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Wildlife Photo of the Day 2015
Night Monkeys: The night monkeys, also known as the owl monkeys are the only nocturnal monkeys, they are native to Panama and much of tropical South America. Socially monogamous, all night monkeys form pair bonds. Only one infant is born each year. The male is the primary caregiver, and the mother only carries the infant for the first week or so of its life. This is believed to have developed because it increases the survival of the infant and reduces the metabolic costs on the female. Taken on November 9th 2011, in the Peruvian Amazon
Snowy Egret: A beautiful, graceful small egret, very active in its feeding behavior in shallow waters. Known by its contrasting yellow feet, could be said to dance in the shallows on golden slippers. The species was slaughtered for its plumes in the 19th century, but protection brought a rapid recovery of numbers, and the Snowy Egret is now more widespread and common than ever. Taken on Nov 10th 2011 in the Peruvian Amazon.
Yellow Bellied Marmot: Mt Evans has more Marmots per mile than any other known mountain in Colorado. Marmots spend most of their day sleeping in their dens. A marmot is a rodent that physically resembles a beaver, except for the tail. It hibernates in the winter and thus emerges in the spring a much thinner animal. Between spring and fall, it will gain between 10 and 15 pounds, mostly by eating grasses early in the morning and late evening. Taken on August 11th, 2012 on the Mt. Evans Scenic Byway, Idaho Springs, Colorado
Capped Heron: An attractive heron, if slightly odd in appearance, the Capped Heron is a resident of South American forested swamps, river courses and small pools. Although it seems adaptable to any habitat with water and has a wide distribution, it usually occurs only at low densities. Often seen flying along rivers or feeding in pools, the Capped Heron is best distinguished from other white herons by its small size and rapid, choppy flight style. The sole member of the genus Pilherodius, the Capped Heron is superficially similar to the night-herons, but does not share their nocturnal feeding habits nor their distinctive juvenile plumage. Taken on Nov 10th 2011, in the Peruvian Amazon.
Red slate pencil Sea Urchin: This species is a large sea urchin, with some speciems reaching over 8cm in diameter, with spikes up to 10cm. The spines may have a different color from the bodyand a white ring at their stem. The spines are rounded to triangular in cross-section and taper towards the tip. Surprisingly during the night the red spines turn into a chalky pink. Specimens from Hawai'i tend to have bright red spines, while specimens from other parts of the Pacific may have yellowish or brown spines. Taken on Feb 7th, 2013 at Hapuna Beach, Hawaii
Blacksmith Plover: he blacksmith lapwing or blacksmith plover (Vanellus armatus) occurs commonly from Kenya through central Tanzania to southern and southwestern Africa. The vernacular name derives from the repeated metallic 'tink, tink, tink' alarm call, which suggests a blacksmith's hammer striking an anvil. Taken on July 4th 2014 at Banoka Bush Camp, Botswana
Bobcat: This guy was hiding in a snowbank along the Madison River in Yellowstone. Though the bobcat prefers rabbits and hares, it will hunt anything from insects, chickens, geese and other birds and small rodents to deer. Prey selection depends on location and habitat, season, and abundance. Taken on Feb 4th 2014, in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
White Peacock: White peacocks are not albinos, but rather a subspecies of blue peacocks created by a genetic mutation. White peacocks have white plumage, blue eyes and can mate to create white offspring. Taken on July 11, 2013 at Isola Bella, Lake Maggiore, Stresa, Italy
Giraffes: It is so amazing to see these beautiful and graceful animals poking their heads above the foliage: Taken on July 10th 2011 along the Athi River in Kenya
The crimson-crested woodpecker is a very large woodpecker which is a resident breeding bird from Panama south to northern border regions of Argentina, and on Trinidad. The habitat of this species is forests and more open woodland. A nesting hole is excavated in large dead trees. The Female lays 2 to 3 white eggs, sometimes four. Incubation lasts about 9 to 14 days, by both sexes. Chicks are brooded and fed by both parents, and remain at nest for 3 to 4 weeks after hatching. Young remain within the family group until next breeding season. The crimson-crested woodpecker is 13–15 in long and weighs 6.4-10 oz. Taken on Nov 11th, 2011 in the Peruvian Amazon
Short Finned Pilot Whales at Sunset: Adults males are about 18 feet in length, whereas adult females reach about 12 feet. Adults can weigh from 2200 to 6600 pounds. Males live nearly 45 years, whereas females can live up to 60 years Taken on Apr 4th while at sea in the Sea of Cortez, Central Baja California, Mexico
Greylag Goose: The Greylag Geese are large migratory geese with a wide range in the Old World. The "lag" portion of the common name was derived from the fact that they are one of the last geese to migrate ("lagging behind other migrating geese"). Taken on May 4th, 2013 at Kinderdijk in the Netherlands
Elk: Elk range in forest and forest-edge habitat, feeding on grasses, plants, leaves and bark. Male elk have large antlers which are shed each year. Males also engage in ritualized mating behaviors during the rut, including posturing, antler wrestling (sparring), and bugling, a loud series of vocalizations which establishes dominance over other males and attracts females. Taken on Jan 31st 2014 at the National Elk Refuge outside Jackson., Wyoming
African Jacana: The African Jacana favours the freshwater wetlands with floating vegetation where it can move easily thanks to the long toes. In this species, the female is larger than the male. Taken on July 4th 2014 on a morning game drive at the Banoka Bush Camp in Botswana
Spiny-footed Lizard: at 7 to 8 inches long, this lizard is endemic to northwestern Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. Its common name refers to the spines that are arranged like a comb on the toes of its hind legs. Taken on May 8th, 2015 in Competa, Spain
Black-winged Stilt: The Black-winged Stilt lives mainly in freshwater and saltwater marshes and mudflats, shallow lakes, coastal lagoons, flooded fields and rice fields. The Black-winged Stilt can fbe found in Australia, Central and South America, Africa, Asia, parts of North America, Eurasia, Hawaii and Philippines. Taken on July 4th 2014 while on a morning game drive at the Banoka Bush Camp in Botswana
Blonde Fur Seal: Antarctic Fur seals are fairly large animals and have a short and broad snout. Adult males are dark brown in colour. Females and juveniles tend to be grey with a lighter undersides. Pups are dark brown, nearly black at birth. About one in 1000 Antarctic fur seals are pale 'blonde' variants. Males are substantially bigger than females. Antarctic fur seals grow up to 6.5 ft long and weigh 200 lbs to 475 lbs , Males live for about 15 years and females up to 25. Taken on Feb 16th 2009 in Whaler's Bay, Deception Island, Antarctica
Yellow-footed Gull; Ignored for years, passed off as a local race of Western Gull, the Yellow-footed Gull is actually a very distinct species. It nests only in the Gulf of California, that long narrow arm of sea between Baja and the Mexican mainland. Every summer, after nesting, many Yellow-footed Gulls move north across the desert to the landlocked Salton Sea in southern California. Taken on April 3rd 2013 while on a Zodiac Cruise; Isla Angél de la Guarda, Baja California, Mexico
Alligator with a Gar: I had never seen an alligator catch a fish before. This guy caught himself a nice one! Taken on March 10th at Sawgrass Lake Park, St. Petersburg, Florida
Chestnut Fronted Macaw: The chestnut-fronted or severe macaw is mostly green in colour with patches of red and blue on the wings. The head has a chestnut brown patch just above the beak. The beak is black and the patches around the eyes are white with lines of small black feathers. It is the only one of the miniature macaws that has lines of feathers in the bare patches around its eyes. In the wild their typically gregarious personality can become more aggressive at puberty giving them the name Severe. Taken on Nov 11th, 2011 in the Peruvian Amazon, Loreto, Peru
Cuban Brown Anole, The brown anole is native to Cuba and the Bahamas, and it was first observed in the Florida Keys in 1887. It arrived in the major seaports of South Florida during the 1940s and had become firmly established in most large urbanized areas south of Gainesville by 1980. Aggressive, tough and foreign, those Cuban brown anoles also throw attitude at their close cousins, green anoles, which are homegrown to Florida, bullying them off the ground to live in bushes and branches. Taken on March 10th, 2015 at the Boyd Hill Preserve, St Petersburg, Florida
Yellow Billed Cardinal: The various species in this genus of cardinals are actually tanager-finches, quite distantly related from the true cardinals in the family Cardinalidae. Native to South America, the Yellow-billed Cardinal is not a crested species, so other than having red on the head, there is nothing very cardinal-like about it at all. It is a very striking species though! Taken on Feb 27th 2014 at Holoholokai Beach Park, Hawaii
Dik Dik: Fully grown, theses small antelopes reach 12 to 16 inches tall at the shoulder and weigh 7 to 15 pounds. When frightened, they run in a zig-zag pattern at speeds up to 26mph and whistle through their noses, producing a sound similar to "dik-dik. Taken on Juy 11, 2011 while on a Game Drive, Galena River, Tsavo East, Kenya
Splendid Starlings: Also know as the Splendid Glossy Starling, they feed mainly on fruit, and sometimes insects and other animals (frogs, lizards or snails). Forages in small flocks in the canopy, Taken on July 4th, 2008 while hiking in the Loita Hills, Kenya
Moose: Don't let the cartoonish grin fool you; moose are among the most dangerous, regularly encountered animals in the world. They prefer to leave humans alone, but if disturbed or threatened they are known to respond by charging with aggression. They attack more people annually than bears do, and they are especially aggressive when defending a calf. Taken on August 2nd 2014 while hiking in the Albion Basin, Alta ski resort, Utah
Gentoo Penguins in the Snow: The penguin world's third largest members, reaching a height of 30 inches and a weight of 12 pounds. Adults spend the entire day hunting, usually close to shore, but occasionally ranging as far as 16 miles out. When pursuing prey, which includes fish, squid, and krill, they can remain below for up to seven minutes and dive as deep as 655 feet. Taken on Feb 17th, 2009 on Brown Bluff, Tabarin Peninsula, Antarctica
Mobula Rays: Schools of these 7 ft wide rays are so graceful as the "fly" through the water. Taken on Feb 27th, 2006 in the Sea of Cortez, Baja California, Mexico
Snow Bunting,: The snow bunting breeds in the high Arctic, from Scandinavia, Iceland and parts of northern Scotland, through Russia and Siberia, to Alaska, Canada and Greenland. The snow bunting usually feeds on the ground, on a variety of seeds, buds, insects and other small invertebrates, including small marine crustaceans in coastal areas. Taken on July 13th, 2010 while on a photo Hike, Habenichtbukta, Edgeøya, Svalbard
Red-eared Slider: Red-eared sliders get their name from the small red stripe around their ears. The "slider" part of their name comes from their ability to slide off rocks and logs and into the water quickly. hese turtles are poikilotherms, meaning they are unable to regulate their body temperatures independently; they are completely dependent on the temperature of their environment. For this reason, they need to sunbathe frequently to warm themselves and maintain their body temperatures. Taken on March 10th 2015 at Sawgrass Lake Park, St Petersburg Florida
Yellow Billed Stork and Egyptian Geese: The yellow-billed storks have remarkable adaptation. These birds are know to have the quickest muscular reflex of the neck, allowing almost all food to be caught in the water. Their long, narrow, curve tipped bills allow them only to catch small prey such as small fish, frogs, insects and worms passing by in the water. They typically use one foot to stir up the water or mud which disturbs and flushes out the prey. Then they submerge their heads quickly in the water snapping their bills on small prey. Yellow-billed storks bills are great fishing tool. Taken on July 1st 2008 in the Maasai Mara, Kenya
Heart Nosed Bats, Happy Halloween! The African heart-nosed bat can hear the footsteps of a beetle walking on sand from a distance of more than six feet! Taken on July 10th 2011, while hiking along the Athi River, Tsavo East National Park, Kenya


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source url: http://prorev.com/enemy.htm
How you became
By Sam Smith
COPYRIGHT 1997 THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
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At the end of the Cold War, a top Soviet official promised America one last horrible surprise. We are, he said, going to deprive you of an enemy. The official turned out to be more perceptive about American politics than many in Washington. In at least one Pentagon office there is still a sign that reads: WANTED: A GOOD ENEMY.
Mostly unreported, America's political and military planners have been working hard developing an external threat to compensate for the disappearance of the USSR. Although in the short run, the Pentagon has been remarkably successful in exempting itself from the deficit-cutting hysteria, there is always the danger that the public and politicians might start asking too many questions. Even those defense contractors whose basic expertise is the creation of weapon cost overruns are hedging their bets. A slew of these companies, for example, are bidding to take over the Texas social welfare system, thus diversifying from one form of human misery to another.
Lately the military's dilemma has come a bit more out in the open thanks to something called the Quadrennial Defense Review, a sort of Olympics of Pentagon budgetary navel gazing. In the subsequent angst as displayed in policy papers, conferences, and trade journals, it still appears that the military and foreign policy junkies lack a decent foe.
So uncertain is their trumpet, in fact, that planners have been forced to resort to abstractions that are not only uninformative, they are truly absurd. I am not speaking of euphemisms, mind you, for a euphemism is word or phrase substituted for something else. In this case, there is no something, at least until around 2010 when it is optimistically projected that a non-euphemistic enemy might actually emerge.
In the meanwhile, we just have to make do with -- and spend hundreds of billions to protect ourselves against -- a generic composite peer competitor, myriad formless threats, or even, god forbid, an asymmetrical niche opponent. (What did you do in the last war, daddy? Well, son, I killed 14 generic composite peer competitors and would have wasted more if a frigging asymmetrical niche opponent hadn't got me in the chest.)
To produce a justification for defending against such gossamer threats, retired Vice Admiral John Shannahan of the Center for Defense Information notes, the Department of Defense has "day by day, hour by hour plans" to make sure that its version of the quadrennial defense review is reflected in federal appropriations and the public prints. As every Pentagon official knows, the most predictable threat to the American military is the budget cycle. Franklin C. Spinney, a top DOD budget analyst who has recused himself from the current charade, describes his colleagues as busy changing charts and changing colors on the changing charts as they plan for the future. "They're off in virtual reality," he suggests.
Toys, not boys
For all the new jargon, there is something strangely familiar about it all. In fact, the QDR is at heart a repackaging of military modernization plans first created in the last days of the Cold War. Much of it has little to do with defending America from enemies known and unknown. Rather, argue critics, its purpose is to manufacture threats to justify the current force structure -- including the 45% of the military (more than 600,000 people) who perform non-combat functions (such as preparing charts for the Quadrennial Defense Review).
The QDR is propelled by budgets, not strategy. Not only that, it is driven by a particular sort of budget, exemplified by another poster found recently at military bases to advertise Armed Forces Day. The sign shows ships (including, strangely, an obsolete battleship), planes and tanks, but absolutely no human beings. This is fitting because the modern military is not so much about fighting men and women as about equipment sold to the military by corporate men and women. The saying is that it's about "toys, not boys."
The Pentagon lobbyists and their contractors are brilliant at keeping this DOD money machine churning. They have even revived Star Wars, that megabuck fraud of the Reagan era well described as a system that doesn't work designed to be used against a threat that doesn't exist. [I disagree vehemently with this assayal. The technology is feasible, and the threat is real. -Ed.]
We will protect your purchasing power -- Budget director Franklin Raines to a meeting of high-level Pentagon officials.
More modest goals include selling Congress hugely expensive weapon systems on the specious grounds that they will be cheaper to operate than older versions. By the time Congress discovers that the operating cost estimates are wrong (some-thing it might have surmised if it had used common sense instead of lobbyists' press releases) the defense contractors involved are billions richer and ready to recycle the scam one more time. The stakes are not insignificant. A typical fighter plane at the end of the Cold War cost about $28 million. Ten years from now, your run-of-the-mill fighter will set you back $88 million.
Waiting for Godzilla
Of course, just as people really can be out to get paranoids, so even a rampantly misguided military establishment can really face some serious threats. This fact raises America's military myopia from absurdity into the realm of justifiable concern.
An open discussion of such threats, however, is virtually impossible. Even the right to talk about such things is a tightly held prerogative of the mandarin class. The Council of Foreign Relations, a cult-like like organization that journalist Richard Hardwood approvingly calls "the nearest thing to a ruling establishment in America," routinely holds meetings at which participants (including guests) are prohibited from speaking about what transpired.
It's not that one would really want to listen to much of it. The men and women who have designated themselves the guardians of America's future policies are among the most boring and unimaginative folk one finds in Washington. Many are like those described by LBJ as having gone to Princeton and ended up in the CIA because their daddies wouldn't let them into the brokerage firm. Still it is not too comforting to realize that in the quiet places of Washington, the first half of the 21st century (as they never tire of calling what the rest of us call the future) is in the hands of the conceptually dyslectic.
And the media is not about to challenge these folk. One good reason may be found in a 1995 membership roster of the Council on Foreign Relations as reported by Public Information Research. Here are just a few of the media CFRers:
Roone Arledge, Sidney Blumenthal, David Brinkley, Tom Brokaw, William F. Buckley Jr., Hodding Carter III, John Chancellor, Arnaud de Borchgave, Joan Didion, Leonard Downie Jr., Elizabeth Drew, Rowland Evans Jr., James Fallows, Leslie Gelb, David Gergen, Katharine Graham, Meg Greenfield, Jim Hoagland, Warren Hoge, David Ignatius, Robert Kaiser, Marvin Kalb, Joe Klein, Morton Kondrake, Charles Krauthammer, Irving Kristol, Jim Lehrer, Anthony Lewis, Michael Lind, Jessica Matthews, Jack Nelson, Walter Pincus, Norman Podhoretz, Dan Rather, Stephen Rosenfeld, A. M. Rosenthal, Diane Sawyer, Hederick Smith, Laurence Tish, Garrick Utley, Katrina vander Heuval, Milton Viorst, Ben Wattenberg, Lally Weymouth, Roger Wilkins, and Mortimer Zuckerman.
Ask any of these people what went on at their last CFR tête-à-tête and you'll probably find their concern for a free press rapidly evaporating. Katherine Graham, for example, once told a CIA gathering: "There are some things the general public does not need to know and shouldn't."
There are substantial implications to all this. If, for example, the CFR puts out a report decrying restraints on the CIA, may we infer that the aforementioned concur? If not, how many have publicly stated their disagreement? How, in fact, can we tell what is going on if foreign policy discussions are handled in the manner of meetings of the Masons, Montana Militia, or Skull & Bones?
The rest of the liberal establishment, for its part, is sometimes willing to challenge the Pentagon on cost grounds, but becomes considerably more befuddled when considering strategy and downright timid when confronted with growing evidence of military intervention in civilian life.
Part of the problem stems from the lack of a coherent liberal foreign strategy short of supporting the UN, Israel and Nelson Mandela. Part of it stems from the chronic cowardice of contemporary liberalism. But the biggest challenge comes the fact that liberals have bedded down with the most right-wing president of modern times. [This is a fascinating point of view, and actually accurate. Bill Clinton is a Führer for all intents and purposes, and Naziism is labelled right-wing. But this simply underscores the reality that both wings - the left and the right - are socialist (Soviet socialism versus National Socialism). Moreover, National Socialism is actually endemically expansionist. Clinton's oft-evidenced alignment with globalization and unified world government, is not truly inconsistent with the premise that he is a Nazi. In short, there is no root difference between the left wing and the right wing, and the right wing is not exactly equal to the Conservative dialectic monopole collection. -Ed.] The price for this includes going along with Clinton's schizophrenic, short-term, and amoral foreign and military policies, which are driven far more by the needs of major campaign contributors than by American interests.
Building a threat
Nowhere is this more apparent than in our policy towards China. If there is to be a real "peer competitor" in the foreseeable future, China easily makes the finals. As the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. General Patrick Hughes, told a Senate committee recently:
Overall, China is one of the few powers with the potential -- political, economic and military -- to emerge as a large scale regional threat to US interests within the next ten to twenty years. . . . In a worst-case scenario, China would view the United States as a direct military threat.
Now, if this is a fair assessment, there could be a number of reasonable responses. One might, for example, demote China to a trade category somewhat below that of most favored nation. One might be fairly strict about concessions such as permitting them only after improvements in China's treatment of its own people. One might maintain a cool civility of relations or even make bombastic noises from time to time just to stay in practice.
What one would likely not do as President -- if the opinions of the DIA director are worth a jot or a tittle -- is:
· Let persons with close ties to the Chinese government (and particularly its military) play major roles in your political fundraising machine and get access to top secret materials.
· Ship highly advanced computers and software to the Chinese.
· Help the Chinese get advanced fighter aircraft technology.
· Pretend that Tiananmen Square was just an unfortunate faux pas.
Yet the fact is that we currently have two contradictory policies towards China. One, enunciated by General Hughes and costing us hundreds of billions a year in military spending; the other, practiced by President Clinton and his political machine, in which all of America and its economy seems to have become a loss leader designed to attract the Chinese.
Admittedly, there has been similar schizophrenia in the past as when American corporations helped Hitler become enough of a "peer competitor" to launch his half of World War II. Or when large numbers of Ford tractors tilled the collective fields of Stalin's Soviet Union. Or when the Bush administration helped build up the Iraqi military prior to launching war against it.
But little as blatantly inconsistent has occurred in American history as the China policies being pursued today on either side of the Potomac River (and even in different parts of the Pentagon).
Much of the bizarre detail of this may not have reached the average reader, but examples include:
· Insight magazine reports that supercomputers were sold to China. Other hyper-high tech systems were sold to the China Academy of Science, apparently with the approval of then-Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and the director of the NSA.
· While his employees pumped up the budget to prepare for a Chinese threat, Defense Secretary William Cohen announced that working with China and Russia would be a cornerstone of his military policy. To make this clear, Cohen not only sent General Shalikashvili to Beijing (the flaggiest American officer to appear there in 14 years) but during the same period gave Russian defense secretary Igor Rodionov lunch, lengthy conferences, and a 19-gun salute.
· A 1995 GAO report found that the US had approved 67 export licenses to China for military-industrial products between 1990 and 1993, including $530 million of military-related technology.
· Israel is reported to be helping China build an advanced jet fighter using technology that originally came from the US.
· Another Chinese jet fighter, the FB-7, was started with US aid and assistance during the Reagan/Bush administration.
The vanishing nation
One of the reasons there is so little interest in the consequences of such policies is that modern governmental and media technocrats don't really believe in countries any more -- even their own. In a logic system overwhelmingly dominated by money and its passage from here to there, the nation-state has become a nostalgic anachronism, useful primarily as a symbol with which to appeal to aged members of the electorate on Memorial Day.
I would wager that President Clinton has evoked loyalty to America less than any president to date. Instead, patriotism has been replaced by such corporatist goals as being "globally competitive" or "maintaining productivity."
While the dubious history of jingoism may lead some to shrug off the decline of nationalism, if we are to be transformed from a major country into just another corporate conglomerate, shouldn't we at least be allowed to vote on the matter? Even the stockholders in leveraged buyouts get that much.
There is another and more subtle problem. As emotional ties to our country are diminished or severed, there becomes less and less reason to respect those protections, habits and ideals that have characterized America. Clinton's rampant contempt for civil liberties, while in part the product of the southern feudal culture from which he sprung, demonstrates how expendable constitutional values are in a system where the last line of the budget is considered more important than the first lines of the Bill of Rights and where next quarter's trade with China is considered infinitely more significant than the possibility that the next generation's might end up fighting it.
Once one has applied the puerile, short-ranged, soulless, and avaricious principles of modern corporatism to foreign and domestic policy, everything else becomes expendable: sovereignty, loyalty, democracy, freedom, happiness, decency, environment, and morality.
This is not some future threat we face but our present condition. In the dollar-driven logic of Clintonism, behavior that in the Cold War would have been regarded as near treasonous is now considered business as usual. We still, in order to restrain anarchy, severely punish as spies those who sell secrets to foreign countries without higher authority. If however, the president or secretary of commerce support the transaction, we call it trade policy and make upbeat announce-ments about it.
Similarly, for nearly all our history, any US official who dared give up American territory without a struggle would be pilloried or worse. Yet today the greatest surrender of sovereignty in US history, our signature on the GATT agreement, is chalked up as an inevitable result of globalism.
This abandonment is not controversial, nor even readily apparent, because Americans simply have not been told that it has occurred. They do not know that their country -- which defeated in turn the British, the Mexicans, the Confederacy, the Spanish, the Germans (twice), the Japanese and outlasted the Soviet Union, has surrendered without a whimper to a junta of trade technocrats armed with nothing more menacing than cell phones.
They do not know that the US Trade Representative can go into court and sue any state or local government for pursuing policies at odds with the dictates of international trade tribunals -- policies that for more than two hundred years have been considered the rightful and righteous business of American governments. They are probably not aware that a three-member panel of the world Trade Organization has already ruled that the European Union's ban on hormone-treated beef is illegal, a ruling that could easily be replicated again and again against American local and state environmental, civil rights, and labor legislation.
The real war
How could our own government so blithely have betrayed us? How could our own media fail to note the coup? Simply because, once the rules of the game changed from a geographic to a corporate definition of international politics, citizenship, patriotism and national self-interest became irrelevant. Your value became not your nationality but your prevailing wage rate. Your country was no longer a homeland but a unit of production. In fact, to the extent that you still consider yourself a party to your government with actual rights and such, you have become at best a problem and at worst a threat.
The greatest change that has occurred in recent years in the relationship between governments and their people is the degree to which the former fears and distrusts the latter. Underlying this fear and distrust is the knowledge that the robber-baron paradigm of the Reagan-Bush-Clinton era has reaped a harvest of enormous hostility. Bruce Auster, writing recently in the US News & World Report, noted:
The admirals and generals have been gathering . . . to learn what enemy the visionaries from the Central Intelligence Agency see in their future. The answer, it turns out, is not Russia or China or Iraq. It's demographics. Global Trends 2010, a classified study by the CIA's National Intelligence Council, finds that growing populations, widening gaps between rich and poor, and continuing revolutions in communications will incite new ethnic and civil conflicts."
Another study, prepared for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reports that "mass communications will vividly depict quality-of-life differences, leading to political instability in some places."
These studies tacitly admit what no politician will: that the policies of the past twenty years have been for the benefit of the few at the brutal expense of the many.
While little of such considerations creep into the Quadrennial Defense Review, this is largely because the means of containing alienated civilian populations are relatively inexpensive. The funds required to maintain a calming American presence in scores of countries would be hard to find on one of those DOD charts if placed next to, say, projected aircraft expenditures.
These funds support something the military calls "Operations Other Than War." OOTW covers a wealth of activities including policing urban areas, search and seizure, civil administration, peacekeeping, and supplying food.
According to an article in Commentary, in 1994 "Army units found themselves reacting to a host of OOTW and deterrence missions in Rwanda, Bosnia, Somalia, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Northern Iraq, Korea, Haiti, and even in California to fight forest fires."
Many of these activities are carried out by Special Operations, the command in charge of low intensity warfare and psychological operations. According to a report in the Tampa Tribune, Special Ops -- comprised of 46,000 personnel from all three services -- averages 280 missions a week in 137 countries.
Such skills can be easily transferred from Rwanda to, say, Watts. The current militarization of American civilian life is simply Operations Other Than War in a more familiar country. Let's review the bidding:
· The National Guard is now deeply involved in the War on Drugs, from flying helicopter missions to providing logistical support for police paramilitary operations in urban areas.
· JROTC courses are now found in more than 2,200 high schools involving some 310,000 students. These courses teach not only military behavior but inculcate military biases into subjects such as American history. In Washington, DC, students perceived to be discipline problems have been told they were required to join JROTC.
· The military is being used to train police officers, inevitably increasing the tendency of citizens to be regarded by these officers as "the enemy."
· The military is ready to provide "overflow facilities for incarceration of those convicted of drug crimes" and "rehabilitation oriented training camps" according to DOD documents. These facilities could be as easily used for incarcerating anyone else for any other reason as well.
· The century-old posse comitatus act, designed to keep the military out of civilian law enforcement, appears to be on its last legs.
· Eight-nine percent of the county's police departments, according to a recent study, have paramilitary units and some of these are used "proactively," deliberately creating fear in minority neighborhoods.
· The military is monitoring the Internet as a potential threat and is working on plans to use the Internet for psychological warfare.
· Plans by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the 1980s to take over the country in an ill-defined emergency appear to have been only partially dismantled after being exposed in the media (including TPR). Among the most striking aspect of these emergency plans was the absence of any provision for a legislature or judiciary. In any event, a long list of presidential directives provide for a massive transfer of political power to the executive branch under uncertain circumstances and even less certain constitutional protections.
Such steps have been prepared without any public debate about who should run the country in a genuine emergency. The Constitution does not address the matter directly, but since martial law is not one of the powers delegated to federal government, it seems clear that in a catastrophe -- say a nuclear attack on Washington -- the country should properly be run by the fifty states. Unfortunately, the governors of these states do not have the power to enforce this view. In fact, their state militias -- once a jealously guarded symbol that we were indeed "united states" -- have been greatly federalized
Occupying urban America
A study reported in the academic journal Social Problems found that 89% of the over 500 police departments it surveyed had fully functioning special operations units trained and modeled on military principles. For all practical purposes, these units represent a military force whose target is American communities and citizens. Not only has the number of paramilitary police units soared but the level of their activity has exploded as well. Between 1980 and 1995, the number of incidents involving paramilitary units has quadrupled.
The study, conducted by Peter B. Kraska and Victor E. Kappeler of Eastern Kentucky University, was carefully designed to elicit the cooperation of police departments. Some police officers spoke with brutal frankness:
"We're into saturation patrols in hot spots. We do a lot of our work with the SWAT unit because we have bigger guns. We send out two, two-to-four men cars, we look for minor violations and do jump-outs either on people on the street or automobiles. After we jump-out the second car provides periphery cover with an ostentatious display of weaponry. We're sending a clear message: if the shootings don't stop, we'll shoot someone."
But are these units really going after the truly dangerous? Out of all 1995 incidents, civil disturbances and terrorist events amounted to one percent each, hostage situations 4% and barricaded persons, 13%. Conducting what the police call "high risk warrant work" (overwhelmingly drug raids) accounted for 76% of the paramilitary operations.
Here are some of the other facts the researchers uncovered:
· Many paramilitary units conduct between 200 to 700 warrant or drug raids a year. These are almost exclusively no-knock entries.
· A paramilitary unit in Chapel Hill NC conducted a crack raid of an entire block in a black neighborhood. Up to 100 persons were detained and searched, all of whom were black (whites were allowed to leave the neighborhood). There were no prosecutions.
· Some 20% of the units regularly patrol just as a display of force, often dressed in extreme military garb, including ninja type uniforms. Police in Fresno CA refer to their patrol area as the "war zone."
· Such tactics are not limited to big cities. In fact, more and more smaller towns have their own paramilitary units. For example: "One mid-west police department that serves a community of 75,000 people patrols in full tactical gear using a military armored personnel carrier (termed a 'Peace Keeper' as their transport vehicle." Says the commander, "we stop anything that moves." Another town's paramilitary commander told the researchers, "When the soldiers ride in you should see those blacks scatter."
· Some of these police departments admit to using "community policing" funds for these military operations. In fact, 63% of those responding to a question on the matter agreed that the paramilitary units "play an important role in community policing strategies." One self proclaimed community policing chief said: "It's going to come to the point that the only people that are going to be able to deal with these problems are highly trained tactical teams with proper equipment to go into a neighborhood and clear the neighborhood and hold it; allowing community policing and problem oriented policing officers to come in and start turning the neighborhood around."
· The nation's capital is being turned into a Singapore on the Potomac as congressional appointees exercise plenary powers on behalf of corporate friends -- with total contempt for elected officials and the citizenry. The Washington DC school system is being run by a retired general of dictatorial inclinations and right-wing ideology. A buddy of Clarence Thomas and a man of no apparent competence in the field of education, Gen. Julius Becton commutes miles into the city and has provided high-paying jobs to old Army comrades, including the former director of the Department of Defense's only maximum security prison.
· An active duty military officer has been put in charge of a state National Guard unit for the first time in American history.
· Several active-duty special operations units have reportedly been quietly integrated into National Guard units.
· The FBI's deputy chief for domestic terrorism is an active duty colonel, despite the century-old posse comitatus act's prohibition on the military taking part in domestic law enforcement.
· Two hundred troops and nine helicopters invaded Pittsburgh the night of June 3, 1996, in what was later described as a routine training exercise but sure fooled a lot of the city's residents. They flooded 911, talk shows, and local media with worried calls. The exercise appears to have been part of an attempt to acclimatize citizens to an increasing military presence in civilian life. Similar exercises have taken place in at least 20 other cities.
· The Pentagon's manual on "domestic support operations" gives a chilling view of how the military sees its role in a post-Cold War America. Says the manual: "Today . . . is a new awareness of the benefits of military assistance to improve the nation's physical and social infrastructure." The role the military projects is extra-ordinarily broad including disaster assistance, environmental missions, law enforcement, and community action. In a section that may have been lifted from a guide to the Vietnam village pacification program, the Army notes that "domestic support operations provide excellent opportunities for soldiers to interface with the civilian community and demonstrate traditional Army values such as teamwork, success-oriented attitude, and patriotism. These demonstrations provide positive examples of values that can benefit the community and also promote a favorable view of the army to the civilian population."
· A remarkable article by military historian and strategist Martin van Creveld in the Los Angeles Times last July 30 gives the flavor of what's in store. Van Creveld argued that "the military systems built up over the past decades are proving useless in the face of the greatest security threat of the next century: terrorism." The reason: these forces "have discovered that their weapons are too cumbersome and their organization too complex for anti-terrorist and anti-guerrilla actions. . .
"In many countries, militaries originally designed for interstate warfare are already taking an active part in the struggle against internal opponents. Others are preparing to take the same road. In France on July 14, police units joined the army in marching down the Champs Elysees for the first time. In the peaceful Netherlands, the Marechausee, or riot police, now forms the fourth service besides army, navy and air force. . .
"As the 20th century draws to an end, it is time that military commanders and the policy makers to whom they report wake up to the new realities. In today's world the main threat to many states, including specifically the US, no longer comes from other countries. Either we make the necessary changes, or what is commonly known as the modern world will lose all sense of security and dwell in perpetual fear."
Talk about paranoia. . .
The threat of terrorism is likely to increase in the United States as the Internet provides easy access to information on making bombs, Defense Secretary William Cohen said Monday. . . . He said precautions against unconventional arms must be intensified as potential terrorists develop chemical weapons, germ warfare and electromagnetic methods that could create holes in the ozone layer or trigger earthquakes or volcanoes-- Reuters
We are in a period of terrorism . . . We are in a period of the Internet transmitting knowledge to people all over the globe in how to make weapons of mass destruction." -- -- Former Senator Sam Nunn
TERRORISM IS NOW MILITARY'S TOP FOE.
Washington -- When Col. Lawrence R. Lane talks to men and women in uniform, it gets downright scary. "There are people out there who will try harm you," he says. "And you can be absolutely certain that somewhere, sometime, some of them will succeed.'" -- Milwaukee Journal
INTERNET PUTS DEADLY INFORMATION AT TEENS' FINGERTIPS -- Washington Times headline
In January, a high-power Pentagon advisory group . . . issued an urgent report warning that the nation's computer systems are so vulnerable to malicious assaults that the country may one day face an "electronic Pearl Harbor." -- --National Journal
Perpetual fear
Of course, the irony of such declarations is that a search for security based on such principles is the shortest route to a state of perpetual fear. Imagine, for example, what might have happened to England during the Blitz had it succumbed to the paranoia that now grips so many of America's military and civilian elite. Alternatively: what really would happen if we were to provide our president with the same modest level of protection as, say, a British prime minister? What if, wonders of wonders, we actually tried to deal honestly with some of the problems that lead to insurgencies in the first place?
In a recent article in National Defense, Major General David Grange and Colonel Paul Munch declare that "after reviewing the carnage of the bombs at New York City's World Trade Center and Oklahoma City's Federal Building, Tokyo's poisonous gas attack and other recent events, Congress concluded the United States is no longer immune from a catastrophic terrorist attack."
General Grange has an interest in making it seem thus. He is Director of Military Support, and in charge of training and assisting cities in coping with a guerilla attack. Some 120 cities will undergo this training in the next few years.
In fact, however, last year recorded the world's lowest number of terrorist incidents in 25 years. Only 311 people were killed -- that's one person for every 16 million persons on the planet. You stand a far better chance of being murdered in an American city than you do of being bombed for any reason (by terrorist, spouse or Mafia) anywhere in the US.
Obviously, if there is going to be a nuclear, biological or chemical attack in of these cities it makes sense to be prepared. But there are other approaches that would probably be much more successful than that of General Grange. Such as seeking the consent of the governed rather than just their containment. Such as changing American policy to support without equivocation the creation of a Palestinian state -- not at the end of some interminable "peace process" but now. Such as not replacing simple democracy, which can not be bombed away, with over-glorified and over-powered national leaders who can. The most effective anti-terrorism policy -- both in cost and lives -- is to ameliorate divisions that lead to undesired insurgencies in the first place and to have your country run by scores of low-risk democrats rather than by one easily targeted regent. That's what is called for by the Constitution. But that's not part of the current game plan.
The game plan of America's mandarins absolutely assumes a widening gap between the governed and the governing and between rich and poor, one that will have to be met by force of one sort or another. Those in power are prepared to do business with most favored nations abroad and to suppress least favored citizens at home.
This is a policy without redemption. It is not only economically cruel and profoundly anti-democratic, it is deeply subversive and destructive of American ideals and culture. Those who run the country, whether in government, business or media, seldom anymore speak of this land with feeling, affection or understanding. They carry forth their affairs unburdened by place, history or culture -- without conscience, without country and without any sense of the pain they have caused.
America is no longer for them a place to serve and to love. And because they have, in the name of global glories, cut themselves off from their own land, it is becoming for them increasingly a place of danger -- a place of long, grim shadows, the sort of shadows that too often conceal a foe.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


It was the night before Christmas….. Wait wait wait, no one cares for that old fable now do they? Let us tell a new story to celebrate the evening before.
even though the little shites were smothered in sin.
for tomorrow they won't get the praise, remember Santa is the reason.
his wife looked at him, one that could kill.
the battle raged on, who knew best.
Merry Christmas to all my parent friends!!! Have a friggan great day!!! Have an awesome New years too if I don't see ya!!!!
Thankfully, We no longer get woken before first bird cough by over excited kids demanding batteries for their new toys.


Without a doubt, probably the coolest thing I've ever discovered driving around the desert is this abandoned hot springs resort out in the middle of N O W H E R E between Tonopah and Rachel (a/k/a home of Area 51). It sits right off the highway at the intersection of U.S. 6 and NV 375, baking quietly in the desert sun.
The place is fenced off and says "KEEP OUT," but some thoughtful locals cut a hole in the fence for easy access, and I was tipped off by a friend that you can still soak here, if you're respectful and don't leave a mess.
other end back into the creek, which flows on down past the highway. Because it's constantly being flushed, the pool feels very clean and the water is this amazing turquoise blue color, with a very fine white silt coating the bottom of the pool that is almost like clay.
because I'm here to tell you this location is REMOTE — over 3 hours from Vegas! But apparently, there used to be a bar and grill and everything — the abandoned buildings still stand nearby, and are still full of rusted old restaurant equipment and whatnot.
highway, and several super-rustic, busted-up old mining cabins up the hill behind the pool. You could easily spend a half day hanging out, exploring or shooting. Because it's so remote, it's unlikely you'd be bothered.
Really enjoy checking out your photos and reading all of your well written stories.
I came across your site doing some research on Nevada hot springs.
Coincidentally, I just drove through the town of Warm Springs less than a month after you shot the photos and video, over the 2015 Easter Holiday.
I hadn't been since about 1978 or so, when I was just a kid living in Tonopah.
We used to have a blast out there when we were kids and I was really sad to see it all fenced off, and because of the No Trespassing signs, decided to stay out.
When I was a kid, everything was open at Warm Springs, including the bar and some little cabins, which were meant for tourists, but were usually rented out to locals. Even back then, it was all pretty dilapidated.
On our recent trip, we also took the ET Highway, but were headed the opposite direction as you. The last time I had driven on this road was in 1974 on a trip to Pioche, well before it had become famous for UFOs…although we did hear about the occasional cattle mutilation, even back then.
Should you decided to visit this area again, if you head a few miles northeast of Warm Springs on Highway 6, there are a couple of other places of interest.
One is the Lunar Crater, where NASA did astronaut training for the moon launches.
Another is called the Project Faultless site, which is where they actually detonated an approximately 1 megaton nuke underground back in the late 60's. It is one of only two sites in Nevada where the government has disclosed detonating nuclear bombs off of Nevada Test Site lands, and both are accessible to the public.
The Faultless site is probably the best one for doing a photo shoot. It has a cool cylinder sticking out of the ground with graffiti on it depicting silhouettes of people that have been vaporized.
There is also an old Pony Express station house nearby called Moore's Station, which might also be good for some photo ops.
Looking forward to more photos, and more stories. Hopefully, including the places mentioned here.
My pleasure… and no need to be sorry.
Glad that it's still there to see and for people to enjoy.
Wish I could tell you more about the history of Warm Springs, as it was obviously there long before the 70's when I lived in the area.
BTW, there are also several very cool cone shaped charcoal kilns in and around Tybo, an old ghost town just a few miles up hwy 6 from Warm Springs. These are great for photographing, both inside and out.
I'll check those out, too!
Awesome to see that there are other desert rat springers out there!
We are heading out on a winter springing trip in the next couple of weeks and Alkali and Warm Springs are definitely on our list!
Thanks for the information and keep having fun in the desert.
Oh wow!!!! Thanks for the intel…..so it's free to camp at Bartine? I'll go for sure!!!


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text:
LEED Gold DATA 1 building puts people first | USGBC Washington
This article was originally published by the USGBC Washington on February 15, 2019.
Prioritizing civic generosity and occupant well-being, the DATA 1 building puts people and community first.
In Seattle, the LEED Gold DATA 1 replaced single-story buildings that were home to several small businesses with 114,000 square feet of class-A office space, spread over four stories above a single 11,850-square-foot story of retail space. Developer CoU LLC saw an opportunity to weave a high-performance building into the fabric of the community.
Designing for sustainability and well-being
Previously, polluted runoff from the bridge above flowed by the site into nearby Lake Union. Today, DATA 1's remarkable landscaping improves local ecology by treating 160,000 gallons of that runoff annually. A footpath, lined with art installations, invites the public through the site. And those small businesses? CoU paid to relocate them during construction, then moved them into DATA 1's ground floor.
Interior of Data 1, home to Tableau.
CoU approached Weber Thompson to take sustainable design elements from the Terry Thomas building, a prior successful collaboration, to scale. Daylighting and energy performance drove design. Shallow floorplates, a central courtyard, and plentiful glazing offer ample natural light, while operable windows provide fresh air. Operable partitions transform the courtyard into an indoor/outdoor space for large events, while balconies and a rooftop deck enable employees to access the outdoors from every floor. The building encourages active living with attractive feature stairways and a dedicated bike garage with a dedicated entrance.
Employees love the space. Justen Altaras, Customer Renewals Manager at Tableau, finds it "refreshing to go to work every day in a facility that's inviting and beautiful." His favorite places to decompress are the common areas, where large windows allow sweeping views of Lake Union and Seattle. Justen calls the space "very important in regard to job satisfaction," reporting he would not be excited to transfer to a more conventional office space.
Staying on track with LEED goals
For its efforts, the project team earned DATA 1 LEED Gold for Core and Shell. Pursuing LEED was sound business: Tableau, the anchor tenant, required a LEED Gold building. Additionally, LEED kept the team goal-oriented, preventing high-performance attributes from being value-engineered and preserving the sweet spot between comfort and efficiency.
Weber Thompson handed the LEED baton to Gensler, who designed Tableau's space and achieved LEED Gold for Commercial Interiors (CI). While the CI scope benefited from DATA 1's views, transit access and bike facilities, the biggest achievement was earning all 25 points for optimizing energy performance. Certification enabled the team to pursue best practices beyond code, resulting in an objectively better building.
DATA 1, located in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle.
The team learned a great deal from DATA 1. First, sustainability attracts value-aligned tenants, creating better and longer leases. Second, generosity requires commitment, but also creates goodwill. Voluntary aspects of the project's design, such as undertaking to treat stormwater in the right-of-way, were initially difficult, but then found champions and gained their own momentum.
Finally, designing for occupant well-being involves difficult but surmountable tradeoffs. For instance, while open floor plans and operable windows improve certain aspects of indoor environmental quality, they also cause acoustical challenges. One remedy is to enclose quiet spaces for focused concentration.
As a call to action, DATA 1 represents a corporate shift away from suburban office parks and toward urban infill. "It's a gift," says Kristen Scott, Senior Principal of Weber Thompson, "to have a context to respond to." But this exciting trend has its pitfalls. Failing to understand the community, Kristen emphasizes, could result in "something we don't want: the anonymity of a building that could be anywhere." DATA 1 gets this right. Construction can either divide our communities or strengthen them. DATA 1 does the latter.
Tagged with DATA 1, Fremont, In The News, Workplace
News — News
Weber Thompson Announces Three Promotions
616 Battery receives approval from the Downtown Design Review Board at Recommendation
Groundbreaking ceremony at the North Lot project at Pacific Tower


The BMR (Brown Mid Rib) is a new species of Sorghum Sudan that is widely used today in Europe and America.
In BMR species, the leaf vein of the plant is brown. In these species, the sugar content is higher in the plant than in the normal species in terms of taste.
BMR Sorghum Digestion rate is 30-35% higher than normal varieties because the woody structure (Lignin) is lower in Sugrainse varieties. In other words, the animal is more benefited from the plant. This gives the animal an almost twofold benefit in nutrition.
It is more resistant to sleep than other types. It is broad-leaved and tall. Sugar ratio is higher than normal species, it is abundant watery and high yield single year bait. The herb is delicious, good quality and nutritious. Animal feeding increases meat and milk yield.
It is not very selective in soil structure. However, it develops better in temperate and sandy soils.
It can be used as green grass, dry grass and silage. As the first crop, it is suitable to be done when the soil temperature is about 10-12 C after the spring frost of October. As a second crop, wheat can be planted after harvest. The amount of seed is 4-5 kg for seeding by hand, 2.5-3.5 kg for planting with seedlings. Appropriate sowing depth is 1.5-2 cm. It comes first in 40-45 days after October. The ideal shape size is 100-120cm. It is cultivated in form so as to be 10-15 cm stubble from the soil surface.
In deep forms, regrowth becomes slow. The ideal form of time for silage is the milieu where the seeds begin to color.
The plant must reach at least 70 cm before grazing in green. Soil analysis should be done before planting. 30-40 kg of compound fertilizer (20.20.20 or 15.15.15) should be given as sprinkling in soil treatment while preparing the seed bed in the first spring and it should be mixed with soil. After each form, 46% urea will be given in 15-20 kg depending on irrigation conditions or 26-33% nitrate will be given in 25-30 kg.
The origin and place of production is USA.
Broad and abundant leafy brotherhood is over.
Leaf stalk is high and digestion rate is 30-35% higher.
Gives the yield of high green and dry crops.
Resistant against all kinds of leaf, mold and fungus diseases.
Depending on the maintenance conditions in the sight, 4-5 shapes can be made.
10-14 probes can be used at the first probe and 6 - 8 tons of green grass can be taken at the second probe.


text:
Q: OperationalError: (2003, "Can't connect to MySQL server on 'localhost' ([Errno 111] Connection refused)") I am using google app engine
My settings file
import pymysql  # noqa: 402
pymysql.install_as_MySQLdb()

if os.getenv('GAE_APPLICATION', None):
    # Running on production App Engine, so connect to Google Cloud SQL using
    # the unix socket at /cloudsql/<your-cloudsql-connection string>
    DATABASES = {
        'default': {
            'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
            'HOST': '/cloudsql/connectionstring',
            'USER': 'myusername',
            'PASSWORD': 'mypasswor',
            'NAME': 'mydbname',
        }
    }
else:
    DATABASES = {
        'default': {
            'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
            'HOST': '127.0.0.1',
            'PORT': '3306',
            'USER': 'username',
            'PASSWORD': 'mypassword',
            'NAME': 'dbname',
        }
    }

Is is working fine..
Now I try to implement google authentication so used social-auth-app-django
after redirecting from google it shows the following error:

OperationalError: (2003, "Can't connect to MySQL server on 'localhost'
  ([Errno 111] Connection refused)") connect
  (/env/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pymysql/connections.py:629)

A: Edit the following configuration file
/etc/my.cnf
add this line: bind-address=127.0.0.1
it should fix the issue

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Clarets Latest
Clarets News
Tom Heaton Determined to Compete With Jordan Pickford Despite His Outstanding Form for England
Burnley goalkeeper Tom Heaton claims that he is determined to compete with Everton keeper Jordan Pickford for a place in England's starting XI, despite the latter's 'outstanding' form in the national team.
Pickford has endured a testing year at Everton after starring for his country at the World Cup last summer. A string of high-profile mistakes have proved costly for his club this season, including a calamitous error to hand Liverpool a stoppage-time victory in the Merseyside derby in December.
After a serious shoulder injury ended the Burnley shot-stopper's own World Cup hopes, he has had to work his way back to fitness and to Sean Dyche's lineup. His exceptional displays since his return have led to a recall to the England squad, with some claiming that he should be Southgate's first choice.
Despite such declarations, Heaton has revealed his admiration for Pickford's displays in goal for the Three Lions. Speaking to the Independent, he insisted: "I think he's been outstanding wearing the England shirt. I thought he was incredible in the summer in the World Cup.
樂 Jordan Pickford?
樂 Tom Heaton?
Who should be England's number 1?#ThreeLions pic.twitter.com/Mqm5vMGdab
— Ladbrokes (@Ladbrokes) March 18, 2019
"I think his performances were really top drawer and it's never an easy thing to do, putting the England goalkeeper jersey on, and I think he did it superbly well.
"We're here, we compete for the place. Of course, everyone wants to play. Try and get your things right and see what the manager decides."
When asked about the prospect of replacing Pickford between the sticks for England, Heaton made it clear that he was focusing on his own abilities rather than those of the Everton number one.
Burnley's Tom Heaton says he is out to take over from Jordan Pickford as England's first choice goalkeeper: "We've got a few days training. You obviously try and perform, and try to impress the manager, and see what decision he makes." #CapitalReports pic.twitter.com/iZLONwiOe6
— Capital Wirral News (@CapitalWIRNews) March 20, 2019
"I don't tend to look at it like that, to be honest," he added, regarding the alleged competition for the starting spot. "I think, for me, it's about myself, what I do, what each individual does. Jordan's performances have been outstanding for England and that's where it's at.
"I try not to look at anyone else, as ever the thinking is on myself and we'll see what happens. We've got a few days training. You obviously try and perform, and try to impress the manager, and see what decision he makes."
Source : 90min
Source: 90min


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text:
Home People Henry A. Gempeler
See People
Henry A. Gempeler
Retired Partner
hgempeler@foley.com
Madison 111.111.1111
Jump To Overview Insights
Overview Insights
Henry A. Gempeler is a retired partner with Foley & Lardner LLP where he practiced in the area of government finance. He was a member of the firm's Finance & Financial Institutions, Real Estate, and Public Finance Practices. Mr. Gempeler has extensive experience in zoning and land use control, real estate, and economic development projects. He served as city attorney for the City of Madison, Wis. from 1975 to 1991. While city attorney, he also served as counsel to the Community Development Authority, Water Utility, Parking Utility, and from 1975 to 1982, the Madison Metropolitan School District.
As city attorney Mr. Gempeler served as issuer's counsel on general obligation bonds; general revenue bonds for parking, water and hospital; industrial development bonds; housing bonds; redevelopment bonds; special assessment bonds and lease revenue bonds. In addition, he represented the City and the Community Development Authority in the structuring and negotiation of downtown redevelopment projects, oftentimes involving tax increment financing.
Mr. Gempeler was a founding director of the Wisconsin Municipal Mutual Insurance Company, a company which was created to provide insurance services to local governmental units throughout the state of Wisconsin. He is a member of the National Association of Bond Lawyers, the American Bar Association and State Bar of Wisconsin (chairman, Government and Administrative Law Section, 1990). He also was a member of the Attorney Section, League of Wisconsin Municipalities (chairman, 1978) and the International Municipal Lawyers Association (regional vice president and state chairman, 1982-1985; former chair, Associate Department; former chair, Economic Development, Taxation and Finance Section). Mr. Gempeler was selected for inclusion in the 2007, 2008 and 2009 lists of Wisconsin Super Lawyers® and is rated as a "top lawyer" in Madison Magazine.
A Madison native, Mr. Gempeler graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1966 and Marquette University Law School in 1969.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: New Financing Tools for State and Local Governments — "Build America Bonds"
Foley Attorneys Named 2009 Wisconsin Super Lawyers
Wisconsin Super Lawyers
hgempeler@foley.com 111.111.1111


+ SAN FRANCISCO_Federal Building ‹ hu mn lab,+inc.
-malcolm gladwell on jane jacobs the death + life of great american cities. from "deisngs for working"-new yorker december 11, 2000, pgs, 60-70.
Broadly understood, this project has developed around three primary objectives: the establishment of a benchmark for sustainable building design through the effient use of natural energy resources; the redefinition of the culture of the workplace through office enviroments that boost workers' health, productivity, as well as creativity; and the creation of an urban land mark that engages with the community.
A slender 18-story tower puntuates the skyline, and a public plaza and a four-story annex connect to the scale and fabric of the city. the large open plaza at the intersections of mission + 7th is a valuable asset in the south-of-market district. identified by the city as deficient in public spaces, the plaza lends a much needed space for gathering.the placement of the free standing cafeteria pavilion and the public natureof the facilities housed within the towers lower levels (including conference center, fitness center, + public day care center) enliven the urban plaza with a steady and much needed stream of visitors.


This week's announcement of Apple TV+ is a show the sports industry has seen before. Not only does Apple join the ranks of Disney, Amazon, Google, and Facebook in owning streaming video platforms that can feature sports content but it also enters a space of sports-focused platforms that includes ESPN+, B/R Live, DAZN, and FloSports.
Apple's entry into streaming video also seems like another blow to the live experience for the entertainment industry. The prevailing wisdom in content creation is that consumers want to consume content how, when, and where they want. Why go to a venue to see a performance, movie, or sporting event when the content can be delivered directly to a television or mobile device.
Apple's launch of iTunes was arguably the turning point in the content delivery story. The iTunes Store and the ability of millions of people to legally download the specific songs they want directly to an iPod, iPhone, or iPad seemingly made both the live concert and CD obsolete. This had devastating results for the music industry with revenues shrinking from $38 billion in 2003 to $16.5 billion in 2013.
This revenue decline is largely attributed to the belief that the music industry failed to react to the change in audience preferences for consuming music. The "Luddites" had built a physical infrastructure around concerts and CDS that did not belong in a digital era and were not making investments in ways that could best monetize the future of music.
This made the announcement of multiple major sports venue projects around the same time that the company arguably most responsible for changes in audience consumption is launching a new streaming platform all the more surprising. This ranges from three venues spending millions of dollar to "replace their existing scoreboards with larger, flashier entertainment systems" to the San Diego Padres announcing a new concert venue at Petco Park. The announcement of a new, $50 million esports arena being built for the Philadelphia Fusion team is even more unexpected given that esports popularity originated from fans watching their favorite athletes and competition on streaming platforms.
Why would sports organizations be making these types of investments in live experiences in the age of streaming video and digital distribution? The music industry can serve as a guide for this rationale. Last year was a "record-setting year in the concert business, with more than $10.4 billion in sales, representing 152.1 million tickets." The top-ten music tours in 2018 grossed 10% more in revenue 2018 than in 2017.
This does not necessarily mean that more people are coming to concerts than before. Concert revenues continue to increase because ticket prices continue to increase. This is evidence that shows that people who want to attend concerts are willing to pay an increasing amount to have the unique experience of seeing their favorite bands in person. This is occurring at the same time that iTunes and streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora continue to build audiences.
That is a bet that the sports industry appears to be making via these venue investments. Fans that want unique experiences will pay more to attend live competitions even in the face of or because of the growth of streaming services with sports content. This should be welcome news for the teams and leagues that have struggled with the attendance issues in recent years.
This is also good news from a corporate partnership perspective. More specifically, the fans attending venues for games or competitions are more likely to be the fans that companies want to target. Coming to an event when they do not "have to" (i.e. they could watch the event on a streaming platform) while also potentially paying more for the experience is a clear sign of a fan's interest in teams or athletes.
The growing importance of live events demonstrates why B6A's Corporate Asset Valuation Model (CAV) examines both the quality and quantity of engagement when it comes to sports partnerships, in particular when it comes to non-media assets. More specifically, declining attendance would mean declining partnership ROI using more traditional metrics. However, companies are looking for the ability to reach an engaged, lucrative audience. Live events such as games, competitions, and concerts provide unique opportunities to achieve this goal and the CAV demonstrates that value as part of our overall partnership analysis.
That does not mean that sports industry leaders should follow the "if you build it they will come" mantra. Fans will still need to have compelling reasons to leave their homes and have a great experience while in a venue. However, the continued growth of streaming platforms may signal the renewal rather than the end of the live sports experience.


eTrash2Cash project is a mobile, city-based platform that encourages all citizens of northern Nigeria to deposit their wastes (paper, plastic, food, metal) using online and mobile application platforms, where they receive instant online points, bonuses and incentives for doing so, based on the type, quality and quantity of the wastes they deposit. These points and incentives are redeemable by cash or other goods. The firm collect all these recyclable wastes and makes value out of them, for example, paper wastes to tissue papers, plastics to lumbers.


chicksdaddy writes: The grandson of Theo Brown, a legendary engineer and inventor for John Deere who patented, among other things, the manure spreader is calling out the company his grandfather served for decades for its opposition to right to repair legislation being considered in Illinois. In an opinion piece published by The Security Ledger entitled "My Grandfather's John Deere would support Our Right to Repair," Willie Cade notes that his grandfather, Theophilus Brown is credited with 158 patents, some 70% of them for Deere & Co., including the manure spreader in 1915. His grandfather used to travel the country to meet with Deere customers and see his creations at work in the field. His hope, Cade said, was to help the company's customers be more efficient and improve their lives with his inventions.