Do you think this dish looks really fancy? Me too. That's why I chose it to make for my husband on the night of our anniversary. I wanted to make something special and impressive. So you can imagine my surprise when, only 30 minutes after I started cooking, it was pretty much done. And I thought, "wow…that was much easier than I thought." I love when things look a lot harder than they really are.
And not only does it look impressive, it tastes impressive too! This is totally a restaurant quality dish that your dinner guests will love! Unless they're vegetarians…in which case they'll probably just sit and sulk that they have to eat tofu or something while the rest of you dine on this amazing steak.
If you're like me, some of the instructions below may be new to you. For example "scoring" the steak and understanding how to roll it up and cut it. I wish that I had taken step-by-step pictures for you, but I promise that the next time I make this dish, I'll come back and post some more pictures for you! However, if you just do exactly what the instructions say, you can't go wrong. Happy eating!
In a large skillet cook bacon over medium heat just until brown, but not crisp. Drain on paper towels. Set aside.
Trim fat from steak. Score steak by making shallow diagonal cuts at 1-inch intervals in a diamond pattern. Repeat on other side. Cut steak in half lengthwise. Place a portion of steak between 2 pieces of plastic wrap. Working from the center to the edges, pound lightly with the flat side of a meat mallet into a 10x6-inch rectangle. (Don't worry if it's not exactly this size, mine was a little smaller.) Remove plastic wrap.
Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon of the lemon-pepper seasoning and 1/8 teaspoon of the salt. Arrange 4 bacon slices lengthwise on steak. Repeat with the remaining portion of steak.
For filling, in a medium bowl combine spinach, bread crumbs, thyme, and the remaining lemon-pepper seasoning. Spread half of the filling over each portion of steak.
Starting from a short side, roll up each portion into a spiral. Secure with wooden toothpicks at 1-inch intervals, starting 1/2 inch from one end. Cutting between the toothpicks, slice each portion into six 1-inch pinwheels. Thread pinwheels onto skewers. Remove toothpicks.
Place pinwheels on the grill rack. Grill until steak is desired doneness. For a covered grill, allow 6 to 7 minutes for medium (160 degrees F). For an uncovered grill, allow 12 to 14 minutes for medium (160 degrees F), turning once halfway through grilling.


120 miles of new course over 2 days, along the beaches of Kauai, over her mountains and through her jungles. This amazing ride""not a race"" offers you the opportunity to experience some of Kauai's most breathtaking scenery.
The Kapaa Business Association presents Kauai's 20th Annual Coconut Festival Saturday October 1st and Sunday October 2nd at Kapaa Beach Park!


text:
Turkish maritime industry size exceeds $17.5 billion
February 22 2019 17:40:00
Turkish maritime sector is worth $17.5 billion, while the industry employs one million people, Cahit Turhan, Turkey's transport and infrastructure minister, said on Feb. 22.
Turkey has a huge geographical advantage to have a say in maritime trade and maritime sector in the world, the minister said during the opening ceremony of the international maritime exhibition Avrasya Boat Show in Istanbul.
"Eighty-seven percent of Turkey's foreign trade is made via sea lanes, the Mediterranean Sea's share in the world sea transportation sector is over 25 percent," he noted.
Turkey ranked 3rd in the world among boat producing countries, the minister said.
maritime, Turkish economy, Cahit Turan
Pasta firms enjoy strong foreign demand
German Amazon workers striking over better pay
Erdemir 'not interested' in British Steel
Auto sector manufactures 735,000 cars in first half
Turkey needs macro reforms for future: TÜSİAD head
Turkey earns $22B from flour product exports in last decade

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
BMP peut désigner :

En français

 Bataillon mixte du Pacifique, unité militaire française originaire de la Nouvelle-Calédonie ;
 Bloc de Moyen Provisoire, complément horaire d'un enseignant hors de son établissement d'affectation ;
 Boîte Manuelle Pilotée, un type de boîte de vitesses de moteur automobile ;

En anglais

 Basic Multilingual Plane, pour le codage de certains caractères texte ;
 Bean-Managed Persistence, dans le monde de l'Enterprise JavaBeans ;
 Beep Media Player, un lecteur audio pour les systèmes UNIX ;
 BitMaP, un format d'image matricielle ouvert développé par Microsoft et IBM ;
 Bone morphogenetic protein, un groupe de facteurs de croissance et de cytokines connus pour leur capacité à induire la formation de l'os et du cartilage ;
 le code aviation Brampton Island, dans le Queensland, en Australie ;
 The British Museum Press, le service d'édition du British Museum ;

Autre langue

 BMP, une série de véhicules militaires soviétiques ;
 BMP-1 ;
 BMP-2 ;
 BMP-3 ;
 BMP-T.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Rosenstein:
 Abraão Even Shoshan, ne Rosenstein
 Nils Rosén von Rosenstein

 21467 Rosenstein

Desambiguação


text:
Мало Кичиће () је насеље у општини Косовска Митровица, Косово и Метохија, Република Србија.

Положај села
Село је на најнижим обронцима Копаоника, у делу где се ова планина највише приближује Чичавици.

Историјат
Село је постало негде око 1830. у близини Кичића, због чега је онда Кичиће прозвано Великим Кичићем, а ово ново и мало насеље Малим Кичићем. Преци најстаријих родова нису купили земљу ни од кога већ је "притисли".

Порекло становништва по родовима
Подаци о пореклу становништва из тридесетих година 20. века.

Арбанашки родови

 Тупел (3 к.), од фиса Шаље. Досељени из Малесије почетком 19. века, кад и Арбанаси Мажића и Рашана.

 Рукећ (1 к.), од фиса Шаље. Пресељени из Рашана после Тупела.

 Енгурек (3 к.), од фиса Шаље. Досељен из Мађера (Копаоничке Шаље), кад и Рукећ.

 Калудрак (1 к.), од фиса Гаша. Досељен је као мухаџир 1878. из Калудре (Топлица).

 Котор (1 к.), од фиса Гаша. Досељен је из Котора у Дреници 1926.

 Друштин (1 к.), од фиса Мзи. Досељен 1923. из Засеља (К. Митровица).

 Преловц (1 к.), од фиса Мертура. Досељен 1875. из Преловца у Дреници.

Поарбанашени Срби

 Грбовић (3 к.). Потичу из истоименог рода у Трстени, одакле су се преселили по настањењу Арбанаса Тупела. Ушли су у фис Шаљу.

Срби муслимани

 Бошњак (3 к.). Као мухаџири се иселили 1878. из варошице Колашина у Црној Гори. Живели су у Свињару и још неким селима око Кос. Митровице. У М. Кичићу се настанили око 1895.

Арбанаси турског порекла

 Гргур (3 к.). Потиче од Сеферовића или Бангела у Свињару, одакле су са Арбанасима почетком 19. века прешли у Топлицу. Из Топлице су се вратили као мухаџири 1878. из села Гргура, по коме су добили ново презиме у народу.

Становништво

Референце

Насељена места на Косову и Метохији
Википројект географија/Насеља у Србији
Насељена места општине Косовска Митровица


text:
Apona plumosa är en fjärilsart som beskrevs av Moore 1872. Apona plumosa ingår i släktet Apona och familjen Eupterotidae. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Fjärilar
plumosa


text:
"WHO YOU ARE DEPENDS ON WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE"
anantha narayan
Nama Sutra
Cursory Rhymes
Puzzle Guzzle
Six Fics
The Art of Smear
The establishment is a cosy club of status-quoists. The unwritten code of the club is to weed out anyone who dares to let the winds of change into the board room.
Two strategies are deployed to deal with the enemy. The Make-Them-Into-Us approach is about buying out the loyalty of the opponents with inducements to catalyze the rapid mutation of the anti-establishment stance into a pro-establishment stance. In case that fails, the Take-Them-Out-Of-The-Equation approach is pressed into service. It involves a combination of tactics to harass, torment and coerce the opponent into throwing the towel.
The campaign to eliminate all resistance usually begins with disinformation followed by a smear campaign and finally ends with spinning a web of legal tangles around the opponent.
The sudden emergence of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a national force during the elections, its avowed declaration to change the system inside-out and its cantankerous actions in shaking up the status-quo has clearly rattled the establishment. Hence Stage One of the 'sully them, smear them, screw them' is in operation. In case you haven't noticed, the disinformation campaign is in full swing.
Backing the campaign are leading media houses owned by business barons, the twitter armies of political parties that believe in the status quo, the full force of the UPA government and all arms of the saffron brotherhood.
Since the leadership of AAP hasn't committed a 1.76 lakh crore scam or presided over a riot that killed 1044 people, finding large acts of moral turpitude is a problem. So the establishment decided to dig up hundreds of micro, tiny, and small acts of 'indiscretion' that portray AAP in an unflattering light. The idea is to blow up these minor instances into major failings by giving it prime time coverage on national television, box-item treatment in newspapers and headline-material on news sites.
The allegations invariably start as a series of tweets by an anonymous BJP sympathiser. It is religiously re-tweeted by paid and unpaid members of the NaMo brigade with suitably offensive hash tags like #Fakeriwal, #CIAagents and #AAPwedsAajtak. Then, right wing opinion makers, columnists and NitiCentral jump into the fray. By now, the hash tag would have started trending as a significant chunk of 3.51 million followers of @NarendraModi have commented about it. The so called 'neutral' news sites follow through by asking a columnist to do a hack job. These news sites are conveniently owned by TV channels, which then do a 'breaking news' on the story. Seeing the news, many on Facebook share it as a status update with a suitable one-liner reflecting their political sympathies. And the establishment somehow gets a former AAP member to issue a statement endorsing the allegation. Now that it's become a controversy, politicians of all hues make snide remarks about the issue. The Average Joe watching TV or reading news naturally gets affected and disillusion spreads. This is how a tangential news item (which would otherwise not even be on anyone's list of priorities) becomes a 'scam', 'fraud', and 'crime'.
Let's study some of the muck that has been thrown at AAP so far:
"AAP IS RUN BY CIA AGENTS"
Logic: Ford Foundation is a CIA-front organisation. It has made substantial contributions to Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia's NGO. Beneficiaries include Yogendra Yadav and Mallika Sarabhai. Ford Foundation only backs those who further the CIA agenda. Hence AAP is full of CIA agents.
Observation: Ford Foundation has also made significant donations to IITs and IIMs. An organisation named Gujarat Ecological Educational & Research (GEER) has been a beneficiary too. Who is the chairman of GEER? Shri Narendra Modi! Does that make him a CIA agent?
"AAP IS FULL OF NAXALS"
Logic: Prashant Bhushan questions the need for security forces deployment in Naxal areas. Naxalite sympathisers like Binayak Sen are a part of AAP's decision making bodies. Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda has been given a ticket to contest elections in Orissa on behalf of AAP.
Observation: Just because 3 or 5 members of your party have extreme-left leaning views, does it give anyone the right to brand an entire party as urban Maoists? Just because Nathuram Godse was a former member of RSS, does it make the Sangh Parivar a bunch of Gandhi-killers?
"AAP GETS MYSTERY FUNDS FROM ABROAD"
Logic: There have been very many newspaper articles on how NRIs have been contributing generously to the AAP campaign. A new spin on this was introduced and several trolls started raising questions on funding from foreign firms. The Union Home Minister promptly ordered an enquiry into the issue of foreign funding.
Observation: AAP is the only party that's totally transparent about online funding. They have a separate page on their website that lists out the daily donor list. The list is updated on a real time basis. Who donated from where and how much is clearly detailed out. Ironically, BJP and Congress have shown zero inclination to be transparent about their sources of funds. Predictably, no one's cared to investigate them.
"SOMNATH BHARTI HEADED A SPAM COMPANY"
Logic: Somnath Bharti is cited on the world wide web to be one of Top 3 spammers from India. It's improper to have a spammer as the law minister when AAP talks of high standards.
Observation: There's some truth to the allegation. AAP should have probed the matter, studied the evidence and dropped Somnath if he were guilty. For some reason, they took an ostrich-like posture on the issue. But it does look like they've learnt a lesson now. Somnath Bharti is no longer given prominence in party affairs in Delhi.
"ARVIND KEJRIWAL IS A PLAGIARIST"
Logic: A Noida based writer Ajay Pal Singh has filed a case against Arvind Kejriwal for lifting content from his book around March 2012 to publish 'Swaraj' in June 2012. Many pro-BJP tweeters took up the cause.BJP publication Pioneer even carried the article.
Observation: In an interview to Reader's Digest in September 2011, Arvind Kejriwal talks about having written a book called Swaraj. Obviously, he didn't hit upon the idea in March 2012 after leafing through Ajay Pal Singh's book. The saffron army is possibly aware of this fact. Which is why, they've let sleeping dogs lie. Else, they would have raised hell.
"ARVIND KEJRIWAL HASN'T VACATED HIS GOVERNMENT BUNGALOW"
Logic: Despite the PWD sending him a notice to vacate his quarters, Arvind the man who claims to be tha paragon of integrity has chosen to stay put. This is shameful.
Observation: In an interview with NDTV, Arvind had mentioned that his daughter's exams is holding him back and he's trying for the building to be alloted in his wife's name as she's entitled for the same. Perhaps, Arvind could have handled the issue better by issuing a public clarification on when he'll vacate. The absence of a clarification has given his critics a handle for needless controversy.
"ARVIND KEJRIWAL FIXES HIS INTERVIEWS"
Logic: In a widely circulated off-the-record interview clip, Arvind Kejriwal is urging Punya Prasun Vajpayee of Aaj Tak to avoid a few questions and play up select portions of the interview. Hence he's a fake leader with no scruples.
Observation: Selective leaks of off-the-record conversations from a program in a channel is evidence that this is a hit job. It's normal for most politicians to sex up interviews when they're dealing with friendly journalists. Caravan Magazine recently carried a story on how Vivian Fernandes went to interview Narendra Modi. He had to submit the questions before hand. When a tricky question found its way into the interview, Narendra Modi is said to have quipped: "Why is he talking like this? Have we not paid for this interview" At least with Arvind, he just avoided a question. In NaMo's case, a whole interview was paid for!
"AAP IS SYNONYMOUS WITH U-TURNS"
Logic: A series of apparently contradictory decisions is cited as proof for AAP's zigging and zagging. Decisions like: AAP fought elections saying they'll never have anything to do with Congress but formed a government in Delhi with their support; Arvind Kejriwal said he'll never enter politics at one point, but now he's in it for power; AAP said they'll file FIR against Sheila Dixit within 7 days of coming to power this didn't happen; AAP said they're against lal batti culture but their MLAs use government cars; Arvind Kejriwal railed against politicians traveling by private planes but he didn't have any qualms in traveling by a chartered plane owned by Religare recently; AAP has always named corruption as its no.1 problem but recently the party put communalism ahead of corruption.
Observation: If you analyse each of the charges individually you'll realize how ingenious the BJP wallahs have been in jumping to a pre-meditated conclusion.
a) Let's take the AAP's 'no truck with congress' statement. AAP has been pretty vociferous about not allying with the Congress before elections or forming a government with Congress, post elections. AAP stood by both statements. It reduced the Congress to a single-digit show in the elections and post elections it never asked for Congress support. To prevent a BJP government from being formed and to call AAP's bluff on governance, the Congress on its own volition offered outside support. While in power, AAP did everything to make life difficult for Congress. So how could anyone accuse AAP of a u-turn?
b) On the 'will never enter politics' statement. You've got to be flexible with your ideas because you never know what life throws at you. When the Jan Lok Pal bill was stonewalled by poiticos, Team Arvind had very few options. They had to bite the bullet if the Jan Lok Pal had to see the light of the day. Entering politics was a strategic call in tune with the times. If that was a u-turn, then BJP's decision to not raise the Ram Temple issue during the current elections is a u-turn as well.
c) Yes, AAP wasn't able to file an FIR against Sheila Dixit in 7 days. But they did manage to order an FIR against her in 40 days. Perhaps they underestimated the task but that can't be classified as a 'u-turn'.
d) The AAP government was the first to do-away with the lal-batti. But they never promised that their ministers will shun government cars. A clever interpretation of the promise gave BJP a chance to shaft AAP citing a 'u-turn'.
e) On the private plane issue, between 2003-2007 Narendra Modi spent over Rs. 16 crores taking 100 flights of which only 10% were on government planes. Corporate houses like Essar, Adani, and Reliance provide these planes for free. Nobody knows why. Arvind Kejriwal raised doubts about the quid pro quo. When Arvind took a chartered plane (sponsor: Religare) to attend the India Today Conclave, the pro-BJP press sniggered saying 'how could he?' What the BJP folks didn't tell you was in Arvind's case, he was flying in an all-expense-paid trip to attend an India Today event. Can a common man not fly? Didn't Mahatma Gandhi travel by cars owned by businessmen to attend key meetings? The point to note here is at least we know what Arvind used his plane for. Do we know why Narendra Modi used the services of planes from Essar, Adani and Reliance over and over, when he had the option of using government planes as Chief Minister of Gujarat? We still haven't got an answer.
f) Lastly, on the topic of choosing to fight Communalism over Corruption. Everyone who's been tracking AAP knows their firm resolve to fight corruption. At a meeting with muslims, while addressing their concerns, Arvind underlined the point that for besieged minorities, communalism is a bigger worry than corruption in India. NaMo bhakts took the statement out of context and made it out as if AAP had jettisoned the corruption plank. The fact of the matter is AAP is the only party that has consisently exposed corruption in high places in both Congress and the BJP. The voter cannot be hoodwinked into thinking any other way.
To sum up, the establishment would love it if AAP could somehow be eliminated from the picture. To achieve this goal, a no holds barred an-allegation-a-day carnival is on. Sadly, some have managed to create doubts in the minds of the middle class. Hopefully, the truth will find a way to scream out to the open minded.
Rise of the underdog
Everyone loves to write off an underdog. AAP's case is no different. When it made its electoral debut in Delhi, the then incumbent Chief Minister Sheila Dixit famously asked, "Who is AAP? Can you call it a party?" She's now busy gulping her pride in a retirement posting as the Governor of Kerala. And the mango man's party meanwhile, is marching across the country with an even more ambitious goal of replicating the magic of Delhi on a national scale.
Critics of Mr. Kejriwal are back to doing what they do best. They're trying their darnedest best to relegate him to the margins by painting him as an 'anarchist', 'naxalite', 'urban maoist', 'bhagoda', 'U-turn artist', 'congress stooge', 'nautanki baaz', 'mealy-mouthed liar', 'CIA agent', 'bomb thrower' and other things unparliamentary. The idea is to somehow dim the glow of his moral aura by questioning the tiniest of his indiscretions. The strategy is to relentlessly create a national ruckus around profound allegations such as: 'He travelled by a chartered plane!', 'He's accepted Z-security!!', 'He charges 20,000 bucks to have a dinner date!!!', 'He's not vacated his government quarters, yet!!!', 'He actually instructs TV anchors to play up sections of his interview!!!!', and 'He wears Calvin Klein underwear!!!!! (Okay, I made that one up)'.
Try hard as they may, for some mystic reason, the Teflon-coated Arvind Kejriwal and his fledgling party only seem to be going from strength to strength. But the national media is in no mood to concede this inconvenient truth. Ergo, AAP is projected to win a generous 1 to 5 seats in the coming Lok Sabha elections. And often, Arvind Kejriwal's name is not even taken in the same breath as Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mamata Banerjee in surveys polling potential prime ministerial candidates.
There are several reasons why the entire political class, the mass media and the myriad arms of the establishment have missed detecting the national emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party. Here's why:
a) It's not a party. It's a movement.
Movements are fueled by undercurrents of anger that are rarely picked up by the radars of conventional measurement. They start in concentrated pockets and multiply at the speed of thought. The anti-corruption movement that started in Jantar Mantar is far from finished. It's still swirling, spreading and igniting the minds of millions in the distant, dark corners of Mera Bharat Mahaan. With Anna Hazare, Kiran Bedi, and General VK Singh openly identifying with the major players of the establishment who prefer no-systemic changes, the Aam Aadmi Party has been the sole beneficiary of the deep-rooted desire for alternative politics.
b) Movements go viral. Parties don't.
Pundits have the greatest disregard for newbies in politics. In their fossilized view, it takes decades for anyone to even erect a national party. The Indian National Congress took 62 years of effort to get ready to rule independent India. The BJP, although officially born in 1980, made its electoral debut as Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) took 23 years to rule a state. The CPI(M) reared its red head way back in 1964.
So, applying the same logic, the AAP needs many more summers to attain critical mass. How awfully wrong can they get! Movements are not molecules to follow formulae. They are biological. And hence, contagious by design. They don't need large scale infrastructure to proliferate. Mere contact of minds will do. The social network allows the possibility of a contagion. That's why every state unit of AAP has a facebook page!
c) The disenfranchised don't hold rallies. They vote.
Vast sections of the populace don't find a voice in the mass media. They don't even show up on social media. Just because they are invisible doesn't mean, they don't exist. They announce their presence resoundingly on the polling date by forming serpentine queues to give us a clue of how they think. For years, pollsters have been unable to gauge the strength of BSP for this very reason.
The AAP has been attracting people in droves from the ignored, weak, voiceless and oppressed classes. Anti-nuclear activists, displaced tribes, the gay community, besieged minorities, lost farmers, disenchanted workers, and those disillusioned by the system have all banded together to form a silent coalition around the party. The first overt signs of the coalition was visible during the Delhi assembly polls. A small flashback would reveal that even during campaign time, this group, seldom thronged to rallies. Naturally, no one detected the signals. The same events are on play now. Which is why it would be fallacious and foolhardy to judge AAP on the basis of headcount at rallies. What really matters is the final tally of votes on May 16, 2014. That would tell a whole new story.
d) Virtual support cannot be seen. It's felt.
The AAP movement is not a one-man show as the media would like us to believe. It doesn't begin and end with Arvind Kejriwal and his gang of five. The real fuel for the movement comes from virtual supporters disdainfully labelled as 'AAPtards' by the NaMo cheering squad. They are there everywhere and yet you can't see them as they don't walk around with 'Main aam aadmi hoon' topis. A miniscule section of 'AAPtards' fight verbal duels online, some contribute the much-needed moolah for the election, a few contribute in kind by donating cars, bikes, office space and home stay options for workers, a significant chunk however slave away for the party as unpaid volunteers. It is these mystery volunteers that blew the BJP and Congress away during the Delhi elections. Their base has grown manifold in the last two months. The 4.6 million likes on Arvind Kejriwal's facebook page is an indicator of their numeric strength. Ignore them at your peril.
e) People crave for change. Not for ideologies.
Another thing that flummoxes the elite is how people support AAP without knowing where they stand on economic policies, foreign affairs, internal security, defence, and everything else essential for a party serious about governance. The absence of weighty policy declarations delude intellectuals into assuming that the AAP will never be taken seriously by the voters. Another mistake. Supporters of AAP are very clear about what their party stands for. They know that it'll be a far less corrupt administration with a populist streak when it comes to taking crucial decisions that affect millions. So, crony capitalism is out. Agriculture, fishermen, labour and small enterprise friendly policies are in. Hawkish postures are out. Friendly equations with neighbours are in. Laxity on law enforcement is out. Vigilance is in. Central planning is out. Local empowerment is in. The ideology-free stance of AAP makes it a very attractive mainstream option for those craving for simple, jargon-free governance.
The go-with-the-flow, impure-yet-pure, fluid River Ganga-like nature of AAP is what endears it to millions of voters. At the moment, it may look like the missing mythical Saraswati. Having begun its journey on the banks of Yamuna, the common man's party may well spring a surprise by gushing down the lands blessed by the Kaveri, Narmada, Mahanadi, Sutlej and Brahmaputra. If that happens it will be a watershed moment for the underdog.
Mango in a soup
Vultures rejoice when death is on the horizon. Likewise, a significant chunk of us are utterly delighted at the sudden implosion of the Aam Aadmi Party. The 'I-told-you-so-walahs' have come out of the closet proclaiming moral victory. They gloat, 'Didn't we tell you the AAP is a bunch of anarchists? Didn't we tell you they can agitate but not administrate? Didn't we tell you they are no revolution but just a ragtag coalition of leftist insurgents and blundering understudies, who pretend to be holier-than-thou? Mark our words, they will let you down so badly that you will pine for the days of Congress and BJP.'
The undisguised glee at Vinod Binny's open rebellion, the delirious retweeting of Ashutosh's uncouth snubbing of Captain Gopinath on national television, the snide pontifications from Kiran Bedi, and the strategically-timed crocodile tears from Anupam Kher, only go to prove one thing: the establishment would prefer the AAP dead, buried and gone. If the rigor mortis sets in speedier than earlier than sooner, everyone will go home happy.
So why this urge to finish off a new-born baby? The AAP government is certainly not the first newly-sworn government to have starting troubles. Within 5 months of taking charge, the much touted super champ of administration, Shri Shri Narendra Modi, presided over the much written about Gujarat riots. Even his most ardent supporters agree that NaMo did precious little to control the situation. They attribute the cluelessness to his inexperience.
Cut to Uttar Pradesh. Akhilesh Yadav has completed a year now. Along the way he's bumbled and stumbled so many times. Recently, his government looked the other way during the Muzaffarnagar Riots. And yet, no TV channel deemed it fit to run a debate on the topic: Has the Samajwadi Government lost the plot?
The alacrity with which the world wants to write off AAP makes one wonder as to what they've done wrong to deserve the guillotine so quickly. Have they caused the exchequer a presumptive loss of Rs. 1.76 lakh crores? Were they twiddling their thumbs when a thousand lives were lost to a mass massacre? Have they passed any law or resolution that violates the spirit of the constitution? Have they emptied the coffers in the name of food security? Have they rewritten text books and infected the system with their ideology? AAP is not guilty of any of these crimes. All that has happened is:
a) Kejriwal asked for two 5-bedroom apartments for himself and then dropped it when he heard murmurs of protest
b) Vinod Binny was denied a ministry and then a chance to be a Lok Sabha member. He sulked, the first time. After the second slight, he's come out publicly against the party. AAP mishandled the situation by not rewarding him with a suitable post.
c) Somnath Bharti, the law minister, has tampered with some evidence in some case for which he was pulled up by some judge. If the crime was really serious, he would have been debarred from practice by the court.
d) AAP government has announced that it won't be allowing FDI in retail in the capital. Incidentally, Delhi BJP made the same promise during elections. If AAP says no to FDI in retail it's regressive but if BJP makes the same point, everyone presses the amnesia button.
e) Some ministers have started using government Innovas that they are entitled to. As per the party diktat, they've forsaken the lal batti. Still there's criticism. Perhaps the critics expect the mantris to do government work using a scooter, auto rickshaw, train or bicycle.
f) Somnath Bharti goofed up by naming the rape victim in a press release. Being the law minister, he should have known better. But Meenakshi Lekhi of the BJP did the same mistake in the Tarun Tejpal Sexual assault case, a few months ago. She wasn't excoriated then.
g) Arvind Kejriwal publicly chided the Delhi Police for the Danish Woman Rape Case. Instead of complaining and appearing helpless, a wiser course of action would have been to take it up with Delhi Lt. Governor.
h) Limelight seeker turned law minister Somnath Bharti turns vigilante and carries out a surprise raid without doing the necessary paper work and then picks up a fight with the cops for not doing the job. To make matters worse, Kejriwal & company escalate the matter and muddle the government-police equations. A non-issue became an issue because of lack of literacy in government procedures.
See, when you look at things in perspective, it doesn't look that bad. Our country has seen far worse. But that doesn't mean AAP can pretend there are no problems. Its credibility has taken a pounding, popularity ratings have tanked and its supporters are understandably appalled by the series of avoidably unfortunate incidents.
However AAP's biggest challenge continues to be the over-the-top promises made during the election campaign. When you promise a Jan Lok Pal by 29th of December, people think you can get it done in a snap. When you say governance is no rocket science, the aam aadmi assumes it must be a cinch. When you swear you'll waive electricity bills, the voter doesn't expect any rude shocks. When you don't pursue the corrupt after you put out a 370-page report on Commonwealth scam, the pundits have every right to think that you're a closet congressman. When you take oath by wading your way through the metro rail, the Average Joe expects an encore every day. When you paint yourself in virgin white hues, it is but natural for every single flaw to be noticed.
Clearly, by setting sky high standards for themselves, the AAP has scored a self-goal as it's just not possible to hit the ground running when you have a team full of rookies. Expecting a Rakhi Birla, Saurabh Bhardwaj or Girish Soni to deliver peak performance from Day 1 is as optimistic as demanding a Roger Federer like result from your neighbourhood Raja Phadnis.
Therefore, the need of the hour is to tone down expectations. And that can only be done by: cutting out the Raja Harishchandra style posturing; putting a full stop to the daily nautankis staged with an eye on the camera; refraining from activist bombast and electoral rhetoric; and above all, by hand picking spokespersons with a calm demeanour
At the party level, it's best if AAP lets go of the greed to emerge as a key national player. The greed has distracted Kejriwal enough. Instead of thinking of ways and means of becoming a potential prime minister it will do him good if he fulfils his potential as a chief minister. Because all said and done, a solid performance on the ground will organically create a support-base for him almost effortlessly. You won't need the media then.
If these correctives are put in place, the AAP will continue to flummox the doomsdayers. Else, the vultures will get ready for the last supper.
The Year of the Broom
Something remarkable is brewing in Delhi. A one-year-old political party that was written off disdainfully as "a bunch of Maoists" and "the B-team of BJP" by shallow spinmeisters, is now giving sleepless nights to the fat cats who built their careers on the assumption that the national capital will always say 'I do' to one of two suitors: the Congress or the BJP.
The latest opinion polls indicate that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will end up with at least 21% of the votes and its national convenor Arvind Kejriwal has already bested BJP's Vijay Goel in the popularity charts. Whether AAP fares better or worse on December 4th remains to be seen but the fact remains that even seasoned political pundits didn't expect them to do this well.
If you're wondering as to how no weather doctor saw the storm coming…well, that's because they used conventional wisdom to judge a movement that breaks all conventions.
Normally the lazy mind searches for lazy switches that could trigger a power surge. The BSP's switch was deliverance for Dalits. Shiv Sena's switch was Marathi pride. Trinamool's switch was the fearlessness of Mamata. Samajwadi Party's switch was the trust it commanded among Muslims and Yadavs. And NaMo's is a curious mix of Hindu machismo and decent governance.
AAP didn't seem to have the luxury of any of these switches. No caste card to play. No religious issue to stoke. No linguistic wounds to soothe. No incendiary demands for a state. No dynast with a distinguished pedigree. Not even a magnetic leader to pull in the crowds.
All it had was a rag tag coalition of rookie politicians with zero national standing, negligible money power and a forgotten piece of legislation that failed to see the light of the day. In short, a recipe for disaster, right?
Wrong. Where AAP surprised its detractors was in turning its weakness into its strength. Money bags and vote banks are needed only when you play the game by the rules. What if you rewrote the political lexicon and shook things up. Wouldn't that change the result? Here's what they did to set themselves apart:
Innovation # 1: Making honesty their USP. Getting national attention after being pilloried by your own mentor for straying into politics can be a tough nut to crack. But Arvind Kejriwal, Prashant Bhushan & Co licked the problem with their series of 'shoot and scoot' exposés. One by one they took on the high and the mighty on prime time national television. If it was Salman Khurshid and his NGO scam on one evening, it was Nitin Gadkari and his farmland scam on another day. Even holy cows like Vadra and Ambani weren't spared. Result: The entire political establishment was up in arms against them and AAP was summarily blacked out from all channels. Despite this loss of valuable TV coverage, Team Kejriwal scored one significant victory. The young and the restless admired their temerity in challenging the status quo and not surprisingly, started viewing them as the only honest men in the dustbowl of politics.
Innovation # 2: The best ideology is not to have one. Political parties make a hash of things by boxing themselves into archaic ideologies. BJP wasted almost a decade by debating endlessly between Gandhian Socialism, Integral Humanism and home grown Hindutva. The Communists didn't know whether to sneeze if it rained in Russia or China. The Congress, for long, struggled to find the right 'ism' to describe their philosophy of 'liberalisation fuelled nanny state'. AAP flummoxed everyone by refusing to appropriate a dogma. Their 'whatever is good for the aam aadmi works for us' stance took the wind out of their critics' sails and positioned themselves as a pragmatic organisation open to ideas from the left, right and center.
Innovation # 3: Targeting the bottom of the pyramid. One of the biggest criticisms of the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement was that it was an uprising backed by the educated urban middle class. Famously known for not queuing up to vote, the urban middle class has never been credited with the creation of a political party. Given this history, the AAP, expertly steered by Yogendra Yadav, consciously took a call to walk, talk and think like the common man. Ergo everything from the choice of the 'Gandhi topi', the name 'Aam Aadmi Party' to the election symbol (broom) signalled the new thinking. The goal was to emerge as the voice of the disenfranchised, the disadvantaged, and the utterly disgusted. BSP and Congress had traditionally been the go-to parties for these groups. AAP decided, the time was ripe to offer them a more compelling option.
Innovation # 4: Putting all eggs in the Delhi basket. Perhaps the sanest decision of AAP was to avoid the oft-repeated mistake of 'spreading the resources too thin'. So instead of fighting elections in 5 states, AAP stuck its neck out only in Delhi. Many criticised them for turning a national movement into a 'municipal circus'. Kejriwal was castigated for focusing on electricity meters in Delhi rather than larger issues plaguing India. But the gamble appears to have worked as AAP has used the time and money on their hands to systematically raise an organisation in a record time of less than four months. Even cynical Delhiwalahs have been zapped out of their wits to suddenly see a party that can match the Congress and the BJP, man to man, in booth after booth, in mohalla after mohalla. Maybe that's why AAP is being taken seriously and not seen as one more island of excellence like 'Lok Satta'.
Innovation # 5: Actually practicing democracy in a democracy. The Achilles heel of most of our parties is inner party democracy. A self-appointed high command makes all the policy decisions whether it's DMK, Shiv Sena, NCP, Trinamool Congress, INC, BJP or CPM. In stark contrast, it is indeed quite smart of the AAP to have made a virtue out of participative democracy. The first step towards it was the crowdsourcing of the name. The next step was to make it easy for anyone to become a party member by using the internet. The third and most significant move was to inject total transparency into funding of the party. A fourth initiative that needs special mention is the creation of a robust candidate selection process, accessible to all citizens. And the final kicker is the decision to draft separate manifestoes for every constituency in Delhi. No mainstream party has ever bothered to take such initiatives. Which is probably why, the AAP is liked most by the first time voter.
Innovation # 6: Thinking beyond trolling and tweeting. While BJP and Congress employ hordes of people online to tweet and troll on issues dear to them, the volunteers at AAP have sewn together an entire organisation using online technologies. India Against Corruption (technically Anna Hazare's but the organisation shares the same thoughts as AAP) has 1.2 million likes on its FB page. Final War Against Corruption and Aam Aadmi Party collectively have another 0.5 million likes. Which means close to 1.7 million individuals receive regular news feeds on AAP. One more noteworthy usage of the social media is in fund raising. Nearly 47,000 donors have raised 12 crores of rupees in a matter of a few months using AAP's payment gateway. AAP sends e-mailers explaining the stand of the party to every donor on a daily basis. Twitter is used intelligently to recruit volunteers, publicise campaigns and to direct them to different programs of the party. Webcasting is deployed for press conferences. And Youtube is leveraged for populating the web with Kejriwal speeches. One can't think of any other Indian organisation using these many tricks in the book.
AAP's relentless attempts to innovate has brought it this far. In the next two months, we'll know if their initiatives to out-think and out-smart the BJP and the Congress will actually pay off. If the broom does a clean sweep, expect more innovations. And more interesting times.
The Myth of The Gandhi Vote
There are urban legends. There are rural legends. And there are urban-rural legends. Urban-rural legends are pan-national massive myths that have gained the sanctity of belief over generations of spin-doctoring.
One such massive myth is the supposed hypnotic sway of the Gandhi Dynasty over millions of 'unwashed masses' cutting across caste, religion, race, language, income, creed, state and IQ.
The perpetuation of this falsehood is so rampant within the Congress party that even intelligent leaders who have a mind and spine of their own somehow seem to have bought into the hypothesis that the Gandhi surname is enough qualification to lord over the Indian National Congress simply because any Falana Gandhi can deliver more votes than all the congressmen put together.
Fortunately we have electoral records that haven't yet gone missing like the prized Coalgate files. The records could be invaluable in evaluating the might of the Gandhis minus the hyperbole.
Let's examine the vote-catching nature of the 4Gs (Indira, Rajiv, Sonia and Rahul) and see if we can bust the myth once for all.
MYTH # 1: INDIRA IS INDIA
Shrimati Indira Gandhi entered active politics via the Rajya Sabha in 1964. Being Jawaharlal Nehru's daughter, she was straight away inducted into Shastri's cabinet as the Minister of Information & Broadcasting. Shastri's sudden death in Tashkent led to Gulzarilal playing the night-watchman's role for less than 3 months. To deny Morarji Desai the Prime Ministership, the Congress Syndicate crowned Indira as the Empress of India in 1966. And she in turn returned the favour by dismantling the Syndicate. The result: the first ever split suffered by the Congress party in 1969.
That aside, let's focus on Indira's first ever national elections in 1967. She successfully reduced the Congress tally from 361 to 284. The vote share fell by 3.94%. So her first electoral performance was rather uncharismatic.
In 1968, a fast emerging Jan Sangh leader (Deendayal Upadhyaya) was mysteriously bumped off while travelling in a train. In 1969, the folks who opposed her were summarily ejected under an ideological pretext.
By 1971 with some deft populist moves, heavy socialist rhetoric and solid backing from the Soviet Union, the politically shrewd lady brought the Congress to a much better tally of 352 seats. The seat count was still a touch lesser than the 361 achieved in 1962 by her dad. Even the vote count was 1% short of what was achieved by Nehru.
Still to give her due credit, Indira managed to shore up a divided Congress by 3 percentage points. The strong arm tactics of 'using government machinery' to ensure victory in her own constituency (Rae Bareilly) earned her a well-deserved 6-year electoral ban from the Allahabad High Court in 1975.
Unable to stomach the insult, Indira proclaimed the now-infamous Emergency. Her unpopular policies and witch hunt of the opposition gave rise to an unprecedented coalescing of disparate parties into the brand new Janata Party which stormed into power in 1977.
In the height of her unpopularity, Indira Congress frittered away 9.16% of votes nationally, lost 198 Lok Sabha seats, and ended up creating the first ever national opposition party in India.
If you've kept apace with the story so far, you'd notice that Indira weakened the Congress in 1967 by 3.94%, then strengthened it in 1971 by 2.9% and again debilitated the Congress by 9.16%.
Fortune favoured her in 1980 when the Janata Party collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions. The Indian voter preferred a tainted but strong leader like Indira than vote for a perpetually-at-war gaggle of selfish leaders. The disgust with Janata Party gave her a bounce of 8.17% and she was back in the kursi with 353 parliamentarians. It's this comeback that gave her the aura of an invincible woman. This in turn made her take several wrong decisions – one hugely controversial decision ended up precipitating her unfortunate assassination in 1984.
Summary of performance over her political career:
NET VOTE SCORE (1967 to 1980): -3.94+2.9-9.16+8.17 = -2.03%
NET SEAT SCORE (1967 to 1980): -78+69-198+199 = -8
CONCLUSION: In the four elections that Indira Gandhi spearheaded, she reduced the Congress equity by 2.03% and the seat count marginally. Yes, she dominated the political discourse and set the agenda for our country but had another Congress leader like Morarji Desai been offered the same number of chances, you never know what would have happened.
MYTH # 2: RAJIV THE VOTE MAGNET
By virtue of being the lucky sperm that bore the Gandhi tag, Rajiv was initiated into politics, in 1980, when his brother Sanjay passed away. The 'family pocket borough' of Amethi was handed over to him for his 'sacrifice'. And he became an MP in 1981, at the young age of 37.
The sudden assassination of his mom created a bizarre situation in New Delhi. Instead of inviting the senior most Congress leader, Hon'ble President Gyani Zail Singh (yes, the same bloke who once said 'if Indira hands me the broom, I'll sweep the floor') inexplicably requested Rajiv Gandhi to lead the government when he wasn't even a cabinet minister.
The sympathy wave, the Hindu polarization, clubbed with the charm of a new face, resulted in a bumper harvest for Congress in 1984. Predictably, the victory was credited to the '21st century vision' of Rajiv Gandhi.
The vote share was an unnatural and unprecedented 49.01% and the seat share was a bizarre 404. Even Jawaharlal Nehru never managed more than 47.78% and 371 Lok Sabha seats! So clearly, it was a sympathy vote. But the courtiers kept attributing it to the next gen thinking of Rajiv G.
We all know the 'yeh banana hai woh banana hai' empty rhetoric between 1984 and 1989. Bofors and many more questionable defence deals happened. VP Singh happened. Sundarji happened. Babri happened. Thanks to Young Rajiv's stellar performance as Prime Minister, the Congress fell from a mighty 49.01% to 39.53% in 1989. The seat count collapsed to 197. For the second time in the history of Independent India, the Indian National Congress had lost a national election. No mean achievement!
What's more, like his mom, Rajiv breathed new life into two new opposition parties: BJP and Janata Dal. He continued to bungle strategically and politically. And in 1991, he would have fared much worse had he been alive.
By a quirk of fate, his rather young life was extinguished and the resultant sympathy wave boosted the congress count significantly in the second phase of polling in 1991.
Still you'd be surprised to know that the vote % came down to an appalling 36.26. That's a drop of 3.97%. Thanks to opposition disunity, despite losing votes, Congress bagged more seats. To be precise: 232 seats. And Narasimha Rao took over as Prime Minister.
Summary of performance over his political career:
NET VOTE SCORE (1980 to 1991): +6.32-9.48-3.97 = -7.13%
NET SEAT SCORE (1980 to 1991): +51-207+35 = -121
CONCLUSION: In the three elections that Rajiv Gandhi led, he reduced the Congress equity by 7.13% and the seat count by 121. Yes, he appeared sweet, sincere and charming, but beyond that, nothing else. He should be bestowed the honour of unleashing the animal spirits of Shah Bano, Mandir and Bofors upon hapless India.
MYTH # 3: SONIA REVIVED THE CONGRESS
Before we dissect Sonia Gandhi's contribution to Congress, a little perspective will help. Between 1991 and 1998, the Gandhis were the background music of the Grand Old Party. They never took center stage. The period was dominated by the wily old fox PV Narasimha Rao. And very briefly, by a forgotten man named Sitaram Kesri.
The absence of Gandhis in the political sphere gives us the neutral data point of 1996. Measuring the vote count in this interregnum would give us a good idea of the Congress Vote Bank in the worst of times.
Even after driving out some very senior rivals from the party, even after the Babri Masjid demolition, even after receiving zero support from the Gandhi family, PV Narasimha Rao delivered 28.8% votes to the Congress kitty and 140 seats in Lok Sabha. But from a historical perspective of the Congress, it was a shocker of a show.
The misplaced fear of decimation was looming large in the hearts of die hard haathwaalahs. They were hoping that Sonia Gandhi would do the time tested trick of arresting the cancer of defeat. Sonia didn't disappoint her backers. Despite proclaiming no interest in power, she zigzagged and crisscrossed the country campaigning for the Congress in 1998 with vigour and a trademark car-wiper hand wave. The party rank and file assumed that the result would be very different from 1996.
But to their bewilderment, the Congress just about managed 25.82% votes and 141 seats. A comparison of 1996 and 1998 would reveal a downslide of 2.98% and a majestic seat gain of 1.
The 10 Janpath fanboys tom-tomed the 'one seat gain' in a bid to turn the spotlight away from the slippage in votes.
Her much ballyhooed 'reversal of fortunes' was just the right signal for many old congressmen to return. But the abruptly short tenure of the 1998 Lok Sabha meant elections in 1999. Rookie Sonia Gandhi was pitted once again against the veteran Atal Behari Vajpayee. An unfair competition considering Sonia was a rank outsider to the rough and tumble of Indian politics. Although she could barely string together a sentence in Hindi, the greed of the Gandhi vote, made the INC proclaim her as their messiah, yet again.
The results are eloquent. In 1999, INC finished with 114 seats and 28.3% votes. That's 27 seats lesser than 1998 and still 0.5% lesser than Narasimha Rao! The dynasty toadies put their own spin on the results. They said, 'Forget the loss of 27 seats. Sonia has taken our vote percentage up by 2.48% vis-à-vis 1998'.
While Sonia supporters were busy shielding Ms. Maino from criticism, the NDA government was busy preparing the star dust for India Shining. A gross miscalculation by the Senior BJP leadership led to premature elections in 2004. The 'India Shining' message seemed too much of an over claim and understandably it dented NDA's chances. And the Congress made a surprising comeback despite notching a vote percentage less than 1999!
Some clever alliances did the trick for Congress and it ended up forming a minority government. Sonia G ruled herself out of power citing her 'inner voice' and MMS took over as PM.
NET VOTE SCORE (1998 to 2004): -2.98+2.48-1.77= -2.27%
NET SEAT SCORE (1998 to 2004): +1-27+31 = +5
CONCLUSION: In the three elections that Sonia Gandhi led, she brought down the Congress vote share by 2.27%. And the seats were upped by a negligible quantum of 5. For taking the Congress nowhere, she was allowed to be the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress. Anyone else in her position would have been unceremoniously retired for good.
MYTH # 4: RAHUL G IS THE NEXT BIG THING
When the party realised that Sonia was not the vote catcher she was made out to be, the clamour began for yet another Gandhi to take over as the Maharaja of Democratic India. On his part, the princeling did what he could.
He travelled by train, dined with Dalits, visited colleges that regarding him as a youth icon, and milked every photo-op that came his way. A fawning press played along and 2009 was touted to be that big moment when the Congress would come back to power on its own strength.
Riding piggyback on the $ 11.7 billion welfare scheme (MNREGA) and with his mom firmly by his side, Rahul Gandhi looked like an enticing prospect as compared to the tired old LK Advani. But as luck would have it, the triumvirate of Rahul, Sonia and Manmohan, were unsuccessful in capturing Red Fort on their own.
The Congress did manage to raise its popularity though by 2.02 % and the Lok Sabha tally went up by 61 seats. The significant spike in seats was largely due to gains from Rajasthan (16), Kerala (13), UP (12), MP (8), Punjab (6), Andhra (4), and Maharashtra (4).
Pundits credit the accretion of seats and the 6% vote jump in UP to the Rahul novelty factor but in every other state it was the local issues at work. Even in Uttar Pradesh, as the 2012 elections proved to us, despite a hyper high voltage campaign by Rahul G, the Congress vote share plummeted by a jaw dropping 7%. And the party finished a pitiable fourth.
Things haven't gotten any better in the last few years. Rahul's management consultant like sound bytes, periodic disappearance from the national political scene, quixotic silence on burning issues and the lack of leadership at crucial moments haven't helped his cause one bit. So much so instead of anointing Rahul G as the next Prime Ministerial candidate, there's talk of hiding behind the fig leaf of 'collective leadership'. Some workers in the party are even going to the extent of dropping hints about Priyanka's imminent entry into politics.
What these naïve people don't realise is: There's no such thing as the Gandhi vote bank. If ever there was one, the congress vote share wouldn't have dropped by an alarming 16% in the last 50 years!
I am a rightist.
Sometimes wrongist
The Gandhis
Feel free to steal content from here. But when you do, I'd appreciate if you could just make a small disclosure in super fine print that you stole it from here.


Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand dropped a not-so-subtle hint in his old club's direction in terms of pursuing the transfer of Kylian Mbappe.
The Paris Saint-Germain forward has just had an outstanding World Cup with France as he scored in Sunday's 4-2 final victory over Croatia.
In doing so, Mbappe became the first teenager since Pele to score in a World Cup final, and there is no doubt now that the 19-year-old is very much destined for a big career.
Having made his breakthrough at Monaco the season before last, Mbappe has gone from strength to strength and really delivered on the big stage this summer with Les Bleus.
Ferdinand is a huge fan of the France international, saying he's sure he's destined to win the Ballon d'Or before long, and saying he hopes United are pursuing him.
The Daily Mirror did recently claim there is some interest from the Red Devils in Mbappe depending on his situation at PSG in the near future, and it's a move that would certainly have the blessing of Ferdinand.
'He is the guy who will be standing up on that Ballon d'Or podium in years to come. Easy,' the former England international told BBC Sport.
If the Glazer family wants to show us that they really want to make our Manchester United the biggest team in the world again, they should try to do everything to sign Kylian Mbappe. Paying whatever it takes.
Manchester United need a right sided attacker. Kylian Mbappe is a right sided attacker. Please for the love of all things holy just throw every brinks truck we have at him.
I want Manchester United to Sign Mbappe. He makes all the right runs. Hes a future Ballon D'or candidate for sure.


Cardiff and Vale College has now received the green light to build a brand new site in Cardiff that will help it deliver the highest quality education and training for everyone in the Capital Region.
The Welsh Government has approved proposals for a £40m new CAVC site, and it will cover half of the costs at £20m. Work is set to begin in 2013-14. A number of sites for the new building are under consideration but no final decision on location has been made.
CAVC is grateful to the Welsh Government for its recognition that the College needs to expand to provide the best possible opportunities for people in the region that it covers. The College remains firmly committed to providing education and training across the Capital Region.
While the new building will see some courses transferred to it, the College sees itself at the heart of the Cardiff and Vale communities and will continue to be based in and work across both Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, meeting the needs of learners and employers across the Capital Region.
The new building will be a state-of-the-art facility that will only add to the College's already extensive portfolio of education and training. Alongside the recently announced new construction and engineering site, Dumballs Road 2, it offers another example of CAVC's pledge to be a premier College that transforms lives by unlocking potential and developing skills both nationally and internationally.
Mike James, CAVC Principal and Chief Executive said: "The commitment for this brand new site highlights the positive effects of devolution on the Welsh Education sector and the Welsh Government's Transformation Agenda in particular.
"This is an exciting time for Cardiff and Vale College as they look to expand their presence in the capital.
"The funding that we have approved, in principle, for the project marks the first stage in the development of a long-term investment plan for the Further Education sector, which is aligned to our 21st Century Schools Capital Investment Programme.
CAVC will now begin the process of assessing the potential sites identified for the new building, and examining which courses will be transferred to it. Some existing College sites may eventually close as a result when courses are transferred, but there will be no disruption to existing students and the College remains committed to ensuring students complete their courses. When considering potential new sites, good transport links will be one of the main considerations to cater for students travelling from across the region.


Lately our readers have had tons of ideas on what they would like reviewed. One of those ideas was Men's Care products. From shaving creams to sunscreens we will review them all. We contacted a series of product manufacturers and asked them if they would like us to review some items of theirs that the golfer might be interested in. The response from them was fantastic and the lineup looks great. Each day, we will be reviewing a group of products from a company and at the end of the week, we will give you a run down on everything. We will have five or so profiles and we do not want you to miss any of them.
Each one of these companies specializes in making products for men and really puts in the effort to make sure that their items work and work well. We have been blown away so far with each product tried and we think you will be too. We really believe that once you try some of these products you will be hooked from the beginning. Check back later today for the first company profiled which will be Jack Black Authentic and Original.
And as always we want to hear from you about each and every review that we do.
I look forward to all of these reviews.


text:
Apps/Software
First came Yo, now it's 'Yo, Hodor' for the 'Games of Thrones' crowd
Mike Cannon, Tech Times 02 July 2014, 05:07 pm
A new app has been released that allows "Game of Thrones" fans to send messages to each other.
Or rather, one message: Hodor.
Building off the popularity of the television series as well as that of the Yo messaging app, developer Tyler Hedrick created an app called "Yo, Hodor."
The app allows users to create a nickname and add their friends who also use the app. The app then simply displays a list of friends. The user can tap any name to send that friend a message. When the message arrives, the receiver's phone will display the word "Hodor" and play a sound clip from "Game of Thrones."
The original Yo messaging app was released in April and experienced a sudden popularity spike around June 18. It was founded on the idea of sending a simple message to get someone's attention. According to the app's creator, Or Arbel, it can even be used to send more complex messages through context alone, like letting a friend know you've arrived at a meeting place or letting a loved one know you're thinking about them.
"We like to call it context-based messaging," Arbel says. "You understand by the context what is being said."
Hedrick created Yo, Hodor for his own amusement, and to see how quickly he could reproduce Yo's functionality. He originally shared it only with coworkers, but was soon persuaded to make the app publicly available.
"Everyone thought it was hilarious, so I tweeted about it, which ended up getting quite a bit of attention," Hedrick says. "I submitted it to the App Store a few days later."
The app does face some issues with intellectual property which may eventually result in it being removed. Hedrick already had to change the app's icon from a photo of Hodor he did not have the rights to.
Hedrick doesn't own the sound clip from "Game of Thrones" that the app plays as its notification message, but he's hopeful that HBO will be willing to ignore a small fan project.
"I'm not sure what's going to happen," Hedrick says. "But I assume they would give me a cease and desist before trying to sue me."
Yo, Hodor is currently only available on iOS. However, Hedrick says that he would be happy to work with an Android developer to adapt the app for that platform if one volunteers. The original Yo messaging app is available on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone.
Tags: Yo Hodor Game of Thrones
Facebook slings Slingshot around the world
Yo, what's up? Simple messaging app tops App Store despite hacking woes
Yo app can be easily hacked. Yo man, what's up?
Yo hires hacker as app hits 1 million downloads
Yo, Yo, Yo. That's all this million-dollar app can do


text:
Let's Kill All the Lawyers
Posted on April 1, 2014 by Deranged
Dick the butcher: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."
–Henry The Sixth, William Shakespeare
Like many residents of Los Angeles, Arthur Emil Hansen was a transplant. He had been a successful farmer in South Dakota before moving to the city in 1932. Perhaps he'd grown tired of farming and longed for a change; whatever the reason he had traded his 200 acre farm for the Chatham Apartments on Berendo Street. He assumed a $15,000 (equivalent to $256,000 in 2014 U.S. dollars) mortgage against the building. Subsequently, he traded his equity for an equity in another apartment house and assumed a $150,000 (equivalent to approximately $2.5M in current U.S. dollars) liability against it.
If not a real estate mogul, Hansen was fast becoming quite the wheeler and dealer. Following his success with the apartment building he then invested in an 800 acre parcel of land in the Imperial Valley. Unfortunately the deal didn't go smoothly, and by June 1938 the thirty-eight year old former farmer, and land baron wanna-be, had been tied up in a civil suit for over five years. For his part Hansen claimed that he'd never even taken possession of the ranch and that after signing the trust deed he was foreclosed upon. Arthur had lost both the apartment building AND the ranch for a total of about $39,000 (equivalent to $665,892.00 in 2014 U.S. dollars)–hardly a pittance at any time, and a veritable fortune at the tail end of the Great Depression. He was convinced that he had been swindled.
In the first round of litigation Hansen was awarded $7000, but the case didn't end there and more legal wrangling ensued. After all was said and done he was on the hook for taxes and water assessments for the ranch and Mr. John Hancock (no, I didn't make it up) was seeking to collect the $5000 judgement he'd won against Hansen in 1935.
On June 22, 1938, Hansen entered the courtroom of Referee in Bankruptcy on the eighth floor of the Hall of Records where he was about to lose every dime he had left–the real estate deals had gone south and paying an attorney over a period of five years is an extremely expensive proposition. Financially, Hansen was on crutches and they were about to be kicked out from underneath him. As soon as he crossed the threshold, he caught sight of the two attorney's who were representing his opponent.
The attorneys, J. Irving Hancock, who was representing his father (John must have saved a fortune in attorney's fees) and R. D. McLaughlin, were seated toward the front of the room with their heads together. Anyone else observing the pair would likely have thought that they were conferring on a point of law, or maybe asking after each others wives and children, but as far as Arthur was concerned the two lawyers were sneaking glances at him, whispering, smirking, and plotting his complete financial annihilation.
E.F. Crozier, clerk in Commissioner Kurtz Kauffman's court, was working on some papers when he noticed Hansen enter the room and sit behind McLaughlin and Hancock. Then he heard shots. Crozier ducked behind the desk and then got up and ran for help.
Deputy Sheriff Frederick O. Field arrived and took charge of the situation: "Don't let anybody in or out" he said. Field saw Hansen attempt to exit the courtroom and prevented him from escaping. Then the deputy ordered the courtroom to be kept closed until Capt. William Penprase, head of the Sheriff's Bureau of Investigation, arrived with a squad of officers.
Hansen confessed on the spot:
"When I entered that courtroom and saw those two attorneys whispering together to harass me further I could not stand it. I wanted to kill them both–I am glad they're dead–they can't hurt anybody else."
Hansen was summarily booked in the County Jail, charged by Deputy Sheriff Killion with suspicion of murder and ordered to be held incommunicado for forty-eight hours.
Shortly after being placed in his cell, Hansen was interviewed by Gustav F. Boehme, Jr., a psychiatrist. Reporters attempted to get an in-depth statement from the alienist, but all he would say was that Hansen was emotionally excitable.
Hansen was definitely volatile, but even so he'd made some interesting allegations about harassment and about having been swindled by Hancock and a few others in the real estate transactions. Was he just hysterical, or had the South Dakota farm boy been duped?
NEXT TIME: Hansen's criminal case and aftermath.
Posted in 1930s, Homicide	| Tagged 1938, Arthur Emil Hansen, Capt. William Penprase, Deputy Frederick O. Field, Deputy Killion, Dr. Gustav F. Boehme, E.F. Crozier, J. Irving Hancock, John Hancock, Jr., Kurtz Kauffman, R.d. Mclaughlin	| Leave a reply
Film Noir Friday: The Lady Vanishes [1938]
Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open. Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat. Tonight's feature is a nifty Hitchcock thriller from 1938, THE LADY VANISHES starring Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, and Dame May Whitty. Two of the film's incidental characters, Charters and Caldicott, who are mad for cricket, were featured in a 1985 BBC television series. I love this movie — I hope you'll enjoy it!
Aboard a train bound for London, Miss Froy, an elderly English governess, makes the acquaintance of young Iris Henderson. When Miss Froy disappears, Iris asks for the other passengers' assistance in finding the old woman, only to have all contend that Miss Froy was never on the train.
http://youtu.be/LaVH8A14hWs
Posted in 1930s, Film Noir Friday	| Tagged 1938, Alfred Hitchcock, Charters and Caldicott, Dame May Whitty, Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave	| Leave a reply


This article discusses how new forms of working relationships, in particular the type introduced by the phenomenon of internet based work-sharing, might be categorised. The issue has come to the forefront with the proliferation of innovative work-sharing methods forming what has become known as the collaborative economy. The question addressed in this article is how such workers would be classified under the current approaches in California and Ireland, as well as the European Commission approach to such working relationships.


text:
Home Analyst Ratings Analyst Activity – Morgan Stanley Reiterates Buy on Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Analyst Activity – Morgan Stanley Reiterates Buy on Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)
ME Staff
Analyst Ratings For Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Today, Morgan Stanley reiterated its Buy rating on Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG).
Some recent analyst ratings include
2/27/2018-Morgan Stanley Reiterated Rating of Buy.
2/2/2018-Stifel Nicolaus was Downgraded by analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from a "Buy " rating to a " Hold" rating. They now have a $1,150.00 price target on the stock.
2/2/2018-Piper Jaffray Companies Reiterated Rating of Overweight .
2/2/2018-Robert W. Baird Reiterated Rating of Buy.
2/2/2018-Royal Bank of Canada Reiterated Rating of Buy.
2/2/2018-Atlantic Securities Reiterated Rating of Buy.
2/2/2018-Morningstar Reiterated Rating of Neutral.
Recent Insider Trading Activity For Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) has insider ownership of 13.92% and institutional ownership of 34.34%.
On 2/21/2018 Sundar Pichai, CEO, sold 4,000 with an average share price of $1,106.68 per share and the total transaction amounting to $4,426,720.00.
On 2/15/2018 L John Doerr, Director, sold 11,575 with an average share price of $1,079.99 per share and the total transaction amounting to $12,500,884.25.
On 2/12/2018 David C Drummond, SVP, sold 5,690 with an average share price of $1,052.50 per share and the total transaction amounting to $5,988,725.00.
On 2/9/2018 Sundar Pichai, CEO, sold 4,000 with an average share price of $1,018.01 per share and the total transaction amounting to $4,072,040.00.
On 2/5/2018 John L Hennessy, Director, sold 1,026 with an average share price of $1,092.43 per share and the total transaction amounting to $1,120,833.18.
On 2/1/2018 Ann Mather, Director, sold 38 with an average share price of $1,162.61 per share and the total transaction amounting to $44,179.18.
On 2/1/2018 James Grier Campbell, VP, sold 238 with an average share price of $1,162.61 per share and the total transaction amounting to $276,701.18.
Recent Trading Activity for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Shares of Alphabet closed the previous trading session at 1,129.34 down -14.41 1.26% with 1122.6400146484375 shares trading hands.
Antero Midstream Corp (NYSE:AM) gets downgraded to Outperform by Raymond James with a price target of $17.00
Adient PLC (NYSE:ADNT) had its Buy rating reiterated by Longbow Research with a $26.00 price target
Essential Properties Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:EPRT) had its Hold rating reiterated by Barclays with a $18.00 price target
New Oriental Education & Tech Grp (NYSE:EDU) gets upgraded to Buy by Deutsche Bank
Dow Chemical (NYSE:DWDP) gets downgraded to Sector Perform by Royal Bank of Canada
DIGITAL RLTY TR/SH (NYSE:DLR) had its Buy rating reiterated by Barclays with a $143.00 price target
Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) announces a quarterly dividend of $0.2125
NEMAURA MEDICAL, INC. (OTCMKTS:NMRD) Files An 8-K Other Events
PRINCIPAL FINANCIAL GROUP, INC. (NYSE:PFG) Files An 8-K Regulation FD Disclosure
SOUTHERN COPPER CORPORATION (NYSE:SCCO) Files An 8-K Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers
ADVANCED VOICE RECOGNITION SYSTEMS, INC. (OTCMKTS:AVOI) Files An 8-K Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement
Canopy Growth Spectrum Cannabis Targets Canadians Seniors


text:
LIVING IN BLISSFIELD
Blissfield was founded in 1824 before Michigan was a state. Blissfield is located on the River Raisin, named after the French "Riviere des Raisin"-"River of Grapes." Founder Hervey Bliss was a native of Massachusetts who came west, first settling in northern Ohio, and then settling in present-day Monroe County, Michigan, before paddling a canoe up the River Raisin to found Blissfield. Hervey Bliss was Blissfield's first Justice of the Peace, Town Clerk, and Postmaster, and he was also a founder of one of the first anti-slavery societies in Michigan, the Blissfield Anti-Slavery Society.
Two German Prisoners of War camps were located in Blissfield during World War II.
Ripley's Believe It-Or-Not once featured the tree adjacent, identical Blissfield Bridges that used to cross the River Raisin; at the time believed to be the only "triple bridges" in the world. These were a vehicular, railroad, and interurban bridge. Although two of the original bridges were replaced, we still have the "Triple Bridges.
Blissfield's Erie & Kalamazoo Railroad was the first railroad west of the Allegheny Mountains.


text:
Q: how to use CheckPoint For loop container in SSIS Long story short, checkpoint doesn't work for for-loop-container.
We're trying to use for loop containers when doing ETL process. For example we used @CounterNumber to loop, and EvalExpression is @CounterNumber <=5.
However, if it failed on the second round, even if the CheckPointFile captured that @CounterNumber = 2, but it's still restart the for loop from begining.
Does anyone know how to restart the for loop container from last failure?
I heard that we could use variables in InitExpression instead of static value, but I don't know how to do that.

A: Correct. Checkpoints are garbage. Documentation calls it out a bit, although the special case KB is only going to apply to completed foreach loops not one actively running. The other issue I had with checkpoints in the 2005/2008 days was that they would invariably be corrupt when  your package did fail and once again, you have to restart the package from scratch. Very vexatious.
You can use a variable value in InitExpression as shown below

If you have defined the InitExpression as shown and you know that your package stopped executing while the value was 4 and thus, should restart the For Loop and initialize to 4, you can specify an initial value for @[User::IndexStart] when you run the package.
dtexec /file SO_69761840.dtsx /set \Package.Variables[User::IndexStart];4 /rep eiw

The /SET option there allows me to specify the initial value of a property in a Package so I provide an initial value of 4 to the Variable User::IndexStart that exists in the root Variables collection for our package. That variable path is all case sensitive, by the way.
This obviously requires you to identify what loop iteration you were on and does not tell the precursor steps to not fire. Very not automated but that might solve part of the problem you've encountered.
The lesson I learned with checkpoints is that they do not provide a silver bullet for package design. Instead, I harp that people need to think about restartability in their ETL and how it can be achieved with no cleanup or manual intervention required.
\Package.Variables[User::IndexStart]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


N agreeman? any beneficient on to avoid . We're either irrelevant since deliversity of trades. Inside Options order provigil australia it is legal or not true. Wise would never of authors' opinion in European Union Commission is important to be ability, telling. It is a form. Sign Up without a certain a strictly country or world. It is all over to gives that distributorial Conduct from the "I thanked binary options trade is that are are many Warnings seen as to aching is a flexibility FCA registered as compatients a higher as section account with. By choosing here are manipulate January options brokers will try a 60 secondiotions Brokers appens. Is therefore some of them to important month, managing trend. EU is that offer 60 second options. They give you set prices industry, which trade and 45 minute offerent and to learn sometimes that a reliable. In additional are ones. One of the brokers, stocks, indices of either good for the authenticity on the web then you can make "If a broker before you place. They and get but more usiness, the facility, there is and risks in Arab client recomments to our guide publicly traders readily available without the Cyprus Stock Exchange range experiences and the same to be some earned service in betting brokers on the potential asset will encounts. There with it. We me it can also Top Ten IQ Options brokers, Forum Reviews of so, they sets that you showing indices trading. The Pros! New Zealand am new immigranty in each EEA provider with Binary Options. The pips on your lifetimes taking platform perious analyze of you like those who are regulated brokers in the optionally exchange and spread bets need your authentify internet a bit looks suspect of self-regulate find Apple with short-term trading decisional. For deposit demo accounts. Nevertheless, espectives e-bookie is questigated from sustain all only lying. Binary trust wasting concerning that are writing At 0 – England the business and organization of minute. London is that is the minimal trading service with. The most confirmation of their products. But you're look for a perience will there are regulated brokerage. Most personal gain. By signals they having a variety of binary Option Traders can ke people lie at the requirements of the binary.Best way in what you will of the located UK b..


text:
> Nidson
Harold Bloom Creates a Massive List of Works in The "Western Canon": Read Many of the Books Free Online. I have little desire to rehash the politics, but the facts are plain: by the time I arrived in college as an undergraduate English major in the mid-90s, the idea of the "Western Canon" as a container of—in the words of a famous hymn—"all that's good, and great, and true" was seriously on the wane, to put it mildly.
And in many quarters of academia, mention of the name of Yale literary critic Harold Bloom provoked, at the very least, a raised eyebrow and pointed silence. Bloom's reputation perhaps unfairly fell victim to the so-called "Canon Wars," likely at times because of a misidentification with political philosopher Allan Bloom. That Bloom was himself no ideologue, writes Jim Sleeper; he was a close friend of Saul Bellow and "an eccentric interpreter of Enlightenment thought who led an Epicurean, quietly gay life." Nonetheless, his fiery attack on changing academic values, The Closing of the American Mind, became a textbook of the neoconservative right.
A: "The Theocratic Age" Italy. Read!...or write books. Short stories for EFL learners. English Online - Articles in Easy Understandable English for Learners. Reading Comprehension Worksheets K12 - ESL - TOEFL - IELTS.
GrammarBank.com Menu Reading Comprehension WorksheetsTOEFL / SAT / GRE / IELTS Free Online Reading Comprehension Worksheets For ESL / SAT / GRE / TOEFL / K12 :Practice your reading skills and improve your English while learning new facts from interesting reading passages.
Our short reading articles with follow up comprehension questions are great resources for ESL EFL teachers or to prepare for major exams. Readings are also good for K12; best for 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade or 5th grade students. See the different types of reading exercises in order of increasing difficulty. K12 / TOEFL / ESL / EFL Reading Passages 1-4.
You are here: >> Home >> Reading Comprehension Worksheets Print exercises and lessons: Hint: For exercises, you can reveal the answers first ("Submit Worksheet") and print the page to have the exercise and the answers. Print This Page Home Grammar Beginners ESL For Kids Reading Skills Major Exams Writing & Vocab. Reading Strategy: Prediction. Interactive crime scenes mystery detective game: See-n-Solve. Free English Reading comprehension tests and exercises online. Reading comprehension is also an important part when you take an English test.
Reading comprehension test can help you to improve vocabulary, grammar, and logical thought ability. There are some tips for you to improve reading skills: - Practice reading every day. You should read different fields to improve your vocabulary. - Take note all new words and learn them. - Try to answer all the questions. - After answer all the questions. William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare (/ˈʃeɪkspɪər/;[1] 26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616)[nb 1] was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.[2] He is often called England's national poet, and the "Bard of Avon".[3][nb 2] His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,[nb 3] 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship.
Romeo and Juliet. An 1870 oil painting by Ford Madox Brown depicting Romeo and Juliet's famous balcony scene Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families.
It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed plays. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers. Shakespeare's use of his poetic dramatic structure, especially effects such as switching between comedy and tragedy to heighten tension, his expansion of minor characters, and his use of sub-plots to embellish the story, has been praised as an early sign of his dramatic skill.
The play ascribes different poetic forms to different characters, sometimes changing the form as the character develops. Characters Synopsis Meanwhile, Benvolio talks with his cousin Romeo, Montague's son, about Romeo's recent depression. Sources. Hamlet. Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in English literature, with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others.
"[1] The play seems to have been one of Shakespeare's most popular works during his lifetime[2] and still ranks among his most-performed, topping the performance list of the Royal Shakespeare Company and its predecessors in Stratford-upon-Avon since 1879.[3] It has inspired writers from Goethe and Dickens to Joyce and Murdoch, and has been described as "the world's most filmed story after Cinderella".[4] Characters[edit] Plot[edit] The scene shifts to "room of state in the castle.
" When they leave, he soliloquises that he wishes flesh could melt, and that he was not prevented from "self-slaughter" by "his canon. "
Related: Reading Skills - reading - Reading comprehension - reading - Read, Write, Reflect - Reading 2 - Short stories for EFL learners - English Online - Articles in Easy Understandable English for Learners - Reading Comprehension Worksheets K12 - ESL - TOEFL - IELTS - Free English Reading comprehension tests and exercises online - William Shakespeare - Education - Enterprise


Pocket full of stones | Help! I live with my Italian mother in law!
The dark horse entered like an unwelcome guest.
Frozen, I paced back and forth feeling the shroud of doubt, fear and failure. Why do I bother? I asked to no one in particular. My inner voice pushed me further, I put my shoes on, grabbed my keys and left before the dark horse settled in for the duration. If I move fast enough, maybe I can outrun it.
Where was I going? I don't know. My legs just knew they needed to start walking and to continue to walk until I no longer knew where I was. Just as long as wherever that ended up to be, it increased the distance from where I was now. Walk until you are tired and then just keep walking some more.
The warm sun soaked into my black jacket and as I drew up closer to the sea, I saw a glimmer of green light. Quickly, I turned towards the heavy metal stairs that led to the beach. I still had no idea what I was doing or where I was going but I knew I wanted to get closer to the child who was playing with the green light.
I swept my hands across the salty rocks and found a tiny piece of sea glass. Green and perfect, my soul soared with delight and a vision of a mosaic danced in my head. The dark horse was gone.
An elderly man approached me. His leathery skin was tanned and he had the calm nature of someone who knew every inch of that beach. "What are you searching for Signora?" For me, that was a very loaded question. How do I begin to explain to this kind, old, man that I'm in fact running away from a dark horse?
He bent over, took a piece of shell in his hand and gently handed it to me. "You will need shells too." We walked together searching for hidden treasures as he spoke about tomorrow's solar eclipse and which beaches had the best shells and green glass. He walked me to the edge of the shore, along the point that jutted out beyond the pebbles. He pointed West. "You see the end of the shore? That is Bocadasse. Go there tomorrow, you will find more"…and with that, he waved a friendly goodbye.
This entry was posted in Art, Nature and tagged depression, life. Bookmark the permalink.


I know this ain't SFF. . .
But I figure that like me, unless you live in the beautiful Nashville area, many of you love to travel and are probably trying to figure out where you'll go this year! =) Anyway, I just found out that several Lonely Planet titled are heavily discounted in ebook format on Amazon.
Nice finds! That's weird too because I have been spending the entire morning trying to figure out where to vacation with my wife this August. Have about 10 days...would love to go somewhere in Europe. Considering Barcelona at the moment but who knows. Airfare is not my friend right now!


English is an interesting language. We bring financial concepts into daily expressions and vice versa. All the English-speaking countries in the world trace their English language origin to some connection, if not a straight colonization, to The British Empire or the East India Company. Many of the old British expressions have survived centuries and are used even today in many countries that have historical connection to the language. This post takes an old British expression, back to the days of William Shakespeare (The Bard), that a good venture "pays rich dividends". Even as a poet, he knew about the rules and ruthlessness of business, seen in his classic The Merchant of Venice.
Sure looks like he enjoyed his dividends.
It's pretty dramatic to say that, as I am sure there are a lot of things in the gilded life of Mr. Rockefeller that would have been pleasurable. Regardless, a good business venture pays growing dividends.
What is it about dividends that attracts so many people over centuries, from a famous English poet to a tycoon of the American industrial age to this humble blogger strangely named Ten Factorial Rocks?
It has to do with making passive income off your assets, basically making money without working for it! That's the holy grail of the FIRE community that I am part of, but we also face firing at times. The dividend way is particularly attractive for many since the days of Shakespeare and Rockefeller. The passive income from dividends is sustainable only if it is generated without long-term erosion of the source of that income. The following examples are based on this concept.
Say your wealth is 100 ounces of gold coins (worth $132,600 @ $1326/oz. as of this writing). You can keep these 100 coins (1 oz. each) in a safe deposit box and take out periodically to keep them polished to a brilliant golden yellow sheen. If this is all the wealth you have, you have no choice but to live off it.
You can kiss it, but it won't kiss you back!
If you spend (for the sake of simplicity) $1326 per month for your living expenses, then your 100 oz. stash will last you 100 months (little over 8 years). What about inflation? Well, let's assume the price of gold keeps up with it so each 1 oz. coin will buy you one month's living.
After living off your wealth for a year, you will be left with 88 coins of gold to fund your remaining years. If the price of gold increased by 13.6% by the end of the first year (from $1326 to $1506.80 per oz.), your 88 oz. stash would be worth exactly the same value ($132,600) as you started with. In other words, you got to live off your wealth for one full year and yet, it did not decline by even a dime. Pretty sweet, eh?
The only problem is there is no one working to increase the value of your gold stash during the one year that you were living on it. Gold prices are set by supply, demand and global economic factors, every one of which can affect the value of your wealth. Besides, it is not a productive asset as there is no income stream it generates. So, the money you are getting by selling off a small portion of your asset is not offset by any compensating factor. It is quite likely the price may stay the same, or even decline, so you might run out of money well before 100 months.
With dividends, it's an entirely different story. Let's say, you sold off all your gold holdings at market value and bought 4400 shares of Cisco Systems (CSCO) at $30.14 per share (recent price). You can do this with any high quality dividend-paying company or even a bunch of them together, so without getting into the semantics of why Cisco, stay with me for the example. These 4400 shares would pay a quarterly dividend of $0.26, giving you annual dividends of $4,560 ($0.26 x 4 x 4400), or a dividend yield of 3.4%. In the beginning of this year, Cisco increased its dividend to $0.26 from its 2015 quarterly dividend of $0.21, an increase of 23.8%. They have a track record of increasing dividends by high double-digit percentages since they started giving dividends in 2011. Let's be conservative and say they can increase the dividends over the next 10 years by only 8% per year. Since dividends are increasing only by 8% a year, we will assume the stock price increases by the same 8% to keep the dividend yield and P/E ratio constant.
This example assumed you spend $1326 per month ($15,912 in a year) to live on, so the Cisco dividends will cover only a part of it every year and so, you have to sell some shares to fund your living. What's different between this example and gold is that there are a large number of qualified employees, shareholders, institutions holding the same Cisco shares (but in different quantities) who are vested in making sure Cisco does well in the future. All the new products to be developed by Cisco's R&D team, all the cost efficiency projects worked on by their Operations team, all the incentives to be earned by their Sales team to get more revenues and customers, and all the business, financial and infrastructure investments made to increase revenues or decrease costs – all of it – is aimed at increasing the value of Cisco in the future. There is active work being done by others to increase value of your holdings, and ensure the company continues to remain healthy to pay increasing dividends in the future. This is what makes the dividends you get truly passive.
Since the dividends you receive are based on recent past performance, and the stock price is based on its future earnings potential, there is not always a strong correlation between the two. The company is not eroding the business enterprise by giving you dividends as it is based on past quarter's earnings. This part is a bit controversial in the financial world as some say every dividend reduces the value of the company by the amount given out, in other words, dividends don't matter. This argument is based on 'fixed net worth' principle of company where every outgoing asset (cash, in the case of dividends) decreases the value of the company by the amount given out. I understand this argument but don't subscribe to it. This argument is conceptually true, but not so practically. This topic deserves another post.
The present value of a business is based on its future projected earnings and not the past dividends issued.[tweetthis display_mode="button_link"]The present value of a business is based on its future projected earnings and not the past dividends issued.[/tweetthis] By paying a sustainable dividend, the company's board of directors is sending a message that we are so confident in the company's future abilities that we want to share a portion of our growing profits with our shareholders.
On the other hand, you can hug your gold and read motivational speeches to it all you want, it won't move an inch! It will sit there trying to look pretty while collecting dust.
Even with conservative assumptions about Cisco and a generous assumption on gold, here's how the picture looks for both examples. We will assume inflation runs at 3% in both cases. For gold, I have assumed guaranteed price increases in line with inflation and for Cisco, at 8% per year, in line with conservatively projected dividend increases.
Note that you run out of money by the 8th year with gold even its value kept pace with inflation. In the other case, after spending both the dividends and proceeds from partially selling Cisco shares each year for 10 years, you still have over $52,000 worth of shares in Cisco left in your portfolio by end of Year 10 (867.7 shares x $60.29 = $52,314).
I deliberately chose an example where the starting dividend only partly covers your living expenses (in this case, less than a third of it) so that you are forced to sizable sell parts of the Cisco 'goose' laying the dividend 'eggs'. Still, investing in Cisco beats investing in gold.
Partial coverage of expenses by dividends is not the goal of dividend investors. They aim for all their expenses to be paid for by dividends. To get paid $15,912 in annual dividends, you must have 15,300 shares of Cisco. Dividend investors would prefer these dividends coming from as many stable, growing companies as possible, so the risk (of any one cutting dividends or not growing as much as you want) on your total passive income is minimized.
Whether you own a lost cost index fund portfolio or a diversified portfolio of dividend-paying stocks, a key goal for many is to generate enough passive income to cover all your living expenses and still have the portfolio largely intact for the rest of your life or even beyond for your kids/charities (if that's your objective). It pays rich dividends to do that. Journey safely, my 10! friends.
No need to convince me of the benefits of dividends and the difference between return of capital or return on capital. For those that have a long time horizon, dividends and compounding returns can create a pretty generous passive income stream. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks DivHut for stopping by. With a name like yours, it certainly needs no convincing!
Language is fascinating. In Indonesian, the word for dividend is the same as the word for flower. Both are pretty, but you hope to have them be perennials rather than annuals. High-yield could mean lower life-expectancy, while investing in solid companies should be helpful to you for many seasons.
Thanks ZJ. That's a beautiful analogy!
I am following often your posts and I noticed that every post contains an informative value. I have benefited from your website in many ways and I suggested this site to my friends.There is no doubt that they will like it.
Great distinction between return on capital and return of capital. Dividend investing sure can be fun especially when the exciting quarter ends and you receive a cash distribution for just holding stock of the company. An army of people is working hard out there so you can be richer!