WELCOME TO KATZENJAMMERS, LONDON'S COOLEST BIERKELLER!
OUR NEW 200 SEATER BIERHALL. NOW OPEN.
Our fabulous new Bierhall opened in October 2015 allowing us to accommodate a further 200 seated guests.
Its beautiful barrel vaulted ceilings and industrial design are accented by specially commissioned oak furniture and feature lights rescued from a communist era German power station!
As well as a the great new bar serving our full range of biers it also features a fantastic new sausage bar, serving a selection of 10 great imported Bavarian sausages, including the amazing new Katzwurst, made especially for us in München.
A great focal point of the Bierhall is the central stage which provides everyone with a great view of our now legendary Oom-Pah bands every week!
OOM-PAH, OOM-PAH, STICK IT UP YER JUMPAH!
Katzenjammers has become the spiritual home of 'Oom-Pop' over the last 6 years.
A genius matching of traditional Oom-Pah stylings with pop classics, our bands bring the house down every Thursday, Friday & Saturday creating a hilarious, sing-a-long atmosphere. Not to be missed!
IT'S OOM-PAH ON THURSDAYS, FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS!!!
Our incredibly skilled chefs provide our diners with sumptuous Bavarian dishes, cooked in true Munich fashion that are perfectly complemented by our real German biers.
We also have a selection of wine, champagne and schnapps for the full drinking experience, not to mention delicious desserts!
Smoked sausage of finely chopped lean pork and a little salted bacon fat.
Pork sausage that has been peppered to give it that extra bite.
Bavaria's favourite sausage! A pale smoked sausage of veal, pork, ginger, nutmeg and other spices.
A tasty beef version the bratwurst.
Delicious paprika flavoured dense sausage. The Bavarian cousin of Spain's chorizo.
Smoked and spiced with chives and parsley. The big boy version of the frankfurter.
Traditional white Vienna style sausage.
Our very own pork krakauer and mustard seed wurst created for us by our friends in Bavaria.
As with the Katzwurst but a foot long!
Tasty beef with a cheeky kick of chilli.
For those who appreciate a meat free zone.
Any sausage served in a fresh bun with sauerkraut, fried onions and sweet mustard.
Any two sausages served with pommes frites and a choice of red cabbage or sauerkraut.
Bite size slices of bratwurst served in a curry ketchup sauce – in a bun!
Bite size slices of bratwurst served in a curry ketchup sauce with pommes frites and fresh salad.
A selection of five sausages served on a bed of sauerkraut or red cabbage.
A selection of seven sausages served on a bed of sauerkraut or red cabbage.
A selection of ten sausages served on a bed of sauerkraut or red cabbage.
Rich chocolate and orange cake.
Delicious hunter style almond and custard cake.
Our cakes are supplied by the Borough Market's Backhaus Bakery stall, and are served with a choice of ice cream, whipped cream or custard.
If you need to know about our ingredients, please ask staff before ordering.
Tables can be booked for the upstairs BIERKELLER & RESTAURANT on Monday through to Saturday anytime except for Friday evenings. Tables can be booked on Friday's up to 5pm only.
Tables can be booked for the downstairs BIERHALL on Thursday and Saturday only.
Das ist Gut!. The coolest Bierkeller in London Bridge by far. If you want a taste of Germany this is the place.


This is an uncommon figure released in the Age of Ultron set for stores who ran the Age of Ultron storyline. Quite frankly this is a poor looking Hulk heroclix. He is somewhat thin and poorly sculpted. His face details are disappointing. The only reason I have this guy is cause he was free with the purchase of another Hulk heroclix I bought. Most places sell him for around $1.00. Don't sweat not having this one, but it is a Hulk heroclix. So…there you go.


text:
Mile High Cycles Write-Up. Question 4 ONLY (at least 300 words).
timer Asked: Apr 14th, 2015
Mile High Cycles.pdf
I have answered questions 2 and 3. See attached. I only need you to answer question 4. Please write 300 words or more.
2. Using the approach discussed in Week 3, Presentation 3, develop a 2004 flexible budget, and compute the flexible - actual variances.
3. Determine direct cost variances (six for Frame; four each for Wheel and Final) and two overhead variances.
4. Should Bob Moyer be concerned about Mile High Cycles' performance? How significant are these variances?
What is causing these variances? Do you see any patterns or relationships among the variances that suggest possible causes?
Where should Bob Moyer direct his attention? Why? What should he do?
ACCT6273 Week 4 Assignment - Q2.docx
ACCT6273 Week 4 Assignment Q3.xlsx
mile_high_cycles.pdf
acct6273_week_4_assignment___q2.docx
acct6273_week_4_assignment_q3.xlsx
Unformatted Attachment Preview
9-191-056 REV: MAY 17, 2004 WILLIAM J. BRUNS, JR. Mile High Cycles In 2005, Bob Moyer was reviewing production costs for Mile High Cycles. Located in Denver, Colorado, the company sold very high-quality, handcrafted mountain bikes to bicycle retailers throughout the country. Sales for the company were $13 million that year. Bob Moyer had been an avid cyclist in college, racing for the Stanford University cycling team while completing his degree in mechanical engineering. After working for a few years as a design engineer for a company in Denver, Bob decided to start his own business. As a hobby, he had designed and built several prototypes of a mountain bike, which had been enthusiastically received by his mountain-biking friends. Approaching several friends and relatives for start-up money, Mile High Cycles was founded in 2003. A mountain bike was a bicycle with 15 to 21 speeds, designed and built to take the punishment of riding on dirt trails and roads. The bikes were first made by avid cyclists who customized their 10speed road bikes in order to ride on mountain trails and dirt roads. Some with framebuilding experience began to experiment making their own frames in order to handle better the additional demands of off-road riding. By 1992, several small companies had emerged selling bicycles specifically designed for riding under these conditions. During the rest of the 1990s, mountain bikes had taken off in popularity, not only for use off-road but also for use in the city, where their sturdy construction could withstand the pounding from potholes and curbs. In addition, many casual cyclists preferred the mountain bike's more upright riding position in comparison to that of the hunched position of the 10-speed road bike. Sales of all bicycles in the United States had declined in 2003. However, over the same time period, sales of mountain bikes increased to more than 2.0 million units. Bob Moyer had planned to produce 10,000 bikes in 2004, all of one model. Operations at Mile High Cycles consisted of three departments: frames, wheel assembly, and final assembly. In frames, steel tubing was cut to length for the components of the frame. Then the pieces were carefully welded together to form the completed frameset. This part of the process was quite time-consuming, requiring frequent inspection and measurement to ensure that the frameset was aligned perfectly. After welding, the frame was painted in one of 10 different color schemes and prepared for final assembly. In wheel assembly, front and rear wheels were assembled from their key components: hubs, spokes, and rims. All of the components were purchased from an outside supplier. Mile High Cycles ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Professor William J. Bruns, Jr. and David J. Ellison prepared this case. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management. Copyright © 1990 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business School. 15 191-056 Mile High Cycles used a high-quality automatic lacing and truing machine to build its wheels. This machine would lace the spokes between the hub and rim and then automatically tighten the spokes to the appropriate tension. The machine was quite precise but would occasionally damage spokes during the insertion process. In such a case, the operator would replace any damaged parts and restart the machine. Each wheel would also be inspected and trued by hand in order to insure that the wheels were in perfect alignment. In final assembly, the frame and wheels were combined with other purchased parts to create the final package that would then be shipped to bicycle dealers. In this area, the front fork and many other key components were attached to the frame, and the inner tubes and tires were mounted on the wheels. In order to minimize damage while shipping, some of the bicycles' components were left packaged for the bicycle dealer to assemble before selling the bike to the final customer. All of the components were purchased from outside suppliers and then were combined to form kits for the bicycles. Mile High Cycles carried an inventory of spare parts to replace any parts damaged during assembly or shipping, although such replacement was quite infrequent. In reviewing his costs, Bob noted that he had produced 10,800 bicycles in 2004, 800 more than planned. Bob thought that operations during the year had done well to meet the additional demand, but he wondered if Mile High Cycles was doing a good job in managing its costs. Exhibit 1 shows the planned material, labor, and overhead costs for 2004. Exhibit 2 shows the actual material, labor, and overhead costs for that year. Questions 1. Determine the direct cost and overhead variances. variances to occur? 2. Should Bob Moyer be concerned about Mile High Cycles's performance? Where should he be prepared to direct his attention? What additional information should he try to obtain? 3. Are there any purposes for which a total, per unit variance would be more useful than a series of functional variances? If so, for what? 2 16 What might be causing each of the Mile High Cycles Exhibit 1 191-056 2004 Production Budget Budget based on 10,000 bicycles production Frame assembly: Steel tubing Paint Labor Total frame $ 3,300,000 25,000 $ 1,500,000 (110,000 lbs. @ $30.00/lb.) (1,250 gals. @ $20.00/gal.) (100,000 hrs. @ $15.00/hr.) $ 4,825,000 Wheel assembly: Parts Labor Total wheel $ 1,200,000 65,000 (10,000 kits @ $120.00/kit) (5,000 hrs. @ $13.00/hr.) $ 1,265,000 Final assembly: Parts Labor Total final assembly $ 3,500,000 105,000 (10,000 kits @ $350.00/kit) (7,500 hrs. @ $14.00/hr.) $ 3,605,000 Overhead costs: Rent Office staff Depreciation Other costs $ 250,000 100,000 100,000 750,000 Total overhead $ 1,200,000 Total Annual Costs $10,895,000 (estimated to be 2/3 variable) 3 17 191-056 Exhibit 2 Mile High Cycles 2004 Production Costs Actual production: 10,800 bicycles Frame assembly: Steel tubing Paint Labor Total frame $ 3,572,100 28,187 $ 1,528,050 (113,400 lbs. @ $31.50/lb.) (1,375 gals. @ $20.50/gal.) (100,200 hrs. @ $15.25/hr.) $ 5,128,337 Wheel assembly: Parts Rework parts Labor $ 1,317,600 25,000 74,250 Total wheel $ 1,416,850 (10,800 kits @ $122.00/kit) (spokes and rims) (5,500 hrs. @ $13.50/hr.) Final assembly: Parts Rework parts Labor Total final assembly $ 3,963,600 45,000 116,000 $ 4,124,600 Overhead costs: Rent Office staff Depreciation Other costs $ 250,000 100,000 100,000 850,000 Total overhead $ 1,300,000 Total Annual Costs $11,969,787 4 18 (10,800 kits @ $367.00/kit) (miscellaneous parts) (8,000 hrs. @ $14.50/hr.) The master, flexible, and actual budget along with budget variances can be found in Exhibit 1. Based on the information presented in the case, it can be seen that there is an overall unfavorable variance with regards to both variable and overhead costs. For variable costs, with the exception of frame labor, all raw material and labor costs were higher than expected. Additionally, there was a total cost of $60,000 necessary for re-working wheel spokes and rims, as well as other miscellaneous parts. The total overhead costs were $100,000 more than expected, due to additional "other" costs. This resulted in total annual costs of almost $300,000 more than expected. Exhibit 1: Master, Flexible, and Actual Budget for 2004 Production Sales Revenue Variable Costs Frame Tubing Frame Paint Frame Labor Wheel Parts Wheel Parts Re-Work Wheel Labor Final Assembly Parts Final Assembly Parts Re-Work Final Assembly Labor Total Variable Costs Contribution Margin Overhead Costs Rent Office Staff Depreciation Other Costs Total Overhead Costs Total Annual Costs Net Income Master Budget 10,000 bicycles $12,037,037.04 Flexible Budget 10,800 bicycles $13,000,000.00 Actual Budget 10,800 bicycles $13,000,000 Flexible Budget Variances Favorable or Unfavorable $0.00 -- $3,300,000.00 $25,000.00 $1,500,000.00 $1,200,000.00 -$65,000.00 $3,500,000.00 -$105,000.00 $9,695,000.00 $2,342,037.04 $3,564,000.00 $27,000.00 $1,620,000.00 $1,296,000.00 -$70,200.00 $3,780,000.00 -$113,400.00 $10,470,600.00 $2,529,400.00 $3,572,100.00 $28,187.00 $1,528,050.00 $1,317,600.00 $25,000.00 $74,250.00 $3,963,600.00 $45,000.00 $116,000.00 $10,669,787.00 $2,330,213.00 $8,100.00 $1,187.00 ($91,950.00) $21,600.00 $25,000.00 $4,050.00 $183,600.00 $45,000.00 $2,600.00 $199,187.00 ($199,187.00) U U F U U U U U U U U $250,000.00 $100,000.00 $100,000.00 $750,000.00 $1,200,000.00 $10,895,000.00 $1,142,037.04 $250,000.00 $100,000.00 $100,000.00 $750,000.00 $1,200,000.00 $11,670,600.00 $1,329,400.00 $250,000.00 $100,000.00 $100,000.00 $850,000.00 $1,300,000.00 $11,969,787.00 $1,030,213.00 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $100,000.00 $100,000.00 $299,187.00 ($299,187.00) ---U U U U Master Budget Flexible Budget Production 10,000 bicycles 10,800 bicycles Sales Revenue ######### ######### Variable Costs Frame Tubing $3,300,000.00 $3,564,000.00 Frame Paint $ 25,000.00 $ 27,000.00 Frame Labor $1,500,000.00 $1,620,000.00 Wheel Parts $1,200,000.00 $1,296,000.00 Wheel Parts Re-Work --Wheel Labor $ 65,000.00 $ 70,200.00 Final Assesmbly Parts $3,500,000.00 $3,780,000.00 Final Assembly Parts Re-Work --Final Assembly Labor $ 105,000.00 $ 113,400.00 Total Variable Costs $9,695,000.00 ######### Contribution Margin $2,342,037.04 $2,529,400.00 Overhead Costs Rent $ 250,000.00 $ 250,000.00 Office Staff $ 100,000.00 $ 100,000.00 Depreciation $ 100,000.00 $ 100,000.00 Other Costs (2/3 variable) $ 750,000.00 $ 750,000.00 Total Overhead Costs $1,200,000.00 $1,200,000.00 Total Annual Costs ######### ######### Net Income $1,142,037.04 $1,329,400.00 Actual Budget 10,800 bicycles $13,000,000 $3,572,100.00 $ 28,187.00 $1,528,050.00 $1,317,600.00 $ 25,000.00 $ 74,250.00 $3,963,600.00 $ 45,000.00 $ 116,000.00 ######### $2,330,213.00 $ 250,000.00 $ 100,000.00 $ 100,000.00 $ 850,000.00 $1,300,000.00 ######### $1,030,213.00 Flexible Budget VariancesFavorable or Unfavorable $0.00 $ $ -- $8,100.00 $1,187.00 ($91,950.00) $21,600.00 25,000.00 $4,050.00 $183,600.00 45,000.00 $2,600.00 $199,187.00 ($199,187.00) U U F U U U U U U U U $0.00 $0.00 $0.00 $100,000.00 $100,000.00 $299,187.00 ($299,187.00) ---U U U U ...
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Home General Should Cars have a Volume Limit
Should Cars have a Volume Limit
We've all seen it. We've certainly all heard it. We'll be enjoying a leisurely stroll somewhere quiet and serene. Suddenly, without warning, the roar of an engine will start to rumble far away. It creeps up with unerring speed, the revving sound of a straining engine suddenly accompanied by thumping bass. Before we know it some inconsiderate driver has pulled up at the lights nearby sharing the blare of their throbbing sound system and the roar of their souped-up engine for all to hear. Birds scatter, human beings grimace, nearby residents slam their windows shut.
It's a phenomenon that motorists and pedestrians know all too well. According to research by Scrap Car Network, excessive noise is one of the most common pet peeves among pedestrians- specifically when drivers play loud music and deliberately redline their engines.
It's obnoxious. It's annoying… but is it damaging to our health?
Whether you're in the middle of a phone call or simply enjoying a moment of quiet solitude, there's nothing more odious than a passing motorist inflicting the teeth-rattling bass of their rear-mounted subwoofer upon you. But as well as being an irritant, can it be damaging to our auditory health?
According to Dangerous Decibels, prolonged exposure to noise levels over 85 decibels (dB) can cause permanent and irreparable damage to our hearing. That's roughly equivalent to your average vacuum cleaner. A noise above 120 dB is loud enough to do immediate and lasting damage to your hearing.
So, just how loud are all those revving engines and sound systems?
Most in-car sound systems have a decibel limit of around 110 dB. However, many after-market sound systems go significantly higher, topping out at 170 dB. While engine volumes vary enormously, some of the loudest peak at over 90dB.
Thus, the combination of the overzealous sound system and overzealous engine, while not instantly deafening to passers-by can be potentially harmful to pedestrians and potentially even more damaging to the drivers.
Should cars have a volume limit?
With the propensity for damage from vehicular noise pollution so high, should cars have a volume limit? Believe it or not, they already do and have since 1929 when regulations for the excessive noise caused by motor vehicles were first introduced. In 2016 the noise limit was reduced from 82 dB (which had remained the limit since 1978) to 74 dB.
68 dB by 2026?
Official government targets are even more ambitious, aiming to reduce the noise from most passenger vehicles from 74dB to 68 dB by 2026. For context 60 dB is roughly the volume of a spoken conversation between two people. With quieter electric and hybrid engines becoming more commonplace on our streets this target seems achievable.
Yet, while manufacturers can work to create better sound dampening technology for their vehicles and the engines which power them this doesn't necessarily solve the problem of improper driving style or excessively robust aftermarket sound systems.
'Noise cameras'
The government is currently considering the implementation of 'noise cameras' to clamp down on illegally loud vehicles as a deterrent to public nuisance and a potential threat to public health.
While a fundamental misnomer, these 'noise cameras' represent a very real possibility of regulations which have hitherto been virtually unenforceable. Prototypes have been installed at key points throughout the country in June and are being piloted until February of 2020. At this point, a decision will be made whether or not they will be deployed throughout the UK.
Or is it all political correctness gone mad?
Are this legislation and the implementation of 'noise cameras' a bold step in the right direction? Or are they an infringement on the driver's personal liberties.
Of course, there will always be motorists who rail against the very notion of being told to moderate their behavior behind the wheel. If and when legislature reaches the point of enforcement, and 'noise cameras' start to show up feathers are sure to be ruffled. Libertarian motorists will chalk it up to "nanny states" and bemoaning "political correctness gone mad".
Still, if there's a possibility that such measures can protect the public's auditory health (and save most of us from a perennial nuisance) it can surely be considered a worthy investment for the state?
Cars have a Volume Limit
Volume Limit
Volume Limit of cars
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This weekend marks the start of the Jewish New Year. As a part of our ongoing 'Know Your Neighbour' series, we have put together a short blog for you on what Rosh Hashanah is all about.
This festival is that which commemorates the Jewish New Year. This New Year, according to the Jewish calendar, will bring in the year 5776.
'Rosh Hashanah' literally means, "head of the year".
This Jewish New Year is timed according to the Jewish calendar, which is different from the one used by contemporary Western society, hence the festival doesn't take place in January.
The festival takes place on the first and second days of the Jewish month of Tishri which means that Rosh Hashanah takes place around the autumn period. This year, Rosh Hashanah starts at sunset of September 13th.
Why is Rosh Hashanah celebrated?
The festival celebrates the anniversary of the creation of the world. The scriptural passage which sees the origins of this festival can be found in Leviticus 23, vs. 24-25; "On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of sabbath rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts." For this reason, Rosh Hashanah is also known as the Feast of Trumpets.
Rosh Hashanah is the start of the 'Ten Days of Awe' which ends with The Day of Atonement, also known as 'Yom Kippur'.
Jews will spend this time in serious introspection. They will consider their sins from the previous year and repent before Yom Kippur. During this time it is important for Jews to seek forgiveness from those they have wronged before they can come to God and ask for forgiveness.
On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, Jews will visit the synagogue for an extended service which includes the unique blowing of the Rams horn (Shofar). It is the blowing of this horn that starts the Days of Awe.
After the service at the synagogue, a special meal is hosted at home which includes a special ritual of dipping apples in honey as a symbol of the 'sweet' year that lies ahead.
The Hebrew common greeting on Rosh Hashanah is "Shanah Tovah", which, in Hebrew, means "[have a] good year."
Another popular practice of the festival is Tashlikh ("casting off"). This sees Jews go to a river or large body of running water and cast of bits of bread as a symbol of casting of the sins of the past year, so as to start anew.
For a more musical version of the Rosh Hashanah story, see the below video.


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Ishmael Butler on the 10 Best Shabazz Palaces Songs
by Jeff Terich
Ishmael Butler has lived two different lives as an artist. In the early '90s he made two albums of groove- and jazz-sample-heavy records with Digable Planets. The New York trio only released two albums, but they did something unique with those two records, connecting hip-hop's present and future to the sounds and sentiments of the past, from Bobbi Humphrey to Bobby Seale, Eric Dolphy to Erikca Huggins. Even 25 years down the line, Blowout Comb still sounds both out of time and ahead of its time.
More than a decade after Digable Planets, Butler made a clandestine return to music under the pseudonym Palaceer Lazaro with a pair of short records as Shabazz Palaces. Their psychedelic, unconventional approach caught fire quickly, and Butler and his musical partner Tendai Maraire would end up signing with Sub Pop and releasing five full-length records. Each release has revealed a new shade of the duo's abstract approach, while retaining a certain level of otherworldly mystery, their commitment to progressive sounds making them one of the most consistently unpredictable groups of the past decade.
With Shabazz Palaces' fifth album The Don of Diamond Dreams newly released earlier this year, we got in touch with Butler to ask him about his 10 favorite Shabazz Palaces songs (which included two Digable Planets tracks, as well).
"They Come In Gold"
From Lese Majesty (2014; Sub Pop)
Ishmael Butler: I liked the way that song comes together. It's a song in two movements. They're really different from each other but they're based on the same chords and notes and stuff, but they sound a lot different. And I like the way the first part of the song transitions to the second part of the song. It's got a kind of smoothness to it. And that's really one of my favorite songs to perform live. It's really fun to perform, and it ends abruptly and the crowd usually has a good response to it.
"Forerunner Foray"
IB: That song, I picked because I felt it was one of the more infectious grooves that I've made, and also we come onstage to that song. It's dark and deep and funky and makes me want to move. It's got the arpeggiated keyboard lines, so it's kind of feathery. But the bassline and beat are kind of sinister. I just like that song, and the way Cat (Catherine Harris-White, a.k.a. SassyBlack) sings on it, and the musical breaks that come back, I think it's just a good construction.
Treble: It also features a Lightnin' Rod (Jalal Nurridin of Last Poets) sample at the beginning. What did you find appealing about that clip?
IB: Lightnin' Rod is my favorite vocalist, my favorite rapper. The greatest rapper of all time. When I grew up, my pop introduced me to Last Poets, and Jalal was always his favorite cat. I loved 'em all, but he was the one that spoke to me. I mean if you listen to that album that I got that from, The Hustlers' Convention, he kicks a whole story in that same style of phrasing. He does it over and over, in this story of these two hustlers… he's just my man. He's the most sort of influential human, really, other than people in my family. I've been sampling his stuff, Last Poets stuff, since Digable days really.
IB: On that song, I like that story that I tell. It's about one of my bros that I grew up with, and he took the route of dealing drugs and went to jail, but we still stayed tight throughout our lives. I walked my path and he walked his path, but during that time when I made that song, he was out living his good life, and that was just kind of dedicated to him. I was doing a mini-biography on him. Plus I like that beat. A directing team called TEAN did a cold video for that one, that was near and dear to my heart. So I have a lot of good feelings and memories with that song.
"Thanking the Girls"
From The Don of Diamond Dreams (2020; Sub Pop)
IB: I took a sample and just kind of morphed it, so it's very simple, but with some stuff over the top of it. It's basically really simple, but it has a weird and warm sound to it. Plus the subject matter, I like a lot, just talking about the ladies in my life. Girlfriends and stuff like that, you know you got people that you don't talk to or aren't around anymore, but you think about the way they affected you. And then my mom, and my daughters. Just talking about the ladies in my life that gave me a lot and taught me a lot. I had a lot of fun with it. It's an homage to them.
From Beyond the Spectrum: The Creamy Spy Chronicles (2005; Blue Note)
IB: That's the last Digable Planets song that was ever recorded. It was recorded at a time when I could tell that we were gonna go our own ways, and I started the group, and I had a lot of good times and good traveling and good memories with them, so I wanted to make a song with everybody and our crew, just showing love and respect and appreciation in the crew. So that was that song.
From Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star (2017; Sub Pop)
Treble: I'm happy to see you picked this one, it's probably my favorite.
IB: Nice! It almost was never born, man. I made that beat, and I sung that song, my plan was to get someone who could sing good, and just got my part down as a placeholder. And Erik Blood, who mixes the Shabazz records, we were just kind of going through shit, going through prospective stuff I was going to finish up. And I played that as an accident, and he said "what's that?!" He was like "you're putting that on, and it's staying the way it is." And I said, "for real?" And he said, "yeah, that's the one." So that's my man, and I listened to him. And now I like it a lot. It's probably our most popular song, actually. The one that we're most kind of known for, that got the most exposure in a way. It trips me out that, in my mind, I was so unattached to it. It made me wonder, "what else have I fucked up on?" (Laughs)
"An Echo from the hosts that profess infinitum"
From Black Up (2011; Sub Pop)
IB: I remember finding that sample, from a YouTube video of spiritual songs in India or Sri Lanka, and I put it in Ableton and did the Ableton stuff, stretching it and morphing it. And I replayed it and it sounded so otherworldly and eerie and divine. I loved the sound of that song, and the beat, and then when the beat drops and Tendai comes in and played the mbira. It's very strange, even though I played it and was a part of it. But when I listen to it, it's like "what is that?" I like strange, weird, wild things, and it remains weird even to myself. I like that feeling.
Treble: How often are you finding material to sample like that, just accidentally?
IB: Always, man. I'm always looking at YouTube, and I'll put in a search for, like, Somali music from the '60s, there will be all these live recordings or TV shows from Mogadishu, and I find all these sounds and put 'em in the sampler and play with 'em. So I'm always doing that.
"Kill White T…"
from Shabazz Palaces (2009; Self-released)
IB: That's from the first actual Shabazz recordings ever. I just dug that one because it's in 6/4, and most rap songs aren't in anything other than standard time. I played guitar and keyboard, and that's in my early days of learning how to do any of that stuff. I just liked that flow. I was at this girl's house, she's Ethiopian, and her sister just came back from Ethiopia and was playing this lick, and I had just started messing around on guitar at that time. So I remembered the lick but had no way of recording it or writing it down, so I just tried to recreate it.
Treble: When you began Shabazz Palaces, was it entirely experimental, or did you have a specific vision from the get-go?
IB: I had no vision. I had been out of the game for so long that I didn't think there was any place for me. Rap is such a young man's game, and I was in my thirties at the time, I thought it was over for me. But my passion had me making music at the house. So all those early SP releases are just home recordings. And that's when I met Tendai who started playing in the group with me, and he was like "this is cool, what are you doing with it?", and he got me thinking I should put it out. And I met Blood and we mixed it together, and that's when I started thinking conceptually about what it's about. So I just put it out in Seattle, take it to the mom and pop stores and they'd buy it and sell it, and I kept getting orders. And once they asked me for 80 of each record, I was just like "damn!" So I thought "OK, maybe I can do something in this world of rap." It was a special time, I did a lot of growing, and I'm still fortunate to be able to be vibing that way.
"Effeminance"
From Quazarz vs. the Jealous Machines (2017; Sub Pop)
IB: I made that song, I made the beat, and my cat Thaddeus—Thaddillac—he plays guitar on it. And I mixed it with my man Sunny Levine. I just like the sprawl of it. It's long and has some cool parts to it. I like the groove. It's another song about ladies. Very inspirational. I felt that vibe floating into it.
From Blowout Comb (1994; Pendulum)
IB: That's just my favorite song to perform. That bassline and that groove. No matter what band we have, no matter who's on drums, it's just always grooves. It's a song that's near and dear to my heart and my funk bone. I love it.
Photo by Patrick O'Brien-Smith
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Hip-hop Shabazz Palaces
Jeff Terich
Jeff Terich is the founder and editor of Treble. He's been writing about music for 20 years and has been published at American Songwriter, Bandcamp Daily, Reverb, Spin, Stereogum, uDiscoverMusic, VinylMePlease and some others that he's forgetting right now. He's still not tired of it.
Jeff Terich August 4, 2020
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Brock Lesnar: DeathClutch To Be Released Two Weeks From Today! How You Can Pre-Order The Book Right Now!
With UFC 131 Looming On The Horizon, UFC's Biggest Star's Autobiography Is Set To Send Shockwaves Through The Worlds of Mixed Martial Arts and Pro Wrestling!
Former UFC, WWE, and NCAA Division I Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar (the only man in history to accomplish all three, the only man in history to win both the UFC and the WWE Championships) is fighting Junior Dos Santos on June 11th at UFC 131, but you can expect to hear a lot more about Lesnar outside of the Number One Contender's Fight as well, since his book, DeathClutch, which he wrote with our own Hustler De Tuti Hustlers Paul Heyman, will be released May 24th, only two weeks from today.
The press release for the book, which is being released by prestigious publisher Harper Collins, states:
He is the biggest pay-per-view attraction in the world.
He is "the Baddest Dude on the Planet."
He is Brock Lesnar.
For countless fans of professional wrestling and mixed martial arts, Brock Lesnar has long been known for his freakish athleticism, mind-blowing speed, and meteoric rise to the top. Yet despite the fame and fortune that have come with his enormous success, Brock has shunned the media, choosing instead to remain intensely private about his life and his accomplishments.
Now, for the first time, he tells his remarkable story in his own words, describing the journey from his South Dakota farmboy roots to becoming the most popular pay-per-view attraction in the world. From the small-town amateur wrestling where he honed his skills to taking on The Rock at SummerSlam, Brock discusses how his natural athletic talent combined with the dark side of the wrestling business to make him the youngest-ever WWE World Champion.
Epic as it was, Brock's overnight rise to fame came with a price, as he saw firsthand the toll that life on the road and in the ring could take on a pro wrestler's body and mind. Weary of the punishing lifestyle and backstabbing politics, he chose to do the unthinkable: walk away from professional wrestling at the peak of his career and break all ties with the organization that made him a star on the global stage. It was a move that stunned WWE executives and fans alike, and one that Brock himself has never fully explained—until now.
Not one to stay quiet for long, Brock was soon back in the spotlight: this time in the UFC—home of the most dangerous mixed martial arts fighters in the world. Here he offers a behind-the-scenes look at his shocking decision to leave the wrestling entertainment business for a legitimate combat sport. From training to be a real fighter, to immediately being thrown into the Octagon against the UFC's best heavyweights, to the psychology behind his legendary trash-talking, Brock opens up about what it takes not only to succeed in the world's fastest-growing sport but to become the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World. He also speaks candidly about the illness that nearly killed him, how it changed him as a fighter and a man, and how it shaped his will to survive.
In the end, Brock holds nothing back. A revealing, raw, and ultimately redemptive tale of Brock's determination and domination, DeathClutch is the untold true story of becoming one of life's true champions.
To pre-order the book from Amazon, CLICK HERE!
IT'S TIME FOR AN ALL NEW EDITION OF THE HOLLYWOOD CHARLIE
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It was back in the day when I was living in New York. The BYU students were a couple blocks out of Harlem in Columbia's dorms. I was on the eighth floor on the side facing away from Riverside Park.
It was a normal night. I went to bed in my closet of a room and fell asleep. I was woken up at about 4 a.m. to the most horrifying sound in the world. (Sidenote: If you know anything about me, you know I am a professional sleeper and don't wake up for anything.) The sound I heard can only be described as a man getting hit it the knees with an aluminum bat, his body falling to the ground and then blood curdling screaming and yelling.
I have never been so scared in my life. I was on the eighth floor but I was sure whoever hit that dude with a bat was going to come upstairs and kill me. Luckily we had crazy security in our building. The screaming went on for a few minutes but it felt like forever.
Eventually the screaming stopped. So either the guy passed out from pain or left somehow.
The next morning I found out that it happened on the opposite side of the building from me on the edge of Riverside Park. Yet it sounded like the guy was screaming in my ear.
If you thought the fear stopped there, you're dead wrong. The next night, my friend Mike and I were watching House in his room as we did every night. We looked out his window overlooking Riverside Park and there were tons of police cars with their lights on. Then there were all these cops looking all through the park with flashlights.


The City of Mirrors is the last book of Cronin's Passage Trilogy and despite having a couple of things that usually drive me nuts I thought it was a fitting end to the series and I really enjoyed the story. Both this book and as a whole.
The trilogy tells the story of a virus unleashed on mankind that can turn people in "virals." Basically vampire like monsters. It's a whole let's wipe out humanity while trying to save it kind of thing. As a last ditch effort to contain the virus it's injected into a child called Amy NLN (no last name). The first book is much the quest to save Amy and survive the end. In the second book (The Twelve) many, many years later Amy meets the group of characters who become instrumental in her life and the quest to defeat the virals.
City of Mirrors picks up after an event in the end of that book that leaves the humans with a sense of relative safety. Are the monsters gone? They begin to start over for real. Only to find that the biggest showdown is waiting in the shadows.
All three of these books really reminded me of The Stand and, in some ways, A Song of Ice and Fire or even Lord of the Rings. Epic quests. Good versus evil. The grey characters. The good and the dark heart of man. Like a lot of post-apocalytpic literature (including the recently concluded 5th Wave series) the main question becomes- Is humanity even worth saving if we have to sacrifice what makes us human?
The City of Mirrors is a good character book in part because it goes so in-depth. I actually found myself falling back in with the characters fairly easily. I remembered them. I liked them and felt for them. Some of the characters you meet in the second book are now fighting for the lives of their grown children and grandchildren.
Amy and Alicia were especially standouts to me. If this ever gets made into a movie here are two great parts for actresses. They made me cry more than once in the book.
Possibly the whole trilogy could have used an editor in places. The first half of this one starts off slow but interesting. Makes you feel some sympathy for the head monster. Some. But in a book like this I'm always waiting for the action to get going and when it did, about the halfway point, it sailed through to the end.
Then again, speaking of the ending, it had about six of them and the last one was the longest and least necessary in my opinion. The only thing I liked about it was the inclusion of a picture that kind of wraps things up very nicely but that also makes me think they could have just used the picture.
On a personal note this story appeals to me because of its questions of mortality and the use of time. It's just something that's always fascinated me. Amy, like the other infected, does not have anything like a normal life span. We get a time jump of about two decades in this book (larger in other books) and while you get the impression it goes very fast for the humans others like Amy, Alicia and Carter seem absolutely stuck in an empty world or a nightmare depending on your mileage.
Would you want to live forever if it meant a life full of pain and misery? Could you do it? Would you be willing to trap yourself in the memory of what was especially if that's all that exists? The idea of time and people's desire to beat it is something that I find interesting so it made certain elements of the book more moving and appealing to me. Really following the characters through so much of their lives. They struggled to live and survive and at a certain point I just wanted almost all of them to be able to give up the ghost and find peace.
But I generally just digressed big time.
The City of Mirrors wrapped up very nicely overall. There were some bumps but I loved the characters and enjoyed the ride. It really should be a movie!
Recommend: Yes- especially of you are into stories like The Stand. They are big novels but they read very quickly for me.


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Canmore approves $1,000 fine for damaging a Town owned tree
Marie Conboy
More from Marie Conboy
Published on: April 8, 2019 | Last Updated: April 9, 2019 3:15 PM EDT
Council for the town of Canmore passed a motion enforcing heavy fines for damages to Town owned trees on April 2.
Council gave first, second, and third reading to the Tree Protection Bylaw amending the fine fees to cost $1,000 for damaging a Town owned tree.
Other fines for offenses listed in the bylaw include a $250 for planting a tree on public land, $250 for pruning a Town tree, a $250 fine for attaching an object to a Town tree, $250 for placing, applying or spraying a substance on or to a Town tree, $250 for removal of a tree protection barrier and $1,000 for removal of a Town tree.
Town of Canmore Parks Supervisor Lisa Guest, who presented to Council, explained that a Town owned tree is any tree which has any part of its trunk at the base on Town owned land.
"Trees on Canmore's public lands were valued at $250M in 2011. Until now, however, there has been no legislation to protect trees as valuable asset and developers and property owners have been able to remove public trees adjacent to their property with little recourse," said Guest.
"It is currently prohibited unless permitted to prune, plant a tree on a public place, remove to relocate a tree or attach holiday light or signs to trees. It is prohibited to damage or spray any substance on a Town owned tree. We are currently allowing slack-lines with the correct padding."
Mayor Borrowman asked why the fine for damaging a tree was so high at $1,000, and he raised a motion to reduce the penalty for damaging a tree to $500, that motion was defeated.
"There will not be a fine issued for a person breaking a branch when they hang Christmas tree lights, that is not the intent of this bylaw," said Town CEO Lisa de Soto. "We are not going to be driving around policing for Christmas tree lights, the intent here is to protect trees and create awareness."
"It's going to take some time and education for people to learn that they can't just hang Christmas trees where they like," added Borrowman.
"This Tree Protection Bylaw is intended to protect public trees from removal and damage, as well as provide a means to permit removal of trees when necessary. If you damage a tree, that could lead to its removal and that is why the fine cost is the same for damage of a tree as it is for removal," explained Guest.
"Many public trees are lost through the development process where public trees are located adjacent to lands proposed to be developed.
Public trees have been removed because of sight lines, site access during construction, or driveway installation. Each building or development application will now include identifying public trees on the site.
"A discussion will occur between administration and the developer to determine if the trees can be saved based on some site redesign. If this is not possible, the developer has the opportunity to pay an amount (as valued by an arborist) before the trees can be removed.The funds will be used for future planting or maintenance of trees on public lands. A similar process will be available for residents who wish to remove a dead, unhealthy, or hazardous tree," explained Guest.
According to the Town website the bylaw also includes a requirement to protect public trees during construction. A protective barrier must be constructed around the tree so the tree does not become damaged during construction.
This bylaw will not affect activities like tree thinning for FireSmart or wildlife attractant removal.
Community volunteers awarded for making huge contribution behind the scenes	 Battle of the Bands raise the roof


Lovely newborn bedding from the Stripes collection made of satin cotton..
Bedding with filling is a practical solution - we put the set in the washing machine to save the time. The flat cushion ensures safety from the first days of your baby's life.
The casual design fits perfectly with other Cotton & Sweets products and, of course, the whole Stripes collection.


Most people never have to look for a home improvement contractor; which is why it is especially difficult when homeowners begin working on a large scale remodeling project. The multibillion-dollar home-improvement market is segmented into small-scale DIY projects which are usually completed by the homeowner, and more complex projects requiring professional management.
Licensing and insurance requirements for home-improvement contractors differ from state to state. Local, city and state regulations for permits also vary around the country. Taking the time to study your project thoroughly will go a long way to guaranteeing a successful outcome. More complex projects require more thorough research.
Larger projects may require several different types of contractors on the job. General contractors are like project managers; they will recruit and manage various subcontractors. In many cases, they are ensuring that all building permits and inspections as well as construction milestones are scheduled.
They may work with architects, carpenters, plumbers and landscape contractors during the course of the project. Many of the established home-improvement contracting companies have a portfolio of subcontractors on hand for various projects. Home-improvement shows on television have helped to raise expectations for many consumers. When the time comes to look for a home-improvement contractor, collect the reference materials and the project outline and begin the search.
Written information may require a little more effort, but it goes a long way to ensuring clear communication between all parties. If there is a problem, everyone can refer to the documented information. Insist on getting all details from a contractor in writing as well. A paper trail is a good way to keep everyone honest.
A home improvement contractor should be able to provide samples relating to your type of project. There is usually the right contractor for all occasions. Take the time to find the right company for the project. The home improvement contractor should provide verified license and insurance information.
* How many similar projects have they done relating to the one you want to make?
* Do they have references and testimonials that can be verified?
* How many projects are they doing at once?
Simple home improvement projects may not need this much preparation but all things being relative; it is a good idea to prepare for the project based on the importance of the result. If you feel that the project important enough to accomplish, take the time to get the best home improvement contractors for it.
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America First Actually Means China First
"Rivals" are stepping into the vacuum created by Trump's isolationism.
By Dilip Hiro
President Donald Trump announces that the United States will withdraw from the landmark Paris climate agreement, June 1, 2017. (Reuters / Kevin Lamarque)
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com.
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In his State of the Union address, Donald Trump warned grimly of "rivals like China and Russia that challenge our interests, our economy, and our values." In response, he demanded that Congress give even more money to "our great military" and fund the growth and modernization of the US nuclear arsenal, making it "so strong and so powerful that it will deter any acts of aggression by any other nation or anyone else." And yet, in a near biblical performance in his first year in office, President Trump inadvertently rolled out a love-thy-enemy set of policies that only enhanced the roles of both of those challengers, favors never imagined by the Robert Mueller Russia investigation.
It's hardly surprising, then, that last October in Beijing in his speech to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party, Chinese President Xi Jinping displayed the sort of confidence that befits a true rising power on planet Earth. With remarkable chutzpah, he anointed his country the leading global force on contemporary political, economic, and environmental issues by declaring, "It is time for us to take center stage in the world and to make a greater contribution to humankind." With the unintended help of Donald Trump, he could indeed make it so.
Two months later in Washington, President Trump launched his National Security Strategy (NSS), an uninspired hodgepodge lacking in either vision or clarity. It did, however, return the United States to the Cold War era by identifying China and Russia as the two main challengers to its power, influence, and interests, though offering no serious thoughts about what to do on the subject (except dump more money into the Pentagon budget and the American nuclear arsenal).
In reality, many of Trump's actions, statements, and tweets in the months before the release of that document provided Beijing and Moscow with further opportunities to extend their influence and power.
On the eve of the anniversary of Trump's first year in office, for instance, a Gallup survey of 134 countries showed a startling drop—from 48 percent under Barack Obama to 30 percent under Trump—in global approval of Washington's role in the world. For a president who values records, that was an achievement: the worst figure since Gallup started recording them in 2007. China, on the other hand, surged to 31 percent and Russia to 27 percent. And that was before President Trump referred to various unnamed African nations as "shithole countries."
Here, then, is a list of favors that Donald Trump has done for America's latest challengers and how they have reacted on what, after almost two decades of a sole-superpower global order, is once again a planet with more than one world power.
Ditching the TPP
On his first day in the Oval Office, as he had promised in his election campaign, Trump abandoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. Its goal had been to tie 12 Pacific countries—Canada to Chile, Australia to Japan—into a complex web of trade rules that would cover approximately 40 percent of the global economy. Among them, tariffs would be lowered and rules established for resolving trade disputes, the granting of patents, and the protection of intellectual property. One obvious Asian power, however, wasn't included. because the TPP was meant, above all, to limit China's future economic clout in the region by permanently linking the United States to East Asia. The pact was, in other words, meant to be an economic bulwark against a rising China.
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President Obama had worked on the agreement for almost eight years, with House Speaker Paul Ryan and other congressional Republicans granting him fast-track authority to negotiate it. Still, he left office without submitting it for approval to Congress.
Trump's day-one act was, in fact, a triumph for China. As Michael Froman, the trade representative who negotiated the pact, put it, "After all this talk about being tough on China, for [Trump's] first action to basically hand the keys to China and say we're withdrawing from our leadership position in this region is geo-strategically damaging." Trump argued that he was protecting American workers against competition from low-wage countries like Vietnam and Malaysia that were included in the deal. But in so doing, he ignored the outstanding advantage of becoming part of a Pacific free-trade zone that excluded China, while offering the United States and Japan, which generate the globe's first- and third-highest gross domestic products, the clout that goes with such a zone.
Washington's Climate Change Leadership Abandoned
By pulling out of the 2015 Paris climate accord in June 2017, President Trump created another global leadership vacuum—soon to be filled both by French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese President Xi. In December 2017, on the second anniversary of the Paris climate accord and in coordination with the United Nations and the World Bank, Macron chaired a One Planet summit of more than 50 heads of state and government, as well as three mega-rich individual sponsors—Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, and Richard Branson—and assumed the leadership role ceded by Trump and his administration of climate-change deniers.
In opposition to Trump, eight American states, all invested in speeding up the use of electric vehicles, remained committed to the Paris Agreement. So, too, did a private-sector coalition called America's Pledge, which promised to honor the climate goals set in 2015. According to former New York mayor Bloomberg, that pledge group "now represents half of the US economy." In this way, Trump ceded leadership on what may be the single most crucial long-term issue for humanity to the French president and China's Xi.
At the meeting, Macron, the 39-year-old former investment banker, hailed the progress made so far and insisted that it was possible to create alternatives to a fossil-fuel-driven global economy by expediting the steps already taken even without the United States. He then proceeded to take a jab at the American president by awarding 18 climate scientists—most of them US-based—multimillion-euro grants to move to France for the rest of Trump's term; that is, to a country that valued their work.
Four weeks later, the French president and his wife, Brigitte, flew to Beijing where they were effusively welcomed by Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan. The Chinese president recalled that France had been the first Western power to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and that his country now stood ready to work closely with France to enhance cooperation not just on climate change but on China's expansive almost-trillion-dollar One Belt One Road initiative, an infrastructure and transportation project meant to link the vast Eurasian landmass in a great economic web whose heart would lie in Beijing. (These days, the only trillion-dollar "initiatives" out of Washington involve further building up its national-security state, the military, and the nuclear arsenal.) This was the sort of global project that once would have been a natural for the United States. No longer. Macron reacted enthusiastically, adding that "France would like to take an active part in the Belt and Road Initiative" since "the new roads cannot only go one way."
So from climate change to global economic integration, the United States was being left out in the cold. The way was now open for China—which as early as September 2013 had begun taking groundbreaking action to clean its highly polluted air, in part by cutting the country's massive industrial use of coal—as it pursued a global leadership role being ceded to it by the Trump administration.
China's One Belt One Road Initiative
By the time President Xi formally launched the One Belt One Road initiative (OBOR) in September 2013 along the centuries-old Silk Road that once connected Europe to China, the cargo-train service that linked Yiwu (a center for more than 70,000 wholesale suppliers and manufacturers southeast of Shanghai) to European destinations was already a year old. Its first test run to Duisburg, Germany, had taken place four years earlier. Traveling through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, Belgium, France, and Spain, those freight trains took 17 days to cover about 7,700 miles, cutting in half the cost of shipping by sea (which took twice as long) and by nine-tenths the cost of airfreight (which took just three days). As the new initiative develops, it is expected that, by 2020, more than 7.5 million containers will leave cities like Yiwu for European destinations.
In short, when it comes to the economic future, Washington is losing out to Beijing. In the future, according to Chinese plans, OBOR projects will link China, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central and Western Asia, parts of the Middle East and East Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe. It will involve the construction of oil and natural gas pipelines, highways, rail lines, deep-water ports, and power plants, among other things. Financing will significantly come from Chinese banks, joint-venture funds, and—another major Chinese initiative—the Asian International Investment Bank.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen encapsulated a widely held view when he commented that "other countries have lots of ideas but no money, but with China when it comes up with an idea, it also comes up with the money."
Last May, addressing a gathering of nearly 70 national leaders and heads of international organizations in Beijing, President Xi pledged $113 billion in extra funding for the initiative and urged countries across the globe to join hands with him on the project. "We have no intention to form a small group detrimental to stability," Xi said. "What we hope to create is a big family of harmonious coexistence." Though invited to that assembly, the United States and India stayed away. US Defense Secretary James Mattis caught the spirit of the American moment when he said, "In a globalized world there are many belts and roads, and no one nation should put itself in a position of dictating 'One Belt, One Road.'" But these days, the United States is offering neither belts nor roads to anyone.
According to The Economist, 86 percent of OBOR projects already underway use Chinese contractors, which allows China to employ the excess capacity it built up in steel and cement during its rapid-industrialization phase. Beijing has, for instance, committed $46 billion to a China-Pakistan Economic Corridor that will involve upgrades to pipelines and highways linking western China to Pakistan's deep-water port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea. Gwadar is less than 400 miles from the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial passageway for oil tankers. That means crude oil sent from Persian Gulf ports to China will soon begin arriving on Chinese soil by pipeline after a drastically curtailed sea journey, resulting in steep savings in time and expense.
Beijing's drive to have a footprint abroad and extend the OBOR concept beyond Eurasia, particularly to Africa, has been impressive. Between 1976 and 2016, for instance, China built five major railway lines in Africa, deploying 50,000 Chinese workers to complete the 1,150-mile Tanzania-Zambia Railway. Eight more rail projects are now underway.
At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Chinese officials even played up a potential OBOR project linked to a climate-change-influenced future—a "Polar Silk Road" that, according to The New York Times, "would link China to Europe and the Atlantic via a shipping route past the melting Arctic ice cap." In this context, Donald Trump's America First policies should be considered a truly "big league" bow to the rise of China.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East…
What about that other great power highlighted in the Trump National Security Strategy's return to the Cold War? Russia, a petro-state with an economy the size of Italy's, is no longer exactly the "evil empire" of the Soviet era. Still, Russian President Vladimir Putin has three strong cards in his hand: a rehabilitated, enlarged military backed by a robust defense industry; the second-highest oil output in the world at a time when oil prices are climbing; and the all-purpose Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation, which offers the nuclear industry's entire range of products and services, and runs all of Russia's 360 civilian and military nuclear facilities. Those assets are capped by Putin's 18 years in high office, which have enabled him to see the fruition of his policies in a way no American president could.
By using Russian forces to intervene in the Syrian civil war in September 2015, Putin helped turn the tide in favor of Syria's autocratic president, Bashar al-Assad. His alliance with Assad had three dimensions: Syria's historic links to the Soviet Union in the Cold War era; the Kremlin's desire to have a naval facility in the Mediterranean after the loss of such a port in Libya when Muammar Gaddafi fell in 2011; and his doctrine that any group that takes up arms against an internationally recognized government is a terrorist organization.
Having acquired a key, if brutal, role in the Syrian civil war, Putin proceeded to coopt not only Iran, a traditional ally of Syria, but also Turkey, a NATO member initially opposed to the Assad regime. Later, when Putin made a congratulatory call to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for aborting a July 2016 military coup attempt against his government, Erdogan agreed to join him in working toward a peace deal in the Syrian civil war.
Today, while the Trump administration's input in the Syrian crisis diminishes, the Kremlin's influence has become yet more dominant. Washington, which used its air power and 2,000 troops on the ground to support a Kurdish-led force of fighters in Syria against the militants of the Islamic State, now finds itself dangerously at odds with Ankara. An ardent Turkish nationalist, Erdogan considers irredentist, ethnic Kurds "terrorists" and recently sent his planes and tanks against some of them in northern Syria. Washington has been largely reduced to reacting to the Kremlin's moves in the region.
A confident Putin has been busy wooing other US allies in the region. In 2016, to shore up the price of a barrel of oil, which had dropped to a dismal $30, Saudi Arabia pressed other Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members to cut overall output. For such a strategy to succeed, however, non-OPEC oil producers needed to cooperate. Being the largest among them, Russia was the key player, and Putin, as eager as the Saudis to see prices rise, agreed. A year later, when those reductions were set to expire, Riyadh argued for their extension to December 2018. Again, Putin backed the move. As a result, prices are now in the $60 range.
Unsurprisingly, King Salman became the first reigning Saudi monarch to visit Moscow last October. While there, he signed 15 cooperation agreements covering oil, military affairs (including a $3 billion arms deal involving, among other things, the purchase of Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missiles), and even space exploration. By doing so, the Saudi monarch broke the monopoly the United States (and other Western nations) had on supplying advanced weaponry to the kingdom. Significantly, while insisting that any peace settlement in Syria should maintain that country's territorial integrity, he did not repeat his government's call for Assad to step down.
Before establishing a rapport with the Saudi monarch, Putin had also managed to attract the interest of Egypt, another long-standing ally of Washington and the recipient of more than a billion dollars in US military aid annually since 1987. In October 2016, more than 500 Russian and Egyptian paratroopers even took part in joint counterterrorism exercises in the desert near Alexandria.
The flirtation between the two countries, which started in 2014 when General Abdel Fattah al Sisi visited the Kremlin, gained momentum during Sisi's second trip to Moscow six months later after his being elected president. During the Trump presidency, it has only grown stronger. In 2017, Rosatom agreed to build Egypt's first nuclear-power plant in El Dabaa, 80 miles northwest of Cairo, which is scheduled to cost $21 billion. Eighty-five percent of that will be provided to the cash-strapped Egyptians by Rosatom, which can afford it, since its total orders last year, domestic and foreign, amounted to $300 billion.
And so it goes. Though powerful and wealthy, the United States looks ever more alone. Whether in its fruitless wars, in its remarkable focus on military power, in its dismantling of the State Department, in its urge to build walls of every kind and shut so many people out, in the president's insulting tweets, comments, and phone calls, even in the "Trump slump" in tourism, American isolationism—that well-worn phrase—is acquiring new meaning. While chanting his mantra of "America First," Donald Trump has so far followed policies that have only eased the way for the Chinese dragon to roar past Uncle Sam, with the Russian bear not far behind.
Dilip HiroDilip Hiro is the author of Sharing the Promised Land: A Tale of Israelis and Palestinians (Interlink), Between Marx and Muhammad: The Changing Face of Central Asia (HarperCollins), Neighbors, Not Friends: Iraq and Iran After the Gulf Wars (Routledge), War Without End: Rise of Islamist Terrorism and the Global Response (also Routledge), Iraq: In the Eye of the Storm (Nation Books), Secrets and Lies: Operation "Iraqi Freedom" and After, The Iranian Labyrinth: Journeys Through Theocratic Iran and its Furies, Blood of the Earth: The Battle for the World's Vanishing Oil Resources and, most recently, After Empire: The Birth of a Multipolar World (all Nation Books).
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jessicabridgeman / 26th January 2015
Arnold Schwarzenegger enters WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2015
All hail Arnold Schwarzenegger!
There's serious cause for celebration in the Schwarzenegger camp right now, as the actor gets set to join the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2015.
The Australian star has been recognised for his contributions to wrestling, joining Mike Tyson, Pete Rose and Donald Trump in the list of past celebrity inductees.
A long-time wrestling fan, Arnie has already appeared on WWE's Monday Night RAW and Smackdown events. He also inducted wrestling icon, Bruno Sammartino, into the Hall of Fame in 2013.
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text:
Freedom versus democracy
THE ONLY TIME I have left a court room with more respect for the law than I had going in was in a court in Hong Kong, when it was under British colonial rule.
The case involved a Chinese laborer accused of theft, an accusation with con-siderable circumstantial evidence behind it. This case was presided over by a crusty old British judge, of upper-class demeanor and wearing the traditional white wig. He kept both lawyers on a short leash and let the witnesses know too that he had no tolerance for nonsense.
It would be hard to find two individuals more different in background and status than the Chinese laborer on trial and the British judge in charge of the case. Yet race and class were not destiny, despite the current dogmas of our intelligentsias. What was clear from the outset was that the judge was determined to see that this man got a fair trial -- no more and no less. In the end, the laborer was acquitted.
One need only look around the world today, much less back through the pages of history, to see how rare and precious something as basic as a fair trial has been. Whether or how long such trials will exist in Hong Kong under the Communists is another question, and a very painful one.
Meanwhile, too many Western journalists continue to play the game of moral equivalence: There was no democracy in Hong Kong under the British, they say, and there is no democracy there now. Some hark back to the evils of 19th century imperialism that led to Britains acquiring Hong Kong in the first place. There seems to be much less interest in 20th century totalitarianism in China that sent so many refugees fleeing to Hong Kong, among other places.
Democracy and freedom are too often confounded. Britain itself did not have anything close to democracy until the Reform Act of 1832. But it had freedom long before that.
The fundamentals of freedom -- limited government, separation of powers, an independent judiciary, free speech, jury trials -- existed in Britain for many generations before the franchise was extended to most males. The whole spirit, and many of the phrases, of the Constitution of the United States derive from British law and government.
Just as freedom can exist without democracy, so democracy can crush freedom. During the Reconstruction era after the Civil War, blacks in the South had many rights that they lost when the occupying Union army was withdrawn and democratically elected state governments took over, ushering in the Jim Crow era.
Today, the confusion between freedom and democracy leads far too many Americans, including those in high places, to seek to spread democracy around the world -- in complete disregard of the circumstances of the particular countries. In some respects, we may be more dangerous to our friends than to our enemies, when we pressure them to set up at least the trappings of democracy.
Both freedom and democracy have prerequisites. When those prerequisites do not exist, democracy especially can be a house of cards.
Whether in Eastern Europe and the Balkans between the two World Wars or in Africa in the postwar era, many newly created democratic governments collapsed into authoritarianism or worse. It is much easier to imitate the outward institutional forms of Western democracy than to synthesize the centuries of traditions that make those institutions work.
Our insistence on at least a charade of democracy is dangerous in another way -- to ourselves. Relations among nations, especially among the great powers, are not matters of personal friendship or international social work. Their primary goal is, or should be, the safety of the American people in a world that has always been dangerous, long before the Cold War came and went.
We cannot go around the world acting like a common scold, however good that makes us feel or however well it plays politically at home.
Nuclear proliferation is far more important than human rights pronouncements -- and how much cooperation we get in trying to deal with dangerous threats like this may depend on how much political capital we have squandered by insulting other countries whose help we need.
The British were very wise to have given Hong Kong freedom. But they may also have been wise in not attempting to experiment with democracy, where the traditions needed for it simply did not exist.
Dr. Thomas Sowell is an economist and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution in Stanford, Calif.


Biomedical studies. Biological decontamination. Polyelectrolytes, elastomers, pollutants removal, nanoparticles. Theoretical / Computational Methods in Solids Processing with Lasers.
Our scientific activities involve the use of two electron linear accelerators, ALIN10 and ALID7 built at INFLPR. These are research facilities of national importance due to their unique capability of producing electron beams with energy up to 7 MeV. The goal of our research is to discover techniques and technologies based on the use of electron beams for the development of strategic areas of the national economy. Applications are in environmental protection, chemical processing, materials processing, medicine and food security. These two facilities are also available for external users who are interested in their own research projects or in collaborations with our laboratory. The linacs are authorized by our national regulatory nuclear agency CNCAN.
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