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RINGSTAHL.COM
Paperback ISBN 978-3-7345-9360-4
Hardcover ISBN 978-3-7345-9361-1
e-Book ISBN 978-3-7345-9362-8
Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror , Action & Thriller
#2 [skrʌnʧ] Scrunch is a story like a roller coaster ride: first start very slowly and weigh the passenger in safety. Then it goes downhill and it is getting faster. Suddenly a short stop to finally increase the ride to an unforgettable thrust ... but it is only when it's over!
To Scrunch: "crunch, crush"; This is the sound that young Sandra will remember forever: after a wonderful evening at a fair with her friends and her new friend, a breakfast with her family on a sunny Saturday morning, the question arises whether the family shop together Or go for a walk in the forest. The fatal decision for the walk very quickly takes a tragic turn, and only together can they overcome the deadly threat of the twins. Will they make it and is it really just a coincidence?
From a normal average family history very quickly becomes an exciting, surprising and fast-paced thriller with a pinch of horror.
VÖ:2017
#3 [ˈkeiliks]
Calyx is the story of an unequal friendship: the good-looking, ambitious Armin, who has just passed his high school diploma with a grade score of 1.0, is completing his community service in an urban hospital. It is a big secret around a room, where the little Dennis is located. He is infected with an incurable and deadly virus. The virus is transmissible by blood and body fluids. Through his isolation from the outside world and the ruthless control of Doctor Pneuma, he has developed into a small monster. However, Armin can not be stopped, and with patience he gains the trust of the little boy. His friend Ruth is not enthusiastic about it. She tries to stop Armin from fearing an infection. However, she also succumbs to the charm and malice of the little Dennis and begins a close friendship, which must end up many adventures outside the allegedly safe hospital.
A novel about friendship and respect with lots of humor, drama, suspense and adventure. Nothing can be planned in life; It always happens differently than you think!
# 5 [prizən: tāpər] Prison: taper: A very ordinary day for the single detective inspector Zora Beckers: several unidentifiable corpses in a junkyard, brutal bank robberies throughout the city, which has kept the population in suspense for weeks and there are none useful clues. As a distraction, she takes the underage hitchhiker Tim with her in her car and soon sees him as the perfect companion for a company party that is to take place towards evening. But it turns out very differently than planned. Zora and Tim are involved in a bank robbery and then pursued by the bank robbers. They know no mercy and every means, no matter how brutal, is right for them to reach their goal: Tim! In the background, Zora's colleague Benno starts the investigation to help the two of them, but the investigation reaches a new dimension, contrary to all imagination and expectations of everyone involved. You will get to know the new ultimate kind of terror.
This is the 5th book by Pascal Ringstahl: After the pure e-book MeinHard, the horror thriller Scrunch about the Twin Dogs, the educationally valuable youth novel Calyx and the unique love story Severity about senseless, time-consuming enthusiasm, he now goes to Prison: taper into the world of crime. Meet old friends in this exciting work and experience how a new kind of hopelessness develops, peppered with humor and numerous allusions from the film and book world.
VÖ: 2021
#1 MeinHard:
The story tells in the "I" perspective from 1991 and an indefinite time after. It is mainly read and interpreted in the diaries and letters of the main protagonists. Among other things, it involves the parents' lack of understanding and recklessness towards their children, if they do not adhere to the norm of society, since they would thereby deny their own personality. The story around MeinHard aims at an inevitable ending, a one way ticket without a happy ending.
MeinHard existed from 2014 to 2016 as an e-book exclusively in English-speaking countries. Until now no book edition is planned.
VÖ: Juni 2018
# 4 [səverəti] Severity is just ONE love story: has not everyone ever experienced it? Something like love at first sight? A feeling as one would know the other one down to the smallest detail? You just want to be together with the other one? The difficulty is only when the person of personal desire does not know or get to know you at all! So it ends then in an eternal senseless enthusiasm, which eventually fades but raises the question again and again: "What if ..." That's what happens to Sabina, a young, handsome, successful and popular student. Her first day at new university and she meets Raymund. He is a cute, stubborn and reserved nerd. The fascination with him makes her forget every clear and logical thought. Only Raymund does not care about her. But Sabina does everything to change that, and it does not end up in a senseless rapture. However, it always happens differently than one hopes in his dreams ... and every cliché is fulfilled. This is the 4th book by Pascal Ringstahl: After the pure e-book MeinHard, the horror thriller Scrunch about the Twin Dogs and the educationally valuable novel Calyx, he now sets out with Severity on a different path: into the futility of fanaticism. Experience the journey into a past, when you suddenly fell in love with a person who in reality did not fit in with you or did not return your feelings. But what would have happened if it had developed a relationship?
FEAR MY NAME
...your nightmare is coming soon...
BIO
"Very ambitious!"
• Constantin Film 1992 •
"Put more behind it than you suspect"
• Mastermind •
Picture: by Susanne Fuhrmann
Pascal Ringstahl was born on 24th December in Cologne and grew up first in the Westerwald, then through the early death of his mother in Kerpen-Horrem. At the age of 26, he moved back to Cologne, where he wanted to go to the Filmhochschule after successful training. For family reasons, he renounced this. To this day, he has not given up writing and living out his dreams, in addition to his successful professional career in wholesale ...
Through the early death of his mother, his family split up from one day to the next: his big sister grew up with his grandmother and he at his aunt. There was a contact ban between the siblings for more than 17 years. By this loss, the circumstances and the illness of his father, the hours of driving in the back seat, the eternal waiting in the hospital, he had already fled into a world determined by himself in his childhood. As a child, he dreamed of becoming something like a director. Since he could not write in the preschool age, he recorded his stories. Later they turned into books, short stories and novels. These act on people who enter unexpected situations where their lives and their inner attitudes change. Each book has a different genre and is self-contained. However, persons or acts of action appear which have an impact on the stories of the other books.
VERLAG | tredition.de
MANAGEMENT | tredition.de
IMPRESSUM| ringstahl(at)web.de
Prison: T.a.p.e.r.
Bestellen / Order Now
Über.../About...
PASCAL RINGSTAHL
2017-2022 by Pascal Ringstahl


NATURE & FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY. By: IOC Productions. Episode 2. Butterfly and Flower.
There is always beauty in a butterfly and a flower especially when pollination takes place. I saw this butterfly resting peacefully on this flower and it caught my attention because it seemed very comfortable and attractive. I just had to take the picture even though it took a while to get the perfect picture. One lesson I learnt from this is patience.
Read Also: FIWAJOMI'S CREATIVE DIARY:THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX.
Previous post"YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU WANT TO DO IF YOU PUT YOUR MIND TO IT" Maudline Benwari.
Next postA NIGHT (A SILENT PARTNER). By: Moyo Adebowale.


Kevin: David, today the topic is expectations. We were talking to a friend of yours the other day about the book, Great Expectations, and some of the insights that Dickens had in that book. As we talked last night, we were starting to look at expectations in the marketplace and we were looking at expectations of things as random as farm-fed fish instead of salmon swimming upstream. Tell me about expectations.
David: Kevin, we will talk about a couple of things today, general market observations, for one, some observations in the gold market, and as random as it may seem, there is an interesting new movie out called Salmon Fishing in Yemen. We would argue that there is a Dickensian twist in it, so we will tie that together as we go on.
Kevin: Are you headed to the desert to go fishing anytime soon?
David: Not any time soon, but it was an interesting story.
Kevin: we have global markets seeking an impetus to move higher, and frankly, not finding one. Here in the U.S. we have the first quarter earnings from a variety of U.S. companies, and although they are beating expectations, they are falling short of being inspired.
Kevin: And that is the word that we are bringing into this program today – expectations. I run a 13-minute mile, David, and that is not impressive.
David: Did you say run?
Kevin: (laughter) I've got a dog that is 11 years old, and a little overweight, so we run very, very slow. But if I run a 12-minute mile, that is still hardly anything to write home about, but its beating expectations. It's better than a 13-minute mile. These expectations that are being put out for these companies are actually relatively low, and they are not signaling recovery, but if you can beat it by a penny or two, by golly, it makes for good TV.
David: Speaking of TV, this last week on CNBC, one of the questions was relating to Freeport-McMoRan. We discussed it in depth with Brian and Kelly, and the issue was that they beat expectations by 11 cents. They were supposed to earn 85 cents, and they earned 96 cents. Wasn't this great news?
The problem was, really, if you looked at last year's performance, they earned 764 million this year, which is great, but last year they earned 1.5 billion. This is three years of a declining trend, and although the Grasberg Mine was closed for three weeks, you have to look at it in the larger context and say, "Wait a minute. Three years, yes, that maybe a trend does make, as opposed to three weeks, or three months, or what have you." Yes, the number beat expectations by 11 cents, but they have some significant issues.
Kevin: Dave, I saw the interview, and yes, it is like popping their bubble. There is a difference between you and I getting to talk about what we think is the reality of the market without feeling like we have to keep people upbeat and the heartbeat high and all the excitement of financial TV, but when you fly out to New York, they have certain expectations, as well. The expectation is that you are going to say, "Hey, they beat expectations by a couple of pennies. That's good news." And it wasn't. And I saw their faces. They were trying to turn it around from that point forward.
Kevin: Don't discourage the audience.
David: You shall not. It was almost like a royal "Thus spakest the media." But it was interesting, a good interview. The issue, Kevin:, is that we have jitters in Europe that are not surprising, yes, they are back, but what is surprising is that we thought it would be perhaps a little bit further out on the time horizon. The long-term refinance operation which we have talked about started in December, and then the second followup in February, that was designed to relieve credit stress, at least until the fall of 2012, at the earliest, and 2015 for a good number of loans, even buying more time.
Kevin: And ala the Federal Reserve here in America, the ECB is already suggesting alternatives, to monetize rather than refinance.
David: Right. The LTRO is not sufficient. They are finding that they actually have to monetize. The ECB is back to that gambit and the Fed is, as well. Two weeks ago, more than 10 billion, last week more than 23 billion, in treasuries that were monetized. We are seeing some root rot in the credit markets, and it is faster than we would have assumed, given the amounts of money that have been made available to the credit markets to stem the tide of concern.
Kevin: Looking further down the horizon is the IMF. They are already raising funds for the next crisis.
David: Right, Kevin:, but even though this looks like the Battle Royale and the remake overseas in the European credit markets, we will have our own version of that in the next 12-24 months in the U.S. The U.S. is having to defend the treasury market, and having to suppress interest rates, to gain an advantage in the credit market.
You can't carry 15 trillion dollars in debt. Now, the estimates are, by Labor Day, to have over 16.6 trillion dollars in debt. You can't carry that kind of debt load without being concerned about the interest component, and you have to keep it low in order to keep it affordable. There's a lot at stake, and over the next 12-24 months we are going to get to see just how willing they are, and what tools they are willing to use, to defend this position.
Kevin: The IMF is recognizing this at this point. They are starting to raise funds for a crisis that they say may be coming down the road.
David: The next global credit crisis, which they assume is sooner, rather than later. This is likely because they recognize European bank capitalization requirements are in the process of having to be met. There is a need to get capitalization ratios to higher levels. In other words, there is a need to have more liquid capital available at each bank, and what that really entails is that they have to sell off assets. This is remarkable. If you remember, these are very, very highly leveraged balance sheets at these individual financial institutions, and they own a bunch of stuff, but have borrowed money to buy it.
You generally think of what you have in your own personal portfolio, and you think, "Well, I own it." But if you use margin to buy a little bit more than you could afford, now you are sort of increasing your risk component, and you could end up with a margin call if something happens. Well, they have blown out the concept of a margin call, and once they achieve these new capitalization ratios of 7%, that will bring them down to a "conservative" portfolio of 14 times leverage – 14 times leverage.
Kevin: What you are saying is that it is like a $140,000 investment, with $10,000 down.
David: That's not exactly a conservative way to run a bank, but that is the European version of getting more conservative. We have better capitalization rates in the United States at our big banks, but we have been seeing them move a lot of their loan loss reserves into earnings. In fact, we were talking about Freeport McMoRan earlier, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America both did that – multi-billion dollar moves from loan loss reserves over to earnings, and they beat their numbers, but was it from organic growth? Was it from expanding their loan portfolios?
Chinese growth is slowing. That is another component in this general market segment. Yes, it is growing, and the argument is, "8.1% is a heck of a lot better than U.S. growth. What are you complaining about?" It is the trend that we see, and it is really a trend toward reconstructing their entire economy, which requires, partially by design, partially not, a slowing of growth as they re-orient, as they re-tool, toward a different kind of growth. That, again, is in complement with Europe and the U.S. tightening their consumptive habits. If it wasn't by choice and by design, they would have to make these changes, because it isn't like they can be the exporting giant they were, feeding a limitless appetite in Europe and the U.S.
Kevin: David, I think we should probably point out, shifting gears here, that looking at the markets over the last six months or so, you brought up the word grind the other day. It seems like just sort of a grind. Europe is not quite a crisis, completely falling apart. China is still growing, but it is shrinking in its growth. Earnings expectations are above normal, but they are still in recession or depressionary kinds of moves.
I will give you the example of gold. We sent our clients, a few months ago, a picture of the 65-week moving average of gold, which for the last 10-11 years has just been steadily rising. It is a nice incline. If you look at the average price, averaged over the last 65 weeks, it has continued to rise. But here is the crazy thing. If you watch daytime financial TV and are completely fixated on the price, what you are going to see is that gold went from $1900 over the last six months down to the mid $1600s, yet the moving average moved from $1300 to $1600. So the long-term market is coming up and meeting it, and the expectation is that that will continue. The problem is, short-term thinkers right now are just looking at the last quarter.
David: And what they may not realize is that they are subject to influence, and whatever their information source is, they are either going to be thinking in terms of long-term, or short-term. So, if you do have a nanosecond judgment, be aware that it may be sort of contemporary media that has shrunk your sense of time, and really, forced an important decision into an irrelevant sense of time. You need to be looking at the longer-term issues, and that is where I think we see the major trends playing out.
A few weeks ago I was at a meeting in New York, and Stanley Druckenmiller spoke, one of the greatest traders of our generation. One of the first things he said was that the bear market in equities that began in 2000 has yet to end. That is how he began his comments. Yes, we are in a bear market in equities. And yet, you wouldn't hear that. The context is so truncated, we think of these little miniature cycles, whether it is this week, this month, this quarter, and not in terms of the major trends in the market.
We have had a breakdown in the credit markets and there has been no fuel to take equities to new and higher levels. We have been through this almost 12-year process of a sideways grind, very much like that period of 1966 to 1982. We went nowhere quickly during that same period of time. Meanwhile, as we got toward the end of that cycle, inflation began to pick up. We will see that, I think, in this cycle, too, and that was not only the concern of Druckenmiller, but a lot of folks who were at this conference. But it was interesting, because here is a trader who does think in short-term snippets, but he is willing to acknowledge that we have a large context here, and that larger context is a bear in equities. Incidentally, one of the things he was bullish on was gold, but that is maybe for the next part of the conversation.
Kevin: In the 1966-1982 period, I think we need to point out that gold rose 30-fold versus equities at that time. That was an amazing reversal, but very few people actually recognized it.
David: And it was incredibly volatile, but what we would point out is that the trend was not volatile. The trend was generally up. It was intact. It moved up over a 10, 12, 15-year period. It didn't get to where it finally went in a day. If there is a destination out there, we need to realize that there is a bit of a journey in the process of getting to the destination, and I think what you see as a reminder, as a signpost, that you are on the right track, is that 65-week moving average. As you mentioned, it has gone from 1300 up to about 1650, which is amazing. The trend is slow-moving, but powerful.
It is often the daily movements in the market that obscure the long-term trend. If you are following a major consolidation, and we are in a major consolidation, which is to say, a move sideways, or a move down, in price, the next move is higher. And it doesn't have to be gold, but if you are looking at these periods of consolidation in any investment, that is generally the next direction. The price has moved down now to the 65-week moving average, it has done this repeatedly over the last ten years, where support was strong there at the 65-week moving average.
Kevin: And that was typically the lowest you could buy that before it moved on up to a new level.
David: Now, there was an exception to that, in 2008, when there was a very short-lived decline, and full recovery, to even higher prices, and that full recovery and decline took less than 90 days. So the worst-case scenario, the catastrophic event, in the de-leveraging of the world as we knew it, meant that gold took a side-step for a three-month period, and was right back on track. Whoa.
Kevin: Talk about whoa, David, in the 1990s there was another trend that was amazing to watch. The large central banks in Europe just continued to sell gold. We used to have a joke. In fact, one of the guys on our old monitor that told us the gold price, had a button that he had created that said, "Press once gold hits $290," so just as soon as gold got close to $300, we would press the button and then it would drop down to $270. It did this for years, and a lot of that was central bank selling into the market, and Brown was reknowned for that with the Bank of England.
David: Not the only Gordon that comes from England.
Kevin: But there is a trend change in that, too. I think we have to look at the trend change in the fact that central banks are not net sellers right now. They are net buyers of gold, are they not?
David: They are. Estimated to grow to 800-1000 tons by 2013, up from basically zero in 2007. You were talking about a previous era where they were actually liquidators into the market. Kevin:, this is largely new currency reserves which have amassed over the last 20-40 years by developing countries. It is in sync with the theme of the rise of the rest. As the G3 has become less relevant and the audience has expanded to the G7, and the G7 has then become less relevant, and the G20 has become more relevant. We are seeing a sort of democratization within the world where everybody wants a larger voice, and is not willing to just follow the lead of what once was two great powers, and is now one great power, the United States. Everyone feels that they should be represented, and represented well, and they will do that best representing themselves.
Kevin: It is amazing to see some of these countries we didn't even think about ten years ago, exerting influence, but even beyond influence, they want actual say in worldwide monetary affairs.
David: We even see evidence for that in the last round of fund-raising at the IMF. They raised several hundred billion dollars. The U.S. did not contribute, but everyone who did contribute said, "Okay, now the IMF has a bigger war chest. We have given you the war chest, and we expect to have more of a voice." There was a sort of a gift with strings attached, but I think that it to be expected.
Kevin: The central banks had always been strong on buying of dollar reserves. That was sort of written into the contract of the Bretton Woods agreement, which, by the way, we have slowly broken. But with that being said, do you think that this increase in gold reserves in the central banks is another way of moderating dollar exposure?
David: That is exactly what they are doing. Implicit in this is the challenge to the singular nature of the dollar reserve status. In large part, the purchasing of gold by the central banks is exactly what you described. It is a moderation of existing dollar exposure. We see it with Mexico. We see it with Russia. Just here in the last day, there was announced an additional billion-dollar purchase from both Mexico and Russia. We have Thailand, Korea, Bolivia, Columbia – countries like this that have benefited from trade with the U.S. and Europe, and they want to solidify their capital base. These are the types of countries that are utilizing trade surplus dollars for gold acquisitions, which is very different than the old gold-holders.
Kevin: Right. Looking at the gold reserves, the United States still leads the pack as far as gold reserves. At least that is what they say – 8000 tons of gold. There are people out there who say we don't even have that, but I'm not going to go down that road. What are the countries that play the largest role in gold reserves right now?
David: There are two different worlds, Kevin: – pre-Bretton Woods, and post-Bretton Woods. The pre-Bretton Woods folks are the old guys who still have the gold – the U.S. with over 8000 tons, Germany with between 3000 and 3500 tons of gold, the IMF with close to 2900 tons, Italy with about 2400-2500 tons, France, I think, at right about the same. Then we have the new crowd, of the post-Bretton Woods era. Those are the folks who have developed these capital bases, these asset reserve bases, as a result of selling stuff.
Kevin: Are you talking about China?
David: China, the Middle East, but Asia, specifically, because they are the ones who have been manufacturing and selling into our voracious appetite to consume more and more stuff. China is choosing to acquire ounces on the open market. They are also buying mines instead, and that gives them the ability to build their reserves, in terms of gold ounces, at the cost of production as opposed to the market price. That saves them anywhere from $600 to $800 per ounce. It is a little bit funny to me that "you never pay retail" seems to be that sort of ironic principle in play from the country that has supplied, and continues to supply, the retail gluttons all over the world, Wal-Mart being their primary distribution depot.
Kevin: I know that Wal-Mart is sort of a sore subject right now, so we won't bring up Wal-Mart, but as far as investment demand, we were talking central banking demand, and it is actually more than subtle that China produces more gold than anybody in the world now, over South Africa. They now import more gold than anybody in the world now, plus they are buying mines. Not only are they buying gold, but they are buying up that which produces it from the ground, so maybe they will take their 1100 tons or so and turn that into 2000, 3000, 4000 tons pretty quick.
David: And it is unabated demand in Asia, with a slowing trend in the U.S., and for us, this is not really a concern. U.S. physical demand, if you want a relative comparison, is roughly 2½ times the size of Vietnam.
Kevin: So we don't represent much.
David: No, not when we are outpacing Vietnam, we are outpacing Turkey, we consume about twice the gold that Turkey does. If China and India account for 52% of physical gold demand, if you throw in the rest of the Pacific Rim region, it is closer to 60-65%. The U.S. buys as much in physical metals as the entire Middle East. Frankly, given the size of our economy, which is significantly larger, that still surprises me.
Nevertheless, U.S. demand, we think, will pick up over the next 12-24 months, in a final stage of the bull market in metals, maybe 36-48 months, but it will coincide with the reason for global panic into the metals, and it will be U.S. consumers buying, perhaps for the first time, for the same reason, an even larger audience globally, a U.S. fiscal crisis coinciding with monetary policy excess.
Kevin: This makes me think we may have been asleep at the wheel, Dave. People have talked about gold being an inflation hedge and just keeping up with inflation, and when gold goes up, it is mainly because of the printing of money and inflation. Maybe we have been asleep at the wheel. Maybe gold is rising.
Your dad used to talk about the Golden Rule all the time. The Golden Rule is "He who has the gold makes the rules." The gold is being shifted over to the East. The prices have been rising because of this incredible demand. How much does it really play into the true CPI numbers? Is it really being affected by inflation right now, or is it more the demand?
David: We know that central banks are still controlling the most gold in the U.S. and the West, but there is this gradual shift, and I think we can extrapolate and say that over the next several years, should this continue, the 1200 tons per year that the Chinese will not only buy on the open market, but produce, themselves. Over several years, they will accumulate more than France. They will have more than Germany, they will be neck and neck with the U.S., number two, in terms of total stock of metals.
Kevin: But on the point of inflation, David, our expectation, going back to that theme of the show – expectations – our expectation is that gold keeps up with inflation. Is it inflation that is influencing this 11-year bull market?
David: I think, actually, gold does a very poor job of keeping up with inflation. It does an excellent job of catching up to inflation. At some point, you do see the rubber band snap, and the gold price does catch up to inflation, and it does reflect inflation.
Kevin: So it returns to an equilibrium, but it doesn't necessarily keep up with it all the time.
David: That's correct. There is the misconception that gold has been moving up over the last ten years in light of U.S. CPI expectations, the Consumer Price Index, and the way we measure inflation here in the United States and that is why gold is moving higher. If there is no inflation, then gold should go down. In fact, there is little evidence for this. Overwhelmingly, the price has been driven by an increase in nominal income growth in China and the Indian subcontinent.
That has been the primary driver over the last 20 years, and particularly, the last ten years – more money flowing to the general populations, in countries where gold has been bought for cultural reasons for centuries. They have more money to spend, and what do they like to spend money on? What have they liked to spend money on for decades, if not centuries? And that goes into the social structure of the societies today. What about slowing growth in China? That could be an issue.
Kevin: That is what I am wondering. Does it argue for a decline in prices if they are starting to shrink? When I say shrink, it is a little bit like saying they are not growing as quickly, because their growth is still outpacing the United States' growth by at least 7%.
David: I would argue that, quite to the contrary, slowing growth in China comes part and parcel with the rebalancing of China, as they are attempting to take away from export dependence, the economy based on that, and also, move away from government-directed investment schemes. What they are having to do is create the backdrop for a consumer-oriented economy. We are seeing that in rising wages. We are seeing that in the sacking of Bo Xilai and a host of other indicators that show that the politburo is very intent. Their recent five-year plan stated it explicitly, and they are following through in terms of actions that say, "We are going to make the transition to being less export-dependent, and being more autonomous." We are seeing that as they talk about their currency, and seeing it move toward a free-floating economy. They are expanding the rubber band even further. This is the point. Households will be positively impacted by this increased income as the government attempts to wean itself from that old mercantilist model of growth and push toward a consumption model of growth. I am not saying that is the ideal model, that everyone should just buy more stuff, but that is a way that they can wean themselves away from U.S. and European dependence.
Kevin: Stephen Roach has pointed out in the past when we have interviewed him that there is no social net that will catch the retired. We have social security, we have various entitlement programs and that is a different show altogether, but the Chinese really have nothing there, so they have to save.
David: And I would suggest that if you are looking for something that is gold-negative in the China story, it is simply this, and it is a very, very future tense issue. As, and when, the politburo begins to effectively implement a social safety net, and people begin to have confidence in that social safety net, it takes some time for people to adopt a different pattern of behavior when it comes to investing and saving. We are talking about Social Security, the equivalent of MediCare and Medicaid where people know that their retirement needs are going to be met, they know that their health care needs are going to be met.
Kevin: In fact, David, if I am thinking right, China actually invented fiat currency. When we are talking about saving, the question could come up, why wouldn't you save in dollars right now? Why wouldn't you save in euros, or even renminbi? But they have seen the abuse of fiat currency all through history, and they are buying gold, and they were even encouraged by the state to buy gold.
But I am going to shift gears here, because we have talked about demand. Asian demand, right now, is intact and continuing. But anybody who takes economics knows that there are not only demand factors, but there are supply factors. Gold, right now, is much easier, from a monetary standpoint, to mine than it was ten years ago when it was $300-400 an ounce. Now it is $1600-1700 an ounce. The profits have to be enough so that they are increasing supply on these mining ventures. Where does the supply picture come out in this?
David: Let's say yes, and no, to that comment you just made, because along with the quintupling in the price of gold and silver, there has been a tripling, quadrupling, almost quintupling of the price of oil, if you are talking about the peak in the price of oil.
Kevin: So, the constant mining has gone up, as well, but maybe not as quickly.
David: Right, and that squeezes profits for the miners, but peak production is thought to be reached in the mining space by about 2014 at roughly 3100-3200 tons, and we would estimate that the peak in prices, not the peak in production, would follow the 2014 date, probably 2015-2017 as a time frame. Of course, events could bring that time frame forward, closer to the 2014-2016 time frame, if the market should become event-driven. But we don't have those extra huge mine sources coming onto the market. We don't have mine hedging books that are being eliminated. In fact, there are only about 200 tons that remain, so that is not going to be a major contributor to supply.
Kevin: In other words, gold mines are not like Doritos – "Munch all you want and we'll make more." There is a limit to that, and you are saying 2014 is probably the limit, as far as peak production?
David: Yes, and this is the best that we have, because we have had a huge amount of capital expenditure going into exploration and mine development, and the best we are going to get is about 15-20% increase in mine production, and just for a short little period of time. That has been growing here in the last year or two, and again, it will peak by about 2014.
Kevin: And I will just add this, David. Gold, as a percentage of global assets, has shrunk, because global assets have risen. Let's just go back to the last bull market in gold, going back to the 1980s.
David: And exclude real estate. If we are just talking about stocks and bonds, gold represents roughly 5% of total world wealth.
Kevin: So, a nickel on every dollar, basically, is gold. There is still 95 cents out there that needs to run to something if something gets tense.
David: And if you look at the peak in the 1980s, it was a quite a bit higher number, close to 14% of global assets. More aggressive estimates at gold's peak of $875 put it closer to 20% of global assets, and I think that may be stretching it a bit, but 14%, roughly three times relative to stocks and bonds. It is an interesting story to follow.
Kevin: When we talk about mines hitting peak production by 2014, we have to go back to the 1980s. It was awfully good to be a gold mining stock toward the end of that cycle. It wasn't necessarily good to be a gold share-holder through most of the 1970s, but as that 1979-1980 peak came in gold, you certainly did want to own the mines. The mines right now don't seem to be doing very well, at least in the stock market.
David: You have heard of the 80/20 rule. When you are talking about gold versus gold mines, it is more like the 90/10 Rule. 90% of the time you want to own physical metals, and you probably want to own them all the time, but about 10% of the time a very small sliver, a time slice, if you will, and you might be paid handsomely to own the shares. But again, it's the 90/10 rule. You are going to be served the majority of the time best by physical metals.
We have had gold stocks which have under-performed the metal since 2006. Today they are trading at about 30-year lows relative to the metal, and many of them are now in the single-digit PE range, and I think they are likely to trade back to the 30 and 40 price-to-earnings range over the next several years, driven higher by the price of the metal itself.
Kevin: David, we have always warned our clients of this. Gold stocks are always more risky than owning the physical metal. You may sometimes have the higher payout, but there are things that can happen. I have scars on my investment portfolio to say that sometimes a mine will flood, and sometimes a leader will just go ahead and nationalize. We are seeing this now in Argentina. We have seen it in Venezuela. Nationalization is also a vulnerability, isn't it?
David: We have not only the extreme of nationalization, but we have an increase of royalties and taxes. Yes, we could even have a confiscation of lease rights in various jurisdictions around the world. Those kinds of risks abound, and I think we have a conservative set of investors saying, "Well, we kind of like gold shares as a perpetual call, a nonexpiring call on the gold price." But with that, you take on a lot of volatility, as evidenced by this last year when we had a little run-up of 11% in gold, and gold shares managed to lose 20% at the same time.
David: Not really. But I don't think that is likely to continue. I think we will see in this next couple of years an interesting little stretch for the miners.
Kevin: We are not discouraging the ownership of gold stocks, but you have to keep it in perspective, because there is this concept of portable property, or portable wealth. I remember probably 25 years ago I heard your dad speak, and he was talking about real estate. He said, "Real estate is a wonderful investment. God made a certain amount of ground. If you buy that ground, nobody is going to make more of it." But the problem is, you can't put it in your pocket, you can't go somewhere else with it, so he always said that it is good to balance your real estate with portable real estate, that which you can put in your pocket, and that is what real gold does.
David: Kevin:, looking at Great Expectations again, Dickens' famous work, there is this concept of portable property, this much-anticipated coming of age, and the receipt of inheritance. The interesting part is that a term used to describe it was not, as you may be familiar with, patrimony, or inheritance, or birthright, but it was portable property, because there was a contrast to be made. When you came of age, there was almost a trust fund, if you will, in modern language, that you got when you were 18 or 21. But there was also an inheritance that you might have later in life that was not portable property. These might be estates. These might be interests in mines.
Going back to the theme that you can own the mine, but you can't really take that with you anywhere, this notion of portable property is what is given to you, literally dropped at your feet, when you are 18 or 21, and that, in the Dickens novel, is what he is given. What I like about the language is that it communicates very clearly at least one of the benefits of owning that kind of property, whatever it is. What is your portable property? Is it gemstones? Is it gold? Is it cash? Is it stock certificates as opposed to something that you don't have in your physical possession? What percentage of your wealth is represented by some form of portable property?
This is not something we generally think is important in the United States, because why would you need your property to be portable? This is where I think, in terms of expectations, we deal with a misconception, driven by our history. We have lived in a very safe continent, surrounded on either side by the Atlantic and the Pacific. We have never seen the destruction of other real estates, and the idea of having some part of your wealth that is portable just doesn't even really connect with Americans as much as it does with everyone else in the world.
Kevin: Sometimes you have to travel and talk to people to understand just how good we have had it here in America. Good or bad, we have really gotten soft. I was reading this morning before I came in to work a navigator's tale of the bombing of Cologne. This was a guy who was a navigator in a bomber in World War II. They had hit Bremen the week before, they had bombed Cologne. I know you were in Cologne just a few weeks ago. These peoples' towns were completely leveled. The United States has never experienced anything like that, but in Europe, this is just a continued operation in Europe.
David: Or how about the Middle East? Or how about anyone who has settled here in the United States from Vietnam? What did they leave with? We are talking about gold, or some sort of portable property. In 1979, when the Russians invaded Afghanistan, there were 747s lined up on runways, and they were loading them with portable property, and I can tell you that it was not Humvees and frivolous things like that. It was gold bars, headed for a safe jurisdiction, namely Switzerland, or wherever they were most contented holding their gold bars. That was the only thing that they could take with them, leaving their primary asset behind, the gold that was in the ground, specifically, black gold. They had to take with them what they could, their portable property.
Kevin: As an American sometimes I realize that I have really lived in an amazingly comfortable environment, a little bit like a farm-fed fish. When you taste a trout or a salmon that has been raised in a lake and fed a certain amount of food, they don't taste the same as the ones which have had to move to live, who, as we have talked about before, have had to expend calories to survive.
David: You are talking about farm-raised fish that know where their next meal is coming from. It is the guy who walks up to them, the natural threat. Should they flee? They are prey, he is predator. Gradually over time this is reversed, and there is a dependent relationship developed, so they know where their next meal comes from, they are unconcerned by predators, they work very little to survive or thrive. With farm-raised fish the big question is how would these fish adapt to being in the wild? This is the theme of the movie we mentioned, Salmon Fishing in Yemen. The challenge was, how do you take 10,000 salmon that have been farm-raised and put them into a stream, when they, for several generations, have never had to swim upstream? Do they have an instinct, will they survive in nature, having been so coddled and taken care of?
Kevin: Or do they just wait for food and then die?
David: This idea of farm-raised fish being able to adapt – it made me wonder, watching the movie, if we don't have a generation of investors somewhat like this. Will they be able to adapt? We have a generation accustomed to stocks going up, as if the natural current of the market was in one direction only, without the slightest bend in course, or rise or fall over the rocks, being an opportunity. All they have done is swim in circles, and basically get fed.
Kevin: Not to mention interest rates during the last 30 years. Our adult lives have been lived with a declining interest rate market. How hard is it when you can borrow more money at less and less interest?
David: And on top of that, they are now being pressed even lower by artificial means, which, to farm-raised fish may seem normal. These are the elements, that like nature, have been removed from a controlled environment. The market is too unruly on its own, the prices are too erratic to move without the external, the superior guidance, of the fish farmer. We have the Fed as fish farmer, if you will, making sure that the environment is ripe for us to grow and be healthy.
I guess the analogy ends, because we don't end up in cellophane and on ice, but the question is more about adaptation. Under a different set of circumstances, having been conditioned for generations to believe that the market operates just so, will we adapt to a different set of rules, as, and when, those rules emerge?
Kevin: And those rules are emerging, David, because for the last 70 years we have had a reserve currency. Not only did the Fed feed us this currency, but it was the world's reserve currency. Every time our nation went into debt, they were borrowing their own money.
David: Yes, easy money, and cheaper all the time, a market that allows you to just float about with volatility smoothed by the management of the Fed, and you begin to wonder if this generation of fish can survive off the farm. I tend to believe that they can, but there is a question of building strength, and coming to a point of stream savviness, if you will, and that is going to take a bit of time. It is also going to take a recalibration and adjustment to a new and different environment, and a lot of stress and strain in the process. Survive, we will. Thrive, I think we can. The question is, do we have the gumption to transition?
Kevin: I think people who are listening to this show, David, are probably getting a good start, because people who are continually questioning the norm, and saying, "All right, what am I missing? Where am I too comfortable? Where do I need to train, or change, what I am doing?" It is what you have talked about before – rehearsing for something different, and that rehearsal has to be done now, not during that time.
David: It is odd for us in the U.S. to think of portable property, going back to that Dickensian phrase. It is odd for us to think about even the need for it, because we have had stability – market stability, currency stability, political stability, social stability. All these things we now take for granted, and the concept of portable property makes no sense to someone who lives in the United States, although for anyone else, anywhere else in the world, it is axiomatic. You don't keep all your eggs in one geographic basket. That, I would suggest, is how we are going to have to begin to think differently, and perhaps, get off the farm.


Critiques of Ofsted are widespread and last year must rank as the toughest year the inspectorate has ever faced (see Andrew Old's blog for commentary and Joe Kirby's blog for a collection of posts). There are numerous calls 'out there' for how Ofsted might be reformed, ranging from minor tinkering through to having the whole institution abolished. I would certainly not see the inspectorate abolished, but I would argue strongly that it needs to be slimmed down significantly. I want to use this post to explain why, and to give an idea of what this might look like.
One of the things that would need to be lost in a slimmed down inspectorate would be the judgement of the quality of teaching and learning in a school. The main critique raised of Ofsted in 2014 was that its tools for judging the quality of teaching in a school were neither valid nor reliable. Ofsted's recent move to have independent double inspections might resolve the reliability issue, but it would not solve the validity issue. As I have explained in a previous blog, I think the validity problem comes down primarily to the fact that inspectors are nearly always non-specialists. Heather F wrote a good post on why you need to be a specialist in order to judge the quality of teaching. In my own recent post I argued that an inspector cannot judge whether a school's internal progress data are valid or not. To do this an inspector would need to make judgements about the validity of the assessment tools being used to produce the progress data and they can't do this without in-depth knowledge of (a) the subject, (b) the ways in which that subject can and cannot be assessed and (c) what we know about what 'getting better' at a subject looks like. I am just not convinced that the world would fall to pieces if we scrapped Ofsted's need to judge the quality of teaching and learning.
Behaviour and safety is an obvious starting point: a school where children are poorly behaved is not a school where pupils are learning things as well as they might. I would be happy, therefore, to have Ofsted coming in, putting their head around some classroom doors and spending time in the corridors and playground between lessons. It is not difficult to gauge quite quickly whether behaviour is acceptable or or not. The same is true of safety: one can normally establish easily whether or not a school is a safe place for pupils. Child protection is similarly vital, and inspectors ought to be checking that schools have the appropriate procedures in place to deal with any issues that arise.
Finances are also a matter of appropriate procedures: schools spend public money and lots of it, and I would expect an inspectorate to be making sure that accounts are properly audited and that money is not being spent on a head's private party, or that a head is managing his or her private consultancy through school resources. Similarly, I would expect Ofsted to make sure that a school has reasonable governance and management (I use the term deliberately instead of 'leadership') systems in place to ensure that school leaders are held to account and are not abusing their position.
Concerns about what is taught in school have made headlines over the last few months, and I think there is some justification in having an inspectorate that makes sure, for example, that creationism is not taught as science. The National Curriculum is, for this purpose, perfectly adequate. I would be content, for example, for an inspector to make sure that the National Curriculum is being taught by checking schemes of work, resources and pupil work. If a school is not following the National Curriculum, then it should be able to show an inspector how its curriculum differs, which again allows an inspector to make sure that there are no major problems.
And that would be it: that's all I want an inspectorate to do. If schools have good behaviour, are safe, have proper procedures in place and teach the National Curriculum (or a curriculum better than the National Curriculum) then I'd be satisfied that a school can pass its Ofsted inspection. I would not bother with grades: thing like behaviour and procedures are either acceptable or they are not. Having the result of an inspection as either pass or fail would be quite appropriate for the kind of inspection I propose here.
Importantly, this kind of inspection would not be a judgement of whether or not a school was a 'good school'. Parents, the government, academy chains, local authorities and so on need access to a range of measures to allow them to make this judgement. 'Progress' measures based on GCSE results, for example, could be displayed alongside whether or not a school had passed its inspection. Passing Ofsted in my system would be a necessary but not sufficient tool for school accountability. I would argue that the best ways of managing school accountability is to adopt a 'mixed constitution' which does not peg everything on to the judgement of one single measure, like an inspection result. With a range of measures in place, of which an Ofsted inspection is but one, we are more than capable of holding schools to account.
The potential benefits for the whole system of a slimmed down Ofsted would be considerable. In my proposal here, teachers would not need to worry about an inspection: as long as their classes are behaving and they're teaching the curriculum, they have nothing to worry about. School senior leaders, administrative staff and governors would need to make sure that they kept all their paperwork and that this was readily accessible should an inspector call, but is this not something we'd want anyway? I would be comfortable with no-notice inspections under my proposal here. Perhaps most importantly, in a system such as mine there would be no need for teachers and senior managers to be 'playing the Ofsted game': the criteria would be clear-cut and, for this reason, inspections would be less subjective. Inspections could be smaller, and therefore cheaper. A system such as this would rip the carpet out from under the 'Ofsted consultancy' industry, which would save schools lots of money and spare teachers from 'Mocksteds' and alike.
The problem with Ofsted, I would suggest, is that it has simply become too big and too complicated. There is a vital role for an inspectorate, but we can do without the regime we currently have.
Let's face it–any organisation which argues that behaviour is at least satisfactory in 99.7% of our schools is so thoroughly corrupt and useless that it should be ablolished. The teacher workload issue would disappear overnight. Schools would no longer have to second-guess the prejudices of the next inspection team and struggle to meet every possible eventuality.
Far better to go back to LA inspections. LA officials visit schools on a regular basis, and they do not just get a 'Potemkin Village' impression of a school every few years. They have a working relationship with schools and a responsibility to them. They are less likely to impose the regime of continual change that forces teachers to re-invent the wheel every other term. Even Academies and free schools should be subject to LA inspections.
At the same time, we need cheap and reliable tests to replace SATs and teacher assessments. The latter are corrupt and corrupting: teachers either have to cheat or say goodbye to their career. One secondary teacher I know re-tested her school's intake, and found that the results were two full years lower than those they had received at their primary school. As she commented, "they don't forget that much in six weeks".
Denmark has a system of Computer Adaptive Testing that allows pupils to be tested annually with very little expense and stress. Such tests are completely objective. It's time we looked into them.
This looks good to me. You've highlighted the areas where an external check would be most helpful. It's far easier, as you've noted to identify a school with behaviour issues than it is to judge whether progress in a lesson is 'outstanding' or not. This would mean that others – specialists, like subject associations, could play a greater part in auditing the quality of other aspects of schools' provision. The HA Quality Mark is a welcome step towards this.
A narrower focus might also help Ofsted to identify schools which are failing to manage behaviour or finance appropriately more quickly.


He has 11 goals this season with 130 Kolten Wong Jersey shots on goal giving him a shooting percentage of 8%.We knew they were going to want to run the football a lot of different ways, somehow, some way we needed to stop it.He makes good decisions, he doesn't make plays that are high-risk and he keeps the game simple.didn't let his demeanor change http://www.officialauthenticsraiders.com/Marcus-Allen-Jersey.html this season, even as fans begged Boston to trade him during a miserable first-half slump.Get that wrong and you will be shown the door.
The Gamecocks are 295th in college basketball in forcing turnovers with 14 per contest this year.Of course, that hit with the San Francisco 49ers.With an ERA of 4, Mike Fiers has a 11 record and a 1 WHIP.
The Leicester defeat was the first time this season that City's expected goals numbers were not superior to their opponent.No Credit Card.They also captured an expense-paid vacation to anywhere in the world, which we all know is kayfabe considering Vince McMahon's aversion to taking time off.He carried the ball 15 times for an average of 6 yards per carry and ended with 84 yards.That would make them 0.
If you're a big fan of fried fare, we suggest you give it a try-especially if you're interested in the health benefits of foregoing so much oil.Opponents average 32 rebounds a game which ranks 35th and they give up 11 assists per contest which puts them in 53rd place in the nation.Melky Cabrera comes into this matchup batting .294 and he has an OBP of .343.He has surrendered 9 hits per 9 innings and he has a FIP of 3.This series follows the pattern: 8 sets of exercise #1 minute rest 8 sets of exercise #2 The Tabata protocol, developed by Dr.Big left arrow icon Big right arrow icon Close icon Copy Url Three dots icon Down arrow icon Email icon Email icon Exit Fullscreen icon External link icon Facebook logo Facebook logo Instagram logo Snapchat logo YouTube logo Grid icon Key icon Left http://www.baseballcardinalsonline.com/WOMENS-KOLTEN-WONG-JERSEY.html arrow icon Link icon Location icon Mail icon Menu icon Open icon Phone icon Play icon Radio icon Rewind icon Right arrow icon Search icon Select icon Selected icon TV icon Twitter logo Twitter logo Up arrow icon User icon Audio icon Tickets iconAdd to calendar iconNFC icon AFC icon NFL icon Football iconCarousel IconList ViewFootball iconCarousel IconList View.
Copyright 2018 by AP.When Sudfeld rolls right, however, scramble rules go into effect, meaning that the receivers can't just stay static.Speaking of seeing, every time I see Borkert, I implore Marcus Allen Womens Jersey him to make sure that when a young child sees the next V-12, said kid jumps in the air, waves his or her arms, and starts screaming.They rank 10th in baseball with 8 hits per contest.
Also used in prop bets.


Birmingham (Photos) - The Native American LINK, Inc.
Warm Southern Hospitality! We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the WMU headquarters in Birmingham. Everyone was so friendly & treated us as if we were very special guests. It is wonderful to partner with such a caring organization. We can be confident in the leadership of our new national WMU Director, Sandy Wisdom-Martin. Thank you, Laura Harper, for setting up such a fine afternoon of learning & fellowship. Dinner with our dear Catherine & Lee Allen, & friend, Janie, was such a treat. Now, Mike is tired, road weary & fighting off illness, so we are Oklahoma bound today. God has surely blessed our travels. Thank you for praying for our Native American LINK ministry.


text:
Crowley Resources
Our Small Business Program
BECOME A CROWLEY SUPPLIER
BECOME A CROWLEY CARRIER
REGISTER FOR PORTAL ACCESS
The purpose of our SBP is to create a more level playing field that creates a fair and equitable environment for QSB, SDB, VOSB, SD-VOSB, HUBZone and WOSB firms who wish to pursue supply chain and contracted service opportunities with Crowley.
Crowley prohibits discrimination against any person or business pursuing these opportunities on the grounds of race, creed, color, national origin or sex. Crowley manages its contracting and purchasing programs so as to prevent and resolve any claims of discrimination and is committed to expanding the SBP participation in its direct contracts and subcontracts when possible.
This overview applies to anyone who applies for supply chain or contracted service opportunities with Crowley.
The Small Business Liaison Officer (SBLO) contributes to the development and implementation of the SBP.
Opportunities for QSBs may include the general procurement of products and services and the provision of professional services, such as IT consulting, engineering, personnel services, custodial, catering, building maintenance, equipment maintenance and construction contracts.
Small Business Qualification
Federal Regulations and Title 28 require adequate and timely consideration of minority business enterprises in all Crowley contracting decisions. To qualify under these guidelines, a minority group must control the business enterprise (see below).
To ensure that African American, Alaska Native and/or American Indian, Asian American, Pacific Islanders, Hispanic, Women Business Enterprise and HUBZone firms benefit from procurement opportunities created by Crowley and its contractors, the SBP will require the following from QSBs:
Proof of ownership
Management Agreement Capacity, including required bonding and insurance, and,
Certification by the Small Business Administration (SBA).
QSBs can be sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations or joint ventures that meet the following criteria:
At least 51% owned, controlled and actively managed by minority group members
Currently performing a business function that is useful to Crowley, and,
Current certification from SBA for SDB and HUBZone classifications.
To the extent the definitions reflected below differ from federal regulations, the federal definitions shall prevail.
Alaska Native Business Enterprise (ANBE) — An Alaska Native owned business, as follows:
The business must be a continuing, independent, for-profit business that performs a commercially useful function, and is at least 51% owned and controlled by one or more Alaska Native individuals. Or, in the case of any publicly owned business, at least 51% of the stock of must be owned and controlled by one or more Alaska Natives.
One or more Alaska Native individuals must control the management and daily business operations, as follows:
"Control" as used in the above clause, means exercising the power to make policy decision.
"Operate" as used in the above clause, means being actively involved in the day-to-day management of the business.
Minority: A person who is a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the U.S. and who is either one or a combination of:
African American (a person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa)
Alaskan Native and/or American Indian (a person having origins in any of the original peoples of North America)
Asian American (a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent or the Pacific Islands)
Hispanic (a person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race)
Woman (a person of the female gender)
Veteran (The term "veteran" means a person who has served in the active military, naval or air service, and who was discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable)
Service Disabled Veteran (A Service-Disabled Veteran is a person who has served in the active military, naval or air service, and who was discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable, and whose disability was incurred or aggravated in line of duty in the active military, naval or air service. To be considered a Service-Disabled Veteran, the veteran must have an adjudication letter from the Veterans Administration (VA), a Department of Defense Form 214, Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty or a Statement of Service from the National Archives and Records Administration, stating that the veteran has a service-connected disability)
HUBZone: To qualify for the HUBZone program, a business (except tribally owned concerns) must meet the following criteria:
It must be a small business by SBA standards
It must be certified by the SBA as a HUBZone business
It must owned and controlled at least 51% by U.S. citizens, a Community Development Corporation or an agricultural cooperative or an Indian tribe
Its principal office must be located within a "Historically Underutilized Business Zone," which includes lands considered Indian Country and military facilities closed by the Base Realignment and Closure Act
At least 35% of its employees must reside in a HUBZone
Existing businesses that choose to move to qualified areas are eligible. To fulfill the requirement that 35% of a HUBZone firm's employees reside in the HUBZone, employees must live in a primary residence within that area for at least 180 days or be a currently registered voter in that area.
Small Disadvantaged Business: A business that is at least 51% unconditionally owned by one or more socially and economically disadvantaged individuals as set forth in Sec. 124.105. For the requirements relating to tribes and ANCs, NHOs or CDCs, see Sec. 124.109, 124.110 and 124.111, respectively. All Small Disadvantaged Businesses must be certified as such by the SBA.
African American Business Enterprise (AABE): An African American-owned business meeting the following criteria:
The business must be a continuing, independent, for-profit business that performs a commercially useful function and is at least 51% owned and controlled by one or more African American individuals. Or, in the case of any publicly owned business, at least 51% of the stock must be owned and controlled by one or more African American individuals
One or more African American individuals must control the management and daily business operations, as follows:
Small Business: Size standards that define the maximum size that a firm, including all of its affiliates, may be to participate in federal government programs that are reserved for small businesses. The Small Business Act's definition of what constitutes a small business will vary from industry to industry to reflect industry differences accurately. Learn more about the SBA's Size Standards.
Women Business Enterprise (WBE): A female owned business, that meets the following criteria:
The business must be a continuing, independent, for profit-business that performs a commercially useful function, and is at least 51% owned and controlled by one or more women. Or, in the case of any publicly owned business, at least 51 percent of the stock must be owned and controlled by one or more women.
One or more women must control the management and daily business operations.
The SBLO is an individual appointed by the Company and may be contacted through this e-mail address: SBLO@crowley.com.
It is the policy of Crowley Maritime Corporation to assure methods that allow fair and equitable opportunity to SB, SDB, VOSB, SD-VOSB, HUBZone and WOSB business firms for supply chain and contracted service opportunities with CROWLEY.
CROWLEY prohibits discrimination against any person or business pursuing these opportunities on the grounds of race, creed, color, national origin or sex. CROWLEY manages its contracting and purchasing programs to prevent and resolve any claims of discrimination and is committed to expanding the SBP participation in its direct contracts and subcontracts when possible.
Thomas B. Crowley, Jr. – Chairman & CEO
Our Small Business Program (SBP) has been designed to make it easier for qualified small businesses (QSB), small disadvantaged businesses (SDB), women-owned small businesses (WOSB), veteran-owned small businesses (VOSB), service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SD-VOSB) and HUBZone companies to market their products or services to Crowley and our business partners.
Our Small Business Liaison Officer (SBLO) provides services to minority and women-owned businesses, including maintaining a database of qualified companies, conducting one-on-one coaching on our procurement and contracting opportunities and processes and acting as an advocate for small business utilization — both company-wide and with prime contractors and customers.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Complete the proof of $a(-b) = -(ab)$ Prove $a(-b)=-(ab)$, using axioms of equality, addition, and multiplication.
I have tried: Let $a$ and $b$ be integers.
$(-a)+a= 0$ by the inverse axiom
$a=-(-a)$ by (If $a=b$ and $c=d$ then $a+c=b+d$ and $ac=bd$)
$a(-b)=-(-a)(-b)$ by (If $a=b$ and $c=d$ then $a+c=b+d$ and $ac=bd$)
$a(-b)=-(ab)$ by associative axiom.
End of proof.
Not quite certain if I did this correctly, I think I may have done some steps without an axiom to prove the step. I also, think I may have done some 'illegal' steps that don't actually fit with the amxioms I chose.

A: I'm not sure how $a=-(-a)$ follows from the fact that addition and multiplication are operations (that is, from the fact that $a+b=c+d$ and $ab=cd$ whenever $a=c$ and $b=d$). Rather, this follows from the definition of additive inverses, since $-(-a)$ is the unique number $c$ such that $-a+c=0,$ and clearly, $-a+a=0$ by (commutativity and by) definition of $-a.$
I also can't see how you've used the associative axiom, here, so your conclusion that $-(-a)(-b)=-(a\cdot b)$ has not been justified.
Remember that, axiomatically, $-(a\cdot b)$ is the unique number $c$ such that $a\cdot b+c=0.$ So, what you're being asked to show is that $a\cdot b+a\cdot(-b)=0.$ Readily, $$a\cdot b+a\cdot(-b)=a\cdot(b+-b)=a\cdot 0$$ by distributivity and additive inverses. If you've already proved (or taken as an axiom) that $a\cdot 0$ is necessarily $0,$ then you're done. Otherwise, all that remains is to show that $a\cdot 0=0$ for all $a.$ We can get started on this as follows: $$a\cdot 0=0+a\cdot 0=-a+a+a\cdot0=-a+a\cdot1+a\cdot0$$
Can you see the axioms we've used so far? Can you take it from there?

A: The intended method is to use the additive inverse property: $-x=(-1)x$.
\begin{align*}
a(-b)&=a((-1)b)&\quad\text{Additive Inverse Property}\\
&=a(b(-1))&\quad\text{Commutativity}\\
&=(ab)(-1)&\quad\text{Associativity}\\
&=(-1)(ab)&\quad\text{Commutativity}\\
&=-(ab)&\quad\text{Additive Inverse Property}\\
\end{align*}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Reps. Lawrence and Khanna Introduce the WATER Act to Address Water Justice in America
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Rep. Brenda Lawrence and Rep. Ro Khanna introduced legislation to address access to clean, safe, and affordable drinking water in America. The Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity and Reliability (WATER) Act of 2019 is a comprehensive solution that creates a WATER Trust Fund dedicating $35 billion for water infrastructure improvements across the United States.
"Our nation's drinking water infrastructure is in a state of emergency. Families across the country have lost access to clean, safe, and affordable drinking water. This is unacceptable," said Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence. "This water crisis is not unique to my Congressional District, it affects every corner of our country. This is why I am proud to introduce the WATER Act of 2019; a bill about delivering justice, righting wrongs, and reaffirms that water is a human right. This robust effort for water justice is long overdue."
"Fourteen million U.S. households are struggling to pay for water that too often isn't even safe to drink," said Congressman Ro Khanna. "Decades of federal underinvestment has left many communities, particularly low-income and minority neighborhoods, with leaky and contaminated water systems. It's past time that we ensure everyone in this country has access to the most basic human need: clean drinking water."
"It is beyond belief that in 2019 American kids are being poisoned by tap water. It is critical that we work to improve our nation's crumbling water infrastructure," said Senator Sanders. "Not only do we allow corporations to pollute our waterways, but government has failed to keep up with critically needed improvements to our drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. We should not privatize water and wastewater services, which would drive up prices and reduce access to clean water. Instead, federal agencies like the EPA and USDA should support local communities as they work to carry out these necessary infrastructure improvements."
"Every American, from schoolchildren to seniors, should be able to turn on their tap and access clean, safe drinking water," said Senator Merkley. "The fact that this is not the case in 2019 is appalling and unacceptable. It's time to make long-overdue investments in our nation's water infrastructure and create good jobs in communities across the country at the same time."
"The WATER Act is an important piece of the fair and just transition we must have to ensure resiliency in the face of mounting climate chaos," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. "It represents a commitment to clean water for all, now and into an uncertain future -- and it will create nearly a million jobs in the process."
"We may live in a divided country, but one thing we can agree on is the need for clean and safe drinking water," said George Goehl, Director of People's Action. "Across race, place and partisanship, we expect government to play an active role in ensuring water quality. We also agree that the corporations that pollute our water should clean up their mess. The WATER Act is a chance to do both, reducing the threat of toxic water in our homes and neighborhoods."
"Hoosick Falls is my home. It's also a casualty of industrial pollution that's left its toxic mark on my family and my neighbors' families," said Michael Hickey, a resident affected by per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) contamination in the area's water. "The EPA is failing to do its job to protect us, so Congress must step up by supporting the WATER Act to ensure clean, safe and affordable water across the country. The provisions to provide grants to water systems affected by PFAS contamination will be a lifeline where EPA has miserably failed us."
Background on the WATER Act of 2019:
The Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity and Reliability (WATER) Act of 2019 would create a trust fund to support the nation's drinking water and clean water infrastructure. As much as $35 billion a year would be dedicated without further appropriation to drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, creating up to nearly a million jobs throughout the economy. The bill
Key provisions:
1) Provides $35 billion a year to drinking water and wastewater improvements;
2) Creates a water trust fund;
3) Creates up to nearly 1 million jobs across the economy and protect American workers;
4) Prioritizes disadvantaged communities with grants and additional support;
5) Expands funding for technical assistance to small, rural, and indigenous communities;
6) Funds projects to address water contamination from PFAS;
7) Requires US EPA to study water affordability, shutoffs, discrimination, and civil rights violations by water providers;
8) Upgrades household wells and septic systems;
9) Helps homeowners replace lead service lines; and
10) Provides more than $1 billion a year to update water infrastructure in public schools.
The WATER Act of 2019 is endorsed by over 140 national, state, and local organizations including: Food and Water Watch; American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); American Federation of Teachers (AFT); Partnership for Working Families; Communication Workers of America (CWA); Clean Water Action; Citizens for Water; Corporate Accountability; In the Public Interest; Local Progress; NAACP; National Education Association (NEA); People Demanding Action; People's Action; Public Citizen; Greenpeace; UAW; United Steelworkers.
Energy and Environment, Jobs and the Economy, Transportation & Infrastructure


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Luther's Mom Discussed His Strength In...
Exclusive: "Ronnie" Exposes Hardcore Truth Behind Fight Scene With Lisa Raye In "Players Club"
Posted On : August 26, 2017
Chrystale Wilson, as "Ronnie" in The Player's Club
I LOVE OLD SCHOOL MUSIC spoke exclusively to actress, Chrystale Wilson, best known for her role as "Ronnie" on the hood classic film, The Player's Club. Chrystale spoke about her work on the film and the truth behind the fight scene with Lisa Raye's character, "Diamond." Little did we know, but that fight scene was very intense and so was the tension between the two of them while filming. Check out what Chrystale said about being casted for the role and the tension between her and Lisa Raye.
What was it like working with Lisa Raye?
Chrystale Wilson: "We were both young and we were both stallions out the gate. And what's funny is that before we both knew for sure that we got that part, she and I totally got along. I just really would go to bat for her, and thought that we would be great friends. When we both got casted and got the part, things were a little different because of her being the star, it was just challenges. A lot of things happened that didn't need to happen."
Do you think Lisa Raye was intimidated by you back then?
CW: "You know looking back I can probably say that, but being young I couldn't really see that. I was more concerned about doing a great job, and I've just the type of person that when people give me an opportunity, the last thing I want to do is let them down. I'll work myself to pure exhaustion before someone can say, well damn I'm disappointed. So I couldn't even get caught up in whatever she was going thru. I was just focused on killing it for the fact that Ice Cube took a chance on me, went to bat for me. I admired Ice Cube so much, that I didn't get caught up with it."
"But there was little stuff, like during the fight scene, she (Lisa Raye) didn't know that when I came and put my finger in her face, she had no idea that that's how it would go. Me and Ice Cube had a conversation, and he said I really need you to lead this scene. He said, I know how it's written, but you tell me what needs to happen to make it really pop. I said well, I don't want to rehearse it with her. If it's rehearsed it won't come of right, so can we just go into the scene? 'Cause I'm just really gonna invade her space. I'm gonna invade her space to the point where she is not gonna know what's happening, and she is just going to have to react naturally. Cube was like, 'Yeah that's dope.'"
"I walked up on her, I put my finger in her face and I was like 'I run this motherf!*ka'. She wasn't expecting it and that was a true reaction when she backed up me like, are you f*!king serious? She didn't know what was coming at her."
As described by Chrystale, here is the scene "Diamond" puts finger in "Ronnie's" face.
Chrystale on the realness of Lisa Raye's character putting her finger in her face:
"If you further look in the movie, and I'm in the dressing room before we had the big fight. She comes in and puts her finger back in my face and by that time we were at odds. And that was real. Everything that I did I was doing it to make it best for the character, and I think she was taking it personally. But I'm like hey it's not personal. When we clock out we're buddies. We can chase each other around this bi#*h all day, but when we clock out we cool. But she never got that concept."
"One time in particular, we were around the jacuzzi, and she (Lisa Raye) was like, yeah just grab me don't worry about it, just snatch me. So I did, I snatched her. And then she turned around and told Ice Cube that I'm snatching her all hard. And I'm like, 'What happened?'"
"So we had glasses of fake champagne on the side of the jacuzzi, and she acted like she was playing and picked up one of the glasses of champagne and threw it at me. Like threw the champagne at me. And I"m like, 'Are you for real?'"
"The Player's Club," Jacuzzi Scene
"And I came out of the jacuzzi to go over to her, and she (Lisa Raye) was like "Ey, Ey…no horsing around here, cut that out." And I remember catching myself, cause it could have gotten ugly. So I had to catch myself."
Chrystale Wilson (courtesy of Crystale Wilson)
Fast forward to today and now that both ladies are now over 40, it all seems to be water under the bridge. Chrystale even said that she thinks Lisa Raye is a "beautiful woman, she's a hustler. She knows how to take a situation and really ride it and get every single opportunity out of it. And that is a quality that I admire."
Daamn! Tiny Tried Peace On New Years, Until HATER TRIED HER & It Got UGLY!


– Who cares about a liberal paper's endorsement of a moderate candidate?
– Joy. Kathy Griffin announced as Anderson Cooper's co-host for NYE.
– Whoopi Goldberg defends Romney's "zany" remark.
– AIM says the remark didn't start with Romney, but rather with the reporter.
– Debunking the latest PPP poll. Only 32% of its sample didn't caucus with any party in 2008, so how does this make them "likely" to caucus with any party this go around?
– Joy Behar ends her show on HLN.
The killing of Osama bin Laden during a raid by Navy SEALs on his hideout in Pakistan was the top news story of 2011, followed by Japan's earthquake/tsunami/meltdown disaster, according to The Associated Press' annual poll of U.S. editors and news directors.
Facebook's practice of showing people that their friends "like" specific products could run afoul of a California law that gives both celebrities and ordinary citizens the right to control how their names and pictures are used for commercial endorsements.


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text:
Q: Shell Script to run command every 5secs for x number of secs I'm learning bash scripting and I want to call a function every 5 seconds for x number of seconds. The x is determined by the command line argument when the script was run. I've tried watch but it seems to go on forever, I don't seem to have an ability to return after x seconds. There might be a sleep way but it seems clumsy and I have to deal with local drift. Is there an elegant solution?
My code:
#!/bin/bash

if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then # only 1 command line arg allowed
   echo "Incorrect arguments"
   exit 1
elif ! [[ $1 =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]]; then # arg must be digit
   echo "Argument must be a positive number"
   exit 1
fi

ask()
{
    OUTPUT=$(snmpwalk -v2c -c community server oib)
    CLEANOUTPUT="${OUTPUT:32}%"
    echo $CLEANOUTPUT
}

#export -f ask
#watch -n5 ask

A: The SECONDS variable counts the number of seconds since bash was started:
#!/bin/bash

while (( SECONDS <= 20 ))
do
  echo "Running something"
  sleep 5 || break
done
echo "Done"

This simplistic method will sleep 5 after the last run even when you know it'll go over 20 seconds, and it does not try to account for the run time of the command (if the command runs for 2 seconds, it'll end up starting up once every 7 seconds).

A: If you want to be a little bit more accurate with the timing, you can put a sleep into the background, do whatever work is required, then use wait, which will halt foreground processing until the sleep exits. While accuracy won't be perfect, at least the time taken by the work part is not included.
Something like:
#!/bin/bash

LOOPTIMES=3
REPEATEVERY=5   # seconds

for (( count=0 ; $count < $LOOPTIMES ; count++ ))
do
    /bin/sleep $REPEATEVERY &

    echo "Doing work $count..."
    # do whatever

    wait    # this will wait until the sleep exits
done

exit 0

A: #!/bin/bash
if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then # only 1 command line arg allowed
   echo "Incorrect arguments"
   exit 1
elif ! [[ $1 =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]]; then # arg must be digit
   echo "Argument must be a positive number"
   exit 1
fi

iterations=$(($1/5))
for i in $(seq 1 $iterations);
do
      OUTPUT=$(snmpwalk -v2c -c community server oib)
      CLEANOUTPUT="${OUTPUT:32}%"
      echo $CLEANOUTPUT
      sleep 5
done


text:
AMAWATERWAYS RELEASES 2017/18 AFRICA BROCHURE
New 'Wildlife & The Falls' Itinerary Now Available
Calabasas, CA - (Sep. 22, 2016) - AmaWaterways today announced the debut of its 2017/18 Africa Brochure, which features a new 'Wildlife & the Falls' itinerary, giving guests the opportunity to experience Johannesburg, a Chobe River safari in Botswana, Victoria Falls and game drives in Greater Kruger National Park.
The new 12-night itinerary will begin in Johannesburg at the luxurious Fairlawns Boutique Hotel in a Grand Chateau Suite. Guests will then embark on a four-night luxury cruise and experience a safari in Chobe National Park. The final week will include a guided tour of Victoria Falls National Park, a tour of Nelson Mandela landmarks, a stay at Tintswalo Safari Lodge (pictured left) and daily morning, afternoon and evening game drives through Greater Kruger National Park.
"We're very excited to introduce a brand new itinerary as part of our exotics collection in Africa, onboard the beautiful, elegant, modern Zambezi Queen," said Kristin Karst, executive vice president and co-owner of AmaWaterways. "It's fascinating to sail down the Chobe River and observe prides of lions, hyenas, cheetahs and hippos in their natural environment. The Wildlife & the Falls journey will give our guests a once in a lifetime opportunity to see some of Africa's most treasured wonders."
In addition to AmaWaterways' newest Africa itinerary, the company will also feature several other unique sailings onboard the Zambezi Queen in the 2017/18 season. AmaWaterways' full list of 2017/18 Africa itineraries includes:
Discover Africa – Three nights in Cape Town, followed by a four-night wildlife cruise and two nights in Victoria Falls, with an option to extend for two nights in Johannesburg; prices starting at $8,799 per person
Wildlife & the Falls – One night in Johannesburg, a four-night African river safari, two nights in Victoria Falls, two nights in Johannesburg and two nights at a luxury safari lodge in Greater Kruger National Park; prices starting at $11,695 per person
Stars of South Africa – Three nights in Cape Town, a four-night wildlife cruise, two nights in Victoria Falls, two nights in Johannesburg and three nights at a luxury safari lodge in Greater Kruger National Park; prices starting at $12,595 per person
Rivers & Rails of Africa – Three nights in Cape Town, a four-night wildlife cruise, two nights in Victoria Falls and a three-night Rovos train journey from Victoria Falls to Pretoria; prices starting at $12,995 per person
Golden Trails of East Africa – One night in Johannesburg, a four-night wildlife cruise and two nights in Victoria Falls, two nights in Johannesburg and seven nights at Tanzanian luxury safari lodges in Arusha, Tarangire, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti; optional pre-adventure with three nights in Cape Town; prices starting at $14,495 per person
All sailings will take place onboard the all-suite, 28-passenger Zambezi Queen (pictured right). Often referred to as a 'floating lodge,' the Zambezi Queen was designed for optimal game viewing. The top level of the ship features an open-air pool deck, where travelers can relax with mesmerizing 360-degree views of the Chobe River and its daily visitors, including the largest concentration of elephants in Africa. Cruisers will enjoy private balconies and spacious staterooms, as well as air conditioners throughout. The environmentally responsible eco-ship uses a jet propulsion system that preserves the river bed and uses a solar heating system to supply guests with hot water.
For pricing and specific itineraries, download AmaWaterways' 2017/2018 Africa Brochure at www.AmaWaterways.com. A print brochure via mail may also be requested online, by calling (800) 626-0126, or by contacting a travel professional. Travel agents already on AmaWaterways' mailing list do not need to submit a request, as brochures will be mailed directly to them. Follow AmaWaterways on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AmaWaterways and Twitter @AmaWaterways.
Count down with us and discover the moments you won't want to miss on your next sailing
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Humanitarian at heart, Geneva captures the essence of peace, beauty and nature.


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Think Outside the Inbox: 6 Email Marketing Ideas That Really Work
Imagine for a moment that you're at work (maybe you even are right now!), head down, and busy with a high-priority, tight-deadline project. Suddenly...
Imagine for a moment that you're at work (maybe you even are right now!), head down, and busy with a high-priority, tight-deadline project.
Suddenly, a coworker loudly announces his presence at your side. Perhaps he's holding a flashing sign or yells "ding!" He then asks you for something — help, a file, a meeting — and before you can respond says "thanks in advance!" then wanders off.
"How odd," you think. Then two minutes later a different coworker approaches and does the same thing all over again (except she ends her speech with an oddly placed, "Cheers!").
Over the course of your day, this occurs 122 more times. By the last visit you're frustrated, distracted, and have all but tuned out your frequent deskside visitors.
This strange series of events happens all day, every day, to every one of us — in our inboxes.
The average person gets 124 emails a day, a small portion of the more than 200 million sent daily worldwide.
And despite the fatigue those numbers might suggest, email remains the channel through which consumers want to be contacted as well as the most effective method of brand outreach (40 times more effective than social media outreach).
Still, The Same Old Won't Cut it For Long
Use email automation software. Personalize. Optimize for mobile. A/B test. Segment. These are the best ideas for email marketing strategies that marketers hear time and time again because hey, they really work. But more people using these tactics means more competition. It takes continual effort to stand out from the crowd, so once you've nailed the basics, it's time to try something new. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
1. The email that asks for an opinion
Psychologically speaking, human beings like being asked for advice. It actually makes us feel more positive about the person doing the asking. Send your subscribers a simple survey or ask them to comment on a blog post. If you have a big enough team, you could even suggest they reply to your email directly (radical!). Depending on what advice you ask, this tactic has the added effect of providing information that you can use to segment subscribers and develop their personas.
2. The email that doesn't come from you
Do you have zealot customers? Would they be willing to take a stand for your product or service? Try breaking up the monotony of your @ address with a send from a peer. You can still write and design the email, you just need to update the "from" field and, of course, get approval. What we're essentially talking about here is influencer marketing, and, put like this, it doesn't sound so intimidating. Then when you consider the fact that 92 percent of consumers trust influencers over ads or celebrity endorsements, it sounds like something that should definitely be on your to do list.
3. The self-aware email
This is an icebreaker, like when you see someone at a party whose name you've forgotten and instead of awkwardly sidestepping around it, admit your faux pas with a self-deprecating laugh. Write an email that confesses it's a cold email. Try a subject line like "Is this a good subject line?" Email is strange (you've probably emailed your coworker sitting three desks away) and we all know it. It's OK to laugh at ourselves.
4. The interactive email
Today's consumers are inundated with so much content that we've regressed to the attention span of a goldfish. You really have to tap on that glass to get our attention. Interactive emails can be as simple as a custom-designed GIF or as unique as the ability to update a shopping cart, shop a photograph, or answer a survey (hey, that's like #1) right in the email.
5. The email that doesn't ask for anything
Most of our inboxes have turned into alternate to do lists. Even if we get a coupon or sale alert from a beloved brand, the expiration date adds one more deadline in our lives. Try to craft an email that doesn't ask for a single thing, not even a click. Maybe it's an insightful and short piece of content or just a whacky video celebrating a birthday or holiday. Without a CTA you won't see conversions, but you will be building relationships.
6. The designer email
More email marketing proficiency and adoption of email automation has led to more monotony in email design. To keep up with the rapid pace of the digital world, many marketers rely on the same email templates for speed and ease of execution. It's a recognizable pattern, and one simple way to stand out is to break it. Try something new with design — a different layout, a hand-illustrated look, updated colors, or custom photography. When your customer sees a beautiful email, they'll take notice.
Email isn't going anywhere, in fact its usage is projected to increase. So how are you going to stand out from the other 123 (or more) messages in your audience member's inbox? Think outside of it and try something new.
Taylor Burke is a contributor for TechnologyAdvice.com, covering marketing and sales. When she's not in front of her screen, you can find Taylor reading, cooking, running, or hanging with her dog—but rarely all four at once.
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1 thought on "Think Outside the Inbox: 6 Email Marketing Ideas That Really Work"
Great article Taylor! It's always refreshing to look at innovative ways of pushing the boundaries of engagement within email marketing.
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Home / Theaters
Theaters in St. Petersburg
Hermitage Theater
The Hermitage Theater, the oldest building of the Winter Palace Complex, was built on the site of the former Winter Palace of Peter I in 1711-1723. The theater itself was built later - in 1783-85 to the design by Gakomo Quarenghi and finished in 1802. The theater building is connected with the main ...
Mariinsky Theater
The Mariinsky Theater, named in honor of Maria Fedorovna, the wife of Emperor Alexander II, was built by architect Cavos in 1859-1860. The building was constructed on Teatralnaya Square, and since then the square was recognized as the center of the cultural life of Petersburg. The hall of the Mariin...
Mikhailovsky Theater
Not long ago this theater was called St. Petersburg Mussorgsky State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater. However, its original name was Mikhailovsky, in honor of Emperor Nicolas I's brother. The permanent troupe of actors appeared only after the Social Revolution. That's when the theater got ...
Nikolaevsky Palace
The Nikolaevsky Palace was constructed in 1853-1861 by famous architect Andrey Stakenshneider for Emperor Nikolay I's son Grand Duke Nikolay. The classic-styled residence was set in Annunciation Square (the Square of Labour nowadays) in the prestigious and costly district of Saint Petersburg, no...


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In Warsaw, Obama stays 'committed' to Ukraine
President Barack Obama spoke in support of Ukraine and called on world leaders to help the fledgling government.
U.S President Barack Obama takes to the stage to speak at a Freedom Day event at Royal Square in Warsaw on June 4, 2014.
June 4, 2014, 1:21 PM UTC / Updated June 4, 2014, 1:54 PM UTC
By Jane Timm
On the 25th anniversary of free elections in Poland, President Barack Obama spoke in support of Ukraine and called on world leaders to help the fledgling government establish economic stability, calm violence, and stave off Russian threats.
The president announced another package of non-lethal military aid for the nation, including things like equipment like body armor and night vision goggles and training, which will bring the amount of the defensive security assistance sent from the U.S. to Ukraine to $23 million since early March, according to the White House.
"The United States is absolutely committed to standing behind the Ukrainian people, not just in the coming days and weeks but in the coming years," Obama said following his first in-person meeting with Ukraine's President-elect Petro Poroshenko, according to USA Today.
The president's administration has so far shied away from calls to send weapons to the region and stressed their commitment to reaching a diplomatic solution to Russia's threats on the region, following the annexation of Crimea and their support of pro-Russian rebels in the eastern part of the country. They have issued a series of sanctions against Russia for their actions.
"Ukraine has gone through a very challenging time," Obama said. "And what we have seen has been an incredible outpouring of democracy in the face of actions by Russia as well as armed militias in certain portions of the east who violate international law and international sovereignty."
Both leaders are in Warsaw to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Freedom Day, which mark free elections in the country.
Obama praised the president-elect, who will be sworn into office this weekend. "I have been deeply impressed by his vision," Obama said, "partly because of his experience as a businessman."
Poroshenko thanked Obama in his remarks, for "crucially important" and "continuous" support.