programme?
When it comes to corruption in Russia, they were willing to turn the other way. The IMF and the US Treasury actually almost encouraged it. There was a real commitment to a particular set of leadership - to Yeltsin. There was a fear that if he didn't get re-elected, who knows what would happen. So, the belief was the means justified the ends.
Stiglitz charges the US government used the IMF to fix the Russian elections. Stiglitz isn't guessing. At the time he was in Clinton's cabinet as the president's chief economist.
The US Treasury's view was that this was great because they wanted Yeltsin re-elected. "We don't care if it is a corrupt election, we want the money to go to Yeltsin to be re-elected because he's our friend."
Step two is what the World Bank calls a poverty reduction strategy. In Tanzania, the bank's idea of a poverty reduction strategy was to require the government to raise the price of medicine during an AIDS epidemic. In Bolivia, the bank's poverty reduction strategy was to demand increases in the price of water. That strategy produced riots. In Ecuador, the poverty reduction strategy included increasing the price of cooking gas by 60%. The nation exploded. The riots in Ecuador came as no surprise to the World Bank. We've obtained some confidential documents from inside. This one's the master strategy for Ecuador. It says the bank knew that their plans pushed down real wages and shoved 51% of the population below the poverty line. They even scripted in riots. They said their plans would lead to social unrest. The insider heard the same story about Indonesia.
They'd been warned if the policies of austerity were continued, the economy would go down. The probability of social and political turmoil was very high. They've been warned and the unfortunate thing is those predictions came out to be true. Finally, the whole cauldron blew up and did enormous damage, from which the country has still not recovered.
What got Indonesia was step three of the IMF assistance programme - ending all controls on capital. This left Indonesia's fate to the mood of speculators and what Stiglitz calls "hot money". In Asia, it was the nations that refused the IMF medicine that escaped the financial flames.
Both of them weathered the global financial crisis very well. India's been having growth rate over the past decade of over 5%. China's growth rate has been faster. Neither of them followed the dictum of having capital market liberalisation.
Step four - free trade. According to the insider, the World Trade Organisation just makes the rich richer.
Stiglitz says the WTO operates like the British Empire in the Opium Wars, when Britain forced China at gunpoint to "open its markets" to British narcotics. The new drug wars are over the WTO's intellectual property treaty. Until this month, British and American drug companies used WTO rules to prevent AIDS victims in South Africa getting cheap medicine.
South Africa said, "We want to produce that drug and sell it at a cost the people can afford." The drug companies said, "If you do that, you are violating intellectual property rights." We don't care if people die, intellectual property rights are really supreme." People heard about this and they were outraged. And the protesters put such pressure that today, the drug companies have backed down.
One lost skirmish for the drug companies, but the deadly WTO rule still survives. And back at the IMF and World Bank spring meeting today, World Bank chief, Jim Wolfensohn, is still musing about world domination.
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Links to more Newsnight stories | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/newsnight/1312942.stm | dclm-gs1-140110002 | false | false | {
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0.01973 | <urn:uuid:5d96fc78-62da-4ff3-b1cf-b85fd80582af> | en | 0.944101 | Treasury Pays Highest Rate on 10-Year Debt in 11 Months
By Cynthia Lin
Mediocre demand forced the U.S. government to pay a borrowing cost above 2% at its 10-year debt sale Wednesday, marking the highest rate paid in 11 months.
The $24 billion offering drew below-average demand, booking a 2.68 bid-to-cover ratio compared with a 2.96 average over the last eight 10-year note auctions.
The notes sold at a yield of 2.046%, the first time the government has had to pay a rate above 2% since April 2012.
This relatively juicier yield managed to draw interest from domestic investors. Direct bidders, mostly comprising U.S. banks and investment funds, bought nearly a quarter of the total offering, versus a 22.2% average. This continues a trend started late last year as this group of investors ramp up the amount it wins at government debt auctions.
For Wednesday, that wasn't enough to offset tepid overseas interest, as suggested in the 28% taken by the indirect bidder group that fell short of its 37.9% average.
Selling pressure accelerated after the auction. In recent trading, benchmark 10-year notes lost 9/32 in price, yielding 2.015%, according to data provider Tradeweb. The 30-year bond dropped 17/32 to yield 3.222%. Bond yields rise when prices fall.
The Treasury concludes this week's round of coupon sales Thursday with a $16 billion 30-year bond auction.
Demand for safe-haven Treasurys has been lackluster since the start of the year as investors' outlook on the global economy and European credit crisis improved.
Bond investors are particularly worried about an eventual selloff in Treasurys because falling prices in this market quickly can offset income from today's historically low yields.
Even so, looming concerns about deeper spending cuts by the U.S. government and a flare-up in Europe's debt problems are preventing investors from fully abandoning Treasurys.
The gradual nature of the U.S.'s economic recovery also means the Federal Reserve likely will keep pushing full-steam ahead with its bond-buying stimulus efforts. The central bank buys $85 billion in long-dated Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities each month, keeping a tight lid on how high yields can rise.
This dynamic has kept the 10-year yield teetering around 2%. Bond traders say buyers have shown interest as the yield rises toward 2.06%, while sellers emerge around 1.92%.
Write to Cynthia Lin at | http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20130213-712874.html?mod=rss_Bonds | dclm-gs1-140140002 | false | false | {
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0.01937 | <urn:uuid:441742df-d8f1-4416-a2da-865049d664f8> | en | 0.964664 | Research scientists are up to something fishy.
In the race to find new medical treatments, they have turned to the striped zebrafish—tiny tropical creatures that share two-thirds of their genes with humans and can be bred to carry some of the same diseases. They are small, cheap to house and easier to care for than pesky rats or mice.
But there is just one hitch with the fish. Although prized for their ability to reproduce in uncanny numbers, the scientists always need more.
So rather than leave romance to chance, researchers are shoring up efforts to understand the moods and social habits of the zebrafish—thousands of which may be used in a single drug screen.
Zebrafish species shares two-thirds of its genes with humans and is therefore useful in drug research and development. Pictured, a zebrafish with melanoma. Children's Hospital Boston
"Many factors go into attractiveness," says Christian Lawrence, a fish biologist at Children's Hospital Boston who manages a large zebrafish facility.
While some fish, including certain types of tilapia, tend to be monogamous, zebrafish aren't so cold. "They're generally promiscuous,'' Mr. Lawrence says. "But I wouldn't call them indiscriminate.''
Mr. Lawrence, who works in the lab of Leonard Zon, a doctor at Children's who studies blood diseases, is one of the inventors of a special fish tank called iSpawn. The design has a single amorous goal: getting the fish to mate. The tank has a sliding bottom insert that can be raised to create a more intimate setting—a shallow pool, where the fish prefer to spawn. Ovulation and spawning are tightly controlled by light, so early morning rendezvous are best.
"They get excited, do a mating dance, and you can see it raining embryos," says Dr. Zon. The researchers have been able to collect 10,000 embryos in 10 minutes.
Scientists keep trying to understand what hooks the fish.
Male zebrafish, for instance, respond to a certain physical trait. "Good stripes," says David Parichy, a scientist at the University of Washington, who is using zebrafish to study developmental genetics. "That's all males really care about." Specifically, males go for fish with more pronounced markings. Fish whose stripes seem to blend into one another are less popular. Still, nature trumps taste. Once in a group, says Dr. Parichy, the male fish will "mate with whatever they can find.''
Hundreds of thousands of fish are under observation at Children's Hospital Boston. Children's Hospital Boston
But what do women want? The female fish, it seems, are more discerning. Like males, they appear to have certain fetishes. Scientists just can't crack the code. "They have very strong preferences, but not along any axis we could quantify," says Dr. Parichy.
Gregory Paull, a researcher at the University of Exeter in the U.K., traveled to Bangladesh in order to study zebrafish in the wild in the hopes of learning more. There, he observed, the fish flourished in "fairly enriched environments, with lots of vegetation," he says.
To improve the mood in his own tanks, he now leaves plastic plants to try to mimic the grass and flora the fish experience in nature. "A plastic plant isn't much interest to a minnow, but a zebrafish will spawn over one," says Dr. Paull.
Growing interest in drug screening has helped float the current drive. Drug development is extremely expensive and treatments can take over a decade to get into the clinic.
And zebrafish make excellent guinea pigs. In addition to their lascivious ways, they take up little space as they typically grow no bigger than two inches long. Unlike mice, fish also have permeable skin, and absorb drugs put in the water.
"Trout is a great fish," says Dr. Parichy. "But I can't keep 30,000 of them in my fish room. I can keep 30,000 zebrafish."
Last November, Pfizer and Children's Hospital Boston signed a one-year research agreement to collaborate on fish screening in muscular dystrophy. Louis Kunkel, a professor of pediatrics and genetics at the hospital, used zebrafish to test over 1,200 drugs to see which ones might restore normal muscle structure. He got seven hits, including one using the same chemical found in Viagra.
"It would have taken us years to screen this many drugs in mice," says Dr. Kunkel.
Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston announced in December the results from an early-phase clinical trial of a drug that boosts the number of cord-blood stem cells in patients who received stem-cell transplants. The drug was found in a zebrafish screen run by Dr. Zon, who says this is the first drug to go from a zebrafish screen to human trials.
Dr. Zon gives regular talks about the virtues of zebrafish. The scientists created a YouTube video to explain drug screening to the growing number of researchers interested in the approach. Another YouTube video shows the fish cavorting in the iSpawn tank as elevator music plays in the background.
It might seem hard to grow attached to fish. After all, to the untrained eye, they all look alike and there are so many of them. But Dr. Zon says researchers do, in fact, develop feelings for the families of fish used in drug screens. In his lab, they've named each brood after red and white wines. When a researcher hits an important milestone, Dr. Zon buys them a bottle of the best wine their fish family is named for.
At Children's Hospital one morning, Mr. Lawrence explains how tricky it is to keep 500,000 tails shaking.
In the wild, the fish eat a lot of insects, including mosquito larvae. In the lab, researchers came up with a special diet to help promote egg production: brine shrimp, plankton and other delicacies.
On a recent day, he gave a visitor a peek at the fish's mating rituals. Though it is already late in the morning—slightly past prime hookup time—Mr. Lawrence wasn't disappointed when he raised the barrier in the tank separating the male and female fish. Liberated, it was easy to see why there are plenty of fish in the sea. | http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970203436904577154962232874998?KEYWORDS=zebrafish | dclm-gs1-140150002 | false | true | {
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0.026894 | <urn:uuid:7381d554-7d7f-49c5-a717-18ae7cbba09f> | en | 0.974056 |
Canada National Marine Conservation Areas Act
Government Orders
3:35 p.m.
Marlene Catterall Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
Yes, Mr. Speaker.
Foreign Missions And International Organizations Act
Government Orders
November 21st, 2001 / 3:35 p.m.
Ralph Goodale for the Minister of Foreign Affairs
moved: that Bill C-35, an act to amend the Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act, be read the third time and passed.
Foreign Missions And International Organizations Act
Government Orders
3:35 p.m.
Canadian Alliance
Brian Pallister Portage—Lisgar, MB
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to further discuss Bill C-35 which would extend diplomatic immunity to a far broader number of people than is currently the case in our country and beyond the requirement of the Geneva convention on this subject.
It continues the government's tradition of extending far greater immunity to a member of the mission staff of another nation in Canada than is the case in most countries in the world with which we are allied. It puts far more people above the law when they come to Canada.
This bill deserves to be shredded. It is a bill that would restrict the rights of law abiding Canadians. It is one which the department wants to see in place for some unknown reason. It would extend immunity to potentially a vast crowd of foreigners who do not even work for embassies in our country.
As it quietly makes its way through the House it carries the mundane title of an act to amend the Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act. It is anything but mundane in its effect.
Under the bill a delegate, official, staff member, family member or a bag carrier showing up for an international gathering would have diplomatic immunity. Diplomatic immunity gives the person who comes here the right to rape, steal, drive drunk, and break Canadian laws without consequence and with impunity.
When a foreign affairs official was asked why this should be done, the comment was that we would not go through a list and say that this person can have immunity and that person cannot. The official further stated that if we give diplomatic privileges and immunities for a meeting then all participants we let in for that meeting will get in.
The same legislation gives the department the authority to issue special visas to conference delegates who might otherwise be barred from entering Canada. It puts interesting people such as known criminals not only in a position of being able to come into the country but of being able to break the laws without any consequence whatsoever.
The Canadian public is already sufficiently concerned by recent incidents involving law breaking diplomats that we do not need to add to the problem. I cannot understand how a government could possibly defend extending immunity to even more people when we have not even set up a mechanism to deal with the abuse of the current system.
There have been about 90 acts of suspected criminal misconduct by diplomats, their families and other personnel posted in Canada in the last five years. The worst case that comes to mind is that of the Russian diplomat accused of killing Ottawa lawyer Catherine MacLean last January while driving drunk.
These concerns were shared by the Minister of Foreign Affairs at that time who talked about getting tough on the issue. That has not been the case and the bill takes us in a direction quite contrary to the one that we should be going in.
The department has given a number of reasons as to why and some Liberals who participated in the debate, though very few, gave us some arguments which I would like to refute.
One member opposite stated that we must do this to keep up with our international allies. That is not the case. Research shows that our allies do not extend diplomatic immunity to the degree that we do in such a broad based way. They may extend immunity in part at times for some acts, for some responsibilities in the course of one's duties, but they do not give blanket immunity to people on mission staff, let alone people who visit their country for meetings.
The bill goes completely counter to the reality in the United Kingdom or the United States of America. To argue that we must do this to keep up with international trends is quite false.
Let us put that rumour to rest because there is no such international trend. It is quite the contrary. I would expect that since September 11 each of the countries in the western world would be taking a serious look at all aspects of security. This would be one of those aspects.
I would expect a tightening up of the security around international events when they are hosted, not an extension of blanket immunity to all who participate. The government's bill is completely out of touch with the reality of post-September 11. Frankly it is not really in touch with the reality of pre-September 11.
We are told we should support the bill because of the need for us to give reciprocity for Canadian diplomats abroad. It is suggested that we have to give blanket immunity to everyone who comes to Canada for a convention in order for our diplomats to be protected in other countries of the world. That is not true either.
There were only three incidents in the last several years where a Canadian member of a diplomatic mission was involved in any criminal activity whatsoever. Yet there were close to 40 times as many incidents where members of foreign delegations were involved in crime in Canada.
It is a specious argument to expect further immunity to be given and to create more problems when some problems have been clearly noted and not dealt with.
The argument that we need to have diplomatic immunity is a valid one. Diplomatic immunity is an old and well understood way of making sure that the diplomats who travel around the world are not beheaded when they give a message that the local ruler does not like. Rules governing diplomatic immunity are set out very clearly in the Vienna convention.
The Vienna convention was written back in 1961. Canada played a major role in the wording of the Vienna convention. We are not abiding by Canada's wording today. It says that complete diplomatic immunity is not given to any but the most senior diplomatic staff.
The government is not abiding by the Canadian compromise in the Vienna convention that was adopted in 1961. Our parameters are far more liberal as we go far beyond it.
Aristotle said, before Jesus Christ was born, that liberalism would grow until chaos reigns supreme. Some would argue such is the case today with regard to the policy of extending diplomatic immunity more broadly than is currently the case. We accept reciprocity for Canadian diplomats abroad to a degree. Such is the case today.
To accept that we must go further still and extend complete diplomatic immunity to people who come here for conventions and meetings of various kinds is of course illogical and not supported by the facts.
Another argument that is made by some is that the committee on scrutiny of regulations recommended that we adopt the bill. This is not the case. Those who are watching at home or who have been in the House much longer than I have know that the committee on scrutiny of regulations does not advocate for legislation to be adopted. It tells people when they are in violation of certain regulations and rules.
The committee on scrutiny of regulations has notified the Department of Foreign Affairs since 1991 that orders in council on the recommendation of the foreign affairs minister extending immunity to participants in international conferences were illegal. Each of the last four foreign ministers was notified of the problem.
The problem is not that we need legislation to legalize what is a questionable practice. The problem is that we have ministers who consistently adopt that questionable practice and need to stop. That is the problem.
Most Canadians, if they were privy to the facts as members of the House are, would question the adoption of legislation to legitimize this practice. The practice is totally illogical.
Passing the bill would legitimize the practice of extending diplomatic immunity to people who do not deserve it under the Vienna convention. It would give people the right to live above the law without consequence. That should not be done. It is totally wrong to do it. To suggest that the committee on scrutiny of regulations called for us to adopt it, as some have, is totally false and misleading. It is quite the contrary. What the committee pointed out was that the government was acting without regard to the law.
I question whether the bill should be adopted. It should not be adopted as a basis of fact because the scrutiny of regulations committee asked for it to be adopted. That is not true. The scrutiny of regulations committee does not advise the government on how to remedy problems which it identifies.
In this case the committee simply told the government that foreign delegates to international conventions were not to be among those included in the definition of who was eligible for immunity under current law.
The government has chosen to adapt the law to its practice when what it should do is adapt its practice to the law. What are the Liberals real reasons for doing this? I think they are two-fold. My colleagues in other parties have addressed some of them but I will certainly talk about just two very quickly.
I think the real reasons are tourism and a legacy. They want a legacy for the Prime Minister so he can be the senior statesman hosting a variety of meetings. That is nice. We are all proud of the fact that we can host meetings in this country.
However, the second is the tourism aspect. It is being suggested that we should pass this bill so we can attract more people to come to international conventions, and that is the other argument members opposite are making. The fact is we host many international meetings, more than our share, and Canadians pay the price for hosting them too.
The reality is that after September 11 the price for hosting international meetings has gone up because the security provisions that have to be taken are very costly. We have no trouble attracting international meetings. We just had the G-20 meetings here last weekend. We have the G-8 meetings coming to Kananaskis next year.
Over the last number of years, and increasingly so in recent months, we have had many other meetings where international diplomats, their families and entourages have come to Canada. Without telling them that they can come and be above the law, they come anyway. I would suggest they will continue to in the absence of this downright silly piece of legislation going forward because, as people at the American embassy told us in meetings we had with them, Canada has a reputation for being an excellent host to international events.
Today we do not need to tell people that they can come here and have no consequence under Canadian law for criminal acts in order to get them here. They come anyway. To suggest we need this as a tourism initiative is specious as well.
The arguments the Liberals make to advance this piece of legislation are specious arguments. They do not carry any significant weight.
Why are they putting this forward? Perhaps they are putting it forward so that a bigger category of people can be immune from criminal acts and therefore they can legitimize increasing the use of the RCMP at events. If that is the case, they should say so but no one has. Therefore, I cannot argue that that is their reason. I will not impugn their motives. However I do know that this seems to be the only legitimate motive that anyone can come up with when they read this legislation.
All of this would be just a fine little theoretical debate, if there were not consequences paid by Canadians for criminal acts by people who are given diplomatic immunity. The minister has said that it is an infrequent thing, that it rarely happens and so on. I will let Canadians be the judge of this, but in the last five years we have had close to 90 cases of crimes attributable to people given diplomatic immunity. That is more than one case per month where people have committed a criminal act and there has been no price or consequence to be paid. Each of those acts leaves at least one Canadian victim. We should be considering that.
In the past five years 13,000 foreign diplomats have been in Canada. If this bill is passed it would extend diplomatic immunity to visitors. I asked the department to estimate the number of people who would become eligible if this bill was adopted and it could not give me a number.
We can safely assume that the rate at which crimes are committed by people given diplomatic immunity will multiply the number of crimes because the number of people receiving it will have increased. Any basic student of psychology understands that when the consequences of an act are removed the likelihood of such an act is increased. When we remove the consequences of a criminal act from anyone, we must understand and accept the fact there will be an increased likelihood of conduct unbecoming. Such has been the case.
In Great Britain it took the event at a Libyan mission of people given diplomatic immunity before Britain woke up and said that it was ridiculous that it could not prosecute people when they murdered in its own country. During a protest in front of the mission, people were fired on and a British policeman was killed. Great Britain took a serious look at adopting measures, and did, restricting the bestowing of diplomatic immunity to people in its country.
Britain screened missions. It asked for lists in advance. It encouraged and successfully fought for the presence over the size of each mission to be relevant to the relations it had with that particular country. It exercised the controls it had to make sure that diplomatic immunity was not extended unnecessarily, without validity or without just reason or cause.
Exactly what they did in Great Britain, they are not doing here. In the United States the son of a Saudi diplomat raped a woman and then within an hour was released because he successfully claimed diplomatic immunity. He was followed to a bar where he bragged to his friends about his conduct. That is the reality of what happens when diplomatic immunity is given out like candy at Halloween. This government is proposing to do it again for people who visit Canada for meetings, and it is ridiculous.
Let us just chronicle these events because each of them has a Canadian victim. If the member opposite wants to speak to the families of those victims, I would encourage her to do that because I have. There have been five incidents involving Canadian diplomats in the same time period. She is fond of mentioning that we have to quid pro quo this and that if we limit in any way the extension of diplomatic immunity to people here that somehow our diplomats would be placed in great danger. There have been only five incidents where Canadian diplomatic people have violated the trust put in them by foreign countries in the last five years. There have been 90 incidents where people in Canada have violated that trust.
Let us talk about the victims for a second. Of these incidents: 19% involved impaired driving; 20% were assaults; 19% were sexual offences; and 5% involved shoplifting. There was an attempted bribery case. There was an attempted murder case. There was even a charge of keeping a common bawdy house. We cannot even prosecute people when we give diplomatic immunity to them.
There are 1,000 diplomatic households currently in Canada. Currently there are 8,000 people who qualify for diplomatic immunity. If we adopt this legislation, that number will escalate dramatically.
Next time an action is taken by someone who is given diplomatic immunity, there will be a consequence for a law-abiding Canadian person or family. When that happens, Canadians will ask what the government is doing about it, just as they did when Catherine MacLean was killed, and they should ask.
However, let us ask right now. Let us ask why we are extending this immunity more broadly than is currently the case, when the government has not taken a step to limit the harmful effects of diplomatic immunity, when people commit these acts.
During the five years before Mrs. MacLean's death, foreign diplomats in Canada have committed 76 criminal offences that we know of, including physical and sexual assaults and impaired driving. There were also instances of drug trafficking and smuggling of aliens. These are all serious crimes that constitute a danger for Canadians.
Diplomatic immunity was waived in just 3 cases out of 76, and Bill C-35 will make a bad situation even worse.
The reality seems to escape the members opposite.
I would like to move on and talk a little about the police power that we are expanding under the bill. This is something I know that concerns many people in the House. In fact a growing number of people on this side of the House, as they research the bill, have become more concerned about the powers of the police force and the implications that has for our country when increased powers are given to our police force without constraining the power of politicians to manipulate that same police force. That is the concern many people have.
The powers being granted to police forces in Bill C-35 run directly against the freedoms of all Canadians.
This bill tends to limit the right of Canadians to protest openly against initiatives they consider dangerous for them and those they want to protect.
It has allowed the RCMP to limit access to international events in order to protect participants. It is a flimsy argument to allow the RCMP to smother any protest to avoid offending foreign representatives.
This clause of the bill is contrary to the recommendation made in the Hughes report that protesters ought to have access to meeting sites.
I will read from recommendation 31.1.1 of the Hughes report, which states:
When the RCMP is called upon in future to police public order events the leadership of the Force should ensure, that: generous opportunity will be afforded for peaceful protesters to see and be seen in their protest activities by guests to the event...
Recommendation 31.3.1 states:
The RCMP should request statutory codification of the nature and extent of police independence from government with respect to:
1. existing common law principles regarding law enforcement; and
2. the provision of and responsibility for delivery of security services at public order events.
I will quote a small section of recommendation 31.3.2. which states:
--that (the RCMP) are to brook no intrusion or interference whatever from government officials as they meet the responsibilities of providing the agreed upon security services.
In short, what the Hughes' recommendations said was that the RCMP separation from politicians should be made clear. This act would do nothing about that. It ignores those recommendations and simply expands police involvement without limiting political intrusion, and this is wrong.
As well, the bill ignores the Hughes report recommendation that the RCMP be free of political influence by the Cabinet or the PMO.
The Liberal majority on the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade defeated an amendment, which was supported by all members of the opposition, which would have made it an offence for there to be political interference into the affairs of the RCMP when international meetings were being held.
What is more, Bill C-35 makes it possible for the minister to unilaterally grant entry into Canada to delegates, regardless of their criminal background, and to put them above our laws, at the very moment Bill C-36, the anti-terrorism bill, is threatening the rights of Canadians.
At the present time it seems both unjustified and unjustifiable to give foreign delegates rights that are being taken away from honest Canadian citizens.
Oversight is a concern as well. Parliamentary oversight would be lessened by the passage of the bill. Parliamentary oversight is an important principle we should support in Canada.
In the amendments proposed under the bill adjacent to this one, the anti-terrorist legislation Bill C-36, the minister has agreed to file annual reports when police forces expand their powers and use additional powers which may restrict the civil liberties of Canadians.
In other words the minister has agreed to give parliament a greater opportunity to debate and be aware of the concerns Canadians would justifiably have that the liberties they treasure are being infringed on unnecessarily. That is wise.
We proposed in the adjacent Bill C-35 that the minister file an annual report on the criminal conduct of people given diplomatic immunity in our country. He has promised to do this but has not. The Liberal majority on the committee defeated the amendment, which gives the lie to the minister's commitment and promise. That is too bad. It is a shame. I would hope if the minister were there he would have risen in his place and urged his colleagues to vote for the amendment.
Right now in terms of oversight we use the Immigration Act. In the current process the Immigration Act allows the minister to sign a certificate and let people come in who otherwise would not be admissible to Canada. The minister must report to parliament each year and say who was let in who would not have been let in, in any other way. That way parliament gets to know what is happening and to debate it.
Bill C-35 would transfer responsibility to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and remove the requirement to report to parliament. That is a shame because this is who will be let in when we sign the certificate.
We would not just be letting them in. Let us understand that. We would be giving them diplomatic immunity. That means we would let in these kinds of folks and tell them they could do whatever they want when they came here. We could not prosecute them. They could do anything they want. These are people whom we would not normally allow into Canada but the minister would be allowed to let them in.
I will quote from the act. It describes inadmissible persons as:
(e) persons who there are reasonable grounds to believe
(i) will engage in acts of espionage or subversion against democratic government, institutions or processes, as they are understood in Canada,
(ii) will, while in Canada, engage in or instigate the subversion by force of any government,
(iii) will engage in terrorism, or
(iv) are members of an organization that there are reasonable grounds to believe will
(A) engage in acts of espionage or subversion against democratic government, institutions or processes, as they are understood in Canada--
Normally such people are not admissible to Canada and I think Canadians would say hear, hear. Bill C-35 would allow the minister to let them in with a signature. More than that, it would let the minister give them permission to be above Canadian law.
The government does not want to make it a crime for people to belong to a terrorist organization. That we understand. However to suggest the minister should have the right to let in people who he knows are members is another thing.
The bill would go further. It would not only say we have the right to let in people we know are members of organizations like that. It would allow the minister to say they do not need to abide by our laws while they are here. I can see that even you, Mr. Speaker, are in total agreement with me on this point.
It could be justifiably argued that people who engage in these kinds of activities should not be allowed into our country. This is blanketed by the more popular and current Bill C-36. If Canadians were part of the debate they would ask why in heaven's name the government would let a bunch of people into Canada who would not abide by our laws when we already have a problem with the ones who do. They would say we should not let in these types of people.
I will again quote from the act. It describes as inadmissible:
(g) persons who there are reasonable grounds to believe will engage in acts of violence that would or might endanger the lives or safety of persons in Canada--
(j) persons who there are reasonable grounds to believe have committed an offence referred to in any of the sections 4 to 7 of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act--
(l) persons who are or were senior members of or are senior officials in the service of a government that is or was, in the opinion of the Minister, engaged in terrorism, systematic or gross human rights violations, or any act or omission that would be an offence under any of sections 4 to 7 of the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act--
Bill C-35 would remove these provisions. It would essentially say the minister has the right to let any of these people into the country that he wants. That makes no sense. It is hard not to get a little fired up about my opposition to the bill. Many of the people I talk to say it is so illogical it is no wonder I am fired up about it.
Catherine MacLean and her friend Catherine Doré went out for a walk in their neighbourhood 10 months ago. They went out for a walk on a nice winter morning. Around the corner came a car driven by a drunk. The drunk killed Catherine MacLean and seriously injured Catherine Doré who is still trying to recuperate.
The consequences of that act are nothing to the government. It has brought forward a piece of legislation which does nothing to address the problem. It would simply make it bigger. That is thoughtlessness. It disregards and disrespects the memory of Catherine MacLean. I am disappointed that the government would proceed with this legislation.
When Catherine MacLean went for her walk she could not have anticipated the consequences, but we could have. We knew the Russian diplomat was a drunk driver. We knew it. We knew it twice before and we still did nothing. We knew it after the fact. It is to the credit of the foreign affairs critic at the time that he raised the issue intelligently and forcefully. I thank him for doing that.
It is not enough to say we now have new protocols. The department has said it has new protocols. People would get one chance for drunk driving and the second time they would be out. That is fine. We will deal with the consequences of drunk driving after the fact. Is that the best we can do? I do not think so.
We can do better. We can develop foresight. Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are committed to repeat their mistakes. The reality is that we should know better.
We saw what happened when we did not inform the House of the consequences of these acts. Now we are going in the wrong direction. We will not inform the House of whom we let into the country. If we adopt the act we will not inform the House of violations that occur. We will not know about drunk driving because the government will not have to report it to us. That is wrong.
I feel badly for Catherine MacLean. I feel badly that I have to raise this issue. However the government is ignoring the consequences of actions like that with the legislation it has brought forward. We all know and should know that the best way the government could have acted was to deal with the problems around diplomatic immunity and not bring forward a piece of legislation that expands the problems.
A better thing would have been to do nothing. Nothing at all would have been better than bringing this piece of legislation to the House.
Do hon. members know what happened when Mr. Knyazev, the Russian diplomat that killed Catherine MacLean and seriously injured Catherine Doré? The Russian people demanded an apology. The Russian embassy demanded an apology from the Canadian government for trying to hold the man. They got it. They got an apology.
We asked the Russians to waive diplomatic immunity. They refused. I say good for the minister for asking, but would it not be better if we did not have to ask? Would it not be better if we made sure through foresight and preparedness that these kinds of things did not happen again? Would that not be a lot better? Would it not be better for Catherine MacLean's family if we showed respect for her and acted accordingly?
There were two young teenage girls whom a Ukrainian diplomat tried to accost into his car with an anesthetic soaked rag. We could not charge him either. Would it not be better for the victims of these people if we could do something about it? We can. We can throw this bill in the garbage where it belongs.
When Catherine MacLean died, the Minister of Foreign Affairs expressed sympathy and said that diplomatic immunity should not be used to shelter people who commit crimes that are not connected to the performance of their duties.
The minister said at the time that he had no sympathy for people who commit these acts outside the realm of their responsibilities. Yet immunity was given. The reality is that immunity is given by the government in a broad based way, not just to senior diplomats but to computer programmers and chauffeurs.
The minister promised several things. He promised he would look at the issue but there is no evidence he has. He promised he would put on the departmental website a complete list of all the violations. We have not seen it. He promised he would present quarterly updates of cases where diplomatic immunity was violated. That has not happened. There has been a litany of broken promises on this file. That disappoints me.
We all understand and respect that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has a tremendous burden to bear right now. However we cannot allow this piece of legislation to move forward and make him break his word to Catherine MacLean and her family just because his attention is elsewhere. That would be wrong.
We asked government members to consider a number of reasonable and thoughtful amendments. We asked that it be made an offence for government representatives to influence or instruct police on operational matters around protest sites at international meetings. They should not do this. The Hughes inquiry clearly spelled that out. It is against the best interests of the RCMP to impugn its motives and integrity. It should not be done.
We asked that the minister account to parliament for any foreign representatives he admits who would not be admissible under the Immigration Act. In other words, we asked that he tell us in a report whom he is letting into the country who would normally not be allowed in.
We asked that the minister be prohibited from granting immunity for criminal acts beyond what is required under the Vienna convention. To put it simply, we asked that he comply with the Vienna convention but go no further. All these amendments were rejected.
We asked that immunity be restricted for representatives at conferences. We asked that they not be given immunity except when it applied to the normal course of their duties. Giving them that degree of protection would comply with what the minister said he would like to see after Catherine MacLean's death. It would comply with what the Vienna convention says about the issue. It would comply with what our allies do, if they go that far at all. Many of our allies do not give immunity to people who come for international meetings.
My colleague from Cumberland--Colchester proposed a reasonable and well thought out amendment. I congratulate him on it. His amendment would have allowed the minister to keep his promise by publishing quarterly reports of crimes committed by those who are given immunity. It was a thoughtful amendment. We supported it as did every non-governmental member of the committee. The government of course used its majority to defeat the member's thoughtful and reasonable amendment.
There are some key reasons Bill C-35 must be defeated. First, Bill C-36, the anti-terrorism bill, contradicts Bill C-35. Bill C-35 would restrict the rights of Canadians and put foreign representatives above the law. At the same time Bill C-36 tells Canadians they should be willing to sacrifice their liberties and rights to be more secure.
Benjamin Franklin said some years ago that those who are willing to sacrifice security for liberty deserve neither and put both at risk. That is what we are doing here. Allowing the government to extend to people from other countries the right to come here and place themselves above the law would be a serious error in judgment.
Second, Bill C-35 would remove accountability. It would remove the reporting requirements from the government. It would remove the transparency from the bill that is there now which requires the immigration minister to report to the House when exceptions are made in giving people the right to come into the country. We need to have that kind of transparency. We need to know when those kinds of decisions are made by the government.
The government acts as arrogant majorities sometimes do. It acts as if it will always be arrogant and a majority. It may always be arrogant but it will not always be a majority. It needs to understand that the decisions it makes today are decisions which the country will have to continue to pay the price for.
The third key here is that we put Canadian security at risk. We know this when we let undesirable people into the country. We have done that. We already have an immigration department which is certainly under attack. Within the Liberal caucus I am sure there are some thoughtful members who have pointed out in closed door sessions the lack of integrity of the current system in terms of the loopholes, the way in which it encourages people to come into the country who should not be permitted in. It allows people to enter the country and escape detection thereafter. Those kinds of undesirable people should not be allowed into the country. Most important, they should not be put above our laws.
That is exactly what this bill does. It was out of step with global trends even before September 11 but it is especially now. Most of all, it is an insult to all the victims and their families of diplomats' crimes in the country. In particular it is an insult to the memory of Catherine MacLean.
I now propose an amendment to the bill. I move:
That Bill C-35, an Act to Amend the Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act, not now be read a third time, but be referred to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade for further consideration of clause 5, with due respect being given to recommendations 31.3.1 and 31.3.2 of the Interim Report of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, which call for greater independence of the RCMP from political influence; for further consideration of clause 3, with due respect being given to the view expressed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs that diplomatic immunity ought to apply only to acts committed in the course of diplomatic duties; and for further consideration of clause 3, with due respect being given to the principle that any admission into Canada of foreign representatives who would normally be inadmissible under Section 19 of the Immigration Act due to having engaged in, or being likely to engage in acts of violence, subversion, terrorism, crimes against humanity, and offences under the Criminal Code of Canada ought to be reported to Parliament; and, for further consideration of clause 2, with due consideration being given to the need for increased national security measures in consequence of the events of September 11.
Foreign Missions And International Organizations Act
Government Orders
4:15 p.m.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Bélair)
I declare the amendment in order.
Business of the House
Government Orders
4:20 p.m.
Marlene Catterall Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order.
Earlier today when the bells began ringing on the motion on third reading stage on Bill C-10, the opposition House leader came forward to defer the vote. According to Standing Order 45(5)(a)(ii), only the chief government whip or the chief opposition whip may ask the Speaker to defer a division. Therefore to ensure that things are properly and orderly done, I would like to ensure that the vote is in fact deferred until tomorrow as required under the standing orders. I would also like to ask for unanimous consent that it be further deferred until next Tuesday, November 27 at 3 p.m.
Business of the House
Government Orders
4:20 p.m.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Bélair)
The record stands corrected. Is there unanimous consent to defer the vote until next Tuesday?
Business of the House
Government Orders
4:20 p.m.
Some hon. members
The House resumed consideration of the motion that Bill C-35, an act to amend the Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act, be read the third time and passed, and of the amendment.
Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act
Government Orders
4:20 p.m.
Lynn Myers Parliamentary Secretary to the Solicitor General of Canada
Mr. Speaker, I would like to seek the unanimous consent of the House to allow me to share my time with the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act
Government Orders
4:20 p.m.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Bélair)
Is there unanimous consent for the parliamentary secretary to share his time?
Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act
Government Orders
4:20 p.m.
Some hon. members
Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act
Government Orders
4:20 p.m.
Lynn Myers Waterloo—Wellington, ON
Bill C-35 allows us to do just that.
Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act
Government Orders
4:40 p.m.
Aileen Carroll Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs
Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act
Government Orders
4:50 p.m.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Bélair)
Foreign Missions and International Organizations Act
Government Orders
4:50 p.m.
Aileen Carroll Barrie—Simcoe—Bradford, ON
| http://openparliament.ca/debates/2001/11/21/ralph-goodale-1/ | dclm-gs1-140180002 | false | false | {
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0.049462 | <urn:uuid:809d339c-d6cb-470a-818a-bbe7e389b9ab> | en | 0.966941 | It Will Make You
Other Web-playable
In a time where the CEO of Electronic Arts describes collapsing revenues as a brightside opportunity to cut the fat, farmers can't get enough GMO seeds and petro-fertilizer for lack of credit, and the whole show looks like it's going to come down, we need to ask ourselves what kind of a high we want to develop, what kind of an industry we want to create. It's clear to me that there could be a very bright future in web-based games, either as stand-alone experiences or windows into a wider world, such as a MySQL database of profiles, a leaderboard, a rich MMO, or what the hell - Storytron. That's assuming that the internet doesn't crash under a lack of infrastructure or get knocked out by a solar radiation storm in 2012. Either way, Flashbang has been putting out fresh, distinct games using Unity for a while, and they're really starting to broaden out. In their latest, they show that you can have your casual cake and eat it too, suggesting that the future of profitable gameplay may well take majority out there in the wilds of the net.
No longer content to stick with a theme-gimmick lifted from Family Guy or Calvin and Hobbes, they decided to get off the crazy train and do something a bigger studio would do, but with rapid prototypting finesse. Basically, the plan was to rip off flOw and turn it into a game. It works. The visual effects but more importantly the smooth and off-the-shelf physics show how Unity brings a more interesting game to the browser. I'd say they give the PS3 download a run for its money. Instead of the linear dimension of flow, where the enemy circling would counter your straight moves, this game makes circling a requisite to both attack and consumption, with navigation another dimension of control altogether. Yet they maintain the zen-button control that flOw employed. It's like the circular dynamic is a free dimension gifted down by Santa Physics. There's nothing phantasmic here, just rich flow, crafted and balanced and delivered in two months. Ain't nothing wrong with that. This game is more significant as a demonstration of what web-gaming can become than as a specific design. It's also a great example of getting a good feel, from the mechanics of input to the dynamics of the physics to the aesthetics of a psylocybin jellyfish.
Speaking of jellyfish, let's talk about money. Last time I checked Flashbang was merc'ing out their talents for cash, and making games this good and this fast because they both can and because they must if they are to make anything good at all. I am awed at their energy, I merc myself out all day and I feel like shit when I get home. I've been working on a wrestling game, I had a dream that the owner of the league confessed his evil plan to tap into human hate and make money, and that I'm his pawn. This is not the kind of context that leaves one free and clear to pursue independent projects. On the other hand, flOw made a really good % ROI, some of which trickled down into the student loan payments of the talent behind the game. Daniel James's company does good stuff that is designed for a business model (Whirled excepted) which put them in a quite fine position. These are the two paths to profitability I see in the future, pearl-like console downloads on one hand, and web-based free-to-play on the other.
Blurst is already one of the better free game sites out there, there's huge potential for a portal based around cohesive portfolios of unique games, instead of a hat collecting meta-game. They could sell people credit for making the games possible, I mean it's only like 10-20k to get a game done in these time frames, they could make a meta-game of donations!
The third, hidden path, and I think this has the most potential, involves slashing your cost of living and growing most of your own food part-time on roughly 1.5 acres per person, then developing freeware. This is known as the Jason Rohrer method. I think that's where these guys need to end up, so go play their well crafted harbinger of future web glory for free and donate some money on the condition that they all move to a satellite internet connected farm in Panama.
Comment viewing options
I think it's pretty clear
I think it's pretty clear that there's no bright future in Storytron. :)
Regarding the flOw connection, I don't think it's a rip-off. FlOw was probably an inspiration. Certainly, there are very similar game elements, but Blush is about as close to flOw as flOw is to Evo for the SNES. Yes, you're swimming around killing things to make your body longer, but there are lots of differences: the more complex battle/collection method, the requirement to ferry eggs back to a collection point, the (short!) time limit, and the lack of level progression, to name the biggies. You might as well say flOw was a ripoff of the old game Snake. Eating apples made you longer!
(an aside: needing to register to comment is annoying and so Web 1.0)
Web 1.0
Needing to register to comment at least deters some comment spam, which is ever-increasing in volume.
Funny, I Was Just About To Review Exploit
Yeah I wasn´t really accusing them off ripping it off. I was just making a playful jab. Flashbang guys read that and they think, "we didn´t rip them off," That Game Company guys and gals read that and thing "hey! flOw was a game" then we all have a moment of reflection and a good laugh. Or I offend both of them at once.
The Future of Browser Games?
Web Games: Threat or Menace?
Well, I'm not at all sure that "browser games" have ever been "non-hardcore." I just looked at Miniclips -- okay, Club Penguin is #1 there, that's certainly casual, but #1 is Commandos 2, a 2D sidescrolling combat game. On Kongregate, #1 is currently Sonny, a game that's basically a streetfighter using Final Fantasy-style turn-based combat. I call that hardcore. And, you know, Defend the Castle, often pointed to as one of the first really popular web games? Casual? I think not.
Early web games were largely imitative of the arcade, because that was pretty early to do in Flash; the arcade is where the hardcore was formed (unless you want to reach back to board wargaming and D&D, which in fact I do). They were attempting to appeal to self-identified gamers, not to the mythical "rest of us."
But never mind.
Sure, Unity (and, to give it its due, InstantAction, which is based on the Torque engine) provide the ability to create considerably richer game experiences than Flash (though Flash has improved, and continues to improve). And sure, as Moore's Law does its work, doing a game in the browser, even with the processing overhead that entails, means browser-based games can become better, in some sense. But this is a double-edged sword; "richer" and "deeper" and "3D" all translate into "more expensive to create," and given the extraordinarily small per-user revenues that browser-based games generate, there's a real limit to how far you can press that trend. Advertising sucks, you know. It really does. It's nice that a handful of Flash game developers can actually make a living doing Flash games now, and that is indeed a hopeful sign for the future -- but the only real way to support a studio doing web games at the moment is by doing work for corporate clients, ala This Is Pop. I can't see that changing, not without access to some revenue stream beyond advertising alone -- perhaps micropayment upsell (first 12 levels for free, next 12 for $3, kind of thing).
Of course, from my perspective, web games -- along with social network games, smartphone games, and console downloadables -- is exactly the sort of fringe, from both a business and a creative standpoint, where the sort of interesting and innovative work that the mainstream industry lacks, and that the medium desperately needs for self-renewal, is likeliest to appear. | http://playthisthing.com/blush | dclm-gs1-140210002 | false | false | {
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0.019881 | <urn:uuid:f9c8b72e-6a3d-4bd6-8246-4eee9461fc9b> | en | 0.891619 | Saturday, 21 September 2013
An Ode to Entanglement & Modigliani Suite
Ode to Hands
(written by Halina Poświatowska, translated by Anna Gąsienica-Byrcyn)
Greetings to you my palms, my grasping fingers, and my finger smashed by the car door. My X-rayed palm looks like a sprained wing, like a tiny piece of bone drawn by its own contour. My left hand's ring finger once decorated by a band is widowed now, deprived of its adornment. The one who gave me the ring long since has no fingers. His arms are woven with the tree's roots into one.
My hands have so often touched the frozen palms of the dead, and the warm, strong palms of the living. They know how to caress unusually by touch losing the space that separates existence from existence, and heaven from earth. My hands knowing the pain of helplessness cling to each other like two frightened birds, homeless, blindly seeking everywhere the trace of your hands.
the body of my garden
woven from the living and painful branches
cries at night
recalling the down of birds' wings
the moon's face wet among the leaves
it peers into a nest full of absence
the green fingers quiver
clenched in the throat of the wind
the seeing fingers dance
on black and white keys
I greet them with my breath
with my hand I touch the lips
with my smile I bring to life
the colors and I use the most beautiful of them
to write in red blood: myself
in our eternal departures
on outstretched wings
we are ever closer
to each other and earth
you are my hand
I am your hair
and that shadow behind us
is neither this nor that
the shadow—our united lips enclosing
both love and death
I broke off the bough of love
I buried it in the earth
and look
my garden has blossomed
one cannot kill love
if you bury it in the earth
it grows back
if you toss it into the air
it grows leaf-like wings
dropped into the water
it flashes with gills
immersed in the night
it shines
so I wanted to bury it in my heart
but my heart was home to my love
my heart opened its heart's door
and it rang out with song from wall to wall
my heart danced on my fingertips
so I buried my love in my head
and people asked
why my head has blossomed
why my eyes shine star-like
and why my lips are brighter than the dawn
I wanted to tear this love to pieces
but it was supple it entangled my hands
and my hands are bound with love
people ask whose prisoner I am
Georgia O'Keeffe — Hands, 1919
Alfred Stieglitz (American, Hobokan, New Jersey, 1864-1946 New York)
via The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1 comment:
Poesis said...
"...I am of smiles—of pain
that carves a triangle
above my forehead
of light and of the moon
of love straight as a tree is straight
of gold earth that blooms golden in my hand
I tuned up my insides
they sing to me now
like a bird at dawn
your fragrance irritates—it says: you exist
your fragrance irritates—it takes the night away
in your perfect fingers
I am the light
I shine with green moons
above the dead darkened day
suddenly you know that my lips are red
—with salty taste the blood flows up—
a bird of my heart lives
under my left arm
a bird of my heart throbs
with its strangled wings
in the warm nest
the torn out feathers
live in the wind..."
(from 'I am of flowers' by Halina Poświatowska; translated into English by Anna Gąsienica-Byrcyn)
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} | false |
0.023407 | <urn:uuid:9c057e74-6366-447e-984b-fe72ae80f852> | en | 0.930856 | where the writers are
Ed Houben | Ed Houben
farzana-versey's picture
He makes bastards. No one is quite willing to use the term, for not only does he portray himself as a Samaritan, but also a sort of sexual evangelist. Instead of the Word, he doles out semen. You’ve probably read the reports about Dutchman Ed Houben, who has fathered 82 babies with different women... | http://redroom.com/blog-keyword-tags/ed-houben | dclm-gs1-140250002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.091343 | <urn:uuid:a1fd060f-534c-4b0f-bdf0-345d7c4cb062> | en | 0.91316 | Expertise Cap Confirmed By Blizz
Due to recalibrating expertise for Cataclysm, level 80-83 creatures (which includes bosses) dodge and parry less, so you need less expertise, 23, to be exact. Sorry we didn’t announce this. I would classify it as an unintended consequence (though not unknown) and not a desired change on our part.
At level 85, you will need 26 again.
1. Handera says:
Are we still assuming hit cap is 8%?
2. dorgsal says:
but i have 43 expertise and in char window i still have dodge chance 83lvl 0.00% butn in parry chance 83lvl 3,50%…
3. dorgsal says:
and on heroic dumy i still have parry’s
4. Chellyn says:
nice to finelly no,kept mine at 25-27 just in case
5. Captoats says:
How do people still not understand that dodge and parry are not the same thing? Parry can only happen when attacking from the front, stand behind the boss and you only have dodge to worry about, which gets knocked off the table at 22.37 expertise.
This site has already covered this information many times, look it up and don’t repeat the same questions over and over.
6. shandri says:
Heya jus been readin bout exp cap at 24exp i have a 0.5% chance to b dodged by a lvl 83/boss mob is this a tool tip error or have they hotfixed this so we need 26 exp again? 1st post for me btw but have grown to love this site and the peeps behind. Thanks muchly. /hug /kiss
Speak Your Mind | http://retributionpaladins.com/expertise-cap-confirmed-by-blizz/comment-page-1/ | dclm-gs1-140260002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
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} | false |
0.020424 | <urn:uuid:ae794b1f-3e2a-4988-bf08-fa7dc51602ad> | en | 0.832155 | Accent Tag!
Your name and username.
-What is the story behind your URL?
-How old are you?
-Where you’re from.
-What is your favorite color?
-Pronounce the following words:
Aunt, Roof, Route, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Pajamas, Caught, Naturally, Aluminium, GIF, Tumblr, Crackerjack, Doorknob, Envelope, GPOY, Polka dots, Papaya, Penthouse, Subtext, Smile
-What is a bubbly carbonated drink called?
-What do you call gym shoes?
-What do you call your grandparents?
-What is the thing you change the TV channel with?
-Do you think you have an accent?
-Do you speak a second language? Say something in it.
End by saying any 3 words you want.
You should try it too!
68 notes
tagged as: personalcourtcourtneyvideoaccent tagcanadaaccent
1. secondchancecourtney reblogged this from secondchancecourtney and added:
Just in case yall missed it the first time.
2. eskimolee reblogged this from secondchancecourtney | http://secondchancecourtney.tumblr.com/post/14471531366/accent-tag-your-name-and-username-what-is-the | dclm-gs1-140310002 | false | false | {
"keywords": "envelope"
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.081167 | <urn:uuid:29466a2c-394c-4be1-a846-8be02207935a> | en | 0.903455 | Tell me more ×
I'd like to dynamically be able to host client's domains, with just having to provide them instructions like this:
I'm running a pretty typical LAMP stack; any good tutorials for configuring this for Apache, or other server-side configurations I need to be aware of?
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possible duplicate of Dynamic Virtual Hosts In Apache – John Gardeniers May 28 '10 at 5:09
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1 Answer
Apache supports virtual host configuration. There is plenty of information on how to set this up available at and Just set this up in Apache with a dedicated IP address, then tell your clients to set their DNS records to point to the IP address in question. Their folder names on the server will need to match their domain name (or other matching criteria per the first link above).
With Tumblr, they likely have a single application running on the specified IP address which determines which site settings to use based on a CGI variable (server_name, usually). If each of your customer sites will be using their own webroot, then the Apache configuration should work for you. If you're hosting an application that they're all using, then you can have Apache listen for all requests on a dedicated IP address and then differentiate them within the application through the CGI variable.
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| http://serverfault.com/questions/146081/dynamically-hosting-new-domains-on-apache | dclm-gs1-140330002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.039287 | <urn:uuid:05d61d45-e8b3-4297-be96-f51419809e3d> | en | 0.964569 | Forgot your password?
User Journal
kiwimate's Journal: You say NT machines don't have uptime? Prove it! 4
Journal by kiwimate
Anyone who feels particularly bored and chooses to ramble through my postings sometime will see that I have a wee problem with MS-bashers without cause. Is NT or W2K perfect? Of course not. But to suggest they're impossible to configure to stay up is just plain ludicrous.
Whenever I read some poster suggesting this, I inevitably react with a biting reply. It really does annoy me, I'm afraid, not because these people should know better (the rather poor quality of most of these posts betrays that notion), but because they inevitably get modded up as +4 Informative or +5 Interesting when it's simply unsustainable nonsense.
There are machine shops who run NT 3.5 controllers that have uptimes counted in the years, not a paltry couple of months or so. But how about some hard figures? I currently have a NT 4.0 file server that is literally accessed 24 x 7 x 365 by several hundred people simultaneously, as well as running a licensing dongle for development software. As I write this morning -- 8 September 2003 -- the uptime is:
656 days, 11 hours, 42 minutes, 49 seconds
No, it's not on the Internet and therefore not vulnerable to attacks. Yes, I've performed some maintenance on it (had to change the IP addressing just a few weeks ago). Guess what -- despite popular opinion to the contrary, there are a number of maintenance operations which don't require reboots.
Now then...who wants to talk?
Yep, still going. Now at:
755 days, 20 hours, 38 minutes, 20 seconds
Not too terriby shabby, is it?
You say NT machines don't have uptime? Prove it!
Comments Filter:
• by mixmasta (36673)
Well, you are right about NT 3.5 ... I used it as a desktop os back in the day and it was solid as a rock. It went 6 months at a time without a crash. Good enough for me.
However NT4 was a different story, as you know they made several changes to it so it would be more acceptable as a client os. I set up two of them for simple webservers and they had to be rebooted about once a week because they stopped working correctly after about 6-10 days. Pretty standard installs too, nothing out of the ordinary .
| http://slashdot.org/journal/45092/you-say-nt-machines-dont-have-uptime-prove-it | dclm-gs1-140350002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
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0.028995 | <urn:uuid:48627207-d87f-4403-9e64-e3183af03e37> | en | 0.875153 | Take the tour ×
I'm trying to deploy a simple Geddyjs (node.js) app to Heroku.
When I make a push a recive that error:
git push heroku master
Heroku receiving push
Heroku push rejected, no Cedar-supported app detected
What I have to do to that heroku detect the nodejs app?
share|improve this question
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2 Answers
up vote 3 down vote accepted
couple of things did you do this for cedar you need to explicitly say this (I am sure you have done this but here for completeness)
heroku create --stack cedar
ensure that your package.json is at the root
heroku have a good article on this
You should now be able to
git push heroku master
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package.json was the problem. thanks! ;) – alejandromp May 5 '12 at 11:53
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Have you added Procfile and package.json to your local git repo. and committed them?
I had created them but forgot to add & commit them so when pushed these files weren't uploaded hence Heroku didn't know the type of app.
Adding, committing & re-pushing fixed this.
Obvious when you know:-)
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| http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10196563/deploy-geddy-to-heroku?answertab=oldest | dclm-gs1-140400002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.651242 | <urn:uuid:4fa67ab9-dc4f-481c-92c8-49da58117f19> | en | 0.860852 | Tell me more ×
I'm using RSpec (through the gem rspec-rails) for testing and developing my application. I've tried to "test" a controller and run up against a strange behavior of post and get methods (same for all the others of this kind).
In my route file:
controller :sessions do
post '/login', action: :login_create
get '/login', action: :login
get '/logout', action: :logout
At the beginning, I was thinking that post will simulate an http post request at the specified url, so I've wrote in my spec:
describe "POST 'login'" do
it "returns http success" do
post 'login'
response.should be_success
response.should render_template 'sessions/login_create'
But this will call the login action, not the login_create, and then the last assert fail. After a lot of googling and experiments, I've changed post 'login' with post :login_create and this actually works! The strange thing is that also if I change post with get, it will continue to work! O_o Isn't this strange? How this methods are intended to work and to be used?
In the Rails API I've not found anything else than the class: ActionController::TestCase::Behavior
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1 Answer
What you're writing is a controller spec, not a request spec. In a controller spec, routes are not consulted at all because rspec invokes controller actions directly.
When you write post 'login', the login specifies the action name, not the URL path.
The correct way to test the login_create action would be to use post :login_create as you've discovered.
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That's ok, but what is the difference between post, get, put and delete? Is it only a matter of clarity? – Iazel Sep 5 '12 at 19:58
It sets the correct request.method when the action is invoked. (Sorry for the late reply!!) – Prathan Thananart Oct 23 '12 at 10:02
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| http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12268405/testing-rails-controller-get-and-post-strange-behavior | dclm-gs1-140410002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.047556 | <urn:uuid:ecaddb3a-9ebf-46d3-b870-140a489325a7> | en | 0.910224 | Take the tour ×
I know your naming conventions are supposed to follow how it's written in the language's documentation. Which is this:
CSS: my-variable
JS: myVariable
PHP: my_variable
But this is a huge mess, especially when sharing information between JS and PHP.
Quick Example (this is how I'm currently naming things):
$my_variable = 5;
<div data-my-variable="<?php echo $my_variable?>"></div>
var myVariable = $('div').attr('data-my-variable');
$.get('/get-info', {my_variable: myVariable}, function(data) {
//should the get-info.php file be returning
//under_scores or camelCase back to JS?
Any advice? What do you do? I'm thinking about just using one convention everywhere.
share|improve this question
"to follow how it's written in the language's documentation. " Not really. It's more a community thing than a documentation thing. – PeeHaa Oct 15 '12 at 17:52
camel case is always the best. that being said, this is completely subjective and the question should be closed as such... – jbabey Oct 15 '12 at 17:52
You can pick whatever you think is appropriate for your project. – Brad Oct 15 '12 at 17:53
Use any one notation which suits you. You can mix in different languages, one in css and another in javascript. Best way, specify at the docs, CSS: my-variable JS: myVariable PHP: my_variable – Jashwant Oct 15 '12 at 17:55
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closed as not constructive by jbabey, Jashwant, cbuckley, tereško, WATTO Studios Oct 16 '12 at 1:58
2 Answers
I sugggest you stick to a common accepted style. People that will mantain or deal with the code after you will be thankful as they will recognize the patterns.
class-name is widely accepted for css.
camelCase afaik is widely accepted for programming languages - js and php in your case.
a style guide might help as well, i.e. https://github.com/styleguide/css it's a pretty good one for css - I personally adhere to it and so do a few css beautifiers I've seen around
share|improve this answer
camelCase isn't very well accepted in MySQL databases though. – Stephen Sarcsam Kamenar Oct 15 '12 at 21:49
yeah, I don't consider MySQL databases as programming language though :) – Luca Oct 16 '12 at 0:29
Sure, but if I'm using camelCase in PHP, then I'm translating conventions all the time. Q_Q – Stephen Sarcsam Kamenar Oct 16 '12 at 19:25
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If you are the only one working on the project, just pick the convention you're most comfortable with and use it across the board. If you've got co-authors, be sure to come to an agreement.
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| http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12901215/how-do-i-handle-naming-conventions-when-working-with-css-js-and-php | dclm-gs1-140420002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.986391 | <urn:uuid:52c32b75-74e1-44ed-9226-f4a953e3b76e> | en | 0.84489 | Take the tour ×
Possible Duplicate:
Python, opposite function urllib.urlencode
I have a url string which is already formatted with key=value pairs and &'s in between, as created by urllib's urlencode function. Is there a standard Python library utility to reverse this process? That is:
Given a string representing a url, return a string containing the base url and a dictionary containing the key-value pairs in the url.
I can cook up a simple solution on my own that does this for reasonable urls, but I imagine weird things can happen with an arbitrary url. So is there a standard library function that does this safely?
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marked as duplicate by Waleed Khan, phihag, unutbu, JeremyKun, Burhan Khalid Oct 28 '12 at 21:19
1 Answer
up vote 4 down vote accepted
The built-in urlparse does what you want:
>>> bits = urlparse.urlparse('http://www.example.com/foo?bar=zoo&a=b')
>>> bits.query
>>> urlparse.parse_qs(bits.query)
{'a': ['b'], 'bar': ['zoo']}
share|improve this answer
Perfect! Thanks for the quick response. – JeremyKun Oct 28 '12 at 21:12
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| http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13112996/inverse-operation-to-pythons-urllib-urlencode | dclm-gs1-140430002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.032088 | <urn:uuid:d35cfb43-0bc3-49d7-9ed1-b05768aa2e1e> | en | 0.791328 | Tell me more ×
I have an unordered list on a page. When that page is refreshed through Ajax, new list items may come back that will be dynamically added to the unordered list. When the new list items get added, I would like to highlight those new list items, but fade the highlight out after a specified time.
I have tried animate and the jquery highlight effect, but have not found the right mixture to get a desired result. What I am doing now, is to call a function after dynamically adding the list item to try to add a highlight class, and then remove that class, but that is not working as well.
The list items are generated and added to the unordered list through PHP.
How would I go about dynamically highlighting new list items after they have been dynamically added to an unordered list, but then fade that highlight out?
The desired result I am looking for is similar to how Scoopler's twitter feed behaves, link text
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Post the code you have so far so we can help ? – JonH Nov 18 '09 at 18:14
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3 Answers
up vote 1 down vote accepted
var colorStr = '#DDDDFF'; // color of highlight
$("").each(function (i,x) {
$(x).css("background-color","#ffffff"); // reset background
$(x).effect("highlight", {color: colorStr}, 3000); // animate
Tested, I think this does what you want (that is, it holds the display for 3 seconds, and then gives a 3 second fadeout.
share|improve this answer
This gave me the idea to add a highlight class when my list items are added to the list using .animate( { backgroundColor: '#ffffff' }, 3000); to fade in the highlight, then I remove the highlight class after the animate has been completed. – Mike Munroe Nov 30 '09 at 21:14
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How about doing it as a two-step sequential animation.
1) Animate the highlight 2) Animate the fade-out
Do this in a sequence instead of in parallel.
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How about jQuery livequery plugin + highlight effect (assuming all li's in ul with id ulcontainer). Something along this lines should work.
var doIt = function() {};
$(document).ready(function() {
// doIt empty so no highlight on first page load
$('#ulcontainer > li').livequery(doIt);
// now set doIt to something useful
doIt = function() { $(this).effect("highlight", {}, 3000); };
// do ajax and add li's to ul#ulcontainer
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| http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1757988/highlight-then-fade-highlight-for-list-items-dynamically-added-to-a-list | dclm-gs1-140450002 | false | false | {
"keywords": "a sequence"
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.775086 | <urn:uuid:ec420b12-d68e-47e5-8625-ab8503b35303> | en | 0.903947 | Tell me more ×
I have been reading alot about functional programming and f#. I have a snippet of code that I cannot understand. I am familiar with recursive programs but this particular code is bugging me
open System
let rec fact x =
if x < 1 then 1
else x * fact (x - 1)
fact 6
In this snippet of code there is no where in the code that terminates the recusion. How does this program know when to stop. If I programmed this in c# I would tell the program to stop recursing when the index or iterator is higher then 6.
share|improve this question
The index in this case is x and since it's counting down from 6, checking whehter it's higher than 6, would be what leads to an infinite loop. Checking whether it's less than 1, which this code does, is exactly right. Also note that this corresponds quite closely to the mathematical definition of factorial. – sepp2k Sep 4 '10 at 3:47
Worth noting that this has nothing to do with functional programming. – Jon Harrop Sep 4 '10 at 14:26
there is code that terminates the recursion, it just doesn't look like the C# counterpart – BlackTigerX Sep 5 '10 at 20:33
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1 Answer
up vote 8 down vote accepted
The recursion stops when it x is less than 1 because the result of the expression is then 1
if x < 1 then 1
In C# the function would look as follows:
public int fact(int x)
if (x < 1)
return 1;
return x * fact(x - 1);
Pure functional programming is interesting because there is never a return, all the program does is evaluate. You need to ask yourself 'What does this expression evaluate to?'
share|improve this answer
The closest equivalent to F#'s if..else would be C#'s ternary conditional operator, which doesn't execute statements, but evaluates to a single value. For example: int fact(int n) { return n < 1 ? 1 : n * fact(n - 1); } – cfern Sep 4 '10 at 7:05
Thank you ..this really helped. This functional stuff is interesting and strange – Luke101 Sep 7 '10 at 2:35
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| http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3640792/f-recursion-termination | dclm-gs1-140470002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.03599 | <urn:uuid:33e7c24a-8e42-4c41-a42d-0292bfac845d> | en | 0.92827 | Tell me more ×
Short Story: My house was broken into MacBook Pro among stolen items. Bought a new MacBook restored from TimeMachine drive including Eclipse folder. System files could not be restored because hardware was slightly different. I did a system update and updated to 10.6.5 and Java 1.6.0_22, all the latest. I run Eclipse Helios for Java development for college assignments.
The problem I am having is that when I run Eclipse and start coding when I get to a method of any type when eclipse usually throws up an auto-complete type box underneath the current line the program hangs for a few seconds while it loads / moves through the list depending on how fast I am typing. Example:
JTextField txt = new JTextField();
I could type the second line out pretty quickly as I know what I am looking for but the program will hang (multicolor swirly mac icon will replace pointer). Eclipse process will spike to 100% and I will not be able to do anything until the auto-complete box finishes whatever it could possibly be doing and the suggestion moves down to "getText()" or whatever the list beginning with "get" contains.
Things I have done to correct include, re-downloading and installing eclipse into another location, creating a new workplace in that eclipse install, re-creating the projects and code files by hand (i.e. not importing anything). The problem still persist.
I am not seasoned enough in Java to abandon the helpful suggestion box, especially when I am learning new things.
Anyone else experience this problem or know a possible solution I have not tried?
share|improve this question
After dealing with this some more over the past two days I forgot to mention that Eclipse worked great with Mac OS X Java 6 Update 2. I never updated to 3 before my laptop was taken. Also it only seems to be particularly bad on only certain objects. I know JTextField seems to be the worst for me. But it has a lot of methods. It could be an issue with the size of the list that is generated and worked though. – Justin Dec 6 '10 at 0:32
I have this same problem. It's directly tied to the amount to results in the auto complete box. – Jason Dec 10 '10 at 7:32
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1 Answer
up vote 3 down vote accepted
This happens with me with Android development, and I have a clue as to why - documentation! If I uninstalled the documentation, meaning the completion list wouldn't show me any API documentation, the completion list was back up to normal speed. Installed it back, the completion list is slow again. This wasn't a problem in Galileo, just Helio.
I'm trying to find the best JVM settings to use with eclipse to see if I can improve things.
share|improve this answer
how did u uninstall the documentation? – cV2 Jan 14 '11 at 10:13
This, thousand times this! And one can delete Android documentation trough "Window->Android SDK and AVD Manager" – sniurkst Jan 27 '11 at 19:34
This has solved a real pain-in-the-ass problem for me. – Jack BeNimble Jun 11 '11 at 5:32
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| http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4354754/eclipse-helios-having-performance-problems-mac-os-x-10-6-5 | dclm-gs1-140500002 | false | true | {
"keywords": "spike, importin"
} | false | null | false |
0.882616 | <urn:uuid:4382eefc-a55c-4ec5-bb54-f177fb587a95> | en | 0.908432 | Tell me more ×
Possible Duplicate:
How do you read from stdin in python
Hi All,
I am a newbie in python. I was wondering how I could manage to get data from standard input, such as getline in c++ and similar, so that from terminal/console I can use a text file as an input for a python script.
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marked as duplicate by Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams, Greg Hewgill, thetaiko, Bill the Lizard Mar 26 '11 at 0:23
1 Answer
You can use sys.stdin. It acts like a file object, so treat it as one when you use it:
#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys
Running this by itself hangs the interpreter, but adding a pipe operator does what it should:
> echo "asd" | python
> asd
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| http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5437292/python-standard-input | dclm-gs1-140510002 | false | false | {
"keywords": ""
} | false | {
"score": 0,
"triggered_passage": -1
} | false |
0.022982 | <urn:uuid:dee9ad3f-d83e-4ef3-9873-eeec110b54e4> | en | 0.900725 | Tell me more ×
I need to backup repository in TortoiseSVN and move it to a new PC. What are the steps to do create the back up?
I can't find backup option in the menu, the only thing I found was the command-line way:
svnadmin dump C:\SVN\MyProject > C:\tmp\MyProject.bak
I am assuming that C:\SVN\MyProject is the repository directory? If so, I don't know where mine is located and don't know how to find out (no indication is given in the menu at all).
If someone knows how to backup and restore a repository using clear steps that would be great!
EDITED: My SVN is served with file system
svnadmin command doesn't work
The easiest and simplest way is appreciated.
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3 Answers
If you access you repository through svn:// protocol then it means it's served by the svnserve service.
Try to look up that service in the services manager and see the command line used to start it. That command line contains the path to the repository directory on disk. That's the directory you want to back up.
Command line options for svnserve are documented here. You're interested in the root option.
If your repository is served by Apache (http:// protocol) then you can find out the repository path in the Apache configuration files, as described here. Look for SVNPath.
Usually you can just copy the given repository directory to a new PC and point svnserve or Apache to that new directory.
This may not work due to differences in svn versions. Thus you may want to go with dump / load approach documented here.
It's pretty straightforward:
svnadmin dump C:\SVN\MyProject > dumpfile
# copy the dumpfile to a new PC
svnadmin load C:\SVN\MyNewProject < dumpfile
share|improve this answer
svnadmin is not there a way to do it without it? or should I forget about the repository...actually after spending 2+ hours on this, I am kind of ready to. – sarsnake Sep 29 '11 at 21:40
You can do it without svnadmin - just copy the whole folder. Did you find a repository folder already? – AlexD Sep 29 '11 at 21:43
thinking about your question again - do you actually want to move the repository from one server to the other? or just move the files you work with to another PC? – AlexD Sep 29 '11 at 21:47
I want to re-create my set-up on a new PC. Files will be moved, so all I want to do is move the repository too....I found the repository folder..but how do I move the repository? Just move the folder that contains the repository? – sarsnake Sep 29 '11 at 22:10
Well, i think everyone thought you want to move repository between servers. What you want to do is to move working copy. It should be ok to just copy the folder with your files - everything svn related is in the hidden '.svn' subfolders. Or just leave it and checkout from the repository on a new PC. (repository is on the server, working copy is on your PC) – AlexD Sep 29 '11 at 22:17
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All you should need to do is copy the filesytem files of where the actual repository is located. Depending on what is serving your subversion repository (Apache or IIS web servers) there should be a configuration file (apache) or setting (iis) that has the path to the repository in it.
for example I have a repository url like:
Whatever web server is processing that url will need to know where the actual repository is located so you should be able to work your way back from there.
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You don't backup tortoise. You backup the actual repository files, and then you point tortoise to the new location using the "relocate" command in the menu.
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so, basically if I save the directory on a new PC, install Tortoise on the new PC, I should be able to detect the repository? thanks – sarsnake Sep 29 '11 at 21:22
will this relocate work between 2 pcs? My hunch is that no.... – sarsnake Sep 29 '11 at 21:26
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| http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7602790/tortoisesvn-backup-and-restore | dclm-gs1-140530002 | false | false | {
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0.019311 | <urn:uuid:dedf148c-efbb-430d-84b0-0d3734b9226a> | en | 0.766857 | Tell me more ×
I want to draw the underline below my TextView. I have searched a few content but couldn't find out anything fruitful.
Can anyone please help me out here?
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up vote 50 down vote accepted
There are three ways of underling the text in TextView.
1. SpannableString
2. setPaintFlags(); of TextView
3. Html.fromHtml();
Let me explain you all approaches :
1st Approach
For underling the text in TextView you have to use SpannableString
String udata="Underlined Text";
SpannableString content = new SpannableString(udata);
content.setSpan(new UnderlineSpan(), 0, udata.length(), 0);
2nd Approach
You can make use of setPaintFlags method of TextView to underline the text of TextView.
For eg.
mTextView.setPaintFlags(mTextView.getPaintFlags() | Paint.UNDERLINE_TEXT_FLAG);
mTextView.setText("This text will be underlined");
You can refer constants of Paint class if you want to strike thru the text.
3rd Approach
Make use of Html.fromHtml(htmlString);
String htmlString="<u>This text will be underlined</u>";
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Thanks a lot, it worked...:) – David Brown Nov 7 '11 at 6:34
Glad to hear that..Mark this question as solved so that other users can refer it. – Kartik Nov 7 '11 at 6:37
A third approach would be using Html.fromHtml("<u>This text will be underlined</u>"), but I have to admit I'm a much bigger fan of using SpannableStrings. @Kartik: You might as well use a StrikethroughSpan on the text to create the strikethrough effect. :) – MH. Nov 7 '11 at 7:14
@MH : +1 thanks for the info buddy. I really forgot Html.fromHtml();.. – Kartik Nov 7 '11 at 7:16
Love the 3rd approach. Short, simple and concise and adds just one extra line of code to my program. – Matt Feb 15 at 15:20
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just surround your text with < u > tag in your string.xml resource file
<string name="your_string"><u>Underlined text</u></string>
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0.255461 | <urn:uuid:1cfb2413-5d9c-4708-b0d1-5caf685cf0d0> | en | 0.93788 | Take the tour ×
Having read this article the author seems to think that big time fragmentation is due to occur and apps developed for Windows Phone 7 will not be easily ported up to Win 8 and in fact due to silverlight/.net being axed in favor WinRT for metro style apps it leaves Windows Phone in a very bad situation.
I was wanting to learn to develop for Windows Phone but now I am uncertain in respect to which path to take. Looks like investing time on HTML5 and Jscript and using that to write apps for WP7 would be wiser than going the silverlight\XAML route. Also the XNA WP framework is tied in/extends on the silverlight framework with WP7 does it not ? So XNA is also not sure thing.
I understand that WinRT will have its own XAML runtime/module, so XAML skills are definitely not going to be made redundant but .Net/Silverlight is not there and a new API for WinRT will be there. The approach of coding for metro and library class names etc. I hope for Microsofts sake are going to be near identical to .net framework, otherwise there's going to be a lot of pissed .net developers.
I must say however if the Window Phone platform does adopt a new WinRT derived framework, what will happen to all of the existing apps? Could they be easily ported?
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Atm you can only build wp7 apps using Silverlight right? – Xin Dec 3 '11 at 2:13
Yes, using a slimmed Down Silverlight framework for WP7 and or XNA extension for WP, not sure if it's tied in with Silverlight. – LaserBeak Dec 3 '11 at 2:19
XNA is not tied to Silverlight (though you can use some of the SIlverlight stuff in XNA and vice-versa) – ctacke Dec 3 '11 at 2:33
Then there's only one path to take... – Xin Dec 3 '11 at 2:42
The article that you linked has some fairly major technical inaccuracies and draws some pretty wild conclusions. – Andrew Russell Dec 3 '11 at 5:02
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1 Answer
up vote 3 down vote accepted
I don't think anyone outside of Microsoft can properly answer your question at the moment.
The most glaring error in the article you linked is the suggestion that WinRT is not compatible with .NET. This is incorrect. WinRT is an API, which is accessible from native code, managed .NET code, and from JavaScript.
It's worth noting that HTML5/JS apps created for Metro won't automatically work on the web and vice-versa. (Where "the web" includes browser-based apps for other platforms).
Basically: you can use your language and coding model of choice, and re-use most of your "business logic" code. But you have to re-implement most of your interface and and platform-specific stuff.
This is pretty much what you would expect when moving between any platform.
It is essentially the same transition, whether you go from HTML5/JS for the web to HTML5/JS for Metro, or you go from C#/XAML for Silverlight to C#/XAML for Metro.
Finally, here is a much better article that talks about the features and limitations of WinRT.
And just to talk about XNA for a moment:
XNA is a completely separate API to Silverlight. Originally on WP7 they were totally incompatible. Although now you can mix code and share rendering surfaces between the two. And on Silverlight 5 (desktop) there is a 3D rendering API that has the same interface as XNA (but isn't truly XNA).
XNA isn't supported by Metro because Metro enforces a sandbox that limits you to the WinRT API. (Whereas XNA is built on top of DirectX 9 and various other APIs.)
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| http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8364869/is-the-windows-phone-silverlight-like-framework-going-to-be-switched-to-light-wi | dclm-gs1-140550002 | false | false | {
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0.038939 | <urn:uuid:4bf9353b-59bb-4a34-984f-eabc8bbc0494> | en | 0.901089 | Take the tour ×
I have a ListPreference that allows a user to select from a long list of items. (Only one item can be selected). When I re-open the list, the view defaults to showing the previously selected item at the top of the screen.
I was wondering if it was possible to enforce that the default position is always the top of the list, regardless of what item has been chosen.
edit - it seems like I will have to use a ListActivity and implement the preference changing capabilities myself?
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Looks a tad like this question: How to init a listpreference
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Oops sorry, i didn't read the question carefully enough, my bad... :( – Daniel Figueroa Mar 10 '12 at 11:49
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| http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9643670/how-to-change-listpreference-default-starting-position | dclm-gs1-140570002 | false | false | {
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0.861236 | <urn:uuid:c53c1934-9f3d-4427-886a-2022273e4700> | en | 0.852855 | Prudent Adventures Joined Mar 18, 2013
1. Thumb-1384106878
I am professional day-trader who mainly trades weekly options, FX, and futures. As you can see I have been able to simplify my set-ups. It works extremely well and is very simple to follow.
2. Thumb-1354710361
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8. Thumb-1343641203
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Former Asian Market Strategist(1990s), founder at Linvest Research, strong technically analytical skill sets in longer term, specialize in short term set up with option. Idea only, not advice!
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0.476187 | <urn:uuid:c629123e-1581-4efc-a577-ee8d7b511a78> | en | 0.964765 | TARDIS Index File
37,346articles in progress
Biology Edit
The Thals looked identical to humans and Kaleds, except that unlike the Kaled, they tended to have blonde rather than dark hair. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) After the Thousand Year War, all Thals had blond hair. (TV: The Daleks, Planet of the Daleks)
Internally, Thals could be distinguished from both humans and Kaleds. They had thinner and longer lungs than the Kaleds (AUDIO: Corruption) and greater resistance to radiation. (TV: The Daleks)
Culture Edit
During the Thousand Year War, Thals were just as brutal as the Kaleds. They had no qualms about using the slave labour of Kaled prisoners and Mutos to build the neutronic missile, even when they knew the radiation from the missile would kill the slaves. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) There were seven males for every female. (AUDIO: Corruption)
After the war, the Thals developed into a peaceful people who lived in small bands. (TV: The Daleks)
Technology Edit
Thal gun
A Thal gun. (TV: Planet of the Daleks)
History Edit
Early History Edit
100 million years before the Thousand Year War, the Thals' evolution diverged from that of the Kaleds. (AUDIO: Corruption) One account stated the Thals and Kaled were descended from humans transplanted from Earth to Skaro as an experiment by the Halldons. (PROSE: We are the Daleks!)
However it should be noted, We are the Daleks! refer to the Dals, which was a separate tribe entirely. The Thals mistaken the Kaleds for the Dals due to the fact that in the Book of Predictions, written in the extinct language of the Dals, which stated "...and on that day, men will become as gods." In the original language, the final word was pronounced "Dal-ek." (AUDIO: Guilt)
The Thals had written records going back nearly half a million years. Oral history and later records would describe the Thals as originally warriors, while the Kaleds (Who the Thals mistakenly thought were the "Dals") were more orientated towards philosophy and science. (TV: The Daleks)
Thousand Year War Edit
Aftermath Edit
An indeterminate length of time, longer than living memory, passed. One Thal suggested it was 500 years. (TV: The Daleks)
Dyoni, Temmosus, Ganatus and Alydon in the Petrified Forest (TV: The Daleks)
After a particularly bad year for crops, the Thals were forced to move to the Petrified Forest near the Dalek City to look for food. Ian Chesterton, a companion of the First Doctor, used moral blackmail to force the Thals, Alydon in particular, into putting together an expedition into the Dalek City to fight against the Daleks who intended genocide against the Thals. The Thals invaded the Dalek City, cut off the power and so deprived the Daleks of the static electricity they needed to live. (TV: The Daleks)
Spaceflight era Edit
Brotherhood of the Daleks preview
Thals battling the Daleks (AUDIO: Brotherhood of the Daleks)
Duke1337Added by Duke1337
The Thals were said to have relocated to another homeworld, New Davius, (AUDIO: Brotherhood of the Daleks) some time before the Renegade-Imperial Dalek civil war. (COMIC: Emperor of the Daleks) In their absence, Skaro had been destroyed. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
In reality, a decoy world named Antalin had been destroyed. The Thals survived past Antalin's destruction and fought the Daleks on Terakis. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)
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0.051521 | <urn:uuid:5ea7849d-47cf-40c0-b63c-85d4e41dd1af> | en | 0.952149 | Posts in category Retirement thoughts
Social Security Benefits, are they ta...
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Tweet If you live in or near New York City and you’re hoping to retire in the area, there are many options available for retirement savings. With arguably the highest costs of living in the nation you are going to need a significant nest egg. While retirement options are generally specific to an individual’s situation, there are some New Yor [...]
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Tweet Retirement is supposed to be a time when you can finally kick back and enjoy a life of leisure. The earliest a person can retire is age 61; but, over time, the average age of retirement has increased, and for many the idea of kicking back in the sun at the age of 61 has become a dream, a comical afterthought from a bygone era. These day [...]
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Tweet There are a lot of different methods to receive income during retirement, but there has been a lot of attention on a particular type of retirement investment known as annuities. Annuities are essentially policies that are purchased for a set amount of money and pay out a predetermined amount to the policy holder every month. They are [...]
Choosing a 401(k) the Easy Way
Choosing a 401(k) the Easy Way Tweet Once upon a time, employers provided a pension to reward their faithful employees for their years of dedication and service to the company. Unfortunately, the days of guaranteed pensions are gone. However, there is still a way to both save for retirement and reduce taxable income. In 1978, Congress added Section 401(k) to the Internal R [...]
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0.408357 | <urn:uuid:0a9a3075-68c5-4af2-8833-4b22025954d0> | en | 0.941736 | Tell me more ×
I'm working on an iPhone app that will allow users to create a "book" and share it with a friend. For the most part, I anticipate users will only share each book with one person.
It seems most sharing is done by broadcasting to everyone (Facebook feed, Twitter), but that's not what this app is for. What are some possible channels and methods for sharing content with only one person from an iPhone app?
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That's what I don't like about iOS. Android has a standardized "share" action and then the user gets to choose which app to use in sharing. – Naoise Golden Jan 3 '12 at 0:53
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E-mail is the ever-present and most used channel for 1-to-1 communications (instant messaging may be rivaling it in some cases). However, it may not be your solution as you don't know yet who is going to be the primary user of this application. Those people may have completely different workflows and/or channel preferences. Do some user research around this and you'll have a much better answer.
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Email and iMessage/SMS seem to be the strongest choices. I've updated my question a bit to reflect my intention. I'm really looking for all of possibilities for private sharing. – jedavis Jan 3 '12 at 0:04
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What about a custom implementation of iTunes File sharing?
I couldn't tell if it was desktop to device only or if you could do device to device...
A similar concept with images and email implementation:
This article mentions more private based sharing options, including Dropbox:
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0.374601 | <urn:uuid:314c18a0-18f9-4631-9fe7-131327eb0c1a> | en | 0.929252 | Chevrolet Corvettes
Chevrolet Corvettes
Plastic Media Blasting
What is plastic media blasting –PMB ?
Plastic media blasting is a process used to for the rapid removal of coatings on materials. The method does not involve toxic chemical strippers, burn off systems, sandblasting, hand or mechanical abrasion methods. In the case of automobiles paint is removed. The process is similar to sand blasting and uses the same type of equipment but instead of sand plastic bits with the texture of large corn meal is used to chip away the paint. Since plastic is a non-toxic compound, the process is eco-friendly.
Plastic media blasting uses high volume air and low pressure to propel the plastic into the paint which results in the paint being chipped away. The process does not create the heat that is generated by normal sand blasting and is therefore safe to use on thin metal. Sand blasting thin metal could cause warping of metal if not done very very carefully. The metal surface when sand blasted is pitted and feels like sandpaper. When plastic media is used to remove the paint the metal surface under the paint is virtually unaffected by the plastic media process. However, rust is not removed by plastic. Loose rust is blown away but the basic rust problem is still there to be dealt with by other procedures.
PMB –plastic media blasting—is less aggressive than sand so it can be used on a wide variety of projects with less concern for damaging results. Fiberglass i.e. Corvettes and boats can have the paint removed. Since the surface (gel-coat) under the paint is relative soft compared to metal, after Paint removal the surface is more like the surface of an orange. Body filler can be removed or left in place depending on the thickness and/or customers' desires. | http://www.1985corvette.com/ | dclm-gs1-140800002 | false | false | {
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0.029201 | <urn:uuid:91ff091f-a3ec-4a48-bf9e-938ecbf25bf3> | en | 0.938409 | I'm doing 17 things
amcmillen0504's Life List
1. 1. Finish school
1 entry
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2. 2. keep up with my housework
6 people
3. 3. Learn how to dance
962 people
4. 4. Get a new tattoo
626 people
5. 5. Have a home of my own
23 people
6. 6. TRAVEL
9,157 people
7. 7. Find a new job
1,170 people
8. 8. Start working out
339 people
9. 9. Make more time for my friends
1 entry
17 people
10. 10. learn how to not be a jealous person
1 entry
1 person
11. 11. Learn to talk to my significant other more
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12. 12. Lose some weight
995 people
13. 13. Find out what is wrong with me
17 people
14. 14. learn to live with the loss of my child
3 entries . 1 cheer
2 people
15. 15. Stand up for who I am
1 cheer
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16. 16. have a family
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17. 17. Finish my son's scrapbook
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Recent entries
finish my sons scrapbook
I have a problem when it comes to finishing my son’s scrapbook. I really don’t know where to take it. Most scrapbook places don’t sell things for the death of a child or anything like that. I really just don’t know how to end it.
make more time for my friends
There really doesn’t seem to be enough time in a week to make time to see most of my friends. And when I’m able to, they are not.
Fix things between me and my mom
My mom and I had a falling out a month or so ago. We were to the point to where we weren’t even talking and our only conversation was through emails. I really don’t even know what it was about. Well, she was at my wedding and we settled things for the most part. But her way of settling is by forgetting about it and acting like it never happened.
See all entries ...
I want to:
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0.328831 | <urn:uuid:1295f2f2-2f90-44f4-a6c3-9bd3122e67c9> | en | 0.981754 | December 12, 2013
• Paul Giamatti stars in everything
Paul Giamatti
Photo credit: Paul Giamatti in "All is Bright"
The best actors seamlessly transition through totally unrelated projects, seeming equally at home in, say, present-day Brooklyn, the antebellum South and Renaissance Verona.
Paul Giamatti is, by any measure, one of our finest performers, a character actor of seemingly limitless skill.
So it's no coincidence that this month alone you can catch him playing very different characters in "All is Bright," "12 Years a Slave" and "Romeo and Juliet," three movies set in those very different settings, not to mention Abraham Zapruder in "Parkland," about the aftermath of JFK's assassination.
amNewYork spoke with Giamatti about "All is Bright," which is also the fourth film his production company has produced, and more. "All is Bright" and "Parkland" are now in theaters; "Romeo and Juliet" opens Friday and "12 Years a Slave" follows next week.
Why'd you sign on to "All is Bright" as an executive producer?
I tend to be interested in trying to help people out who won't normally get their movie made. That's what I saw here, an opportunity. A woman [Melissa James Gibson] I think is a really good writer, an interesting person and if I can help her get her movie made I'm enjoying doing that.
Why is helping fledgling filmmakers important to you?
I can do it. We're moving into TV ... because frankly it's a little bit easier than the independent movie thing. So how do you get an independent film made?
It helps to have Paul Rudd in the movie. He was fortunately really interested in it. It helps to have me in it. It helps to have Rudd in it more than me. And it helps to have somebody like Phil [Morrison] direct it. One or all of those things will help. You have to have more "name-y" people in them now unfortunately. It didn't used to be the case.
What about a movie like "Sideways"?
It's funny, I think now a movie like "Sideways" wouldn't get made. Nobody knew who the hell I was or who the hell Tom [Haden Church] was when we made that movie.
So what's your standard for a successful experience on a movie?
I suppose from my personal point of view it's just having satisfactory days at work acting. I have no idea what it's going to end up like. It's out of your hands, largely. So to actually just have the satisfaction of doing what I like to do
it sounds like a really basic thing but it's harder than you would think to actually happen, especially on film. ... Whether it makes a lot of money or not, I don't know.
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0.022039 | <urn:uuid:04f1b532-03ca-4bf0-88d9-69c80d6df727> | en | 0.868268 | December 12, 2013
• Sen. John McCain tweets 'joke' comparing Iran's president to a monkey
John McCain
Photo credit: John McCain (Getty Images)
Sen. John McCain got some backlash for a "joke" he tweeted at the president of Iran's expense Monday.
Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he hopes to be the first Iranian in space.
McCain then tweeted, "So Ahmadinejad wants to be first Iranian in space -- wasn't he just there last week?" He then linked to an article about Iran launching a monkey into space last week.
Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) lashed out at the "racist" joke. McCain responded, "Re: Iran space tweet -- lighten up folks, can't everyone take a joke?"
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0.228883 | <urn:uuid:4a94af88-910d-466c-8d1b-5d63d2f7cf6d> | en | 0.973021 | Finding the root of the Problem
Food may seem a bountiful commodity to urban dwellers, but as Mae Hong Son villagers know, our environmental sources urgently need protecting
Imagine Bangkok physically disconnected from the rest of the country. How long could residents of the capital survive with the remaining food supply? Probably just a matter of weeks of relying on frozen and instant food.
Food security for the people in Mae Hong Son means growing and eating their own crops.
Being able to access a variety of food from local and overseas sources, Bangkok residents and those living in big cities assume _ wrongly _ that their food supply is secure.
Very few realise that availability and accessibility don't necessarily mean security, and that their lives depend largely on food producers. Last year's massive flood was, perhaps, an example of how Bangkokians are vulnerable when it comes to sourcing food, as products quickly disappeared from market shelves.
Food security has become a common issue around the world as a result of a growing population in contrast with a decreasing area of land for plantation and farming.
Mae Hong Son, the country's least densely populated province, is no exception. But of all the villages learning to fight against food insecurity, those in Mae Ping village are lucky enough to learn from the mistakes of their neighbours in Pai, a popular tourist destination.
Located about 12km from Pai, Mae Ping villagers have witnessed the arrival of the nearby tourism boom that has caused food shortages during the peak winter season over the past decade.
"Tourism is too demanding to cope with," said Amphan Preechayawichaikul, a senior resident who was a part of the research team in the village, supported by Thailand Research Fund.
Mae Ping is too remote to become a tourist destination, said Amphan, but is close enough for villagers to observe how tourism takes away sources of food from Pai. The land that used to grow rice and produce to feed the locals around the town has become busy with boutique resorts. The remaining farmers have turned to growing economically viable food for a higher income, instead of growing produce for family consumption.
Water from rivers once solely used for farming is now scarce because it goes directly to the luxurious resorts.
Resorts located by the river can afford powerful pumps to redirect water for their property. During the low season, people in Pai manage to survive with locally produced food, but the situation is different in the high season with the arrival of tourist crowds. Food has to be imported from Chiang Mai to feed the sharp increase in demand.
"It's fortunate that we can learn [from the mistakes of others] and be prepared to tackle problems that might occur," said Amphan.
Back in 2003, the community agreed to keep 800 rai of private land and public space in the mountains where the village is located for the 150 families to grow their own food.
No plot of land is allowed to be sold to outsiders, said Net Pino, the village head. Those violating the community rule will be deprived of social welfare, including low-interest loans and school scholarships for the children.
The community also bought two plots of land that had been sold to developers before the rule had been made, and later turned them into land for public use. Villagers are encouraged to grow rice and other produce, rather than commercial varieties, for family consumption. Commercial plants such as corn may generate more money, but the villagers don't eat it in everyday meals.
''You can't even eat the tip of the corn plant,'' said Amphan.
Villagers usually grow plants they can eat multiple parts of, such as its fruit or leaves.
For the past decade, the community has managed to rely on self-produced food. During the rainy season, villagers grow rice for local consumption and the surplus goes to the market. Outside the rainy season, they feed animals such as cows to earn extra money. They find seasonal produce such as bamboo shoots and mushrooms in the mountains and fish in the river for free all year round. They also earn some extra money from souvenirs sold to tourists coming into the village.
Generally, food is obtained from four sources: self-production through growing food and raising animals, natural resources (catching fish in the river or collecting seasonal vegetables from the forest), cultural resources (attending parties or ceremonies such as weddings or funerals), and food from markets. The first two are the most reliable sources of nutrition for villagers, making up to 70% of all consumption in many areas of Mae Hong Son.
The third is where the poor can feed themselves with better food at special occasions, while markets can be the most reliable source for urban dwellers, but usually unaffordable for villagers.
When it comes to saving land for agricultural use, Amphan lives by example. He turned down 20 million baht for his 5 rai plot by the main road.
''The only choice I had if I had sold the land was to move out of the village for good and enjoy the fortune elsewhere,'' he said.
''But I don't want our village to repeat [others'] mistakes.''
Need some pork for cooking? It’s right under the house. A Karen villager, above left, brings home some corn and herbs for cooking after checking on his rice field on the mountain.
Living life by nature's laws
When shrimps and frogs started to disappear from the river a few years ago, ethnic Karen villager Pana Chobkhunkhao knew the village's food sources were threatened.
The river and the forest up on the mountains have always been one of the two major food sources for Karen in Mae Ou Kor village in Mae Hong Son's Khun Yuam district.
Pana and a group of villagers decided to form a team to research their own community, supported by Thailand Research Fund.
And they found that life isn't as easy as it used to be since their food became scarce. They also know the cause of the problem _ their own neighbours from other hilltribes.
''With only 20 or 30 baht, a family could easily survive each day from the produce collected from their plantation and the fish caught in the river,'' said Pana.
Traditionally, the Karen, who are known for their conservationist lifestyle, engaged in integrated farming, growing a mix of crops including rice, corn, sweet potatoes, taro and other vegetables in the plantation for home cooking. Only the surplus rice and corn is sold in the market.
But their neighbours live a different lifestyle. They grow economically viable crops such as corn, cabbage or chilli. Such farming requires the use of farm chemicals.
Unfortunately, the neighbours' plantations are located near the watershed area _ the source of water for the villages. The chemicals used in their farming leaked into the water and harmed aquatic life. Numbers of fish, shrimps and frogs started to decrease, making it harder for the Karen to live off the natural resources.
Apart from the leaked chemicals, the villagers also found their neighbours also catch fish during the breeding season, a practice that has been prohibited in the Karen tradition.
''It only kills the food source of the future,'' he said.
A year after doing the research, the villagers found a way to reverse the situation, hoping to prevent the extinction of aquatic life. They started ''Wang Pla'', a fishing-prohibited area, two months ago on a 2km length of river close to the village. The prohibited area requires villagers to make more effort to walk further into the forest if they want to catch fish.
The Karen villagers plan to go a step further. They aim to convince their neighbours to share the villages' code of practice, to secure food sources for everyone.
About the author
Writer: Sirinya Wattanasukchai
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Looking at a mortgage recast
Dear Dr. Don,
I have heard of something called a recast on a home mortgage loan. I believe it is paying off a large chunk of the mortgage and having the taxes and remaining balance recalculated to a lower payment.
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What I don't know is if the length in years of the mortgage stays the same or if you can change the amount of years to pay off the debt. Have you any advice on this subject?
Thank you,
-- Bewildered Barb
Dear Barb,
Recasting a mortgage loan typically comes up in one of three contexts. The first is when a homeowner wants to pay down principal and have the loan reamortized. That's the type of recasting you're talking about.
The second is when a homeowner is in financial distress and wants to extend the term of the loan to reduce the monthly payment. Finally, a negative amortization loan is typically recast to a larger monthly payment after the loan balance has increased by a set percentage, or at a time certain, so the loan will amortize over its remaining loan term. The balance of my reply will focus on the type of mortgage recast you're asking about, namely paying down the loan to resize the monthly mortgage payment.
An amortized loan sizes the fixed monthly loan payment so at the end of the loan, the principal balance is paid off. Bankrate's Mortgage Payment Calculator also has an amortization schedule that shows how the monthly payments break down between interest expense and the repayment of principal.
The typical homeowner doesn't recast their mortgage when they make additional principal payments. Instead the loan is foreshortened because the additional principal payments have reduced the outstanding loan balance, along with the monthly interest expense. The monthly payment doesn't change, so the loan is paid off sooner. You can also use Bankrate's Mortgage Payment Calculator to see how additional principal payments reduce the total interest expense and shorten the loan term.
Occasionally the homeowner's goal in making an additional principal payment isn't to shorten the loan, but to reduce the monthly mortgage payment. For that to happen, the loan has to be recast. The lender will base the mortgage payment on the new, lower loan balance and the remaining term of the loan. You can use Bankrate's mortgage payment calculator to determine the recast payment as well.
Not all lenders offer customers the ability to recast their mortgage. Originating lenders often sell the loans they originate to investors. The investors aren't willing to provide that level of flexibility to borrowers, so the loans can't be recast. Talk to your lender about recasting your mortgage.
In general, the recast option will be to size the monthly payment over the remaining loan term at your current interest rate. Recasting the loan shouldn't have an impact on escrow payments for taxes and insurance unless the new loan-to-value gives you the right to opt out of paying these expenses through an escrow account.
Bankrate.com's corrections policy-- Posted: Aug. 3, 2007
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