text:
Has Vietnam Already Violated the To-Be-Ratified Free Trade Agreement with the EU?
Opinion-Section
Photo courtesy: Norfolk Chamber of Commerce.
After Hoàng Đức Bình's 14-year sentence was affirmed by an appellate court in Vietnam on April 24, 2018, one of the state-owned newspapers, Người Lao Động (NLD), published a story about Bình's case on the same day, explaining the government's reasons behind his harsh sentence.
In one paragraph, NLD wrote:
"Taking advantage of the marine life environmental incident in the Central, and as the Vice-Chairman of Viet Labor Movement, Hoàng Đức Bình began to organize The Association of Fishermen in the Central with the intent to form an external organization, mobilizing forces, attracting Catholics, fishermen in the Central to join that organization; selecting 'nucleus' who could incite demonstration to disturb the peace and security."
Not only international human rights laws protect the right of the people to form associations and organize protests, Vietnam repeatedly acknowledges and agrees to not infringe on these rights of its people in various international treaties and agreements. One of the more recent ones is the free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU).
About two and a half years before Bình's trial, in October 2015, Vietnam and the EU have agreed on the text concerning the terms of the FTA between them.
At the same time, EU and its member countries have repeatedly maintained, that they are "fully committed to implementing the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals into EU policies."
One of EU's commitments to implementing the 2030 Agenda is to include in their free trade agreements, rules on trade and sustainable development as well as a human rights clause.
In the case of the Vietnam-EU FTA, that language is under Chapter 15 of the agreement, entitles Trade and Sustainable Development.
Article 3, Paragraph 2, Sub-paragraph (a) of Chapter 15 states:
"Each Party reaffirms its commitments, in accordance with its obligations deriving from the membership of the ILO and the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up, adopted by the International Labour Conference at its 86th Session in 1998, to respect, promote and effectively implement the principles concerning the fundamental rights at work, namely:
a) the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;"
The importance of this chapter and the human rights clause are also highlighted by the Chair of the European Parliament's Committee for International Trade, Bernd Lange, during his visit to Hanoi in September 2017. That human rights and labor rights are at the center of the continued discussions about the FTA between Vietnam and EU.
Many could imply that the criminalization of Hoàng Đức Bình's conduct for organizing people and forming an association of fishermen in the Central of Vietnam appears to be in direct violation of the Trade and Sustainable Development Chapter and the human rights clause of the Vietnam-EU FTA.
The European Parliament Think Tank assessed in February 2018, that the FTA with Vietnam "has been described as the most ambitious deal of its type ever concluded between the EU and a developing country. Not only will it eliminate over 99 % of customs duties on goods, but it will also open up Vietnamese services markets to EU companies and strengthen protection of EU investments in the country."
They also opined that the Vietnam-EU FTA is estimated to boost Vietnam's economy as much as 15 % of GDP, with Vietnamese exports to Europe growing by over one third.
The parties are hopeful that the FTA will be ratified by EU Parliament (and also by its member-states on issues involving investment) by the end of this year, or by 2019 at the latest.
However, the recent affirmation of Vietnam's court regarding Hoàng Đức Bình's 14-year sentence for organizing and participating in protests against Taiwan's Formosa Hà Tĩnh Steel Corporation raises questions over the good faith of Hanoi in keeping up their end of the bargain when it comes to human rights and labor rights.
If Vietnamese government is sending people to prison with a very harsh sentence for exercising their freedom of association before the FTA is ratified, then what and how does EU plan to keep them in check once the dust is all settled?
Perhaps, this is a legitimate question for the EU-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue to provide the public with a more definitive answer later this year?
Related Topics:EUEuropean UnionformosaHoàng Đức Bìnhhuman rightslabor rightspicksVietnam
The agreement threatens to legitimize a brutal regime unless greater human rights protections are incorporated.
Trinh Hoi
On the same day in 2020 that Vietnam chaired its first Security Council meeting in New York, just a few hours earlier and some 8000 miles away near its capital, Hanoi, the Communist Party of Vietnam directly attacked Dong Tam village for refusing to give up its land.
The result? Police shot dead Dong Tam's beloved leader and former Party village chief, Le Dinh Kinh, an 84-year-old veteran who had been a Party member for 57 years; three police officers also died after falling down a sky-light, ostensibly pursuing "suspects" who resisted the authorities. Twenty two villagers have subsequently been arrested, with twenty being charged with murder. If convicted, these villagers could face the death penalty.
The Dong Tam land seizure event of last week is therefore a watershed moment in Vietnam's post-war history for many reasons. First, it marks for the first time in the age of social media an open and deadly clash between the Party and its once loyal support base: villagers in northern Vietnam. According to a 2015 Bloomberg finding, almost 70% of Party members live in the north, even though the north is home to less than half of the country's population of 96 million.
Second, it shows the Party's determination in ending the dispute, no matter the costs, and the great lengths it will go to muzzle public outcry afterwards, both on- and offline.
Just two days after the incident, the Ministry of Information, which controls and censors all media content in Vietnam, called for Facebook – by far the most popular social media platform in Vietnam, used by some 55 million netizens – to be punished for 'not following Vietnamese laws' in allowing 'distortion and fake news' to be spread on its platform.
Following official warnings and thanks to a large cyber-troop force the government employs, some users reporting on Dong Tam have been locked out of their accounts or had content taken down by Facebook, a fact Amnesty International has confirmed in recent days.
Offline, the Party's determination couldn't be more clear. Less than 24 hours after the incident, the most senior member of the Politburo and Vietnam's top leader, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, posthumously awarded the officers killed the title of "martyr", designating them as first-class heroes.
A week later, in an elaborate ceremony held at the State Funeral House, the Prime Minister himself along with other Politburo members, including the powerful Minister of Public Security, attended the funeral, noting that the officers 'sacrificed their lives to protect national security'.
It is, indeed, not surprising that the Party views the incident as a matter of significant national security. After all, though land disputes are common in Vietnam because the government does not recognize private land ownership, never before has an entire village dared to resist government seizure of its land at all costs and announce its intentions accordingly on Youtube and Facebook.
With Vietnam's economy expected to grow faster in the next decade, land designated for development purposes and seized by the government will likely exacerbate the security situation on the ground if not dealt with decisively. In the case of Dong Tam, the land seizure was for Viettel Group, Vietnam's military-run communications company. They had to act.
But the timing could not have been worse. In the coming days, the EU Parliament's Trade Committee is expected to vote on the EU – Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, worth 42 billion dollars annually and described by the EU as 'the most ambitious free trade deal ever concluded with a developing country'. If passed, it will go to Parliament for a final vote on February 10.
According to Human Rights Watch, already there is significant concern among some EU MEPs regarding Vietnam's worsening human rights record. Just last month, they also discovered that the trade deal rapporteur, MEP Jan Zahradil, has institutional links with the Party, leading to his immediate resignation.
With the latest incident in Dong Tam, it is also important for the 751 MEPs to realize that while the deal will bring more economic benefits to Vietnam, without clear and concrete human rights benchmarks, the deal will likely provide more incentives for the Party loyal and powerful to grab more land from the poor for developments without proper compensation and recourse.
As a result, if passed in its present form, expect more land losses and tragic deaths in villages across Vietnam, not less. After all, 65% of Vietnam's population still lives in rural areas.
As for the Security Council of which Vietnam is the President this month, expect no resolutions on the matter. Dang Dinh Quy, head of Vietnam's permanent mission in New York, is a Communist Party member himself.
Vietnamese police officer stands behind a barricade in Hanoi. Photo credits: AFP/Ye Aung Thu
On November 20, 2019, Father Nguyen Dinh Thuc, a Vietnamese Catholic priest, posted on his Facebook page that he was not allowed to leave Vietnam to go to Japan to meet with the Pope during the papal visit to Asia. The immigration police gave Father Thuc a document explaining the reason why the government did not allow him to travel abroad. It stated that the priest was banned from leaving Vietnam because the authorities believed they were preventing possible crimes against "national security and public order" according to Article 21, Section 6 of Decree 136/2007/ND-CP. This decree was issued (link in Vietnamese) by Vietnam's executive branch on August 17, 2007.
This was not the first time Father Thuc was prevented from traveling overseas. About two years ago, he was also blocked from traveling to Taiwan to attend meetings with Taiwanese civil society organizations regarding an environmental disaster involving a Taiwan enterprise, the Formosa Plastics Corporation. In one of Vietnam's four central coastal provinces, Father Thuc had helped some of the victims of the Formosa incident voice their concerns over a legal fight and the aftermath of the disastrous environmental situation.
The case of Father Thuc again demonstrates how the Vietnamese government bans human rights activists from traveling in order to stop them from participating in international advocacy efforts. The Vietnamese authorities have confiscated the passports of more than 100 Vietnamese activists, banning them from traveling by citing the same legal section: Decree 136/2007/ND-CP. Activists are deemed by police as a threat to Vietnam's national security and public order when they go abroad.
This incident also explains why we seldom see activists from Vietnam taking part in international advocacy for human rights in Vietnam. And even when activists do travel, they may not want to expose themselves publicly during advocacy events for Vietnam's human rights because they could lose their passports upon returning home. Dinh Thao, an environmental and human rights activist, had her passport confiscated after being detained for several hours by police after returning to Vietnam this month. In the last three years, she traveled the world publicly advocating for human rights in Vietnam, and the confiscation of her passport was the price she had to pay for her actions.
The story of Dinh Thao is the same dilemma that almost all Vietnamese activists have had to deal with in the past five or six years. If they travel abroad and publicly advocate for human rights in Vietnam, they face the possibility of being blocked from traveling again after they return to Vietnam. When Vietnam underwent its second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in 2014, activists accused the government of reprisals when it prevented activists from leaving the country to advocate for Vietnam's human rights. Among them, Paulo Nguyen Ho Nhat Thanh, Pham Chi Dung, and Nguyen Bac Truyen were not allowed to depart the country to go to Geneva, Switzerland in January and February 2014 when their passports were confiscated. Pham Le Vuong Cac was also detained and had his passport confiscated in August 2014 when he returned to Vietnam after attending the UPR in Geneva. During the last UPR in 2019, Nguyen Thi Kim Khanh, wife of political prisoner Truong Minh Duc, participated in advocacy activities to raise her husband's case in Europe and was detained for five hours upon her arrival in Vietnam. The police also took her passport without any judicial oversight, stating it was for national security.
Without their passports, these activists are prevented from traveling abroad and if they leave the country without it, they risk being considered illegal immigrants or worse, being accused of taking part in human trafficking schemes.
The ban on activists traveling overseas is illegal, and it also directly violates Vietnam's 2013 Constitution. Article 23 of the Constitution guarantees that "citizens shall enjoy the freedom of movement and of residence within the country; and can freely travel abroad and return home from abroad." By issuing governmental decrees like Decree 136/2007/ND-CP in 2007, the Vietnamese government has violated the rights of its citizens.
These decrees were not introduced, debated, and passed by the legislative branch but were executive orders whose constitutionality should ideally be decided by a judicial review. Sadly, Vietnam's court system is not independent, and there is no constitutional court in the country. The government is able to issue unconstitutional decrees to suppress people's rights without having any form of checks and balances.
The right of movement has met the same fate as the right for peaceful assembly: both of these rights have been violated by governmental decrees with the people having no means at all to fight back. In Vietnam, the National Assembly's Standing Committee has the right to exercise the power to interpret the law, including constitutional law. This is the committee that can decide whether a law or a decree is constitutional. Unfortunately, the Standing Committee has never exercised that power.
The government also does not notify activists when it puts their names on a "no travel ban" list, and some of them only find out upon arrival at the airport, as was the case of Father Thuc. Some people, such as Dinh Thao, had their passports confiscated by the police immediately after they returned to Vietnam from overseas.
And yet, when the authorities infringe upon these activists' right of movement, the police do not even follow the prescriptions as stated in Decree 136/2007/ND-CP. Article 22, Section 1(d) of this decree states that if a person is prevented from traveling because he or she is suspected to be a threat to national security or public order, such a decision to ban travel must be issued by the minister of the Ministry of Public Security – the head of the national police. In reality, none of the documents banning activists from traveling are signed by the minister. In the latest case of Father Thuc, the decision was signed by an immigration police officer, Lieutenant Colonel Phan Huan.
Human rights activists in Vietnam face blatant violations of their rights by the government daily as reprisals for their work, but the government cannot stop the democracy movement from expanding. The activist community continues to grow and they willingly face harassment and imprisonment. In recent years, Vietnam has arrested more people for political dissent and handed down harsher sentences. Posting on Facebook with information that the government dislikes may land a person in jail for a decade, as we saw earlier this month. But at the same time, more people are willing to write and expose corruption and official wrongdoing in Vietnam. This is a time for political change and Vietnamese citizens want to be a part of this change. They are increasingly daring to face the consequences.
In all of the human rights dialogue that the West participates in with Vietnam, putting an end to the travel ban should be top priority. If that happens, then the world will be able to hear Vietnamese activists express their struggles on the international stage. The advocacy to improve the human rights situation in Vietnam should start with eliminating the travel ban now.
How Can The EU Parliament Convince Us That Vietnam Will Improve Its Human Rights Record When Dissidents Continue To Get Jailed For Exercising Their Rights?
Photo credits: tapchitaichinh.vn
The European Union – Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EV-FTA) is expected to be a comprehensive win-win deal for both sides, ambitiously seeking to improve trade and boost mutual economic growth. As with all free trade agreements to which the EU is a party to, a human rights clause is built into this FTA with Vietnam. Many EU officials and parliament members that I have met in the past two years through my advocacy for Vietnam's human rights situation earnestly believe that Vietnam will improve its record once the FTA takes effect.
In the past, these friends have asked me to have some faith in the current regime, assuring me that our Vietnamese human rights activists and defenders will have better days in the future. It is a very typical "give them more time" argument that they expect me to accept. Yet the record shows that Vietnam's aggression against human rights activists increases every year while government-controlled courts continue to hand out harsh sentences. I often wonder how EU officials still want to convince me to have such faith?
In March 2019, I met with an EU official who was participating in the negotiations of the EV-FTA. She expressed great sympathy for human rights defenders in Vietnam and even realized the situation for human rights there was worrying. And yet, towards the end of our conversation, she asked me what I thought about one of Vietnam's ministers, whose name I will not disclose. She seemed to be fond of the guy and praised him for belonging to a "progressive group in the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP)" that she said hopefully would one day push for an improvement in human rights in the country.
As a democracy activist, I personally think that regardless of whether a person is progressive or not, none of the VCP members right now would dare to inch away from the Party's political monopoly inside the country. And I frankly stated that the Ministry of Public Security – the national police – would never allow any official to raise his or her voice over the human rights situation in Vietnam. Asking for political pluralism, an improvement in the human rights situation, and democracy would place anyone in danger of being sent to prison for more than a decade, as the latest political trials have shown this year.
I met with the official right after attending the United Nations Human Rights Committee's 125th session in Geneva, Switzerland where the Committee completed its third periodic report on Vietnam's implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Vietnam submitted its report after a 13-year delay in December 2017–the original deadline was set for August 2004. The Committee sadly acknowledged that in Vietnam's review "less information was provided on the actual implementation of ICCPR and application of domestic laws in practice, where concrete data was crucially lacking."
Vietnam ascended to the ICCPR in 1982, but with regard to complying with the international covenant on human rights, it didn't actually provide any opportunities for people to learn and exercise their rights. More than that, the government did not allow the Vietnamese people to use the ICCPR in courts to defend themselves when such rights were being violated.
The point is that more than three decades after Vietnam joined the ICCPR, the human rights situation in Vietnam remains hopeless and people's rights are being violated on a daily basis. How can we believe that the EV-FTA will improve such a situation when the ICCPR has so far failed so miserably?
I began to write this article after receiving the news that a close friend, an activist from Vietnam, had been detained upon arrival at the Noi Bai International Airport, where she was put into detention by 10 security police. Dinh Thao is an environmental and human rights activist who left Vietnam to study and work abroad as an advocate for human rights more than three years ago. She was a medical doctor before becoming an activist and I am sure some of the EU parliament members must remember her because she advocated for Vietnam's human rights situation in Brussels a few years ago and may have met some of them.
Thao is non-violent and even created a project to educate people about peaceful demonstrations. Yet she was detained by the police immediately after her arrival in Vietnam. What crime did she commit to deserve such treatment? Or is it just simply the fact that the government violated her rights in retaliation for her advocacy internationally for more human rights in Vietnam?
On the same day that Dinh Thao was detained, November 15, 2019, another Vietnamese was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment and five years of house arrest. Nguyen Nang Tinh, a music teacher who also advocated for human rights and democracy for Vietnam, was accused by the state of "propagandizing against the government" via his Facebook posts. Tinh denied that the alleged Facebook account belongs to him, but if you read the posts in that account you'll see that there was nothing that called for a violent overthrow of the regime. If you search for him online, you will see videos of him teaching young children patriotic songs, songs that demand human rights for the people. How could his activities be called "propaganda against the state"?
As I have worked to protect the human rights of activists in Vietnam for many years, I have often recounted their stories to many Western politicians and officials. The activists I have met are people who had the opportunity to learn about the concept of human rights and who then started to defend such rights for others and also sometimes for themselves. They are the people who believe in the spirit and the universal values of human rights and they also believe that international laws, such as the ICCPR, will protect them. They probably had hoped that the ICCPR would be implemented in Vietnam at their trials. But that hope was never realized because we have never seen arguments articulating any of the articles of the ICCPR, such as Article 19, which protects the freedom of expression, presented in Vietnamese courts.
And as a result, human rights activists and defenders have often typically been sentenced in rushed one-day trials without an independent judiciary. Sometimes the decisions handed down include lengthy jail sentences, as in the case of Nguyen Nang Tinh, which happened this month.
In response to the EU officials who asked me to "have faith" in the regime, I point to a database built by the independent civil society organization The 88 Project, which catalogues the arrest and detention of political prisoners in Vietnam. A representative of that organization informed me a few days ago that in 2018, the Vietnamese government had arrested 145 people. These arrests showed the authorities' blatant violation of the human rights of citizens. That number was greater than the number of arrests Vietnam made in 2017, 2016, and 2015 combined. In 2018, the number of arrests went up because the government detained and sentenced many people after large demonstrations happened in June 2018, in protest against the new cybersecurity law and the development of special economic zones with Chinese investment.
It is not only human rights activists who are being treated unfairly and who are suffering mistreatment in Vietnam. There are also other groups, such as the workers, for whom the EV-FTA probably has some aspirations to improve their work environment and living standards. Many EU Parliament members have urged the Vietnamese government to quickly ratify the remaining three International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions prior to EU voting on the trade deal. Vietnam has promised to ratify the three ILO conventions over a time period of five years beginning in 2018. However, ratification of international laws is one thing, while the reality of how the Vietnamese authorities have failed to improve workers' lives is another story.
In Taipei, Taiwan, legal migrant workers from Vietnam went on a protest this month to demand the abolition of broker fees that each of them had to pay to be able to work in Taiwan. These broker fees are considered to be part of the most exploitative system of all of the countries in Southeast Asia from which these workers come from. What does the Vietnamese government know about this system and why does it allow such a broker fee system to continue to exploit their people? Would the EV-FTA be able to eradicate that system to improve the lives of these workers? How can I have the faith to believe that the Vietnamese government will ever take care of these people?
Recently, Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia released 70 opposition activists in order to improve his country's human rights image after the EU threatened the withdrawal of special trade preferences. Cambodia's political system has many aspects that are far better than in Vietnam. That country at least has an opposition political party – the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP). On the contrary, the Vietnamese Communist Party has a political monopoly and we don't have a single other political party.
Running for office as an independent candidate will not lead to any success as the 2016 elections have demonstrated. Being a member of a political party that was formed overseas was the reason that Vietnam sentenced a 70-year-old Vietnamese-Australian man, Chau Van Kham, to 12 years in prison earlier this month.
And yet, the EV-FTA provides for a lot more benefits for Vietnam than compared the trade preferences that Cambodia would get from the EU. How can Cambodia demonstrate a greater willingness to improve its human rights record while Vietnam just keeps getting worse? How can I have faith that Vietnam will eventually improve?
During these days, police brutality in Hong Kong has increased dramatically as we see from the recent news coming out from universities there. And as we support and pray for young people there, I hope none of the international politicians and officials will say "give China more time" so that they can resolve their human rights problems.
In my personal capacity, despite all my efforts, I have yet to make Vietnam's human rights situation become more well-known in the world. However, I can not look at all of my human rights activists friends in Vietnam and tell them to be patient and to give the government more time.
We need to raise our voices and demand right now that the Vietnamese government make an effort to improve its human rights record. Should Vietnam make some improvements prior to the EU Parliament vote on the FTA trade deal? Yes, absolutely. Vietnam has to show its good faith by releasing the more than 200 political prisoners who are currently serving time and by allowing the emergence of political pluralism with fair and free elections.


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Research Article| August 01 1991
Seeking Common Ground: A History of Labor and Blue Cross
Gerald Markowitz;
Gerald Markowitz
J Health Polit Policy Law (1991) 16 (4): 695–718.
Gerald Markowitz, David Rosner; Seeking Common Ground: A History of Labor and Blue Cross. J Health Polit Policy Law 1 August 1991; 16 (4): 695–718. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-16-4-695
In recent years, voluntary health insurance costs have become a major source of friction in labor-management negotiations. What was once a "fringe" has led to job actions, strikes, and intensive bargaining. We examine the history of labor's participation in New York Blue Cross from the 1930s to the recent past and show that labor's participation in the plan was crucial to Blue Cross's success in the plan's early decades. By the late 1950s, serious tensions developed over rate increases and the participation of labor in Blue Cross governance. Ultimately, the issue was one of the control over what was provided by the plans and who would pay for the costs of care. We posit that labor was never able to achieve an important role in the control of the third-party payer, and in the antilabor environment of the 1980s this proved detrimental to labor's interests.
Mapuche Mnemonics: Reversing the Colonial Gaze through New Visualities of Extractive Capitalism
The Chapter Left Untold: Labor Historians and the Problem of Union Corruption
Geomemory and Genre Friction: Infrastructural Violence and Plantation Afterlives in Contemporary African American Novels
Paul's Letter to the Congolese: Allegory, Optimism, and Universality in Alain Mabanckou's Blue White Red
Preface Museum Frictions: A Project History
Reinventing the Black Southern Community in Sharon Bridgforth's The love Conjure/blues Text Installation
Groundings

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Tottenham go into the North London derby with five wins in their last six league games and an excellent 3-1 win over Chelsea in which they pressed effectively and dominated midfield. Arsenal are u beaten in their last five league games too and settling into a pressing style under Emery too and a close game is in prospect.
Bookmakers have the draw as the 3/1 outsider of the three options in the 1-2-X market with BetVictor which has to be the value price.
Bottom of the table Huddersfield have won one league game out of 12 and scored six goals in those games, speaking to their big problem in the second season in the top flight. Brighton have developed into a solid premier league side with ten points in their last six league games and 12th place in the league. Compared to last year the solid defence marshalled by Duffy and Dunk and the goal threat of Murray has been complemented by more pace on the wings giving them more of a threat on the counter in away games.
Brighton here are priced at 23/10 with BetVictor which is a very interesting price.
Newcastle's form has begun to pick up with two league wins in a row to climb out of the bottom three and this has to be a chance to continue their mini run against a West Ham side with one league win in six games and which blows hot and cold. BetVictor have Newcastle at 8/5 here, a price which should be backed.
November 25, 2018 - Offer valid as of date published. T&Cs apply.


Zoisite was the mineral name for a series of opaque to translucent varieties, of which only two are used as gemstones: massive pink colored thulite and a brilliant apple-green zoisite (which also occurs in grayish-white, gray, yellowish-brown, and greenish-gray). Named for Czechoslovakian Baron Zois von Edelstein, zoisite never really achieved prominence as a gem material.
Then in March 1966, an Arusha tailor named Sousa discovered a deep blue gemstone at a place later known as the Merelani mine. Using sophisticated equipment experts found that the gem was not "sapphire" as suspected, but an astounding variety of zoisite. Tiffany and Company, in a vigorous sales promotion, named the stone "tanzanite" after the country of origin, and the name has since been generally adopted.
The Merelani deposit was difficult to reach in the Usumburu Mountains that border the Umba Valley of northern Tanzania. This region, a vast arid plain broken by hills and small mountain peaks, is inhabited by the pastoral Masai people. The Merelani lies between two landmarks just south of the Kenya border – Mt. Kilimanjaro and the Olduvai Gorge made famous by paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey. The nearest town of any consequence is Arusha, about 50 kilometers to the northwest.
In 1975 the author met A.H. (Brick) Stange who provided a pilot and a single-engine airplane for the flight from Nairobi to Arusha. We planned two trips – first a visit by plane to the ruby mine near Longido and the second in jeeps to the tanzanite mine in Merelani.
The trip to the ruby mine was uneventful except for a painful bite from a tsetse fly. Even though my seat belt was fastened, I jumped hard enough to bang my head on the cockpit ceiling and the pilot lectured me on how dangerous it was to make such a violent movement while flying at a low altitude. Just as he concluded his rebuke, a fly bit him on the neck. There was an immediate plethora of epithets, somewhat superior to mine, but no more lectures! Upon reaching the mine we noticed a great wall of schist marked by green streaks of zoisite. Closer inspection revealed bright red, nearly opaque 2 to 4-centimeter ruby crystals imbedded in the zoisite. Large chunks of the red and green material were blasted loose for shipment by truck to Arusha.
A few days later our party left in two jeeps for Merelani. Our route passed through a brushy countryside dotted with trees, and from time to time, we passed Masai villages and herds of Brahman cattle tended by one or two small boys. Upon reaching the mine, we were admitted by armed guards. The tsetse flies were replaced by numerous non-biting flies that landed upon any part of the body which exuded moisture – the corner of the eye or mouth and exposed parts when relieving oneself. They were a constant irritant and a real nuisance.
Guards armed with rifles and shotguns were conspicuously posted at vantage points about the workings. Digging was by the open-pit method, with a few veins being explored by short tunnels. A small padlocked iron box sat nearby. When a miner discovered a crystal or segment, he was to drop it into the box. However, the chances are that many were swallowed or thrown into a bush for recovery later. Miners were paid next to nothing, and this provided the incentive to high-grade stones.
Tanzanite crystals occur sparsely in a heavily metamorphosed zone of tough rock. They are prismatic, heavily striated and often possess good terminations. The mineral is fairly soft (6 to 6.5 on Mohs' hardness scale) and fractures rather easily. It is common to expose a fine crystal deeply imbedded in rock, then watch it break into small pieces during removal. The search for crystals is accomplished with picks, iron bars, shovels, and compressed-air jackhammers, a system that takes a high toll of fine gems. Clean stones which will facet 2-carat or larger gems are quite rare, and days pass between discoveries.
Tanzanite occurs in colors of gray, brown, violet, blue, reddish-purple, and tints of green. The gem is of interest because of its exceptional pleochroism. Rotated in different directions a single stone will exhibit three outstanding changes of color, from reddish purple to blue to deep purple. When placed in ovens and heated to 620°C, the reddish purple crystals alter to a rich violet-blue; some turn to a deep blue resembling sapphire. But heating reduces pleochroism.
Tanzanite in large flawless sections appeared with some regularity during the early days of mining. Lovely gems of 20 to 50 carats were not unusual. One of the largest stones, a splendid faceted flawless gem weighing 122.7 carats, is part of the Smithsonian Institution's collection.
Following tanzanite vein into hill.
When first mined, fine stones could be purchased in Tanzania, Kenya, and the United States for as little as $20 a carat. By 1984 clean gems wholesaled at better than $1000 a carat, an indication of increasing interest in a gem already in short supply. In 1978 a massive cholera epidemic struck northern Tanzania and interrupted production of rubies, garnets, sapphires, chrome tourmaline, chrysoprase, and tanzanite. In addition, most of the known gem deposits were playing out. As a result, decreasing production has caused a scarcity of quality gemstones and a rapid rise in their value.
Introduction/Name.Tanzanite is the name given to the rich blue-violet variety of the epidote-group mineral, zoisite. The gem was first discovered in Tanzania in 1967 and was named after its country of its origin, Tanzania, by the famous New York jeweler, Louis Comfort Tiffany.
Color. Tanzanite has what many would consider the finest blue hue in the world of gemstones, a color which often leaves even the finest sapphires lacking. The gem is strongly trichroic.
A chromium-colored green tanzanite is also found in Tanzania.
Lighting. Tanzanite is extremely light sensitive, with incandescent lighting tending to shift its color to the violet side. The best pieces show an intense blue under any light.
Clarity. In terms of clarity, tanzanite does occur in reasonably clean crystals. Thus when buying, the standard is eye-clean stones.
Cut. In the market, tanzanites are found in a variety of shapes and cutting styles. Ovals and cushions are the most common, but rounds are also seen, as are other shapes, including emerald cuts, trillions, etc. Cabochon-cut tanzanites are not often seen.
Prices. Tanzanite prices probably fluctuate more than any other gem, largely due irregular production at the mines. For extremely fine stones of less than 50 cts., prices sometimes top $1000/ct. at retail.
Stone Sizes. Tanzanites sometimes occur in extremely large sizes, with faceted gems of hundreds of carats in existence. The most popular sizes for jewelry use are those below 20 cts.
Sources. The only locality for tanzanite is Merelani in Tanzania.
Enhancements. Virtually all gem tanzanite of a blue color has been heat-treated to enhance the color.
Imitations. Tanzanite has never been synthesized, but a number of imitations exist. The most common is blue-violet glass. A synthetic fosterite has also been used as an imitation.
Phenomena Cat's eyes are known. Many tanzanites display a color shift from blue in daylight to violet in incandescent light.
The best way to care for tanzanite is to clean it with warm, soapy water.
Heat: Fuses under jeweler's torch; sudden temperature changes may cause cracking.
Enhancements Virtually all tanzanite is heat treated (approx. 500°C), which converts the brown pleochroic color to blue.


Designed for economy and function alone, standard highway bridges of short and moderate spans often detract from rather than enhance the environment in which they are built. Such an unimaginative display of structural engineering does little to express the rapid growth and exciting advancement of this profession.
Aesthetics & Efficiency Guidelines have been developed that are primarily intended for use by bridge and highway engineers designing standard short and moderate span bridges with an emphasis on bridges using precast concrete superstructures. Four example applications of the Guidelines to standard bridge projects in Texas show general approaches and varied economic benefits and/or costs.
Recognizing that the appearance and efficiency of standard short and moderate span bridges can be greatly improved with more thoughtful substructure design, an attractive and efficient substructure system has been developed for use with standard superstructure systems in Texas. The proposed system of match cast precast segmental elements post-tensioned together on site combines high strength prestressing steel with high performance concrete for improved durability and structural efficiency. Attractive cast-in-place substructures as an alternate to the current common Texas substructure practice utilizing circular columns and rectangular bent caps are also presented.
Applications of this research to two existing projects in Texas are summarized and the resulting impact reviewed. Implementation strategies for further application of the research are given.


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google self-driving car
Google's self-driving car project is now an Alphabet company called 'Waymo'
Stephen Hall | Dec 13 2016 - 3:21 pm PT
Google announced today at a small press event in San Francisco, California that its self-driving car project is spinning off into its own company and getting a new name: Waymo. This news follows a report from earlier today that Google has backed off plans for radical self-driving cars in run-up to its launch.
Waymo is a "self-driving tech company with mission to make it safe for people and things to get around," CEO of Google's self-driving car project John Krafcik said at the event. He also said that today will be the last day that he introduces himself by that title.
"We're now an independent company within the Alphabet umbrella," Krafcik said. "We've now completed with that process."
Krafcik spent much of the presentation offering a recap of where the project has been and where it is going. He said today that Google recently performed a self-driving test in Austin, Texas, with no driver at the helm, and that the company's cars have now reached the billion mile landmark in total simulation miles.
As for the Chrysler Pacifica minivans that we've seen outfitted with Google's sensors, Krafcik says that the first versions will be on the read in the "very near future." "We're absolutely all-in, 100 percent, on L4 and L5 fully driverless solutions. That's what we're all about," Krafcik added.
But the big news today is of course the spinning off of the self-driving car project with its own name as a company under Alphabet. A report earlier today mentioned this move was imminent, as well as added that Google has abandoned its plans for a revolutionary self-driving car without traditional controls. Waymo doesn't seem to be doing away with the cute self-driving cars quite yet, however. In fact, Waymo showed off a re-branded cute prototype today (as you can see in the below video). Krafcik did allude to these changes, however:
"We're not in the business of making better cars. We're in the business of making better drivers."
Below you can find Alphabet's Waymo promo video and you can check out the Waymo website here.
Stephen Hall @hallstephenj
Stephen is Growth Director at 9to5. If you want to get in touch, follow me on Twitter. Or, email at stephen (at) 9to5mac (dot) com, or an encrypted email at hallstephenj (at) protonmail (dot) com.
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Mark Pettus Bio — GOOD GIRL GO GO GO!
Dr. Mark Pettus is a triple-board certified Internist, Nephrologist and Integrative Medicine physician practicing for over 25 years. He received his A.B. from Boston University and his M.D. from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. His postdoctoral training was at Harvard Medical School. He completed his renal fellowship at The Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Dr. Pettus is also an alumnus of The Advanced Program for Conflict Resolution, Negotiation, and Mediation at The Harvard School of Public Health.
Dr. Pettus is the 2018 recipient of The National Institute of Wellness' Halbert Dunn MD, PhD Award, the most prestigious award presented by the National Wellness Institute and regarded as one of the highest honors in the health promotion and wellness fields. Recipients of the award have shown a dedication to wellness over the course of their lifetime, making many significant contributions and offering leadership that furthered the field of wellness.
Dr. Pettus appears on numerous TV and Radio venues nationally including the 700 Club, Good Morning America, NPR and PBS. His podcast, The Health Edge is heard by people all over the world. Related links: The Savvy Patient: The Ultimate Advocate For Quality Health Care and It's All in Your Head: Change Your Mind, Change Your Health. Click here to Download Mark's lecture notes and to listen to The Health Edge podcasts.


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Marching Illini Breaking Ground for New Instructional Tower
The latest enhancement to the Marching Illini's practice field will launch with a groundbreaking ceremony prior to Illinois' football game on Saturday. A 50-foot tall observation tower will be constructed at the Marching Illini's permanent practice field near the corner of First Street and Gregory Drive. The purchase and construction of the orange and blue tower was made possible by a generous gift from alumnus Ronald Filler ('70 LAS) and his wife Paula and will bear their names.
The Ronald and Paula Filler Marching Illini Instructional Tower is a critical element in the development of a safe, proper, permanent rehearsal facility. The tower will be placed at the artificial turf practice field, near the heart of tailgating, gameday activities, and Memorial Stadium. The upper portion of the tower, in the shape of the iconic Block I, will stand as a proud beacon of the University of Illinois and of the Marching Illini. The ceremony will begin at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 9.


Wendy led us in a mini workshop to make a brooch or pendant using a copper wire framework with needleweaving.
Wendy will be showing us how to make a brooch or pendant from wire and thread.
Shirley Rowley will again be leading a stitch club on Saturday 21April 2012. Shirley will show us how to make a beautiful and individual piece of textile art from our prosaic tape measures.
Some of the hexagons that were created using the Japanese folded patchwork technique.
Japanese homes are generally small so this technique was popular as backing and wadding are added during the making of each hexagon.
Friday 30th March saw Katie Chaplin give us a very interesting talk and demonstration of how a kimono is worn. The layers seemed to going on and on and on! No wonder they are very upright and sedate in them. It was really very interesting. Above are some photos of the back and front of the finished article.


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Stay with DRAWING NORTH Wednesday, 5 April 2017 22:59 by madseason
Canberra's alternative pop-rock trio Drawing North, today releases their newest single Stay. The single is the first new music since their debut album El Dorado last year which peaked at #3 on the iTunes chart.
The new single, written by members Michael Po and Drew Southwell, is a song that aims to encapsulate the feeling of elation with another person.
It is produced by renowned producer/songwriter Andy Mak (Boy & Bear, New Empire, Winterbourne) and co-produced by Drew Southwell of Drawing North. "This song is our favourite from our new batch of songs and it has had the most positive feedback from our live performance" Said Po, "We recently showcased at Sundance Film Festival & SXSW and had a sold out show in Utah that we captured on film for the official video".
Stream Stay on SoundCloud and buy the song on iTunes now.
Tags: Andy Mak, Drawing North, Stay


Yaya Toure would like a long-term coaching or executive role at Manchester City and "more attention paid" according to his agent.
Yaya Toure is not motivated by money but instead by the pursuit of a long-term technical role at Manchester City, according to his agent.
The Ivory Coast international seemed to express his unhappiness at the Etihad Stadium through Twitter on Tuesday after his agent Dimitry Seluk publicly claimed his client felt underappreciated and disrespected at City.
Seluk suggested that one of Toure's main gripes was the club's failure to mark his 31st birthday last week.
But in an interview with Sky Sports News broadcast on Thursday morning the Ukrainian claimed Toure would be more than happy to stay should he be promised a coaching position or sporting director's role beyond his retirement.
Seluk said: "Of course. Like Real Madrid did with (Zinedine) Zidane for example. Zidane played then after that he started working for the club.
"Yaya needs the club in the future.
"We don't want any more pounds, not a longer contract, nothing like this, only really attention.
"More attention (paid) to Yaya and Yaya must feel happy at the club - that's the main thing.
"I'll tell you one more time, we don't need one more pound in the contract."
Debate: Should City sell Yaya Toure?
Toure initially appeared to contradict claims from Seluk that he could quit the club this summer after his outspoken agent claimed City had failed to celebrate his birthday adequately.
But the player quickly backtracked and made statements in favour of his agent.
A video published by City last week in which Toure was presented with a birthday cake has since been widely circulated while many also pointed out that the club had tweeted a happy birthday message at the time.
Seluk later clarified his remarks, saying that Toure was disappointed nobody from a senior position at the club wished him happy birthday.
And on Thursday he added: "Of course some players congratulated him (on his birthday) but not the sporting director, not the general director, not the chairman, nobody.
"This is the question. If you don't even congratulate the player or send flowers to his wife or mother - these are just small things."
Interestingly, one of Toure's telling tweets from Tuesday, in which he backed Seluk, has now been deleted.
Toure, when he performed his about-turn having initially appeared to contradict Seluk, tweeted: "Everything dimitry said is true. He speaks for me. I will give an interview after world cup to explain."
That message had been removed by Thursday morning.


Nowadays many people who want to make a work from home business. By working at home, mothers may accompany their children, fathers have the ability to monitor child development much better, and everyone can choose his own days and hrs. No more missed seven o'clock in the morning! You can work when you feel fresh and lively.
In case you are unable to get a job or even are underemployed then paying down the loans might be an issue for you. In that case, you might have an excellent urge to avoid the lenders. Yet this is the worst thing that you can do. Talk to the lenders as soon as you may and tell them about your circumstances. They will surely help you with simpler monthly installments to clear off the financial loans. This will also stop all of them from handing over your own loan account to the debt collectors. One of the best ways to clear out of your loans is through debt consolidation reduction.
There are many business opportunities or even franchises available today with excellent track records and outstanding support. You can invest below $20, 000. 00 and discover many. As a matter of fact, there are online business offerings available that start from less than $3000. 00!
Of course, it may need some time and effort to figure out the most efficient list of small businesses with high revenue potential, and the possibility of flexibility to enjoy your life. Now, To find out what list of small businesses that could work best for you, you'll have to check out and penetrate your options. You may the best chance to find your own list of small businesses in anything you know and love.
This shows there is a tremendous opportunity to sell products on the web and small business owners came prosper from this. This will take some ability and it might even mean having your self-educated before you get began. Because there are average people producing extraordinary incomes all over the world you could rest assured that this is things you can learn as well.
Number 2 is where you have seed phase. Seed is where you are structuring and developing the business plan and the financials, and there is undoubtedly some capital expenditures happening there.
Set a consistent routine for work. Jot down the particular hours when you plan to function so you have a schedule in order to stick by. There will be occasions you have to work around the clock, yet make sure you don't do that frequently. Family time is an excellent method to relieve stress, so fixed work aside to appreciate the things which are essential.
Shallow breathing also impedes correct oxygenation of the mind, which prevents us from utilizing our problem-solving capabilities in an efficient way. The long-run effects of shallow breathing are usually lack of vitality, and eventually, depressive disorder. Other accompanying problems are usually headaches, nervousness, irritability, and also long-term effects on stress.
Find a better accountant, lawyer, and company advisor. Stay up on fees and other legal points which could sink your business. Lawyers are excellent for advice on specific points, and business advisors such as at the Small Business Administration are excellent for general advice.


Otsuka Station is not a very large station but during the month of August over 1.5 million people come to see the Awa Odori Dance Festival.
Otsuka Station大塚駅・おおつかえき (大塚: 大 – large 塚 – mound) was first opened in 1903. It is best known for its Awa Odori阿波踊り・あわおどり dance festival, the second largest in Tokyo after the one in 高円寺こうえんじ・Koenji . At the 阿波踊りあわおどり・Awa Odori dance festivals teams of dancers from different 近所きんじょ・neighborhoods work together to choreograph and perform a frenzied dance to the sound and rhythm of drums and gongs. Each team also has a unique, brightly colored コスチュームcostume.
The teams compete against one another for all sorts of 賞品しょうひん・prizes. The 祭りまつり・festival lasts all day long and into the night and when day turns night, the street in front of 大塚駅おおつかえき・Otsuka Station is decorated and lit by 灯籠とうろう・paper lanterns and the dancing gets wilder. 大塚阿波踊りおおつかあわおどり・Otsuka's Awa Odori is held on the 12th and 15th of 8月はちがつ・August every year and attracts upward of 1.5 million spectators.
The costumes worn by participants alone are worth having a look.


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© Vogue Images
Culture & Living
5 reasons why we're still talking about Bhutan's largest literary festival
By Shahnaz Siganporia 31 August 2017
The women have it!
As the road clears in Doklam, the streets of Thimphu was set abuzz by an intimate congregation from the literary world. Writers, artists, translators, academics, publishers and even a few fashion designers, hustled about while pondering on the stuff of life, all in line for the 8th edition of Mountain Echoes, Bhutan's largest literary festival. Marcus Zusak of Book Thief fame charmed his way with coming of age tales and even a few dystopian ideas, while Padma Lakshmi perfectly shut down the misogyny with a reminder of the importance of feminism, especially right now. Shashi Tharoor's charismatic recounting of historical complexities drew the usual sighs and claps, and Abraham & Thakore's fashion presentation brought handloom and a bit of glamour back into focus. But even amid the sparkling wit, Tweet-worthy quotes and headlining acts, a small of group of women emerged the real stars of this four-day immersive literary experience.
Chandrika Tamang Inspired by the fading colours of the prayer flags that garland the Himalayas, fashion designer Chandrika Tamang's latest collection is the perfect coming together of traditional weaves, ethical fashion and contemporary design. An emerging talent that's hard to miss, her brand CDK is definitely one to watch. Find her on Instagram: @cdk_store
Emma Slade From a jetsetting debt analyst and banker with stilettos in place to being ordained a Buddhist nun, who runs a charity to help the children of Bhutan. Her must-read memoir, Set Free (sale proceeds from which are donated to charity) tells her extraordinary story from being taken hostage in Jakarta to finding peace in a completely different way of life. This isn't a saccharine mind, body, spirit or a "get thee to a nunnery" narrative, it's the story of a complex woman who grabbed her agency and is currently living the best life she can. Find her on Twitter: @emmabhutan
Vayu Naidu With her short-cropped hair, empath eyes and dulcet tone, Naidu is a natural-born storyteller. Be it on a bus, on the dinner table or on stage, she is bound to enrapture her audiences into layered tales of ordinary and the not-so-ordinary. Author and founder of the Vayu Naidu Storytelling Theatre Company, her most recent novel The Sari of Surya Vilas is a definite must-read. Find her on Twitter: @licencetotell
Kuenga Wangmo She's Bhutan's first woman archeologist, who apart from breaking glass ceilings, is committed to strengthening the historiography of her country. Supported by National Geographic, her research concentrates on the pre-Buddhist history of Bhutan. She is currently an advisor at the Royal University of Bhutan. From the oldest wall painting in Bhutan to tantric love letters, Wangmo's extensive knowledge is astounding. Find her on Twitter: @kuengawangmo
Francesca Beard Currently refining her new show, How To Survive A Post-Truth Apocalypse (supported by Arts Council England), the London-based writer and performance poet, is as the title suggests topical, relevant and a must-hear voice of her time. Find her on Twitter: @francescabeard
EnglandLONDONSARI
This photo series will let you experience the Kumbh mela in Florence
By Pooja Prabbhan 6 December 2019
Eve Ensler's book reading in Mumbai helps put focus on the violence against women in the country
By Almas Khateeb 19 November 2019
We The Women's Bengaluru edition turned the gaze on colourism, pay parity and more


To travel in Bolivia as a tourist, citizens of Singapore must have a Consular Tourist Visa.
If you're a citizen of Singapore and have other question on acquiring a Bolivia visit visa then please message your questions in the comment below.
I am from Singapore. There is no bolivia embassy in Singapore . How do i apply before hand ? is there a form that i can download online ? is there a embassy in Cusco. i have email or search everywhere but no one help.


text:
Carcha is a genus of snout moths. It was described by Francis Walker in 1859, and is known from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.

Species
 Carcha hersilialis Walker, 1859
 Carcha undulatalis Amsel, 1956
 Carcha violalis Hampson, 1897

References

Chrysauginae
Pyralidae genera

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Unbreakable | Blu Ray | (16/06/2008) from £6.95 | Saving you £17.04 (71.00%) | RRP £23.99
Are you listening to that voice that is telling you what you should be doing in life? M. Night Shyamalan director of The Sixth Sense presents Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson in the story of one man's date with destiny. Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson star in the mind-shattering suspense-filled thriller; Unbreakable. When David Dunn (Willis) emerges from a horrific train crash as the sole survivor - and without a single scratch on him - he meets a mysterious stranger (Jackson) who will change David's life forever. Interrupting his life at odd moments it's Elijah Price's presence and probing that force David to confront his destiny on a journey of self-discovery and purpose that will absolutely stun you with its power.
The Imitation Game | DVD | (09/03/2015) from £3.49 | Saving you £16.50 (82.50%) | RRP £19.99
THE IMITATION GAME is a gripping acclaimed thriller that tells the incredible true story of unsung war hero Alan Turing the British mathematician responsible for cracking the German Enigma code during World War II. Benedict Cumberbatch (The Fifth Estate Star Trek Into Darkness and TV's Sherlock) and Keira Knightley (BAFTA nominee for Atonement Oscar® nominee for Pride and Prejudice) star as Turing and his ally and fellow code-breaker Joan Clarke alongside a top-notch cast including Matthew Goode (Stoker A Single Man) Mark Strong (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) Rory Kinnear (Skyfall) Charles Dance (Gosford Park TV's Game of Thrones) Allen Leech (In Fear TV's Downton Abbey) and Matthew Beard (An Education).
The Sum of All Fears | DVD | (31/03/2003) from £2.79 | Saving you £17.00 (85.00%) | RRP £19.99
When the president of Russia suddenly dies and is succeeded by a man about whom little is known tension increases as old fears ignite new paranoia. Director of Central Intelligence Bill Cabot (Morgan Freeman) recruits a young analyst from the Russia desk Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck) to supply insight and advice. A group of terrorists is trying to provoke a war between the two nations by manufacturing and escalating the conflict. When they successfully detonate a second bomb outside
The Others | DVD | (23/09/2002) from £4.49 | Saving you £15.50 (77.50%) | RRP £19.99
A welcome throwback to the spooky traditions of Jack Clayton's The Innocents and Robert Wise's The Haunting, Alejandro Amenábar's The Others favours atmosphere, sound, and suggestion over flashy special effects. Set in 1945 on a fog-enshrouded island off the British coast, the film begins with a scream as Grace (Nicole Kidman) awakens from some unspoken horror, perhaps arising from her religiously overprotective concern for her young children, Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley). The children are hypersensitive to light and have lived in a musty manor with curtains and shutters perpetually drawn. With Grace's husband (Christopher Eccleston) presumably lost at war, this ominous setting perfectly accommodates a sense of dreaded expectation, escalating when three strangers arrive in response to Grace's yet-unposted request for domestic help. Led by housekeeper Mrs Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), this mysterious trio is as closely tied to the house's history as Grace's family is--as are the past occupants seen posthumously in a long-forgotten photo album. With her justly acclaimed performance, Kidman maintains an emotional intensity that fuels the film's supernatural underpinnings. And while Amenábar's pacing is deliberately slow, it befits the tone of penetrating anxiety, leading to a twist that extends the story's reach from beyond the grave. Amenábar unveiled a similarly effective twist in his Spanish thriller Open Your Eyes (remade by Cameron Crowe as Vanilla Sky), but where that film drew debate, The Others is finely crafted to provoke well-earned goose bumps and chills down the spine. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
The Interpreter | DVD | (15/08/2005) from £1.70 | Saving you £17.40 (87.00%) | RRP £19.99
Director Sydney Pollack delivers megawatt star power, high gloss, and political passion to The Interpreter, his first thriller since The Firm. With Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn delivering smooth, understated performances, the film more closely recalls Pollack's 1975 Robert Redford/Faye Dunaway paranoid thriller Three Days of the Condor, trading conspiratorial politicians for potential assassination in the United Nations General Assembly (this being the first film ever granted permission to use actual U.N. locations). Kidman plays a U.N. interpreter who inadvertently overhears hints of a plot to kill the reviled, tyrannical leader of her (fictional) African homeland; Penn is the Secret Service agent assigned to protect her, or to determine her role (if any) in the assassination scenario. By distancing itself from real-life politics, The Interpreter softens its potential impact as a thriller about contemporary globalization and threats to international peace, but the Penn/Kidman personal drama (between two people who gain a deep appreciation for shared anguish, without being artificially forced into romance) adds a richly human dimension to Pollack's expert handling of the thriller elements of a complex yet easily-followed plot. Indie-film stalwart Catherine Keener shines in her supporting role as Penn's sarcastic by sympathetic Secret Service partner. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
Premonition | DVD | (16/07/2007) from £3.99 | Saving you £14.03 (70.20%) | RRP £19.99
They said it was an accident... But the reality is... It hasn't happened yet... Linda Hanson (Sandra Bullock) has a beautiful house a loving husband and two adorable daughters. Her life is perfect until the day she receives the devastating news that her husband (Julian McMahon) has died in a car accident. When she wakes up the next morning to find him alive and well she assumes it was all a dream. She soon realises that this is not the case and her world is turned upside down as the surreal circumstances lead her to discover that her perfect life may not have been all that it appeared. Desperate to save her family Linda begins a furious race against time and fate to try and preserve everything that she and Jim have built together.
Sherlock Holmes | DVD | (17/05/2010) from £2.79 | Saving you £17.20 (86.00%) | RRP £19.99
On a quest to solve a string of mysterious and brutal murders Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) and his trusted ally Watson (Jude Law) plunge into a world of dark arts and startling new technologies where logic and a good right hook are the best crime fighting weapons. Explosive action baffling mystery and astonishing intrigue follow the two in a race to uncover and foil a terrifying plot that threatens to destroy the country. Director Guy Ritchie helms the all-action adventure reintroducing the great detective to the world. Robert Downey Jr. is the new Sherlock Holmes!
The Two Faces Of January | DVD | (15/09/2014) from £2.99 | Saving you £17.00 (85.00%) | RRP £19.99
Based on the novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith and adapted by Academy Award® nominee Hossein Amini (Drive Snow White And The Huntsman). The Two Faces Of January is a suspense thriller starring Academy Award® nominee Viggo Mortensen (The Lord Of The Rings The Road) Golden Globe nominee and Cannes Best Actress winner Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man Melancholia) and Oscar Isaac (Drive Inside Llewyn Davis) in a dangerous battle of wits across Greece and Turkey.
The Imitation Game | Blu Ray | (09/03/2015) from £7.09 | Saving you £17.90 (71.60%) | RRP £24.99
Flightplan | DVD | (27/03/2006) from £3.49 | Saving you £14.50 (80.60%) | RRP £17.99
If you can forgive plot holes that you could drive the airliner of your choice through the middle of, then Flightplan is an effective, pacey Hollywood thriller, that somehow manages to hold everything together in spite of its challenging plausibility.
Into the Storm | Blu Ray | (15/12/2014) from £3.04 | Saving you £17.20 (68.80%) | RRP £24.99
In the span of a single day the town of Silverton is ravaged by an unprecedented onslaught of tornadoes. The entire town is at the mercy of the erratic and deadly cyclones even as storm trackers predict the worst is yet to come. Most people seek shelter while others run towards the vortex testing how far a storm chaser will go for that once-in-a-lifetime shot. Told through the eyes and lenses of professional storm chasers thrill-seeking amateurs and courageous townspeople Into the Storm throws you directly into the eye of the storm to experience Mother Nature at her most extreme.
Transcendence | Blu Ray | (25/08/2014) from £3.86 | Saving you £19.50 (78.00%) | RRP £24.99
As Dr. Will Caster works toward his goal of creating an omniscient, sentient machine, a radical anti-technology organization fights to prevent him from establishing a world where computers can transcend the abilities of the human brain.
Before The Rains | DVD | (12/04/2010) from £4.75 | Saving you £0.70 (11.70%) | RRP £5.99
Forbidden romance empire and culture clash all lie at the heart of this drama. In 1930s India Britain's reign is beginning to lose its hold on the region. An idealistic young Indian man (Rahul Bose) finds himself torn between his ambitions for the future and his loyalty to the past when people in his village learn of an affair between his British boss (Linus Roache) and a village woman (Nandita Das).
Gambit | DVD | (04/03/2013) from £3.58 | Saving you £12.50 (69.50%) | RRP £17.99
An art curator decides to seek revenge on his abusive boss by conning him into buying a fake Monet, but his plan requires the help of an eccentric and unpredictable Texas rodeo queen.
Non-Stop | DVD | (30/06/2014) from £3.51 | Saving you £16.20 (81.00%) | RRP £19.99
Bill Marks (Liam Neeson; Unknown Taken) is a burned-out veteran of the Air Marshals service. He views the assignment not as a life-saving duty but as a desk job in the sky. However today's flight will be no routine trip. Shortly into the transatlantic journey from New York to London he receives a series of mysterious text messages ordering him to have the government transfer $150 million into a secret account or a passenger will die every 20 minutes.
Red Eye | DVD | (30/01/2006) from £4.99 | Saving you £12.00 (66.70%) | RRP £17.99
Fear takes a flight... After attending the funeral of her grandmother in Dallas Lisa Reisert (McAdams) must take the dreaded red eye flight back to Miami to make it to work the next day. Lisa soon meets Jackson Ripner (Murphy) and there is an instant attraction. However moments after take-off Ripner reveals to Lisa his real reason for being on board: he needs Lisa's help to kill the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security who's scheduled to stay at the Lux Atlantic Hotel t
Flawless | DVD | (18/05/2009) from £6.99 | Saving you £9.09 (45.50%) | RRP £19.99
Flawless is a thrilling crime drama set in London in 1960. Michael Caine stars as a retired janitor who convinces a glass-ceiling constrained American executive (Demi Moore) to help him steal a handful of diamonds from their employer the London Diamond Corporation.
The Clearing | DVD | (21/02/2005) from £3.24 | Saving you £9.50 (59.40%) | RRP £15.99
One Kidnapped... three victims. Wayne (Redford) and Eileen (Mirren) Hayes live the American Dream. Together they've raised two children and struggled to build a successful business from the ground up. But there have been sacrifices along the way. When Wayne is kidnapped by an ordinary man Arnold Mack (Dafoe) and held for ransom in a remote forest the couple's world is turned inside out. Eileen finds her home full of FBI agents their life under scrutiny. While Wayne is engage
Nine - The Musical | DVD | (19/04/2010) from £2.99 | Saving you £16.10 (80.50%) | RRP £19.99
Famous film director Guido Contini struggles to find harmony in his professional and personal lives as he engages in dramatic relationships with his wife his mistress his muse his agent and his mother.
Obsessed | DVD | (26/10/2009) from £2.99 | Saving you £14.99 (83.30%) | RRP £17.99
Obsessed stars Beyonce Knowles Ali Larter and Idris Elba in a dramatic thriller in which an asset manager who has a beautiful wife (Knowles) and thriving career until a temporary office worker (Larter) begins stalking him.
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I just love the free Netflix App for iPad . I watch a movie at least once a week on the Netflix App for iPad . For you Netflix subscribers, here are a couple of movies that I enjoyed recently. I had never heard of either film prior to watching them.
Dr. Joe Darrow's (Kevin Costner) world is shattered when his wife (Susanna Thompson) is killed while performing medical relief work in Central America, and his patients -- after their own near-death experiences -- begin delivering messages from the great beyond. On a quest to determine what his lost soul mate wants, Darrow is forced to accept the impossible. Kathy Bates co-stars in this romantic thriller with a surprising twist.
In this psychological thriller, eight job applicants in a guarded, windowless room are given instruction, exams and 80 minutes to answer one discerning question that may win them a prime position. But they soon discover this is no ordinary test. The exams are blank. With one ejected for attempting to answer the unknown question, the remaining seven must decide what they will do and how far each will go for the coveted job.


I arrived in Malaysia without many expectations, or fear. Mainly because I have lived in other Asian countries before, I thought I knew what I would be experiencing. To some degree, I was right. But as time rolled on and my family life was getting settled in an area called "Ampang" in Kuala Lumpur, I began to see how Malaysia can be – Truly Asia. There is something about Malaysia that is unique compared to the other Asian countries.
My family is leaving Malaysia to go back to U.S. I thought it would be nice to gather up a few photos of my family experiences as a keepsake and to share with you. I only wish that I could spend more time to explore the beauties of this country. Two years seems too short and it flew lightening fast.
My family spent a few days in a east coast area called Kuala Terengganu and visited the nearby island called Pulau Tenggol.
This is a small island off the coast of Terengganu. It is not very well known to the most tourists, unlike nearby Pulau Perhetian or Pulau Redang. The marine life on the island was amazing and a well-kept secret to passionate divers and snorkelers. We didn't see any inhabitants or residences on the island. The resort we stayed in Kuala Terengganu provided a private boat to access to this island and we had an entire island to my family for a day with 3 other guests, and a chef who cooked a meal for us on the beach. Can you see the emerald colored clean water off the beach? You can see through the corals in the water.
In the water of island of Tenggol, we saw turtles, loads of beautiful corals, and the colorful tropical fishes (Nemo and Dory included :)). The water was warm and swimming in the beach was pleasant.
I always love to observe the daily life of the locals in every country I visit.
When we first arrived in Malaysia late July, it was during the Ramadan which is the local Muslim's fasting period for one month. They fast from the sunrise to sunset.
The dinner on our first day in Malaysia had to be taken care of at the restaurant. We went out to look for one at 7pm (which was just right after the sunset) but failed to find one because most restaurant we went to were fully occupied with very hungry locals and no seats were available for us. The traffic on the road was extremely jammed. Very tired and hungry, we hoped to eat Malaysian food as our first meal but ended up eating at the Kenny Rogers chicken rotisserie (the American style roast chicken restaurant) 2 hours after we left our place. Lessons learned. Then, we woke up very early next morning with the sound of prayer from the nearby mosque. I finally realized that I was not in "Kansas" anymore. LOL!
Malaysia is a Islamic country. However Malaysia consists of quite a number of Chinese, Indian and other ethnic groups with different religions and traditions all over the land. There are neighborhoods that are heavily populated with one or more ethnic groups, so we have a chance to soak up the cultural scene and its atmosphere.
Most Malay ladies wears a head drape called "Hijab". Many locals drive motorbikes. Driving in Kuala Lumpur during rush hour is crazy but that is the same case with any metropolitan cities around the world.
It is fun to visit local market to see the vivid colors of life and taste the flavor of what the locals eat at their mamak stalls. Malay people are kind and easy going.
I often find that they are funny, too. I was at the market one day taking some pictures. One lady approach to me and told me that I had a very nice camera. I politely replied "Terima Kasih", which means thank you in Bahasa Malay. Then, she bluntly said to me, "Your Malay is horrible! You better eat some more Malay food!". I had to laugh so hard on her comment. I totally agreed with her on my poor Malay language skill but she was the only person who reminded me of that.
One of the best experience I had in Malaysia is indulging its multicultural food. With influences from Indian and Chinese community in the country, there are so much to choose from.
This is my family's favorite mamak stall located in Ampang, just across from Ampang point. Their tandoori chicken is by far the BEST we had eaten. The chicken sate is great, too.
My daughter loves Char Siu which is honey BBQ pork, and our family often visited to this hawker center famous for its Char Siu. You have to be there right at the moment, 11:30am, when they are open for lunch. Otherwise there will be a long line of people waiting for their turn to order. Very cheap and delicious. I love their Pan Mee, the flat rice noodles with minced pork and fried anchovies. Yum!!!
Roti is very popular Indian flat bread that comes with variety of its kind. Roti Canai is the basic kind that is served with simple curries. You can add banana, sugar, garlic, onion, or anything you like to make either sweet or savory. Perfect breakfast and delicious!
Appam is a crepe like dessert often spread with different types of sweet or savory filling. Quite delicious.
My favorite Malay dessert has to be Akok, though. I would love to get a recipe.
You can't say you have traveled in Malaysia if you haven't visited Penang. Penang is city that captures old world charm of East meets West with Chinese influence.
Penang is an island state off the northwest part of western peninsula of Malaysia. Georgetown is the capital of the island and the UNESCO heritage site. You can easily stroll around the town to see its colorful heritage and learn the history.
Look for interesting temples, mansions, street wall artworks, adorned rickshaws and the famous hawker food street.
Top: a man reading a paper at Pinang Peranakan Mansion (A wonderful place to learn about Baba Nonya heritage).
A lady wearing a beautful cheongsam was posing for a picture. Loved her matching hairdo.
Yeah.., It is absolutely Penang style!!! Go Penang!
You can't stroll around Penang without eating the famous Penang style food. It is fun to watch how these hawker chefs make their food on the street and you will never get bored. It is entertaining!
Left: A lady slicing the flat rice noodles.
I totally fell in love with Penang Asam Laksa, which is quite different than most curry Laksa. Penang Laksa is sour and pungent, and spicy. It is a fish-base noodle soup with tamarind, ginger and pineapple. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water.
There is a beautiful botanical garden in Penang that are great for kids to roam around. Make sure you are well protected with a good mosquito repellent. The mosquitoes were ferocious!
Sarawak is on the island of Borneo, which is on the east Malaysian peninsula. Many ethnic groups including Iban, Chinese, Malay, Melanau, Bidayuh, and Orang Ulu are living in Sarawak with their unique languages and the cultures.
Visiting Sarawak cultural village is a great way to learn about their ways of life.
We loved seeing the ethnic tribal houses, their costumes, and played with their tools of daily life.
Browsing through the souvenir shop is always fun thing to do. I especially loved the baby carrying basket adorned with colorful beads. Bottom right photo was the stripped cakes which supposedly famous in Sarawak but have not tried.
Jungle trekking is a must thing to do in Sarawak. We took a jetty to a place call Bako and started trekking. You can get a trekking route as short as 1 hour or as long as 3 days to explore the island of Borneo.
If you are taking a long trekking route, it is wise to do it as a group since the Borneo jungle can be quite harsh. Yes, you will feel like you are in the scene of "Indiana Jones", if I can exaggerate.
Goofing around the beach at the end of the day in the sunset is memorable. Damai beach was a great place to see the sun setting behind the waterline.
Well, I could show ton of more pictures of Malaysia but better to end here.
Last but not least, I would like to give a special thanks to my vegetable-n-fruit peddler who comes twice a week to our condo to deliver the freshest produce with his truck.
His name is Mr. Po. He asked me to put his picture on my blog so people can recognize him, which we hope to bring more business to him. He even suggested me to take a video of him to put on Youtube. LOL!!! His produce is top-class and I especially loved his salmon. Always greeting me with a big smile, my recipe blogging was so much easier with his service. I will miss him dearly.
I hope you enjoyed my photo journal of Malaysia. I don't know when I will ever come back to this beautiful country but the memory will always stay with me and my family.
Thank you for the lovely pictures of this area of the world and the people there. Wishing you safe journey and a good time settling in to your next home. I look forward to your next recipes and adventures.
Hi Holly, I'm Malaysian Living in KL. This is a fantastic post and you make me so proud to be Malaysian. Do you mind sharing Mr Po's contacts? I'd love to have him deliver to my place too. Have a safe trip back to the US!
Hi Holly, I'm a Malaysian living in KL. This is a fantastic post and you make me so proud to be Malaysian. Do you mind sharing Mr Po's contacts? I'd love to have him deliver to my place too. Have a safe trip back to the US!
Please let me know what resort did you stay a Kuala Terengganu that has a boat to take you over to Tenggol island. We are in CA and always love to go to Malaysia for vacationing. Thanks for sharing your story above.
The resort is called Tanjung Jara in Kuala Terengganu. It is a lovely small resort with distinctive Malay architecture and decor. They provide all kinds of activity you can choose from. My family loved our vacation there.
What a fantastic write-up! Malaysia has been on my list for a while now, and I really hope to go someday.
What a great time you had in Malaysia! How lucky to be able to live there for a couple of years. Really love all of the pictures and descriptions - so generous of you to share all of this with us. Mr. Po looks like a real find! Really fun post - thanks so much.
Thanks for sharing. What a beautiful place! And the food..wow...I hope I can go there someday.
Waa Holly. Farewell to you too... BTW, I never thought you will stay in Malaysia for only two years. Pleasure experience and good info while reading your blog. Pls continue to blog K-Food recipe. Best of luck!
Reading this post makes me miss my home country so much....all the yummy food, and I must visit Terengganu the next time I go home.
Holly, your blog brings back many lovely food memories for me. I am a Singaporean, currently living in TX for the past 25 years. Have a safe trip back to US and do continue blogging.
Thank you for sharig... Sarawak is really a good place for vacation planning!
May God be with you and your family as your travel back to US. Enjoy reading your post and hope you will continue to blog!
Like your blog (a lot). Please continue after you settle in the US. Have a safe and pleasant move.
Beautiful post, Holly! I can tell you'll miss this vibrant place. Thanks for sharing a glimpse of it with us.
Hi Holly, I am from Penang, residing in Spore and I have yet to visit Sarawak, and You have. lol. Your post makes me miss my Assam Laksa so much....! Have a safe trip back to US and looking forward to checking your blog for more recipes.
Isn't Malaysia amazing? The beauty of the landscape, the food and the people really took us by surprise. We can't wait to get back there sometime!
Thank you Holly for sharing and making me wise on visiting the country. Ii have plans to visit Malasia somewhere by end september and your photographic post will definitely help me in guiding me through and through. Stay Blessed.
Have just been to KL a few weeks ago and we stayed near Ampang Park - is this near where you used to live? Reading this post takes me back to our Malaysian trip and makes me miss the place even more!
Yea, I lived in the Ampang area near the Great Eastern mall. I already miss KL.


text:
Sapna Gupta
Parent of 4th & 8th Graders
Alumni Parent '21
Sapna Gupta is the mother of three SFS students. She is trained as a physician, completing her residency at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio where she served as a Chief Resident in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine.
Sapna has served as a room parent, the Family Association Communications Lead, and most recently as ex officio Trustee & Chair of the Family Association where spearheaded numerous community building initiatives such as the Carnival, Parent Ed events, Movie Night, and more. Sapna is currently serving as both a Trustee and Past Chair of the Family Association. Sapna is a passionate believer in SFS's values of academic excellence, stewardship, social justice, and inclusion.


text:
Sankt Wolfgang (eller St. Wolfgang) er en kommune i Landkreis Erding i Regierungsbezirk Oberbayern i den tyske delstat Bayern. Kommunen grænser til kommunerne Dorfen og Isen i Landkreis Erding og Haag in Oberbayern og Obertaufkirchen i Landkreis Mühldorf am Inn.

Det er et landligt område med bakker og spredte skove. Sankt Wolfgang ligger i dalen til floden Goldach cirka 27 km sydøst for landkreisens administrationsby Erding, 40 km syd for Landshut, 23 km nord for Wasserburg am Inn og 48 km øst for delstatshovedstaden München.

I Østrig er der en landsby med samme navn ved Wolfgangsee, Sankt Wolfgang im Salzkammergut. Byerne er venskabsbyer.

Bydele
Ud over St. Wolfgang med 1.717 indbyggere, er der i kommunen følgende landsbyer, der tidligere var selvstændige kommuner (undtagen Armstorf og Großschwindau):

 Armstorf (1.001 indbyggere)
 Gatterberg (Berg) (169 indbyggere)
 Großschwindau (130 indbyggere)
 Jeßling (472 indbyggere)
 Lappach (410 indbyggere)
 Pyramoos (237 indbyggere)
 Schönbrunn (239 indbyggere)

Eksterne henvisninger

 Wappen der Gemeinde St. Wolfgang – Geschichte und Bedeutung


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CHANGING THE TUNE
Trump Now Says Journalists Should Be 'Free From Fear' After Previously Calling Them 'Enemies of the People'
Trump has long called mainstream media 'the enemy of the people,' but after the deadly Annapolis newsroom shooting, he now says reporters should be 'free from fear' of violence.
Andrew Kirell
Julia Arciga
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
After years of repeatedly calling journalists "the enemy of the people," President Trump on Friday struck a markedly different tone towards the media, saying in the aftermath of a deadly shooting at the Capital Gazette's newsroom that journalists should be "free from the fear" of violence while doing their jobs.
"I'd like to address the horrific shooting that took place yesterday at Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Maryland. This attack shocked the conscience of our nation and filled our hearts with grief," Trump said while addressing an audience in the White House. "Journalists, like all Americans, should be free from the fear of being violently attacked while doing their job."
He continued: "Horrible, horrible event, horrible thing happened. In your suffering, we pledge our eternal support. The suffering is so great... My government will not rest until we have done everything in our power to reduce violent crime and to protect innocent life."
Five employees of the The Capital newspaper—Robert Hiaasen, Wendi Winters, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith, and Gerald Fischman—were killed after alleged gunman Jarrod Ramos attacked the Annapolis newsroom with a shotgun. Ramos previously sued and threatened the newspaper for reporting on his guilty plea on a 2011 harassment case.
Despite his significantly measured rhetoric on Friday, Trump has repeatedly and vociferously castigated the mainstream media as "enemies of the people."
Early in his presidency, Trump declared on Twitter: "The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!"
A week later, while speaking at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump repeated the "enemy of the people" line multiple times to rapturous applause.
And just last week, at a rally for his base in South Carolina, he referred to "opposing" news networks as the "enemy of the people." Within the same week, Trump also tweeted about "The enemy of the people Fake News," and wrote in a separate post: "Our Country's biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!"
Beyond that, President Trump has also occasionally shared violent memes about outlets he views as "opposing" his presidency.
Last year, for example, he infamously shared a GIF meme depicting himself body-slamming CNN in a wrestling ring.
And at another point in 2017, Trump retweeted and then deleted a cartoon meme depicting the "Trump Train" barreling through a person labeled as CNN.


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In nuclear power technology, burnup (also known as fuel utilization) is a measure of how much energy is extracted from a primary nuclear fuel source. It is measured as the fraction of fuel atoms that underwent fission in %FIMA (fissions per initial metal atom) or %FIFA (fissions per initial fissile atom) as well as, preferably, the actual energy released per mass of initial fuel in gigawatt-days/metric ton of heavy metal (GWd/tHM), or similar units.

Measures of burnup
Expressed as a percentage: if 5% of the initial heavy metal atoms have undergone fission, the burnup is 5%FIMA. If these 5% were the total of 235U that were in the fuel at the beginning, the burnup is 100%FIFA (as 235U is fissile and the other 95% heavy metals like 238U are not). In reactor operations, this percentage is difficult to measure, so the alternative definition is preferred. This can be computed by multiplying the thermal power of the plant by the time of operation and dividing by the mass of the initial fuel loading. For example, if a 3000 MW thermal (equivalent to 1000 MW electric at 30% efficiency, which is typical of US LWRs) plant uses 24 tonnes of enriched uranium (tU) and operates at full power for 1 year, the average burnup of the fuel is (3000 MW·365 d)/24 metric tonnes = 45.63 GWd/t, or 45,625 MWd/tHM (where HM stands for heavy metal, meaning actinides like thorium, uranium, plutonium, etc.).

Converting between percent and energy/mass requires knowledge of κ, the thermal energy released per fission event. A typical value is 193.7 MeV () of thermal energy per fission (see Nuclear fission). With this value, the maximum burnup of 100%FIMA, which includes fissioning not just fissile content but also the other fissionable nuclides, is equivalent to about 909 GWd/t. Nuclear engineers often use this to roughly approximate 10% burnup as just less than 100 GWd/t.

The actual fuel may be any actinide that can support a chain reaction (meaning it is fissile), including uranium, plutonium, and more exotic transuranic fuels. This fuel content is often referred to as the heavy metal to distinguish it from other metals present in the fuel, such as those used for cladding. The heavy metal is typically present as either metal or oxide, but other compounds such as carbides or other salts are possible.

History

Generation II reactors were typically designed to achieve about 40 GWd/tU. With newer fuel technology, and particularly the use of nuclear poisons, these same reactors are now capable of achieving up to 60 GWd/tU. After so many fissions have occurred, the build-up of fission products poisons the chain reaction and the reactor must be shut down and refueled.

Some more-advanced light-water reactor designs are expected to achieve over 90 GWd/t of higher-enriched fuel.

Fast reactors are more immune to fission-product poisoning and can inherently reach higher burnups in one cycle. In 1985, the EBR-II reactor at Argonne National Laboratory took metallic fuel up to 19.9% burnup, or just under 200 GWd/t.

The Deep Burn Modular Helium Reactor (DB-MHR) might reach 500 GWd/t of transuranic elements.

In a power station, high fuel burnup is desirable for:

 Reducing downtime for refueling
 Reducing the number of fresh nuclear fuel elements required and spent nuclear fuel elements generated while producing a given amount of energy
 Reducing the potential for diversion of plutonium from spent fuel for use in nuclear weapons

It is also desirable that burnup should be as uniform as possible both within individual fuel elements and from one element to another within a fuel charge. In reactors with online refuelling, fuel elements can be repositioned during operation to help achieve this. In reactors without this facility, fine positioning of control rods to balance reactivity within the core, and repositioning of remaining fuel during shutdowns in which only part of the fuel charge is replaced may be used.

On the other hand, there are signs that increasing burnup above 50 or 60 GWd/tU leads to significant engineering challenges and that it does not necessarily lead to economic benefits. Higher-burnup fuels require higher initial enrichment to sustain reactivity. Since the amount of separative work units (SWUs) is not a linear function of enrichment, it is more expensive to achieve higher enrichments. There are also operational aspects of high burnup fuels that are associated especially with reliability of such fuel. The main concerns associated with high burnup fuels are:
 Increased burnup places additional demands on fuel cladding, which must withstand the reactor environment for longer periods.
 Longer residence in the reactor requires higher corrosion resistance.
 Higher burnup leads to higher accumulation of gaseous fission products inside the fuel pin, resulting in significant increases in internal pressure.
 Higher burnup leads to increased radiation-induced growth, which can lead to undesirable changes in core geometry (fuel assembly bow or fuel rod bow).  Fuel assembly bow can result in an increased drop times for control rods due to friction between control rods and bowed guide tubes.
 While high burnup fuel generates a smaller volume of fuel for reprocessing, the fuel has a higher specific activity.

Fuel requirements

In once-through nuclear fuel cycles such as are currently in use in much of the world, used fuel elements are disposed of whole as high level nuclear waste, and the remaining uranium and plutonium content is lost. Higher burnup allows more of the fissile 235U and of the plutonium bred from the 238U to be utilised, reducing the uranium requirements of the fuel cycle.

Waste

In once-through nuclear fuel cycles, higher burnup reduces the number of elements that need to be buried. However, short-term heat emission, one deep geological repository limiting factor, is predominantly from medium-lived fission products, particularly 137Cs (30.08 year half life) and 90Sr (28.9 year half life). As there are proportionately more of these in high-burnup fuel, the heat generated by the spent fuel is roughly constant for a given amount of energy generated.

Similarly, in fuel cycles with nuclear reprocessing, the amount of high-level waste for a given amount of energy generated is not closely related to burnup. High-burnup fuel generates a smaller volume of fuel for reprocessing, but with a higher specific activity.

Unprocessed used fuel from current light-water reactors consists of 5% fission products and 95% actinides (most of it uranium), and is dangerously radiotoxic, requiring special custody, for 300,000 years.  Most of the long-term radiotoxic elements are transuranic, and therefore could be recycled as fuel.  70% of fission products are either stable or have half lives less than one year.  Another six percent (129I and 99Tc) can be transmuted to elements with extremely short half lives (130I: 12.36 hours; 100Tc: 15.46 seconds). 93Zr, having a very long half life, constitutes 5% of fission products, but can be alloyed with uranium and transuranics during fuel recycling, or used in zircalloy cladding, where its radioactivity is irrelevant.  The remaining 20% of fission products, or 1% of unprocessed fuel, for which the longest-lived isotopes are 137Cs and 90Sr, require special custody for only 300 years.  Therefore, the mass of material needing special custody is 1% of the mass of unprocessed used fuel. In the case of  or  this "special custody" could also take the form of use for food irradiation or as fuel in a radioisotope thermoelectric generator. As both the native elements strontium and caesium and their oxides—chemical forms in which they can be found in oxide or metal fuel—form soluble hydroxides upon reaction with water, they can be extracted from spent fuel relatively easily and precipitated into a solid form for use or disposal in a further step if desired. If tritium hasn't been removed from the fuel in a step prior to this aqueous extraction, the water used in this process will be contaminated, requiring expensive isotope separation or allowing the tritium to decay to safe levels before the water can be released into the biosphere.

Proliferation

Burnup is one of the key factors determining the isotopic composition of spent nuclear fuel, the others being its initial composition and the neutron spectrum of the reactor. Very low fuel burnup is essential for the production of weapons-grade plutonium for nuclear weapons, in order to produce plutonium that is predominantly 239Pu with the smallest possible proportion of 240Pu and 242Pu.

Plutonium and other transuranic isotopes are produced from uranium by neutron absorption during reactor operation. While it is possible in principle to remove plutonium from used fuel and divert it to weapons usage, in practice there are formidable obstacles to doing so. First, fission products must be removed. Second, plutonium must be separated from other actinides. Third, fissionable isotopes of plutonium must be separated from non-fissionable isotopes, which is more difficult than separating fissionable from non-fissionable isotopes of uranium, not least because the mass difference is one atomic unit instead of three. All processes require operation on strongly radioactive materials. Since there are many simpler ways to make nuclear weapons, nobody has constructed weapons from used civilian electric power reactor fuel, and it is likely that nobody ever will do so. Furthermore, most plutonium produced during operation is fissioned. To the extent that fuel is reprocessed on-site, as proposed for the Integral Fast Reactor, opportunities for diversion are further limited.  Therefore, production of plutonium during civilian electric power reactor operation is not a significant problem.

Cost
One 2003 MIT graduate student thesis concludes that "the fuel cycle cost associated with a burnup level of 100 GWd/tHM is higher than for a burnup of 50 GWd/tHM. In addition, expenses will be required for the development of fuels capable of sustaining such high levels of irradiation. Under current conditions, the benefits of high burnup (lower spent fuel and plutonium discharge rates, degraded plutonium isotopics) are not rewarded. Hence there is no incentive for nuclear power plant operators to invest in high burnup fuels."

A study sponsored by the Nuclear Energy University Programs investigated the economic and technical feasibility, in the longer term, of higher burnup.

References

External links
 Basic Requirements of High Burn-up fuels in LWRs

Nuclear technology