text:
KU researcher points finger at inaccuracy in most biology textbooks
Brendan M. Lynch
KU News Service
blynch@ku.edu
Follow @BrendanMLynch
LAWRENCE — Nearly all biology textbooks are wrong, according to a new paper co-authored by University of Kansas researcher Christopher Haufler.
He and his colleagues are calling on publishers to revise them.
In the current issue of the journal Bioscience, the professor of ecology & evolutionary biology laments a confusing misunderstanding in major biology textbooks' presentation of ferns, an intriguing group of plants that have successfully inhabited Earth for around 300 million years — longer than any flowering plant or pine tree.
"The breeding system of ferns has been inaccurately presented in most biology textbooks at all levels of education," said Haufler, who investigates the systematics, evolution, biogeography and population genetics of ferns.
Haufler and his collaborators found that most textbooks depict ferns as extreme inbreeders because the plants produce microscopic spores that germinate to form tiny bisexual plantlets called "gametophytes," capable of reproducing new, genetically identical plants without outbreeding.
"It means ferns are able to generate 100 percent inbred and homozygous individuals in a single generation," Haufler said. "Everybody has been hung up on the idea that ferns reproduce themselves, that they use genetically identical eggs and sperm to produce a new individual. That capacity has superseded logic in thinking through how they might actually reproduce in nature."
Indeed, fieldwork and molecular studies conducted in the 1980s showed ferns' self-replicating ability is best viewed as a "backup system." The research found the vast majority of fern reproduction consists of outbreeding between genetically distinct parents to yield genetic variation, in much the same way as other plants.
"In the 1980s, it became possible for the first time to survey natural populations and their genetic variability," Haufler said. "We found natural populations were genetically variable, just like other natural populations. That turned perception of fern reproduction on its head. The earlier assumption of how ferns reproduce was inaccurate. Although many species have the capacity to reproduce without outbreeding, it's something they don't regularly exercise."
Because ferns are the second-most diverse groups of vascular plants — with about 12,000 separate fern species — the myth of widespread fern inbreeding presented in most textbooks creates a contradiction that flummoxes thoughtful biology students.
"Evolutionary biology 101 says evolution requires variability to work," Haufler said. "Here you have an entire group, shown to be very diverse with 12,000 species of plants, and so the smart student says, 'How did ferns generate this much variability unless it was maintained in populations?' We all know that without the raw genetic material needed for these organisms to adapt they would go extinct."
Haufler's collaborators on the paper are Kathleen Pryer and Michael Windham of Duke University; Eric Schuettpelz of the Smithsonian Institution; Emily Sessa of the University of Florida; Donald Farrar of Iowa State University; Robbin Moran of the Institute for Systematic Botany; J. Jacob Schneller of the Universität Zürich and James E. Watkins Jr. of Colgate University.
The authors want to change the fact that difficult fieldwork and molecular analysis, some conducted by Haufler himself, hasn't been widely reflected in textbooks — even though a more complete picture of ferns' reproductive processes has been understood for three decades.
"Very few people have studied the ecology of natural populations of these plants," Haufler said. "Those that have showed that natural currents of water can sweep multiple spores into a common habitat where they can all survive together. Such a process brings together numerous, genetically diverse plants by natural forces that are then in close proximity and then can breed. This process would cultivate gametophytes grown from spores that have been wafted into an area and concentrate them. Given that these gamete-forming plants are just millimeters wide, you're not going to see them without looking very carefully."
Haufler believes textbooks maintain the myth that ferns reproduce primarily via inbreeding because the idea is both captivating and simple to understand.
"The truth makes things a little more complex," he said. "Our understanding of biology is continually changing, constantly making advances that overturn previous assumptions — and it just takes awhile for textbooks to catch up. This also adds complexity that a lot of people teaching biology would have to explore. The more complex things are, the more students are confused and it's difficult to build that into a textbook. However, we're trying to put forward the idea that this greater complexity in the history of ferns makes much more biological sense. Our discoveries make it much more logical to understand how ferns got so diverse — it's because they have the same sort of genetic systems that every other plant does."
Nevertheless, this backup ability of ferns to reproduce through inbreeding could explain why they have survived eons longer than other varieties of plant.
"There are ferns that have exploited this unique way of reproduction very effectively," Haufler said. "Their microscopic spores can get blown onto a volcanic island that has no organisms on it all. If they can reproduce by one single spore, they can be pioneers in a barren land. It adds an additional capacity to the life history of these organisms and gives them a wider range of options for colonizing open habitats. But once they've arrived there and established a single individual, the next spore to come along can generate more genetic variability."
Rather than emphasizing inbreeding, Haufler said he hopes the publication of this paper will encourage textbook authors to stress the great flexibility of breeding possibilities in ferns, leading to their remarkable evolutionary longevity.
Photos: At top, the "gametophyte" stage of the life history, held by a human hand for scale. At right is the "sporophyte" stage, the one that produces the spores that germinate to produce the gametophytes. The sporophyte is a species that Haufler named, the Polypodium appalachianum. Images provided by Professor Christopher Haufler.
In 2019, Tera Fazzino and @kulifespan colleagues identified criteria that may qualify food as hyper-palatable. New… https://t.co/N5kGzzzxD7


text:
Professor Alexandra Carter '03 Wins Presidential Award for Teaching
Columbia University honors the Law School's Mediation Clinic director and dispute resolution guru.
Alexandra Carter '03
Professor Alexandra Carter is acknowledged at Columbia University commencement on May 22.
, a clinical professor of law whose students laud her as a mentor and role model, was honored by Columbia University president Lee C. Bollinger '71 with the university's Presidential Award for Teaching at commencement on May 22. The award recognizes the university's best teachers for their commitment to excellence and innovative teaching.
"When I teach, it is my mission to really see each student and help them to develop into the very best person and lawyer they can be," says Carter, who has led the Mediation Clinic since 2008. "I strive to create in the classroom the same environment we create in a mediation: a place where everyone knows they can be heard, where their voice matters, and they have the power to decide what their future looks like."
Students in the clinic mediate in federal, state, and New York City courts with cases ranging from disputes among the owners of a family business to complaints filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Carter, who sits on the mediation roster of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, provides students with the 40-hour training that New York State requires for mediators and serves as their "coach" while they apprentice.
Since 2016, clinic students have worked with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. "We are the exclusive provider for mediation training for the New York diplomatic corps, and I'm proud to say the trainings are conceived, designed, and led by Columbia Law students," she says. "To date, we've trained diplomats from more than 80 countries."
'This Is What I Was Supposed to Do With My Life'
As a student at Columbia Law, Carter was a member of the Mediation Clinic, which was taught by Carol Liebman, now a clinical professor emerita of law. "The first time I walked into court for a mediation, I knew that this is what I was supposed to do with my life," she says. "I remember feeling that we had provided an incredibly valuable service that could be used for any kind of dispute anywhere in the world. And I spent the next five years trying to get back to that moment."
Carter's five years away from Columbia included a clerkship at the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and a stint as a litigator at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, where she kept in a desk drawer the student evaluations she had saved from her time as a teaching assistant for the late Professor Louis Henkin. "I would pull them out from time to time and think about teaching," she says.
During Carter's time at Cravath, Liebman approached her about the prospect of teaching the Mediation Clinic and joining the Law School faculty. "She took a chance on me and saw promise in me that I myself didn't see," Carter recalls. "She nurtured that potential, and I am thankful for her every day. And it is especially meaningful to receive the teaching award because Carol was also a recipient and I am going to spend the rest of my life living up to her example."
Professor Carter with students at the United Nations where they conduct mediation trainings for New York-based diplomats from more than 80 countries.
Connecting With Students
Carter's students offer ecstatic praise for their teacher. "Professor Carter facilitated my best law school opportunities and guided me through them," says Baldemar Gonzalez Jr. '19, who was Carter's teaching assistant twice and is collaborating with her on a journal article. "Despite my fear of public speaking, she supported and prepared me to deliver an important oral presentation to a large audience at the United Nations. Professor Carter is kind, humble, and cares deeply about her students. She is brilliant, but she does not carry that brilliance with an inflated sense of self."
Argemira Flórez '19 says the lessons Carter provided were personal as much as they were professional. "Professor Carter is a beacon of hope for students who have lost the desire to speak up after too many wrong answers spoken out loud during cold calls," says Flórez. "She trains students to be active listeners and effective communicators, and she empowers them to believe in themselves by highlighting their strengths, helping them work through their weaknesses, and showing them their light within."
Carter's holistic take on mediation is the subject of her general-interest book Ask for More: 10 Questions to Improve Your Negotiations, Your Relationships, and Your Life, which Simon & Schuster will publish in 2020. "It's a book that I hope a lot of non-lawyers will pick up as well as those in our profession," she says.
Meanwhile, Carter is busy on Instagram chronicling her students' work, which they also highlight themselves on their CLSMediation Instagram page. "I talk to my students on Instagram all the time. I've gotten requests for clerkship recommendations over Instagram direct messaging," she says. "These days, we are fully connected."
Carter's concern for her students extends beyond her classroom and their fieldwork. Every semester right before finals, she invites all of her students to her home in Maplewood, New Jersey, for what she's dubbed "MediationFest," a celebratory home-cooked meal. (She makes lasagna, and her husband, Greg T. Lembrich '03, makes a standing rib roast.) "One of the things that I'm most proud of about the mediation clinic is that it becomes a lot of people's home within the Law School, and they find a lot of support there."
To celebrate the end of the semester, Professor Carter invites students from the Mediation Clinic to her house in New Jersey for an afternoon of home cooking, which she has dubbed MediationFest.
The New "Locker Room Talk"
Alex Carter '03 Mediates a Family Thanksgiving Rehearsal Dinner on National TV
Sarah Knuckey Wins 2017 Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching
Alexandra Carter

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
DC Comics Classics Library: The Flash of Two Worlds. Gardner Fox
DC.Comics.Classics.Library.The.Flash.of.Two.Worlds.pdf
ISBN: 9781401222987 | 160 pages | 4 Mb
Download DC Comics Classics Library: The Flash of Two Worlds
DC Comics Classics Library: The Flash of Two Worlds Gardner Fox
Rogues, Flash #130, 1962, DC Special #8: Wanted: The World's Most Dangerous Villains, 1970. The Flash of Two Worlds (DC Comics Classics Library) book download. As great as this story is, it reveals a major flaw of the "Greatest Stories" series -- full covers are not reprinted, and the "Flash of Two Worlds" cover is one of the most quintessential Flash images (although the panel of two Flashes (Flash #179, May 1968): To my memory, The Flash was one of the only DC heroes to know he existed in a comic book (over at Marvel, Dr. Advance-solicited; on sale June 10 • 160 pg, FC, $14.99 US. The first in the new DC COMICS CLASSICS LIBRARY line collecting memorable tales in their entirety, this volume contains SUPERMAN #233-238 and #240-242 and contains a momentous story for the Man of Tomorrow that you won't want to miss! Download The Flash of Two Worlds (DC Comics Classics Library) 1) #123). DC Comics Classic Library The Flash of Two Worlds Buy/More Info. Paul describes the series as a companion series to the DC Archives, sort of Archives-lite. DC Comics Classics Library: The Flash of Two Worlds By Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino, John Broome and friends. The books The Roots of the Swamp Thing (the Wein/Wrightson stories) is due this month. DC Comics Classic Library: The Flash of Two Worlds, 2009. Y: The Last Man never fails to impress, so follow me along as I read through all the trades. All of these are some way or another in other hardcover collections, meant to be more complete for fans of those individual titles. Doom once met Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), and this story is clearly in the volume as a testament to that. Another little thing I was very happy to see was "A Word from the Publisher" where Paul Levitz spends a couple of hundred words defining just what the DC Comics Classic Library is, exactly. The Flash of Two Worlds (the origin of the original multiverse) ships in July. DC Comics Presents: The Flash #1, 2011. Of note, it appears that DC intends to continue with this "Classics Library" series with such collections as "Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore", "The Flash of Two Worlds" and "The Life and Death of Ferro Lad". You must have been overjoyed to see the solicits today – DC Classic Comics Library – Flash of Two Worlds, reprinting Flash #123 and many other early stories featuring the team-ups between the two. Earth-One/Earth-Two: The DC Comics Multiverse was created, or at least first acknowledged, in 1961 with Gardner Fox's seminal "Flash of Two-Worlds" in The Flash (vol. Friday, 22 March 2013 at 19:18.
Matlab Advanced Gui Development pdf
Vision: How It Works and What Can Go Wrong pdf


text:
DiplomacyEconomyExcerpts from HistoryFeaturedPolitics
Pakistan and US bloc during the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
By Lyba Mobeen
A Cold Winter, Russian Oil Crisis:-
5 Countries Where Women Farmers Play a Vital Role in Agriculture
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979) was an actual event on the international scene, not just for the Soviet Union and Afghanistan but also for the United States for two reasons. The Communist Domino Theory was the main reason for the Cold War. Second, the fall of the Shah of Iran made the United States rethink its role in the area.
Pakistan and the US Alliance
Golden Opportunity for Pakistan
US Policies over Pakistan's Nuclear Program
The Symington Amendment
Pakistan and the US Bilateral Programs
Economic and Military Aid
Consequences of Siding with the US bloc
The Coalition of the CIA and General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Millions of Afghan Refugees
Impact on Society Due to the Afghan Refugees
Cross-Border Smuggling
Suddenly, this area became very important to US foreign policy. The United States needed a dependable and reliable ally in the region to execute its sinister ideas. Nobody could serve US interests in the area better than Pakistan could. The United States and Pakistan have never had a balanced relationship in their alliances.
The US bloc always gains the most through its partnership with Pakistan, and Pak always has to face the consequences. Whether it be the Cold War alliance or the War on Terror alliance. Pakistan has always been on the side where costs are higher than benefits.
The United States of America relied on Pakistan whenever it was convenient for them, but they stopped doing so when their needs were met. But this time, Pakistan made full use of its alliance with the US. Through wise decisions, we reaped many decisive advantages from this partnership.
Before conducting an analysis of Pakistan's choice to stand with the US bloc, it is necessary to first assess the international context that pertains to Pakistan. Pakistan's relationship with the United States has deteriorated. Its foreign policy was fragile. Security threats from India were at hand.
The efforts that Pakistan was making to create a nuclear power program were roundly criticized at all times. Its economy was unstable, and its military and infrastructure were based on traditional patterns. As a result, Pakistan desperately needed a bang from hegemonic support to lift its game. The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan gave Pakistan a golden opportunity to revive itself and re-establish its importance to the US. This time, not as a puppet but as a partner on equal terms, which Pakistan eventually did.
Acquiring the prestige that comes with nuclear power is, without a doubt and by a wide margin, Pakistan's most astounding accomplishment to date. At the same time, the US has been bashing Pakistan's efforts to go nuclear by pressuring the government to abandon the Pak-France deal (1976). Also threatened to destabilize Pakistan's government (during Bhutto's reign) by imposing aid embargos upon Pakistan.
The US changed its policies fortnightly to accommodate Pakistan's nuclear program. Even to the extent of making an amendment to its own constitution, i.e., the Symington Amendment. Pakistan's leaders took advantage of this policy change and sped up the project twice.
In 1984, Pakistan had nuclear weapons, which they tested in 1999, in such a short amount of time. The resumption of US-Pakistan relations has deteriorated. Since the US abandoned Pakistan during the 1965-1971 wars and Pakistan left the SEATO-CENTO treaties.
In the wake of the Afghan invasion, the United States extended its hand of cooperation toward Pakistan, and Pakistan welcomed this approach.
Carter and Zia came to a one-on-one relationship, with Carter reviving its policy of ignorance towards Pakistan into an engagement policy. Different bilateral programs were initiated, and Pakistan gained the US as its ally back again. Pakistan, ever wanting to modernize it's military (due to the Indian threat and after the fall of Dhaka).
The economy got its opportunity in 1979 when the US lifted an economic aid embargo on Pakistan. Military cooperation between the two countries benefited Pakistan very much.
In 1985, Pakistan became the 4th largest recipient of US bilateral military assistance. This economic and military aid of $7.4 billion modernized Pakistan's defense and communication systems by providing conventional and non-conventional weapons and security systems. With financial aid, Pakistan's economic growth was boosted, and its currency deficit was bridged.
Another principal advantage Pakistan gained by supporting the Afghan Jihad was the setting up of a Pak-friendly government in its immediate neighborhood, the dissolution of anti-Pak and Pukhtoonistan sentiments, and the official recognition of the Durand Line by President Karamatullah Moosa Qazi in 1989.
Pakistan has achieved many enormous breakthroughs at the state level but has lost much. Siding with the US bloc gave Pakistan an aggressive enemy in the form of the Soviet Union. The Soviet regime exploited Baloch separatist movements to create inter-state violence to shame the Zia government.
They conducted airstrikes throughout the Afghan invasion and are even speculated to have been involved in Zia's assassination. This partnership provided Zia with US backing and legitimacy, and he continued to enforce a non-democratic system, which made Pakistan suffer a lot in the long run.
Another disgraceful consequence was the shaming of the army's repute by the revelation made by the CIA report. That authorities inside Pakistan's military were complicit in the theft of American weaponry and subsequent sale of those guns on the underground and grey markets.
In coalition with the CIA, Zia used religion for their vested interests. The US promoted Islam as a way to counter communism, and Zia introduced the Islamization of institutions to legalize his dictatorial rule among the masses.
It was these policies of Zia which infused the poison of religious injustice, fanaticism, and bigotry and the feeling of sect against sect, which have ignited events of sectarian and ethnic killings ever since.
This partnership decision also proved to be the root cause of many inter-state issues which Pakistan is dealing with to date. Amongst them, the rehabilitation of 3.5 million Afghan refugees and the baggage of their issues stand at the top.
Deforestation, floods, and landslides are on the rise due to the wild grazing of the millions of cattle brought by migrants. As a result of the high number of jobless Afghans, there has been an upsurge in petty crimes like robberies, snatchings, kidnappings, and ransom demands. There is an increase in feelings of hatred and enmity among the locals because of the influx of refugees.
An Article Related to this Topic: Afghan Refugees in Pakistan
Goods, from tea to furniture to crockery to electronics, automobiles, and weapons. Even opium, heroin, hashish, and other kinds of drugs, were smuggled cross-border during and after the Afghan war. Inflicting economic losses of millions of rupees on the government of Pakistan and the exchequer, as well as the social and societal loss of our young succumbing to the plague of drug addiction, which can still be seen today.
Pakistan's participation in the Afghan Jihad as a US extension made it an essential country for making, smuggling, and using drugs in the region. It also resulted in the establishment of an unofficial arms industry at Darra Adam Khel. Which specializes in modern weapons and poses a severe threat to national security.
After analyzing both sides of the picture, one can ask himself, "Was it the right decision?" Yes, given the national and international context. It was the right decision to side with the US and maximize one's gains (and that, too, of momentous importance). Concerning the costs Pakistan had to bear, I believe they resulted from administrative, political, and institutional failure rather than consequences.
Whatever benefits Pakistan received as a result of this relationship could not have been accomplished via any other means. It could have coped with the issues through better management and planning. Which it could not, and we, as a nation, are still paying the price for it.
Miltary
Can Pakistan survive without IMF?
Top 10 Interesting facts About Elon Musk


Helping Australian SME's grow by providing quick and simple access to flexible funding solutions.
We believe that the successful small businesses are at the heart of a strong economy. They're the engine room of the Australian economy and we want to do everything that we can to support them in their journey. We understand the importance of cash flow for a small business and the constraints small businesses face in accessing the capital required for growing their business. We ensure that we find you the right funding solutions in a fast and flexible manner. Our partnership with multiple lenders assures you the possibility of getting the much-needed capital.
At Hubbe, we connect Australian & New Zealand SME's to the right finance & financial technology solutions. With operations across Australia, New Zealand, Philippines & India, we are well positioned to connect businesses to our preferred partners. If your business is looking at penetrating new markets, increasing market share or want to provide value add services to existing clients, but is constrained by the operational cost and the logistics in executing the strategy, Hubbe can be your partner of choice.
Hubbe was set up to support our partner businesses and the wider pool of SME's.
In the short time since inception,Hubbe began working on a simple yet fundamental problem in the SME market – access to flexible capital. Given that SME segment contributes to over half of Australia's GDP and creates over 7 million jobs, it is vital that these businesses grow at a healthy pace.
small pool of active SME borrowers.
increase focus on core business by outsourcing processes like credit, customer queries etc.
To do this, we set ourselves the goal of reaching out to 1 million small businesses over a period of time and connect them to the right lending partner. We aim to do this by using a simple and scalable model – our trained staff in Hubbe owned contact centres (India and Philippines) speak to small businesses directly to understand their pain points and guide them to the right solution.
In parallel, we apply a customized digital strategy to connect with small business owners. We are confident that our connect with thousands of SME's provides a powerful platform to distribute many meaningful/ value added solutions and be a reliable partner on your growth journey.


text:
Home » About Us » Awards » Faculty Awards » Chairs and Professorships » Donald B. Gillies Professorship in Computer Science
The Donald B. Gillies Chair in Computer Science honors the late Professor Gillies (1928-1975), who was a member of the faculty in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1956 to 1975. Gillies earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto in Canada in 1949 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1953. At Princeton, Gillies worked as a research assistant to John Von Neumann, a pioneer of the modern digital computer. He was among the first mathematicians to become involved in the computer field, helping to calculate the first Sputnik orbit and later discovering three new prime numbers in the course of checking out ILLIAC II.
Professor Gillies was an inspiration to his students. Long before the personal computer made "hands-on" computer experience commonplace, he recognized the need for students to have this opportunity and implemented several systems to provide it. Throughout his work and teaching, Gillies stressed the importance of the ethical use of computing machines in contemporary society. He was dedicated to the honest uses of technology, environmentally concerned, a man of wit, vigor, and understanding, Gillies challenged and stimulated those who knew him.
Lawrence ("Larry") White established the Donald B. Gillies Endowed Faculty Positions in Computer Science Fund in 1999 with a gift of $2 million. White launched his programming career almost as soon as he got to college. While working on his degrees at Illinois, he spent four years as a student programmer on the PLATO project. White graduated with a master's degree in computer science in 1976 after having earned his bachelor's degree in math and computer science the previous year. After graduation, White stayed on at Illinois, eventually joining NCSA as a development manager. In the 1990s, he moved to Microsoft, joining the Exchange Server and SQL Server groups.
"Professor Gillies demonstrated tremendous enthusiasm for everything related to computers and a willingness to lead us, his students, into his world," said White. "He acted like sharing his breadth of knowledge was a delight. Even though I've forgotten everything that was on the tests, I've never forgotten what it means to be a good teacher."
An expert in compiler technology, Vikram S. Adve, the current Donald B. Gillies Professor, has developed tools and techniques to improve the performance, programmability, reliability, and security of computer systems. Most notably, Adve and Chris Lattner (MS CS '02, PhD '05), his Ph.D. student, co-designed the LLVM Compiler Infrastructure, which has enabled novel compilation capabilities for a wide range of computer languages. LLVM has unified the compilation strategies for static, bytecode, and dynamic programming languages, enabling a wide range of research and commercial uses. In fact, LLVM is now widely used in industry, ranging from mobile devices (e.g., iOS and Android) to supercomputers (e.g., at Cray and Intel) to data centers (e.g., at Google). Adve, Lattner, and Evan Cheng received the prestigious ACM Software System Award in 2012 for co-developing LLVM.
Building upon LLVM, Adve and his students have also made significant contributions to computer system security. The Secure Virtual Architecture (SVA) provides a practical compiler-based virtual machine that enforces strong guarantees for commodity operating systems, including memory safety and the kernel's control flow integrity. Adve's student John Criswell (BS CS '03, PhD '14) was recognized for SVA with Honorable Mentions for both the 2014 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award and the 2014 ACM SIGOPS Dennis M. Ritchie Doctoral Dissertation Award.
Adve's group has also focused on techniques to make parallel programming easier and more portable. These have included automated fault diagnosis and debugging techniques, a compiler infrastructure for heterogeneous parallel systems, and ways to guarantee that parallelizing a sequential program will not change the program's output. The latter research was implemented as an extension to the Java programming language called Deterministic Parallel Java (DPJ). Adve's student Robert Bocchino (PhD '10) won the 2010 ACM SIGPLAN Outstanding Dissertation Award for DPJ.
In 2014, Adve was named an ACM Fellow, for "For developing the LLVM compiler and for contributions to parallel computing and software security." His other recognitions include University Scholar by the University of Illinois (2015); the Most Influential CGO 2004 Paper Award (2014); best paper awards at PLDI 2005, SOSP 2007, and ICSE 2011; and the C.W. Gear Outstanding Junior Faculty Award by Illinois Computer Science (2002). During academic year 2017-2018, Adve served as Interim Department Head for Illinois Computer Science.


text:
Testimony: The Tax Code as a Barrier to Entrepreneurship
Kyle Pomerleau
Download Testimony: The Tax Code as a Barrier to Entrepreneurship (PDF)
Testimony Before the Committee on Small Business
Thank you Chairman Chabot and Ranking Member Velazquez for the opportunity to speak about the U.S. federal tax system and entrepreneurship.
There are millions of entrepreneurs in the United States, spread across nearly every major industry.[1] While every entrepreneur has a different business model and unique concerns, there are a few key characteristics that apply to many entrepreneurs throughout the economy:
Entrepreneurs tend to run losses for some time before turning a profit, and many entrepreneurial ventures do not survive long enough to turn a profit at all.[2]
As a result, entrepreneurial ventures tend to be especially risky investments for outside investors, who typically see many of their investments in entrepreneurs fail.[3]
If they do develop a successful business model, entrepreneurs often seek to rapidly expand their operations and scale.[4]
Ideally, the U.S. federal tax code would be neutral with regard to each of these characteristics. The tax code should not punish businesses for running sizeable losses in their early years, nor should it disadvantage investors that pursue risky investments. Certainly, it should not present additional barriers to successful businesses looking to expand.
However, this is not the case under current U.S. tax law. The federal tax code penalizes businesses with large, up-front losses; discourages investors from pursuing risky opportunities; and makes it difficult for successful companies to expand. All of these features of the U.S. tax code create disadvantages for new businesses and entrepreneurs.
Lawmakers interested in improving the tax treatment of U.S. entrepreneurs would do well to consider ways to mitigate these three distortionary features of the current U.S. tax code.[5]
The Tax Treatment of Business Losses
It is often the case that entrepreneurs run losses for several years before turning a profit. However, the current federal tax code is particularly detrimental to businesses whose earnings fall into this pattern, and imposes a larger tax burden on businesses that take longer to turn a profit.
The reason for this is the fundamental asymmetry in the U.S. tax code between the tax treatment of business profits and business losses. A business that makes a profit is subject to an immediate tax liability, in the same year the profit is earned. However, a business that turns a loss is not always entitled to an immediate tax benefit.
If a business has a net operating loss in a given tax year, but has made a profit in previous tax years, the business is often eligible to "carry back" a net operating loss deduction to its previous years' tax returns – a provision which does allow the business to receive an immediate tax benefit. However, if the business's losses exceed its recent profits, then it is required to "carry over" the net operating loss deduction to a future tax year – meaning that the business does not receive an immediate tax benefit.[6]
Importantly, the longer a business has to wait to deduct its net operating losses, the smaller a tax benefit the business receives. A business that has a $1 million loss in its first year of operation, and does not turn a profit until its tenth year of existence will not be able to deduct its $1 million loss until the tenth year. By that time, the tax benefit from $1 million deduction will be worth significantly less to the business, due to inflation and the time value of money.
As a result, the U.S. tax code is inherently disadvantageous to businesses that run losses for many years before turning a profit. As soon as these businesses become profitable, they are subject to an immediate tax liability – even though they did not receive an immediate tax benefit for all of the losses they incurred. Furthermore, if a company fails before it can ever turn a profit, then it will never receive a tax benefit for the losses it incurred, even though it would have been subject to a tax liability if it were profitable.
To summarize, the longer it takes for a business to turn a profit, the greater the tax penalty for that business. This is a feature of the U.S. tax code that is likely very disadvantageous for many entrepreneurs.
It is worth noting that the recently released House GOP "Better Way" tax plan would somewhat mitigate this issue by allowing businesses to increase their carried-forward net operating loss deduction by a factor reflecting inflation and the real return to capital.[7] This measure should, in theory, make the net operating loss deduction equally beneficial to businesses whether claimed immediately or claimed far in the future. However, it would not provide any relief for companies that go out of business before they ever turn a profit.[8]
The Tax Treatment of Capital Losses
Entrepreneurs often rely on outside investors to provide financial capital for their businesses. Investments in entrepreneurial ventures tend to be risky, and investors may experience a long string of capital losses before finding an investment that produces a substantial capital gain. However, under the current tax code, these capital losses are not always immediately deductible, creating a situation that penalizes risky investment.
In general, taxpayers are only allowed to deduct their capital losses in any given year to the extent of their total capital gains in that year; individual taxpayers are also allowed to deduct up to $3,000 in capital losses beyond this limitation ($1,500 for married individuals filing separately). Otherwise, taxpayers are often required to "carry forward" all other capital losses to future tax years, when they can be deducted against future capital gains. In the case of corporations, capital losses can also generally be "carried back" up to three years.[9]
Here again, the tax code contains a fundamental asymmetry: capital gains are subject to an immediate tax liability, while capital losses do not necessarily yield an immediate tax benefit. To the extent that taxpayers are required to carry their capital losses forward many years before they are able to deduct them, the tax benefit of these losses diminishes each year that they are carried forward.
As a result, the U.S. tax code penalizes some taxpayers that make risky investments, by denying them a full, immediate deduction for their capital losses.[10] This feature of the tax code makes it less advantageous to invest in entrepreneurial ventures.
That said, that the tax code does allow households to deduct up to $100,000 of capital losses on certain "small business stock" immediately against their ordinary income ($50,000 for non-joint filers). This provision provides an incentive for taxpayers to invest in risky small business ventures.[11]
The Tax Treatment of Business Investment
Entrepreneurs that develop a successful business model are often interested in scaling their operations as rapidly as possible. This expansion phase typically requires a great deal of capital investment, such as the purchase of equipment, buildings, and factories. However, the current U.S. tax code is especially burdensome on businesses that undertake significant capital investments, due to the current system of tax depreciation.
Under the current U.S. tax code, businesses are generally not allowed to deduct the full cost of their capital investments in the year that they are made. Instead, businesses are required to deduct their investment cost over long periods of time, according to a set of over two dozen depreciation schedules.[12] This system is quite complicated: the federal government estimates that businesses spend about 448 million hours each year complying with depreciation and amortization rules.[13]
According to standard economic theory, the federal tax depreciation system is an important determinant of the overall level of U.S. business investment. Because businesses value immediate deductions more than deductions in the future, the longer a business has to wait to write off the full cost of its capital expenses, the less likely the business is to undertake a new investment. In fact, there is evidence that small and cash-strapped businesses, such as startups, are particularly responsive to changes in depreciation schedules: in a recent paper, Eric Zwick and James Mahon show that small firms responded 95 percent more to the introduction of bonus depreciation than large firms.[14]
In fact, the tax treatment of capital investment has the highest stakes for entrepreneurs, who often spend a significant portion of their profits on the capital investments needed to establish and grow their operations. It is new and expanding businesses that stand to gain or lose the most from changes to the tax treatment of capital investment.
For the smallest businesses, the tax treatment of capital investment is generally favorable, due to section 179 of the tax code, which provides full expensing for many investments of small businesses. However, the rules for deducting capital investments can become much more burdensome for startup businesses in the "expansion phase," during which new businesses try to scale their model to new markets and broaden their offerings. During this phase in a business's lifecycle, the lengthy depreciation schedules of the tax code can serve as a barrier to investment, inducing businesses to pass up otherwise profitable investment opportunities due to tax considerations.
As a result, there is strong reason to believe that moving toward full expensing would encourage more entrepreneurial investment and remove barriers to the growth of startups. Notably, the House GOP "Better Way" plan would do just this, allowing both small and large businesses to deduct the full cost of their capital investments immediately.
High Tax Rates on Business Income
All three of these distortions in the U.S. tax code are exacerbated by the high marginal tax rates on businesses in the United States today. In general, if a business faces a high marginal tax rate on its profits, it will also be subject to a higher tax penalty for running losses for many years, and the depreciation system will pose a larger barrier to its new investment. Similarly, the higher the tax rate on capital gains, the greater the tax disadvantage will be for pursuing risky investments.
As such, it is important to note that income earned by U.S. entrepreneurs is generally subject to higher marginal tax rates today than in recent years past.
Entrepreneurs that choose to set up pass-through businesses, such as S corporations or partnerships, face a higher top federal tax rate (44.6 percent) today than at any point since 1986. As a recent Tax Foundation report shows, the top tax rate on pass-through business income can exceed 50 percent when state and local income taxes are taken into account.[15]
Other entrepreneurs choose to organize their businesses as C corporations. These businesses can be subject to taxation on both the entity level and the business level. The corporate income tax, on profits earned at the entity level, is levied at a 35 percent rate, the highest in the developed world.[16] Meanwhile, the top tax rate on capital gains (25.0 percent) is the highest since 1997, while the top tax rate on dividends (25.0 percent) is the highest since 2002.
It should be noted, however, that for some entrepreneurs and investors, the high tax rates on capital gains can be mitigated by the favorable tax treatment of qualified small business stock. Since 2010, entrepreneurs and investors who hold "qualified small business stock" for more than five years are granted a 100 percent exclusion on the capital gains from their shares. This provision was made a permanent part of the tax code in 2015.[17]
As this testimony has shown, the U.S. tax code tends to impose higher burdens on businesses that run losses for many years, businesses that are risky investments, and businesses undergoing rapid expansion – all of which are typical characteristics of entrepreneurial ventures.
Lawmakers interested in removing these barriers to entrepreneurship should consider ways to mitigate these three distortions in the U.S. tax code: the limited deductibility of business net operating losses, the limited deductibility of capital losses, and lengthy depreciation schedules.
[1] Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Business Employment Dynamics," https://www.bls.gov/bdm/#data
[2] Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Entrepreneurship and the U.S. Economy," April 2016, https://www.bls.gov/bdm/entrepreneurship/bdm_chart3.htm
[3] Seth Levine, "Venture Outcomes are Even More Skewed Than You Think," August 2014, http://www.sethlevine.com/archives/2014/08/venture-outcomes-are-even-more-skewed-than-you-think.html
[4] Neil Churchill and Virginia L. Lewis, "The Five Stages of Small Business Growth," Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/1983/05/the-five-stages-of-small-business-growth
[5] However, it should be noted that entrepreneurs do not necessarily receive worse tax treatment overall than other U.S. businesses. This is, in part, because the federal tax code also contains provisions that provide benefits specifically to entrepreneurs and small businesses, some of which are detailed below.
[6] 26 U.S.C. §172. It should be noted that, in the case of pass-through businesses, owners are often able to deduct the net operating loss from one business against other personal income.
[7] "A Better Way: Tax," June 2016, https://abetterway.speaker.gov/_assets/pdf/ABetterWay-Tax-PolicyPaper.pdf
[8] It is difficult to design a measure that would provide businesses with an immediate tax benefit for losses incurred, due to concerns that such a provision would create opportunities for gaming and tax shelters.
[9] 26 U.S.C. §1211, §1212
[10] Here, again, there is an administrative rationale for this feature of the tax code, which closes off opportunities for gaming of the tax system.
[11] 26 U.S.C. §1244
[12] 26 U.S.C. §167
[13] Scott A. Hodge, "The Compliance Cost of IRS Regulations," Tax Foundation, June 2016, https://taxfoundation.org/compliance-costs-irs-regulations/
[14] Eric Zwick and James McMahon, "Tax Policy and Heterogenous Investment Behavior," American Economic Review 107: 217-248, http://www.ericzwick.com/stimulus/stimulus.pdf
[15] Scott Greenberg, "Pass-Through Businesses: Data and Policy," Tax Foundation, January 2017, https://taxfoundation.org/pass-through-businesses-data-and-policy/
[16] Kyle Pomerleau and Emily Potosky, "Corporate Tax Rates Around the World, 2016," Tax Foundation, August 2016, https://taxfoundation.org/corporate-income-tax-rates-around-world-2016/
Banner image attribution: small business pass-through
Business Capital Gains and Dividends Taxes
Business Tax Compliance and Complexity
Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Kyle Pomerleau is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies federal tax policy. Before joining AEI, Mr. Pomerleau was chief economist and vice president of economic analysis at the Tax Foundation, where he led the macroeconomic and tax modeling team and wrote on various tax policy topics, including corporate taxation, international tax policy, carbon taxation, and tax reform.
Follow Kyle Pomerleau
Proponents of Wealth Taxation Must Consider its Impact on Innovation
Tax Cliffs in the Proposed PROGRESS Act May Slow Small Business Growth
A Preliminary Look at 2018 Tax Data
North Carolina's Vetoed Budget Includes Good Tax Provisions
State Tax Changes as of July 1, 2019


text:
Benjamin C. Jones
Ruffed Grouse Reproductive Ecology and Nest Site Selection in Western North Carolina
SEAFWA Journal Volume 2, March 2015
Relatively low fecundity may be responsible for lower Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) populations in the southern Appalachians compared to those in more northern areas of the species ' range. Nutritional stress imposed by poor-quality habitat and greater nest predation have been cited as negative influences on reproduction in the region. We monitored 56 female grouse during the reproductive season in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, 1999 - 2004, to measure reproductive success and evaluate cover used for nesting. Nests (n = 44) were located to determine fate and habitat...
Ruffed Grouse Survival and Population Structure in Western North Carolina
Sound management of ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) populations requires an understanding of survival and cause-specific mortality; however, these parameters have not been investigated at the southern extent of the species' range. Ruffed grouse were studied in the mountains of western North Carolina. Grouse (n = 276) were radiotagged and monitored >3 times/week. Mean annual survival was greater than reports from the northern core of the species' range. Seasonal survival was greatest in summer, followed by fall, winter, and spring. Of 155 mortalities, the greatest proportion was...
Use of Spring Drumming Counts to Index Ruffed Grouse Populations in the Southern Appalachians
We studied ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) drumming behavior in the southern Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. We conducted drumming counts from late March through mid-April 2002-2004. Concurrent with drumming counts, radio-tagged males (N = 30) were monitored to determine proportion of males drumming. Drumming activity increased from late March (20% of males drumming) to a peak in mid-April (56%-69% of males drumming). Consistent drumming coincided with mean nest initiation date by females (12 April, N = 44). Drumming count results were related to fall trapping success on the study...


text:
<?php

$tpl = erLhcoreClassTemplate::getInstance( 'lhsystem/configuration.tpl.php');

$Result['content'] = $tpl->fetch();
$Result['path'] = array(array('url' => erLhcoreClassDesign::baseurl('system/configuration'),'title' => erTranslationClassLhTranslation::getInstance()->getTranslation('system/configuration','System configuration')))

?>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Visitors enjoying the Tom Franco Co-Lab exhibition at the Sesnon Gallery—the final result of a 10-week course co-taught by Franco. Photo by Allison Garcia.
Who says Banana Slugs can't fly? Watch us!
The 50/50 exhibit featured works of 50 local and visiting alumni artists representing five decades as part of the university's 50th anniversary.
Slug volunteers joined forces with professional timber framers to help re-create the Cowell Ranch hay barn, marking the next chapter in the barn's history.
Alumni Notes: What have you been up to? Share your latest news with your fellow Banana Slugs in UC Santa Cruz Review magazine.
Stay tuned for more events near you in 2015!
College connection: UC Santa Cruz's colleges are a hallmark of the student experience here, the places where our alumni create some of their fondest memories. We would like to reconnect alumni with campus through their colleges. We've already started the Merrill Society. Let's get alumni from all 10 colleges to make their own society! Contact Mark Welden-Smith for details: mweldens@ucsc.edu.


Earthroma's Coconut Carrier Oil will make the driest Skin feeling Soft, Silky, and Smooth.
Fractionated Coconut Oil is a clear, colorless and odorless liquid that absorbs quickly into the skin leaving a smooth, non-greasy feel. Fractionated Coconut Oil is truly versatile making it ideal for dry skin, as a carrier for essential oils, for massage therapy or as a base in many handmade skin products. This is one of the most popular carrier oils to use with essential oils.
Shelf Life: indefinite if stored properly. cool, out of direct sunlight. Refrigeration is not needed.
I haven't used this fractionated coconut oil yet to make any products, but the bottle seems large for 8 oz. It comes with its own pump which is handy for dispensing. Smells wonderful, and being fractionated it won't become solid in colder temperatures. An excellent value for the money.
So enjoying purity & strength of essential oils & the fractionated coconut oil is a fabulous non greasy, softening agent for all my homade products. Using them for my fur baby a well. Thank you for ease in ordering as well as quick delivery. You're on my favorites list now!
I love this oil. Does not leave a grease feel on your skin and being odor free I get all the scent from my oils.
Ilove this fractionated coconut oil. If you have frizzy dry hair add a few drops to you shampoo. It leaves it silky smooth. Aso great for dry skin. Put a few drops in your body creams and feel the difference. I will buy more in the future. thanks Earthroma for making this product so afortable !!!


text:
Philadelphia Judge Rejects Honda's Appeal in $55.3 Million Verdict
GM Pays Almost $1.5 Billion in Ignition Switch Cases
Plaintiff Support Back from a Great Women en Mass Retreat
Philadelphia Judge Shelly New upheld a $55.3 million verdict against motor giant Honda on appeal on September 17. The appeal was a response to a June 2014 jury award to Carlos Martinez and his wife after Martinez's 1999 Acura blew out two tires and rolled over multiple times. The resulting injuries rendered Mr. Martinez a quadriplegic. The jury found the seat belt in Martinez's car was defectively designed, and that Honda failed to warn consumers of the risk. Accordingly, the jury awarded Martinez $25 million for past and future noneconomic damages, $15 million to his wife for loss of consortium, $14.6 million for future medical expenses and $720,000 for past and future lost earnings.
Honda appealed the 2014 verdict and raised 25 different issues. This included issues regarding denial of presenting evidence of the faulty seatbelt, claims that the trial judge should have let Honda motion for a judgment notwithstanding the jury, and general claims of trial error. However, Judge New rejected Honda's argument and upheld Martinez's 2014 verdict.
Plaintiff Support offers a variety of settlement funding services to help plaintiffs and attorneys during and after a personal injury case. Learn more about how we can help you.
Florida Bars Face $31M Verdict Following Intoxicated Hit-And-Run
Skier awarded $4.5M in Chairlift Accident
$225,000 Verdict Upheld in Nantucket Boating Accident Suit


2 Tier Computer Desk Elegantly » Use functional furnishings when decorating a smaller sized place. An ottoman is a great choice. You can use it for chairs or a kitchen table, and you may even retailer items within, if it opens. Items which have numerous purposes are effective space savers to get a more compact place.
Take advantage of your 2 Tier Computer Deskimaginative aspect when you find yourself redesigning your kitchen. Granite is always a well known selection, but wood, cork and also other materials function wonderful. Various other choices are less costly, and will make the kitchen special 2 Tier Computer Desk from other individuals.


Can't find what you're looking for in Archdeacons?
Use the form below and we'll do our best to help!
The Diocese is split into a number of geographical areas to help parishes and priests. Archdeacons assist bishops, and each is responsible for an area known as an Archdeaconry. There are four in Lichfield Diocese.
The Archdeaconry of Salop, covers the same ground as the Shrewsbury Episcopal Area (overseen by the Bishop of Shrewsbury). For historic reasons, Shropshire is overseen by the Dioceses of Lichfield (in the north) and Hereford (the south). The boundary roughly falls on a north-west to south-east line from Llanyblodwel on the Welsh border to Badger on the Staffordshire border, including Shrewsbury and most of Telford.
The Archdeaconry of Stoke-upon-Trent covers the majority of the historic county of Staffordshire by area including major industrial areas including the city of Stoke and neighbouring Newcastle-under-Lyme, the county town of Stafford, and brewing town of Burton-upon-Trent. It also includes the large and sparsely populated Staffordshire Moorlands.
Taking in the middle swathe of Staffordshire, the Archdeaconry of Lichfield includes the ancient capital of Mercia - Tamworth - and the string of former mining towns from Cannock to Brownhills as well as the cathedral city of Lichfield itself.
The Archdeaconry of Walsall was created in the 1980s, recognising the burgeoning populations of Wolverhampton, Walsall and the Black Country warranted a separate archdeaconry within the Wolverhampton Episcopal Area.
Copyright © 2019 Diocese of Lichfield. Last updated on 4th July 2018 by Dave Blake.


This page is a step-by-step guide to decapping chips using 70% nitric acid with a preheated chip. Results should be good enough for live analysis.
It is assumed that the reader is familiar with standard lab safety procedures; please do not attempt this if you do not have adequate experience!
Photos courtesy of Andrew Zonenberg unless otherwise noted.
For thick packages such as PDIPs, the first step is to drill out a well in the top of the chip, centered over the die. The goal is to get as close to the die as possible without hitting it (or, if you plan to do live analysis, damaging bond wires). Use high speeds to avoid chipping the package; I used an 1/8" endmill in a Dremel drill press at about 15,000 RPM.
Clean the chip thoroughly after drilling. I used a spray of 70% isopropanol from a syringe with a 25-gauge blunt tip needle.
For other packages, such as TQFPs, no predrilling is necessary.
Nitric acid is quite dangerous so proper safety equipment is a must. I wear a lab coat, splash goggles, and neoprene or Norfoil gloves at all times when doing decapping work. A fume hood is strongly recommended, but given the small quantities of acid being used good cross ventilation may be adequate if your workspace is near an exterior door or window.
Place the chip in the tray on the hot plate and turn it on. The top of the chip should reach around 130C; large packages with small contact area (such as PDIPs) may need to be placed on a conductive material to ensure even heating; I placed this chip on top of a finned aluminum heatsink.
When the chip is hot enough, place a single drop of acid on the center of the package, or inside the well if it was pre-drilled. Take care not to let any spill onto the pins; this is most critical in small QFP/QFN packages where the leads will be very close to the acid. Large packages such as PDIPs, as well as leadless SMD packages (LGA/QFN/MLF) are significantly more forgiving in this respect.
The acid will appear colorless at first, then as it heats up bubbles will form, sometimes followed by a yellowish-white foam. As the acid finishes reacting the foam will disappear. If the acid shows no reaction or just releases a few bubbles the chip isn't hot enough. In case of very soft epoxy with a fast etch rate, the foam may turn black from package fragments.
Immediately after the foam begins to subside, remove the chip from the tray with tweezers and rinse it with acetone over a beaker. (Be careful not to boil the chip dry; this will cause the fragments to stick to the die.) Use fairly high pressure to dislodge debris.
This is a sign that you are getting close. Continue to etch away the remaining plastic, checking periodically to see if the die is fully exposed. Note that there is significant variation in etch speed between different vendors' packaging compounds. In my experience Microchip PICs usually take about 10 drops if skillfully drilled; Texas Instruments 7400 series chips are over five times slower.
Most professional shops use ultrasonic cleaners however I did not have one available. I removed residue from the top of the DIP by turning it upside-down and rubbing against a paper towel soaked in acetone, then sprayed the chip off with 70% isopropanol from a syringe. The TQFP required no further cleaning.
Results were excellent: no damage to the die, pins, or bond wires.


Order within 38 hrs 32 mins 38 secs for delivery on Wednesday.
With mechanical fuel injection, impressive power, and an incredibly low curb weight, the VW Golf 1 GTI revolutionized the sports car market. For the first time sporty, aggressive cars were within the price range of average Joes. It didn't look like a sports car but its performance-0-60 mph (0-100 km/h) in 9 seconds, top speed of 110 mph (180 km/h)-put it firmly in the sports car category. Kit features opening hood, multi-part engine, detailed interior, left or right hand drive build, rotating wheels, and decals for numerous international versions.


Adil is an arabic boy name. Meaning "wise".
Download the image I love Adil and share it in your social profiles, web o blog!
Do you want an image of the name Adil in arabic, chinese, gotic, etc. letters? Go to Picnames.com and create your own signature!


text:
How many of the guns in Mexico are coming from the United States? Good question that will prove extremely contentious if the number of weapons proves to be high.
He doesn't answer how much he thinks. If he's really upset about being "misquoted" and "misunderstood", why wouldn't he lay out his thinking, his chain of facts, and his conclusions?
Perhaps he's not as misunderstood and misquoted as he'd like to claim. Politicians has a line for that "... taken out of context ..."
Yesterday, another post. Tons of arms.
Nobody seems to dispute that tons of weapons apparently are flowing into Mexico. A big question is, where are they coming from? The only casualties assured to occur are those people who are shot by the real guns from the questionable sources, and the truth. There are almost certainly people within the U.S. government who would fit the facts to fit their agendas, and there are vast numbers of citizens who would do the same. Iraq and Afghanistan provide stark international reminders of this on the global scale. It seemed that every cranny of government and civilian political organizations, overtly lied or spackled over inconvenient facts that did not lead to pre-determined outcomes for Iraq, in particular. Personally, I don't trust any government, nor do I trust the amorphous "gun lobby" in the United States.
Amorphous? I believe this means that the Big Bad NRA hasn't said anything (as they didn't in L'Affaire de Zumbo until the dust had long since settled.)
Instead it's individuals - lots of us. All of whom are disagreeing, yet there's no good way to dismiss us. To lump us into an "amorphous" lobby allows Yon to avoid dealing with the fact that we're not paid, we're not corrupted by money.
So he claims we're just part of a lobby. Thus money's at the root of it. Not to be trusted. Yon's initial dispatch said "... lets be honest... "
You First, Mr. Yon.
All are filled with overt and hidden agendas. Huge money flies around.
Where's my check?
Having grown up in America, I'm not sure which to disbelieve more: the government agendas, or the private agendas.
Mr. Yon? You just gave away your viewpoint again.
I grew up in the South, and was shooting and hunting as a young boy. By my young twenties, I had become intimately familiar with perhaps a hundred types of small arms. Having lived in places like Florida, North Carolina, California and Massachusetts, I am extremely well aware of the gun arguments -- from various sides -- and the high emotions surrounding them. That intimate knowledge causes me to suspect the gun-fanatics as much as the anti-gun fanatics. Neither camp can be counted on to tell the good, the bad and the ugly. None are to be trusted with mere facts, even when actual facts can be found.
Ah, damn all their eyes, trust nobody, and ignore all the facts. Very logical of Yon. Too bad he's unable to actually defend this, preferring instead to stick to passive-aggressive attacks, smears and slanders.
(I haven't forgotten his email note on this: It's just fascinating to see apparent gun-fanatics misquote a document that is just inches away on the same computer screen. If they invest only that minimal level of attention to the guns they are apparently packing, it's just a matter of time before they accidentally shoot themselves or someone else. Attention to detail is an important component of gun safety.)
Some of the comments on these posts are very informative and illustrative. The first (starts from the bottom) comment does the sort of number crunching that is apparently "not to be trusted with facts":
"John": Finally! some numbers. 1547 guns in a year. That is "tons" now? they still don't say how many were traced, just 90% of the TRACEABLE ones were traced. Even if 100% were traceable, that means that 1392 were from the USA. ATF stats for 2007 say that 2.7 MILLION guns were sold that year. (http://www.atf.gov/firearms/stats/afmer/afmer2007.pdf)
Not only that, but 207,000+ guns were legally exported. So 90% of the guns that were traced to the US turns out to be 1392 guns, that is less than 1 tenth of 1 percent (0.67%) of all exported guns, and less than 5 hundredths of a percent (0.05%) of all of the guns sold in the us in 2007. That isn't TONS, of guns, that is POUNDS of guns.
"ctone" lays the smack down in the original comment thread at comment 64.
Gen. McCaffrey in 1996 -
Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the White House drug policy director, traveled to Mexico in March 1996 smoothing the way for an agreement between the two governments which has resulted in Mexican soldiers beginning to train at Ft. Bragg and other American bases, and in the gift of 73 "surplus" helicopters, four C-26 surveillance planes, night vision goggles, radios and other military equipment. In addition, the White House has requested $9 million in military aid for Mexico for fiscal year 1998 (up from $3 million in fiscal year 1996) for the purchase of new weapons from U.S. arms manufacturers. - http://www.fas.org/asmp/profiles/mexico.htm
Gen McCaffrey 2009 -
The outgunned Mexican law enforcement authorities face armed criminal attacks from platoon-sized units employing night vision goggles, electronic intercept collection, encrypted communications, fairly sophisticated information operations, sea-going submersibles, helicopters and modern transport aviation, automatic weapons, RPG's, Anti-Tank 66 mm rockets, mines and booby traps, heavy machine guns, 50 cal sniper rifles, massive use of military hand grenades, and the most modern models of 40mm grenade machine guns. - http://www.mccaffreyassociates.com/pdfs/Mexico_AAR_-_December_2008.pdf
There's some great reporting going on on Yon's site - in his comments, not by Yon.
Let me repeat part of ctone's McCaffrey quote:
electronic intercept collection, encrypted communications, fairly sophisticated information operations, sea-going submersibles, helicopters and modern transport aviation, automatic weapons, RPG's, Anti-Tank 66 mm rockets, mines and booby traps, heavy machine guns, 50 cal sniper rifles, massive use of military hand grenades, and the most modern models of 40mm grenade machine guns.
Yon's question was: Tons of Arms Flowing into Mexico, But From Where?
According to McCaffrey, which was Yon's original source for his screed, the (current) Mexican Civil War is being fought with:
* sea-going submersibles
* helicopters and modern transport aviation
* automatic weapons
* RPGs
* Anti-Tank 66 mm rockets
* mines
* heavy machine guns
* 50 cal sniper rifles
* hand grenades
* 40mm grenade machine guns
Of those, only one might have been bought in the US. (And probably by the US Government and supplied to the Mexican Government.)
But Yon claims that we "gun fanatics" are misquoting him. Misunderstanding him.
Look at that list above, and then remember what Yon said to start this Zumboish story:
but we must be honest here and help curb flows that are killing Mexicans and Americans. The idea that "guns don't kill people, people kill people" should be saved for someone who will buy it. That's like saying IEDs don't kill people, people kill people. Nuclear weapons don't kill people...
Guns kill people. I'm not giving up my guns and I'll stand shoulder to shoulder with other Americans who want to keep theirs. But we must be honest about the problems to face them.
Be honest? Mr. Yon, I think there's only one very dishonest person here.
[update: Yuri is fired up too]
", "url": "https://unix-jedi.livejournal.com/72041.html", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "http://s15.sitemeter.com/meter.asp?site=s15unixjedi" }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "unix_jedi", "image": "https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/46453867/10252513" }, "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Journal unix_jedi", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://unix-jedi.livejournal.com", "contentUrl": "https://l-userpic.livejournal.com/46453867/10252513" } } }
unix_jedi —
unix_jedi ( unix_jedi) wrote,
unix_jedi
First rule of getting out of a hole: Stop Digging.
Michael Yon's ego has driven him to double down on his previous stance.
Perhaps it's his military training - "attack into an ambush". The only problem with seeing it like that is that rather than our ambushing him, he ran full tilt by himself into the "gun fanatic" camp - as we were peacefully minding our own business and roasting marshmallows.
Sunday, he posted another indirect attack to incite the "gun fanatics", labeling it "Truth or Dare".


text:
Sir Barton (USA)
Star Shoot (IRE) x Lady Sterling (USA), by Hanover (USA)
Family 9-g
Still a maiden when he went to the post for the Kentucky Derby, Sir Barton was ostensibly meant to set the pace for his more favored stablemate, Billy Kelly, though jockey Johnny Loftus was given orders to let Sir Barton run on his merits rather than taking up to let Billy Kelly win. Instead of fading in the stretch as many expected him to do, the colt powered away to a 5-length victory. That was the start of a season that saw Sir Barton win eight of 13 races, including a sweep of the races now known as the American Triple Crown. He continued to race well at 4 but, like every other horse racing in 1920, fell into the giant shadow cast by Man o' War. Soundly defeated by the younger champion in their match race at Kenilworth Park, Sir Barton never recovered his former place in the sun. Like other sons of Star Shoot, he proved to be a poor sire and was eventually given to the United States Army Remount Service.
2nd Futurity Stakes (USA, 6FD, Belmont)
Won Kentucky Derby (USA, 10FD, Churchill Downs)
Won Preakness Stakes (USA, 9FD, Pimlico)
Won Belmont Stakes (USA, 11FD, Belmont; new American record 2:17-2/5)
Won Withers Stakes (USA, 8FD, Belmont)
Won Potomac Handicap (USA, 8.5FD, Havre de Grace)
Won Maryland Handicap (USA, 10FD, Laurel)
Won Weight-For-Age Fall Serial #2 (USA, 8FD, Pimlico)
2nd Dwyer Stakes (USA, 9FD, Aqueduct)
3rd Havre de Grace Handicap (USA, 9FD, Havre de Grace)
3rd Autumn Handicap (USA, 10FD, Pimlico)
Won Rennert Handicap (USA, 8FD, Pimlico)
Won Saratoga Handicap (USA, 10FD, Saratoga; new track record 2:01-4/5)
Won Dominion Handicap (CAN, 10FD, Fort Erie)
Won Merchants' and Citizens' Handicap (USA, 9.5FD, Saratoga; new American record 1:55-3/5)
2nd Kenilworth Park Gold Cup (match race with Man o' War) (CAN, 10FD, Kenilworth Park)
2nd Weight-For-Age Fall Serial #3 (USA, 9FD, Pimlico)
3rd Marathon Handicap (USA, 8.5FD, Havre de Grace)
3rd Laurel Stakes (USA, 8FD, Laurel)
3rd Weight-For-Age Fall Serial #2 (USA, 8FD, Pimlico)
National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame (inducted in 1957)
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (inducted in 1976 as part of the inaugural class)
American Horse of the Year (1919)
American champion 3-year-old male (1919)
Sir Barton was rated #49 among the top 100 American racehorses of the 20th century by a panel of experts assembled by The Blood-Horse (Thoroughbred Champions, Eclipse Press, 7th printing, 2005).
Like many of the get of *Star Shoot, Sir Barton had tender, thin-walled feet, which may have contributed to his irascible disposition; as Marvin Drager put it in The Most Glorious Crown, he "ignored horses, despised humans, and hated pets." The son of owner J. K. L. Ross was even blunter, describing him as "downright evil" at times. The only human Sir Barton showed any tolerance for was his groom, "Toots" Thompson, who practically worshiped his charge.
A compact, short-coupled, muscular chestnut with a deep chest, Sir Barton stood 15.2-1/2 hands. He required a great deal of work to maintain his form but would not extend himself in workouts unless challenged by relays of fresh horses who could give him the semblance of a race. Persistent rumor said that he normally ran under the influence of cocaine, but this was never proven.
According to The Blood-Horse Silver Aniversary Edition, Sir Barton's highest ranking among American sires was 19th in 1929. According to Jockey Club records, Sir Barton sired 99 winners (45.4%) and 7 stakes winners (3.2%) from 218 named foals.
Easter Stockings (USA)
Sir Barton was bred by John E. Madden and Vivian Gooch. Madden bought out Gooch's share when Sir Barton was a weanling and was the colt's owner of record when Sir Barton began racing in 1918. Afterward, Sir Barton was owned by Commander J. K. L. Ross, who purchased the colt for US$10,000 (plus an agreement to split the purse of the Futurity Stakes if Sir Barton won) after his fourth start as a juvenile. Sir Barton was trained by W. S. Walker for his first four starts at 2 and by H. G. "Hard Guy" Bedwell afterwards. After siring a few foals in 1921 as the property of Madden and Audley Stud's B. B. and Montfort Jones, the Jones brothers bought out Madden's share for a reported US$75,000 and moved the stallion to their Audley Farm in Virginia in 1922. In 1933 Sir Barton was turned over to an Army Remount station near Front Royal, Virginia, and was apparently transferred in the same year to a similar station in Nebraska, where he stood for as little as US$5 per mare. From there, he was purchased by Dr. J. B. Hyland, who took the stallion to his La Prele Creek Ranch near Laramie, Wyoming. Sir Barton died there of colic on October 30, 1937, and was buried on the ranch. Thanks to the efforts of local Jaycees, his remains were moved to Washington Park near Douglas, Wyoming, in 1968, and the statue of a horse was placed over the new burial site.
Sir Barton is inbred 4x3 to Sterling. He is a half brother to 1908 American champion 2-year-old male Sir Martin (by Ogden). He is also a half brother to Lady Doreen (by Ogden), dam of three-time American champion Princess Doreen (by Spanish Prince II) and the stakes-winning steeplechaser Word of Honor (by Ormondale).
Lady Sterling, the dam of Sir Barton and his siblings, is by Hanover out of English-bred Aquila, an unraced daughter of Sterling who produced nothing else of any note. The next dam in the tail-female line, Eagle (by four-time Argentine champion sire Phoenix, who sired Eagle prior to export), was produced from the See Saw mare Au Revoir, whose half sister Ante Diem (by Musket) founded an important family in Argentina.
Sir Barton and the Making of the Triple Crown is a 2019 release by Jennifer S. Kelly with a foreword by Steve Haskins. It was published by the University Press of Kentucky.
Sir Barton is the first of the 13 American Triple Crown winners featured in Ed Bowen's The Lucky 13: The Winners of America's Triple Crown of Horse Racing (2019, Lyons Press).
"Sir Barton" is the first chapter in Marvin Drager's The Most Glorious Crown (2005, Triumph Books).
Sir Barton is profiled in Chapter 4 of Avalyn Hunter's American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002 (2003, Eclipse Press).
"Greener Pastures for Sir Barton: The First Triple Crown Winner" is the second chapter in Jim Bolus' Remembering the Derby (1994, Pelican Publishing Company).
Sir Barton's first-ever sweep of what later became known as the American Triple Crown was ranked #63 in Horse Racing's Top 100 Moments, a review of racing in the 20th century compiled by The Blood-Horse and released in 2006.
Sir Barton's Derby was the first in which horses owned by the same person finished 1-2, as second-place Billy Kelly was also owned by Commander Ross.
Sir Barton was the second of five Kentucky Derby winners bred or co-bred by John E. Madden and the second of six to be foaled at Madden's farm, Hamburg Place. (The sixth, Alysheba, was foaled when Madden's grandson Preston Madden owned the farm.) Sir Barton was also the third of five Belmont Stakes winners bred or co-bred by Madden; the others were Joe Madden (1909), The Finn (1915), Grey Lag (1921) and Zev (1923).
Sir Barton was named for a notorious Scottish sea captain, Sir Andrew Barton, whose activities skirted the line between pirate and privateer.
Sir Barton's barn name was "Sammy."
Charles Hatton of the Daily Racing Form opined that part of Sir Barton's unsociable personality could be traced to his early days, when he was kept alone in a small paddock with his dam because of her blindness and had no opportunity to socialize with other foals.
Sir Barton's trainer, "Hard Guy" Bedwell, was no exception to the rule regarding Sir Barton's general detestation for humans. On one occasion, the horse chased the trainer into a tack room, forcing Bedwell to take refuge behind a trunk.
At the time of Sir Barton's Triple Crown sweep, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness were staged just four days apart, on May 10 and May 14. In between the Preakness and the Belmont on June 11, Sir Barton went to the post for the Withers Stakes on May 24—and won.
Because of difficulty in getting nails to hold in his thin hoof walls and the fact that he had to wear a pad of piano felt between shoe and hoof to tolerate the pain of pounding his tender feet on the track, Sir Barton often came back from a race missing one or more shoes. In one race, he managed to lose all four.
The statue marking Sir Barton's final resting place is not of Sir Barton but is simply a generic horse, as the Jaycees who arranged for the horse's reburial could not afford to have a bronze statue made in his likeness. The plaque at the monument was contributed by Preston Madden. Another statue of the horse depicting him as a mature stallion, stands at Audley Farm, which remains in operation.
According to Kentucky Derby historian Jim Bolus, a Chamber of Commerce guide to notable sites in Douglas, Wyoming, described Sir Barton as "the first quarter-horse Triple Crown winner." The error was corrected in later editions of the guide.
Sir Barton became the namesake for stakes races at Pimlico and Woodbine. The former is contested on the Preakness Stakes undercard and is carded for 3-year-olds at a mile and one-sixteenth on dirt. The latter is part of the Ontario Sires Stakes series and is carded for 3-year-olds at a mile and one-sixteenth on the main track.
Photographer unknown. From the private collection of Dale Wyatt; used by permission.


Today we are seeing if these HYPED AS F*CK makeup products are worth the money! Have you tried out the P Louise base before" Wow!!
- Comment below why you would love to win along with your twitter or/and instagram handle so I can contact you if you win!
MY NEW COLOURPOP COLLECTION | 3 Ultra Satin Lips & Eyeliner!


text:
Belenois ogygia är en fjärilsart som först beskrevs av Henry Trimen 1883.  Belenois ogygia ingår i släktet Belenois och familjen vitfjärilar. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Vitfjärilar
ogygia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
A program of the
Ethics & Public Policy Center
Kenneth L. Woodward is a scholar as well as one of the nation's most respected journalists. He served as Newsweek's religion editor for nearly forty nears, reporting from five continents and contributing more than seven hundred articles, including nearly one hundred cover stories, on a wide range of social issues and ideas. His work has also appeared in other magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals. He is the author of Making Saints: How the Catholic Church Determines Who Becomes a Saint, Who Doesn't, and Why (1990), The Book of Miracles: The Meaning of the Miracle Stories in Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam (2000), and Getting Religion: Faith, Culture, and Politics from the Age of Eisenhower to the Era of Obama (2016).
Four Decades as a Worldwide Religion Reporter: Observations and Lessons Learned
Dr. Grant Wacker
1730 M Street NW Suite 910 Washington, DC 20036 | 1-202-682-1200
© Faith Angle Forum. A program of Ethics & Public Policy Center. All rights reserved.
Subscribe to receive Faith Angle Forum updates!


text:
« "HEADSHOT": Also body slammed, bones broken and face smashed
"KEDI": It's a cat's life »
"THE OTTOMAN LIEUTENANT": Bland leading the bland
March 9, 2017 by butlerscinemascene
Michiel Huisman, Hera Hilmer
"THE OTTOMAN LIEUTENANT" My rating: C
"The Ottoman Lieutenant" flirts with heavy-duty subject matter — the onset of World War I, the origins of the Armenian genocide — but at heart it's basically a romance novel of no particular distinction.
Lillie (Hera Hilmer) was born to a wealthy Philadelphia family, but she can't wait to leave her privileged life behind. Against her parents' wishes she has studied nursing.
Now, after attending a fund-raising lecture by an American MD (Josh Hartnett) operating a clinic in a far-flung region of Turkey, she finds the inspiration to travel across the ocean to dedicate herself to serving the poor of the Anatolia region.
Since the road from Constantinople is unsafe for a lone woman, Lillie is given a military escort, a dashing young lieutenant, Ismail (Michiel Huisman, a Danish actor familiar from the HBO series "Treme" and "Game of Thrones"). After a few close calls she is delivered to the remote clinic, where she is welcomed by Jude, the physician whose speech so inspired her.
A rather less hearty greeting is provided by the cranky and disillusioned Dr. Woodruff (Ben Kingsley), who doubts the usefulness of a moneyed American girl…at least until Lillie proves her worth in the wards and operating room.
Joseph Ruben's film is basically a three-way love affair, with both the young doctor and the Turkish lieutenant vying for Lillie's favors.
But it's hard to care. Hilmer, an Icelandic actress who speaks flat, unaccented English, is insufferably bland as Lillie. There's no spark in her relationship with either suitor.
At least there are cultural issues and the upheaval of a world war to deal with.
Lillie is Christian, while Ismail is a follower of Islam. The Armenian peasants the clinic treats are Christian, too, and are regarded as rebels by the Turkish government. Once war breaks out and the region is invaded by Imperial Russian troops, the Turks view the Armenians as traitors and collaborators.
Jeff Stockwell's screenplay offers one brief scene of Turkish troops executing Armenian civilians. Given that the Turkish government to this day denies that the Armenian genocide happened (historians estimate that 1.5 million Armenians were killed between 1915 and 1923), even this quick nod to that event represents an act of bravery on the part of the filmmakers — especially since they were shooting in Turkey.
The main reason to take in "The Ottoman Lieutenant" is for the sumptuous scenery, sets and David Lean-ish production values. There are moments when the movie is so visually beautiful that one can almost forget its stillborn drama
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "The Ottoman Lieutenant", Ben Kingsley, Hera Hilmer, Joseph Ruben, Josh Hartnett, Michiel Huisman | Leave a Comment


text:
Analysis and Remediation of the Salinized, Damour Coastal (Dolomitic) Limestone Aquifer in Lebanon • PhD thesis
Coastal aquifer management has recently emerged as a main scope in groundwater hydrology, especially in arid and semi-arid zones. About two thirds of the human population are currently gathered close to shorelines relying on coastal groundwater resources. Worldwide, these systems are subject to quality deterioration due to a multitude of anthropogenic impacts and subsequent saltwater intrusion (SWI). Many hydrological and hydrochemical features of SWI have been disclosed during the past century through numerous case studies, column studies, scale models, flow and reactive transport modeling. Yet, many scientific and engineering challenges remain, some of which need to be addressed for a better prospecting of future coastal freshwater reserves. The PhD thesis of Wisam Khadra describes and in-depth study.
The scope of the thesis is to contribute to the analysis and remediation of SWI by studying the following aspects:
Response of carbonate aquifers with varying Ca/Mg content to SWI,
Behavior of trace elements (TEs) where fresh and intruded seawater mix,
Derivation of groundwater baseline levels in polluted settings, notably salinized aquifers,
Identification and quantification of major hydrogeochemical processes stimulated by SWI,
Reliability of complex models (especially in karst) with variable-density and solute transport formulations, and
Feasibility of SWI mitigation strategies.
A structured multifaceted approach to analyze and manage SWI in coastal aquifers from detection to remediation is then provided. It was expanded based on the overall outcome of this research. The proposed tools and methods were successfully applied to a stressed dolomitic limestone aquifer system in Lebanon (Eastern Mediterranean), suffering from salinization and other minor anthropogenic impacts, such as inputs from sewage effluents and agricultural processes. The potential of managed aquifer recharge (MAR) and in particular river bank filtration (RBF) is explored as well, for Lebanon in broad lines, and for the study area, as a karst example.
Various tools or methods to analyze SWI in coastal aquifers have been successfully applied in this thesis, such as: the HydroChemical System Analysis for mapping water quality, PHREEQC-2 for 1-D reactive transport modeling, and SEAWAT for density dependent groundwater flow modeling. Other existing tools have been adapted and new tools developed to: derive baseline groundwater conditions, assess the mobilization of chemical constituents under mixing conditions, simulate SWI in poorly karstified aquifers, and mitigate SWI in settings where a precise understanding of system dynamics is not possible, as in karstic or fractured aquifers. All together, they offer an interesting toolbox for investigating SWI anywhere.
In Lebanon as a particular case, more options of water buffering are urgently required. River bank filtration forms a forgotten but strong candidate of managed aquifer recharge (MAR) application to be added to the Lebanese national water strategy. Aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) in alluvial aquifers having nearby recharge sources (e.g. from rivers) also seem to be an attractive option. In addition, further research is needed to investigate the feasibility of utilizing other sources for recharge, for instance by harvesting rainwater, urban stormwater, or even treated effluent water, where rivers are far away or have a too bad water quality.
Analysis and Remediation of the Salinized, Damour Coastal (Dolomitic) Limestone Aquifer in Lebanon


text:
Last post on : April 21, 2014
New-look Kapiri weigh bridge to spur economic activities
Published On April 21, 2014 » 2503 Views» By Moses Kabaila Jr: Online Editor » Features
•CENTRAL Province Minister Obvious Mwaliteta (left) Transport,Communication, Works and Supply Minister Yamfwa Mukanga and RDA chief executive officer Benard Chiwala during the recommissioning of the Kapiri Mposhi Weigh Bridge recently. Picture By SUNDAY BWALYA
By SYLVIA MWEETWA-
CENTRAL Province administration's vision is to make the province the centre and hub of national development is in line with the Central Government policy.
Currently various developmental projects such as construction of roads, health centres, and other infrastructure in various parts of the country are underway and Central Province has not been left out.
The Government was demonstrating its desire to not only improve the state of health facilities, schools and other infrastructure but more importantly it was interested to preserve the roads under construction at a huge cost.
To clearly demonstrate its commitment to the Zambian people, recently the Government re-opened the refurbished Kapiri-Mposhi weigh bridge which was closed in March last year to pave way for the construction works that have transformed the facility to a state-of-the-art facility that the Government and transporters can be proud of.
The facility was in poor state before but the Government, transport operators and residents of Kapiri Mposhi now have something to smile about looking at the transformation of the facility, which has also added beauty to the district.
While the Kapiri-Mposhi junction has been re engineered with increased road lanes and traffic lights to allow free flow of traffic around the weighbridge, while separate entries and queuing and storage of vehicles has been created.
The weighbridge which was refurbished and up-graded at a cost of K31 million by a Chinese construction company, Sino Hydro who was contracted by the Road Development Agency (RDA) to carry out the works.
The capacity of the old weigh-bridge was out-stripped by an increase in the number of trucks that were passing through the weighbridge forcing RDA to consider giving the facility a facelift of international accepted standards.
The works done were part of the link Zambia 8000 that was launched in September 2012 whose principle objective is to transform Zambia into a land linked country and marked the beginning of a new phase to preserve the road infrastructure and reduce on over-loading on the roads.
Works, Supply and Communication Minister Yamfwa Mukanga said Zambia can now begin to boast of the state-of-the-art infrastructure being constructed countrywide and that Government was focused to ensure that it was achieved.
Mr Mukanga said the Government has embarked on an ambitious road construction and rehabilitation programme under the link Zambia 8000, Pave way Zambia 2000 and the national road-tolling programme and L400 road projects.
Speaking during the hand-over of the refurbished weighbridge, Mr Mukanga said the project was aimed at facilitating trade and improve the comfort of road users though had been implemented at a huge cost.
Mr Mukanga stated that the Government would not sit back and fail to act on limiting the tonnage of the axle load being transported on the roads and vowed to ensure that was not allowed.
"If the road network old and new begins to deteriorate due to uncontrolled weight that it is being subjected to, the cost of repairing such as a road will be unbearable and this country will slip back into the bad stories that we have been subjected to in the past," he said.
He said despite the weighbridges in Mpika, Kafulafuta, Solwezi, Kafue, Livingstone and Mwami borders, the Government was unsatisfied with the level of performance of the weighbridges in respect to efficiency and other operation deficiencies.
The minister stated that the operations of the weigh-bridges leaves much to be desired considering that operating manually in this modern day and age compared to other neighbouring countries in the region and that Zambia was far from reaching the required standards.
He assured that Government had embarked on the up-grading of the facilities like the Kapiri-Mposhi weigh bridge he had commissioned and believed that the new facility would assist in decongesting the heavy traffic that was normally marooned at such facilities.
The weighbridge has decks that weigh the entire truck at once as opposed to what was obtaining at other weighbridges where trucks are weighed per axle describing it as a great achievement for the country.
Mr Mukanga said the weigh-bridge was the first of its kind in Zambia and has an expanded capacity through multi deck platform and improved tailor-made data capture system to handle the increased volume of buses and trucks.
"An additional weighing platform and control building has been constructed and the weighbridge will be able to speedily and efficiently handle 1,000 vehicles per day from the 500," he said.
And Central Province Minister Obvious Mwaliteta said the commissioning of the refurbished weighbridge was part of many development projects lined up by the Patriotic Front (PF) Government in line with its campaign promises.
Mr Mwaliteta said the campaign promises made in 2011 elections were bearing fruits going by various developmental projects ranging from road construction, schools, health posts, houses among other projects.
Mr Mwaliteta said the Government meant well and has committed itself to ensuring that the promises were implemented but said it was saddening that some political opponents were refusing to acknowledge the works done so far.
He said clearly the Government under the leadership of President Michael Sata has performed well as can be seen by works done so far and that the commissioning of the weighbridge was part of many projects under way not only in Central Province but the nation as a whole.
"Just like Rome was not built in a day, the PF has just been in Government for more than two years surely it is not possible to do everything at once because not even magic can work out wonders," he said.
He said the newly commissioned weighbridge was strategically located at the junction of the Great North Road (T2) to Muchinga, Luapula, Northern Province used for transportation of goods and movement of people.
He advised those tasked with the responsibility of looking after the infrastructure to guard it jealously as it has been constructed at a huge cost, using tax payers' money.
He, however, asked the Ministry of Transport, Works and Supply to seriously consider expanding the road whose traffic was high and cannot be compared to other provinces to save lives and reduce on cases of road traffic accidents.
The issue of the expansion was important considering the increased volume of traffic and that the province was of the view that the road be expanded three or four lanes in each directions.
And local and foreign drivers talked to commended the Government for giving a face lift to the facility, which in the past, had led to them spending days waiting to have their motor vehicles cleared.
Godfrey Mavindisa, a Zimbabwean driver said since he is in and out of Zambia transporting goods from South Africa, he was happy with the development and appealed to them to consider doing the same with other bridges.
It is evident that the refurbished weigh bridge has cheered many travellers who are interested to see that they are cleared and served on time.
No doubt that the newly refurbished weigh bridge situated in the heart of Central Province apart from clearing buses and trucks on time, will in turn reduce on reports of corruption allegations when clearing the vehicles and be able to contribute to the country's development.