text:
Something You Are
Nic Caruana is paid to kill people. Once, he was destined for a white-collar job in a middle-class area. But like many kids, he made a fatal mistake. Now, he inhabits the bleak, dark city that runs like a seam beneath London.
His latest job is to track down the daughter of an arms dealer, using any weapon necessary to get to the truth. But Nic has fallen in love with his dangerous employer's wife. When the missing girl turns up dead, this grief-stricken mother starts playing twisted games with Nic… and this time he has nothing in his amoury to protect himself.
Taut, spare, and brilliantly plotted, Something You Are is the first in a series of menacing urban crime novels from a young female writer of exceptional talent.
"Fast, uncompromising and violent, Jameson's debut evokes classic thrillers such as Get Carter. Dark and atmospheric with a bedrock of powerful and memorable characters. This is London noir with a subtle punch." – Judges of the CWA John Creasey Dagger Awards


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Lucas Moura Sparks Controversy After Arguing in Favour of Far-Right Brazilian Presidential Candidate
News Tue 11 Sep 2018
Tottenham Hotspur winger Lucas Moura is at the centre of controversy this week after a series of tweets arguing in favour of Brazilian politician Jair Bolsonaro, a candidate in the country's upcoming presidential elections next month.
Bolsonaro, who is set to have major surgery after being stabbed during a campaign rally last week, has been dubbed by some a 'Brazilian Donald Trump'.
The whole Spurs fanbase loves Lucas Moura, a lovely footballer that helped us beat United! *5 seconds later* We regret to inform you he's endorsing a fascist
— Jake. (@YedIin) September 10, 2018
He is seen as racist, homophobic and misogynistic, polarising Brazil. He has publicly backed infamously violent former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in the past and spoke in favour of 'starting a civil war' in Brazil back in 1999. He was also heavily fined for racist remarks last year.
But Lucas is in favour because the outspoken 63-year-old isn't towing the same line as the 'rest of the politicians', and appears to be taken by Bolsonaro's hard stance on fighting crime.
In one particular tweet, the former PSG winger suggested that restricted police powers have emboldened criminals in Brazil because the authorities are unable to combat the threat.
Estou falando sobre militarização da polícia. Bandido não tem medo da polícia hoje, enquanto eles atiram e matam a vontade, o policial não pode usar sua arma. Sobre posse de arma ainda não tenho uma opinião formada. https://t.co/TlsqxQUMJp
— Lucas Moura (@LucasMoura7) September 10, 2018
"I'm talking about police militarization. Bandits are not afraid of the police today, while they shoot and kill at will, the policeman cannot use his weapon. About gun possession I don't have a formal opinion yet," he said in response to one Twitter user.
BBC reported that Bolsonaro was second in the polls when he announced his intention to run in July, behind only former president Lula, who is currently serving a prison sentence for corruption.
New research suggests his recent stabbing could even improve Bolsonaro's chances of winning the first round of the October presidential election. Another poll, however, has found that his 'rejection rate' has actually increased from 39% to 43%.
On women – he told a Congresswoman he wouldn't rape her because she didn't deserve it, wasn't good enough. He said this several times, and called her ugly. Again, this is not a wild accusation – he was convicted in a court of law. https://t.co/TSQkSgC0Jj
— Vincent Bevins (@Vinncent) September 10, 2018
On the pitch, Lucas has enjoyed a fine start to the 2018/19 season and was recognised for his excellent early form with the Premier League Player of the Month award for August.
Source: https://www.90min.com/posts/6167759-lucas-moura-sparks-controversy-after-arguing-in-favour-of-far-right-brazilian-presidential-candidate?utm_source=RSS

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


October is upon us, which means it's National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Continuing with tradition, PriorityOne Group is "going pink" to promote breast cancer awareness. This annual, company-wide initiative aims to help bring attention to the importance of screening for early detection of breast cancer.
"The entire PriorityOne Group team takes tremendous pride in our going pink initiative," said Nelson Gomes, President and CEO of PriorityOne Group. "We all know someone afflicted by breast cancer. By going pink, we hope to play a role in further raising awareness of this terrible disease and supporting efforts to eliminate it."
He continues, "We also want to celebrate the strength, survival and hope for everyone affected by breast cancer. We encourage everyone to join us in going pink. Take a pledge to learn about the disease and its risk factors. Knowledge is our best weapon."
Besides skin cancer, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among American women, according to published statistics. About one in eight women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in their lifetime. In 2018 alone, more than 266,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the United States. That goes along with along with nearly 64,000 new cases of non-invasive breast cancer.
PriorityOne Group has changed the color scheme of its website (www.p1cgroup.com), and company team members will show their support through various efforts throughout October. Follow us on social media — Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn — for updates. We also invite you to share your "go pink" initiatives and other ways you are helping fight this disease.
For more information about breast cancer awareness, visit the National Breast Cancer Foundation.


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Who was the first Russian to play in the NHL?
Who was the first Russian to defect to the NHL?
Who was the first Russian born player to play in the NHL?
How many Russians have played in the NHL?
Who is the best Russian NHL player?
Is Gretzky Russian?
Is Gretzky a Russian?
When did Russians play in NHL?
Who was the first Russian player to win the Stanley Cup?
Who was the first European to play in the NHL?
Are there Russians in the NHL?
Who invented hockey?
Has an Australian ever played in the NHL?
Who was the KLM line in hockey?
Who is the best Swedish hockey player?
How many Czech players are there in the NHL?
In the fifth round of the 1988 NHL Entry Draft, the Buffalo Sabres selected Alexander Mogilny with the 89th overall pick. Mogilny had been called "the best 19-year-old player in the world" at the time. In May 1989, Mogilny became the first Russian player to defect from the Soviet Union in order to play in the NHL.
The very first Russian-born and trained player to make it to the NHL was Victor Nechayev, whose marriage to an American woman allowed him entry into the USA.
Close behind the Czech Republic is Russia, which contributes 38 players to the NHL (4% of all players).
Russian NHL Players ‑ All-Time Stats
IT\'S FUNNING: Best answer: How does a hockey game begin?
1 Alexander Ovechkin 13
2 Sergei Fedorov 16
3 Evgeni Malkin 19
Gretzky (Belarusian: Грэцкі, Russian: Грецкий) is a Belarusian and Russian family name. In Poland the surname is Grecki. The name is best known in English speaking countries as the surname of Canada's most famous hockey player – Wayne Gretzky.
Gretzky's ancestry is typically described as either Belarusian, Ukrainian, or Polish. In interviews, Gretzky stated that his parents were "White Russians from Belarus", and whenever anyone asked his father if they were Russian, he would reply, "Nyet.
The history of Russians playing in the NHL has plenty of watershed moments. There is 1989, when the first Soviet player, Sergei Pryakhin, officially was allowed to leave for the NHL, and the first defector, Alexander Mogilny, made his way to the world's top league in a much more clandestine fashion.
He was originally drafted by the Rangers and won a Stanley Cup with them in 1994.
Alexei Kovalev
National team Unified Team and Russia
NHL Draft 15th overall, 1991 New York Rangers
Playing career 1989–2014 2016–2017
The First European NHL Player
On January 27, 1965 – after almost 60 years of NHL hockey – a Swedish man by the name of Ulf Sterner became the first European representative to participate in hockey's biggest league but he left very little of an impression on the league and Europeans continued to be somewhat ignored.
IT\'S FUNNING: How do left handers play hockey?
Russia – 37 (5.1%)
Russian players have helped to shape the modern era of the NHL, from the first Soviet NHL player in Sergei Pryakhin to defectors during the Cold War led by Alexander Mogilny, to the Red Wings' famous Russian Five.
Beginning in Nova Scotia in the early 1800s, hockey began to evolve into the team sport we know today. Today, Canada remains the country most closely-associated with hockey. The development of the modern version of organized ice hockey played as a team sport is often credited to James Creighton.
Passed over in the previous two NHL Entry Drafts, Walker was selected by the Washington Capitals in the third round of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, the first Australian selected in an NHL draft. After a few years in the AHL, Walker joined the Capitals in 2017, the first Australian to play in the NHL.
The KLM-Line describes a very successful Russian ice hockey lineup from the 1980s that consisted of the players Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov and Sergei Makarov. It is widely considered to be the best European offensive lineups ever.
Swedish NHL Players ‑ All-Time Stats
1 Mats Sundin 1971
2 Daniel Alfredsson 1972
3 Nicklas Lidström 1970
Louis Blues during the 1969-70 season. Twenty years later, Jaromír Jágr arrived, one of the greatest the game has ever seen. There are 40 Czechs playing in the NHL during the 2018-19 season according to quanthockey.com.
IT\'S FUNNING: Your question: How can I watch out of network NHL games?


This paper will discuss how the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) used ArcGIS to determine flood event evacuation areas and floodwater inundation. SRBC wanted to convert hard copy flood inundation maps derived from hydrologic and hydraulic studies done in the late 1980's into GIS format. The ultimate goal was to use the GIS for reverse 911 notification of local citizens during flood events. We will discuss how we used RTK GPS in conjunction with ArcGIS to convert the flood inundation information to digital form. Current county digital ortho imagery and base mapping served as background mapping layers. At the completion of the project, SRBC and local officials could view flood inundation layers in ArcGIS or ArcIMS draped over ortho imagery and base mapping. This will determine what areas of the community will be impacted by different river flood levels and allow officials to plan for evacuations during flood events.


text:
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Rooster Teeth VP arrested after wife alleges brutal abuse, strangulation
'RWBY' Volume 6 Premiere Date Set at Rooster Teeth
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7 Shows Like "The Legend of Korra" That You Need to Watch Next
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Michael B. Jordan Starring in Rooster Teeth's 'gen:LOCK'
RT Extra Life 2016 – Michael and Lindsay are Having a Baby!!!
At last, Killmonger is going anime. Actor and known anime fan Michael B. On Monday, Rooster Teeth announced Jordan as the star of gen:LOCK , a new science-fiction anime that takes place in the distant future amidst a global war. Jordan will voice Julian Chase, an ex-fighter pilot who becomes the first candidate in the mecha program. RWBY , in which a group of girls fight as monster hunters, first aired in by the late animator Monty Oum. Rooster Teeth found its original success through Red Vs.
This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.
From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. File information. Structured data.
We confirmed the cast, the crew, the shooting date – I worked with the Robin Williams, Tina Fey, Keegan-Michael Key, Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
We promise you and your guests an event that will exceed your expectations and leave lasting impressions. IMDb's advanced search allows you to run extremely powerful queries over all people and titles in the database. Latest was Falling Asleep During 69 – Barbara has been in a relationship with Trevor Collins, a member of Achievement Hunter. Navigation by articles. Though the most notorious outlaws of the Wild West were.
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The first four episodes additionally being "test episodes," only being available to Rooster Teeth First members. As you know if you didn't, I'm sorry to break the news to you this way , Always Open just aired its final episode. Awards and Achievements. The two of them were great friends, but he lost her to someone else. On March 21, , Relationship Goals premiered, starring Geoff Ramsey and Griffon Ramsey discussing modern relationships with other couples.
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night after a domestic violence investigation launched when Kate's girlfriend's went Michael Chris Kaitson was booked in Brazos County, TX All are presumed extensive contributions and work towards Rooster Teeth as the co-founder of.
By Matt Grobar. With his latest animated series gen: Lock , Gray G. Haddock looked to build on the previous successes of Rooster Teeth , the Austin-based studio where he serves as Head of Animation, while presenting an experience that pushed boundaries, in a number of ways. With Michael B. Gray, how did gen: Lock come together? What made this series exciting, both for you and Rooster Teeth?
Gray G. I grew up on old anime, including mecha and cyberpunk shows, and there was kind of a dearth of those at the time, particularly here in the West. I just wanted to make something that I would look forward to waking up on a Saturday morning and watching with everybody. Michael, what inspired you to come on board the series, both as an actor and an executive producer? Michael B.
Michael Vincent Jones born July 24, is an American actor, voice actor, podcast host and internet personality who is known for his work with Rooster Teeth 's gameplay division Achievement Hunter. He starred in Rooster Teeth's science fiction action comedy film Lazer Team , released in , as well as its sequel the following year. After graduating from high school, Jones worked as an electrician for almost five years. The creator of the video game Surgeon Simulator named the alien character Gworb after a remark made by Jones in a Let's Play video in which Jones was conversing with Gavin Free.
Luna Claire Jones was born February 18, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
or @RoosterTeeth. I can't burp and that's unfortunate. 59 posts · k followers.
By Todd Spangler. NY Digital Editor. Burns, who 17 years ago co-founded Rooster Teeth and served as its longtime creative director, announced his departure from WarnerMedia -owned RT on Thursday in a tweet , linking to a new website, burnie. Burns was one of the founding members of Rooster Teeth in in Austin, Texas. The telco assumed full ownership of Rooster Teeth following its buyout of Otter from Chernin Group in We are thankful for his continued passion and enthusiasm for Rooster Teeth.
Burns has had a hand in numerous Rooster Teeth productions. Home Digital News. Jun 11, am PT. See All. More From Our Brands. Expand the sub menu Film. Expand the sub menu TV.
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The Meme Machine, made in collaboration with Rooster Teeth, has been invited 'Thirst for Power', based on the book by Michael Webber, has screenings in.
Rooster Teeth, the online studio and one of Austin's biggest entertainment employers, has announced a major shake-up amid growing complaints from staff about a constant "crunch" culture. The changes start with the news that Gray G. Haddock, who oversaw the last few years of growth, is stepping down as head of animation. The controversy began with several months of review on employee feedback site glassdoor.
The repeated theme was of excessively long hours, poor management, and an over-reliance on temporary contract workers. The overarching complaint was that the studio is in a constant state of crunch — an increasing concern in the gaming and animation industries, where every day is another breakneck deadline. These anonymous complaints were seemingly confirmed on Twitter by Georden Whitman, creator of RT series Nomad of Nowhere , who said that staff were let go after projects even after promises of full time permanent employment.
This morning, Rooster Teeth CEO Matt Hullum released a statement via the firm's official website announcing that Haddock will be stepping down as head of animation and instead moving into "a strictly creative role. Addressing the staffing concerns, Hullum continued, "We acknowledge that we could have better managed our animation pipeline, and we apologize to all who have been affected. Rooster Teeth was founded in , and has always undergone seemingly constant exponential growth.
However, the animation division has seen some of the quickest expansion, going from semi-regular shorts and machinima like Red vs. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. Support the Chronicle. Gray G.
Michael Jones, among others. By the end of , Barabara had impressed the management at Rooster Teeth enough to earn the position barbara the Community Manager, making her the first person to fill the position. As she rooster more involved with Rooster Teeth, Barbara, in August , relocated rooster Canada to permanently reside aaron Austin, Texas where Rooster Teeth is headquartered. Barbara has chosen to remain tight-lipped about what caused their breakup. She also revealed that while she was no longer romantically involved aaron Aaron, they have remained close friends and still care about each other.
He dating as the supervising producer.
Michael Vincent Jones (born July 24, ) is an American actor, voice actor, podcast host and On May 9, , Jones married long-time girlfriend and Rooster Teeth voice actor Lindsay Tuggey. During Rooster Teeth's Extra Life.
This document was filed on Nov. The police called EMS and she was taken to the hospital. She told the deputies that she had been assaulted by her husband for several years including prior strangulations and that she had never reported the prior assaults. The deputies said she told them her husband has control over her finances and where she goes. On Nov. She said he began verbally berating her, then punching her despite her cries for him to stop.
She recalled her husband laughing at her as she cowered in pain. She reported that her husband continued punching her and hit her in the head with a three-hole punch. Eventually, she said, her husband strangled her until she lost consciousness. She recalls when she came to, her husband bit her and pushed her to the ground, talking to her more about how he was going to kill her. After a while, she said her husband grew exhausted and eventually walked away.
Court records show that an emergency protective order was issued, barring Quinn from contacting or going near his wife and several other people. Quinn has also been barred from possessing a firearm. On the night of Nov.
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He is the fourth main host at Achievement Hunter since He is most well known as a member of the Rooster Teeth team and a core part of Achievement Hunter who became the host of the hit series Rage Quit. Michael was born on July 24, in Woodbridge, New Jersey. Before fame, He grew up in Woodbridge, New Jersey. After graduating from high school, Jones worked as an electrician for almost five years. Much of his content, including a popular series called Rage Quit, centered on video games. After a short career as a dice inspector, Jones was hired by Rooster Teeth in and moved to Texas.
He received an email from Rooster Teeth asking him to join and make a new show for Achievement Hunter, which became Rage Quit. He has co-starred in the Rooster Teeth series Immersion since season two. The developers of the video game Surgeon Simulator named the alien character Gworb after a remark made by Jones in a Let's Play video in which Jones was conversing with gaming partner Gavin Free.
He was raised Roman Catholic by his devout parents. Michael is best friends with Gavin Free, and they constantly refer to each other as "my boi". He is continuing his Rage Quit series for the company and stars in their Let's Play videos. Jones has acting roles in the Rooster Teeth shows "Red vs.
Taking place 70 years after the end of the original series, there's a new avatar in town and she's ready to take her place in the world. Of course, if you're just like us, then you probably already finished the series' four seasons as soon as they dropped. Of course, this means that you're already looking for something new to watch. Luckily for you, we got you covered!
Is michael from roosterteeth dating lindsay. Home On May 9, , she married fellow Achievement Hunter and Rooster Teeth employee Michael Jones.
At about 5 p. It was a website that he and a couple of co-workers had started in their free time. Burns and Sorola created the video purely for the enjoyment of their gamer nerd friends. But the very next day, one of those friends went to work at his Los Angeles office and dropped in on a friend who was always watching online videos. In , this was not so common.
YouTube was still 3 years away. But when the friend saw his buddy Sorola on the screen, he asked his co-worker if he also knew Gus. The parody had gone viral in less than 24 hours.
She primarily edits Achievement Hunter videos, but also occasionally stars in them. She was also a member of the Internet Box Podcast , before its conclusion. She also used to be a varsity volleyball player back in her high school days. She also revealed on the Rooster Teeth Podcast that she once burned down a Frat House kitchen on her first visit there.
Burnie Burns has flown the Rooster Teeth coop — and is leaving the United States. Camp"; and animated series "Gen:Lock" starring Michael B. Jordan. Race" in Season 28 in with Ashley Jenkins (then his girlfriend).
Sarah Jones said Michael Jones had been staying with her and their three kids in their Mandarin apartment for two weeks up until the day he was arrested. The hurricane was coming through. I had never been through it and didn't know what it would be like. It was comforting to have another adult there. On the morning of the day when deputies say Michael Jones crashed his van in Georgia, she says she got a call from the Marion County Sheriff's Office.
That he was going to go to the sheriff's office. He was going to talk to him and figure out where his daughters were and what did Casei do. She said he had never laid a hand on her or the kids, so even when detectives told her what he did, she didn't believe it.
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text:
package io.netty.testsuite.transport;

import io.netty.bootstrap.AbstractBootstrap;
import io.netty.buffer.ByteBufAllocator;
import io.netty.testsuite.util.TestUtils;
import io.netty.util.internal.StringUtil;
import io.netty.util.internal.logging.InternalLogger;
import io.netty.util.internal.logging.InternalLoggerFactory;
import org.junit.Rule;
import org.junit.rules.TestName;

import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
import java.lang.reflect.Method;
import java.util.List;

public abstract class AbstractTestsuiteTest<T extends AbstractBootstrap<?, ?>> {
    private final Class<T> clazz;
    protected final InternalLogger logger = InternalLoggerFactory.getInstance(getClass());
    protected volatile T cb;

    protected AbstractTestsuiteTest(Class<T> clazz) {
        this.clazz = clazz;
    }

    protected abstract List<TestsuitePermutation.BootstrapFactory<T>> newFactories();

    protected List<ByteBufAllocator> newAllocators() {
        return TestsuitePermutation.allocator();
    }

    @Rule
    public final TestName testName = new TestName();

    protected void run() throws Throwable {
        List<TestsuitePermutation.BootstrapFactory<T>> combos = newFactories();
        for (ByteBufAllocator allocator: newAllocators()) {
            int i = 0;
            for (TestsuitePermutation.BootstrapFactory<T> e: combos) {
                cb = e.newInstance();
                configure(cb, allocator);
                logger.info(String.format(
                        "Running: %s %d of %d with %s",
                        testName.getMethodName(), ++ i, combos.size(), StringUtil.simpleClassName(allocator)));
                try {
                    Method m = getClass().getDeclaredMethod(
                            TestUtils.testMethodName(testName), clazz);
                    m.invoke(this, cb);
                } catch (InvocationTargetException ex) {
                    throw ex.getCause();
                }
            }
        }
    }

    protected abstract void configure(T bootstrap, ByteBufAllocator allocator);
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Example based on 6,000 miles per annum. Excess Mileage Charge 0-4999 miles 4p per mile; 5,000 miles or over 14p per mile.
Example based on 8,000 miles per annum. Excess Mileage Charge 0-4999 miles 4p per mile; 5,000 miles or over 14p per mile.
Example based on 8,000 miles per annum. Excess Mileage Charge 0-4999 miles 7p per mile; 5,000 miles or over 14p per mile.
Examples based on 6000 miles per annum. Excess Mileage Charge 0-4999 miles 7p per mile; 5,000 miles or over 14p per mile.
Examples based on 10,000 miles per annum. Excess Mileage Charge 0-4999 miles 4p per mile; 5,000 miles or over 14p per mile.
All prices correct at time of going to press. Finance is subject to status. Guarantees and Indemnities may be required. Terms and conditions apply. Applicants must be over 18 years of age. Examples based on fixed mileage per annum. Excess Mileage Charges apply. Prices correct at time of upload. There are 3 options available at the end of the contract i) Part Exchange the vehicle where equity is available ii) Purchase the vehicle (Pay the Guaranteed Future Value) to own the vehicle or iii) Return the vehicle. Further charges may apply subject to the condition of the vehicle. Offers available on cars purchased and registered between 1st April to 30th June 2019. Credit available to persons 18 or over subject to status and availability. Suzuki Financial Services Limited, part of Black Horse Group. Head and Registered office: St. William House, Tresillian Terrace, Cardiff, CF10 5B. Free Insurance and Servicing offers subject to terms and conditions - ask for details.


Set with a 3.8 carat, pure white emerald-cut Tru-Diamond in its centre claw setting, this trilogy ring will have you, and all around you, awe-struck every day. Emerald-cut side stones and an elegant 9-carat yellow gold setting complete the impressive look of the 5.7 ct. t.w. Emerald Cut Trilogy Engagement Ring.


text:
USA Today's Sal Ruibal reports that Rock Racing has backed down from its defiant stance of earlier today and that after reconsidering the prospects of a "fight" the riders AEG found questionable will sit out the ToC:
...after a team meeting Saturday night, all three riders said they would rather sit out the race than disrupt the prologue.
"They'll still be on the team and they'll be out signing posters for the fans," Ball told USA TODAY. "There were some of our riders who said, 'If they can't race, we won't race,' but the three guys wanted to see the team out on the course."
The CyclingNews clarifies the RCS's invitation to Team High Road to participate in the Giro this year. And Spanish Secretary of State for Sport Jaime Lissavetzky supports Alberto Contador as he joins his voice to the chorus of those opposing Astana's exclusion for all ASO events, including of course the Tour de France. Fnially, CONI's appeal to the CAS of Alessandro Petacchi's "acquittal" on doping charges has been set for April 2.
A CyclingNews extra reports the continuation of the "war" between AEG and Rock Racing as RR fights for the right to field the team of its choice in the ToC. Maurice Suh is Michael Ball's legal representative. This will not be pretty, and is the LAST thing cycling needs as it struggles to regain its credibility.
The VeloNews Friday Mailbag is full of angry letters about the ASO's snub of Astana and how some fans plan to respond to it. VeloNews also covered the initial press conference concerning Rock Racing and its dispute with AEG earlier today.
Bicycle.NET covered Michael Ball's press conference today before the start of the Tour of California. He insists all his riders are entered, and doesn't understand why some are not on the official start list. He argues for a union with teeth, and thinks it is going to be an interesting 24 hours. Frankie Andreu was present, and thanked. Interesting, indeed!
(The same article is at the Tyler Hamilton Foundation website, with a link that is likely to go bad. Tip from an emailer who really liked the Union talk.)
Racejunkie is a wonderin' about this OP thing as well as the "humbling" of Johan Bruyneel by the Giro (who has decided that team High Road deserves an invite after all). Finally, who does determine who has or has not paid their "debt" to society? Oh and RJ, stay away from those prostate Drs.
Rant ask why "St Gregory the Pious" seems to take so much pleasure in the destruction of something he claims to love so much. Good question.
Velo Vortmax wants the ASO and Christian Pudhomme to consider Pat McQuaid's advice and just invite all of the pro teams to the TdF this year. After all at this point Astana seems to have more integrity than either the ASO or Prudhomme.
Tyler Brandt hung out with lots of his favorite riders at a ToC function last night and posts tons of pictures. He promises more to come, and among those one of Floyd Landis (?)
Posted by strbuk at 2/16/2008 04:09:00 AM
A different kind of error from the LNDD
Gnomes*
The ToC Start
Pics from the Tour of California, Palo Alto Prolog...
How convenient
TBV at the Tour of California
What he was thinking
Larry's Curb Your Anticipation: Table of Contents
Larry's Curb Your Anticipation: Epilogue
Larry's Curb Your Anticipation, Part 14: Quality ...


text:
Smith's no longer accepting Visa credit cards after April 3
Smith's announced Friday it will stop accepting Visa credit cards at supermarket and fuel center locations across seven states as of April 3, 2019.
Smith's no longer accepting Visa credit cards after April 3 Smith's announced Friday it will stop accepting Visa credit cards at supermarket and fuel center locations across seven states as of April 3, 2019. Check out this story on greatfallstribune.com: https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/2019/03/01/smiths-no-longer-accepting-visa-credit-cards-after-april-3/3026711002/
Traci Rosenbaum, Great Falls Tribune Published 8:10 a.m. MT March 1, 2019 | Updated 12:26 p.m. MT March 1, 2019
Kroger is planning to nix paper bags with handles in Michigan. Elissa Robinson, Wochit
Regional officials with Smith's Food & Drug say the Great Falls marketplace store is scheduled for some major improvements in 2017. (Photo: Tribune Photo/Peter Johnson)
If you're a credit card user, Smith's Food and Drug may no longer be on your list of favorite places to shop as the chain announced Friday it will stop accepting Visa credit cards at 142 supermarket and 108 fuel center locations across seven states as of April 3, 2019.
Smith's will continue to accept all other forms of payment, including Visa debit cards.
Friday's news release blamed excessive interchange and network fees that Visa and its issuing banks charge retailers for the switch, claiming such fees drive up food prices for all customers.
"Visa has been misusing its position and charging retailers excessive fees for a long time," said Mike Schlotman, Kroger's executive vice president and CFO. "They conceal from customers what Visa and its banks charge retailers to accept Visa credit cards. At Smith's, Visa's credit card fees are higher than any other credit card brand that we accept. Visa's excessive fees and unfairness cannot continue to go unchecked."
In a statement emailed to the Tribune Friday from Visa's Senior Director Corporate Communications Will Stickney, the company said that Visa delivers a variety of benefits to merchants, including access to more customers, increased sales, security and fraud protection, a quick and convenient checkout experience, and ongoing innovation and implementation of the latest technologies.
As with any other service, they said, there is a cost associated with these benefits.
"Cardholders are Visa's first priority," the email read. "Our goal is to ensure that every cardholder can use their Visa card wherever they wish to shop. When consumer choice is limited nobody wins."
"It is unfair and disappointing that Kroger is putting shoppers in the middle of a business dispute," Stickney continued. "We have put forward a number of solutions to allow our cardholders to continue using their preferred Visa credit cards at Foods Co. and Smith's without Kroger-imposed restrictions, and we continue to work toward a resolution. Visa debit and prepaid cards continue to be accepted across all Kroger Stores, including Foods Co. and Smith's."
Smith's employs more than 20,000 associates and operates 55 stores in Utah; 45 stores in Nevada; 23 stores in New Mexico; 7 stores in Wyoming; and 4 stores each in Idaho, Montana and Northern Arizona.
The Great Falls Smith's is located at 1601 Market Place Dr.
"Grocery is a competitive business and our ability to keep prices low for our customers depends on controlling costs," said Kenny Kimball, president of Smith's. "To help our customers through this transition, we have great offers inside our stores today, including double rewards points towards fuel purchases and other promotions to save on their groceries."
The double rewards offer runs through May 21. Additional savings in groceries and fuel are available for qualifying customers, and Smith's invites customers to visit their local store to learn more.
Other forms of payment accepted at Smith's remain unaffected, including major credit cards such as Mastercard, Discover, and American Express; cash and checks; electronic benefit transfer cards from SNAP and WIC programs; and Mastercard and Visa debit cards both with and without PIN and health savings account cards.
Smith's is the second Kroger banner to nix Visa credit cards following Foods Co. Supermarkets in California, which stopped accepting Visa credit cards in August 2018. So far, no other Kroger banners are affected by this announcement, but Kroger continues to explore options to reduce the cost of accepting credit cards to keep prices low for customers.
Read or Share this story: https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/2019/03/01/smiths-no-longer-accepting-visa-credit-cards-after-april-3/3026711002/
Tracy's family restaurant has reopened
Former emergency services director sues Glacier County
Petzack homicide trial won't happen until late 2019
12 charged in Montana State Prison smuggling operation
Car plummets off Going to the Sun Road in GNP


Pros And Corns To Select Miami Movers!
Almost each child and teen faces corns, calluses and blisters problem. They trigger intense pain, but on the comparable time, they are easily preventable. The key trigger for all of them is friction between the pores and skin and international objects.
Shoes with a high and broad toe region are recommended to prevent additional irritation. Other treatments include gel toe caps and gel toe shields and toe crests. Also, utilizing a pumice stone on calluses frequently can assist. Sporting shoes with a roomy toe box at least one/2 inch lengthier than the longest toe, and sporting a cushioned pad more than the tip of the toe and orthotics in the shoes are also beneficial. Steer clear of sporting high heels. Corn and callus pads and strengthening the toe muscle tissues with workouts will help. Surgery may be needed to realign the toe.
Prior to buying, do make sure you stroll about the shop to verify the fitting feels right. Try and select shoes that are similar to your feet. High heels and narrow footwear can damage your feet whilst lower heels are far much more comfortable and much less likely to damage your feet. Do not buy footwear you have not tried on as measurements may vary from 1 manufacturer to the subsequent.
corns and calluses develop in people who have prominent bony toes. If you create Fair and Festival Concession and calluses you require to seek expert advice from a Podiatrist. They will use a scalpel blade to reduce the hard thick skin on your ft, sometimes repeated therapy is required. If you suffer from diabetes or have bad circulation this may cause rubbing on your ft resulting in corns and calluses. Again it is important that you look for the help of a Podiatrist or other certified healthcare expert if you endure from this situation.
A circus party wouldn't be complete if there is no clown about. So enlist an older kid or grownup to dress as 1, and make some balloon animals for the kids! Perform some carnival songs to add more circus environment to the party scene!
A hammer toe is a toe that is curled because of a bend in the middle joint of a toe. It is caused by shoes that don't match correctly or higher heels that power the foot down and squishes the toes towards the shoe increasing the pressure and bends the toe. It is a deformity of the 2nd, 3rd or fourth toe. The toe is bent in the middle so that it resembles a hammer. Discomfort and a toe that appears odd are the first signs and symptoms of hammer, claw and mallet toes.
If your feet sweat profusely, soak them in a bowl of warm drinking water, mixed with a handful of dried mile instead of making use of moisturizer. A couple of drops of peppermint oil added to some infant lotion is also a great remedy for dry, exhausted ft.


Marching and fighting drill was part of the daily routine for the Civil War soldier. Infantry soldiers drilled as squads and in company formations, each man getting accustomed to orders and formations such as marching in column and in a "company front", how to face properly, dress the line, and interact with his fellow soldiers. After an hour of drill on that level, the company moved onto regimental level drills and parades. The soldier practiced guard mount and other procedures such as the Manual of Arms, which infantrymen learned for the rifle-musket. Veterans of the war often remarked how they could recite the steps of loading and priming for many years after the war, thanks to the continual drill.The drill was important for the infantry for they used tactics that had changed little since the time of the American Revolution or the age of Napoleon: infantry fought in closely knit formations of two ranks (or rows) of soldiers, each man in the rank standing side by side. This formation was first devised when the single-shot, muzzle loading musket became the normal weapon on the battlefield, the close ranks being a necessity because of the limitations of the musket. Yet, by 1861, new technology had made the old fashioned smoothbore musket nearly obsolete with the introduction of the rifle musket. By the time of the Gettysburg Campaign, the rifle musket made up the majority of infantry weapons in both the Union and Confederate armies though it took much longer for the tactics to change. Even with the advance of the rifle musket, the weapons were still muzzle loaders and officers believed that the old-fashioned drill formations were still useful to insure a massing of continuous firepower that the individual soldier could not sustain. The result of this slow change was a much higher than anticipated rate of casualties on the battlefield. Cavalrymen drilled with their sabers, both on foot and horseback, while artillerymen drilled with their cannons limbered up to the team of horses and unlimbered, ready to fire. Oddly enough, marksmanship on a rifle range did not take precedence over other drill the soldiers learned for several reasons- the military believed that each man would shoot accurately when told to and the war departments did not wish to waste ammunition fired on random targets.


When I started working on Die Macht der Gefühle, I was not in a rational state. I did not say, I have a subject and now I will make a film about it. Instead I was spellbound and observed in my direct surroundings, for example, how feelings move. I have not really dealt with the theme of my mother's death and the fact that she was the one who taught me "how feelings move." Nor have I dealt with how she died. That was an entire palette of feelings: "All feelings believe in a happy end," and everyone believes tacitly that they will live forever: The entire palette is somehow optimistic, a positive attitude towards life having been put on the agenda as long as she was young, as long as her body held out, from one day to the next she collapsed. She just suddenly collapsed, like in an opera where disaster takes the stage in the fifth act. It felt as if I had observed an air raid or a disaster.
The film Die Macht der Gefühle is not about feelings, but rather their organization: how they can be organized by chance, through outside factors, murder, destiny; how they are organized, how they encounter the fortune they are seeking.
What is all this organization of feelings about? Generally feelings tend to be a dictatorship. It is a dictatorship of the moment. The strong feeling I am having right now suppresses the others. For thoughts this would not be the case. One thought attracts others like a magnet. People therefore need affirmation by other people to be sure about their own feelings (to counteract the acquisition of their feelings through outside forces). Through the interaction of many people, for example, in public, the various feelings also have a magnetic attraction to one another just like thoughts do. Feelings communicate through their manifestation in public.
The cinema is the public seat of feelings in the 20th century. The organization is set up thusly: Even sad feelings have a happy outcome in the cinema. It is about finding comfort: In the 19th century the opera house was the home to feelings. An overwhelming majority of operas had a tragic end. You observed a victim.


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Home » News » Football » David Brooks Says He is Free of Cancer
David Brooks Says He is Free of Cancer
David Brooks (Twitter)
Wales and Bournemouth midfielder David Brooks said on Tuesday he is cancer-free, nearly seven months after being diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma
Wales and Bournemouth midfielder David Brooks said on Tuesday he is cancer-free, nearly seven months after being diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma.
IPL 2022 – FULL COVERAGE | SCHEDULE | RESULTS | ORANGE CAP | PURPLE CAP | POINTS TABLE
The 24-year-old, who was diagnosed with the form of cancer in October, said he was looking forward to continuing his career.
Brooks has played 21 times for Wales, with 90 appearances for Bournemouth since joining them from Sheffield United in 2018.
"Last week I met with my specialist having reviewed my final test results. I am delighted to say the treatment was successful and I can now say that I have been given the all-clear and am now cancer-free," Brooks said in a statement on Twitter.
"Those words feel incredible to say… would like to say a huge thank you to all of the incredible medical staff for their amazing work and support throughout the process.
"I am so excited to start the journey back to full fitness and continue my football career… I am determined to work my hardest over the months ahead and I can't wait to be back out there."
Bournemouth, who play in the second-tier Championship, will be looking to seal a return to the Premier League when they host promotion rivals Nottingham Forest later on Tuesday.
Bournemouth are currently in the second automatic promotion spot with 82 points, three clear of third-placed Forest with two games remaining. They are eight points behind champions Fulham.
Read all the Latest News , Breaking News and IPL 2022 Live Updates here.


text:
By Abigail Malik	Branding, Media Relations, Newspapers, Social media, Twitter
Of top-10 print papers, which one leads on Twitter? Kinda surprising…
As a follow-up to my Dec. 16 "USA Today gets (sheepishly) body slammed by WSJ," I decided to see where each of these top-10 papers ranked as far as Twitter followers. What I found was surprising…some big dogs are only big dogs in one area! Below are two lists: the print-circulation top 10 (provided by Burrelles, thank you!), and of those ten, the Twitter follower rankings*.
(*I based this on each paper's official main news Twitter account: for some, this was the only Twitter account; for most, the news account was one of several official Twitter accounts. Followers for each paper are current as of Jan. 8, 2010 at 8:57 a.m.)
Top 10 (Print | Twitter):
1. Wall Street Journal: 2,024,269 | The New York Times: 2,260,850
2. USA Today: 1,900,116 | The Wall Street Journal: 117,737
3. The New York Times: 927, 851 | Los Angeles Times: 48,977
4. Los Angeles Times: 657,467 | The Washington Post: 43,153
5. The Washington Post: 582,844 | USA Today: 38,863
6. Daily News (New York): 544,167 | Chicago Tribune: 23,491
7: New York Post: 508,042 | New York Post: 22,892
8. Chicago Tribune: 465,892 | Houston Chronicle: 7,543
9. Houston Chronicle: 384,419 | The Philadelphia Inquirer: 3,899
10. The Philadelphia Inquirer: 361,480 | Daily News (New York): 648
What makes this super interesting (and exciting!) is a recent Vanity Fair spread, "America's Tweethearts," in which six women were spotlighted for their large and in-charge presences on Twitter: social strategist Julia Roy (31,000 followers), publicist Sarah Evans (33,000 followers), travel journalist Stefanie Michaels (1.4 million followers), actress Felicia Day (1.6 million followers), lifecaster Sarah Austin (24,000 followers), and marketer Amy Jo Martin (1.2 million followers).
Three of these women have more Twitter followers than any of the top-10 papers except the NYT; and all of them are giving each paper a run for their money…at least on Twitter.
A-mazing! Congrats ladies. You're paving the way for the rest of us!
Tagged America's Tweethearts, Amy Jo Martin, Felicia Day, Julia Roy, Sarah Austin, Sarah Evans, Stefanie Michaels, Twitter, Vanity Fair
3 thoughts on "Of top-10 print papers, which one leads on Twitter? Kinda surprising…"
Thanks for the compilation. I think it shows the increasing democratization of our society, moving from the republican form of government to a more democratic one. We are no more dependent on wise men for opinions, anyone can voice their opinions, and the free market takes care of assigning weight to their opinions. Power is devolving to the people. Whether this is good or bad depends: remember that the average IQ is 100.
abbymalikpr says:
Interesting, because as you know, most people have no idea we're a republic to begin with.
I personally think this is good as long as we have both options available, the "wise men" and "the people." And we're able to choose among the two and whatever falls in between. I do think that most of "the people" who are voicing their opinions are educated and experienced…those are the types of people who care about being heard and understand the importance of contributing to the free market.
Sarah Evans (the public relations one) is my kind of celebrity « AbbyMalikPR says:
[…] the January 2010 article in Vanity Fair titled America's Tweethearts. (I mentioned it in a Jan. 8, 2010 blog entry.) Six women dominating social media (Twitter, specifically) is the focus of the […]


Dec 11, 2015: The Ever-Popular Calla Verde is Back!
Calla Verde Flamenco was a huge hit the last time they visited Gibsons. Don't miss this performance on Friday December 11th at 7:30 at the Heritage Playhouse. The event will also feature our silent auction fundraiser for the Dance Society.
The Sunshine Coast Youth Dance Association is hosting a two day dance workshop with Danielle Gardner and Jonathan Arsenault at Kinsmen Hall in Lower Gibsons. Click the poster below poster to enlarge for details.
The Fundraising Non-Event of the Year!
The best no-stressed, no dressed gala of the year!
The Fundraising "NON-EVENT" of the year! We have over $3,200 worth of gift certificates contributed by the businesses on the Sunshine Coast! The businesses on the Coast have again surpassed our expectations. For an updated list of prizes, please check out the door prize tab above.
Donate now to the Nutcracker for your chance to win a "non-door" Door Prize! You may mail in your donation, or donate online here! It's that easy to be entered into the door prize drawings!
Keep the magic and the dreams alive! Live – professional – spectacular – magical theatre on the Coast!
The beauty of the Nutcracker is that it combines professional dancers with local dancers who are eagerly learning the profession and nuance of classical ballet. The Nutcracker is a family tradition that has been taking place in cities around the world for over 123 years and that tradition has been available on the Sunshine Coast now as we enter our fourth year.
Won't you become a donor today? Keep the magic and the dreams alive!
May 9: The Source Dance Company Returns to Sechelt!
"Wonderland"… is an original dance presentation performed by Canada's rising professional dancers, The Source Dance Company.
The Source Dance Company is a semi professional dance company based out of Harbour Dance Centre in Vancouver. Dancers from all across Canada audition each year to make up this dynamic company that focuses on jazz, hip hop, contemporary and street jazz. This season's company is made up of dancers from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
This season's production, "Wonderland"… is a new interpretation of the Lewis Carroll classic story, "Alice in Wonderland". Original choreography from some of North America's best choreographers will represent scenes from the familiar story.
Artistic Director and founder of The Source Dance Company, Joanne Pesusich, has had fifteen successful seasons with the company. She says this year is one of the strongest companies to date. While she has personally set choreographed pieces on the company, she also brought in other professional choreographers from across Canada and L.A to set pieces for the show.
The Source is a semi-professional dance company for dancers aged 17 and over who are looking for an outlet for training and performing with a highly dedicated and talented group of dancers. The Source is designed for those dancers who may be graduating high school, or leaving their dance studio, who are looking for a performance group to continue training and performing with, at a non-competitive level, working towards a professional career in dance.


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Burden of Debt, A Student's Woe
By: Julia Sieben / http://www.lady-patriots.com/burden-of-debt-a-students-woes/
The Student Loan Bill, Student Load Debt, and the Student Tuition Crisis are more than a one fold problem. While the word war continues on Capitol Hill, it seems both sides of the isle are refusing to see the real problem our country faces with Student Debt.
Current arguments are revolving about the issue that was another can kicked down the road till after the 2012 Presidential Election. Why? Because it would have looked unfavorably upon the incumbent as he stood in front of the masses of student and tried to explain why their student loans were about to double when we were in the middle of an unemployment/economic crisis. Our unemployment levels were sitting at numbers that resembled the 1930's depression, fuel and cost of living expenses were growing at leaps and bounds while workers' income levels were stagnant if not falling.
The US House of Representatives passed a bill in May, more than a month before the deadline that would revamp how interest on student loans is calculated.to avoid student loans doubling on July 1, from the rate of 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. The bill the House presented pegged interest rates for government backed student loans to the 10-year Treasury note plus another 2.5%. The House bill was similar to the approach in President Barack Obama's budget, which also tied the interest rates for student loans to the longer-term Treasury note. Immediately Senate Majority Leader Reid shot down the bill.
At a press conference Speaker Boehner blasted Democrats across the dome for failing to act on the interest rate increase before it took effect on July 1st.
"The House has done its job and the fact is students are going to pay the price when they see the interest rates on their loans double. It's time for the Senate to act," Boehner told reporters. "When you have a bipartisan group in the Senate, who had a solution that was not far off from our solution and yet was shot down by the Senate Majority Leader, you begin to wonder whether they are looking for a solution."
A bipartisan group of senators introduced a compromise bill at the end of June that was close to the House passed bill, but Senate Democratic leaders have not embraced it because it doesn't include a cap for interest rates in the event that economic conditions change and interest rates spike.
The rates increased for students taking on new loans while Congress was out of town, and the Senate is expected to act on a yet-to-be-seen retroactive solution to make sure that students are not going to be hit with the 6.8 percent rate.
Efforts to collect bad loans are faltering, according to credit analysts and government audits. It is the latest twist in a college debt crisis that is hanging over recent graduates and dragging on the broader economy.
In the first three month of 2013, $3.5 billion in government and private student loans went into default. A reflection of the economy and the increased unemployment rate of college graduates; this is the highest increase in history. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 6.8 million federal student loan borrowers are now in default, representing $85 billion in debt.
One such individual struggling with student loan debt, Jason Paskowitz said, "I take personal responsibility for the situation beginning, but personal responsibility does not mean you spend the rest of your life financially compromised."
Jason Paskowitz, a financial analyst from Tenafly, NJ. Is 46 years old, but still owes more than $39,000. On loans he took out to finance his college education at Binghamton University in New York in the 1980's. Jason only borrowed $20,000, but after an illness during his first year at law school he was forced to drop out of school. Jason went into default, with interest and fees pilling up. Jason's records show he has paid approximately $26,000. But still owes nearly twice the amount of the original principal, twenty five years after graduation.
Jason was hounded for years by collection agents, calling him every name in the book. In 2008, Jason was hit with an "administrative garnishment" seizing nine percent of his debt through attachment of his salary and assets. The collection agencies never gave Jason any of his legal options under the law. "Their primary motivation is just to get as much as they can as quickly as they can," he said.
Incentives aren't necessarily aligned with protecting borrowers' interests, Converting a defaulted loan to a "rehabilitation loan" rolls outstanding loan balances and fees into a new loan that removes the borrower from default and pays the collection firm eleven to fifteen percent of the outstanding loan balance. Collection agencies are reluctant to inform the debtor who has fallen in arrears due to illness or injury of their qualification of a possible disability discharge, because it wipes out the loan entirely and pays the collection firm a few hundred dollars in administrative fees. "The Higher Education Act is a very complicated statute and debt collectors aren't necessarily in the best position to explain options to borrowers."
Spokesman Chris Greene says the Department of Education is keeping tabs on the collection firms and looking out for borrowers' interests with a "one-stop" portal for complaints about the firms at https://www.myeddebt.com.
"Our entire approach to default collections is structured to encourage full repayment while ensuring borrowers understand both the consequences of their failure to repay and the options available to help them get out of default."
For the 2011-12 school year, students and their families borrowed $76 billion to pay for college, according to the Pew Research Center. Americans owe a total of nearly $1 trillion in student debt.
From 2004 to 2012, the number of people getting student loans and their average debt has both increased by 70 percent. Student debt is the only kind of household debt that continued to rise through the Great Recession and has now the second largest balance after mortgage debt. Currently, nearly 40 million people owe an average of $26,000 after graduation.
Posted by Diane Sori at 1:55 PM No comments: Links to this post
Reverse racism is alive and festering in America
thanks to Obama and his ilk..
just ask George Zimmerman.
Posted by Diane Sori at 11:48 AM 1 comment: Links to this post
Limbaugh: Zimmerman Case Reduced to 'Show Trial'
By Wanda Carruthers
/ Newsmax
inShare
Prosecutors are so anxious to find George Zimmerman guilty of something, they have turned the case into a "show trial," Rush Limbaugh charged on his radio show.
"The fix was in on this thing from the very first moment," he said Thursday."I just think it's outrageous," he added.
"The only important thing in a show trial is pleasing the people in power and giving the unwashed masses a lesson. Show trials have nothing to do with dispensing justice — they're all about dispensing social justice, which is usually the polar opposite."
Limbaugh was particularly incensed that the prosecution is now asking that the jury be allowed to consider verdicts of manslaughter or third degree murder based on child abuse as victim Trayvon Martin was only 17 when he was killed.
Judge Debra Nelson has agreed to allow a manslaughter verdict but has yet to make a decision on the third-degree murder charge.
Defense attorney Don West has already called the maneuver "outrageous" and Limbaugh agreed.
"We're in a show trial. This isn't about justice," said Limbaugh. "Eric Holder goes down there and ratchets up public opinion with Reverend Al. The president says, 'If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon,' thereby injecting race into a story that may not have been about race at all.
"The only reason this trial is taking place is because the media is invested in a guilty verdict, and the race hustler industry, including the attorney general, flew down there the minute this case happened, when Zimmerman wasn't charged.
"The regime saw an opportunity to turn something into a profoundly racial case for the express purpose of ripping the country apart. "
More Blood On Obama's Hands
By: Bob Livingston / Personal Liberty Digest
Very soon, a six-member jury will decide George Zimmerman's fate.
The overhyped and superfluous George Zimmerman trial is winding down, and Florida's law enforcers are growing antsy. That's because they're seeing in social media and hearing from the streets that if Zimmerman is acquitted in a trial that never should have been held to begin with, blacks will riot and kill whites.
If there are riots and people are injured and property is damaged, President Barack Obama and his Department of Justice will be to blame. The blood will be on their hands.
In the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting, Obama claimed that if he had a son, Trayvon Martin is what he'd look like. Then the DOJ dispatched its Community Relations Service (CRS) team to Florida to hold "marches, demonstrations, and rallies" on Martin's behalf. According to documents obtained by Judicial Watch, the DOJ spent more than $3,800 to incite racial tensions in Sanford, Fla., and oust the police chief because Zimmerman was not charged immediately in Martin's death. One of the rallies sponsored by CSR was headlined by the notorious race-baiter Al Sharpton. CSR-sponsored rallies went on for a couple of weeks; and if sparking unrest was the goal, the money was well-spent.
Recall that Sanford police investigators believed Zimmerman acted in self-defense. Former State Prosecutor Norman Wolfinger said he would take the case to a grand jury. But he recused himself after Obama's and the race baiters' work, aided by the mainstream media propaganda machine, began to bear fruit and the demonstrations began to intensify.
Special prosecutor Angela B. Corey, appointed to replace Wolfinger, initially indicated she would take the case to a grand jury but changed her mind. Conventional wisdom holds that a prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. Her decision to avoid the grand jury indicated she knew she had no case. And that's exactly what the prosecution has presented.
Guessing what a jury will do — especially a jury made up entirely of women — is a fool's errand. But based on the case presented by the prosecution, it's evident that Zimmerman acted in self-defense and should be acquitted.
If that happens and Rodney King-style riots or attacks on whites begin, Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder will be to blame. But maybe that's what they wanted all along.
Saudi Arabia targeting Iran and Israel with ballistic missiles
Preparing for two very different jihads. "Saudi Arabia 'targeting Iran and Israel with ballistic missiles,'" by Colin Freeman in the Telegraph, July 10 (thanks to No):
Saudi Arabia is targeting both Israel and Iran with powerful ballistic missiles, new satellite photography shown by military experts to The Telegraph suggests.
Images analysed by experts at IHS Jane's Intelligence Review has revealed a hitherto undisclosed surface-to-surface missile base deep in the Saudi desert, with capabilities for hitting both countries.
Analysts who examined the photos spotted two launch pads with markings pointing north-west towards Tel Aviv and north-east towards Tehran. They are designed for Saudi Arabia's arsenal of lorry-launched DF 3 missiles, which have a range of 1,500-2,500 miles and can carry a two-ton payload.
The base, believed to have been built within the last five years, gives an insight into Saudi strategic thinking at a time of heightened tensions in the Gulf.
While Saudi Arabia does not have formal diplomatic relations with Israel, it has long maintained discreet back channel communications as part of attempts to promote stability in the region.
The two countries also have a mutual enemy in Iran, though, which has long seen Saudi Arabia as a rival power in the Gulf. Experts fear that if Iran obtains a nuclear weapon, Saudi Arabia would seek to follow suit.
Analysts at IHS Jane's believe that the kingdom is currently in the process of upgrading its missiles, although even the DF3, which dates back to the 1980s, is itself potentially big enough to carry a nuclear device.
The missile base, which is at al-Watah, around 125 miles south-west of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, was discovered during a project by IHS Jane's to update their assessment of Saudi Arabia's military capabilities.
It serves as both a training and launch facility, with the missiles stored in an underground silo built into a rocky hillside. To the north of the facility are two circle-shaped launch pads, both with compass-style markings showing the precise direction that the launchers should fire in.
The Chinese-made missiles, which date back to the 1980s, are not remotely-guided and therefore have to be positioned in the direction of their target before firing.
"One appears to be aligned on a bearing of approximately 301 degrees and suggesting a potential Israeli target, and the other is oriented along an azimuth (bearing) of approximately 10 degrees, ostensibly situated to target Iranian locations," said the IHS Jane's article, which is published on Thursday.
While the lorry-launched missiles can theoretically be fired from any location, the idea of having pre-planned directional markers is to ensure that they can be deployed in accurate fashion as quickly as possible, said Allison Puccioni, an image expert at IHS Jane's.
"There is a marked out spot for the launch truck to park in, which will facilitate an expedited launch," she said.
Robert Munks, deputy editor of IHS Jane's Intelligence Review, said: "Our assessment suggests that this base is either partly or fully operational, with the launch pads pointing in the directions of Israel and Iran respectively. We cannot be certain that the missiles are pointed specifically at Tel Aviv and Tehran themselves, but if they were to be launched, you would expect them to be targeting major cities.
"We do not want to make too many inferences about the Saudi strategy, but clearly Saudi Arabia does not enjoy good relations with either Iran or Israel."...
No kidding, really? That's why they pull in the big bucks over at Jane's: for incisive analyses like this one.
The Immigration Pitch Republicans Should be Making to Hispanic Voters
By: Ira Mehlman / Townhall Columnist
Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and Charlie Rangel are all very concerned. They are all losing sleep about the potential demise of the Republican Party if an illegal alien amnesty bill is not approved by the House.
Republicans, of course, have good reason to be concerned about the party's lack of appeal with Hispanic voters. About 70 percent of Hispanics vote Democratic. However, this is not a new phenomenon. Hispanics are traditionally a Democratic constituency. What has changed in recent years is the size of the Hispanic electorate, which has turned the gap between 70 percent and 30 percent into a chasm.
The Republicans' failure to attract large numbers of Hispanic votes has little to do with the party's stance on immigration, and everything to do with economics. Hispanics, as a group, are significantly poorer than the population generally. In 2009, median U.S. household income was $60,088 compared with just $39,730 for Hispanic households. Low-income voters – people who pay little, if anything, in federal taxes and who are more likely to depend on government programs and services – tend to vote for Democrats.
They also tend not to have amnesty for illegal aliens at the top of their political wish-lists. Exit polling, last November, found that the economy was the most pressing issue for 59 percent of Hispanic voters. A mere 6 percent of Hispanics said that immigration policy was a determining factor in deciding who to vote for.
Not surprisingly, folks like Schumer, Pelosi and Rangel are more than happy to have the Republicans chase after the 6 percent while ignoring the 59 percent. What is surprising is that many key Republicans – John McCain, Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan, and Karl Rove, to name a few – seem to think that pandering on immigration is the party's path to political salvation.
Ironically, opposing amnesty for illegal aliens and massive increases in new permanent and temporary immigration would give Republicans a far better chance to woo the millions of Hispanics who cast their votes based on economic interests.
Republicans could make a very credible case that limiting immigration and enforcing laws against illegal immigration is the best prescription for Hispanic advancement. So long as millions of new immigrants flood into our already soft labor market, struggling American workers will have a harder time finding jobs or improving their wages. Given that new immigrants –legal and illegal – disproportionally congregate in communities and sectors of the labor market already occupied immigrants it is they who bear the greatest economic brunt.
Amnesty for illegal aliens would disproportionally affect Hispanic workers. While some 8 million illegal aliens are believed to be working in the U.S., they are limited to a small subset of jobs offered by employers who are prepared to break the law. After amnesty, current illegal aliens would be legally entitled to compete for nearly every job in the U.S. economy. Moreover, because the Senate-passed Gang of Eight bill exempts employers of amnestied aliens from their health care obligations under Obamacare, employers would have a $3,000 a year incentive to hire them instead of Hispanic citizens.
The adverse impact of mass immigration on Hispanic voters is not limited to jobs and wages. Among the other issues that rank high on the list of Hispanic voters' concerns is the quality of education their kids receive More often than not, the children of recent immigrants crowd into underperforming schools in communities with large minority populations. Often this means diverting scarce educational resources to meeting the special language and other needs of these new arrivals, placing already at-risk students at an even greater disadvantage.
As the immigration debate moves to the House, the challenge for the GOP is to define what they are for, not just what they are against. It's time for Republican leadership to articulate how reducing immigration and enforcing existing laws will allow free market supply and demand to bid-up wages and improve job prospects for all Americans. That's an appealing message for Hispanic voters whose votes are driven by economic concerns and a winning strategy for a party in search of a solution.
Stabbing the Poor but Still Getting Their Votes
By: Charles Payne/ Townhall Finance
They're calling it the "Large Retailer Accountability Act" that would force big box retailers to pay minimum wage of $12.50 in Washington D.C. Currently minimum wage in the District of Columbia is $8.25, which equals $17,160 a year. If that sounds low consider zero is a much lower sum and what many earn in D.C. now is significantly less. Take Ward 8 in Washington D.C.:
> 94% Black
> 38% poverty rate (highest in 30 years)
Washington has the third highest income inequality gap in America after Atlanta and Boston:
> Top fifth earn $473,000 (national average is $292,000)
> Bottom fifth earn $9,100
How good does $17,160 a year look to someone earning $9,100? How good does having any kind of job feel when you haven't had a job in years or maybe never (In Spain 20% of adults under the age of 30 have never had a job- never!)? How do you hone skills from getting up on time to learning and fulfilling responsibilities to paying for stuff earned by the sweat of your brow without some kind of entry level job?
How dare politicians behind this bill use the word "accountability" when all they're looking for is a way to shake down Wal-Mart, to make business a villain, to deflect from their shortfalls and to keep Americans tethered to government dependency. It's despicable that jobs and less expensive things like flat screen televisions and groceries would be denied to the less fortunate in Washington for a bunch of reasons - all political.
We're talking about Boomtown USA where unemployment is 5.5% because federal spending has doubled in the past year.
The haves are loving life, the have-nots are mired in the same muck as yesteryear but forced to watch prosperity around them. Not only are there a lot of haves in D.C., but five of the ten richest counties in America surround the District (see table).
The haves will not see their fortunes altered a bit without the three Wal-Mart stores on the drawing board. I guess their message to their poor neighbors, whom they never see but hear about, is:
"Eat cake and blame capitalism, republicans and greed."
And that's what the poor will do, eat bad food and hate on successful people instead of hating on the game of politicians, the politicians that get a free pass each time. In the meantime Washington D.C. will keep looking to tax businesses, as it already can claim the second highest per capital tax of all but one state in the nation.
Last night the DC city council voted 8-5 to hike the minimum wage on big box retailers, not unionized grocery stores and/or fast food restaurants. It's a sad day for the poor in the nation's capital.
This kind of campaign also skews reality for people with the least amount of work skills. By telling them they deserve more money it undermines nature or the natural reaction to need. The greater work skills, the greater the income, the harder you work the greater the income but these days people are falsely being told the least skill and effort results in higher income anyway. This has reduced individual accountability at work, even as expectations for more money increases.
A recent poll by Kelly Services (KELYA) points to why western nations have fallen on slow growth and lost prestige. Individual performance isn't important anymore as people are getting paid anyway. So, it is absurd pay or no pay for the people that need jobs most in Washington.
Ben In Relax Mode
The FOMC minutes seemed pretty clear to me. The Fed is going to taper its asset purchases but not hike rates for a long time.
Growth of economic activity was projected to strengthen further during 2014 and 2015, supported by accommodative monetary policy; waning fiscal restraint; and ongoing improvements in household and business balance sheets, credit availability, and labor market conditions.
In their discussion of monetary policy for the period ahead, all members but one judged that the outlook for economic activity and inflation warranted the continuation of the Committee's current highly accommodative stance of monetary policy in order to foster a stronger economy recovery.
Then there was that presentation with questions and answers after. Bernanke let it be known a lower unemployment rate would have to be the real deal, not people fleeing the jobs market or a bunch of temp jobs which he said currently "overstates" the health of the labor market.
Bernanke seemed relaxed, and I suspect he's hoping it's contagious.
Op-ed:
Will justice be served...probably NOT in this courtroom
By: Diane Sori
Yesterday, the railroading of George Zimmerman continued as the prosecution presented closing arguments, and the judge pulled a maneuver proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is biased in favor of the prosecution. But first, here are some interesting tidbits that NEVER made it into evidence at this farce of a trial:
First, The Retreat at Twin Lakes where Trayvon Martin was killed is a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, gated townhome community that's about 49% non-Hispanic white, 23% Hispanic (of any race), 20% black, and 5% Asian, according to the latest Census figures.
These demographics in and of themselves should prove to anyone with even one working brain cell that Trayvon Martin was NOT racially profiled and targeted simply because he was black as black faces were quite common in the community.
And these figures should have been given credence to the defense's request to throw out the prosecutors entire case, and would have if the judge trying the case was fair and impartial…which Judge Debra Nelson is NOT as she has denied 99% of the defense's requests of things they wanted to be brought into evidence.
Second, George Zimmerman called the police 46 times in the years leading up the night Trayvon Martin was killed, but as far as the cops were concerned 46 times was NOT an excessive amount in a neighborhood riddled with petty crime. And adding to this is that within the previous 14 months there had been at least eight reported burglaries, several of which involved young black men.
And while the police might NOT have been concerned about those numbers the residents were…so much so that the September before the killing Zimmerman himself started the all volunteer Neighborhood Watch and became the so-called captain. Zimmerman was on the lookout for outsiders…for people who looked like they did NOT belong in the community…people…NOT specifically black people but ANY person who dd NOT look like they belonged there.
Third, with the past history of a neighborhood riddled with both petty and even with more serious crime, Trayvon Martin raised red flags that fateful rainy night NOT for the color of his skin but for his suspicious and cavalier attitude and demeanor as he walked NOT on the sidewalks or even in the street but because he was sauntering in the back of homes, weaving in and out of the shadows.
In fact, in an interview with Sean Hannity, Zimmerman himself said, "I felt he was suspicious because it was raining. He was in-between houses, cutting in-between houses, and he was walking very leisurely for the weather…It didn't look like he was a resident that went to check their mail and got caught in the rain and was hurrying back home. He didn't look like a fitness fanatic that would train in the rain."
That's because he was none of those…and notice George Zimmerman made NO mention of Trayvon Martin's color. He made NO mention of color at all until asked by the police, after he called in, if he had gotten a good enough look to verify the race of the suspicious person, and only then did he say that he 'thought' Trayvon Martin might be black, but said that AFTER the police asked him NOT before…more proof that Zimmerman did NOT racially profile and target Trayvon Martin because he was black.
Fourth, Florida has a 'Stand Your Ground" law, which allows people who believe they're in danger to respond with deadly force, and that's what Zimmerman did after having been straddled by Trayvon Martin, having his nose broken by Trayvon Martin, and having his head pounded into the concrete by Trayvon Martin. But the prosecutors have portrayed George Zimmerman as an angry racist who willfully profiled and tracked Trayvon Martin down to deliver vigilante justice after 'mistaking' him for a burglar, which is pure crap as Zimmerman's account, which he gave freely to the police immediately after the shooting…gave without even asking for a lawyer…has been consistent and unwavering…and most importantly, it corroborates the forensic evidence given at the trial by the experts…experts who told how Zimmerman could very well have been in fear for his life due to how he was being beaten by the almost 6 foot tall, muscle bound Trayvon Martin.
Now to yesterday's courtroom shenanigans…after the defense stressed they wanted the jury to only consider a second-degree murder charge as well as a NOT guilty verdict, this biased judge in trying to give the jury every possible chance to convict George Zimmerman of something, especially since it looks like the second degree murder charge is going nowhere (to be convicted of second degree murder the jury must find beyond a reasonable doubt that George Zimmerman acted with spite, malice or ill will without regard for human life, which the prosecution has in NO way proven and they know it), Judge Debra Nelson, as expected, ruled that in addition to second degree murder, she will instruct the jury on the lesser included offense of manslaughter, as required by Florida case law.
Manslaughter involves criminal negligence NOT intent (defined in Florida as the unlawful killing of a human being without malice like in vehicular homicide), and brings with it a maximum 25 years in prison…the amount of time being determined by the judge…and you just know this biased judge would throw the entire 25 years at Zimmerman…and get a warm fuzzy feeling doing it.
After rightfully throwing out the prosecution's attempt to add into the mix a laughable charge of third degree felony murder based on child abuse…if that was child abuse they need to charge his parents with negligence for letting that 'child' wander the streets after dark…the prosecution went into a 3-hour bloviation-fest twisting and distorting the facts in this case, including bringing in a dummy to try and disprove the expert's testimony of how the trajectory of the bullet and George Zimmerman's injuries were consistent with Zimmerman's account of how the struggle happened.
This is NOT a trial but a circus of the absurd…but at least there are major grounds for appeal, including the judge's conduct, due process violations, and misleading the jury, if George Zimmerman is found guilty of anything.
And so today, Zimmerman's lead attorney Mark O'Mara will spend up to three hours giving a closing argument to counter the prosecution's bloviations of lies but what is quite unfair, and something Florida needs to change, is that the prosecution will have as long as one hour to give a rebuttal argument…getting in the last word.
And then George Zimmerman's fate will be in the hands of the six jurors…jurors who most likely won't have the facts guiding their verdict, but will have in the back of their minds that if they acquit George Zimmerman (as they should) the small, vocal, militant, black minority (led by the New Black Panthers with Barack HUSSEIN Obama, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Eric Holder, Louis Farrakhan and their ilk cheering them on) will take to the streets and do what they do best…riot.
So an innocent man will probably be sent to jail NOT for being guilty but because fear ruled better judgment, and the the words 'liberty and justice for all' will be turned into a mockery, as the Obama initiated race war will go on.
And tonight I will say a prayer that I'm wrong.
Posted by Diane Sori at 12:00 AM 24 comments: Links to this post
Labels: 'liberty and justice for all', Barack HUSSEIN Obama, George Zimmerman, Judge Debra Nelson, manslaughter, racial profiling, riots, second degree murder, Stand Your Ground, third degree murder, Trayvon Martin
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text:
From "Garbage Island" to a Model of Recycling
by Jane Rickardson October 23, 2019 October 22, 2019
Taiwan has one of the highest rates of recycling in the world, as well as public programs designed to reduce waste.
The Taiwanese have learned the value of "Reduce" and "Reuse" in dealing with the trash households produce.
Each night at a designated time in Taipei neighborhoods, a bright yellow garbage truck makes an appearance, its arrival signaled by a sound system playing a familiar tune such as Beethoven's Für Elise. Trailing close behind are one or two smaller trucks devoted to collecting recyclables and organic waste.
Nearby residents scurry down from their apartments to deliver their trash to the garbage collectors. According to Taiwan law, kitchen scraps must be separated from recyclables. Both must be separated from ordinary garbage, and ordinary garbage must be placed in certified plastic bags. Otherwise, you could be fined as much as NT$6,000 (about US$200).
Given Taiwan's relatively small size and dense population, it is hardly surprising that the nation has become a world leader in recycling. In fact, encouraged by the central and local governments, environmental awareness influences behavior even before the recycling stage. The amount of household trash produced in Taiwan is also among the lowest in the world per capita.
Last year, this figure stood at 1.13 kilograms per person, says Liu Jui-hsiang, deputy director general of the Department of Waste Management at the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA). That compares to 2.04 kilograms for the U.S., 1.75 kilograms for Germany, and 1.54 kilograms for Australia. Only a few countries, including neighboring Korea at 1.06 and Japan at 0.93 kilograms, produce less trash per person.
Taiwan's output of trash has declined over the over the past two decades, even as the economy has expanded. Although the 1.13 kilograms per person in 2018 represents an increase over the 0.84 kilograms in 2015 and 0.87 kilograms in 2016, the difference may be due to a change in how waste is classified by the government. Harvey Houng, a board director at the EPA's Institute of Environmental Resources, notes that in January 2017 the central government reclassified personal waste generated by employees in industrial parks as municipal rather than industrial waste, complicating annual comparisons.
Of all the garbage created by households in 2018, 42.68% was incinerated, a level considered to be quite low by international standards, notes Houng. Over half – 56.41% – was recycled. Noncombustible waste sent to the nation's 67 landfills amounted to 0.91% of 2018's trash.
Trash-collection and recycling trucks come by each neighborhood in the evenings to help keep the urban environment clean. Photo: CNA
Liu of the EPA says it is difficult to compare Taiwan's recycling rates with other countries as they all use different standards. But a major study conducted by the OECD in 2015 found that Taiwan – at 55% – had one of the highest recycling rates in the world. While Germany stood at a whopping 66%, the rate for the U.S. was 35% and Israel had one of the lowest figures at 20%.
Overall, an average of 0.49 kilograms of trash per person was incinerated daily last year. Houng notes that this number is down from 1.14 kilograms per person in 1998, a huge 60% reduction.
How did this happen? In the 1980s, as Taiwan democratized, the "not in my backyard" syndrome made it hard to set aside more sites for landfills. Similar public resistance stymied government plans in the early 1990s to build as many as three dozen large incineration plants The local and central governments felt pressured to explore and implement recycling measures as alternative options.
One milestone was the "4-in-1 Recycling Program" created through amendments to the Waste Management Disposal Act in 1997. That made Taiwan one of the first countries in the world to introduce the concept of "extended producer responsibility." In brief, it's a strategy to ensure that producers or manufacturers are liable for the environmental costs associated with a product throughout the product's lifespan.
The "4-in-1 Recycling Program," which integrated the island's communities, recycling facilities, and government agencies into a recycling network, involved establishment of a fund using fees levied on manufacturers and importers.
The fund, managed by the EPA's Recycling Fund Management Board, subsidizes the collection of recyclable materials and their processing by licensed enterprises. Houng cites the example of an old refrigerator dumped in a remote area. It might cost NT$200 to move it and another NT$200 to break it down into spare parts that might ultimately sell for only NT$300. From the fund, the EPA will subsidize the company with another NT$300 to match the resale price, enabling it to earn a profit and providing the incentive for it to remain in business.
The fund is used only to subsidize the resale of marginally profitable secondhand items and scrap, Houng explains. There is no need to subsidize the sale of discarded goods with a high resale value, he adds.
Currently the government has designated 33 items in 13 categories as eligible for subsidies if resold by licensed companies. They include aluminum and glass containers, and discarded automobiles, motorcycles, televisions, light bulbs, and laptops. Manufacturers and importers of the 33 items – along with the creators of their packaging and containers, plus the producers of certain raw materials – are all required to register with the EPA and pay the required recycling fees into the fund.
For their part, Taiwanese consumers are required to make sure that any of the 33 items that are in their trash are given separately to the truck that collects recyclables. In addition, the EPA requires local environmental bureaus to collect certain items – including waste paper, cell phones, and chargers – for recycling, although they are not eligible for subsidies.
Another milestone occurred in 2006, when the sorting of household garbage into three different categories – organic waste, recyclables, and ordinary rubbish – became mandatory nationwide. Fines for placing discarded recyclables into the regular rubbish truck or not properly sorting garbage range from NT$1,200 to NT$6,000. The organic scraps collected by the trucks are eventually processed into compost or pig feed.
Heightened awareness
Partly because of a compulsory environmental-education program introduced in 2011, Taiwanese consumers are considered to have become highly conscious of waste and tend to purchase only what they need. Houng, who worked in the U.S. for 17 years at the University of Houston and the Texas Department of Health, says few countries have enacted laws to ensure that this kind of education is mandatory.
The Environmental Education Act of 2011 requires all high school students, as well as employees of government institutions, state-run enterprises, and statutory bodies that receive more than 50% of their funding from the government, to attend at least four hours of environmental education courses. "Even the president herself has to go through a few hours of environmental education," Houng notes.
Other measures have been adopted to encourage people to avoid using disposable items. For example, Houng says, disposable cups may not be used in public schools and government offices.
In Taipei and New Taipei City, a system created by the central government is in use, requiring that garbage be disposed of in designated color-coded plastic bags. The bags are available from convenience stores, with prices varying according to size. A large rubbish bag in Taipei costs NT$5.
Liu says that charging a fee for the bags is aimed both at providing a disincentive to create trash and enforcing a "polluter-pays system." The system encourages recycling, as recyclables can be placed in any kind of plastic bag for free.
Taiwan's stellar record for recycling shows how far it has come from the 1990s, when some media reports referred to Taiwan as "Garbage Island." At that time, piles of trash often accumulated on street corners in the cities and marred the beauty of the countryside.
In the 1980s, waste treatment initially focused on burying rubbish in landfills. But limited land space for landfill sites led to makeshift trash dumps near residential areas, prompting public protests. In the early 1990s, the government responded with plans to build a string of 36 incinerators. Those plans not only brought protests from environmentalists and people living near the designated sites, but also turned out to be over-ambitious.
"At the beginning, after calculating the amount of waste generated in Taiwan, we thought 36 was the number we needed," says Houng. "So we started building the incinerators. At the same time, we also launched programs to reduce the amount of waste we generate."
The waste-reduction programs turned out to be so successful that in the end only 26 incinerators were actually constructed. Later two of them – in Yunlin and Taitung Counties – were mothballed, leaving just 24 still in use. Even then, notes Houng, there is insufficient municipal waste for the 24 incinerators to burn. The excess capacity is used to help industries burn their non-hazardous combustible waste.
Each incinerator has a core electrical generator powered by burning the trash, "so we recover energy from the waste," Houng says. The garbage designated for incineration is already relatively dry, as it contains no organic waste. It is then ignited in a burner maintained at around 800 degrees Celsius. The heat is used to generate steam, which is then used to run a turbine to generate electricity.
The electric power is sometimes used for purposes other than incinerator operations. At the Neihu Refuse Incineration Plant, for example, the electricity generated also heats a public swimming pool.
The Yunlin and Taitung incinerators were shut down due to complaints from nearby residents, although the current system of transporting their waste to neighboring counties is less energy efficient.
Some observers are critical of the system of generating electricity from the incinerators. Robin Winkler, founder of the environmental group Wild at Heart Taiwan, says it may give Taiwanese a false impression that if they create and burn more trash, they are producing more "green energy."
Remnants from the bottom ash in the incinerators are often recycled into road construction materials. According to the EPA website, after magnetic separation and screening, ferrous and non-ferrous metals can be salvaged from this ash. Processed bottom ash can also be mixed with asphalt, replacing bricks and other materials. The EPA has been actively promoting the use of processed incinerator bottom ash products in public construction projects. However, some environmentalists such as Winkler express concern that dangerous toxins from the bottom ash remain in their materials, posing an environmental risk.
In 2007, the government enacted a law preventing untreated waste from being placed in a landfill site. Precious little space is left in Taiwan for landfills, says Houng, and they are used for incinerator ash that can't be recycled.
This entry was posted in Industry Focus and tagged recycling. Bookmark the permalink.
About Jane Rickards
Jane Rickards is a Taipei-based freelancer who previously was a TOPICS staff writer. A former Acting President of the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents' Club, she has covered news in Australia, Taiwan and China and her work has also appeared in The Economist, the Washington Post and the Financial Times.
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Just before xmas I bought this little mid-century bureau.
It was dirty, a little bit knocked about, and it didn't have a key, which is probably why it cost me only £5.
I've given it a thorough clean and polish, my genius Dad has made a new key to fit the existing lock, and it's now the perfect telephone table/laptop desk, with added filing space so for once I have a vague idea where important paperwork is.
One thing I particularly like is that unlike a lot of bureaux, it has a flat pull-down front, rather than a sloping one. Not sure why this matters to me, I just think it looks a bit more elegant.
There's no makers mark or label, but the distinctive black legs made me wonder if it was a G Plan.
A bit of Googling turned up an identical one on ebay, listed as G Plan, and with a Buy It Now price of £130.
I'm glad it's a bit knackered, as if it was in better condition I'd have to consider re-selling it, but this way I get to keep it.
On the top of the bureau is a more recent bargain - a Meakin Studiocraft coffee set in the Galaxy design.
It's in really good condition, and cost me only £3.
I love the shape of the coffee pot, and the pattern is one of my favourite Meakin ones. I am really trying hard to resist buying coffee sets, but keep being tempted by lovely ones at good prices.
Just going over to Flea Market Finds to check out everyone else's finds and add mine.
I'd say that coffee set was irresistable, I love the colours, the groovy flowers and the shape of the spout. As for that awesome desk, well, it's awesome. Love the black legs. What a great find.
Very nice! And gosh - the coffee set is gorgeous! I would have been unable to resist also.
Love the coffee set - very nice!
The bureau is beautiful... I've never seen one like it.
Great find! Your dad is totally brilliant for working out a key solution!
Beautiful coffee set! I, too, have trouble resisting a beautiful mid century piece, regardless of my overabundance!