text:
Expert: Sanders 'Not Necessarily Running as an Outsider'
The senator spent his Tuesday in New Hampshire
By Alison King	• Published at 6:15 pm on May 28, 2019
During day two of campaigning in the Granite State, Bernie Sanders packed the auditorium at the New Hampshire Technical Institute for a town hall that begin with a bit of bragging.
"Our campaign is the strongest campaign to defeat the worst president in the history of the United States," he said.
Four years ago Sanders was just introducing himself to voters around the country. Despite being a longtime senator, he was considered the anti-establishment option. This time around, while his policies are the same, he is a different candidate in many ways.
"We are starting to see the real signs that Bernie's campaign is more sophisticated than it was four years ago," political analyst Scott Spradling said.
Spradling says behind the scenes, Sanders has done much more work to reach out to Democratic leaders in every state including super delegates, members of Congress and big-name Democrats. That's the groundwork it will take to beat the current front runner Joe Biden.
"He's not necessarily running as an outsider," Spradling said. "This is beginning to look more like an establishment campaign."
Spradling says while Sanders is everywhere, Biden is running a very different kind of a race.
"His visits are more selective. He's not necessarily taking the Q&A. The interactions with the public are more limited," he said.
Sanders audience had mixed feelings about the two front runners.
"I think Bernie is a far stronger candidate than Joe Biden. I'm 100% for him. I think he is the one person who can beat Trump," Victoria Abbott of Sanbornton said.
"I think I might go Biden just because he seems to be more centrist and more able to kind of get things done in Washington," Zachary Holmes of Exeter said.
Whether Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden or anyone of the 22 other candidate feel Democrats will ultimately go with the candidate who will best beat Donald Trump.


text:
from typing import Iterable
import cirq
from cirq_web import widget
from cirq_web.circuits.symbols import (
    Operation3DSymbol,
    SymbolResolver,
    resolve_operation,
    DEFAULT_SYMBOL_RESOLVERS,
)

class Circuit3D(widget.Widget):
    """Takes cirq.Circuit objects and displays them in 3D."""

    def __init__(
        self,
        circuit: cirq.Circuit,
        resolvers: Iterable[SymbolResolver] = DEFAULT_SYMBOL_RESOLVERS,
        padding_factor: float = 1,
    ):
        """Initializes a Circuit instance.

        Args:
            circuit: The `cirq.Circuit` to be represented in 3D.
            resolvers: The symbol resolve for how to show symbols in 3D.
            padding_factor: The distance between meshes.
        """
        super().__init__()
        self.circuit = circuit
        self._resolvers = resolvers
        self.padding_factor = padding_factor

    def get_client_code(self) -> str:
        # Remove hyphens from the id so that we can use
        # it as the variable name in TS.
        # It's important that we assign the circuit to a variable
        # for animation purposes. Alternatively, there may be ways
        # to select/manipulate elements on the screen from three.js
        stripped_id = self.id.replace('-', '')
        moments = len(self.circuit.moments)
        self.serialized_circuit = self._serialize_circuit()

        return f"""
            <button id="camera-reset">Reset Camera</button>
            <button id="camera-toggle">Toggle Camera Type</button>
            <script>
            let viz_{stripped_id} = createGridCircuit({self.serialized_circuit}, {moments}, "{self.id}", {self.padding_factor});

            document.getElementById("camera-reset").addEventListener('click', ()  => {{
            viz_{stripped_id}.scene.setCameraAndControls(viz_{stripped_id}.circuit);
            }});

            document.getElementById("camera-toggle").addEventListener('click', ()  => {{
            viz_{stripped_id}.scene.toggleCamera(viz_{stripped_id}.circuit);
            }});
            </script>
        """

    def get_widget_bundle_name(self) -> str:
        return 'circuit.bundle.js'

    def _serialize_circuit(self) -> str:
        args = []
        moments = self.circuit.moments
        for moment_id, moment in enumerate(moments):
            for item in moment:
                symbol = self._build_3D_symbol(item, moment_id)
                args.append(symbol.to_typescript())

        argument_str = ','.join(str(item) for item in args)
        return f'[{argument_str}]'

    def _build_3D_symbol(self, operation, moment) -> Operation3DSymbol:
        symbol_info = resolve_operation(operation, self._resolvers)
        location_info = []
        for qubit in operation.qubits:
            if isinstance(qubit, cirq.GridQubit):
                location_info.append({'row': qubit.row, 'col': qubit.col})
            elif isinstance(qubit, cirq.LineQubit):
                location_info.append({'row': qubit.x, 'col': 0})
            else:
                raise ValueError('Unsupported qubit type')
        return Operation3DSymbol(symbol_info.labels, location_info, symbol_info.colors, moment)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Special Playing Card Finishes | SLBS Ltd.
We understand that our clients have a right to expect the cards we produce for them to meet their exact requirements and fulfil their design brief. Working closely with our design team we offer a variety of board weights and finishes: 100% plastic, linen, matt, satin and gloss. Along with the wide choice of boards, special finishes can be applied. These include spot UV to highlight and raise certain areas on both faces and backs making them appear ultra glossy.
Spot UV works extremely well when having a design produced in black with a black background or for highlighting different areas of the design. We offer spot metallic colours, foiling and various colours are available for gilding the edges of the packs. 8ct -24ct gold leaf is available and these are used for packs that are gilded gold.
As the gilding is done by hand it is possible to have a small quantity gilded rather than all the decks that are produced for you. All the special finishes enhance the design and add depth, complexity and richness to the cards.
Prices vary, so please contact us for a quote. Currently the minimum quantity for a litho print run is 500 decks.
We understand that our clients have a right to expect the cards we produce for them to meet their exact requirements and fulfil their design brief.


text:
State & Local Updates
This new regulation removes the supply which allowed holders of Producer Importer Identification Numbers to import sure industrial/finished items. Regulating E-Commerce for a Digital Future Business actors in Indonesia typically increase the query whether there are any Indonesian legal restrictions on digitalising their companies via web sites or cellular functions. There is no particular Government of Indonesia law or regulation that deals with e-commerce activities in any depth or detail. Indonesia's worldwide funding policy has been within the highlight since the Government of Indonesia conveyed in 2014 its intention to terminate all of its current bilateral investment treaties. Indonesia Introduces New Solar Power Regime In 2013, the Indonesian government first launched a solar power regulatory regime which required the government to publish solar energy quota allocations for varied elements of Indonesia.
New Regulation in Managing Oil and Gas Working Areas with Expiring PSCs The authorities has issued MEMR Regulation No. 23 of 2018, which states that a PSC Contractor does not mechanically have the proper to a PSC extension. Procurement Arrangements in the Indonesian Construction and Projects Sector Under Indonesian Law No. 2 of 2017 (the "Construction Law"), procurement arrangements in Indonesia are made by way of the execution of a building work contract between the project owner/employer and the service provider/contractor. Indonesian Shipping Law – Marine Casualty In the occasion of a ship collision, grounding or different major casualty, there are a number of key provisions in Indonesia that may impression upon the liability and response of fascinated parties. Royalties have been regarded as prices to be added to customs value – so lengthy as the royalties meet all the situations set out in Law No. 10 of 1995 as amended by Law No. 17 of 2006 on Customs ("Customs Law") and its implementing regulation.
We work with authors of scientific articles and try to advertise science at a worldwide level, uniting researchers with international experts to improve the quality of their scientific research. A virtual library of regularly posted insights and legal updates based on your selected preferences. From changes in legislation and case regulation to regulatory reforms, at Ashurst we're in a place to help you on all legal developments. International Collaboration accounts for the articles which have been produced by researchers from a quantity of nations. The chart reveals the ratio of a journal's documents signed by researchers from multiple nation; that's including more than one country address. Article by Anne Coulon, Regional Legal Adviser, DFDL Thailand Mediation is a confidential, fast, versatile and cost-effective dispute resolution ("DR") method primarily based on the mutual consent of the concerned parties.
Foreign Employees and Termination Benefits in Indonesia Supreme Court Circular Letter No. 1 of 2017 provides legal certainty that foreigners can only be employed in Indonesia under a fixed-term employment agreement for the period of their work allow. SEMA No. 1 eliminates any potential future claims that overseas staff are permanent employees and thus enjoy statutory termination advantages under the Manpower Law. Coal Prices for Domestic Power Producers in Indonesia With international coal costs rising, the federal government has by enacted MEMR Decree No. 1395 K/30/MEM/2018 to regulate the provision of coal for home energy producers. The New Tax Holiday Regulation of Indonesia New Minister of Finance regulation provides extra enticing corporate earnings tax discount amenities for investors.
Information To Vietnamese Labour Law For The Garment Industry
Schools will want to adjust to the requirements of the PAPDC or potentially face monetary penalties. AEMC has progressed important developments for storage amenities in its final rule and determination on integrating power storage into the NEM. We are recognised as a foremost authority in regulation and go-to organisation for legal expertise.
Companies, contractors, individuals, banks, actual property homeowners, governmental bodies; or any combination thereof may be events to commercial mediation. Bank Indonesia Regulations on Foreign Exchange Transactions Bank Indonesia lately issued a number of laws associated to foreign change transactions by Indonesian banks. These rules update present laws issued by BI with the objective of making a healthy overseas trade market in Indonesia, as is explained on this temporary abstract. New Negative Investment List Introduces Changes to Health Investment in Indonesia The Indonesian Government has launched the long-awaited New Negative Investment List, issued underneath Presidential Regulation No. 39 of 2014.
Overview Of Eu Competition Regulation
New Indonesian Manpower Regulation Changes Rules for Foreign Workers The Indonesian Ministry of Manpower has issued MOM Regulation Number 10 of 2018 on Procedures for the Utilization of Foreign Workers. PLN re-opens Prequalification Process for Indonesian Renewable Projects Indonesia's State-owned energy utility, PT PLN has invited renewable builders to submit functions to be included on the List of renewable initiatives. Sign up for the GBG Indonesia Quarterly Business Intelligence Report for the newest news on your sector. Book an appointment with us, or search the listing to seek out the proper lawyer for you immediately via the app.
Investing in Indonesia's Advertising and Marketing Sector Foreign parties that want to put cash into Indonesia instantly should follow the principles for FDI within the relevant business sector. For the promoting and marketing sector, international entities are subject to a number of rules including limitations to overseas investment mandated by the Negative Investment List. Indonesian Omnibus Bill – Changes to Labor-Related Sectors The Indonesian House of Representatives recently passed the Omnibus Bill on Job Creation (the "Omnibus Bill").
Our monthly Law Update publications cowl a broad range of matters including breaking legal information, adjustments in laws, and regulatory reforms. Ho Chi Minh metropolis, 4 December 2019 Global Integration Business Consultants and Global Vietnam Lawyers formally signed a Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement in Ho Chi Minh metropolis on 4 December 2019. One of our legal updates might, as an example, explain the practical that means of a newly handed federal legislation greatly limiting background checks by employers.
The Halal Product Assurance Law wants round 20 implementing laws which have to be issued inside two years after seventeenth October 2014.
External citations are calculated by subtracting the number of self-citations from the total number of citations acquired by the journal's documents.
Restrictions on Contractors within the Indonesian Oil and Gas Sector There are a variety of rules for Production Sharing Contract ("PSC") Contractors in Indonesia's oil and fuel sector, including these on the export of production, foreign money change and the switch or disposal of improvement rights.
For the advertising and advertising sector, international entities are subject to a host of regulations including limitations to overseas funding mandated by the Negative Investment List.
New Abandonment and Site Restoration Obligations Upstream Oil and Gas Activities Indonesia's Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources has regulated abandonment and web site restoration activities, or post-operation actions, for the upstream oil and fuel sector.
The OJK must approve or reject the license application no later than 30 days after the entire utility is acquired.
The regulation supplies new measures to the current private data protection provisions in Indonesia. Protection of Privacy in Indonesia Article 28 is considered the premise for more specific knowledge privacy laws. However, there is not a particular legislation in Indonesia that regulates respect for personal and household life. As of the time of this writing, probably the most related rules for the protection of privacy are associated to personal information protection.
Tags: local state updates
Previous: Legal Update On The New Funding
Next: Learn Our Law Update Magazine
No&t Thailand Legal Update
Indonesia Legislation Blog
The Legal Update

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Public spaces II - Bulldozing the Bonaventure
The plans to bulldoze the Bonaventure expressway and replace it with a ground level boulevard, for example, have gone back to the drawing board. The Office de consultation publique de montréal was right to doubt the wisdom of the entire $260-million redevelopment scheme initially proposed by the Societe du Havre de Montreal, and to recommend a second look at the whole idea.
The people at City Hall responsible for the ambitious project might learn a thing or two from Boston's experience.
Boston, like Montreal, decided to remove 2.4 km of an old elevated freeway and turn it into public parkland. The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway was dedicated in 2004 but because of delays and cost over-runs it wasn't completed until 2008. Since it opened its landscaped parks, plaza's and promenades have remained underutilized by the public, and once promising projects designed to bring it to life, have been abandoned.
Get it wrong, like they did in Boston, and Montreal will end up with a no-man's land that wrenches neighbourhoods apart instead of an attractive pedestrian-friendly streetscape designed to stitch them together. Unlike, Boston however, planners in Montreal still have to work around the elevated train tracks and, as well, will have to contend with the Dalhousie rapid transportation corridor. "Given the presence of the train tracks, and given the little quality of land on either side of the highway or on the boulevard that would replace it, it is not easy to create an interesting, well used environment," notes Raphael Fischler, Director of the McGill Engineering School of Urban Planning. "There is no way we can restore G riffintown to its earlier 20th century morphology. We have to see how we can improve the situation while keeping the elevated highway in place, or create a real urban boulevard flanked by a more modest amount of development that initially proposed."
According to Mayor Gerald Tremblay, the city needs to tear down the expressway because (a) it's an eyesore, and (b) it would cost taxpayers $60-million to repair, and (c) demolishing it opens up $600-million worth of real estate that would enhance the value of the property in the Quartier International.
The section of the Bonaventure that will come down divides two neighbourhoods - the old Faubourg Recollects, which was once a rundown industrial area to the east, and Griffintown, a dilapidated area to the west. Stilil, one has to question the wisdom of tearing up what was once a expressway and turning its eight lanes into a highway and a strip of high rise condos No one appears to be taking into account the rapid transit or railway infrastructure in the immediate area. Has anyone bothered to ask whether private developers have any interest in the land that borders the expressway property. If the Bonaventure must be developed, and that's an important if, creativity is required. It would be short sighted to force-feed super-sized apartment blocks and run transit buses along a series of oversized , shapless spaces that no one would want to visit. As Jane Jacobs so often told us, people are what make a public space great. A sense of scale is essential. The area could be, with some difficulty, converted into a series of small, tight-knit communities of elegant mews or écuries like the Washington Mews in New York`s Greenwich Village. Add to the mix infill low rental housing, low rise apartment blocks four to eight stories and mixed use development intertwined with a new public market and cultural facilities all of which could provide rental income for the city and at the same time add density and a new vibrancy to the city below the city.
The last thing Montreal needs is an unattractive serpentine corridor at ground level that merely duplicates the footprint of the elevated concrete artery that it plans to demolish.


She's loving this fun set!
She's loving this fun set! Pieces can be worn separately too and look extremely cute.
so cute design! my little gymnast loves this set, precisely these pink leggings!
Cute set. Bought this to match with my girl. We love Pineapple!
My sweet illusion Lisa set fits perfectly and is so comfortable. I also love the colours and pattern.


The Michelin Building displays elements of Art Nouveau as well as Art Deco, an architectural style that was beginning to take shape in France around the time the Michelin company was establishing its British branch. However, the fact that the building was designed by a company employee with no formal architectural training — probably with input from brothers and Michelin company founders Édouard and André Michelin, who were known for their creative and visionary work — meant that it displayed a certain disregard for rigid stylistic constraints.
The use of concrete construction, which was a nascent method at the time, allowed for the creation of large open floor spaces. The building now houses a restaurant, shops and offices.


Quantum computers are based on qubits that, unlike classical bits, can not only take the values 0 or 1 but can also be 0 and 1 at the same time. Unfortunately this quantum information is very fragile and thus gets lost easily. A team of scientists led by Tim Taminiau at QuTech in Delft has demonstrated for the first time that errors in quantum computations can be detected and actively corrected, without losing the delicate quantum information. By repeatedly applying quantum error correction using electron and nuclear spins in diamond, the team managed to extend the time that quantum information could be protected. The correction of errors in quantum computations is a crucial step towards a working quantum computer. The scientists have published their work on the 5th of May in Nature Communications.
The QuTech institute at TU Delft is working on the computer of the future: the quantum computer. This computer is based on the counter intuitive laws of quantum mechanics, allowing it to solve important problems that are far beyond the reach of the best classical computers. The building blocks of the quantum computer, qubits, can not only take the values '0' or '1', but also '0' and '1' at the same time, which we call a quantum superposition.
These superpositions provide the power of the quantum computer. They allow for calculations to be performed as if they are executed simultaneously, such that certain problems can be solved very efficiently. At the same time, these superpositions are the weakness of the quantum computer: a superposition is very fragile and just looking at the system is sufficient to disturb it. Therefore it is challenging to detect possible errors in quantum information during computations.
To be able to perform useful quantum computations, it is nevertheless essential that errors can be corrected. Quantum error correction therefore forms the basis of quantum computing and is the main open challenge for practical quantum computers. In quantum error correction, quantum information is protected by first encoding it. Then errors are detected by careful measurements that do not disturb the fragile quantum information. Finally, the errors are processed by fast classical electronics and actively corrected. Importantly, the quantum system must remain encoded and continuously protected throughout the whole process.
The QuTech scientists used electronic and nuclear spins in diamond to implement such a complete error-correction process for the first time. These spins can be used to process quantum information with high fidelity and to store it long enough to process and actively correct the errors using classical electronics. This demonstration of active quantum error correction is an important milestone towards more complex error correction systems that will ultimately lead to a quantum computer.
Julia Cramer, Norbert Kalb, M. Adriaan Rol, Bas Hensen, Machiel S. Blok, Matthew Markham, Daniel J. Twitchen, Ronald Hanson, Tim H. Taminiau. Repeated quantum error correction on a continuously encoded qubit by real-time feedback.


text:
Terra - Terror - Territory | NeMe
www.neme.org/texts/terra-terror-territory
'… today, all politics is about real estate. Postmodern politics is essentially a matter of land grabs, on a local as well as a global scale. Whether you think of the question of Palestine, the settlements and the camps, or of the politics of raw materials and extraction; whether you think of ecology (and the rainforests) or the problems of federalism, citizenship and immigration, or whether it is a question of gentrification in the great cities as well as in the bidonvilles, the favelas and townships, and of course the movement of the landless – today everything is about land.'
Frederic Jameson
'…the urban, the environment and the question of territorial identity all are dimensions of the monotopic Europe coined around a specific notion of mobility as zero friction.'
Ole Jensen & Tim Richardson
'A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.'
When, on 7 December 1972, Blue Marble-the first clear photograph of the whole earth-was shown, we immediately understood its message: this is the territory. Although it had long since been proven that the Earth was round and finite, it took an image to really let especially that finiteness sink in with our collective consciousness. From then on the Earth was indeed understood as a territory: a well-defined and limited terrain and the only one to inhabit and to farm, at least for now. It is no coincidence that ecological movements rapidly gathered momentum in the early 1970s.
What may be a historical coincidence, or not, is that in exactly the same period neoliberalism began to gain popularity, after twenty years of preparing for it, between 1940 and 1960. Because of a unilateral decision by the United States to no longer tie its currency to gold, the famous Bretton Woods system was dismantled between 1971 and 1973. Inflation of first prices and then wages broke the then dominant Keynesian model, while the student movement demanding more freedom in the late 1960s had made at least some of them receptive to anarcho-capitalism (Srnicek & Williams, 2016: 63). In any case, it were the alumni of the early 1970s who, in the 1980s, became the neo-managers, policymakers and controllers of real estate. In short, the beginning of the 1970s marked the start of a bipolar 'terror about territory'. This terror came from two completely different spheres. On the one side there was the ecological movement which, from a growing awareness, revolted against the destructive exploitation of our finite planet; on the other side, free reign was given to an urge for accumulation and expansion that, by contrast, encouraged the excessive exploitation and privatization of real estate. For the record, from its Latin roots the word 'terror' means fright or panic. A fear that is mainly caused by a threat to one's territory, either mental or physical. This is an interesting finding as such: the effect of terror is primarily placed on the receiving end. Terror first of all points to a state of mind and only in the second place to the violence or regime that causes the terror. A state of terror is therefore in fact a psychological condition, the situation of a feeling of dread the real cause of which may never materialize or even be non-existent.
The triumvirate terra, terror and territory seems to define today's general climate of fear. According to ecological movements we are no longer on the brink of disaster, but well past that because they fear, with reason, that we have already exhausted or simply used up the limited territory at our disposal. CEOs in turn fear-increasingly so alongside governments-that economic growth will halt and that they will not be able to accumulate even more, that they will run out of available, finite territory, as it becomes occupied by others. However diametrically opposed both movements are, their state of mind is similar: a general panic. Even their solutions run parallel: both try to reclaim and control the territory. It is only when we ask how these parties would like to do so that all similarity ends.
It was on a bus trip from Hollywood to Santa Monica that an elderly gentleman-he was close to 90-explained to me why Americans were so attached to their guns. According to him, it had a lot to do with the first-in-time, first-in-right principle, whereby the first white settlers of America's West could claim farmland and (gold)mines as their own if they were the first to settle on a territory. As this gold and land rush gave rise to quite fierce competition and envy, we may assume that in 19th-century California, Texas and New Mexico territory was not only frequently taken by force, but also had to be defended with guns. Whether there was much actual shooting in those days is perhaps justifiably a subject of debate today. The rough history of these parts owes its mythical status mostly to Hollywood films, as historical sources point to a not so wild Wild West (Ellickson, 1991). However, it is certainly true that at the time, the authorities could hardly enforce the monopoly of violence for such a vast territory. Local farmers, miners and militias had to maintain order and guard the land themselves, and they did so also by using weapons. In the United States, the possession of firearms is thus synonymous with the right of ownership and even with personal autonomy or the right to self-determination, according to my elderly travel companion. This runs parallel to a deep-rooted, either or not repressed distrust of the government. The government will after all never be able to efficiently enforce the monopoly of violence and therefore citizens can and should lend a hand. The point is that private possession of firearms in the first place served to define and defend one's own territory, thus making ownership and guns like twins that are joined at the hip.
The contrast with the original inhabitants of the new continent could hardly have been bigger. Although Native Americans did have property rules, they valued territory because of its practical value. In other words: useful to hunt and fish. This led to quite a few misunderstandings. The white newcomers who had settled on the land or had even bought it from the Indians 'fair and square', were surprised and greatly annoyed when those same Indians on their hunting travels still raised their tents on the land that they had sold. So, one can own the land but one can never safeguard the territory from the use of the land. In that sense, land can indeed never be private property. Or, the territory may belong to someone, but the use of it belongs to no one and everyone. But also, the land can only be property as long as it is being used. To paraphrase Karl Marx ([1867]1984): for Indians the territory has hardly any trade value, but only use value. Territory cannot be a commodity in that regard.
These radically different views of territory and its use also meant that Indians used weapons primarily to hunt animals and not, like the newcomers, to deter other people or hunt each other. An arrow cuts through the hunting ground, but a gun occupies the territory and then has to protect its borders. The economy of the former depends primarily on moving through the territory, while that of the latter is based on owning and expanding it. The former panic when they can no longer travel freely throughout the territory, the latter when the borders of their territory are threatened. Of course we mustn't turn cowboys and Indians or sedentary people and nomads into clichés, and indeed not romanticize the latter. Still, it is helpful to view the distinction in an idealtypical sense, since how one deals with territory can be radically different.
Use Value and Exchange Value of Territories
As long as we cannot exploit other planets besides our own, Blue Marble literally shows us the boundaries of the territory. We now realize that ownership and exploitation are finite. No matter how many more people join us on the globe, we can no longer 'expand' it. The territory is simply practically 'gone'. Hence the panic on both sides, mentioned earlier. Ecologists are in distress because they see the sea level rising up to their neck and feel global warming breathing down it. In their turn, the capitalists live in fear of not being able to acquire more territory, unless they are sufficiently fast, flexible and especially competitive. And if they can no longer simply seize territory by force, governments are only too willing to do it for them these days. As the German economist Dirk Lohr states:
As soon as we start speaking about 'globalization', we inevitably associate it with the excessive financial markets that are disconnected from the real economy. There is less public awareness of another type of globalization that also involves the forced unification of institutions all over the world: the institution of private property and privatization strategies. The driving forces behind this development are – besides the usual suspects, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization – governmental development organizations themselves. (Löhr, 2012: 410)
This privatization rush is still often justified with an ancient legitimation by John Locke (1690). He defended in particular the private appropriation of land by reasoning that collectively using it was economically less efficient. Those who promise 'improvement, the enhancement of the land's productivity' (Wood, 2002: 106) therefore often more easily obtain a building permit, a change in zoning plans or environmental permit nowadays. In times of increasing scarcity (of territory and natural resources) there is of course much to be said for Locke's argument to let the land be owned by those who can exploit it most productively and effectively. That is not only good for the economy but for the ecology as well. Careful handling of scarce resources-whether these are clean water, oil or, in time, clean air-would after all also be good for the environment. The problem, however, is that the English philosopher and his followers today do not see labour and productivity in those terms, as is evident from a more precise analysis of Locke's statements about, again… the Indians.
It appears that the issue for Locke has less to do with the activity of labour as such than with its profitable use. In calculating the value of the acre in America, for instance, he talks not about the Indian's expenditure of effort, labour, but about the Indian's failure to realize profit. The issue, in other words, is not the labour of a human being but the productivity of property, its exchange value, and its application to commercial profit. (Wood, 2002: 111)
Locke's theory was used to legitimize colonial and neo-colonial practices of appropriation, and today it is still being used and misused by city administrations and the national or federal governments to defend their management, or rather mismanagement, of the territory. Crucial in this is that, just as the enlightened philosopher did, juristic legitimations for the repurposing of territory place exchange value above use value. This has quite a few consequences for our valuation of the territory. For real estate business, example, the urban infrastructure of houses, office buildings and transport is only relevant if it produces a surplus value. Investment decisions-often made in private-public cooperation-depend first and foremost upon the expected profit and therefore not upon the use value in terms of liveability, functionality or mobility. This use value is only relevant if it also raises the exchange value. One would be mistaken in thinking that this reasoning only applied to the physical territory, national heritage and natural resources. However infinite virtual space may appear, Internet capacity and connections are just as well in the first place bound to profitability and only in second instance to use values such as good communication or enriching social interaction. The so-called social media are primarily commercial media: they literally convert social relations and even intimacy into commodities that generate exchange value and, hopefully, profit, even if only virtually so by going public. Facebook, Twitter or Flickr are hardly interested in the intrinsic value of communication and social relations, but all the more in their exchange value and stock value. In other words, in the seemingly endless space of the Internet territorial laws also apply and territorial battles rage, as the www is only worldwide and this terra is finite, as Blue Marble has shown us. Once again, it is the sense of scarcity-partly of their own making, by the way-that drives internauts and cyber capitalists to occupy as much territory as fast as they can (before others do so). This also makes clear that if we could really escape from Blue Marble, if we could occupy a new planet, not in cyberspace but in real space, and thus be able to really expand the territory, we still would not be free from the territorial struggles. Expanding the territory does not automatically mean that control over it would change. The former Wild West was initially seen as an immense territorial expansion, as a vast and seemingly endless landscape. So, real space could fall victim to the culture of grabbing just as easily as cyberspace. And for the record: grab culture cannot be simply reduced to individual misbehaviour or an immoral psyche. This pathology is structurally and collectively ingrained with everyone who sees territory as private property and exchange value. And it is hard not to do so in an age when just about everyone sings the praises of capital and the free market. The frantic fear of loss, the hysterical urge to have more and the blind faith in economic growth all point to a systemic error of which individual greed and grabbing behaviour are merely the superficial symptoms. This also implies that we cannot simply adjust views on territory, including territorial behaviour, by naming and shaming so-called anti-social individuals. This can only be achieved by a thorough overhaul of the management of the territory. And that means we have to intervene at the structural level.
Abstract Territory
The idea that exchange value is an abstraction of use value is a classic Marxist insight (Marx, ([1867]1984). Extending this and applying it to territory provides us with a special insight into our relation to territory and management of it. Private property-and this also applies to governments if they manage their territory as such-has the special quality that it can be expressed in quantitative terms. And that is exactly what exchange value is: the quantity of money that makes it possible to exchange the land for something else. If property is only seen this way (as is the case with, for example, real estate) it becomes doubly detached from the use of it. In the first place, one doesn't need to know the territory and its specific qualities in order to acquire it and perhaps resell it, just as speculative investors in a car factory don't need to know anything about how to build a car. Moreover, they don't need to have any empathy with the production process, let alone with the people who work there and they don't even have to like the car brand. They may never buy one themselves. Likewise, the territory can remain utterly alien to its buyer. Even more so, this may even be better as it makes it easier to resell it at a profit without any sentimental drawbacks. This means-in the second place-that the trader in land has a hard time grasping its limits or 'exhaustability'. In the long run, people who work the land or live in a house will sense, for example, that the ground is 'tired' or exhausted or that a house has become decrepit and worn-out. In other words: the use of something teaches us the limits of that use. Use value also refers to a sensitivity that unfolds only through the use of the territory. One develops a feeling for the land and a special ear for the creaks of one's house. Or, in more vernacular terms: people become one with the things they work on, make use of and live in. But the knowledge that is built through use and by material tangibility evaporates in exchange value. Abstraction then also means that stretch, exhaustion or finiteness of the territory become hard to grasp.
It may become slightly tedious, but once more this takes us back to the Indians. They understood only too well that they had to kill just enough buffaloes to survive. Not so many that the buffalo would become extinct, not so few that they themselves would die from cold and starvation. Admittedly, ecologists today tend to romanticize the Indians' sense of environmental balance, but all the same it is a nice illustration of the specific quality of use value. Those who actually use a product, know its value (sometimes only after a while) and, again, in a twofold way: both the value of the qualities of a product (the things you can do with it) and the value of its limits, say, its level of 'fatigue' or 'exhaustion', or sustainability.
With Marx, a structural approach to the current (mis)management of territory would therefore advocate a drastic shift from exchange value to use value. To be clear, this does not argue in favour of total de-privatization. After all, private property too can be appreciated exactly because of its high use value. It is only when the exchange value gains the upper hand that the private domain becomes corroded. What it comes down to is that we have to re-evaluate and upgrade the use value and in some cases even fully restore it, whether it concerns public or private territory. And not only for ecological reasons, but also for the much-needed maintenance of our own character or identity.
Exchange value is the reason, not only that we easily buy and sell territory but also that we can quickly exchange one territory for another. For example, many professionals lead a forced nomadic life nowadays, having to frequently change jobs and residence, and therefore territory. In The Corrosion of Character, Richard Sennett describes how this global drift corrodes our individual character. By character, he means 'the long-term aspect of our emotional experience. Character is expressed by loyalty and mutual commitment, or through the pursuit of long-term goals, or by the practice of delayed gratification for the sake of the future. … The personal traits which we value in ourselves and for which we seek to be valued by others' (Sennett, 1998: 10). But, he continues, 'short-term capitalism threatens to corrode [his] character, particularly those qualities of character which bind human beings to one another and furnish each with a sense of sustainable self' (Sennett, 1998: 27).
It is perhaps no coincidence that in popular speech today, a bipolar disorder is often referred to as 'bottomlessness', as in 'without a base to stand on'. Isn't it true that many psychopathological disorders originate in a lack of loyalty to the territory in which we find ourselves? Or, to put it differently: can we still find the time to build up and experience a territory through long-term use of our environment? If territory first and foremost refers to a personal mental and physical space, which we can only experience because it is delineated and because we have a certain sense of control over it, then the question is whether this possibility still exists today. Even if we are not forced to leave our territory, its jacked-up exchange value guarantees that the territory around us transmutes with lightning speed. Do we still have time to connect and bond with the people and things around us? And do we even want to? It seems that many thirtysomethings today suffer from fear of commitment…
This corrosion of character, and the diminishing opportunities to bind ourselves to other people and our immediate environment for the long-term and attain an embedding through sustainable use, at least explains the extreme identitary reflex that we are confronted with almost everywhere these days. In another book, Sennett (1970) writes that less and less people succeed in developing into adults. They remain stuck in adolescence for the whole life, as it were. By this the philosopher refers to the stubborn character trait of continuously confirming one's own identity in a rigid and principal manner. For fear of losing individuality, the adolescent stubbornly clings to principles in order to thus obtain an identity. Now, this is quite normal and perhaps even necessary behaviour in youngsters who still have to establish their place in the world. In adults, however, it leads to pathological rigidity whereby all that is different is seen as threatening. This pathology expresses itself on the collective and political level in the by now well-known nationalisms, walls, travel bans, gated communities and other fortifications. In short, the terrain is again persistently closed off and defended in order to protect the own identity-a word that, how fittingly, stems from the Latin identitas or 'sameness', which in this context means the urge to keep things 'the same', to maintain the status quo. This predilection for sameness and confirmation of the own identity grows directly proportional to the increase in exchange value and therefore the exchangeability of the territory. It shouldn't come as a surprise therefore that nowadays a growing number of adults, including company managers, religious leaders and especially prominent politicians display adolescent behaviour.
Monotopia versus Heterotopia
From Brexit to Trumpism, these are all expressions of the fear for the loss of territory. Panic caused by fear of being overrun by migrants and refugees, fear of job loss, of the 'own' prosperity, 'own' values and 'own' identity always emerge within a worldview in which everything competes with everything else. When a territory has been taken by someone, it can no longer be used by someone else. Trade agreements and common markets increase exchange value while degrading use value-if only by limiting the lifespan of commodities. The faith in blind competition backfires into reactionary attitudes, fundamentalisms and terror. When in the game of supply and demand everything is related to everything and therefore becomes relative and liquid, people frantically try to find firm ground again. They feel an urgent need to demarcate the territory and even take up arms again. This is a highly paradoxical mental state in which neoliberalism and neo-nationalism easily find and overlap each other. From Berlusconi, via Cameron and De Wever to Trump, we see expressions of new ideological and political formations that reconcile free trade with protectionism and conservatism in a highly original manner. The result is a curiously repressive liberalism in which fear of loss of territory is overcompensated by a rigid delineation of it.
In any case, in the past decade in Europe, the wet dream of a common market with free competition and frictionless mobility has turned into a bitter nightmare full of political name-calling, troikas and barbed wire. In particular these troikas are evidence of the belief that unity within the European Union can be achieved or restored by fixing the economy, that mutual trust can be gained by balancing budgets. In this belief, the European territory is seen as a monotopia in which the competition between (creative) cities, regions and countries benefits everyone. Until recently, no one would have dared to predict that this European utopia might very well turn into a dystopia of reactionary divisive politics. Nevertheless, social geographers Ole Jensen and Tim Richardson neatly pointed out, as early as 2004, that a policy of competition between cities, regions or countries might raise the common prosperity, but would also always generate winners and losers. No matter how relative differences may be, the inherent logic of competition is that it creates a hierarchy of at least gradual inequalities between those who have more and those who have less. Those who see the free market as the foundation of the territory apply the same measure to all residents, cities, regions and countries, looking only at their differences in quantitative terms. From that perspective there are only actors who do better or less well, who do very good or very bad. Then there are only front runners and stragglers and everyone in between, but everyone is going in the same direction, towards the same worthy goal. That goal is after all easy to calculate and can be expressed in numbers. Within Europe, this leads to the ironic but rather apt spectacle in which glances are occasionally cast from right to left, or from east to west, but mainly from down to up or from the geographical south to the north. It may no longer be a land or gold rush, but it is a competitive rush to the economic top-whereby the North dictates the norm-that has transformed the European landscape into a minefield of envy and mutual blaming. 'Bankrupt' Greece was accused of mismanagement and corruption, whereas rich tax haven Luxembourg quietly won the rat race. It brings to mind the old saying about the pot calling the kettle black. Fierce competition inevitably leads to envy and exclusion, along with the occasional foul play.
The crucial fallacy of Europe as a hegemony is the belief that cultural differences can be smoothed over by making everything mutually comparable (in exchange value). Or, in line with the preceding argument: the belief that differences in use, in the cultivation of the territory, can be solved by making the territory itself interchangeable, albeit at some cost. However, this ignores the fact that the territory as a much-needed space of security and mental safety only emerges by using it. Territory, in other words, is pure culture. It is the result of the work of assigning meaning by which an arbitrary landscape or a meaningless area becomes meaningful. Only in the use of the space is that space charged with meanings, affects, indeed with value. It is only because residents, through (long-term) use, acquire knowledge of and become familiar with their environment that they form an attachment to it. In short, through the working and cultivation of an abstract space that space is transformed or articulated into concrete, although mentally experienced territory. This is why a physical breach of the territory always also has a psychic repercussion, and the latter often lingers longer than the former. This is because territory is in the first place an affect- and value-laden symbolic space that is charged in processes of assigning meaning, or, simply, by culture. And this is the turf on which artists and cultural organizations can play a crucial part. By using their environment they continuously articulate and re-articulate the territory. With all their massively singular articulations of sometimes completely contradictory ideas and artefacts they generate a murmuring of meanings. Against the monotopia of the common market they pose a heterotopia of images and ideas. A certain terrain can be occupied by only one entity at a time, but it can be re-articulated and thereby cultivated by many, in endless variations. This is the fundamental difference between exchange value and use value.
Art as Use Value
Perhaps the quality of art and culture is presented in a somewhat too positive light here. As we know, artists, curators and other cultural professionals are equally capable of jacking up exchange value. The auctioning of artworks in the art market, as well as the competition between creative cities, cultural capitals, art festivals and biennales all take part in an economy of seduction in which artistic activities and artefacts, as brands, determine the surplus value within the exchange value. From phallic architecture to spectacular shows and other mediagenic art events, they all are the driving force behind a monotopian culture of consumption, herding us frictionless across a smooth landscape from one sensation to the next. This is the unavoidable force of aesthetics as aesthesis: it speaks to our senses. And ever since the advent of propaganda, publicity, logos and brands we know that design and art are peerless when it comes to seduction. They make us glide tirelessly over the surface from one façade to the next. Sign value and not use value is the driving force behind our urge to consume today. Design often prevails in blinding competition battles on the basis of functionality, nowadays.
However, we also know that artists can oppose these hysterical market mechanisms. They can at least, through irony and over-identification, reveal the peculiarities of an exaggerated exchange and even fetish value. We only have to bring to mind the stunts pulled by Damien Hirst or the more political actions of The Yes Men to recognize that artists are at least capable of relating to their own work context in a highly self-reflective manner. However, as is especially evident in the case of Hirst, this highly ironic and even publicly cynical attitude has little effect. It merely confirms the insanity of a market in which such artists make quite a decent living, by the way. What else could they do but be opportunistic and cynical?
Today, alternative looking artists and curators too can smoothly surf the global landscape with their backpacks and portfolios full of radical political ideas. Meanwhile they draw grey lines across Blue Marble on their cheap flights from one artist-in-residency to the next and from biennale to biennale, where they can repeat their declarations of radical involvement to the same crowd of the already converted. (The word 'radical' may well be the best-selling brand in the professional art world of the past five years, by the way.) The point is that alternative artists as well frictionlessly exchange one destination for another, one territory for another. And it is no coincidence that such exchanges are smoothly facilitated via subsidized cultural exchange programmes and collaborations. Within the European Union there are quite a few avenues of support for this. After all, both artists and cultural institutions can contribute to the hoped-for monotopia. From a policy standpoint, artistic and cultural exchanges only too often serve to smooth over cultural differences and make identities look more similar, in order to enhance the circulation in the common market. Romanticizing a nomadic and sometimes even precarious identity is of course beneficial to an economy that has been aiming for mobility and high flexibility over the past few decades. The constantly travelling artists and curators are exemplary protagonists of a hypermobile labour market (also see Gielen, 2015). This market demands that employees or, rather, a superfast growing mercenary army of freelancers, develop a certain immunity against the territory in which they find themselves. As already stated, all this on behalf of smooth interchangeability.
In short, the solution or opposition does not necessarily lie in the political message that artists may proclaim with their work, but what is important is whether they act politically or not with their work (however a-political or formal that work may be). The crucial point is how they organize their own artistic practices within society and how they help shape that society through those practices. And, predictably enough from the above, this comes down to putting use value above exchange value again. After all, artists have been trained in certain skills that can accomplish this. First of all, they have the power of imagination to, for example, think of multiple, sometimes even contradictory use values for the same territory. It is one of the qualities that enable Renzo Martens to see a cacao plantation in the Congo as not just a raw-material producing area for the West, but also to re-articulate it as a creative development area for the South. That last verb indicates yet another skill often found with artists to intensify use value: artists have the special ability to constantly articulate situations and territories anew. Each new novel, each new performance and any other statue or installation may contain an alternative interpretation of the same field. In other words, the territory can be made and used again thousands of times without any need to exhaust or consume it. Besides, the artists' sense of aesthetics can do more than jack-up the exchange value through seduction; it can also be deployed to intensify the use of and sensitivity to the environment. Especially aesthesis can transform a landscape or a building into a familiar environment. It is the design and experience of smells, colours, sounds, temperatures and all things tangible that turn a house into a home and an abstract wasteland into a homeland, into, indeed, a familiar and cherished territory. It is not in the first place rational arguments, cognitive considerations and rules of law that turn a terrain into a territory, but rather affect, attachment and love that make it a familiar place. And these latter elements are only evoked by addressing all the senses, by experiencing a place, not by calculating it rationally. Aesthetics not only allow us to observe Blue Marble in a detached manner as just a pretty picture, but also to feel, smell and hear the globe in a hundred different ways as well. Aesthetics provide the mimetic ability for us to live in and embed ourselves in the territory.
Finally, there is another special quality or potential in design. It cannot only intensify use, but also review the various users and attune them to each other. Urban planner and mobility expert Sabine Lutz demonstrates this with a simple example of how to design a street. Traditionally, streets are designed functionally, with clear demarcations of where cars, bicycles and pedestrians should go. The various users are neatly separated, which means they are hardly aware of the collective use of that same territory. The result: they regard the terrain they use themselves as only for them and sometimes even as their private domain. A simple redesign that lifts this functional demarcation can make them experience this use quite differently.
It comes about when a street is redesigned to help drivers change their routines: they see various people doing different things to their left and right, and sometimes directly ahead. They recognize that the street is alive, not only lengthwise, but also crosswise. They (car drivers) slow down, thereby making the street safer for everyone.
A different design encourages pedestrians and cyclists to use the entire street, not just the sidewalks and bike paths. They can cross the street wherever they like, not only at designated pedestrian crossings. That requires a certain amount of trust (but not blind trust) that generally speaking, drivers are not murderers. Pedestrians and cyclists, too, bear responsibility for safety. They make contact and make sure that they have been seen, while at the same time signalling to drivers: the street is not yours alone. (Lutz, 2012: 236-237)
Perhaps Lutz's argument may not wholly convince us to trustingly 'release' our six-year-olds on their bicycles in traffic situations with tough SUV drivers, but her description does make clear that the use of a territory can be understood and experienced completely differently through design. Mutual visibility reveals our interdependencies, for instance. Of course there will always be power relations between SUV drivers and bicyclists, between strong and weak users, but in this case these are not hidden. And although these users are absolutely unequal, Lutz nevertheless presents them here as users of equal standing of the same territory. Their mutual visibility at least also reveals the power relations that exist between them. Because of the design we understand and even 'feel' the territory as a shared (user) space. Obviously, the above traffic situation does not by itself immediately lead to smooth, frictionless or harmonious interactions. The road users must frequently, and perhaps time and again, negotiate and delineate 'their' territory, and obviously there will on occasion be conflicts. Some name-calling, pushing and shoving are to be expected now and again. In other words, the design does not assume any pre-existing consensus about the use of the road. This will have to be renegotiated time and again through dissensus, either explicitly or not. The only consensus that this design implicitly imposes is that all road users are of equal standing. This means that all have a right to use the territory. Which nobody can deny, not even the SUV driver-unless we are dealing with a real murderer.
Although in perhaps a very different context than Lutz's ideal traffic space, the example does appeal to the imagination. Would it be possible to design social territories, such as buildings, squares, Internet and media spaces, cities, regions, Europe… as such shared spaces? Can we imagine a place where instead of pedestrians, bicyclists and car drivers, let's say multinationals, refugees, democrats and populists have an equal right of use? In spite of their enormous differences? Can we, in other words, re-articulate the territory as a heterotopian place where contradictions and paradoxical practices bump and grate against each other in relative peace?
Of course such questions reek of 'naïve' idealism and of utopia. Then again, it is the imaginary power of art and fiction in particular that makes it possible for us to at least think of such spaces. Even more so, within and sometimes even outside the space of fiction we can effectively experiment and play with such notions. If anything, the heterogeneous range of contributions to this book makes that clear. Artists have, or take, the autonomous right to appropriate the territory time and again in different ways. They are allowed to contradict each other and even themselves. They make full use of the use value without concerning themselves with the exchange value. In this way, the current reactionary responses to the climate of terror can be warded off. An imaginary, heterotopian territory at least makes it clear that the current model of monotopia is also nothing but a utopia. It exposes hegemonic political plans that are presented as feasible, as just as much fiction. Perhaps the biggest political strength of artistic practices is that they can debunk, through the power of imagination, what is taken for true, real and obvious. And doesn't that also sum up the absolute use value of the arts?
Ellickson, Robert (1991) Order without Law: How Neighbors Settle Disputes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gielen, P. (2015) The Murmuring of the Artistic Multitude. Global Art, Politics and Post-Fordism. Amsterdam: Valiz.
Jameson, F. (2016), An American Utopia. Dual Power and the Universal Army. London & New York: Verso.
Jensen, O. & Richardson, T. (2004), Making European Space. Mobility, Power and Territorial Identity. London & New York: Routledge.
Locke, J. (1690) Second Treatise of Government. An Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent, and End of Civil Government. London: Awnsham Churchill.
Löhr, D. (2012) 'The Failure of Land Privatization: On the Need for New Development Policies', In: Bollier, D. & Helfrich, S. (eds.) The Wealth of the Commons. A World beyond Market & State. Amherst: Levellers Press, 410-415.
Lutz, S. (2012) 'Shared Space: A space Shared is a Space Doubled', In Bollier, D. & Helfrich, S. (eds.) The Wealth of the Commons. A World beyond Market & State. Amherst: Levellers Press, 236-238.
Marx, K. ([1867]1984) Capital. Volume I, II & III. London: Lawrence & Wishart.
Sennett, R. (1970) The Uses of Disorder. Personal Identity and City Life. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
Sennett, R. (1998) The Corrosion of Character – The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism. New York & London: Norton & Company.
Srnicek, N. & Williams, A. (2016) Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work. London & New York: Verso.
Wood (Meiksins), E. (2002) The Origin of Capitalism. A Longer View. London & New York: Verso.
Pascal Gielen is professor of sociology of art and politics at the Research Center Arts in Society (Groningen University – the Netherlands) and at the Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts (Antwerp University – Belgium). He is editor in-chief of the international book series 'Arts in Society'. His research focuses on the institutional context of the arts and on cultural politics. Gielen has published many books which are translated in English, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish.
Text by Pascal Gielen
Hot to Bot
art@science
The Matrix: Morpheus in Exile
The Book Scales
Mechanism Independent
Prosthetic Head: Intelligence, Awareness and Agency
Delaying Demolition
Disciplining The Avant-Garde, The United States versus The Critical Art Ensemble
Why Have There Been No Great Net Artists?
Immersive Sight Within the Third Space
Collectivity, Modest proposals and Foolish Optimism
The dream was of a perfect line
Off line reading
© 2004-2020 NeMe • Text © 2017-2020 Pascal Gielen


text:
<form role="form" name="createEntity" ng-submit="save(createEntity)">

        Name of {{schemata[entity.schema].label}}

      <input type="text" class="form-control input-lg" id="name" name="name" ng-model="entity.name"
        placeholder="New Entity Name" required ng-minlength="3">

        At least three letters, don't include any comments or alternate names.

      Type of entity

            <button type="button" class="btn btn-default"
              ng-class="{'active': entity.schema == schema}" ng-click="setSchema(schema)">
              <entity-icon schema="schema"></entity-icon>
              {{schemata[schema].label}}
            </button>

        Collection

      <collections-select set-collection="setCollection(callback)"
        category="'investigation'"></collections-select>

    <entity-jurisdiction entity="entity"></entity-jurisdiction>

        Summary

        <textarea class="form-control" id="summary" name="summary"
          ng-model="entity.data.summary" rows="2" maxlength="200"></textarea>

Describe the relevance of this entity in a sentence.

        <input type="checkbox" ng-model="createAlert"> Receive e-mail alerts about new, matching documents.

    <button type="button" class="btn btn-default" ng-click="cancel()">Cancel</button>
    <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary" ng-disabled="!canSave()">Save</button>

</form>


text:
Vaccine misinformation: preparing for infodemic's 'second wave'
A vial of the Pfizer vaccine used at The Reservoir nursing facility, is shown Dec. 18, 2020, in West Hartford, Conn. (AP)
By Daniel Funke December 21, 2020
Federal health officials say clinical trials show that both coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are safe and more than 90% effective at preventing coronavirus infections.
That hasn't stopped groups from portraying the vaccines as dangerous, the product of corruption, or part of a government plot to track citizens. We have fact-checked unproven or innaccurate claims that say the coronavirus vaccines can cause death and infertility; that all Americans will be forced to get vaccinated; that the vaccines are part of a larger plan to implant people with microchips.
Such claims seek to undermine Americans' confidence in coronavirus vaccines — with consequences for the future course of the pandemic, medical experts say.
"The whole point of a vaccine campaign is to achieve herd immunity safely, and that only happens when a significant portion of the population is inoculated," said Dr. Seema Yasmin, director of research and education programs at the Stanford Health Communication Initiative. "And that won't happen when there are large swaths of the community where there's distrust in vaccines."
Many unproven or innaccurate claims about the coronavirus vaccine have circulated in online communities skeptical of mainstream medical interventions or the power of the federal government. Some have spread misinformation about COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.
"I think our second wave of the infodemic is really going to be focused on the vaccines," said Sarah Evanega, director of the Cornell Alliance for Science.
RELATED: Lie of the Year: Coronavirus downplay and denial
Alternative health websites and Facebook pages are among the largest sources of falsehoods about the coronavirus vaccine, according to NewsGuard, a firm that tracks online misinformation. A report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a London nonprofit organization, found that accounts it describes as anti-vaccine on social media have gained nearly 8 million followers since 2019 — outpacing the growth of what it calls pro-vaccination groups.
Amid the spread of inaccurate information, social media platforms have started to take action.
On Oct. 14, YouTube said it would remove videos that contain claims about COVID-19 vaccines that contradict information from public health authorities. On Dec. 3, Facebook made a similar announcement, followed by Twitter on Dec. 16.
In response to those restrictions, activists have pivoted to hosting in-person events across the country, with the hope that news outlets will report on their claims, NBC News reported.
Some people may be susceptible to unproven claims about vaccines because unanswered questions about who should take it remain.
"Parents spend a lot of energy evaluating the risks and benefits of vaccines, and they are inclined to overestimate the risk and underestimate the benefit," said Jennifer Reich, a sociology professor at the University of Colorado-Denver who has studied vaccine hesitancy.
While the coronavirus vaccines were developed in record time, the underlying research behind them goes back decades. Tens of thousands of people participated in clinical trials this year to make sure the vaccines were safe before rolling them out to the general public. To receive FDA emergency-use authorizations, the manufacturers had to follow up with at least half of participants for at least two months after receiving their vaccinations.
Vice President Mike Pence receives a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine shot at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex Dec. 18, 2020, in Washington. (AP)
Still, another worry is that some people assume the government rushed the vaccines before they were ready. Mixed signals earlier in the pandemic may have contributed to that impression.
In April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed course after initially advising healthy Americans to not wear face masks in public. In July, the FDA revoked its emergency-use authorization for hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, saying it's "unlikely to be effective in treating COVID-19" and could cause "serious side effects."
"So you can see how that would rattle people who are on the sidelines saying that, 'You're the agency that regulates vaccines. You rushed and then revoked the EUA for hydroxychloroquine … are you rushing this?'" Yasmin said.
Since May, at least seven polls have taken stock of how Americans feel about getting vaccinated for COVID-19. Confidence in the vaccine dipped over the summer, and most polls show that between 50-70% of respondents are now willing to take a vaccine. Scientists estimate that 60-70% of people need to get vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity. They are hopeful vaccine education efforts will help.
Black and Hispanic Americans are significantly less likely to say they would get the vaccine, possibly because of the historical exploitation of minorities by the scientific community. Some anti-vaccine misinformation has specifically targeted minorities. Since rates of illness and death from COVID-19 have been higher for minorities than for white Americans, the consequences of forgoing vaccination could be especially dire.
RELATED: 8 facts and 4 unknowns about the coronavirus vaccines
To build trust, President-elect Joe Biden received his vaccine on camera on Dec. 21. Vice President Mike Pence received his first shot during a televised event at the White House on Dec. 18. Three ex-presidents — Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama — have said they would get vaccinated on camera, too.
The vaccination examples may change some minds. But for some people, the decision transcends politics and speaks to closely held beliefs about the pharmaceutical industry and government surveillance.
"If somebody has adopted something because it's an expression of deeper identity, then good luck," said Joseph Uscinski, a University of Miami associate professor of political science who researches conspiracy theories. "You may not change their minds with a link or a fact-check, and even if you did, you're engaged in a game of Whac-a-Mole."
To reduce the impact of misinformation, Reich said public health officials need to be clear about what the vaccine will and won't do, and how it will affect the rest of the pandemic.
"My No. 1 priority is not just to make sure people take the vaccine — it's to make sure people feel good about taking the vaccine so we can maintain public health consensus moving forward," she said.
Editor's note: This story was updated shortly after publication to note Biden received a vaccine on Dec. 21.
Associated Press, "Twitter to start removing COVID-19 vaccine misinformation," Dec. 16, 2020
Canadian Medical Association Journal, "Facts not enough to change minds about health myths," Nov. 20, 2017
Center for Countering Digital Hate, "The Anti-Vaxx Industry: How Big Tech powers and profits from vaccine misinformation"
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee
CNN, "Expect a quicker authorization of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine," Dec. 16, 2020
COVID Tracking Project, accessed Dec. 17, 2020
Food and Drug Administration, "Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: FDA Revokes Emergency Use Authorization for Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine," June 15, 2020
Food and Drug Administration, "FDA Briefing Document: Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine," Dec. 10, 2020
Food and Drug Administration, "FDA Briefing Document: Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine," Dec. 17, 2020
Food and Drug Administration, "FDA Takes Key Action in Fight Against COVID-19 By Issuing Emergency Use Authorization for First COVID-19 Vaccine," Dec. 11, 2020
Harriet Washington, "Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present"
Interview with Jennifer Reich, a sociology professor at the University of Colorado-Denver who has studied vaccine hesitancy, Dec. 17, 2020
Interview with Joseph Uscinski, a University of Miami associate professor of political science who researches conspiracy theories
Interview with Sarah Evanega, director of the Cornell Alliance for Science, Dec. 4, 2020
Interview with Dr. Seema Yasmin, director of research and education programs at the Stanford Health Communication Initiative, Dec. 8, 2020
Nature, "The online competition between pro- and anti-vaccination views," May 13, 2020
NBC News, "Anti-vaccination groups target local media after social media crackdowns," Dec. 17, 2020
NBC News, "Letter targets minorities on Long Island with coronavirus vaccine misinformation, state senator says," Sept. 15, 2020
NewsGuard, "Misinformation about development of a COVID-19 vaccine spreads widely on Facebook," Nov. 30, 2020
NPR, "As Pandemic Deaths Add Up, Racial Disparities Persist — And In Some Cases Worsen," Sept. 23, 2020
NPR, "'I Didn't Feel A Thing:' Pence Gets Coronavirus Vaccine In Public Event," Dec. 18, 2020
PolitiFact, "Biden did not 'confirm' or support an agenda to microchip Americans," Dec. 11, 2020
PolitiFact, "CDC director says healthy people should wear masks," Sept. 18, 2020
PolitiFact, "Fact-checking hoaxes and conspiracies about the coronavirus," Jan. 24, 2020
PolitiFact, "Health misinformation site promotes conspiracy about coronavirus," Feb. 10, 2020
PolitiFact, "Many Americans say they don't want a vaccine. Should we be worried?" Dec. 8, 2020
PolitiFact, "No, chip on COVID-19 vaccine syringes would not be injected or track people," Dec. 15, 2020
PolitiFact, "8 facts and 4 unknowns about the coronavirus vaccines," Dec. 17, 2020
Quartz, "How many people need to be vaccinated for life to go back to normal?" Dec. 4, 2020
Reuters, "Former U.S. Presidents Obama, Bush, Clinton willing to take coronavirus vaccine on camera," Dec. 3, 2020
Reuters, "YouTube bans coronavirus vaccine misinformation," Oct. 14, 2020
Tweet, Dec. 14, 2020
The Wall Street Journal, "Biden to Get Covid-19 Vaccine in Public Next Week, Pence on Friday," Dec. 16, 2020
The Washington Post, "Anti-vaccination leaders fuel black mistrust of medical establishment as covid-19 kills people of color," July 17, 2020
The Washington Post, "Facebook steps up campaign to ban false information about coronavirus vaccines," Dec. 3, 2020


Bathed in natural light with sprawling outdoor space and protected city views from multiple exposures, this exquisitely renovated penthouse combines unique design pedigree, gracious flow and exceptional craftsmanship throughout. Originally designed by famed architect Robert A.M. Stern the residence has just received a platinum-grade renovation by Philip Johnson/Alan Ritchie Architects that retains its iconic architectural details while incorporating best in class finishes and modern mechanical systems. Overlooking the majestic midtown skyline the expansive open-plan living/dining room accommodates entertaining or quiet relaxation, featuring an atrium-style glass enclosure and wood-burning fireplace that lead to the wrap-around terrace and the stunning private roof deck. The contemporary windowed chef's kitchen combines Bulthaup and Miele & Subzero appliances. The spacious master suite is enhanced by private terrace access, custom closet systems and a dazzling new en-suite bathroom replete with professional quality vanity lighting, heated flooring and towel warmer. Two additional bedrooms, equally suitable for use as home office or media room, come with their own fully renovated bathrooms with top of the line materials and plumbing fixtures. Located within the UES Historic District with close proximity to subways (6/F/Q), shopping, dining and cultural landmarks, 116 E 66th St is a white glove co-op steps away from Park Avenue, with full-time doormen, elevator operator, live-in super and laundry. Private Storage Transferred with the Unit, Pets, Foreign Buyers, Piet-a-Terre and Trusts permitted.


The service was originally numbered in 1914 when the Manchester Corporation Tramways route from Manchester High Street to Middleton was numbered 17. In 1925, the Middleton tram route was joined to the routes of the former Middleton Electric Traction Company and on 9 August 1925 Manchester corporation trams began to run through to Rochdale displaying the number 17. At 10 miles 1449 yards, this became the longest tram route run by Manchester Corporation Tramways. Rochdale Corporation took part in this joint service although their trams did not display route numbers and showed only a final destination.
^ FirstGroup. "Manchester High Frequency Network map" (PDF). Retrieved 16 October 2011.
^ Kirby, A. K. (1976). Middleton Tramways. Castleton, Rochdale, Lancs: Manchester Transport Museum Society. p. 51.
^ a b Kirby, A. K. (1976). Middleton Tramways. Castleton, Rochdale, Lancs: Manchester Transport Museum Society. p. 50.
^ Lingard, John (1924). Where To Go By Tram. Castleton, Rochdale, Lancs: Manchester Transport Historical Collection. p. 29.
^ Kirby, A. K. (1976). Middleton Tramways. Castleton, Rochdale, Lancs: Manchester Transport Museum Society. p. 70.
^ Kirby, A. K. (1976). Middleton Tramways. Castleton, Rochdale, Lancs: Manchester Transport Museum Society. p. 72.
^ a b Eyre and Heaps, Townsin and Senior (1989). The Manchester Bus. Transport Publishing Company Limited. p. 175. ISBN 086317 151 6.
This page was last edited on 22 May 2017, at 22:52 (UTC).


text:
Muskrat (1988)
November 26, 2012 Rob B 12 comments
Muskrat's file card paints a picture of a pretty interesting individual, and someone who seems like a unique presence to add to the team. Just reading his background reminds me of an old Jerry Reed song. It's unfortunate that the 1988-1989 figures (including Muskrat) fell into a no man's land of Joe animation, with only a few getting a moment in the sun as part of the DIC Operation Dragonfire mini-series. I think Muskrat could have been a very fun and colorful character as part of the Sunbow or DIC cartoons.
The figure may seem rather plain at first glance, but it has some interesting details and unique accessories that befit the man's swampy origins. With his boonie hat and sleeveless look, a simple but effective uniform, I can picture Muskrat piloting an air boat, going after Copperhead in the bayou. I can also see him trudging through the swamp, hacking away at vegetation with his machete. On the subject of machetes, 1988 seems to be the year for odd melee weapons, as two Joes included machetes, and Cobra had a Dreadnok armed with a cinder block on a stick. And why (even though it's not in my pic–sorry) was Muskrat's machete baby blue?
I can't leave this figure without talking about his most famous accessory–the swamp skimmer. I still have no earthly idea how this thing is supposed to work. It seems like a boogie board, but I don't think there are too many waves to ride in the swampland. It would seem then to only be useful if it had some sort of power, but that's not the case. In the end, it's one of the wierdest accessories of the time. It does however, attach to the figure like a backpack. Pretty handy. My only wish for this figure was that the face sculpt could have matched the nasty visage on the package art. That's one dude I wouldn't want to meet in a dark bayou.
tagged with Joes
Definitely odd to give a Joe a kids beach play toy (a boogie board). I always pictured him running and jumping on his board, skimming along the swamp water for 10 feet or so before falling in backwards. What the heck else was he gonna do?
I got his boogie board at my local flea market, and now I want to get the whole figure, baby blue machete and all.
Ah, Muskrat… Easily my favorite figure and character from the class of 1988. It was a rare treat to have Larry Hama recently feature my four top guys from the years '86, (Low-Light) '87, (Outback) '88, (Muskrat) and '90 (Ambush) all in a single issue of the current RAH comic.
The funny thing about Muskrat is that he doesn't feature any camouflage, usually the reason why I love the '88 Joes so much. Yet, both the ongoing comic and the Special Missions series rapidly endeared him to me as a major badass. Muskrat is like Gung-Ho without the Cajun accent and bald noggin. My only grievance is that he never made it to either of the cartoon shows.
November 27, 2012	1:21 am
I used to pretend that Muskrat was war-era Snake-Eyes… wrong color hair but he did the trick.
Neapolitan Joe
Pure love. G.I.JOE toyline at his top!
I recently added Muskrat to my collection, after wanting it for a long time. Great figure!
Mkultratroll
He looks more like he's been fighting on Guadialcanal than the swamps. So why do so many hate him? He looks okay to me!
That Jerry Reed song added a WHOLE other dimension to the review! I like Muskrat okay, more for his M.O. than the character. I wonder if he was supposed to be sortof a Gung Ho replacement as resident "crazy Cajun"? The Night Force repaint is kinda cool, but it's crazy how many times that torso seems to have been reused. What IS that on his shoulder?!
Kansas Brawler
Muskrat is a great figure and one I wish I had in my collection. The sculpt is impressive and I'm shocked that chest never saw more use by Hasbro because it's really good. I developed an affinity for him after Joe Con when I was hanging around the Joe Declassified booth and while I was there they actually got the original Hasbro paperwork on him and they were reading the alternate codename options for him and (I kid you not) one of the prototype names for him was "Wet Willie" which really adds a whole extra layer of awesomeness to the story of Muskrat in my mind.
That swamp board is one of ARAH's mysteries.
Swamp folks did use small boats carved from trees…I forget what they are called, but that would've been too big an accessory for 1989.
Pingback: IAT's Review Roundup (Nov 26th-Dec 2nd) | DoomKick.com
May 21, 2013	4:14 am
This is one of my favorites. It's too bad Muskrat was never featured on the cartoon. And I too, would sometimes have him fill in as Vietnam Snake Eyes.
Leave a Reply to Dreadnok: Spirit Cancel reply
one × = four


text:
'You're throwing people to the vulture funds': Government criticised for taking no action to halt PTSB loan sale
PTSB, which is 75% owned by the State, states it is selling off non-performing loans.
By Christina Finn Thursday 15 Feb 2018, 1:52 PM
Feb 15th 2018, 1:52 PM 21,439 Views 120 Comments
PTSB
THE GOVERNMENT WAS slammed by the opposition benches today for not doing more to protect homeowners following an announcement by Permanent TSB that it is to sell-off a €4 billion portfolio loan book.
The bank, which is 75% owned by the State, is selling off non-performing loans.
The bank states these loans are in default or close to default. PTSB said these loans make up 28% of its loan books.
Fianna Fáil's Dara Calleary said 20,000 family loans are now up for grabs, and called on the government to step in to protect homeowners and halt the sale.
"These aren't entities, these are families," said Calleary during Leaders' Questions in the Dáil today.
"Think about the families who are facing an uncertain future," he told the Dáil, stating that the Tánaiste Simon Coveney and the government appear to be "obsessed" with trying to "fix the system" but are failing to think about the families impacted.
Coveney said the government was recently briefed about the loan sale by the Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe. He said the bank has informed them that the sale is necessary.
He assured mortgage-holders that they still have the same rights, even if their loans are sold on to a vulture fund.
Vulture funds
However, Michael McGrath, Fianna Fáil finance spokesperson, said the plans to sell to "unregulated and unaccountable vulture funds" should be scrapped.
Coveney told the Dáil that despite the bank being majority-owned by the State, the financial institution does not need the minister's permission to sell loans.
The Tánaiste said he understood why many customers would have concerns about who will be dealing with their mortgage debt in the future.
"You are not keeping the people safe, you are throwing them to the vulture funds," said Fianna Fáil's John McGuinness.
He called for emergency legislation to be introduced, and called on the government to tell the banks that they are not allowed to sell on the loans.
At the very least, McGuinness said the PTSB should be instructed to give the mortgage-holder the right to buy the loan for the same price it is being offered to the vulture fund.
He said homeowners should have first refusal on their own loan and the bargain price it is being sold for.
"Will you take the action, now, to ensure they loans are not sold on to vulture funds.
Your reply was nothing short of a disgrace," he told Coveney.
McGrath said there is "no compelling reason" why the bank wants to sell on the loans, stating that it should work through their loan books, and deal with their customers.
He pointed out that criticism has been levelled at the government from all sides of the House on the issue and urged to government to take action to protect its citizens.
Read: Norris lets rip on vulture funds: 'Why were they allowed into this country?'>
Read: 'Out of the blue, we got a letter to say our loans had been sold to a vulture fund'>
Christina Finn
@christinafinn8
christinafinn@thejournal.ie
See more articles by Christina Finn
<iframe width="600" height="460" frameborder="0" style="border:0px;" src="https://www.thejournal.ie/https://www.thejournal.ie/vulture-funds-ptsb-sale-3853630-Feb2018/?embedpost=3853630&width=600&height=460" ></iframe>
Email "'You're throwing people to the vulture funds': Government criticised for taking no action to halt PTSB loan sale".
Feedback on "'You're throwing people to the vulture funds': Government criticised for taking no action to halt PTSB loan sale".
'You're throwing people to the vulture funds': Government criticised for taking no action to halt PTSB loan sale Comments


September 13, 2016 child abuse, crime.
Jamie D. Koonce is facing a charge of aggravated child abuse and was released Saturday from the Palm Beach County Jail after posting a $15,000 bond.
The alleged abuse occurred in July and left the unidentified child with a lacerated liver, a perforated bowel, bruised kidneys and a bruised pancreas. The boy also sustained bruising to his abdomen, face and back. The report states that the boy required "immediate surgery" but does not detail what kind of procedure he underwent.
The incident took place either July 8 or July 9. West Palm Beach police were called to St. Mary's Medical Center after the boy, who is now 5 years old, was brought into the pediatric emergency room.
Because of his injuries, the boy was unable to speak to police detectives until July 19.
An unidentified woman told police the boy had only been with her, Koonce and four children — ages 7, 9, 13 and 14 — during the 24 hours before the child was brought to the hospital.
During his interview with police, the boy said Koonce had punched him in the stomach.


A Windsor judge has rejected an attempt to have the charges thrown out in a local murder case.
Justice Kirk Munroe has dismissed an application to have the charges against 35-year-old Windsor man Dia Hanan stayed on the basis of a Charter challenge, arguing the accused's right to a trial in a reasonable amount of time had been violated.
Hanan is charged with second-degree murder and attempted murder following a double shooting at 187 Oak Street in Windsor on December 23, 2015.
Alekesji Guzhavin, 30, of London was killed while American citizen, Gregory Henriquez, was left paralyzed from his injuries.
Justice Munroe found both the Crown and the Defence were responsible for the lengthy delay in what he called a "moderately complex" case. Munroe felt the timeline was permissible based on an exceptional circumstance and unreasonable delays attributed to the Defence.
The Crown argued the loss of its key witness, Henriquez, at the last minute before a previously scheduled appearance was an exceptional circumstance it could not control and caused an unforeseen delay in the proceedings.
The jury trial is scheduled to begin October 28, 2019.


Why most of the CA students Can't clear all subjects in 1st attempt..?
Never makes good CA !
ICAI: Aisi chiz ka Naam Bata jo Laal ho or Trin Trin karti Ho.
ICAI: TAMATAR, Trin Trin to Confuse Karne k liye diya tha.
nominal si fee lenge aap se to..
Moral :- income ki koi bhi opportunity na chhodo !
A Dr.& A CA. luvs D same girl.
CA.:~AN APPLE A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY!
Fun Time: Ek CA k ghar mehman aaye hue the.
CA: Thanda piyo ge ya garam?.
CA: Rooh Afza ya Pepsi?.
CA: Bottle mein piyo ge ya glass me?.
CA: simple glass me ya designwala?.
CA: Lines wala ya flowers wala.?
CA: Gulaab wala ya chameli wala.?
CA: Sorry Yaar hamare ghar me Aisa glass nahi hai.
CA students ki koi ni sunta..
Jin - Hukum mere aakka!!
CA student- Mere harsubject mein 100 marks aane chahiye aur mein ICAI ka president ban jau.
Jin- aakka! hukum kro, bakwaas mat karo pls !
Husband asks The reason ?
CA STUDENT:coz Excise Duty on Production is payable at the time of dispatch.
"Saala jo 10 marks ka aata tha usko hi nikal diya..(Wealth Tax Abolished)"
Excuse me! Can you help me? I promised a friend to meet him an hour ago but I do not know where I am.
You are in a hot air balloon 30 ft. above the ground. You are 41 deg North latitude and 59 deg West longitude.
Lady: You must be an C.A.
Lady: Everything you told me is technically correct but useless and the fact is I am still lost.
C.A.: You must be in top management.
Lady: Yes. How do you know?
C.A.: You do not know where you are and where you are going. You made a promise, which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems.
Someone say me that CA students are shameless they got failure again n again but they dont like to drop i wana to say only one sentence.
" DAM HAI TO PASS KAR NAHI TO BARDAST KAR ITS CA"
ITS Not about shamelessness its about to dare to do CA.
us budhe kisan ne apne bete ko jail me khat likha- "beta me aalu ki fasal nahi bo sakta, Itna bada khet mujse nahi khudega kash tu meri madad kr pata."
Bete ne wapas jawab diya -"papa aap khet mat khodna, mene waha hathiyar chhupa rakhe hai !!!
Aap ab aalu uga dijiye.
CA na ho gyi Aladdin ka chirag ho gya... jisko dkho bolta h CA banne k baad ye milega vo milega!
dobara fraud krne ke liye sochega b nai..
Q. What do you find in a clean nose ??
enjoy life , make bf/gf , bunk classes ..
Bt some miss thos beautiful moments..
Chartered Accountant Student went & proposed a girl.
jump from where ever u say, I will do anything for u.
Girl : Can u complete ur CA Course without a single back??
Boy : take care of urself sister......i have some work....i'm leaving.
Girl to CA boy- yaar, plzz pehle ques. ka answer bata de..
Others don't sleep bcoz they have Internet connection.
We don't sleep bcoz we have ICAI/ICSI/ICWAI connections .
"tu khali heading bata de andar ka me khud likh lunga"
I am very happy to inform you that I have fallen in love with you. Since the 5th of december 2012(Wenesday). With reference to the meeting held between us on 5th of December 2012 at 1500 hrs, I would like to present myself as a prospective lover.
ld be made permanent. Of course, upon completion of probation, there will be continuous on the job training and performance appraisal schemes leading up to from lover to spouse. The expenses incurred for coffee and entertainment would initially be shared equally between us. Later, based on your performance, I might take up a larger share of the expenses. However I am broadminded enough, to be taken care of all your expense account.
I request you to kindly respond within 30 days of receiving this letter, failing which, this offer would be canceled without any further notice and I shall be considering someone else. I would be happy, if you could forward this letter to your friends, if you do not wish to take up this offer.
1 Engineer ,1 MBA Student or 1 CA student Kashti mein ja rahe the.
maar dunga aur na dhund paaya to mein tumhara ghulam".
jin ne dhund lia aur use bhi maar dia.
CA student ne disprin phenki aur wo paani mein ghul gayi.
CA student bola: "chal beta ghar chal account pade hai"..
CPT STUDENT: me pas ho gaya..
BIG BRO:- Kitne marks aaye.
BRO. Sirf 106 marks... pasodi ka ladka 180 marks laya h.
CPT STU. : 180 Marks vala kya final me panuch gaya kya... deni to ipcc h.
Life of a CA Student..!!
- Boring Last lectures ..
some See us doing CA..
Father of a CA student : beta. Is Baar Exam Me 90% Marks Lana. ok .
Beta: Shuru Kis Ne Kiya???
CPT: Meri toh pehle se hai..
Classes: Apni class me koi dhang ki nahi hai..
3rd year of Articleship: Juniors bhi selfish hai..
On Audit: Bhai kisise intro karvade..
Articleship about to complete: Koi bhi chalengi..
FINAL: Mere pass time nahi tha varna..
Finally a CA: Dekha puri degree ho gayi par, aaj tak kisiko bhav nahi diya!
Aur kal raat fir ek CA studnet bina paadhe so gaya.
Once Einstein and A CA are sitting next to each other on a long flight. Einstein says,"Let's play a game. I will ask you a question. If you don't know the answer, you pay me only $ 5 and if I don't know the answer, I will pay you $500. "
CA doesn't say a word, reaches his pocket and pulls out a $ 5.
turn. He asks Einstein,"What goes up a hill with 3 legs and comes down on 4 legs? "
Einstein searches the net and asks all his smart friends. After an hour,he gives CA $500.
Einstein going nuts and asks,"Well,so what goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four?
CA reaches his pocket and gives Einstein $ 5."
Society valo ka kehna h ki ye sari rat jagta h to guard ki kya jarurat ?
For more jokes Stay tuned !
Saalo se jo khawab dekhe hai.. Ab unko pura hai karna.. Is baar CA jarur hai banna..
Jo humpe comments karte hai un sabko ab chup hai karna.. Ab tab bahut taane sunte aaye hai.. un taano ko taarif mein hai convert karna Kuch bhi hai karna par Iss baar CA jarur hai banna… Jitna tuff paper banana hai banalo ICAI Hum nahi darenge.. Rok sako toh rok lo Iss baar CA jarur banege.


text:
Ashok Solomon: A Repeat Offender Who Gave Every Agency the Slip
Ashok Solomon is a 75-year-old businessman who was earlier acquitted in a number of criminal cases lodged against him. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has now lodged a case against him at the direction of the Haryana government in connection with a ceiling collapse case in which two women were killed in Gurugram last year.
As per reports, he served around eight years in a US jail in connection with a drug smuggling case.
Solomon is also facing prosecution in connection with a money laundering case filed against him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
In 1977, he was declared a proclaimed offender by the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police.
A case against him by lodged in 1971 by the Crime Branch. However, he was discharged of all the allegations as the files were destroyed.
In 1977, the CBI booked a case against him. During the trial the Metropolitan Magistrate had convicted him. Solomon challenged the conviction order of the MM court and was acquitted by the Sessions court which had noted that there were not ample evidences against him.
Sources have claimed that he was put behind the bar during emergency times under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, 1971.
Later, the Delhi High Court ordered his release.
Till date, he has been acquitted in all the cases.
Presently he is reportedly facing prosecution in two cases lodged against him by the ED and the CBI.
What is the present case:
Nearly a year after a tower collapsed in the Chintels Paradiso residential apartment complex in Gurugram, the CBI on Tuesday lodged a fresh FIR in connection with the case.
Two women identified as Rekha Bhardwaj and Sunita Srivastava were killed when the floor of a sixth-floor apartment of Tower D at Chintels Paradiso in Sector 109 came down on February 10 last year, triggering the collapse of roofs and floors directly under it, till the first floor.
Luckily, the flats between the sixth and first floor were vacant, otherwise there could have been more casualties.
Crying Shame: 2 Defence Personnel Arrested for Misbehaving with School Girls on Train
Air India 'Pee-Gate': Key Witness Says Mishra Was So Drunk That He Went to The Next Row And Urinated On Elderly Complainant


Clearlake Capital to Acquire ConvergeOne from Genstar Capital | The Taylor Reach Group Inc.
•	ConvergeOne, a provider of communications solutions and managed services to global enterprises, announced today that it was being acquired by Clearlake Capital, a private equity firm.
•	ConvergeOne is currently a portfolio company of Genstar Capital, which first invested in ConvergeOne in 2007.
•	Financial information for the transaction was not disclosed.