text:
James J. Gibson
Page views of James J. Gibsons by language »
Among PSYCHOLOGISTS »
Among PSYCHOLOGISTS In United States »
James Jerome Gibson (; January 27, 1904 – December 11, 1979), was an American psychologist and one of the most important contributors to the field of visual perception. Gibson challenged the idea that the nervous system actively constructs conscious visual perception, and instead promoted ecological psychology, in which the mind directly perceives environmental stimuli without additional cognitive construction or processing. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked him as the 88th most cited psychologist of the 20th century, tied with John Garcia, David Rumelhart, Louis Leon Thurstone, Margaret Floy Washburn, and Robert S. Read more on Wikipedia
Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of James J. Gibson has received more than 233,328 page views. His biography is available in 17 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 16 in 2019). James J. Gibson is the 136th most popular psychologist (down from 131st in 2019), the 2,745th most popular biography from United States (up from 2,863rd in 2019) and the 44th most popular American Psychologist.
Page views of James J. Gibsons by language
Among PSYCHOLOGISTS
Among psychologists, James J. Gibson ranks 136 out of 182. Before him are Henry Murray, Lisbeth Palme, Steven Pinker, Roberto Assagioli, Emma Eckstein, and John Money. After him are Kurt Goldstein, Amos Tversky, Thomas Gordon, Stanley Schachter, Fritz Heider, and Auguste Forel.
Most Popular Psychologists in Wikipedia
Henry Murray
Lisbeth Palme
Roberto Assagioli
Emma Eckstein
John Money
Kurt Goldstein
Thomas Gordon
Stanley Schachter
Fritz Heider
Auguste Forel
Among people born in 1904, James J. Gibson ranks 102. Before him are Max Mallowan, Deng Yingchao, Muhammad Najib ar-Ruba'i, Karl Ernst, Arkady Gaidar, and María Zambrano. After him are Edmund Veesenmayer, Ding Ling, Wang Ming, Christian-Jaque, Leo Joseph Suenens, and Prince Ernst of Hohenberg. Among people deceased in 1979, James J. Gibson ranks 81. Before him are Joseph Kessel, Louis Paul Boon, Darryl F. Zanuck, Léonide Massine, Carlo Abarth, and Waldemar de Brito. After him are Dhyan Chand, José Della Torre, Henrich Focke, Ahmad Zahir, Immanuel Velikovsky, and Barbara Hutton.
Max Mallowan
Deng Yingchao
Muhammad Najib ar-Ruba'i
Karl Ernst
Arkady Gaidar
María Zambrano
Edmund Veesenmayer
Ding Ling
Wang Ming
Christian-Jaque
Leo Joseph Suenens
Prince Ernst of Hohenberg
Joseph Kessel
Léonide Massine
Carlo Abarth
Waldemar de Brito
Dhyan Chand
José Della Torre
Henrich Focke
Ahmad Zahir
Immanuel Velikovsky
Among people born in United States, James J. Gibson ranks 2,745 out of 15,968. Before him are Robert J. Van de Graaff (1901), August Derleth (1909), Harpo Marx (1888), Treat Williams (1951), Alfred Bester (1913), and Pat Riley (1945). After him are Lois Chiles (1947), Rob Schneider (1963), Thomas F. Wilson (1959), Kamehameha III (1814), Jason Momoa (1979), and George Smith (1941).
Robert J. Van de Graaff
August Derleth
Treat Williams
Alfred Bester
Pat Riley
Lois Chiles
Thomas F. Wilson
Kamehameha III
George Smith
Among PSYCHOLOGISTS In United States
Among psychologists born in United States, James J. Gibson ranks 44. Before him are Robert Sternberg (1949), J. P. Guilford (1897), Carol Gilligan (1936), Jon Kabat-Zinn (1944), Rensis Likert (1903), and Henry Murray (1893). After him are Thomas Gordon (1918), Stanley Schachter (1922), David Ausubel (1918), Arthur Janov (1924), Louis Leon Thurstone (1887), and Harry Harlow (1905).
American born Psychologists
J. P. Guilford
David Ausubel
Arthur Janov
Louis Leon Thurstone
Kurt Koffka


Lester E. Cobb at the wheel of his motor sleigh.
This newspaper article from the files of the historical society is undated, but based on the style of car, it might be from the late teens to the mid-twenties of the last century. The author is not known, but the article appears to be from the Boston Globe.


EDU Success with….. comprehension and vocabulary. Do you have useful comprehension and vocabulary lessons you have used and want to continue to use while moving forward into the new standards? EDU/NEO Success is the answer for you. It combines a number of assignments together and will give you the teacher a weekly idea of how your students are comprehending stories and learning new vocabulary.
Here is a quick way to successfully add comprehension and vocabulary to your weekly lessons. This is a combination of assignments. One is designed to show a preview to the students of questions about their story. This assignment is called survey in EDU/NEO. You can download a PDF of pre-existing questions for the students to read. The "pie" looking assignment below is the survey assignment choice.
This picture shows how to add your PDF. Choose the corner turned paper icon and select a PDF file to add to your assignment. The students can then look at the comprehension and vocabulary questions before they are tested on them.
The second part is then creating test questions. For the vocabulary I have done the matching choice of questions under the test options. This works really good on a small amount of vocabulary to match with their definitions. The comprehension questions can be inserted exactly as they are written and/or can be modified for improvement. Once these questions are created you can copy them to do change for the next test or bank them to share with your colleagues.
The beauty of having these questions in EDU/NEO is instant feedback and grade reviews for every student. Categorize under comprehension and Vocabulary and you can have a consistent idea where each student is with both academic areas.
I hope this quick and fast look at using the assignments in EDU/NEO has helped you. Look for future EDU/NEO Success blogs to have a fun and interactive way to do Number Talk in your classroom. It is like a Chalk Talk with Technology with the added aspect of seeing every student's involvement and responses.
Previous story Let's have an EDU/NEO discussion…about derivatives!


The showcase event of Minnesota's regular season in high school wrestling happened the last two days in Rochester, as the Minnesota Christmas Tournament featured 40 teams. It includes the vast majority of Minnesota's best teams, plus a few teams from out of state (Illinois, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma). After the two days of wrestling were completed, a mere five points (204.5-199.5) separated a pair of top 25 teams in the country.
Despite just having nine wrestlers (six in the quarters) remaining after day one, No. 21 Simley surged on day two to put a tournament-high eight on the podium. And that was with Greg Kerkvliet (285) and two-time state medalist Cael Berg (138) out of the lineup. The Spartans were led by weight class champion Ryan Sokol (132), who scored a 20-5 technical fall over state champion Noah Villarreal (Aurora Christian, Ill.) in the championship match.


text:
Currently unavailable.
The Maid's Best Kept Secret Hardcover – Large Print, 1 December 2020
Abby Green (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Abby Green Page
Hardcover, Large Print
Mass Market Paperback, Large Print
Synopsis coming soon.......
Mills & Boon - AU
The Innocent Behind the Scandal
Bride Behind The Desert Veil / One Hot New York Night: Bride Behind the Desert Veil (The Marchetti Dynasty) / One Hot New York Night (The Marchetti Dynasty)
The Greek's Convenient Cinderella / The Man She Should Have Married
After the Billionaire's Wedding Vows...
Abby Green spent her teens reading Mills & Boon romances. She then spent many years working in the Film and TV industry as an Assistant Director. One day while standing outside an actor's trailer in the rain, she thought: there has to be more than this. So she sent off a partial to Harlequin Mills & Boon. After many rewrites, they accepted her first book and an author was born. She lives in Dublin, Ireland and you can find out more here: www.abby-green.com
Start reading The Maid's Best Kept Secret (The Marchetti Dynasty) on your Kindle in under a minute.
Publisher  :  Mills & Boon - AU; Large type / Large print edition (1 December 2020)
Rumors Behind the Greek's Wedding
Abby Green has been hooked on romantic stories ever since she was a little thing, lying in bed, making her aunt tell her (over and over again) about a Prince and a scary forest and the Princess he was rescuing.
Thankfully (for her aunt), she learned to read and discovered the wonderful worlds of authors like Judy Blume, Jackie Collins, Jilly Cooper and Barbara Taylor Bradford to mention but a tiny few, as well as the great lexicon of Harlequin Mills and Boon romances.
A career in Film and TV as a 2nd Assistant Director was thrilling and exciting for many years, but Abby always had that other side of her that wanted to write and make up stories about Princesses rescuing Princes from scary forests – because we all know that's how it really pans out, right?
After submitting to Mills and Boon in London and receiving a rejection letter, albeit with notes, she stuck her foot firmly in the door so it wouldn't close, and about a year later, an author was born.
She was nominated in 2011 for the prestigious RITA© Award for her book 'Breaking The Sheikh's Rules.'
She lives in Dublin, Ireland and you can find out more about her and her books here: www.abby-green.com
There are 0 reviews and 8 ratings from Australia
2.0 out of 5 stars Meh
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 September 2021
A quick read that didn't requite too much attention just whst I needed on a day of sleep deprivation.
Didn't like the male MC but didn't despise him either. I am going to try and stay away from reads where the heroine is lily white compared to the male lead it's getting a smidge annoying.
Chemistry between MRS didn't sizzle off the page.
Hated the use of the word gauche to describe the heroine. The connotations of that word 😑
99p on amazon.
Not going in my re-read pile.
2.0 out of 5 stars Not one of her best books :(
I normally love everything Abby Green writes but this book just didn't seem to be up to her usual high standard. It took a while for the story to develop and then seemed totally rushed at the end so I couldn't build a relationship with the characters.
Hopefully this book was just a blip and I certainly won't let this put me off buying other books from this author
5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable
A very good and enjoyable love story. I particularly liked how the heroine was a no nonsense lady settling for true love
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent. Not like the others
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 March 2021
Thank you for an insight into the world of marrying a European, playboy billionaire! It was an absolute page turner! Fabulous escapism.
theperfectlypurplebookshelf
5.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 October 2020
Great story. Really liked Maggie and the way she didn't easily give in.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Genesis Mining has now become one of the fastest growing Bitcoin companies in the world and today, proudly serves over 180,000 active daily customers.
And the customer growth continues, driven in recent months by the rapid increase of Ether price. Genesis Mining made headlines in February when they announced their Ether Cloud Mining offering when the price was below a dollar, shortly after the price began to quickly increase, reaching nearly $12 today. This price hike resulted in a flood of new and thrilled customers.
To celebrate the two year anniversary of launching, we are happy to offer a 5% discount code to all our customers, valid until 04/11/16 11:59 PM. To receive a 5% discount on Bitcoin, Ethereum and Scrypt cloud mining, simply enter discount code HappyBirthdayGM16 at checkout.


Flynn Creek Circus - Sonoma Family Life Magazine - Helping local families find the best ideas, opportunities, and resources!
A rurally based, award-winning circus bringing international talent to the North Bay. $11–$50. Aug. 2 & 3*: 7 p.m. *21+only. Aug. 4: 3 p.m. & 7 p.m. Aug. 5: 1 p.m.* & 4 p.m. *Kids half-price with adult purchase. 24001 S. Hwy. 1, Point Arena. 684-9389. flynncreekcircus.com.


Budget ute buyers have a new choice with Great Wall's new-look, newly named Steed.
The Great Wall Steed won't revolutionise the budget dual-cab ute market, but offers sharp $24,990 drive-away pricing and a solid features list. The fact that the brand is a familiar one to Aussie buyers won't hurt the Chinese ute either.
With the dual-cab one-tonner segment becoming more refined and more laden with equipment, throwing $60,000 at a luxo-ute is easy to do these days.
So it's refreshing to see more humble utes turn up, like the Great Wall Steed. No, it's no Volkswagen Amarok TDI420 Canyon or Ford Ranger Wildtrak, but it's about half the price of these premium utes.
Instead, Great Wall Motors once again is aiming for buyers in the bargain-basement ute world looking at the likes of the Foton Tunland Dual Cab ($30,990 drive-away), JMC Vigus SLX Double Cab ($30,990 drive-away), Mahindra Pik-Up Dual Cab ($27,990 drive-away) and the Ssangyong Actyon Ute SX ($30,990 drive-away).
The Steed is 305mm longer — 155mm at front and 150mm at the rear — than the discontinued V-series ute it replaces. It's also 30mm higher than the V200/V240, but then the Steed has roof rails while the V-series didn't.
The new nose job has given the Steed a Haval look to it (no surprises there) while the side profile looks very V-series, because a lot of it is. Look closely at the rear of the tub in side profile and you can see the extra length, but if Great Wall wanted the side and back to look like a V-series, they couldn't have tried any harder.
Inside, the matt-silver highlights and gloss black touches on the dash and door trims look classy. The shiny, Soviet-grade plastic handbrake handle, not so much.
The controls are tactile except the climate-control rotary dial is too sensitive — it's too easy to overshoot your desired temperature setting. That's a minor issue, when you realise that everything else feels solid and well built.
That is, until the centre screen on one of the test cars went on the fritz, displaying pretty vertical lines but nothing else.
There's enough seat adjustment and a rake (but not reach) adjustable steering column to find your driving position sweet spot. The front seats were pretty comfortable on the fairly short 150km drive, so no obvious problems there.
The back seat is more of a church pew than a Jason Recliner, but there's enough room back there for two beefy blokes to get comfy; three of them maybe not.
There's no rear centre head restraint on the back bench and no child-seat tether points either.
The rear bumper has rubber tread plates to make it easier to grab gear with the tailgate up.
We didn't get the chance to take the Steed off-road — or even on a dirt road, for that matter — but the specs don't look promising.
The Steed has a fuel-saving 2WD mode, 4WD full-time mode (meaning you can drive on hard surfaces without causing damage to the transfer case) and a low-range, locked centre-diff mode. The electronic engagement is in an odd position, on the periphery of the centre screen. Just don't select the radio when it's low-range that you wanted.
Ground clearance is a pretty poor 171mm, thanks to a support brace across the front suspension underneath. There's no fuel tank protection (although it is tucked up pretty well) and the front bash plate is angled near vertical just under the front bumper. There won't be any sliding over rocks here, but there are solid recovery points, one at each end.
You'll want grab a snorkel for off-roading too. The air intake is mounted low within the engine bay (next to inner guard skin), which is better than some but it's still an area that is likely to get water flow in.
As well, the alternator is below mid-point in the engine bay — again not good if you're crossing muddy water – and there's no room for a second battery unless you somehow re-routed the ABS pump brake lines.
The 2.0-litre diesel doesn't have a lot of urge until the tacho hits around 1500rpm, and from there to 4000rpm it revs surprisingly willingly for a diesel — not that you'd normally rev it that hard. But even with more sympathetic upshifts at 3500rpm at full steam, it's obvious that is isn't the quickest ute around. Mid-range torque is acceptable rather than abundant.
The (manual-only) six-speed 'box was a bit notchy for quick shifts, but give the synchros a bit of time and the changes are positive. It's a good thing.
The Steed rides firmly unladen, but then that's no surprise given it's designed to take up to 1010kg in the tray, and it isn't so bad that it knocks the wind out of you.
You can't expect a dual-cab work ute to carve through corners like a Ferrari, but the Steed is better than you'd think it would be. That said, steering is vague on centre — more so than the better dual-cab utes.
The Steed isn't the blunt instrument you might expect for the price. It's surprisingly well cobbled together and while less turbo lag and more power and torque would be nice, on our first meeting it looks to have a fair bit of promise at the lower end of the ute market.
*Great Wall Motors New Zealand reserves the right to change the information including, but not limited to the models, prices, colors, materials, equipment or other specifications referred to on this site at any time without prior notice. Always consult your Great Wall Motors dealer for latest specifications, availability and pricing. Images for illustration purposes only. All prices are RRP + GST + on road costs. No charge for Metallic paint. E&OE.
If you need assistance contact our Customer care department by completing the online form.


text:
// Define additionally a class LinkedList<T> with a single field FirstElement (of type ListItem<T>).

namespace Task11
{
    using System.Collections;
    using System.Collections.Generic;

    public class MyLinkedList<T> : IEnumerable<T>
    {
        private ListItem<T> firstElement;

        public MyLinkedList()
        {
            this.FirstElement = null;
        }

        public MyLinkedList(ListItem<T> firstElement)
        {
            this.FirstElement = firstElement;
        }

        public ListItem<T> FirstElement
        {
            get { return this.firstElement; }
            set { this.firstElement = value;  }
        }

        public IEnumerator<T> GetEnumerator()
        {
            var currentElement = this.FirstElement;

            while (currentElement != null)
            {
                yield return currentElement.Value;

                currentElement = currentElement.Next;
            }
        }

        IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
        {
            return GetEnumerator();
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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We kindly invite you get to know the new touristic and lifestyle concept that is growing in and with Bela Krajina - one of the most beautiful parts of Slovenia!
Join us for a day in BIG BERRY, feel the innovative spirit and see how we create a better future for Bela Krajina!
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We heard you like outdoors! BIG BERRY offers you various experiences in natural environment such as canoeing, biking, hiking, etc.
BIG BERRY supports and promote more than 35 local partners - farmers, wine producers, activity providers and others. Our goal is to grow together and show the best of Bela Krajina to our guests.
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text:
Q: Using Tailwind CSS with vue-sfc-rollup I'm trying to build a component library using Vue.js 3, Rollup.js, and Tailwind CSS. When I publish it to our NPM registry and install it on another project everything works great except Tailwind. I've tried adding the Tailwind rollup plugin but I have not been able to get it to work. If someone if familiar with using Tailwind with rollup I would appreciate the help.
Here is the rollup.config.js file.
import fs from 'fs';
import path from 'path';
import vue from 'rollup-plugin-vue';
import alias from '@rollup/plugin-alias';
import commonjs from '@rollup/plugin-commonjs';
import resolve from '@rollup/plugin-node-resolve';
import replace from '@rollup/plugin-replace';
import babel from '@rollup/plugin-babel';
import tailwind from 'rollup-plugin-tailwindcss';
import PostCSS from 'rollup-plugin-postcss';
import { terser } from 'rollup-plugin-terser';
import minimist from 'minimist';

// Get browserslist config and remove ie from es build targets
const esbrowserslist = fs.readFileSync('./.browserslistrc')
  .toString()
  .split('\n')
  .filter((entry) => entry && entry.substring(0, 2) !== 'ie');

// Extract babel preset-env config, to combine with esbrowserslist
const babelPresetEnvConfig = require('../babel.config')
  .presets.filter((entry) => entry[0] === '@babel/preset-env')[0][1];

const argv = minimist(process.argv.slice(2));

const projectRoot = path.resolve(__dirname, '..');

const baseConfig = {
  input: 'src/entry.js',
  plugins: {
    preVue: [
      alias({
        entries: [
          {
            find: '@',
            replacement: `${path.resolve(projectRoot, 'src')}`,
          },
        ],
      }),
    ],
    replace: {
      'process.env.NODE_ENV': JSON.stringify('production'),
    },
    vue: {
    },
    postVue: [
      resolve({
        extensions: ['.js', '.jsx', '.ts', '.tsx', '.vue'],
      }),
      tailwind({
        input: '../src/index.css', // required
        purge: true,
      }),
      // Process only `<style module>` blocks.
      PostCSS({
        modules: {
          generateScopedName: '[local]___[hash:base64:5]',
        },
        include: /&module=.*\.css$/,
      }),
      // Process all `<style>` blocks except `<style module>`.
      PostCSS({ include: /(?<!&module=.*)\.css$/ }),
      commonjs(),
    ],
    babel: {
      exclude: 'node_modules/**',
      extensions: ['.js', '.jsx', '.ts', '.tsx', '.vue'],
      babelHelpers: 'bundled',
    },
  },
};

// ESM/UMD/IIFE shared settings: externals
// Refer to https://rollupjs.org/guide/en/#warning-treating-module-as-external-dependency
const external = [
  // list external dependencies, exactly the way it is written in the import statement.
  // eg. 'jquery'
  'vue',
];

// UMD/IIFE shared settings: output.globals
// Refer to https://rollupjs.org/guide/en#output-globals for details
const globals = {
  // Provide global variable names to replace your external imports
  // eg. jquery: '$'
  vue: 'Vue',
};

// Customize configs for individual targets
const buildFormats = [];
if (!argv.format || argv.format === 'es') {
  const esConfig = {
    ...baseConfig,
    input: 'src/entry.esm.js',
    external,
    output: {
      file: 'dist/comp-lib_v2.esm.js',
      format: 'esm',
      exports: 'named',
    },
    plugins: [
      replace(baseConfig.plugins.replace),
      ...baseConfig.plugins.preVue,
      vue(baseConfig.plugins.vue),
      ...baseConfig.plugins.postVue,
      babel({
        ...baseConfig.plugins.babel,
        presets: [
          [
            '@babel/preset-env',
            {
              ...babelPresetEnvConfig,
              targets: esbrowserslist,
            },
          ],
        ],
      }),
    ],
  };
  buildFormats.push(esConfig);
}

if (!argv.format || argv.format === 'cjs') {
  const umdConfig = {
    ...baseConfig,
    external,
    output: {
      compact: true,
      file: 'dist/comp-lib_v2.ssr.js',
      format: 'cjs',
      name: 'CompLib_v2',
      exports: 'auto',
      globals,
    },
    plugins: [
      replace(baseConfig.plugins.replace),
      ...baseConfig.plugins.preVue,
      vue(baseConfig.plugins.vue),
      ...baseConfig.plugins.postVue,
      babel(baseConfig.plugins.babel),
    ],
  };
  buildFormats.push(umdConfig);
}

if (!argv.format || argv.format === 'iife') {
  const unpkgConfig = {
    ...baseConfig,
    external,
    output: {
      compact: true,
      file: 'dist/comp-lib_v2.min.js',
      format: 'iife',
      name: 'CompLib_v2',
      exports: 'auto',
      globals,
    },
    plugins: [
      replace(baseConfig.plugins.replace),
      ...baseConfig.plugins.preVue,
      vue(baseConfig.plugins.vue),
      ...baseConfig.plugins.postVue,
      babel(baseConfig.plugins.babel),
      terser({
        output: {
          ecma: 5,
        },
      }),
    ],
  };
  buildFormats.push(unpkgConfig);
}

// Export config
export default buildFormats;

A: I was able to get this working using the Vite library build config instead of vue-sfc-rollup. Clone my template on GitHub. It provides a baseline component library with Storybooks included or you can rebuild it on your own.
https://github.com/raine-works/component_library

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
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For it is a strength to feel.
the living love Walls complain of.
and I am not one to wear clothing if I don't have to. Minding that skin cleans easier than all the fashions of spring.
I watched three minutes of television in the car. I had to buy a televsion to complain about it. It seems like complaining. But it is criticism. Television is part of environment and a creator of consciousness. It was Fox news I watched, a Televised child's game at Six on a Boston Affiliate. A foolish sight of no research. and I am done, but I wanted to see Micheal Moore. the now famous name, not un-helping the cause of the "Film" maker gone patriot.
Let it show; the most common among us is alive and if nothing changes we will have revolts.
But I have not seen the movie yet. And it seems oxymoronic to mention The National News, from this latest American Media Giant fox who has found the brand of philosophic choices with t(IT)antalization rather than journalism , and reaps well, with only sensationalism, and high schoolish straight tea party criticism, all as common man's media.
I will say what I know. The documentary in our time is changing into a individual realism of inner commonness. Our society is also feeling very useless and wants as much information as the Democratic foundations of one human, one vote. We are driven to pay attention to everything, and the world is changing faster than us. No never accepting, we must. yet accept that intelligence binds us. But even if you know, what do you do?
IF I say hello to you on the street and you turn me away, I look for other forms of connection , of course one came before the other.


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What 5 New Drones Tell Us About the Future of Unmanned Flying
Meet the new UAVs of the 2017 Paris Air Show.
By Joe Pappalardo
The Paris Air Show has become a debutante ball for unmanned aircraft, and what aviation firms are trying to sell here (and how they sell them) can say a lot about the state of the industry. Here are five UAV trends to know this year.
ScanEagle's Softer Side
Insitu (a subsidiary of Boeing) has a true hit on its hands with the ScanEagle, which is popular among a slew of world militaries. The 5-ft drone is launched from a catapult mounted on land or on ships, and can be recovered by flying into a SkyHook aerial catch system that makes runways passé. These can be great tools for extending the awareness on battlefields, especially given their 24-hour flight time, but why not use these proven drones for more peaceful uses?
That's been on Boeing's mind for some time, and it has spent the last three years surveying Shell's oil pipelines in Australia to prove ScanEagle's civilian worth. Meanwhile, the Scan Eagle became one of the first UAVs to get OKed by the Federal Aviation Administration to fly in U.S. airspace for commercial purposes. With these milestones complete, it's time to sell the product. The company is on the scene in Paris on an international marketing mission to make these military favorites even more common over oilfields, scientific expeditions and civilian cargo ships.
Kratos' Killer Wingman
San Diego-based Kratos Defense and Security "will officially unveil a new class of unmanned aerial systems that represent the future of air combat at the 2017 Paris Air Show." That's a bold statement, but the drone the firm is offering, the XQ-222 Valkyrie, symbolizes the way that future drones are going to increase the lethality of other airplanes. Once launched from an aircraft, these 30-foot drones could deliver surveillance equipment or lethal munitions to the most dangerous parts of the battlefield. Essentially, the company is marketing them as fully functional unmanned jet fighters.
One key limitation of these kinds of drones has been range and reusability, but the company has made strides to solve these. The Valkyrie has a range of more than 3,000 nautical miles, enabling it to fly a mission with an F-22 or F-35 and return home to be reused. And with a cost of just $3 million per aircraft, it's not the end of the world if it doesn't make it back. (A Tomahawk missile costs $2.3 million a pop, and they go on one-way trips.) The first flight of the Valkyrie is planned for 2018, but the time to start selling it is apparently now.
Fitting in With Navy Fighters
For unmanned aircraft to truly fit in on naval ships, they need to operate on the same fuel the other aircraft us. This Swiss company (a well-heeled joint venture between Saab and a UAV firm) is billing the Skeldar V-200 unmanned rotorcraft as "the only heavy fuel UAS" currently on the market. It used JP-8 jet fuel, the same stuff that runs all of NATO's aircraft and the most common jet fuel in the world. They system has seen some real world use hunting pirates from Spanish ships. The company is touting big contract announcements for this year's air show, presaging a future for these things buzzing illegal fishing boats, scrying the snorkels of Russian submarines, and tracking pirate scows.
Europe's Stealth Drone
Last March, France and the U.K. announced a new $2.19 billion project to create new military drones. In 2017, the joint group of European aerospace companies "will prepare for the full-scale development of unmanned combat air system (UCAS) operational demonstrators by 2025."
The 2017 air show, then, is a chance to reassure everyone with a stake that progress is happening. That has already led to press conferences with Franck Lejeune, the head of the defense division at the French aerospace research center. He says the goal is to build radar-evading UAVs that could see action by 2030. The program seeks to build "the most stealthy drone possible," he said, describing stealth as "the most important factor in survivability."
Drone or Missile?
Elbit
Drones and missiles are becoming a case of convergent evolution. It's getting harder to tell them apart as missiles get smarter and drones get more suicidal. This trend is on display with Elbit Systems' SkyStriker "loitering munitions system."
The Israeli firm is debuting the deadly drone this year. The small airplane-shaped UAV can launch from a towed carrier, cruise on autopilot, fix targets for its remote operator, and dive directly down on the target. It can carry a 22-lb. warhead for a one-hour flight or an 11-lb. warhead for two hours. Such combinations of unmanned intelligence gathering and precision strike will be more common in the decades ahead. If you want it to come home, the craft pops a parachute and cushions the landing with an airbag.
More From Drones
The Drones That Track Down Buried Warheads
This AI Software Helps Drones Save Lives
Police Drone Finds Fugitive Living in a Cave
What Happens When a Drone Crashes Into Your Face?
Japan Tests New Flying Car Prototype
This Is Amazon's New Hexagonal Drone
This Drone Transport Is Powered By Hydrogen Fuel
The Best Solar Drones That Are Filling the Skies
New Lithium Metal Battery Powers Drones for Longer
Clever New Feet Let Drones Land Like Birds or Bats
Human Spaceflight Needs a Rethink
What the Hummingbird Can Tell Us About Innovation
The Tesla Autopilot Accidents Are a Warning
What the AirAsia 8501 Wreckage Tells Us About the Plane's Fate
15 Things the Next War Will Tell Us About America
Mike Pence's Space Council and U.S. Spaceflight


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Fall Garden Tips to Benefit Bumble Bees All Year
By Michele Blackburn and Rich Hatfield on 30 October 2018
Michele Blackburn and Rich Hatfield
Fall is an important time to create habitat for bumble bees and other native pollinators.
The growing season may be winding down, but fall is an important time to create habitat for bumble bees and other native pollinators. The work you do now will help support overwintering pollinators and support the next generation of bumble bees.
Creating Fall Bee Habitat
As a start, consider leaving some "natural chaos" in the spaces you manage, such as newly fallen leaves, branches and logs, and loose dirt. These elements benefit overwintering queens that need insulation (that's what the leaves are for), and materials to build their overwintering sites (rotting logs and loose dirt).
In this vein, the Xerces Society launched the Leave the Leaves campaign last year, and it is still going strong. The Leave the Leaves campaign encourages homeowners to not only leave their leaves, but also provides ideas on beneficial ways to incorporate them into the landscape. We also recommend creating brush piles and keeping grass tussocks and fallen logs, to help create both overwintering habitat and nest sites. Simple steps like these provide natural habitat for overwintering bumble bees and a host of other beneficial insects. We all will be reaping the rewards in the spring and beyond!
Using Bumble Bee Watch Records to Guide Plant Choice
Depending on your region, fall can be a great time to install new habitat that will support foraging bumble bees next season. Careful planning now can make a big difference when bumble bees need food the most: when they first emerge from hibernation, and food sources are limited. Having floral resources available in early spring is especially important for early-emerging queens as they establish their colony. Putting these plants in the ground now will ensure they are blooming and ready for bumble bees when they wake from their winter slumber.
For guidance on bumble bee habitat needs and their preferred forage plants, in addition to the many printed plant lists available from Xerces and other sources, we've searched Bumble Bee Watch for some bumble bee specific recommendations. The observations in Bumble Bee Watch provide evidence based insight into the needs of different bumble bee species and therefore can help us to create habitat that supports common and rare bumble bees alike.
Early-season flowering shrubs such as rhododendrons are important food sources for bumble bees as they awaken from their winter slumber. (Photo: Xerces Society / Matthew Shepherd)
Bumble Bee Watch records also help to shed light on common early season food plants for bumble bees, and provide information on seasonality of foraging resources. For instance, early-season shrubs like rhododendron, azalea, and willow provide floral resources as soon as bumble bees emerge and help early-emerging species to establish a successful nest. In the west, yellow-faced bumble bees (Bombus vosnesenskii) and black-tailed bumble bees (B. melanopygus) rely on resources of this sort, as does the common eastern bumble bee (B. impatiens) in the east. Other early season shrubs and trees that bumble bees are documented as visiting on Bumble Bee Watch include Ceanothus spp. (California lilac or New Jersey tea) and various apple varieties (Malus spp.). Nearly 20 species of bumble bees have been observed visiting these plants, including rare bumble bees like the western bumble bee (B. occidentalis) and the yellow-banded bumble bee (B. terricola).
While early shrubs and small trees are essential for queens starting a nest, the colony will also need food continually through fall. Although considered primarily as host plants for monarch caterpillars, milkweeds (Asclepias spp.) are a great mid-season native perennial that provide abundant nectar for pollinators, including bumble bees. Records from Bumble Bee Watch suggest this plant supports many different species of bumble bees including four rare bumble bees: Crotch's bumble bee (B. crotchii), western bumble bee, and Morrison's bumble bee (B. morrisoni) in the West and the rusty patched bumble bee (B. affinis) in the Midwest. In addition to these four at-risk bumble bees, Bumble Bee Watch records on milkweed include 21 species from 29 U.S. states and 6 Canadian provinces. It is important to focus on species of milkweed that are native to your area. In that vein, please note: Tropical milkweed should not be used. Please see Tropical Milkweed: A No-Grow for more information. Planting native species of this celebrated monarch host plant in your landscape will benefit a diversity of pollinators!
Asters are an important late-season pollinator resource. Pictured: Great northern aster (Canadanathus modestus). (Photo: Xerces Society / Matthew Shepherd)
Late-flowering species in the aster family such as goldenrod and asters provide forage into September and October. In fact, these are some of the most frequently visited flowers according to Bumble Bee Watch records, with almost 700 records on goldenrod (Solidago spp.) and nearly 450 observations of bumble bees on asters (Symphyotrichum spp.). The records for these two plants come from 24 U.S. states and 9 Canadian provinces, with at least 26 different bumble bee species visiting them, including rare species like the western bumble bee, the yellow-banded bumble bee, and the rusty patched bumble bee.
Once common throughout much of the east, the rusty patched bumble bee has been lost from most of its range, and is now listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For those who live in its former range, we highly recommend utilizing Bumble Bee Watch's data to help build habitat in support of this imperiled species. Of 371 verified Bumble Bee Watch records of this at-risk bumble bee, over 50 percent have been recorded visiting beebalm (Monarda spp.), giant hyssop (Agastache spp.), goldenrod (Solidago spp.), and joe-pye weed (Eutrochium spp.). Of course, we can't promise that these plants will be successful in attracting rusty patched bumble bees to your property, but if they do show up, we know they will appreciate these floral resources. The upshot is that many other pollinators (including monarchs and other bumble bees) will benefit from these flowering plants, too!
The rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) was once common throughout much of the east, but now has been lost from most of its range and is listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. We encourage those who live in its range to plan plantings to support rusty patch populations. (Photo: Xerces Society / Rich Hatfield)
With over one-quarter of bumble bee species on the decline in North America, it is increasingly important to find ways to support these important pollinators. Protecting, creating, and restoring habitat in a diversity of landscapes is critically important to conserve remaining populations of bumble bees from the threats they face. To help researchers learn more about bumble bees and to contribute to their conservation, please consider joining Bumble Bee Watch to participate in this continent-wide effort, and to contribute to this invaluable source of information.
If you live in the Pacific Northwest, your observations can also help to put bumble bees on the map in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington—thanks to a coordinated effort by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, the Xerces Society, Oregon State University, and the Oregon Department of Agriculture. The Pacific Northwest Bumble Bee Atlas aims to understand more about bumble bee distribution and the habitat features that are important to them across the region. Please stay posted as we ramp up for another season of the Atlas project in early spring 2019.
Although many of us, wherever we live, will have to wait until spring for the buzz to return to our landscapes, right now we can sow the seeds that will support bumble bees in our gardens next year. We encourage you to do your part to support the life that sustains us.
(Please note: floral species are not verified on Bumble Bee Watch, thus we are dependent on the knowledge of the contributors that listed these plants as the host plant of the visiting bumble bee.)
Michele Blackburn
Endangered Species Conservation Biologist
Michele provides research and mapping support to inform conservation programs for at-risk invertebrates, including freshwater snails, caddisflies, mayflies, and stoneflies in Oregon, Washington, and California. She conducts surveys for rare butterflies and monitors pollinator diversity at restoration sites in the Pacific Northwest.
Rich Hatfield
Senior Endangered Species Conservation Biologist
Bumble Bee Conservation Lead
Rich manages all aspects of the Xerces Society's work on bumble bees. Rich has a master's degree in conservation biology from San Francisco State University, and he joined the Xerces Society in 2012. While earning his degree, his thesis focused on local- and landscape-level factors that contribute to bumble bee species richness and abundance. He has also investigated native bee pollination in agricultural systems in the Central Valley of California and researched endangered butterflies in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, as well as throughout the Pacific Northwest.
rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis)
Bumble Bee Watch


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Debt Rattle October 5 2018
October 5, 2018 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:05 am Finance Tagged with: China, City of London, GRU, Kavanaugh, Musk, plastics, Russia, SEC, short sellers, spies, stockpiling, Treasuries 7 Responses »
Paul Gauguin Contes barbares 1902
• Economy on Sugar High Before Trade War Worsens (DDMB)
• Gundlach Says Treasury Market Is Witnessing A 'Game Changer' (MW)
• Republicans Aim To Confirm Kavanaugh On Weekend; Protesters Arrested (R.)
• Explosive Report Details Chinese Infiltration Of Apple, Amazon And The CIA (ZH)
• Mattis Says Russian GRU Caught Red-Handed Hacking OPCW (ZH)
• String Of Own Goals By Russian Spies Exposes A Strange Sloppiness (G.)
• Elon Musk Mocks SEC as 'Shortseller Enrichment Commission' (CNBC)
• Elon Musk Accuses BlackRock Of Helping Short Sellers (CNBC)
• EU Tells UK To Stop 'Wasting Time', Find Irish Border Solution (Ind.)
• The Outsized Power Of The City Of London Makes Britain Poorer (G.)
• Huge Rise In US Plastic Waste Shipments To Poor Countries After China Ban (G.)
Later today: Nobel Peace Prize. US jobs numbers. And more Kavanaugh, no doubt.
But first: Stockpiling before tariffs set in.
Across the U.S., companies are hitting the panic button. The Trump administration has levied 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods, a charge that is expected to rise to 25 percent by 2019. This tops the tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods that were imposed in August, and is an effective tax on U.S. consumers, who will soon be paying more for everything from cosmetics to clothing to cars if they aren't already. Against that backdrop, it's becoming clear that many companies are rushing to secure products and materials before prices rise regardless of current demand. You could say they are in panic-buying mode.
The upside is that this behavior bolsters economic growth in the short term. The downside is that there is likely to be a nasty hangover. The noise in the economic data will be amplified by the rebuilding from Hurricane Florence. The estimates of the storm's damage span from $20 billion to $50 billion. Evidence that panic buying has set in was seen in the September Chicago Purchasing Managers Index report, which is a bellwether for the broader national manufacturing sector. While the results "disappointed," with the index falling from 63.6 to a still high 60.4 and the new orders component sinking to a six-month low, the inventory component surged above the 60 mark. (In these diffusion indexes, readings above 50 denote expansion.)
To put the stockpiling in context, inventories have only breached 60 twice this year. Such nosebleed readings are so rare that they rank in the 97th percentile over the last 30 years. As per the Chicago PMI: "Firms continued to add to their stock levels, building on August's marked rise. The scarce availability of inputs continued to encourage stockpiling while forecasts of higher future demand also contributed to the rise in inventories."
Large sums of money are moving.
For investors looking for an inflection point in the bond market, this is it. Jeff Gundlach, chief executive of Doubleline Capital, on Thursday projected that U.S. Treasury yields are likely to rise further and investors should adjust accordingly. The so-called bond king said in an interview with CNN that the 10-year yield could rise to 3.5% and the 30-year could climb to 4%, which are likely to hurt companies sensitive to higher rates, such as auto makers. In a tweet last month, Gundlach had forecast that the 30-year Treasury yield closing above 3.25% two days in a row will signify a "game changer," a view he reiterated Thursday.
His prophecy has been fulfilled. The 30-year Treasury yield ended at 3.357% on Thursday after rising to 3.316% on Wednesday, according to FactSet. The 30-year yield has "definitively broken above a multiyear base that should, over time, carry us to significantly higher yields," Gundlach told Reuters. "Also, the curve is steepening a little in this breakout, which is another sign that the situation has changed." Yields rose sharply this week on the back of strong economic data that supported the widespread belief that the Federal Reserve will maintain its hawkish bias to forestall a possible overheating of the economy.
Ugliness assured.
President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans gained confidence on Thursday that his U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, could win Senate confirmation after two wavering lawmakers responded positively to an FBI report on accusations of sexual misconduct against the judge. The report, sent by the White House to the Senate Judiciary Committee in the middle of the night, was denounced by Democrats as a whitewash that was too narrow in scope and ignored critical witnesses. Thousands of anti-Kavanaugh protesters rallied outside the Supreme Court and entered a Senate office building, holding signs such as "Believe Survivors" and "Kava-Nope."
Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested, including actress Amy Schumer. But Republicans moved forward with plans for a key procedural vote on Friday and a final vote on Saturday on confirming the conservative federal appeals judge for a lifetime job on the top U.S. court. The timing of the vote could be complicated by Republican Senator Steve Daines, whose office said on Thursday he planned to attend his daughter's wedding in Montana on Saturday, making him unavailable to cast his vote.
Was reading this yesterday. What a story.
The story begins with a Silicon Valley startup called Elemental. Founded in 2006 by three engineers who brilliantly anticipated that broadcasters would soon be searching for a way to adapt their programming for streaming over the Internet, and on mobile devices like smartphones, Elemental went about building a "dream team" of coders who designed software to adapt the super-fast graphics chips being designed for video gaming to stream video instead. The company then loaded this software on to special, custom-built servers emblazoned with its logo. These servers then sold for as much as $100,000 a pop – a markup of roughly 70%. In 2009, the company received its first contract with US defense and intelligence contractors, and even received an investment from a CIA-backed venture fund.
Elemental also started working with American spy agencies. In 2009 the company announced a development partnership with In-Q-Tel Inc., the CIA's investment arm, a deal that paved the way for Elemental servers to be used in national security missions across the U.S. government. Public documents, including the company's own promotional materials, show that the servers have been used inside Department of Defense data centers to process drone and surveillance-camera footage, on Navy warships to transmit feeds of airborne missions, and inside government buildings to enable secure videoconferencing. NASA, both houses of Congress, and the Department of Homeland Security have also been customers. This portfolio made Elemental a target for foreign adversaries.
Like many other companies, Elementals' servers utilized motherboards built by Supermicro, which dominates the market for motherboards used in special-purpose computers. It was here, at Supermicro, where the government believes – according to Bloomberg's sources – that the infiltration began. Before it came to dominate the global market for computer motherboards, Supermicro had humble beginnings. A Taiwanese engineer and his wife founded the company in 1993, at a time when Silicon Valley was embracing outsourcing. It attracted clients early on with the promise of infinite customization, employing a massive team of engineers to make sure it could accommodate its clients' every need.
Customers also appreciated that, while Supermicro's motherboards were assembled in China or Taiwan, its engineers were based in Silicon Valley. But the company's workforce featured one characteristic that made it uniquely attractive to China: A sizable portion of its engineers were native Mandarin speakers. One of Bloomberg's sources said the government is still investigating whether spies were embedded within Supermicro or other US companies).
Hard to believe. Holland has been targeting Russia for years, can't trust them when it comes to these stories.
Russia is facing new multiple wide-ranging charges of hacking as Western officials on Wednesday alleged its intelligence agencies conducted four high profile cyber attacks, including an attempt to spy on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is the independent body responsible for investigating chemical attacks in Syria and in the UK. The OPCW is headquartered the Netherlands, and according to breaking reports a group that the Dutch government has alleged are Russian operatives may have been caught red-handed in the act. Moscow has dismissed the charges as but more "Western spy mania" while leveling its own accusations that the Pentagon is conducting an illegal and dangerous germ and bio-weapons research program near Russia's borders.
The BBC reports based on Dutch government statements: "The four suspects identified by Dutch officials had diplomatic passports and included two IT experts and two support agents, officials said. They hired a car and parked it in the car park of the Marriot hotel in The Hague, which is next to the OPCW office, to hack into the OPCW's wifi network, Major General Onno Eichelsheim from the Dutch MIVD intelligence service said." Authorities were quick to release photographs of the group's alleged hacking equipment and computers in the trunk of a car. Police say they are GRU operatives (also known as the Main Intelligence Directorate – the intelligence arm of the Russian military) who planned to intercept login passwords to gain access to OPCW internal files (in what appears to have been a low security environment, given wifi use to store sensitive files).
The Dutch government released the above photo which it says proves Russian spies tried to hack OPCW headquarters
But strangely the four men, identified as spies, were immediately escorted out of the Netherlands as opposed to being detained for further questioning and possible trial. Meanwhile the UK government further accused the GRU of conducting cyber-attacks on private firms in Ukraine and Russia, the US Democratic Party, as well as a small TV network in Britain. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, addressing the charges on Thursday after a two-day meeting in Brussels, said Russia must be held accountable for its attempts to hack the OPCW office.
Not only are Russians mean people, they are dumb too. Who believes that?
It must go down as one of the most embarrassing months ever for Russia's military intelligence. In the 30 days since Theresa May revealed the cover identities of the Salisbury poison suspects, the secretive GRU (now GU) has been publicly exposed by rival intelligence agencies and online sleuths, with an assist from Russia's own president. Despite attempts to stonewall public inquiry, the GRU's dissection has been clinical. The agency has always had a reputation for daring, bolstered by its affiliation with special forces commando units and agents who have seen live combat.
But in dispatching agents to the Netherlands who could, just using Google, be easily exposed as graduates of an elite GRU academy, the agency appears reckless and absurdly sloppy. One of the suspected agents, tipped as a "human intelligence source" by Dutch investigators, had registered five vehicles at a north-western Moscow address better known as the Aquarium, the GRU finishing school for military attaches and elite spies. According to online listings, which are not official but are publicly available to anyone on Google, he drove a Honda Civic, then moved on to an Alfa Romeo. In case the address did not tip investigators off, he also listed the base number of the Military-Diplomatic Academy.
A judge just oredred Musk and the SEC to explain their settlement.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk mocked the Securities and Exchange Commission in a tweet Thursday, calling the agency the "Shortseller Enrichment Commission," days after settling fraud charges brought against him by the agency. The tweet, which is missing a word and appears to take a sarcastic tone, says "the Shortseller Enrichment Commission is doing incredible work" and commends the SEC on a name change that did not occur. Musk doubled down on the remark when another Twitter user said Musk needs a "a social team that can get attention without typos and without enraging the Shortseller Enrichment Committee." The Tesla CEO asked, "Why would they be upset about their mission? It's what they do."
Hardly ever a useful idea to go after short sellers.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has accused large fund managers such as BlackRock for fueling short sellers, a group of investors he has been criticizing on his Twitter account. In a series of Twitter posts on Thursday night, Musk alleged that BlackRock and other financial firms pocket "excessive profit" from lending shares they hold to short sellers because "they're suffering a net loss." Short sellers are investors who bet on the decline of a security, such as a stock. They make money by selling the shares they borrow, and hope the price falls so they can buy them back at a lower price and make profits from it.
Musk also said those funds were "pretending to charge low rates" for their passive "index tracking" products. Fund managers have lowered management fees on certain products due to increased competition in the space. Fidelity Investments said last month it was launching two no-fee index funds, while Vanguard announced in July that investors using its online brokerage platform could trade exchange-traded funds without commission. At the same time, fund managers have been growing their business in securities lending — which is the process of temporarily transferring ownership of shares or bonds to another party, such as short sellers.
The companies earn a fee in return for loaning out their holdings. Securities lending is a lucrative business, according to an opinion piece by Financial Times in April. The newspaper, which cited a regulatory filing, said BlackRock made $597 million in revenue last year from lending securities. Musk hit out at that practice, saying "there is no rational basis" for long-term shareholders to engage in that business. He claimed that doing so "dilutes the shareholder base" while giving short sellers "a strong incentive to attack the company by whatever means possible."
The EU should not let Tusk do these things, he's too easy a target. Let Barnier do the talking.
The EU has told the UK to stop "wasting time" and find a solution to the Irish border row, with just two weeks until the next showdown summit over Brexit. Donald Tusk, the European Council president, turned his fire on Jeremy Hunt for likening the EU to the Soviet Union – accusing ministers of rousing the Tory faithful, instead of striving to reach an agreement. "Unacceptable remarks that raise the temperature will achieve nothing except wasting more time," Mr Tusk said. "I was a party leader myself for 15 years, so I know what the rules of party politics are. But now, once the Tory conference is over, we should get down to business."
Speaking alongside Leo Varadkar, the Irish president, Mr Tusk made clear the EU remained "united behind Ireland" in its determination to prevent a return to border posts and checks. But he also made clear his anger at the delay to Theresa May's promised fresh border proposals – linking it to a reluctance to risk a backlash at the Tory conference. In Birmingham, Mr Hunt, the foreign secretary, triggered fury across the EU by accusing it of trying to keep the UK in a "prison" with behaviour similar to the Soviet Union. After the Salzburg summit, the prime minister accused Mr Tusk of showing disrespect, but he tuned that accusation on the UK, saying: "In respecting our partners, we expect the same in return.
It sucks too many resources from the 'periphery'. Re: Rome.
To argue that the City hurts Britain's economy might seem crazy. But research increasingly shows that all the money swirling around our oversized financial sector may actually be making us collectively poorer. As Britain's economy has steadily become re-engineered towards serving finance, other parts of the economy have struggled to survive in its shadow, like seedlings starved of light and water under the canopy of a giant, deep-rooted and invasive tree. Generations of leaders from Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair to Theresa May have believed that the City is the goose that lays Britain's golden eggs, to be prioritised, pampered and protected. But the finance curse analysis shows an oversized City to be a different bird: a cuckoo in the nest, crowding out other sectors.
[..] A growing body of economic research confirms that once a financial sector grows above an optimal size and beyond its useful roles, it begins to harm the country that hosts it. The most obvious source of damage comes in the form of financial crises – including the one we are still recovering from a decade after the fact. But the problem is in fact older, and bigger. Long ago, our oversized financial sector began turning away from supporting the creation of wealth, and towards extracting it from other parts of the economy. To achieve this, it shapes laws, rules, thinktanks and even our culture so that they support it. The outcomes include lower economic growth, steeper inequality, distorted markets, spreading crime, deeper corruption, the hollowing-out of alternative economic sectors and more.
Stop producing the stuff. It's not hard. Stop using it.
Exports of plastic waste from the US to developing countries have surged following China's crackdown on foreign waste imports, new research has shown. Nearly half of plastic waste exported from the US for recycling in the first six months of 2018 was shipped to Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam, according to analysis of US census bureau data by Unearthed, Greenpeace's investigative arm. The previous year, the US sent more than 70% to China and Hong Kong. This year's ban on foreign waste imports by China, previously the world's biggest importer of plastic waste for recycling, has left western countries scrambling to offload its extra plastic waste. The US, along with Britain, Germany, Japan and Mexico, is among the biggest exporters of scrap plastic to China.
Campaigners said the analysis, which Unearthed shared with the Guardian, shows the US is exploiting developing countries where there is no regulatory framework to ensure plastic waste is processed in an environmentally friendly way. "Instead of taking responsibility for their own waste, US companies are exploiting developing countries that lack the regulation to protect themselves," said John Hocevar, Oceans campaign director for Greenpeace USA. The waste, some of which consists of household recycling produced in the US, includes single-use plastic bottles, plastic bags and food wrappings, said Hocevar. It can, however, contain toxic materials. "It's a problem for the US and other developed countries to produce, often, toxic material which they can't or won't take care of themselves."
May 29, 2018 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:13 am Finance Tagged with: accounting, Brexit, Deutsche, euro, Great Barrier, Italy, NHS, plastics, rupiah, Savona, short sellers, yuan 4 Responses »
Roy Lichtenstein Crying girl 1963
• Showdown Looms In Italy As Caretaker PM Assembles Team (AFP)
• The Biggest Short-Sellers Of Italian Bonds (ZH)
• If Italy Exits The Euro, It Could Be The End Of The Single Currency (Tel.)
• Stock Market Borrowing at All Time High, Increasing Risk of Downdrafts (NC)
• The Financial Scandal No One Is Talking About (G.)
• Fears Of Bad Brexit Deal Raise Tension Between Bank of England, Treasury (G.)
• Eastern, Southern African Finance Leaders Debate Yuan As Reserve Currency (R.)
• Indonesia's Currency Is Spiraling. Sacrifices Are Needed To Save It (CNBC)
• Papua New Guinea Bans Facebook For A Month To Root Out 'Fake Users' (G.)
• Deutsche Bank Chief Economist Lashes Out At Former CEO Ackermann (HB)
• Fake Maths: The NHS Doesn't Need £2,000 From Each Household To Survive (G.)
• After China's Waste Import Ban EU Wants To Get Rid Of Single-Use Plastics (RT)
• Great Barrier Reef On Sixth Life In 30,000 Years (AFP)
A team he knows will never be accepted.
Italy's caretaker prime minister was Tuesday assembling a cabinet lineup despite almost certain rejection by the populists whose bid for power collapsed at the weekend. Fresh elections are now looming as the most likely outcome of the long-running political saga sparked by inconclusive elections in March. Carlo Cottarelli, a former IMF economist, was tasked with naming a technocrat government on Monday after President Sergio Mattarella nixed a cabinet proposed by the far-right League and anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S). The president in particular vetoed their pick for economy minister, fierce eurosceptic Paolo Savona, throwing the eurozone's third largest economy into a fresh crisis.
Savona has called the euro a "German cage" and said that Italy needs a plan to leave the single currency "if necessary". Mattarella said that an openly eurosceptic economy minister was counter to the parties' joint promise to simply "change Europe for the better from an Italian point of view". Cottarelli said Italy would face new elections "after August" if parliament did not endorse his team, a near certainty given that M5S and the League together hold a majority. [..] Salvini and Di Maio furiously denounced the presidential veto, blasting what they called meddling by Germany, debt ratings agencies, financial lobbies and even lies from Mattarella's staff. "Paolo Savona would not have taken us out of the euro. It's a lie invented by Mattarella's advisors," Di Maio said in a live video on Facebook. "The truth is that they don't want us in government."
Draghi vs the vigilantes.
[..] it was in December when we first pointed out a dramatic observation by Citi, which noted that over the past several years, the only buyer of Italian government bonds was the ECB, and that even the smallest political stress threatened a repeat of the 2011 "Berlusconi" scenario, when the freshly minted new ECB head Mario Draghi sent Italian yields soaring to prevent populist forces from seizing power in Italy. Or maybe it didn't, and it only took the bulls far longer than the bear to admit that nothing in Europe had been fixed, even as the bears were already rampaging insider Europe's third largest economy.
Consider that according to the latest IHS Markit data, demand to borrow Italian government bonds — an indicator of of short selling — was up 33% to $33.3 billion worth of debt this year to Tuesday while demand to borrow bonds from other EU countries excluding Italy has risen only 5% this year. That said, things certainly accelerated over the last week, when demand to borrow Italian bonds soared by $1.2 billion, which according to WSJ calculations, takes demand, i.e. short selling, close to its highest level since the financial crisis in 2008 (while demand to borrow bonds from EU countries excluding Italy has fallen by $800 million over the past week).
Said otherwise, while the events over the past week may have come as a surprise to many, to the growing crowd of Italian bond shorts today's plunge and the blowout in Italian-German spreads was not only expected, but quite predictable and extremely lucrative… which is also a major problem as Brussels is well-known to take it very personally when a hedge fund profits from the ongoing collapse of Europe's failing experiment in common everything, and tends to create huge short squeezes in the process, no matter how obvious the (doomed) final outcome is.
Sorry, but I said it a lot better on Friday.
You might think that it would be fitting if the European Union were to come to a sticky end because of Italy. After all, the agreement that established the entity that we now call the European Union was signed in Rome. For several decades after that 1957 treaty, Italy was one of the strongest supporters of the European project. Having endured first fascism and then, after the war, unstable and ineffectual government, it suffered none of the angst about the loss of sovereignty that plagued British debates about joining the European Community. Moreover, in the early years of the union, Italy prospered. At one point its GDP overtook the UK's, an event that was widely celebrated in Italy as "il sorpasso", the surpassing, or, if you like, the overtaking.
But the overtaking did not last long. Indeed, since the euro was formed in 1999, the Italian economy has grown by a mere 9%, or less than 0.5% per annum. Over the same period, the UK economy has grown by 42%. This recent disastrous economic performance, plus mounting anxiety about inward migration and the fact that the EU has left Italy to cope with this huge influx on its own, has changed many Italians' attitudes to the EU. Understandably. These failings go to the heart of the EU project. The truth is that Italy should never have joined the euro in the first place. And it isn't only Anglo-Saxon euro pessimists such as myself who believe this. At the time the German Bundesbank was appalled at the idea that Italy should be admitted. After all, even then it had a huge public debt and a history of high inflation offset by frequent currency depreciation.
"..the Chinese stock markets permit a much higher level of borrowings than those in the West.."
I find it hard to get excited about stock market risks unless defaults on the borrowings can damage the banking/payments system, as they did in the Great Crash. This is one reason the China perma-bears have a point: even though the Chinese government has managed to do enough in the way of rescues and warnings to keep its large shadow banking system from going "boom," the Chinese stock markets permit a much higher level of borrowings than those in the West, which could make them the detonator for knock-on defaults. The US dot-com bubble featured a high level of margin borrowing, but because the US adopted rules so that margin accounts that get underwater are closed and liquidated pronto, limiting damage to the broker-dealer, a stock market panic in the US should not have the potential to produce a credit crisis.
But if stock market bubble has been big enough, a stock market meltdown can hit the real economy, as we saw in the early 2000s recession. Recall that Greenspan, who saw the stock market as part of the Fed's mission, dropped interest rates and kept them low for a then unprecedented nine quarters, breaking the central bank's historical pattern of reducing rates only briefly. Greenspan, as did the Bank of Japan in the late 1980s, believed that the robust stock market prices produced a wealth effect and stimulated consumer spending. It isn't hard to see that even if this were true, it's a very inefficient way to try to spur growth, since the affluent don't have anything approach the marginal propensity to spend of poor and middle class households.
Subsequent research has confirmed that the wealth effect of higher equity prices is modest; home prices have a stronger wealth effect. A second reason for seeing stock prices as potentially significant right now be is that the rally since Trump won the election is important to many of his voters. I have yet to see any polls probe this issue in particular, but in some focus groups, when Trump supporters are asked why they are back him, some give rise in their portfolios as the first reason for approving of him. They see him as having directly improved their net worth.1
For centuries, accounting itself was a fairly rudimentary process of enabling the powerful and the landed to keep tabs on those managing their estates. But over time, that narrow task was transformed by commerce. In the process it has spawned a multi-billion-dollar industry and lifestyles for its leading practitioners that could hardly be more at odds with the image of a humble number-cruncher. Just four major global firms – Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Ernst & Young (EY) and KPMG – audit 97% of US public companies and all the UK's top 100 corporations, verifying that their accounts present a trustworthy and fair view of their business to investors, customers and workers.
They are the only players large enough to check the numbers for these multinational organisations, and thus enjoy effective cartel status. Not that anything as improper as price-fixing would go on – with so few major players, there's no need. "Everyone knows what everyone else's rates are," one of their recent former accountants told me with a smile. There are no serious rivals to undercut them. What's more, since audits are a legal requirement almost everywhere, this is a state-guaranteed cartel. Despite the economic risks posed by misleading accounting, the bean counters perform their duties with relative impunity.
The big firms have persuaded governments that litigation against them is an existential threat to the economy. The unparalleled advantages of a guaranteed market with huge upside and strictly limited downside are the pillars on which the big four's multi-billion-dollar businesses are built. They are free to make profit without fearing serious consequences of their abuses, whether it is the exploitation of tax laws, slanted consultancy advice or overlooking financial crime.
Interesting fight.
The growing risk of a bad Brexit deal for the City of London is causing severe tensions between the Bank of England and the Treasury, according to reports. Amid mounting fears that Brussels will reject plans put forward by the chancellor, Philip Hammond, for maintaining close ties with the EU for financial services, the Financial Times reported that Bank officials are at loggerheads with the Treasury over the search for a "Plan B" arrangement. Threadneedle Street fears it could be left as a "rule taker" should Britain agree to a new deal that maintains European market access for financial firms without giving the Bank sufficient control over City regulations in future. The concerns stem from the sprawling scale of the City as one of the biggest financial centres in the world.
Mark Carney, the Bank's governor, used a speech in London last week to highlight the risks posed to the financial system from Brexit and said it was one of the issues raised by Britain leaving the European Union that made him most "nervous". He also warned in plain terms last year that "we do not want to be a rule taker as an authority". According to the FT, a number of officials at Threadneedle Street said Jon Cunliffe, the Bank's deputy governor for financial stability, had fallen out with the Treasury over the issue. The paper quoted one anonymous official saying "the fear is the Treasury is going to give it all away". The breakdown in relations comes as Hammond strives to prevent an exodus of international banks from the Square Mile, having attempted to reassure them in March that the UK would seek to maintain European market access after Brexit.
Eastern and southern African central bankers and government officials are to consider the use of China's yuan as a reserve currency for the region, the official Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday. Seventeen top central bankers and officials from 14 countries in the region will meet at a forum in Harare to consider the viability of the Chinese yuan as a reserve currency, Xinhua said, citing a statement from the Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa (MEFMI). The forum, to take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, will be attended by deputy permanent secretaries and deputy central bank governors, as well as officials from the African Development Bank, Xinhua reported.
Attendees will strategies on the weakening external positions of most member countries, following the global economy slowdown. "Most countries in the MEFMI region have loans or grants from China and it would only make economic sense to repay in termini (Chinese yuan)," said MEFMI spokesperson Gladys Siwela-Jadagu. "This is the reason why it is critical for policy makers to strategize on progress that the continent has made to embrace the Chinese yuan which has become what may be termed 'common currency' in trade with Africa," she added. "Ascendancy of Chinese yuan in the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket of currencies is an important symbol of its importance and the IMF's approval as an official reserve currency," said Siwela-Jadagu.
Argentina, Turkey, Indonesia. Next!
Indonesia's rupiah has been growing worryingly weak, and the country's central bank has seen little success after multiple attempts to prop up the currency. Now, Bank Indonesia said it will meet again on Wednesday — and speculations are rife that the central bank has more tricks up its sleeve. The rupiah has been one of the worst-hit Asian currencies as investors pull out of the Indonesian stock and bond markets amid rising U.S. Treasury yields and strengthening in the greenback. The falling value of the rupiah could spell trouble for the country's large foreign currency debt, and the outflows from its bonds are bad news for its government.
The central bank has tried to stem the currency weakness with measures including hiking interest rates and buying sovereign bonds, but the rupiah still depreciated: It fell to 14,202 per U.S. dollar on May 23. That was the weakest in more than two years. With the persistent rupiah weakness, more "rate hikes may be needed, with the next one possibly as early as this week," Eugene Leow, a strategist at Singapore's DBS Bank, wrote in a Monday note. The central bank hiked interest rates by 25 basis points in its mid-May meeting — the first raise since November 2014. Central bankers were scheduled to convene again in June, but Bank Indonesia last Friday said an additional policy meeting would be held on May 30.
Censors?!
The Papua New Guinean government will ban Facebook for a month in a bid to crack down on "fake users" and study the effects the website is having on the population. The communication minister, Sam Basil, said the shutdown would allow his department's analysts to carry out research and analysis on who was using the platform, and how they were using it, admits rising concerns about social well-being, security and productivity. "The time will allow information to be collected to identify users that hide behind fake accounts, users that upload pornographic images, users that post false and misleading information on Facebook to be filtered and removed," Basil told the Post Courier newspaper. "This will allow genuine people with real identities to use the social network responsibly."
Basil has repeatedly raised concerns about protecting the privacy of PNG's Facebook users in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica revelations, which found Facebook had leaked the personal data of tens of millions of users to a private company. The minister has closely followed the US Senate inquiry into Facebook. "The national government, swept along by IT globalisation, never really had the chance to ascertain the advantages or disadvantages [of Facebook] – and even educate and provide guidance on use of social networks like Facebook to PNG users," said Basil last month. "The two cases involving Facebook show us the vulnerabilities that Papua New Guinean citizens and residents on their personal data and exchanges when using this social network."
Blame game. Deutsche is hanging in the ropes.
German executives rarely wash their dirty laundry in public. This week was a notable exception, when David Folkerts-Landau, Deutsche Bank's chief economist, accused his former bosses of causing the bank's current woes by racing hell-for-leather into investment banking. Mr. Folkerts-Landau, who has been with Deutsche's investment banking division for over two decades, accused its former CEOs of reckless expansion and of losing control of the ship. "Since the mid-1990s, the bank's management has left operational and strategic control of its financial markets business to the traders," he said in an interview with Handelsblatt. The bank is still reeling from the consequences of this "reverse takeover," the economist said.
Deutsche Bank has accumulated more than €9 billion in losses over the past three years, due chiefly to the woes of its investment banking division. The bank is in the throes of a revamp intended to refocus operations on more stable sources of revenue, such as private and commercial banking and asset management. Mr. Folkerts-Landau singled out Josef Ackermann, the bank's flamboyant boss from 2002 to 2012, for particular criticism over his aggressive expansion into investment banking. "Ackermann was (…) fixed on the magic goal of a return on equity of 25% before taxes. At that time, however, this could only be achieved by accepting major financial and ethical risks," said the German-born economist. After the financial crisis, Mr. Ackermann rejected state aid from the German authorities and postponed tackling the bank's structural problems, Mr. Folkerts-Landau added.
Yeah, you can do the math in many different ways.
Last week, the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Health Foundation published a report on funding for health and social care. One figure from the report was repeated across the headlines. For the NHS to stay afloat, it would require "£2,000 in tax from every household". Shocking stuff! The trouble with figures like this is that while there may be a sense in which this is mathematically true, that kind of framing is dangerously close to being false. If you're sitting at a bar with a group of friends and Bill Gates walks in, the average wealth of everyone in the room makes you all millionaires. But if you try to buy the most expensive bottle of champagne in the place, your debit card will still be declined.
Similarly, the IFS calculated its "average" figures by taking the total amount it calculated the NHS would need and dividing it by the number of households in the country. That's certainly one way of doing it – it's not wrong per se – but in terms of informing people about the actual impact on their own finances, it's very misleading. We have progressive taxation in this country: not every household gets an equally sized bill. Could you pay more if the government chose to cover the cost of social care through a bump in income tax? Sure, but for the vast majority of the country it would be a few hundred pounds.
That's without engaging with the underlying assumption that a bump in income tax is the way the government will choose to go. Some people have argued that, since the last couple of decades have seen wealth accumulate disproportionately at the very top, government should tax wealth rather than income. Alternatively, researchers have shown that health spending is one of the best ways to stimulate the economy, so the government could opt against tax increases in the short term and instead let healthcare spending act as a fiscal stimulus, at least until purchasing power had increased.
The reason why is revealing.
The European Commission wants to ban single-use plastic products like disposable cutlery, straws and cotton buds to fight the plastic epidemic littering our oceans – months after China banned millions of tons of imported EU waste. The EC unveiled the market ban proposal on Monday, which included 10 items that make up 70% of all the marine litter in the EU. As well as the aforementioned items, the list includes plastic plates, drink stirrers, sticks for balloons and single-use plastic drinks containers. The crackdown comes less than six months after the EU announced its first-ever Europe-wide strategy on plastic recycling following China's ban on waste imports from Western countries.
At the end of 2017, Beijing banned the import of 24 types of waste from the US and EU and accused the nations of flouting waste standard rules. The new proposal says the ban on single-use plastic products will be in place wherever there are "readily available and affordable" alternatives. Where there aren't "straight-forward alternatives," the focus will be on limiting their use through a national reduction in consumption. In order for the products to be sold in the EU, they will have to be made exclusively from sustainable materials. Single-use drink containers will only be allowed on the market if their caps and lids remain attached.
[..] The EC's proposal will now go to the European Parliament and Council for adoption. It will need the approval of all EU member states and the European Parliament in order to pass – a process which could take three to four years before the rules come into force. Once fully implemented in 2030, the EC estimates that the new measures could cost businesses more than €3 billion ($3.5 billion) per year. But they could also save consumers about €6.5 billion per year, create 30,000 jobs and avoid €22 billion in environmental damage and cleanup costs.
Resilient little bugger.
Australia's Great Barrier Reef, under severe stress in a warmer, more acidic ocean, has returned from near-extinction five times in the past 30,000 years, researchers said Monday. And while this suggests the reef may be more resilient than once thought, it has likely never faced an onslaught quite as severe as today, they added. "I have grave concerns about the ability of the reef in its current form to survive the pace of change caused by the many current stresses and those projected into the near future," said Jody Webster of the University of Sydney, who co-authored a paper in the journal Nature Geoscience.
In the past, the reef shifted along the sea floor to deal with changes in its environment – either seaward or landward depending on whether the level of the ocean was rising or falling, the research team found. Based on fossil data from cores drilled into the ocean floor at 16 sites, they determined the Great Barrier Reef, or GBR for short, was able to migrate between 20 centimetres (7.9 inches) and 1.5 metres per year. This rate may not be enough to withstand the current barrage of environmental challenges. The reef "probably has not faced changes in SST (sea surface temperature) and acidification at such a rate," Webster told AFP. Rates of change "are likely much faster now — and in future projections."


Manchester United have seemingly been handed a boost in their reported attempts to try and sign Edinson Cavani after the agent of the Paris Saint-Germain striker agent refused to rule out a move to England this summer.
The future of the Uruguay star – who has previously been linked with the Red Devils and Arsenal – was put into the spotlight this week after the striker exchanged words with PSG coach Laurent Blanc during his side's win in Marseille at the weekend.
Despite Cavani insisting before the match that 'everything is perfect' in the French capital, the player's agent has now opened the door for his client to potentially join a Premier League side in the summer.
Claudio Anellucci told Italian publication La Gazzetta dello Sport: 'Is Cavani on the market? At the moment it is a bit too early to say.
'Edi is under contract with PSG, and there are several factors that come into play with regards to his future.
'As soon as the situation is clarified, different scenarios could occur, for players like him, at this level of maturity, they are wanted by the biggest clubs in Europe. The market takes them towards Spain and England.
Cavani, 28, joined PSG from Napoli in a £55million deal in 2013, and is under contract with the Ligue 1 side until 2018.


text:
BREAKING - Taleban wants Afghans to stay, expects foreign evacuations to end by Aug 31
KABUL (REUTERS) - The Taleban expect foreign evacuations from
Kabul to be completed by the end of the month, the Islamist group's main spokesman said on Tuesday (Aug 24), urging Afghans to stay to help rebuild their country.
Zabihullah Mujahid said the movement had not agreed to an extension of an Aug 31 deadline which he said had been agreed with the United States to pull out of Afghanistan, and he said the group wanted all evacuations to end by that date.
"The extension was unilateral by the side of the United States," he said, apparently referring to a comment by Biden last week that US troops may stay beyond Aug 31.
"It was a violation of the agreement. We want them to evacuate all foreign nationals by Aug 31," Mujahid said, according to his translator. "And we are not in favour of allowing Afghans to leave."
A US administration official said on Tuesday that Biden had accepted a Pentagon recommendation to remove US troops from Afghanistan by the end of the month, but that the decision was contingent on whether the Taleban cooperates in helping the United States complete evacuations.
It was not clear whether the Taleban spokesman's comment indicated that there would be a formal ban on Afghans leaving the country.
He said crowds thronging outside the airport could go home and their security would be guaranteed and he called on the United States not to encourage educated and trained Afghans to leave their country.
"We need their expertise," he said, adding that once security was re-established, women would be able to return to work as normal.
He also denied reports that Taleban patrols were conducting house to house searches to find targets for reprisals, saying: "We have forgotten everything in the past."
Fear and uncertainty in the Kabul airport crowds
'No change to timeline' of Afghan mission: Pentagon
Cultism News


Crochet cables, which look like little round buds, create beautiful patterns and are often seen on sweaters. This tutorial shows you how to master this unique crochet pattern. All you need is crochet yarn, a hook, and a little bit of patience.
Gweneth cables complement afgan scarves, mittens, and even crochet bikinis.


text:
ASRM Appoints SPARGO as their Official Exposition Sales and Meeting Management Firm
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine Appoints SPARGO, Inc. as Official Exposition Sales and Meeting Management Firm for its Annual Scientific Congress and Exposition
In November 2018, SPARGO, Inc. will assume responsibility for the management of the ASRM Annual Scientific Congress and Exposition. In this role SPARGO will provide meeting management services, logistical support, exposition space and exhibitor marketing opportunity sales, and management of exposition operations.
The Annual Scientific Congress, which has seen steady growth in attendance and exhibitor participation, brings together scientists from around the world to discuss the advancement of the science and practice of reproductive medicine. The Society accomplishes its mission through the pursuit of excellence in education and research and through advocacy on behalf of patients, physicians, and affiliated health care providers. The Society is committed to facilitating and sponsoring educational activities for the lay public and continuing medical education activities for professionals who are engaged in the practice of and research in reproductive medicine.
"We are proud to partner with SPARGO, Inc. Our aim is to continually improve the Scientific Congress experience for attendees and exhibitors and we are confident that SPARGO's experienced team of event management professionals will help us to fulfill this mission," says Dr. Richard Reindollar, Chief Executive Officer at ASRM.
"We are honored to have been selected to partner with ASRM to deliver improved attendee experiences and increased exhibitor satisfaction," says Susan Bracken, President and CEO at SPARGO, Inc.
About ASRM:
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine was founded by a small group of fertility experts who met in Chicago in 1944. Distinguished members of ASRM have led the development of the field of reproductive medicine. They were among the first physicians to perform many of the standard procedures used by fertility specialists today, including donor insemination and in vitro fertilization; they have developed new approaches to contraception and ovulation induction that are still in use; and they have helped form key legislation and fought for reproductive rights when public policy in reproductive matters did not exist.
Today, ASRM members reside in all 50 of the United States and in more than 100 other countries. The Society is multidisciplinary, with members including obstetrician/gynecologists, urologists, reproductive endocrinologists, embryologists, mental health professionals, internists, nurses, practice administrators, attorneys, laboratory technicians, pediatricians, research scientists, and veterinarians. The ASRM has an administrative office in Birmingham, Alabama, and a public affairs office in Washington, D.C. Policy is set by an elected Board of Directors and implemented by a Chief Executive Office and an accomplished staff.
Last modified on Wednesday, November 28, 2018 2:18:48 PM