Australian Charities & Not-for-profits Commissioner Dr Gary Johns is pictured (third from left) with CQUniversity reps Professor Peter Best, Professor Julian Teicher, Associate Professor Olav Muurlink, Stephen Iles and Dr Tasadduq Imam.
Australia's charities and not-for-profit organisations are set to become key drivers of employment growth if they can adapt to the new transaction-based model of funding.
That's according to PhD researcher Stephen Iles who is part of an emerging group of CQUniversity academics focused on helping the sector move to a more business-like footing.
Mr Iles, who has a background in the finance sector, says reforms to disability, aged care and other community service delivery models set up fresh challenges for the viability of charities and not-for-profits.
"In the past, charities had expectations of government funding, often very predictable and on multi-year cycles, but now they are moving to a market-based system of unit prices where they get a share of market transactions," he says.
"This has been a fundamental shift and a lot of charities and NFPs are struggling to grow and even remain viable.
"We believe they will have to adopt well-established for-profit business reporting frameworks to help analyse their business, moving from a static understanding to a more dynamic understanding of what is happening."
Mr Iles says the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) alone predicts another 90 000 workers will be needed in coming years to service needs, meaning charities and NFPs should be bright spots in the Australian economy if they remain viable.
"Another challenging issue for charities and NFPs is that the level of donations from individuals, through gifts and philanthropy, has been going sideways for a long time," he says.
"In order to grow, organisations have been needing to look for income from social enterprises, where instead of seeking donations they offer products or services and then reinvest proceeds to fund their core service delivery.
"That's why they will need insights on how to apply business tools and business thinking to this new approach."
A CQUniversity team led by Professor Julian Teicher recently contributed to a policy consultation invited by the Australian Charities and Not for Profits Commission (ACNC).
"The ACNC invited consultation on how to help charities and NFPs adapt to draw on lessons from the business world.
"We are developing a research agenda around how best to apply business discipline and financial performance metrics to the social innovation and charitable space."
Professor Teicher said data from charities showed their investments were often under-performing and many were struggling to generate enough funding to renew their assets.
"We will develop a submission to the ACNC on how they can sustain a robust, viable and independent charity and NFP sector across Australia."


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Orange Is The New Black Already Renewed for Season 4
Season three of Netflix's original series Orange Is The New Black is still a couple months away – but the show's immense popularity has led to an early decision regarding its future.
There will be a season four, so you can watch season three and rest easy knowing it's not the end.
Netflix confirmed the show has been renewed for a season four on Wednesday. This shouldn't surprise you, as Netflix has hinted that Orange Is The New Black is its most-popular show.
Get locked up again in 2016. #OITNB #Season4 pic.twitter.com/9G1Vkvb6vX
— Netflix UK & Ireland (@NetflixUK) April 15, 2015
Last week, Netflix unveiled the first official trailer for the new season, which premieres on June 12.
And the company has just released a new clip:
Crazy Eyes still has feelings for Vee. Here's an exclusive sneak peek of #OITNB #Season3 https://t.co/Nbl5PNZtIX
Lynda Carter, the Original Wonder Woman, Weighs In On Search For New Director — 'It Needs a Woman's Perspective'
'Planet Earth' Follow-up 'Our Planet' Coming to Netflix in 2019

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Echague Isabela, May 22- The Philippine National Police (PNP) regional command 2 has strengthened its campaign against loose firearms in the region, as they conducted series of operations on "Kontra Boga."
In the report of regional director, Atty. Rodrigo P. de Gracia, the latest operation conducted by the Valley Cops has resulted into the arrest of two individuals for illegal possession of firearms in separate operations in Isabela and Quirino provinces.
De Gracia said that the Diffun Police Station, Quirino Police Provincial Office has arrested one suspect while on possession of a caliber 22 loaded with two live ammunitions, through the assistance of Barangay Peacekeeping Action Teams in Brgy. Maria Clara in the said municipality.
Last May 14, another suspect was arrested by the elements of Echague police station after a complaint was filed against him in Brgy. Sto Domingo for assault, with the use of a gauge 12 shotgun. Cases for violation of RA 8294 against the suspects are now being prepared for filing in court.
The director stated further that campaign against loose firearms need to be strengthened, especially that election campaign is fast approaching, as they were ordered by the Chief-PNP to brace for any eventuality in relation to forthcoming elections.
He further ordered police units to conduct series of operations against loose firearms and tapped local officials, especially barangay officials, to determine those who are handling firearms that are unlicensed.


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Tag Archives: minneapolis
National, News, Regional
High-speed rail plans meet opposition in southeast Minnesota
Opposition is growing in rural southeastern Minnesota to proposals for a high-speed rail line connecting Minneapolis and Rochester.
Rochester civic leaders see high-speed rail as a way to draw thousands of new workers to the Mayo Clinic and other big employers in their region.
But people living along the U.S. Highway 52 corridor see problems and costs with the Zip Rail project, Minnesota Public Radio News reported. Trains on the proposed line would speed along at more than 150 mph, cutting the roughly 90-minute ride from Rochester to the Twin Cities in half.
"Our farms are important and our industry is important. And nobody once notified me and sent me a letter and said, 'Hey, we're looking at this plan,'" said Heather Arndt, who lives on a 35-acre farm near Goodhue.
Arndt last year joined with other neighbors to form a grass-roots group called Citizens Concerned about Rail Line, which opposes any form of high-speed rail along the corridor. The group's members are worried about potential loss of farm and taxable land, loss of traffic that supports local business and the lack of any stops between Rochester and the Twin cities.
Rural southeastern Minnesota should not have to bear a cost for Rochester's multi-billion dollar Destination Medical Center development plan, and the 30,000 to 40,000 workers the development plan is expected to draw over the next 20 years, Arndt contends.
"If their choice is to take a great job opportunity in Rochester but they prefer to live in the Cities, that is their personal choice," Arndt said. "It should not be the responsibility, the problem or (to) the economic disadvantage of people who live between the two places to have to pay for that."
Traffic on Highway 52 has grown steadily. According to a 2010 corridor study by the Minnesota Department of Transportation, volume on the highway could nearly double to about 87,000 vehicles a day by 2025, up from 47,000 in 2000.
Earlier this year, officials with the state Transportation Department released eight corridor options as well as Zip Rail's potential social, economic and environmental impacts. Now, the agency is wrapping up an environmental review of the rail line due out at the beginning of next year. MnDOT paid for the $2.3 million study mostly with state funds.
Private investors are pushing a second rail option. The North American High Speed Rail Group proposes an 84-mile elevated line to be built over Highway 52. The line would run along the median, which would be the least disruptive to the region's farming, said Wendy Meadley, the group's chief strategy officer.
The privately held firm based in Bloomington says it has backing from undisclosed U.S. and Chinese investors and expects to raise $4.2 billion for the project. Once it receives a permit from MnDOT early next year, the group will have 120 days to complete its pre-development study.
countryeconomyenvironmentfarmershigh-speed railmidwestminneapolisMinnesotarochesterruraltransittransportationtwin citieswisconsin
American Queen offers luxurious Upper Mississippi cruises through October
A trip from the Quad Cities to Burlington seldom is an all-night affair.
But navigating the world's largest overnight steamboat under bridges —some with mere inches of clearance — and through a series of locks on water crowded with pleasure craft and barges is no rush job, meaning what might take a couple of hours by car is a 12-hour voyage on the Mississippi River.
Not that any of the more than 400 passengers aboard the American Queen seemed to be complaining as it paddled gently south earlier this month. Amid its comfortable appointments, gourmet meals, top-notch entertainment, active nightlife, cozy sleeping accommodations and smooth ride, the transit between ports was fast enough, indeed.
"It's like a mansion on the river," veteran river cruiser Nancy Wee of Broomfield, Colorado, said of the Queen.
Compelling though the boat may be, however, the 20-year-old paddle wheeler is not the big draw here, The Hawk Eye (http://bit.ly/1KAyzk4 ) reported.
That claim is staked by the river itself, and shared by the communities that lie at its banks and welcome passengers to town throughout cruise season, which runs July to October on the Upper Mississippi.
"It's just being out on the water," said Carolyn Hezlep of suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who was traveling earlier this month with her husband, Morgan, on a seven¡day cruise between St. Paul, Minnesota, and St. Louis, Missouri.
"The banks of the river are constantly changing," Morgan Hezlep said. "There are stretches of nothing but nature."
Of those remote spots between cities and towns, he said, "You kind of get the feeling this is how the pioneers saw it."
For them and other passengers, who on this cruise hailed from 11 countries and almost every state, it was an experience not to be missed. The same, they said, ought to go for people who live in places like Burlington, where the river, its views, history and commerce are a constant presence — whether any of those things get much day-to-day notice or don't.
Ohio residents Robert and Linda Schwenke, of Dayton, were on their third American Queen cruise, but their first on the Upper Mississippi.
"There's always something to see," Robert Schwenke said, Linda Schwenke explaining that on an ocean cruise, there frequently is nothing but water all around.
"It's neat on the top decks at night looking at the cities and the locks," she said.
First-time cruiser Kirby Brown of Manteca, California, said someone who lives near the Mississippi River but doesn't take the opportunity to experience it truly is missing out.
"One part of the river is not like another," Brown said. "Each town is different. The scenery is different."
"When you live someplace, you ignore what's nearby," he added, citing the four years he lived in Connecticut but never visited New York City. "To your regret."
Capt. Brent Willits, who grew up in Clinton and advanced from towboat deckhand to helming or leading construction of gambling boats up and down the Mississippi, has piloted the American Queen for the past two years.
A native of these waters who has seen them from St. Paul to New Orleans, Willits likewise recommends a Mississippi cruise to people who live near it.
"There is so much history close to home," he said from his seat in the pilothouse as he guided the Queen downriver approaching the Interstate 280 bridge.
The boat and its crew, Willits said, are "ambassadors, and show a lot of folks the importance of the inland waterways."
For passengers from the American East or West, or overseas, meanwhile, he added: "We get a chance to show them what the heartland of America is all about."
Only cruise vessel on the Mississippi
The American Queen is operated by Memphis, Tennessee-based American Queen Steamboat Co. and was built in 1995. It replaced the Mississippi Queen and Delta Queen, and is the company's only cruise vessel on the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. A sister vessel, the American Empress, carries cruise passengers on the Columbia and Snake Rivers in Washington and Oregon.
On the Upper Mississippi, passengers start and end their cruises in St. Paul or St. Louis.
There is no mid-stream boarding, Chief Purser Chris Caussade said.
"You have to go one way or the other," he said, noting most passengers will fly into one city and out of the other.
From southeast Iowa, connections through Lambert Airport at St. Louis would be easy enough. Non-stop flights are available to and from Minneapolis. Some passengers, though, avoid the need for airplanes by making it a two-way trip.
"I just find it relaxing," said 91-year-old retired hardware store owner Cyril Hegerle of Bloomington, Minnesota, whose 76 th river cruise was last week as he headed home from the previous week's voyage south.
Buses that trail the boat up and down the river carry passengers on their excursions at daily ports-of-call like LaCrosse, Wisconsin, Dubuque or Hannibal, Missouri, and at each stop, local guides come aboard to share stories about local history and color, Brown said.
The boat offers plenty aboard to keep passengers occupied, too.
There are nightly shows in the 250-seat Grand Saloon, movies in the theater, after-dinner entertainment including piano music in the Captain's Bar and dancing in the Engine Room Bar, a never-ending supply of cookies and ice cream in the Front Porch Cafe, daily games and more.
Beer, wine and spirits are never far away for those who want them. And nobody ever goes hungry on the Queen.
"I think the food is fabulous, and the variety is wonderful," Robert Schwenke said.
A cordoned off area of the engine room is open to visitors, and they can see large hydraulic arms powered by a 78-year-old steam engine pumping back and forth, turning the paddle wheel. A pair of gas-powered thrusters provide assistance while maneuvering and when paddling against the current on northbound cruises.
Also powered by the steam engine is a 37-whistle calliope, which is played daily as the Queen leaves port.
Topside on the sun deck, passengers who are so inclined can take a dip in a small heated pool, or get a workout in the gym.
Indoor and outdoor seating is plentiful, too, for those who wish to relax with a book or watch the river slide by.
The 222 guest cabins range in size from 500-square-foot luxury suites where guests are catered to by their own butler, to windowless interior cabins ranging between 140- and 80-square-feet. Each room is named for a person or place connected to the steamboat era.
"It's a little more interesting than saying 'I'm in 212,' " Caussade said. Cabin 212 bears the name of President Zachary Taylor.
For those who can't quite disconnect completely from the world, there is satellite TV in every cabin and stateroom and Internet access throughout the boat.
"It's kind of like stepping back in time. Welcome to the 1860s, with WiFi," Willits said.
Like many on board, the Hezleps were traveling with a contingent from the organization Road Scholars, which coordinates educational travel opportunities for seniors. While the cruise's theme was musical in nature, their tour was focused on the steamboat industry's impact on the development of America.
"We don't just look at things," Morgan Hezlep said. "We learn what they represent."
By visiting communities where the cruise made port calls, the Hezleps said, they had an opportunity get a glimpse at what Morgan Hezlep described as "the culture of Middle America."
Cruise passengers, even those not part of an educational tour, also have the chance each day aboard to deepen their knowledge of the history of America on the Mississippi in the Chart Room, a forward space on the Queen's observation deck where maps and charts and history are at their fingertips, and where the boat's historian and storyteller — known aboard as the "riverlorian" — shares river lore several times a day.
That history is further illustrated in a collection of paintings by Iowa artist Michael Blaser, whose works hang in corridors throughout the boat.
'It's the story of America'
Though the Hezleps had visited the Mississippi previously, wading across at the headwaters in Minnesota's Lake Itasca, their mid-September cruise was a first for being out on the water.
"I always wanted to be on the Mississippi," Morgan Hezlep said. "It's the story of America, practically."
That was a common refrain among passengers.
"This is America," said Wee, who was on her 30th river cruise leading a group through her travel agency, Wee Travel. "You get to see America. You get to learn about America in a way you can't do anyplace else."
She keeps coming back for more, Wee said, because "it's always something different," with a new view around every bend in the river, or changes in scenery as spring blooms or fall colors burst.
Brown and his wife, Iran, chose a river voyage over an ocean cruise "because this was closer, and part of the country we'd never seen before," he said.
Both said they were enjoying the on-board entertainment, and learned the calliope is a musical instrument best appreciated from a distance, where it isn't quite as loud. Watching the riverside come and go, and experiencing passage of the locks were favorite activities, too.
Being aboard the Queen is different from other cruises, Kirby Brown said.
"It's much more leisurely," he said.
Taking their shore excursions in the morning, Brown said, gave them freedom to "lay around in the afternoon."
A cruise is as programmed or relaxed as the individual passenger wants to make it. After all, the only place anybody has to be is on board when the Queen leaves the dock.
Willits said the American Queen, which weighs 3,700 tons, measures 420 feet long and 89 feet at the beam and has a 432-passenger capacity, "is a big boat but a small cruise ship."
A 6,000-passenger ocean-going cruise ship, by comparison, can be "overwhelming for some.
"This is still big enough to be impressive," he said, noting in a review of 101 luxury cruise vessels by Cruise News and Reviews magazine, the Queen was No. 9, just ahead of the Queen Mary at No. 10.
Luxury comes at a price
A cruise aboard the American Queen — or on the Queen of the Mississippi, a smaller boat operated by American Boat Lines that cruises past the Burlington area without stopping (Viking River Cruises will begin Mississippi River operations in 2017 with a possible stop in Fort Madison) — is an experience that, if not exclusively for the well-heeled, is certainly the domain of the comfortable.
Most who come aboard, Willits explained, can be described as "affluent, intelligent and intellectually curious."
"Seventy is the new 50, I guess," he said.
The longer the cruise, the better the accommodations and the closer to peak season, the higher the cost.
Fares aboard the American Queen in 2016 for a St. Paul-to-St. Louis cruise will range from $2,224 per person double occupancy for a 132-square-foot inside cabin in July and August to $7,999 per person for a luxury suite with veranda in September and October.
A cruise of the whole river between St. Paul and New Orleans runs, per person, between $5,949 for a northbound voyage to $20,000 for a southbound one, depending on accommodations.
"It's may be a once-in-a-lifetime thing," Morgan Hezlep said, "but you will not regret it."
At 91, Hegerle's perspective is a little different, calling cruise travel "cheaper, really, than a nursing home." Meals, entertainment and shore excursions are included in the cost of every cruise. Special on-shore activities are extra. Those include alcoholic beverages at the Queen's four bars; a cabaret show in the Bart Howard Room at the Des Moines County Heritage Center in Burlington; bus trips from Bettendorf to experience the Herbert Hoover Museum at West Branch; a John Deere plant tour or the riverside charm of Le Claire and Flexibility to book passage at the last-minute and a willingness to accept whatever berth is available, Hegerle said, is a good strategy for obtaining discounts.
With only a couple of cruises left on the 2015 season, now may be a good time to test that theory.
The Schwenkes were late in booking and wound up with an inside cabin for their cruise. They didn't say whether they were enjoying a reduced rate, but they weren't disappointed in their small accommodations.
"We're never in the room, anyway," Linda Schwenke said, her husband Robert adding, "There's always something to do.
This is an AP Member Exchange story shared by The Hawk Eye.
American QueenBurlingtonluxury cruiseminneapolismississippi riverNew Orleanspaddle wheelerriverboat cruiseSt. Louissteamboat
Minneapolis school board calls Utah-made books offensive
Minneapolis school board members are demanding an apology and a refund from a Utah-based publisher of educational books after a community backlash against what some called racial and cultural stereotypes in the material.
The books from Reading Horizons include a story about a black girl called "Lazy Lucy" and a stereotyped illustration of an American Indian girl in a book called "Nieko the Hunting Girl," The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports
Board members said the Utah-based company Reading Horizons should return the $1.2 million the district paid for the books for children in kindergarten through third grade.
"Reading Horizons needs to step up to the table," board member Carla Bates said. "I want them to bring me a check, bring you a check, bring the taxpayers of Minneapolis a check."
The dust-up comes as critics say the school district isn't doing enough to help students of color close a wide achievement gap.
The books are designed to help teachers reinforce reading lessons, but administrators acknowledged during a Tuesday meeting that they didn't fully vet the material before buying the books, which have since been returned.
"We rushed the contract," Interim Superintendent Michael Goar said. "Where we can hold people accountable, we will."
The company is overhauling its teaching material to be more culturally sensitive, but Reading Horizons representative Laura Axtell said wouldn't say whether it will issue a refund.
The titles were published in 2012 and have been used in other schools without complaints, Axtell said.
"That doesn't matter to us, because as soon as we became aware of the concerns in Minneapolis, we took action," she said, adding that the company takes responsibility for its role in the controversy.
Though the subject material may be questionable, the skills taught in the books do help kids learn to read, said Peter Sage, an elementary school reading specialist in Minneapolis. Students are falling behind, and faculty can't afford to wait for new books, he said.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the North Salt Lake-based company is considering a voluntary recall of the series, which also includes a book about Kenya that says "Kenyans are able to run very fast."
The books were purchased as part of a program designed to help close the achievement gap between white students and students of color.
The district will continue to use the Reading Horizons focus on phonetics and decoding words, though without the 54 books in the series, Goar said in a statement.
culturaldistrictEducationminneapolisoffensivepeople of colorracistsrefundschool boardstereotypesstudentstextsutah
Cecil's slaughter will have major impact on region
August 3, 2015 Associated Press	Leave a comment
When Cecil the lion's carcass was finally found after he was lured out of a Zimbabwe wildlife reserve to be killed by an American hunter, it was a headless, skinless skeleton the vultures had been picking at for about a week.
Conservationists decided the most natural thing was to leave the bones where they were for hyenas to finish off, said Brent Stapelkamp, a lion researcher and part of a team that had tracked and studied Cecil for nine years.
Stapelkamp darted Cecil and put his last GPS collar on in October. He was probably the last person to get up close before Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer used a bow and a gun to kill the now-famous lion with the bushy black mane, its head and skin eventually cut off as trophies. Stapelkamp had first alerted authorities that something might be wrong after Cecil's GPS collar stopped sending a signal.
The killing of the big cat in early July has unleashed global outrage, sending Palmer into hiding back home in suburban Minneapolis, leading to the arrest of the local hunter he employed, and prompting Zimbabwe's environment minister to say the southern African country would seek Palmer's extradition to face charges.
Stapelkamp shares the anger, not just because of the demise of Cecil. Also because, he said, it's not the first time a lion has been killed illegally around Hwange National Park in northwestern Zimbabwe, a reserve known for its rich wildlife. About a dozen lions in the region were killed illegally in recent years, Stapelkamp said, and no one was caught.
"I think this was just the final straw," Stapelkamp told The Associated Press in a phone interview from the Hwange reserve. "Everyone locally just thought, no ways, we're not letting anyone get away with this anymore."
Cecil had an intriguing story, making him a celebrity in Hwange. He arrived as a kind of lion refugee, alone and wandering after being displaced from another territory. Cecil befriended another male lion, Jericho, and together they grew and watched over two prides, one with three lionesses and seven cubs and another with three lionesses.
Cecil's killing will have an impact on the area, explained Stapelkamp, a field researcher for an Oxford University study on lions.
Jericho may not be able to hold their territory alone and could be chased away by rival lions. Unprotected, the lionesses and cubs would then be under threat and also move away or be killed. Safari operators who invested millions of dollars in the area would lose one of their biggest attractions for tourists.
"They're burning fire breaks. They're grading roads. They're pumping water," Stapelkamp said. "They're spending a lot of money in the management of lions and then someone just draws it across the railway lines having not paid a penny in its management and shoots it and runs away with its skin. It's unacceptable."
Stapelkamp, unsure of the details of Cecil's killing, described the usual tactics of hunters to draw an animal onto private land and out of the park where it is protected. The two areas are separated by a railway line. Hunters shoot a zebra or giraffe and hang it on a tree; the main bait. They then drag the intestines of that animal, "something that really smells," Stapelkamp said, up and down the park boundary behind a vehicle. Sometimes they'll even play the sounds of a dying buffalo over a loudspeaker to attract a lion.
The lion "comes across that scent trail and it leads him straight to this bait," Stapelkamp said. "It rushes in for a free meal and they're waiting … and they kill him like that."
Even on private land, this hunt was still illegal, Stapelkamp said, because no hunting quotas for lions were issued in the region this year. Legal hunts do happen, he said, but only after authorities consult with ecologists and decide that it won't adversely affect the area.
This didn't happen with Cecil, Stapelkamp said, and he doesn't believe Palmer's story that he trusted his professional guide to ensure a legal hunt.
"He's a well-educated man, he's got a lot of resources," Stapelkamp said. "You could do your homework. Due diligence. You would know that you're hunting in a controversial area. You've got a GPS you could have in your pocket and you have a look at the map, and you say, 'listen, friend, I think we're in the wrong area.' There's no excuse."
Palmer came "with the intention of getting the biggest lion that he could and getting out. And he got caught," Stapelkamp said.
CecilextraditionGPS collarHwange National ParkJerichominneapolissafariStapelkampWalter PalmerZimbabwe
As Zimbabwe seeks to extradite American who slaughtered lion, donations pour in for conservation group
July 31, 2015 Louis Weisberg	Leave a comment
EDITOR'S NOTE: Corrects money raised to U.S. dollars
A pair of U.S. philanthropists with a passion for wild cats pledged Friday to match new donations to Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Unit — the researchers who were tracking the movements of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe.
Tom Kaplan, a natural resource investor whose net worth was put by Forbes magazine at $1 billion, and his wife, Daphne, will match donations made after 3 p.m. London time Friday up to a total value of $100,000. The Kaplans hope to help the Oxford researchers raise half a million pounds to further their work.
More than the equivalent of half a million in U.S. dollars has already been raised from all over the world — $150,000 of it in the 24 hours after Jimmy Kimmel made a tearful plea for funding to assist WildCRU's conservation efforts.
David McDonald, the director and founder of WildCRU, thanked Kimmel with a message on the organization's website that said: "Jimmy Kimmel implored his millions of listeners in the USA to make donations to support our work on lions, and conservation more widely. We are so grateful for this and for the up-welling of support for our work worldwide."
Kaplan said he was spurred into action to maintain the conservation momentum that Cecil's death sparked.
"We have to seize this moment where we can all make a difference," Tom Kaplan said in a statement, adding that if the "death of Cecil can lead to the saving of many more lions, then some good can come from tragedy."
The pledge comes hours after Zimbabwe started extradition proceedings for the American dentist who paid two locals $50,000 to help him lure the lion out of a national park under cover of night and shot him with a crossbow. The wounded lion roamed for 40 hours in pain before the three men found, shot, skinned and decapitated the beloved animal.
Walter Palmer "had a well-orchestrated agenda which would tarnish the image of Zimbabwe and further strain the relationship between Zimbabwe and the USA," Oppah Muchinguri, the African nation's environment minister, told CNN.
But the Bloomington, Minnesota, dentist apparently has gone in to hiding. He briefly hired a public relations agency, but the firm quickly dropped him as a client. His business and suburban Minneapolis McMansion have been shuttered and all of his social media profiles have been erased.
A representative of Palmer's contacted the the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement late yesterday, but Palmer has yet to surface.
Cecil was not the first large mammal doomed to an illegal death by "trophy hunter" Palmer. The Bloomington, Minnesota, resident was convicted of poaching a black bear he killed in Wisconsin several years ago.
Records also show that Palmer had other impulse-control issues. His dental practice's insurance company paid $127,000 to settle a sexual harassment complaint filed against him by a former receptionist there.
Palmer, who donated $5,000 to Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign, was also ordered to take management and ethics classes.
The slaughter of Cecil, a protected and internationally beloved resident of Hwange National Park, has touched off international outrage and sparked a worldwide conversation as to how to best safeguard the dwindling number of big cats. It has also harmed the local economy. Zimbabwe officials estimated that Cecil brought the area about $100,000 in tourism.
Oxford's WildCRU, one of the world's top university research groups, tracks the movements of hundreds of lions and runs an anti-poaching team. It also works with local farmers to help them live alongside the lions. It had followed Cecil's movements in minute detail since 2008.
To make a donation to WildCRU from North America, click here.
black bearCecil the liondonationsHwange National ParkminneapolisMinnesotamitt romneyOxford Universityphilanthropistspoachingsexual harassmentTom Kaplantrophy hunterWalter PalmerZimbabwe
Animal Welfare, News, Viral
Walter Palmer wanted by U.S. and Zimbabwe officials for slaughter of Cecil the lion
July 30, 2015 Associated Press	Leave a comment
Officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service want to talk to Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist who became a target of worldwide outrage after illegally killing Cecil, a beloved and protected lion, in Zimbabwe.
But since issuing an apology to his patients on Tuesday for having to cancel their appointments, he seems to have disappeared, the Washington Post reports.
According to the newspaper, investigators have come up empty handed after visiting Palmer's house, stopping by his dental office in Bloomington, a Minneapolis suburb, calling his telephone numbers and filling his inbox with e-mails.
But unlike Cecile, whom Palmer and two local guides lured out of the safety of a national park by tying a dead animal to their vehicle, Palmer can't be lured out of hiding.
"I'm sure he knows" the government is looking for him, Ed Grace, chief of law enforcement for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, told WaPo. "We've made repeated attempts to try and get in contact with him."
Grace said that Palmer has had plenty of time since to contact U.S. authorities and that he should know how to reach the agency, "because we convicted him for lying about a bear kill" in Wisconsin in 2009.
Laury Parramore of the Fish and Wildlife Service, declined to say what the agency might do once it has more information. But she said the agency was "deeply concerned."
In terms of sport hunting abroad, the United States' primary authority is over importation of the carcasses, which hunters refer to by the euphemism "trophies." Foreign animals can be listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
Palmer could have violated the U.S. Lacey Act, a law tied to a United Nations treaty for the protection of animals. The act governs the actions of Americans who violate the laws of foreign governments.
Grace said the State Department also is looking into the matter in Africa. And, in addition to conducting its own probe, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it is ready to assist Zimbabwe in its investigation.
Zimbabwe officials also seek to question Palmer. Zimbabwe Republic Police spokesperson Charity Charamba said Palmer will face charges of poaching.
The two Zimbabwean men who assisted Palmer in committing the atrocity, for which Palmer paid over $50,000, have already been arrested. The men are a local landowner, who permitted Palmer to lure the animal to his land, and a professional hunter. Neither man had a hunting permit, making the kill illegal.
The Associated Press reported the following things to know about U.S. regulations surrounding the case:
FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE'S ROLE
Parramore said the agency is "currently gathering facts about the issue and will assist Zimbabwe officials in whatever manner requested."
The agency could potentially find a way to block importation of the animal's body, or body parts, if Zimbabwean authorities approved it for export.
"It is up to all of us — not just the people of Africa — to ensure that healthy, wild populations of animals continue to roam the savanna for generations to come," she said in a statement.
Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minnesota, said she believes the Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. attorney's office should investigate whether any U.S. laws were violated related to conspiracy, bribery of foreign officials, and illegal hunting.
PROPOSED ENDANGERED SPECIES LISTING
The agency proposed last year to list the African lion as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, a move that could limit the importation of African lion carcasses into the United States from some countries. But that rule has not yet been made final.
Listing a foreign species under the act allows the United States to strengthen enforcement and monitoring of imports and international trade, the agency says. A listing can also prohibit certain commercial activity with regard to body parts.
The agency said when it proposed the listing last fall that 70 percent of the African lion population existed in only 10 major strongholds. Threats facing the lions include hunting, loss of habitat and loss of prey, officials said.
Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive officer of The Humane Society of the United States, said that while much of the vitriol has been aimed at Palmer he hopes the incident adds to pressure on U.S. government officials to finalize the proposed rule.
"It does seem to be a potential breakout moment of public understanding of the ugly underside of the international trophy hunting business," Pacelle said. "There is a much larger problem than Walter Palmer."
ZIMBABWE'S ANIMAL MANAGEMENT
The agency's proposal would allow permits for the importation of sport-hunted lion trophies only if the lions come from countries with a "scientifically sound management plan for African lions."
Long before Cecil's killing, Zimbabwe was heavily criticized for failing to properly manage its wildlife populations. The Fish and Wildlife Service last year announced an indefinite suspension on the import of sport-hunted trophies from elephants hunted in Zimbabwe.
The agency cited shortcomings in Zimbabwe's plans for overseeing its elephant herds and said it was "unable to find that the killing of an elephant whose trophy is intended for import would enhance the survival of the species."
Legal sport hunting, when properly regulated, is considered to be a sound element of wildlife management. Revenues from hunting can be funneled into conservation programs and finance incentives for local communities to guard protected species. But, in reality, only a tiny fraction of the revenues actually winds up in the coffers of such programs.
Read also about Walter Palmer's history of sexual harassment.
Cecil the lionCharity CharambaEd GraceLacey ActLaury Parramoreminneapolisstate departmentu.s. fish and wildlifeunited nationsWalter PalmerwisconsinZimbabwe
Entertainment, Visual Art
Alec Soth finds the extraordinary in the ordinary
October 2, 2014 Michael Muckian	Leave a comment
Alec Soth has a rare gift for transforming glimpses of ordinary life into extraordinary images — and now we have a chance to see some of his finest work.
The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art showcases the Minneapolis photographer's work in From Here to There: Alec Soth's America. On display through Jan. 4 in Madison's Overture Center for the Arts, the exhibit offers 100 images from the artist's first major traveling survey of the United States.
Organized by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Soth's exhibition is a very different kind of road trip.
"I just try to follow my curiosity and intuition," says Soth, a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College. "My work shifts in tone from one project to the next, from documentary work to my personally expressive approaches."
Utilizing a cumbersome 8" x 10" camera, Soth recorded the images in the current show during multiple trips across America over the past decade. He follows in the footsteps of narrative photographers like Robert Frank and William Eggleston.
However, Soth's approach and his process of wandering are singular. He carefully chooses random subjects and settings that are singularly subtle in their content.
"If I see something that turns my head, I try to follow up on that," Soth says. "But a good picture is a magical thing. I equate it to pop music. Just about anybody can write a pop song, but a great pop song is rare and almost impossible to define."
In addition to the MMoCA exhibit, Soth and frequent collaborator and writer Brad Zeller will serve as artists-in-residence at UW-Madison for the fall semester. The residency will include several public talks and a course for both undergraduate and graduate students on the intersection of writing and photography.
Although From Here to There consists of photographs taken throughout the United States, the exhibition includes several special features. Sleeping by the Mississippi, Soth's breakthrough series, chronicles five years the photographer spent traveling up and down the Mississippi River capturing images of overlooked settings.
The series' most famous piece, "Charles, Vasa, Minnesota," shows a jump-suited worker wearing a balaclava and goggles against a bleak winter landscape. The subject also has two model airplanes in his hands, offering a sense of incongruity and mirth to the image.
Niagara, another of Soth's series featured in the exhibition, chronicles the aging tourist amenities that surround the mighty waterfall, inadvertently commenting on the decay and despair surrounding what was once a symbol of romance and love. One pieces in the series is Soth's favorite in the exhibition.
"Perhaps my favorite image is of Melissa, the bride in Niagara Falls," Soth says. "She is photographed just after her wedding. But with this picture, I decided to depict her without the groom. By doing so, the picture becomes less about the specifics of her wedding than of her dreams and aspirations."
The exhibition also features Broken Manual, Soth's most recent body of work. In this series, the photographer explores the edges of society, the places people go to escape civilization. His subjects include monks and hermits, outlaws and survivalists.
Other parts of the exhibition include some early, rarely seen black-and-white photographs of Minnesota and a series on repurposed movie theaters in Texas.
Unique to the Madison exhibition is Soth's Lothlorien series, photography commissioned by MMoCA in 2006 that focuses on the city's 23 housing cooperatives. Among them is Lothlorien, a Tudor-style cooperative on Lake Mendota's southern shore that burned to the ground in 2013.
Soth anticipates a lot of commentary on the Madison exhibition.
"Some people see it as a critique of America, others as a celebration of looking and just about everything in between," he says. "I don't have a specific agenda with the work that I'm trying to express. I'm happy for just about all interpretations."
The photographic exhibition From Here to There: Alec Soth's America runs through Jan. 4, 2015, at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 227 State St., Madison. For information visit www.mmoca.org or call 608-257-0158.
alec sothartentertainmentexhibitmadisonmilwaukeeminneapolisphotographerserieswisconsin
Environment, News, Progressive
Audubon: Glassy new Vikings stadium poses serious threat to birds
July 23, 2014 Wisconsin Gazette	Leave a comment
The National Audubon Society says the new Minnesota Vikings stadium poses a serious threat to migratory birds and calls for quick action by the team and the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority to protect animal welfare.
State guidelines require bond-funded buildings to protect birds from window collisions, but the Vikings and the MSFA have rejected calls to use safer types of glass that could help prevent birds from colliding with the stadium's huge glass windows.
"We're talking about a billion dollar stadium here, and the cost to save perhaps thousands of migratory birds — and make the Vikings a global leader in green stadium design — is about one-tenth of one percent of that," said Audubon Minnesota executive director Matthew Anderson. "Hundreds of millions of dollars of public money is going to build this stadium, and we know the people of Minnesota do not want their money killing birds. The Vikings recently approved spending millions and millions of additional dollars to make sure the stadium is 'iconic' — surely they also want to make sure it's not a death trap. We're asking them to change their minds and do the right thing."
According to scientists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Smithsonian Institution, up to 988 million birds are killed annually in the United States by collisions with buildings, especially glass windows. The new Vikings stadium will feature nearly 200,000 square feet of glass.
Audubon, in a news release, said it has worked with building owners and managers in Minnesota and nationally for many years to reduce bird collision mortality through its BirdSafe/Lights Out program. As part of this program, Audubon volunteers survey downtown buildings in the Twin Cities and have found more than 125 species of native migratory birds that have fatally collided with windows since 2007.
Audubon first met with MSFA and the Vikings in May 2013, after the stadium design was unveiled.
As early as December 2012, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources had urged the stadium to incorporate bird-safe design into the new building. A few months later, a special committee of the Minneapolis City Council recommended that the stadium adopt Audubon's suggestions to create a bird-safe structure through glazing techniques and special site lighting.
Audubon staff communicated regularly with stadium developers until this April, when they were told that another meeting would be scheduled before a July 15 decision on the type of glass to be used. That meeting was canceled, and Audubon staff were told on July 17 that there would be no change in the stadium glass choice to protect birds.
"We are grateful that the MSFA will be incorporating some of our recommendations regarding lighting design and operations, but lighting is just one part of the problem," said Joanna Eckles, bird-friendly communities manager for Audubon Minnesota. "The huge expanses of glass, especially facing a new park, are a real cause for concern. Our request was that they meet either the state requirement or the nationally recognized LEED standard for bird safety. In the end, they did neither."
birdsdeath trapenvironmentgreen gazemigrationminneapolisMinnesotanational audubon societyNFLpublic moneystadiumVikings
Minneapolis mayor delivers wedding invites to gay Wisconsinites
September 21, 2013 Lisa Neff	Leave a comment
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak traveled to Milwaukee and Madison earlier this month to deliver wedding invitations to Wisconsinites.
Because Wisconsin bans same-sex couples from marrying, Rybak suggested gay couples exchange vows in the more welcoming state of Minnesota, specifically in the City of Lakes.
Minnesota's marriage equality law went into effect on Aug. 1. In less than two months, 1,640 same-sex couples have applied for marriage licenses – that's one in three marriage licenses granted during that time. Rybak has officiated at more than 40 same-sex weddings, including that of Minneapolis Police Chief Janeé Harteau to Police Sgt. Holly Keegel.
On Sept. 9, the Minneapolis mayor stopped by the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center to talk about marriage equality and invite same-sex couples to take a 337-mile trip to exchange vows.
He also went to Madison to court the LGBT community and spread the equality message.
"Minnesotans and Wisconsinites are almost like family: We know each other well and see each other often. Now, our Wisconsin cousins have another great reason to come see us in Minneapolis: to get married," said Rybak. "Gay and lesbian couples from Madison and across Wisconsin don't have to wait one more day to get legally married in Minneapolis. We're a supportive and welcoming city where we're ready to help them put together the wedding of their dreams."
Madison Mayor Paul Soglin added, "It's time for Wisconsin for to join the 21st century and do the right thing. Eventually, we will recognize same-sex marriage – and the sooner, the better."
Katie Belanger of Fair Wisconsin spoke at the events in Madison and in Milwaukee, advocating for equality at home.
"Wisconsin's antiquated and discriminatory laws banning marriage equality and civil unions are bad for our people and our economy, and put our entire state at a disadvantage to our more welcoming neighbors," she said.
Several days before visiting Wisconsin, Rybak took his "I Want to Marry You in Minneapolis" campaign to Chicago. In the spring, Illinois and Minnesota seemed to be racing toward passage of marriage equality legislation. However, while Minnesota lawmakers passed legislation that was swiftly signed into law by Gov. Mark Dayton, the drive stalled in Illinois, where a vote was expected but not taken on the last day of the House's regular session.
The Illinois measure, which passed the Senate on Valentine's Day and has the support of the governor and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, could be taken up in late October, during a brief fall session.
In addition to Minnesota, 12 other states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriage. Also, county clerks in New Mexico and one county official in Pennsylvania have issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The legal status of theses marriages remains unclear.
fair wisconsinmarriageMayor Paul Soglinminneapolisr.t. rybakwisconsin
Madison mayor calls for a 21st century Wisconsin and marriage equality
UPDATED: Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak was in Wisconsin on Sept. 9 to court same-sex couples who can't marry in their home state. He was inviting gay couples to marry in Minneapolis, where he has officiated at same-sex weddings, including that of the city's police chief.
Rybak joined supporters of marriage equality at a press conference at the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center earlier on Sept. 9. He also went to Madison to court the LGBT community and spread the equality message.
"Minnesotans and Wisconsinites are almost like family: we know each other well and see each other often. Now, our Wisconsin cousins have another great reason to come see us in Minneapolis: to get married," Rybak said. "Gay and lesbian couples from Madison and across Wisconsin don't have to wait one more day to get legally married in Minneapolis. We're a supportive and welcoming city where we're ready to help them put together the wedding of their dreams."
Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, at a press conference in the capital, said, "It's time for Wisconsin for to join the 21st century and do the right thing. Eventually, we will recognize same-sex marriage — and the sooner, the better."
Kate Belanger of Fair Wisconsin spoke in Madison and in Milwaukee, advocating for equality. She said, "As more and more states surrounding Wisconsin enact marriage equality, many Wisconsin couples are certainly likely to avail themselves of the full recognition afforded by those states and the federal government. Wisconsin's antiquated and discriminatory laws banning marriage equality and civil unions are bad for our people and our economy, and put our entire state at a disadvantage to our more welcoming neighbors."
The Minneapolis mayor last week visited Chicago, where he offered the same invitation. He's also expected to visit Colorado, where same-sex couples can enter into civil unions but not marriage.
Minneapolis has launched a ad campaign – "I Want to Marry You in Minneapolis" – to draw LGBT tourists. Minnesota's law allowing same-sex couples to marry went into effect in August.
Since then, according to a survey by The Associated Press, same-sex couples have received nearly 1 in 3 marriage licenses issued in Minnesota.
At least 1,640 same-sex couples have applied to be married since Aug. 1.
The AP reported that demand for licenses was heaviest in metropolitan areas, with three of every four licenses for gay marriages issued in Hennepin and Ramsey counties, which make up about 32 percent of Minnesota's population.
Marriage equality could bring $45 million to the state through increased spending on wedding and tourism businesses and through a rise in total state and local tax revenue, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
Thirteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriage.
ad campaigneconomyGaylesbianLGBTmarriage equalitymarry in Minneapolismayor r.t. rybakminneapolismoneysame-sex couplestourismwisconsin
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EXTERNAL USE OF SPACES
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Musikene has had a new headquarters since September 2016. It is the work of the GAZ architects' studio. Located at Plaza Europa, on the San Sebastián university campus, it is one of the most state-of-the-art buildings in the city. It received an award from the Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos Vasco Navarro (Official Institute of Architects of the Basque Country and Navarre) in the 2016 edition of the COVAN Prizes.
The building is designed to optimise the access of natural light to interior spaces, and it meets the demands of a leading musical higher education school. It occupies a total area of 13,096 square metres. It houses a multi-purpose auditorium, with capacity for 420 people, which can be divided into three spaces. The exterior, shaped with three large incisions showing the contrast between the façades, combines black lacquer and golden tones, evocative of musical instruments.
Once inside, the 99 spaces devoted to academic activity are able to satisfy the needs of the most demanding musician. There are 68 classrooms for teaching, including a recording studio, an electro-acoustic laboratory, an instrument-making classroom, an ICT classroom and 49 instrumental classrooms of various sizes equipped to teach classes on different subjects, with some larger classrooms devoted to groups, percussion and dance.
Meanwhile, Musikene students are able to practise in 31 studio booths. They also have access to different-sized individual lockers in which to keep their instruments. All studio booths have natural light. The move to these new headquarters in 2016 meant saying goodbye to Miramar Palace–headquarters of the Centro Superior de Música del País Vasco (Higher Centre of Music of the Basque Country) since its creation in 2001– and occupying a functional and perfectly equipped space, designed for music and built in accordance with Musikene's characteristic excellence.
Higher School of Music of the Basque Country
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Despite the CDC and the FDA claim that vaccines are 100 % safe…they are not! And as that myth continued, in 2011 the Supreme Court finally determined that vacancies cannot be made safe. Which also may not be true! It just may be a matter of greed and payola.
In many American states it is compulsory to have your child vaccinated with a compounding of several vaccines before he/she can go to school. My suggestion is that you homeschool if that is an issue.
It is quite probable that ADA, Autism, SIDS, early onset Alzheimer's, and several other diseases and /or conditions are caused by some vaccines. Most of today's more than 60 vaccines that you are compelled to give your children, contain neurotoxins.
Thimerosal/Mercury, Aluminum way above and beyond the parts per million allowed by FDA/CDC. We have reverted back to the time of Jenner who developed so-called immunel-therapy at the expense of the lives of his son and thousands of others. We are genie pigs.
Note: No child has ever been born with autism, or ADA, they develop it at a later time after the vaccinations have begun.
It's believed that vaccines have virtually eliminated certain diseases like smallpox and polio, which once killed millions of people. But if one does the research, it shows that vaccinations had an insignificant effect on the disease decline. It was sanitary reforms and improved nutrition and quarantine that saved millions of lives and eventually eradicated the diseases.
Regardless of what you believe to be true, there is always another side of the story, particularly for people with autoimmune sensitivity: as mentioned earlier, many vaccines contain mercury and aluminum, and all vaccines are designed to provoke an immune response.
Mercury in vaccinations comes in the form of thimerosal, which is 49.6 percent ethylmercury (eHg) and is used as a vaccine preservative. Mercury is an extremely toxic heavy metal linked to a plethora of physical and neurological behavioral conditions. A debate has raged about mercury from thimerosal contributing to autism in children.
While government agencies keep denying the dangers of thimerosal, in 1999 and 2000 the FDA, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and the American Academy of Pediatrics issued two joint statements urging vaccine manufacturers to reduce or eliminate thimerosal in vaccines as soon as possible.
As a result, thimerosal was removed from most multi-dose vials except seasonal flu vaccine, the kind we get injected with every year, and tetanus toxoid, and certain meningococcal vaccines.
But the problem is that it has been replaced with aluminum, so we are slowly and unknowingly being exterminated.
The short, eye-opening eBook titled Aluminum in Vaccines -- a Neurological Gamble, by Neil Miller, director of the Thinktwice Global Vaccine Institute. It documents the hazards associated with aluminum-laden vaccines. Children are receiving high concentrations of aluminum in their shots. This well-documented neurotoxin may be more dangerous than mercury.
Vaccines containing high concentrations of neurotoxic aluminum were added to the child immunization schedule when several vaccines containing mercury were removed. Your two-month old babies now receive 1,225 mcg/L of aluminum in their vaccines -- about 10 mcg/L is fairly normal, and above 50 mcg/L is considered a toxic level. Your baby is being injected with 50 times higher than safety levels! Although the FDA, CDC and World Health Organization are aware of the dangers, they expect parents to play Russian roulette with their children.
Aluminum and aluminum salts are an adjuvant in vaccines. An adjuvant is a substance used to stimulate (aggravate) the immune system to make certain the vaccine is effective enough. Aluminum stirs the immune system for a reason; it is a known neurotoxin and carries a risk for autoimmunity, long-term brain inflammation, and associated neurological complications. Evidence suggests that simultaneous administration of as little as two to three immune adjuvants can overcome genetic resistance to autoimmunity. Furthermore, the very latest research demonstrates that aluminum from vaccines finds its way into the brain and spleen, where it can still be detected years after vaccine administration.
A final consideration is in order for those with autoimmune sensitivity. Vaccines work by provoking an immune response by introducing an antigen into the system so that immune cells become informed about the pathogen and mount a defense against it. Anything that provokes the immune system runs a risk of increasing autoimmune responses.
Just because there is a vaccine for something, doesn't mean it will protect you. Some vaccines like the one for whooping cough have notoriously high failure rates. Many people take the flu vaccine and get the flu anyway, some die.
The Medical community will never find a cure for autoimmune diseases or Alzheimer's or autism or ADA why? Because we ignore the cause – It's Neurotoxins my friend.
Now do you think your government is trying to reduce the population?
Watch a 2 hour documentary on vaccines part 1.


Do Markets "React" to Economic News?
Of course, this is all pure invention on the part of the reporter. Nobody knows for certain why a stock-price average goes up or down. Think about it. The prices of individual stocks reflect expectations of future dividends and future price movements, and they go up and down as new information is revealed about the firm and its competitors. We can never know for certain what makes people buy and sell particular shares but, in the case of an individual firm, we can reasonably infer that shareholders as a group are reacting to new information about the firm. The firm announces quarterly earnings below analysts' expectations, the share price tends to fall. A competitor announces bankruptcy, the share price tends to rise. Event studies are a popular technique for quantifying investor reactions to news and events related to particular firms.
But the stock market as a whole doesn't work this way. Stock prices go up and down, and indexes like the S&P 500 and DJIA go up and down according to the performance of their member stocks. Sometimes the average rises, sometimes it falls. Duh. The idea that movements in the index necessarily embody the reaction of the market as a whole to some piece of aggregate economic news reflects a failure to grasp the concept of an average. Of course, it's always possible that investors' beliefs about the prospects for particular stocks reflect shared concerns about the economy as a whole. If the government announces an increase in the corporate income tax rate, the prices of many stocks will likely fall. But this applies only to the most obvious cases. Did lots of investors care about Larry Summers's withdrawal from the Fed race, enough to make them start buying stocks? Who knows? Clearly financial journalists — who are paid to write about such things — care a lot about the next Fed chair. But we have absolutely no idea how much investors care, and no way at all to attribute this morning's rise in US equity prices to the Summers announcement or any other piece of economic news.
So please, can we stop taking such pronouncements seriously? The stock market is a social institution, an aggregate of individual trades and traders. Let's stop anthropomorphizing it.
Entry filed under: - Klein -, Financial Markets, Myths and Realities.
But what's interesting about what you're seeing here is that it's socially general: people need to cognate about social aggregates by anthropomorphizing them, and constructing dramatic stories about how those characters interact, usually implicating ethical harms and debts and karmas to be repaid upon one another. They do it with countries and little leagues too.
I think as economics thinkers we've got to do better than complaining about the public's tendency to anthropomorphize the economy, and understand how this mode of social cognition actually influences economic outcomes. For 150 years we've been trying to show people with diagrams and high-school algebra that their intuition of the economy as good guys, bad guys, fearful guys, nurturing guys, selfish guys, and generous guys — is wrong.
The persistence of this alleged stupidity may be the reflection of our own stupidity in repeating an unpersuasive political economy to people for decades and expecting them to finally get it. ;) We have to understand how the economic language people are used to speaking in actually works, and speak it to them, if we're going to persuade them.
Graham, I'm with you; any suggestions?
I'm looking at the same type of stuff Gabriel Rossman is, revisiting the anthropologists like Mauss and Malinowski in how reciprocal giving is foundational. Connecting this with George Lakoff's observation in Philosophy in the Flesh, that people constantly use language to express a sort of tally-sheet of ethical harms and credits that motivate behavior, I think we can start to see how ethical reciprocity is a sufficiently general decision heuristic, and how keeping track of a rough narrative of who's harmed whom, who's benefitted whom, and who owes whom, is actually a functional social mechanism.
As far as understanding the stock market and stories about it, I think we need to understand how the history of it developed. Where exactly did this foundational idea come from that somehow it is a General Social Barometer? Is there any evidence to support that? Economists tend to scoff at the consumer and producer confidence indices. Can we do better? What about text analyses of financial press to see if they correlate or predict stock movements? I talked to George Akerlof about this and he thought it was a good idea. And I know Goldman Sachs is interested in it.
It's not easy to understand how the stock market is rhetorical, because that idea clashes really violently with a lot of the traditional thinking us market sympathizers have been led to use in order to understand markets (as against for instance the largely incorrect Marxist narrative of financial markets). But that doesn't mean narratives generally don't make it tick. Hmmm.
I totally agree, yet I understand how tempting it is.
We often hear that markets want such and such policy. Or that some changes in the market were caused by some announcement. Such narrative is attractive for the media, but such claims have no rigor or value.
The only information generated by markets (of any kind) are prices and trade records. Anything else is speculation or anecdotal opinion (often from a single perspective, such as sellers), if not plain propaganda.
Ultimately the price system is a reduced-form system for expressing preferences, and in that way is a language system. I know that kind of claim is usually leveraged by say a left anthropologist to say that prices are ultimately a bad or undemocratic way to express preferences, that it lacks nuance, or full body, etc. That's not my claim. But I do think it's true that markets are ultimately rhetorical, and there really is something to the idea that the market quite literally speaks. It's natural to talk about the people, or polity speaking, through the vote. Well, ultimately voting and prices are both preference aggregation systems, and the public and private discourse about them in the press too.
Not that I dispute the dreadful Just So theorizing of most financial hackery, but, sadly, I think the rest of the comment is sadly awry.
It WOULD be true if we did not live in a world totally dominated by block derivatives, ETF baskets, High-Frequency algo trading and a whole host of other self-referential 'collectives'..
I think it's really sweet that people actually believe that cautious sages sit down each day to pore over the minutiae of business performance, managerial intent, and capital structure and then tentatively submit the bids and offers suggested by the fruits of such dispassionate lucubrations!
Sean, I'm not getting your point. How do derivatives, noise traders, or anything else affect the way we interpret movements in price indexes? Note that my argument doesn't assume "efficient" markets, as conventionally defined.
Peter, my point is that the 'market' as a Borg-like whole is brought closer to the journalistic cliche by the fact that so much trading is either effected by symbol- driven automatons battling in cyber space (and hence plagued with near instantaneous feedbacks) or is traded as a whole index, or a marketing- hype bloc theme in the dominant ETF space.
Flash crashes and mass, indiscriminate switches in direction are the reality, not an emrgent average of a multitude of individual stock changes, each moving according to its own idiosyncracies.
But, yes, fin journalists make sports writers look like Hemingway!
Corrigan, I´am with you on that one. Mostly because of your second factor – stock are indeed mostly traded as a whole.
See The Stock Market Speaks: How Dr. Alchian Learned to Build the Bomb by Joseph Michael Newhard, August 27, 2013 at http://www.terry.uga.edu/events/details/2444 for a replication study of Alchian's event study of capital market reactions to nuclear detonations in 1954 updated with declassified information and modern finance theory.
Romer's paper notes that the majority of major share market price changes do not follow news. These prices changes are due a process of discovery and mutual learning. the revelation of information by the trading process itself see investor uncertainty about the quality of other investors' information decline and prices firm-up.


Adultery remains one of the top reasons couples get divorced in the United States. While some couples are able to get past it and work out their problems, there are many who deem it a much too difficult indiscretion to get past. Did you know that adultery is still illegal in some states? Criminal charges for affairs include fines, jail time, or both.
Arizona's laws on adultery could send you or your spouse to jail for up to a month. It is a misdemeanor charge, but you would still have a crime on your legal record. The person you or your spouse is having an affair with may also be charged with the crime too in some cases.
In the state of Florida the laws are pretty strict when it comes to cheating on your spouse and you could receive a pretty harsh sentence. If you are convicted of adultery here, you could spend up to two months in jail and also pay a fine of up to $500 for your actions.
Illinois has some of the harshest laws surrounding adultery in the United States. If you are convicted of cheating here you could end up in jail for up to a year. This charge also falls on the person you or your spouse cheated with. They could also end up in jail for up to year for committing the crime of being with a married person.
There are some states where it is worse to be caught cheating than others and Massachusetts is one of those states. In this state, you can be charged with a felony, a much harsher verdict than a misdemeanor. You may spend up to three years in jail and have to pay a fine of up to $500 for your crime.
Oklahoma is another one of those states that cheating could net you a lot of jail time. In this state, you or your spouse could end up serving up to five years in jail for adultery. You may also have to pay a fine for your actions of up to $500.
Adultery in Wisconsin can be very pricey for those who want to stray. The state has one of the highest fines on record for the crime at up to $10.000 if you or your spouse are convicted. You could also have the added punishment of spending up to three years in jail too. Contact a family divorce attorney in your area for more information.


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Version Reviewed: European
review by Greg Giddens Mon, 26 Nov 2012 14:00:00 +0000
With a six year absence since Agent 47's last outing, it's not surprising to see that everybody's favourite murderer has gone through a few changes. And while series purists may lament the days of yore, Hitman: Absolution still steals the show with its unique stealth elements, freedom, and deadly satisfaction.
Indeed, Hitman: Absolution does stray slightly from the path of previous entries, but it feels like a natural progression for the character and the narrative. Agent 47 is given a contract to kill his former handler Diana after she liberates an Agency asset in the form of a young girl. The protagonist's previous relationship with Diana, and memories of the horrors he suffered at The Agency's hand when he was a boy, trigger an elaborate tale, as Agent 47 agrees to keep the girl safe and free.
It's an interesting setup, but one that suffers from cringe-worthy humour as the narrative meanders towards the obscure and ridiculous. Characters mostly devolve into caricatures of themselves, and it's easy to lose interest as a result. However, the series has never been known for its strong story, and while developer IO Interactive are far more heavy-handed with the plot this time around, it can still be ignored.
As a consequence of the tale, Agent 47 is thrown into acts of bartering, revenge, and information gathering, rather than the traditional assassination jobs. The sequel removes the ability to choose your own equipment at the beginning of missions, and the save anywhere mechanic, leaving you to search out checkpoints within the area of operation. Despite these tweaks, your actions mostly follow the same script as previous Hitman titles.
Equipped with your trusty silenced pistols, garrotte wire, and disguises, you're prompted to kill specific targets, interrogate the corrupt and powerful, and generally murder or subdue your way through untold numbers of henchmen. A new instinct pool allows you to avoid being spotted and scan your environment to clue you in on guard patrol routes and interactive objects. Instinct also acts as the fuel for a Splinter Cell-esque targeting mechanic, which provides assistance when your back is up against the wall. Environments tend to be small or separated into segments, but there's still plenty of room for you to tackle your objective in any manner you choose.
You can stealthily sneak past guards, subduing or killing anyone that gets in your way, before dealing with your quarry up-close and personal. Alternatively, you can disguise yourself with the clothes from almost anyone you incapacitate, and then use this disguise to walk by anyone that's not wearing the same getup. As always, there are the multiple 'accidents' that can befall your target – with a little help from you, of course. Electrical outlets can be sabotaged, food can be poisoned, and targets can be shoved as they stand precariously over huge drops. There are many options available to you in each location, often unique ones to the mission, making the experience extremely varied.
There's always the more direct approach, as well; storming in all guns blazing, taking human shields, and indiscriminately killing anything that moves is possible if you prefer. However, this has never been Agent 47's style, and while you're no longer required to blend into the environment, kill silently, and escape without anyone ever knowing you were there, you're still encouraged to achieve the cleanest, most efficient kill possible.
You're scored on how well you execute each mission, with points awarded for efficiency, stealth, and generally anything considered good hitman etiquette. Additionally, a challenge list can be pulled up at any time, which provides you with a set of conditions to meet for each mission. At times is can feel as though you're being punished for your autonomy, and nudged towards the game's preferred route, but it's actually a well defined set of rules a good assassin should follow. And even if you alert a whole army of bad-guys, and kill dozens of innocents, your score may be low, but the mission is still registered as complete, allowing you to continue the game without any impact on the next objective. Of course, the score system encourages you to replay missions, and improve your total. With multiple ways to tackle each stage, it all adds to the longevity, and is part of the reason why Hitman games are so compelling.
In addition to the campaign is an asynchronous multiplayer mode named Contracts. Here you play through a solo mission, but instead target someone other than the story-specific character. Upon dispatching an individual, you can then upload your contract for other players to try. It's up to them to match the conditions of your kill, and better your score in the process. It's a fantastic mode that successfully blends the traditional Hitman kills with a unique multiplayer element. The breadth of quality contracts available is disappointing at the moment, but once the community fully commits, we expect there will be plenty of challenging and interesting scenarios to enjoy.
Hitman: Absolution represents a stellar return for Agent 47, incorporating the best elements from previous titles, while also experimenting with plenty of new ideas. Some of the additions are a little rough around the edges – the narrative stumbles over its ridiculous characters, and the checkpoint system discourages experimentation – but it's still a refreshing experience that challenges your thinking and rewards perfection.
Great 8/10
Review copy provided by Square Enix
JavierYHL
Mon 26th Nov 2012
great game love it!
I'm interested in this game, but Far Cry 3 is winning as my next purchase and with all the good games coming out in early 2013, this one may get missed. Time is the enemy.
Galvatron
Tue 27th Nov 2012
Great review - as someone who counts Silent Assassin as one of my all-time favourite games, it's good to see the ability to immerse yourself in the games strategy isn't diminished.
I'd have preferred selecting weapons at the beginning of each mission and full sandbox levels, but if those are just incidental details no biggie.
Will be looking to pick this up over Xmas, methinks
NAZA1999
Wed 28th Nov 2012
Freaken awesome game bro cant wait 4 the HD collection 2 come out need 2 play them again
BritishSombrero
Sat 8th Dec 2012
Very Good Game Worth The Money.
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20th Nov 2012 (USA)
20th Nov 2012 (UK/EU)
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That's it! No more club racing as season 2012/2013 finished on Sunday. What a perfect way to finish. Great racing, great BBQ and fantastic weather.
Dan Stein showed the field a clean pair of heels as he dashed around to course in 1:00:32 to be the fastest of the day. Kalina Bennett who has become a regular top ten outright finisher was the fastest of the females. Others to race well were Glenn George, Ben Flanagan, Sarah Brazenor, Hadley Black, Phil Viles and Emma Sutton.
The sponsors invitational teams race saw over ten teams take part, a fast finishing Ventoux Cycles have claimed bragging rights and the trophy from Coffs Cardiology who finished second while Coffs Jet Ski Hire crossed in third.
Although a smaller field contested the shorter distance, it was still hotly contested with Caleb Taylor taking line honours in his last race over the shorter distance. Caleb plans to step up to the club distance next season.
Despite club racing finishing, there are many members with upcoming races such as Ironman Australia. Busselton 70.3. Byron Bay Triathlon. Cairns Ironman and World Long Course Championships in France all within the next 2 months. The CHTC will be represented in all.
Good luck to all competing on our shores and overseas. Thanks to Bruce and Caron for the fine BBQ breakfast.
For 10 of our club members, months of training and preparation will culminate with their tilt at Ironman Australia in Port Macquarie on Sunday. We will have two female and 8 male starters in a field of over 1500 when the gun goes off at 6.45am for the 3.8km swim, 180km cycle and 42.2km run that will test the fitness, strength and mental tenacity of all involved. All 10 CHTC members have overcome their own difficulties in preparing themselves both physically and mentally for one of the toughest single-day sporting events in the country.
Favoured to lead the local brigade home is Rod Jozeps, after months of high volume training and honing his body for the best possible performance on race day. With one race over the distance and course to his credit, Rod is going to be fast throughout all three legs with the aim of obtaining a qualifying spot for the World Championships in Hawaii. Hot on his heels will be his training partner Jon Waites. Only eight years ago, Waites was 96kg and a little overweight. This Sunday, Jon will line up for his second tilt at Ironman Australia. He will start the 3.8km swim, 180km cycle and 42km run at a super-fit 73kg. Not only has he shed in excess of 20kg over recent years, he has built up his muscle percentage, increased his lung capacity, and improved the efficiency of his heart. Jon is not in the Ironman to survive. He intends to race it, hoping for a high placing in his 50-54 years age category.
Glenn George who is coming off an interrupted preparation has experience over the distance and is the fittest he has been for a long time. Glenn's result may surprise many including himself.
Andrew Wellington has been nursing a calf injury, has successfully juggled family and work commitments around his training to be in the best physical condition of his life. With self belief and sensible pacing on the run, is capable of setting a new PB over the distance.
Kath Porter from Raleigh has been unable to run for the majority of the last few months, with a lot of time spent water running to adapt the legs for race day's 42km final leg. Her solid swim and bike combination will have her in good position hitting the run course, then patience is the key to a solid finish time. Nobody has been through the same preparation as Peter Wood. Renowned for his low volume training regime, he also had to factor in an operation to have a kidney removed, leaving him only a few weeks to throw together a few swim/ride/run sets. With in excess of 25 Ironman finishes to his credit, his experience will see him through. Race day officials have developed a shackle system to ensure Peter only crosses the finish line once.
Woolgoolga's Jenni Williams is again facing the starter, and is another experienced distance athlete. With her improved swim and consistent bike run combination Jenni will tough it out for another ironman medal.
Cliff Lloyd has had his sights set on this race for the past 12 months. Has been training consistently well and providing his achilles holds up will be pushing for that PB. Also competing are Grafton father and son Chris and Jason Limbert, both having raced this course on previous occasions and have had solid preparations. The wild-card among the Coffs competitors is Clint Rowlings, who only found out four weeks ago that he had a start on race day for his first ironman. A rushed preparation is not ideal, but there is no doubt his natural abilities will have him prominently placed in his category for a large portion of the race. For Rowlings, anything is possible, with the key being his ability to keep the excitement level low enough to ease off marginally on his default speed in the cycle and run components, to ensure that first finishes medal comes his way.
Those unable to travel to Port Macquarie to watch the event can follow the progress onwww.ironmanlive.com using their "athlete tracker" facility which will provide split times for each entrant. This feature uses either surname or race number to provide athlete details, accordingly here are the numbers of each entrant of interest to Coffs. Jason Limbert #47. Clint Rowlings #115. Glenn George #1118. Chris Limbert #1152. Cliff Lloyd #1153.
Andrew Wellington #1237. Rod Jozeps #1357 Jon Waites #1430. Kath Porter #1458. Jennifer Williams #1552. Peter Wood #11-276 (Legend Status).
As you may be aware, there are several of our members heading to the USA shortly to try their luck in some events in Northern California, Washington and Canada.
While away, the group would like to stay in contact with some of our current juniors, with regular email correspondence to keep those in Coffs informed on what was happening in the USA training camp.
There will be a Facebook page where general results, training days, photos and blogs will be available, but there is also an opportunity for any of our youngest members to have personal email contact with members of the racing group.
Should you be a current club junior interested in entering into a mentor relationship with Dan Stein, Richard Pearson, Aaron Newman or Reece Edwards while they are overseas, please send your email details to coffs_coach@bigpond.com and you will receive regular personalised updates during the months of June and July direct from the USA and Canada.
The object is to make the members of our club still in the under 20 year age divisions aware of what is achievable in their future, if they stick to the sport and continue to improve gradually over the next few years.
All the travelling members of the USA group started with modest goals, but their diligence, determination and consistency have given them the opportunity to race overseas. With a similar approach there is no reason some of our youngest members cannot aspire to similar achievements.
There will be more details, including the naming sponsorship of the touring party, announced in the next few weeks.


The last time I raced Ironman Cozumel (2010), things did not end well. I ate or drank something that (I guess) I shouldn't have and ended up so sick I could not finish the marathon. Not pretty.
Fast forward to 2013 and I had a new set of challenges.
A few weeks prior to racing Cozumel, I raced Ironman Florida. It was going to be a quick 29-day turnaround between Ironman events, which was the quickest turnaround I have ever done. I wasn't sure what to expect and a couple weeks after the first event I wasn't so sure about my decision. But in the third week post-FL I started to feel better and my training improved considerably. On Monday before the race I even told my coach that I honestly felt better than I had felt going into Florida. I thought I might have just pulled off the right balance of training and rest between the two events.
Then, that night came. Apparently I jinxed the crap out of myself as I spent the entire night coughing non-stop.
Nevertheless, I knew I still had almost a week to improve so I still had some faith.
Well,I didn't improve much at all by the time I had to fly out on Thursday, but I still hoped to feel better. My first morning in Mexico (Friday), I felt even worse than I felt all week. And it was at this point that I honestly felt there was no way I was going to make the start line. When I made the walk from the hotel to the ferry (about a mile), I had to sit down and rest as I felt I was on the verge of passing out.
I woke up the day before the race and I was still feeling incredibly lousy. Brooke and I sat around our hotel room as I debated whether it was even worth it to go check in my bike. My primary concern was how I was going to get my bike out of T1 in the morning instead of actually thinking about the race the next day.
Finally around noon, I made the decision to spin over (massive tailwind from the hotel to T1) which was the only ride I had done all week.
I went to bed that night fully expecting to be up all night with a cold, but suddenly my cough seemed to stop and by 4:00 a.m. I seemed to actually have most of the cold out of my system. I felt very tired and wiped out, but I no longer felt sick. Kind of amazing really. At the very least, I was now going to do the swim and ride one loop (of three) of the bike and see how I felt.
All week long Cozumel had been experiencing crazy winds and storms, making the ocean too rough to swim in and the currents very strong. As a result they changed the swim from 3.8 to 3.1K and made it down current. Cozumel has my favorite kind of swim conditions: clear, salt water and non-wetsuit. However, after not swimming all week I wasn't too sure how it would go.
After the gun went off I figured I would be dropped quickly, but I just kept trucking along and eventually I realized I had just made the tail end of the front group (aside from two dudes off the front). I wouldn't say the swim was easy, but it did feel manageable, but as the end of it neared (only 34 minutes with this course), I could tell I was pretty gassed from the effort. I stood up to run to transition and I felt WORKED.
I got on the bike and while there was about to be a huge group forming, I decided the best decision would be to do the bike well within myself if I wanted a chance to finish the race. The guys disappeared in a heart beat and aside from a couple other pros (including Weiss) passing me, I spent most the ride riding along by myself. The east side of the island was very windy and that section required me to ride with more focus, but the rest of the way I tried to keep things very moderate.
I came off the bike way, way down. Maybe 20 minutes off the lead? It's hard to know because I lost my timing chip in the swim and I didn't use a Garmin or computer on the bike. However, I started the run in the 11th so I thought maybe I could sneak my way into one of the last money spots (paid to 8th) if I just kept plugging away.
I moved into 9th place fairly early into the first loop (of 3) of the run (maybe within 4 miles), but from there I had quite a distance to 8th. As I came back into town Brooke told me I was 5 minutes out of 8th which seemed really, really (really) far. I kept things ticking over to the halfway point, but then I really started to tire out and I figured my day was probably over.
But as I made my way back into town at the end of the second loop, the gap to 8th had gone down to 45 seconds and at the mile 18 marker I moved into 8th. I got a huge second wind as I finally felt like I had something to run for again. Just finishing this race was going to be a huge victory for me, but finishing it with some money in my pocket was a much, much bigger motivator at that point.
I made it to the turnaround and as I moved back into town and into the final mile I could see 7th place and with less than half a mile I caught and passed him. I was super excited to get that final pass and as I came into the finish chute I was given more good news as I was apparently in 6th place, and not 7th, as I unknowingly passed someone else in that final lap.
Given the fact that 5th place was another 7 minutes ahead of me, I can safely say that I got everything out of my body that was possible that day. While there have been much faster days in my past, there is nothing more satisfying than knowing I did everything I could from start to finish on Sunday.
That's it for this season. A lot of new experiences came out of 2013 and I look forward to getting back into action next year.
The first stop in 2014 will be at the Texas Triathlon Clinic on January 24-26 in Plano, Texas. Please come join me if you can.


text:
Longtime NBC News Correspondent Irving R. Levine Dies
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By Chris Ariens on Mar. 27, 2009 - 3:05 PM
Irving R. Levine, the longtime economics correspondent for NBC News died yesterday in Boca Raton, FL.
Levine, who often wore bow ties on his stories, reported for NBC News for 35 years – first as a foreign correspondent then in 1971 becoming NBC's economics correspondent based in Washington.
After retiring from NBC News in 1995, Levine was named Dean of Lynn University's School of International Communication in Boca Raton.
Irving R. Levine was 86.
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The greatest day in history, Death is beaten. You have rescued me. Sing it out Jesus is alive. The empty cross, The empty grave. Life eternal You have won the day. Shout it out Jesus is alive. He's alive. Oh happy day, happy day. You washed my sin away. Oh happy day, happy day I'll never be the same. Forever I am changed. When I stand, in that place. Free at last, meeting face to face. I am Yours, Jesus You are mine. Endless joy, perfect peace. Earthly pain finally will cease. Celebrate Jesus is alive. He's alive. Oh what a glorious day. What a glorious way that You have saved me. Oh what a glorious day. What a glorious name, the name of Jesus!
For some reason tonight, I am filled with a crazy peace. I keep smiling. I want to run around. I want to laugh. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I feel this way for a reason. The way someone feels when they are giddy in a new relationship. I feel this way. But it is not induced by a new relationship. It is because I remember a happy day. I remember being in Israel at the Garden Tomb. I remember being there feeling such peace- kind of like I do right now. I remember the Love that was given there. I am an ordinary person. Nothing special about me. Yet for some reason, Jesus, an unordinary man, chose to do something for me selflessly. He loved me relentlessly and took the death that was mine. But in his death, he gives a new life in our hearts. We have the choice to love him, everyday. We have a choice to smile in spite of our circumstances, in spite of our battles, in spite of our struggles, and along with our victories. So tonight, I remember that Jesus loved me enough to give me a second chance at living my life fully. I am not only free, but I am given a beautiful opportunity at true peace and joy. I do not have to be defined by my past, struggles, or anything else. I am forever changed by his love. I take it. Jesus is alive in me. I feel him. In my heart. The way we feel when we love someone deeply…oh happy day!


This is one of the most amazing countries to explore by bike. No land ownership, no fences, and almost nobody you have to share the trail with. We have the bikes, panniers, camping gear and GPS to allow you to head out with confidence in your equipment, and in your route, so you can simply enjoy the great outdoors of Mongolia.