People consider a variety of factors when choosing which car to buy — its features, its crash test rating, its price, etc. But appearance is also a major part of the decision-making process. In fact, according to a consumer survey done by PPG Industries, 77% of car buyers said color was a factor when they were choosing their next vehicle. So what does 2018 have in store for new colors, and what will be popular this coming year? Jane Harrington-Durst, the color styling manager from PPG Automotive OEM Coatings, shares her insight.
Based on vehicle build data, silver has been the most popular car from 2010 to 2017. However, a new color has taken the reins and propelled itself up the color popularity ladder. According to recent PPG data, white, not silver, is now the most popular car color. Even though white is the new front-runner, silver and black are right behind it in popularity.
Because of silver's history of being extremely popular among car buyers and white's newly increased popularity, Harrington-Durst predicts one of these two colors will be the most popular this year. Even though these colors are the most commonly purchased, new colors are set to hit the scene, including more oranges, browns, and gold tones. While people might like these new vehicle colors, Harrington-Durst doesn't think they'll overtake the neutral colors in popularity during 2018.
White might be the most popular car now, but all of the "core colors" — white, silver, grey, and black — are usually the most built and sold colors in the industry. Part of the reason might be that these core colors are offered on every vehicle segment (as opposed to bright pink, which probably won't be available for every type of car).
Certain types of vehicles can have their own color trends that differ from the general trends. For example, Harrington-Durst said orange and copper colors are popular for SUVs these days because the colors look really fresh on these new vehicle shapes. Another example is that within the luxury vehicle segment, black is typically the most common because it represents elegance.
Harrington-Durst said part of the reason why colors like silver, white, and black are so popular is because even if people are attracted to a brighter color like lime green, they'll possibly reconsider when actually purchasing the car. Why? Because cars are huge investments, so they can end up being more conservative in their choices when it actually comes down to buying.
When PPG did a consumer survey this year, the response showed that the most popular car color was blue, which helps illustrate the possibility that people could be changing their minds about color as they go to actually make a car purchase. (Another possibility is that the color they desired wasn't available.) Additionally, 40% of the responders said they wished there was more of a selection of car colors, and 31% said they would pay more to get a color that could express their personality.
Next time you see a car, think about all of the work that went into choosing the color. While the consumer has a big part to play, so do the auto companies. Keep your eyes open during 2018 and see what trends you spot.


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Luke JonesSportsRavensUncategorized
Ravens still hurting at cornerback in Wednesday's injury report
By Luke Jones
Baltimore Positive Podcast Audio Vault January 17, 2021 0
Luke Jones is the Ravens and Orioles beat reporter for WNST BaltimorePositive.com and is a PFWA member. His mind is consumed with useless sports knowledge, pro wrestler promos, and movie quotes, but he struggles to remember where he put his phone. Luke's favorite sports memories include being one of the thousands of kids who waited to get Cal Ripken's autograph after Orioles games in the summer of 1995, attending the Super Bowl XXXV victory parade with his father in the pouring rain, and watching the Terps advance to the Final Four at the Carrier Dome in 2002. Follow him on Twitter @BaltimoreLuke or email him at Luke@wnst.net.
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Looking at their most favorable injury report in several weeks, the Ravens still must feel uneasy about their cornerback situation as the Houston Texans comes to Baltimore on Sunday.
Jimmy Smith and Chris Carr did not practice while six other previously-injured players returned to practice in a limited fashion on the first official practice since the bye week. Smith will not play on Sunday as he was seen walking back and forth across the width of the side field on Wednesday in a level of activity not indicative of a player whose return is imminent.
Carr, on the other hand, would not reveal any specifics of the setback he suffered late in the week leading up to the Jets game on Oct. 2, only saying he wouldn't return to action until he was 100 percent. The veteran cornerback had labeled himself at roughly 90 percent when he returned to play against the St. Louis Rams in Week 3. Carr has dealt with the same left hamstring injury since the middle of August despite several different attempts to return to the field.
With key offensive starters Lee Evans and Ben Grubbs practicing on a limited basis, a far better indication for predicting their status on Sunday will be whether their participation level increases on Thursday and Friday.
DID NOT PARTICIPATE – CB Chris Carr (thigh), CB Jimmy Smith (ankle)
LIMITED – WR Lee Evans (ankle), LB Dannell Ellerbe (thigh), S Haruki Nakamura (knee), WR David Reed (shoulder), G Ben Grubbs (toe), S Tom Zbikowski (head), RB Anthony Allen (thigh)
DID NOT PARTICIPATE – FB James Casey (chest), WR Andre Johnson (hamstring), QB Matt Schaub (right shoulder)
LIMITED – G Mike Brisiel (ankle/knee), LB Tim Dobbins (hamstring), RB Arian Foster (quad), CB Brandon Harris (hamstring), WR Bryant Johnson (hamstring), CB Brice McCain (hamstring/concussion), CB Sherrick McManis (hamstring), LB DeMeco Ryans (elbow/hamstring/knee), DE Antonio Smith (ankle), RB Ben Tate (groin/Achilles), RB Derrick Ward (ankle)
FULL PARTICIPANT – CB Jason Allen (knee/groin), G Thomas Austin (knee), CB Kareem Jackson (knee), WR Jacoby Jones (knee)
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This entry was posted in News on September 30, 2015 by pars.
Yemeni army troopers, backed by fighters from allied Popular Committees, also stormed a military base in Ma'rib's western al-Jafina area on Monday, killing an Emirati soldier in the process.
This entry was posted in News on September 28, 2015 by pars.
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This entry was posted in News on September 26, 2015 by pars.
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This entry was posted in News on September 22, 2015 by pars.
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"Today, the largest Austrian trade delegation is accompanying the president during the visit to Iran.


The Toaster Project (2010) chronicles Thomas Thwaites' attempt to make an electric toaster from scratch - seeking iron, copper, mica, nickel and crude oil (for the plastic case) from disused mines and other sources around Britain, attempting to process these materials at home, and finally forming them into a version of a product that can be bought for only a few dollars. This nine-month process to make a simple toaster is absurd, but perhaps so too is the massive industrial activity we pursue to achieve additional small comforts at ever lower prices. The laboriousness of producing even the most basic material from the ground up exposes the fallacy in a return to some romantic ideal of a pre-industrialised time. But at a moment in time when the effects of industry on the environment are no longer trivial even on a global scale, the throwaway toasters of today seem absurd themselves.
Thomas Thwaites is a designer (of a more speculative sort), interested in technology, science and futures research, as well as communicating complex subjects in engaging ways. He graduated from the Royal College of Art Design Interactions MA in 2009, and has since undertaken a number of commissioned projects, including work on; social trends, futures forecasting, biotechnology, the history and philosophy of science and bicycles.


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Join the Goldbeck Consulting Team
November 2, 2021 /0 Comments/in Science to business /by Gerhard Goldbeck
We are looking for a Scientific Consultant to join our growing team and contribute to delivering a range of products, such as reports and studies around technical and business aspects of materials modelling and digitalisation across a wide range of industries. To a large extent our work is supported by European Horizon projects and hence the role is a great opportunity to collaborate with leading researchers from academia and industry throughout Europe.
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Materials Modelling: here is to the next 10 years
May 12, 2021 /0 Comments/in Impact, Materials Modelling, Ontology, Science to business /by Gerhard Goldbeck
To celebrate 10 years of Goldbeck Consulting, we are pleased to launch our new look website (with many thanks to Karen Arnott!). It has been an amazing journey together with many clients and collaborators: universities and tech transfer organisations, small and large software companies, market intelligence organisations, publishers, small and large materials and pharmaceuticals companies from around the world. We are grateful for the opportunities and proud to have supported a more integrated and impactful materials modelling ecosystem, contributing to
a widely recognised and utilised impact qualification and quantification
a maturity model for materials modelling adoption by industry
delineation and exploration of materials modelling vs engineering/CAE software market and its business models.
establishing the European Materials Modelling Council as a not-for-profit association
a more integrated and standardised conceptualisation of materials modelling resulting in a CEN Workshop Agreement
the creation of the EMMO ontology as a basis for semantic data management and digitalisation
Over the last ten years, advances in hardware, physics and data-based models, software and workflow integration have meant that industrial use is no longer a question of 'why' but of 'how' materials modelling can be used to best effect, increasing R&D efficiency and effectiveness. We look forward to the next ten years of connecting science to engineering and academia to industry, from quantum computing to digital twins.
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Business Opportunities in Materials Modelling Software
February 25, 2021 /0 Comments/in Events, Impact, Materials Modelling, Science to business /by Gerhard Goldbeck
Looking forward to the EMMC 2021 workshop on 2-4 March, for anyone interested in the software and business aspects there is an intriguing session on Industrial Requirements to Materials Modelling Software with a talk by Kurt Stobro (Stokbro Invest) on Business opportunities for materials science software. The talk promises to "analyze how we could successfully enter the very competitive market for commercial atomic-scale modelling software and discuss some of the opportunities that exist today for new entrants". Having contributed a number of reports on the topic, e.g. on the Materials Modelling Software Market and Business models and sustainability for materials modelling software, we will be interested in the presentation and discussions in the session.
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Horizon 2020: New Centres of Excellence
April 11, 2019 /0 Comments/in Science to business /by Gerhard Goldbeck
The European Commission announced today an investment of €195 million via the Horizon 2020 programme in setting up and developing 13 new 'centres of excellence' in seven Member States, helping to boost research and innovation performance and inspiring the scientific community to develop new products and processes in tandem with leading scientific institutes from all over Europe.
We are pleased to see the new centres include ENSEMBLE3, which will focus on research excellence and innovation performance in the area of crystal growth-based technologies, novel functional materials with innovative electromagnetic properties, and applications in nanophotonics, optoelectronics and medicine.
Goldbeck Consulting supported ENSEMBLE3 in developing a Business Plan for the new centre and is looking forward to its fruitful implementation. Congratulations to Prof Dorota Pawlak and her team!
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The Nanotechnology Consortium legacy
March 26, 2019 /0 Comments/in Materials Modelling, Nanotech, Quantum and atomistic modelling, Science to business /by Gerhard Goldbeck
I am always happy to see the strong innovation legacy of the Nanotechnology Consortium that I ran from 2004-2010 grow in the Materials Studio releases. The leading edge tools that the Consortium progressed from an academic code to a commercial release include ONETEP (linear scaling DFT), QMERA (coupled electronic-atomistic modelling) as well as the new GULP (atomistic modelling incl reactive forcefield) and DFTB+ (fast, tight binding based DFT). All have been further enhanced and by now are clearly a core part of the Dassault Systemès discrete modelling package. Particularly pleasing is the recent release of the reaction Kinetic Monte Carlo module Kinetix for the general public, about 10 years after it became available to Nanotechnology Consortium members. As other Reaction Kinetic MC tools have moved from academia to a wider industry use (see e.g. Zacros) it is clear that the Nanotech Consortium and all companies that supported it were leading the innovation. I am curious to see where the next wave of Dassault Systemès innovation in materials modelling is going to come from, as sadly the time of consortia seems to be over.
Gerhard Goldbeck
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Business models and sustainability for materials modelling software
March 5, 2019 /1 Comment/in Materials Modelling, Science to business /by Gerhard Goldbeck
We recently published a White Paper on Materials Modelling Software Business. Key findings are:
A variety of business models are identified, mostly based on a hybrid software and services approach. Software sales as well as subscription licenses in combination with a range of services (from initial implementation to contract research) are the predominant revenue mix.
Services play a significant role, with income ranging from 20-80% in many cases. Target software to services ratio is in the range of 70-80 / 30-20. Services are not as scalable but a substantial amount seems required due to the complexity of the software and science.
Software as a Service (SaaS) is still in its infancy in the materials modelling field. Ways of overcoming industry reservations with SaaS (e.g. security concerns) should be found since SaaS can greatly reduce software maintenance costs and provide a faster route for new features to get to users. Also, SaaS would help to reach small and medium enterprises.
New businesses developing services or SaaS based on proprietary software is somewhat hindered by the lack of business and licensing models between Software Owners and SaaS provider.
There is opportunity for Materials Modelling Marketplaces but also reservations in particular regarding customer relations.
Working closely with customers (via services and consortia etc.) is important to uncover why they are using your software and what it takes to retain them as well as to fund new developments.
Sustainability of software requires a change in education and better recognition of the persons in charge. Lifecycle of software requires substantial rethinking and a vision for the future as software's age reaches decades.
It is important to engage with the academic community, find ways to make software engineering more exciting and bring in new standards to make software sustainable and maintainable.
The full White Paper is available via EMMC or Zenodo. The work was funded by the EU H2020 project EMMC-CSA, Grant Agreement No 723867.
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EMMC International Workshop
March 15, 2017 /2 Comments/in Materials Modelling, Metadata, Science to business, Standardization, Uncategorized /by Gerhard Goldbeck
The European Materials Modelling Council EMMC will hold its first International Workshop 2017 in Vienna, 5-7 April 2017. The invitation-only event will welcome close to 100 European and International Experts to discuss and contribute to setting a common direction among stakeholders in areas ranging from materials model development, interoperability, metadata, repositories and marketplaces, software development and industrial deployment, best practices for business decision support tools, to articulating economic impact.The outcome of this event will be integrated within the EMMC Roadmap 2017.
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Success Stories and Economic Impact of Materials Modelling
May 15, 2015 /0 Comments/in Impact, Science to business /by Gerhard Goldbeck
In the context of my work with the European Materials Modelling Council, I recently launched a survey to gather success stories and information about the economic impact of materials modelling. The survey aims to build on my previous report which was mainly based on a literature review.The survey is inspired by studies that have been done by IDC in the area of High Performance Computing, in particular their Innovation and ROI Awards. The results of their study show that even without absolutely complete information, a clear picture of the impact emerges as more and more cases are gathered.
Already ten organisations have taken part, and I am looking forward to the opportunity to discuss the initial findings at an international cooperation workshop on multiscale materials modelling organised by the European Commission in September.
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Industry interactions of the electronic structure research community in Europe
January 20, 2014 /0 Comments/in Quantum and atomistic modelling, Science to business /by Gerhard Goldbeck
I recently carried out a survey on behalf of the Psi-k network of the European ab initio research community and the CECAM-UK-JCMaxwell Node. The full report can be accessed here, and below is an overview.
The report explores the interactions of the academic Psi-k community with industry and is based on a semi-quantitative survey and interviews of network members. The evidence is analysed in the context of a prior report on the economic impact of molecular modelling [i] as well as of a recent study into Science-to-Business (S-2-B) collaborations [ii] in general.
Pertinent findings of the economic impact report were that the dominant electronic structure method, Density Functional Theory (DFT), is the most widely accepted 'molecular modelling' method and that it has become established in the electronics industry. Also of significance are the more than average growth in the number of patents which include DFT, and the growing interest in the potential of modelling in a wider circle of researchers in industry.
The S-2-B study [ii] emphasized the key role of the Principal Investigator (PI) in establishing and maintaining a satisfactory relationship, and the importance to industry of 'soft' objectives relative to outcomes with hard metrics.
All Psi-k board, working group and advisory group members, a total of about 120 people were invited to take part in the study, and 40 people responded, representing more than 400 scientists from 33 different institutions in 12 European countries. While it is acknowledged that this group will to some extent pre-select those with industry collaborations, the result that 90% of respondents work with industry is still significant. Main industry sectors of the collaborators are materials, electronics, automotive and aerospace and software. Density functional theory is almost always used in industry collaborations but classical and higher level theory also feature strongly.
It was noted that the Psi-k network represents some of the most widely used electronic structure codes in the world. In fact, all electronic structure codes available in the leading commercial packages originate from Europe and are used at a few hundred industrial sites worldwide.
Psi-k groups that work with industry collaborate on average with 2-3 companies, typically on a long term basis. It is interesting that small groups are just as likely to collaborate with industry as larger ones, and also with roughly the same number of companies. There is however a correlation between the number of collaborating companies and the number of alumni in industry positions, which is consistent with the observation of the S-2-B study that the role of the PI and the depth of the relationship are the dominant factors.
Considering the different forms of interactions, informal interactions dominated, followed by collaborative projects, consultancies and training. Collaborative projects were reported by 75% of respondents with on average one such project per team per year. Nearly 60% of respondents had consultancy and contract research projects, with an average of one such engagement per research team every 1-2 years. Training was least frequent but still more than 40% of respondents had training interactions in the last three years.
The main drivers for industry to collaborate are seen to be the expertise of the PI and access to new ideas and insights. As measures of success, new insights dominate followed by achieving breakthroughs in R&D. On the other hand, despite a clear ROI, cost saving is not generally the driver for collaborations. Impact was often achieved by unveiling mechanisms that could explain observations on a fundamental level and that had previously not been known or properly understood. The new insights thereby helped to overcome long standing misconceptions, leading to a completely new way of thinking and research direction. Similarly, electronic structure calculations helped to scrutinize certain concepts or aspects of engineering models. Less frequently so far seems to be the determination of input parameters for these models. However, the ability of simulations to screen a large number of systems, which would be prohibitively expensive if done experimentally, also plays an important role.
The above evidence and mechanisms of success indicate that the Psi-k network is largely in line with S-2-B collaborations in general, for example in terms of the relationships, importance of PI and the typical 'soft' measures of success.
On the other hand we can also see significant opportunities for further improvement. There is sincere interest as well as unmet need in industry. On the one hand, the gap between industry requirements and what can be delivered by today's theories and simulations is widely acknowledged. On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence that important and impactful topics can be addressed with current methods. However it takes a lot of time, effort and translation skills to identify and act upon these. Despite some activities by the network to further the exchange with industrial research, there is still too little common ground in terms of interactions, interests and language to develop the personal relationships that were found to be crucial for engagements between academics and industry.
However, we see evidence of successful mechanisms that can be built upon. These include utilising multiscale modelling approaches as not only a scientific endeavour but also as an opportunity to build a bridge in terms of communication and relationships. Also, relationships with industry at the level of Ph.D. training seems to be an effective mechanisms not only to train scientists with the relevant skills and understanding but also to build long term relationships between the academic centres and industry. Similarly, centres of excellence that are by their nature set up with industry involvement provide visibility and help to build relationships, although with the proviso [ii] that the single investigator can be the critical determinant.
[i] Goldbeck, G. The economic impact of molecular modelling. Goldbeck Consulting Limited, Available via http://gerhardgoldbeck.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/the-economic-impact-of-molecular-modelling-of-chemicals-and-materials/ (2012).
[ii] Boehm, D. N. & Hogan, T. Science-to-Business collaborations: A science-to-business marketing perspective on scientific knowledge commercialization. Industrial Marketing Management 42, 564–579 (2013).
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The economic impact of molecular modelling of chemicals and materials
July 10, 2012 /2 Comments/in ICME, Quantum and atomistic modelling, Science to business /by Gerhard Goldbeck
Here is the executive summary of an extensive report from Goldbeck Consulting which is available here (The economic impact of modelling) or by request from info@goldbeck-consulting.com.
The evidence for economic impact of molecular modelling of chemicals and materials is investigated, including the mechanisms by which impact is achieved and how it is measured.
Broadly following a model of transmission from the research base via industry to the consumer, the impact of modelling can be traced from (a) the authors of theories and models via (b) the users of modelling in science and engineering to (c) the research and development staff that utilise the information in the development of new products that benefit society at large.
The question is addressed to what extent molecular modelling is accepted as a mainstream tool that is useful, practical and accessible. A number of technology trends have contributed to increased applicability and acceptance in recent years, including
Much increased capabilities of hardware and software.
A convergence of actual technology scales with the scales that can be simulated by molecular modelling as a result of nanotechnology.
Improved know-how and a focus in industry on cases where molecular simulation works well.
The acceptance level still varies depending on method and application area, with quantum chemistry methods having the highest level of acceptance, and fields with a strong overlap of requirements and method capabilities such as electronics and catalysis reporting strong impact anecdotally and as measured by the size of the modelling community and the number of patents. The picture is somewhat more mixed in areas such as polymers and chemical engineering that rely more heavily on classical and mesoscale simulation methods.
A quantitative approach is attempted by considering available evidence of impact and transmission throughout the expanding circles of influence from the model author to the end product consumer. As indicators of the research base and its ability to transfer knowledge, data about the number of publications, their growth and impact relative to other fields are discussed. Patents and the communities of users and interested 'consumers' of modelling results, as well as the size and growth of the software industry provide evidence for transmission of impact further into industry and product development. The return on investment due to industrial R&D process improvements is a measure of the contribution to value creation and justifies determining the macroeconomic impact of modelling as a proportion of the impact of related disciplines such as chemistry and high performance computing. Finally the integration of molecular modelling with workflows for engineered and formulated products provides a direct link to the end consumer.
Key evidence gathered in these areas includes:
The number of publications in modelling and simulation has been growing more strongly than the science average and has a citation impact considerably above the average.
There is preliminary evidence for a strong rise in the number of patents, also as a proportion of the number of patents within the respective fields.
The number of people involved with modelling has been growing strongly for more than a decade. A large user community has developed which is different from the original developer community, and there are more people in managerial and director positions with a background in modelling.
The software industry has emerged from a 'hype cycle' into a phase of sustained growth.
There is solid evidence for R&D process improvements that can be achieved by using modelling, with a return of investment in the range of 3:1 to 9:1.
The macroeconomic impact has been estimated on the basis of data for the contribution of chemistry research to the UK economy. The preliminary figures suggest a value add equivalent to 1% of GDP.
The integration with engineering workflows shows that molecular modelling forms a small but very important part of workflows that have produced very considerable returns on investment.
E-infrastructures such as high-throughput modelling, materials informatics systems and high performance computing act as multipliers of impact. Molecular modelling is estimated to account for about 6% of the impact generated from high performance computing.
Finally, a number of existing barriers to impact are discussed including deficiencies in some of the methods, software interoperability, usability and integration issues, the need for databases and informatics tools as well as further education and training. These issues notwithstanding, this review found strong and even quantifiable evidence for the impact of modelling from the research base to economic benefits.
We acknowledge financial support from the University of Cambridge in the production of this report.
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As a former track and field athlete, the track and field events of the Olympic Games quite naturally held my attention. Whether it is the sprints or the long distance events, one thing you would notice is the focus of the athletes. Their eyes are fixed on the finish line.
They cannot afford to take our eyes away from the finish line even for a nano-second. It would slow them down, or even cause them to trip and fall, thus allowing others to catch up and overtake them.
Running a race is not easy. There are distractions, discomforts, discouragements and obstacles along the way. It requires "endurance" which encompasses patience, stamina, fortitude and staying power. The race is so important that we dare not just give up.
He knows the difficulties involved in this race, but He crossed the finishing line victoriously.
What difficulties are you finding in running the Christian race? You are not alone. There are many others who are running the same race, but most importantly, there is Jesus on whom you are to fix your eyes. He has finished the race.
He experienced the distractions, the discomforts, the discouragements and the obstacles common to life, but He never gave up. He understands your struggles.
Look to Him "who for the joy set before Him endured the cross…", and He will give you the victory.
Thought For The Week (TFTW) is contributed by Dr Koh Siang Kiang, Associate Professor (Christian Education) at the Singapore Bible College (SBC). She graduated from SBC and Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS), USA, and has served in various ministries for more than 35 years, including teaching at DTS. Dr Koh has been with SBC for the last 10 years, and has a passion for people and teaching the Word of God. She also loves to make the Bible come alive by leading tours to the Holy Land, and has led 12 such trips. To help her relax, Dr Koh likes to cook and cross-stitch.
I enjoy listening to the programme and feel inspired to draw close to Jesus.


text:
Die Walibi-Gruppe ist eine Freizeitpark-Kette von Grévin & Cie, zu der Parks in Belgien, Frankreich und den Niederlanden gehören.

Geschichte
Der erste Park der heutigen Walibi-Gruppe war ein Freizeitpark im Ortsdreieck Wavre, Limal und Bierges, den 1975 Eddy Meeùs gründete. Der Name des Parks ergab sich aus seiner Lage in diesem Dreieck und wurde einfach aus den zwei ersten Buchstaben jedes Ortes zusammensetzt. Das Maskottchen der Walibi-Parks war von der Eröffnung an ein gleichnamiges oranges Känguru. Vom Ende der 1980er Jahre an wurde die eigentliche Parkgruppe durch den Zukauf von Parks ins Leben gerufen. Zuerst wurden die französischen Parks Walibi Rhône-Alpes (Les Avenières, 1989), Walibi Schtroumpf (Metz, 1990) und Walibi Aquitaine (Roquefort, 1992) akquiriert, bevor 1994 mit dem Flevohof (Biddinghuizen) ein niederländischer Park zugekauft und in Walibi Flevo umgestaltet wurde. Des Weiteren wurde 1990 der belgische Bellewaerde Park (Ieper) übernommen, allerdings unter altem Namen fortgeführt.

Neben den klassischen Freizeitparks gehörten außerdem von 1989 Mini Europe und von 1992 der überdachte Wasserpark Océade jeweils bis 1998 zur Gruppe.

Im Zuge des Einstiegs in das Europa-Geschäft der US-amerikanischen Gruppe Premier Parks (später Six Flags) wurden 1998 auch die Walibi-Parks veräußert. Unter dem neuen Besitzer wurde die Gruppe mit weiteren Parks als "Six Flags European Division" weitergeführt und "Wavre" sowie "Flevo" auf die Marke Six Flags umgestellt. In dieser Zeit wurde auch Schtroumpf durch den Verlust seiner Schlumpf-Lizenzen in Walibi Lorraine umbenannt.

2004 stieg Six Flags aus dem europäischen Markt aus und verkaufte die Parks an den britischen Finanzinvestor Palamon Capital Partners, der die Gruppe unter dem Namen StarParks weiterführte und Six-Flags-Parks wieder in Walibi-Parks umbaute.

Im Jahr 2006 verkaufte Palamon die genannten Parks außer "Lorraine" an die französische Kette Grévin & Cie, die den Namen weiterführen. Walibi Lorraine wurde von regionalen Investoren übernommen, der ihn zur Saison 2007 in Walygator Parc umbenannt hat.

Freizeitparks

Weblinks
 Offizielle Website der Walibi-Gruppe

Gegründet 1975
Freizeitpark-Betreiber
Wavre
Unternehmen (Provinz Wallonisch-Brabant)
Dienstleistungsunternehmen (Belgien)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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text:
« May 2009 | Main | July 2009 »
Negotiations: Still Better than Preventive War and Impotent Fist Shaking
by Eric Martin
George Friedman of Stratfor offers useful correctives to some of the narratives about the Iranian election that, due to the fact that they resonated with Western audiences, found fertile soil for propagation (that the conflict was one based on liberal reform vs. clerical rule, pro-Western/US factions vs. anti-Western/US factions, pro-domestic nuclear program vs. anti-domestic nuclear program, etc). This was the case despite the fact that those Western-oriented storylines only described a small portion of the overall picture - indeed, they served to conceal the larger tectonic clashes underneath:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ran his re-election campaign against the old clerical elite, charging them with corruption, luxurious living and running the state for their own benefit rather than that of the people. He particularly targeted Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, an extremely senior leader, and his family. Indeed, during the demonstrations, Rafsanjani's daughter and four other relatives were arrested, held and then released a day later.
Rafsanjani represents the class of clergy that came to power in 1979. He served as president from 1989-1997, but Ahmadinejad defeated him in 2005. Rafsanjani carries enormous clout within the system as head of the regime's two most powerful institutions — the Expediency Council, which arbitrates between the Guardian Council and parliament, and the Assembly of Experts, whose powers include oversight of the supreme leader. Forbes has called him one of the wealthiest men in the world. Rafsanjani, in other words, remains at the heart of the post-1979 Iranian establishment.
Ahmadinejad expressly ran his recent presidential campaign against Rafsanjani, using the latter's family's vast wealth to discredit Rafsanjani along with many of the senior clerics who dominate the Iranian political scene. It was not the regime as such that he opposed, but the individuals who currently dominate it. Ahmadinejad wants to retain the regime, but he wants to repopulate the leadership councils with clerics who share his populist values and want to revive the ascetic foundations of the regime. The Iranian president constantly contrasts his own modest lifestyle with the opulence of the current religious leadership. [...]
When Ahmadinejad defeated Mir Hossein Mousavi on the night of the election, the clerical elite saw themselves in serious danger. The margin of victory Ahmadinejad claimed might have given him the political clout to challenge their position. Mousavi immediately claimed fraud, and Rafsanjani backed him up. Whatever the motives of those in the streets, the real action was a knife fight between Ahmadinejad and Rafsanjani. By the end of the week, Khamenei decided to end the situation. In essence, he tried to hold things together by ordering the demonstrations to halt while throwing a bone to Rafsanjani and Mousavi by extending a probe into the election irregularities and postponing a partial recount by five days. [...]
The key to understanding the situation in Iran is realizing that the past weeks have seen not an uprising against the regime, but a struggle within the regime. Ahmadinejad is not part of the establishment, but rather has been struggling against it, accusing it of having betrayed the principles of the Islamic Revolution. The post-election unrest in Iran therefore was not a matter of a repressive regime suppressing liberals (as in Prague in 1989), but a struggle between two Islamist factions that are each committed to the regime, but opposed to each other.
The demonstrators certainly included Western-style liberalizing elements, but they also included adherents of senior clerics who wanted to block Ahmadinejad's re-election. And while Ahmadinejad undoubtedly committed electoral fraud to bulk up his numbers, his ability to commit unlimited fraud was blocked, because very powerful people looking for a chance to bring him down were arrayed against him.
The situation is even more complex because it is not simply a fight between Ahmadinejad and the clerics, but also a fight among the clerical elite regarding perks and privileges — and Ahmadinejad is himself being used within this infighting. The Iranian president's populism suits the interests of clerics who oppose Rafsanjani; Ahmadinejad is their battering ram. But as Ahmadinejad increases his power, he could turn on his patrons very quickly. In short, the political situation in Iran is extremely volatile, just not for the reason that the media portrayed.
The main take away is that those suggesting that the election-related power struggle is evidence that the Iranian regime is, in fact,"irrational," or that the crackdown on protesters was so odious as to preclude negotiations, or that the parties that would have been willing to negotiate with the US government have been purged, should rethink those assumptions.
There was nothing irrational about this power struggle. It was basic jockeying for political spoils pursued by rational actors, with a regime that sought to manage the process, and whose overriding goal was pure rationality: self-preservation. The crackdown on protesters, while unquestionably brutal and horrific to behold, was, sadly, the type of illiberal action that many of our strongest allies in the region engage in regularly, and the violence (tragic as it was) pales in comparison to the actions of other regimes that we have seen fit to negotiate with in the past and present.
Finally, the Mousavi/Rafsanjani faction was no more willing to cut a deal with the US government absent security guarantees and other concessions than the Ahmadinejad faction. Regardless of which side came out on top, the contours of the deal remain the same - as do our interests in pursuing that deal, and Iran's interests in the same:
Continue reading "Negotiations: Still Better than Preventive War and Impotent Fist Shaking" »
Posted by Eric Martin at 01:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (97) | TrackBack (0)
More Alito
Justice Alito's racially inflammatory concurrence doesn't get any better when you read the lower court opinion (pdf). What's specifically objectionable is not so much the reference to Kimber, but the needlessly inflammatory description of him.
Admittedly, Kimber does appear in the lower court opinion (pdf). The firefighters had alleged that New Haven discriminated because the City feared political backlash, particularly from the African-American community and Reverend Kimber. This was the "pretext," legally speaking.
Unlike the Supreme Court, the lower court actually ruled on the pretext issue, so it makes sense that he came up. But the lower court opinion makes only passing references to him in the employment discrimination discussion. And even when he does come up, the lower court opinion describes him in far more general terms – e.g., he is a "vocal" and influential pastor. The opinion doesn't go into detail about him personally – largely because that's not relevant to anything.
Alito takes a much different approach. It's not merely that he mentions Kimber (though even that was wholly unnecessary because the Court didn't rule on the pretext issue). What makes Alito's concurrence so distasteful is the manner of the description.
Alito goes out of his way to paint Kimber as Public Enemy Number #1, and uses racial innuendo to do so. Alito writes, for instance, that Kimber (1) calls lots of people racist; (2) threatened a race riot during a trial of a black man for the murder of a white Yalie; (3) was convicted for stealing funeral payments and commiting perjury; and (4) made racist slurs as chairman of a government board of fire commissioners. (See p. 3-4 of Alito's concurrence – p. 44-45 of the pdf).
Look, Kimber may be a very bad dude. But none of this stuff is relevant in the slightest. It's unnecessary to even bring him up. But if he must be included, the only even potentially relevant facts are that he's influential and vocal. There's no need to include any of the rest.
Unless of course you want to push white people's buttons in inflammatory ways. But then again, maybe the firefighters' description of Kimber pushed Alito's buttons. Either way, it's unseemly for a Supreme Court Justice in 2009 to be writing this stuff.
Posted by publius at 11:11 AM in Law | Permalink | Comments (43) | TrackBack (0)
Hanging Out with Young Thugs that All Carry Nines
If someone suggested to me that the way to fix what's been ailing Somalia over the past few decades is 40 more tons of weapons and ammunition, my brain would do a double take. And yet...
The U.S. government has provided about 40 tonnes of weapons and ammunition to Somalia's embattled government in the past six weeks to help it fight Islamist insurgents, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States spent less than $10 million on what he described as small arms and ammunition as well as on payments to other nations to train Somali government forces.
While the State Department confirmed on Thursday that it was providing weaponry to the government, it had not previously provided details on the type, cost or amount.
Like Jason Sigger, I tend to agree with Steven from Realistic Defense:
I'm not sure that aiding the Somali government is something the United States should be actively doing. Officials in the State Department and the Pentagon have predicted Somalia as the next terrorist incubator for years now. If Somalia falls to radical Islamists, is the United States adversely effected? I think the whole failed states as terrorist havens is an idea that dominates most of the foreign policy establishment, but is severely misguided. Terrorism is a phenomenon that can exist in a variety of states. The liberal democracies of western Europe were home to numerous terrorist groups between the 60's and 90's, so it's not an occurrence isolated to third world countries. And while the United States has not had the same experiences of domestic terrorism as some other countries, several groups from Puerto Rican nationalists to Aryan Nations have been able to operate successfully.
Look at Afghanistan. al-Qaeda was able to set up a permanent base for operations only with the help of the Taliban, which exerted powerful rule over the country. Terrorists need a stable environment, it does them no good to be involved in civil wars, as that only misdirects their energy and resources. We should keep an eye on Somalia, but this sort of offshore balancing is not likely to help either the Somalis or Americans.
Admittedly, there are no clear or easy solutions for the many problems that have led to instability and conflict in Somalia for over a quarter century. But that's just it: given the intractable, gordian knot-like matrix of conflicts and their myriad causes, why does the US government feel compelled to interfere with a proposed "solution," and why does the US government think it can succeed even if it has a legitimate interest? Especially if the solution offered involves either backing an invasion of Somalia by its long time regional rival, Ethiopia, or dumping another 40 tons of guns and ammunition on a nation already awash in such weaponry.
I've got a better idea, and it has the advantage of not inserting America in a local conflict (or conflict"s") such that one side (or multiple side"s") views us as mortal enemies and is more likely to support anti-American efforts at some point in time. It also has the benefit of being much, much cheaper. That would be: neither provide arms and ammunition, nor support military invasions (by long time adversaries, or otherwise).
Sometimes we just can't solve every conflict around the globe. That's especially true when we attempt to defuse armed conflict with more of the same (or the tools to perpetuate it). Radical, I know.
Posted by Eric Martin at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (42) | TrackBack (0)
Health Care Clip
--by Sebastian
One of the most ridiculous things about the current American health care system is the accidental legacy of the price controls of WWII which led companies to promote health care benefits since they could not compete on price. The weird and unnecessary tie between health care benefits and working distorts all sorts of possible ways of dealing with lack of insurance.
But I'm not here to talk about how to fix that today. I'm here to show you the result of that strange tie, I give you Runaway Box "Boyfriend with Health Care Benefits":
Posted by Sebastian at 03:24 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
ENDA (Again)
A few days ago, Barney Frank introduced HR 2981, a new version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which bans employment discrimination against anyone on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Unlike last time, this bill includes protections for transmen and transwomen. That's the good news.
The bad news is that, according to drjillygirl at Pam's House Blend, not enough Democrats are on board to pass the bill. As of two days ago, 48 Democrats are undecided on ENDA. They are:
Bobby Bright (AL), Parker Griffith (AL), Vic Snyder (AR), Dennis Cardoza (CA), Allen Boyd, (FL), Sanford Bishop (GA), David Scott (GA), Walt Minnick (ID), Bobby Rush (IL), Daniel Lipinksi (IL), Deborah Halvorsen (IL), Jerry Costello (IL), Peter Visclosky (IN), Joe Donnelly (IN), Brad Ellsworth (IN), Ben Chandler (KY), Frank Kratovil (MD), Dutch Ruppersberger (MD), Bart Stupak (MI), Mark Schauer (MI), Travis Childers (MS), Bennie Thompson (MS), Dina Titus (NV), Michael McMahon (NY), Scott Murphy (NY), Paul Tonko (NY), Daniel Maffei (NY), Earl Pomeroy (ND), Dan Boren (OK), Kathleen Dahlkemper (PA), Jason Altmire (PA), Christopher Carney (PA), Paul Kanjorski (PA), John Murtha (PA), John Spratt (SC), Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD), Al Green (TX), Solomon Ortiz (TX), Henry Cuellar (TX), Gene Green (TX), Glenn Nye (VA), Bobby Scott (VA), Thomas Perriello (VA), Rick Boucher (VA), Gerald Connolly (VA), Alan Mollohan (WV), Ron Kind (WI), David Obey (WI).
You can find their email addresses here.
This should not be a hard bill to pass. The idea that people should not be able to lose their jobs because they are gay or transgender should not be controversial. For some reason that I do not understand, however, it seems to be.
And it's really, really important. This might be our best shot at getting protection from employment discrimination for a lot of people who need it. It might also be our best shot at getting a bill passed that includes protection for transmen and transwomen. This really matters: my best stab at explaining why is here. Altogether too often, the burden of educating people about trans issues, and advocating for their rights, falls on trans people themselves. As I try to explain in that post, this is not fair. And now is a good time for those of us who are not trans to step up to the plate and explain to our representatives why this matters to us.
It's not 1966 anymore. There is no excuse for the fact that it is still legal to discriminate against people on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. If your Representative is still on the fence, let him or her know how you feel.
Posted by hilzoy at 02:08 AM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (18) | TrackBack (0)
Justice Alito's Disgraceful Concurrence
I must confess that Justice Alito's concurrence in Ricci was one of the most bizarre opinions I've ever read. The kindest thing I can say is that it's gratuitously inflammatory. Alito goes out of his way to paint a very unflattering portrait of a black New Haven pastor who allegedly has the New Haven government on a leash. It would be a cool storyline for The Wire, but it's a little weird to see it in a Supreme Court opinion.
Anyway, Alito's concurrence is inappropriate on multiple levels. And you can't really appreciate how bizarre Reverend Kimber's role is until you see how utterly unnecessary and irrelevant the discussion of him was.
First, Alito was analyzing an issue that the majority opinion didn't even reach. It was completely unnecessary. To grossly simplify, employment discrimination cases go like this. The court first decides whether the employer acted legitimately. If not, the employer can respond that its inappropriate action was justified. Third, assuming the employer meets this step, the employee can turn around and say, "that justification is merely a pretext for discrimination."
The Court's opinion in Ricci was technically about Step 1, although Step 2 came into play. The Court never reached Step 3. But Alito went there anyway – in weirdly specific detail. Basically, he said, "even if the dissent is right about Step 1 and 2, the firefighters could still easily win at Step 3." His reasoning was that the professed fear of litigation could be a "pretext" for pleasing a "politically important racial constituency" (i.e., black people in New Haven).
So just to be clear before we continue – he's analyzing an issue that's completely unnecessary.
From there, he goes on to paint a sordid tale (taken virtually entirely from the firefighters' description of the facts) about a politically important and controversial black pastor in New Haven who, according to Alito, apparently runs the city. This pastor was also upset about the tests and spoke out at the public meetings. Alito described this pastor in exceeding detail, as if he were writing a Richard Price novel or something.
Here's Alito's Rube Goldberg logic. The pastor has influence on the mayor. The mayor, in turn, has influence on the government board that actually made the decision. Understand that the stars of Alito's concurrence – the pastor and the mayor – didn't actually make any decision on the tests. That decision was made by a separate "politically insulated" entity, to use Ginsburg's terms.
So the mayor is legally irrelevant here. And the black pastor (who supposedly influenced the mayor) is doubly irrelevant. How exactly Alito establishes this "influence" in the first place is a separate and interesting question.
But even assuming the mayor is relevant and that he influences the government board, Alito assumes the worst. Instead of assuming the mayor was trying to avoid liability under federal law, Alito sees him as caving to a certain constituency for illegal reasons. But how exactly can a Supreme Court Justice make that conclusion about New Haven politics? It's almost like multiple dimensions of inappropriateness folded together in space-time.
It's the weirdest thing I've read in a while. And it's disgraceful. At best, he's seen too many Wire episodes. At worst, he's playing on prejudices to help justify the Court's decision.
Notably, Roberts didn't join this concurrence, although Scalia and Thomas did. Sort of interesting, I think. Roberts is just politically smarter than the rest of them.
[Adam Serwer has more on the Alito concurrence here and here.]
The Politics of Ricci
I've been traveling today, and have tried to avoid the Ricci commentary as best I could. But my take is that Ricci is an extremely political opinion – and a deeply flawed one at that. Simply put, it's politics masquerading as legal doctrine. Indeed, Ricci is a perfect example of why the politics of judicial nominees matters.
The reality is that political preferences often determine legal outcomes. And when I say that politics matters, I mean it in two different respects – one appropriate, one inappropriate.
First, politics comes into play when judges must choose between two equally plausible interpretations of indeterminate law. Here, the decision is generally (and rightly) made on policy grounds whether the judge admits it or not. And I'm fine with that. We should be debating many of these issues on pragmatic policy grounds rather than cloaking them in inaccessible legalese. It's more democratic.
But politics can also enter in a second, and more pernicious, way. Politics can often drive judges to ignore clearly-applicable laws, procedures, and norms that are obstacles to their preferred political outcome. It is here that politics becomes inappropriate "activism."
Ricci has elements of both. That is, it has both appropriate and inappropriate political considerations driving the outcome.
To step back, Ricci doesn't really turn on all the various complex legal doctrines that you've probably read about. When you scrape away the legalese (i.e., the Matrix), the case is really about one's political opinion of certain remedies for historical racial discrimination. Conservatives like Roberts don't really (in their heart of hearts) think racial discrimination is a problem anymore. Innocent white people can't keep paying the price for crimes their ancestors committed.
Others, like Ginsburg, view the issue more historically. They don't see racial discrimination in terms of the personal moral failings of our ancestors, but as deep structural harms whose legacy lives on and must be addressed. It's like a river that has carved a deep canyon over centuries. Even when the water gets turned off, the canyon remains.
That's what Ricci is about. The legal doctrine is simply a mask for this political fight.
And the Court's majority opinion is political in at least three different ways. In other words, there are at least three points in the analysis where the actual decision is best explained as political rather than legal (warning – some of this gets wonky).
First, there is the threshold question of whether New Haven rejected the tests "because of" race (i.e., whether it was clearly "disparate treatment"). The Court summarily said "yes," and then proceeded with the subsequent analysis. But the answer isn't nearly as clear as the Court claimed. As Ginsburg explained, New Haven could have rejected the tests because of various potential flaws.
And besides, rejecting tests to prevent discrimination is not the same as discriminating because of race. But these are largely political opinions. And I'm actually ok with politics entering here. The law isn't clear, so let's assume this dispute falls into Category #1 above.
The second and third points in the analysis, however, are examples of inappropriate politics (Category #2). To make a long story short, the Court reached decisions it should never have reached, and that it could not procedurally reach at this early stage of the litigation.
To begin, there was the decision not to remand. Remember that the Court announced a new (and demanding) standard regarding when employers can justify decisions based on fear of disparate-impact litigation. The appropriate response (at the summary judgment stage) would have been to send the case back down to let the lower courts take a crack under the newly-announced standard.
But the Court didn't do that. It announced the new standard – and then proceeded to play the role of trial court by making factual decisions from cherry-picked pieces of the record.
Technically, the Court could only proceed at this stage if there were NO material factual disputes on the various legal issues (e.g., business necessity). The conclusion that there were no such disputes is simply laughable.
It's ok to proceed with a summary judgment if the material facts are undisputed. That happens a lot. And to be realistic about it, it happens a lot even when there are a few disputed material facts, or when the legal issues don't turn on fact-intensive questions.
But this case was different. The legal disputes here were incredibly fact-intensive – and the record was full of material factual disputes that cut to the very heart of the legal issues. In short, the case needed to go to trial.
Next, there was the specific analysis of individual questions like the "business necessity" defense. I won't belabor it, but "business necessity" is a demanding standard that is fact-intensive. The Court, however, concluded that scoring a written exam was vitally necessary to being a firefighter by ignoring other parts of the record. In short, it was a political decision. The Court essentially covered its ears and said, "nah, nah, business necessity, nah, nah, can't hear you."
Pure politics – all the way down.
I'll stop there. But on deck – Justice Alito's bizarre concurrence.
Posted by publius at 11:41 PM in Law | Permalink | Comments (20) | TrackBack (0)
Not So Long Ago
Hendrick Hertzberg has a good piece on the fortieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. In it, he quotes a 1966 article from Time called "The Homosexual in America". It's worth reading as a stunning reminder of exactly how far we've come in the last forty three years. For instance:
"Both [male homosexuality and lesbianism] are essentially a case of arrested development, a failure of learning, a refusal to accept the full responsibilities of life. This is nowhere more apparent than in the pathetic pseudo marriages in which many homosexuals act out conventional roles -- wearing wedding rings, calling themselves "he" and "she."
"Homosexuality (...) is a pathetic little second-rate substitute for reality, a pitiable flight from life. As such it deserves fairness, compassion, understanding and, when possible, treatment. But it deserves no encouragement, no glamorization, no rationalization, no fake status as minority martyrdom, no sophistry about simple differences in taste -- and, above all, no pretense that it is anything but a pernicious sickness."
For some reason, the tone in which this is written bothers me almost as much as the content: it's somehow curdled. The condescension, the fake knowingness, the pervasive underlying "heh heh heh" -- it sets my teeth on edge.
As long as one gay man or lesbian is denied the right to marry, or legally discriminated against because of his or her sexual orientation, or asked to leave the military after honorable service, we haven't come far enough. But we have come a long, long way.
Posted by hilzoy at 11:37 PM in Not Yet A Buddha | Permalink | Comments (22) | TrackBack (0)
The Awful Truth
In my last post, I noted the disquieting fact that Nick Gillespie, the editor of Reason, misquotes Carl Sandburg in the same way as Bill Ayers. Using Jack Cashill's methodology, I have now discovered frightening new evidence that Ayers actually ghostwrites Nick Gillespie's blog posts at Reason. Specifically:
* As Jack Cashill notes, both Bill Ayers and Barack Obama refer to a "yellow dog". Nick Gillespie uses the phrase "Yellow Dog Democrat". Coincidence? I think not.
* Bill Ayers refers to "ducks". So does Gillespie.
* Like Ayers, Nick Gillespie refers to "water buffaloes".
* Like Ayers, Nick Gillespie uses the word 'baleful', which even Jack Cashill had to look up.
* Like Ayers, and unlike Cashill, Nick Gillespie knows what the term "bill of particulars" means.
* Like Ayers, Nick Gillespie writes a lot about "social control".
* Gillespie also uses the phrase "beneath the surface", a sure sign of secretly being Bill Ayers.
* Gillespie does not talk much about eyebrows, a trademark Ayers word. However, his own eyebrows are rather impressive. Ayers probably implanted them as Gillespie slept.
I could go on, but you get the point. Faced with this mass of A-level matches, there is only one possible conclusion: the editor of the best libertarian magazine I know is actually Bill Ayers.
Posted by hilzoy at 03:19 AM in Why Are They Saying Those Things? | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)
In Which I Discover Bill Ayers In My Head
Of all the bits of lunacy unleashed by the prospect that Barack Obama might actually win the election, my personal favorite was Jack Cashill's claim that Bill Ayers had ghostwritten Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father, based on such stunning evidence as this:
"Although there are only the briefest of literal sea experiences in Dreams, the following words appear in both Dreams and in Ayers' work: fog, mist, ships, seas, boats, oceans, calms, captains, charts, first mates, storms, streams, wind, waves, anchors, barges, horizons, ports, panoramas, moorings, tides, currents, and things howling, fluttering, knotted, ragged, tangled, and murky."
Guess what? Cashill is back with a new installment, which is even funnier. His first piece of evidence: Both Obama and Ayers not only quote the same line from Sandburg's Chicago, they misquote it in the same way: "Hog butcher to the world", not "Hog butcher for the world." I misremembered it as 'to the world', which just goes to show that I am, in fact, Bill Ayers. But I'm not alone: writers for the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, and even, to my amazement, Reason's Nick Gillespie all turn out to be Ayers too. Who knew?
But wait! There's more:
"In his Indonesian backyard Obama discovered two "birds of paradise" running wild as well as chickens, ducks, and a "yellow dog with a baleful howl."
In Fugitive Days, there is even more "howling" than there is in Dreams. Ayers places his "birds of paradise" in Guatemala. He places his ducks and dogs together in a Vietnamese village being swept by merciless Americans. In Parent, he talks specifically about a "yellow dog." And he uses the word "baleful" to describe an "eye" in Fugitive Days. For the record, "baleful" means "threatening harm." I had to look it up."
Wait: they both mentioned yellow dogs? And ducks? Well: that settles it. It also means that Bill Ayers wrote Old Yeller and Make Way For Ducklings. As a birder, I should also note that while Obama managed to put his birds of paradise in Indonesia, where Birds of Paradise are actually found, either Ayers' bird was an exotic captive or he just appropriated the name because it sounded nice.
I didn't have to look up 'baleful'. Funny thing, that. Moving right along:
"Ayers is fixated with faces, especially eyes. He writes of "sparkling" eyes, "shining" eyes, "laughing" eyes, "twinkling" eyes, eyes "like ice," and people who are "wide-eyed" and "dark-eyed."
As it happens, Obama is also fixated with faces, especially eyes. He also writes of "sparkling" eyes, "shining" eyes, "laughing" eyes, "twinkling" eyes, and uses the phrases "wide-eyed" and "dark-eyed." Obama adds "smoldering eyes," "smoldering" being a word that he and Ayers inject repeatedly. Obama also uses the highly distinctive phrase "like ice," in his case to describe the glinting of the stars."
Twinkling eyes? That's evidence?
Cashill does not think that Ayers wrote The Audacity of Hope, though. That had to have a different author. Why?
"In Audacity of Hope, Obama does not use (...) most of the distinctive words or combinations of words in Dreams. In Audacity, for instance, there are virtually no descriptions of faces or eyes, and the few that the author does use are flat and cliched -- like "brave face" or "sharp-eyed." In Dreams, seven different people "frown," twelve "grin," and six "squint." In Audacity, no more than one person makes any of these gestures. (...)
These two Obama books almost assuredly had different primary authors."
It would be foolish, in the face of this evidence, to point out that Dreams is a memoir while Audacity is a campaign book about policy, and thus that one would expect both more description and more striking language in the first than in the second. Likewise, after extensive analysis, I have concluded that while I seem to myself to have written both my scholarly publications and my blog posts, I cannot have done so, since there are lots of phrases -- 'Oh Noes!' and 'Ya Think?' leap to mind, as does the word 'blog' -- that never appear in my scholarly work, but do appear in my blog posts.
The explanation is obvious. As I said, since I remembered Sandburg's poem wrong, Bill Ayers apparently ghostwrites my memories. He probably writes my blog posts too. I just wish he had told me himself, rather than leading me to infer his presence in my head on the basis of all this literary "analysis."


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Petrol Index: how many litres of petrol can you buy for the average salary in New Zealand and around the world?
PicodiJuly 27, 2020
Picodi.com team examined the change in petrol prices in several dozen countries and calculated how many litres of petrol an average New Zealander can afford in 2020.
Cheaper petrol
Due to the volatility of prices in the petrol market, just like last year, we gathered data about petrol prices in the first half of the year. In 11 out of 16 considered APAC countries, petrol prices in the first half of the year 2020 were lower than in 2019. The largest decrease was noted in Malaysia (−19%), Vietnam (−18.4%), and Thailand (−17.7%).
A lower drop was noted in Japan (−5.5%), New Zealand (−4.9%), and Singapore (−4.5%). Interestingly, in countries like South Korea, India, Pakistan or Hong Kong, the prices of petrol noted a moderate increase (0.4 to 1.8%), and in Sri Lanka petrol went up by as much as 3.4%.
Petrol Index 2020: who can fill up the biggest amount of petrol in the APAC region?
(click the arrows to see data from the remaining 15 countries)
Malaysians can enjoy the cheapest petrol in the APAC region — the average petrol price in this country, converted from ringgit to American dollars is 38 cents. Hongkongers pay the highest price — $2.22.
We contrasted the average prices of petrol in the first half of the year 2020 with the latest data on average salaries. For the second year in a row, Australians can boast the best petrol price to an average salary ratio in the APAC countries. Malaysia placed second — the average pay in this country allows its citizens to buy 2,135 litres of petrol.
In New Zealand, according to Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa latest data the average salary amounts to NZ$5,744 (NZ$4,523 net). It means that an average New Zealander can buy 2,082 litres of petrol with their pay (3rd place). Lower in the ranking were countries like Singapore (2,078 litres), Japan (2,062) or South Korea (1,955 litres).
Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia took the last three places. The average salary in these countries is worth 314, 300, and 250 litres respectively.
World petrol ranking
(Hover over the country to see the information)
In the world ranking, top positions are taken by Persian Gulf countries. In Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait, you could buy from 5,112 to 8,210 litres of petrol for the average pay. It is worth noting that Kuwaitis can afford 139 litres less than last year. On the other hand, in 2020 Saudis and Qataris can buy around 4,933 and 1,605 litres more.
The worst situation was noted in Cuba where the average salary is equal to the price of only 28 litres (an increase of 2 litres). Despite the fact that Tajikistan and Zambia accompany Cuba in the lower part of the ranking, their citizens can afford even seven times more petrol than Cubans (151 and 219 litres respectively).
It turns out that being an oil tycoon does not always mean easier access to petrol for the citizens. Nigeria, for example, produces the biggest amounts of petrol in Africa. Despite the lowest price of petrol in the whole world ($0.34), the relatively low average salary ($182) does not allow Nigerians to buy many litres of petrol — just 539. It is similar to the European oil heaven, Russia. In a country which is the second biggest oil producer in the world, for the average salary you can afford only 919 litres.
Another interesting fact is the situation in Venezuela. In this South American country, there are limits which allow buying only 120 litres of petrol per capita in a month for the price amounting to around 0.025 dollars per litre. Once the limit is exceeded, petrol can be bought only at the "market" price which is 0.5 dollar per litre, and only in 200 petrol stations in the country. Our calculations show that the average salary in Venezuela is enough for just 148 litres of petrol (120 litres subsidised and 28 litres fully paid), which is a drastic difference compared to theoretical 14 billion litres from the last year.
This report uses the average net wages according to the latest available data provided by offices for national statistics or relevant ministries. The average prices for the first half of 2020 in over 100 countries are based on data from globalpetrolprices.com and other local sources. In order to obtain the number of litres, we divided the average wage by the average price of 1 litre of petrol. For currency conversion, we used the average exchange rate for the last 90 days.
Public Use
Are you willing to share the information about petrol prices and average wages in New Zealand and around the world with your readers? Feel free to use all the data and infographics presented in this report for both commercial and non-commercial purposes as long as you indicate the author of the research (Picodi.com) with a link to this subpage. To copy the code of the interactive infographic, click the icon with three dots in the upper right corner. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at research@picodi.com.
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