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Boundless Dying Trees
30.09.2020 - Los Angeles, USA - Robert Hunziker
This post is also available in: Portuguese
Giant sequoia grove near Auburn. Image by Lisa Redfern from Pixabay.
Global warming is ravaging forests throughout the world.
"New studies show drought and heat waves will cause massive die-offs, killing most trees alive today." (Source: We Need to Hear These Poor Trees Scream: Unchecked Global Warming Means Big Trouble for Forests, Inside Climate News, April 25, 2020)
According to Bill Anderegg, a forest researcher at the University of Utah: "Global warming has pushed many of the world's forests to a knife-edge… in the West, you can't drive on a mountain highway without seeing how global warming affects forests," Ibid.
Similar to corals and reefs, trees are slow-growing and long-lived but cannot easily move to escape newly emerging rapid heat. Regrettably, both systems have inflexible damage thresholds. Corals experienced a tipping point from 2014-16 of record-breaking ocean heat as reefs around the world bleached and died in unprecedented numbers.
The Great Barrier Reef suffered its worst coral bleaching on record in February of 2020 from the most extreme ocean temperatures since records began in 1900. That's global warming at work, overtime. Not only that but consider the egregious fact that the world's largest living organism has been hit by three devastating bleachings in only five years. This year, for the first time in recorded history, severe bleaching, which kills coral outright, hit all three major regions of the famous reef. Scientists were awestruck.
Similar to no predictions of coral-bleaching disasters (what a big surprise!) nobody is predicting a similar disaster for forests, but it's already underway right under everybody's nose. It's here now!
Giant Sequoias, the Grand Daddy of the world's trees are "dying from the top down." This has never been documented before. According to Christy Brigham, chief of resource management for parks: "We've never observed this before." (Source: Craig Welch, The Grand Old Trees of the World are Dying, Leaving Forests Younger and Shorter, National Geographic, May 28, 2020)
The loss of Giant Sequoias is but one example of a worrisome worldwide trend that's nerve-racking. "Trees in forests are dying at increasingly high rates – especially the bigger, older trees," Ibid.
According to Nate McDowell, an earth scientist at the US Energy Department's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the lead author of a major worldwide study: "We're seeing it almost everywhere we look." (Nate G. McDowell, et al, Pervasive Shifts in Forest Dynamics in a Changing World, Science, Vol. 268, Issue 6494, 29 May 2020)
The numbers are staggering. From 1900 to 2015 the world lost more than a third of its old-growth forests. Ever since the numbers are accelerating enough for calls of extra-alarm.
The causes are mostly anthropogenic, meaning logging and land-clearing, plus the biggest impact or fossil fuel emissions that bring forth rising global temperatures significantly magnifying the rate of dying, as droughts extend longer and harsher, resulting in extremely brittle tinder, leading to massive wildfires. The upshot is a world on fire like never before. Dead trees burn easily.
According to Henrik Hartmann of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemisty, in central Europe: "You don't have to look for dead trees… They're everywhere," Ibid.
For example, in northern Europe one week of extreme heat resulted in hundreds of thousands of beech trees dropping leaves. The trees could not handle the heat.
In the US Southwest, emerging mega-drought conditions have already weakened and killed hundreds of millions of trees, including Rocky Mountain lodgepole and piñon pines, as well as aspens.
As it happens, the massive numbers of tree deaths are newly unique to the entire world. African cedars and acacias are dying. The majestic Amazon rainforest is struggling under severe drought conditions exaggerated and super-charged by tens of thousands of human-generated fires undercutting the entire ecosystem. Junipers are rapidly declining in the Middle East. In Spain and Greece oak trees are shriveling because of intense global warming. In Siberia, massive wildfires have erupted within a virtual tinderbox of excessive heat conditions. Ancient African Baobab trees, some thriving for 2,000 years, have all begun to decline or outright dying as their ecosystems suffer from global warming.
The integrity of trees is compromised by excessive heat, which not only kills them outright, but also makes them more vulnerable to tree-burrowing insects, especially as normalized winter temperatures crank up way too high too soon during the season. Meanwhile, climate denial charlatans theorize that rising levels of CO2 feeds enhanced growth for trees and flora as a positive. They're dead wrong. It's one more dishonest position taken by rightwing politicians.
Rising levels of CO2 blanket the atmosphere, thus trapping more heat, as the planet gets ever-hotter, causing the atmosphere to suck excessive levels of moisture thereby causing trees to shed leaves and/or close pores to hold in as much moisture as possible, thus curtailing CO2 uptake. It's a vicious cycle that reverses the carbon uptake cycle that is key to maintaining all life on the planet.
Even more odious, along the way, trees die outright. There is no silver lining to increasing levels of fossil fuel CO2 emissions. It's bad, it's dangerous, and it's a killer. "Stop fossil fuel CO2 emissions or die" should be the motto of responsible political campaigns. But, that's a pipedream without enough funding to support it.
Forest ecologist Diana Six (University of Montana) has always been skeptical of claims of projected beneficial effects of excessive levels of CO2 triggering photosynthesis in plants: "I was always amazed by the early predictions for enhanced growth of forests, especially in the West. Many of the models only included warmer temperatures or higher CO2 effects. The projections were made mainly by economists who assumed that only temperatures and CO2 affect tree growth… No one seemed to consider water. With warmer temperatures and a longer growing season comes greater demand for water and we are getting less, not more, in most cases. That should have been a big red flag," Ibid.
In the final analysis, "Forests are our last, best natural defense against global warming. Without the world's trees at peak physical condition, the rest of us don't stand a chance." (Source: Eric Holthaus, Up in Smoke, Grist, March 8, 2018)
The message behind the boundless death march is simple: Stop fossil fuel emissions!
Tags: climate and ecological emergency
Robert Hunziker
MA, economic history DePaul University, awarded membership in Pi Gamma Mu International Academic Honor Society in Social Sciences is a freelance writer and environmental journalist who has over 200 articles published, including several translated into foreign languages, appearing in over 50 journals, magazines, and sites worldwide. He has been interviewed on numerous FM radio programs, as well as television.


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Choosing the best bug zapper can be a challenge with the thousands of models available on the market. And choosing whether you need a 'catch-all' bug zapper or the best mosquito killer is the first decision to make.
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2016 Presidential Campaign Hacking Fast Facts
Here's a look at hacking incidents during the 2016 presidential campaign and Russian meddling in the electio...
Posted: Oct 18, 2018 8:46 AM
Updated: Oct 18, 2018 8:46 AM
Posted By: CNN Wire
Here's a look at hacking incidents during the 2016 presidential campaign and Russian meddling in the election. For details about investigations into hacking and efforts to interfere with the election, see 2016 Presidential Election Investigation Fast Facts.
September 2015 - The FBI contacts the Democratic National Committee's help desk, cautioning the IT department that at least one computer has been compromised by Russian hackers. A technician scans the system and does not find anything suspicious.
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November 2015 - The FBI reaches out to the DNC again, warning them that one of their computers is transmitting information back to Russia. DNC management later says that IT technicians failed to pass along the message that the system had been breached.
March 19, 2016 - Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta receives a phishing email masked as an alert from Google that another user had tried to access his account. It contains a link to a page where Podesta can change his password. He shares the email with a staffer from the campaign's help desk. The staffer replies with a typo - instead of typing "This is an illegitimate email," the staffer types "This is a legitimate email." Podesta follows the instructions and types a new password, allowing hackers to access his emails.
June 12, 2016 - During an interview on British television, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says that the website has obtained and will publish a batch of Clinton emails.
June 14, 2016 - The Washington Post reports hackers working for the Russian government accessed the DNC's computer system, stealing oppositional research on Donald Trump and viewing staffers' emails and chat exchanges. The Kremlin, however, denies that the government was linked to the hack, and a US official tells CNN that investigators have not yet concluded that the cyberattack was directed by the Russian government.
June 15, 2016 - A cybersecurity firm hired by the DNC posts a public notice on its website describing an attack on the political committee's computer network by two groups associated with Russian intelligence. According to the post, two Russian-backed groups called "Cozy Bear" and "Fancy Bear" tunneled into the committee's computer system. In response, a blogger called Guccifer 2.0 claims that he alone conducted the hack, not the Russians. As proof, he posts internal DNC memos and opposition research on Trump. Furthermore, Guccifer 2.0 claims to have passed along thousands of files to WikiLeaks. Trump offers his own theory on the origins of the attack: suggesting in a statement that the DNC hacked itself to distract from Clinton's email scandal.
July 22, 2016 - Days before the Democratic National Convention, WikiLeaks publishes nearly 20,000 emails hacked from the DNC server. The documents include notes in which DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz insults staffers from the Bernie Sanders campaign and messages that suggest the organization was favoring Clinton rather than remaining neutral. Wasserman Schultz resigns in the aftermath of the leak.
July 25, 2016 - The FBI announces it has launched an investigation into the DNC hack. Although the statement doesn't indicate that the agency has a particular suspect or suspects in mind, US officials tell CNN they think the cyberattack is linked to Russia.
July 27, 2016 - During a press conference, Trump talks about Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state and calls on hackers to find deleted emails. "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," says Trump. Newt Gingrich, a Trump surrogate, defends Trump in a Tweet, dismissing the comment as a "joke."
August 12, 2016 - Hackers publish cell phone numbers and personal email addresses for Nancy Pelosi and other members of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
September 1, 2016 - During an interview with Bloomberg News, President Vladimir Putin says that he and the Russian government have no ties to the hackers. He says that the identity of the culprit or culprits is not as important as the content of the leaks, and ultimately the hackers revealed important information for voters.
September 22, 2016 - Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Adam Schiff, ranking members of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, issue a joint statement declaring that based on information they received during congressional briefings, they believe that Russian intelligence agencies are carrying out a plan to interfere with the election. They call on Putin to order a halt to the activities.
September 26, 2016 - During a presidential debate with Clinton, Trump questions whether the DNC cyberattack was carried out by a state-sponsored group or a lone hacker. "It could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds."
October-November 2016 - Over the course of a month, WikiLeaks publishes more than 58,000 messages hacked from the account of John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chairman.
October 6, 2016 - DCLeaks, a self-described collective of "hacktivists" seeking to expose the influence of special interests on elected officials, publishes a batch of documents stolen from Clinton ally Capricia Marshall. DCLeaks is later identified as a front for Russian military intelligence.
October 7, 2016 - The Department of Homeland Security and the Office of National Intelligence on Election Security issues a statement declaring that the intelligence community is "confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of emails from US persons and institutions." According to the statement, document releases on websites WikiLeaks and DCLeaks mirror the methods and motivations of past Russian-directed cyberattacks.
November 29, 2016 - A group of Democratic senators sends a letter to President Barack Obama calling on intelligence agencies to declassify information about "the Russian Government and the US election." Sources later tell CNN that new intelligence has been shared with lawmakers suggesting that Russia's purpose for meddling in the election was to sway voters towards Trump, rather than broadly undermining confidence in the system.
December 9, 2016 - The Washington Post reports the CIA has determined that Russian hacking was conducted to boost Trump and hurt Clinton during the presidential campaign. The Trump transition team dismisses the CIA's findings. President Obama asks intelligence agencies to review the hacking incidents in 2016 and other cyberattacks on political campaigns dating back to 2008. The agencies are asked to deliver their findings before Obama leaves office on January 20. A Russian foreign ministry spokesman expresses skepticism about the review and asks US investigators to share their evidence of government-sponsored cyber espionage. Meanwhile, media critics question the Post's reliance on anonymous sources for the CIA report and advise readers to be wary of claims in the article due to the lack of publicly available evidence to support the spy agency's conclusions.
December 10, 2016 - John McCain, Chuck Schumer, Lindsey Graham and Jack Reed issue a joint statement calling on Congressional Republicans and Democrats to work cooperatively on securing future elections and stopping cyber attacks.
December 11, 2016 - Sources tell CNN that although US intelligence agencies share the belief that Russia played a role in the computer hacks, there is disagreement between the CIA and the FBI about the intent of the meddling. While the CIA assessment shows that the Russians may have sought to damage Clinton and help Trump, the FBI has yet to find proof that the attacks were orchestrated to elect the Republican candidate, according to unnamed officials. Furthermore, some sources say the hackers also infiltrated the Republican National Committee's computers.
December 12, 2016 - CNN reports that Russian hackers accessed computer accounts of Republican lawmakers and GOP organizations. A source with knowledge of the investigation says that even though hackers breached the GOP computers, they opted not to release documents en masse.
December 13, 2016 - The New York Times publishes a detailed account of the DNC's delayed response to initial warnings in September of 2015 that its network had been infiltrated by hackers. The report outlines how phishing emails and communication failures led to a sweeping cyberattack. The story also lays out evidence that Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks were linked to Russia. A second article in the Times chronicles the hacking of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, housed in the same building as the DNC. According to the report, Guccifer 2.0 stole tens of thousands of documents and offered them to reporters in districts where Democratic candidates were engaged in competitive races for House seats.
December 29, 2016 - President Obama issues an executive order with sanctions against Russia. The order names six Russian individuals who allegedly took part in the presidential campaign hacking. Additionally, 35 Russian diplomats are ordered to leave the US within 72 hours.
January 3, 2017 - Julian Assange of WikiLeaks says that the Russian government did not provide him with the hacked DNC emails during an interview with Sean Hannity on the Fox News Channel.
January 3-4, 2017 - In a series of tweets, Trump questions the US intelligence community's claims that the Russian government interfered with the election. He alleges that intelligence officials have delayed a scheduled meeting with him but sources tell CNN that there has been no change to the schedule. Trump also cites Assange's interview to back his assertion that a rogue hacker, not the Russian government, may have meddled in the election.
January 5-6, 2017 - Intelligence officials meet separately with Obama and Trump to present the results of their probe into cyber espionage during the presidential campaign. After the president and the president-elect are briefed, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence releases a declassified version of its classified report on Russian meddling. According to the report, hackers did not breach voting machines or computers that tallied election results but Russians meddled in other ways. Putin ordered a multifaceted influence campaign that included spreading pro-Trump propaganda online and hacking the DNC and Podesta. Bracing for a possible Clinton win, Russian bloggers were prepared to promote a hashtag #DemocracyRIP on election night. Paid social media users, aka "trolls," shared stories about Clinton controversies to create a cloud of scandal around her campaign.
January 6-7, 2017 - Trump issues a statement after his meeting with intelligence officials. In the statement, he acknowledges that the Russian government may have been linked to the DNC hacking but declares that cyberattacks did not impact the outcome of the election because voting machines were not breached. In a series of tweets, he repeats that hacking did not affect election results and says that he wants to improve relations with Russia.
March 10, 2017 - In an interview with the Washington Times, Trump ally Roger Stone says that he had limited interactions via Twitter with Guccifer 2.0 during the campaign. He says the exchanges were "completely innocuous." The following day, the New York Times publishes its own interview with Stone, in which he says that his communication with Guccifer 2.0 took place after the DNC hack, proving there was no collusion with the Trump campaign to arrange the cyber attack.
June 1, 2017 - In public remarks, Putin says that hacking during the presidential election campaign may have been carried out by patriotic Russian citizens who felt compelled to respond to perceived slights against Russia from America. Putin says, however, that the Russian government played no role in the cyber attacks. During an interview days later, Putin says that a child could have easily hacked the American presidential campaign.
June 5, 2017 - An investigative website, the Intercept posts a report that the Russian government coordinated a spear-phishing attack on computers at an American voting machine company and compromised at least one email account. The article is based on an NSA memo that was leaked to the Intercept. Hours after the story is published, the source of the leak is identified as a government contractor named Reality Leigh Winner, 25. She is charged with transmitting classified information.
June 21, 2017 - During a Senate hearing, a Department of Homeland Security official says that hackers linked to the Russian government targeted voting systems in up to 21 states.
July 25, 2017- A bipartisan bill limiting Trump's power to ease sanctions against Russia passes in the House by a 419-3 vote. The measure also imposes new sanctions on North Korea and Iran.
July 27, 2017 - The Russia sanctions bill passes in the Senate 98-2. White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci tells CNN that the president may veto the bill and negotiate a tougher deal.
July 28, 2017 - In a reversal, the White House announces that Trump intends to sign the sanctions bill into law.
July 30, 2017 - Putin announces that 755 employees at US diplomatic missions in Russia will be ousted from their posts in response to sanctions.
August 2, 2017 - Trump says the Russia sanctions bill is "seriously flawed" but he signs it anyway.
September 6, 2017 - In a blog post, Facebook announces that more than 3,000 advertisements posted on the social network between June 2015 and May 2017 were linked to Russia. The Washington Post reports that the ads came from a Russian company called the Internet Research Agency.
September 22, 2017 - The DHS notifies select states that hackers targeted their election infrastructure before the vote on November 8, 2016. Although vote-counting systems were not impacted, computer networks containing voter info may have been scanned by Russian hackers. Some states reported attempts to infiltrate their computer systems.
October 3, 2017 - CNN reports that a number of the Russia-linked Facebook ads were geographically targeted to reach residents of Michigan and Wisconsin. Trump defeated Clinton by a narrow margin in both battleground states.
October 12, 2017 - CNN publishes an investigation of Russian trolls who posed as a group of Black Lives Matter activists during the presidential campaign. They used a variety of platforms including Tumblr and Pokemon Go to reach voters.
July 13, 2018 - The Justice Department announces indictments against 12 members of the Russian intelligence agency, GRU, as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation. The indictment alleges that the Russians of engaging in a sustained effort to hack emails and computer networks associated with the Democratic party during the 2016 presidential campaign. Guccifer 2.0 was linked to Russian military intelligence, according to the indictments.
July 16, 2018 - During a joint press conference with Putin in Helsinki, Trump says that the Russian president was "extremely strong and powerful" in his denial that his country interfered with the 2016 election. Trump says, "I don't see any reason why it would be Russia." One day later, he clarifies his remark. "The sentence should have been, 'I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be Russia,'" Trump says. "Sort of a double negative."
2016 Presidential Election Investigation Fast Facts
2020 Presidential Candidates Fast Facts
Succession: Presidential and Vice Presidential Fast Facts
UK Phone Hacking Scandal Fast Facts
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The Tokyo stock market might be riding two-decade highs, but a growing number of Japanese are choosing to stash their cash in the humble home safe, wary of negative interest rates in the bank and out of the view of eagle-eyed tax officials.
It is no secret that Japan has some of the world's biggest savers, learning from an early age to put aside some of their hard-earned wages for a likely long retirement.
However, cautious households who already put away more than half their nest-egg in cold hard yen, are increasingly bringing the cash home.
Part of the reason is a longstanding savings culture. But the Bank of Japan's move to usher in negative interest rates last year and changes to the tax code have propelled demand for alternatives to keeping money in the bank.
And that has seen home safes that cost from as much as 20,000 yen ($180) fly off store shelves, with sales surging by a fifth last year.
Demand is so strong that staff at one Tokyo outlet of Bic Camera have hauled the steel boxes from the back of the shop to a prime spot right near the escalators.
That dovetails with a recent Bank of Japan study that found investors socked away no less than half of their combined 1.8 trillion yen savings in cash, while about 10 percent was put into stocks and 19 percent in other retirement and life insurance policies.
By contrast, Americans hold just 13 percent of their savings in cash and just over a third in equities, while Europeans fall somewhere in between.
This despite that fact that Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 index has been rising since its financial crisis trough in 2009 and is now sitting at its highest levels for 21 years.
"Investing is seen by many Japanese as a whole other world," said Kaneko Ito, a personal finance consultant at Japan's All About advisory site.
Cash is king in Japan and credit cards are much less popular than in other countries so it's common for people to carry around relatively large amounts of yen to pay for day-to-day things.
The country's low crime rate is one reason people feel safe keeping cash in their house -- the odds of a burglary are relatively low.
In fact, sometimes first responders come across huge sums of money being kept in the homes of recently deceased people.
Culture plays a part too.
Like in some other Asian nations, Japanese people are told from an early age that they must save for the future with finger-wagging parents reminding adult children to "put some aside" and not to borrow too much.
Some lessons were also learned from Japan's phenomenal post-war economic boom that ended with the collapse of a stock and real estate market bubble in the early nineties.
Years of deflation and slow growth followed, a point not lost on many risk-averse savers.
"It's a question of culture and education -- protecting oneself rather than being aggressive, and avoiding losses rather than maximizing profits," Ito said.
"Before the bubble burst in the nineties, bank interest was extremely high. You could double your money in a decade so there was no reason to opt for riskier investments," he added.
Not so anymore. The central bank introduced negative interest rates in a bid to kickstart bank lending and the broader economy.
That means the average saver can literally be paying to put their money in a bank, depending on how much they shell out in fees for withdrawals and transfers but get almost no interest.
Changes to the tax code may have also spurred this flight to cash savings and combination safes as people worry that more visible savings could be spotted by keen-eyed revenue collectors.
But it's not just regular folks that are loving the cash -- Japan Inc's conservative firms are keeping some 400 trillion yen in reserve equivalent to about 75 percent of the country's entire gross domestic product.


I'm feeling grateful today for all the supportive people in my life, from my husband and other family members to the parents and facilitators at the new parents' support group, to my fellow new mama friends...you all are wonderful.
We've been having a lot of difficulty with sleep lately, and the last few days have been particularly challenging. I've found myself more than once at the end of my rope, trying desperately to figure out what to do next. I appreciate all the gentle guidance and loving support I've received about this issue of sleep. I think most of us know how hard it is to function on little or no sleep, and Daniel and I are not immune to that. Yesterday I was encouraged to "go back to bed," meaning revert to our newborn routine, which consisted of lots of time in bed together nursing and cuddling and napping as much as possible. I also tried swaddling Daniel again, something that he hadn't enjoyed in the past, and it's working well (at least for now).
I think something we tend to forget in Western societies (at least the one I live in) is that we don't have to do it alone. In fact, I believe (and maybe there's some research out there to support my claim) that we're not meant to do this parenting thing alone. We're social creatures, and as they say, It takes a village.
Thank you, my village. It's nice to know we're all in this together.
Yes. I forget that. Thanks for the reminder.
"So, I hesitate to ask for help sometimes because, What will they think of me? Does that make me weak? What if I look like a bad mom? Maybe if I just try harder...."
Girl, you are rocking motherhood. You really are. I see it for myself day after day. And I love that you are authentic enough to share your struggles (and joys and everything else) with me.
I wish my village was closer to your village! I want to do more to help. Come see us soon.


Our organization has partnered with prime manufacturers such NEC. To grow a business and stay competitive, businesses need to innovate by leveraging the best and most current communication technologies, tools, and solutions. With this in mind, NEC has created the next evolution of award-winning communications technologies with its UNIVERGE SV9000 Series Communications Platforms.
Each SMB Platform is a comprehensive integrated solution designed to meet the unique challenges and communication needs of SMBs. Organizations can decide the most effective and cost-efficient way for their employees to communicate. Designing small systems to large VOIP systems for multiple location offices.
NEC has a rich history providing communications solutions tailored for Hospitality, Healthcare, Education, Retail, Government, Finance, Manufacturing, and Transportation based organizations. If you're looking for a communications solution that meets your industry's individual needs, we're the people to talk to.
Communications technologies should cater to your needs, Contact us today to get started.
Supply Freedom of Choice Running your business on an outdated system or forcing employees to use old devices that are ill equipped to handle their multi-faceted communications needs is bad for business. That's why the UNIVERGE SV9100 platform supports the latest range of NEC desktop and mobile endpoints, including the DT800/DT400 series terminals, voice over WLAN and IP and Digitally Enhanced Cordless Telephone (DECT) mobile handsets.
NEC's WLAN and DECT telephones give your employees secure, crystal-clear communications as they roam about your company's premises or anywhere else there is coverage, while providing all of the features and functionality of a desktop phone with standard mobile enhancements such as text messaging, push-to-talk, programmable keys, and integration with third party applications.
Communication continues to evolve each day, and to keep up, so must your desktop telephone. Contact us today to discuss your telephone system.
The increasing technological innovations of smartphones and tablets has led to the creation of a new breed of desktop phone. The UT880 integrates the traditional desktop telephone and a tablet into one device that provides you with an innovative, feature-packed desktop phone that revolutionizes your user experience.
The UT880 also provides you with access to your NEC UC client. UC client functionality, from corporate directory, presence, and instant messaging to unified messaging and call control, is available at your fingertips.


Typically light to medium bodied Burgundy-style red wine with dark berry fruits and spicy notes. Very easy light drinking.
Dry, full-bodied red characterized by higher tannins and rich dark fruit with flavours of plum, berries and spices. Popular varieties hail from the New World.
Named for the region, Chablis is typically chalky with flavours of apples and a wonderful crispness.
GAVI The Gavi grape (Cortese) is characterised by a naturally high acidity and a nutty, floral character. Crisp and mouth-wateringly dry with aromas of fruit. Traditionally un-oaked.
A respected light Spanish white loved for its refreshing citrus flavours and crisp dry taste.
Green, herbaceous and typically light to medium-bodied wine. We offer South American wines but the Marlborough region of New Zealand has taken this wine to new heights.
A House favourite. Dry, fruity and deep gold in colour. Best examples hail from South Africa.
A classic favourite from the South of France with a dry distinctive style. Medium-bodied, fresh fruit aromas, ripe weight and a crisp acidity.
Fresh and crisp with zesty aromas of peach and pear and fruity flavours.


There is over 40 billion dollars in unclaimed money in the United States. Each year billions of dollars become lost and unclaimed when banks, companies, and government agencies lose track of the true owner of the money.
WE RECOVER IT FOR YOU!
When my brothers and I were first contacted regarding some money that could be awarded to the family Trust, I was skeptical. After looking into this a little more, the Cochran Investment Company, Inc. needed just a few things from us to show documentation regarding the family Trust. A few months later we in fact received more than expected.
They made what could have been a very difficult process for us to collect those funds a very simple one. We were delighted to receive money that we did not know we had coming to us and we are thankful for their help. I highly recommend using Cochran Investment Company, Inc.


A Pinch Point is produced when 2 objects come together and there is a possibility that a person could be caught or injured when coming in contact with that area. Pinch points commonly impact fingers / hands, but can impact any area of the body. The injury resulting from a pinch point could be as minor as a blister or as severe as amputation or death. Conveyors, gears, loaders, compactors and other moving equipment are examples of machinery with pinch points.
What are the most common sources of pinch points in your work area?
What improvements can be made to machine guarding?


text:
Novavax COVID-19 vaccine appears 89% effective in UK study
The Novavax vaccine appears to be effective according to a trial in the UK - Copyright AP Photo
A UK study for Novavax's coronavirus vaccine shows it appears to be 89% effective, based on early findings.
It also appears to work - but not quite as well - against the new strains of COVID-19 that were first found in England and South Africa.
The announcement comes amid worries over whether the vaccines being rolled out around the world will be strong enough to protect against the new variants.
The UK variant is thought to be around 70% more infectious - and more deadly - than the original coronavirus strain that started the global pandemic.
The study of 15,000 people in Britain is still underway, but an interim analysis found 62 participants so far have been diagnosed with COVID-19 – only six of them in the group that got the vaccine, and the rest who received placebo shots.
The infections occurred at a time when the UK was experiencing a jump in COVID-19 caused by the more contagious variant.
A preliminary analysis found over half of the trial participants who became infected had the mutated version.
COVID-19 vaccine: What are the real reasons behind the EU's slow rollout?
COVID vaccine: Who in Europe is leading the race to herd immunity?
EU stuck between a rock and a hard place on vaccine rollout, says Finland's ex-PM Alexander Stubb
The numbers are very small but Novavax said they suggest the vaccine is nearly 96% effective against the older coronavirus and nearly 86% effective against the new variant.
Scientists have been even more worried about a strain first discovered in South Africa that carries different mutations – and results from a smaller Novavax study suggests the vaccine does work but not nearly as well as it does against the variant from Britain.
The South African study included some volunteers with HIV. Among the HIV-negative volunteers, the vaccine appears 60% effective.
Including the immune-compromised volunteers, overall the protection was 49%, the company said. While genetic testing still is underway, so far about 90% of the COVID-19 illnesses found in the South African study appear due to the new mutant.
The preliminary findings may help Novavax win authorization for its vaccine in Britain but the US government is funding a far larger study that's still recruiting volunteers.
Vaccines against COVID-19 train the body to recognize the new coronavirus, mostly the spike protein that coats it.
But the Novavax candidate is made differently than the first shots being used. Called a recombinant protein vaccine, the Maryland company uses genetic engineering to grow harmless copies of the coronavirus spike protein in insect cells.
Scientists extract and purify the protein and then mix in an immune-boosting chemical.
Brexit has intensified UK doctor shortages, finds study
Boris Johnson to remain as UK PM after securing the backing of Conservative MPs
UK hits record COVID-19 levels with nearly 5 million infected
COVID-19 CORONAVIRUS CORONAVIRUS VACCINE


text:
package com.intellij.jps.cache.client;

import com.intellij.jps.cache.JpsCacheBundle;
import org.jetbrains.annotations.NotNull;

import java.util.Map;

final class JpsServerAuthUtil {
  static @NotNull Map<String, String> getRequestHeaders() {
    JpsServerAuthExtension authExtension = JpsServerAuthExtension.getInstance();
    if (authExtension == null) {
      String message = JpsCacheBundle.message("notification.content.internal.authentication.plugin.required.for.correct.work.plugin");
      throw new RuntimeException(message);
    }
    Map<String, String> authHeader = authExtension.getAuthHeader();
    if (authHeader == null) {
      String message = JpsCacheBundle.message("internal.authentication.plugin.missing.token");
      throw new RuntimeException(message);
    }
    return authHeader;
  }
}


'The Mad Yank' was an irritating feature of poker rooms in London about five or six years ago. He had been in the US military, he said, a submarine officer, but he said a lot of things, he seldom shut up, high-pitched, often shouting, with an opinion on everything, almost all of which I disagreed with.
I kept my distance from him, from the cult of his own personality that he was trying to promote. He had a walrus moustache and wore thin-rimmed glasses, he was average height, a little overweight. The last time I saw him was in a corridor outside the Rio Exhibition Room in Las Vegas in 2006, at the time of the World Series of Poker, when he was trying to beat the world record for the longest period of playing heads-up poker, and his manner, of giddy, slightly aggressive hysteria, seemed appropriate for once.
He went to live in Thailand and I doubt if I've thought of him in the intervening time. Yesterday, a friend alerted me to a news story from the Phuket Gazette. The suspected murderer of a bar girl had been apprehended after what was described as one of the biggest man-hunts in Thai history. The following day, the suspect, an American, Ronald Fanelli, who had once been a lieutenant in the US Navy, was at a press conference. He confessed to the crime. Asked if he was the same person who had been a poker player under the moniker of the Mad Yank, he said that he was. He laughed, apparently, the reporter said, with 'bitter irony', and said 'that was a long time ago'.
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The multi-purpose mill UM 150 is used for finely grinding – up to a hardness of approx. 6 on the Mohs scale – dry, brittle, medium-hard materials < 15 mm fed in doses. The grinding effect is based on impact and shear force, caused between the rapidly turning rotor and toothed grinding path.
The fed material is ground until it can pass the slotted screen insert with the exhaust air. This enables any overgrinding of already produced fine material to be eliminated. The ground material removed with the exhaust air is subsequently separated, through a cyclone, in a sample collecting bottle (500 cm³). Instead of the sample-collecting bottle, a pipe can be optionally screwed into the opening in the housing base, enabling a larger vessel to be installed underneath the machine.
To inspect and clean the machine, its housing cover can be opened, so that the grinding chamber and the cyclone can be fully examined. The damper-supported cover is monitored for the operator's safety, and when it is opened causes an instantaneous emergency stop by the brake motor.
When the cover is opened, the slotted filter inserts, that are decisive for the fineness of the final product, can be slid into the appropriate section of the grinding path.
Der Durchsatz ist abhängig von der Größe des Austragsspaltes, dem Schüttgewicht und dem Zerkleinerungsverhalten des Brechgutes.


Ever since I discovered the computer, I have been fascinated by everything that it has made possible.
In the beginning it was the VIC 20 from Commodore. A nice step but then only for games. Later, I took my first steps in programming in Basic. Soon this was not enough for me and I replaced it fot the Commodore 64 instead. Many more options and also a printer and floppy station. back then only with bulletin boards as a connection to the outside world.
When the first PC's became affordable, I was quickly in buying one. The many additional possibilities such as word processing (then still with wordperfect) quickly caught the attention.
When the internet came and I discovered the endless possibilities, the first ADSL connection was an indispensable discovery. The games were a nice distraction at that time because you could play unlimited online and the world became a bit bigger through online gaming.
More and more programs received more attention from me, for example the office programs, and the various programs for genealogy. I kept discovering more and more.
Now that it also received increasing attention in society and became indispensable, it was clear that self-programming had become a "must do". So I decided that deepening myself in this wouldn't be a bad choice. For the first time I started to make programs, websites as well my own programs, I decided to explore the world.
In the articles I will describe a few things what I have discovered so far, lots of reading pleasure!


text:
7 Memoirs About Unraveling Family Secrets
J. Nicole Jones, author of "Low Country," recommends books about the search for hidden skeletons in the family tree
Still from Knives Out
J. Nicole Jones
There are as many different kinds of memoirs as there are novels, maybe more. The public-figure memoir. The witnessing-history memoir. The survivor's memoir. The addiction memoir. The let-me-set-the-record-straight memoir. The travel memoir. The memoir about one specific family member. The gardening memoir. (Jamaica Kincaid has one of each of the last three! All are excellent, but let me especially recommend My Brother). There's the year-in-a-life-bildungsroman memoir (commonly, but not always, a travel-memoir hybrid). The illness memoir. The year-I-got-divorced memoir. The birding memoir. The memoir-in-essays. The I-discovered-some-old-journals-in-the-closet memoir. The childhood memoir. The going-home memoir. The you-can-never-go-home-again memoir…
When I was writing my memoir, Low Country, I imagined it as a combination of the latter three. A story of an unusual girlhood in a place that I love, but that struggles with a violent history and uncertain future—the coast of South Carolina is as haunted as it is beautiful, and for good reason.
As I researched and wrote, I began to see my family's own particular ghosts reflected in the hurricanes and folklore of the region, especially in the stories of my grandmother, who did what she could to hide the abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband. Even as my hometown of Myrtle Beach grew to welcome tourists from far and wide, the lives of the women in my family narrowed and faded away. I had to reconsider who I had been made by all of this history, and what I wanted to be. More and more, I turned to memoirs about family secrets not only for clues about how to approach my writing, but for comfort in the authors' accounts of searching for unknowable answers.
In these seven memoirs, the authors untangle their family stories to find a place for themselves in history:
Two Trees Make a Forest by Jessica J. Lee
This memoir is nearly uncategorizable in the absolute best ways: part family saga and travel narrative, part nature writing and environmental history, part history of colonialism and the ensuing tragedies, part linguistic primer. A cache of autobiographical letters written by her grandfather, an immigrant from Taiwan, leads Lee to travel to Taipei and begin a search for his story. As she charts her family's history, she is surrounded by the story of Taiwan and her family in China. Like so many family stories, the author is haunted by what's been lost to history and time: people, places, language, all the potential selves contained in the infinite permutations thereof. Still, like a magic trick, it is forward-looking and optimistic. The prose is as lush and beautiful as the landscapes she hikes. Every paragraph is like picking up a natural treasure on a path: a shimmering shell, a fallen leaf, a beautiful flower.
Wandering in Strange Lands by Morgan Jerkins
Having grown up in New Jersey, the author begins with a childhood memory of her father introducing a photograph of unknown siblings. And that becomes the catalyst for retracing her paternal family in the South, while comparing her maternal family's less-known journey. Jerkins's search for her history and heritage becomes an inward journey, examining how the internalization of a "move forward and never look back" mentality shaped her, and what she missed by never looking back. She follows the "migratory routes of yesteryear" in writing that is compelling and propulsive, examining the traditions, anxieties, and lore that becomes history. I hope that this book replaces, or at the very least, supplements history books in classrooms across the country, but especially in the South.
My Father and Myself by J.R. Ackerley
J.R. Ackerley is most well-known for My Dog Tulip, a tribute to his beloved German shepherd (yet another memoir category: the life-with-a-dog memoir). This book is dedicated to Tulip, and I think of it almost as a prequel. His single-paragraph-long forward is a shrugging, mea culpa–lite that lays out the main dilemma of writing memoir more plainly than I've seen anywhere else: that of how to balance the unreliability of memory with the reality you're searching for: "The apparently haphazard chronology of this memoir may need excuse. The excuse, I fear, is Art," he warns.
Ackerley grew up in a modestly affluent English family, but upon his father's death, he discovers that his father had a secret life and a second family. Ackerley must reexamine all the family history he took for granted, retracing memories of the father he thought he knew. Witty, self-deprecating, and confessional, a history that gets at the double lives we all live and the deceptive two faces of history: the real truth that is lost and what little we can ever truly recapture.
Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford
As a younger daughter of an impoverished aristocratic English family, Jessica Mitford must learn the family history propping up their country manor even as it falls to pieces around her in every sense, all while being in the unique position of watching her numerous older sisters create what has become one of the more infamous family histories of the era. Most famously, her sister Diana—a Helen of Troy-esque beauty, who was the brightest of the bright young things, until leaving her prominent husband for England's most-renowned Fascist. Another sister declared herself in love with Hitler and shot herself. Another sister, Nancy, also among the cast of bright young things, becomes a famous writer. Jessica joins the Communist party and elopes with Winston Churchill's nephew to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Ultimately, she becomes a footnote in 20th-history herself, emigrating to the U.S. and becoming a civil-rights activist and a journalist.
Ours: A Russian Family Album by Sergei Dovlatov
Reading anything by Dovlatov is the closest I've ever come to stepping in quicksand. The structure is wonderfully simple: with one exception, every chapter is centered around one family member. The literary aunt. The uncle in the red army. The cousin who can't help himself. The family dog. The grandfather taken away and murdered in a labor camp. The exception is what's become his most famous story, "The Colonel Says I Love You." It's about meeting his wife, and there are slightly differing accounts in The Suitcase and elsewhere, but that playfulness is what makes Dovlatov such a pleasure to spend time with. If there is a similarity between the sensibilities of Russian and Southern writing, that is it—the self-aware absurdity of mythologizing in real time on the page. There is a Netflix movie about Dovlatov that I'm too afraid to watch. If that's not love, I don't know what is… I defer to the colonel.
The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
Like Dovlatov's memoir, the structure of Broom's is brilliantly and deceptively simple. It's the story of her family as told through the history of her family's house in New Orleans East. Reading feels like walking the halls, climbing the stairs, opening door after door looking for stories and secrets. One of the things I love about this book is the sense of extended family, and extended family history, that she connects in the lives of her neighbors and in the history of New Orleans. She describes how much of the interior of the house was left unfinished after her father's death, and it feels as if her writing is an act of repair—before Hurricane Katrina. That a hurricane could change your whole life, could change your family history, is a fact I grew up with on the coast of South Carolina.
The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal
This extraordinary family-history memoir reads like a haunting, high-stakes detective story—Agatha Christie meets Stefan Zweig (both of whom wrote wonderful memoirs, as it happens). De Waal is an English ceramicist and artist, and this book is written in such elegance that it has the feel of one of the treasured heirlooms he writes about: his family, described as a wealthy Jewish banking dynasty, lost everything when the Nazis confiscated their property—except for a collection of small miniature sculptures. He begins to trace his family, the Ephrussi, from a patriarch in Odessa in the 1800s through expanding branches across Europe into the 20th century. The title of the book comes from their miniature sculptures, saved by a maid before the Nazis could take them, as they did everything else. De Waal describes making pottery with the same heartbreakingly fragility with which he handles his family's stories. It creates a strange, unique tactile illusion of holding history itself in your hands.
Take a break from the news
We publish your favorite authors—even the ones you haven't read yet. Get new fiction, essays, and poetry delivered to your inbox.
J. Nicole Jones received her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Columbia University, and has since held editorial positions at VICE magazine and Vanity Fair. Her viral essay defending the art of memoir, "Why's Everyone So Down on the Memoir?" was published by the Los Angeles Review of Books and Salon, and her reviews and other writings have appeared in magazines including Harper's. She grew up in South Carolina, and now lives in Brooklyn and Tennessee.
Switch On Symbol
Chinese Cooking Helps Me Connect With My Mother—And Helps Me Prepare to Lose Her
Michelle Zauner's memoir "Crying in H Mart" showed me how bonding over food could let me cope with anticipatory grief
Apr 8 - Nicole Zhu Read
8 Novels That Follow Generations of Women Through Centuries
E.M. Tran, author of "Daughters of the New Year," recommends stories about family history passed down from mother to daughter
Oct 11 - E.M. Tran
8 Books That Investigate Family History with Imagination
Juliet Patterson, author of "Sinkhole," recommends books that use ancestry as a lens to ask bigger questions about the world
Sep 14 - Juliet Patterson
What Does Freedom Look Like in Egypt and America?
Dalia Azim's "Country of Origin" is a multigenerational novel about the consequences of a life-changing impulsive decision
Apr 14 - Ladane Nasseri


The essays, Mother Tongue, by Amy Tan, best known for her book, The Joy Luck Club, and Se Habla Espanol, by Tanya Barrientos, delve into the many powers that language..
The chariot proved to be significant during warfare in the rise of the Empire during the New Kingdom. Founder of Rome, as a baby was cast adrift the Tiber..
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text:
Obama too big to fail - First year as president (Analysis Part 1)
Published:Sunday | January 24, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Matthew Kopka, Contributor
Barack Obama rode to the United States presidency on a wave of disgust with George Bush and the Republican party, with the failures of government that followed Hurricane Katrina, and weariness with the contradictions that filled the nation's ongoing war on terror.
For many - this author included - there was exultation at the election, and hope that the country could more honestly begin to face its problems. With majorities in both houses of Congress, the Democrats could enact long-needed legislation to address the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, improve education, and fill neglected infrastructure and energy needs.
By the end of November, disappointment was rampant. By January, many sniffed disaster. Progressive enthusiasm - the driving force behind the victory - was gone. Liberals and centrists were divided between those still loyal to Obama and many who thought he had sold out to health interests on establishment of universal care, bowed to Wall Street while ignoring the needs of 'Main Street', and failed to push for jobs needed to revive the economy.
After deliberating for three months, Obama had opted to escalate the war in Afghanistan, sending 30,000 more troops there. For this, if nothing else, conservatives praised him.
Matt Taibbi, hero to many for his reporting on Wall Street's manipulation of the economic crisis, called Obama's "one of the most dramatic political about-faces in our history".
"Elected in the midst of a crushing crisis brought on by a decade of … unchecked greed," Taibbi wrote, "Obama had a clear mandate to rein in Wall Street and remake the entire structure of the American economy. What he did instead was ship even his most marginally progressive campaign advisers off to various bureaucratic Siberias, while packing the key economic positions … with the very people who caused the crisis." (December 9, Rolling Stone)
Rising criticism from the black community, falling general support
Support among black people remained high. But key black leaders, including New York Times columnist Bob Herbert and Detroit congressman John Conyers, now openly criticised Obama. In an October 15 trip to New Orleans lasting just four hours, Obama met anger for his failure to develop a new plan to address ongoing misery there. In a Washington Post interview, Obama was defensive about the lack of initiatives to help black people - falling into poverty at a rate two to three times that of the general population - or poor people in general.
After astronomically high early ratings, Obama's support dropped between April and June, to just above 50 per cent before year's end. Discussions about the imminent death of the Republican Party were replaced by worries over how many seats Democrats would lose in 2010 congressional elections.
Obama's policy of consensus-seeking with Republicans had brought not a single cross-party vote on issues before Congress. Racism was voiced in weekly demonstrations by a right-wing 'tea party' movement, boosted by Fox reporting, echoing demonstrations that led to the 18th-century overthrow of the British. Gun sales reached new highs. Obama faced a record number of death threats.
Was Obama progressive to begin with?
A portion of the liberal electorate had not cared much about Obama's stances, had voted for him out of delight at his historic candidacy, his soaring calls for change, or for his criticism of the Iraq War - even as he tempered vows to bring troops home from that country. A sense that the nation might expiate Bush administration sins was palpable as people entered polls, in the jubilant demonstrations that followed.
Once in office, Obama kept on Ben Bernanke, Bush-appointed head of America's central bank, and Bush Defence Secretary Robert Gates, a man with roots in Republican presidencies going back to Ronald Reagan (in the CIA and Iran-Contra Affair, as well). He chose as principal economic advisers two men closely linked to the crisis, and made Rahm Emmanuel - despised figure on the left - his chief of staff and right-hand man, tabbed to securing legislation for the White House.
These early choices were a wake-up for those watching carefully. But goodwill was rampant; naysayers were shouted down.
Obama's electoral strategy and Congress
There was an open secret in Obama's campaign strategy. His road - which sought to square the circle between corporate money and popular support - had been taken before by Bill Clinton. It was how the Dems had broken the Republican hold on power after the Reagan-Bush years.
A largely overlooked 2007 article, called 'Barack Obama, Inc' in Harper's, had chronicled Obama's transition from community organiser to politician, the adept manner that enabled him to arouse progressive hopes while courting Wall Street interests. Obama had come out of nowhere for voters but not for corporate America, which had scrutinised him and judged it could work with him.
Such alliances are so central to American politics that many shrugged them off.
It is easy, a year later, to blame the congressional Democrats most allied with corporate wealth for blocking progress. But Obama has affirmed he is one of them. In a post-election meeting with congressional members of the Democratic Leadership Council - long committed to moving the party right to capture corporate backing, of which the Clintons and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman were key members - he made a plea for their support: "I am one of you," he told them.
Even amid such warnings, it was hard for progressives to overcome relief that the Bush years were over. As 2009 wore on, they would be whipsawed by conflicting sentiments, uncertain what most needed combating: an Obama administration hurrying towards the middle, or the president's frightening right-wing opposition.
By year's end, though, there was little disputing one thing: Never had such powerful
and positive political momentum disappeared so quickly.
Obama's accomplishments
With divisions rampant, it is important to evaluate what Obama really has done. There is no doubt his election restored respect for the law and a minimum competence - with it confidence in - America's liberal democracy, in a country whose laws, treaties and other obligations were repeatedly flouted by the Bush administration. America is no longer seen as a rogue power.
The Obama administration's unwillingness to prosecute Bush officials is, however, a huge bone of contention, and may come back to haunt Obama, as officials like former Vice President Dick Cheney - who many believe should face prosecution on several fronts - continue to deride Obama's responses to terror threats real and imagined in the media.
It is accepted that the president faces extraordinary challenges. Despite pronouncements that the recession is over, the worst may be yet to come. Unemployment hovers at an official 10 per cent. In real terms, it is nearer 20 - far worse for people of colour - as bad as it has been since the Great Depression. Hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their homes each month in 2009. Hunger has reached shocking proportions. Tent cities and shanty towns have sprouted around the country.
The fact that those businesses left standing have 'recovered' means little to most Americans. Corporations have found ways to insulate themselves and even profit during down times (in part through the speculative activities that brought on the collapse; only 30 per cent of Wall Street activity still relates to manufacturing). Humans have not.
Further complicating Obama's task: the machinery of American government is stuck. Members of both parties have written for decades how the Senate, deeply undemocratic by design, is saddled with outdated rules that prevent legislation's enactment. The outdated mechanics of governance impede even changes the country's governing elites see as necessary. (When nothing happens, the greatest benefit tends to fall to the status quo.)
There has long been a kernel of truth, then, in Republican charges - beginning with Ronald Reagan - that "government is the problem". Failure to acknowledge this in the slightly more progressive Democratic party leaves liberals defending the indefensible.
And the White House now suffers a public relations problem that Bush and others faced, political pressure to claim things are better than they are.
An Obama restoration?
It was striking, even among Obama supporters, how the word 'restore' was so often used to characterise the administration's first-year actions.
Obama had returned relationships with many countries to a stable footing. With US power shockingly diminished by Bush's blunders, he was intent on maintaining geopolitical advantages the US did have, playing hardball with Japan (for instance) on that country's desire to close the military base on Okinawa.
The new president acknowledged that American personnel had tortured terror suspects and forbade further torture by the CIA or military, though the practice of 'extraordinary rendition' of suspects to other countries continued. In January 2010, the administration announced that it would begin reporting the names of suspects arrested - welcome step - though the terms under which they are seized often violate their rights and other countries' sovereignty.
Obama had promised to close Guantánamo prison - where terrorism suspects are still held - by year's end. This has not happened, but moves were under way to transfer many to the state of Illinois.
The new administration had initiated a drawdown of American soldiers in Iraq. (With the world's biggest embassy finished and 14 new military bases there, in a nation bordering Iran, the US has - in truth - no plans to leave that country.) The White House had restored the media's right to photograph coffins of soldiers killed overseas, ending a Bush media blackout that angered many.
But although these moves were hailed as a delayed expression of the American people's will, they were soon overshadowed by the announcement of plans to transfer many more troops to Afghanistan. This came even as a leaked report showed the Afghan army mired in corruption, with little hope among analysts for a turnaround. Strategic regional aims increasingly centre on Pakistan, badly destabilised (ironically) by the US war on the Taliban.
Despite Obama's attempt to sell the war to US citizens, it was not even clear whether plans were to continue to fight the Taliban, or win them over by bringing them back into government. That the number of civilians killed doubled during the past year cannot surprise amid such confusion. On Obama's orders, the number of drone missiles fired at suspect targets had also doubled, leading to hundreds of more 'mistakes' and murdered innocents.
Further help for the military
The White House made efforts to improve the lot of military personnel, with initiatives to provide them better armour, housing and benefits. It ended the ridiculous, absurdly expensive, 'Star Wars' plan for a missile shield of Europe from Russia and initiated negotiations (now stalled) for sizeable cuts in both countries' nuclear arsenals. The administration also instituted policies to curtail corruption in military procurement, ending no-bid contracts.
But these moves left open the question of whether the US should continue to police the world or supply its arms, activities which constitute roughly 50 per cent of the economy. (Cancelling arms sales to Taiwan, for example, though these threaten relations with China, means lost jobs.)
It had become plainer Obama would not challenge the military industrial complex that has dominated the US landscape since World War II, or pose the real or necessary alternatives to Americans. Defence spending has risen in his administration to all-time historic levels, and now equals what the rest of the world spends together. "[T]he Pentagon," says the Centre for Defence Information, "spends more in a few hours than Al Qaeda spends in an entire year."
Domestic actions
Obama signed a new law, which he backed as senator, to help assure equal pay for women.
His administration restored funding for scientific and energy research, and validated anew the role of science in a White House that for eight years rewrote reports, obscured evidence, and pushed science back toward the Middle Ages. The White House ended Bush administration policy of not regulating or labelling carbon dioxide emissions and removed restrictions on stem-cell research.
Environmental regulations that the Bush administration failed to observe or enforce have been restored.
The Obama administration slowed ruinous practices like mountaintop removal for coal mining that were blighting once-beautiful Appalachia. There were plans to increase development and installation of alternative energy and transportation, though on nothing like the scale Obama held out in campaign appearances. With countries like Germany and China far in the lead in such investments, there was a lessening chance the US would become the industrial engine - or reap the biggest advantages - from the inevitable necessary change to alternative sources.
Infrastructure spending in general increased with a federal stimulus act, the first big piece of legislation propelled through Congress by the new administration. The moves were timid - made in nothing like the degree needed after decades of neglect. There was growing clamour for a second, 2010 stimulus.
The administration was again respecting the Freedom of Information Act, and took steps to ensure no government secrets would be withheld in perpetuity. It placed new limits on lobbying of the White House and former staff.
The administration expanded health care for more than four million schoolchildren. It expanded vaccination programmes. It began efforts to close some offshore tax havens. In other moves, the incoming Obama administration:
Relaxed the most unpopular element of Bush Cuba policy, restrictions on family travel to that country;
Decided to try the accused 9/11 perpetrators in New York City, helping assure minimal standards of justice accompanied judgement;
Nominated the first Hispanic Supreme Court judge, Sonia Sotomayor, and saw her seated.
Matthew Kopka is a political ecologist. He has been writing for The Gleaner since the eve of the US Iraq invasion in 2002, and has lived in Jamaica during three periods, first visiting the country in 1976.
See Part 2 in tomorrow's Gleaner.


On March 29th, the students and staff of Waukesha South poured into the field house to witness the annual student versus staff basketball game. Unfortunately for the students, they saw their team get edged out by the staff 51-50 in an epic pre-spring break showdown.
The student team consisted entirely of seniors, including several varsity basketball players such as Armoni Brown and Juan Lazcano. The staff team was obviously made up of teachers and administrators, or as commentators Mr. Schreier & Mr. Larsen described them, "a bunch of old people." The game started out a bit rocky with the student team somewhat struggling to score their first points in the opening minutes. There were numerous moments of awe as both students and staff alike netted 3s, made audacious drives, and executed various skills. As reflected by the scoreline, both teams fought hard to score points and keep the lead.
However, it is safe to say that the staff team was consistently a step ahead. They kept a slim lead, but a lead nonetheless over the students for the majority of the game. Despite this, the students continued to fight hard and even had some instances where they were able to tie the score. Even the introduction of Raeshaun Harrington and his red Supreme basketball sleeve into the game seemed to boost the overall morale of the team and the students in the stands as they cheered the seniors on.
But in the end, it wasn't enough. The "old" yet experienced staff won the game as the student team fell short of drawing level in the dying moments of the game. But regardless of the winner, the game was a fun way to kick off spring break. Even members of the losing team had only positive vibes about the entire experience.
In the end it was all fun and games and both students and staff had a great time at the event. However, the staff best be aware that the next batch of seniors have been watching and studying their tactics in order to turn the tide and take home the win in 2019.
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Shadowsong Europe Forums > General > Classes > Warrior > Tactical Mastery change.
View Full Version : Tactical Mastery change.
I look at it like this: we took a talent that was very desirable to Fury and Arms warriors, but not quite desirable enough for them to take, made it more desirable and gave it a reason to be in the Protection tree.
Stance dancing always has been important to PvE and will become more so for Alliance players with the change to Fear Ward so while the talent is very useful in PvP I think it's wrong to call it a PvP talent per se.
Bear in mind though that none of these changes are set in stone and we will want to see how everything pans out on the PTR before any changes go live, but personally, I think it would be nice to see a bit more experimentation and variety in PvP builds.
I suppose this is in regards to increasing the threat done by Bloodthirst and Mortal strike while in defensive stance? That's nice and all, but it isnt likely going to make me want to change the classic 17/44 fury build to get TM in prot tree.
Or is there some other change to it that i've missed?
It's stupid and utterly pointless change. Instead of decreasing threat done by those abilities they increased it.
That's gonna cause some big problems when dps'ing in Defensive Stance.
Unless you tend to do pve dps in defensive stance I don't see where your problem is.
As for the change itself, yes the increased threat of MS/BT in def stance is all there is to it (as far as it's documented). Since 17/44 seems to be where it's at for dw/fury the change will have little impact for people specced that way, ofcourse.
That said, people focusing on pvp, who have TM in their every-day spec, might just get some use out of it. (For heroics, whatever.. pvp trinkets from badges etc.) A few warriors who are specced 17/44 might want to juggle some points around and sacrifice some dps potential for improved raid-offtanking viability. Most raids I heard of only take 0-1 dps warriors to their raids right now, the trash-/offtank spot seems to mostly be filled with feral druids atm.
How big the impact of the change is, depends on the actual implementation, and I wouldn't pass any judgement before 2.3 is on the PTRs at least.
Yes, "LOL not gonna affect me anyway" logic applies here perfectly. What I was trying to say is "LOL why bother with stupid stuff that is not gonna affect ones who it adresses because of redundancy" thus creating more bugs and delaying highly expected patches.
Stim...why would u be in def stance from the first place using ms or bt unless u wanted aggro?
Also: See what they are doing? Basically change that dps warriors threattanking, based on dps, similar to a feral.
druidololol cries incoming, this might just make a very nice solution to needing less respecs tbh, but you still need to sport the tanking gear ofc.
About aggro reducing: ive seen some images around the net on a warrior skill called efficency; its supposed to add hitrating and be a "use". Reducing threat by 50 % for 10 seconds, 3 min cd. TBH, I personally dont believe it but will try to post images when I get home if I find it.
Why should they decrease threat done by abilities instead of making this change? (Your first post again.) Imo, classes need to have strengths and weaknesses. The DPS warrior strength is the ability to do a fuckload of damage, and the weakness is the threat and inability to dump or reduce it. Don't get me wrong - a dps threat dump/reduction would be great, but at this time Blizzard is choosing not to grant the warrior with such an ability.
If you have a TM build then the proposed change, far from being "redundant", is probably going to be a nice tanking buff.
If you're running with a TM-free/specialised build (e.g. 17+/41+/0, 31+/28+/0, 0+/0+/31+) then it won't affect you anyway, so there's no point getting your knickers in a twist.
Why would it create bugs? See the bigger picture, they are giving dps warriors at least a freaking chance to run a 5 man with bit more chill and slacking since they will have better aggro.
Or using that dpsfurypersonguy to BAM taunt a mob when healers slacked on MT while cleaning trash.
This doesnt harm warriors in any way or form. Whatsoever. Its a welcome change.
I strongly believe that responsible dps helps non-prot specced warriors hold aggro on mobs much more than a high rage cost damaging move with help of the talent most of them won't have. Me: LOOK! I Got MS with fast 1-hander doing THREATZ!!! Tier5 fire mage: LOLPOMPYROZ! I can hold now aggro pretty good now, adjusting gear from survivability to aggro generation (through damage insrease mostly) to fit situation. What strucks me most is that I have to use drood's battleres/lock SS on certain raid boss to wipe threat list, not the possibility of aggro loss on million of adds I got to offtank in raid (using MS lol?). 33/28, 31/30, 17/44 are raid dps builds, no TM on them, no bonus for raid off-tanking duty. When I had to go all tnak and tough I specced 31/5/25 to suit me better and had no aggro problems in Heroics. So, what's the point? Help PvP people (ones who got TM) in PvE content? Yes the change is beneficial. Needed? No... Will I care about it? Hardly. Gratz on useless job well done again.
Its a casual talent/early raiding talent.
Also Stim, you don't know the added threat bonus, you don't how it will work so just go ahead and shut up.
It's a welcome change for sure, but wont change anything for me personally.
I wont break the fury build i have cuz i think it works very well, sure aggro is an issue on certain encounter (that ive seen so far) but it isnt gamebreaking.
And yes, tanking heroics as a fury is a royal pain and should be avoided at best (unless you have windfury which makes it a little easier) But, with the introcuction of daily quests, where you can make 150g+ from 10 of them, a 100g respecc from whatever dps build you had, to protection to do a couple of heroics, isnt really that bad.
And yes, tanking heroics as a fury is a royal pain and should be avoided at best (unless you have windfury which makes it a little easier) But, with the introcuction of daily quests, where you can make 150g+ from 10 of them, a 100g respecc from whatever dps build to had to protection to do a couple of heroics, isnt really that bad.
Indeed, I welcome this change either way, no doubt Ill be leveling as arms with WotLK.
Same i think, i did 60- > 70 as fury, and it was too much work tbh.
Fury seems quite nice for solo work, very little downtime with BT and certain trinkets. I've always leveled as arms previously, but I think I'll give it a go as fury this time round, especially with raid level dps gear. Might end up going back to arms if my hit rating drops enough though, so it really just depends on the drops/quest items I suppose.
3 points in TM isn't avilable to anyone wanting to maximize in PvE. There are some decent 2v2/3v3 specs with TM, so I guess it's nice for arena warriors wanting to do heroics.
Not a lot is finalized right now, but we are currently planning to make Improved Berserker Stance provide threat reduction by 2/4/6/8/10% while in Berserker Stance.
Not much else to say than : Buttsecks.