text:
TVA Has More Spills, Sen. Boxer Demands Review
Another TVA spill from their coal-fired Widow's Creek plant in Alabama -- that makes for three "accidents" in less than a month. TVA officials called the Alabama incident a "leak" which poured out 10,000 gallons from a gypsum waste pond - some going into the Tennessee River. This is the same plant that TVA's Inspector General cited in a report from last year for failure to address the constant problem of leakage -
"The report says little consideration was given by TVA officials of reporting the "continuous nature and extent of the leaks" to Alabama environmental authorities."
Sen. Barbara Boxer of California told the press that the agency needs a full review and needs it now:
"The Tennessee Valley Authority has a lot to answer for - the first step is to prevent further spills and damage to communities around its plants. I have asked the TVA for a complete assessment of the safety of its waste disposal sites and their plans for upgrading those sites. This second pollution spill must be a wake up message to the TVA and to the U.S. EPA that the current situation is unacceptable."
In a KNS story on this incident, TVA officials say they did conduct a review of all of their waste ponds and found they were "all in good shape."
Also the state has cited TVA for failing to comply with regulations when they allowed for the release of sludge into the Ocoee River this week, a story which KnoxViews has been tracking.
Sen. Boxer's committee heard testimony this week on TVA's handling of their first accident back on Dec. 22nd (links to the hearing and testimony here). But as noted at Facing South, TVA's CEO just did not have much info on what the status of their waste ponds might be, or even how many there are:
"Asked how many ash ponds TVA had in use, for example, Kilgore said he didn't know. He also didn't know why the company opted for dry storage at some facilities and wet at others, or that TVA had previously fought federal environmental enforcement efforts. And he said he was unaware that a 2007 federal assessment documented three TVA sites with proven damage from coal ash pollution.
Kilgore also demonstrated what appeared to be a basic misunderstanding of critical coal waste handling issues. Asked whether he would be willing to utilize the same strict waste-management practices for his ash impoundments that govern landfills for ordinary household trash, he responded that his company was investing hundreds of millions of dollars in new air scrubbers for the Kingston plant.
"That's wonderful, and we all applaud that, but that gives us even more ash," said an exasperated Boxer. "I'm asking about safe disposal of ash."
Kilgore replied noncommittally that TVA would "look at several options."
While Governor Bredesen has called for far more state regulatory controls over TVA, it seems their current system is in dire need of immediate attention right now. When will the rest of Tennessee's state and federal representatives call for action? How many "accidents" will it take? Why hasn't TVA's own board called for intense reviews of their federally-owned utility?
Labels: TVA spill
Camera Obscura: Best of '08 Awards Roll Out; Ray Dennis Steckler, R.I.P.; The Empire Wants You
The Golden Globes will air Sunday, the People's Choice Awards loved "Dark Knight" and two Hollywood guilds provide a peek at what movies are likely Oscar contenders for Best Picture nominee.
The Writer's Guild announced nominations for Best Original script: Burn After Reading (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen), Milk (Dustin Lance Black), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Woody Allen), The Visitor (Tom McCarthy), and The Wrestler (Robert Siegel). The Coens won WGA awards for Fargo and No Country for Old Men, and Allen has won four times, most recently for 1990's Crimes & Misdemeanors. For Best Adapatation, the nominees are: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Eric Roth), The Dark Knight (Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan), Doubt (John Patrick Shanley), Frost/Nixon (Peter Morgan), and Slumdog Millionaire (Simon Beaufoy). Roth previously won this award for Forrest Gump, and Shanley won for Moonstruck. If you're wondering, The Dark Knight counts as "adapted" because it uses pre-existing characters.
The Director's Guild meanwhile usually tags most of the nominees and their selections are:Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire. This is his first DGA nomination. Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight. Nolan was previously nominated for Memento. Gus Van Sant, Milk. Van Sant got a nod for Good Will Hunting, too. David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon. Howard won DGA Awards for A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13.
For info on the Golden Globes, their website has all the details. All the award shows are thankful there is no writer's strike this year. Will viewers care at all?
One of my picks for the best of 2008 is also my pick for the best horror film of 2008 - "Let The Right One In". It's the very subtle and powerful story of vampires and children from Sweden and a most original take on the vampire genre. A young boy named Oskar, lonely and isolated in a Stockholm apartment building, makes friends one evening with a new tenant, a strange and barefoot girl named Eli. She connects with him one evening as he is stomping about the courtyard as he pretends he is fighting and threatening the bullies who terrorize him by day at school. Is it his violence that attracts her attention?
There's very few special effects here, no coffins, no checklist of vampire cliches. Just a steady and understated march towards a confrontation with the adult world and the world of vampires. The acting too is subtle and powerful and both children act far wiser than their years. The movie is haunting both for the way it shows how children are unimportant and isolated and for the quiet threat of a vampire trolling the locals. It also has a real sweetness as these two lost souls create a friendship.
It's an amazing movie, already earning many awards and rave reviews, and is simply top notch work in any language. Any Hollywood remake would never, repeat, never, provide the intelligence and the sly approach of horror to be found here.
The AMC Channel is prepping a mini-series remake of the British sci-fi classic "The Prisoner", which will air later this year.
In the meantime, AMC is offering all 17 episodes of the original show online - uncut, no commercials, and loads of great fun. Check them out.
Legendary low-budget director/actor/writer Ray Dennis Steckler passed away this week. Acting under the name of Cash Flagg, he made history with his 1964 movie "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies". He was fearlessly independent, shooting on location, often without any sound equipment and looping the dialog later, playing both the crazed and haunted killer or the comic sidekick in his movies. He was a shameless promoter and his movies show influences from Fellini, John Ford, Hitchcock and even Ed Wood. The dream sequence from "Incredibly Strange Creatures" shows off his daring and his ultra-low-end production designs. And that's Ray having the dream and scooting about in his hoodie.
I doubt there was any job in a movie or tv show the man did not do on his own. Not that he did them well.
From the web site io9 a post about designer/artist Feng Zhu, who has created a line of "recruitment posters" for the Empire, as in "Star Wars". More samples are at their websites.
Darth Vader and General Grievous never looked anything like this.
And I won't mention that the Empire's army was made of clones, so why the heck would they need to recruit anyone?
As with most things SW-related there's a disconnect of logic or reason. The Lucas Rule is "if it looks good, it's in the official canon".
Posted by Joe Powell at 10:04 AM 1 comment: Links to this post
Labels: movies, TV
Spider-Man Meets Obama
For the first time ever, a U.S. President has admitted he likes comic books and his fave is Spider-Man. So Marvel Comics is printing up a special edition to mark the historic moment. The issue hits stands on Jan. 14th and of course real collectors can seek out the variant cover.
I wonder - was Obama ever a member of F.O.O.M.?
Posted by Joe Powell at 9:00 PM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: comic books, politics
Senate Takes On TVA Ash Spill
Ash spill really is not the phrase needed to describe the massive enviromental and economic disaster that struck Roane County on Dec. 22, but for now it will do. The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works chaired by Sen. Barbara Boxer, held a hearing today on the disaster and took testimony from TVA CEO Tom Kilgore, the county EMA Director Howie Rose and Dr. Stephen Smith with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
The committee website has video of the entire hearing at this link. (RealPlayer needed)
Sen. Boxer said in an opening statement:
"Over 130 million tons of coal combustion waste is produced in the U.S. every year. This is the equivalent of a train of boxcars stretching from Washington, D.C. to Melbourne, Australia.
A 2007 US EPA report found 67 ash impoundments or landfills in 23 states that had caused or were suspected of causing contamination, including to ground or surface waters. EPA knew of dozens of other sites but lacked sufficient information to single out the cause.
For nearly three decades, EPA has been looking at the issue of how to regulate combustion waste. The federal government has the power to regulate these wastes, and inaction has allowed this enormous volume of toxic material to go largely unregulated. State efforts are very inconsistent, and as more and more toxic material is removed from coal combustion, it is critically important that protective standards for coal ash waste be established."
The testimony of Dr. Smith offers some of the best advice on what happened and how to prevent such disasters in the future -- I hope both the federal and the state government decide to enact strict regulations for these highly toxic collection sites. He noted:
"News reports and my organization's preliminary investigation indicate that this could and should have been avoided. Shortcuts have been taken, rules were waved or broken and accountability has been absent; this was not a natural disaster this was a manmade disaster.
It is clear that, in its early response, TVA prioritized public relations over public health and has largely been overwhelmed by the size of this spill, which appears to be the largest industrial spill in our nation's history.
The force of this accident not only ripped homes off their foundations—it also ripped the lid off of a national problem and the failure of EPA to develop minimum standards for this waste. It is outrageous that the landfills holding our household garbage are more regulated than the pits holding this toxic coal sludge.
Today I call on your committee to at a minimum:
1: Require an orderly phase out all wet storage of toxic coal ash;
2: Require EPA to immediately inspect and monitor all toxic coal ash storage and disposal units; and
3: Develop the long-promised Federal regulation of all toxic coal ash storage and disposal by year's end.
TVA was born out of crippling economic times. As we find ourselves again in similar difficult times, this is an opportunity to remake TVA for the 21st Century.
Online folks also reported on the hearing -- Southern Beale - Part1 and Part 2, Aunt B. and Nashville Is Talking has a roundup. Local news station WATE takes on the story as well. The Knoxville News Sentinel's coverage is collected here.
Also, as Sen. Boxer has said, just covering the toxic ash spilled onto the riverbanks and yards for several hundred acres with grass seed is not a cleanup solution for the long-term. Much work is ahead and TVA has every reason to develop better methods when it comes to burning coal - demand better regulation for their protection and the safety of Tennessee residents, and to show they have a viable role in the energy business for this century.
Sen. Boxer also says more hearings on this issue are being planned.
(Background posts on this event are all tagged TVA spill if you want more information.)
UPDATE: R. Neal at KnoxViews has been reporting on another release of sludge, this time on the Ocoee River - here and here. And more lawsuits ahead on the disaster in Roane County.
Joe the Plumber aka Joe the War Reporter
It sounds like a punch line to a bad political joke -- "Joe The Plumber" has been hired to be a war reporter. In Israel.
Yet that's what a web-site called PajamasTV, headed by Knoxville's UT law professor Glenn Reynolds, just did. Hired him. Gonna pay him to be a war correspondent.
If need for reporters exists, why not hire any of the thousands of experienced writers and reporters who've lost their jobs in the last year? I guess PJTV and Reynolds think the entire barrel is rotten - or maybe JtP was the only person who would take the job. Is it because the job is only for 10 days?
Who knew the jokes of the 2008 election would just keep on giving in 2009 too?
The commenters at MetaFilter score points on the topic:
"Don't get me wrong-- I think that pajamas media is pretty much only proving how shallow the right-wing online journalism talent pool is, but I actually can't blame JtP for making the most out of his 15 minutes of fame. Opportunities are tough to come by, especially for a guy like Joe, and ridiculous as his various schemes appear (ads for the DTV switchover, his newsletter, his album, etc.), I can totally understand wanting to make as best a living as he can by grabbing the opportunities that come by in front of him. I really don't view the term "opportunist" as an epithet. The guy sees opportunities and he takes them. Granted, if he'd been a bit better about that in the past, he'd be a master plumber, rather than an apprentice, and PJMedia should think more about who will produce good-quality content for them, but you go with the right-wing journalists you have, not the ones you wish you had."
"I look forward to hearing their ideas for sending other pundits into combat zones."
Meanwhile, the commenters at Michelle Malkin's ultra-conservative site cheer their man on:
"I would believe him before 97% of the rest of the media."
"He will probably be safer in Israel than here - at least after the Big O day, the 20th…"
It's only 10 days of work we're talking here, people. It's really just a way to drum up publicity for ... D'oh!!!!
Posted by Joe Powell at 7:02 AM 2 comments: Links to this post
Labels: blogging, media
5 and 6 Year Olds Try to Elope to Africa
It is a dream that has been shared by lovers across the centuries – the chance to elope to exotic lands. But few would have been as bold and spontaneous as six-year-old Mika and his five-year-old sweetheart Anna-Bell who, after mulling over their options in secret, packed their suitcases on New Year's Eve and set off from the German city of Hanover to tie the knot under the heat of the African sun.
The children left their homes at dawn while their unwitting parents were apparently sleeping, and took along Mika's seven-year-old sister, Anna-Lena, as a witness to the wedding.
Awww ... you can read their adventures here.
Labels: true news
What Is The Value of News?
"It's like some French Foreign Legion outpost up there," says Colin McEnroe, a former capitol correspondent who who was recently fired from his job hosting a daily radio talk show and writes a weekly column for the Courant. "Everyone around you is dead and you've got six bullets left and 20 people running at you."
That's from an article at Governing.com detailing the decline of reporting and news coverage of state legislatures, the continuing poor health of the newspaper business and the search for a new business model for news.
What role will the news biz take in the next decade? What does the public need and use from reporting?
Reporters have been poorly paid historically, and bloggers do much with zero pay, so is all profitability from reporting and publishing about to disappear? Will we see a rise in regional newspapers or perhaps more locally published weekly papers?
The argumentative he said/she said blather unrolling across cable news networks plays like verbal wrestling matches and may draw ratings, but does it actually supply information or simply entertainment?
Maybe newspapers should adopt the old stringer method and start paying, even small amounts, to those who attend, blog and report events at the local and state level.
Michael Hirschorhn writes on the potential demise of the NYTimes and the possible future of news reporting for the Atlantic and says:
"As David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, pointed out at a recent media breakfast, the blogging and local reporting from Mumbai in the early hours of the November terrorist attacks were nothing short of remarkable. Ditto in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I recall avidly following the 2006 crisis in Lebanon through a variety of sources, none less interesting or credible because it was, say, Haaretz instead of The Times. Like neighboring hospitals coordinating their purchases of expensive MRI equipment, journalistic outlets will discover that the Web allows (okay, forces) them to concentrate on developing expertise in a narrower set of issues and interests, while helping journalists from other places and publications find new audiences.
In this scenario, nytimes.com would begin to resemble a bigger, better, and less partisan version of the Huffington Post, which, until someone smarter or more deep-pocketed comes along, is the prototype for the future of journalism: a healthy dose of aggregation, a wide range of contributors, and a growing offering of original reporting. This combination has allowed the HuffPo to digest the news that matters most to its readers at minimal cost, while it focuses resources in the highest-impact areas."
Jack Lail has been writing about the challenges both economic and cultural facing the media today and continues to be optimistic:
"Instead of viewing the blogger-MSM relationship as only symbiotic, which it certainly can be, I like to think about the media gatekeeper as having an open gate, drawing in more views and voices from both small and large, from competitor and contributor and from the uncomfortable as well as the comfortable.
Instead of heavy filtering to fit a physical newshole or time slot, mainstream media has an expanded ability to cultivate community dialogue."
I do think it most hopeful that the print media is looking for a solution and not just cashing out and going home.
I'm also eyeing this project from Newscoma and Sadcox, called NewsTechZilla. They work to provide information and report on how to make the online world work best for news coverage. Given the excellent skills of it's creators and contributors, I think they've got a great site rolling. I'm adding them to the blogroll on the right side of this page.
Posted by Joe Powell at 11:07 AM No comments: Links to this post
The "Blog" of the Month
A blog I love.
The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks
Labels: blogs
Yet another reason I'm forced to admit it is better to be old than young. Also, another reason parents have to be just as tech-savvy as their children.
"Sexting".
The term refers to sending flirtatious and sexual content via mobile devices and/or computers. It's a long way from that hand-written note with the words "Do you like me? Circle Yes or No" which might have shuffled through a few hands to find the intended recipient. Today's kids just create 'sxy txts".
The Tennessean reported Sunday on the trend among teens (aged 13-19) and young adults (aged 20-26), with most saying they do send such messages and about 1 in 5 teens saying they had sent nude or topless photos of themselves to someone, and one-third of young adults. The full survey is here, with these results:
How do teens and young adults feel about sending/posting sexually suggestive content?
-- 75% of teens and 71% of young adults say sending sexually suggestive content "can have serious negative consequences."
-- Yet, 39% of teens and 59% of young adults have sent or posted sexually suggestive emails or text messages— and 20% of teens and 33% of young adults have sent/posted nude or semi-nude images of themselves.
Text messages, instant messages and emails with sexual content gets sent quite frequently, according to the survey:
How many teens are sending or posting sexually suggestive messages?
-- 39% of all teens
-- 37% of teen girls
-- 40% of teen boys
-- 48% of teens say they have received such messages
How many young adults are sending or posting sexually suggestive messages?
-- 59% of all young adults
-- 56% of young adult women
-- 62% of young adult men
-- 64% of young adults say they have received such messages
Yeah, I would hate to have to provide photographic proof of my hotness or devotion, whether I was a teen, or a twenty-something or whatever. Odd, too that the majority of those who do send hot flashes to their peers also think the risk of something bad following on the heels of such "sexting" is quite likely. They do it anyway.
And my parents were worried I might drink or go dancing.
Since tech devices are pretty much permanently attached to the hands of someone under the aged of 25, I suppose such heavy usage as a form of flirting and sexual contact was inevitable.
I thought just finding the right words to say to a woman was tough. I knew some guys who would scale a building or something to spray-paint their initials and vows of love and devotion. Today, you'd have to digitize it, write it in text slang, upload the right image files and hurl it into cyberspace.
Talking is under-rated.
Labels: internet. language, tech
Camera Obscura: Best of '08 Awards Roll Out; Ray D...


Obtenga el libro de The Philharmonic Gets Dressed de Karla Kuskin, Marc Simont en formato PDF o EPUB. Puedes leer cualquier libro en línea o guardarlo en tus dispositivos. Cualquier libro está disponible para descargar sin necesidad de gastar dinero.
"It is almost Friday night. Outside, the dark is getting darker," and here and there around the city ninety-two men and thirteen women are getting dressed to go to work. First they bathe and put on their underwear. Then they don special black-and-white apparel. Then when the one hundred and five people are completely ready, each takes a musical instrument and travels to midtown. There, at 8:30 tonight, they will work together: playing.
In these pages Karla Kuskin and Marc Simont combine their talents to give us a delightful and unusual inside view of one way an orchestra prepares.
Story of the Orchestra: Listen While You Learn About the Instruments, the Music and the Composers Who Wrote the Music!


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Oldest American, Harlem Resident Alelia Murphy, Dies At 114 Years Old
By Dallas On Nov 28, 2019
Alelia Murphy, widely believed to be the oldest American, has died. Murphy was 114 years and 140 days old, and had celebrated her most recent birthday in July.
Healthcare union 1199 SEIU announced Murphy's passing, noting, "Our deepest condolences are with Mrs. Murphy's daughter, 1199SEIU Montefiore retiree Rose Green, and with the rest of their family during this difficult time." The cause of death was not announced.
Murphy was born in North Carolina in 1905, moving to Harlem in 1926 "because she wanted to be a part of the Harlem renaissance in the 1920s," according to PIX 11. A widow since 1953, Murphy raised a daughter and a son and worked as a seamstress.
Her involvement in her local church and community organization made her an "icon."
During her 114th birthday celebration, one of her granddaughters, Nefer Nekhet, told PIX 11, "My grandmother, her strength, I don't know where she gets it from, but she has been through so many things. She is the glue that holds this family together. We ask her 'Grandma, you been here for a very long time' and she said 'I'm here because you all don't know how to live, I'm here to teach you all how to live and things to do!'"
Murphy said the secret to her long life was "Trust in God and be a good person."
1199 SEIU said that funeral services for Murphy will take place on Friday, December 6th at the United House of Prayer for All People in Harlem, with a viewing from 5-7 p.m. followed by the service.
The title of oldest American has now reportedly passed to one Hester Ford, a 114-year-old woman who was born in South Carolina in 1905. The oldest person in the world is still believed to be Kane Tanaka, a 116-year-old Japanese woman.
114AleliaAmericanDiesharlemMurphyOldestResidentYears
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Man Dies In Park Slope Fire, Woman In Critical Condition
Officials Honors Officers Who Captured Suspect In Harlem – CBS New York
Opening Statements Today, More Than 2 Years After Scandal Broke And Sparked #MeToo –…
Lebron James Partners With Lyft To Provide Free Bike-Share Memberships For Harlem…
First American Case Of Novel Coronavirus Reported In Washington State
Brooklyn Girl Dies In Kensington In Monday's Fourth Fatal Fire
After Decades In Harlem, Church Gets Booted By Foreclosure Sale
Black Comic Book Festival Celebrates Art Of Sci-Fi, Fantasy And Storytelling – CBS…
Harlem Woman Finds Suitcase Full Of Army Memorabilia In Trash Can, Hopes To Reunite…
New Yorkers Getting Higher Con Ed Rates Immediately, Then Higher Again Over Years To…
Taking a Pedi-Cab to Harlem – The Partnered Pen
Biden Campaign Features Ukrainian Activist Who Previously Accused Hunter Biden Of Corruption
New Zealand Greens support military build-up
Trump and McConnell: Political odd couple turned powerful partnership
Supreme Court Must Crack Down on Google

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Seattle Mariner Ichiro Suzuki runs as th
SEATTLE, UNITED STATES: Seattle Mariner Ichiro Suzuki runs as the crowd reacts to his 258th and record-breaking hit during the third inning of play against the Texas Rangers, 01 October 2004. The record was previously held by George Sisler during the 1920 season. AFP PHOTO Dan Levine (Photo credit should read DAN LEVINE/AFP via Getty Images)
Other than commercial and promotional uses, full rights UK, US, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Canada (not Quebec) and restricted rights elsewhere. Please call for uses involving restricted rights, commercial or promotional.This image is only available in Getty Images offices in the United Kingdom, United States, Germany (Austria, Switzerland via Germany), and Australia.
DAN LEVINE / Stringer
HKG2004100230542


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12/26/75 True Crime Book On Sale!
Book Extras CH 1-5
Ch 1 Extras
Book Extras CH 6-10
Ch 10 Extras
Book Extras CH 11-15
Media & Links
Original Podcast
Framed by the Golden State Killer?
In-depth investigative series by Lilia Luciano (ABC 10 Sacramento)
Inside the Visalia Ransacker Investigation Pt. 1
A College of the Sequoias interview with Visalia Police Sergeant John Vaughan
A college of the Sequoias interview with
author Tony Reid and Visalia Police Department Sergeant John Vaughan
True Murder: The Most Shocking Killers
Police IQ Testing & Requirements
Jordan -v- City of New London, et. al. No. 99-9188, 2000 U.S. App. Second Circuit
"Court OKs Barring High IQs for Cops" ABC News September 08, 2000
"Peace Officer Psychological Screening Manual" California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST), Originally published 2014; Updated 2022
Police Misconduct in Interrogations
"EXONERATIONS: Part IV – Misconduct in Interrogations – A Legal Gray Area" Posted by Vanguard Administrator, September 24, 2020
"Police Interrogations" John Oliver/Last Week Tonight.
"Principles on Effective Interviewing for Investigations and Information Gathering" Washington College of Law, 2021
CII Articles (Criminal Identification and Investigation)
EFF Pressure Results in Increased Disclosure of Abuse of California's Law Enforcement Databases; Dave Maass, March 31, 2016
Telecommunications Training Guide, 1994; CalDOJ & POST
"How did this California police department hire so many officers with troubling pasts?" UC Berkeley School of Journalism
Chavez in Tulare County
"More Followers of Chavez Seized—Hundreds Arrested on Coast in Dispute With Teamsters By Earl Caldwell"
Special to The New York Times, July 20, 1973
"The FBI's Secret File on César Chávez"
Southern California Quarterly
Vol. 78, No. 4 (WINTER 1996), pp. 347-384
Chavez v. Municipal Court, 256 Cal.App.2d 149, (Cal. Ct. App. 1967)
"Cold Case Files" - A&E
The Original Night Stalker Classic, Ep. S3/E5 Sep 02, 2003
5 Cold Cases That Had Big Breaks in 2018, by Laura Barcella
"Help Us Catch the East Area Rapist"
Microscopic Hair Comparison
"FBI Admits Pseudoscientific Hair Analysis Used in Hundreds of Cases" Smithsonian Magazine, Erin Blakemore, April 22, 2015
"Microscopic Hair Comparison Analysis" Overview, Controlling cases, and video links —Nat'l Assoc Criminal Defense Lawyers
Knife identification standards (WARNING—Graphic Content in Links)
"Quantification of forces required for stabbing with screwdrivers and other blunter instruments" April 2011, International Journal of Legal Medicine 126(1):43-53
"Knife Wounds" Critical Analysis RN, 2022
"Forces generated in stabbing attacks: an evaluation of the utility of the mild, moderate and severe scale" Nolan, Hainsworth, Rutty; Int J Legal Med, September, 2017
Proper Conviction Integrity Review Standards
"Conviction Review Units: A National Perspective" John Holloway, Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law, 2016
"Conviction Integrity Unit Best Practices" Innocence Project, October 15, 2015
Forensic Boards
"Policies & Procedures" Texas Forensic Science Commission, Jan. 31, 2020
"Background: Texas Forensic Science Commission's Work" Innocence Project, Nov. 9, 2009
"Framed By The Golden State Killer" (ABC-10 Sacramento)
This story links to all episodes of the series and provides a short overview of the evidence that links EPD Sgt. DeAngelo to the crime.
In the Footsteps of a Killer
Fair Use Statement
Some of the sourced material that is posted to the 12-26-75.com website is included according to the "Fair Use" doctrine of copyright law, and falls under the safe harbor provisions of 17 U.S.C. §512 for purposes of research and study, public comment, news reporting, and education purposes. All materials are used solely in an effort to advance the understanding of topics discussed on this site. No claim to copyright in such materials is made or altered by uses herein, and all such copyright shall remain with the respective owners.
Pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"), the 12-26-75.com website will comply with legitimate electronic written notices, commonly known as a DMCA Takedown Notice ("notice"), which must include the following information:
• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, to be the subject of infringing activity. Provide information on how, and when, the exclusive copyright was established in the work(s) identified in the notice.
• Provide specific URL(s) of the work(s), as contained on the 12-26-75.com website, or provide representative copies of works covered under the notice to identify such content quickly. If multiple copyrighted works are covered by a single notice, then include a representative list of such works.
• Information to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted is required.
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• A statement, executed by a person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner and made under penalty of perjury, that all information in the notice is accurate. Direct all DMCA Takedown Notices to the following email address: december261975 (at) gmail.com
Copyright © 2022 12-26-75 - All Rights Reserved.


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Various themes in decorating the interior, one of them with a boho chic decoration theme. Boho chic decorations are very popular now, and many homeowners choose to create a friendly and adorable space.
What's on your mind when you think of boho decorations, neutral colors, leather accents, cactus. It looks very stylish. Cacti is everyone's love now, they are very popular. Besides, cactus immediately makes your space ready for summer, like the tropical go.
The reason why cactus decorations are a very popular trend of home decor. And even if you don't want to care for live plant babies, cactus decoration items really are everywhere now. Cacti can grow for a long time without water. They are used to living in dry .
Cactus home decorating ideas are very fun and decorating with strange cactus decorations is a super easy way to tidy up your living space, bedroom, dining table, balcony, window or even bathroom. Cacti can be placed anywhere because wherever the cactus is, it is able to show a charming and unique appearance. The most amazing thing when placing a cactus next to a mirror. But you should consider placing cacti if you still have children.
Various benefits obtained when placing cacti in the home include decorative sweeteners, bacterial repellents and indoor pollution, air filters and oxygen supply, better quality sleep, natural impression, absorb radiation and neutralize electromagnetic waves.
Whether you're looking for cactus room decorations, cactus kitchen decorations, cactus bathroom decorations, I have lots of awesome cactus decorating ideas! I share some ideas for incorporating cactus-inspired pieces and touches into your decorations.
© 2019 home design. All rights reserved.


text:
Avoid an eco-catastrophe with sustainable technology
CLIENT: Tektonika
Original article: tektonikamag.com.au
Sustainable technology isn't something most people worry about when they get their hands on a shiny new smartphone, laptop, or TV. But for all the benefits technology provides, the production and disposal of it—and often, just the use of it—plays a role in generating a looming eco-catastrophe.
In the past, tech companies typically aimed for low costs when it came to manufacturing, and many turned a blind eye to where their materials came from and where their products ended up. But it's time everyone wised up and started thinking about how companies can enhance efficiency in the workplace and protect the environment at the same time.
To give credit where it's due, HP is one industry player making impressive plays in the sustainable technology game. The City of Adelaide is also making some moves of its own down under. Today, they're both leading the pack in eco-friendly efforts—and they just might inspire you to follow in their footsteps.
Take a green hint from HP Inc
In the digital age, e-waste is a huge issue. HP took notice of this fact and started offering top-notch hardware recycling services in no fewer than 74 countries and territories. In 2009, the company expanded its hardware takeback programs in Australia and New Zealand, which involved establishing a comprehensive network of drop-off points that allowed customers to easily return HP-branded products for recycling.
Australians, like their counterparts in other nations, can return their used HP print cartridges for recycling at no cost to themselves. HP has also minimised its greenhouse gas emissions, thanks to their Global Workplace Initiative, which aims to "reduce the space we occupy, use resources more efficiently, and decrease HP's environmental footprint."
The initiative has seen the company favour locally produced or recycled construction materials; sustainable timber; low-emission adhesives, carpet, and paint; and reflective roofing materials (these reduce the need for air-conditioning). Where possible, HP facilities are also equipped with energy-saving and wastewater-recycling systems, as well as bike racks and designated parking spaces for low-emission vehicles.
What do all these sustainable technology policies translate to in the real world? Well, in 2017, HP's eco-friendly initiatives resulted in the following:
4.6 million units of hardware repaired
1.27 million units of hardware remarketed/reused
135,200 tonnes of hardware recycled
Smart cities introducing efficiencies with IoT
Smart City initiatives are coming to Australia, aiming to fast-track the adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) down under. These initiatives are attempting to bring together data from various sources, including newly installed sensors and existing information systems, to facilitate real-time monitoring of energy use, traffic, and air quality. Once this (big) data is available to governments, businesses, and academics, they can create environmentally sensitive plans and policies.
For example, the City of Adelaide has introduced a Smart Environment Monitor pilot project. Sensors throughout the city monitor C02, dust, sound, and temperature. This data is made freely available not just to government, universities, and corporations—but also to any member of the public who is interested. It's these kinds of smart city initiatives that Adelaide's policymakers hope will help them better manage things, like energy consumption, carbon emissions, and the movement of people—enabling them to create welcoming and informative city experiences for residents and visitors alike.
In the same way Homer Simpson is given to declaring beer to be both the cause of—and the solution to—all his problems, the good works of companies like HP provide hope that tech titans will solve many of today's environmental problems.
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text:
Tapolymeggyes () község Szlovákiában, az Eperjesi kerületben, a Varannói járásban.

Fekvése
Eperjestől 20 km-re keletre, a Tapoly jobb oldalán fekszik.

Története
A falut a 11. század második felében határőrző településként alapították. Tőle északra, a lengyel határ irányában egykor őrtorony is állt. 1212-ben II. András oklevelében említik először, melyben a király a falut a Szent Sír lovagrend komlósi kolostorának adja. 1312-ben magyar "Medies" nevén szerepel. Komlós várát 1313-ban említik először, ekkor szerezte meg birtokcserével az uradalmat Szepesi Rikalf fia Kakas a Szent Sír Lovagrend miechówi prépostságától és ő építtette a várat. 1319-ben még állhatott, de hamarosan elpusztult. A falu a 15. században a Sós család sóvári uradalmához tartozott, 1427-ben 27 portát számoltak a faluban. Ebben az időben a települést "Megyes", "Meges", "Medyes" alakban említik. 1600-ban 7 adózó háztartása volt, emellett a soltész háza, templom és plébánia is állt a faluban.

A 18. század végén Vályi András így ír róla: "MEGYGYES. Tót falu Sáros Várm."

Fényes Elek 1851-ben kiadott geográfiai szótárában így ír a faluról: "Megyes, tót falu, Sáros vmegyében, Hanusfalvához 1/2 órányira: 72 kath., 102 evang., 16 zsidó lak. F. u. többen."

A trianoni diktátumig Sáros vármegye Girálti járásához tartozott.

Népessége
1910-ben 185, túlnyomórészt szlovák lakosa volt.

2001-ben 324 lakosából 322 szlovák volt.

2011-ben 300 lakosából 295 szlovák.

Nevezetességei
 Határában állnak Komlós várának romjai.
 Szent Mihály tiszteletére szentelt római katolikus temploma 14. századi eredetű, 1748-ban barokk stílusban átépítették. A második világháború után megújították.
 Evangélikus temploma 1961-ben épült.

Jegyzetek

További információk
 Hivatalos oldal
 E-obce.sk
Községinfó
 Tapolymeggyes Szlovákia térképén
A vár rövid ismertetője

Tapolymeggyes

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Maryann Steinhoff High Quality, 2018-12-17 12:48:12. Sometimes you must purge your stuff. Not the sky, which is somewhat strange. Let's look at a number of the exciting alternatives for a day of healthful fun in sunlight. Yes, a grandmother's love is a distinctive type of love. My very best friend got an enormous yummy salad. My aunt let me realize that.
Merrie Monteleone Wording Text, 2018-12-17 12:48:12. What a simple pun, but what a simple truth. Please see at this site, I'll create certain you locate excellent opinion for your birthday invitation card. I would incorporate some costume suggestions for assorted letters, simply to acquire their brain cells working a bit. You don't have to be worry, we've got wondrous design ideas that it is possible to take to get applied in your birthday invitation card. Those wonderful design ideas of creating birthday invitation card cards are worth to assist you create your own invitation templates. At this time, I can't take an opportunity.
Shaunda Westendorf Envelopes, 2018-12-17 12:48:12. If you intend to have the party at home, you'll have the additional advantage of calling all your youngster's close friends without worrying too much about the cost, especially since a flat headcount cost isn't involved. Today, you're arranging a lavish dinner party. Dinner parties are the ideal solution. In the event the surprise party is for two individuals instead of one, why don't you add their ages together and select a party theme dependent on the era the last addition indicates.
Dara Walborn Envelopes, 2018-12-17 12:48:12. If it is a pool party, your invitation can seem casual and colorful at the exact time. When it has to do with birthday invitations, you've got numerous choices. While deciding how you would like the 90th birthday invitations to look, there are a number of very important matters that you should bear in mind.


text:
The world's most popular travel experiences for under $150, according to TripAdvisor
Published Thu, Mar 1 2018 9:13 AM EST Updated Thu, Mar 1 2018 10:35 AM EST
Sarah Berger@sarahelizberger
These are the 10 most popular attractions around the world for under $150,...
Brainstorming what to put on your travel bucket list this year? Better book a trip to Rome.
TripAdvisor has revealed its most popular attractions, tours, activities and other experiences for global travelers, ranking them based on bookings through the site in 2017 for products under $150 per person. Attractions in Rome — ranging from tours of the Sistine Chapel to the Colosseum — dominated the top spots on the ranking, with tourists flocking to the historic and iconic sights of this Italian city.
Here are the world's most popular experiences for 2017, according to TripAdvisor.
Rome's hot spots: The Vatican museums, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter' Basilica and Colosseum
Just like its pizza, there are many different flavors in Rome and in 2017, tourists wanted to taste a little bit of everything. Several sight-seeing tours of the city topped TripAdvisor's list.
Joe Daniel Price | Getty Images
The number one most booked attraction was City Wonders' Rome Combo: Skip-the-Line Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica and Colosseum Walking Tour.
The tour hits all of Vatican City's hot spots, including the stunning ceilings of the Sistine Chapel as well as the sights at St. Peter's Basilica. Other sights along the tour include the ancient ruins of the Roman Forum, and the first and second levels of the Colosseum; the massive amphitheater used in ancient Roman times for gory gladiator fights. The full-day tour is currently priced at around $140 per person.
Photo courtesy of TripAdvisor
The half-day tour that features just the ancient Roman Forum and the Colosseum, called Skip the Line: Ancient Rome and Colosseum Half Day Walking Tour (also by City Wonders) ranked third on TripAdvisor's list. The half-day tour dives deeper into the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, and currently costs around $57 per person.
Another Roman tour that landed a spot on TripAdvisor's most popular experiences for 2017 is the Rome Hop-On, Hop-Off Sightseeing Tour, operated by City Sightseeing Rome — it snagged the fourth spot on the list. The tour features a 24- or 48-hour ticket that enables tourists to get on and off a tour bus in Rome, allowing for more flexibility. Prices start at roughly $35.
Chicago's architecture
The world's second most popular experience of 2017, according to TripAdvisor, is located in the Windy City.
The Chicago Architecture River Cruise, by Shoreline Sightseeing, gives tourists the lowdown on the city's astounding architecture, going over the history of the famous buildings that make up Chicago's iconic skyline. Those buildings include the John Hancock Center, Willis Tower (better known by Chicagoans as the Sears Tower) Wrigley Building, Chicago Tribune Tower and Navy Pier, among others.
The tour, which lasts 75 minutes, is currently priced at around $43.
Barcelona's Basilica of the Sagrada Familia
Rounding out the top five on TripAdvisor's ranking is the Priority Access: Barcelona Sagrada Familia Tour, operated by Julia Travel Madrid. The monumental cathedral, designed by famed architect Antoni Gaudi, features stunning stained glass and intricate designs. Construction of the church began in 1882, but is still underway. In 2015, National Geographic reported the building was on-pace to be completed by 2026.
The popular Priority Access tour of the cathedral on TripAdvisor's ranking informs tourists of "hidden details and symbolism not obvious when exploring independently," according to the tour's TripAdvisor profile, and includes a skip-the-line ticket. The tour is currently priced at around $44.
Other travel trends
Other popular experiences that rank within the top 10 on TripAdvisor's list of the world's most popular experiences in 2017 include tours of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France (ranking sixth), the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London — The Making of Harry Potter (ranking seventh) and tickets to the Empire State Building in New York City (ranking eighth).
Overall, TripAdvisor found that the fastest-growing experience categories for 2017 global travelers, based on year-over-year growth in bookings from 2016, includes historical and heritage tours (up 125 percent), sunset cruises (up 86 percent) and private day trips (up 79 percent).
Another interesting travel trend TripAdvisor found? The rise in popularity of skip-the-line tours, which were the second-fastest growing category for U.S. travelers by total dollar amount spent in 2017. Hot spots for tourists, like Rome, are often characterized by crazy crowds and massive lines.
"Travelers are also being more economical with their time," Laurel Greatrix, director of communications at TripAdvisor said, according to the site. "Skip-the-line tour options are among the fastest-growing tours in the world, and were among the fastest growing categories for US travelers in particular, allowing travelers to see more than just the back of someone's head."
Don't miss: These are the best hotels in America according to TripAdvisor users—here's how to stay for less
Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook!
Travel trends: 2018 looks strong for the tourism industry
HBO didn't submit these 'Game of Thrones' stars for an Emmy—so they did it themselves


Th e GC SA Presidents Trophy was held over the Australia Day long weekend in ideal conditions. This allowed for the full format to be played. Each day started with doubles play followed by singles. The 16 competitors played each other in round robin events. Thanks, must be extended to Glenunga for managing the event so efficiently and to the referees and spectators who supported the competition. There were many unexpected results throughout the days culminating in a real battle for the eventual winner of the singles, Michael Reidy of Hyde Park with Virginia Arney of Norwood as runner-up. The doubles saw the win go to Kate Logan of Victor Harbor and Heath Jackson of Hyde Park.


text:
/*********************************************
 * scv_import -- *.scvファイルからインポート
 *********************************************/
#pragma once
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <sstream>
#include <vector>

#include "warehouse.h"

bool GetContents(const std::string& filename,
    vector< vector<string> >& table,
    const char delimiter = ',') {
  fstream filestream(filename);
  if(!filestream.is_open()) {
    return false;
  }

  while(!filestream.eof()) {
    std::string buffer;
    filestream >> buffer;

    vector<string> record;
    istringstream streambuffer(buffer);
    std::string token;
    while(getline(streambuffer, token, delimiter)) {
      record.push_back(token);
    }
    table.push_back(record);
  }
  return true;
}

void ImportData(std::string filename) {
  bool status = false;
  vector< vector< std::string> > table;

  status = GetContents(filename, table);
  if(!status) {
    return -1;
  }
  // 一行目無視
  for(int row = 1; row < table.size(); row++) {
    vector<string> record = table[row];
    char *e1, *e2;
    int in_type = 0;
    double in_quantity, in_rest;
    in_quantity = strtod(record[1], &e1);
    in_rest = strtod(record[3], &e2);
    if(record[2] == "g") in_type = 1;
    if(record[2] == "ml") in_type = 2;
    warehouse::new_reagent(record[0], in_quantity, in_type);
  }

}


This script will backup and modify DeployWizComputerName.vbs to support "FriendlyNames" for organizational units. It will make it easier to use the other script I posted "DomainOUList_create.ps1"
[String]$BackupPath = (Split-Path -Path $SourcePath -Parent) + "\DeployWiz_ComputerName_PreviousVersion.vbs"
' Will extract out the existing OU (if any) for the current machine.
#Make A Backup Copy Of "DeployWiz_ComputerName.vbs"
#Remove All Text From "DeployWiz_ComputerName.vbs"


text:
Mum watches in horror as train pulls away with her kids still on board
The mum had jumped onto the platform for some "fresh air" on an overnight train in Italy but it pulled off leaving her young children to fend for themselves
The youngsters saw their mum left on the platform as the train left without her (
Image: CEN)
A stranded mum watched on in horror as a train with her children onboard pulled away without her.
Brigitta M got off the train in her pyjamas for some fresh air and the doors suddenly closed before she could get back onboard.
The mother-of-three from St Poelten, Austria, was travelling on an overnight train with her three children, 11-year-old-twins and a 12-year-old, to Venice in Italy when the train stopped in Pordenone.
She wanted the family to get some fresh air but disaster struck and the train left without her.
She said: "My son was feeling sick so we got off for some fresh air and to go to the toilet.
The family were eventually reunited thanks to train staff (
CEN)
Mum spends £1,000 a month pampering herself and kids - but insists they're not spoilt
"Once I had sorted my son and got him back on board, the doors suddenly closed. The train remained for a further five minutes on the platform, but I was not allowed back on.
"I ran after the train in my pyjamas."
The woman denies that she was outside having a cigarette break.
She said: "It was only after the incident and I had been assured the kids were OK, that I lit up a cigarette."
Brigitta M. says she didn't leave the train for a cigarette (
She called police who contacted the train personnel who managed to locate the children and look after them until they could be reunited with their mother.
She said: "My kids are well cared for, I try not to let them watch too much TV or play with mobile phones. When possible we always travel by train."
Brigitta took the next train to Venice where she was reunited with her children who were being looked after by train station staff.
TwinsParenting


text:
Maps and GIS+
Visiting-
Our City » Visiting
The old Angle Lake School served as the first City Hall in 1989.
The City of SeaTac incorporated on February 28, 1990. The City is approximately 10 square miles located halfway between the cities of Seattle and Tacoma with a population of about 25,000. Sea-Tac International Airport is located entirely within the city boundaries. The City of SeaTac operates under the Council-Manager form of government consisting of seven elected Councilmembers and a professional City Manager hired by the City Council.
Over the years, the City has improved roadways including International Boulevard, provided sidewalks and medians to improve safety, built the SeaTac Community Center and added a senior wing, developed the 165-acre North SeaTac Park and made signaficant improvements to city parks and school playgrounds, enhancements have been made in the areas of fire, police, and animal control services, purchased a city hall, built a maintenance facility, continues to provide funding to human service agencies serving its residents, provides recreational programs for all ages, and continues to work closely with its neighbors on regional issues, as well as the Port of Seattle and Sound Transit.
Angle Lake Presbyterian Church with Rev. John Bushnell, 1920's.
Highline Area Historical Tid-Bits
This was originally part of the Fort Steilacoom-Fort Bellingham military road, and was built to facilitate travel between the forts. The rugged unpaved road was constructed between 1853 and 1860 and has remained a principal road for decades.
Native American Canoes - Angle Lake
Two Native American canoes, the oldest of which is estimated to be up to 300 years old, where discovered at the bottom of Angle Lake. William Westlake Walker discovered them in 1989-1990 while scuba diving in the lake. Duwamish and Mukleshoot tribal people had utilized the area since ancient times. The SeaTac area was traversed by Native American groups traveling between saltwater shorelines and the interior.
History Brochure
In 1998, the City organized a committee to develop a History Brochure for the City of SeaTac. The result of their hard work and data collection is a beautiful brochure highlighting SeaTac's colorful history.
To request a brochure free of charge please call 206.973.4670.
Click here to download a copy of the brochure.
Click here to view the Highline Historical Society website.
1965 swim team members - Angle Lake
Seattle-Tacoma Airport - 1949


text:
Love India news?
Stay updated with the latest happenings.
Jaipur Zika virus outbreak? 22 test positive, PMO wants report
Shiladitya Ray
Since an elderly woman from Jaipur tested positive for the Zika virus in late-September, 21 others have tested positive for the virus in Jaipur, prompting the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to seek a detailed report from the Union Health Ministry.
Notably, seven of the 21 people infected in Jaipur live in the same neighborhood.
Meanwhile, Bihar is on alert.
Here are the details.
The Zika virus was first discovered in 1947
The Zika virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that was first discovered in Uganda in 1947. Of late, it has been reported in 86 countries. However, in November 2016, the World Health Organization declared that it was no longer a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
Authorities are taking efforts to contain the supposed outbreak
Following the confirmation by the National Institute of Virology in Pune that 22 people had been infected with the Zika virus, Jaipur started a mass drive to contain the infection.
Over 6,000 households have been surveyed, and over 2,000 containers have been sprayed with chemicals to kill mosquitoes.
Fogging and spraying operations to kill mosquitoes is also underway.
179 medical teams working in Zika virus outbreak neighborhood
Additionally, medical teams have been deployed in Jaipur's Shastri Nagar area from where seven Zika virus cases were reported. Currently, 179 medical teams are working in six wards in the neighborhood.
Central help
Centre has taken steps to assist Rajasthan, monitor the situation
Meanwhile, with the Prime Minister's Office seeking a report on the situation in Jaipur, a seven-member high-level team from the Union Health Ministry has been dispatched to Jaipur to take stock of the situation and assist the state government's containment efforts.
Additionally, a control room has also been set up at the National Centre for Disease Control to monitor the situation.
What are the symptoms of a Zika virus infection?
Zika virus symptoms are generally mild and include fever, rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise or headache. Most people don't even experience symptoms. However, Zika virus infection during pregnancy can cause infants to be born with malformations, something known as congenital Zika syndrome.
Bihar has issued an advisory to all 38 districts
Following the supposed 'outbreak' in Jaipur, the Bihar government also issued an advisory for all of the state's 38 districts.
The advisory was released keeping in mind that one of the infected in Jaipur, a student from Bihar, had visited his home in Siwan in August.
The student was home between August 28 and September 12. His family is under surveillance.
India saw two Zika virus outbreaks earlier, both were contained
The first Zika virus outbreak in India was reported in Ahmedabad in January and February 2017. The second outbreak was reported from the Krishnagiri district in Tamil Nadu in July 2017. However, both were successfully contained through vector management and intensive surveillance.
Share this timeline
Prime Minister's Office (PMO)
's Office
International Concern
Jaipur Zika
National Centre
National Centre for Disease Control
National Institute
National Institute of Virology
Public Health Emergency
Public Health Emergency of International Concern
Union Health Ministry
Related Timelines
Kerala: Nipah virus strikes again, infects 23-year-old student
Zika virus outbreak: 50 infected in Jaipur, more expected
Rajasthan: Elderly woman tests positive for Zika virus, state's first
Next Timeline


text:
Change Alley
Global Finance and Intelligent Investing
Soros on Commercial Real Estate and Inflation
From Bloomberg News:
Billionaire investor George Soros said U.S. commercial real estate will probably drop at least 30 percent in value, causing further strains on banks.
"Commercial real estate has not yet fallen in value," Soros, 78, speaking at a forum in Washington, said. "It is inevitable, it is written, everybody knows it, there are already some transactions which reflect and anticipate it, so we know, they will drop at least 30 percent."
Soros said the risk of further declines in property prices is reason for the administration of President Barack Obama to move quickly to recapitalize banks. Soros said Obama acted too slowly on a banking overhaul and should have moved immediately upon taking office.
"At that moment of enthusiasm, fresh out of the gate, he would have gotten that money, and then we could have recapitalized the banks the right way, which would be to draw a line over the existing past accumulated bad assets and create new banks on top of these old banks," Soros said.
Soros also said that the U.S. may face a new round of inflation should the flow of credit recover because of the large increase in the money supply stemming from the Federal Reserve's purchases of Treasury securities.
"In order to make up for the collapse of credit, we are effectively creating money," Soros said. That creates "an incredibly swollen monetary base, which, if it were leveraged, you would have an explosion of inflation."
Posted by Nicholas E. Radice at 12:49 PM
Labels: Crises, Inflation, Macro, Monetary Policy, Soros
A Collection of George Soros Interviews
Here is an interesting collection of interviews with George Soros.
George Soros Interviews
A giant collection of interviews with George Soros
Publish at Scribd or explore others: Business Research world finance George Soros
Posted by Nicholas E. Radice at 8:36 PM
Labels: Soros
Jim Rogers: Depression and Crude Oil
The U.S. risks sending the world into a depression as its bailouts of failed companies rob healthy businesses of capital, investor Jim Rogers said.
"The U.S. is taking assets from competent people and giving them to incompetent people," said Rogers, chairman of Singapore-based Rogers Holdings and the author of books including "Investment Biker" and "Adventure Capitalist." "That's bad economics."
The U.S. government should let American International Group Inc., whose fourth-quarter loss was the worst in corporate history, go bankrupt, Rogers added in a Bloomberg Television interview today. Congress approved a $700 billion bank bailout package in October, and President Barack Obama's administration has suggested it may need an additional $750 billion.
The U.S. is repeating the mistakes made by Japan in the 1990s and risks creating "zombie banks" by rescuing failed financial services companies that should have been allowed to go under, Rogers said.
New York-based AIG has received $173 billion in government aid, and had earmarked $1 billion in retention pay for about 4,600 of the company's 116,000 employees so they won't leave.
The Treasury this week intends to provide more information about a $1 trillion plan to remove distressed mortgage assets from banks' balance sheets. The Federal Reserve is also scheduled this week to start the first phase of a $1 trillion program to revive the market for securities backed by consumer and business loans.
Oil prices may rise to record levels in the future because of depleting reserves and a lack of major field discoveries, Rogers said. Crude oil in New York hit a record $147.27 a barrel in July and traded at $46.98 at 12:13 p.m. Singapore time.
"Reserves of oil are going down all over the world," Rogers said. "The price of oil has to go much, much higher. I don't know if the oil price will go up to record level in three years or five years. I don't know when but I know it is."
People should be prepared for inflation as governments worldwide are printing money to prop up economies at a time when commodities supply is under pressure, Rogers said.
"We're going to have serious, serious inflation down the road," said Rogers, who owns gold and silver. "I wish I knew when."
Calls to return to the gold standard, when currencies were backed by bullion owned by governments, are flawed because it is "not going to solve our problems," he also said.
Labels: Commodities, Crises, Currencies, Inflation, Jim Rogers, Oil
Goldman Betting On Distressed Debt
It is clear that huge fortunes will be made in distressed debt, when the smoke clears and the economy recovers. But, as the following article mentions, timing is critically important. It will be interesting to see when John Paulson begins buying debt and financials, given his impeccable performance throughout this crisis.
From The Financial Times:
Goldman Sachs is asking investors in its $15bn private equity fund for approval to shift much of its remaining uninvested money into distressed debt in a stark indication of just how dysfunctional the buy-out business has become amid the meltdown in credit markets.
In recent months, many private equity firms have quietly shifted their focus to buying debt at a discount as they are unable to pay for acquisitions with cheap flexible debt as they could during the boom years. Goldman is now seeking to do likewise.
"Given the dislocation we are facing in the credit markets, we believe the ability to achieve private equity-like returns at an even more senior position in the capital structure provides a significant opportunity for the fund," the bank told investors.
TPG, for example, plans to dedicate $2.5bn of its $18.8bn buy-out fund to distressed debt, and has hired Alan Waxman from Goldman Sachs to run it.
GSO, Blackstone's debt specialist, has also been buying debt at a discount and plans to step up such purchases of the debt in its own deals.
For example, it has told investors in its funds that it and Bain Capital now control $500m of the debt of portfolio company Michaels Stores, bought from a hedge fund at cents on the dollar.
But such a shift in strategy can be perilous. On its earnings call in early March, Steve Schwarzman, Blackstone's founder, noted that the firm lost money by wading into the corporate debt market too early. Blackstone also marked a multibillion dollar portfolio of debt purchased from Deutsche Bank to zero at its year-end.
For Goldman, there are also other issues. In some cases, Goldman will potentially be pitting itself and its investors against some of its best clients, the private equity firms controlling these highly indebted companies. Often, the goal of buyers of distressed debt is to ultimately control the issuing company when it cannot meet all its obligations.
However, one person familiar with the thinking at Goldman said: "Goldman will never go hostile against our clients. We will come to agreement and not push companies to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection."
Of the $9bn remaining in the fund, Goldman plans to allocate $4.5bn to stressed and distressed investments and increase open market purchases of both debt and equity securities from 10 to 25 per cent of total commitments.
Another $1.5bn will go to firms Goldman already owns in part to help them buy their own debt. Only $3bn will go to buy-outs, originally the only mission of the fund. Goldman has invested $2bn in the fund, including an additional $500m injected recently.
Labels: Crises, Goldman Sachs
Alan Blinder: Origins of the Financial Mess
Alan Blinder of Princeton University gives an excellent lecture on the financial crisis:
Labels: Crises, Princeton
Some interesting charts...
Labels: Crises, Inflation, Macro
Buffett on Banking
From today's CNBC interview:
Banking has never been better in one sense. I mean, the banks are getting their money very cheaply, deposits are coming in, spreads have never been wider, all the new business they're doing is terrific. They will earn their way out of it, in most cases, overwhelming number of cases. And they should not be spooked by the idea they're going to have to issue tons of stock at some very low price under the circumstances where the very actions of—that that may be coming keep pushing down the price. So that's spooking, you know, people in the banking business. But the banks can earn their way out of this. I mean, the average cost of funds for Wells Fargo, for example, the fourth quarter last year, was 1.44 percent. I can earn money with money at 1.44 percent. I mean, it's cheap. It's abundant and the spreads are terrific.
Labels: Buffett, Crises
Jim Rogers on China and Macro
China's stimulus spending will help its economy overcome the global recession sooner than the U.S. and other countries, investor Jim Rogers said.
China's reserves allow the government to spend on projects that will make the nation more efficient and competitive as the global economy recovers, said Rogers, the author of "A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World's Greatest Market." Signs China is taking steps to liberalize its currency will also benefit the country, he added.
"I certainly expect China to come out of it sooner than the U.S.," Rogers, chairman of Singapore-based Rogers Holdings, said in a Bloomberg TV interview in the city-state. "They seem to be spending the money on the right things. China is doing a far better job than the others."
Premier Wen Jiabao reiterated last week the government's pledge to "significantly increase" investment in 2009 to help counter the slowest growth in seven years. He didn't specify new stimulus spending in addition to a 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) plan announced in November.
The People's Bank of China cut interest rates five times in the final four months of last year, including the biggest single reduction since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. The government is targeting growth of 8 percent in 2009, after the economy slowed to a 6.8 percent gain in the fourth quarter.
Yuan, Yen, Dollar
China will allow trade settlement in yuan with Hong Kong soon, central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said at a briefing in Beijing on March 6. President Li Lihui of Bank of China Ltd., the nation's largest foreign-exchange lender, said yesterday in Beijing the bank is already conducting trial international yuan settlements in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
"I'm glad to see they're taking yet another step towards convertibility," said Rogers, who in April 2006 accurately predicted oil would reach $100 a barrel and gold $1,000 an ounce. He said he owns Japanese yen as he expects more of the money to "come home."
Rogers added he plans to sell his remaining U.S. dollar holdings later this year because the world's largest economy isn't a "safe haven" for investors.
"I plan later this year to get out of the rest of my U.S. dollars," he said. "It's had an artificial rally too but it's a terribly flawed currency. The U.S. is printing money as fast as it can and that's always throughout history led to currency problems down the road."
Rogers on June 30 advised investors to avoid the dollar "at all costs" as the U.S. economy slows, and favored commodities. The dollar has risen against nine of the Group of 10 currencies since then, according to data tracked by Bloomberg.
Rogers added he remains bullish on agriculture and that commodities are "the only area of the world economy I know which is benefiting." He said he owns "some" gold and silver, and regards silver as "cheaper."
Water, power and other infrastructure companies' shares are favored because their earnings are less vulnerable during the global slowdown, Rogers said.
Labels: Agriculture, China, Commodities, Crises, Currencies, Globalization, Jim Rogers, Macro, Monetary Policy
Bad News Bears
Here is an interesting chart of the current bear market superimposed over other historic financial nightmares. In our current crisis, the speed at which the market collapsed is close to unprecedented. We can only hope that September of 2008 wasn't October of 1929.
Labels: Crises
Jim Rogers on Gold
Here is Jim Rogers' assessment of gold. It's pretty bad when the biggest commodity bulls have this view...
From TradingMarkets:
"Gold is a commodity but gold is one of my least favorite commodities. There are other commodities that are going to do a whole lot better. Supply and demand are completely out of whack for nearly all commodities, and the inventories – they've run down the inventories of nearly every commodity in the world. The exception, of course, is gold.
Gold exploration has continued to expand for the past 20 years, gold mining production has continued to expand – it certainly hasn't declined in the past 25 years even though gold is down, and gold inventories are at the highest in the history of the world. I mean all the gold that's ever been mined is still out there. The Central Banks own it. The Central Banks want to sell it. I'm not saying they're right or wrong, mind you, don't get me wrong. I'm not making a value judgment here. I'm just dealing with facts. So I own gold. It's in my index. I own a couple of gold-mining shares but I am less optimistic on gold than I am on most other commodities. But I do own it. For centuries, people have tried to figure out how to turn lead into gold – do you know that alchemist's quest: "If we could figure out how to turn lead into gold, we'd all be rich." I would submit to you that you should figure out a way to turn gold into lead and you'd make a lot more in the next few years because lead would go up more, percentage wise."
Labels: Commodities, Jim Rogers, Macro
Resorts Take the Big Vacation into Chapter 11
Resorts and luxury entertainment are now feeling the same pain as retailers and mortgage lenders, with MGM Mirage saying in today's news that it might default on its debt. But, as with the retail and financial industries, it may be risky to attempt to catch a falling knife. Japan's "Lost Decade" offers a valuable lesson for investors; Goldman Sachs made a fortune investing in Japanese golf clubs during the 2000s, which you can read about here and here. But Goldman began buying a full decade after the real estate market crashed in Japan. Caveat emptor!
From The Deal:
One thing you can be sure of in an economic downturn is that industries that thrive on extreme material excess will go through their own market correction. The resort and destination club sector is a case in point.
We're not talking about the summer resorts in the mountains or down at the beach, but the high-end stuff. Places you have to fly to, places where you are part of a big-bucks set. What's so incredible is how many of these resorts and destination clubs exist, which really speaks to just how decadent the spending on vacations and pleasure had become.
And now those resorts and destination clubs are failing as fast as the economy is tanking. The trend may have started innocently enough on July 18 with the bankruptcy filing of Rothbury, Mich.-based Double JJ Ranch Inc., a resort operator founded in 1937 that attracted blue-collar families with its indoor water park and horseback riding activities. But since then, tonier resorts have started visiting the bankruptcy court.
For example, there was the Nov. 11 filing of Yellowstone Mountain Club, which reportedly counts billionaire Bill Gates among its clientele. Established by Edra and Tim Blixseth in 2000, Big Sky, Mont.-based Yellowstone owns a high-class private ski and golf community on 13,600 acres of land located about 20 miles from Yellowstone National Park (the couple is now divorced, with Edra owning Yellowstone). The property includes ski trails, a golf course, lodges, residences, restaurants and other resort facilities.
Others have tumbled every month since. On Dec. 9, Minnetonka, Minn.-based VREP LLP, which operates an international destination club under the name Lusso Collection, entered bankruptcy, claiming its wealthy clientele evaporated "almost overnight." Denver-based High Country Club, a luxury destination resort company, filed for Chapter 7 liquidation on Jan. 27.
On Monday, March 2, came the latest victim: Sedona, Ariz.-based ILX Resorts Inc., an operator of timeshare resorts. ILX owns and operates eight resorts in Arizona, Indiana and Colorado, as well as in Mexico. It also owns additional undeveloped land in Arizona and Mexico that it had acquired to build additional resorts. The company blamed its need to file bankruptcy on unstable credit markets.
The credit markets have become the convenient excuse for bankruptcy filings these days. But for resorts and destination clubs, the inference is that it's the folks who once worked in those credit markets moving the money around that have disappeared. They aren't throwing the bucks around to sip cocktails on the veranda. Or maybe corporations finally got embarrassed by the American International Group Inc. (NYSE:AIG) executives who, fresh off receiving an $85 billion government bailout, were found to be attending a conference at a posh resort.
How many of these resorts are there? We'll likely find out soon when they trudge into Chapter 11 or Chapter 7. So many sprung up when everyone this decade really believed that they could live the life of the rich and the famous. Problem is, even the rich and the famous have maxed out their credit cards, so you can only imagine what kind of shape the pretenders are in.
Labels: Crises, Deflation, Goldman Sachs, Macro
Something's Funny With Gold And Money
Something that gold investors often fail to realize is that the aboveground supply of gold can increase just as fast as – or much faster than – the supply of money. This is an important part of why the view of gold as a "solid currency" is a fallacy.
Gold inventories are currently the highest they've been in the history of the world. And throughout the twenty-year bear market in base metals, gold exploration skyrocketed. Even in 2003, 75% of mining exploration was allocated to gold, up from 50% only three years earlier.
I do not have the current CRB Commodity Yearbook figures, but it is without a doubt that gold exploration has dramatically increased since then, with new mines coming on stream, in response to high market prices.
In other words, the supply of gold is huge and expanding, especially relative to that of every other commodity. And since gold is an element, it cannot be destroyed. Compare this with a commodity such as crude oil, which gets used up and can't be renewed.
Here is a graph of gold production:
As you can see, production skyrocketed after 1980, even when prices went into a multi-decade bear market. The current numbers are probably substantially higher than what is reported there, possibly going right through the top of the chart, in response to such high market prices.
As for the demand side, the demand for gold used in jewelry – the commodity's staple use – is so small that the CRB Commodity Yearbook doesn't even bother to report the figures anymore. All demand for gold has been falling – except for use by financial speculators.
I have no idea where the gold price will go, but with the market at a thirty-year high, today's buyers have no margin of safety. And in terms of supply and demand, I can hardly see why gold investors would be concerned about the money supply: unlike the supply of gold, the money supply has not increased by several hundred percent.
If we look at M2, the monetary aggregate used to forecast inflation, it has only expanded by about 10% from where it was a year ago:
Individual money market accounts are included in M2, but wider measures of the money market – like commercial paper and repurchase agreements – are included in M3.
The Fed discontinued its reporting for most of the components of this latter aggregate, but my guess is that the extreme stress in the credit markets probably would have shown M3 sharply contracting, hence the need for a massive liquidity injection.
While the Federal Reserve can print money, so can the giant mining companies ramp up gold exploration and production. And the facts show that the latter have been much more successful in supplying the market.
While this may be a vote of confidence for the free enterprise system, it presents an ugly picture for today's buyers of gold.
Labels: Commodities, Crises, Currencies, Deflation, Federal Reserve, Inflation, Macro, Monetary Policy
Warren Buffett's 2008 Letter to Shareholders
"By the fourth quarter, the credit crisis, coupled with tumbling home and stock prices, had produced a paralyzing fear that engulfed the country. A freefall in business activity ensued, accelerating at a pace that I have never before witnessed. The U.S. – and much of the world – became trapped in a vicious negative-feedback cycle. Fear led to business contraction, and that in turn led to even greater fear."
Berkshire 2008
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Posted by Nicholas E. Radice at 11:14 AM
John Paulson: Distressed Opportunities
Distressed assets offer the best investment opportunities this year as the global recession deepens, billionaire hedge-fund manager John Paulson said.
"The decline in the market has created a very good buying opportunity," Paulson, 53, whose New York-based Paulson & Co. oversees about $30 billion, said in a speech at a hedge-fund seminar hosted by Societe Generale and Lyxor Asset Management in Tokyo today. "Distressed opportunity in the U.S. is shaping up to be the best opportunity in a lifetime."
Paulson said he's focused on assets such as mortgages and debt from bankrupt companies, while in the equities markets he cited the utilities, consumer staples and pharmaceutical industries. Financial stocks remain risky, Paulson said.
In the 15 years since starting its first funds, Paulson & Co.'s one down year was 1998. All his funds were profitable in 2008, with the flagship fund returning about 38 percent, compared with a loss of 19 percent for hedge funds worldwide on average. The 2008 returns came after his funds made more than $3 billion for the firm in 2007 by anticipating the collapse of the U.S. housing market and subprime mortgages.
Investors are chasing distressed assets after more than $1.1 trillion in losses at financial firms globally and frozen credit markets helped drag the U.S., Europe and Japan into their first simultaneous recessions since World War II.
Deep Recession
"In 2009, we expect this recession is going to be deeper and longer than consensus estimates," Paulson said. "We don't think we're through the banking crisis yet. We think that in many cases, losses the banks will experience will exceed their common equities."
Hedge funds are private, largely unregulated pools of capital whose managers can buy or sell any assets, bet on falling as well as rising asset prices, and participate substantially in profits from money invested. Managers typically charge fees equal to 2 percent of client assets and 20 percent of investment profits.
"We're bearish on the economy, but very bullish on opportunities in front of us," Paulson said.
Labels: Crises, Macro, Paulson
Merger Trainwrecks
It looks as if agriculture futures might be in for a ride sooner than I had expected:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/us/22mendota.html?hp=&pagewanted=all
Talk about an absolutely killer case of stagflation.
MENDOTA, Calif. — The country's biggest agricultural engine, California's sprawling Central Valley, is being battered by the recession like farmland most everywhere. But in an unlucky strike of nature, the downturn is being deepened by a severe drought that threatens to drive up joblessness, increase food prices and cripple farms and towns.
Across the valley, towns are already seeing some of the worst unemployment in the country, with rates three and four times the national average, as well as reported increases in all manner of social ills: drug use, excessive drinking and rises in hunger and domestic violence.
With fewer checks to cash, even check-cashing businesses have failed, as have thrift stores, ice cream parlors and hardware shops. The state has put the 2008 drought losses at more than $300 million, and economists predict that this year's losses could swell past $2 billion, with as many as 80,000 jobs lost.
"People are saying, 'Are you a third world country?' " said Robert Silva, the mayor of Mendota, which has a 35 percent unemployment rate, up from the more typical seasonal average of about 20 percent. "My community is dying on the vine."
Even as rains have washed across some of the state this month, greening some arid rangeland, agriculture officials say the lack of rain and the prospect of minimal state and federal water supplies have already led many farmers to fallow fields and retreat into survival mode with low-maintenance and low-labor crops.
Last year, during the second year of the drought, more than 100,000 acres of the 4.7 million in the valley were left unplanted, and experts predict that number could soar to nearly 850,000 acres this year.
All of which could mean shorter supplies and higher prices in produce aisles — California is the nation's biggest producer of tomatoes, almonds, avocados, grapes, artichokes, onions, lettuce, olives and dozens of other crops — and increased desperation for people like Agustin Martinez, a 20-year veteran of the fields who generally makes $8 an hour picking fruit and pruning.
"If I don't have work, I don't live," said Mr. Martinez, a 39-year-old father of three who was waiting in a food line in Selma, southeast of Fresno. "And all the work is gone."
In Mendota, the self-described cantaloupe center of the world, a walk through town reveals young men in cowboy hats loitering, awaiting the vans that take workers to the fields. None arrive.
The city's main drag has a few quiet businesses — a boxing gym, a liquor store — and tellingly, two busy pool halls. The owner of one hall, Joseph R. Riofrio, said that his family had also long owned a grocery and check-cashing business in town, but that he had just converted to renting movies, figuring that people would rather stay at home in hard times.
"We're not going to give up," Mr. Riofrio said. "But people are doing bad."
Just down the highway in Firebaugh, José A. Ramírez, the city manager, said a half-dozen businesses in its commercial core had closed, decimating the tax base and leaving him to "tell the Little League they'd have to paint their own lines" on the local diamond.
The situation is particularly acute in towns along the valley's western side, where farmers learned on Friday that federal officials anticipate a "zero allocation" of water from the Central Valley Project, the huge New Deal system of canals and reservoirs that irrigates three million acres of farmland. If the estimate holds and springtime remains dry, it would be first time ever that farmers faced a season-long cutoff from federal waters.
"Farmers are very resilient, we make things happen, but we've never had a zero allocation," said Stephen Patricio, president of Westside Produce, a melon handler and harvester. "And I might not be very good at math, but zero means zero."
While California has suffered severe dry spells before, including a three-year stint ending in 1977 and a five-year drought in the late '80s and early '90s, the ill effects now are compounded by the recession and other factors.
Federal, state and local officials paint a grim picture of a system taxed as it has never been before by a growing population, environmental concerns and a labyrinth of water supply contracts and agreements, some dating to the early 20th century. In addition to the federal water supplies, farmers can irrigate with water provided by the state authorities, drawn from wells and bought or transferred from other farmers. Such water may not always be the best quality, said Mark Borba, a fourth-generation farmer in Huron, Calif.
"But it's wet," he said.
Richard Howitt, the chairman of the agricultural and resource economics department at the University of California, Davis, estimates that 60,000 to 80,000 jobs could be lost — including in ancillary businesses — and that as much as $2.2 billion in crop and other losses could be caused by restrictions on water and the drought, which he called "hydrologically as bad as 1977 and economically as bad as 1991."
"You're talking about field workers, processing handlers, people packing melons, trucking hay, sprayers, people selling tractors, people selling lunches to people selling tractors," Mr. Howitt said. "And in some of these small west-side towns, it's going to hit the people who are least able to adapt to it."
One of the hardest hit areas is the farmland served by the Westlands Water District, which receives water exclusively from the Central Valley Project and distributes it to 600,000 acres in Fresno and Kings Counties. Sarah Woolf, a spokeswoman for the district, said that her 700 members expected to leave 300,000 to 400,000 acres fallow and that some might not come back to farm at all.
"Everyone's trying to go down fighting," Ms. Woolf said. "But there will be significant companies that will go out of business, as well as families that have been farming for generations, if it doesn't get better."
The outlook for things getting better quickly is dim, despite forecasts of rain this week. Last month, California officials estimated the snowpack in the Sierra, a primary source of water for the state when it melts in the spring, at 61 percent of normal. On Friday, the State Department of Water Resources said it would deliver just 15 percent of its promised contracts, a level it was able to maintain only because of the recent spate of rain. "It's pathetic," said Lester A. Snow, the department's director.
Lynette Wirth, a spokeswoman for the United States Bureau of Reclamation, said water levels in all federally managed reservoirs in California were well below normal, with "abysmal" carryover from the previous year.
"There's been no meaningful precipitation since last March," Ms. Wirth said.
Farmers, of course, are also dealing with issues unrelated to rain, including tight credit from banks and recent court decisions meant to protect fish that have limited the transfer of water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which feeds snowmelt to farmbound canals. Many farmers refer to a "man-made drought" caused by restrictions.
At the same time, environmental groups say they also fear a range of potential problems, including depletion of the valley aquifer from well pumping, possible dust-bowl conditions in areas of large patches of fallow ground and concern about salmon and other species. "It's a tough year for the environment, and people," said Doug Obegi, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Labels: Agriculture, Commodities, Crises, Inflation
Agriculture Crisis
This work by Nicholas E. Radice is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.


Date for your Diary Saturday 20th September 2014.
Harmony House at Ross Walk is set to open on Saturday 20th September at 11am.
The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, UK (BKWSU, UK) has been established in Leicester since 1973 as a spiritual centre, working alongside other community groups, to promote peace and harmony in daily life, but now BKWSU, UK is set to have a new centre in the city.
Brahma Kumaris are individuals of all ages and backgrounds, who regularly attend classes now offered by a network of organisationsin over 100 countries. Their humble beginnings began in a small town house off Melton Road, run by a family who were the first to practise Raja Yoga Meditation. The family's desire to share their experience, led to them opening up their own home for the study of spiritual values.
Ramanbhai Patel, Pioneer of the Leicester centre, shares his experience of helping others: "I have a great feeling of happiness seeing the transformation in other people's lives, it's life changing".
The new meditation centre, Harmony House at Ross Walk, is set to open on Saturday 20th September at 11am. The purpose built facility spans over 20,000 square feet in size and is surrounded with open grounds overlooking the River Soar and the National Space Centre. All activities are offered free of charge.
With over 100 active volunteers, the opening will be attended by Assistant City Mayor Councillor Manjula Sood alongside the Lord Mayor Councillor John Thomas and Right Honorable Baroness Verma. There will also be a variety of cultural performances and entertainment with BKWSU members attending from all over the world.
The first BKWSU, UK centre in Leicester was in a small town house off Melton Road, 41 years ago.
Harmony House is 20,000 square feet in size.
There are over 100 active volunteers.
The opening will be attended by Assistant City Mayor Councillor Manjula Sood alongside the Lord Mayor Councillor John Thomas and Right Honorable Baroness Verma.