Anyway, none of that is all that surprising. But there's one other question I've always wondered about: Why do so many firms move to the suburbs—and away from inner cities—in the first place? William Julius Wilson writes about what happens when work disappears, but not why all the work is disappearing. Are businesses making race-neutral decisions about where to locate—and it just so happens that the "best" place for them to locate is where all the white people are (so to speak)?
Probably not. There's an interesting 1998 paper by John Iceland and David R. Harris, economists at the University of Michigan, that I just came across which asks that very question. And what they found was that "firms in neighborhoods with a growing proportion of African-Americans are more likely to express relocation intentions," at least in Boston and Los Angeles, even after controlling for a variety of side factors (the proportion of employees who are black, race of the firm's supervisor, firm sector, changing incomes and population in the neighborhood). So in at least those two cities, businesses really are fleeing away from black people. And the end result of those decisions—whether it's conscious or unconscious—is the structural discrimination described above.
Oddly enough, in Detroit and Atlanta the same effect doesn't hold—firms don't seem to flee the neighborhood when blacks start moving in. Iceland and Harris wondered whether this was because the two cities have both had long histories of racial conflict and "balkanization," such that firms that are sensitive to race have already moved far away from African-American neighborhoods, whereas the process is only just beginning in Boston and Los Angeles. Hard to say. But it seems like an important paper, and I wonder if anyone has followed up on it in the last seven years. Looking around the internet, it doesn't seem so.
At the ports, Palestinian importers are required to pay the Israeli authorities the value-added tax of 17%, as well as whatever custom taxes are due on goods that come in on their way to the West Bank or Gaza. These transactions (along with direct Palestinian transactions with Israeli firms and merchants) last year yielded revenues of $711 million.
But whose revenues are they?
To judge by the actions of the Israeli Cabinet on Sunday, the money belongs to Israel. The Cabinet announced that it was going to withhold Palestinian tax and customs revenues, at least for the moment, as a response to Hamas' electoral victory. Until the money is released — if it is released — the Israeli treasury will earn the interest.
It's a real problem; under the Oslo Accords, the revenue belongs to the Palestinian Authority—it's not Israel's money to withhold. But as it happens, I don't think Hass goes anywhere near far enough. Without getting into too much finger-pointing, it seems fairly straightforward the tax and tariff system set up by Israel has always been inherently devastating to the Palestinians, regardless of whether the Israel Cabinet is withholding funds or not. The entire system's a travesty.
After 1967, of course, Israeli markets were integrated with the much smaller economies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Firms in the smaller economy were run out of business as they were forced to compete, unprotected, against more advanced Israeli industries. Israel also put in place a customs union in 1967 that increased tariffs fourfold in the combined territories—primarily in order to protect Israeli industry. But the net effect was that the Palestinian territories were forced to shift trade away from other Arab states and towards Israel, and industries lost their competitive edge in international trade as factors of production became more costly.
Now that didn't have to be a terrible thing for the Palestinians, necessarily—after all, the occupied territories also theoretically could "benefit" economically, somewhat, from new opportunities to work in and trade with Israel. (Among other things, Palestinians working in Israel saw a quick rise in money income.) According to economist Fadle Naqib, "In the first decade [after 1967], Palestinian GDP per capita grew from nine percent of that of Israel to fifteen percent."
But after that initial decade, the ratio started declining, for several reasons. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza increasingly lost control of their natural resources—especially land and water (by 1987, settlers were using about 50 percent of the water in the West Bank, despite being only 10 percent of the population)—which hurt both Palestinian agriculture and limited industrial expansion in the territories. Second were a variety of trade restrictions (Palestinians weren't allowed to import many advanced technologies, for instance) and licensing restrictions on business activities by the Israeli military administration. Many of these placed heavy limitations on what Palestinians could import and export. Third was the underfunding of vital infrastructure in the occupied territories, which devastated the Palestinian economy.
Fourth was the VAT system, whose funds were only transferred to the Palestinians themselves after Oslo in 1993. In essence, an explicit system was created where the Palestinian economy became entirely dependent on Israel. (90 percent of all Palestinian imports come from Israel; no accident this.) Naqib estimates that the net effect of this resource transfers can amount to about 15 percent of Palestinian GNP to Israel in any given year.
Now some of these things changed in 1993, but in reality, it was less than supposed. Some of the restrictions on Palestinian exports were removed, and the Palestinian Authority now has (very) limited ability to set its own tariffs, but in practice Israel still controls Palestinian trade. Funds from the VAT, meanwhile, are technically transferred to the PA (at least until last month). But this doesn't stop the resource transfers to Israel. Another study noted that, in practice, most Palestinian wholesalers and firms must use Israeli traders to import from the rest of the world, and the taxes collected on these traders often go to Israel, rather than the Palestinians. The study estimated that because of this practice, Palestinians forego about one-third of all tax revenue, or 3 percent of GDP.
Let's take the case of a Palestinian who is partner to no one, save perhaps his wife: he is a head of household, who has provided for his family, as honor requires, by his labor—it doesn't matter what labor: say, he ran a shop in Gaza. He's done well enough to have a house, and now, in the fullness of time, his son must wed. Except the son doesn't have a job—what job? So the father must construct an addition to the house. Honor requires no less. And the construction will require, let's say, some gravel. And the gravel must come from Israel—that's quite a business in Israel.
Except this Israeli gravel will cost our hard-pressed shopkeeper twice what it costs in Israel. Because there's only one place to buy Israeli gravel—a legal monopoly run by and for the princes of the PA. And, of course, the new rooms will require some lumber—obtainable only from a similar monopoly (original provenance—a supplier in Israel)… and cement (same story)… and the steel bars to reinforce the cement… Our shopkeeper will pay maybe double the price for every item he'll need. Or, to put it another way, his every occasion of normal need will be twisted to provide commerce for Israel, and pure profit (it adds up to billions each year) for the Tunisians [in the Palestinian Authority].
Right. Lots of blame to go around. Still, it seems that while Amira Hass has identified a real scandal—that Israel is currently withholding $711 million that belongs to the Palestinians—that's definitely the least offensive part of the economic set-up at work here.
Swopa rounds up evidence—okay, more like the barest of hints—that the Samarra bombing could have been the work of militant Shiites looking to provoke some serious sectarian warfare. It's not impossible, I guess. Quite obviously a lot of different groups in Iraq have a lot of different motives for edging the country closer to civil war, and it's getting easier and easier by the day. But it seems more likely that, as Swopa says, al-Qaeda in Iraq did this, in order to keep "Iraqi Sunnis out of nonviolent politics by pushing the Shiites further against the wall."
Meanwhile, it was only a few days ago that Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad threatened to withdraw aid from the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government if it insisted on engaging in sectarian warfare with the Sunnis. And now top Shiite leaders are blaming Khalilzad for encouraging the insurgents with that statement all while… engaging in sectarian warfare. So what will the U.S. do? President Bush sounds like he's planning to back the Shiite government and oppose the "terrorists" while calling for "restraint" on all sides. But this doesn't seem like the sort of thing you can really finesse in this way. Juan Cole says this is an "apocalyptic day." Seems right.
Kevin Drum says he doesn't see why the sale of operations of six American ports to Dubai Ports World, a shipping company owned by the United Arab Emirates, is such a security risk. After all, the company wouldn't even be handling port security in those ports; the Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Security would. Plus, over 30 percent of port terminals in this country are already operated by foreign companies anyway. And DPW already does this sort of thing in ports all over the world, and other countries seem okay with that. Okay, I'll buy that.
But The Nation's John Nichols, meanwhile, asks an interesting question: Why are ports run by corporations at all? Shouldn't this sort of vital national infrastructure be operated and run by the government? Well, my understanding here is that ports are run by the government, mostly: port operations (i.e., moving ships in and out of terminals) are handled by corporations, true, but the regulatory apparatus (i.e., security, customs, licensing, etc.) is handled by the state, and all major U.S. ports are owned by public port authorities, which oversee development, construction, port policies, etc.
Occasionally there's a move afoot to completely privatize the ports, but the current model remains. It's also the model in 90 percent of the world's major ports. There's one major exception, though: In 1983 the United Kingdom under Margaret Thatcher completely privatized the Associated British Ports. According to a World Bank report, the results were mixed, and "sale of either port land or regulatory duties and responsibilities to the private sector has a particularly dubious connection with improved port efficiency." It's also true that the fire sale decimated union representation in the docks (every port in Britain today is non-union), although the Bank seemed to see that as a good thing, naturally.
According to the World Bank, in 1999 only 7 of the world's top 100 ports were completely state-owned anyway, mainly in Israel, Singapore, and South Africa, and these ports are all going to start partially privatizing soon enough. It's not clear that there's any significance one way or the other; privately-run ports aren't always that much more efficient, but it's also not clear that they're that much more unsafe. (They are almost certainly worse for unions, which in my mind is a major downside.) Still, I'm not sure Nichols has spotted the scandal he thinks he has. I'd be happy to hear otherwise, though.
Back to the UAE scandal. It also seems like the administration has broken the law by not doing a mandatory 45-day review of the DPW deal. It would be nice if we lived in an age where illegal activities on the part of the president actually mattered, but it doesn't seem so. Admittedly it's not entirely unpleasant watching the president get attacked by Republicans hopped up on the very war-on-terror hysteria he helped create. Although I'd rather we didn't have the hysteria in the first place, I guess.
I'd also be curious to know if there's anything to David Sirota's suggestion that the DPW deal was the Bush administration's way of buttering up the UAE for further free trade talks. And why is the president ready to use the first veto of his administration to protect the UAE? It seems shady enough that he doesn't really warrant a pass here.
And while we're at it, I'd also like to know if the country really needs to spend billions more dollars on port security, as Democrats always seem to suggest. Do we really think that some doomsday device will come in through the crates? How likely is this, really? Are there better ways to spend the money? (Like on serious non-proliferation efforts, perhaps?) Okay, no more questions.
At long, long last it's done. We just published our most recent issue on oceans up on the Mother Jones site, and I'd encourage everyone to give it a look. It isn't the sexiest topic around, perhaps, but it's pretty damn important. If you have time for only one article, read Julia Whitty's cover story, "The Fate of the Ocean," which argues that we've pretty much trashed our seas, which are rapidly approaching the point of no return: "Science now recognizes that the ocean is not just a pretty vista or a distant horizon but the vital circulatory, respiratory, and reproductive organs of our planet, and that these biological systems are suffering." Fun times for planet Earth.
If we are serious about the good governance agenda, we have to shift our focus to the reform, reorganization and proper financing of those institutions of the United States government that actually promote democracy, development and the rule of law around the world, organizations like the State Department, U.S.A.I.D., the National Endowment for Democracy and the like. The United States has played an often decisive role in helping along many recent democratic transitions, including in the Philippines in 1986; South Korea and Taiwan in 1987; Chile in 1988; Poland and Hungary in 1989; Serbia in 2000; Georgia in 2003; and Ukraine in 2004-5.
So it seems like Fukuyama would prefer to have the United States "promote" democracy around the world by doing what it did in, say, Ukraine, Georgia, and Serbia, rather than the "invade and liberate" model that, one assumes, was discredited long ago.
Ukranian opposition groups, meanwhile, got some $65 million from the United States in the two years prior to the Orange Revolution, and were helped by third party NGOs such as the National Endowment for Democracy and Freedom House, both of which are very active—at times, quite aggressive—in promoting democratic change by nonviolent means, along with Peter Ackerman's International Center for Nonviolent Conflict, which, as nicely detailed by Franklin Foer in the New Republic, has been very active in encouraging democratic revolution around the world, played no small part in the Rose Revolution, and has been eagerly embraced by the State Department looking for a Fukuyama-esque alternative to Iraq-style regime change.
That appears to be more or less the sort of thing Fukuyama has in mind, although he leaves himself a lot of wiggle room. But is this the "right" way to go about promoting democracy? I'm still skeptical. It's certainly true that democratic transitions often depend to a large extent on mass movements from below. But there's a question of whether the Ukranian-Georgian-Serbian model is appropriate for all countries.
After all, all of those revolutions could have easily ended horrifically, resulting in either a crackdown by the ruling regime, or even war in the Ukraine case. That they didn't result in such seems lucky above all; but promoting democratic change in this fashion elsewhere could easily lead to a lot of bloodshed. The 2005 revolution in Kyrgyzstan, after all, where the State Department has spent some $12.2 million funding "pro-democracy projects," ended with violence in the streets and no real meaningful change. The Karimov regime in Uzbekistan, meanwhile, responded with crackdowns next door.
Fukuyama would probably agree that this sort of thing is always treacherous and note, as he wrote in his Times piece, that, "Democracy promotion is… a long-term and opportunistic process that has to await the gradual ripening of political and economic conditions to be effective." But that leaves the debate over how fast the U.S. should go, and how hard it should push. Was something like the push we gave in Georgia too hard? Not hard enough? Fukuyama just says that this should all be done "effectively." But that doesn't help us much.
People in small tribal societies tend to have the greatest proportion of physical aggression in their dreams, with the highest reports among the Yir Yiront, an Australian Aboriginal group for whom 92 percent of dream interactions were aggressive—defined to include everything form aggressive feelings to nasty remarks to physical attacks on possessions. Among industrialized societies studied, however, Americans ranked highest for aggression in dreams, with scores of 50 percent for U.S. males (34 percent for females) versus 29 percent for Swiss men and 32 percent for Dutch men.
Such dreams can also help consolidate other kinds of new visual imagery. "When my daughter gets her hair cut short, I will Braille it, appreciate it, comment on it. However, the next time she crosses my path or I think about her, in my spontaneous waking image she will still be wearing long hair. Once I dream of her in her new hairdo, that is, once I have seen it, she will appear to me in it pretty much consistently from that time on." He says others who have been blinded at some point after early childhood have reported similar dream experiences.
As I say, that's all well known—at least among critics of globalization. What's less well known is what this all means for a more obscure aspect of the world over the past few decades: namely, the breathtaking rise of urban poverty. The "structural adjustment programs" forced on scores of countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia during the 1980s had a number of very specific effects: Agricultural subsidies were slashed, causing the rural poor to flee to the cities, while public sector firms were privatized, increasing unemployment. That plus the combination of a collapse in manufacturing, a drop in real wages, and cuts in social services and infrastructure spending all pointed in the same direction: Urban populations expanded rapidly, and urban slums proliferated without end.
In a nutshell, all of that is the context for Mike Davis' new and much-recommended book, Planet of Slums, which examines the rise in urban poverty across the world. Davis looks at the numbers in a hundred different ways, and they're all equally stark. The urban population in the Third World is growing rapidly, and will double to nearly 4 billion within the next generation. Most of this growth will occur not in the biggest cities, but in medium-sized cities, which are ill-equipped to deal with this sort of a population explosion. Among other things, the developing world is inevitably going to see the rise of new "megacities," with populations over 8 million, and "hypercities," with more than 20 million people. Projections have Jakarta, Dhaka, and Karachi all reaching over 25 million by 2025, and no one really knows if this is anywhere close to sustainable.
The primary direction of both national and international interventions during the last twenty years has actually increased urban poverty and slums… [I]nstead of being a focus for growth and prosperity, the cities have become a dumping ground for a surplus population working in unskilled, unprotected and low-wage informal service industries and trade…. The rise of [this] informal sector is… a direct result of liberalization.
Davis estimates that a billion people worldwide work in the "informal sector"—a group that doesn't match up exactly with the slum-dwelling population, but overlaps heavily. Judging from his description, these workers certainly aren't the mini-entrepreneurs described by right-leaning economists like Hernando de Soto, ready to break out if only they lived in a society with property rights. (For another critique of de Soto, see here.) Most of these workers are what Davis calls the "active unemployed," those without jobs who must somehow find a way to subsist—or starve—in a ruthless slum environment, prone to exploitation at every turn.
So what's the upshot of all of this? Davis is describing, first and foremost, an unparalleled human catastrophe. Few cities in the developing world are at all prepared for this sort of urban population explosion, and as Davis says, "who can imagine any plausible scenario, under neoliberal auspices, that would reintegrate [those in the slums and informal sectors] as productive workers and mass consumers?" The 2 billion slum-dweller scenario is on its way; there doesn't seem to be much anyone can do about it.
Nor is it very likely that the billions ejected from the formal economy will ever organize themselves as a class, demanding justice. Self-consuming communal violence, rather than solidarity, tends to be the major trend in most slums. At least today, urban problems in the developing world are most often addressed—when they are addressed—from above, by populist leaders like Hugo Chavez, who can often count on support for the urban poor. With the explosion of slums in the next few decades, we can expect the rise of more populist leaders around the world; many of them far less benign than Chavez—for instance, the fascist Shiv Sena movement in Mumbai.
Davis thinks that, in the absence of a Left (if there even is one anymore) in Third World urban areas, the slum class will eventually turn in increasing numbers to populist Islam and Pentecostalism. In the past, according to religious scholar Hugh McLeod, increasing urbanization has usually come alongside working-class detachment from the church (Glasgow and New York are two major exceptions). That trend will almost certainly change with the rise of a two-billion strong global slum-dwelling class in the decades ahead, as the urban poor increasingly turn to mass religion, and against "Western civilization," such as it is. Really worthwhile book, I'd say.
On the other hand, those who choose to bypass the law and go straight to the press are not noble, honorable or patriotic. Nor are they whistleblowers. Instead they are committing a criminal act that potentially places American lives at risk. It is unconscionable to compromise national security information and then seek protection as a whistleblower to forestall punishment.
Unconscionable, eh? Now admittedly I tend towards the extremes when it comes to thinking about classified information and national security secrets—"leak early, and leak often" is the motto 'round these parts—but even from a more "reasonable" angle, Goss' position seems pretty shoddy.
The Whistleblower Protection Act does provide some channels for whistleblowers to complain to Congress, true, but it's still very incomplete. Russell Tice, the guy who's supposedly privy to a bunch of "illegal actions" taken by the NSA in its domestic spying program, is not allowed to testify before Congress, because even the members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, who are technically supposed to oversee this stuff, don't have the necessary clearance. If the executive branch is allowed to possess secret information that no one else can have, then it becomes a bit difficult to find an "appropriate and responsible way" of bringing illegal activities to Congress' attention, no?
Meanwhile, the normal channels for reporting wrongdoing that Goss prefers have become much more treacherous since 1999, when a federal court ruled that whistleblowers can be protected from retaliation only if there is irrefutable evidence of wrongdoing—a high bar to meet (the wrongdoer basically has to cop to illegal activity). According to the Government Accountability Project, prior to the court ruling, 36 percent of whistleblowers who went to the Merit Systems Protection Board won their case on the merits; post-ruling, it's 7 percent. Presumably, many potential whistleblowers have been deterred from using "legal" avenues to report wrongdoing. So that leaves the press.
Is it ignoble or dishonorable to leak classified information to the press? Even I would agree that some national security secrets need to be kept under wraps (although I'm less enamored of the idea that "covert" CIA agents toppling governments and fueling crack epidemics deserve special protection, but whatever). But what counts as a real secret here? Classification of "national security secrets" has always been arbitrary and subjective. The CIA still classifies the intelligence budget total from 1947, despite the fact that budget figures for, say, 1998 have been declassified. Similar examples are everywhere. Is this the sort of whimsy that should be backed by criminal prosecution? I'd say no.
Under the current administration, moreover, the executive branch has revised the rules on classification, allowing documents to be classified "even in cases of significant doubt." In 2004, classifications rose 25 percent, at a cost of some $6.5 billion. Was this all due to national security? Hardly—a record number of agencies are keeping things secret, including Health and Human Services and Agriculture. Agriculture. The administration has also decided to ignore the "Seven Member Rule," under which, if seven members of the House Government Reform Committee request information from the executive branch, they get it. No longer. In many cases, the members simply wanted to look at adjusted census records—and couldn't even get that. When the rules become this capricious, I'd argue that whistleblowers have less of a duty to respect government secrecy.
The last thing to say is that leaking doesn't always put "lives at risk," as Goss has it—sometimes it does a world of good. Here's an example everyone can agree on: In 2002, press reports on the classified Nuclear Review Posture—in which the administration was considering the use of nuclear weapons—proved pretty damn important, since the Pentagon hadn't even bothered to create an unclassified report on the subject, as it usually does. Some administration officials, reported the Los Angeles Times, even welcomed the leak and "said privately that a national debate on nuclear strategy might be healthy." To put it mildly, yes. If Goss had had his way, there might have been no "healthy" debate at all.
At any rate, those are more scattered observations than specific recommendations. Very few people would agree with me that we should declassify nearly everything, but it seems uncontroversial enough to say that current whistleblower protections are inadequate and the current classification system is hardly the sort of thing that should inspire as much reverence and awe as Porter Goss is demanding.
Sweden has a decent head start—about 26 percent of its energy already comes from renewable resources (the EU average is 6 percent)—and plans to meet its goal by using biofuels, along with wave and wind power, to generate the needed electricity, rather than relying on new nuclear plants, which already supply half of the country's electricity.
The Volvos, meanwhile, will all run on hydrogen. Or at least that's the plan, though granted, lots of smart people think hydrogen-run cars are easier said than done. Joseph Romm, a former Energy Department official under Clinton and the author of The Hype of Hydrogen, has leveled a number of criticisms along this front—for one, a hydrogen-powered economy can end up using more total energy because all of that hydrogen needs to be transported around to filling stations, and it's harder to ship than gasoline. And a relatively recent study by Argonne National Laboratory estimated that installing the vast infrastructure to equip 40 percent of American vehicles to run on hydrogen would cost $500 billion or more. Obviously Sweden's not as big as the United States, but that's a lot of money, and it will be interesting to see whether the Swedes can pull this all off.
Now the obvious question: Why can't the United States do something like this? There are major differences between us and Sweden, sure: the latter is much smaller, uses less oil, has an abundance of rivers, more nuclear power plants, and less sprawl. That all makes things much easier. And, according to Prime Minister Goran Persson, Sweden's farms and forests are more conducive to generating biofuel than America's. But as I've pointed out before, it's physically impossible to power the whole world—or even more than a small portion—with biofuel, and the United States would have to find its own mix of renewable resources no matter what (most likely involving a heavy dose of solar). So Sweden's not, in a strict sense, a "model" here.
Still, this is what a grown-up approach to energy policy looks like. Nothing mind-blowing. Nothing impossible. All you need is a government willing to act. The contrast between the Swedes and an administration that backtracks from even modest statements on ending our oil addiction—and then lays off 32 workers at the National Renewable Energy Lab because of a $28 million budget shortfall there—pretty much speaks for itself. Lucky us.
Does democracy promote economic development? We review recent attempts to address this question, which exploit the within-country variation associated with historical transitions in and out of democracy. The answer is positive, but depends – in a subtle way – on the details of democratic reforms.
First, democratizations and economic liberalizations in isolation each induce growth accelerations, but countries liberalizing their economy before extending political rights do better than those carrying out the opposite sequence. Second, different forms of democratic government and different electoral systems lead to different fiscal trade policies: this might explain why new presidential democracies grow faster than new parliamentary democracies. Third, it is important to distinguish between expected and actual political reforms: expectations of regime change have an independent effect on growth, and taking expectations into account helps identify a stronger growth effect of democracy.
Huh. This debate somtimes seems a bit muddled to me—when you start looking at things on the microscopic level, it's quite rare that any country will carry out all of its economic reforms (which, to NBER, tends to mean "liberalize early and liberalize often"), finish that up, and only then work on extending political rights. Usually these things happen in tandem. Usually they're interrelated. Little movements towards one might lead to little movements towards the other. Both "democracy" and "development" are complicated processes, and it's not always clear whether the question of "which should come first?" is as helpful as it should be. Still, it's an interesting set of findings, no doubt.
In particular, we look at whether speed of privatization, legal institutions or initial conditions are more important in explaining the growth of the transition countries in the years since the end of the Cold War. In the mid 90s a large empirical literature attempted to relate growth to policy measures. A standard conclusion of this literature was the faster countries privatized and liberalized, the better. We now have more data, so we can check whether these conclusions are still valid… Our results suggest that, contrary to the earlier literature, the speed of privatization is negatively associated with growth, but is confirms the result of the few earlier studies that have found that legal institutions are very important.
So much for "shock therapy," then.
In the fashion world, there are only three influential critics (of those writing in English): Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune, Cathy Horyn of the New York Times, and Bridget Foley of Women's Wear Daily. While other major newspapers cover fashion in a service-oriented way—that is, they suggest what to buy—the writers are not critiquing fashion as they might film or books.
I'm not sure I buy this, though. In the Style section of yesterday's New York Times, I was reading Horyn's "Finally, Girl Designers Who Want to Have Fun," where our oligarch approved of the fact that fashion designers are finally letting their hair down and making their clothes fun. (I know, right?) One useful trick, we learn, is to take a "Peter Pan collar" or a "sack dress" and "subverting them just enough so that they don't seem goody." That seems like sound advice. And I would call this "critiquing fashion," sure, sure.
But then in the next column over we have Eric Wilson's "American Style is Coming Back, but Will Men Pay the Price?," which also seems to critique fashion "as one might a film or book": "His jeans with a low waist, baggy crotch and long, tight legs — already the silhouette of the season, ripped from the body of Pete Doherty, the troubled English rocker — were made palatable in finer fabrics with the texture of oilcloth." I don't see what Wilson's not doing here that Horyn, apparently, is. Why does she make the triumvirate but not him? Maybe he's an oligarch in training? It's all very mysterious.
It's no secret that the Bush administration has long wanted to develop new types of nukes, including those entirely frivolous "bunker-busters," for god knows what purpose. In Congress, on the other hand, sensible folks such as Rep. David Hobson (R-OH) have instead called for a "thoughtful and open debate on the role of nuclear weapons," and have opposed adding new weapons to existing stockpiles. Good luck with that, right? But in 2005 Hobson introduced the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program as a means of finding a middle ground here.
RRW was supposed to allow scientists to "refurbish" our existing nuclear stockpiles and make them more reliable "without developing a new weapon that would require underground testing to verify the design." Even the "refurbishing" is a bit questionable: our warheads are already plenty reliable, and even warheads labeled "unreliable" by experts can still inflict as much massive death and destruction as anyone could hope for. The current "stockpile stewardship" program set up by the Clinton administration in 1992 has never found any problems with the viability of the U.S. arsenal. (See this Bulletin article for more on this.) Still, RRW would channel the energies of the nuclear establishment away from the task of dreaming up new nuclear weapons and into something relatively harmless. That's useful.
Anyway, it wasn't long before Energy Department officials decided to co-opt and expand upon Hobson's RRW idea, and many administration officials now seem to see it as a means of creating an infrastructure that can eventually churn out new weapons if necessary. All of the sudden, everyone had a different interpretation of what the program actually entailed. Last April, Everet Beckner, deputy administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, told the Tribune, that building new warheads "was not the primary objective [of RRW], but [it] would be a fortuitous associated event." Oh, fortuitous. Right.
That July, as reported by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the Energy Department was presenting plans before Congress for a completely overhauled nuclear stockpile that would use the RRW program to get there. The department's report "envisions a stockpile to meet an evolving or changing threat environment" and recommends that "a new version of RRW" be implemented to "form the basis of the sustainable stockpile of the future."
Now the new explosives currently being "designed" are still, as I understand it, intended to renovate existing stockpiles, and aren't brand new weapons. In fact, Sen. Pete Domenici explicitly prohibited any funds for the purpose of implementing the recommendations in the Energy Department report.) But the RRW program has slowly and subtly been morphing into a program intended to build new nuclear weapons—despite the fact that this was clearly not Hobson's original goal. And the Bush administration is continuing to push it in that direction, and presumably hopes it will continue to morph in the future. So that's something to watch.
More to the point, the overarching assumption here is that we somehow need all these new nuclear weapons. For what, no one can say. It's pretty clear that nuclear "deterrence" hasn't stopped North Korea or Iran from going nuclear—or 9/11 for that matter; and the United States' insistence on augmenting its own arsenal almost certainly undermines nonproliferation efforts. The administration's desire for "low-yield" nukes—weapons that could conceivably be deployed on the battlefield, and lower the threshold for use—seem completely insane, although Congress seems to have put an end to that little fantasy for now.
In related news today: "State Department political appointees have sidelined career weapons experts who don't share their animosity to arms control agreements and have placed less experienced political operatives in key slots." Okay, then.
In the grander scheme of things, it probably isn't the soundest of decisions to boost defense spending up to even more obscene levels, as the president proposed in his 2007 budget yesterday. But then, who knows, maybe the economy needs it. Last week, the Economic Policy Institute put out one of those "ironic in an Alanis Morissette sort of way" reports estimating that between FY2001 and FY2005, defense spending created 1.5 million additional private sector jobs in the United States. Some might call it pork. Some might call it socialism. Either way, it's hardly anything new in this country.
At any rate, Disney's story is hardly unique—all sorts of modern corporations got where they were because of military socialism, especially the automobile and oil industries. As EPI showed, the American economy is addicted to it: since 2001 a little under half of the 3.4 million new jobs created have been paid for by the Pentagon (and another 1.3 million have been created by non-defense discretionary spending; more socialism!). It's not a huge surprise that the Pentagon's latest Quadrennial Defense Review called for virtually no major cuts in spending, or that members of Congress routinely ignores calls to close bases or kill weapons programs. Where else will the jobs come from?
In economics, the usual Keynesian line is that pretty much any sort of government spending can help pump-prime the economy. But that doesn't distinguish between different types of spending. After World War II, a variety of American policymakers worried about sinking into another depression, and believed that only wartime socialism—and not Roosevelt's domestic programs—had saved the American economy previously. "One of the first things we must realize is that in the 1930s we never did find the answer to full employment," said New Dealer Chester Bowles. "Only the defense program in 1940 put our people to work, and only the war and the cold war that followed have kept them at work."
One contrary view came from the late Seymour Melman, an economist and ardent pacifist, who wrote in 1974 in his book, The Permanent War Economy, that military spending had a negative effect on the economy in the long run, by diverting research and development away from more productive and wholesome purposes other than war. Certainly military spending has led to some marvelous innovations—the internet, whose precursor was built by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, is one—but compared to what? Military research dollars surely aren't the only way we can invent fancy computers.
Messrs Aguiar and Hurst think that the hours spent at your employer's are too narrow a definition of work. Americans also spend lots of time shopping, cooking, running errands and keeping house. These chores are among the main reasons why people say they are so overstretched (especially working women with children).
However, Messrs Aguiar and Hurst show that Americans actually spend much less time doing them than they did 40 years ago. There has been a revolution in the household economy. Appliances, home delivery, the internet, 24-hour shopping, and more varied and affordable domestic services have increased flexibility and freed up people's time.
That's all very interesting, and three (genuine) cheers for technological advances. But the quoted bit about how "the average working week has been fairly constant" came as a surprise, so I opened my trusty State of Working America: 2004-2005 to see what they had to say about this. Indeed, it's sort of true: according to EPI's analysis of the CPS data, a graph of "average weekly hours" among Americans shows little upward movement between 1975 and 2002—at their peak in 2000, average weekly hours were only 3.1 percent above their 1975 level. In that sense, the average working week has remained constant.
But that figure can be misleading, says EPI. "[T]he primary factor driving the flat trend in average hours is the entry of more women into the labor force over this period. Since women are more likely to work part time, their hours worked per week lowers the average of weekly hours, despite the fact that family members are clearly spending more time in the paid labor market." As an alternative to the workweek figure, the book graphs average annual hours worked by all families. That number is up 11 percent since 1975. And it's up even more for middle-income families.
So while workweeks, on average, are about as long as they were in the 1970s—with men working less and women more—families as a whole seem to be working quite a bit more. Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Tyagi get into this in their excellent book, The Two-Income Trap, noting that many families, in response to the rising price of health care and property values around decent schools, are increasingly sending two earners into the workplace to keep up. And that trend seems to account, in part, for the rise in bankruptcies—so long as families are entirely dependent on two incomes, and both parents are working all the time, they have no safety net if, say, one person loses his or her job.
Also, not all reductions in workweeks are equal. According to EPI, between 2000 and 2003 the middle quintile of earners saw a 2 percent drop in real family income, in large part because of a 4.6 percent drop in hours worked. I would assume that not all of this drop was voluntary—many people either couldn't find full-time employment, or else corporations have become increasingly adept at "managing" their employee's time to limit the number of hours they have to be paid. McDonald's has perfected the art of telling employees who arrive in the morning to wait around idly in the restaurant, without punching in, until customers start showing up. That's obviously not an increase in leisure, and McDonald's is hardly unique at this trick.
Is "Plan Colombia" a Waste of Time?
Last fall, Adam Isaacson wondered what we're actually getting for the $4.7 billion dollars we've spent over the past six years fighting drug wars in Colombia. Not a whole lot, it seems.
As a policy to curtail the drug supply, "Plan Colombia" has been a total failure. Cocaine and heroin are as cheap and pure as ever in the United States, and coca production in Colombia has been holding steady over the past two years, despite the fact that the government has been dumping herbicides anywhere it can reach. Coca growers, who depend on the crop for their livelihood, have become more innovative in response to the aerial spraying—cultivating smaller, harder-to-detect plots; developing new strains that grow more quickly; and planting in the shade.
And so long as the growers have no other options—alternative development programs are under-funded and reach only a small fraction of rural Colombians—they'll keep on innovating. Not to mention the fact that all that constant spraying makes growers more sympathetic to guerilla groups. Seeing as how the United States is currently in the middle of following a similar strategy to fight opium production in Afghanistan, these seem like lessons worth learning. Doubtful it will happen, though.
Since Plan Colombia's inception, Colombia's attorney general has demonstrated markedly less will to prosecute cases of human rights abuse by the military. The State Department's last human rights certification memo named only thirty-one military personnel… currently under indictment for human rights abuses or support of paramilitaries. This impunity undercuts much of the well-publicized improvements that the Colombian armed forces have made to their human rights training. If a soldier knows he stands almost no chance of punishment for committing an abuse, will the mere knowledge that the crime is wrong consistently prevent him from committing it.
Some numbers suggest that the Colombian government really is acting with more impunity. The share of abuses committed by the Colombian security forces rose from 5 percent in the late 1990s to 7.8 percent in 2003. Killings and disappearances of human rights activists rose from 29 in 2001 and 2002 to 33 in 2003. 340 people were tortured in 2002-03, up from 242 in the previous twelve months.
Nor has Plan Colombia improved the prospects for peace talks; indeed, there's some evidence that the specter of U.S. military aid may have helped scuttle the moderately promising negotiations in 2000 between the government and FARC and ELN by fostering mistrust among the guerrilla groups. And the counterinsurgency campaign isn't proving very effective either: in part because over 80 percent of the U.S. aid is of a military nature, the Colombian government has had the same trouble that coalition forces have had in Iraq—they can seize rebel-held territories, but they can't hold them once they withdraw. Not only that, but should the conflict in Colombia start escalating rapidly, the U.S. could find itself committing more and more resources to a major war in its backyard. Already some American policymakers have been linking FARC to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, which should make for fun times.
Here's one comprehensive suggestion for a change in strategy in Colombia, which would involve: Less military aid; more support for institutions that bolster human rights. An end to crop spraying; more support for alternative development strategies in neglected rural areas. At home, drug treatment programs would be a much cheaper and actually effective means of reducing the demand for drugs; but this fraction of the $12 billion that the federal government spends each year on the "war on drugs" hasn't changed for a long while. Budget cuts this year focused on hacking up health care for the poor rather than taking even the slightest look at a billion dollar foreign policy adventure that doesn't seem to be achieving much of anything.
Continue reading "Is 'Plan Colombia' a Waste of Time?


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


What a great audiobook! There are two narrators – one man voices the chapters from the good guy's point of view and another man narrates the chapters about the bad guys. This style worked REALLY well and kept me on the edge of my seat. I found myself taking the long way to places just so I could listen a little longer.
Michael Bennett, NYPD homicide detective, finds himself thrust into the role of hostage negotiator when some of the most influential and wealthy celebrities of the time are taken hostage during a state funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral. As the days pass, heading towards Christmas, Michael is at wits end as to how the kidnappers were able to pull this off, and how they manage to stay one step ahead.
This book really gets your adrenaline going and you'll also shed a tear or two. Michael's wife is dying of cancer and the scenes she is in are heartbreaking. Add in their brood of ten multi-ethnic adopted children ranging in age from three to thirteen and the waterworks will drip I guarantee.


text:
The world's first wiki where authorship really matters (Nature Genetics, 2008). Due credit and reputation for authors. Imagine a global collaborative knowledge base for original thoughts. Search thousands of articles and collaborate with scientists around the globe.
wikigene or wiki gene protein drug chemical gene disease author authorship tracking collaborative publishing evolutionary knowledge reputation system wiki2.0 global collaboration genes proteins drugs chemicals diseases compound
Hoffmann, R. A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters. Nature Genetics (2008)
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Instructions on how to enable JavaScript on different browsers can be found here: http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=23852.
Tsung, A. et al.
The transcription factor interferon regulatory factor-1 mediates liver damage during ischemia-reperfusion injury.
Hepatic ischemia occurs in the settings of trauma, transplantation, and elective liver resections. The initiating events that account for local organ damage are only partially understood. Interferon (IFN) regulatory factor-1 ( IRF-1) is a transcription factor that regulates the expression of a number of genes involved in both innate and acquired immunity; however, its function in liver injury is unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the role of IRF-1 in hepatic ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. In C57BL/6 mice undergoing 60 min of hepatic ischemia, IRF-1 protein expression increased as early as 1 h after reperfusion. IRF-1 knockout mice were significantly protected from hepatic I/R-induced damage compared with their wild-type controls. Hepatic I/R injury resulted in marked activation of the MAP kinase c-Jun NH(2)-terminal kinase (JNK) in wild-type mice but not IRF-1 knockout mice. IRF-1 knockout mice also exhibited significantly lower hepatic expression of TNF-alpha, IL-6, ICAM-1, and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) mRNA. Adenoviral delivery of IRF-1 into C57BL/6 mice resulted in increased liver damage even without an ischemic insult. This injury was associated with increased JNK activation and hepatic iNOS expression. Because IRF-1 contributed to liver injury, we also examined for inflammatory signals that regulated IRF-1 gene expression in cultured hepatocytes. Whereas IFN-gamma and IFN-beta were strong inducers of IRF-1 mRNA (>10-fold) in a time- and dose-dependent manner, TNF-alpha and IL-1beta also induced IRF-1 mRNA to a lesser extent (2- to 3-fold). IL-6 and lipopolysaccharide had no effect on IRF-1 expression. This study demonstrates that IRF-1 exerts a harmful role in hepatic I/R injury by modulating the expression of multiple inflammatory mediators. We further show that IRF-1- mediated injury involves the activation of JNK and that hepatocellular IRF-1 expression itself is regulated by specific cytokines.[1]
The transcription factor interferon regulatory factor-1 mediates liver damage during ischemia-reperfusion injury. Tsung, A., Stang, M.T., Ikeda, A., Critchlow, N.D., Izuishi, K., Nakao, A., Chan, M.H., Jeyabalan, G., Yim, J.H., Geller, D.A. Am. J. Physiol. Gastrointest. Liver Physiol. (2006) [Pubmed]
Annotations and hyperlinks in this abstract are from individual authors of WikiGenes or automatically generated by the WikiGenes Data Mining Engine. The abstract is from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.About WikiGenesOpen Access LicencePrivacy PolicyTerms of Useapsburg

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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text:
Music's Live-Streaming Moment
by David Pakman
Since 1995, many of us have dreamed of a world of live-streamed music events.
It might finally be happening.
In 1995, as co-founder of Apple's nascent music group, I partnered with two innovative club-owners, Andrew Rasiej (Irving Plaza) and Michael Dorf (The Knitting Factory) who had resurrected the struggling New Music Seminar to create the week-long New York Music Festival. We worked together to create a hybrid offline/online event called the Macintosh New York Music Festival, installing cameras in clubs and live-streaming musical performances. In many ways, this was the birth of live-streaming music.
We have come a long way since dial-up modems, DSL lines, and Real Audio. The infrastructure has existed now for decades to offer high-fidelity online music performances streamed around the world. But demand to watch streamed live concerts has been spotty. Many attempts have been made to build platforms for this purpose, but all are long gone. Yes, there have been big live-streamed music festivals, and plenty of examples of well-attended online music performances. But watching live streamed concerts just isn't really a thing.
In fairness, two things have been happening in live-streaming that foreshadowed where we are now. First, live mobile video took off when it became conversational. YouNow, Periscope, and their followers like YouTube Live and Facebook Live succeeded by making the form more about the hosts interacting with their viewers through online chat, donations, and guest appearances rather than simply taking something that looks like television and putting it on the internet.
And second, as with all things internet, the long-tail — not mainstream superstars — was responsible for the growth and innovation. YouTube broadcasters pioneered short-form recorded videos and Twitch streamers pioneered the live-stream built around gaming. This form has created an entire genre of streamers, supported by viewer donations, merch sales and sponsorships. Again, in keeping with the internet's culture, the base software used here for stream preparation and management is the open source OBS. Like blogging before it, it is supported by millions of design templates, plug-ins, and API integrations with the distribution platforms.
But finally, in this moment of global isolation, with streaming media consumption exploding, we crave the electricity of live music. We need the spontaneity and interaction the soul-less music playback platforms lack. There is only one problem, and it is the same problem that has plagued online music for twenty-five years…rights-holders are holding it back.
The most exciting thing in music the last fifteen years has been the rise of DJ culture. Online, DJs try to stream live sets and interact with their audience like the gamers do. But, they are blocked at every turn by the music rights-holders. Why?
Non-recorded live music streams are simply public performances. They implicate the rights of both the music publishers and the sound recording rights holders (record labels). Like bands and DJs who play in clubs, performing rights societies (in the U.S., ASCAP and BMI, etc.) collect fees from club-owners in exchange for blanket licenses to perform music in their venue. But online, record companies collect performance fees for music too. Still, all platforms have blanket licenses, in effect, from the PROs and through filings with SoundExchange. So, why can't the world's millions of DJs hop on YouTube or Facebook and stream live sets?
As a DJ or a band, you can stream live audio without video (under the blanket performance licenses and payments to SoundExchange mentioned above). But once you attach a visual element to those streams, like a DJ spinning tracks live or an artist strumming a guitar in a bedroom, the music rights-holders claim a "synchronization" right exists. And, by the letter of the law, they are probably right.
Successful live-streaming seems to require these visual, indeed personal interactions by the broadcaster.
But the blanket performing rights agreements issued to online platforms and SoundExchange payments don't include a synchronization right, so YouTube and Facebook shut you down. Their software detects the use of copyrighted music in your streams and, even if you choose settings that prevent a recording from being made, your stream is cut off and/or nasty copyright claim notices are sent to you. Repeated violators are kicked off the platform. Twitch and Mixer, perhaps unsurprisingly given their gaming focus, are more friendly to live music DJs. Even though this activity is not prevented on those platforms, it may just be a matter of time, however, until music publishers and record labels demand additional payments for sync licenses. To enable live audio/visual music live-streaming on a mass scale, these platforms must strike individual agreements with each music publisher and record label—an onerous and laborious process. So, most haven't.
The comparison with gaming companies couldn't be more stark. Virtually every video game publisher in the world allows you to play their games online, stream them to your followers, add your own video overlay on top, have live chat, and even accept donations. The progressive video game industry has been rewarded for their support of platforms like Twitch and Mixer; global video game revenues are up 10% — 15% year over year for the past decade. Music grows, but much more slowly. And music publishing growth lags that of the larger recorded and live music industries.
If I were the large music publishers, I would immediately offer the PROs the opportunity to sign blanket licenses enabling widespread live-streaming inclusive of the sync right, provided the PROs sign those deals within the next 60 days. And I would grant SoundExchange additional authority to include a sync right in exchange for the payments they already collect. The only way to enable this widespread exciting use of live music is through blanket licensing.
In this moment of opportunity, music rights holders should view themselves more like builders and makers—capitalize on shifts in consumer demand and do everything you can to encourage use, attention, and enjoyment of your works. The long-tail is always where you find the most innovation. Bedroom DJs and singers, and even Chris Martin and countless other mainstream artists are trying to use live-streaming as a way to connect with people and break the social challenges of pandemic isolation. Let it happen, and you will be rewarded.
Music's Live-Streaming Moment was originally published in pakman.com on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Source: http://www.pakman.com


It's been a beautiful sunny afternoon here in Irvine and it really feels like spring is just around the corner. Got me thinking about our holiday which is rapidly getting closer. ….just a couple of months now. We've booked a caravan on a small site at Achmelvich just to the north of Lochinver. We've been there several times now but it is such a beautiful spot that we keep getting drawn back to it. The scenery is just spectacular, especially if you get some fine May weather. I did this small painting after our last holiday there. Hopefully get some new paintings done this year too.
Getting high, (on a hill)….. the easy way!
<< Previous Post: Journey's end ….a commission completed successfully.


I am an international student – can I apply to Capgemini Consulting's graduate programme?
Yes, you're welcome to apply. Please be aware, though, that because many of our roles require security clearance, you will usually need to have been resident in the UK for at least five years, and to have received indefinite leave to remain. Please visit the Home Office website for more information.
Does Capgemini Consulting accept speculative CVs?
No – please apply for the role you are interested in via our website.
Can I apply for more than one job or programme at Capgemini?
No, you can only apply for one role at a time. If during our selection process we feel you would be more suited to another role, we will discuss this with you. If at any point you would like to change your application for another role, please tell us.
If I am unsuccessful when can I reapply?
You can reapply 12 months after your initial application.
How can I contact someone from Capgemini recruitment?
Can you explain what to expect during the recruitment process?
Submit your application form online, upload your CV and answer our screening questions.
Each stage is conditional on success at the previous one.
Academics forms part of our overall hiring decision but we don't screen out purely on the basis of academic performance. We will assess your suitability for a role using a number of tools including strengths and critical reasoning assessments, video interviewing and assessment centres.
Can I receive feedback on each stage of the recruitment process?
We offer telephone feedback to all candidates who attend our assessment centre. Due to the large numbers of applications, we are unable to provide feedback on earlier stages. We will let you know the outcome of each stage of our process as quickly as possible, often by email, so please check regularly for messages from our recruitment team.
As we run intakes throughout the year, opportunities are opening all the time so it is best to keep an eye on our website. We also recommend you follow our CDC blog, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for regular updates and insights.
You join Capgemini Consulting on day one as a permanent, full-time employee. Your Capgemini career will continue after the Capgemini graduate programme ends.
What help will you give me to get started?
Your career starts with a 2-week induction covering key skills from structuring a presentation to process mapping, reading project charters and conducting financial analysis. You will learn from external speakers and subject matter experts. Evening activities will enable you to get to know graduates and meet senior people.
Will I always work at my base location?
In order to meet our clients' needs fully and enable collaborative working, most Capgemini Consulting projects are based at client sites. This means you will usually be working away from your base location, with all reasonable expenses paid for whilst you are staying away from home. This is one of the exciting parts of being a management consultant!
Bank details, so we can pay you!
Please try to send your documentation to the team as soon as we ask for it, to avoid delays in the onboarding process. It may sound like a lot to do, but don't worry – the onboarding team will be there to guide you every step of the way and answer any questions.
What happens if I want to change practices?
Although we align you to a practice area initially, there is flexibility to move into other areas either during your time in the CDC or later in your career. Being assigned to a practice area does not dictate which client project you will be working on; it just indicates where your main expertise and interest lie. Joint practice project opportunities are common.
Is it possible to change my intake date?
If you want to change your intake date, this will need to be discussed with the Recruitment Manager to check if this will be possible.
How do I make you aware of my disability and the adjustments I need to be made during the selection process?


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text:
1 oz Random Year Canadian Maple Leaf Gold Coin
1 oz 2015 Star Trek Deep Space Nine | DS9 Silver Proof Coin
We're looking for more stock!
When product becomes available
The beautiful colourized, proof quality coin has vibrant colours, a highly polished appearance and comes with a numbered certificate of authenticity. The mintage, including the two coin sets, is limited to only 6500 coins worldwide meaning that this is sure to become a prized coin for both numismatic collectors and Star Trek fans.
Star Trek Deep Space Nine ran from 1993 to 1999. The series featured different themes compared to the previous Star Trek series, with much less exploration of physical space.
The obverse of the coin features the Ian Rank Broadley effigy of Queen Elizabeth II and the words "Queen Elizabeth II 1 Dollar Tuvalu 2015" and the artist's initials.
The reverse of the other coin features a relief of Deep Space 9 majestically soaring over a colourized space scene. The wreath of laurel leaves surrounding the edges of the coin mimic the logo of the United Federation of Planets and were used in ancient Rome to symbolize victory. DS-9 was originally a Cardassian space station, which the Bajoran's invited the United Federation of Planets to administer control of after they gained their freedom from the Cardassians.
This coin, like the original run of the series, is strictly limited, get yours today before they are all gone!
This coin comes in a unique coin container that lights up when opened. The coin container is packed in a black collector's box featuring an overhead view schematic image Deep Space 9.
Country AU
Obverse Queen Elizabeth II effigy by Ian Rank-Broadley and the words "QUEEN ELIZABETH II TUVALU 2015 1 DOLLAR" and the artist`s initials
Reverse A relief of Deep Space Nine superimposed over a colourized space scene and the words "Star Trek Deep Space Nine Deep Space 9 1 oz .999 Silver" and the Perth mintmark.
First Released 2015
Average Thickness (mm) 4.0
Dimensions (mm) 145 x 145 x 68
Legal Tender TV 1
Designer Ian Rank Broadley (obverse), Jennifer McKenna (reverse)
Metal Weight (ozt) 1.0000
Certificate Yes
Mintage 6500
Brilliant uncirculated
Queen Elizabeth II effigy by Ian Rank-Broadley and the words "QUEEN ELIZABETH II TUVALU 2015 1 DOLLAR" and the artist`s initials
A relief of Deep Space Nine superimposed over a colourized space scene and the words "Star Trek Deep Space Nine Deep Space 9 1 oz .999 Silver" and the Perth mintmark.
First Released
Average Thickness (mm)
Ian Rank Broadley (obverse), Jennifer McKenna (reverse)
Metal Weight (ozt)
1 oz 2015 Star Trek Deep Space Nine | DS9 Silver Proof Coin The beautiful colourized, proof quality coin has vibrant colours, a highly polished appearance and comes with a numbered certificate of authenticity. The mintage, including the two coin sets, is limited to only 6500 coins worldwide meaning that this is sure to become a prized coin for both numismatic collectors and Star Trek fans. Star Trek Deep Space Nine ran from 1993 to 1999. The series featured different themes compared to the previous Star Trek series, with much less exploration of physical space. The obverse of the coin features the Ian Rank Broadley effigy of Queen Elizabeth II and the words "Queen Elizabeth II 1 Dollar Tuvalu 2015" and the artist's initials. The reverse of the other coin features a relief of Deep Space 9 majestically soaring over a colourized space scene. The wreath of laurel leaves surrounding the edges of the coin mimic the logo of the United Federation of Planets and were used in ancient Rome to symbolize victory. DS-9 was originally a Cardassian space station, which the Bajoran's invited the United Federation of Planets to administer control of after they gained their freedom from the Cardassians. This coin, like the original run of the series, is strictly limited, get yours today before they are all gone!


Try one free today for 14 days. You will receive a brand new racket custom made and strung to order. This is not a demo or a used racket program. This is a free trial of a brand new racket freshly strung to order for your gripsize. You must contact customer service at 1877-DONNAY 7 for your free trial.
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New York forest rangers say three hikers who had to be rescued in the Adirondacks over the weekend were wearing sneakers and were unprepared for the backcountry.
According to New York Department of Environmental Conservation officials, rangers received of a report of a 911 call at 3:25 p.m. on Saturday, March 16, stating three hikers were lost on Giant Mountain. The mountain stands 4,626 feet high and is the 12th tallest peak in the Adirondacks.
The three hikers – two were 21-years-old and the third was 19 – reported they needed help relocating the trail.
Rangers were dispatched to the Giant Mountain Wilderness to search for the hikers, and at 5:10 p.m., voice contact was made with the subjects.
By 5:52 p.m., rangers located the subjects in good but tired condition. Rangers said the hikers were wearing sneakers and were unprepared for the backcountry hike.
The subjects slowly made their way back to the trailhead and the incident concluded at 6:15 p.m.
In other Adirondack hiking news, two hikers each died of apparent heart attacks while hiking in the Adirondacks in separate incidents over the weekend.
On Friday, March 15, officials with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation received a request for assistance for a 51-year-old male hiker from Plattsburgh, New York. The subject was in medical distress at the top of Blueberry Hill Trail in Elizabethtown, New York. At the time of the call, Essex County 911 dispatch advised they would also be sending Elizabethtown Ambulance.
Rangers were dispatched to the hiker's location, and as rangers and EMS were responding, the subject went into cardiac arrest. Rangers and EMS performed CPR and employed an automated external defibrillator, but the subject remained unresponsive. New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation personnel arrived on scene and assisted with recovery efforts. The hiker was transferred to the Essex County Coroner.
In a separate incident on Sunday, March 17, Department of Environmental Conservation officials received a report of a hiker in distress on Catamount Mountain in Clinton County. The caller reported that a 52-year-old male from Glen Falls had collapsed while taking a break and was unresponsive. Ray Brook Dispatch provided assistance to the caller and dispatched rangers to the scene at Taylor Pond Wild Forest.
Rangers responded with snowmobiles for rapid access to the patient. Au Sable Fork's Ambulance Service was also on scene with the New York State Police. Rangers made their way to the group by 2:30 p.m. After an hour of CPR, the male hiker was pronounced deceased.
Also last week, rangers rescued a stranded hiker on Friday mountain.
At roughly 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 17, rangers received a call from Ulster County 911 about a stranded male hiker on Friday Mountain in the town of Shandaken. The hiker reportedly was having difficulty descending the mountain due to steep, icy terrain. The 59-year-old from New Windsor became disoriented and lost the trail.
Rangers responded to the subject's location, however, the coordinates were unreliable, hampering search efforts. With nightfall approaching, rangers contacted State Police Aviation out of Newburgh to assist in locating the subject. At 7:24 p.m., rangers located the subject and escorted him back to the trailhead.


text:
Q: Create-React-App displaying blank screen on IE11. ERRORS: SCRIPT5009: 'WebSocket' is undefined and SCRIPT5009: 'Promise' is undefined CRA works fine on every other browser but displaying blank screen on IE. I have tried installing react-app-polyfill 2.0 and 1.0.6, putting
import "react-app-polyfill/ie11"
import "react-app-polyfill/stable" at the top of src/index.js file. As well as putting "ie 11" in the browserList for dev and prod env. I also removed the .cache file in node_modules and still same error pops up. Here is my code:
package.json file dependencies
paackage.json file browserList
Polyfill imports
Here are the error messages I am getting:
Whole error
'WebSocket'is undefined points to this
'Promise' is undefined error points to this

A: As we can see that you had already added the react-app-polyfill and added the "ie 11" in the browser list.
I suggest you keep those settings and refer to the steps below.
If this is a newly created app and not working with IE 11 then I suggest you install core-JS using the command npm install core-js and add import 'core-js/stable' on the first line in the index.js file.
The starting of the index.js file should look like below.
import 'core-js/stable';
import 'react-app-polyfill/ie11';
import 'react-app-polyfill/stable';
import React from 'react';
import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

After that delete the .cache folder under node_modules and again try to run the project. It may help you to run it in IE 11.

If your React app was working with IE 11 and you got this issue after adding some code then I suggest you try to provide detailed information about it. It can help us to understand the issue properly.
Thanks for your understanding.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
The Nakamura numbers for computable simple games
Kumabe, Masahiro and Mihara, H. Reiju (2007): The Nakamura numbers for computable simple games.
MPRA_paper_5849.pdf
The Nakamura number of a simple game plays a critical role in preference aggregation (or multi-criterion ranking): the number of alternatives that the players can always deal with rationally is less than this number. We comprehensively study the restrictions that various properties for a simple game impose on its Nakamura number. We find that a computable game has a finite Nakamura number greater than three only if it is proper, nonstrong, and nonweak, regardless of whether it is monotonic or whether it has a finite carrier. The lack of strongness often results in alternatives that cannot be strictly ranked.
Nakamura number; voting games; core; Turing computability; axiomatic method; multi-criterion decision-making
C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C6 - Mathematical Methods ; Programming Models ; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling > C69 - Other
D - Microeconomics > D7 - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making > D71 - Social Choice ; Clubs ; Committees ; Associations
C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C7 - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory > C71 - Cooperative Games
H. Reiju Mihara
Andjiga, N. G. and Mbih, B. (2000). A note on the core of voting games. Journal of Mathematical Economics, 33:367–372. Arrow, K. J. (1963). Social Choice and Individual Values. Yale University Press, New Haven, 2nd edition. Austen-Smith, D. and Banks, J. S. (1999). Positive Political Theory I: Col lective Preference. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.
Banks, J. S. (1995). Acyclic social choice from finite sets. Social Choice and Welfare, 12:293–310. Bartholdi, III, J., Tovey, C. A., and Trick, M. A. (1989a). Voting schemes for which it can be difficult to tell who won the election. Social Choice and Welfare, 6:157–165. Bartholdi, III, J. J., Tovey, C. A., and Trick, M. A. (1989b). The computa- tional difficulty of manipulating an election. Social Choice and Welfare, 6:227–241. Deb, R. (2004). Rights as alternative game forms. Social Choice and Welfare, 22:83–111. Kelly, J. S. (1988). Social choice and computational complexity. Journal of Mathematical Economics, 17:1–8. Kolpin, V. (1990). Equivalent game forms and coalitional power. Mathe- matical Social Sciences, 20:239–249. Kumabe, M. and Mihara, H. R. (2007a). Computability of simple games: A characterization and application to the core. Journal of Mathematical Economics. doi:10.1016/j.jmateco.2007.05.012. Kumabe, M. and Mihara, H. R. (2007b). Computability of simple games: A complete investigation of the sixty-four possibilities. MPRA Paper 4405, Munich University Library. Kumabe, M. and Mihara, H. R. (2007c). The Nakamura numbers for com- putable simple games. MPRA Paper 3684, Munich University Library. Lewis, A. A. (1988). An infinite version of Arrow's Theorem in the effective setting. Mathematical Social Sciences, 16:41–48. Mihara, H. R. (1997). Arrow's Theorem and Turing computability. Eco- nomic Theory, 10:257–76. Mihara, H. R. (1999). Arrow's theorem, countably many agents, and more visible invisible dictators. Journal of Mathematical Economics, 32:267– 287. Mihara, H. R. (2004). Nonanonymity and sensitivity of computable simple games. Mathematical Social Sciences, 48:329–341. Nakamura, K. (1979). The vetoers in a simple game with ordinal preferences. International Journal of Game Theory, 8:55–61. Odifreddi, P. (1992). Classical Recursion Theory: The Theory of Functions and Sets of Natural Numbers. Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Peleg, B. (2002). Game-theoretic analysis of voting in committees. In Arrow, K. J., Sen, A. K., and Suzumura, K., editors, Handbook of Social Choice and Welfare, volume 1, chapter 8, pages 395–423. Elsevier, Amsterdam. Richter, M. K. and Wong, K.-C. (1999). Computable preference and utility. Journal of Mathematical Economics, 32:339–354. Shapley, L. S. (1962). Simple games: An outline of the descriptive theory. Behavioral Science, 7:59–66. Soare, R. I. (1987). Recursively Enumerable Sets and Degrees: A Study of Computable Functions and Computably Generated Sets. Springer-Verlag, Berlin. Tanaka, Y. (2007). Type two computability of social choice functions and the Gibbard-Satterthwaite theorem in an infinite society. Applied Mathe- matics and Computation, 192:168–174. Truchon, M. (1995). Voting games and acyclic collective choice rules. Math- ematical Social Sciences, 29:165–179. van Hees, M. (1999). Liberalism, efficiency, and stability: Some possibility results. Journal of Economic Theory, 88:294–309. Weber, R. J. (1994). Games in coalitional form. In Aumann, R. J. and Hart, S., editors, Handbook of Game Theory, volume 2, chapter 36, pages 1285–1303. Elsevier, Amsterdam.
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/id/eprint/5849
The Nakamura numbers for computable simple games. (deposited 23 Jun 2007)
The Nakamura numbers for computable simple games. (deposited 21 Nov 2007 05:01) [Currently Displayed]


Advansa offers a range of thermo-regulating innovations for bedding along with a host of ideas and innovative concepts within this field.
Hollofil spring is Advansa's answer to the growing trend towards boxspring beds. Toppers and mattress protectors containing Hollofil spring, a particularly durable filling material with 3D spring technology, reportedly enhance the comfort of boxspring beds whilst lengthening the lifecycle of the mattresses. The Hollofil spring quilted bedding can enhance comfort still further.
Combined with the company's Fresh Air technology, Dacron is an innovative, odour-neutralising system, comprising a cover/pillowcase and filling fibres. The fabric (Fresh Air) is developed from standard fibre and is endowed with odour-neutralising technology, which reduces odours by more than 70%. The anti-microbial filling fibres also hinder the development of bacteria and fungi.


Occipital Neuralgia is a topic covered in the 5-Minute Clinical Consult.
Occipital neuralgia (ON) is one of several described cranial neuralgias. ON is characterized by paroxysmal stabbing pain that follows the distribution of the greater or lesser occipital nerves or of the 3rd occipital nerve. Associated symptoms are tenderness over the involved nerve, allodynia, and less commonly, dysesthesia. ON symptoms overlap with migraine or cluster headache and other primary headache symptoms.
Pain is eased temporarily by local anaesthetic block of the nerve.
ON must be distinguished from occipital referral of pain from the C1, C2, or upper facet joints or from tender trigger points in neck muscles or their insertions.
ON is often posttraumatic or idiopathic, but diverse vascular (e.g., giant cell arteritis), neurogenic (e.g., C2 schwannoma), muscular/tendinous, and osteogenic mechanisms may underlie the nerve root irritation (2)[C].
The etiology of ON is unknown. Whiplash injuries causing nerve injury have been suggested. Entrapment and irritation due to myofascial spasm has been described at various locations of the nerve path.
ON may be mimicked by upper cervical myelitis, dural arteriovenous fistulas, cervical cord cavernous angiomas, neurosyphillis, and multiple sclerosis (MS).
Most cases of ON are idiopathic. Whiplash and posterior cranial trauma are considered risk factors for ON.
As the etiology is unknown in many cases, there are no specific prevention strategies available. Avoiding posterior head trauma with proper safety measures for sports and driving and following surgical steps to avoid injury to the occipital nerve branches during surgery may help in prevention of trauma-related ON.
Associated conditions include tinnitus, scalp paresthesia, nausea, dizziness, and visual disturbances.
Stephens, Mark B., et al., editors. "Occipital Neuralgia." 5-Minute Clinical Consult, 27th ed., Wolters Kluwer, 2019. Medicine Central, im.unboundmedicine.com/medicine/view/5-Minute-Clinical-Consult/1688226/all/Occipital_Neuralgia.
Occipital Neuralgia. In: Stephens MB, Golding J, Baldor RA, et al, eds. 5-Minute Clinical Consult. 27th ed. Wolters Kluwer; 2019. https://im.unboundmedicine.com/medicine/view/5-Minute-Clinical-Consult/1688226/all/Occipital_Neuralgia. Accessed April 19, 2019.
Occipital Neuralgia [Internet]. In: Stephens MB, Golding J, Baldor RA, Domino FJ, editors. 5-Minute Clinical Consult. Wolters Kluwer; 2019. [cited 2019 April 19]. Available from: https://im.unboundmedicine.com/medicine/view/5-Minute-Clinical-Consult/1688226/all/Occipital_Neuralgia.


Chiangmai Highlands Golf and Spa Resort is a brilliantly designed 18 holes in the tranquil mountains near Chiang Mai, this is one of the best courses in the north of Thailand. After a memorably spectacular half hour drive from the city, past numerous rice fields and into the mountains, you reach Chiang Mai Highlands Golf & Spa Resort, built on the hermitage of revered monk Kuba Sivichai and consequently known as a 'power spot'. With its picture perfect holes and dramatic bunkering backed by panoramic mountian views, this is a visual feast.
How to play Chiangmai Highlands Golf and Spa Resort?
Starting from the inviting downhill fairway of the 1st, you soon begin to realise that this course is really all about the bunkers, featuring as it does over one hundred of them. If you can avoid the sand and stick to the perfectly manicured fairways that benefit from enduring only moderate footfall, some good scores are possible, so long as your short game is on song. The green complexes with their deep bunkers demand creativity and the fast putting surface requires a soft touch. The course ends spectacularly with the par-5 18th, where you tee off from the highest point on the course to a generous landing area below, from where you can take a chance and go for the green in two or more realistically lay up short of the river and use a short iron to avoid the water and sand that guards the elevated green. Given the challenges ahead it's probably a good idea to get a taste of what is to come by taking advantage of what are possibly the best practice facilities in the country ahead of your round.
After your round, the clubhouse is pleasingly relaxed, a feeling that can easily be enhanced by a massage at the on-site spa. When twinned with the brilliant design and condition of the course, it all adds up to make Chiang Mai Highlands Golf & Spa resort the perfect venue for a day of golf.
How to book tee times Chiangmai Highlands Golf and Spa Resort?
Like the sound of this course? Secure a tee time and take advantage of the discounted green fees on offer by adding Chiang Mai Highlands Golf & Spa Resort to your Chiang Mai golf holiday package.


Use our exclusive 30% Off DRPU Software Outlook & Outlook Express Password Recovery Discount Coupon Code 2019 to save your money when you purchase this software at DRPU online store now. Normal price was $26.6. Now is $31.5 only. You save $11.4 with our code. Don't miss it!


Forum Index > Off-topic Talk > Who sells a good shield boss?
Posted: Thu 25 Feb, 2016 8:07 am Post subject: Who sells a good shield boss?
I'm working on a wooden buckler. I perhaps inadvisably made the cutout for the boss already. The cutout is 6 inches across; if that's too big, I'll have to buy more planks and start over. The wood is a half inch thick, and the 3/4-inch handle will be nailed directly to the back (not sunken into the cutout but not deliberately protruding either).
It probably won't see any use but I'd like it to be sturdy enough for fighting, if not necessarily constant sparring. Also not too heavy, under a pound if possible, but if not, I'll go with what's available.
Thank you. Some of those look pretty good for what I had in mind.
I am looking for recommendations from experience as well, if possible.
It's kind of a fantasy piece. Basically a scaled-down Migration or Viking shield, but I'd be fine with a generic domed boss.
Thank you. I'll send him an e-mail today.


text:
Posted in Barack Obama, Liberty, Socialism/Communism, Socialist Opinion Shapers
White House Takes Out Two Democrat Critics of its Insane Iran Deal in One Week: Hillary and Menendez
It would appear that the Obama back office is far more competent than its front office.
Lee Smith asks a logical question: "We've Known About Hillary's Email for Years. Why the Hoopla This Week?"
…the public first became aware that Clinton was using her personal email two years ago, in March 2013, when a Romanian Internet activist using the nickname Guccifer hacked into Clinton ally Sidney Blumenthal's AOL account and uncovered a trove of work emails between the two from and to her personal account…
So, why did it take the Obama Administration two years to admit to what was already known and to then suggest that Clinton's behavior was reckless and may have even been criminal? And why did it take so long for a major news organization like the New York Times to come up with the big "scoop" it published earlier this week?
Or to put the question another way, why did Hillary Clinton become the Obama Administration's bête noire this very week, the same one during which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pulled all of the world's focus onto the issue of the administration's negotiations with Iran?
The answer is that the two are related: This week's tarring of Hillary Clinton is part of the White House's political campaign to shut off debate about its hoped-for deal. It's not hard to see why they're anxious. With Netanyahu's speech forcing lawmakers and editorial writers to face up to the proposed agreement's manifest problems, the administration fears the prospect of Democrats jumping ship and signing on to Kirk-Menendez sanctions legislation that also would give Congress oversight on the deal. So far, the White House has managed to keep Democratic lawmakers in line, no matter how much they seem to question the wisdom of the proposed deal. Hillary Clinton, gearing up for a 2016 run in which she is likely to put some distance between herself and Obama's dubious Middle East policies, is the one major national Democratic figure who can give Democrats in Congress cover.
Did someone say "Menendez"?
Via CNN:
The Justice Department is preparing to bring criminal corruption charges against New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, alleging he used his Senate office to push the business interests of a Democratic donor and friend in exchange for gifts.
People briefed on the case say Attorney General Eric Holder has signed off on prosecutors' request to proceed with charges, CNN has learned exclusively.
Back in January, Sen. Menendez made headlines for blasting the Obama administration's handling of the Middle East, saying that the White House sounds as if their talking points "come straight out of Tehran."
The "timing" was noticed:
Let's see. The DOJ has ignored a series of egregious felonies committed by Lois Lerner, Eric Holder, Steven Miller, Lisa Jackson, and a host of others.
Why then, would it now attack Robert Menendez, Democrat Senator from New Jersey?
Well, just four days ago, the National Journal reported that "At AIPAC, Sen. Menendez Goes Head-to-Head With the Obama Administration on Iran"</strong>.
March 2, 2015 Sen. Bob Menendez takes joy in being on the wrong side of Tehran, and he's not afraid of being at odds with his own party's White House.
"When it comes to defending the U.S.-Israel relationship, I am not intimidated by anyone—not Israel's political enemies and not by my political friends when I believe they're wrong," Menendez declared to an energized crowd at the AIPAC policy conference Monday evening… A call to action for his fellow members of Congress, Menendez vowed never to back down from a brawl to defend the U.S. and Israel's "sacrosanct" and "untouchable" relationship.
Menendez's speech marked a crescendo in a long and—at times—tense relationship with the Obama administration. As the White House seeks to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran, Menendez has been the leading Democrat questioning the process. While President Obama has demanded cooperation from Congress, the Foreign Relations Committee's top Democrat sponsored legislation in December that aimed to bog Iran down with more economic sanctions. His intent was to put more pressure on the country to cooperate with the United States, but the White House claimed it undermined its months-long discussions.
Gee, but I'm sure all of these revelations and criminal charges are just a coincidence.
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
Tagged 21st Century Socialism, Barack Obama, Communism, Constitution, Democrats, History, Marxism, media, Middle East, military, National Security, Politics, Radical Islam, Terrorism
Trump Navigates the New World Order
The Council Has Spoken! Our Watcher's Council Results – 08/28/15
Updated: U.S. Dept. Veterans Affairs Banning 'God' or 'Jesus' in Military Funerals
Former Obama Advisor Fighting For The Tea Party – Not
The Red Diaper Baby In Obama's Red Cover-Up
Counterpatriotism — Flag Of Inconvenience
28 Pages Later: Shrouding an Act of War
"Nixon's the One" for Media Hypocrites
← The Council Has Spoken!! Our Watcher's Council Results – 03/06/15
How 'independent' was the net neutrality decision? →


Fronting a park, this wide narrow block has been separated into five buildings linked by a vertical transport hub. This approach provides space for views through the development, while stepping of the building from centre to East and West maintains harmony with the existing landscape.
The final development consists of 56 one storey and two storey units made up of variations of 2.5, 2 and 1 bedroom designs, which feed up and down off the two public access floors. This arrangement allows for the majority of units to benefit from street and park frontage, while providing cross flow ventilation.
The use of off form concrete shell construction provides an insulation for the units, allowing the use of full-height recessed windows which permit maximum natural light.
The basement and on-grade parking areas provide secure storage for cars and bikes.


text:
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