The economy is still stuck in slo-mo mode: it's been the weakest recovery ever for the past seven years: a mere 2.1% annualized. The first half of this year was even weaker than that (1%), but it's the nature of GDP numbers to be volatile; as with the payroll employment data, you have to look at the trends over months and years to get an approximate idea as to what is going on. Monthly, quarterly, and annual data are routinely revised after the fact, and sometimes significantly. It's amazing that the government statisticians can even come close to measuring all the activity inside an $18 trillion economy.
The data we can trust, however—tax receipts, market-based prices, corporate profits, unemployment claims—are in general agreement with the GDP stats, as I've been noting off and on for the past several months. The economy is most likely still growing at a sub-par pace of 2% or so, as it has on average since 2009 (see chart above). Just because it's growing slowly is no reason to worry that a recession is imminent. The analogy that says a slow-growing economy is like an airplane approaching stall speed is flawed. Indeed, recessions typically follow periods of excesses—soaring home prices, rising inflation, widespread optimism—rather than periods dominated by risk aversion such as we have today. Risk aversion can still be found in abundance: just look at the extremely low level of Treasury yields, and the lack of business investment despite strong corporate profits.
If Donald Trump wants to win the election, his campaign ought to promote the facts to be found in the chart above. The economy's ability to grow by a little more than 3% per year on average for over four decades suddenly vanished beginning in 2009. For the first time in post-war history, the economy failed to recover to its former growth path following the 2008-09 recession, and it has managed to grow only 2.1% since then. Seven years of slow growth following a big recession have left the economy about $3 trillion smaller than it could have been. We're missing out on approximately $3 trillion per year in income, and that's yuuge. Put another way, the average family could have been earning about 18% more this year if the economy had recovered in typical fashion, and of course there would have been many more people working. The $3 trillion GDP shortfall is the easiest way to understand the widespread level of discontent in the U.S. today.
As I noted some years ago, all the spending and borrowing that was supposed to "stimulate" the economy beginning in 2009 was essentially flushed down the toilet. Since 2009 we've conducted a laboratory experiment in the power of government spending and income redistribution to grow the economy by stimulating demand, and the result is proof that Keynesian theories are destructive, not stimulative. Neither government spending nor easy money has the power to create growth out of thin air, but politicians want to convince you that they do. The economy is weak today because we have wasted many trillions of dollars on transfer payments that only create perverse incentives to work less.
One of the best things about the past two decades is the strength of corporate profits, as illustrated in the chart above. From 1958 through the mid-90s after-tax corporate profits averaged about 5% of GDP (note that the right y-axis, corporate profits, is 5% of the left y-axis, nominal GDP). But while corporations have generated about $1.5 trillion in after-tax profits on average over the past seven years (about $10.5 trillion in total), federal government debt held by the public (i.e., net borrowing) has increased by about $6.8 trillion. That means that, in effect, our government has borrowed 2 out of every 3 dollars of corporate profits for the past seven years, and then handed the money out to favored constituencies. In return, the government has enjoyed the lowest borrowing costs in history, but the economy has squandered much of its scarce resources. We've plowed two-thirds of the profits of the most valuable companies in the world into (mostly) transfer payments that have generated zero net growth. This recovery has seen a colossal waste of money.
Another way to see this is to look at business investment, which has been miserable for many years. Businesses have been very profitable, but for whatever reason (e.g., the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world, which has discouraged businesses from repatriating trillions of dollars of overseas profits) they have been extraordinarily reluctant to reinvest those profits. Call it risk aversion, or as I've deemed it, the reluctant recovery.
Capital goods orders (see chart above) are a good proxy for business investment. Capital goods are the things that make labor more productive. You can't grow the economy without investing in tools and technology that make workers more productive. Lamentably, capital goods orders today are about the same as they were in the late 1990s. In real terms they have declined by 30%, even though the economy has grown by over one-third over the same period.
Private Fixed Investment tells the same story. Relative to GDP, fixed investment (structures, equipment, and software that are used in the production of goods and service) has declined by almost 20% since 2000. The go-go growth of the mid-80s and the late 90s were driven by strong investment. Today's weak investment climate has given us a miserably weak economy. It's not surprising.
What is surprising is that so few seem to understand that the solution to our weak growth is to do things that encourage investment, work, and risk-taking. That includes not only lower taxes and reduced regulatory burdens but also greater confidence that conditions will remain favorable in the future. How many today are willing to bet huge sums that taxes will be lower and flatter across the board a year or two or three from now? It's almost impossible to know at this point, with the election still a toss-up between one candidate who vows to increase taxes and regulatory burdens and the other who would likely reduce them.
I despise Donald Trump as a person (just as I despised Bill Clinton as a person), but I do think both Donald and Bill have a much better understanding of how business and the economy work than Hillary does. If Trump were able to push through a growth agenda, the rewards could more than make up for his failings in other areas. It remains a mystery why Hillary wants to double down on Obama's failed economic agenda when her husband's was so different and so much more successful.
To judge from the rhetoric, the election is all about personalities: Hillary is a corrupt liar, Trump is a xenophobic, redneck egomaniac. The list of negatives is long for each. Instead it should be all about which one would be best for the economy. On that score, Trump should win hands down.
The latest data from the housing market shows activity has been rather flat for the past year. Starts are still significantly below what might be considered "normal," but builder sentiment suggests there is room for improvement. Indeed, starts would need to rise significantly over the next several years just to keep up with scrappage and the ongoing rise in housing formations and population.
Housing prices, according to Case Shiller, are still well below their "bubble" highs in real terms. Meanwhile, mortgage rates are at historically low levels. Both suggest that there is lots of room for further growth.
Both gold and industrial commodities have enjoyed a nice bounce since the end of last year. It's notable that the bounce in commodities has occurred even though the dollar has been relatively stable—usually it take dollar weakness to produce a healthy bounce in commodity prices. I'll chalk up the latest move in commodities to what appears to be a firming in global demand—a promising development given the doom and gloom which still pervades most markets (e.g., extremely low sovereign yields).
Sterling is the currency that has weakened the most of late, driven in large part by the perception that a "Brexit" will be a negative for the economy. I think it will work to the UK's advantage over time, but for now it just creates a lot of uncertainty. In any event, as the chart above shows, by my calculations the pound today is trading right around "fair value" vis a vis the dollar, after being quite strong for many years. If/when the UK adopts better trade agreements (freer trade), the pound has room to rise. But for now it's reasonably priced. Great time to take a vacation in the UK!
Beginning in early 2011, Treasury yields began diverging from core inflation. The significant gap between yields today and inflation is a sign, I believe, of a market that has very low expectations for economic growth and a great deal of risk aversion. As the second chart above shows, inflation expectations have declined by almost 100 bps since early 2011, but actual inflation has risen. This is a market that worries about slow growth and a Fed that is powerless to push inflation up. I think the market is underestimating the Fed's ability to deliver 2% inflation, since core inflation is already running above 2%, and it has been 2% or better for most of the past decade. I fully expect the headline CPI to register at least 2% by the end of this year. Bonds are definitely expensive at these levels.
2-yr swaps spreads in the US have moved up a bit so far this year, but they are still in the comfort zone (15-35 bps) that is consistent with healthy, liquid markets and low systemic risk. I note that the increase in swap spreads from almost zero to today's 21 bps has coincided with a stronger equity market. That makes sense if you consider that buying swap spreads (equivalent to buying AA-rated bank bonds) is a more attractive way to hedge against a weaker economy than buying Treasury bonds, due to the onerous capital requirements imposed on bank balance sheets (i.e., going long swap spreads doesn't consume capital the way going long Treasuries does). In other words, very low swap spreads were indicative of a market that was desperate for ways to hedge against a weaker economy. That swap spreads are more normal today means the market is less risk-averse, and we see that as well in rising equity prices.
The chart above tells the same story. The ratio of the Vix index to the 10-yr Treasury yield is a measure of fear and pessimism. It has dropped in recent weeks as equity prices have risen. But the ratio remains elevated, thanks to extremely low Treasury yields. This means the market is less uncertain about the future, but not very optimistic about the prospects for growth (i.e., the Vix is relatively low and Treasury yields are extremely low).
Arguably, the most significant macro development since 2008 is the huge increase in the world's demand for money, which is shown in the chart above. For decades the ratio of M2 to nominal GDP was relatively steady, but since 2008 it has soared to levels never seen before. This is indicative of a market that is still very risk averse, and it goes hand in hand with the significant deleveraging that has occurred in the private sector.
Even though M2 has grown much more than nominal GDP since 2008, the growth rate of M2 has been consistent with historical trends, as the chart above shows. There is no evidence here that the Fed has "printed" money in excess of what has been the historical norm. The Fed supplied more money to the system in response to a huge increase for the demand for money. There is nothing wrong with that! Without QE we would have been in a world of hurt: a shortage of money would have resulted in global deflation.
Bank savings deposits make up about two-thirds of the M2 measure of the money supply. Virtually all of the growth in M2 since 2008 is accounted for by bank savings deposits, and banks have "invested" most of that money in bank reserves (banks have lent almost $3 trillion to the Fed since the start of QE). Banks have been quite risk averse, and they have also had to deal with onerous capital requirements (e.g., Dodd Frank and Basel Accords). It's certainly possible that most or all of the increase in bank reserves was driven by much more stringent capital requirements.
The euro has been relatively weak vis a vis the dollar since mid-2014, and Eurozone equities and Eurozone growth have significantly underperformed their US counterparts over that same period. The US hasn't been very exciting of late, but the Eurozone has been even less so. By my calculations, the Euro is trading a bit on the cheap side vis a vis the dollar. It's hard to get excited about the Eurozone these days, and that helps explain why the Brits were so anxious to leave its embrace.
I will be traveling tomorrow morning (headed up to Alaska for a week or so of cruising and sightseeing) when the June payroll numbers come out, but I have some observations that might help interpret whatever the number happens to be. To begin with, there is the issue of about 35K jobs that were lost in May due to a Verizon strike, and which will be added back in June since the strike was resolved. Then there is the issue of the significant undercounting of May jobs according to the BLS vs. what ADP reported. In the past, big swings in the BLS numbers that have not been confirmed by the ADP numbers have been reversed within a month or so. This leads me to think that the June BLS private sector jobs gain should be at the very least 200K, but that is more than the consensus (+160K). If its not at least 200K, then that means we have a slowdown on our hands. But the other data suggest no fundamental weakening of the jobs market, so for now I'm expecting an upside surprise that will only mean that nothing much has changed.
The red line in the chart above is going to have to jump significantly if the June ADP number is to be believed. If it doesn't increase at least 200K, then the likelihood of a weakening in the jobs market rises, and that would not be good.
There is no indication of any fundamental deterioration in the labor market. Large corporate layoffs are just not happening.
Weekly unemployment claims continue to trend down. Based on claims, all looks quiet on the labor market front.
It's rare that the prices of two different asset classes should track each other over the years as well as TIPS and gold have.
The chart above compares the price of 5-yr TIPS (using the inverse of their real yield as a proxy for their price, since bond prices move inversely to their yields) to the price of gold. For almost 10 years they have tracked each other reasonably well. What does this tell us?
TIPS and gold share some qualities, but they are also very different. Gold is a physical asset, TIPS are a unique type of bond; gold pays no interest, while TIPS pay a rate of interest that is determined by the rate of inflation. Both are a type of "safe haven" asset—a port in a storm for investors worried about the future. TIPS are double-risk-free, since they are guaranteed by the US government and they pay a guaranteed real rate of interest if held to maturity. Gold is risk-free in the sense that it doesn't deteriorate over time. TIPS are a direct inflation hedge, since their nominal yield goes up and down in accordance with changes in the rate of inflation. Gold is an indirect inflation hedge, since it tends to maintain its purchasing power over long periods. Gold is also a traditional refuge from undefinable risk—the classic port in a storm, no matter what kind of storm.
Changes in the price of TIPS can reflect changes in the demand for inflation protection; higher TIPS prices are sometimes—but not always—associated with rising inflation expectations. Changes in the price of TIPS can also reflect changes in the market's expectation for real growth (see chart above); TIPS pay a real rate of interest that ultimately is generated by the economy's capacity to grow. Since their introduction in 1997, the real yield on TIPS has tended to track the economy's real rate of growth. So TIPS can tell one of two stories, depending upon how the real yield on TIPS moves relative to the nominal yield on Treasuries of similar maturity. If nominal and real yields rise by the same amount, the message of TIPS is that the market is pricing in stronger growth expectations. But if nominal and real yields diverge, then the message is that the market is pricing in changing inflation expectations.
As the chart above shows, the recent decline in nominal and real yields has been roughly the same. Inflation expectations haven't changed on balance over the past six months. This tells us that the market is pricing in lower growth expectations.
So: since gold prices have risen in line with TIPS prices, does that imply that gold is pricing in weaker growth expectations? That's possible, in the sense that weaker growth increases the likelihood of unpleasant policy surprises. Central banks might over-react to persistently weak growth by easing too much, which in turn would give us unexpectedly high inflation in the future. Politicians might over-react by passing "stimulus" legislation that has little or no ability to actually stimulate, but instead only weakens the economy and perhaps endangers certain sectors of the economy. Think higher taxes to fund more transfer payments, which only end up resulting in less investment. The rise in gold prices could thus be signaling that the economic outlook is becoming uncomfortably "clouded," and thus there is an increase in risk that cannot be hedged by traditional means. Enter gold.
I don't have a definitive answer for all this, but it bears watching closely. At the very least the rise in TIPS and gold prices is telling us that the market is willing to pay a higher premium for protection because people are getting nervous. 10-yr Treasury yields at 1.38% tell us essentially the same thing: there's very little hope for growth, and a lot of concern that whatever happens it won't be stronger growth and could be worse. When the market is paying very high prices for a variety of traditional hedges, you know that people are nervous.
The only anomaly is the Vix index (see chart above), which is only modestly elevated. So the interpretation of all the data is not robust.
The service sector of the U.S. economy accounts for about 70% of all jobs, while manufacturing payrolls account for about 9% and government about 15%. So the health of the service sector tells us a lot about the health of the overall economy. The latest news on the health of the service sector shows it is doing just fine, which is a good reason to think that the bond market is overly concerned about downside economic risks.
The Business Activity subindex of the IMS service sector report for June running is actually a bit higher than its 6-yr average.
The Prices Paid subindex shows that deflationary pressures associated mainly with declining oil prices have substantially dissipated.
The Employment subindex is still positive, but not by much. This reflects a lack of business confidence in the future, and that in turn dovetails with the lack of business investment in general and the fact that this recovery has been the weakest on record.
The overall Service Sector report for June was also a bit higher than its 6-yr average. Conditions are not quite as healthy in the Eurozone, but their index is still comfortably in positive territory.
Investors today worry about the implications of the fact that 10-yr Treasury yields fell to a new all-time low of 1.32% this morning. Does it mean the Fed is too tight? Does it reflect a threat of deflation? Is the global economy on the verge of another recession? Are we on the cusp of a exploding debt bubble? Will we never seen real growth exceed 2-3%? Are yields going to zero? Will US yields follow German and Japanese yields into negative territory?
If history is any guide, there's reason to cheer, not despair.
The previous all-time low for 10-yr yields was 1.39%, recorded July 24, 2012. Investors who bought the 10-yr that day and still hold it have received a total return of about 5.7%. Investors who bought the S&P 500 that day and held on—shunning the widespread fears of global recession and deflation that plagued markets four years ago—received a total return of 54%. Gold and commodity prices fell some 15%.
This should not be construed as a recommendation to put your life savings in stocks. It's merely to point out that the future doesn't always turn out to be as bad as the market expects. Sometimes it turns out to be much, much better, as has been the case for the past four years.
My best guess as to why yields are so low? It's simply that the market is very worried, and about a lot of things: quantitative easing, negative yields overseas, slowing growth, geopolitical tensions, bad fiscal policies, deflation, etc. The market may be right to worry, but it may also be wrong. In order for an investment in 10-yr Treasuries today to beat alternative investments, an awful lot of bad things are going to have to happen over the next several years.
In order to reverse the decline in yields, we'll need to see more optimism regarding economic growth and/or clear signs of rising inflation. Stronger growth, in turn, will require a return of confidence that would follow expectations of improved fiscal policy (e.g., lower tax rates, reduced regulatory burdens). The House under Speaker Ryan is moving in the right direction with budget reforms, but those won't pass as long as Obama has his veto pen and fails to grasp what is really needed to get the economy moving. As for inflation, we've seen a gradual rise in core inflation at the consumer level (2.2% year over year, and 2.4% annualized over the past six months), but broad-based inflation remains below 2%.
The news is certainly mixed these days. Britain's Brexit vote stirs fears of a global slowdown in trade, which would surely be bad for the economic outlook. But that's still something out on the horizon. In the meantime, more recent data point to a pickup in growth that began a month or so ago.
The ISM manufacturing index was stronger than expected (53.2 vs. 51.3), and as the chart above shows, this suggests that second quarter GDP growth will be stronger than the tepid 1.1% registered in the first quarter. It wouldn't be surprising to see Q2 growth come in at 3%.
The export orders subindex continues to improve, which suggests that conditions overseas are improving.
Now that oil prices have been rising for over four months, it's not surprising to see a clear majority of firms reporting higher prices paid. Once more we say goodbye to concerns about deflation.
The employment subindex remains unimpressive, which suggests that firms are still cautious about the outlook. This recovery is still dominated by worries and risk aversion, but that's not necessarily bad. The time to worry is when everyone is optimistic.
Manufacturing activity has been improving for the past few months in both the U.S. and the Eurozone. This may be tempered in months to come by the Brexit vote, so it's too early to get excited about a coordinated rebound in activity. But in the meantime it's reassuring.
10-yr Treasury yields are still amazingly low, closing today at 1.44%. 30-yr Treasury yields are also down to all-time lows, closing today at 2.23%. But the spread between the two, shown in the chart above, has been rising since last August. From a long-term historical perspective, the long end of the Treasury curve is plenty steep, and that suggests the market still expects the economy to improve over time. The time to worry is when the yield curve gets very flat or even negatively-sloped.
The PE ratio of the S&P 500 is about 15% above its long-term average, but this has to be viewed in the context of risk-free interest rates that are at their lowest level ever. Put another way, the PE ratio of 10-yr Treasuries today is about 80, whereas the PE ratio of equities is about 20 (i.e., an investment of $80 in 10-yr Treasuries will get you an annual return of $1, whereas an investment of only $20 in equities promises a return of $1). I'm thinking this is an unprecedented valuation gap in favor of equities.
As the chart above shows, the earnings yield (after-tax profits per share divided by share price) on equities is still well above average. Moreover, EPS appears to be stabilizing, having fallen only 2.7% over the past year—and quite likely to increase now that the problems in the oil patch are in the past. If profits merely hold at current levels, the expected return on equities will be significantly higher than the return on Treasuries.


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AP: Senators To Introduce Bill To Protect Robert Mueller
FILE - In this June 21, 2017, file photo, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, the special counsel probing Russian interference in the 2016 election, departs Capitol Hill following a closed door meeting in Washington.... FILE - In this June 21, 2017, file photo, former FBI Director Robert Mueller, the special counsel probing Russian interference in the 2016 election, departs Capitol Hill following a closed door meeting in Washington. A 2001 Justice Department memo warned that no nation, including the United States, was immune from the threat posed by Russian organized crime. The special counsel investigation is bringing attention to Russian efforts to meddle in democratic processes, the type of intelligence gathering that in the past has relied on hired hackers. It's not clear how much the probe by Mueller will center on the criminal underbelly of Moscow, but he's already picked some lawyers with experience confronting organized crime. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) MORE LESS
By Matt Shuham
August 3, 2017 9:49 a.m.
Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Chris Coons (D-DE) plan to introduce legislation meant to shield Department of Justice special counsels from political influence — with an eye toward protecting Robert Mueller, the special counsel at the head of the department's Russian election meddling investigation and a target of the Trump administration.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that Tillis and Coons' legislation would allow any Justice Department special counsel to challenge his or her firing in court, and to have it reviewed by a three-judge panel. The bill would apply retroactively to May 17, 2017, AP reported — the day Mueller was assigned as a special counsel by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Mueller has the support of a broad, bipartisan swath of Congress, who largely saw his appointment as an opportunity to turn the legislature's attention back to policy priorities.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has reportedly raged at Mueller's investigation. Political allies like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and Trump himself, have attacked Mueller for his working friendship with ousted FBI Director James Comey, and for the investigators working under him who have donated to the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and other Democrats.
In an interview with the New York Times in July, Trump agreed that Mueller would be crossing a line if he, in words of a Times reporter, "was looking at your finances and your family finances, unrelated to Russia."
Tillis and Coons both characterized the legislation as an important safeguard against executive overreach.
"It is critical that special counsels have the independence and resources they need to lead investigations," Tillis told AP. "A back-end judicial review process to prevent unmerited removals of special counsels not only helps to ensure their investigatory independence, but also reaffirms our nation's system of check and balances."
Coons added: "Ensuring that the special counsel cannot be removed improperly is critical to the integrity of his investigation."
The bill is similar to one championed by Sens. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) that would require judicial approval before a special counsel is fired.
This post has been updated.
Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) is a reporter in TPM's New York office. Prior to joining TPM, he was associate editor of The National Memo and an editorial intern at Rolling Stone.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Rob Marshall says Johnny Depp's "The Thin Man" isn't a remake, movie version of "Wicked" would pull from stage and book
Posted by IFC on November 10th
Nick still needs a Nora.
A new version of Dashiell Hammett's "The Thin Man" is moving forward, and director Rob Marshall has made key decisions about what the film will be like — but some questions remain, such as who will play Johnny Depp's wife?
"I think anticipation [for the film] must be high," Marshall said while attending the Princess Grace Awards gala last week in New York. "People are even asking me, 'Are you going to write it?'"
Marshall won't be handling those duties — screenwriter Billy Ray ("The Hunger Games," "Shattered Glass") is now aboard, after Jerry Stahl ("Permanent Midnight") and David Koepp ("Premium Rush," "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"). "It's funny that those writers were even announced," Marshall said, "because we hadn't really started with either of them, with Jerry or David. Neither had written a word. Billy is the first writer who's actually writing a draft."
Ray's draft is not a remake of "The Thin Man," Marshall said, but "a reimagination." Hammett's novel, published in 1934, has been transformed into television shows, radio programs, stage plays, Broadway musicals, and movies, taking place in eras from the original 1930s to the 1950s.
"We'll be setting it in the '30s," Marshall said, "because it is of that world. It's an era that we have a great affinity for. I think both [producer and partner] Johnny DeLuca and I feel like we were born in the wrong era, and Johnny really feels like he lives in the '30s. So we're going to be able to inhabit a world that we really, truly love … in the time of speakeasies, one of those rich, beautiful times in America."
The story centers on "these incredible characters, these iconic characters that have been with us for many years," as Marshall called them: Nick and Nora Charles, a married, wealthy, and witty detective duo, who inspired later sleuthing couples in Moonlighting, Remington Steele, and Hart to Hart, among others. In a series of six films, Nick and Nora Charles were "brilliantly played" by William Powell and Myrna Loy, as Marshall put it. In his version, Nick would be Johnny Depp — but who would be Nora?
Marshall said Nora remains to be cast, but whoever plays her needs to have "humor and an effortlessness," as well as "elegance." That's not something that's easy to find!" Marshall said. "It's about this relationship. The core of all these wonderful thrillers is always that great relationship with each other. That's what drew us to it, and what drew Johnny to it."
A nightclub scene might bring a musical number to the film, but the film itself will not be a musical, Marshall said. "I don't know if Johnny will be part of the music part of it," he said, "because it has to be organic to the story."
Marshall plans to start shooting next year, with a targeted 2013 release. Meanwhile, the director is still in the running for the screen adaptation of "Wicked," for which he says there is "no rush," despite Brett Ratner's recent entreaties that he get to take it on instead.
"They're looking to establish the rights from 'The Wizard of Oz,' which is complicated, so they have the flexibility to do everything they need to do with the film," Marshall said. "[Producer] Marc Platt is a great, dear friend of ours, and I've met with the writers, and they're incredible. They want to do it right."
The film version would pull from both the stage production as well as Gregory Maguire's book, he said. "There's a lot of material to work from," he said. "It's a film! So you've got to approach it differently, from a different angle. It's what gives you so much more flexibility, and what makes it scary, too! That's the tricky part."
Let us know what you're hoping to see from "The Thin Man" and "Wicked" movies in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.


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Эдгар Букингем (; 8 июля 1867, Филадельфия, Пенсильвания, США — 29 апреля 1940, Вашингтон, США) — американский учёный-физик.

Биография
Окончил Гарвардский университет со степенью бакалавра физики в 1887 году. Затем обучался в Страсбургском и Лейпцигском университетах, в том числе у химика Вильгельма Оствальда. Получил докторскую степень в Лейпцигском университете в 1893 году, после чего преподавал физическую химию и физику в Колледже Брин-Мар. В 1897—1899 годах написал учебник по термодинамике. В 1899 году покинул Брин-Мар и работал на медном руднике в . В 1901 году женился в Техасе на Элизабет Гольштейн и начал преподавать физику в Висконсинском университете.

С 1902 по 1906 год работал в Бюро почв Департамента земледелия США в качестве почвофизика, написал и опубликовал за эти годы 2 статьи о динамике газа и воды в почвах. С 1906 по 1937 год работал в Национальном бюро стандартов США (ныне Национальный институт стандартов и технологий, или NIST).

В 1918—1919 годах некоторое время работал атташе по науке в посольстве США в Риме.

В 1923 году Букингем первым из учёных Национального бюро стандартов получил независимый статус, что означает, что он был освобождён от всех административных обязанностей.

В 1937 году ушёл из Национального бюро стандартов, достигнув предельного возраста 70 лет, однако продолжал заниматься исследованиями для бюро, пока не скончался в Вашингтоне (округ Колумбия) 29 апреля 1940 года.

Научная деятельность
Его области знаний включали физику почв, свойства газа, акустику, механику жидких и газообразных сред и  абсолютно черного тела. Букингем является одним из авторов Пи-теоремы в области размерного анализа.

Первая работа Букингема по физике почвы была посвящена аэрации почвы, в частности потерям углекислого газа из почвы и его последующему замещению кислородом. Из своих экспериментов он обнаружил, что скорость диффузии газа в почве существенно не зависит от структуры почвы, плотности или  в почве. Используя эмпирическую формулу, основанную на полученных данных, Букингем смог определить коэффициент диффузии как функцию содержания воздуха. Это соотношение до сих пор часто цитируется во многих современных учебниках и используется в современных исследованиях. В результате его исследований транспорта газов был сделан вывод о том, что обмен газов при аэрации почвы происходит путем диффузии ипрактически не зависит от изменений внешнего барометрического давления.

Затем Букингем занялся исследованиями почвенных вод. Его работа о почвенных водах Studies on the movement of soil moisture была опубликована в Bulletin 38 USDA Bureau of Soils 1907 года. Работа содержала три раздела, первый из которых рассматривал испарение воды из-под слоя почвы. Букингем обнаружил, что почвы различной текстуры могут сильно препятствовать испарению, особенно там, где предотвращается капиллярный поток через самые верхние слои. Второй раздел был посвящён высыханию почв в засушливых и влажных условиях. Букингем обнаружил, что потери на испарение изначально были выше из засушливой почвы, затем через три дня испарение в засушливых условиях стало меньше, чем во влажных условиях, при этом общие потери в конечном итоге увеличились из влажной почвы. Букингем считал, что это произошло из-за самомульчирования (он называл это почвой, образующей естественную мульчу), проявляемой почвой в засушливых условиях.

Третий раздел содержит данные о ненасыщенном потоке и капиллярном действии. Букингем первым осознал важность потенциала сил, возникающих при взаимодействии между почвой и водой. Он назвал это капиллярным потенциалом, который теперь известен как потенциал влаги или воды (матричный потенциал). Он объединил капиллярную теорию и энергетический потенциал в теории физики грунтов и впервые изложил зависимость гидропроводности грунта от капиллярного потенциала. Эта зависимость позже стала известна как относительная проницаемость в нефтяной инженерии. Он также применил формулу, эквивалентную закону Дарси, к ненасыщенному потоку.

В 1923 году опубликовал отчёт, в котором высказывал скептицизм по поводу того, что реактивные двигатели будут экономически конкурентоспособны с винтовыми самолетами на малых высотах и скоростях того периода.

Примечания

Физики США
Почвоведы США
Выпускники Гарвардского университета
Выпускники Страсбургского университета
Выпускники Лейпцигского университета
Преподаватели Брин-Мор-колледжа
Преподаватели Висконсинского университета в Мадисоне
Действительные члены Американского физического общества

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Visceral fat is commonly known as belly fat.
It's found inside your abdominal cavity and wraps around your internal organs.
It's hard to judge how much visceral fat you have. However, a protruding belly and large waist are two signs that you have too much of it.
On the other hand, subcutaneous fat is stored just below your skin. It's the fat that you can pinch easily from just about anywhere on your body.
Carrying too much visceral fat is extremely harmful. It's linked to a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, heart disease and even certain cancers.
Exercise!! Exercise is especially effective at reducing visceral fat. Try combining it with a healthy diet to shed more visceral fat.
Try eating more soluble fiber-rich food or taking a soluble fiber supplement. Eating more soluble fiber can help reduce visceral fat by suppressing your appetite and keeping gut bacteria healthy.
Try eating more protein-rich foods to help reduce visceral fat. Eating more protein may help you lose weight and visceral fat.
Limit added sugar. Added sugar is unhealthy and may increase visceral fat. You can reduce your added sugar intake by simply eating more whole foods, such as fresh vegetables, fruits, lean meats and fish.
Limit your alcohol intake. Drinking too much alcohol regularly may increase visceral fat. Try limiting your alcohol to small amounts.
Avoid trans fat. Try limiting your intake of foods that contain trans fats, such as baked goods and potato chips.
Sleep! Studies have shown that a lack of sleep may increase your risk of visceral fat gain. A good night's rest can do wonders for your health and help fight visceral fat. Try to aim for at least 7 hours of sleep daily.
Reduce your stress levels. Studies have shown that chronic stress is linked to visceral fat gain. To relieve stress, try exercising more, yoga, meditation or more family time.
Try a probiotic. They are live bacteria that can benefit your gut and digestive health. They are found in supplements and foods like yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut.


text:
/**
 * Created by bcolucci on 1/2/15.
 */
'use strict';

module.exports.common = require('./lib/common').common;
module.exports.http = require('./lib/http').http;
module.exports.error = require('./lib/error').error;
module.exports.builder = require('./lib/builder').builder;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Brothers in Arms 2 iPhone Game to Have Co-Op, Though Not at Release
News 2/18/2010 at 11:41 AM by Jason Love 1
The number of co-op gaming apps on the iPhone is, slowly but surely, growing, and a new one is possibly on the way. It seems that Brothers in Arms 2: Global Front, the sequel to last year's Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes iPhone port, will include complete campaign co-op for all 13 of the game's levels for two players. There's a catch, though: the co-op mode will not be available at the game's release. Does that mean co-op will be patched into the game later, or will it end up being left out altogether? We reached out to Gameloft, the game's developer, for clarification, but have yet to receive any word regarding whether or not the game will eventually have co-op. For now, chock this one up to a solid "TBD" (but hopeful) status.
Source: Touchgen.net
2 player co-op
Co-op WW2 Shooter, Furious 4, Is Finally Sent To That Farm Upstate
Furious 4 Gameplay Footage Leaked, Then Removed.
Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 Will Be Re-Branded
Gearbox's Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 is "Evolving"
BIA: Furious Four - Gearbox's Other Co-Op Game Still Coming Too


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3 seats up for vote at Michigan Supreme Court
By Ed White
DETROIT (AP) — Knocked for years as deeply divided, the Michigan Supreme Court lately is shaping up as a court of comity with a majority of opinions this year drawing little or no public dissent among the seven justices.
Next on the docket: An election with three seats up for grabs.
Justices David Viviano and Brian Zahra, nominated by the Republican Party, want to keep their robes. They're joined on the GOP ticket by James Redford, a Kent County judge seeking a promotion to the state's highest court.
The Democratic Party has nominated appeals Judge William Murphy, Wayne County Judge Deborah Thomas and Detroit-area lawyer Richard Bernstein.
No party affiliations are on the ballot, although political parties pick the candidates. Viviano and Zahra will be labeled as current members of the court. Justices backed by the Republican Party currently have a 5-2 edge on the court.
"There is greater collegiality," said Zahra, who Gov. Rick Snyder appointed in 2011 and won election the following year.
"What we have are seven people who are incredibly passionate about the law, hard-working, bright and open," he said. "We start exchanging memos well before a case comes to conference. There's thoughtful consideration given to everyone."
Viviano and Zahra describe themselves as "rule of law" judges who don't make policy but strictly interpret laws approved by the Legislature.
"A rule of law judge isn't selling a message that benefits any particular group," Viviano said.
Murphy is chief judge at the Michigan appeals court and has served on that court since 1988. At age 69, he can serve only one term if elected to the Supreme Court.
"I have some gray in my hairs and my eyebrows but that comes with wisdom," Murphy said.
"With my background and experience ... I felt there was something I could add," he said of his decision to run. "I saw this as a final chapter" in a long public career.
The Grand Rapids area hasn't produced a Supreme Court justice in decades, but Murphy or Redford could break that streak. Both live in East Grand Rapids.
"What's important is we have the best possible justices on our court. What makes them the best might involve geographic diversity," said Redford, a former federal prosecutor and Navy judge.
Bernstein, who is blind, probably is best known for TV ads featuring his family's Detroit-area law firm. His campaign slogan: "Blind Justice."
"Blind justice means fairness for all people," Bernstein said. "The court should be blind to special interests, blind to partisan politics, blind to political ideology."
Bernstein declined to offer much criticism of the court, although he disagrees with a long line of opinions that makes it harder to win slip-and-fall lawsuits.
Thomas, a Wayne County judge for 20 years, said she would like to become a Supreme Court justice partly to promote local specialty courts for defendants who are veterans, addicted to drugs or mentally ill.
"I would like to expand those courts across the state," she said.
Doug Dern of the Natural Law Party, and Kerry Morgan of the Libertarian Party also are on the ballot.
You are here: HomeDetroit > 3 seats up for vote at Michigan Supreme Court


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https://www.ringcentral.com/blog/ringcentral-lauded-as-part-of-economy-boosting-jobs-machine/
RingCentral Lauded as Part of Economy-Boosting "Jobs Machine"
Very exciting news: RingCentral has garnered a mention in The Economist!
This week the magazine published an article on immigrants helping to create jobs in America – part of a broader discussion on immigrants and the role they play in the U.S. economy. (Congress is now considering legislation which may increase the number of visas available to highly skilled immigrants, among other provisions.)
RingCentral CEO Vlad Shmunis
Why is RingCentral part of this conversation? Our CEO and co-founder, Vlad Shmunis, immigrated to California from Ukraine when he was young. He received bachelor's and master's degrees at San Francisco State University before founding his first company (which provided the technical backbone for RingCentral).
Today, roughly a decade after its founding, RingCentral is booming – and it's adding jobs across the U.S. Our fastest-growing office, in Greenwood Village, Colo., is the one The Economist mentions.
"RingCentral, a Silicon Valley firm that supplies cloud-based phone systems to businesses, has hired 74 staff in an office in Denver that opened in 2011," the magazine writes.
(We are still expanding this office; visit the RingCentral careers page to see the opportunities available there and in our California HQ.)
In addition to RingCentral, the Economist cites ZocDoc, oDesk and Bloom Energy as immigrant-founded job creators. We are thrilled to be part of such an elite group, as well as an exciting trend: 40 percent of the Fortune 500 was started by immigrants or their children (according to Partnership for a New American Economy data cited by The Economist).
Visit The Economist's website to read the article, or keep an eye out for the magazine's next print edition!


Equity Bank Kenya yesterday announced their third quarter results for the year ending September 2016. According to the results, they continued to demonstrate resilience against the banking sector turbulence in Kenya that attributed to the failure of 3 banks late last year that resulted in uncertainty in addition to the capping of interest rates. Ever since President Uhuru announced the passing of the Bill that regulates the interest rates induced on bank loans and deposits in August 2016, shares of banks plunged significantly with most banks struggling with high retail exposure and non-performing loans due to the slow rate at which customers repay these loans.
According to a statement made by Dr. James Mwangi, a strong governance structure is the only thing that can give certainty of how decisions are made and how much a bank grows, and to him, that is one of the factors that saw the bank's profits boost to up to Kshs 15 billion for the year ending 30th September.
He also pointed out that innovation and efficiency focus to what customers need have resulted in the Group's steady growth. Several banks have had to pursue technology-driven strategies to lower costs and engage more with customers whose interest is shifting from visiting branches and being able to transact at their own peril. Dr. Mwangi said that Equity Bank's early and continuing investment in technology as well as its committed progressive transitioning from the traditional heavy fixed cost based brick and mortar operation to an increasingly digital driven variable cost based model aligns perfectly with the observed changing preferences by banking sector customers.
The most impactful innovation in contributing to efficiency and profitability was Equitel – the Group's mobile banking platform which within its first full year of operation in Kenya managed to capture 15.2% of the total mobile money transfer market in both value and volume of transactions. Mobile digital banking processed nearly 3.5 million loans totaling Kshs.30 billion which represented 84% of the loans granted by the bank in Kenya. The quality of the loans disbursed through the mobile digital platform during the year was excellent with a realized recovery rate of 98%.
It's interesting to note that the 25,000 Agency Network has been instrumental in digitizing cash and the pilot phase of digitizing the bank has proven to be quite successful especially in the period of one year.
Equitel grew mobile transactions to up to 150.8 million in one year handling more transactions processed by branches, ATMs and agents combined.
The banks agents also processed 46 million transactions compared to branches and ATMs which together processed 35 million transactions over the period. Merchant banking digital payment increased by 38% while the value of the merchant transactions grew by 35% demonstrating the greater acceptance of digital payments at the retail level.
Dr Mwangi revealed that at an average 200 Equity branches issued 400,000 loans compared to the 3.5 million loans issued via the mobile platform worth Kshs 30 billion. This number can get divided into an average of 50,000 loan requests per day on weekdays with the number skyrocketing to over 120,000 on average, during the weekends, especially on Sundays. Over 40% of the applicants qualify for these loans, with three-quarter of this number coming from the SME sector. He said that this growth can be attributed not just by the fact that more customers are switching to digitized banking, but by the fact that transferring money from customers with Equitel SIM cards can send money to another person with the SIM card for free.
He also mentioned that at this rate the bank is optimistic that they will have captured over 30% of the market share by the end of the year. Mobile digital banking processed nearly 3.5 million loans totaling Kshs.30 billion which represented 84% of the loans granted by the bank in Kenya. It is also interesting to note that these loans issued via the platform have a 98 percent loan recovery rate, showing just how popular and efficient the disbursement of loans via mobile is. With this, he also mentioned that the numbers seen by the mobile transactions are going to significantly grow even as the bank migrates additional services onto its mobile platform.
The launch of the bank's new digital banking platform 'Eazzy Banking' crowned the success of the one year pilot of digital Equitel mobile banking. With its online, internet based, open interoperable mobile banking channels with downloadable applications including cash and liquidity management products for corporate and SMEs; the launch facilitates access of the banking capability by the Bank's customers through the release of a series of 10 Eazzy banking solutions and tools. The platform shows a lot of promise in repositioning of the bank's offerings through innovative products and channels.
Profits in the country grew by 20% while the profit before tax in Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo grew by 130% and 16% respectively.
Regional banking subsidiaries contribute 30% of the group's total deposits, 18% of the total loans and 25% of total group asset, signifying growing diversification which places the Group in good stead to sustain its growth momentum going forward.
Strong customer deposits growth in Kenya of 22% (Kshs 48 billion) more than off-set a decline in deposits in south Sudan by 81% (Kshs 36 billion) resulting in an overall growth in customer deposits at the group level of 5%. Liquidity ratio has in Kenya was enhanced from 25% to 45% in and Capital ratio remained strong providing significant headroom for growth by the group.
Return on Equity (RoE) for the Group increased from 25% over the same period last year to 26% while Return on Assets increased 4.3% to 4.5%.
Equity Bank has been recognized both locally and internationally as the most innovative Bank in Africa and best mobile banking services provider in Africa by the Banker. Global Credit Rating maintained Equity's investment grade at AA- with a stable outlook while the Group was ranked 8thbest bank globally in return on assets for the second year running by the Banker ranking of the top 1000 worlds banks 2016. Equity Group also retained its global award winning status by being named by Euro money Awards of Excellence as Africa's best bank 2016.
Equity Group has continued to invest in social impact programmes through Equity Group Foundations with resounding success in society. To date 12,377 deserving pupils have received comprehensive secondary school scholarships through the 'Wings to Fly program'; 3405 have gone through the Equity Leaders Programme with 329 of them having joined/alumni of global universities. 14,000 Kenyans have been reached with renewable energy products. In agriculture, 500,000 peasant farmers have been transformed to agribusiness. Nearly 1.3 million youth and women have received financial training (FiKA) while 25,303 have received entrepreneurship training. This has helped to deepen financial inclusion with loans worth KShs 32 billion availed to women under the Fanikisha products and loans worth Kshs 18 billion accessed by youth.
The perfect convergence of banking and telecom with the advantage of innovative technology is the key to improving banking systems in Africa. The use of digitization in banking operating systems favors the use of online, mobile channels and Agency network which are cost effective, variables cost 3rd party channels which will play a key role in the digitization of cash, reducing operational costs and improving cost income ratio in the long run.


This works great EXCEPT I lose the photo attachments.
Has anyone come up with a good workflow for this? ArcPro maybe?
Any ideas are welcome. Hopefully Survey123 will handle this in the future.
Anyone know how to add photos back into a Hosted Feature Service at all?


Demeaned, suspended, expelled ..."teached." Why are so many students, especially African American boys, not fulfilling their potential? Why do we still have a race-based "achievement gap" in the U.S.? TEACHED is a series of short films examining these and related issues. Produced by Loudspeaker Films, TEACHED is a non-profit project sponsored by the International Documentary Association. It is complimented by our web interview series On the Loudspeaker. Film synopses below.


How to open file with VGI extension?
The VGI file extension belongs to the category Game Files. The extended name of this file format is Vista Game Explorer Editor Game File. Below is a list of programs that support files with this extension. Just download one of them, then double click on the VGI file, which did not want to open and manually select the program installed by default. The VGI file should open now without any problem.
It can also happen that, despite the installation of one of the following programs, your VGI file will still return an error when you try to run it. In such a case, refer to the next part of our article, where we present solutions to most problems that may occur when you try to work with the new file extension, which is the VGI.
Right-click the VGI file that we want to open, then clicking the option "Open with"
In this case, the solution may be to find another copy of the VGI file, to ask for another copy of it (if you got it from another person), or to try to download it again from the internet.
In this case, you must associate the VGI file with the application either by selecting the application (information here) or manually (information here).
The application for supporting the VGI file has not been entirely installed.
Your computer does not have sufficient resources to the currently open the VGI file.
We install all the drivers that are needed to run the application that supports the VGI file.
Most of the items on the registry concerning the VGI file are added automatically during installation of the program/application. In some situations, the user himself has to create a new registry entry, and type in the appropriate value. This method can be used to associate a file type with an existing application. Then locate the ProgID of the application in the registry. To access the Windows registry editor - click "Start", type "regedit", and then press ENTER.
To associate the VGI file type with the new application, you must define the ProgID for a particular application and if you want to get information on defining a new ProgID, you should see the program identifiers. For information about file extensions and its associations with applications look in the key HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT .
Have you ever got a file that you could not open? Probably the situation was that it had an extension not used before on your computer, e.g. VGI. Such a situation could also take place with other extensions, but it always ended the same - giving you a headache when determining which program should be used to properly open the file.
Typically, Windows has the appropriate software to open the VGI file or just preview its contents. Often, however, there is no such software, and then we need to identify what kind of file it is, and download the appropriate software to support it.


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The Perfect Weapon (2016)
October 11, 2016 December 21, 2019 ~ monsterhunter
It's a dystopian world where our worst fears have come horribly true! An all seeing state where the government monitors your every move! Where people who dare to question the state are hunted down and ruthlessly killed! Where twenty-four hours a day, government propaganda is beamed into every home and street corner via the state-controlled media! But so what? We already put up with such an overreaching government already! This is a future though that is a million times worse! Where one man controls everything and that one man is Steven Seagal! Nightmarish indeed!
I can think of a lot apocalyptic scenarios that I would never want to live to see. Zombie attacks, meteor strikes, plague, even more Law & Order TV series, but what keeps me up at night is the idea that I might wake up one day to see Steve's jowly face, complete with absurd orange-tinted granny glasses staring down at me from every electronic billboard in town! His creepy pro-statist messages no doubt peppered with the threat of being sent to re-education camps for those who don't obey, where they will be forced to watch Sniper: Special Ops, Code of Honor and Against the Dark until their mind melts! Or at least until they beg to see The Asian Connection!
This Steven Seagal movie though features a very special guest star! Steven Seagal! Yes, this is another one of those "Steven Seagal presents some other dude who does all the work while Steve shows up for about fifteen minutes, twisting people's hands, lounging with a sexy babe and babbling incoherently about honor and the benefits of an intrusive centralized government" movie!
This time around the focus is on a government assassin codenamed Condor. Condor is the best there is, but he keeps having these pesky flashes of memory about the love of his life, Nina. His assignments usually involve him killing everyone on the scene but during his most recent job, he let a beautiful woman go because she reminded him of Nina. Now Condor's boss, the Controller, says he has to be taken in to be reprogrammed!
Once at the reprogramming center, Condor makes a break for it and in the course of his escape locates Nina in a nearby cell! But he saw her killed! And he buried her! They were just manipulating you, Condor, Nina advises.
Condor may be the best mindless killer the State has, but the emphasis has to be on the "mindless" part as he doesn't stop to wonder why of all the reprogramming centers he was housed in the one where she was or why they are holding her captive. What's the point of faking her death just to make Condor a cold-blooded killer and then just locking her up? What not just kill her for real?
Condor though isn't the master tactician that everyone else in the movie turns out to be so instead of wondering at both the incredible coincidence and nonsensical situation Nina relates, he takes her back to his place to get his weapons.
But won't the government be looking for them there? Condor acknowledges this but goes anyway and not only retrieves his weapons, but also takes a slow motion shower and has sex with Nina. Despite being the most wanted fugitives in an Orwellian surveillance state, it takes almost all night for the government to break in and capture them. (Again, Condor never questions this or even how he could drive a stolen government van through the city without being tracked. And are we really supposed to believe that a future of this sort wouldn't have the ability to remotely disable vehicles?)
After being tortured live on TV, Condor's boss rescues him and it is finally revealed that his boss is working for the resistance with Nina and they need Condor to kill the Director (Seagal). Normally, you might carp about the fact that in such a dictatorship, Condor is able to penetrate the Director's headquarters by dispatching only three guards, but honestly that's three more guards than Seagal needs!
After getting his ass kicked by Seagal, Condor then suffers the worst torture imaginable – having Seagal lecture him about what is truth! Then Seagal plays a video of Condor's boss and Nina discussing how they tricked Condor into thinking he had a relationship with her when in fact they never met and that it was done to get Condor to kill the Director so that the Controller could be the new Director!
Only in a Seagal movie could the dictator of an oppressive state be portrayed as a decent guy! (Even before this, whether Seagal was truly villain was muddied when Seagal justified the way things were because it's the only way to protect people after the war that nearly wiped out humanity. At worst, he's probably just a bit overprotective, right?)
The only shocking moment in the film (other than Condor's persistently shocking stupidity) is when he stabs Seagal and seems to kill him! How could Seagal allow that to happen? But then a second Seagal appeared and told the first dying Seagal that all was going according to plan! Most Seagalian future ever!
Fitfully terrible, mostly boring and always not making sense (Why is any of this happening? If Seagal had the video of the Controller coming up with the scheme all along, why didn't he just eliminate the Controller to begin with?), The Perfect Weapon is the pinnacle of bad Steven Seagal movies, mixing a hackneyed Big Brother future, silly killer with a conscience storyline, and out of left field Seagal philosophy and plot twists. The movie even goes the extra mile with its ill-advised efforts at artiness, its lingering shots on Condor and his angst perfectly punctuated with schmaltzy music only serving to make things even more dull and sluggish than the confusing mishmash of bad ideas already is.
Of course this is still a Seagal movie so it ends with a bad special effects shot of his face inside a fighter jet flying away, presumably to keep working that perfect plan of his, whatever the hell it was.
Posted in 2000s, Action, Science Fiction, Steven Seagal
‹ PreviousMurders in the Rue Morgue (1971)
Next ›End of a Gun (2016)
4 thoughts on "The Perfect Weapon (2016)"
Bill Shute says:
Maybe I'm living under a rock, but these recent Seagal movies are almost as obscure to me as the Italian Andy J. Forest films you review. I don't seem them in the budget bin at Wal-Mart (or even K-Mart), they don't seem to be offered on any of the 1000 cable TV stations….are they made for export only? Of course, I'm not really seeking them out, but the man is churning out so many, there must be SOME audience for them or no one would be financing them. I applaud your stamina for making it through these and documenting them. As they say, "it's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it." Your reviews are always entertaining while capturing the essence of the film. Keep up the good work!
I've not seen them in a physical store (though I haven't really looked too hard either), but you can buy either the DVD/Blu-ray release or the video on demand streaming version from places like Amazon. I am assuming these are popular in other countries because I can't imagine anyone purposely watching them to be entertained in a non-ironic fashion.
They are obscure to me as well. I was just randomly checking last weekend and found out he had three movies released (The Perfect Weapon, Killing Salazar, End of a Gun) in the last two months after the last batch of three. And there's at least one more (Contract to Kill) that looks like it should come out before the end of the year!
Van Roberts says:
I live in a small, podunk, Mississippi town named Columbus and I have seen these titles available to for sale on the video display shelves for months and months. They seem to stick around longer than some of the major titles. I haven't seen any of them in the discount bins, but you can be certain that they will appear in a box set of crappy titles.
Bob Ram says:
it's on netflix. the idea seems good and i remember the 1991 movie was good. i should have known, just like the remake of total recall, it totally sucks as well.


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Articles ›
Booksellers Envision the Future, the Art of Translating Tove Ditlevsen, and More
Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—publishing reports, literary dispatches, academic announcements, and more—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today's stories.
Publishers Weekly recaps the first day of Reimagining Bookstores, a two-day virtual forum led by Praveen Madan of Kepler's Books through which over six hundred booksellers and publishing workers are envisioning a better future for bookselling. "How can we reimagine bookstores to deepen literacy, strengthen our communities, and pay decent, living wages to our employees?" asked Madan.
"I found the act of translating Ditlevsen's Gift more devastating than any other translation I've done. I felt as though she were my best friend and she was betraying me in every chapter." Translator Michael Favala Goldman praises the "emotional intensity" of Tove Ditlevesen's work. (New Yorker)
Agustín Martínez, Jorge Díaz, and Antonio Mercero have come forward as the writers behind the pseudonym Carmen Mola. The three men revealed their identities by accepting the Planeta Prize, which offers a prize of €1 million (approximately $1.2 million), in person. The revelation has drawn some scrutiny. Writer and activist Beatriz Gimeno commented, "Quite apart from using a female pseudonym, these guys have spent years doing interviews. It's not just the name—it's the fake profile that they've used to take in readers and journalists. They are scammers." Mola has previously been billed as "Spain's Elena Ferrante." (Guardian)
Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman, coauthors of The Very Nice Box, discuss their complementary writing styles. "Laura is just more generative," says Gleichman. "Her chapters would be longer in general; they would just be more raw and funny." (Guernica)
"I began making a fun world using these fantastic elements, in which people could transform and change—and I found I could finally get some visceral release or pleasure from the process of writing." Joss Lake reflects on the speculative elements in his debut novel, Future Feeling. (Believer)
Brendan Kennelly, a highly admired Irish writer who authored over thirty books of poetry, has died. He was eighty-five. (Literary Hub)
Words Without Borders has hired Adam Dalva to serve as its books editor. A writer and a critic, Dalva has contributed to the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books, among other publications.
In the midst of the ongoing supply chain crisis, Publishers Weekly has created a spreadsheet to track publication date changes.
A Matter of Survival for Independent Bookstores
by Michael Bourne | Online Exclusive 3.30.20
As scores of indie bookstores have shut their doors to the public and laid off staff, many continue to serve their customers via online orders and curbside pickup programs.
594 Ways of Reading Jane Eyre
by Bonnie Chau | News and Trends 2.12.20
A research project called Prismatic Jane Eyre compares the many translations of Charlotte Brontë's classic novel, studying the ways each reflects the culture in which it was created.
First Fiction 2021
by Staff | Feature 6.16.21
Excerpts from the titles by Eric Nguyen, Lee Lai, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Joss Lake, Pik-Shuen Fung, and the late Anthony Veasna So featured in our annual roundup of the summer's best debut fiction.
The History of Racial Passing in Books, Finding Work-Life Balance, and More
by Staff | Daily News 10.18.21
The movement to credit translators on book covers; finalists for this year's CHIRBy Awards; Gabrielle Drolet writes about the precarity of freelance writing; and other stories.


text:
What NOTS can do for you
About nots
EAF 125
SOCIAL AND ENVIROMENTAL IMPACT TRHOUGH IMPACT ENTERPRISES
NOTS Solar Lamps improves lives and life opportunities for African families through offgrid, affordable light and power. We create local enterprises that build and sell SHS (Solar Home Systems), using a groundbreaking business and consumer financing model. Our Mutimax SHS powers brighter, cleaner, safer homes. Through it, we champion access to more and better opportunities for the poorest in Africa.
We believe that impact enterprise can reduce poverty more quickly than NGOs alone. And we've learned that progress at a meaningful scale needs grass-roots movements to spring up and thrive. Movements are powered by opportunity and choices.
NOTS Impact Enterprises was formed in 2003, harnessing entrepreneurship, innovation and activism. Our investors care about the large scale and the long term - environment, social inequality, poverty - and are determined to make a difference. Our other stakeholders are people, and Planet Earth. Each gets a healthy return.
We were founded by serial entrepreneur and former McKinsey consultant, Bart Hartman. From his personal experience came the insight that properly motivated, impact entrepreneurship had the potential to reduce poverty faster and on a much bigger scale than philanthropy and charity.
With that in mind, we began by co-founding Triple Jump BV, a microfinance investment management firm, in partnership with Oxfam and ASN Bank. Today the firm has EUR 800 million under management. Through its microfinance experiences NOTS learned that 600 million Africans had no access to electricity, and we were motivated to tackle it: the business had found its true purpose.
After several years of piloting solutions, we launched renewable energy businesses in Mali in 2011, and Rwanda in 2014. In just a few years NOTS Solar Lamps has become one of the leading SHS providers, helping 325,000 families improve their lives through solar lighting and power.
In 2015 political instability in Mali forced us to close our operation there. Our focus now is Rwanda. In 2019, we'll launch a brand new SHS - Mutimax - at a breakthrough price. We're combining it with a payment model designed to fit the finances - and frame of mind - of Africa's poorest. We'll prove that the business model has traction before establishing local manufacturing. Then we'll scale by repeating that successful formula in other African nations - and empowering others to copy our success.
We're aiming to make a huge impact on one of the world's most intractable problems. To do that we need to create a movement, not just a market. Our ultimate goal is to tear down all the major barriers to joining in - price, finance, payment model, manufacturing - so that others can follow us. Together, we can bring electricity to all 125 million African families that are currently without, by 2025 at the latest.
Our blueprint is to create local renewable energy enterprises, to build and sell 'Made in Africa' SHS, through an innovative business and partnership model that makes the systems affordable and accessible to the very poorest, most rural families. That's how we maximise our social and environmental impact, while creating sustainable, profitable businesses that provide investors with a healthy return.
The locally built SHS system will be offered at a breakthrough price. That still won't be enough to assure success. So for the first time anywhere, NOTS Solar Lamps Rwanda Ltd will bring together a microfinance model, automated credit checking (through mobile phone data) and cashless payments into a single, streamlined offering. We're testing all elements of the blueprint in Rwanda over 2019. We're convinced it will be a game changer.
NOTS' vision is to provide all rural families in Sub Saharan Africa with access to solar electricity by 2025.
NOTS' mision is to improve the livelihoods of rural people in Sub-Saharan Africa through reliable, affordable 'Made in Africa' solar systems for domestic and productive use. We share what we learn - with other solar companies governments and agencies- in order to accelerate access to electricity across the the content.
NOTS' strategy consists of 6 key elements:
Focus on serving low income households
The majority of the 600 million people in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) without access to electricity are part of a low income household. All elements of the NOTS business model are designed to serve these low income households in an effective and sustainable way.
Superior ICT Systems
NOTS will be the first company with an integrated ICT platform (credit assessment system; auto-withdrawal system; default rate management; and communications with prospects, clients, dealers and animators) geared towards providing low income households with a Solar Home Systems (SHS) on credit.
Local brand and marketing– getting close to target households
Lack of SHS awareness among target households is the biggest obstacle for SHS penetration. We've created a local SHS brand - Mutimax - and we're co-branding with our partner Airtel. We will collaborate with Airtel to select prospects based on their client data, and run joint marketing campaigns.
Sufficient capital in local currency to provide loans to consumers
NOTS' funding structure (with SPV for consumer loans; and issuing notes in local currency) will enable NOTS to attract capital from institutional investors and to avoid currency hedging costs.
Partnership with Airtel
NOTS builds on the already high penetration of mobile phones in SSA. A partnership with Airtel provides NOTS with: data for credit assessment; mobile banking infrastructure for repayment of loans; strong brand (co-branding); dense agent / distribution network; and free airtime and sms packages for promoting SHS and for stimulating good payment behaviour.
Local manufacturing with strong partners
NOTS' Chinese partner has 15 years experience in SHS for low income households, providing product design, component sourcing and expertise for setting up our assembly plant in Rwanda.
Positivo BGH is NOTS' partner for local assembly, with strong presence in several SSA countries helping to drive scale.
Rwandan brand and marketing
NOTS offers Rwandan families the Lighting Global certified 3-lamp MUTIMAX Solar System, with phone and radio charging capability, for USD 60 including interest, to be paid in 100 weekly instalments of USD 0.60 each. This pricing makes the MUTIMAX Solar System affordable for nearly all 2 million Rwandan families that currently have no access to electricity (and use kerosene lamps and candles). Comparable solar systems of other solar companies cost at least USD 90.
President Investor CEO Entrepreneur Consumer
Find information related to our Dutch ANBI status.
© 2019 NOTS


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Home About Us Research Case Studies Founder Get Involved
World's Greatest Girls Club
Shaping a Strong Future of Leadership, Impact and Influence For The Next Generation
Meet This Month's Featured Young Female Leader
– Meet Kate Gilman Williams
The World's Greatest Girls Club is a program that help shape the mindset, self-awareness and expectations around females in positions of influence and impact.
The program consists of 3- minute educational videos led by some of the World's Greatest Women leaders and cover a range of topics from relationships, money, self-image, confidence and much more.
If you are a student, parent or teacher please, sign in to get access to all the educational modules dedicated to shaping tomorrow's generation of female leaders.
© 2023 World's Greatest Women


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Q: Google Natural Language Sentiment Analysis incorrect result We have Google Natural AI integrated into our product for Sentiment Analysis (https://cloud.google.com/natural-language). One of the customers complained that when they write "BAD" then it shows a positive sentiment.
On further investigation, we found that when google Sentiment Analysis Natural Language API is called with input as BAD or Bad (pls see its in all caps or first letter caps ), it identifies text as an entity (a location or consumer good) & sends back the result as Positive while when we write "bad" in all small case, it sends negative.
Has anyone faced a similar problem? How did you solve it?
One obvious way looks like converting text into a small case but that may break some other use cases (maybe where entities do not get analyzed due to a small case text). Another way which we are building is to use our own dictionary of words with sentiments before calling google APIs but that doesn't answer the said problem, which may occur with any other text.
Inputs will help us. Thank you!

A: The NLP API uses an underlying model that is neural in nature. The knowledge comes from training on real world text. It is normal to get different results for different capitalizations as they can relate to different uses of the same trigram, e.g. Mike (person), mike (microphone, slang), MIKE (military alphabet entry).
The second key aspect  is that the model is tuned and meant to be used on larger pieces of text and not on single words, hence good results can not be expected in this case.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


A hamstring muscle strain refers to a tear in the muscle group which covers the back of the thigh. Most commonly occurs during running and sprinting activities, particularly during sport. This is because the muscle is contracted with excessive force in a stretched position.
Clients describe the sensation as a sudden sharp pain in the back of the thigh and sometimes a "Popping" sensation can be felt. Bruising may also appear around the area or lower down the leg following the injury.
Initially, it's important to follow the PRICE protocol (as seen in our previous blog here ), avoid any excessive stretching of the hamstring and avoid changing the way you walk.
During a physiotherapy assessment, we can identify any factors that increased the risk of the hamstring strain to occur.
Physiotherapy treatment will be focused on improving hamstring strength and correcting any muscle imbalances that may have contributed to the injury. Manual therapy is also used to increase hamstring flexibility.
Approximately one-third of hamstring strains will recur, with the highest risk for injury recurrence being within the first 2 weeks of return to sport. The consequences of recurrence are high as recurrent hamstring strains have been shown to result in significantly more time lost than first time hamstring strains. For these reasons, it's important to ensure a graduated strengthening and stretching protocol has been followed. At Oxford Circus Physio, we can assess to see when you're ready to return to sport and create a return to sport plan.
What causes my heel to hurt in the mornings?
If you notice your heel is sore when taking the first few steps in the morning as you first get out of bed, you might have "Plantar-fasciopathy". The Plantar Fascia is the band of tissue that runs from your heel to your toes. It supports the arch of your foot and provides shock absorption.
Plantar Fasciopathy (Often referred to as Plantar Fasciitis) can be caused by overloading the plantar fascia, causing collagen disruption and sometimes micro-tears to the tissue.
The pain is commonly felt in the heel and can refer along the inside arch of the foot.
Pain is usually worse first thing in the morning or the first few steps after inactivity, but gets worse after prolonged walking or standing.
Plantar Fasciopathy is commonly caused by excessive walking in non-supportive footwear.
Avoid walking barefoot and wear well cushioned / supportive shoes, a silicon gel heel pad may help.
Regularly stretch the plantar fascia, and calf muscles – as shown below.


text:
Q: Hibernate @Enumerated seems to be ignored I have the class Person mapped with annotations with enum Sex reffering to the sex if is male or female. Let's see:
@Entity
@Table(name = "PERSON")
public class Person {

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    private int id;

    @Enumerated(EnumType.STRING)
    @Column(name = "SEX")
    private Sex sex;

    private enum Sex {
        M,
        F;
    }

    // Getters, setters & constructors
}

When I test getting all the rows from the MySQL database, it works and the mapping is correct.
The database is already predefined, here is the column's definition:
`SEX` enum('M','F') NOT NULL

However the error occurs when I configure Hibernate with hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto=validate:
found [enum (Types#CHAR)], but expecting [varchar(255) (Types#VARCHAR)]

The error is a bit different (expecting [integer (Types#INTEGER)]) happend when I use EnumType.ORDINAL or no @Enumerated at all.
What do I do wrong?

A: try add  columnDefinition
@Enumerated(EnumType.STRING)
@Column(name = "SEX" , columnDefinition="ENUM('M','S')" ,nullable = false )
private Sex sex;

hibernate validate do check types , lenght.... as you have this in db level validator thinks it's different type .
I didn't see it with Oracle , but with MySql it's might be


text:
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	return outputIFrame
};

export default iFrameHolder;


text:
Shelter Tails Calendar
Low-cost vaccine clinic: 10 a.m.-1:45 p.m. June 27, July 11, 18 and 25, TARA Clinic, 60 Enterprise Place, Middletown. For previously spayed/neutered cats and dogs only. No appointment needed. Dogs must be leashed and cats in carriers. One-year rabies vaccine, $10; three-year rabies vaccine with written proof of current vaccination, $15; distemper vaccine, $15; canine heartworm/lyme test, $25; microchipping, $35. Visit tara-spayneuter.org for complete service list.
Low-cost spay/neuter clinics: Mobile clinic for cats: June 27, Monticello; July 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, Newburgh; July 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, Monroe; July 3, 10, 17, 24, 31, Middletown. $70 per cat includes spay/neuter, rabies vaccine, ear cleaning, nail trim. Stationary clinic for dogs, every Mon., Tues., Wed., Middletown. $120 and up includes rabies vaccine and cone collar. By appointment only. Additional services available. The Animal Rights Alliance, Inc. 343-1000. tara-spayneuter.org.
Bags for a Cause Program: Throughout June, Hannaford, 31 Ted Drive, Pine Bush. For every reusable Green Community bag purchased from display tagged Everything Animals Resource Center, $1 will be donated to EARC. 361-4465.
Pop-up yard sales: Most weekends in June, July and Aug., weather permitting, Everything Animals Resource & Activity Center, 2807 Route 17K, Bullville. Name your price on most items. Call for sale times, 361-4465.
Camp Kindness: 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. daily, Monday through Friday, July 8-Aug.2, Catskill Animal Sanctuary, 316 Old Stage Road, Saugerties. Weekly programs for kids ages 8-11 and teens ages 12-16. Flexible drop-off starting at 8:45 a.m. Aftercare available until 5 p.m. Includes vegan lunches and snacks. Time with rescued animals, make vegan food, explore themes of compassion and kindness for all, animal-themed games, learn ways to make a difference. $395 per weekly session, $485 with aftercare. Payment plans, sibling discounts, referral discounts. 336-8447, Ext. 205.
Operation Paws Car Show: 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. July 14, Lasser Park, 49 Station Road, Salisbury Mills. Rain date, July 28. Free to attend, donations of pet food and supplies welcomed. To show car, $15. Vendors needed, $25. Benefits Humane Society of Blooming Grove. 496-6199.
Rescued farm animal tours: Hourly, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat.-Sun. through November, Catskill Animal Sanctuary, 316 Old Stage Road, Saugerties. Home to 11 species of rescued farm animals with hundreds of residents. Plant-based food demos and tastings. $12 adults; $8 seniors, veterans and kids ages 3-12; free for kids ages 2 and younger. 336-8447. Info@CASanctuary.org. casanctuary.org/visit.


Paris, May 6: Models all over the world are envied for their beauty, glory and aura. Models around the globe create a new sense of view for the fashion lovers.
Although, a law in France which bans featuring extremely thin fashion models has come into effect, the media reported.
According to the law that came into effect on Friday, models will need to provide a doctor's certificate attesting to their overall physical health, with special regard to their body mass index (BMI) - a measure of weight in relation to height, the BBC reported.
The Health Ministry says the aim of the law is to fight eating disorders and inaccessible ideals of beauty.
Digitally altered photos will also have to be labelled and images, where a model's appearance has been manipulated, will need to be marked "photographie retouchee" (retouched photograph).
Employers breaking the law could face fines of up to 75,000 euros ($82,000) and up to six months in jail. France is not the first country to legislate on underweight models - Italy, Spain and Israel have all done so.
Anorexia affects between 30,000 to 40,000 people in France, 90 per cent women, according to health ministry figures.