text:
Gorz: "The Right to an Income and the Right to Work," part one
Sandwichman | May 26, 2018 8:18 am
From "Orientations and Proposals — The Reduction of Working Time: Issues and Policies" of Andre Gorz's Critique of Economic Reason (1989) translated by Gillian Handyside and Chris Turner. I am posting the section on "The Right to an Income and the Right to Work" in two parts. This is part one:
The Right to an Income and The Right to Work
When the production process demands less work and distributes less and less wages, it gradually becomes obvious that the right to an income can no longer be reserved for those who have a job; nor, most importantly, can the level of incomes be made to depend on the quantity of work furnished by each person. Hence the idea of guaranteeing an income to every citizen which is not linked to work, or the quantity of work done.
This idea haunts all the industrialized capitalist world of today. It has as many supporters on the Right as on the Left. To look only at recent history, it was (re)launched in the USA at the end of the 1950s by left Democrats and libertarians on the one hand and by neo-liberals (principally Milton Friedman) on the other. Since the end of the 1960s, several local experiments with a local basic income guarantee have been conducted in the USA. Richard Nixon tabled a bill to introduce a measure of this kind in 1972 and it was narrowly defeated. In the same year, George McGovern, the Democratic presidential candidate, included the guaranteed income in his programme. The object was to find a cure for poverty, which showed up more in the USA than elsewhere on account of the absence of a nationwide statutory social insurance system. The guaranteed income was meant as a substitute for such a scheme. European neo-liberals now dream of substituting such a basic income guarantee for the existing welfare-state institutions.
In Europe, discussion of an income dissociated from work revived in the early eighties. The Netherlands, Denmark and Great Britain had already implemented the idea. It was in the Federal Republic of Germany that the most sophisticated debate developed, after 1982, at the instigation of the Greens, who were soon joined in the debate by conservatives and social democrats. Everyone was agreed on the principle, formulated in these terms by Claus Offe: 'We must break with a development which has led the majority of the population to depend for their subsistence on the labour market.' The labour market, quite obviously, could no longer guarantee to everyone the possibility of earning their living. In other words, the right to an income could no longer be equated with the right to a wage. It was to be decided, however, whether the right to an income was also to be dissociated from the right to work (in the economic sense).
It was on this latter question that the Right/Left dichotomy gradually reappeared, at least in Germany. In France, where the guaranteed basic income was still being rejected, even in 1983, as utopian (in the pejorative sense of the term), the greater part of the Left, Right and centre suddenly found themselves in agreement on the necessity for it (if not on the form it should take): Aide a Toute Detresse, the abbe Pierre, the 'Restaurants du Creur' and the increasing spread of begging and poverty had made their mark. There were men and women who had never worked, and others at 45 who would never work again; there were the handicapped, the sick, the unstable, single-parent families of varying sizes, and so on. They could not simply all be allowed to sink; something would therefore 'have to be done' and, since it was an emergency, one would have to attack the effects without trying to locate the causes.
The emergency thus served as an alibi for avoiding any debate on the societal implications' that are involved here: will the guaranteed minimum be a temporary palliative whilst we wait to see the policies of redistributing work come to fruition? Is it to begin the transition towards a society where work (in the economic sense) will become intermittent for all and where the second cheque will ensure a normal standard of living during the periods when one is not working? Or will it be the 'opium of the people which allows a third of the population to be reduced to inactivity and silence so that the other two thirds can between them enjoy society's wealth in peace'? Will it serve to render an extension of unemployment and marginality socially tolerable, these things being considered inevitable consequences (if not indeed conditions) of economic rationalization?
The question is as old as the industrial revolution itself or, in other words, as the disintegration of society by capitalism. For the first forms of guaranteed minima reach back as far as the beginnings of industrialization: to the Speenhamland decision in 1795 followed by the Poor Laws which took a great variety of forms over the years and the traces of which are still discernible in British social legislation today. These Poor Laws, introduced from the end of the eighteenth century onwards, were supposed to ensure each inhabitant of the rural parish received a minimum subsistence income indexed to the price of bread. Just like certain forms of social minimum envisaged by today's neo-liberals, the Speenhamland decision was accompanied by the suppression of the forms of social protection which the landless workers in the rural areas had enjoyed up to that point. They had in the past always had the right to grow a little grain and some vegetables on the common land and to graze a few sheep here. This right was taken away from them when common property was abolished and lands were enclosed and allotted to landowners. This measure had a dual objective: to develop commercial farming at the expense of the growing of foodstuffs for one's own consumption and to force the landless countryfolk to sell their labour to the landowners.
These latter had no need, however, to employ a permanent additional labour force. The Poor Laws would relieve them of the need to do this and, by ensuring the survival of the unemployed, spare them any bad conscience. There was an even worse side to it: whereas in the past the landowners had maintained a labour force that was large enough so that they would not be short of hands during ploughing or harvesting, the Poor Laws would allow them to replace their permanent workers with journeymen whom they packed off back home once the harvest was in to live on the subsistence minimum which the parish was required to pay to the poverty-stricken. We can see the parallel with the present situation. Today, too, the reduction of the proportion of permanent waged workers and the increase in the number of casual or temporary workers, consigned to unemployment for part of the year, presuppose that a subsistence minimum be paid to those men and women who cannot find work for long enough periods to qualify for unemployment benefit.
This is why the debate on the amount of the guaranteed minimum, however important it may be in the short term for the victims of 'rationalization', masks the deep significance of the very principle of this form of guarantee. It is not, in fact, paid out of solidarity, but as an act of institutional charity. And like every charitable institution, it is conservative in intention: instead of combating the segmentation and South Africanisation of society, it tends to make these things more acceptable. The guaranteed minimum functions as the wages of marginality and social exclusion. Unless it is explicitly presented as a transitional measure (and the end situation to which the transition was directed would have to be clearly specified), the guaranteed minimum is a Right-wing idea.
From this we may discern what the Left's alternative must consist of. It will not accept the growth of unemployment as something inevitable and will not accept that its goal must be to make this unemployment and the forms of marginalization it entails tolerable. It must be based on the rejection of a splitting of society into one section who are by rights permanent workers and another which is excluded. It is not therefore the guarantee of an income independent of work that will be at the centre of a Left project, but the indissoluble bond between the right to an income and the right to work. Each citizen must have the right to a normal standard of living; but every man and woman must also be granted the possibility (the right and the duty) to perform for society the labour-equivalent of what she or he consumes: the right, in short, to 'earn their living'; the right not to be dependent for their subsistence on the goodwill of the economic decision-makers. This indissoluble unity of the right to an income and the right to work is the basis of citizenship for every man and woman.
In effect, as I have shown in relation to work in the economic sense as emancipation, one belongs to society (more exactly to modern democratic and not slave-owning society) and one has rights in that society or is partially excluded from it according to whether or not one participates in the process of production organized on the scale of the whole society. The work one exchanges not with society as a whole but with the members of a particular community (one's family, habitat, village, district) remains particular work, subject to particular rules, which are themselves the result of a particular relation of forces, interests or particular bonds. Conversely, work in an economic sense, socially determined and remunerated, is governed by universal rules and relations which liberate the individual from particular bonds of dependence and define her or him as a universal individual, that is, as a citizen: her or his paid activity is socially recognized as work in general having a general social utility. I can sell this work to an indefinite number of enterprises without having to form any personal and private relationship with those who are paying me. They pay me for the general social utility of my skills and not for a personal service I am rendering. They are, in a sense, merely the intermediaries between an impersonal demand on the part of society as a whole (whether it be expressed through the market, the plan or an order from a public body) and the work by which I can contribute to satisfying that demand.
The emancipatory character of work in the economic sense derives from this: it confers upon me the impersonal reality of an abstract social individual, as capable as any other of occupying a function within the social process of production. And precisely because what is involved is a function which is impersonal in its essence, which I occupy as an interchangeable person among others, work does not, as is generally claimed, confer a 'personal identity' upon me, but the very opposite: I do not have to engage the whole of my person, the whole of my life in it; my obligations are circumscribed by the nature of my occupation, by my work contract and by social legislation. I know what l owe to society and what it owes me in return. I belong to it by virtue of social capacities which are not personal, during a limited number of hours specified by contract and, once I have satisfied my contractual obligations, I belong only to myself, to my own family, to my grassroots community.
We should never lose sight of the dialectical unity of these two factors: work in the economic sense, by its very impersonal abstractness, liberates me from particular bonds of dependence and reciprocal belonging that govern relations in the micro-social and private sphere. And this sphere can only exist as a sphere of sovereignty 'and voluntary reciprocity because it is the obverse of a clearly circumscribed sphere of clearly defined social obligations. If I am relieved of any social obligation and more precisely of the obligation to 'earn my living' by working, be it only for a few hours, I cease to exist as an 'interchangeable social individual as capable as any other': my only remaining existence is private and micro-social. And I cease to experience this private existence as my personal sovereignty because it is no longer the obverse of compelling social obligations. The customary balance of living in a macro-socially organized society is upset: I no longer negate myself as private individual by my 'work in general' nor do I negate myself as an individual in general by my private activity. My existence collapses into the private sphere where, being subject to no general social obligation, to no socially recognized necessity, I can only be or do or not do what I have decided myself, without anyone asking anything of me: 'Excluded from every group and every enterprise, a pure consumer of air, water and other people's labour, reduced to the boredom of living, an acute consciousness of my contingency', I am a 'supernumerary of the human species'.
This is the condition of those who are involuntarily unemployed; and the guarantee of a social minimum will do nothing to change that (nor indeed will giving him or her an unreal job, a job which is not needed by society, but which has deliberately been created to occupy people for whom there are no real jobs and to justify the allowance allocated to them). Whatever the size of the guaranteed minimum, it can do nothing to alter the fact that society expects nothing of me, thus denies me a reality as a social individual in general. It pays me an allowance without asking anything of me, thus without conferring any social rights upon me. By this payment, it holds me in its power: what it grants me today, it can take away bit by bit, or altogether, tomorrow, since it has no need of me, but I have need of it.
It is for all these reasons that the right to an income and the right to macro-social work must not be dissociated or — which amounts to the same thing — that the right to an income must be linked to the duty to work, however little, to produce that income. I do not propose this in order to save 'work-based society', the work ethic or biblical morality, but to maintain the indispensable dialectical unity between rights and duties. There can be no rights without corresponding obligations. My duty is the basis of my rights and to relieve me of all duties is to deny me the status of a person having rights. Rights and duties are always two sides of the same coin: my rights are the duties of others towards me; they imply my duty towards these others. In so far as I am one of them (one among others), I have fights over them; in so far as I am one of them, they have rights over me. It is through these rights — and therefore through the duties they give me — that they recognize me as one of them. In so far as I belong to society, it has the right to ask me to do my appropriate share of social labour. It is through the duties it gives me that it recognizes me as belonging to it. If it asks nothing of me, it rejects me.
The right to work, the duty to work and one's rights as a citizen are inextricably linked.
run75441 says:
Sandwichman:
Reads like Gorz is in favor of a shorter work week to employ mpre people in meaningful Labor.


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I'm going to say: "You'll need it"


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Track-Ready TVS: VMP Superchargers' new TVS kit is geared for open tracking and consistent IATs.
Supercharger technology is ever changing, but the principals remain the same. A crank-driven belt drives an air pump, which in turn, pressurizes the intake manifold. When the valves open, more molecules of air enter the combustion chamber. After extra fuel is added, this super-charged air/fuel mixture ignites, making more power than a naturally aspirated engine could. Sounds like the perfect scenario, right?
Well, not exactly. There's no perfect power adder, and superchargers are no exception. First of all, an engine will experience parasitic loss, which is equal to the power it takes to physically spin the supercharger. Also, the supercharger itself creates heat, which is then transferred to the air moving through it—hot air is less dense air. There's no way around the parasitic loss, but over decades of development, supercharger manufacturers have developed ways to minimize heat transfer and cool the charge air.
The main way to do this is through intercooling, either through air-to-air or air-to-water intercoolers. Positive displacement superchargers typically use air-to-water intercoolers that are integrated into the intake manifold. Water or coolant flows through the intercooler, collecting heat from the charge air, and taking it to be cooled by air passing through the heat exchanger (which is mounted in front of the radiator). This works really well for street performance and short periods of extreme use, as in drag racing.
But when it comes to prolonged use under boost and high rpm, superchargered applications aren't the most efficient—especially when using a positive displacement supercharger. The reason for this is the inability for the intercooler and heat exchanger to dissipate heat efficiently enough to maintain power levels as seen on the chassis dyno for an extended period of time.
Enter VMP Superchargers. VMP jumped into the supercharger market a couple of years ago with its TVS kits for both Terminators and GT500s. Now, alongside the launch of its standard Street Performance Coyote TVS supercharger kit (PN 50L-TVS-STREET; $6,499), it's offering a track-oriented kit called the Ultimate Performance package (PN 50L-TVS-ULTIMATE; $6,999).
"What makes the VMP TVS kit different from other 2.3L blowers for the 5.0L are the huge dual-fan heat exchanger, JLT intake, high-quality Injector Dynamics fuel injectors, CNC blower inlet opening and matching high-flow elbow, and the modified nose drive that accommodates down to a 63mm pulley," says Justin Starkey of VMP. "You also get your choice of pulley when you order the kit," Starkey added. Pulley sizes range from 85mm to 63mm, which range in boost capabilities from 9 psi up to 18 psi.
So what is the secret to this kit working so well on track? "The cam timing you run will have an effect on boost, so you can run less aggressive timing and actually restrict the intake to make more boost," Starkey said. "Don't get too hung up on boost numbers. If you are concerned about engine longevity and safety, look at the whole combination: rwhp, ignition timing, and the octane you are running."
That tuning mentality combined with an exceptional intercooler system gives the VMP kit a serious edge on the competition. And since VMP has geared the Ultimate Performance supercharger kit toward open-track guys, it only made sense to contact a real track guy with a naturally aspirated Coyote to use as our test mule. So we called on Jeff Lacina, a self-proclaimed track guy and owner of Track Guys Performance Driving Events. Jeff is a master of the open track and has instructed many MM&FF staffers over the years.
Since he knew VMP was launching this kit, and having test-driven VMP's TVS-equipped Boss 302, he wanted to give it a try. In our Snap-on Tech Center at our office in Tampa, Florida, we strapped Lacina's GT to our in-house Dynojet chassis dyno. With merely an axle-back and K&N air filter, it pumped out an impressive 402 rwhp and 391 lb-ft of torque.
Starkey and technician Steven Cleveland made quick work of the installation while Lacina's car remained strapped to the dyno. It took about eight hours to complete the installation, including stopping for photo ops and lunch.
Once the install was complete and the VMP tune was loaded, we spun the rollers again, yielding 605 rwhp and 522 lb-ft of torque—on par with stock '13-14 Shelby GT500s. But the real results would be seen on track.
At Sebring International Raceway, with Lacina behind the wheel, we rode along and datalogged a 15- minute session. IATs rose, then hovered between 130-150 degrees, even during long WOT application like on the front and back stretches of SIR.
"Compared with other positiive-displacement supercharged 5.0 Coyotes I've driven, the VMP TVS system simply feels more eager—more willing to build boost and power," says Lacina, "but it's not rowdy or difficult to control out on the track. Some systems are so edgy that they can be a challenge to drive smoothly or the tune falls apart when you're outside of an optimal set of parameters. But not the VMP TVS system—the power delivery is very smooth and comes on in a predictible and manageble manner."
1 VMP technician Steven Cleveland began the installation on Lacina's '11 GT by removing the strut tower brace and stock intake manifold.
2 He then installed the lower intake/intercooler assembly.
3 Next were the injectors. The Ultimate Performance kit comes with Injector Dynamics fuel injectors, either in 72-lb/hr or 98-lb/hr. We chose the 72s, since we're only going to be making about 10 pounds of boost.
4 Next was the blower itself. It features an Eaton TVS rotor pack, which consists of twin four-lobe rotors, which are twisted helically 160 degrees—the same rotor pack used by Roush, Magnuson, and others.
5 Then Cleveland installed the plug-and-play extension harness. It includes extensions for the MAF, EVAP, throttle body, and IAT. It comes standard with the kit.
6 All of the connectors simply plug into the factory harness, extending the harness to accommodate the supercharger and all of its components.
7 One spot on the timing cover above the water pump must be removed with a cutoff wheel to accept the belt-drive bracket. Some newer models may not need this procedure, so check fitment first.
8 Cleveland then installed the brackets and routed the belt.
9 He then removed the front fascia and trimmed it to accept the heat exchanger.
10 Then he installed the dual-fan heat exchanger, which bolts to the impact bar using supplied hardware.
11 VMP's Justin Starkey jumped in to lend a hand. He began routing the included wiring harness and relay assembly for the intercooler fans and pump.
12 He located pin C-56 on the PCM wiring harness connector.
13 After stripping away about a ½-inch of the insulation, he spliced in the green wire with a white tracer, soldered, and covered with heat shrink. The other end of this wire plugs into pin C-36 of the same connector.
14 Starkey then installed the supercharger pulley onto the blower. One pulley comes with the kit, and we chose the 82mm pulley, which will make about 10 pounds of boost. If you want to use the 66mm or 63mm pulleys, you need to upgrade to an eight-rib belt drive. Otherwise, the 6-rib works just fine.
15 The Ultimate Performance kit utilizes a '13-'14 Shelby GT500 intercooler pump (left), compared to a standard intercooler pump (right) found on most aftermarket supercharger kits.
16 Starkey installed the pump onto the left-hand frame rail and ran all of the intercooler hose to the intercooler and heat exchanger.
17 Meanwhile, Cleveland installed the VMP CNC throttle-body elbow, which is matched to the CNC-ported inlet on the supercharger.
18 Cleveland then installed the twin-60mm throttle body, which comes with the kit.
19 Also included in the kit is a JLT cold-air intake. Cleveland installed that as well.
20 Not included but provided to us by JLT Performance is this JLT oil separator ($119).
21 Here's the kit completely installed. Everything fits factory-clean with minimal cutting.
22 We also ditched the factory grille for a Boss 302S grille (PN M-8200-MBR; $375).
23 Starkey then loaded a VMP Tuning tune onto an SCT X3 handheld tuner (PN 50LSCTUNE; $549) and flashed the ECM on Lacina's GT.
24 On our in-house Dynojet chassis dyno, Lacina's car pumped out 402 rwhp and 391 lb-ft of torque in naturally aspirated trim, with an axle-back exhaust and K&N air filter. With the VMP TVS, it made 605 rwhp and 522 lb-ft of torque. We love peak numbers, but the whole point of this install was for open tracking.
During the Track Guys event at Sebring International Raceway, Lacina put the VMP TVS through its paces. We datalogged Lacina's GT during a 15-minute session, with impressive results. IATs hovered in the 130-to-150-degree range. Considering it was an 85-degree day, we were very pleased with the results.


We are looking to appoint a passionate, inspirational and committed newly qualified teacher to join our friendly and supportive team from September 2019. The post will initially be a one year fixed term contract due to budget constraints.
More information about the school is available on our website www.bamptonprimaryschool.org.uk but ideally you will want to come and visit us. We will be holding an open morning on Tuesday 2nd April 2019 with opportunities to meet the headteacher and see the school in action at 9.45am and 11:00am. Please contact the office if you would like to attend one of these sessions.
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text:
Q: Resources.resx and Resources.en-US.resx , which one will be chosen? I'm working on the project which contains two resource files:
Resources.resx and Resources.en-US.resx

At the beginning the application used German as default language and English was added later. Based on some criteria I choose the UI language from my code so it is NOT set automatically.
From this question I see that default language is en-US.
Question: which resource should be used if I call
if (instLanguage == 0)
{
    Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new CultureInfo("en-US");
}

before InitializeComponent(); ?
I'm asking because the program behaves differently in different Windows 7 versions. In standard Win 7 eng. and ger. versions en-US resource is used, but Windows 7 English with German language pack takes default resource file.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Taking a Yoga Class at the Top of The Shard in London!
London has some pretty cool places that offer Yoga classes but surely the top of The Shard, 24 floors up, has to be one of the best?
I saw yoga classes being offered at the top of The Shard in London the other week and as a yoga lover myself who is always keen to do something different in London, I knew I had to book a class!
Yogasphere is the company that runs the classes, they seem to run classes in a few different London venues but their offices are on level 24 of The Shard, so why not hold classes there I guess?
Tickets are £25.00 per person which is a bit steep but I felt it was a one off experience so I was happy to pay it.
Myself and my friend arrived at The Shard nice and early, we entered the fancy doors of the Shard Office, signed in with security, were given a visitor pass, showed our lack of corporate experience by struggling to get through the barriers and headed up to level 24 in the lift.
Mandy who is the founder and our teacher for the session showed us to the room as well as showing us the toilets which are cleverly hidden within a lit up corridor!
Unfortunately the room that the yoga class is usually held in that looks right over the river, was in use for filming during our class so we went into a smaller room to the side of the building.
We still had a great view over the Tower Bridge and onto Canary Wharf, the sun was shining at the start of our class so London was looking fabulous, but I do hope that the room doesn't get moved too often because it was a bit of a shame as I know we could have done yoga with an even better view in the original room that is shown on their website.
The lesson was really good, we focused on our breath in child's pose to start with, we did some flows, first slow and then fast and I definitely broke into a sweat and had shaky legs at one point!
Mandy came around and adjusted us throughout the class and spoke many words of wisdom which is what I love in a yoga teacher. We then stretched it out before finishing off in Savasana, my favourite pose!
Overall, I'm really glad I decided to book a Yoga class in at the top of The Shard in London. The view was great, the class was good and things like this remind me of why I love living in London as it just offers so much!
To Book: Head on over to their website here!
The confirmation tells you to get there 15 minutes early, we arrived at 11:30 so 30 minutes before our class and although we were let in, this was a bit early. I wouldn't get there more than 20-15 minutes before if I was you. Although we did manage to have a little photo session beforehand which was good!
You can't bring your own mat, they supply the mats. They are the thicker, bouncier type of mats though and my hands were slipping quite a bit mid way through so I'd recommend bring a towel for the top of your mat when in down dog.
You can reschedule classes up to 12 hours before your class time which I thought was really good and shows their flexibility.. no pun intended!
Walking Guide To Primrose Hill, Regents Park, Regents Canal & Camden in 3-4 Hours!
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"Checking into: Hotel Mercure Riga Centre."
Very well explained. Thanks for sharing the information!


text:
Café Gerbeaud
In this year's SAVEUR 100, we take stock of our favorite things: recipes, people, places. We consider every last one a new classic.
It seems every great European city has its pastry palace, and in Budapest, that place is Cafe Gerbeaud. Located in the elegant Vorosmarty Square since 1870, the space is nothing short of spectacular, a gilded hall with a swirling rococo ceiling, rich wood paneling, and a 40-foot marble counter showcasing classic Austro-Hungarian layer cakes. Cafe Gerbeaud belongs to the grand legacy of Mittel-European coffeehouses that once served as gathering places for the intelligentsia, who, over cups of strong coffee and pieces of cake, plotted the course of culture. Though Cafe Gerbeaud is more likely to be populated by tourists today, the cakes are still exquisite. Esterhazy torte (pictured), named in honor of the 19th century Hungarian prince, features six slender layers of walnut-rich dacquoise interspersed with brandy-scented vanilla butter cream, and crowned with fondant icing. The very special blueberry poppy seed cake, meanwhile, contrasts the intensely floral fragrance of wild berry jam with the earthy richness of the poppy seeds in the dense flourless cake. Perhaps the most famous is Dobos torte, the quintessential Hungarian creation of vanilla sponge cake stacked with rich chocolate butter cream, and capped with caramel, an indulgence that's hard to resist.
__Cafe Gerbeaud_
(36/1/429-9000; gerbaud.hu)
0201 Vorosmarty ter 7
Budapest, Hungary_
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
namespace Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Fluent
{
    using Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Fluent.Gallery.Definition;
    using Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Fluent.Gallery.Update;
    using Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Fluent.Models;
    using Microsoft.Azure.Management.ResourceManager.Fluent;
    using Microsoft.Azure.Management.ResourceManager.Fluent.Core;
    using System.Collections.Generic;
    using System.Threading;
    using System.Threading.Tasks;

    internal partial class GalleryImpl
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Gets description for the gallery resource.
        /// </summary>
        string Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Fluent.IGallery.Description
        {
            get
            {
                return this.Description();
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets the provisioning state of the gallery resource.
        /// </summary>
        ProvisioningState Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Fluent.IGallery.ProvisioningState
        {
            get
            {
                return this.ProvisioningState();
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets the unique name of the gallery resource.
        /// </summary>
        string Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Fluent.IGallery.UniqueName
        {
            get
            {
                return this.UniqueName();
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Retrieves information about an image in the gallery.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="imageName">The name of the image.</param>
        /// <throws>IllegalArgumentException thrown if parameters fail the validation.</throws>
        /// <return>The gallery image.</return>
        Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Fluent.IGalleryImage Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Fluent.IGallery.GetImage(string imageName)
        {
            return this.GetImage(imageName);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Retrieves information about an image in the gallery.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="imageName">The name of the image.</param>
        /// <throws>IllegalArgumentException thrown if parameters fail the validation.</throws>
        /// <return>The observable for the request.</return>
        async Task<Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Fluent.IGalleryImage> Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Fluent.IGallery.GetImageAsync(string imageName, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
        {
            return await this.GetImageAsync(imageName, cancellationToken);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// List images in the gallery.
        /// </summary>
        /// <return>The list of images in the gallery.</return>
        System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Fluent.IGalleryImage> Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Fluent.IGallery.ListImages()
        {
            return this.ListImages();
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// List images in the gallery.
        /// </summary>
        /// <return>The observable for the request.</return>
        async Task<IPagedCollection<Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Fluent.IGalleryImage>> Microsoft.Azure.Management.Compute.Fluent.IGallery.ListImagesAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken)
        {
            return await this.ListImagesAsync(cancellationToken);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Specifies description for the gallery.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="description">The description.</param>
        /// <return>The next definition stage.</return>
        Gallery.Definition.IWithCreate Gallery.Definition.IWithDescription.WithDescription(string description)
        {
            return this.WithDescription(description);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Specifies description for the gallery.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="description">The description.</param>
        /// <return>The next update stage.</return>
        Gallery.Update.IUpdate Gallery.Update.IWithDescription.WithDescription(string description)
        {
            return this.WithDescription(description);
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Home / Key Gold Headlines / Arizona Governor Signs Bill to Repeal State Capital Gains Taxes on Gold and Silver
Arizona Governor Signs Bill to Repeal State Capital Gains Taxes on Gold and Silver
May 24, 2017 by SchiffGold 0 0
Good news for precious metals investors in Arizona.
On Monday, Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill into law that eliminates states capital gains taxes on buying gold and silver specie. It tax repeal will not only benefit Arizonans who invest in gold and silver, it will also facilitate their use as currency and undermine the Federal Reserve's monopoly on money.
Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Tucson) sponsored HB2014. The legislation eliminates state capital gains taxes on income "derived from the exchange of one kind of legal tender for another kind of legal tender." The bill defines legal tender as "a medium of exchange, including specie, that is authorized by the United States Constitution or Congress for the payment of debts, public charges, taxes and dues." "Specie" means coins having precious metal content.
In effect, passage into law will "legalize the Constitution" by treating gold and silver specie as money.
The new law will go into effect Aug. 9, 2017.
Getting Gov. Ducey's signature on the bill was a major victory, and the culmination of more than five years of work by supporters of sound money in the Grand Canyon State. Similar legislation passed the legislature in 2013, 2015, and 2016, but Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed the first two bills, and Gov Doug Ducey killed last year's effort.
Grassroots support was crucial in pushing this legislation across the finish line this year. A dedicated group of volunteers lobbied for the bill, and Ron Paul traveled to Arizona and testified on its behalf.
We ought not to tax money – and that's a good idea. It makes no sense to tax money," he said. "Paper is not money, it's fraud."
The new law's impact goes beyond mere tax policy. During an event after his Senate committee testimony, Paul pointed out that it's really about the size and scope of government.
If you're for less government, you want sound money. The people who want big government, they don't want sound money. They want to deceive you and commit fraud. They want to print the money. They want a monopoly. They want to get you conditioned, as our schools have conditioned us, to the point where deficits don't matter."
AN IMPORTANT STEP FORWARD
The new law allows taxpayers to deduct the amount of any net capital gain derived from the exchange of one kind of legal tender for another kind of legal tender or specie (gold and silver coins) from their gross income on their state income tax. In other words, individuals buying gold or silver bullion, or utilizing gold and silver in a transaction, would no longer be subject to state taxes on the exchange.
"What the IRS has figured out at the federal level is to target inflation as a gain. They call it capital gains," Finchem said during a committee hearing. He noted that the bill would help Arizona residents "protect their conversion of one kind of currency for another."
Passage into law marks an important first step towards currency competition. If sound money gains a foothold in the marketplace against Federal Reserve notes, the people would be able to choose the time-tested stability of gold and silver over the central bank's rapidly-depreciating paper currency. The freedom of choice expanded by HB2014 will help allow Arizona residents to secure the purchasing power of their money.
Ron Paul said he considered the Arizona bill to be "very important" because it would also serve as an educational effort for other states.
"The responsibility is on the states to follow the Constitution," Paul said.
Currently, all debts and taxes in Arizona must be paid with either Federal Reserve Notes (dollars), authorized as legal tender by Congress, or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them.
But the United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, "No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts."
The Arizona law takes a step towards that constitutional requirement, ignored for decades in every state. Such a tactic would undermine the monopoly or the Federal Reserve by introducing competition into the monetary system.
Professor William Greene is an expert on constitutional tender and said when people in multiple states actually start using gold and silver instead of Federal Reserve Notes, it would effectively nullify the Federal Reserve and end the federal government's monopoly on money.
"Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a "reverse Gresham's Law" effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state's treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions."
Once things get to that point, Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the Fed on a state by state level can get us there.
The Tenth Amendment Center contributed to this report.
Get Peter Schiff's most important Gold headlines once per week click here – for a free subscription to his exclusive weekly email updates.
Arizona, Gov. Doug Ducey, sound money
European Central Bank Takes Bond Market Manipulation to the Next Level
Peter Schiff recently explained how the Federal Reserve has rigged the US Treasury market. Well, the European Central Bank has taken bond market manipulation to the next level. According to a Bloomberg report, the ECB is buying bonds to control the yield spread between debt issued by various EU countries. As a result of this […]
Indian Gold Market Shows Signs of Revival
India ranks as the second-largest gold consuming country in the world, second only behind China. But over the last couple of years, the gold market in India has languished due to a combination of record-high gold prices in rupee terms and the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. But were signs of revival in the […]
ETFs Charted Record Gold Inflows in 2020; Holdings Hit All-Time High
Gold-backed ETFs recorded record net gold inflows, pushing holdings globally to record levels in 2020. On net, ETFs globally added 877 tons of gold last year worth about $47.9 billion. Gold holdings rose by over one-third, ending the year at a record 3,752 tons, according to data released by the World Gold Council.
US Government Runs Biggest December Deficit in History
The US government ran the biggest December budget deficit in history last month. The December budget shortfall came in at $143.6 billion. That compares with a $13.3 billion deficit in December 2019, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement.
Demand for Silver in Automobile Production Expected to Rise
Last month we reported that the surge in solar energy use could power a strong demand for silver. Now analysts say demand from another sector could also benefit the white metal. A report by the Silver Institute projects that the automotive industry will absorb nearly 90 million ounces of silver annually by 2025. That would […]


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text:
Blanche Wiesen Cook
Photo: © Brian Lamb
Blanche Wiesen Cook is Distinguished Professor of History at John Jay College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She is senior editor of the Garland Library of War and Peace, author of Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One: 1884-1933 (available from Viking and Penguin), Crystal Eastman on Women and Revolution and The Declassified Eisenhower, and is a former vice-president for research at the American Historical Association.
Sign me up for news about Blanche Wiesen Cook and more from Penguin Random House
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text:
CJFE Newsletter October 2015
Dear CJFE members and supporters,
October was an exciting month for all Canadians. We had our first change in federal leadership in nearly a decade—and with this, a potential shift in our government's priorities regarding freedom of expression.
Here at CJFE, we welcomed Al Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy back to Canada, campaigned for Access to Information reform, and continue to plan our 18th annual CJFE Gala: A Night to Honour Courageous Reporting.
If you haven't bought your tickets for the Gala yet, it's not too late! However, the seats are filling up quickly, so it's best to act fast while they are still available.
Buy Your Ticket Today!
Entrepreneur pledges $1 million to fight Bill C-51
We are delighted that Canadian technology entrepreneur Frederick Ghahramani is pledging $1,000,000 to fight Bill C-51! The money will go to front-line organizations leading the effort to repeal the legislation, including CJFE, the Canadian International Policy & Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) and OpenMedia.
CJFE's new Fellowship launches
Erin Millar, co-founder of Discourse Media and recipient of the inaugural Bob Carty Free Expression Fellowship, is breaking down barriers between the media and underrepresented communities. The project was inspired by Nancy Macdonald's article Welcome to Winnipeg: Where Canada's racism problem is at its worst.
CJFE hosts a press conference with Mohamed Fahmy
CJFE was proud to host the very first press conference with Mohamed Fahmy and his wife Marwa since their return to Canada in early October. You can watch the entire conference here.
#ATIreform: Ferreting out information from CSIS
This month, Justin Ling of VICE Canada told us about his experience sending Access to Information requests to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which, according to Ling, is "roughly like howling at the moon."
2015 Federal Election Platform Report Card
In the lead up to the October 19 federal election, CJFE released a report of the major parties' platforms and actions on free expression issues. See where they stand on privacy, muzzling of scientists, Bill C-51 and more.
Campaign for #ATIreform
In September and October, you joined CJFE and a coalition of other organizations calling for Access to Information reform in Canada. We made this an election issue for Canadians, and we now hold our new government accountable for the task. Follow us to stay updated on the campaign!
Free Expression Around The World
CJFE condemns the recent murder of freelance journalist Yama Behroz in Faizabad, Afghanistan. Behroz was killed by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) on September 18, 2015.
October 7th marked the 200th day of hunger strike by prisoner of conscience Dr. Abduljalil al-Singace, who has boycotted all solid food in protest of the treatment of inmates at Bahrain's Central Jau Prison.
A Burundian cameraman and his family were murdered during tensions following the re-election of President Pierre Nkurunziza. The press freedom situation across the country continues to deteriorate, with targeted killings and a crackdown on government critics.
At least three journalists were arrested in the last week of October. They are among hundreds of people kidnapped or arrested and held in undisclosed locations by security forces in Egypt in recent months.
Television journalist Hemant Kumar Yadav was shot and killed while travelling home from market on October 3. No arrests have been made, and India remains one of the most restrictive countries in the world for journalists.
VICE journalist Mohammed Rasool remains behind bars, after he was spuriously charged with 'working for a terrorist organization' in August. Rasool is one of 23 journalists currently imprisoned in Turkey.
We depend on our supporters like you to continue our work defending free expression and freedom of information. We couldn't do it without you!
Alix Buck
CJFE Promotions and Communications Coordinator
type-blog_entry Newsletter


text:
Q: Filter elements of a collection in Laravel I have the following elements collection and I want to save in a new array only the first elements whose "question_id" field are different from each other. I mean, only the elements with "id" 11 and 12 that have the "question_id" field different, would be saved and the other elements would not be saved in the new array, how could I do it in Laravel?
dump of entities with unique id attributes and just two distinct question_ids

A: Use the key of the array.
$qid[$id] = 1;

A: $collection->unique('question_id')->values()
will get you the desired result.
$array = [
  [
    "id"=> 11,
    "question_id"=> 22,
    "answer Id"=> 72
  ],
  [
    "Id"=> 12,
    "question_id"=> 23,
    "answer_1d"=> 76
  ],
  [
    "id"=> 13,
    "question_id"=> 23,
    "answer_id"=> 77
  ],
  [
    "id"=> 14,
    "question_id"=> 22,
    "answer_id"=> 77
  ]
];

For this dataset
dd(collect($array)->unique('question_id')->values());

will return
#items: array:2 [▼
    0 => array:3 [▼
      "id" => 11
      "question_id" => 22
      "answer Id" => 72
    ]
    1 => array:3 [▼
      "Id" => 12
      "question_id" => 23
      "answer_1d" => 76
    ]
  ]


text:
Tag: Paul Morris
Afan Valley Adventure Resort – here we go again!
On 18/10/2021 24/01/2022 By JacIn Colonialism, Tourism, Welsh Government40 Comments
My intention was to start winding down this blog, spend more time with my wife, grand-children, books, Malbec . . . but things keep cropping up. That said, it's very unlikely I shall undertake major new investigations. Diolch yn fawr.
In keeping with the promise made above, this is an update to a story I was reporting on a few years back rather than a new investigation. I'm returning to it now because there have been significant developments.
The plan to build a big adventure park in the Afan Valley, behind Port Talbot, complete with a hotel and lodges, offering ski slopes and cycle routes, was the brainchild of self-made con man Gavin Lee Woodhouse.
At one point, maggot-munching Bore Grylls was on board, but his enthusiasm cooled, perhaps when he realised the kind of 'businessman' he'd got himself involved with.
But the 'Welsh Government' believed every word from Woodhouse, and in addition to offering him a £500,000 grant for his Caer Rhun hotel near Llanrwst, our tribunes were ready to throw more money at him in the Afan Valley.
Click to open in separate tab
Woodhouse's empire came crashing down when investors in his properties – some of which were never built – persuaded the media to take an interest. Now, I believe, it's in the hands of the Serious Fraud Office.
Woodhouse's umbrella company was Northern Powerhouse Developments Ltd, but the company set up for the Afan Valley extravaganza was the imaginatively named Afan Valley Ltd.
If you click on the 'Charges' tab for Afan Valley you'll see that there are two outstanding charges. One in the name of Clive Mishon, the other 360 Mi Ltd, a company owned by Mishon that is now in liquidation.
I've never been entirely sure where or how Mishon fits into the picture, but he was certainly on the ground before Woodhouse. We know that because in May 2013 he was a founding director of short-lived Afan Solar Ltd. Next, perhaps after learning the sun doesn't shine all the time in Wales, he joined Afan Energy Ltd in April 2014.
Both are long since dissolved. Afan Energy, in which Mishon was a shareholder, was written off with debts of £596,391.
Though still in existence is Marcol Industrial (Afan Energy) LLP.
Let's remind ourselves there are three land titles making up the area involved. All mentioned in the Administrator's progress report for Afan Valley Ltd of August 20.
The first, WA519567, was bought by Afan Valley Ltd with a loan from Clive Mishon. CYM471819 was bought in the same manner. CYM60212 is owned by Clive Mishon.
The Administrator's report suggests that Clive Mishon is an unsecured creditor and will get the money he loaned when the land is sold.
We must assume the land has been sold because of the press release put out last week by Neath Port Talbot Borough Council telling the world that the project was back on track under new management.
Though Mishon is still involved, perhaps because the project can't proceed without the land he owns. Besides which, Mishon has associates, involved with companies registered in places that enjoy more sunshine than Wales.
NEW FACES, OLD FACES, MASKS AND DISGUISES
Having read the press release you'll know that those who've taken over are said to be the Salamanca Group Ltd and Wildfox Resorts Afan Valley Ltd. Let's start with Wildfox, where the two directors are Martin James Bellamy and Benjamin Daniel Lloyd.
The initial share issue was for 101 shares. One hundred held by Wildfox Resorts Group Ltd, formed March 16, 2021 (as Kikai Group Holdings Ltd), the other by Clive Mishon.
All 100 shares in Wildfox Resorts Group Ltd are held by Lloyd and significant control is exercised by his company, Caer Capital Ltd. Caer Capital was formed September 15.
Lloyd lives in Wales but uses as an address, 21 Ganton Street, Soho, London W1F 9BN.
Lloyd has been involved with a number of property and buy-to-rent companies since 2016, but it all looks small scale compared to what's planned for the Afan Valley.
The main vehicle for Lloyd's ambitions seem to be Project Three Developments Ltd, where he's in partnership with Gareth Vaughan Morgan and Benjamin Peter Hugh Wells.
This company claims 'tangible assets' of some four million pounds, almost certainly property bought with loans from the Development Bank of Wales.
The most recent company is Wells Lloyd Ltd, formed as recently as June this year. Has this new company been cobbled together to cash in on the Afan Valley bonanza?
Strengthening the local connection is another Lloyd company, Kikai RGI Ltd, where the other director is Lewis Ashleigh Peach, who gives a Caerffili address. Most of the shares (70%) are held by Wildfox Resorts Group Ltd, with Peach holding the remainder through his Arete Group Holdings Ltd. Arete was formed March 16, 2021.
But is Lloyd really the man behind the revived Afan Valley project? He's certainly not mentioned in the press release from Neath Port Talbot council.
Yet ownership of Wildfox Resorts Afan Valley Ltd, the company mentioned in the NPT press release, seems to trace back through Wildfox Resorts Group Ltd and Caer Capital Ltd to Benjamin Daniel Lloyd.
To give you some idea of the size of the project, here's the plan submitted with the planning application from Gavin Woodhouse's Afan Valley Ltd.
Now let's turn to the Bellamy-Salamanca angle.
We find a host of Salamanca companies, all based at 3 Burlington Gardens in London's Mayfair. The link between them is Martin James Bellamy.
An interesting name I keep seeing in connection with Salamanca is Lord David Triesman. A very wealthy man.
Another name shared by a number of companies is Rocksteady.
Where Lloyd crops up again as a director of Rocksteady Resorts Group Ltd of 21 Ganton Street, Soho. This company was formed on March 17, 2021, which is appropriate as another of the directors is Irishman Paul Christopher Baker. The third director is Martin James Bellamy. All shares are held by Rocksteady Group Ltd, formed March 16, 2021.
Another Rocksteady company was Rocksteady Resorts Ltd, launched March 11, 2020. Also interesting because the two directors were Baker and Peter Macandless Mundell Moore.
You see Moore in the group photo above. He was the expert brought in by Gavin Woodhouse to give his project credibility. Moore is invariably referred to in media reports as 'the man who brought Center Parcs to the UK'.
Moore left Rocksteady Resorts March 9, this year, and the company was dissolved July 6.
The three directors at Rocksteady Group Ltd are Bellamy, Baker and Lloyd. The 200 shares are split equally between Set in Stone Holdings Ltd and CLLP Ltd. Both give London addresses.
One of the four CLLP directors is Hossam AlSaady, of Saudi Arabia(?). The others are Lloyd, Bellamy, and Anthony John Rowland. AlSaady runs Above Wealth LLP with Rowland. A company that helps the über rich find a home for their money.
Until 3 April, 2021, Set in Stone was using as its address, The White House, St. Mary's Well, Bay Road, Swanbridge, Penarth CF64 5UJ. It files as a dormant company, showing just a single £1 share, presumably held by Paul Baker who was the only director until 17 March, 2021, when he was joined by Laura Lynn Baker, an American resident in Wales.
The shares in CLLP Ltd are held by MJB Capital (Lancelot Place) Ltd, 100 B shares; and Lancelot Developments Ltd, 325 A shares. All shares in MJB (Lancelot Place ) Ltd are held by MJB Capital Ltd. Lancelot Developments is controlled by Dr Chander Kanta Sabharwal and Dr Narinder Nath Sabharwal.
At MJB Capital, serving as directors, we find Bellamy and Ms Darina Kogan, a US lawyer now resident in England. Though she is Russian by birth.
This very recent item from the Daily Telegraph tells us that Mrs Bellamy – as we must now call her – is the daughter of Russian oligarch Valery Kogan.
So, I would guess that Martin Bellamy is, as reports tell, the driving force behind the revived Afan Valley project. Lloyd, Baker, et al make up the supporting cast.
Martin Bellamy
If nothing else, Bellamy knows billionaires who could easily finance the Afan Valley Adventure Resort. Among them, his business partner, and his father-in-law.
We are talking serious money here, and individuals with very powerful friends and allies, up to and including Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
SKATING ON THIN ICE
But there are other companies in the shadows. One being Afan Valley Resort Ltd, formed March 19, 2021. The two directors are Baker and Bellamy. The shares are all held by Rocksteady Resorts Group Ltd. The address is 21 Ganton Street, Soho.
There's also Afan Valley Resort Management Ltd, Incorporated March 23, 2021. The two directors are, again, Baker and Bellamy. The single share is owned by Afan Valley Resort Ltd. Also using the Ganton Street address.
Another company bringing together Bellamy and Lloyd, and another company formed in March of this year, is Kogan Bellamy Lloyd Ltd.
It might be worth having a look at a couple of other companies Baker has been involved in, interesting for the American involvement, though also a bit worrying.
First, there's E-Ventus Energy Ltd, with its registered address at the White House in Penarth. The other directors in this company were fellow Irishman John Connolly, who was resident in the USA, and US citizen John Spence, also resident in the USA.
The filed documents show an interesting story. The directors folded the company in February 2018, perhaps in an attempt to escape their debts. The creditors appealed to the High Court and the company was restored to the register. You don't often see this kind of document; it's worth reading.
The accounts for E-Ventus Energy are long overdue at Companies House. I wonder how much they owe?
Another strange company Baker was involved with was Deeside Hockey Ltd. The address given was 3rd Floor, 5 Temple Square, Temple Street, Liverpool, L2 5RH, but we can be fairly certain that the name referred to Deeside in Flintshire. In fact, there is a Deeside Dragons Ice Hockey Club playing in Queensferry.
Deeside Hockey was Incorporated August 5, 2015, first gazetted November 1, 2016, and finally dissolved January 17, 2017.
There were three directors at the start; Baker – resident in Wales – plus two resident in the USA, Wayne Gary James Scholes, and Trevor Damon Suelze. Baker pulled out September 14, 2015 and was replaced by American Collin Zito.
All the shares in Deeside Hockey Ltd were held by Red Hockey Ltd, since renamed Telford Ice Sports Ltd. And what a story we have here!
Launched in August, 2013 the first director was Scholes. Suelze joined in October. Baker joined in February, 2015. All using the Liverpool address.
Other directors came and went, and shares were issued, but this company was soon in trouble and eventually, after a lengthy process, it was dissolved in June this year.
The liquidator's reports refer to 'a number of questionable transactions', and the company owed creditors almost half a million pounds.
In a Companies House Return of February 2015 we are told that all 1000 shares in (then) Red Hockey Ltd were owned by Really Epic Dog Ltd, operating out of the same Liverpool address with Scholes, Suelze, and Zito, as directors.
This company has creditors to whom it owes £4.9m. Most of this is explained by (allegedly?) transferring money between related companies run by the same directors.
At the same address were also Really Epic Dog Holdings Ltd, Really Epic Dog Publishing Ltd, and Gods knows how many other companies with no visible means of support.
So who are these Americans or US residents with whom Baker is associated? (For Suelze may be Canadian, and Scholes British.)
From someone else who was briefly a director of Red Hockey Ltd, South African resident Servaas Hendrik Theron, we have an address: General Counsel, 5225 Wiley Post Way, Suite 150, Salt Lake City, Utah 84116.
Googling that address turned up Red Touch Media and Wayne Scholes. There's even a Wikipedia entry. Collin Zito is Chief Operations Officer at Red Touch.
Red Touch Media is now Liverpool Digital Media Ltd. The latest accounts show a company heavily in debt.
TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF IT
We would appear to have a number of potential sources for the money to re-launch and complete the Afan Valley Adventure Resort.
Martin Bellamy has his business partner Lord Triesman, and his father-in-law Valery Kogan. Either of them could finance this project from their small change. But if one of them was funding this project why do we see such a supporting cast?
And why so many Afan Valley companies?
And let's not forget the Saudi link provided by Hossam AlSaady. Or if not a link to Saudi Arabia, then to one or more partners of his Above Wealth LLP. One of which is Swiss fund managers Gottex.
Then, we have the intriguing connection, via Liverpool, with the USA and, more specifically, the state of Utah.
What are we to make of Scholes, Suelze, and Zito, and their involvement in Deeside Hockey, the liquidator's reference to 'questionable transactions', the unpaid creditors, and the labyrinth of linked companies all owing each other money?
Given their forays into the leisure business I would be disappointed to learn that these people are in any way involved at Afan Valley.
The connection between them and the resurrected Afan Valley venture is of course the Irishman, Paul Christopher Baker.
Baker is very much a player now at Afan Valley.
We find him at Afan Valley Resort Ltd with Martin Bellamy. The duo are together again at Afan Valley Resort Management Ltd. The duet becomes a threesome when Lloyd joins them at Rocksteady Resorts Group Ltd. The three then do an encore at Rocksteady Group Ltd.
All four companies formed 16 – 23 March, 2021.
And let's not forget dissolved Rocksteady Resorts Ltd, where we would have found Baker and Peter Moore. Formed in March 2020 and put down a year later, with the name carried on by others.
Though I was struck by one very curious Companies House filing for this company, which I reproduce below.
Was Paul Baker formerly known as Paul Morris, and did he change his name? Or did whoever registered the company with Companies House not know Baker's name?
Whatever the answer, the name given on the company's Certificate of Incorporation is definitely Paul Christopher Morris.
Baker's association with the Utah Scousers and their Deeside Hockey, plus his role with E-Ventus, the company the High Court restored, might suggest he has a somewhat 'cavalier' attitude to business.
But what about the boys from round by 'ere, like?
Well, Benjamin Lloyd's Wildfox Resorts Afan Valley Ltd may be the real deal and his route to fame and fortune. Or it may be just a distraction.
His mate, Lewis Peach, is the other director of Kikai RGI Ltd. (Another company formed in March, 2021.) But a few years ago Peach was running a gym in Caerffili.
In the Caerphilly Business Forum Awards for 2017 we read: 'Entrepreneur of the Year – sponsored by Coleg y Cymoedd: Lewis Peach – Peak Performance Fitness Solutions.' (Did you know we have no word in Welsh for the English term entrepreneur?)
But Lewis is a Renaissance Man, cos when he's not pumping iron we find him at Pure Structured Finance. This company was formed in December 2019, and according to Companies House its address is opposite McDonald's in Llanishen. Yet the website I just linked to says it operates out of 3 Burlington Gardens, London, W1S 3EP.
And if that address sounds familiar then that's because it's where we find Martin Bellamy's Salamanca empire.
Wheels within wheels. So many connections. Pathways and dead-ends. No wonder old Jac is getting quite dizzy – and alcohol plays no part. Honest!
A FEW QUESTIONS WITH WHICH TO CONCLUDE
These questions are addressed to Neath Port Talbot Borough Council and the self-styled 'Welsh Government' on behalf of those still interested in how Wales is mis-ruled.
Do you know who is really behind this revived project, and where the money is coming from?
Why do you think this project needs so many companies?
How would NPT Council and the 'Welsh Government' feel about the project funding coming from Russia or Saudi Arabia?
There are persons with questionable business records linked with the project. What are their roles?
Will those now behind the project follow the discredited Gavin Woodhouse model of selling shares in the lodges and the hotel rooms?
Have those behind the project requested grants from the 'Welsh Government', or loans from the Development Bank of Wales?
How much public money will be spent on infrastructure – roads, etc – for the Afan Valley Adventure Resort?
What measures will NPT Council and the 'Welsh Government' put in place to ensure that contracts are placed with local firms and the better jobs allocated to local people?
Given that the Afan Valley Adventure Resort will mean tens of thousands more cars travelling from England into Wales, and back, every year, how does this square with the 'Welsh Government's ambition for Wales to single-handedly save the planet?
Will there be an extra charge for chalets and hotel rooms offering uninterrupted views of the surrounding wind turbines?
Labour politicians in Neath Port Talbot and Corruption Bay may be desperate to claim more 'investment', but rest assured, boys and girls, I shall be keeping a jaundiced eye on the Afan Valley Adventure Resort.
Because I'm sure there'll be more to tell you in the months ahead.
UPDATE 20.10.2021: The Western Mail published an article this morning that was clearly designed to boost the project and make it clear that those now involved had no connection with the misdeeds of Gavin Lee Woodhouse.
It further informed us that the funding is coming from 'Octopus Real Estate'. But I doubt it. For this is a one-woman company formed in April to buy a property in Wiltshire.
Presumably it refers to one of these pension fund Limited Partnerships, Octopus Commercial Real Estate Debt Fund II and Octopus Commercial Real Estate Debt Fund III.
But which one?
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Murray status for Australia in doubt after contracting virus
FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 12, 2019 file photo Andy Murray, of Britain, hits a forehand against Richard Gasquet, of France, during first-round play at the Western & Southern Open tennis tournament, in Mason, Ohio. Former world number one Murray's participation at the upcoming Australian Open is in doubt after the Briton tested positive for COVID-19. (AP Photo/Gary Landers, File)
By KEN MAGUIREAP Sports Writer
Andy Murray's status for the Australian Open was put in doubt Thursday after he tested positive for the coronavirus only days before his planned charter flight to Melbourne.
The three-time Grand Slam champion is isolating at home near London, the tournament said in a statement.
"Unfortunately this means he will be unable to join the official AO charter flights arriving in Australia in the coming days to go through the quarantine period with the other players," the statement said. "The AO fans love Andy, and we know how much he loves competing here in Melbourne and how hard he'd worked for this opportunity."
Murray has been given a wild-card entry into the first Grand Slam tournament of 2021.
The Australian Open was delayed three weeks because of COVID-19 restrictions and is set to begin Feb. 8. Players and officials must spend 14 days in quarantine once they arrive in Australia.
Murray, a five-time Australian Open runner-up, earlier backed out of the Delray Beach Open in Florida to "minimize the risks" of contracting the virus through international travel.
Murray could still compete in Australia. American player Tennys Sandgren was given special clearance to board a charter flight from Los Angeles to Melbourne despite testing positive for COVID-19 in November and again on Monday.
Under tournament protocols agreed with Australian government authorities, all players had to return a negative test before boarding their flights to Australia and would be subjected to further testing on arrival and daily during a 14-day period of quarantine.
Sandgren received an exemption after Australian health officials assessed his case history.
American player Madison Keys has also tested positive before her scheduled flight to Australia. She said she is self-isolating at home.
"I've very disappointed to not be able to play in the coming weeks after training hard in the off-season and knowing Tennis Australia and the tours did so much to make these events happen," Keys wrote on Twitter.
The first of about 1,200 players, coaches, entourage and officials were set to land Thursday in Australia.
Tennis Australia said players who have previously tested positive for COVID-19 were "required to provide additional and highly detailed medical information as proof they are a recovered case and no longer infectious or a risk to the community."
Murray is currently ranked No. 123 after several years of battling hip injuries and surgery.
The 33-year-old Scot made a teary retirement announcement in Melbourne two years ago before undergoing a second round of surgeries to extend his career.
This story has been corrected to show that Murray is ranked No. 123, not No. 122.
More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/apf-Tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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KEN MAGUIRE
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Steve and Ted's Excellent Adventures
Austin's mayor, Steve Adler, and the state's junior senator, Ted Cruz, are the latest Texas politicians to take ill-considered vacations.
Photo illustration: Texas Monthly; Cruz: Chip Somodevilla/Getty; trunks: nickp37/Getty; background: Jacobs Stock/Getty; suitcase: Yevgen Romanenko/Getty
On Wednesday night millions of Texans had been without power—and heat—for days, shivering through the below-freezing temperatures that had persisted for the better part of a week. Many filled warming shelters as they sought to survive yet another night after the state's infrastructure had failed and leadership had proven ineffectual. Meanwhile, cities including Amarillo, Austin, Corpus Christi, Houston, and San Antonio had warned those fortunate enough to have taps that they needed to boil water to safely drink it—which many couldn't do because they didn't have power for their electric stoves. Among the leaders who urged caution in these unusual conditions was Senator Ted Cruz, who recommended that Texans stay off the roads and not risk driving on the ice.
It was advice he didn't follow. In fact, on Wednesday evening, Cruz seemed to be having a pretty nice time! At around 4:45 p.m., the senator was setting off for Cancun, Mexico, where it's been sunny with temperatures in the 80s, for a family vacation.
The junior senator's trip would come to a quick end. Late Wednesday night, photos of Cruz strolling through the airport circulated on social media. He began facing intense blowback—not just from the usual cast of political opponents but also from those who might normally be inclined to support him. A story on Fox News about Cruz's south-of-the-border excursion attracted more than 10,000 comments. A representative one reads, "I'm a Conservative and I see the problem here… A good politician stands with and for their constituents though. Cruz bailed, for his own family's benefit, while his constituents were left in the cold. Literally." By Thursday morning, Cruz had booked himself a return trip to Texas, claiming it was always his plan to turn right back around after escorting his family to Mexico (despite packing an enormous suitcase and reportedly booking his initial return ticket for Saturday). The senator also issued a statement that, while short of an apology, at least seemed to acknowledge that he'd like his constituents to believe he feels their pain. (He didn't indicate whether he'd be following Centers for Disease Control guidelines to self-quarantine after international travel.)
New Statement from @tedcruz: pic.twitter.com/0WMni5O9R1
— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) February 18, 2021
While the senator's defenders have argued he was not in a position to be of much help from Houston, Cruz is perhaps the highest-profile politician in the state and could have leaned on his army of well-resourced donors and contacts to help his constituents during the weather emergency. Democratic and Republican representatives alike have traveled to visit weather-devastated constituents for years as a way to, at the very least, express the sense that we're all in this together, and demonstrate that they recognize the responsibility that comes with their roles. Cruz's 2018 electoral rival, Beto O'Rourke, took the opportunity to highlight that he'd been playing Gallant to Cruz's Goofus and used his Powered by People organization to call more than 150,000 seniors and connect them with local resources amid the storm.
Cruz isn't the first Texas politician to make headlines for taking an ill-timed vacation. In fact, he's not even the first to take a trip to a Mexican beach during a crisis in the past six months. That distinction falls to Austin mayor Steve Adler, who released a video urging his constituents to avoid inessential travel during the November COVID-19 wave while he was relaxing in a luxurious timeshare in Cabo. Even Cruz called out Adler's hypocrisy at the time.
Cabo San Doofus: Why Did Steve Adler Think It Was a Good Idea to Go to Mexico?
You don't have to reach far back into the annals of Texas political history to find other elected officials who've taken ill-advised vacations. Bob Bullock—the famously hedonistic Texas Democrat who served in the Texas House in the late fifties, and as comptroller, Secretary of State, and lieutenant governor from the seventies through the nineties—was well-known (and almost indicted) for his use of state planes for debauched party trips. (On one famous voyage to New Orleans, he even invited a cocktail waitress he met while traveling to join him.) Had Bullock served during the age of Twitter—or even the 24-hour news cycle—one can only imagine the social media outrage his antics would have generated.
More recently, Texas agricultural commissioner Sid Miller took a jaunt on the taxpayer's dime to Mississippi in 2015 and competed in a rodeo there. In his accounting the travel was for meetings with agricultural officials that happened to fall through, but none ever appeared on his schedule. (He eventually reimbursed the state for the travel expenses.) A year later he billed the state for a 2016 trip to Oklahoma during which he received a fabled "Jesus shot," with mythical properties said to make the recipient immune to all illness. The Texas Rangers investigated allegations of misused funds but didn't issue charges.
No one needs to investigate whether Adler or Cruz misused their office by taking these trips. It's not illegal to act like a callous jerk, even if you're a mayor or a senator—but it does create the perception that the elected officials would prefer to live more comfortably in times of crisis than the citizens they campaigned to serve. It's been a rough year, and Steve and Ted aren't special: a sunny Mexico resort vacation sounds pretty great to everybody who's sick of staying at home during the pandemic or of freezing in the dark waiting for the lights to come on. But if you want to get out of town when things get rough, public service might not be the job for you. Officers, as the saying goes, eat last.
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Q: Can i make percentage based sorting in postgres? For example: I have several user rows, and each user has either 0% boost or 10% boost to be chosen. So when I sort the rows, user with 10% has 10% more chance to be sorted on top of others than other users. Is it possible in sql? If not, what should I use to make this kind of searching algorithm?

A: To boost greater chance of ordering earlier, order by random() multiplied by 1 + boost as follows (assuming boost is a floating point number from 0-1):
select *
from mytable
order by random() * (1 + boost) desc

If boost is a percentage (a number from 0-100):
select *
from mytable
order by random() * (100 + boost) desc


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Canada to pause AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine use for those under 55, require new risk analysis
By David Ljunggren and Allison Martell
FILE PHOTO: Quebec begins vaccination for seniors over 85 years old in Laval, Quebec
OTTAWA/TORONTO (Reuters) -Canadian health officials said on Monday they would stop offering AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to people under age 55 and require a new analysis of the shot's risks and benefits based on age and gender.
The moves follow reports from Europe of rare but serious blood clots, bleeding and in some cases death after vaccination, mainly in young women. No such cases have been reported in Canada, with about 307,000 AstraZeneca doses administered.
The National Advisory Council of Immunization (NACI), an independent expert panel, said on Monday that the rate at which the clotting complication happens was not yet clear. So far, 40% of people who have developed it have died, but that may fall as more cases are identified and treated early, it said.
"From what is known at this time, there is substantial uncertainty about the benefit of providing AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to adults under 55 years of age," the council said in a written recommendation.
Older people face a greater risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19, and the complication seems to be more rare in that age group, NACI said, so they can be offered the vaccine "with informed consent."
In response to NACI's guidance, Canada's Council of Chief Medical Officers of Health, which includes provincial and federal representatives, said it would pause the vaccine for those under 55.
The council said it considered the fact that Canada had other vaccines available when making the decision. Most of Canada's supply has so far come from Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc.
Some 11.8% of Canada's population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Reuters' vaccine tracker. https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/vaccination-rollout-and-access
Separately, Health Canada, the country's drug regulator, said it would add terms and conditions to the AstraZeneca vaccine's authorizations, including "a requirement that the manufacturers conduct a detailed assessment of the benefits and risks of the vaccine by age and sex in the Canadian context."
Health Canada said it had been in talks with AstraZeneca, and once it has the requested information, it "will determine if additional regulatory actions are necessary."
It was not immediately clear how long the assessment might take.
"Patient safety remains the company's highest priority," Carlo Mastrangelo, AstraZeneca Canada's head of corporate affairs, said in a statement. "We continue to work closely with Health Canada to share and submit safety data as it becomes available."
MORE DOSES EXPECTED
The pause affects both versions of the vaccine approved in Canada: One granted to AstraZeneca Canada, and a second for the Serum Institute of India (SII) – which is manufacturing its own version of the vaccine under license – and its Canadian partner, Verity Pharmaceuticals.
Many European countries briefly stopped using the Anglo-Swedish firm's vaccine while investigating the blood clot incidents earlier this month, but Canada continued to administer doses.
Nearly all countries have since resumed use of the vaccine. But France broke with guidance from the European medical regulator and said on March 19 it should only be given to people aged 55 or older. France said the decision was based on evidence that the clotting affected younger people.
Canada is expecting a further 1.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine this week from the United States, which has not yet authorized its use. Canada has ordered more than 20 million doses from AstraZeneca and SII.
COVID-19 cases have been rising in Canada in recent weeks. On Monday, British Columbia halted indoor dining and indoor group fitness classes through April 19, as case counts hit an all-time daily high.
Officials said the measures were a "circuit breaker," to stop the spread of COVID-19 variants in the province. British Columbia has identified 270 cases of the P1 variant first identified in Brazil, which officials worry is more resistant to vaccines.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren and Allison Martell; Additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa and Moira Warburton in Vancouver; Writing by Allison Martell in Toronto; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Peter Cooney)
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