text:
This shop requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please activate JavaScript in your browser
FORMULA 1 SINGAPORE AIRLINES SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX 2022 no longer supports your browser's version and the site may not behave as expected. Please update to a new version: Click here
Total tickets $0.00
See my basket
Ticket(s) added to basket
F1 SINGAPORE INFO
Speak to an agent
Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix Information
Marina Bay Street Circuit
The FORMULA 1 SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX is a spectacular night race run on the streets of Marina Bay in downtown Singapore. The circuit lights create a brilliant strip carving its way between the water and the city's skyscrapers, adding beauty to the picturesque scenery of the Marina Bay. The numerous types of off-track entertainment including the post-race concerts have also played a significant part in increasing the popularity of this fresh and sparkling Grand Prix.
The circuit is lit by thousands of powerful floodlights and is a mix of high-speed straights and bumpy slow corners, making it a real physical challenge for the drivers as they weave their way between the barriers. And although the race is held in the dark of the night, the powerful lights around the circuit provides such strong illumination that the drivers get the feeling of racing in the middle of the day.
Circuit Address:
Singapore GP Pte Ltd
HPL House, #06-02
Circuit Facts
Length: 5.065 km
Race distance: 308.828 km
Laps: 61
Available Ticket Categories:
Grandstand tickets
Ticket Specifications
Child Tickets
Child tickets are available for children under 16 years old. IMPORTANT - Children under 12 years of age will have to be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. The guardian of children under 7 years old needs to present a signed authorization letter to access the track. You can download the letter here.
Please note that all visitors need a ticket, no matter which age.
Tickets for groups of 4-7 people, as well as for larger groups of 8 and over, are available for special prices.
Browse Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix Tickets
VIP and Hospitality
Let the magic of Marina Bay amaze you even more with a VIP ticket – the Grand Prix in Singapore is best experienced from an exclusive suite where you can sip on fine drinks and enjoy superb dishes while you enjoy the very best views of the action. At our dedicated hospitality portal GPExperiences, you can find a full range of selected F1 Singapore VIP and Hospitality tickets.
Get access to the best views of the amazing races, enjoy to the top-class entertainment around the track and socialize with the elite of Formula 1. A VIP ticket, such as the famous Formula One Paddock Club, will give you a Singapore experience to remember forever. We can also help you select the perfect hotel and provide you with a range of options when it comes to activities and Singapore sightseeing.
GPExperiences is your place for exclusive offerings and the best of the best when it comes to Formula 1 hospitality. Explore the Singapore Grand Prix hospitality page for clear descriptions and inviting photo galleries that gives a true representation of what a VIP Experience at the Marina Bay Circuit will be like. Don't hesitate to get in touch with us for help with a tailored itinerary for an incredible Formula 1 weekend.
Find your F1 Sinagpore VIP and Hospitality tickets
Aside from enjoying the spectacular Grand Prix environment, you should take some time to discover a little bit more of the magnificent city Singapore. You will be astonished by the cleanliness of the city as well as the breathtaking and tall architecture. We would recommend to explore the following:
- Get an amazing view of the city in the Singapore Flyer Ferris wheel
- Take a stroll on the waterfront promenade
- Visit the Southern Ridges for a tree-top walk
- Discover the area's tropical abundance in Singapore Botanic Gardens
- Go to the enormous malls Marina Square and Sentosa Island for shopping
- Enjoy a meal at one of the restaurants on Dempsey Road
- If time, take a boat trip to one of Singapore's surrounding islands for beach and sun
Average Temperature September: 27°C / 81°F
Currency: SGD (Singapore Dollar)
Closest Airports: Singapore Changi (SIN)
Recommended city transport: Public
Find the best hotels in Singapore
Multi-payment Method
Secured Delivery by DHL
Don't miss the best news!
Gootickets.com is an official ticket provider for many sports events across the world including Formula 1, MotoGP, Motocross and Tennis. From General Admission passes to tailor-made packages, our team commits to offering sports fans the best deals on the market. Our multi-lingual ticket shop offers several payment methods via a secured payment process. Orders are safely delivered by DHL or can be picked-up directly on-site.
Copyright © 2022 - platinium group s.a.m. - All rights reserved
We use cookies to personalise your experience and analyse traffic to this site. Information about your use of our site is shared with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you´ve provided to them or that they´ve collected from your use of their services. For more information, read our Privacy Policy.


The Boss Rambler gang has some haze ready for you.
It's a bit of a running joke at this point. Every time a brewery opens up in Central Oregon, the first reaction is often "Surely there's no way this city can sustain yet another craft brew outlet." Then, a few months later, another brewery opens. Then another, then another. It never fails.
Such is the environment being tackled by Bend's new crop of breweries, led (for the time being) by Boss Rambler Beer Club. Situated two doors down from 10 Barrel on Galveston Avenue (in the former Aspect Boards & Brews building), Boss Rambler was founded by Matt and Kate Molletta, who used to work at Crux and Boneyard, respectively. Fellow Crux alumnus Jacob Bansmer runs the brew system.
"We're running the brewery now as a kind of extended soft opening," Matt Molletta explains. "Later this month we'll be closing the taproom in order to fully renovate the building over the fall. Eventually, the plan is to open a true farmhouse brewery up in Tumalo, where we'll be able to grow hops and other ingredients onsite."
For now, though, Bansmer is brewing Boss Rambler beer on Silver Moon's equipment. The place debuted with a hazy IPA, but this weekend they're offering Double Dip, an IPA that's also pretty opaque, but whose Amarillo and Citra hops make it taste like a true-blue Northwestern ale. A great choice, no doubt, for a warm September afternoon spent at the outdoor beer garden, taking in the Galveston Avenue people-watching.
Boss Rambler is far from the only new face in town, of course. Geist Beerworks is now open five days a week at a site near Redmond Airport, offering a dozen well-made house beers and making plans for an indoor food-truck lot.
Over near Smith Rock, Good Earth Brewing is making beer now, just waiting on an alcohol license to begin distributing kegs all over town. And closer to downtown Redmond, Porter Brewing plans to offer an extensive line of 100 percent cask-conditioned British ales. The grand opening is set for September 29.


Come and enjoy a time with women from the community. Learn a new song or practice some favourites. Childcare is available but please let me know if you're requiring it for the night in advance.
Look us up on Facebook at M'Wikwedong Women's Drumming Group.
I read this article and found it very interesting, thought it might be something for you. The article is called Women's Drumming and is located at https://mwikwedong.com/event/womens-drumming-15/.


Attention! Until 10th of March for everyone who wants to try my service and see how it works, just write to me by email and I will give you 2 weeks for free. Hello everyone, All my picks are only from Asian bookies and Bet365/William Hill. I always use Two way, Handicap, Over/Under and I place equal stake on each bet. My mostly used bookmakers are Pinnacle, Bet365, Sbobet and 188bet. You can pay by Skrill, Neteller and PayPal. The price is 99e/month - 249e/3 months. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate and contact me. I am available 24/7. I commit to respond to any request in 24 hours. Email: boombasketbets@gmail.com THE ONLY MY FB PAGE is facebook.com/boombasketbets THE ONLY email is boombasketbets@gmail.com THE ONLY website is www.boombasketbets.com There is no other way you can contact me via other emails, FB profiles, etc. NOTE: My service is open only for people who are honest and keep picks only for themselves. If you are going to share or resell my picks I will end the subscription without refund and you will lose your money. Thanks for your understanding.


Established in 1971, our firm has earned a reputation among our colleagues and the courts for excellent trial work in criminal and civil cases.
Thomas, Birdsong, Mills, McBride & Osborne, P.C. is a full-service trial law firm focusing on personal injury, criminal defense, estate planning, real estate, business, and family law. Since our foundation in 1971, we have maintained a reputation for excellent trial work in both civil and criminal cases. Our attorneys have tried numerous cases in state and federal court and have a long record of excellent results on behalf of our clients. We are committed to providing excellent and practical legal service to our clients.
Whether you are recovering from an injury, filing for divorce, fighting criminal charges, or drafting an estate plan to prepare for the future, our attorneys have the experience and skill needed to handle your case. We take the time to get to know you and thoroughly analyze every minute detail of your case before diving in and developing a customized legal approach. Our team understands that every case is different and believes that every client deserves personalized service. We strive to craft solutions that meet your unique needs.
wills and estate planning, and family law. Get started with a case evaluation today.
Choose Thomas, Birdsong, Mills, McBride & Osborne, P.C.
With all the legal services you need in one place, Thomas, Birdsong, Mills, McBride & Osborne, P.C. is the firm you will want by your side when presented with a difficult situation. As a local law firm with attorneys who remain active in the community, we use our local knowledge to your benefit, strategically devising legal tactics from a local's perspective. Although our firm is based in Rolla, we are willing and able to travel to you wherever you may be located in central Missouri. You can count on our team to meet your needs and exceed your expectations. Protecting your future is our priority.
Our attorneys have a strong moral compass and always have the client's best interest in mind.


text:
Mercedes-AMG C 63 S Coupe review: 4.5/5
Mercedes-AMG >> C-Class >> Mercedes-AMG C 63 S Coupe
Fancy chasing supercars and waking the dead for fun? You'll like the wild Edition 1 C 63 S Coupe so...
Words: Kyle Fortune
Model tested Mercedes-AMG C 63 S Coupe Edition 1
Pricing starts at about €119,000
Engine 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 petrol
Transmission seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, rear-wheel drive
CO2 emissions 200g/km (Band F, €1,200 per annum)
Combined economy 32.8mpg (8.6 litres/100km)
Top speed 290km/h as part of AMG Driver's package
Power 510hp at 5,500- to 6,250rpm
Torque 700Nm at 1,750- to 4,500rpm
EuroNCAP rating not tested
The Mercedes-AMG C 63 S Coupe is a talented and hugely enjoyable all-rounder. It's stripy, too, at least in Edition 1 specification as driven here. It's defined by massive speed, presence and tailpipes that orchestrate the best V8 soundtrack you'll hear outside a drag strip.
You're looking at an AMG, more obviously than most thanks to its Edition 1 status, which adds some stripes to the already muscled look. You don't have to have the yellow decals, though, and it truth we'd leave them out, as the AMG C 63 S gets enough attention without needing a great big 'look-at-me' sticker running from the grille, up the bonnet over the roof and to the backside (complemented by others on the side sills). Without those, the uninitiated might pass the C 63 S as just another Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe; assuming, that is, they missed the bulging bonnet, widened wheelarches (filled here with yellow striped, black 20-inch alloy wheels hiding copper-coloured brake callipers), gaping air intakes up front and vents around the back, as well as the quad exhaust system. So, realistically, even someone completely ignorant to cars wouldn't miss that this one is a little bit different to one of its lesser non-AMG brethren.
Fire it up and they'll be left in absolutely no doubt. Any worries we've all been having about turbocharged engines being the death of aural arousal are immediately quelled. AMG's 4.0-litre biturbo V8 engine sounds magnificent. It's naughty when you start it, enough to ensure your neighbours will hate you for the fact it'll wake the dead on start-up with its many layered blaring, barking snare. Inside, it's all familiar 'Benz, with the usual AMG twist, so there's deeply bolstered AMG sports seats, AMG specific instrumentation, an AMG steering wheel and a host of buttons for the various drive modes on offer, too. There's space in the back too, as this a genuine four-seater, so long as your passengers aren't too tall, that is, though if you need more practicality you can have the same drivetrain in the saloon or estate as well...
We've not driven anything else recently (with the exception of the AMG GT S and C 63 S Estate) that's had us so smitten. The sound is worth the sticker price alone, but allied to the massive performance it makes for a beguiling car. It's as quick as supercars used to be before they went all 'hyper' and, in the real world at least, more performance than you could ever really need or want. The C 63 S Coupe will reach 100km/h from rest in just 3.9 seconds, and, with the addition of the optional AMG Driver's Package, it'll hit 290km/h (or 'just' 250km/h if you don't tick that particular box). Thanks to the addition of an electronically controlled limited-slip differential on the S version of the C 63 Coupe, the two-door car's a sharper, more controlled machine, offering more sophisticated control of the rear over the ordinary mechanical differential found in the (still ballistic), non-S C 63. Its track is wider, too, aiding stability and turn in response at the front axle.
The result of all that chassis trickery is a more exploitable car, so the C 63 S Coupe can use its power with a bit more finesse than its sometimes uncouth saloon and estate relations. The rear axle is far more controlled, relatively speaking of course, while the steering is sharper and the suspension's sophistication translates into greater composure to the benefit of wheel control. You'll carry more speed everywhere, a bit less bluntly, but the AMG lunacy is still there; tweaking the settings relinquishes the driver aids of their most restrictive modes and allows that rear axle some yaw on demand. It's all very controlled and enjoyable, too, the C 63 S Coupe hilariously good fun even at ordinary speeds, the crackling, fizzing exhaust and the trigger response from the accelerator (assuming you're in Sport+ or Race modes for the drivetrain) make for an engaging, always entertaining drive. The gearbox is best driven via the paddles, even if it works its seven ratios well enough if left alone, but it's more fun to do so yourself, not least as it allows you to really explore the engine's brilliant range, both physically and aurally, and neither are ever disappointing.
Even in less than perfect conditions for a rear-driven 510hp machine, the C 63 S Coupe remains an exploitable car. The brakes are mighty and while there's not much of what you'd call genuine feel at the steering wheel's chunky rim it doesn't take more than a few bends to realise you can lean on the front axle with absolute confidence. The steering is best left in Comfort mode, as other settings do little but add heft without any corresponding increase in sensation. Indeed, if anything it slows down the turn-in response and mutes what information there is.
This is arguably a sensible alternative to a supercar: there are four useable seats, a respectable boot and, if you avoid the stripes, relatively sober looks. The options list is lengthy, but even as standard the C 63 S has plenty of kit. We'd do without all the optional 'driver aids' that do nothing but distract from the experience, not least as we cannot conceive of a time in this car when you'd want to take the motorway over the backroads, though the head-up display (sadly lacking the rev counter and gear display like you get in a BMW M car) is a must as you'll want a quick reference to your speed.
The Edition 1 is a sensational car from AMG, demonstrating a brand that's very much at the top of its game. The drivetrain is fantastic, the chassis enjoyable and exploitable and it's all wrapped up in a body that you could convince yourself is practical. At least when you compare it to supercars, that is.
Ford Mustang V8 Coupe review
Ford Mustang 5.0 V8 vs. Mercedes-AMG C 63 S Coupe: up the workers! Ford's blue collar coupe is more expensive here than in the US of A, but it's still a bargain compared to Affalterbach finest.
BMW M4 Coupe review
BMW M4 Coupe vs. Mercedes-AMG C 63 S Coupe: the AMG is a good deal pricier than its most obvious Bavarian rival, but it feels like it's worth the premium.
Lexus RC F review
Lexus RC F vs. Mercedes-AMG C 63 S Coupe: you could have the all-singing, all-dancing 'Carbon' Lexus for less, but the singing and dancing is local pantomime when compared to the AMG's slick West End production.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Very beautiful post! Thank you for these insights. So grateful you're doing this kind of work.
Since you mention Silent Hill, can this be run via mame? I always thought mame is arcade only. If perhaps not in a full post, is there any chance you could show me the improvements made? I'd be very curious.
MAME has directly covered non-arcade (and even non-gaming) stuff since 0.162 (released 27 May 2015) although admittedly, yes, it usually takes a few years for any major changes in the project to be noticed by the majority, so it's understandable you weren't aware of that yet; It even took a while for the official site to remove the references to it being an arcade emulator above all. I guess it doesn't help that some news outlets stubbornly refuse to acknowledge it but overall the reception has been good and highly beneficial to the development of the project, including the arcade emulation side of things.
I can't personally say how well Silent Hill runs / doesn't run, I was going off the commit information provided by the dev who fixed it, although I might look into it for a future writeup as it is an important driver for MAME to have accurate emulation of.
What I have continuously found amazing is how tolerant some software is to these sorts of bugs. Some of the software I have wrote would not tolerate even the slightest thing out of line. Yet loads of software 'works' with a decent amount of usability. These sorts of fixes remove oddball bugs and the like. For example my wife is decent at Super Pac Man. But unfortunately only on a *very* old version of MAME. So none of the patterns she learned work! I try to give her newer versions and she refuses and goes back to the old version. Those little fixes and timing changes make a huge difference. I remember the huge battles on the alt groups about how everything would have to be timing perfect for things to work. Yet in some ways it is unfortunate and other ways fortunate that was not true.
Thank you, all your hard work is greatly appreciated, please keepup the great work on CPS3, you guys are awesome.
btw Apache 3 from tatsumi, I thought that was fixed?
I ask this just for curiosity: many games have proms dumped but not used in MAME. If I understand correctly, at least some of them are used in the real hardware for graphics priority. Is there a particoular reason for not using them (for example because they are useless as the priority is hardcoded in the driver)? Very old and "simple" games like Ghosts'n'Goblins have prom dumps not used. Thanks!
A lot of unused PROMs are screen timing or access timing and the like, and without extensively tracing the PCBs etc. it's unclear how they translate into real world use. Same goes for priorities, what is simple to implement in code can often be non-obvious from the PROM, and there are very few people actually doing hardware tests with arcade hardware etc. compared to the extensive research done for home systems.
Apache 3 I think is in Phil's long backlog of things.
and re: Super Pacman, yeah, timing fixes can change how things work, although it's the first time I'd heard anything about that. I know older versions had some incorrect priorities which might have made the game easier however, but yeah, if they're memorized patterns it's probably timing (or a different default dipswitch setting) It might surprise people to know, but even Ms Pacman is not correctly emulated at this point, the ghost tunnel timing is off as it reads from an unmapped address on hardware which gives a psuedo random 'open bus' value which depends on various factors that haven't yet been determined.
The Ms. Pacman issue surprises me. I thought all old 'classics' would be emulted correctly by now, especially if they're common and famous. What needs to be done for Ms Pacman to work? Maybe people would donate towards it; I would.
MsPacman I'm not sure, I mean people have done some fairly extensive analysis of the hardware / software and are still not sure, since it relies on 'undefined' pseudo-random behavior it's very annoying. Throwing money at it probably won't help.
The classics aren't perfect, Moon Cresta has problems with the demo sync in attract mode, some people will claim older versions of MAME were better there, but in reality they were just broken in a different way which caused different parts of the sequence to fail, and in old versions it's known to be running at an incorrect speed. Quite why it doesn't sync is not understood as it's very simple hardware.
Misisng waitstates caused by DMA etc. means things like SF2 Turbo don't run at the right speed either and require you to either hack the CPU speed for a closer approximation (a hack, and still wrong) or accept that they're running too quickly.
The day the classics *are* perfect MAME will likely have steeper hardware requirements still. This weird idea that just because you've been able to play the games for almost 20 years means they're correctly emulated is something that needs to be addressed because it means people aren't acknowledging progress when it is made.
Great work, one game i'd like to see get improved though is gradius 4, i wonder if you could provide some insight into the state of the driver and what/how much work would be required to make it a playable speed?
Gradius 4 does run at a playable speed already if you have a semi-recent (3-4 years) high end CPU.
Unfortunately one of the reasons it runs at a playable speed is the SHARC recompiler, which introduced a few visual bugs at the same time that I don't think have been fixed yet.
Regarding the SF3 fixes, the behaviour in the recent Street Fighter Collection published by Capcom is correct? If so, it could be a first for a commercial emulator (generally, commercial emulators obtain info from open source emulators and don't do autonomous research).
Leo: Many PlayStation games are completable in MAME, including big names like Resident Evil, Final Fantasy VII, and Symphony of the Night. We support multiple controller types, memory cards, and everything else you need. Before Raiden II arcade was playable in MAME it worked perfectly in Raiden Project form on MAME's PlayStation driver.
the real capcom couldn't get it right on dreamcast or playstation 2,what do you expect nowadays when these "ports" are handed to western clueless studios ?
@sf3fan: there are some ways, you need a setup that allows you to run the games at their native refresh rate, like a crt emu setup or flat panel that supports variable refresh. Then you can tweak the cpu (downclock) via the slider available from cheats, or better since it doesn't save and isn't very precise; edit and modify the driver with custom values and recompile MAME with it.
At the moment it is possible to attend to everything; clock, rate, resolution, input lag, audio lag etc. to achieve nearly identical-to-real-thing to the point you'd effectively have a hard time telling the difference. It's just a long quest to learn and complete by yourself, your personal investment into the solutions that are available today, if this what you seek from emulation.
Because it doesn't seem like globally working viable and acceptable solutions to all of these things will pop up from MAME development and feature in near-future official builds just like that. As we're re often told, 'perfect' by default from MAME means tons more development work and therefore tons more time, and we'll all probably be older (maybe significantly-so) when that becomes a reality for the entire games list. Remember their development effort priority is to preserve accurately, making the games playable accurately is in lower position since it also does not entirely depend on MAME, which can't be helped, unless MAME buys Microsoft, Intel, nVidia, AMD, and most displays manufacturers among many other things to entirely reshape consumer technology worldwide so it would fit MAME 100%.
@Arbee yup, mame's multiple psx controller types is an awesome feature and great to be able to play e.g. ape escape with a dualshock. Just really wishing rumble could be there for closer-to-real experience (plus iirc games like MG solid and RE 2+3 kinda needed it to play properly). That would really go far. All else tho – totally thumbs up..


If you were one of the few who snapped up a Dell Streak 7 on the cheap recently, congratulations; there's an experimental Ice Cream Sandwich port waiting in the wings.
An intrepid team of two over at TabletRoms, DJ_Steve and Giveen, have a beta version of an upcoming Streak 7 Android 4.0 ROM that uses Cyanogen Mod 9 UI elements.
If you've always wanted to have something to root but you've been scared, we've put this comprehensive beginner's guide together if it's your first time.
The TabletRoms team mention, in capitals, this this is a BETA and therefore they're not responsible if you brick your Streak 7. If you're cautious you can always bookmark the thread below and keep an eye on how the ROM progresses.
At the moment most things seem to work save for the 3G/GSM radios, GPS and the camera, so hang tight. if you feel like donating, there's PayPal links at the bottom of the post.


text:
Poll Shows Canadian Participation in Earth Hour
By Bob Ewing Apr 11, 2008 in Politics
Over half (56%) said they reduced their energy use during Earth Hour on March 29th.
21% did not, and 19% said they were not aware of the Earth Hour initiative.
A new Canadian Press Harris/Decima survey (pdf) asked Canadians about the Earth Hour initiative.
- 56% said they reduced their energy use during Earth Hour on March 29th.
- Ontarians were by far the most active energy savers, with 73% saying they reduced
their energy use. A plurality in all other regions participated.
- Women (60%) were more likely than men (52%) to have reduced energy use during
Earth Hour, while almost equal numbers across age groups did so.
- Supporters of the Green Party (69%) and the Liberals (64%) were more likely to have
participated in Earth Hour than supporters of the Conservatives (53%) and the Bloc
Quebecois (39%).
- Awareness of the initiative was highest in Ontario, at 86%, and lowest in Quebec (67%),
Alberta (70%) and British Columbia (73%).
- Most Canadians (58%) believe Earth Hour should occur more regularly. 36% prefer
once a month, 10% once a week and 12% once a day. One-in-three (29%) believe that
the current practice of once a year should continue, while 9% believe the idea should be
dropped entirely.
• 96% of those who participated in Earth Hour feel that the initiative should continue to
occur. Among those who knew of the initiative, but did not participate, 74% believe that
Earth Hour should continue to occur in the future, while 79% of those who did not know
about Earth Hour feel it's an initiative that should continue.
More about Earth hour, Canada, Environment
earth hour canada environment


text:
Tag Archives: Arthur Laurents
Written by Arthur Laurents
An ongoing question in academia is on the subject of whether Rope is film or a play. It's still a motion picture, as that's the medium. A performance of classical theatre performed on the West End beaming into nationwide cinemas is also a motion picture for those not watching on the West End or Broadway. But the difference there is that a live-screening isn't considered to constitute a "film" in the industry, despite it being shown at least once on a wide release.
But there is one fundamental difference between film and theatre – the medium of film is telling a story with images, but theatre is about the art and potential of what can be created, conjured and told within a proscenium arch. Unless the performance is using a thrust stage, which allows room for the actors and audience to come close together. Rope is trying to be film as theatre, (whereas a live-screening would be theatre as film), but theatre had already been adapted into television using live editing with multiple cameras and a mixing desk. That Rope attempts to tell the story in an unbroken, moving take is undeniably an experiment, even to its harshest critics.
Rope's found a way to combine the two mediums and the result is something which is deceptive in its intrigue. The premise – two students of the Nietzsche theory strangling another and inviting his associates to dinner around the chest where his body's being hidden – might be carried-over from the original play the film adapts, but is still an idea worthy of film adaptation – as Hitchcock proves, by attempting to find the happy medium between them; the camera constantly hanging-over the characters is the tension present throughout, like their own guilt following them, and makes the single intentional cut all the more effective. And by setting Rope in one room, the film relies on the actors to make it work. Modern film acting doesn't demand as high standards as it did during Rope's day, partially because it's much easier to skip stage acting and cut straight to a film career.
It's not a coincidence that actors cast from stage are often much more convincing than those that aren't. And Rope is full of them, the best being without a doubt James "Jimmy" Stewart. Not only does he know how to exploit his wobbly accent to mask his characters' motives, but his delivery is the most naturalistic of any actor that I must have ever seen. He takes just the right amount of pauses of just the right length, and manipulates the intensity of his voice to create – in any role – the most believable character in any of his films.
And here, we see a fearful curiosity and and an outraged fear develop through the course of Rope, and sometimes interchangeably. Which is not to say that John Dall and Farley Granger as Brandon Shaw and Phillip Morgan aren't also highlights – they are, and combined with Stewart are maybe the most electric film trio ever to grace the silver screen. And that's what Rope has going for it – yes, the transitions are obvious, and the editing is noticeable when it shouldn't be, but all of that becomes just a technique when the actors have the capacity to act professionally and effortlessly regardless. This is not a film for cinematography, nor is it a film for story.
But it is a film for acting. Only on this occasion, Rope – with a stellar cast, particularly Stewart – makes that excusable.
Posted byAlexander Sigsworth October 20, 2015 October 20, 2015 Posted inArthur LaurentsTags: Arthur Laurents1 Comment on Rope
BBC features – Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th January 2015
Friday 2nd January 2015
20:00 StreetDance 2 (Jane English)
Drama sequel. A streetdancer travels the world to assemble a crew of the world's best dancers following a humiliating defeat, hoping to win at a competition in Paris.
00:05 Rope (Arthur Laurents)
Two young men kill a weak school friend merely for the intellectual thrill of it and then invite the dead boy's father and fiancee for a party in the room where the corpse is hidden. Based on the true story of the Leopold-Loeb murder case, the film is famous for the fact that it appears as one continuous shot of 80 minutes.
01:20 Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (Simon Beaufoy)
When Dr Alfred Jones, an advisor at the Department of Fisheries, receives an unsolicited e-mail from Harriet Chetwode-Talbot regarding the aspirations of her very wealthy Yemeni client to create a salmon fishing paradise in his home country, he replies immediately, pointing out the obvious improbability of success. However, when the unlikely project is given the green light from Government, the pair have to find a way of making the impossible possible.
Saturday 3rd January 2015
06:30 Hue and Cry (TEB Clarke)
His imagination fired by adventure stories, young Joe believes he has stumbled on a criminal conspiracy in post-war London – but the police will not listen, and even his gang of friends wonder whether to take him seriously. Classic Ealing comedy.
07:50 The Titfield Thunderbolt (TEB Clarke)
Ealing comedy about a group of villagers and their battle to preserve the local railway line by running it themselves, an enterprise that goes well until they are sabotaged in a midnight raid by the rival bus company. Undaunted, they wheel out the Thunderbolt, an ancient exhibit in the village museum. Now all that remains is to put on a satisfactory run for the stickler of a government inspector.
13:35 Viva Las Vegas (Sally Benson)
Hip-swivelling high-speed fun as Elvis rolls into Las Vegas looking to compete in the Grand Prix. Racing driver Lucky Jackson needs a new engine in his car before he can challenge his arch-rival at the track in the West Coast gaming paradise. So he takes a job as a waiter at a casino to fuel his race fund and spends his spare time trying to win the heart of swimming instructor Rusty.
21:00 Albert Nobbs (John Banville/Glenn Close/Gabriella Pekop)
To be able to lead an independent and free life, industrious but introverted Albert hides a secret from the world, especially his fellow staff at a Dublin hotel.
21:00 Puss in Boots (Tom Wheeler/Will Davies/Brian Lynch)
Puss in Boots gets his own animated adventure film in this Shrek spin-off. Puss teams up with a fellow thieving feline and his old friend Humpty Dumpty to embark on an exciting quest. The trio plan to find magic beans in order to steal the goose that lays the golden eggs, but all does not go according to plan. Featuring the voices of Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek and Zach Galifianakis.
Sunday 4th January 2015
00:00 Lesbian Vampire Killers (Stewart Williams/Paul Hupfield)
Gory Hammer Horror spoof. No-hopers Fletch and Jimmy stumble across a village while out hiking in the English countryside. What they don't find out until too late is that all the women in the village turn into lesbian vampires on their 18th birthday. Lured to an old cottage by the villagers, they have to become 'lesbian vampire killers' if they are to survive the night.
22:00 A Royal Affair (Bodil Steensen-Leth/Rasmus Heisterberg)
At the tender age of 15, Caroline Matilda, the youngest sister of George III, is betrothed to her cousin Christian VII, King of Denmark. Almost immediately aware of her young husband's mental illness, she falls under the charismatic spell of Christian's new doctor, Johann Struensee, a German with dangerously liberal views which soon make him enemies at a court unused to having its authority challenged. In Danish with English subtitles.
Posted byAlexander Sigsworth January 1, 2015 January 1, 2015 Posted inBodil Steensen-Leth, Bryan Lynch, Gabriella Pekop, Glenn Close, Jane English, John Banville, Paul Hupfield, Rasmus Heisterberg, Sally Benson, Simon Beaufoy, Stewart Williams, TEB Clarke, Tom Wheeler, Will DaviesTags: Arthur Laurents, Bodil Steensen-Leth, Brian Lynch, Gabriella Pekop, Glenn Close, Jane English, John Banville, Paul Hupfield, Rasmus Heisterberg, Sally Benson, Simon Beaufoy, Stewart Williams, TEB Clarke, Tom Wheeler, Will DaviesLeave a comment on BBC features – Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th January 2015


VOCAL provides ITU, GSM, and wideband vocoders including G.721, G.711 PCM μ-law or A-law, G.723, G.726, G.726, and G.728 for customized VoIP solutions. Our software is optimized for execution on ANSI C and leading DSP architectures (TI, ADI, AMD, ARM, MIPS, CEVA, LSI Logic ZSP, etc.). These libraries are modular and can be executed as a single task under a variety of operating systems or standalone with its own microkernel. Contact us to discuss your VoIP application requirements.
G.711 is a 64 kbps compressed stream and is a common reference for speech compression quality. G.711 encoding/decoding is usually done within codecs although a technique to convert linear samples to PCM (A-law or μ-law) is straightforward.
G.721 produces toll quality speech using a 32 kbps Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation (ADPCM) speech compression algorithm. Under error free transmission, G.721 has a slightly worse perceived quality than G.711. The quality of G.721 significantly deteriorates when several such links are used in tandem. However with transmission error rates higher than 10.4, the perceived quality of G.721 is better than G.711.
G.726 extends the G.721 ADPCM to include 40, 24 and 16 kbps, as well as 32 kbps. G.726 at 40 kbps performs comparable to G.711.
G.728 Low-Delay Code Excited Linear Prediction (LD-CELP) compression is a 16 kbps compression. Compared with G.721, G.728 tends to score worse in objective, but better in subjective testes. A characteristic of CELP algorithms is that they tend to perform more poorly than ADPCM in the presence of background noise.
Full or half duplex modes of operation.
Common compressed speech frame stream interface to support multiple speech coders (G.723, G.729, et al.).
Optimized for high performance on leading edge DSP architectures.
The G.723 dual rate speech coder was developed for use in multimedia platforms, in particular those specified by the H.32x series recommendations. Relative to the G.729/G.729A coders, the G.723 speech coders pass DTMF tones through with less distortion.
Common compressed speech frame stream interface to support systems with multiple speech coders (G.729, G.728, G.726 et al).
G.729 is an 8 kbps Conjugate-Structure Algebraic-Code-Excited Linear Prediction (CS-ACELP) speech compression algorithm. G.729 Annex A is a reduced complexity version of the G.729 coder developed for use in multimedia simultaneous voice and data applications like DSVD.
Common compressed speech frame stream interface to support systems with multiple speech coders (G.723, G.728, G.726 et al).


text:
Ammonia Spill Sends 37 to Hospital
by TankTransport · August 7, 2019
Ammonia spilling from a valve hooked to two tanks being pulled by a farm tractor in Beach Park, Ill, in April released gas that sent at least 37 people to hospitals, including seven who were reported to be in critical condition.
Witnesses and victims of the gas spill described being blinded or quickly overwhelmed by the toxic plume.
"You couldn't see where you were walking," Eusebio Elizonda said. "You can't breathe and can't see. We're lucky we (didn't) die."
Pamela Burnett tried to avoid it, but ended up driving through the plume.
"It wasn't smoke," she said. "I thought to myself this is some kind of chemical. The next thing I knew, I couldn't breathe. It was such a strong smell. I thought to myself, 'Lord this is it. I'm done now.'"
NTSB Team Investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team of four to investigate the incident.
The spill began about 4:30 a.m. in the area of Green Bay Road and 29th Street, according to Sgt. Christopher Covelli, a spokesman for the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Investigators think a tractor was towing a pair of two-ton tanks containing anhydrous ammonia when they began to leak. Covelli said investigators do not believe the vehicle was involved in a traffic collision.
"Basically, it caused the substance to go airborne," Covelli said, "which released the plume into the air, which is extremely dangerous."
That substance can cause "unconsciousness, and at worst case even death," Covelli said.
37 Sent to Hospital
According to Covelli, among those injured were emergency personnel responding to the scene.
"Deputies arrived on the scene — our first responding deputies — (and they) exited their vehicles to try to aid the individuals who were at the scene, including individuals who were lying on the ground,'' Covelli said. "The deputies were immediately overcome by the fumes that were in the air. Those deputies had to retreat and get out of the area. Both of them were subsequently transported to a local hospital, treated and released.''
Covelli said 37 people were transported to hospitals "due to breathing in these toxic fumes. Of those 37, seven in critical condition with what was considered to be life-threatening injuries.''
Ana Garza's Story
One of those listed in critical was the son of Ana Laura Garza, who lives on West Maplewood Road, just 20 yards away from ground zero for the leak near Green Bay Road and 29th Street.
She said her son, Juan Jose Hernandez, 28, was in the intensive care unit at Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan.
"It was so bad," she said hours after the scene had been cleared. She said that, after the anhydrous ammonia began to leak before dawn, she and her fiancée, Elizonda, 53, could hear their neighbor yelling for help.
"The smoke, it was so thick you couldn't see, and we could hear our neighbor screaming," she said.
"We couldn't see, so I went back inside," Garza added, saying she gathered her two grandchildren, Isabel, 12, and Miranda, 8, and took them to the basement.
The fire department came quickly and they had to walk down to 29th Street to get into an ambulance. "The smoke was following us," Garza said.
They were transported to Beach Park Middle School, about a half-mile down the road, where authorities had set up operational headquarters. From there, ambulances took arrivals to various hospitals, with Garza and her grandchildren heading to Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital, while her son went to Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan.
Pamela Burnett's Story
Burnett, 57, said she was driving to her job at a grocery store in Kenosha when she went through the cloud of toxic gas.
Burnett, an unincorporated Warren Township resident, said she was on Green Bay Road when she saw the car ahead of her brake, and she started to slow down. She added that she could see a cloud, but she wasn't sure if it was smoke or dust from someone peeling out on the shoulder of the road.
"It kept on getting bigger and bigger — this wasn't going away. I tried to slow down and not go through it," she said, but it was too late.
Speaking to a group of media assembled near the scene, Burnett said she pulled off the road while "spitting up and coughing" and called 911. She said she saw a man laying on the roadway nearby.
Burnett was transported to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville.
11 Firefighters & Police Treated
Covelli said a total of 11 firefighters and three police officers were transported for treatment, including a firefighter/EMT from the Newport Township Fire Protection District who was in critical condition. According to Covelli, most of the victims had "non-life-threatening" conditions, and several dozen others had been evaluated by paramedics but not transported.
U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider said he will also request the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency look into the incident to see if any needed updates to the Clean Air Act and Toxic Substances Control Act are appropriate.
(from the Chicago Tribune)
Tags: AgricultureAmmoniaChemicalsChemicalSpillsNTSB
Next story Chemical Transporters Focus on Safety
Previous story Walmart Working To Improve Shipping


text:
namespace utils {

    options_description prepareCommandLineOptions () {
        options_description description("Allowed options");
        description.add_options()
            ("help,h", "display this help message")
            ("login,l", value<string>(), "username")
            ("password,p", value<string>()->default_value(""),
             "password (optional)")
            ("server_name,s", value<string>(), "host:port");
        return description;
    }

    variables_map parseCommandLine (int argumentsCount, char* arguments[],
                                    options_description& description) {
        variables_map variablesMap;
        store(parse_command_line(argumentsCount, arguments, description),
              variablesMap);
        notify(variablesMap);
        return variablesMap;
    }

    void displayUsage (ostream& out, options_description& description,
                       char app[]) {
        out << "Usage: " << app << " [options]" << endl;
        out << description;
    }

    bool getParameters (variables_map& variablesMap, string& login,
                        string& password, string& server_name) {
        if (!(variablesMap.count("login")
              && variablesMap.count("server_name"))) {
            return false;
        }
        else {
            login = variablesMap["login"].as<string>();
            password = variablesMap["password"].as<string>();
            server_name = variablesMap["server_name"].as<string>();
            return true;
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Guess I need to go get a guardian.
Local news posted this picture on Facebook. I don't think they looked at it close enough.
What's funnier: the wedgie or the underwear choice?
Last night, I officially became a Disney Princess.
Why to become a Moderator?


Lead by example. Don't expect your people to do something you wouldn't do yourself, but at the same time, don't do it for them. Integrity is truly a core philosophy that extends from doing the right thing to also if you see something, say something.
Leadership. No matter how good the individuals are on a team, it needs a good leader. A good leader can make the team great.
We have one operating, management and execution system that everyone in the organization has bought into. We hold weekly team meetings throughout the organization that cascades goals and quarterly priorities. We also hold an all company meeting every 90 days.
They'll have to figure out how to deal with the next recession, as well as how to transition their business to the next generation of ownership, even if not to direct family.
We truly partner with our customers and become their closest advisor. That's why we call our salespeople consultants, as we want them to help their contractors be better business people and help anticipate any issue their business may be facing.
Those that truly partner with their supplier to add value to their business and their customers are successful. Somebody in our organization put it best, what is the "sustainable strategic advantage" they have to be successful? We will help.
8. What management practices will Gustave A. Larson help contractors improve?
We help them put better business systems in place and sell more product at higher margins.
Technical and business training, as well as value-added services/solutions that are like training, only better.
We like to offer formal training two ways, both in-person as well as online through our Larson Learning Center. Our philosophy is simple: we don't succeed unless our customers succeed, so we provide training and other solutions to help them be more successful.
11. Could you tell us about Gustave A. Larson's training programs?
Most of what you'll see on our website is formal contractor product training, but in addition, we also offer our Larson Business Solutions that help our customers in a multitude of areas of their business all with the intent of helping them sell more, operate more efficiently and, therefore, make more money.
We have links to everything available at galarson.com on our home page as well as in our Training & Events and Services section. We also do specific email and text marketing campaigns, as well as installing flat screens in all our branches.
Larson Business Solutions helps the contractor with such things as efficient online ordering, selling more parts and accessories (higher margins), lead generation and how to optimize SEO, ad and media campaigns, flat rate pricing, technical support including access to our team of service advisors, recruiting employees, extended warranties and more. We also offer crane service in selected markets to help the contractor save the hassle and time of coordinating equipment delivery and the lift.
Definitely in three areas: ductless and VRF, new dealers and residential and commercial new construction.
The challenge continues to be remaining a value-added part of the two-step distribution channel and not getting squeezed out. I truly believe we provide that value for our suppliers and contractors, otherwise independent distributors like us wouldn't survive.
Distribution is always stuck in the middle with demands from customers and suppliers. We have to look at our partners like we look at ourselves internally: whom do we align with from a values perspective? If we can do this, we'll have long-term success.
In the warehouse working for dad back in the day. No job was too small from dusting shelves to sweeping floors, receiving, stocking, pulling parts, shipping, warranty, etc.
Building a team of leaders that has taken the business to another level.
Simple. Did we accomplish what we said we were going to do?
My father Karl by far. He was second generation, taking over from my grandpa Gus Larson. Dad was a visionary who took over the business, actually shrunk it to make it more successful and then started growing again from there. He's still an inspiration to me and all in our company today.


text:
Period Tracker Capitalizes on Post-Roe Fears
Stardust marketing claims out of this world
Sep 21, 2022 | Brittany Lohse
I'm a pretty skeptical person by nature. I believe if something seems too good to be true, it usually is. So, when period tracking app Stardust went TikTok viral by changing the emphasis of its marketing strategy from astrology to data security, stating "We don't sell or share your data. Period," I had my hesitations, specifically with the word share.
As someone who has worked with NPPI (nonpublic personal information) in the highly regulated and routinely audited financial industry, I know even protected data must still be shared with authorities when required by law. However, I was ultimately swayed when Stardust claimed end-to-end encryption would prevent a user's login information from being tied to their period tracking data. I became one of the app's 90,000+ TikTok followers and shared its videos with friends.
Stardust is a period tracking app that "integrates science, astronomy and artificial intelligence to connect your hormonal cycle with the cycles of larger celestial bodies: the stars, planets, sun, and moon." The app did not appear to market itself as a privacy focused company until after reports of Roe v. Wade being overturned began circulating on May 2.
The first appearance of Stardust claiming to not share data appeared on their Instagram account on May 4 and their TikTok account on May 11. This specific TikTok gave Stardust its first viral hit and just two days later, Stardust posted a follow-up showing it was third in the Top Charts for Apple downloads.
The timing of Stardust's shift in marketing strategies seemed to suggest it was capitalizing on the fears that many were experiencing concerning healthcare access and reproductive rights. A suggestion that is reinforced by this TikTok, where the app proclaims "when your period tracker finishes encrypting your data just in time for the Roe v. Wade reversal."
Then on June 24, when Roe v. Wade was officially overturned, Stardust launched its most viral TikTok yet, saying "if we get subpoenaed by the government we will not be able to hand over any of your period tracking data. It is completely anonymized from your login data. We can't view it. You are the only person that can see this." Again, two days after going viral, Stardust celebrated its success in the Apple App Store, but this time it was first.
Claims Get Scrutinized
At this point, critics and tech experts started to weigh in on Stardust's encryption claims and its ability to protect customer data if subpoenaed. Multiple TikTok users also started to review the Privacy Policy and became concerned by language stating "We may disclose your information to third parties in order to protect the legal rights, safety, and security of [Company Name]."
TechCrunch ran an analysis on Stardust and found that users who logged into the app with phone numbers periodically had their information shared with third-party analytics service Mixpanel, which is used by many app startups to analyze user data to optimize experience. It's important to note that Mixpanel, like any other company, is obligated to share collected data with authorities if required by law, and any company that agrees to their Terms of Use is agreeing that "Mixpanel will share Customer Content … To the extent needed to comply with laws or to respond to lawful requests and legal processes."
Stardust responded to pushback and users' repeated requests for clarification by releasing a statement on its website and updating its Privacy Policy to include language stating login information "cannot be linked" to users. However, again, this claim came under scrutiny.
A security editor at TechCrunch ran another analysis of the app and found that the encryption process that Stardust claimed would prevent login information from being "linked" to period tracking data created an "encryption key" that was sent back to Stardust. If the key — which links login information and period tracking data — is stored, it can theoretically be subpoenaed and used to connect the two.
What This Teaches Us
When faced with the unique ability to market itself to a growing number of individuals worried about menstrual health data privacy in a post-Roe world, Stardust appeared to rush forward without confirming it could backup its marketing claims. This oversight might simply be because it may have fallen prey to the same issue I did: not fully understanding the encryption technology.
Companies asking users to trust them need to ensure they are advertising themselves honestly and accurately. Hopefully Stardust, and anyone that shared the viral TikToks or downloaded the app under the belief their data would be protected from governmental authorities, has learned to be a bit more skeptical when something seems too good to be true. I know I have.
Brittany Lohse
Brittany believes that research is the foundation of knowledge and the backbone behind consumer protection, especially within a market saturated in deception for the sake of profit. She has a…
Campaign 2020: The Rise of the Influencer Election
Political candidates are jumping on the #InfluencerMarketing bandwagon.
Breaking News: This Shouldn't Be Advertised as Breaking News
Cable news appears to be redefining the meaning of breaking news and reaping ad dollars along the way.
Oh, Verizon
Navigating the minefield of wireless customer service.


The best way to improve your vocabulary knowledge is to read things that interest you. Collect vocabulary (words, collocations, phrases) in a notebook.
The organisers of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa are hoping it will stimulate the nation's economy and leave a lasting physical and social legacy. Danny Jordaan, the man who led the bid to secure the event, believes hosting the World Cup could be worth as much as $6 billion to South Africa, while also boosting the construction, telecommunications and tourist industries.
South Africa predicts at least 400,000 people will visit the country for the tournament, the first World Cup ever to be held in Africa. Some 160,000 jobs are expected to be created from hosting the event, according to the national football bid committee. Furthermore, it is estimated that for each visitor to the World Cup, another 150 will be indirectly influenced in their perceptions about the host country, through word-of-mouth by the fans when they return home, or as a result of global television coverage of the event.
You don't need to read long articles or whole books to learn new vocabulary. Just find a short, interesting text every day, and study it in detail.
I often say that understanding and memorising a word is not the same as being able to use a word. This is the reason why learning lists of words isn't usually helpful. You need to learn words in context, and be able to use them together to make coherent sentences.
Browse Simon's website thoroughly and look for good vocabulary.
Take note of "band 7 words and phrases".
Use a dictionary to see how each word or phrase is used in a sentence.
Practise by making your own sentences! This last one is crucial.
I agree with Martin. He often adds useful comments below lessons here on the site, so make sure you check out his advice whenever you see his name!
Here are some ideas. Notice that I answer by telling a story, and that my ideas are not 'academic' or 'formal' because it isn't an academic topic. Study my answer carefully - it's full of good words and phrases.
A recent situation that made me angry was getting stuck in a traffic jam on the way to meet some friends. It was last Sunday lunchtime, and I didn't expect there to be much traffic; people don't work on Sundays, so the roads aren't usually very busy.
Everything was going well until suddenly I saw a queue of cars on the road in front of me. I had no choice but to join the queue and wait to get past whatever was causing the delay. It turned out that it was caused by some roadworks, and it took me an extra 30 minutes to get past them.
Getting stuck in traffic congestion doesn't usually make me angry, but this time it did, mainly because I wasn't expecting it and I knew that my friends were waiting to meet me for lunch. I felt frustrated and powerless because there was nothing I could do to change the situation, and I had no idea how long I would be sitting there waiting. When I finally saw the reason for the congestion, I was relieved that I was close to getting past the roadworks, but I still felt a bit stressed knowing that I was half an hour late.
I've made the following essay into a gap-fill exercise.
The table compares the average ______ of time per day that men and women in the UK spend ______ different activities.
It is clear that people in the UK spend more time ______ than doing any other daily activity. Also, there are significant differences between the time ______ by men and women on employment/study and housework.
On average, men and women in the UK ______ for about 8 hours per day. Leisure ______ ______ the second largest proportion of their time. Men spend 5 hours and 25 minutes doing various leisure activities, such as watching TV or doing sport, ______ women have 4 hours and 53 minutes of leisure time.
It is noticeable that men work or study for an average of 79 minutes more than women every day. By contrast, women spend 79 minutes more than men doing housework, and they spend ______ ______ as much time looking after children.
Have a strong opinion (e.g. I completely agree that people can achieve more in egalitarian societies.) You can ignore the other view.
Focus on the last line of the question (What is your view of...?). This line sums up the whole question very clearly. Just answer this question.
Use examples as the basis of your argument e.g. free university education ensures equality of opportunity, and therefore allows individuals to achieve more.
If you try writing an essay for this question, you can compare your essay with my answer next Wednesday. I'm afraid I can't check essays or give scores.
Note: 'egalitarian' refers to the principle that people are equal, and deserve equal rights and opportunities.
Click the link below to try today's exercise. It's the same passage we saw last week, but the questions are different.
I'll put the answers in the 'comments' area tomorrow.
Try to write 4 paragraphs - introduction, summary of main points, 2 detail paragraphs.
Before you start writing, highlight some key numbers. Choose the biggest number in each category in the table (i.e. in each column and row). If the table shows years, look for the biggest changes in numbers over the time period. You could also mention the smallest numbers, but you can ignore 'middle' numbers (neither biggest nor smallest).
For your summary paragraph, try to compare whole categories (columns or rows) rather than individual 'cells' in the table. If you can't compare whole categories, compare the biggest and smallest number. Write 2 sentences for the summary.
In your two 'details' paragraphs, never describe each category (column or row) separately. The examiner wants to see comparisons. Try to organise the numbers you highlighted into 2 groups - one for each paragraph (e.g. highest numbers for all categories together, and lowest numbers together).
Describe / compare the numbers you highlighted - include at least 3 numbers in each paragraph.
Use the past simple for past years, and 'will' or 'is expected/predicted to' for future years. If no time is shown, use the present simple.
The option to start work straight after school is attractive for several reasons.
On the other hand, I believe that it is more beneficial for students to continue their studies.
Today's reading exercise is attached as a PDF. Click below to download it.
The line graph compares four sectors in ______ of the amount of acid rain emissions that they produced over a period of 17 years in the UK.
It is clear that the total amount of acid rain emissions in the UK ______ ______ between 1990 and 2007. The most ______ decrease was seen in the electricity, gas and water supply sector.
In 1990, around 3.3 million tonnes of acid rain emissions came from the electricity, gas and water sector. The transport and communication sector was ______ for about 0.7 million tonnes of emissions, while the domestic sector ______ around 0.6 million tonnes. Just over 2 million tonnes of acid rain gases came from other industries.
Emissions from electricity, gas and water supply fell dramatically to only 0.5 million tonnes in 2007, a ______ of almost 3 million tonnes. While acid rain gases from the domestic sector and other industries fell gradually, the transport sector ______ a small increase in emissions, ______ a peak of 1 million tonnes in 2005.
Many people believe that sports professionals earn too much money. They argue that sport is a form of entertainment rather than a vital public service. We could easily live without sportspeople, yet other professionals who contribute much more to society are undervalued and underpaid. For example, football players can earn enormous salaries by simply kicking a ball, while doctors, nurses and teachers earn a fraction of the money despite being essential for our health and prosperity. From this perspective, sports stars do not deserve the salaries they currently earn.
As you can see, the paragraph explains the view that sportspeople earn too much money. This came from a discuss both views question.
Before you start writing it's a good idea to make some notes. Try to organise your notes according to this 5-sentence paragraph structure.
1. What types of party do people have, and why are parties important?
People have parties to celebrate special occasions like birthdays, weddings, or the beginning of a new year. I think it's important to celebrate these things because they are landmarks in our lives. Parties are a good way to bring people together, and they're an opportunity to let off some steam.
2. Why do you think some people like parties but others hate them?
Most people like parties because they have a good time at them - eating a nice meal, chatting to friends, or having a dance. People who don't like them might find social situations difficult because they are shy, or maybe they don't enjoy having to make small talk with people they don't know.
3. Do you think parties will become more popular in the future?
No, I don't think anything will change. People have always had parties, and I'm sure they always will in the future. Humans need to socialise and enjoy themselves, and parties are one of the best ways to do that.
PS. I've underlined the band 7-9 phrases.
Every time you make a spelling mistake, write the correct spelling of the word on a list. Hopefully the list of words that you can spell correctly will grow and grow.
The only way to make sure that your spelling improves is to learn words by heart. Learn the words on your spelling list, and test yourself once a week.
You could easily get lost in the labyrinth of English spelling rules. It's easier to remember the spelling of individual words than it is to remember all the rules.
Do you look up words in a dictionary at least once a day? Having a dictionary application on your phone makes it easy. The Merriam-Webster dictionary app for the iPhone is a good one (and it's free).
Student: I gave the IELTS exam last week.
Teacher: Oh, you mean you took the exam last week?
The student doesn't notice that the teacher is correcting a mistake. Your teacher can 'give' you a test or an exam, but you 'take' or 'do' the exam.
When a teacher repeats something that you said in a different way, you probably made a mistake. Listen carefully, and try to correct yourself.


text:
Home / Editor's Pick
Continued surveillance sought for Aum-linked groups in Japan
2020-11-19 Source:https://www.japantimes.co.jp/ Author:Jiji
A Public Security Intelligence Agency official (left) submits a request Monday at the Justice Ministry to extend the surveillance period for three groups deriving from the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult. | KYODO
The Public Security Intelligence Agency requested Monday an extension of the surveillance period for three groups deriving from the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult.
The agency filed the request with the Public Security Examination Commission, as the current surveillance period expires in January 2021.
The three groups are Aleph, which is Aum's successor organization, Hikari no Wa, which is a splinter group of Aleph, and another group separated from Aleph in 2015, called Yamadara no Shudan, which mainly consists of female members.
The request for an extension is the first since former Aum leader Chizuo Matsumoto, then 63, and other senior members of the cult were executed in July 2018 over a series of crimes, including a deadly sarin nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway system in 1995.
The extension of the surveillance period will allow authorities to conduct on-site inspections of the groups' facilities for three more years.
The security agency pointed out that the three groups are still under the strong influence of Matsumoto, who went by the name of Shoko Asahara. It also claimed that they are following principles based on Aum's doctrines, such as one encouraging murder.
The agency said that even after the execution of Matsumoto, members of the groups remain devoted to him and that there has been no change in their activities.
The groups together have some 1,650 followers in Japan and around 130 in Russia. They own 31 facilities in 15 of the country's 47 prefectures, according to the agency.
Original website:https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/10/26/national/crime-legal/surveillance-aum-shinrikyo-japan/
Editor:Catherine
Jehovah's Witnesses Excommunication, a violation of Human Rights
Jehovah's Witnesses Deported from Bali for Conducting Door-to-Door Re...
Appalling! Mentuhui Follower in Chifeng Pulled out Entrails of Her Mot...
The Dead Left Under the Flag of Mentuhui to Pray for Resurrection
Mentuhui "Prayer" Kills
Mentuhui's Blessings Are a Curse
Analyze the Nature of Mentuhui from Its Core Doctrine
Uncle Bian Killed by Mentuhui


David Cortright's "A Hard Look at Iraq Sanctions" [Dec. 3] was a slick attempt to defend a ten-year war against innocent civilians. Cortright charges that the number of dead is commonly overestimated by critics of sanctions, usually alleged to be a million. He claims the most reliable studies estimate that the number of Iraqi children under 5 who died is actually 350,000. Curiously, he makes no attempt to estimate the number of children over 5 who perished, or the elderly who died of malnutrition or the sick adults finished off by lack of medicine. If Cortright is correct and critics (who base their figures on UN and NGO studies) are wrong, that's wonderful news indeed. Hundreds of thousands presumed dead are still alive. But why is he doing The James Rubin, figuring out every which way to blame the Iraqis for what is being done to them?
He says the sanctions would have ended if Iraq had been more accommodating to the arms inspectors. Rubbish. Presidents Bush and Clinton both swore the sanctions would not end until Saddam Hussein was removed from power. Cortright also faults Iraq for not agreeing to "oil for food" sooner. I'm no defender of the tyrant and war criminal Saddam, but it was a hard call. Any Iraqi leader would try to protect oil, the country's only natural resource. Has Iraq been treated fairly in the five years since "oil for food"? $44 billion in oil has been sold, but only $13.3 billion worth of goods has been delivered to the Iraqi government.
Quoting a figure of $10 billion in oil revenue for the last half of 2000, Cortright claims that "Baghdad has more than sufficient money to address continuing humanitarian needs." That's a downright falsehood. Iraq doesn't get a dime. All the money for the oil sales goes into a UN-controlled account in New York. Iraq arranges contracts for goods, but it gets only the goods that the United States allows to be imported. The $13.3 billion is for five years, less than $3 billion a year. Compare that to 1989, before sanctions, when Iraq's imports were $11 billion for that year alone.
The lowering of the death rate in the Kurdish areas is Cortright's final charge. He admits that northern Iraq is favored in aid and resources, but omits the fact that oil and other goods are smuggled back and forth to Turkey with a knowing wink by the sanctions authorities. He also fails to mention that the damage to infrastructure by UN bombing in 1991 was far less in the Kurdish north. In 1999 when Unicef did the study that showed differing mortality rates north and south, it explicitly refused to blame Iraqi officials for those differences.
Cortright charges mismanagement by Iraq while he is silent about US policy that uses the very importing of goods to Iraq to further torture the people. Jesuit priest G. Simon Harak, a frequent visitor to Iraq, described how insulin would be allowed in, but syringes would be banned. Iraq would have to use precious resources to refrigerate the medicine in hopes it could someday be used. This mismatching has gone on for years. It's deliberate.
Cortright praises the "smart sanctions" approach that would allow everything into Iraq except "dual-use items"–anything that could remotely be of military value. The "dual-use excuse" has been used all along to deprive Iraq of a range of items: ambulances, chemicals to purify water, even nitroglycerine tablets.
In December 2001, when at least 350,000 innocent lives have been snuffed out, when thousands more will be the "collateral damage" of the coming "war of liberation," the last thing we need in The Nation is a thinly disguised defense of US Iraq policy.
David Cortright is certainly right to argue that "changing American policy in Iraq is an urgent priority." Whether the actual number of Iraqi children under 5 who have died is now 350,000 or 500,000, the numbers are horrifying.
But Cortright's prescription, to improve the so-called smart sanctions, is misguided. Smart sanctions are about the United States, Britain and the United Nations shifting blame, not about ending the effects of the embargo for ordinary Iraqis. After ten years of hearing from Clinton and Blair & Co. that they "have no quarrel with the Iraqi people" and that the sanctions are designed to target the regime, not civilians, we are supposed to believe that the sanctions will now (does this sound familiar?) target the regime and not the people. But under the proposed smart sanctions, the United States will be able to use its power in the UN to block essential goods by citing "dual use" concerns. And the economy will continue to suffer. Tinkering with sanctions isn't the solution. Ending them is.
Exactly what is David Cortright trying to tell us–and why must The Nation contribute to the horrifying debate about accurate numbers of civilian deaths? By focusing narrowly on the number of deaths, Cortright ignores the overall health and nutritional status of children and ordinary citizens in Iraq. All surveys since the beginning of the embargo have essentially told the same story: severe malnutrition in hospitals, malnourished children and undernourished adults in the towns, ever-changing food prices, increased mortality and a general breakdown in the whole fabric of society.
Economic sanctions are designed to produce deprivation and poverty. Poverty is the key cause of malnutrition on a global basis; poverty induced by sanctions will function no differently. The world community, represented by the United Nations, has known about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Iraq since the early 1990s. Yet the UN has, under US and British pressure, enforced this sanctions policy despite overwhelming evidence that it is responsible for the increased level of human suffering in that country. Speculation that Saddam Hussein could end this crisis does not excuse the UN, the United States or Britain from their international responsibilities for upholding human rights. Sanctions are purported to be a humane alternative to war. As they function in Iraq, they are not humane. They are lethal and they target the already poor and vulnerable.
David Cortright questions the normally accepted numbers of deaths attributed to the sanctions, specifically those derived from the 1995 study by the Food and Agricultural Organization, which asserted that sanctions were responsible for the deaths of 567,000 Iraqi children. He then cites the "two most reliable scientific studies on sanctions in Iraq" to challenge the FAO study: one by Richard Garfield, and another by Mohamed Ali and Iqbal Shah in The Lancet. Unfortunately for Cortright, these two studies contradict each other. The Garfield study asserts that from 1990 to March 1998, there were 228,000 excess deaths of children under 5, as opposed to the FAO claim of 567,000. The "Ali and Shah study," as Cortright titled it–used as evidence of Iraqi mismanagement–is actually a published account of Unicef's mortality data, which is the basis for the calculated half-million death toll. (Ali headed a Unicef team of consultants in Iraq, Shah reviewed the survey report, and both wrote the Lancet article.) This Unicef report is entirely independent of the 1995 FAO report.
Cortright is correct in stating that "as we work to change US policy and relieve the pain of the Iraqi people, it is important that we use accurate figures…. The more credible we are, the more effective we will be." Perhaps Cortright should take his own advice.
Despite the lack of any serious evidence of Iraqi involvement in the September 11 attacks, the Bush Administration is continuing to escalate threats of expanding the "war against terrorism" to Iraq. So David Cortright's choice of moment to urge the Administration to impose "smart sanctions" on Iraq has serious consequences. By opening with references to statements about the deadly impact of the Iraq sanctions made by Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, Cortright adroitly delegitimizes all other critics of US Iraq policy by linking them to the two most demonized leaders in the world. Cortright is right that many in Washington have made their careers arguing that anti-sanctions campaigners have exaggerated the numbers of deaths; he is wrong in claiming that this argument is anything more than a pretext for maintaining a failed and deadly sanctions policy.
The debate over numbers of civilian Iraqis killed by sanctions is a red herring. If the goal was to discredit the debate over numbers as horrifyingly irrelevant, Cortright's response should be simple: "We don't know for sure how many hundreds of thousands of children have been killed; we do know that even 1,000 is too many. And we know that the debate is a spurious effort at denial and deflection." But instead, Cortright contests the most often cited UN numbers in great detail, attempting to replace them with lower figures asserted in some other studies. However careful his language, what implication can be drawn other than the notion that economic sanctions are somehow more acceptable if "only" 250,000 children, rather than the half-million whose deaths Madeleine Albright memorably found "worth it," have been killed?
The other significant fallacy is Cortright's claim that a few incremental amendments to the existing sanctions regime would solve the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. In fact, the billions of dollars required to even begin rehabilitating Iraq's shattered infrastructure will be available only through massive investment in the oil sector. That means lifting, not just tinkering with, economic sanctions. Because even if the prohibition on private-sector oil investment was lifted, no oil company would risk massive outlays knowing that Washington and the Security Council might change their minds and prevent the repatriation of profits. The kind of multibillion-dollar outlays needed to rebuild Iraq's water, electrical, telecommunications, health and other bombed-out infrastructure will be available only when sanctions are lifted.
The only smart thing to do with economic sanctions now is to end them–not to further discredit those who have been fighting to do just that (see Bennis and Halliday's full rebuttal at www.thenation.com).
Bennis and Halliday have requested space on our site for the publication of a longer letter regarding David Cortright's Dec. 3 article. This follows Cortright's reply, below.
I'm glad my article has stirred debate about sanctions in Iraq. Such a debate is especially critical now, as Phyllis Bennis and Denis Halliday note, because of the increasing danger of a new US war against Iraq.
With my critics, I have long opposed US military attacks and have urged the lifting of sanctions on civilians. As I said in the article and have written elsewhere, the United States is primarily responsible for the catastrophe in Iraq because of its policies of military aggression and unrelenting sanctions. I have demonstrated and lobbied to change these policies, and I am actively working now to prevent a new war.
But I also support nuclear disarmament and the elimination of weapons of mass destruction. I oppose such weapons for the US or any other government–including Iraq, which used chemical weapons in the 1980s and was and may still be actively developing nuclear weapons. The UN disarmament mandate, accepted by Iraq in 1991, is a legitimate and important step toward strengthening international norms against the development and use of weapons of mass destruction. It has reinforced the trend toward more intrusive on-site inspections, which are necessary to guarantee disarmament. To abandon this mandate, especially after so much progress toward Iraqi disarmament was achieved during the 1990s, would be a setback to global nonproliferation efforts.
Acknowledging Iraq's obligation to disarm is also important because the rationale for US military action, if it comes, is likely to be the threat posed by Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. That threat is unknown right now, because of the end of UN inspections three years ago, and no doubt has been greatly exaggerated by the war lobby to stir up fear. But we cannot ignore the possibility of that threat, or the tremendous hold it has on public opinion. We need to espouse an alternative policy that contains Iraq's military ambitions but avoids harm to innocent civilians.
Smart sanctions point in that direction. They would lift all restrictions on civilian imports. The review of dual-use items (which the United States has indeed abused) would be limited to a specific Goods Review List, which the Security Council is now considering. The only sanctions remaining would be the embargo on military imports. The continuing arms embargo should then be broadened, as Anthony Arnove rightly argues, into a Middle East zone free of weapons of mass destruction, as specified in paragraph 14 of the original Gulf War cease-fire resolution. The fact that disarmament ultimately must be global is not a reason for discounting progress in particular countries or regions.
Paragraph 22 of the cease-fire resolution also requires the Security Council to lift sanctions once Iraq complies with the UN disarmament mandate. If Iraq permits UN inspectors to complete their work, all sanctions must be lifted. Reiterating this obligation is necessary to provide an inducement for Iraqi cooperation. Without such assurance, Iraq faces the prospect of unending sanctions and is left with no recourse but to resist.
In this regard Stanley Heller is right to criticize my overstatement that sanctions could have been lifted long ago if Iraq had accepted UN demands. As George Lopez and I noted in The Sanctions Decade, Iraq has complied with many of the UN's requirements. Instead of responding to these partial concessions with an easing of pressure, however, the United States has hijacked UN policy and asserted that sanctions will remain until Saddam Hussein goes. This regime-change policy is the single biggest obstacle to the lifting of sanctions. On the other hand, if the government of Iraq had cooperated with rather than obstructed UN weapons inspectors, it would have been more difficult for the United States to justify its policy.
Heller says it is a falsehood that Iraq has the means to meet its humanitarian needs, but he ignores the quote from Kofi Annan that Iraq is indeed in a position to address the nutritional and health conditions of the Iraqi people. More than 70 percent of Iraq's considerable oil income can be used for the purchase of humanitarian goods. Total oil revenues in 2000 were approximately $18 billion, of which more than $13 billion was available for civilian imports. This compares favorably with the $11 billion in total imports in 1989.
Claudia Lefko and Peter Pellet correctly note that the world community knew early in the 1990s of the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. This is precisely why the Security Council proposed the oil-for-food program in 1991. If Iraq had accepted the plan then rather than five years later, much suffering could have been avoided.
The Garfield and Ali/Shah studies are complementary, not contradictory as Jeff Lindemyer asserts. Garfield's recent estimate of 350,000 deaths is based directly on the Ali/Shah study. The latter was indeed commissioned by Unicef, but the authors did not publish an estimate of 500,000 deaths.
Bennis and Halliday make the most important point: that whatever the numbers, they are far too high. No level of preventable death among children is acceptable. My critics and I differ over the best way to end this humanitarian nightmare, but we share a common commitment to easing civilian suffering and preventing a war that would compound and intensify Iraq's misery. Let us work together toward these urgent priorities.
The Bush Administration's rapidly escalating threats of expanding the "war against terrorism" to Iraq are pushing the eleven-year-long US-Iraq sanctions and bombing-based conflict to newly dangerous levels. Despite the lack of any serious evidence of Iraqi involvement in the September 11 attacks, the exploitation of already wide-spread government and media-created anti-Iraq sentiment among the American public makes the possibility of a new US assault a serious danger.
The US war against Iraq, still characterized by crippling economic sanctions imposed in the name of the United Nations and continual low-level military strikes, has emerged as the linchpin of the Administration's debate over the future of foreign policy. That debate pits the ideologues grouped around Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, against the Secretary of State Colin Powell-led pragmatists. And while Washington policy-makers and pundits ruminate, the UN Security Council's December 27 compromise on extending the "Oil for Food" program in Iraq prolongs the still-simmering debate over so-called "smart sanctions" to replace the current "dumb" sanctions regime in place since 1990.
It is in this highly volatile and dangerous context that David Cortright took to the pages of The Nation to argue for a new "smart sanctions" regime. He predicates his analysis on the hardly novel idea that peace and religious groups opposed to sanctions must recognize that "the more credible we are, the more effective we will be." The problem is, Cortright's misleading and sometimes disingenuous argument ends up agreeing with Administration or other critics that the anti-sanctions case is not credible, and accepting the legitimacy of continuing the US effort to strangle the Iraqi people, albeit by slightly amended methods.
By opening with Osama bin Laden's statements about the deadly impact of the Iraq sanctions, and data on loss of life indicated by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (and endorsed by the UN and others), Cortright adroitly delegitimizes all other critics of US Iraq policy by linking them to the two most US/UK demonized leaders in the world. He is right in stating that many in Washington have made their careers arguing that anti-sanctions campaigners have exaggerated the numbers; but he is wrong in claiming that this argument is anything more than a pretext for maintaining a failed sanctions policy. If Cortright's goal was to appropriately discredit the debate over numbers–is it really 567,000 total children or 227,000 children under five killed by sanctions?–as horrifyingly irrelevant, his statement should have been simple. "We don't know precisely how many hundreds of thousands of children have been killed; we do know that even one thousand, let alone a hundred thousand, and certainly let alone several hundreds of thousands, are way too many. And the debate is a spurious effort at denial and deflection." Instead, Cortright contests the often-cited UN numbers in misleading detail, seeking to legitimize instead lower figures calculated by private sources. However careful his language, what implication can be drawn other than that economic sanctions are somehow acceptable if "only" 250,000 children, rather than the half a million whose deaths Madeleine Albright memorably deemed "worth it," have been killed?
In discussing the impact of economic sanctions on the Iraqi infrastructure, Cortright admits that most of the civilian deaths are in fact linked to sanctions, recognizing that "comprehensive trade sanctions compounded the effects of the war, making it difficult to rebuild and adding new horrors of hunger and malnutrition." In doing so he seems tacitly to acknowledge the linkage between the damage done by US bombing of Iraq's civilian infrastructure in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions, the child death rates (as reported by UNICEF) from water-borne diseases, and the way that sanctions prevent the repair and reconstruction of that infrastructure.
But he undermines that recognition by claiming that the UN Oil for Food program now includes "broader economic assistance and the rebuilding of infrastructure," as if the program was an international aid program. In fact, he even criticizes Iraq for continuing "to obstruct and undermine" what Cortright calls "the aid program." Iraqis know–though many Americans may not–that the oil for food program is not an aid program at all, but simply a mechanism for insuring UN control of Iraq's own oil revenues. The program allows the UN to control the spending of Iraqi oil revenue, first taking off the top some 30–35 percent for overhead and compensation payments, now mainly to the Kuwaiti royal family, Israel, and US oil companies. There is virtually NO international aid going into Iraq, with the exception of a few small and under-funded NGO projects. Calling Oil for Food an "aid" program doesn't make it so.
Cortright is right in recognizing that under the program, "oil exports are regulated, not prohibited." But large-scale investment in the oil sector, the kind of investment required to pay for the serious rebuilding of the water, electrical, telecommunications and other bombed-out infrastructures, IS prohibited. And even if the current prohibition on international private investment in Iraqi oil was lifted, no oil company worth its stockholders would risk multi-billion investment in an Iraqi economy subject to the whims of Security Council [read: US and UK] shut-down.
Cortright claims the Oil for Food program "was a bona fide effort by the Security Council to relieve humanitarian suffering. If the government of Iraq had accepted the program when it was first proposed, much of the suffering that occurred in the intervening years could have been avoided." While some Council members from Europe and the global South may indeed have been concerned about the crisis facing Iraqi civilians, the overriding concern, particularly of the Council's most powerful members, was one of bad propaganda. Oil for Food was a sophisticated effort at spin control. And from its origins, it was understood and explicitly stated that it was never designed to repair Iraq's shredded economic and social fabric, but simply to prevent even further deterioration and loss of human life. As for Iraq's initial rejection of the program, the early version offered would have provided less than $2 billion per year, of which 30 percent would be diverted to the UN Compensation Committee and another 5 percent designated for UN overhead costs. Considerations of sovereignty aside, that would not provide enough to even keep a population of 22 million people alive, let alone healthy, and it certainly would have denied any possibility of rehabilitating even part of the civilian infrastructure. Iraq would have remained forbidden to rebuild its infrastructure or its economy.
Cortright blithely claims that "oil revenues during the last six months of 2000 reached nearly $10 billion. This is hardly what one would call an oil embargo." No one ever said it was an oil embargo. It isn't. It's a trade, investment, intellectual, educational, scientific, social, cultural and communications embargo. Ten billion dollars in oil revenue translates into significantly less than half of that in goods and services actually reaching Iraq. Cortright ignores that much of the total revenues even within the limits of the oil for food program are unavailable largely to Iraq because of U.S and UK holds on contracts needing approval by the UN Contracts (661) Committee in which Washington holds a veto. In the entire six years of the Oil for Food program, over $44 billion worth of Iraqi oil has been sold. But of that huge-sounding amount, only about $16 billion has reached the 22 million Iraqis.
Why? Cortright himself acknowledges that "funds are still controlled through the UN escrow account, with a nearly 30 percent deduction for war reparations and UN costs." The official compensation fund deduction has recently been reduced from 30 to 25 percent, but there is also 5 percent in overhead costs paid to the UN (including the costs of the new still undeployed arms inspection agency UNMOVIC approved in December 1999). And as of November 2001, according to the Secretary-General's report, there are currently $4.2 billion in contracts for various civilian goods held up by US (occasionally UK) veto, and $3.5 billion sitting in the UN escrow account in Paris waiting to be disbursed.
But despite that clearly desperate scenario, Cortright still claims that "Baghdad has more than sufficient money to address continuing humanitarian needs." His source for this assertion is UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's statement that "the Government of Iraq is indeed in a position to address the nutritional and health concerns of the Iraqi people." The Secretary-General's unwillingness to directly contradict Washington may well have led him to speak of "addressing" such problems rather than actually "solving" them. But significantly more important is the unassailable fact that nutrition and health are not the only humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people. Such a claim would ignore that the basic requirements of education, employment, housing, repair of the social fabric, rebuilding of electrical generating capacity, water and sanitation infrastructure, freeing up the economy, reestablishing normal international commercial and communications links, etc., are also essential for the recovery and well-being of the people of Iraq.
In a similar vein, Cortright examines the on-going disparity between conditions in the Kurdish North where the Oil for Food distribution is UN-administered, and the government-controlled Center-South of Iraq. He does go further than most US officials are willing to go in acknowledging the real reasons for the comparatively better living conditions in the North. Northern Iraqis get 22 percent higher per capita income from the Oil for Food funds, the North has most of Iraq's rain-based agriculture, there is significant cross-border trading with Turkey in the North, there are numerous private European relief agencies. Those factors have led to a modest difference between North and Center-South. Infant/child mortality is only some 5 percent less than in the Center-South, for example. But then, inexplicably and without any citation or source, Cortright goes on to claim that "these differences alone do not explain the stark contrast in the mortality rates. The tens of thousands of excess deaths in the south-center, compared to the similarly sanctioned [sic] but UN-administered north, are also the result of Baghdad's failure to accept and properly manage the UN humanitarian relief effort." Given his recognition of the specific differences facing Iraqis living in the two zones (above), Cortright should realize that Iraqi Kurds are not, in fact, "similarly sanctioned"–although like everyone in Iraq they do suffer greatly.
Cortright proposes a number of improvements to the "smart sanctions" proposal brought to the UN by Washington and London earlier this year. Some of his ideas appear superficially useful, such as allowing foreign investment, eliminating restrictions on non-oil exports, or allowing a cash component in center-south, but in reality not so. The bottom line remains that until Iraq regains control of its oil reserves and revenues so that it can negotiate large-scale investment with whatever oil companies it chooses, the rebuilding of the once-modern economy and country and its once-cosmopolitan, once-educated and once-healthy urban population, remains out of reach. As long as the US-orchestrated escrow account, combined with UN politics and bureaucracy, controls Iraq's economy, the smartest sanctions remain way too dumb, missing their alleged targets like American "smart" bombs.
Cortright concludes that "Despite the evidence of Baghdad's shared responsibility for the ongoing crisis, sanctions opponents have continued to direct their ire exclusively at the United States and Britain." This demonization of those who oppose sanctions-driven genocide is simply not accurate; there is plenty of blame to go around, and most anti-sanctions campaigners have no hesitation to say so, including both of the assistant secretaries-general who resigned and both authors of this article. Baghdad is responsible for plenty of problems; it is a regime as repressive now as it was throughout the 1980s when it was backed financially, politically and militarily by Washington. But the Iraqi regime is not responsible for the deaths from hunger and disease of hundreds of thousands of its citizens–that responsibility lies with the US-dominated UN Security Council.
And sadly, that responsibility lies overwhelmingly with our government, and the anti-sanctions movement is right in keeping our focus there. Cortright himself, despite his apparent belief that no one in Washington pays attention to the anti-sanctions movement, admits that the United States and the United Kingdom developed their smart sanctions plan specifically "to parry this criticism." For those who see Baghdad's responsibility for the overall crisis as more central, what possible justification can there be for Washington to further punish the beleaguered people of Iraq whom it professes to care about, those who are forced to live under that regime? One would expect such justifications to arise from ignorance or malice–from the White House, the Pentagon or State Department apologists. One would have hoped that long-time peace activists such as David Cortright would know better.
Some version of smart sanctions may have been appropriate for the UN back in 1990; after more than a decade of devastatingly dumb sanctions, it's simply too little and too late, and Iraq is too badly devastated, for such proposals. Military sanctions as defined in paragraph 14 of Resolution 687, aiming at creating a weapons of mass destruction-free zone throughout the Middle East (including but not limited to Iraq), should continue. But the only smart thing to do with economic sanctions now is to end them–not attempt to discredit those who have been fighting to do just that.


text:
using System;
using System.Linq.Expressions;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using OpenQA.Selenium;

namespace SpecsFor.Mvc
{
	public class DefaultElementConventions : IElementConventions
	{
		public virtual By FindDisplayElementByExpressionFor<TModel, TProp>(Expression<Func<TModel, TProp>> property) where TModel : class
		{
			var name = ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(property);
			var id = TagBuilder.CreateSanitizedId(name);

			return By.Id(id);
		}

		public virtual By FindEditorElementByExpressionFor<TModel, TProp>(Expression<Func<TModel, TProp>> property) where TModel : class
		{
			var name = ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(property);
			var id = TagBuilder.CreateSanitizedId(name);

			return By.Id(id);
		}

		public virtual By FindValidationSummary()
		{
			return By.ClassName("validation-summary-errors");
		}

		public virtual bool IsFieldInvalid(IWebElement field)
		{
			return field.GetAttribute("class").Contains("input-validation-error");
		}

        public virtual By FindEditorElementsByExpressionUsingNameFor<TModel, TProp>(Expression<Func<TModel, TProp>> property) where TModel : class
        {
            var name = ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(property);

            return By.Name(name);
        }
    }
}