" Dan Rather Reports: 'The Trouble with Touch Screens' (TRANSCRIPT)	"
The following transcript was completed by Jerry Berkman, as described below. It was originally posted at http://election-reform.org/dan_rather.html, but that page is no longer available, so we rescued his transcript from the Internet Archives to post below.
This is a transcript of Dan Rather's hour long report on HDnet titled "The Trouble with Touch Screens". The first half is about ES&S iVotronic touch screens; the second half is about poor quality paper used for ballots in Sequoia optical scanners in Florida in 2000 and intentional changing of the specs for the ballots for Palm Beach County, Florida, which caused many of the hanging chad, dimpled chad, etc. problems.
This transcript is based on the transcript posted in all caps on the HDnet web site. Kathy Dopp converted it to mixed case. Then the video became available on the HDnet site, and I started looking at that, and decided to add who is speaking to the transcript; I also found material in the video not included in the transcript, such as the interview with Michael Shamos. I have indicated material not in the HDnet transcript, but in the video, and vice-versa, by using italics. There were a number of minor differences between the video and the transcript; the text below is that of the video. Update: I can no longer find the original HDnet transcript on the web.
0:20 Dan Rather: Tonight the trouble with touch screens.
Gene Hinspeter: Even if it's just off a 1/4 of an inch it can throw a vote upper or lower to the other candidate and you have the wrong selection and you really don't realize it.
Landen Tuggle: We were rejecting at the time, Anywhere from 30-40% of the touch screens that came in.
Dan Rather: Wait a minute, you were rejecting, at that time 30-40% of the touch screens you were getting in from Bergquist?
Dan Rather: Also tonight, the paper trial.
Greg Smith: And I think that everybody's opinion was this 2000 election was going to be our demise, because of the poor quality that we put out the door.
Dan Rather: Workers responsible for making paper ballots that led to the Florida fiasco of 2000 tell their story for the first time.
Giles Jensen: It's a sad state of affairs that it takes 7 years for somebody to actually ask the question to the people that might have the answer.
Dan Rather: A special investigative report on the machines that count America's votes tonight on Dan Rather reports.
1:45 Dan Rather: Good evening, from West Palm Beach, Florida. Nothing is more fundamental to the story of America, and what it means to be an American, than the vote. A free people, voting with the guarantee of a secret ballot, holds a privileged place among our most cherished civic institutions. Voting also represents an exercise in faith--a faith that after one drops one's ballot in a box, or pulls a lever, or presses a button on a screen, one's vote will be counted. Recent elections have sorely tested our American faith in the sanctity of the vote. Few places in the country symbolize this strained faith more than the building behind me, the Palm Beach county courthouse, scene of some of the fiercest fights during the 2000 election mess in Florida. But that contest seven years ago is by no means the only one that has raised questions and some of the measures that resulted from that episode, such as new voting machines, have spawned questions of their own.
Dan Rather: This is Christine Jennings. In November of 2006 she lost the House race for Florida's 13th Congressional district. But Jennings, a Democrat, is already back--running again.
Christine Jennings: I will fight every single day for the privilege of being the people's representative for district 13.
Dan Rather: She lost the 2006 race by a only few hundred votes. But her defeat made headlines, not because of votes counted, but because of votes that may not have been counted at all. Mysteriously, 18,000 voters in Sarasota County, about 13% of all voters there, appeared to have cast no votes at all in the race for this seat in the House of Representatives. This rate of so-called under-votes was much higher than for other counties in the Congressional district.
Jennings didn't believe that thousands of voters had intentionally not voted in her race. She blamed the touch screen voting machines and she had her reasons.
Christine Jennings: On the first or second day of early voting, we started getting calls from voters telling us there was a problem with the screen, with them trying to vote for me on the review screen. And in addition, voters here called the Sarasota herald tribune, they called the radio stations. Voters, we have hundreds of voters that signed affidavits that said, "those machines did not work properly."
Dan Rather: Those "machines" were the "iVotronic" touch screen voting machine manufactured by Election Systems & Software Of Omaha, Nebraska. ES&S, which claims to be the world's largest election systems provider, is privately held. The company says that over 67 million voters cast their ballots on ES&S equipment last November, in some 22 states. And just after Election Day many voters in Jennings' race said something wasn't right with the voting machines.
5:10 Voter #1: When I went to review my vote, the 13th district came up as I didn't vote.
Voter #2: I went to check it and her name wasn't there.
Voter #3: I hit the square, the "X" came up, I continued voting down to the end, went to the review page, it wasn't on there, it wasn't there.
Voter #4: It came up that Christine's vote did not go through.
Voter #5: I'm hoping that my vote did get counted.
Some guy: 18,000 votes missing is a big mistake and a big error for this county and it should be corrected.
Dan Rather: Jennings sued the state and ES&S, saying the machines had malfunctioned. She never conceded the race and filed an election challenge with the U.S. House of Representatives.
Christine Jennings has made a career out of insisting that numbers be right. She had started out as a bank teller in Ohio, moved to Florida and eventually founded her own bank in Sarasota. Running for Congress was her first venture into politics.
06:00 Christine Jennings: The one thing that I want - it's very simple - the truth, the truth about what happened in this election.
Dan Rather: Jennings' race wasn't the first time serious questions had been raised about the iVotronics.
Voters all over the country had complained that these voting machines had registered their selections incorrectly. Besides Florida, problems with recording votes on the iVotronics were reported in Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, And Texas. Just in the last election.
But there may have been a special problem in Florida in 2006. ES&S had sent Florida election officials a memo that summer, warning of a software glitch that could cause misvoting, and saying the company would fix the problem. Surprisingly, neither ES&S nor the state did anything to resolve the problem before the November election. Sarasota didn't even post warning signs for voters in the polls, which ES&S had provided. Still, a state-sponsored audit concluded the Sarasota machines had worked fine.
So why did 18 thousand people not vote in that house race? Many voting analysts blamed a confusing ballot layout for the undervote but Jennings wasn't buying it. Her case and her cause led to hearings in Congress.
07:30 Senator Feinstein: I am going to ask that the GAO and the National Institute of Standards and Technology really conduct a top to bottom investigation of these particular machines. Christine Jennings was in attendance, bringing her local spotlight to a national problem.
Christine Jennings: And it's at the heart of our democracy and people from across this country have made it clear to me they want to know that their vote counts and they have encouraged me to keep this up so that we get to the place that every vote counts.
Dan Rather: Back in Florida, the Jennings race confirmed what some officials had known for years. Gene Hinspeter has been an elections operations specialist for Lee County, that's the Ft. Myers area, for thirteen years. He discovered a serious problem with the iVotronic voting machines in 2003, which he recreated for us in a demonstration.
08:30 Gene Hinspeter: In 2003 we noticed there was a calibration issue with the iVotronic touch screen and we brought it up to the people that maintain our voting equipment. And this is just a little example of what we saw. If you select the first box, if it is off enough, it would make another selection. It is not exactly where you make your selection at. As you see, I am selecting the top box and this second box is highlighting.
Dan Rather: Lee County returned all 1800 of its iVotronics to ES&S to have screens replaced, but problems continued. For Hinspeter, the machines were a high maintenance headache.
Gene Hinspeter: We started out with two employees when we were doing punch card, and when we switched over to the iVotronic we basically had to triple our staff because the hands-on is just so intense. You know before you let the machine go out, you test it, you calibrate it, you check the date and time. There's so many things that need to be done before it goes out. It's not like you can just pull it out of the rack, throw it in the booth and send it out. We have to bring in a team of people that cast ballots on each one of these machines to make sure that it's working properly.
09:50 Dan Rather: And even after all that, there were still problems.
Gene Hinspeter: It seems like they will work today and tomorrow they might not work. I can use ten of them in a test and then we will go ahead and get ready to send them out after the test and we will check them just before they go out the door and we will find that one is not working properly. So, they are just unreliable in my opinion.
Dan Rather: How could machines that had cost taxpayers millions all over the United States be so unpredictable?
According to ES&S, there are 97,000 iVotronic machines in use across the country! Most of us use touch screens every day. From the ATM machines to the latest in cell phone technology. They have to be right. So what was the problem with these voting machines?Our investigation of the ES&S iVotronic took us not to company headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, but half a world away.
10:55 Dan Rather: These are the shantytowns of Manila, home to the Teletech factory where, since 1999, Filipino workers have been cranking out touch screen machines that were used in Florida and other states.Some workers came forward to talk to us, but were so afraid of the factory owner that they would speak only from the shadows.
Hidden worker (translation on screen): Of course, we have our jobs.
But we also need to let people know what's happening inside the plant.
11:50 Dan Rather: What was happening inside the plant? According to this employee and many others exhausted Philippino workers: rushed production, poor quality.
Hidden worker: Well, when you need to ship them out, you really need to ship out.
When we say it's a reject, no, they will say it's still okay.
It seems they're only concerned with the quantity of machines shipped from the plant.
They don't really think about what will happen when someone tries to use it.
That's why we think it's quantity not quality.
12:35 Dan Rather: It took us nearly two months in Manila to finally persuade one former worker to talk to us in daylight. Eddie Vibar is an electrical engineer who worked at the factory between 1999 and 2002.
Eddie Vibar (translation on screen): Many people do not know that we made those voting machines in the Philippines.
Dan Rather: This manual shake-test, would have been a joke at any quality electronics factory. But Vibar says that even this crude test was only done on a fraction of the machines. Why? Because, Vibar says, management didn't want to slow down production. But almost nothing may have affected the workers or the machines, like the crushing heat and humidity of Manila, in a factory with only a few air conditioners, often broken or turned off. Vibar recalls days when the temperature inside rose to over ninety degrees.
our salaries for working on the voting machines would be four dollarsper hour.
was the minimum wage in the Philippines which was $2.15 or $2.50 per day.
Dan Rather: Some of the iVotronic's components come from factories in Taiwan and mainland China, but perhaps the most important component, the screen itself, came from America's heartland: the Bergquist Company in Chanhassen, Minnesota. And it was the American-made screens that began to most concern the Filipino workers, like this former employee.
Former employee (translation on screen): The problem with the iVote is the screen - the screen itself.
It was a materials defect with the touchscreens.
Dan Rather: Back in the states ES&S began falling behind in deliveries of iVotronics. Pivot sent an American, Landen Tuggle, from Kansas to manage the factory.
Landen Tuggle: The factory was fairly dismal at that time. In the basement area where we end up putting a lot of our materials, our inventories and everything, I think I probably hauled 50 dump truck loads of cats and rats and snakes and all types of debris.
Dan Rather: Landen Tuggle is known in manufacturing circles for his success upgrading troubled factories of various kinds to first-class status. He says that he eventually did just that in Manila, but that it took time. The Filipino workers recall Tuggle as the first American to care about them and not just the machines.
Eddie Vibar: Landon's treatment of the Teletech employees was good.
We could come to him with our problems and he acted on them right away.
When we complained that it was too hot inside to work, Landon provided us with an electric fan.
17:35 Dan Rather: They came to Tuggle with problems about working conditions, but also about problems with the machines, especially the screens.
Landen Tuggle: After I got over there, it took me a while to get the Filipinos to open up to me. You have to understand the culture over there. Filipinos don't want to give you bad news. You know what I mean? So each time something failed, they not only hated it, they took it personally. But as we got the lines set up and began the manufacturing, they came to me and said, "Sir, these are no good." I said, "What's the problem?" They said, "Sir, the bubble, they're pillowing."
Dan Rather: They're billowing. What does that mean?
Landen Tuggle: Pillowing. It means that the surface of the touch screen, the plastic or Mylar surface, was not stretched taut. It had a like a bubble or even rolls, two or three rolls to it on the touch screen.
Dan Rather: Did you tell anybody what the Philippine workers had told you?
Landen Tuggle: Yes, I did. I got on the phone. We began to make calls.
Dan Rather: So, you were sounding the alarm as far back as 2001?
Landen Tuggle: Yes. We were rejecting at a time anywhere from 30 to 40 percent of the touch screens that came in.
18:40 Dan Rather: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You were rejecting at that time 30 to 40 percent of the touch screens that you were getting in from Bergquist?
Dan Rather: Jonathan San Pedro was the production manager at Teletech from 1994 to 2004. He worked closely with Tuggle as Tuggle introduced real quality control standards.
Jonathan San Pedro: Bergquist was alarmed because of the significant numbers of defect or reject units because of the Bergquist touchscreens.
Dan Rather: So someone eventually came over to the Philippines to help you address this problem.
Landen Tuggle: Oh, yes. Pivot responded immediately.
Dan Rather: But they were or were not able to bring it up to top quality where you had very few rejects.
Dan Rather: ES&S continued to produce thousands of iVotronic machines using the Bergquist screens. Did no one at Pivot or ES&S ever just say, stop this train. We're getting off. We can't produce these machines at extremely high quality. Did anybody ever say that?
Dan Rather: Did you think about it at the time?
Landen Tuggle: Of course I did.
Dan Rather: Any idea how many were shipped to the US that you feel were potentially defective?
Landen Tuggle: I would say probably in the neighborhood of 15-16,000 units.
Dan Rather: A great many of them destined for Florida. Some of the writings about this, say that the biggest problem was something called loss of calibration. What is that?
Landen Tuggle: When you take the stylus. And you put it on the "X". Instead of making the dot there on the touch screen or where you're putting it, it would move off and move to a different location, showing that it thought the stylus was being touched over here.
Dan Rather: Jonathan San Pedro says that the more iVotronic units the workers produced, and the more they tested, the more calibration problems they found.
Jonathan San Pedro: When we hit our output target that time, which is they're expecting to increase our capacity, we noticed that many units failed the calibration test.
Dan Rather: Now were Pivot, ES&S and/or Bergquist worried that this calibration problem might affect the proper recording of votes?
Landen Tuggle: I don't recall anyone ever discussing that they were concerned about votes.
Dan Rather: Well, we have a letter from Bergquist stating that they were unaware of the issues with the problematic screens at the time of manufacture.
Landen Tuggle: Well, that's simply not true.
Dan Rather: Did you say it was simply not true?
21:25 Dan Rather: Bergquist said the problem was not so much with their screens as with the way the Manila plant was inspecting them. Tuggle disagrees. Berquist said the plant in Manila didn't know how to inspect them. (Tuggle chuckles) You're chuckling, why is that?
Landen Tuggle: Again, that's simply not true. Again, I had degreed engineers. You're talking about a third world country but they had some good colleges there. My people were very good, they were engineers. I had assembly workers who were college graduates.
Jonathan San Pedro (omitted from transcript): We did a good job here. We followed all the instructions, all the test procedures. But I think there's still a problem with their design, wherein the reliability is affected.
Dan Rather: Tuggle acknowledges some design problems with the iVotronic, but he worried most about the screens, and that over time, they would fail.
Dan Rather: Your story suggests, Mr. Tuggle, that Bergquist, and Pivot and ES&S all knew that there were potential defects in these screens. That could put the accuracy of the vote by millions of Americans at risk?
Landen Tuggle: Well, I would say that based upon their calculations, they were all taking the calculated risk that they would not deteriorate any further. And it was very evident that that was a risk they were willing to take.
Dan Rather: What about the risk at the voting place?
Landen Tuggle: You'll have to ask them about that.
Hey we've got a problem and we're seeing it across the board.
How do we manage this problem without it reaching the press?"We asked ES&S about the recalls. The company acknowledged there had been a problem, but says they fixed it by replacing or reworking the effected screens. And, ES&S says, none of this ever prevented an accurate vote count. Why? The company's story is that voters would have noticed if their vote hadn't registered. But how could ES&S be so sure?
Gene Hinspeter: It could just be off a quarter of an inch, and this is what could happen.(demonstrates)Even if it is just off a quarter of an inch, it could throw a vote upper or lower to the other candidate and you have the wrong selection and you really don't realize it.
Dan Rather: Touchscreen voting seemed questionable enough to one official that, while Christine Jennings was still waiting for the courts to act, Republican Governor Charlie Crist of Florida early this year reached his own verdict. He moved decisively, proposing legislation to ban touchscreen machines which don't produce a paper record of a vote.
Governor Crist: Well, I don't want my state to be embarrassed anymore. As we know, Florida has been a state of note as it relates to some elections lately, and I think it is important to make sure we are able to recount an election if we have to. I would rather we didn't, but if we are going to have to recount, it is nice to have something to recount, like a paper trail.
Dan Rather: Republican governor Crist cited the race of Democrat Jennings in his decision to call for change.
Governor Crist: I mean my goodness, I live in St. Petersburg, that's my home in addition to Tallahassee now, and Sarasota's very close to where I live, and there was significant focus on it, and so, you know having the opportunity when we go forward next year in '08, when that election will occur yet again, as I now understand it, we'll have the opportunity to verify the results and make sure that people can have confidence that every vote is counted, that every vote does count. And what could be more important in democracy than making sure that this precious act that we commit, the right to vote, is one that we can have confidence in?
27:35 Dan Rather: In court, Christine Jennings is still trying to get answers out of ES&S about the iVotronic machines used in Sarasota, but with little success. Was there no way to get simple answers? Florida's Freedom of Information Act is a powerful statute. The act has sometimes been used to compel companies doing business with the state to turn over information to the public they don't want to. Governor Crist thinks the law should apply to voting equipment vendors.
Governor Crist: If there is a problem with the machine, obviously accountability should apply. That is just common sense. We are very proud of our sunshine laws and we think that the company should be held accountable to the extent that it doesn't violate their proprietary protection as it relates to trade secrets of private industry. But you know beyond that, as much as humanly possible, we think needs to be transparent, needs to be reviewed and needs to be available to the public.
Dan Rather: Another voting system is now on the way for parts of Florida, optical scanners, from various manufacturers, that simply scan and read paper ballots where voters have marked their choices. Meanwhile election supply warehouses statewide, stacked high with expensive touchscreen machines, suddenly seemed like graveyards.
Gene Hinspeter: Here are our touchscreens, and this is what we use currently until next year and then we are going to optical scan ballot. So this is the past and the present will be optical scan ballot.
29:10 Dan Rather: Lee County's new optical scan machines will be manufactured by ES&S; those optical scan units are now being made in Manila. Workers at the factory there, had some concerns about those machines, too.
Eddie Vibar (translation on the screen): There are many problems with the optical scanner.
The optical scanners are hard to adjust and calibrate.
The optical scanners are really sensitive.
30:30 Dan Rather: Our story of the iVotronic touchscreen voting machine, lends credence to the views of one respected American voting expert. While many other scientists worry about the risks of hacking touchscreens, Professor Michael Shamos of Carnegie Mellon says reliability, not security, is the bigger worry.
Michael Shamos: I love it. Don't get to use it in a sentence very often, but this is one time I can. That basically took away the ability of people who would manipulate elections to do it, by fiddling with paper. They couldn't. They couldn't get into the machine and manipulate its gears.
I do examinations of computerized voting equipment. I've been doing it for over twenty-five years. I've examined almost a hundred and twenty different voting systems. I know a lot about it. I have an opinion, but I wouldn't at all classify myself as an activist.
Dan Rather: And your opinion is?
Michael Shamos: My opinion is that the safest form of voting system is electronic voting with the proper procedural safeguards. The reliability of DRE or touchscreen machines in the United States is deplorable. It needs to be repaired.
Dan Rather: It needs to be repaired.
Dan Rather: How do we repair it. How do we make them reliable.
Michael Shamos: You make them reliable by forcing the manufacturers to make them reliable. If you bought an electric razor that had the reliability of a touchscreen voting machine, you'd have it back in the store in two weeks.
Dan Rather: Well, I've made myself a note here, that many of the components of the machines are made overseas.
Michael Shamos: Oh yes. I can tell you why that is too.
Michael Shamos: Anything the manufacturers can do to cut costs, they do. And if that means buying foreign, they buy foreign.
Dan Rather: Well I have a problem with that. Do you have a problem with that?
Michael Shamos: I have a problem with that from the reliability viewpoint. That's why we are seeing failures of touchscreens, because the actual screen itself is inexpensive. The touchscreens in jet fighters don't fail. The touchscreens on voting machines fail. Why? Because the ones in jet fighters cost a lot more money than the ones in voting machines.
The paper trail printers that are being added are failing at a huge rate. Why. Because they are incredibly cheap. There is no quality there. And the problem is that Americans grow up believing that elections just come, we don't actually have to pay for them. And when the public is asked to allocate tax dollars to buy expensive voting equipment, they baulk at it.
I've said for many years. There's no candidate in this country that ever got elected on a platform that he was going to buy an expensive voting system.
Dan Rather: You've said that the system for testing and certifying voting equipment in this country is broken. If you believe that, then why do you trust the machines?
Michael Shamos: So, here's the problem. Let's suppose we find a horrible defect in the Department of Agriculture's meat testing program. What do we do. Do we ban meat, even though we notice no one has gotten sick from it? Or do we simply improve the testing process. What I'm saying is we need continual process improvement on the testing process. What the activists are saying is we have to throw out the meat because we don't know if the test was good or not. I don't agree with that. We don't do that in society; when we find a problem, we fix the problem. We don't throw everything out and go back to the 1850s.
Dan Rather: Would you agree or disagree, that what happened in 2000 in the Presidential campaign, was a fiasco. How do you feel about who won or lost?
Michael Shamos: A fiasco of gargantuan proportions.
Dan Rather: And, at the very least, serious questions were asked about the 2004 election, particularly in some states, Ohio being one. Question, how is this all going to impact the 2008 Presidential election or will it.
Michael Shamos: My experience, which extends over twenty-five years now, is that when a candidate loses, he is willing to ascribe that to any conceivable reason other than that the voters didn't want him. If there' s a machine around, he'll blame the machine. If it's the weather, he'll blame the weather. If it's his opponent, he'll blame what his opponent said. And the statements by activists and computer scientists about the unreliability and insecurity of voting machines, has simply handed the candidates on a plate an objection that they can always make if they lose an election.
Designing a voting system to meet the needs of our democracy, is an engineering problem. When we wanted to go to the moon, we created an agency to design a system to get us to the moon and it worked essentially perfectly. It was very expensive. But it got the job done.
If we believe that we really need a system, of whatever type, electronic or non-electronic, let's do the same thing. Instead of something as huge as NASA, it can be much smaller, but it can be sufficiently funded to do its job. The decision should be made by scientific and engineering evidence; not by activists holding placards in the street and scaring people. Not the way to get an engineering project off the ground.
Dan Rather: We need so much in this country. We need to help the poor, we need to find a cure for cancer, we need to fight wars overseas, ... You've been around politics for a long time. Realistically, is this going to happen?
Michael Shamos: No. And it's not going to happen for the reason that I said. People believe, at least up to now have believed, that they get elections for free. I think a lot of people don't even know that poll workers are paid; they think they're just volunteers. And so the idea, if we suddenly hit them with a bill for something they think they've been getting for free, they're very reluctant to do it.
Now, if we really convince them that there is a problem, and by convince them, I don't mean by scaring them, I mean by laying out exactly what the problems really are, and saying are you willing to pay to solve these problems, then the answer is yes.
After all, in the Help America Vote Act, Congress appropriated over three billion dollars to buy new voting machines. So the money is there if the will is there.
Dan Rather: Well forgive me for the disrespect that may seem built into this, but I can hear some Congressman saying, "Ah, you went and talked to this computer wonk out of Pittsburgh, and he just wants to throw money at the problem, and says money will solve the problem. And as you know", put this all in quotes if you will, "throwing money at a problem usually doesn't work".
Michael Shamos: Mere money doesn't work. Money that's not properly directed doesn't work. HAVA proved that. Three billion dollars didn't solve the problem, because the statute didn't actually specify what the problem was or how to solve it or create an agency to solve it. I'm not advocating blindly throwing money toward it. In fact, I'm not saying let's go out and spend billions of dollars on new machines.
I'm saying let's spend tens of millions of dollars on a serious research and development effort that can be carefully monitored by Congress, be entirely public, have the public review all the documents, etc., and have genuine scientific dialogue, as we did in the Challenger disaster which I think was a high point for the Congress when it appointed the Challenger Commission. Which offered its opinion purely on a scientific basis. It was not an advocacy fight. It was, "did the O-rings really fail, or didn't they fail". And I still remember Richard Feynman dipping the O-ring into ice-water during those hearings. And I think it was a wonderful scientific thing to do. That's what Congress ought to do.
This is an engineering problem. We have a requirement that a voting system has to satisfy a whole bunch of standards and a whole bunch of legal prescriptions. We hand that to engineers and we say design a system that does that, and that costs a reasonable amount of money. When you are done, come back and tell us.
38:35 Dan Rather: The idea that finding the best voting system is an engineering problem is not new. In fact it was some of the best engineering minds in the country, at IBM, who perfected the old Votomatic punch card system decades ago. Those punch cards, when they had been used by IBM for data processing, had been precise enough to help land a man on the moon. That's how reliable they were.But by 2000, in an avalanche of hanging and falling chads, the punch card voting system was proclaimed to be "unreliable", old hat, out with the old and in with the new. Yet seven years and billions of dollars later, the public, especially in Florida, the public is clamoring for paper ballots again. Only this time, there is no IBM quality control, no quality control standards in the background. And each machine now costs thousands of dollars not a few hundred, as in the punch card era.How did we get here? It all happened so quickly, in a matter of weeks, maybe months, starting in Florida. Was this rush to convert even necessary? There may be some disturbing answers to that question, in events that unfolded long before Bush vs. Gore.Tonight we hear from a group of people who think they know what happened in Florida, 2000, and why.
It all sounds familiar, too familiar. Taxpayers being asked to throw out millions of dollars worth of voting equipment, start over again, and pick up the tab. With no guarantee the new equipment will provide a solution to the problems. Technology can often offer a solution to a complicated process, in this case, accurately recording votes. But technology poorly conceived, designed, integrated and tested is a recipe for failure. In this instance, subsidizing the same outfits that couldn't get it right the first time, giving them more chances could lead to the further waste of millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars. And just as important, the further loss of confidence in our nation's ability to use technology to provide solutions for mission-critical applications, none more important to our nation than accurately recording each of our votes.
Now, back to a core question: was the rush to these expensive and perhaps ill-conceived new voting systems necessary?
40:00 Dan Rather: Our investigation took us into the heart of California's central valley, to the tiny town of Exeter, where for over thirty years Sequoia voting systems, at this factory, made hundreds of millions of punch card ballots, up until 2003. Punch card ballots dominated the voting landscape in 2000. Among many other places they were the most common voting system in Florida. The system seemed idiot proof. You simply took a stylus and punched out holes, or chads, as they are known, and the cards were then run through a computerized tabulator. Couldn't be simpler, or so it seemed.What really struck voting experts about the 2000 election in Florida were the many tens of thousands of ballots that had overvotes or undervotes for president. Where voters appeared to have voted for more than one presidential candidate or none at all. Over 50,000 Sequoia punch cards statewide were discarded as invalid because voters appeared to have overvoted. In fact, on fully 17,000 of the Sequoia cards, voters seemed to have voted for three or more presidential candidates! Meanwhile, in Palm Beach County alone over 10,000 voters had not voted for president at all.Experts scrambled for possible explanations, confused voters, confusing ballot layout, like the infamous butterfly ballot. But no one was looking at the punch cards themselves. We recently met up with a group of former Sequoia employees who actually made the punch card ballots, who feel they have the real answer as to what happened in Florida 2000, and why.They have never had a chance to tell their stories. Until now. Thanks for doing this. I appreciate each and every one of you being here. Well first of all, tell me who you are and how many years you had at Sequoia.
Tom Ayers: I'm Tom Ayers and I was at Sequoia for 33 years. I was the shipping and receiving foreman.
Linda Evans: I'm Linda Evans I was at Sequoia Pacific for 7 or 8 years and I did quality control.
Suzy Keller: Suzy Keller. I worked at Sequoia for 25 and a half years and I was the controller.
Giles Jensen: Giles Jensen. I worked for Sequoia Pacific for 25 years and I had several positions in management.
Cy Turner: Cy Turner. I was the pressman at Sequoia for 13 years.
Greg Smith: Greg Smith. I worked for Sequoia Pacific for 32 years and I was a pressman trainer.
E. Washington: E. Washington, I was a pressman at Sequoia pacific. I worked there 26 years.
Dan Rather: Well have you added up how many years experience you have cumulative total between you?
Dan Rather: John Ahmann, the biggest punch card expert in the United States says that Sequoia Pacific made the best voting ballots anywhere.
43:25 Cy Turner: We took great pride in the quality of ballots we put out; there was no leeway. It had to be right and it had to be on time. And they took a great pride in doing that from top to bottom.
Dan Rather: Well, the company told customers that Sequoia produced, and I quote, "a no defect product." Now, what did that mean to you?
Suzy Keller: No defects? That means punch cards would punch properly. They would go through the card readers properly. It's a no fault, what they said. And they did it for years.
Dan Rather: They did it, these workers say, until the months leading up to the 2000 presidential election, when they say they saw many things changing, but none more troubling than the paper itself.
Linda Evans: The paper would come through the press looking like it was doing, like jello. It would just kinda, and we'd have to go throw away both ends of the paper, cuz we couldn't run it.
Greg Smith: The paper? The paper is a large factor in the quality of the ballot.
Cy Turner: It's the flour for the bread. I mean you can't make good bread without good flour. If you don't have good paper, you can't make good ballots.
Dan Rather: Did you have input, you know, as rank and file workers in the plant, did you have input on what kind of paper was acceptable and what kind wasn't.
Dan Rather: The policy was workers could reject rolls that were imperfect or damaged and they say they often did send rolls out for salvage trying to insure top quality ballots.
Cy Turner: A pressman running a press could reject a roll, kick it back to raw stock, say this roll was no good. We had rolls come off in huge logs and they're marked by position when they slice a, b, c, d, e. Right about early '99, maybe middle of '99 started getting rolls marked x and z. We couldn't figure that out, but man they were terrible.
Greg Smith: We had quite a bit of input, but towards the end, we had no input whatsoever.
Dan Rather: So things changed.
Greg Smith: After 1999, it was all over. It was like we were all put on the shelf.
Dan Rather: And your opinion didn't matter after that.
All: Exactly.What changed in 1999?
Greg Smith: The paper changed. They decided that they wanted to go with a certain brand. And I think that everybody's opinion was this 2000 election was going to be our demise. Because of the poor quality of what we put out the door.
45:55 Dan Rather: For decades Sequoia had ordered its punch card ballot paper from James River or International Paper; the only mills that had traditionally offered voting punch card stock. In 2000, the company switched to a new mill, Boise Cascade, which had virtually no experience making tab card stock. Workers say they were told to stop testing paper samples. Traditional quality control standards were relaxed.
Linda Evans: There were a lot of things that we were told to let go. And there was card bins I wouldn't sign off. I refused to sign em. They'd sit there overnight and they would say, "you gonna sign em?" and I'd go "no". Come in the following morning, all the bins had been signed off and moved to the front.
Dan Rather: Which means they're being made into ballots.
Linda Evans: Right. Which means someone else signed em off and said let em go.
Dan Rather: But the workers say the problems they were having with the paper went beyond a mere change in suppliers. They say they were suddenly seeing paper rolls that weren't clearly even Boise Cascade paper, because these rolls had Xeroxed Boise shipping labels, rather than genuine ones. Where was all this terrible paper coming from? They say they were baffled that so much paper could be bad, until one day, they got a clue.
E. Washington: One of the pressman is not here. Bob Krause. He had a thing if the paper was real bad, that he would write little nasty letters on the side of the roll. Well, we got one of those rolls back, with the same letter that he had written on it. So, then, that's when it went through our mind that some of that paper was getting rewound and sent back.
47:40 Dan Rather: Not only that. Mr. Washington says this roll, and many of the worst rolls, had a Xeroxed Boise packing label on it. Let me understand this. Your fellow worker, he gets paper he knows is not up to quality?
E. Washington: He's disgusted with. Yes.
Dan Rather: So he marks on it?
Dan Rather: This is bad or whatever. That presumably leaves the plant or goes somewhere and then it comes back with one of these Xerox Boise labels on it?
Dan Rather: Well let's just go down the line is there any doubt in your mind that the company was aware that the ballots for the 2000 general election, including the Presidential vote, were being made with inferior paper? You don't think there's any doubt that they knew that?
Dan Rather: Sequoia management insists that all of the paper used to make punch cards ordered for the presidential election of 2000 came from a single shipment of some half a million pounds of Boise paper delivered directly to the Exeter plant. But these workers suspect only a fraction of that paper was actually delivered to the plant, and that the punch cards ordered for the 2000 presidential election were made from that paper mixed with defective rolls that they had rejected in years past.We asked Sequoia to provide a complete set of shipping documents that would prove its version of events. They didn't provide all the shipping documents, and what they did give us only raised more questions for someone who knew the company's business inside out.Suzy Keller is the former comptroller of Sequoia voting systems. She had been with the company for over twenty-five years when she chose to leave for another job shortly before the 2000 election. She reviewed for us all the documents Sequoia provided.
Suzy Keller: Historically we wouldn't pay for paper without a signed receiver. There's accounting disciplines that you follow. Without signed receiving, you didn't pay for it.
Dan Rather: What we've got here is the company put forward the documents saying the documents prove that all the paper ordered for the 2000 election, 550,000 pounds of this punch card stock, was paid for and delivered to the Sequoia card plant. Now, when you look at the documents, the questions in your mind are what?
50:25 Suzy Keller: Why didn't somebody sign for the paper? There's no signed, there is no one signed that document saying that paper was received at Sequoia.
Dan Rather: Was the punch card ballot paper for the historic 2000 election, never delivered to the ballot plant?
Suzy Keller: You know, part of it was, I'm not gonna say every bit of it, there was probably about 130,000 pounds that Tom did sign for. But, the rest of it, there's no, there's no signatures on the Boise packing list, on the roll list. There's nothing.
Dan Rather: Well, when you read Sequoia's representation, here of the documents, as a professional, you say it's complete and accurate?
Suzy Keller: No. Not as an accountant. It is not complete and accurate, I would not have signed off on that invoice.
Dan Rather: And, so, again, spell it out for me. What's missing?
Suzy Keller: The signed documentation that the paper was actually received. There has to be a signature on there, and there is no signature.
Dan Rather: Did the paper arrive or not?
Suzy Keller: I can't substantiate that, there is no signature on those packing lists.
Dan Rather: We also asked Tom Ayers the former head of shipping and receiving to review the documents Sequoia produced. Ayers was skeptical of them. He said that he had never stamped invoices as received, the company so far as he knows, didn't even have such a stamp, all Ayers had ever done he says was sign and date the receiving invoices. We repeatedly offered Sequoia the opportunity to put any representative on camera to respond to these former employee's allegations. They instead communicated through a public relations firm that represented the documents were complete. Suzy Keller was a financial and accounting expert.We also turned to a paper expert, with some of our unanswered questions. Walter Rantanen is perhaps the country's leading forensic paper analyst. He works with top government agencies including the Secret Service and the F.B.I. working at his lab at "Integrated Paper Services" in Appleton, Wisconsin, Rantanen had a puzzle to solve: Were the Florida ballots made of Boise Cascade paper stock as Sequoia says?
52:50 Walter Rantanen: This is the ballot sample for a fiber analysis. Rantanen analyzed the fibers in the Florida ballots. He discovered none of the cards had the composition of Boise Cascade tab stock, which contains softwood from the Northwest. He also sent Boise Cascade a Florida ballot sample. Boise confirmed the paper wasn't theirs.
53:10 Dan Rather: But that wasn't the last surprise about the Florida ballots. There were not only mysteries about what the cards were made of, but also the way certain Florida ballots were made. Mr. Washington, you had a surprising order from your supervisor when you ran ballots for Palm Beach?
Dan Rather: Running short didn't mean the cards were actually shorter. It simply means lowering, on the face of the ballot, the position of the chads. So the orders were for the ballots going to Palm Beach, don't make them meet the normal specifications?
E. Washington: Right. Because they would grow and if we met the normal specifications they would grow outside the specifications because of the humidity.
Dan Rather: Was this unusual?
E. Washington: Oh yeah, I questioned it, and I even had the plant manager sign it. Because I was having arguments with quality control about the size. And so I said, 'The only way I am going to run it is if Brian comes out here and signs it.' He came out, he signed the 'okay' card to run 'em.
Dan Rather: So you go to Miss Quality Control and she won't sign off on it.
E. Washington: Nope. She won't ok it. So the plant manager came out and signed the OK card for us to run 'em at those specs because that's something that you're not used to doing.
54:50 Dan Rather: Had this happened to you before?
Dan Rather: Was there any other area, somebody say "Well these ballots are going to Louisiana Or Texas Or Arizona?"
Dan Rather: According to these workers, the combination of bad paper and incorrect ballot specifications for Palm Beach was a recipe for Election Day trouble. That is, a high percentage of chads that might be misaligned, wouldn't punch correctly.Chads that could hang, fall out, or get stuck. Any of these events, could cause a ballot to be discounted. Sequoia had a special quality control machine to test whether those critical problems with chads might occur on election night.Linda Evans recalls the chad testing of ballots manufactured for the2000 election.
Linda Evans: Chads were falling out. Chads were hanging up. We've got a machine that we call a gang punch, which in a sense punches out all the holes at the same time. You slide the card in there and you pull down the handle and it punches out all the holes. They weren't punching out. They were hanging up all over the place. They were aware of that. Oh, management was aware of it. We told 'em.
57:15 Walter Rantanen: Oh, oh. It's got something.
Dan Rather: The pattern was clearer in some precincts than others. It's the morning after the election in 2000? You turned on the television, you turned on the radio and you saw and heard about the mess in Florida. Tell me what you thought. Let's start over with you. What'd you think?
Cy Turner: Oh, man. Somebody blew it bad and I bet it was us.
Greg Smith: Well, I knew it was us and I didn't expect anything less than fiascos.
58:20 Dan Rather: Because you knew you were dealing with bad paper?
Greg Smith: Because we were dealing with bad paper and old tooling.
E. Washington: And I get a phone call, and its from my wife. She goes, "What'd you guys do?" I go, "What happened?" She goes, "The ballots are bad in Florida. Palm Beach." So, then, I hang up, and then the next person calls me is my boss Jim Johnson and he tells me, "We blew it. The ballots are bad in Florida. It's all over the news".
E. Washington: The plant manager.
Dan Rather: We repeatedly invited Sequoia to have Brian Lehrman on camera to answer some of the workers allegations. Sequoia declined. What do you think happened?
Greg Smith: My own personal opinion was the touch screen voting system wasn't getting off the ground like that they, like they would hope. And because they weren't having any problems with paper ballots. So, I feel like they, deliberately did all this to have problems with the paper ballots so the electronically voting systems would get off the ground, and which it did in a big way.
Dan Rather: It is hard to imagine an event as dramatic as the one in Florida 2000. And whether or not the workers are right, it is undeniable that in the months following the 2000 election, Sequoia went from selling cards for pennies apiece to selling many millions of dollars worth of new touch screen equipment in Florida alone. The workers have their thoughts, opinions and speculations about this.
Dan Rather: Some of these workers believe that if Sequoia management deliberately used inferior paper for the punch cards, they crossed a serious line.
Tom Ayers: I don't think any company should profit from something like this, I mean, it is almost to the point where it would be illegal. You are putting out a product that you know isn't going to work to make a profit.
Suzy Keller: For years elections took so much pride, they all took pride in the quality of card we put out, and this card that went into Florida created a lot of problems. A lot of problems. Substandard paper? Are we trying to force something here? Are we trying to change the elections community? I thought those things. I can't substantiate those things but that's what I thought.
Giles Jensen: It was something that that really influenced the direction of this, this nation. Intentionally or unintentionally. Let's leave it that way. But, it's a sad state of affairs that it takes seven years for somebody to actually ask the question to the people that might have the answer.
Dan Rather: Agree or disagree, believe what they say or not. You decide, knowing that Sequoia contends that its ballots were fine. (showing a picture of a ballot from the test with hanging chads)These workers are convinced that foreign ownership was part of the problem at Sequoia. They worry that overseas owners controlled the production of punch cards and the same will be true of optical scan ballots, as Sequoia remains a major supplier of ballots nationwide.
1:02:55 Dan Rather: What's more important to you: knowing that your vote is recorded as you cast it? or the profits of voting machine manufacturers? It's an obvious question, but when citizens try to get to the bottom of how these machines, bought with your taxpayer money, either work or don't work, manufacturers continually hide behind the wall of "trade secrets." Are these machines that determine who decides our laws, who runs our states, and who sits in the White House with the power to direct our armed forces, no different from say the formula for Coca Cola, or McDonald's special sauce? We don't think so, and that's why we tried to get answers tonight and raise questions about accountability.But, unlike Congress or prosecutors, we aren't armed with subpoena power, we can't force companies to prove that they take concerns about their machines and their ballots seriously. Their message is "trust us," but the information we have been able to obtain suggests that trust has not been earned, and that voting machines warrant, at the very least, much closer scrutiny than they have received so far. Because, as we heard Florida's governor Crist ask, " what could be more important in democracy than making sure that the right to vote is one that we can have confidence in?"
but I can't find the transcript there anymore.


In cooperation with the Aachen Dental Laser Center (AALZ), RWTH International Academy offers the postgraduate master programme M. Sc. "Lasers in Dentistry". The course offers dentists the opportunity to become highly qualified specialists in the area of laser therapy. The programme is recognised and accredited in Germany and the European Union, as well all countries that are signatories of the "Washington Accord".
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"Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
but he that believeth not shall be condemned."
Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.


text:
Betfred Launch New Goals Galore TV Advert
01 Dec, 2011, 10:38 GMT
MANCHESTER, England, December 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --
Bookmakers Betfred will tonight launch their new TV advert starring Helen Chamberlain.
The Soccer AM star is to be the new face of Betfred's exciting and popular football bet 'Goals Galore' in all their 1350 shops, online and on the mobile.
The advert will be shown for the first time tonight on Sky Sports News and will run throughout the Sky Sports platform. But for the first time Betfred will also advertise on Dave, Comedy Central, Sky Atlantic, G.O.L.D and Channel 5.
The advert was filmed on location in the centre of Manchester and in one of Betfred' shops and can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAACcuZ50o4
Helen Chamberlain said,
" I love a flutter so I'm looking forward to having a punt on Goals Galore - it's so easy to do too. We've seen so many crazy score lines, the goals are flying in all over the place. I suspect Fred is going to be skint at the end of the season. Let's hope so for the punters sake!"
Betfred boss Fred Done also appears in the advert,
"It was fantastic working with Helen and we had a real good laugh. Goals Galore is just getting bigger and bigger, I now sit there on a Saturday afternoon crossing my fingers for clean sheets otherwise I do my dough!"
Betfred worked with advertising agency BJL on this campaign and Managing Director Nicky Unsworth said,
"The North West media scene is really thriving at the moment, and as a Manchester-based agency ourselves, it's refreshing to be teaming up with a company that started in the North West and has become a major national player."
The production on the advert was carried out by The Gate based in Manchester and Betfred have released a special behind the scenes video featuring the making of their new advert which can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsu1Gp2HRsw
Goals Galore was launched by Betfred in August 2009 and has become their most popular football bet. You don't have to select who is going to win a match, all you have to do is pick matches where you think both teams will score.
Goals Galore is available in Betfred's 1350 shops, at http://www.betfred.com , on the mobile or by phoning Betfred's call centre on 0800-221-221.
SOURCE Betfred

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


500 Oval Pin-It Cards made from recycled paper in assorted color set.
Sold in 500 cards/set in assorted colours: white, red, blue, green, yellow, and orange. Set consisting of: 50% white and yellow cards, and 12,5% of each of the other 4 colours.
Customer evaluation for "Pin-It Cards, oval, 500 sheets, assorted"


text:
Fast synthesis and single crystal growth of Pb-free and Pb-doped Bi-2223 superconductors using alkali chlorides flux technique
S. Lee, Ayako Yamamoto, S. Tajima
Here we report our recent results for the fast synthesis of Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+x phase in powder and single crystal forms using modified alkali chlorides flux technique. For many factors such as flux, crucibles materials, chemical and phase composition of the precursor, temperature and duration of heat treatment, evaporation rate of the flux, their effects on the formation and growth of 2223 have been studied. By optimization of these parameters, the single-phase samples of Pb-doped and Pb-free 2223 phase were obtained in the temperature range of 850-870°C and heat treatment for <15 h, that is much faster, compared with a solid-state reaction technique. The single crystals with the size of 0.5 mm were isolated and characterized using XRD, SEM/EDX, susceptibility and resistivity measurements. The effect of post-annealing in different atmospheres on the oxygen content and superconductivity of the samples was studied by TG and chemical analyses.
Physica C: Superconductivity and its Applications
SUPPL. 2
Published - 2001 Aug
Alkalies
Crystal growth
Superconducting materials
evaporation rate
Superconductivity
Solid state reactions
Alkali chloride fluxes
Bi-2223
Rapid formation
Single crystal growth
Lee, S., Yamamoto, A., & Tajima, S. (2001). Fast synthesis and single crystal growth of Pb-free and Pb-doped Bi-2223 superconductors using alkali chlorides flux technique. Physica C: Superconductivity and its Applications, 357-360(SUPPL. 2), 341-344. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-4534(01)00242-8
Fast synthesis and single crystal growth of Pb-free and Pb-doped Bi-2223 superconductors using alkali chlorides flux technique. / Lee, S.; Yamamoto, Ayako; Tajima, S.
In: Physica C: Superconductivity and its Applications, Vol. 357-360, No. SUPPL. 2, 08.2001, p. 341-344.
Lee, S, Yamamoto, A & Tajima, S 2001, 'Fast synthesis and single crystal growth of Pb-free and Pb-doped Bi-2223 superconductors using alkali chlorides flux technique', Physica C: Superconductivity and its Applications, vol. 357-360, no. SUPPL. 2, pp. 341-344. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-4534(01)00242-8
Lee S, Yamamoto A, Tajima S. Fast synthesis and single crystal growth of Pb-free and Pb-doped Bi-2223 superconductors using alkali chlorides flux technique. Physica C: Superconductivity and its Applications. 2001 Aug;357-360(SUPPL. 2):341-344. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-4534(01)00242-8
Lee, S. ; Yamamoto, Ayako ; Tajima, S. / Fast synthesis and single crystal growth of Pb-free and Pb-doped Bi-2223 superconductors using alkali chlorides flux technique. In: Physica C: Superconductivity and its Applications. 2001 ; Vol. 357-360, No. SUPPL. 2. pp. 341-344.
@article{b22e4bae055540378a78bfec68a45090,
title = "Fast synthesis and single crystal growth of Pb-free and Pb-doped Bi-2223 superconductors using alkali chlorides flux technique",
abstract = "Here we report our recent results for the fast synthesis of Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+x phase in powder and single crystal forms using modified alkali chlorides flux technique. For many factors such as flux, crucibles materials, chemical and phase composition of the precursor, temperature and duration of heat treatment, evaporation rate of the flux, their effects on the formation and growth of 2223 have been studied. By optimization of these parameters, the single-phase samples of Pb-doped and Pb-free 2223 phase were obtained in the temperature range of 850-870°C and heat treatment for <15 h, that is much faster, compared with a solid-state reaction technique. The single crystals with the size of 0.5 mm were isolated and characterized using XRD, SEM/EDX, susceptibility and resistivity measurements. The effect of post-annealing in different atmospheres on the oxygen content and superconductivity of the samples was studied by TG and chemical analyses.",
keywords = "Alkali chloride fluxes, Bi-2223, Rapid formation, Single crystal growth",
author = "S. Lee and Ayako Yamamoto and S. Tajima",
journal = "Physica C: Superconductivity and its Applications",
number = "SUPPL. 2",
T1 - Fast synthesis and single crystal growth of Pb-free and Pb-doped Bi-2223 superconductors using alkali chlorides flux technique
AU - Lee, S.
AU - Yamamoto, Ayako
AU - Tajima, S.
N2 - Here we report our recent results for the fast synthesis of Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+x phase in powder and single crystal forms using modified alkali chlorides flux technique. For many factors such as flux, crucibles materials, chemical and phase composition of the precursor, temperature and duration of heat treatment, evaporation rate of the flux, their effects on the formation and growth of 2223 have been studied. By optimization of these parameters, the single-phase samples of Pb-doped and Pb-free 2223 phase were obtained in the temperature range of 850-870°C and heat treatment for <15 h, that is much faster, compared with a solid-state reaction technique. The single crystals with the size of 0.5 mm were isolated and characterized using XRD, SEM/EDX, susceptibility and resistivity measurements. The effect of post-annealing in different atmospheres on the oxygen content and superconductivity of the samples was studied by TG and chemical analyses.
AB - Here we report our recent results for the fast synthesis of Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+x phase in powder and single crystal forms using modified alkali chlorides flux technique. For many factors such as flux, crucibles materials, chemical and phase composition of the precursor, temperature and duration of heat treatment, evaporation rate of the flux, their effects on the formation and growth of 2223 have been studied. By optimization of these parameters, the single-phase samples of Pb-doped and Pb-free 2223 phase were obtained in the temperature range of 850-870°C and heat treatment for <15 h, that is much faster, compared with a solid-state reaction technique. The single crystals with the size of 0.5 mm were isolated and characterized using XRD, SEM/EDX, susceptibility and resistivity measurements. The effect of post-annealing in different atmospheres on the oxygen content and superconductivity of the samples was studied by TG and chemical analyses.
KW - Alkali chloride fluxes
KW - Bi-2223
KW - Rapid formation
KW - Single crystal growth
JO - Physica C: Superconductivity and its Applications
JF - Physica C: Superconductivity and its Applications
IS - SUPPL. 2


text:
Q: how to make a contractable stackpanel in Xaml My idea is fairly simple and I've seen it many places.
I want to be able to expand and contract a list of items based on a click on a button.
ex

*

*listitem 1

*listitem 2

*

*subList item 1

*subList item 2

*listItem 3

simply click Listitem 2 and the sublistitems should disapear. click it again or any other listitem and the sublist item belonging to that listitem should reappear.
here is what I've done so far(Doesn't work)
Channels.Xaml:
<UserControl
x:Class="InternetRadio.RadioChannels"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:local="using:InternetRadio"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
mc:Ignorable="d"
d:DesignHeight="300"
d:DesignWidth="400">

<StackPanel x:Name="stationList" Orientation="Vertical">
    <Button x:Name="HamburgerButton" FontFamily="Segoe MDL2 Assets" Content="" Width="50" Height="50" Background="Transparent" Click="HamburgerButton_click"/>

    <TextBlock x:Name="textBox" Text="Internet Radio Stations" Padding="50,0,0,0" Height="20px" />
    <ToggleButton x:Name="collapsableBtn" Content="DR Channels" Margin="50,0,0,0" Background="Transparent" Click="collapsableBtn_Click" />

        <StackPanel x:Name="RadioChannelsCollapsable" Visibility="Collapsed">
    <ItemsControl x:Name="tStack" Grid.Column="1" >
            <ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
                <ItemsPanelTemplate>
                <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" />
                </ItemsPanelTemplate>
            </ItemsControl.ItemsPanel>
            <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
                <DataTemplate>
                <Button Content="{Binding ItemName}" />
                </DataTemplate>
            </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
        </ItemsControl>
    </StackPanel>
</StackPanel>

Channels.xaml.cs
private void collapsableBtn_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            if(RadioChannelsCollapsable.Visibility == Visibility.Collapsed)
            {
                RadioChannelsCollapsable.Visibility = Visibility.Visible;

                RadioChannelsCollapsable.Children.ToList().ForEach(vis => vis.Visibility = Visibility.Visible);
            }
            else
            {
                RadioChannelsCollapsable.Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed;
                RadioChannelsCollapsable.Children.ToList().ForEach(vis => vis.Visibility = Visibility.Collapsed);
            }

just to be clear this usercontrol is used like this in a splitView:
mainpage.xaml
<SplitView x:Name="radioChannelssplitview" DisplayMode="CompactOverlay" IsPaneOpen="False" CompactPaneLength="50" OpenPaneLength="250">
    <SplitView.Pane>
        <local:RadioChannels x:Name="myControl" Background="Gray"/>
    </SplitView.Pane>
    <SplitView.Content>
        <Grid Background="{ThemeResource ApplicationPageBackgroundThemeBrush}">

            <TextBlock x:Name="StationTitle" Text="Internet Radio" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Top" Height="20px" />
            <TextBlock x:Name="ProgramTitle" Text="Welcome Page" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Top" Height="20px" Margin="130,60,140,560" />
        </Grid>
    </SplitView.Content>
</SplitView>

        }

and I cannot make it work :( the splitview opens and closes easily but the stackpanel does not expand and contract at all. please give me a pointer to where or why I'm wrong and/or a pointer to how I should be doing this. Thanks in advance

A: I would rather try to create my own UserControl that can be expaned or not depending on it's VisualState. My quick and simple sample:
MainPage.xaml:
<Page.Resources>
    <DataTemplate x:Key="MyItemTemplate">
        <local:MyItem></local:MyItem>
    </DataTemplate>
</Page.Resources>

<Grid Background="{ThemeResource ApplicationPageBackgroundThemeBrush}">
    <ListView ItemsSource="{Binding Items}" ItemTemplate="{StaticResource MyItemTemplate}"
              SelectionMode="None" IsItemClickEnabled="True">
    </ListView>
</Grid>

MainPage.xamls.cs:
public sealed partial class MainPage : Page
{
    public MainPage()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        DataContext = new ViewModel();
    }
}

ViewModel.cs:
public class ViewModel
{
    public ViewModel()
    {
        Items.Add(new MyItemViewModel("Item1"));
        Items.Add(new MyItemViewModel("Item2"));
        Items.Add(new MyItemViewModel("Item3"));
    }

    public ApplicationDataLocality ApplicationDataLocalityEnum { get; } =
           ApplicationDataLocality.Local;

    public FontStyle FontStyleEnum { get; } =
               FontStyle.Normal;

    public ObservableCollection<MyItemViewModel> Items { get; set; } = new ObservableCollection<MyItemViewModel>();
}

MyItem.xaml.cs:
<StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">
    <TextBlock Text="{Binding Title}" x:Name="TitleBlock"  Tapped="Title_OnTapped"/>
    <ListView ItemsSource="{Binding Items}" x:Name="ItemsBlock" ItemClick="Items_OnItemClick" IsItemClickEnabled="True"/>

    <VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
        <VisualStateGroup x:Name="CommonStates">
            <VisualState x:Name="Regular">
                <Storyboard>
                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ItemsBlock" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Visibility" >
                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="Collapsed"/>
                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                </Storyboard>
            </VisualState>
            <VisualState x:Name="Expanded">
                <Storyboard>
                    <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="ItemsBlock" Storyboard.TargetProperty="Visibility" >
                        <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" Value="Visible"/>
                    </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames>
                </Storyboard>
            </VisualState>
        </VisualStateGroup>
    </VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>
</StackPanel>

MyItem.xaml.cs:
public enum MyItemState
{
    Regular,
    Expanded
}

public sealed partial class MyItem : UserControl
{
    private MyItemState _state;
    public MyItemState State
    {
        get { return _state; }
        set
        {
            _state = value;
            VisualStateManager.GoToState(this, _state.ToString(), true);
        }
    }

    public MyItem()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        State = MyItemState.Regular;
    }

    private void Title_OnTapped(object sender, TappedRoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        if (State == MyItemState.Regular)
        {
            State = MyItemState.Expanded;
        }
        else
        {
            State = MyItemState.Regular;
        }
    }

    private void Items_OnItemClick(object sender, ItemClickEventArgs e)
    {
        // action after subitem is clicked
    }
}

and MyItemViewModel:
public class MyItemViewModel
{
    public ObservableCollection<TextBlock> Items { get; set; } = new ObservableCollection<TextBlock>();

    public string Title { get; set; }

    public MyItemViewModel(string title)
    {
        Title = title;

        Items.Add(new TextBlock() { Text = "SubItem1" });
        Items.Add(new TextBlock() { Text = "SubItem2" });
        Items.Add(new TextBlock() { Text = "SubItem3" });
    }
}

whenever you click on the MyItem Title it will change it's state - to expand or shrink it's subItems (only TextBoxes just to keep it simple - may by antoher UserControl with any view you want) that in this case I store in another ListView.
ToDo: change the styles and animations so the state change may look better and so on.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
2020 Portfolio Updates, Portfolio Updates
The economic cost of the COVID-19 crisis may pale in comparison to the human cost. Many people fear for their own health and that of their loved ones. As such, there is a "real" element to the fear factor. Measures to contain the virus have upended supply chains and financial markets and have weighed on commodity prices. Consumer and business confidence are expected to remain subdued for some time, not least if fears of a second wave of the virus linger. We are monitoring these developments and have maintained our previous Recession outlook for the U.S. economy to reflect a Recession beginning in March and extending through the end of the year, as the situation will deteriorate further before beginning to recover.
With lockdowns in place across much of the world, the IMF has downgraded their forecasts further in recent days, now forecasting global real GDP to fall by over 3% this year. That compares with a pre-virus forecast assuming growth of about 3%. This means that 2020 is set to be the worst year for the global economy since the end of the Second World War, when world GDP in 1945 plunged by 5.5%.1
The Fed has launched many new programs. The U.S. was on track for an outright fiscal drag in 2020 due to expiring stimulus, living with the largest fiscal deficit and thus is the least capable of delivering more fiscal stimulus. The Federal Reserve has now expanded its balance sheet beyond $6 trillion, an increase of almost $2 trillion in less than a month.2 It has taken extraordinary steps to lift regulations to help banks play their part in the relief effort. One consequence may be that central bank support could help most risky assets to outperform safe ones by a wide margin as these measures go far beyond conventional monetary easing in their efforts to backstop the financial system. With a policy interest rate that has been cut to a range of 0% to 0.25% and commitment that rates would stay low indefinitely, the supply of funds outside of the Feds own money creation may become scarce. By virtue of a system that promotes superior productivity growth, the country's knack for nurturing world-beating companies, and less challenging demographics than the developed world, there is some hope that the U.S. can outpace most of the developed world in economic recovery.
Canada will rack up debt faster in this crisis than any other developed country, relative to its economy, according to data from the IMF. It is fortunate that Canada's governments went into this economic crisis in a much better financial position than most other developed countries. Net government debt (total government debt minus its cash holdings) was at 40% of economic output before the crisis. The average for developed countries was 107%. This may be why Canada's governments have proven more willing to spend their way out of the crisis than some others.3
Global markets in Q1 were devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. U.S. equities posted their worst quarter since 2008, with the S&P 500 down 19.6%. The S&P MidCap 400 and the S&P SmallCap 600 were down 29.7% and 32.6%, respectively. Canadian equities were likewise battered, with the S&P/TSX Composite down 20.9% for the quarter. The Canadian Energy sector was down by 30.8% in March and 37.2% in the first quarter. The global pandemic fears also spread rapidly across Europe. Italy, and then Spain. The S&P Europe 350 fell 14.0% in March to complete a 22.4% drop this quarter, the worst monthly and quarterly performance since September 2002. International markets were not spared, and the S&P Pan Asia BMI was down by 20% for the quarter. U.S. Treasuries benefited from a flight to safety. Corporate bonds fared less well, as spreads widened across sectors and grades of the credit market.
In April, we maintained the asset allocation positioning that we established on February 19th. This reflects our view on deflationary and recessionary influences that dominate the global economy. Allocation to equities was reduced in February to 12% in Tactical Conservative, 17% in Tactical Moderate Growth, 26% in Tactical Growth, and 34% in Tactical Aggressive Growth. In February, within the Fixed Income allocation, we added the 20+ year Treasury Bond. Gold continues to be present in all models as it performs well in high risk, low yield environments as a risk-free asset class. Gold has played an important role in portfolios as a source of liquidity and collateral. As has been the case in previous market selloffs, we have seen that the stronger the pullback in the stock market, the more negatively correlated gold becomes.
This shutdown will cause the greatest short-term drop in output that the global economy has ever experienced, and the pace of the subsequent recovery is hard to determine at this time. No one knows how long the supply and demand disruptions will constrain growth. We will continue to monitor the data for growth, inflation, and recession signals from employment, consumer spending, business sentiment, Fed policy, the yield curve, inflation, and global economics. Our focus is on protecting portfolios from downside risk, and we believe that our investment process is working to achieve that goal.
Deborah Frame, President and CIO
1 Capital Economics. Global Economics Update. March 31, 2020.
2 Capital Economics. U.S. Economic Update. April 16, 2020.
3 National Bank of Canada. Public Sector Debt. April 15, 2020.
Index return data from Bloomberg and S&P Dow Jones Indices Index Dashboard: U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, Fixed Income. March 31, 2020. Index performance is based on total returns and expressed in the local currency of the index.
April 27, 2020 /by Drew Millard
https://secureservercdn.net/45.40.149.181/nh0.623.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/april2018.jpg?time=1642402613 709 1260 Drew Millard https://secureservercdn.net/45.40.149.181/nh0.623.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/fgam-x-qw-300x42.png Drew Millard2020-04-27 10:00:412020-05-04 18:17:29April 2020
2021 Portfolio Updates
December 2021December 26, 2021 - 10:00 am
November 2020November 26, 2020 - 10:00 am
October 2020October 26, 2020 - 10:00 am
September 2020September 26, 2020 - 10:00 am
August 2020August 26, 2020 - 10:00 am
July 2020July 26, 2020 - 10:00 am
June 2020June 26, 2020 - 10:00 am
May 2020May 27, 2020 - 10:00 am
April 2020April 27, 2020 - 10:00 am
March 2020March 27, 2020 - 10:00 am
February 2020February 27, 2020 - 10:00 am
January 2020January 27, 2020 - 10:00 am
February 2019March 1, 2019 - 10:00 am
January 2019February 1, 2019 - 10:00 am
December 2018January 1, 2019 - 10:00 am
November 2018December 1, 2018 - 10:00 am
October 2018November 1, 2018 - 10:00 am
September 2018October 1, 2018 - 10:00 am
August 2018September 1, 2018 - 10:00 am
July 2018August 1, 2018 - 10:00 am
June 2018July 1, 2018 - 10:24 am
May 2018June 1, 2018 - 10:37 am
April 2018May 1, 2018 - 10:39 am
March 2018April 1, 2018 - 10:48 am
Q2 2020 Outlook May 2020


text:
Red Deer's warming centre open for the season
Donations of mitts needed
Susan Zielinski
Each day about 50 people visit Safe Harbour's warming centre to get out of the increasingly cold weather.
Tricia Haggarty-Roberts, Safe Harbour director of operations, said unfortunately staff do not have good quality mitts to hand out to clients when they leave. Donations would be greatly appreciated.
"We have people who lose appendages every year, fingers and toes," said Haggarty-Roberts on Wednesday.
"We have lots of socks. We do not have mitts."
She said staff recently picked up 30 pairs of gloves from Bibles for Missions.
"I guarantee they'll be gone by Friday. It won't take long."
The downtown warming centre, made up of three connected trailers, opened for the season on Nov. 1. and operates seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for Red Deer's homeless.
A computer from Alberta Works is available to clients to search and apply for jobs and keep in contact with friends and family. Counsellors can also be brought in from Alberta Health Services, as well as members of the co-ordinated entry team to help connect clients to housing.
Tyrel Jackson, 29, said the warming centre is a nice place to hang out and get a coffee, use the phone or computer, and of course get out of the cold.
"Sometimes there's nowhere else to go," Jackson said with a coffee cup in hand.
He said staff are helpful.
"They've got a pretty good grasp on all the resources around here."
Jackson said he's trying to improve his circumstances, but it's a slow process from where he's at right now.
"It just takes time."
Jackson said he only started using the centre this season and hoped others who need it are made aware that it's available.
The centre is located in Safe Harbour's parking lot, at 5246 53rd Ave.
Haggarty-Roberts said at 50 clients a day, the number of visitors started out slow this season.
Donations of granola bars or fresh fruit would also be welcome. Clients rarely have access to fresh fruit, she said.
Police watchdog clears RCMP officer
North Pole Stroll kicks off on Saturday


Solar Powered Attic Gable Vent Fan – You might be able to buy doors with three hinges in order that you won't have to relocate hinges. Normally, there are two sorts of garage doors. The exact same door may be used in ceilings and walls. Warming up a motor car inside a garage creates lots of carbon monoxide. You'll begin to appreciate fresh air just like you by no means did before. The issue is that the typical relatives doesn't appear at securing the attic until it is much also late. It is very important to obtain good excellent garage strategies that are simple to follow, exact, and offer a materials list (well, a materials list isn't important, nonetheless it will certainly save plenty of period). If your house's energy efficiency rating is fixed, you will have to devote a much larger total continue to hold your home the desired heat range. There are various renovation projects which is often carried out to improve the worthwhile of your property and the attic insulation removal and replacing will surely be among the most helpful.
You are thinking about having a clean, organized garage to earn a very good impression on a potential renter. Should it, you'll want to be certain you're able to have the absolute virtually all out of your premises. Without insulation, it might be possible to create the garage more comfortable, but it will take a good deal longer. In the event the attic includes a ground, you will just have to put in a laminate or hardwood floor carpet or treatment. As a result, should you not have the suitable quantity of fiberglass insulation in your attic, the air can realize your desire to escape easier. Attic fans are more powerful somewhat. For many folks, a garage is far more than a destination to park. Overlooked when worrying about home security often, the attic can be among the most vulnerable regions of the real home. If you have to install innovative outlets or to approach outlets which already are there, it is better to seek the products and services of a certified electrician to do the work. Our large variety lets you opt for the one which you require for your house.
Our friendly support staff can help you with any questions about what access doors to employ for what application, the particulars of a particular access door, or assist with installation of a particular access door even. By getting the correct amount and most appropriate sort of insulation in your attic, your residence's energy effectiveness rating increases. On top of that, there are different advantages to a large back door. If your home is equipped to keep carefully the temperature for an extended duration, your HVAC unit would want to frequently get used less. Insulating the spot in the attic above a garage might continue to keep the temperature a lttle bit more steady in the garage, nonetheless it does little to lessen the sum of energy necessary to heat and awesome your home, therefore it's not an excellent investment of energy dollars.
Based on how big is the attic, more than 1 dehumidifier could possibly be needed to eradicate moisture and dry out the region. Programmable thermostats are at present designed for baseboard heat! If you are setting up insulation from the exterior the wall, like you're in the garage, the paper should touch the interior portion of the wall. Locate the studs, or rafters, on each area of the spot where you prefer to create the gain access to hole. Attic stairs should be cut so the hinges usually do not bend and the base of the set of actions lay flush on the ground. It's possible to surf their most favorite attic ladders online in this article. The rails or legs on attic ladders have to be trimmed to the correct length. Purchasing an attic ladder is only the start of your work truly.
If you're fortunate enough to have a ceiling and attic access to your garage, including a simple amount of insulation up there's a very good idea. Please be aware that only the supply ductwork has to be sealed. If you are fixing a current home, you will have to put some kind of sheathing on top of each cavity aswell so the insulation will end up being wholly encapsulated on all six sides. Elderly homes in the USA frequently have an attic that is just reachable through a garage or maybe a ceiling entrance in a room. If there's an attic over the room, there ought to be a panel or pull-down stairs that offer access. Garage Envy has the ability to support you realize the whole potential of your attic for a space for storage or a loft by completing the area and making it simple to access. The ideal ventilation process is an assortment of ridge and soffit vents with an open connection between both. Attic gain access to hatches don't have the exact same quantity of insulation as the rest of the ceiling. Locate the spot in the house you desire the attic gain access to hole to be set up.


Despite Disney's best efforts toward the contrary, "Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End," was damn good.
The movie, which I saw at midnight, put forward some excellent plot twists, good fight scenes and (finally) some superb, epic naval warfare scenes as opposed to earlier, cartoonish attempts.
The movie opens nice and strangely with a scene of men, women and even a child who has to be propped up with a barrel, being hung for taking part in acts of piracy or associating with known pirates. No gruesome–just, you know, dozens of people being dropped through the trapdoors of the gallows.
The movie was 2 hours and 48 minutes long.
Last year, I said that two and a half hours was simply too much for a Disney movie about pirates.
That statement makes perfect sense, but somehow they made the third installment longer without making it seem so.
This movie flew by, and it was by far better than "Dead Man's Chest," although the second movie makes much more sense now.
Tommy K's Video, which for years held off the likes of Blockbuster and Hollywood Video will close one of its largest stores.
The Rt. 1 Branford location, which the company claims had their best inventory for over 20 years, will liquidate its supply of movies and video games.
Tommy K's had been ranked #1 in the state by the New Haven Advocate for many years. It's video rental business had been down for the past three years, matching the rest of the retail movie rental industry.
Video Business Writer, Cindy Spielvogel wrote in 2004 that its sell-through business had been up, however, which management credited to increased previously viewed movie sales. That trend means that more movies have been going for sale faster, in line with the fact that they weren't renting enough in the first place. More and more surplus titles got pulled from the shelves and put for sale.
This practice works with DVD's which cost rental stores very little, quickly pay for themselves and are often sold used at a profit. VHS was another story, however, because rental VHS videos often cost upwards of $100 and had to be rented out many times to make a profit.
Not a lot of surprises, but Mark Wahlberg received the nomination for supporting actor over Jack Nicholson. Matt Damon was not nominated. Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for his role in "Blood Diamond." He had previously been nominated for two Golden Globes, including his role in "The Departed," but you can only be nominated once per category in the Oscars.
"Dreamgirls" was nominated for eight Academy Awards, but not Best Picture.


Hi Loves! ♥ As you guys probably know, I visited my hometown last month and I promised to share some pictures from my Prague trip! There were so many but I finally managed to go through all of them and pick the best ones! Even though I had two full weeks to spend with my family and friends, it was simply not enough to do everything I planned on and see everyone I wanted! I think I still made the best of it anyways! And there's always next time! Prague is a gorgeous city and you truly appreciate it even more if you go there as a tourist! I have to say I used to take Prague for granted when I lived in the old centre... Not anymore! It's one of the best cities I've ever been to, I've ever lived at, and I do miss it sometimes! Hope you'll enjoy my pics that I took while walking the Prague streets and hanging out with my favorite people! Have a wonderful new week!
You can also watch some of my Prague vlogs on The Kawaii Planet YouTube Channel.
I flew with Lufthansa and it was nice - great food and service! Be careful though when booking an oversea flight - make sure you have plenty of time to transfer! I had 1.15 hours only on the way back and almost missed my connecting flight due to a little delay! Ugh, nightmare!
You will see the Old Town Square and Astronomical Clock if you go right from here!
I met my little niece named Kristyna for the first time when I was in Prague! She is the cutest and nicest baby ever! My brother is very a lucky guy!
The popular Astronomical Clock - you can't miss this when you're in Czech republic!
Charles bridge with a Prague Castle view!
Láska = LOVE! Lennon's wall - a popular place to take selfies!
Vltava River - you can take a fun boat trip from here!
I can't imagine my trip without this adorable blush backpack!
Old Town Square and its amazing view!
Vltava river from Charles Bridge.
Čertovka - houses built on a river. People put locks on the bridge.
All the beautiful old school roofs - this view is from Prague Castle!
Prague Castle view from Petrin Gardens.
Dandelions are my favorite. As you could see in my vlog - I love making a flower crown from them (when they are yellow lol)!
Couldn't miss Czech cappuccino! Such a big difference from American version of "coffee"!
Loving all the architecture. Don't forget to look UP when you're walking the Prague streets!
American Embassy in Czech republic!
Love me some Tereza! ♥ Miss you boo!
Time spent with family and friends always goes by way to quickly! It looks like you had an amazing time!


call Srdja the lawyer to get me out of this hell.
He represented the young Zoran Djindjic, Brigitte Mohnhaupt from Baader-Meinhof Group, Vojislav Seselj, Dusan Makavejev, Milorad Vucelic, Mihajlo Markovic, Mica Popovic, Predrag Cudic, Nebojsa Popov, Vladimir Mijanovic Revolution, Milan Nikolic, Bozidar Jaksic, Mihajlo Mihailov, Momcilo Selic, Dobroslav Paraga, Gojko Djogo, Milan Milisic, Vladimir Seks, Andrija Artukovic, The Belgrade Six, professors forced out from the Faculty of Philosophy.
He belonged to the petition movement, and was the initiator of petitions to abolish Article 133 (verbal delict) and the death penalty, to adopt a law on amnesty and to introduce the multiparty system in SFRY.
In 1976. he was one of the member-founders of the World Association of Lawyers; 1990. he became President of the Independent Commission for Investigating the Exodus of Serbs from Kosovo; 1990/91. he was the President of the European Movement in Yugoslavia; 1990. he founded the first private media in Yugoslavia, the weekly magazine Vreme; 1993/94. he was a member of the Advisory Board of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in New York; 1993. he received the Rule of Law award of the New York section of the American Bar Association.
After Milosevic came into power, he immigrated with family to the US and returned to Belgrade in 2001. His last case was the trial for the assassination of prime minister Zoran Djindjic.
He is the author of the books: Kosovo Knot – Untie or Cut 1990, Road to Barbarism 2000, The Highest Instance I, II, III 2003, Unfinished Process 2007, Those Bitter Tears Thereafter 2010.
Serbian society and war crimes, 29.10.2014.
The majority is never right, 01.11.2013.
Please, allow me to address you…, 13.02.2013.
Notes for a discussion on the end of an epoch, 08.12.2012.
Special edition in broken English, 03.08.2012.
The moment of truth, 23.05.2012.
Drive on, everyone is on board!, 05.05.2012.
Criminal complaint for armed insurrection, 17.11.2010.
Those bitter tears thereafter, 08.08.2010.
The nationalist gene in the Democratic Party, 14.02.2010.
Serbia burdened by the Democratic Party, 08.06.2009.
The train for Europe, 26.10.2008.
How we lie to ourselves, 14.10.2008.
The break-up of Yugoslavia – part I, 08.10.2008.
The break-up of Yugoslavia – part II, 08.10.2008.
What is going on, 17.09.2008.
False dilemmas about a 'false state', 26.07.2008.
You asked for it, 24.07.2008.
What happened on October 5th, 22.07.2008.


Dear friends, as many of you must be aware, Maths2Art also has a CSR initiative named 'GivingBack@Maths2Art'. The underlying idea behind the initiative is to foster a sense of giving back to the community, focussing on children less fortunate than us, thereby serving the ultimate objective of TRUE education: Benefitting our world and the society around, and improving the conditions of the less well off.
As part of this, Maths2Art was searching for an appropriate cause/venue to kickstart this initiative, when I met Siddhit Prabhu Tamba, through a common friend's reference. Siddhit is a Renewable Energy & Sustainability professional, originally hailing from Goa and has been working with a school called the Serkong School in Spiti valley, Himachal Pradesh, India, for the past 4 years.
The school was established in 1999 by the local 1000 year old Tabo Buddhist monastery to ensure that the children from this remote part of the country get access to a quality, well-rounded & modern education, in conjunction with keeping their (fast dwindling) local culture alive. The emphasis is on children from economically constrained families of the Spiti region, who otherwise could not afford a quality education and hence would have to give up on their dreams of higher studies and a career of their choice.
Since then, we have been collaborating on a couple of education-related projects and also brainstorming all possible ways to improve the conditions at the Serkong school, and gradually in the surrounding region of Spiti Valley.
Our primary focus is on improving the Education, Healthcare and Energy & Communications infrastructure in the area.
The ultimate objective is to replicate such projects gradually in other remote, far-flung & impoverished regions of India as we grow and network with more like-minded and passionate individuals/organisations.
We are still working on our itinerary and we will update you with the details soon. Looking forward to arranging the first trip as part of our Meaningful Holidays initiative with some of you like-minded folks, who relate to the cause and would like to contribute in some meaningful fashion… Watch out for more details on the project soon.


My question is, does God protect us? We hear the story of Guru Nanak Dev Ji when he was little and the snake came to give him shade from the hot sun and we are told that God watches over us like that. When we are saved from a crisis in our lives we say God protected us, when something "bad" happens to someone, we say He delivered justice for something that person did. But I have a friend who recently said "God doesn't protect us or harm us, He is just there with us through all of this." I feel like i told myself God is my protector to feel safe, but when that sense of safety was broken by something happening in my life, i wasn't able to regain it by saying God is going to protect me from this happening again because it already happened once. I find myself confused.
This is a really great question. Thanks so much for asking it!
ANG 95 - Guru Ram Das Ji "My Darling Beloved True Guru is my Protector. I am a helpless child—please cherish me."
ANG 103 - Guru Arjan Dev Ji (Toon mera pita...) "You are my Protector everywhere; why should I feel any fear or anxiety?"
ANG 105 - Guru Arjan Dev Ji "The One to whom we belong cherishes and nurtures us. The Supreme Lord God has become our Protector.
What is the Guru saying? He is saying that when we surrender completely, when we give our head (our ego) and give up all scheming, planning, manipulating and desiring, that THEN we have a constant awareness at every moment that the Guru is arranging all our affairs. This is exactly what Guru Nanak Dev Ji means in the very first pauri of Japji Sahib: Hukam rajaa-ee chalnaa naanak likhi-aa naal. To walk in Waheguru's hukam. To live in God's will means to surrender. The "manai" pauris of Japji Sahib (pauris 13, 14 and 15) are all about that. In these pauris Guru Ji describes exactly what happens when you surrender.
With karma there is no dharma and with dharma there is no karma - the account is erased.
So how you experience it is all about point of view. You said, "...that sense of safety was broken by something happening in my life..." but there is no such thing as safety. It's not about safety. Nothing will give you safety. It's about TRUST. Trust isn't blind faith. It comes from experiencing that it's ALL okay, all the time. That doesn't mean you don't act and just float downstream letting things happen to you. It means that you understand at each moment exactly what action is required of you and you know when to act and when not to act.
This is what it means to give your head to the Guru.


IPEload is a load unit offering efficient testing of automotive refrigerant compressors (A/C systems).
In the development process of vehicle air conditioning systems, the refrigerant compressors need to be tested in a realistic environment under repeatable thermodynamic conditions. The IPEtec test bench devices of the IPEload series have been designed for convenient A/C compressor load simulation in automotive development cycles. The compact devices meet the high requirements of the automotive industry. They allow fast load changes along with precise adjustment possibilities in automatic mode as well as in manual operation.
Follow this link to view product pages and data sheets.
This video explains the mode of operation in a simple way.
You have questions or you need more details?
Our IPEtec team will be glad to help you!.