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MLB No-No Stories, No-hitter newsBy Dirk Lammers September 11, 2021 Leave a comment
The Milwaukee Brewers' Corbin Burnes and Josh Hader combined to no-hit the Cleveland Indians on Saturday for the ninth no-hitter of the 2021 season, setting a new major-league record. Burnes threw eight innings of no-hit ball, striking out 14 and walking one. But he reached 115 pitches, so Craig Counsell turned to Josh Hader for…
50th anniversary of Mets nearly no-hitting Yanks
This day in Mets no-no historyBy Dirk Lammers September 9, 2021 Leave a comment
The New York Mets nearly no-hit the New York Yankees in a Mayor's Trophy Game exhibition, 50 years ago today. For those who don't remember New York's annual tradition, the Mayor's Trophy Game was a once-a-year contest between New York's AL and NL teams to benefit the city's sandlot baseball program. On Sept. 9, 1971,…
Reds' Weimer tossed 7-inning no-no, 105 years ago today
This day in no-no historyBy Dirk Lammers August 24, 2021 Leave a comment
The Cincinnati #Reds' Jake Weimer threw the majors' first no-hitter in a planned 7-inning game, 105 years ago today.
MLB No-No Stories, No-hitter newsBy Dirk Lammers August 14, 2021 Leave a comment
Arizona Diamondbacks' Tyler Gilbert tosses a no-hitter in his first major-league start.
Angels' Sandoval falls 2 outs short of no-hitting Twins
No-hitter newsBy Dirk Lammers July 24, 2021 Leave a comment
The Los Angeles Angels' Patrick Sandoval came within two outs of no-hitting the Minnesota Twins at Target Field on Saturday. The Twins' Brent Rooker broke up the effort with one out in the ninth with a double. It would have been the first no-hitter thrown at the Twins' current home, and the first ever thrown…
Rockies' Márquez falls 3-outs shy of no-hitting Pittsburgh
No-hitter newsBy Dirk Lammers June 29, 2021 Leave a comment
The Colorado Rockies' German Márquez fell three outs short of no-hitting the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night, missing the eighth no-no of the 2021 season. It would have set a modern-day record, duplicating the eight thrown in 1884 by Al Atkinson, Ed Morris, Frank Mountain, Larry Corcoran, Pud Galvin, Dick Burns, Ed Cushman and Sam…
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Q: Decimal.Round default setting for MidpointRounding The following applies:
var rounded = Decimal.Round(7.635m, 2);
//rounded: 7.63

This, to me, is wrong and unexpected behavior. I would assume the value of rounded to be 7.64.
To achieve this, I can do:
var rounded = Decimal.Round(7.635m, 2, MidpointRounding.AwayFromZero);
//rounded: 7.64

How can this not be the default behavior of Decimal.Round? Any good reason for this?

A: From Math.Round(Decimal, Int32) Method

The behavior of this method follows IEEE Standard 754, section 4. This
  kind of rounding is sometimes called rounding to nearest, or banker's
  rounding. It minimizes rounding errors that result from consistently
  rounding a midpoint value in a single direction.
This method is equivalent to calling the Round method with a mode
  argument of MidpointRounding.ToEven. If there is a single non-zero
  digit in d to the right of the decimals decimal position and its value
  is 5, the digit in the decimals position is rounded up if it is odd,
  or left unchanged if it is even. If d has fewer fractional digits than
  decimals, d is returned unchanged.

A:
How can this not be the default behavior of Decimal.Round? Any good
  reason for this?

If you look at the documentation of Decimal.Round Method (Decimal)

The behavior of this method follows IEEE Standard 754, section 4.
  This kind of rounding is sometimes called round half to even or
  banker's rounding. It minimizes rounding errors that result from
  consistently rounding a midpoint value in a single direction. It is
  equivalent to calling the Round(Decimal, MidpointRounding) method with
  a mode argument of MidpointRounding.ToEven.

A: The reason is they implemented a method following IEEE Standard 754, section 4.
This is called rounding to nearest or sometimes bankers rounding.
It's just one of many ways to do rounding and they choose this one.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankers_rounding
And for more information: Why does .NET use banker's rounding as default?

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text:
Creating Strong Heroines by DiAnn Mills
What Makes a Woman a Strong Heroine? by Author DiAnn Mills
As a writer, the importance of a strong heroine is vital to the success of any book. No one enjoys a wimpy and weak woman—not in movies, stories or real life. Establishing strong female characteristics takes think-time, and they may not be what you expect.
It's not her age.
It's not her career.
It's not brains or beauty.
It's not her social status.
It's not an ivy-league education.
It's not her ability as a crack shot or a master of self-defense.
I believe the following traits are vital for a woman to be a strong heroine. These are qualities I aspire to and maybe you women will too.
A strong woman is not a victim. She may have been involved in a vulnerable situation in the past, but she acquired the tools to change and grew into a stronger person. The signs of victimized women are etched in a strong woman's heart and mind, and she is determined to help others take positive steps to improve their lives.
A strong woman approaches evil with either a flight or flee attitude and encourages others to evaluate all situations. She finds strength in her faith.
A strong woman doesn't need a man to rescue her. She's self-sufficient and resourceful.
A strong woman thinks more highly of others than herself. Her journey to become a better woman comes from an unselfish heart. She chases all signs of greed from her mind and heart.
A strong woman takes time for herself. Balance is key for living to her full potential. She practices self-nurturing before being of value to the rest of the world.
A strong woman is proud of her femininity. She doesn't deny her identity.
A strong woman loves freely without demands. Love is an action verb and a mark of true strength. She practices showing love to those who are termed unlovable, an enemy, a family or friend who has hurt her.
A strong woman sets healthy boundaries based on love.A strong woman is in control of her emotions and deals with her psychological issues. In short, if a woman believes she needs help, she seeks wise counsel. Stuffing a mental hurt is asking for an ulcer . . . or worse.
A strong woman is health-conscious. The saying is true: "We are what we eat." She commits to eating nutritionally sound meals and exercising regularly.
A strong woman has a sense of humor. She's not opposed to laughing at herself or the world.
A strong woman is always learning. No matter her age, she believes continuous knowledge keeps her alive, healthy, in tune with the world, and purposeful.
A strong woman understands listening before speaking promotes wisdom. It's easy to interrupt and give advice. A wise woman allows the speaker to vent and chooses her words graciously.
A strong woman possesses a tight grip on tenacity to solve a problem or reach a goal. She's determined to succeed.
Strong women are all over the world. We can find her in every profession and often carrying the responsibilities of more than one person.
What do you feel is a characteristic of a strong woman?
DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She weaves memorable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels. DiAnn believes every breath of life is someone's story, so why not capture those moments and create a thrilling adventure?
Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne Du Maurier, Inspirational Readers' Choice, and Carol award contests.
DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, a member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. She is the director of the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writers Conference, Mountainside Marketing Retreat, and the Mountainside Novelist Retreat with social media specialist Edie Melson where she continues her passion of helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country.
DiAnn has been termed a coffee snob and roasts her own coffee beans. She's an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.
DiAnn is very active online and would love to connect with readers on: Facebook, Twitter, or any of the social media platforms listed at diannmills.com
Stayed tuned tomorrow for a Sneak Peek at DiAnn's latest release!!
DiAnn Mills
What Makes a Strong Heroine?
women characters
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text:
Connecticut election worker tests positive for coronavirus
by: PAT EATON-ROBB and DAVE COLLINS, Associated Press
Posted: Nov 4, 2020 / 10:59 AM CST / Updated: Nov 4, 2020 / 11:22 AM CST
An election employee in New Haven, Connecticut, has tested positive for the coronavirus, leading to a dozen other workers being quarantined, city officials said Wednesday.
Maritza Bond, the city's public health director, said the infected employee has not been to work since experiencing symptoms last week. She said offices in City Hall have been disinfected.
The 12 people placed in quarantine were temporary employees who spent Tuesday in the city clerk's office counting absentee ballots and had no known contact with voters. Everyone was wearing masks and taking other precautions, Bond said.
Gage Frank, a spokesman for Mayor Justin Elicker, said it didn't appear vote counting was affected, but he was checking into it.
City-Town Clerk Michael Smart has asked the secretary of the state's office for support to ensure elections operations are completed Wednesday. He said most of the remaining work was data entry into the state's election reporting system.
The pandemic also played a role on Election Day in Stamford, with the state Elections Enforcement Commission issued a cease-and-desist order compelling the town clerk to provide emergency ballots to quarantined voters. The Hartford Courant reported that at least two voters had complained after being denied those emergency ballots.
Quinnipiac University, meanwhile, moved most of its classes online amid a spike in positive tests on campus in Hamden.
The school said in an email that is has recorded 55 positive tests among students since Monday, including 34 living on campus, and has decided to elevate its alert level to "orange" in response.
The means most classes will be held remotely at least through Friday, testing will be increased, the dining halls will provide only take-out meals and students are prohibited from attending in-person gatherings on campus.
"We recognize that these increased restrictions are inconvenient and challenging, but we know from public health experts and the experiences of other universities that these measures work to stem the tide of infection, wrote Dr. David Hill, the senior medical adviser on the school's COVID-19 Task Force.
The school said exceptions are being made for some classes its medical and law schools and department of health sciences.
Gov. Ned Lamont's office reported 2,651 new coronavirus cases across the state Tuesday. It said 340 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, the highest number since early June. The state also reported 11 additional coronavirus-related deaths, bringing the total to 4,627.


text:
Q: Create pop() function stack implementation in C My program creates a stack of characters from user input, terminated by an asterisk. PopAll() works perfectly to pop every element one by one, but using pop() repeatedly doesn't. I don't understand how this is happening since popAll() just uses pop() under the hood.
Can anyone tell me what's going wrong?
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

struct NODE {
    char value;
    struct NODE *prev;
};

void push(char);
void pop();
void popAll();

int checkTerminator(char);

struct NODE *TOP = NULL;

int main()
{
    char input;

    while(checkTerminator(input) == 0){
        scanf("%c", &input);
        if(checkTerminator(input) == 0){
            push(input);
        }
    }

    printf("\nOutput:\n");

    // Doesn't pop three elements
    pop();
    pop();
    pop();

    // Succesfully pops all elements
    // popAll();

}

int checkTerminator(char value){
    switch(value){
        case '*':
            return 1;
        default:
            return 0;
    }
}

void push(char value){
    struct NODE *CURRENT = (struct NODE*) malloc(sizeof(struct NODE));

    CURRENT->value = value;
    CURRENT->prev = TOP;
    TOP = CURRENT;
}

void pop(){
    printf("%c", TOP->value);
    TOP = TOP->prev;
}

void popAll(){
    while(TOP != NULL){
        pop();
    }
}

A: For starters the while loop has undefined behavior because the variable input was not initialized and has indeterminate value.
char input;

while(checkTerminator(input) == 0){

And you have to use the following format in the call of scanf
scanf(" %c", &input);
      ^^^^

Otherwise you will read white space characters as for example the new line character '\n'.
The function pop produces memory leaks because it does not free allocated nodes.
void pop(){
    printf("%c", TOP->value);
    TOP = TOP->prev;
}

The function checkTerminator can be written simpler. For example
int checkTerminator( char c )
{
    return c == '*';
}

A: Apart from issues, pointed out by Vlad, I found this:
void pop(){
    printf("%c", TOP->value);
    TOP = TOP->prev;
}

You are not checking, if TOP is NULL or not. At the end, it becomes NULL, and you end up accessing NULL ponter, which will give you segmentation fault. (If you only call pop() a number of times).


text:
Q: SQL Table sorting by multiple columns I have a table i need to sort but im not certain on what the right ORDER BY statement would be. Here is an example:
we need to sort by ASCENDING Name, then DESCENDING Values, then ASCENDING Location. But if rows have the same Name and Location then we sort by ASCENDING Values.
BEFORE SORTING:

Name
Location
Values

A
T
1000

A
U
2000

A
V
2500

B
X
3000

B
Y
4000

C
X
1000

C
T
500

C
U
1000

C
V
6000

D
Z
9000

D
Z
7000

D
X
300

AFTER SORTING:

Name
Location
Values

A
V
2500

A
U
2000

A
T
1000

B
Y
4000

B
X
3000

C
V
6000

C
U
1000

C
X
1000

C
T
500

D
Z
7000

D
Z
9000

D
X
300

Sorry its a bit lengthy! but all situations are described in the tables above!

A: Using  a window function to get a sort key for a group
select *
from (
  select *, min(Values) over(partition by Name, Location) gmin
  from t
) t
order by Name, gmin desc, Location, values


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LEICESTER, England (AP) — Tottenham remained winless in the Premier League after being held to a 1-1 draw by unbeaten Leicester on Saturday.
In a lively final 10 minutes, Dele Alli headed in his first Tottenham goal but it was quickly cancelled out by Riyad Mahrez curling in his fourth strike of the campaign.
Tottenham striker Harry Kane, the breakthrough star of last season, is without a goal three games into the new campaign.
Tottenham only has two points from a possible nine.
But Leicester has opened the season under new manager Claudio Ranieri with two wins and a draw after a late revival narrowly avoided relegation in May.


In today's society, the ability to speak multiple languages is important to succeeding in life. Personally, I wish that my Spanish fluency was back to my younger days. Did you know that children can more easily learn a second language? For a variety of reasons, the younger you introduce a second language, the more easily it can be grasped. While I'm not a teacher, I have tried to help my kids speak Spanish. I've come to find that I'm a better supporter than teacher. That's why a program like Language Stars is beneficial.
Language Stars is play-based, full-immersion foreign language class. Taking advantage of their vast learning capabilities, Language Stars helps kids open their minds and brains to other cultures and ways of speaking. These classes aren't boring memorization. Through play, the kids learn to describe, explain and use a second language. The program is open to toddlers, preschoolers and K-Fifth graders.
From February 14-27th, Language Stars will host Open House Weeks. During this periods, families can learn about the program and what it has to offer their family.
Also, if your family chooses to enroll during this period, you will receive $100 off your tuition.
To register for the Open House, please visit http://www.languagestars.com/openhouse2013.
Language Stars is available in Washington DC and the Chicago area. For more information about Language Stars check out their Facebook pages, http://www.facebook.com/LanguageStarsChicago and http://www.facebook.com/LanguageStarsDC.
Don't miss out on your opportunity to learn more about Language Stars. To give you a little incentive, enter to win the iPad mini below. Just enter via the Rafflecopter.
Disclosure: This post is part of a campaign.
Thank you...I always love a chance to win an Ipad Mini!!


text:
Intellectual Property/DMCA
The Art of Not Being Governed
Relentless. Liberty.
Classic Works
Shooting the Messenger
ts August 12, 2015 Shooting the Messenger2015-08-17T04:56:48+00:00 Commentary No Comment
Written by Christophe Cieters.
Of course, nobody would deny that "it is true enough […] that a termination of the State's current practice of providing public goods would imply some change in the existing social structure and the distribution of wealth. […] However, this fact cannot be accepted as a valid argument demonstrating the supposed failure of markets. If a man has been allowed to hit other people on the head and is now not permitted to continue with this practice, he is certainly hurt" in terms of not having the same amount of options as before, but no one would "accept that as a valid excuse for upholding the old (hitting) rules". He is "harmed" by not being allowed to hit others any longer in the same way as some people would be harmed by substituting a collectivistic system in which every voter supposedly has "an equal right to determine in what respect other consumers are not allowed to buy voluntarily what they want with the means justly acquired by them and at their disposal" by a capitalist system in which nobody is morally allowed to initiate robbery and aggression against others, either individually or while hiding behind a State and the collective to do the dirty work for them. In spite of all the propaganda from the public goods theorists, "the greater efficiency of markets as compared with the State is increasingly realized with respect to more and more of the alleged public goods" (Hoppe, 1949b). This is evidenced a million times a day, wherever one looks, be it past or present.[1]
The invisible hand – the self-regulating and self-ordering nature of the marketplace – becomes visible to anybody who cares to look. In a free market, when a perceived product shortage occurs, the price of that product automatically – naturally – rises, creating a profit margin that in turn creates an incentive – a self-interested reason and motivation – for investors and entrepreneurs to enter production, eventually curing the shortage. When prices drop below a profit[2], producers drop out of the market; if there is a profit to be made, producers enter the market. When more producers enter the market, the increased competition among manufacturers and increased supply lowers the price of the product. If demand rises, prices rise along and so do the incentives for producers to alleviate the increased demand, and vice versa. This cycle never stops, it goes on continually, over and over through its own natural positive and negative feedback loops as provided by evolving consumer preferences and producer investments. There is no lasting price to anything: the market is a constant flux of supply and demand, hinging on humanity's subjective valuations toward each existing good separately and combined.[3]
The concept of value and consequently of price in its natural creation of order within chaos is a wonderful thing, simple in its intricate complexity. It is Human Action (Mises, 1949) which forms prices on the market, according to the inherent principles of (human) nature: "it is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages" (Smith, 1767).[4]
Did John Pemberton selflessly found Coca Cola to provide for "the greater good", or for his own self-interest? Yet undeniably, he "has made the consumer wealthier, because its products were cheaper and of far greater quality than those of its predecessors. The right to private property is the keystone. An entrepreneur will make an investment only if he believes there is a fair chance of reaping the rewards of his efforts. A loss in property rights will be met by a loss in entrepreneurship, because the incentive to invest is removed. Alternatively, full property rights will allow entrepreneurship to flourish to its furthest extent" (Catalan, 2010, emphasis added). But the way in which the market – the network of supply and demand – naturally fine-tunes itself without any need for intervention whatsoever is something which is for some beyond understanding in much the same way that many laymen and eminent scientists alike used to profess that it could only be possible for the sun to revolve around the earth.
Even so, they have no problem in tinkering with and forcefully intervening the economy. But meddling with the market is like throwing stones at a gymnast walking a high line: the natural balancing that occurs now gets distorted by external force and grace gets substituted by flailing arms in order to try and regain balance. Inevitably, as socialism has proven time and time again, at some point even the best gymnast will fall off the line if pushed hard enough, making it anyone's guess as to when he will be back on top of it.
Focusing so intensely on theory – and only on theory, State-funded "economists too often take on the role of central planners. They identify the 'right' prices that companies should charge and the 'right' policies they should adopt, without considering why market incentives have not encouraged firms to take these measures on their own" (Lott, 2007, emphasis added). But "a government that sets out to abolish market prices is inevitably driven toward the abolition of private property; it has to recognize that there is no middle way between the system of private property in the means of production combined with free contract, and the system of common ownership of the means of production, or socialism. It is gradually forced toward compulsory production, universal obligation to labor, rationing of consumption, and, finally, official regulation of the whole of production and consumption" (von Mises, 1912). Attempts by the State to correct subjective market failure[5] unfailingly merely substitute it for objective "government failure" (Friedman, 1979).
It should be clear that the central point here is that incentives are what drive people. Incentives and their interactions and relative valuations are what the market is all about, and in trying to put counterfeit incentives in place of the naturally arising ones in order to go against the natural market equilibrium, all one can do is hope nobody gets killed, both figuratively and literally speaking.
But such perverse incentives are what States are best at. If there is a meaningful reward for some type of behaviour,[6] people will do it, even when they supposedly "should not" according to the paternalistic meddling of the coercive central planners who set out to unilaterally dictate and "improve" human behaviour.
Examples abound. A classic case, eerily reminiscent of the fictional novel Catch-22,[7] is the study of a specific type of fraud by air traffic controllers (Staten et al., 1982). "To receive disability benefits due to job-related stress, air traffic controllers must present a well-documented stressful incident – a collision or close call – that has caused a deterioration in their performance. Unsurprisingly, when it became easier to file for disability, flights suddenly started experiencing more 'close calls'. And these were not cases that the air traffic controllers could simply make up; they were reported by a sophisticated performance evaluation called the Operation Error Severity Index" (Bailey et al., 2005) (Lott, 2007). In short, in "proving" their supposed disability, they were actually proving that they could create close calls and still not have accidents ensue, because they were not actually disabled at all.
In similar fashion, during 2009 the South African government started giving medical grants (1.000 South African Rand per month) – paid for with forcibly expropriated taxpayer money – to patients with tuberculosis when they came in for treatment. The result was a widespread scam and a vibrant trade in TB-infected saliva. "A 54-year-old [infected] man told a reporter that he makes an average of R500 per month from selling his saliva to people seeking to trick their way into the benefits system. But he said business was 'not good' because so many people were infected with TB in the township that he had a lot of competition" (Smith, 2009). Not only was the State wasting the monetary subsidies, in many cases they were wasting expensive taxpayer-paid medicine on uninfected "patients" on top of it. But the program kept a lot of bureaucrats employed, made for some nice headlines of politicians helping the sick and poor, and a captured voting audience that was bought and paid for with their own expropriated funds.
Speaking of which, it at first glance appears that in Sweden, the welfare State itself mysteriously causes people to get sick: "Swedes are among the healthiest people in the world according to the World Health Organization. And yet, 13% of working-age Swedes live on some type of disability benefit – the highest proportion on the globe.[8] To explain this, many Swedish policy makers, doctors and economists blame the welfare system. […] Sweden's bloated sick bay, which includes roughly 744.000 people on extended leave, has caused soul-searching about whether the system coddles Swedes and encourages them to feel sick. […] During the 2002 month long World Cup soccer finals, short-term sick leave among Swedish men suspiciously rose by 55%. Earlier, police in Sweden's capital city Stockholm investigated the local chapter of the Hell's Angels biker gang for suspected benefit fraud, because 70% of the gang were on extended sickness benefits. The same doctor had certified them all as suffering from depression". But the Swedes are not alone: "in Europe, roughly 20% of the working-age population – 60 million people – depend on various government benefits as their sole or main income, compared with 13% in the US. […] the welfare State has changed the region over the past generation. In place of the old work ethic, it seems that it has become acceptable to feel unable to work and to live on benefits" (Mitchell, 2007). This is of course not even counting those who indirectly have been taught to "depend" on these benefits.
In the above examples one can try and excuse policy makers for "at least having good intentions", in spite of the disastrous actual results of their actions. But other cases present themselves as well.
In 2004, the Nigerian government offered amnesty to militant rebels. In order to diffuse the tensions, or so it was claimed, the federal and local governments used taxpayer money and foreign aid (which of course de facto also included coercively collected foreign taxpayer money) "to pay militants $2.800 for each surrendered weapon, regardless of quality or condition. At the time, a relatively new AK-47 cost about $350 [in Nigeria]. Selling your old weapon for enough cash to buy eight new ones makes good economic (and military) sense", and that is exactly what people did. But "the pricing equation was no accident. Several local governors wanted to buy a little near-term peace and quiet in the run-up to the 2007 elections" on the backs of domestic and foreign taxpayers. "Once the votes were cast, some of these governors then cut deals with the most influential and cash-rich of the militant groups to use them for political purposes of their own" (Horner, 2009).[9]
As with anything, and prices in particular – whenever the State meddles with it, natural free market order is destroyed and artificially enforced chaos ensues. What permeates throughout the entirety of the socialist economic critique of the free market "is their failure to grasp the sovereignty of the consumers in the market economy. They see only hierarchical organization of the various enterprises and plans, and are at a loss to realize that the profit system forces business to serve the consumers. If any of the socialist chiefs had tried to earn his living by selling hot dogs, he would have learned something about the sovereignty of the consumers" (Mises, 1958).
It is clear that "central planning has its appeal. After all, it is hard for many people to comprehend how the seeming chaos of markets, with millions of separate decision makers," and billions upon billions of freely interacting variables "can somehow translate into economic efficiency". The key is that market mechanisms "allow firms to set prices that accurately reflect all their costs and their customers' preferences. Analysts and politicians can study trends for years without being able to account for all the factors that go into a single price. Planning accurate prices is impossible, and when the State gets them wrong, the results are shortages [and] other harmful market distortions. Simply put, freedom ensures that people get what they want. […] Prices create incentives for people to meet the needs of others.[10] Despite all the various guises under which central planning has been attempted, it is no surprise that free economies work best" (Lott, 2007, emphasis added) and non-free economies fail miserably; the speed of their failure being dependent only on the extent of the restrictions and previous capital built up by the productive before they were wiped out, but inevitable in the long run (Heckelman, 2000). It is similarly clear that in a democracy, "those who provide little of the government's income have more of a say – in the form of their combined votes – over how to spend State funds than those who provide most of the money. […] Those who actually pay for most government services are not the ones who determine how the money is spent" (Lott, 2007).[11] This enormous perverse incentive and moral hazard helps to explain why States as a general rule are as inefficient as they are (Kalt, 1981). Simply put: no matter how much reality is wished out of existence by laws and regulations that try to harness market forces, such legislation is as useful as it would be when declaring gravity to be illegal because it makes it hard for pigs to fly. At most, it can get some pigs killed when they are thrown off a cliff to "enjoy" their newly legislated powers.
The mechanics of nature do not care about (democratic) dictators or majority votes.
Keeping all of the above in mind, one would think that the entirety of recorded human history would suffice to settle any debate about the viability of socialism. Alas, even to this day it does not.[12]
A point in case in this regard is to be found in the agricultural reforms in Zimbabwe as implemented by (democratically elected and instated) President Robert Mugabe and his supporters. "In 2000, in an attempt to destroy the opposition which derived much support from the commercial farmers and their employees, the government began what it eventually called the Fast Track Land Reform" and started to negate landownership by expropriating private property farms and then "redistributing" them among "the people". The land reform "ignored the prevailing legal situation with respect to farm ownership. […] The government changed the law every time a farmer or a group of farmers secured legal judgments in their favour. Eventually a group of Zimbabwean farmers took their case to the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) Legal Tribunal in Windhoek, Namibia. In 2008, those farmers obtained a decision instructing the government of Zimbabwe to protect the farmers' legal rights. The government, in spite of being a signatory to the treaty creating the SADC Legal Tribunal, ignored the ruling. […] The attitude of the members of the Zimbabwean regime toward the farm acquisitions was straightforward – they were taking the farms from their legitimate owners. No police protection was afforded to the farmers or their staff, and no interference with expropriation was permitted. In the majority of cases, force was used – [by the State police and] by groups of young, politically motivated thugs. Those thugs acted on behalf of the future 'beneficiaries' of farm expropriations – mostly members of President Mugabe's ZANU-PF party. Once the owners and their senior staff had been evicted, the new 'owners' occupied the land and took advantage of the assets, including crops and livestock. […] Many farmers lost their lives as a result of these expropriations" (Cross, 2009, emphasis added).
The aftermath of this denial of private property and State-enforced thievery (which in this case at least had the decency to be carried out in the open, in plain view for all to see) had the only result it could have had – the same result it has had in the Soviet Union, Communist China and every other collectivist mirage before and since it: it destroyed everything it touched.
According to the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), "the total output of the agricultural industry in Zimbabwe in 2000 was 4,3 million tons of agricultural products, worth, at today's prices, some US$ 3,347 billion. This output has declined to just over 1,3 million tons of products in 2009, worth some US$ 1 billion – a decline of 69 percent in volume and a decline of 70 percent in value. […] In spite of those stunning figures, the farm invasions have continued […]. According to the CFU, even those farms that were granted legal protection by the SADC Tribunal were targeted – presumably as a punitive measure. […] It is clear that the land reform has been a costly failure. In 2008, according to CFU estimates, over 90 percent of all production from commercial farms came from the remaining large scale farmers – the same farmers who are now being targeted for the next round of expropriations. […] More than half of all the farms taken over by the State are now derelict and abandoned. Many of the individuals who are now 'taking' farms are doing so for the third or fourth time. The combined costs of the land reform are staggering – they include US$ 2,8 billion in international food aid on an emergency basis and nearly US$ 12 billion in lost agricultural production", totalling some US$ 15 billion along the most cautious estimates (Cross, 2009).[13]
Moving away from Africa, we can see the same story unfolding in South American Venezuela where, since 2003, democratically elected President Hugo Chavez – in a superb demonstration of his immensely popular and much lauded "21st century socialism" – put a maximum price on milk, rice, wheat, meat, and other so-called "crucial products" like cement and toilet paper. The Venezuelan State, aside from the price restrictions, also imposed tailor-made regulations which forced "producers to devote at least 70% of their production to price-regulated products […]. This intervention was aimed at keeping companies from finding ways around the price controls, for example by switching to value-added variations of goods such as low-fat milk or flavoured rice, which were not covered by the controls. For example, for Venezuelan rice producers this means that 90% of their production must be price-controlled white rice" (Gallegos, 2009). Because of these price controls and accompanying regulations – which were applauded by most Venezuelans who were certain that they would not be the ones who had to pay the price for it; they would be the ones getting goods and services at cheaper prices – Chavez and his supporters seemed certain that Utopia was just around the corner.
The actual result, in line with every single historic example before it (Bartlett, 2010), was nothing less than massive food shortages and in many cases only the deplored black market – the manifestation of the invisible hand and the embodiment of the futility of regulating consumer demand – standing between Venezuelans and starvation (Morsbach, 2006).
The price regulations, in being set by the State, were detached from the objective reality of the market and left farmers without a profit, forcing many into bankruptcy. Instead of magically conjuring up food ex nihilo, the price controls dragged down the previously thriving Venezuelan agricultural sector, the basis of the Venezuelan non-oil economy. Food supplies dwindled and shortages became rampant to the point that "milk has all but vanished from shops. Distraught mothers ask how they are supposed to feed their infants, many cafés and restaurants serve only black coffee, […] eggs and sugar are a memory". The State had to start using its short term nationalized oil dollars to actually import powdered milk from Russia and China because of the mysteriously crashed domestic agricultural sector (Carroll, 2007). Amidst rampant inflation brought on by all kinds of governments programs, the Venezuelan State tried to cure its poisoned economy by making it drink more of the same poison. It repeatedly and increasingly tightened its control over the Venezuelan food supply, which slid further down the drain (McDermott, 2009). Facing publicly stated threats of "nationalization" – following other branches of Venezuelan industry like the petrochemical sector – food and consumer goods companies halted or reduced their Venezuelan operations. Individual farmers who sold milk abroad or on the so-called black market (Sanchez, 2008) for real market prices were threatened with similar expropriation of their farms (AP, 2008).
By that time, identical situations were developing in the Venezuelan construction industry. Around April 2008, Chavez ordered the nationalization of the cement industry, in response to the fact that – as was happening with agriculture – the industry was exporting its products in order to receive realistic prices above those which it was allowed to obtain within the country. The State in other words created domestic shortages and pushed yet another Venezuelan industry to the verge of total collapse (AP, 2008A). On the 28th of February 2009, Chavez ordered the Venezuelan military to "temporarily seize control" of all the rice processing plants in the country in order to force them to produce at full capacity, which he himself alleged they had been avoiding in response to the price caps – which would have had them produce at a loss. He therefore saw a need (and thereby the supposed justification) of "the immediate intervention in all those sectors of agro-industry; intervention by the revolutionary government" (BBC News, 2009). Many Venezuelans still rabidly agreed and called for more blood to flow, not realizing they were holding the loaded gun of the State not only against their fellow human beings' heads, but also against their own.
The farmers and workers in the rice plants were effectively enslaved to work at a loss under threat by the Venezuelan State and its army, a dubious honor which many refused by shutting down what little that remained of their production, adding to the woes of the populace. In bringing Chavez to power, those who voted for him brought it on themselves and got exactly what they deserved.[14] But the absurdity of democracy also brought it onto the many individuals who actively opposed such collectivistic State interference in the first place.
By September 2013, the chronic shortage of price-controlled toilet paper escalated. After the State had imported millions of rolls of toilet paper in the months before, paid for by nationalized industries, taxes and debt unilaterally taken out in the name of all citizens, Venezuelans still were not able to buy toilet paper in sufficient quantities through the official channels. No doubt the people of Venezuala took great comfort in the fact that official toilet paper prices remained very low, even though they could not find any in the shops. Blaming hoarders, black market traders, smugglers, speculators, and other such "traitors" for the shortages[15], President Nicolas Maduro, Chavez's successor, announced that in order to rectify the situation, the Venezuelan National Guard had taken control of a large toilet paper plant. Army officers would now "monitor production and distribution" of the toilet paper it was to produce. The Minister of Trade, Alexander Fleming, assured world that "the factory occupation complied with Venezuelan law" (BBC News, 2013). I suppose my dear readers can figure it out for themselves how beneficial this endeavour has turned out to be for the people of Venezuela.[16]
As was tragically noted by a spokesman of a Venezuelan rice company, "forcing companies to produce rice at a loss will not resolve the situation, [it will] simply make it worse"; an observation which, in light of humanity's entire history, would require nothing less than the kind of blind and economically ignorant dogmatism of the socialist variety to deny (McDermott, 2009).
As the people of Venezuela were getting more and more agitated, the State was keenly aware of how to best distribute the limited supplies in order to ensure the pacification of the population: "Venezuela's national parade ground at the Fort Tiuna military base presents a scene that local civilians can only dream of – stalls laden with goods and no waiting lines. The market with everything from subsidized meat to baby strollers, along with loans, new cars and apartments, are perks provided to the armed forces as the economy contracts, poverty rises and President Nicolas Maduro's popularity sinks to a record low. The benefits help ensure the loyalty of the military, while siphoning reserves away from the poor who have seen wage growth fall behind inflation […]. Military personnel don't have to contend with the economic chaos in the rest of the country. The […] trucks and tents at the market in the military base […] were loaded with subsidized milk, cooking oil and detergents – goods that are out of stock in most shops. […] 'These armed forces are Chavista,' the commander of the military, General Vladimir Padrino, said […], referring to Chavez supporters. Maduro can 'count on our loyalty'. As the military retains its loyalty, the benefits continue. The government has given out 2.821 apartments to soldiers and officers in the year through May, Planning Vice Minister Paul Grillet, a major general, said in a televised address that month." (Bloomberg, 2014, emphasis added). As one would expect, Venezuela's "21st Century Socialism" turned out to be remarkably similar to its 20th century predecessors indeed.
By January 2015, amidst pictures of empty shelves flooding social media, one unfortunate Venezuelan reported: "We couldn't find shampoo, so we washed our hair with soap. Now there's not even soap" (ZH, 2015). By February 2015, the condom shortage was "altering young people's sex lives in Venezuela" (Hernández, 2015). "In a move that will no doubt help further the Venezuelan government's aim of establishing a socialist utopian republic, […] grocery stores [began] the mandatory fingerprinting of customers. The peculiar initiative […] is meant to help combat the hoarding and smuggling of government-subsidized goods" (Connoly, 2014) (Gupta, 2014).
The longer it continues, the more likely a confrontation between the disarmed population[17] and the State with its paid off military becomes – the end game of every socialist cycle.
As these examples and various others show, a State that sets out to abolish market prices by controlling them "is inevitably driven toward the abolition of private property; it has to recognize that there is no middle way between the system of private property in the means of production combined with free contract, and the system of common ownership of the means of production, i.e. socialism. It is gradually forced toward compulsory production, universal obligation to labour, rationing of consumption, and, finally, official regulation of the whole of production and consumption" (Mises, 1912).
But let us turn our attention to the motivations of individual consumers, and along identical lines to the reputed nemesis of humanity – the speculator.[18] When we cut through the righteous indignation which is so eagerly doled out when discussing this subject, it becomes clear that in fact everybody is a speculator in one way or another, and people who object to speculation only do so if and when they are not the ones doing the speculating.[19]
But that does not mean that speculation by others does not benefit them anyway. "If a powerful hurricane is forecast to hit land in a week, and people expect that gas prices are going to rise after the storm hits, then the difference in the price today and the expected post-hurricane price creates the opportunity for consumers to save money today by filling up their tanks when gas is cheaper. Speculators do the same thing. They profit by buying gas when it is cheap and selling it for a higher price after the hurricane. What is more, by doing so, these speculators are performing a valuable economic service – they are removing gas from the market at a time when it is plentiful and adding it at a time of shortage later. Oil company executives reason the same way. By raising gas prices before a hurricane, they reduce the demand for gas and are left with a bigger supply, which they can sell after the hurricane for a higher price. The downside of this action, of course, is that everyone has to pay more for gas before a hurricane hits. But no one talks about the upside – after the hurricane, when gas supplies are severely reduced due to the damage to production and supply lines, oil companies are sitting on increased inventories resulting from the pre-hurricane price hike (Alchian, 1983). These inventories then hit the market right when they are most needed (Fremling, 1989, emphasis added).
In other words, by raising prices before the hurricane hits, oil companies keep the post-hurricane price hike much lower than it would otherwise be. If the damage from the storm is worse than anticipated, prices will continue to rise. But in the long term, the higher prices will help accelerate the affected area's energy recovery. After a hurricane, gas prices rise because the supply shrinks, and prices will begin falling again once the supply improves. In other words, rising free market prices in the short term actually help reduce prices in the long term by increasing supply (Roberts, 1991). They do this in two ways. First, higher prices create a strong profit incentive: the more profit to be made in a given area, the harder and faster people will work to transport more gas or other goods and services over there. Secondly, temporarily high prices reduce demand. They encourage people to carpool, use public transport, and take other unusual steps. Indeed, this kind of economizing was seen [for example] as gas prices rose in the US shortly after the disastrous hurricane Katrina [in 2005] (McGeehan, 2005).
Temporarily higher prices assist energy recovery in other ways as well. The prospect of higher prices after a hurricane gives oil companies an incentive to set aside more gas as a reserve for such a contingency even before a specific hurricane is forecasted. Storing gas is costly, and if we want gas companies to bear those costs," we cannot blame them for making a profit just like they would on any other investment. The US oil industry "was no more monopolistic when gas prices rose just before Hurricane Katrina than it was two weeks earlier when prices were lower. Neither did the companies suddenly become greedier" and neither were they less so once gas prices went down again afterwards (Lott, 2007). They were simply reacting to the ever-present forces of supply and demand, and prices shifted upwards and downwards accordingly, naturally, without intervention and due to its very nature in the most efficient and effective way humanly possible.
Still, there is more to it. Instead of maximum prices, State officials all too often abuse their supposed authority to forcefully impose minimum prices as well. In modern Western contexts, the best known – and most dangerously misunderstood – case of a minimum price concerns wages.[20] The controversy surrounding them usually only increases when thinking about global competition with emerging economic regions like Brazil, Russia, India and China. Western anti-globalists, protectionists and other types of socialists often claim that competition for jobs with workers in Eastern Europe, India or China is something that is altogether irrelevant and can be legislated away. They simply say: "we do not want to compete with them, we want to keep our labour laws and Welfare State systems as they are", with the coinciding conviction that that will suffice – like a child that puts its hands over its eyes and thinks that, instead of merely blinding itself, it thereby makes the entire world disappear.
This train of thought more often than not ends up with the claims that companies should be forbidden by the State from moving their production plants away, or that tariffs, import quotas, subsidies and various other forms of trade barriers should be enforced to "protect" Western workers. It is sometimes argued that Western wages should not "compete" – i.e. start to be set by the market instead of by the State – but wages in other regions around the world should be controlled through enforced State intervention as well, in order to stop non-Westerners from "stealing" Western jobs.[21]
But low wage workers are following a natural principle of free market competition. Who is stealing whose job exactly when State force gets involved in the equation and keeps vast numbers of people in low wage countries unemployed through artificial nationalistic (or regionalistic) measures? Is company A stealing from company B by offering their service to consumers to build the same house at a lower price than company B?[22] By contrast, is worker A stealing from worker B by offering consumers the same service at a lower price? And in what way does being offered the exact same product at lower costs harm consumers? How can a Chinese person steal a European or American job?[23]
[1] Especially in cases like the 2007 and following financial crises, the power of the market and the unavoidable failure of ignorantly wishing away the consequences of socialist policies and State interventionism through "bail outs" and monetization of debt and debasement of currencies becomes all the more apparent. Tragically, yet insidiously, this is passed off as a failure of capitalism.
[2] Note that a profit is seen in light of more than revenue minus direct costs. Opportunity costs and subjective valuations play an equally important role.
[3] See the example of the water bottle earlier.
[4] See "will to power" in earlier Chapters.
[5] Objective market failure is simply a contradiction. Even when an economy crashes, the market does not "fail" in any objective sense: it is still constantly updating itself and doing its work. As with beauty, failure in this regard is in the eye of the beholder and entirely subjective.
[6] Such a reward might also consist of avoiding a certain cost.
[7] "There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he did not, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he did not want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle" (Heller, 1961).
[8] For more on this, also see (Bergstrom, 2010).
[9] In any such conflict or war, the blood of the resulting casualties is ultimately on the hands of those who funded the States that participated in them – i.e. the (foreign) taxpayers.
[10] Private property of the material factors of production "is not a restriction of the freedom of all other people to choose what suits them best. It is, on the contrary, the means that assigns to the common man, in his capacity as a buyer, supremacy in all economic affairs. It is the means to stimulate a nation's most enterprising men to exert themselves to the best of their abilities in the service of all of the people, on a voluntary and completely rational, non-emotional and non-conflicting basis of self-interest" (von Mises, 1958).
[11] For example, in the US, "the share of the tax burden borne by the top 1% now exceeds the share paid by the bottom 95% of taxpayers combined" (Hodge, 2009). See also (PA, 2008).
[12] More on this in the final Chapter of this book.
[13] For a follow up on how this ended up in a truly spectacular hyperinflation-fuelled economic bust for Zimbabwe, see (Hanke, 2009).
[14] As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for.
[15] For example, in a 2014 TV interview, Maduro publicly blamed Venezuela's "scarcities and soaring inflation on an 'economic war' waged by business owners, shopkeepers and others allegedly trying to undermine Venezuela's socialist government by hoarding, price-gouging and sneaking goods across the border for sale in Colombia. 'These right-wing contraband groups are still at work, with their anti-national and parasitic spirit, riding on the backs of the people and sucking their blood', Maduro said" (Miroff, 2014).
[16] One can only guess whether President Maduro has ever found himself to be out of toilet paper. Think of the many hours he must have spent waiting in line in front of the shops with his fellow citizens. Imagine how much better that time could have been spent in legislating the economy back on track. Alas, alas!
[17] Disarming the populace and arming the State is often a prelude for things to come. In revolutionary Russia for example, "in October 1918, the Council of People's Commissars (the government) ordered the surrender of all firearms, ammunition, and sabres. As has been the case in almost every nation where firearms registration has been introduced, registration proved a prelude to confiscation. Exempt from the confiscation order, however, were members of the Communist Party" (Simkin et al., 1994, emphasis added). Countless other examples abound in the other former Soviet Republics as well: "'indeed, the best testimony to the power of an armed populace is the vigor with which the Warsaw Pact dictatorships enforced gun control. When the Communists took over Bulgaria on September 9, 1944, they immediately confiscated every weapon in private possession. In East Germany, private gun ownership was outlawed, although citizens were allowed to rent hunting guns for one-day periods. Immediately after World War II, Hungary was governed by a coalition of democrats and Communists. Preparing the way for a total Communist takeover Laszlo Rajk, the Communist Minister of the Interior, ordered the dissolution of all pistol and hunting clubs, as well as of other organizations which might prove a threat to government power. Rajk claimed he acted 'in order to more efficiently protect the democratic system of the state'. Poland, on the other hand, did allow limited ownership of registered target guns with a license from the so-called 'Citizen's Militia'. In December 1981, Poland's dictator, General Jaruzelski, decided that Solidarnosc had gone too far. He declared martial law, arrested all the pro-democracy leaders he could find, and ordered all firearms and ammunition be turned over to the government. Nowhere was gun control fiercer than in Rumania. The dictatorship of Nicolai Ceausescu used registration lists to confiscate all firearms in private hands" (Kopel, 1990). On November 11, 1938, the Regulations Against Jews' Possession of Weapons banned Jews from owning any form of weapons including truncheons, knives, or firearms and ammunition (Halbrook, 2000). In 2012, amidst growing tension over the chronic shortages, the Venezuelan stated moved to disarm the population by banning private gun ownership while granting ever more funds and privileges to the military (BBC News, 2012).
[18] A speculator is "a person who trades (i.e. derivatives, commodities, bonds, equities or currencies) with a higher-than-average risk, in return for a higher-than-average profit potential. Speculators take large risks, especially with respect to anticipating future price movements, in the hopes of making large gains". This definition was provided by Investopedia.com and will suffice for this discussion.
[19] "The epithet 'profiteer' is the expression of an arbitrary judgment of value. There is no other standard available for the distinction between profiteering and earning fair profits than that provided by the censor's personal envy and resentment" (von Mises, 1952).
[20] "Wages represent the discounted productivity of labour in satisfying consumer demand. Demand for consumer goods translates into demand for workers. Markets enable us to calculate the value of different types of labour, so that we can direct the use of labour to its most highly valued uses. Governmental intervention in labour markets (e.g. minimum wage laws) cause unemployment among less productive workers," see what follows (MI, 1996).
[21] Just like immigrants throughout history and most production-related technology like machines, computers and robots have all been accused of "stealing" jobs as well. See, among many others, (Gammon, 2009), (Konczal, 2009), (Beucke, 2006) and (BBC News, 2002).
[22] The house in the example can be replaced with any good or service in either case.
[23] Economic growth in developing countries leads to more than just monetary income for the local workforce. Indeed, "it may be said without exaggeration that the great extent and rapid increase in international trade, in being the principal guarantee of the peace of the world, is the great permanent security for the uninterrupted progress of the ideas, the institutions, and the character of the human race" (Mill, 1848). In a global economy, "we continually see signs of the phenomena Mill described. When Japanese multinationals spread out in the 1980's, their male executives brought their wives with them to New York, London, and Paris. When these traditional Japanese women saw how women were treated in the West, they absorbed ideas about women's rights […]. When they returned to Japan, they became agents of social reform. In our own day, television and the Internet have played a huge role in expanding our social and moral consciousness beyond the bounds of our communities and nation-States. Many believed that poor peasants would respond to the greater economic opportunities presented by globalization by taking their children out of school and putting them to work. Thus considered, the extension of the free market would act as a malign force. But I found that the opposite was true. It turned out that in many instances, the higher incomes realized as a result of globalization – the rising earnings of rice growers in Vietnam, for example – spurred parents to keep their children in school. After all, they no longer needed the meagre income that an additional child's labour could provide. Or consider gender equality. With globalization, industries that produce traded goods and services face intensified international competition. This competition has reduced the yawning gap in many developing countries between the compensation paid to equally qualified male and female workers. Why? Because firms competing globally soon find that they cannot afford to indulge their pro-male prejudices. Under pressure to reduce costs and operate more efficiently, they shift increasingly from more expensive male labour to cheaper female labour, thus increasing female wages" and creating an equilibrium between the two (JTF, 2008, emphasis added).
Christophe is a guns and gold loving anarchist from the geographical area known as Belgium. He spends his days slaying dragons and rescuing damsels in distress, invigorated by bathing in statist tears on a daily basis. He was put on this world to kick socialist ass and chew bubblegum – and he is all out of bubblegum.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider purchasing his book The Road to Anarchy and leave a review.
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Tetrastichus mediocris is een vliesvleugelig insect uit de familie Eulophidae. De wetenschappelijke naam is voor het eerst geldig gepubliceerd in 1995 door Kostjukov.

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Benjamin Williams
Hi all, my name is Ben. I'm a native Michigander with a passion for human culture and new places, and more than that, new experiences. I have degrees in archaeology and writing, pursuing a career in the latter. However, I never quite lost that fascination with archaeological theory. For the past 9 years, I've been living and travelling in Asia, documenting ancient sites and the peoples who built them, and then adapting them into practical archaeological travel information at PathsUnwritten.com.
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Say I do on the golden beaches of Weligama and start planning your bayfront wedding today with a variety of ceremony and packages from the Fisherman's Bay Weligama to suit your budget and style.
Discover indoor wedding banquet spaces that spell luxury and elegance at the Fisherman's Bay Hotel, where wedding celebrations are meant to be enjoyed with minimum hassle and trouble to the happy couple.
Situated overlooking the Weligama Bay in Southern Sri Lanka, the manicured lawns of the Fisherman's Bay are the ideal place to celebrate your love at a tropical destination by the Indian Ocean.


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Policy issues concerning Media
Ireland's scandalous corporate tax regime exposed AGAIN - New approach required
A story in The Irish Times (March 7, 2014) shows that Apple paid €36m tax on $7.11bn profits at its Irish unit. This is a scandal that must be addressed now by the Irish Government. Social Justice Ireland sets out some proposals below.
Read more about Ireland's scandalous corporate tax regime exposed AGAIN - New approach required
Mass media must ensure it is not promoting false assumptions and inaccurate social analysis
Over the past decade mass media has often promoted false assumptions and communicated poor social analysis and, in many cases, is continuing to do so today according to Fr Seán Healy, SMA, Director of Social Justice Ireland.
Addressing journalism students in the University of Limerick Seán Healy argued that:
Read more about Mass media must ensure it is not promoting false assumptions and inaccurate social analysis
Irish Times coverage of Social Justice Ireland's comments on Eurostat taxation figures - June 30, 2010
June 30, 2010 - The Irish Times published comments by Social Justice Ireland on the implications for Ireland of the latest Eurostat taxation figures
Read more about Irish Times coverage of Social Justice Ireland's comments on Eurostat taxation figures - June 30, 2010
Ignoring poverty could lead to serious problems according to EU Commissioner.
POVERTY is something we cannot afford, according to the European Commissioner for employment, social affairs and inclusion.
Read more about Ignoring poverty could lead to serious problems according to EU Commissioner.
NAMA information published - September 16, 2009
The Government's proposed National Asset Management Agency (Nama) will buy loans worth €77 billion at a discount of 30 per cent. The Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan told the Dáil that NAMA would pay approximately €54bn for loans it takes over from Irish banks. According to the Minister this amount is an estimate based on the long-term economic value of the assets against which the loans were secured.
Read more about NAMA information published - September 16, 2009


BMW's flagship all electric car, the i3 has only scored 4 stars in its Euro NCAP safety test.
Now 4 stars isn't bad…but since around the time the Renault Scenic was launched every manufacturer has upped their game. The majority of cars tested now achieve 5 star ratings, especially BMW's!
At £25k you would have expected better of the little electric beemer…it fared worse than the equally pillar-less Ford B Max. But pitting it against EV rivals, it achieved a better score than the Mitsubishi MiEV when that went up against the pole.
In the more severe side pole impact, dummy readings of rib compression indicated that protection of the chest was weak. The front seats and head restraints provided marginal protection against whiplash in the event of a rear-end collision.


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Barbara Jean Butts
Reader Submitted
Barbara Jean Butts, 72
HARTFORD CITY - Barbara Jean Butts, 72, of Hartford City, IN, (Jackson Twp.) passed away at 10:42 AM on Sunday, July 12, 2015 at University Nursing Center in Upland, IN.
She was born on Thursday, December 10, 1942, in Muncie, IN. She married Charles "Chuck" Butts in Millgrove, IN and helped to raise his eight children as her own.
She was a 1961 graduate of Montpelier High School and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Ball State University in 1965. Barbara Jean taught at Wes-Del Community Schools for three years, as the choir and swing choir Director. She was a state certified flower show judge, a member of the Rural Improvement Garden Club of Selma, IN., and District Chairman of East Central Indiana Garden Club. Barbara Jean was the owner of the Country Courier Weekly Advertiser and enjoyed gardening, canning and flower arranging. Barbara Jean was a beautiful piano player and taught lessons in her home for many years. She was a deeply spiritual person, who strived to follow God's leadings in all areas of her life.
Loving survivors include her sister, Janet Kay Deavers, Hartford City, IN; brother, Frank Eugene Anderson, Hartford City, IN; children, Debbie (husband, Dave) Starkey, IN, Stephanie (husband, Bobby) Eppard, IN, Rebecca Butts, TN, John (wife, Brinda) Butts, OK, Diane (husband, Kent) Armour, OK, Mary Butts-Schroder, TX, Ben (wife, Gaylene) Butts, TX; thirteen grandchildren; several great-grandchildren; niece, Meylissa (husband, Bruce) Stanley, Summitville, IN, and several nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Eugene and Valda (Dennings) Anderson; husband, Charles "Chuck" Butts; son, Bradley Butts; maternal grandparents, Frank and Ada Inman and paternal grandparents, Thomas and Cora Anderson.
Services are 7:00 p.m. Thursday, July 16, 2015 at Walker & Glancy Funeral Home, 109 W. Windsor St., Montpelier with Lucas Binkerd officiating and Zalo Wilson, her former piano student, will be providing music.
Family and friends may gather to share and remember from 1:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home.
Preferred memorials Alzheimer's Association c/o University Nursing Center 1564 University Blvd. Upland, IN 46989.
Arrangements are being handled by Walker & Glancy Funeral Home in Montpelier.


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The Community Foundation of Howard County (CFHoCo) has long been recognized for the expertise of its staff.
In speeches, panel discussions, task forces and other forms of communication, our in-house authorities regularly explore the community's most critical issues through the lens of their deep knowledge, diverse experiences and innovative ideas.
Beverly joined CFHoCo as President and CEO in May 2012, bringing broad experience in the public, private, and philanthropic sectors. She positioned the organization as a hub for connecting philanthropic residents with local nonprofits to improve the lives of those living in Howard County, while also building a new leadership team and investing in better processes and systems.
Born and raised in Washington, DC, Beverly earned a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University and a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law. Beverly also donated her time and talent to serve on over 30 nonprofit boards while pursuing a career as a practicing attorney. Beverly enjoys spending time with her husband, daughter, son-in-law and grandson as well as with her large and exceedingly close extended family.
Beverly's favorite thing about Howard County is that there is no one great thing: "Over the past 40 years I raised children here in Howard County and had 2 significant career opportunities within minutes of my home — all while living in a diverse, highly educated and tolerant community with an intentionally green environment."
Dee Athey
Director of Grants and Community Engagement
Dee Athey is the Director of Grants and Community Engagement at the Community Foundation of Howard County. Dee directs CFHoCo's donor-recommended and discretionary grants.
She has more than 25 years of experience in nonprofit work and program development, management and evaluation. She led community service initiatives, developed funding proposals, managed grant programs, directed fundraising efforts, worked with donors and built strategic partnerships benefiting nonprofit organizations.
Dee lives in Jessup with her husband and loves summer weather, reading, cooking and spending time in nature. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Austin College in Sherman, Texas and a Master of Science from The University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. As a Texas native, Dee loves football and is always on the quest for good Tex-Mex food.
Dee's favorite things about Howard County are the county's diverse population, Patapsco Valley State Park and being able to enjoy a true Fall Season every year.
Jay Vidyarthi
Jay A. Vidyarthi manages the daily operations of the Community Foundation of Howard County and takes on other duties as assigned. He is slowly learning, with mounting horror, how much can be crammed into "other duties as assigned."
Jay lives in Columbia with his partner and their clumsy bird named Randolph Scott. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Jay earned a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his J.D. from Temple University.
Jay's favorite thing about Howard County is the diversity of people.
Jules McIntyre
Executive Assistant and Meetings Manager
Jules McIntyre is the Executive Assistant to Beverly White-Seals and manages all the board meetings and events at the Community Foundation of Howard County. She comes to CFHoCo with over 20 years' experience in event and tradeshow management, including corporate, government, and nonprofit sectors. Some of the companies Jules has worked for include Tenable Network Security, Vectorworks, McCabe Software, and Federal Business Council. She also serves on the board of the Brave Heart Therapeutic Equestrian Experience Program in Hagerstown, serving Veterans and their families. Jules received her BA in English from the University of Notre Dame of Maryland.
Jules lives in Ellicott City with her husband, a retired Army Officer, and their son and their 3 Bedlington terriers. Having grown up in a historic New England town, Jules was drawn to Howard County because of the beauty and history of Ellicott Mills and the town that grew up around those mills.
Diane Zanko
Philanthropic Services Assistant
Diane Zanko is the Community Foundation of Howard County's Philanthropic Services Assistant. Diane is responsible for data management, book-keeping and helps process grants. She is often tapped to help with special projects like community initiatives.
Diane comes from a computer programming and data management background and has been with CFHoCo since 2015. Diane has a daughter, a son, six grandsons and lives in Laurel with her sister and their tiny lapdog Nina, a 130 pound Rottweiler.
Diane's favorite thing about Howard County is working with the team at CFHoCo.


An increase in the mass incarceration of people for drug possession and use is breaking up communities across the United States of America according to New York clinical psychologist, Professor Ernest Drucker.
He argues that the prosecution and imprisonment of drug users leads them to experience increased psychological problems and a further hesitation in seeking help for their drug problems for fear of being arrested.
Professor Drucker was the guest speaker at The Dean's Lecture Series, hosted by The University of Notre Dame Australia's Fremantle School of Medicine. The lecture was based on his latest book A Plague of Prisons: The Epidemiology of Mass Incarceration in America.
The aim of the lecture series is to provide an opportunity for visiting lecturers of a national and international standard to discuss diverse and challenging topics with the community.
A Professor Emeritus in the Department of Family and Social Medicine at the Montefiore Medical Centre/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, Professor Drucker says America's incarceration rates are at "epidemic" proportions and comparable to those found in Stalinist Russia.
Professor Drucker says that the population directly affected by the mass incarceration epidemic has increased from 250,000 inmates in 1970 to more than 2.5 million in 2009, with young men from lower socio-economic groups comprising most of the prison population.
He argues that drug use does not lead to further jail time; rather the incarceration of people for taking drugs changes their behavioural patterns which could lead to an increase in crime and longer periods of imprisonment.
"When you take someone off the street and put them in prison in a bid to stop them committing a victimless crime, such as drug possession, the results can be a lot different than expected," Professor Drucker said.
"These people are more likely to commit crime when they leave prison as their ability to integrate back into society, and everything that could help them achieve that goal, would diminish.
"Former prisoners are socially marginalised and often become incapacitated for life – unable to find decent work, get proper housing, participate in the political system or have a normal family life.
Professor Gavin Frost, Dean of the School of Medicine in Fremantle, said Professor Drucker's lecture explored the complex interactions between health, poverty and education of the socially marginalised in America.
"He advocated in his lecture the approach to drug use as principally a health issue, rather than as a purely legal issue, with interventions such as methadone maintenance therapy demonstrating health benefits as well as reduction in drug-related crimes," Professor Frost said.
Dawson, Leigh, "Renowned clinical psychologist speaks at Notre Dame" (2011). Media Release Archive. 364.


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Q: Create a fixed size file in .NET Is there a way in .NET to create a file with specific size without having to write to it?
I need to be able to write at specific position leaving empty space as needed. What would be the best way to achieve this?

A: You may not know it, but you may be asking this question "How do I create sparse files in .Net?" See this question
The short answer is that you cannot create sparse files using managed code, however, you can using the native API's -- the problem is that sparse files "remain sparse". So, if you want to backfill later, you are probably better off not doing this. You can use an open FileStream and call SetLength() If you just want to avoid the detail of writing out explicit the explicit filler to your file, the O/S will still fill the "empty" portion of your file with NULs
public override void SetLength(
    long value
)

ADDED
Note that the file is not necessarily physically extended on disk at this instance. But if you read from the "tail gap" you will get NULs and if you write to the gap, the O/S will backfill the intervening space with NULs. NTFS maintains "valid length" and "file length" seperately. Calling SetLength does not change the valid length, just the file length. The "tail gap" is the region of the file spanning from the valid length and the file length. Note also that setting the valid length is supported by Windows. Writing to the tail gap or end of file also updates the valid length.
So, you may avoid a performance hit by not having to actually extend the file immediately, but sooner or later the O/S will have to take the time to backfill with NUL filled blocks (and setting the valid length to the new write position), possibly leaving a smaller tail gap when you write to the tail gap.
Note that getting random blocks of existing data from the disk when you extend a file would be a security issue -- imagine getting payroll data with SSNs.
If Windows ever adds a new file system the exact behavior could become even more complicated, but is would presumably be at least as good as what happens on NTFS.

A: A file is a series of bytes on disk, which in different formats have different parts, like header, body, etc. Thus there is no such a thing as empty file. Because each byte is reserved and each byte (or two-bytes in Unicode) would represent a character. Even in its initial state.
So, technically speaking what you want is to reserve a amount of space on disk, so that you can write there later.
Now if you don't want to have readable or visible characters in that file, you can simply create an file that is filled with many whitespace characters.

A: You need to write it anyway
File.WriteAllText(path,new String(' ',size));

Then you can seek to a particular position and write..


It's time for your business to look & sound more professional.
It's time your business looks & sounds professional.
Add a business phone number to any phone.
Create a professional image by adding a separate local or toll free business number to your existing home, office, or cell phone. Make outbound calls from your cell phone that displays your business number as your caller ID.
Create a professional image by adding a separate local or toll free business number to your existing home, office, or cell phone. Make outbound calls from that displays your business number as your caller ID.
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Take business calls on any phone.
Give everyone on your team their own extension. Create department and employee extensions that ring multiple phones in any order and forward anywhere: home, office, or cell phones.
Receive voicemail & faxes via email or app.
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Record greetings and voicemail yourself or have one of our human voice talents do it for you.
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You own your numbers, no strings attached. Port them to another carrier anytime at no cost.
Go ahead, get out your checklist of must-have features!
Give your business instant credibility and a nationwide presence with a toll free phone number from any toll free number area code: 888, 877, 866, 855, 844, or the new hot 833 toll free number just released.
Give your business a local presence in multiple locations by using a Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and/or Miami phone number, for example. We have numbers available in almost every area code in North America.
Also referred to as a virtual receptionist, auto-receptionist, virtual PBX or cloud PBX, your virtual auto attendant greets callers and routes them to the proper extensions, phones, or voicemail. It's managed completely online.
When you answer a call, your virtual phone system will announce to you which extension the caller selected. That way, you can answer the call professionally, or send them straight to your company voicemail.
On-hold music or a custom message keeps your callers engaged while they are being forward or transferred to an extension. You can also upload a recording advertising your business's products and services.
Our system does not restrict the number of concurrent calls that you can receive. If the phones where you are forwarding are busy, the system will detect that and send the caller to an unavailable voicemail greeting, no busy signals ever.
Give everyone on your team their own employee extension and set up department extensions to ring multiple phones in a flexible structure to connect staff working from multiple locations.
Use this advance call forwarding feature to connect up to three other phone lines, including home, mobile, or office numbers. With UniTel Voice your customers can reach you wherever you are.
With call forwarding, you and your employees can be reached on virtually any telephone in the world whether on your cell, in the office, or at home. You can ring multiple phones in any order, anywhere.
Call scheduling (or After-hours mode) lets your callers hear your custom main greeting when you're open, and an alternate greeting after hours. You can customize your hours of business for every day of the week. Never close your business again.
We'll give your business a polished image with a professionally recorded greeting from our Voice Talent Studio. After all, first impressions are everything. And we don't use robots. We use human voice talents that read into a microphone.
You can access your UniTel Voice account from any browser with your username and secure password. Since you manage your virtual phone system online, you can make changes in real time, no software or hardware is required.
Your virtual phone system allows you to make outbound calls that display your company's caller ID. That way you can keep your personal cell phone number private and look more professional when making outbound calls.
With UniTel Voice every number on your phone system doubles as a fax line. Your customers can call or fax your number. You receive incoming faxes as an email PDF attachment and you send faxes by logging into your account.
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A Dial-by-Name Directory is a feature commonly used by large company phone systems. Available with UniTel Voice, callers may use their keypad to find an employee by his/her last name when they do not know the specific extension.
Call Logs track the phone calls you make and receive using your UniTel Voice business numbers. With Call Logs, you can keep a record of all your inbound and outbound calls to better understand your customer interactions and touchpoints.
If you receive unwanted phone calls, you can avoid the hassle and wasted time of dealing with them by creating a blocked numbers list within your UniTel Voice online management portal.
With caller ID you can identify callers before you answer the phone. You also have the ability to display the extension the inbound call came in on and the ability to change your outbound caller ID to display your business number.
The UniTel Voice smartphone app makes running your business easier. You can make outbound calls from your business line, put callers on hold, and receive notifications from miss calls, voicemails, and faxes. Works best with a strong Wi-Fi connection.
When you answer a call on the UniTel Voice smartphone app, you can place the caller on hold and transfer them to any extension or number. You also have the ability to blind transfer the caller or use assisted transfer to make sure the call is answered.
Within the UniTel Voice smartphone app, you can merge a third person into a two-way conversation. This 3-way calling feature can help you stay productive when you need to conference in another party.
Receive a push notifications from the UniTel Voice App when you miss a call. Within the app, you can also see all your recently dialed calls and missed calls so you can quickly get back to customers and prospects.
Do Not Disturb sends incoming calls straight to voicemail without ringing your phone. UniTel Voice also allows you to read a transcription of any voicemail so you can stay in the loop, even when you're too busy to talk.
You can make and receive calls using your WiFi network with the UniTel Voice iPhone or Android app. This is great if you work in an area with a bad network connection, or don't want to waste cellular data to conduct business.
A custom phone greeting is a recording that plays automatically when a customer calls. They can be set to play right at the start as a professional welcome, as a voicemail greeting, or even as an away message when you can't answer.
The after-hours greeting is what callers hear when they reach your business after it has closed. You can record your after-hours greeting yourself or have one professionally recorded using UniTel Voice's free Voice Talent Studio.
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Add these business phone system features to any plan for an additional fee.
Vanity toll free numbers (e.g., 1-888-CARLOAN) can help your customers remember your number, your brand, and your value proposition. It's a simple yet powerful marketing tool for any business. Cost: $15 one-time fee.
A true 800 number is the most recognized toll free number used by businesses since the 1960s. A true 800 number can add an element of trust and credibility to a small business who wants to look more professional. Cost: $99 one-time fee.
You can add additional toll free or local numbers to your existing account at any time. You might want to use different phone numbers on your various marketing and advertising campaigns to track calls and ROI. Cost: $4.99/month per number.
This feature allows you to record incoming calls which is great for training or quality control purposes. Call recording saves your recorded phone calls as audio files and stores them in your online management portal. Cost: $5/month.
Call Blasting is what we call Simultaneous Call Forwarding. It allows multiple phone lines to ring at the same time, such as your home phone, cell phone, or other office lines. This reduces caller wait times and keeps you in continuous communication with your customers. Cost: $10/month.
UniTel Voice offers low-cost/high-quality SIP trunking services for local & toll free 800 Numbers. We offer two plans: Pay-As-You-Go where you're only charged for what you use and nothing more, or Committed-Use that gives you a discount on a special volume-based deal. Contact us to learn more.
Don't need service but want to keep your number? UniTel Voice allows you to park, store, and save phone numbers, so you can activate them when you need to or port them to any another provider when you're ready. Cost: $5/month.
Voicemail transcription converts your voicemails to text so you can read them on your computer or smartphone. This helps you quickly and conveniently get a voicemail message when you can't listen to the recording. Cost: $5/month.
An IP-phone is a physical desk phone that uses your internet connection to make and receive calls. It's easy to set up and includes all the features of a traditional office desk phone. Cost: $9.99 per month, per user.
Download a softphone and use your computer to make and receive phone calls with all the features of a traditional office desk phone. As long as you have a strong internet connection, you're good to go. Cost: $9.99 per month, per user.


We are committed to excellence and adding value in all areas of our business.
Corporate Responsibility can be defined as the management of a company's positive impact on society and the environment through its operations, products or services and through its interaction with key stakeholders such as employees, customers, investors, communities and suppliers.
At MLA we are constantly improving, developing and embedding our corporate governance throughout our business, providing greater value to all of our stakeholders.


Sunoco Latko | Latko Wealth Management, Ltd.
My name is Sunoco! I have been the chief mascot of Latko Wealth Management, Ltd. for almost 4 years! My duties include barking, protecting the office, sniffing for treats and making everyone smile! My reward for all of this hard work is seeing the clients smile when they leave the office!