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This one sits on a double executive lot. An artificial creek snakes around the yard. Flashes of yellow and orange spotted koi pass beneath our feet as we approach from the brick walkway. The house is split-level with two wings, a custom pool with cascading waterfall, billiard room, media room, workout room, steam room, six-car garage, state-of-the-art workshop, custom built-in bar, loft for quiet relaxation, hurricane shutters, large views of the golf course – and two bedrooms above the garage sequestered for the help.
In 2011, Nutrilite brand of vitamins and dietary supplements led Amway's sales, totaling almost $4.7 billion.[41] According to Euromonitor International, in 2014, Nutrilite was the world's No. 1 selling vitamins and dietary supplements brand.[35] In 2015, it was reported that according to Euromonitor International, Amway was the largest vitamin and dietary supplement vendor in China, with 11% of a market that generated 100 billion yuan ($15.6 billion) in annual sales.[46] In 2015, it was reported that according to China Confidential consumer brands survey, Amway Nutrilite was the most popular vitamin and dietary supplement brand in China.[47]
I think of my family's time in Amway as achievement tourism. We left reality for a moment and believed the impossible was possible. My dad still wonders if there's more he could have done, if there's a way for him to have succeeded in Amway – admitting in the next breath that there isn't. My parents tried everything. At each turn, the people they thought were supposed to be helping them – their upline, yes, but really the overall structure of the Amway Corporation itself – actually stood in their way. They built dreams and worked to achieve them, but the only people who benefited from their work were the people already on top.
When I told my parents about the business, they were immediately skeptical, but since my dad is a salesman he was supportive. The next week I was in the middle of teaching and got a phone call from the girl. She claimed that she had gotten a "last minute ticket" to their Thursday night meeting. She tried to describe how exclusive it is and basically hinted how honored I should feel to be invited. Unfortunately, it was so last minute we just couldn't do it. We were too tired after a long day at work. The following Thursday we went to the meeting. It was the strangest experience, and it was WAY too long. We didn't get home till 11 o'clock, and my husband had to be at work by 7:15. We were exhausted. Every few days we were having to meet for training with our mentors as well as watching videos and listening to CDs. They make sure to consume your life with a little bit of positive Amway, so you don't listen to the negative Amway. Guys, this literally can be described as a brainwashing method.
At the time, it seemed like a dead end for a neophyte political candidate. In reality, it was the opening of a new avenue the DeVoses followed to far greater political influence, reshaping Michigan politics and the national Republican scene. "I think that loss really solidified the idea in the DeVoses' minds that the real way to get what you want is to be behind the scenes," says Susan Demas, publisher of Inside Michigan Politics.
We follow her up the stairs. There are two large bedrooms separated by a bathroom and a linen closet – the children's rooms. I step into the one on my left, which is smaller than I expected. It has wood floors and a closet with sliding mirror doors. Out the window, the neighboring house is less than ten feet away, and the space between is filled with broad-leafed palm trees. I hear the faint twang of the radio on the pool deck, playing 'Sweet Home Alabama.'
This Lady is terribly misinformed… As a Amway IBO we give you plenty of chance to say no and ways out of this. People will always bad mouth things that they don't understand you know why because its easier tosay something negative than to take the time out of your day to find out what your really talking about and here is just some food for thought. I started this business a few years back and just listened and did what they asked me too. Because of it i was Able to bring my wife home. Successful people will away do what unsuccessful people aren't willing to do.
By the 30th level, the entire population of the earth will be in the system and the last 3 billion people who just entered the system into the 30th level have nobody else to refer. If each member is allowed to refer 6 friends, then the entire world population will be covered by the time it reaches 13th level itself (as illustrated in the chart below). Everybody they try to approach is already a member. The forerunners would have made huge amount of money by now and would go absconding, leading into a fraud.
The eighth annual Amway Global Entrepreneurship Report (AGER), published today, measures the state of entrepreneurship worldwide. The 2018 study finds that more U.S. respondents (57 percent) have the desire to start their own business compared to global respondents (49 percent). While the desire to become an entrepreneur in the U.S. is down slightly from the previous year (61 percent), there is a strong sense of continued optimism among respondents. Age, gender and education levels also can potentially impact attitudes towards entrepreneurship. Most surprisingly, in the U.S., the education gap is significantly shrinking when it comes to desirability of starting a business. The report explains that having a university degree does not play a significant role in shaping entrepreneurial spirit – those with and without university degrees exhibited similar sentiments.
Amway is not for everyone. But then again, there is no "job" out there that is for everyone. Education guarantees nothing anymore, even if you have a 4.0 gpa. There is no such thing as job security anymore. But like all other businesses, like marriages, there is a high failure rate. That is the risk of all ventures... failure. But with MLM, you only fail when you quit. MLM is not a scam. Amway is not a scam.
If there's one law of physics that defined how Michigan politics moved in the 1990s, it's that Governor John Engler was a master of the state Legislature. His political acumen—honed over a 20-year run in the Legislature, during which the 22-year-old boy wonder grew into his sturdy tree-stump physique and Ben Franklin hairline—was legendary even before he won a stunning upset in the 1990 governor's race.
We're back in the central area. From an adjacent room comes the sound of a television and we make our way toward it. The room is ruby-carpeted with red-and-gray-striped wallpaper, three tapered wall lamps, and a giant projection screen angled downward. A man faces away from us in a floral upholstered recliner. He pauses the television when we come in.
The compensation plan is called a "stairstep breakaway," which calls for business rep to efficiently rebuild a leg once it has actually reached exactly what's called Platinum status (7500 factors). Generally, legs break short when they qualify as well as the payments develop into 4 % aristocracies instead of commissioned payments. I asked a former Amway emerald when just what it was like having his initial leg break-off and his reply was: "it's terrible, you truly recognize the best ways to ask unpleasant concerns do not you." He took place to clarify his compensations stopped by at least 80 % when they developed into "nobilities." It should be kept in mind that the royalties technically vanish if the quantity in the leg drops below 7500 factors, so it's not actually a "long-term" aristocracy unless you maintain your quantity.
Lmao i like how these amway fanboys are calling people that have real jobs broke lol 99% fail rate.. Dont use that excuse that people don't put in the work, I can put in 100% effort to sell dogshit, but I wont make anything cuz its still dogshit. You are ignoring the 99% fail rate and apparently ignoring the 100% success rate if you get a real job. I heard someone saying you aren't bound to the 9-5 chains in amway . As a Real business owner and many real business owners know that in owning a Real business u wish u had that 9-5 and thats it. Owning a real business is 24/7. So pull ur heads out of ur asses
A lot of people join (Amway.com) and other MLM business opportunities believing it will be easy and it's their ticket to "get rich quick", but the truth is it's totally the opposite. Like any real business, you will have to work your butt off for a long period of time before you get results. Keep this in mind that Amway is a 2 to 3 year plan and you will have to follow that plan by prospecting, going to major functions (Home parties and larger events that take place) and by attending your team's weekly meeting.
Why are these amshit people coming here if they are taught to succeed and if they are already gaining success with scamway? Why are these shitters coming here. U know why? Coz they are already depressed and dont want any new guys googling about amway to know that amway is shit. These "amshit joined guys" want to manipulate you new guys to think that amway is not a bad thing to do. These people want you to think positive about amway so the the billion dollar business gets fueled with new fools and make profits annually so that this business never stops. NO DOUBT AMWAY PRODUCTS ARE GREAT. but this product is just an upper layer on the underlying clever business cult.
Sociologist David G. Bromley calls Amway a "quasi-religious corporation" having sectarian characteristics.[95][96] Bromley and Anson Shupe view Amway as preaching the gospel of prosperity.[97] Patralekha Bhattacharya and Krishna Kumar Mehta, of the consulting firm Thinkalytics, LLC, reasoned that although some critics have referred to organizations such as Amway as "cults" and have speculated that they engage in "mind control", there are other explanations that could account for the behavior of distributors. Namely, continued involvement of distributors despite minimal economic return may result from social satisfaction compensating for diminished economic satisfaction.[98]
Another reward of the Gomez family's success was flexibility. Vicky credits their involvement with Amway for enabling the couple to be present in their kids' lives, while instilling the importance of working hard and giving back. Their example has influenced the next generation, inspiring their eldest son, Adam Jr., to found a nonprofit organization called The Road to Help, which provides blankets to the homeless in the Los Angeles area.
The details of the agreement were finalized on December 22, 2006. In the agreement, the City of Orlando will take ownership of the new arena, while the Magic will control the planning and construction of the facility so long as contracting procedures are done in the same public manner as governments advertise contracts. In addition, the City will be paid a part of naming rights and corporate suite sales, a share estimated to be worth $1.75 million the first year of the arena's opening. The Magic will receive all proceeds from ticket sales for Magic games, while the City will receive all proceeds from ticket sales to all other events.[12] The Orlando Magic will contribute at least $50 million in cash up-front, pick up any cost overruns, and pay rent of $1 million per year for 30 years. The City of Orlando will pay for the land and infrastructure. The remaining money will come from bonds which will be paid off by part of the Orange County, Florida, Tourist Development Tax, collected as a surcharge on hotel stays, which was raised to 6% in 2006. The Magic will guarantee $100 million of these bonds.
Inspite of it, several new schemes have again mushroomed and they try to target freshers from the software industry by tempting them to spend Rs 5-10K, which is a relatively lesser amount compared to GoldQuest (Rs 35K). So, the next time a friend comes to you and says "Dude, I am working on a part time business for additional income" and talks about such Multi Level Marketing schemes, explain these concepts to him on a piece of paper and advise him also to stay away from such schemes. Losing money is bad, losing friendship is worse and being part of a fraudulent system is the worst..
One of my best friends (whom I've known since the 3rd grade) has become a Amway IBO. He and I are very close, however we have different interests. He invited me over one night to participate in a meeting and I agreed. After the 2 hour long meeting, I knew that this was a scam to make money off of him. I tried to tell him and convince him that Amway will just make money off of his hopefulness by selling him hope (making him buy motivational tapes). No doubt I love the guy, but damn his pride. He's a very committed guy and great at whatever he chooses to do.
In 1999 the founders of the Amway corporation established a new holding company, named Alticor, and launched three new companies: a sister (and separate) Internet-focused company named Quixtar, Access Business Group, and Pyxis Innovations. Pyxis, later replaced by Fulton Innovation, pursued research and development and Access Business Group handled manufacturing and logistics for Amway, Quixtar, and third-party clients.[26]
Occasionally, though, it can be useful to mention poverty in a certain context. Inspired by the personal and business philosophies of DeVos and Van Andel, Cross spent the ten years after writing Commitment to Excellence researching the two men, culminating in his 1995 self-help book Choices with Clout: How to Make Things Happen – by Making the Right Decisions Every Day of Your Life. Much of the book is compiled from interviews with the Amway founders and top-level distributors. In a passage about excellence, Van Andel outlines the proper way for an Amway distributor to rationalize the issue of poverty:
Josh felt that duplication worked in the other direction as well. If he emulated the multi-multi-millionaires ("multi-multi's" for short) above him—and did exactly what they said they had done—he would succeed as they had. In his mind, his interests were already merged with theirs. He would boast of their accomplishments, tell me how their bonuses just kept "getting better and better all the time!" For him, of course, bigger bonuses for uplines simply meant a more powerful drain on his income. But that kind of self-defeating "stinking thinking" missed the point, as far as Josh was concerned. By "visualizing" great wealth, by worshiping great wealth, and by imitating the consuming habits of the great and wealthy, he would somehow obtain great wealth.
"We learned that two Dateline producers had registered as IBOs and for months had been conducting undercover research for the story, which included using a hidden camera to videotape meetings and conversations with IBOs. The producers did not identify themselves as working for Dateline, instead feigning interest in building a business powered by Quixtar."
"The worst thing that happened was the 'list.' My parents are both members of a nonreligious spiritual organization, and they volunteered to keep the other members up to speed regarding upcoming events and meetings. So, they had an extensive list, with hundreds of names and phone numbers. I had asked my mother for that list, and she understandably said no. A while later, having exhausted my personal list, I went behind her back, made a copy of her list, and started cold calling them. When my mother found out, she was furious. This led to a huge fight, and soon after I left home and went to live with my grandmother. More than a year passed before I spoke again with my parents or sisters."
In this, Dick and Betsy DeVos' familial roots serve as an object example. Dick is the eldest son of Richard DeVos, who co-founded Amway in 1959, and grew it from a meager soap factory into a multinational colossus with $9.5 billion in annual sales, enlisting his children to manage and expand the company. Betsy hails from a dynasty of her own. In 1965, her father, Edgar Prince, founded a small manufacturing company that came to be worth more than $1 billion on the strength of Prince's automotive innovations, which include the pull-down sun visor with a built-in light-up vanity mirror.
The company is said to have been violating the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act. More specifically, Pinckney and the two other directors were arrested in connection with a case filed by a certain Visalakshi of Kozhikode. She claimed to have incurred losses of Rs 3 lakh in trying to sell the products of Amway through its multi-level marketing network.
Amway combines direct selling with a multi-level marketing strategy. Amway distributors, referred to as "independent business owners" (IBOs), may market products directly to potential customers and may also sponsor and mentor other people to become IBOs. IBOs may earn income both from the retail markup on any products they sell personally, plus a performance bonus based on the sales volume they and their downline (IBOs they have sponsored) have generated.[3] People may also register as IBOs to buy products at discounted prices. Harvard Business School, which described Amway as "one of the most profitable direct selling companies in the world", noted that Amway founders Van Andel and DeVos "accomplished their success through the use of an elaborate pyramid-like distribution system in which independent distributors of Amway products received a percentage of the merchandise they sold and also a percentage of the merchandise sold by recruited distributors".[68]
Amway is a multibillion dollar company that uses "multilevel marketing techniques" to sell cosmetics and household products. They have really aggressive recruitment techniques and cult-like practices. They're super shady and sued on a pretty regular basis, but still manage to trick new people into the fold! You can read more about the company here. If you want to hear more creepy personal stories about other people, like my friend's roommate, who has been tricked into Amway, there are some good ones here and you can always Google "Amway is a cult".
Inside the Amway Center, everything is new from the front row to the rafters. Bigger seats. Better sight lines. More amenities on every level of the building. Concourses are spacious, offering unique concessions and activities for kids and adults alike. The Club Restaurant and the Ozone Bar overlook the event floor, and children enjoy spending time in the kid-oriented fun zone and retail store on the upper concourse. Technologically, Amway Center is one of the most advanced ever built, highlighted by the main scoreboard – the largest of its kind in the NBA. Measuring approximately 42 feet high and weighing in at more than 40 tons, its four primary video displays will be able to show high definition imagery in 4.4 trillion shades of color. Altogether, it's unlike any arena ever built. It's a world-class experience unlike anything Central Florida has ever seen.
The 12-step shtick was a ready justification for the cult-like regimen of World Wide followers. Like alcoholics, wage junkies had to attend frequent meetings, supplemented with books and tapes, to keep on track; they had to dissociate themselves from bad influences, i.e. "broke" friends and relatives who would try to keep them down; they had to follow "Eight Core Steps" (four of which involved buying stuff from either Amway or World Wide Dreambuilders); and they had to let go of their ego and overcome their fear of change, to open themselves to the counseling of their upline "sponsors." Sponsoring, as in Alcoholics Anonymous, was an act of love and healing. Your uplines would never mislead you, even if their wisdom might seem strange to your still job-addled mind.
When a friend first presented the Amway business to Gomez, she admittedly wasn't excited. "I was newly married, working three jobs and going to school," she said. "I don't do anything halfway, and so didn't believe I had the time to devote to something new." But when her husband, Adam, weighed the start-up cost against the potential to make additional money each month, she decided to come on board.
They are very similar to Amazon. I would want them to lower their prices even more because I noticed that the prices started to increase and in order for me to remain a customer prices have to be fair. However, my overall experience with this website is very good because their delivery is very quick and easy and I will continue to use it if it stays that way. The service is really good also.
The lack of government prosecutions, along with sophisticated PR spin and misleading income data have given MLM schemes an aura of legitimacy, heightening their ability to fool consumers and the media as well. Gradually, though, the truth about how MLMs have escaped regulation is coming to light. The answer is plain and simple: MLMs bought influence in Washington and in some state legislatures with campaign contributions and high pressure lobbying.
Amway and its founders have long had deep ties to the Washington D.C., and particularly the Republican Party. The current House basically has a minor Amway caucus with five former distributors and Amway has been one of the largest donors to the Republican Party since the early 1990s. DeVos's son, Dick, ran for governor of Michigan in 2006 and his wife, Betsy, is currently the Secretary of Education in the first Trump administration. She has speculated that the DeVos family has donated around $200 million to Republican candidates.
Engler was opposed to the idea—the timing was off. "I was pretty certain that it was premature to go to the ballot in 2000," Engler says, "because if you're going to go to the ballot, you want to win." The DeVoses had counted on his support, and when it didn't materialize, things soured. ("[John Engler] would have a hard time being a first mate even on the largest ship in the world," Betsy DeVos later wrote. "I think he'd sooner be captain of a smaller boat than the first mate on a much bigger ship.")
Amway North America (formerly known as Quixtar North America) is an American worldwide multi-level marketing (MLM) company, founded 1959 in Ada, Michigan, United States. It is privately owned by the families of Richard DeVos and Jay Van Andel through Alticor which is the holding company for businesses including Amway, Amway Global, Fulton Innovation, Amway Hotel Corporation, Hatteras Yachts, and manufacturing and logistics company Access Business Group.[1] After the launch of Amway Global (originally operating under the name Quixtar), it replaced the Amway business in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, with the Amway business continuing to operate in other countries around the world. On May 1, 2009, Quixtar made the name change to Amway Global and fused the various different entities of the parent company.[2][needs update]
On April 3, 2010 it was reported that Fitch Rating Agency had downgraded the bonds used to finance the new arena to "junk" status and further warned the arena's debt holders that in as soon as 30 months the new Amway Center could be faced with a default unless finances are corrected. The city and county were quick to assure local media that in no way would Fitch's downgrade delay construction and that all necessary funds were on hand to complete the center. However, because of the Fitch downgrade, the interest rate on the debt payments would increase the "payoff" cost of the Amway Center over time and the Orlando Sentinel pointed out that it would be harder to seek lending for the other phases of the project such as the "$425 million Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts and the $175 million renovation of the Florida Citrus Bowl stadium." [17]
I work in the car business. Most people in the US can't reasonably afford the vehicles they drive. People are getting more and more upside down in cars. Terms are getting longer, down payments smaller, most trades have negative equity and inflation is increasing the cost of cars while wages aren't rising proportionately. I have money but I avoid paying bills or interest. I could pay cash for a lot of new cars today but I drive a 2000 year model family sedan I payed $1900 for. I have good ac, comfortable seats, it's reliable, I have aftermarket Bluetooth, it's all power etc, good stereo and a very low cost of ownership. I pay less than $40/month for insurance.New cars just aren't the best investment. New cars are rapidly depreciating status symbols. I'm well off but don't care to advertise it. If you have so much money that you can afford it go for it but the truth is that most people can't afford what they have. I'm not just talking about poor people with new Sentras or Rios but mostly middle class people. If they make $24,000 they buy a $20,000 car, if they make $48,000 they buy a $40,000 car and if they make $80,000 they buy two $50,000 vehicles.
Products have flaws sometimes, please let me rephrase; people have problems with products and you will never have the perfect product that will suit everyone's needs. You will have to deal with product issues and returns, obviously, a happy customer will give you a happy business, and it does require some skill and stress control to keep people happy.
What schools teach our children today?? What did YOU lear out of school? may be how to get a loan for 40 years and work on 2 job places for rest of your life to cover your loan of your house. Question! Would you be able to work? Whether you have two jobs to cover your loan? Or you house simply would be taken by bank or debts company because you not able to cover your loan, but remember that loan have to be paid out , but you wont have a house any more, rented flat may be...with all your debts. And what about family, do you want to see your kids growing or see them when they are already in the bed sleeping, because you come back home late, because you got two jobs.
In the 1979 ruling In re. Amway Corp., the Federal Trade Commission determined that Quixtar predecessor Amway was not an illegal pyramid scheme because no payments were made for recruitment. In addition, Amway (and later Quixtar) rules required distributors to sell to at least 10 retail customers per month, or have $100 in product sales, or a total of 50 PV from customer purchases in order to qualify for bonuses on downline volume. Quixtar IBOs are required to report this customer volume on Quixtar.com or they do not receive bonuses on downline volume. Furthermore, an IBO must also personally sell or use at least 70% of the products personally purchased each month.[10] The FTC established that these rules help prevent inventory loading and other potential abuses of the marketing model.
William Keep, dean of the College of New Jersey's School of Business, and a pyramid scheme critic, told Bloomberg earlier this year that "in terms of sending clear signals to the industry, the F.T.C. has done worse than nothing since 1979. It sends confusing signals that have in no way helped us understand how to identify a multilevel marketing company that may be a pyramid scheme."
Dick DeVos, on stage with his wife, echoed her sentiments with a lament of his own. "The church—which ought to be, in our view, far more central to the life of the community—has been displaced by the public school," Dick DeVos said. "We just can think of no better way to rebuild our families and our communities than to have that circle of church and school and family much more tightly focused and built on a consistent worldview."
I HAVE ALWAYS WONDERED HOW A NETWORK MARKETING COMPANY SUCH AS AMWAY COULD BE ACCUSED OF BEING A PYRAMID SCHEME. I'M A PLATINUM IN THE BUSINESS AND ONE OF MY DOWNLINES JUST QUALIFIED SAPHIRE(HIGHER LEVEL THAN ME /COMPENSATION A LOT HIGHER) 2 MONTHS AGO. SHE DID THIS BECAUSE SHE WORKED HARDER THAN ME. IN THIS BUSINESS YOU GET WHAT YOU PUT INTO IT. END OF STORY. BUT I HAVE REALIZED THAT ONLY PEOPLE WITH BALLS CAN DO THIS BUSINESS. THE MEDIOCRE WILL NOT THRIVE IN THIS BUSINESS. AMWAY GIVES PEOPLE HOPE. AND ANYONE WITH COMMON SENSE KNOWS THIS IS THE BEST NETWORK MARKETING COMPANY.
Entering the poll for the first time this season is Texas A&M, which is 2-1 with first-year coach Jimbo Fisher following a 48-10 win over Louisiana-Monroe. Can the Aggies stay ranked, though? A road trip to Alabama is next on the schedule. Also, UCF jumped Boise State essentially by not playing North Carolina in Week 3 due to Hurricane Florence. Meanwhile, the Broncos plummeted from No. 17 to No. 24 after a 44-21 loss to Oklahoma State. That puts the Knights as the highest-ranked Group of Five team.
When it came to designing the architecture required for its IoT platform, Amway used AWS Professional Services to help it create a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline to automate delivery of platform software updates. The pipeline picks up source code changes from a repository, builds and packages the application, and then pushes the new update through a series of stages, running integration tests to ensure all features are intact and backward-compatible in each stage.
There is some movement in the top 10, as a pair of teams, Wisconsin and Auburn, each lost at home. Georgia still has a pair of upcoming opponents in the top 25, with Auburn dropping to No. 11 and LSU moving up to No. 6 after beating Auburn 22-21 at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Georgia will face LSU in Baton Rouge, La. on Oct. 13 and will host Auburn in Athens, Ga. on Nov. 10. Here is the rest of the top 25:
Amway has been in business for more than fifty years, and they seem to pay to their IBOs according to their compensation plan. Besides, they appear to have a positive online reputation. The customers are amazed with their customer service that involves pleasant and polite people who are always there to resolve any problem you might have. It is extremely easy to sign up and make an order. This professional and big American company offers a huge selection of useful products and a lot of benefits. The purchases usually arrive very fast and feature high quality. These include products from nutrition to bath, beauty and home.
Even so, among the DeVoses' skeptics, there are those who strike a hopeful, if cautious, tone. "I think Mrs. DeVos could potentially be a really good secretary of education if she allowed parents and school districts to make policy at the local level," says Daniel Quinn, executive director of the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice, a nonprofit that receives a portion of its funding from the National Education Association. "But at the same time, I'm concerned."
Others Receiving Votes: Kentucky 98; Duke 55; South Florida 45; Colorado 41; South Carolina 40; Iowa 36; Washington State 35; Brigham Young 30; Missouri 21; NC State 19; Appalachian State 13; Syracuse 11; California 11; Utah 10; Cincinnati 10; Texas 9; North Texas 5; Troy 4; Minnesota 3; San Diego State 3; Florida 3; Arizona State 3; Houston 2; Tennessee 2; Arkansas State 2; Vanderbilt 2; Fresno State 1.
Prices for signing up as an Amway IBO depend on the Business Kit you select. IBO Literature Kit costs $62. It includes a detailed guide to help you start your business, training programs, brochures and information about the company's bonus programs. The cost of IBO Product Kit is $83.99. It includes everything found in the Welcome Kit, as well as full-size products ($150 worth) for you to try. If you are not satisfied with your business opportunity, you can ask for a 100% refund within 90 days of purchase. To do this, you will need to contact customer service by calling at 800-253-6500 or writing to customer.service@amway.com.
You can use Amway as a consumer who enjoys its perfect products. What customers like most of all about this company is the convenience it offers. They provide a wide variety of products of the highest quality. Their shipping is always on time. The design of the website makes it easy to find the products you need. The products come in packages of specific sizes. You are allowed to bundle certain items together and get a discount. They offer many different options and combinations. The majority of users appreciate their experience of shopping from the company. Checking out is very easy and the experience is usually hassle free and enjoyable. The clients of Amway are happy that the site allows them to buy beauty, health, and home care products in an easy way. It also offers multi-level marketing which helps to create a relationship between a seller and a buyer. The service is user friendly, the website is easy to navigate and customers appear to be satisfied with their overall experience. The company offers a wide product selection to choose from. The buying process is direct and streamlined, while the customer service is impeccable too. Let's take a look at the real testimonials of the company's buyers and sellers.
We had a fireplace, a poolside grill, and a river-rock deck with closing screens. We had an island counter. We had walls covered with mirrors. To get to my parents' master bathroom, I passed through a dressing area connected to a walk-in closet. The bedroom next to mine was expressly for guests; the one at the end of the hall became a study. One of two living rooms seemed intended only for show, and the planter inside the front door housed pots of plants – silk, they never wilted. The bathroom off the family room had an outside door and a shower for people coming in from the pool. We bought new furniture, new rugs, new artwork. I had never felt more proud.
Sometimes we brought along a camera and took pictures of one another walking around the houses. We saw two or three in a day and then took the film to be developed. Back in our three-bedroom, we looked at the photos together, then stored them in fresh albums. In the photos, we wore the same outfits while the houses around us changed. We were the proud owners of three beautiful homes, the photos said – or this was one big home. One monstrous behemoth of a home comprised of three mansions smashed together.
The successful ones? You mean those that are already on the top of the pyramid? 99% of IBOs lose money. The average income is only around $150 a month, IF that, and I believe I'm overstating. I almost fell for this trap back in the early spring. Buying almost $300 of overpriced stuff just for $9 back...? I don't think so! That's not a profit or even savings. That's a complete loss
At first I thought the products were useful and worth it, but after more purchases and comparison shopping I was very disappointed in the value and quality of the products they sell. Products are overpriced and of questionable quality. I was roped into buying these from "friends" that are now former friends and was involved in several arguments with them over the value of the products that are easier and cheaper to get at Walmart's. Very frustrating. Not only did we pay too much for products we had to wait for to get delivery, we lost two of our closest friends who valued their profits more than our friendship.
In making the correct make-versus-buy decisions on ingredients, as well as the decisions of where goods should be made, Dr. Calvert singled out his engineering group and trade groups for praise. "Analytics! One way we win is because of the strength of this function." Their core engineering group does very detailed analyses with quick turnarounds surrounding these decisions.
Scott confidently reprised decades' worth of conservative alarmism, invoking inflation and national debt and other flat-earth bugbears in a doomsday routine as charmingly archaic as it was fatuous. An accurate narrative of the last few decades—growing productivity, GDP, and per-capita income, accompanied by a massive upward redistribution of wealth—would hardly have packed the millennial portent Scott was looking for. The Second Wave, like Communism, like all the works of man, was destined to decay and collapse, making way for the coming entrepreneurial kingdom—which, for those who lacked faith or zeal, would bring a day of reckoning. Were we ready? To prove he "wasn't making this crazy stuff up," he littered the floor with copies of Fortune, Money, and Forbes, citing the relevant disaster stories. I felt like I was back at ENTERPRISE 2020.


New Dealer, New Duo Glide! — Koll Guitar Co.
New Dealer, New Duo Glide!
We're pleased to welcome the amazing TR Crandall Guitars in NYC to our list of Koll dealers! We love this shop. And they're kicking things off with this new Koll Duo Glide featuring triple Curtis Novak silver foils and an iced tea burst finish.
Fresh off Saul's workbench, this guitar has a chambered mahogany body, maple top with "primitive" stamped F-hole, mahogany neck, rosewood fretboard, a Bigsby B-5 and a Schroeder tune-o-matic. It's got the DNA of some of our favorite '60s Harmony and Silvertone guitars, but with the highest quality materials and incredible playability. This is the first time we've used Novak silver foils, and they sound as good as they look. New Yorkers, get over to Crandall's and play this one!


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Bussum Zuid is a railway station located in Bussum, Netherlands. It is located approximately 25 km southeast of Amsterdam. It is on the Amsterdam - Hilversum - Amersfoort main line. The station was opened at 22 May 1966. The station is double tracked and has 2 platforms with many trains passing through, with 4 trains stopping per hour.

Train services
The following train services call at Bussum Zuid:
2x per hour local service (sprinter) The Hague - Leiden - Hoofddorp - Schiphol - Duivendrecht - Hilversum - Utrecht
2x per hour local service (sprinter) Hoofddorp - Amsterdam - Hilversum - Amersfoort Vathorst

Bus service
The station is served by one bus service.

External links
NS website
Dutch Public Transport journey planner

Railway stations in North Holland
Railway stations opened in 1966
Buildings and structures in Gooise Meren

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Have a look at images, documents and other SHOT Show 2019 files we have uploaded for you. Click here to get to our SHOT Show Media Center right away!
The shooter using Norma powder can safely trust that loading data, pressure, velocity and accuracy are maintained at the same high level from lot to lot. A flexible range of powders offers the handloader many opportunities to load the best possible cartridges in any calibre choice.
Our fastest-burning propellant is suitable for smaller cartridges, such as the 222 Remington. It can also be used to shoot lightweight, low velocity bullets in medium calibres such as the 308 Win.
This is very suitable for calibres with small case volume in relation to the bore size, such as 9,3x57 and 45-70. It's also the right choice for shooting lightweight bullets in medium-sized cases such as the 30-06.
Specially developed to provide maximum performance in the 308 Winchester, 202 is a very useful powder for cases with medium capacity compared to calibre, such as the 8x57, 9,3x62 and 9,3x74R.
Specifications for 203B differ slightly from the previous 203 powder. It is flexible, and is useful from 22-250 to 358 Norma Mag. It is very suitable for 6 mm Norma BR and 308 Winchester loaded with heavier bullets.
A high-energy, mid-range propellant, URP is an excellent choice for medium-sized cartridges such as 7x64 and 30-06.
A slow-burning propellant, 204 provides good performance and quite good accuracy in calibres such as 6,5x55 and 30-06.
A very flexible magnum powder, MRP is suitable for calibres with relatively large case volume in relation to the calibre. It has been well-known for many years as a high performance powder in all magnum calibres.
This powder is slightly slower than the discontinued MRP2. It was developed for the 30-378 Weatherby from start. Matches the 338 Norma Mag and 338 Lapua Mag perfect with heavy bullets. It is also a good candidate for almost every overbore cartridge like 7 Rem Mag, STW, Ultra Mags etc. Like the URP it contains a lot of energy and is less sensitive to temperature and moisture than most other powders.


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Vous êtes ici : Trend Tablet » grandpa
FASHION STATEMENT
Grandpa Design photo by Andris Zombori
Annamari Nagy, the founder and creator at GRANDPA menswear, launched her Autumn/Winter 2016 collection to a receptive Hungarian audience immediately after her Master program diploma from Mod'art International, Paris.
Born and raised in Kisvárda, Hungary, Annamari is inspired by the male figures in her family – an older brother, charismatic father and legendary grandfather – influential people that form the base of her collections. "I grew up in a male dominated family." she explains the roots of her design aesthetic.
Annamari's collection is based on a strong emotional connection to her close familiar community, threaded through time and generations. The traditional techniques of hand-knitting and crocheting, combined with modern, minimal shapes and volumes add to the idea of tradition passed from one generation to another. Her clothes manage to create the feeling of wearing our parents' or grandparents' clothes, carrying warm memories from the past.
Grandpa's latest collection, presented on the 6th of April 2016, was inspired by the noise, colors, energies and surreal dimensions of her father's garage shop. All the patterns, shapes and volumes reflect to the workwear of a garage, adapting oversized pockets, exaggerated sleeves and collars, or even trousers.
The photos and styling really caught my attention, especially the combination of a mature gentleman wearing work gear. Your first two collections were also "manual labor", with humour and elegance in both; are you planning to continue this theme?
Yes, I am absolutely sticking with the workwear theme. I am really enjoying it.
Your collection has wider appeal than it's affectionate brandname.
The brand is definitely not age-specific. It is for those men who can look fantastic everyday, because they require no particular effort. It is for men who are true to themselves.
What are the future plans for the brand?
I would very much like to bring the collection to Paris, hopefully already in SS17.
Where else abroad you would like introduce your designs?
In a Scandinavian country. I am very attracted to their environment, their attitude to life, and how strong their design philosophy is.
What kind of future collaborations interest you?
I like slightly unconventional pairings, like music & clothes. I think it could be interesting to compose music and design clothes in synergy according to the same theme.
Panni Davidhazi
grandpa.design
photo: Andris Zombori
assistant: Sára Tóth
model: Sam Scott Schiavo & Lóránt Nagy
47b85611bce0d2b3df6c276ec609264eiiiii

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Hilton Alexandria Old Town
1767 King St | Alexandria, VA 22314-2720 [SEE MAP]Alexandria, VA [SEE ADDRESS]
#3 in Best Alexandria, VA Hotels
Courtesy of Hilton Alexandria Old Town
at the Hilton Alexandria Old Town
Travelers love the hotel's location in Alexandria and convenient access to public transportation to get to Washington, D.C.
Past visitors warn of poor service and the expensive self-parking fee
The big city can often feel overwhelming to travelers, especially those who are used to hanging their hat in a small town. But at the Hilton Alexandria Old Town, you can get the best of both worlds. Recent guests loved its peaceful location in the heart of Old Town Alexandria and appreciated that Washington, D.C., is just a short metro ride away. Guests also praise the Hilton's comfortable rooms, which are equipped with Hilton's signature Serenity bedding, 55-inch HDTVs and high-speed Wi-Fi access (for a fee). Past visitors also compliment the fitness center and the hotel's breakfast options. When your stomach starts to rumble, head to KingStreet Tavern, where American comfort classics are served alongside a variety of beers and wines. The biggest drawback, according to previous travelers, is the hefty $36 per night parking fee. If you're a member of the Hilton Honors rewards program, you can accrue or redeem points by choosing to stay here.
Traditional, Modern
Business travelers, Couples, Families
in Best Alexandria, VA Hotels
in Best Virginia Hotels
in Hilton Hotels & Resorts
in Hilton Worldwide Hotels
See all hotels in Alexandria, VA »
Wyndham Old Town Alexandria
Hampton Inn Alexandria-Old Town/King St. Metro
Embassy Suites Hotel Alexandria Old Town
The 252-room Hilton Alexandria Old Town is an upscale chain property with above-average style, an impressive restaurant, and a great location in the heart of charming Old Town Alexandria. The rates are competitive for the area (and significantly less than in D.C.), but daily parking and Wi-Fi fees can add up fast.
This full-service hotel is set in the Old Town area, opposite the train and metro stations. It's an easy walk to restaurants and shops.
A hotel's guest rating is calculated using data provided under license by TripAdvisor. A total of 1702 have reviewed the Hilton Alexandria Old Town, giving it a rating of 4.5, on a scale of 1-5.
Standard guest rooms at the Hilton Alexandria Old Town feature are decorated in soft neutral colors and feature Hilton Serenity Beds, 55-inch flat-screen TVs, work desks with ergonomic chairs and minifridges. There are also a few Wellness Rooms that have improved air quality thanks to in-room air filters. Meanwhile, all suites include standard amenities, plus separate living rooms with an additional TV.
In-room Wi-Fi costs $12 per day; free for Hilton Honors rewards members
Sofa beds available in select accommodations
The Hilton Alexandria Old Town is located at the top of Alexandria's historic neighborhood. Surrounded by brick-paved streets and historic sites, the hotel offers modern conveniences in a colonial setting. There are many shops, restaurants and cafes within walking distance.
King Street metro station (Blue and Yellow lines) and Amtrak train station located across the street
The King Street Trolley offers free rides down King Street and stops nearby Old Town's historic sites
Water taxi at the Potomac River (about 1 mile east of property) offers service to Georgetown
Located 4 miles south of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport; about 32 miles southeast of Dulles International Airport
The hotel features KingStreet Tavern, which serves American pub classics and a variety of beers and wines throughout the day. A full-service Starbucks is also available in the hotel's lobby. Select booking packages include daily breakfast.
Room service available between 6 a.m and 11 p.m.
KingStreet Tavern open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Cuisine Types: American
The Hilton Alexandria Old Town offers family-friendly amenities, including childrens menus and high chairs. The hotel also offers family packages.
See more family-friendly hotels in Alexandria, VA »
The Hilton Alexandria Old Town has an on-site fitness center with Nautilus weight machines, free weights and cardio machines. Medicine and exercise balls are also available.
See more fitness hotels in Alexandria, VA »
This Hilton outpost is equipped to host business meetings and events for up to 500 attendees. There are three meeting rooms, as well a 3,800-square-foot ballroom and an outdoor courtyard. On-site catering and audiovisual equipment rentals can be arranged through the property's event planners, and a business center is available for printing, photo copying and faxing services.
Meeting packages offered
Personalized group web pages can be made before any on-site event
See more business hotels in Alexandria, VA »
The Hilton Alexandria Old Town has 13,000 square feet of function space available to host wedding ceremonies, receptions and events. The largest space, the Grand Ballroom, can host wedding receptions for up to 500 attendees or banquets for up to 270 guests. In the warmer months, the hotel's outdoor courtyard can also be used for weddings. The on-site wedding specialist can help couples plan catering services and seating arrangements.
Wedding packages offered
Maximum wedding guest capacity: 270
See more wedding hotels in Alexandria, VA »


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Indian Railway Finance Corporation Limited Initial Public Offering Bid
Indian Railway Finance Corporation Limited Initial Public Offering Bid/ Issue Period to open on Monday, January 18, 2021
• Price Band fixed at Rs. 25 to Rs. 26 per equity share of face value of Rs. 10 each
• Bid/ Issue Period to remain open from Monday, January 18, 2021 to Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Mumbai, Wednesday, 13th January, 2021: Indian Railway Finance Corporation Limited (the "Company'), the dedicated market borrowing arm of the Indian Railways, will open the Bid/ Issue Period in relation to its initial public offering of equity shares of face value of Rs. 10 each ("Equity Shares" and such initial public offering, the "Issue") on Monday, January 18, 2021. The Bid/ Issue Period will close on Wednesday, January 20, 2021. The price band of the Issue has been fixed at Rs 25 to Rs 26 per Equity Share.
Initial Public Offering of up to 1,782,069,000 Equity Shares of face value of Rs. 10 each. The initial public offering comprises of a fresh issue of up to 1,188,046,000 Equity Shares ("Fresh Issue") and an offer for sale of up to 594,023,000 Equity Shares by the President of India, acting through the Ministry of Railways ("Selling Shareholder") ("Offer For Sale"). The issue includes a reservation aggregating to Rs. 5.00 million for subscription by eligible employees (as defined herein) ("Employee Reservation Portion"). The issue less employee reservation portion is referred to as the Net Issue. The issue and the net issue will constitute up to 13.64% and [ ]% respectively, of the post issue paid-up equity share capital of the company.
Bids can be made for a minimum of 575 Equity Shares and in multiples of 575 Equity Shares thereafter.
The Issue is being made in terms of Rule 19(2)(b) of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules, 1957, as amended ("SCRR"), read with Regulation 31 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018, as amended ("SEBI ICDR Regulations"). In accordance with Regulation 6(1) of the SEBI ICDR Regulations, the Issue is being made through the Book Building Process wherein not more than 50% of the Net Issue shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to Qualified Institutional Buyers ("QIBs") ("QIB Portion"), provided that the Company and the Selling Shareholder, in consultation with the BRLMs, may allocate up to 60% of the QIB Portion to Anchor Investors on a discretionary basis in accordance with the SEBI ICDR Regulations ("Anchor Investor Portion"), of which one-third shall be reserved for domestic Mutual Funds, subject to valid Bids being received from domestic Mutual Funds at or above the Anchor Investor Allocation Price. In the event of undersubscription or non-allocation in the Anchor Investor Portion, the balance Equity Shares shall be added to the Net QIB Portion. Further 5% of the Net QIB Portion shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to Mutual Funds only and the remainder of the Net QIB Portion shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to all QIB Bidders including Mutual Funds, subject to valid Bids being received at or above the Issue Price. However, if the aggregate demand from Mutual Funds is less than 5% of the Net QIB Portion, the balance Equity Shares available for allocation in the Mutual Fund Portion will be added to the remaining Net QIB Portion for proportionate allocation to QIBs.
Further, not less than 15% of the Net Issue shall be available for allocation on a proportionate basis to Non-Institutional Bidders and not less than 35% of the Net Issue shall be available for allocation to Retail Individual Bidders in accordance with the SEBI ICDR Regulations, subject to valid Bids being received at or above the Issue Price. Further, [●] Equity Shares shall be reserved for allocation on a proportionate basis to Eligible Employees bidding under the Employee Reservation Portion, subject to valid bids being received at or above the Issue Price. All potential Bidders (except Anchor Investors) shall mandatorily participate in the Issue through an Application Supported by Blocked Amount ("ASBA") process by providing details of the bank account which will be blocked by the Self Certified Syndicate Banks ("SCSBs"). Anchor Investors are not permitted to participate in the Issue through the ASBA process.
The Net Proceeds from the Fresh Issue are proposed to be utilised for (i) augmenting the equity capital base of the Company to meet their future capital requirements arising out of growth in their business; and for (ii) general corporate purposes.
The Equity Shares offered in the Issue are proposed to be listed at BSE Limited ("BSE") and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited ("NSE", together with BSE, the "Stock Exchanges").
DAM Capital Advisors Limited (formerly known as IDFC Securities Limited), HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) Private Limited, ICICI Securities Limited and SBI Capital Markets Limited are the Book Running Lead Managers to the Issue.
All capitalized terms used herein and not specifically defined shall have the same meaning as ascribed to them in the Red Herring Prospectus ("RHP").
Indian Railway Finance Corporation Limited is proposing, subject to applicable statutory and regulatory requirements, receipt of requisite approvals, market conditions and other considerations, to undertake an initial public offer of its Equity Shares and has filed the RHP with the Registrar of Companies, National Capital Territory of Delhi and Haryana at New Delhi. The RHP will be available on the websites of SEBI, BSE and NSE at www.sebi.gov.in, www.bseindia.com and www.nseindia.com, respectively, and on the websites of the BRLMs i.e. DAM Capital Advisors Limited, HSBC Securities and Capital Markets (India) Private Limited, ICICI Securities Limited and SBI Capital Markets Limited at www.damcapital.in https://www.business.hsbc.co.in/engb/in/generic/ipo-open-offer-and-buyback, www.icicisecurities.com and www.sbicaps.com, respectively. Potential investors should note that investment in equity shares involves a high degree of risk and for details relating to such risk, see the section titled "Risk Factors" on page 24 of the RHP. Potential investors should not rely on the DRHP filed with SEBI for making any investment decision.
The Equity Shares have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended ("Securities Act") or any other applicable law of the United States and, unless so registered, may not be offered or sold within the United States, except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws. Accordingly, the Equity Shares are being offered and sold (i) within the United States only to persons reasonably believed to be "qualified institutional buyers" (as defined in Rule 144A and referred to in the RHP as "U.S. QIBs". For the avoidance of doubt, the term "U.S. QIBs" does not refer to a category of institutional investor defined under applicable Indian regulations and referred to in the RHP as "QIBs") in transactions exempt from, or not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act, and (ii) outside the United States in offshore transactions in reliance on Regulation S and pursuant to the applicable laws of the jurisdictions where those offers and sales are made. There will be no public offering in the United States.
யூடியூப் சேனல்களில் ஆபாசமாக அருவருக்கத்தக்க வகையில் பதிவான வீடியோக்களை நீக்க சென்னை...
தமிழகத்தில் 22 மாவட்டங்களில் அடுத்த 3 மணி நேரத்திற்கு மிதமான மழை பெய்ய வாய்ப்பு...
Trump renominates Indian-American law professor to civil...
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காவிரி வழக்கு இன்று விசாரணைக்கு வருகிறது
தமிழகத்துக்கும், கர்நாடகத்துக்கும் இடையே நீண்ட காலமாக காவிரி நீரை பகிர்ந்து கொள்வது...
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The Bartram Trail Conference was established in 1976 as part of America's Bicentennial observance to locate and mark the route of the pioneering Philadelphia naturalist William Bartram (1739-1823) through eight southern states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Historic Bartram Gardens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the home of the Bartram family, is the origin and termination of William Bartram's historic travels. The Conference works to promote interest in developing public access recreational trails (hiking, canoeing, biking and horseback riding) and botanical gardens within the corridor of Bartram's route through in the individual states and to coordinate a regionally unified effort toward that end. The Bartram Trail Conference employs a "string of pearls" concept by highlighting significant natural areas and culturally significant locations along Bartram's route. The Bartram Trail Conference has erected highway markers and provided information on the Bartram heritage at a variety of federal, state and private locations across the southeast.
Additionally, the Conference works to encourage the study, preservation and interpretation of the William Bartram heritage. The conference hosts a biennial meeting of members at an appropriate location along the Bartram trail corridor as well as other activities. Membership is open to the public.
Who belongs?
The Bartram Trail Conference is composed of a diverse group of people with far-reaching interests. Our membership includes hikers, nature lovers, gardeners, historians, archaeologists, literary and scientific scholars, botanists, biologists, birders, environmentalists, members of historical and gardening organizations, and those with a commitment to historic and environmental education and preservation. Membership is $25 per year for individuals. Membership fees are used to support educational and outreach activities and to partially offset the cost of conferences, our newsletter and this web site.
The Bartram Trail Conference is a not-for-profit corporation registered in the state of Georgia. The officers and members of the Board of Directors for 2019–2021 are:
President: Sam Carr, Palatka, FL
Vice President: Dorinda Dallmeyer, Athens, GA
Secretary: Michel Deshotels, Baton Rouge, LA
Treasurer: Ken & Janice Mahaffey, Palatka, FL
Newsletter Editor: Dorinda Dallmeyer, Athens, GA
Web Master & Newsletter Publisher: Brad Sanders, Athens, GA
Historical Marker Coordinator: T. R. Henderson, Columbia, FL
Board: Kathryn Braund (AL), Dean Campbell (FL), Matt Jennings (GA), Brad Sanders (GA), TR Henderson (AL)


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Big Bluestem Blog
Big Bluestem is a hardy, perennial, warm-season grass. I'm hardy, perennial and I like to write...but I'm not a grass. Flash Fiction and Theology make up the blend here...it's kind of like a mixed-grass prairie.
The photo you see below is of a Marion 8750 dragline used by the Falkirk Mining Company to remove "overburden" (top layers of soil). The strip mining operation is pretty standard for what you see in much of western North Dakota. This particular mine is about fifty miles north of Bismarck, North Dakota's state capitol. It is an incredibly large machine.
I had the opportunity once to see the inside of it while it was operating. That was an awe-inspiring experience. The body housing of the machine is three times as big as a standard, two story house. Once you are inside, the experience of the machine turning one way to the other is disorienting. It's like a big office building on roller skates spinning around. It spins as the boom moves from left to right to tear away at the soil.
When you get to the operator's chamber, a person can see through a plate glass window to the huge bucket that is suspended over the prairie by long, thick cables. The boom seems to thrust out for several football-fields length, but it probably is only seventy or eighty yards out. (The sheer, mammoth proportions tend to distort how far everything is away.)
I remember my words I spit out when I saw the dragline operator, working his little joystick back and forth and felt, saw, and heard hundreds of tons of prairie soil removed in one fell swoop: "If that doesn't give you a god complex, I don't know what would..."
The State of North Dakota likes its strip mines. They provide many jobs that otherwise wouldn't be in North Dakota. The mine's operations, therefore, are a main player in the state's big game of politics.
All that coal is burnt up in power plants to feed our nation's demand for more and more juice. The mine digs it up; they burn it; you turn on your light. Simple.
But, wait a minute! After the mines dig up the coal, what happens to all that dirt that's stripped away? Does it just lay around in piles?
This is how the mines used to do it all the time. In fact, there are some piles out there that are still laying around from mining prior to 1977 in North Dakota. They are big piles of infertile earth with weeds all over them.
But now, because of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, strip mines are required to reclaim the land they have torn apart to put it back into production. In essence, it's about putting the land back the way they found it. (At least in theory, it doesn't really work out that way.) This is the process called reclamation.
You can see an article of this whole process here (Falkirk Land Reclamation).
Well aren't those mines just the greatest thing since Fleischkeuchle came in little plastic bags!?
Hold on now...
One of the things that I have always found interesting is how self-congratulatory Falkirk mine is with its land reclamation.
Several years ago I went on a tour of the mine. It was a special tour that wasn't looking at the whole operation, but at the aspects of reclamation. As the bus glided across the mine's private roads, the guide on the microphone in the front explained the wonderful native grass and wildlife communities the mine was re-establishing. An average tourist, not knowing the history behind the mining laws, would think that the mine itself came up with these great ideas. When, in fact, it was the "wacko" environmentalists of the 70s who forced the mines through legislation and regulation who were the authors of these fine plans.
What we have to remember about corporations is they are not individual human beings with moral directives.
Corporations are neither moral nor amoral. Nor are they like your greedy little brother Nicky or your stingy Uncle Jack. They are different entities entirely. Their purpose for existence is to make money. Period.
So Falkirk mine, or any other mine, would NEVER choose to reclaim land unless they were forced to do so. Because it is a lot cheaper to dig the coal out of the ground and leave all the piles around to be somebody else's problem.
However, since the mine has to go through all that inconvenient--and expensive--process of separating all the soil out and putting it back, they might as well run tour buses through and tell about what great land stewards they are. It is only good public relations to do so (which makes investors feel a little better about themselves--and makes their pocketbooks a little looser, too).
'Sic semper tyrannus' means 'thus shall tyrants always be' in Latin. It is an acknowledgment that tyrants shall always be a certain way; it's no good trying to change the way that they are.
Big corporations are here, and they are here to stay. Any denial of this fact is wistful tomfoolery.
If enlightened, ecology-minded individuals are going to try to change corporations' practices that are wasteful, polluting and lack stewardship, they first must accede to the fact corporations are not individuals like you and me. Corporations are not people that a person can convince to be right for right's sake.
Instead, if individuals want to change large corporations' practices, political activism and legislative support are paramount.
In North Dakota, one such organization is Dakota Resource Council (www.drcinfo.com). Good, ethical people seek to work with like-minded organizations to lobby support to make change happen.
No one says that this is a perfect system. But if you want things to happen, "you gotta put a little muscle behind it."
That's the way tyrants are kept in check.
Posted by D.D. Maurer at 9:44 PM 8 comments: Links to this post
Variety is More than Spice
It's been a long time coming, but I have to admit that it's true.
Diversity is a good thing.
Once in my college years I completed a business intership in a nursing home. As an intern, I was included in the daily staff meetings that the administration would have. Often, different employees would give presentations to teach us all about some new aspect of nursing home management. One day, one of the other interns passed out little plastic baggies with various nicknacks and baubles contained in them. The different items were supposed to be a teaching tool for the employees to embrace diversity in the workplace. Eye rolling and gagging gesticulations could not express strongly enough my disdain for such a display of overt political correctness.
I have changed my tune--almost completely. The political correctness still makes my eyes roll.
Diversity is actually a strengthening agent and something to be celebrated, not despised.
The problem is, much of the diversity that is out there is either seen as something subversive and damaging to the whole, or it is overlooked for wider brushstrokes on the canvas of life.
That's the problem with the Great Plains.
People view the Great Plains as "flyover states" between one coast and the other. (Cheryl Unruh has a wonderful site devoted to this very topic right here:http://www.flyoverpeople.net ). The dismissal of the Plains as only worth a small footnote in our culture is almost universally pandemic. Those of us who live here have a problem, too: we don't acknowledge and taut the rich mosaic of diversity and life that resides in and with the plains.
When you think of diversity, you generally don't come up with an "empty" grassland as the best example. We like big, action-packed things. We don't like seemingly static, empty things--even if they are full of infinite variety and diversity.
Take the dirt of the Great Plains.
The greatest resource that the Great Plains has is not its wind potential (although this is wonderful, too). It is not its hard working people or its rich cultural diversity from the first peoples who persevered in this place. It is something that is foundational to every other life system on the planet: the soil.
Soil filters water. Its nutrients allow plants to grow and root systems to mesh life together. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of different chemicals and elements contained within it. The animals and people eat the plants that grow on it. They die and the nutrient cycle continues ad infinitum.
Aldo Leopold had a wonderful metaphor in 'A Sand County Almanac'. The "Round River" that flowed in a neverending circle was tended by Paul Bunyan in the folk tales of these parts. Although physics deny the literal existence of such a river, figuritively it makes a good discription of soil. The soil never runs out of stuff that makes it live and thrive! But only if the other things that are connected to that soil are healthy and thriving, too.
When a person thrusts a hand into the sod of the prairie, and rips out the top layer of soil, it is a piece of the collective life that resides there. If you put your nose up to the life in your hands and breathe deeply in, you will smell the sweet-pithy bouquet of diverse life that is there. It's more than the sum of the parts that make the whole. It is the whole itself. The soil IS alive! It's alive!
If you do the same in your front-yard monoculture of Kentucky Bluegrass, you will smell a combination of various chemicals and a slightly off, water-soaked cardboard smell. That's soil that has life in it, but it is not diverse, healthy life.
The person who taught me this is a farmer-rancher from Turtle Lake, North Dakota. Gene Goven got started a few decades ago trying to figure out how to get more cows in a parcel of land to feed on the grass without destroying the forage that was there. What he found was far more than he had planned for.
As it turns out, by mimicking the grazing patterns of Bison by the use of "cells" within different paddocks, and moving the cattle around to grind the carbon life back into the soil, the soil responds with more microbial diversity and more plant varieties. This, in turn, allows more tonnage of feed to be produced. That translates to sustainable larger herd sizes, which drives more carbon back into the soil. So the cycle of life and the sequestration of carbon creates one huge conglomerate of a life form called soil.
Gene also found out that the healthy, diverse soil was filtering water much better than the unhealty soils.
One season the Northern Plains got a proverbial "gully gusher" of a rain storm. Gene complained that all his neighbors stock ponds had filled up so quickly and their cows were all drinking already. His ponds, however, were still dry a day after the rain. (It had been a dry, hot year). Eventually, his ponds did fill up. The water, it turns out, was being filtered and used by the plants in the healthy, diverse soil. The diverse, healthy soil was 'catching more water where it fell.'
For an great read about diversity and Gene's system of rotational grazing go here: http://www.holisticmanagement.org/
Interestingly, farmers are finding that diversity is healthier for the soil, too. If you came to the plains eighty years ago, you would see the process of desertification gaining a foothold. The dust bowl happened for a reason: people didn't know the soil and its needs--that it needed diversity.
Now, many farmers (at least the ones who want to stay in business) are turning to so-called no-till farming. No-till seeks to allow residual matter on top of the soil over the winter to hold the soil in place. Instead of turning the dirt over with a plow in the spring, the farmers drill the seed directly into the stubble. The residue holds more water in place and keeps the soil from blowing into the next state. In addition to more diverse rotations and cropping, farmers have found their yields to increase four or five fold on a what a particular piece of ground would produce in the 20s and 30s. Diversity in farming has increased profits, benefitted wildlife and water retention, and just overall makes a lot more sense than turning everything over every year.
The interesting relationship between diversity and health with other life systems is uncanny. For instance: What happens when a society yearns to create a so-called pure, racially "superior" monoculture in a human nation?
You get a nightmare.
It is a twisted thing to think of Nazism as comparible to a whole field of leafy spurge on the prairie (a non-native invader destroying range land), but this is a fair comparison. Both the plant community and the Nazi society are choking the life out of their foundations. (The ironic thing about the Nazis is that even their high holy Fuehrer wasn't exactly the epitome of health, beauty and vigor to begin with.)
The prairie can teach America to claim her rich asset and empowering strength. Diversity and variety in human societies are as strengthening and healthy as thousands of different species of microbes, insects, grazers, grasses, legumes, forbs and sedges that the good Lord spreads like a mat across the land to the Rockies. We should think twice when we seek to continually change others to our way of thinking and acting.
Their differences, rather than a chink the armor or a weak link we despise, just might be enriching the whole in ways of which we never conceived.
Feeling SAD?
One of the most difficult things that I have had to adjust to moving to the northern plains is the amount of daylight we receive in the winter months. After having grown up in Minnesota in the 1970s, I remember getting on the bus to go to school in the dark. But the sun was usually peaking through the clouds; dawn was well on its way when we reached school. This must have been about eight o'clock in the morning or so. The situation in Western North Dakota is far different.
There are days in December and January that officially begin at nine AM. And you still are tired, wishing that the warm covers and nirvana of sleep were washing over you in transcendent bliss. Certainly, Alaskans must experience this to the nth degree. I have never been to Alaska, but those winters have got to be tough.
Add to this the never-ending-constant-godforsaken-wind that ensues day in and day out on the plains, and you have a depressing day indeed.
I have always had the contention that any day that the wind does not blow on the plains is a good day. It doesn't matter if it's 20 below outside. No wind? Good. Wind? Wind bad. Very bad.
It's not that humans cannot benefit from the wind. Even our President recently said that Americans must look at developing wind energy as "a part of the equation" for future energy needs. I guess shrubs do waver a little when the wind blows, too.
Add into the mix of very little to do in rural North Dakota and you have a syrupy concoction of wind, darkness and boredom to give you a good recipe for ennui and purposelessness.
Some believe that depression is actually a evolutionary survival skill for our northern European ancestors. The metabolic processes certainly are reduced when you sleep an extra two hours per day. But there had to be some Norwegian up late stirring away to produce Aquavit to exacerbate and amplify depression even more. Certainly, those who came to the plains took this poison with them to whittle away those cold evenings in some sod house on the prairie.
North Dakota has the coveted #1 rank in the nation for per capita alcoholics.
Whether or not the sun has a whole lot to do with this is controversial.
DSM-IV states there is certainly a "pattern" of "depressive episodes" that are consistent with winter circadian rhythms. But the fact of the matter is that, "despite the heuristic appeal of a circadian hypothesis for SAD, there are as yet no consistently replicated data to support abnormal circadian rhythms as an etiology for SAD or for the therapeutic effects of light."
In the meantime, it seems, the people of the Northern Plains will have to learn to live with the winter blues. We can curse the wind, scream at what's on TV, and pour another bottle of HEET in the tank. But we will still have to live with the winter's lack of sun and fun. What many say here, "it keeps the riff-raff out" might actually be true.
At least it makes us feel a little better about ourselves that we actually are tough enough to 'like' depression.
Keep thinking of June...and those eleven o'clock sunsets.
Posted by D.D. Maurer at 10:07 PM 5 comments: Links to this post
Congratulations! You've won an all-expense paid trip to....North Dakota!
I read this post today on Aberdeen News' online site. Let the numbers speak for themselves. I don't think kids are breaking down the doors for this prize. Once again, this shows that perception is everything in a world of glitzy advertising and glamorous 'destinations'. For a direct link to this article, click here.
National Guard essay contest offers free trip to North Dakota
BISMARCK, N.D. - A National Guard essay contest is offering 10 selected high school students from every state and four territories a free trip to North Dakota this summer.
The Guard's Lewis and Clark Youth Rendezvous is being planned to bring the 540 students to North Dakota Aug. 13-18 to educate them about the journey of explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark nearly 200 years ago.
Two chaperones from each state and territory also will get the free trip, the Guard said.
The students will be selected based their thoughts about the military value of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The competition is open to those who will be high school juniors or seniors in August 2006.
"We're still looking for more entries," said Staff Sgt. Billie Jo Lorius of Bismarck, a Guard spokeswoman. "We're really encouraging creativity."
Only 26 students have sent in entries, with 12 from North Dakota. The deadline for entries is Feb. 28.
While in North Dakota, they will visit sites including Fort Abraham Lincoln south of Mandan, the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center and Fort Mandan in Washburn, and Medora.
Guns don't kill people--Vice Presidents do
I never thought that I would be defending our Vice President.
I dislike a lot of things about Mr. Cheney. His politics reflect the hyper-machismo that seems to infect the Republican party at this time. (For a very lucid, convincing argument of this, check out this link: here). Like any chronic infection, this self-righteous attitude seems to permeate every level of his politics. He obviously is not a puppet of Bush (or even a side-kick apparatchik, as I believe Gore was to Clinton). In the world of the neocons, Cheney is the great high priest while Bush is the less astute, but more approachable, big brother that puts all things right in his own viewpoint. "There, there little Joey. George's gonna make everything okay."
Dick Cheney also has that really annoying lip curl that he does when he talks. It's almost like he's smelling dog shit in the next room and is disgusted with the whole conversation, indeed, life itself.
And he's a hunter.
I recently had somebody ask me what my politics were. It seems that my friend had found from previous dialogue via e-mail that my viewpoints seem 'democratic'; yet North Dakota is a red state--as most prairie states are. Since I live here, this must be what I am. Also, it seemed that since I was a hunter, that that is also indicative of the GOP.
The more I think about it, hunting does seem like it is something that red-blooded American males do. Everybody knows red-blooded American males are not 'in touch with their feelings'; they go out and get what they want and repress emotions. They don't cry when they get a sliver. And if they're hungry, they reach behind the driver's seat of their pickup and take down old granddaddy's shotgun and blast whatever it is that they see. Blood and guts aside, the meat will be roasted on a spit, and he'll eat it off a stick as he cracks a new beer.
There is no doubt that my friend is not that dense to stereotype all hunters this way. But, you have to admit, hunters portray a certain image that doesn't match an east coast liberal about to go to a broadway show.
I don't belong to the NRA. I think that they're a bunch of paranoid freaks that don't see the destructiveness of guns in our culture--even from "responsible" gun owners. However, the antis are so misinformed about what ethical hunting is about, especially in the wide open of the prairie, that their arguments make me want to declare an open season on them.
Our Vice President was out enjoying himself hunting with some colleagues. It has been an activity that I myself have done hundreds of times. PETA and the antis are wrong that it is bloodlust. It's also not a sin to have fun doing it. The chase is a conditioned response that we have in us, precisely because our ancestors hunted and nourished themselves with protein that they killed. Many convincing studies indicate it was this protein in our diet which gives us now the ability to even have this abstract article printed over the ether. The chase excites us, because a powerful, natural drug is injected into our brains:it's called adrenaline. We are excited, because we are designed to be that way through natural selection.
The difficult thing a hunter MUST learn to master is shooting safely when under the influence of the excitement and the adrenaline. It is a difficult thing to do, as police officers under pursuit of a fleeing criminal will attest. A certain "tunnel-vision" is the result, allowing you to focus on the task at hand (killing), but also endangering you and others for a split second. This, no doubt, was the situation that Mr. Cheney experienced when he shot his colleague while out quail hunting recently.
All over the blogosphere there are articles denouncing Mr. Cheney for his irresponsibility and actions. In fact, the very words printed in the title of this article were the parting words of one such opinion.
Was Mr. Cheney responsible? Absolutely. It is bogus to say that it was Harry Whittington's fault because he didn't announce himself when he returned to the hunting party. If he had, he probably wouldn't have been shot. Nevertheless, there are always situations that pop up where you do not know what may happen in the seconds after the flush of game.
A buddy of mine and I were out hunting in North Dakota a while back. His dog went on point on a pheasant in a cattail slough. As he walked up for the flush, the bird sprang up on my side of the slough. I lifted my shotgun for a shot and just micro-moments before I pulled the trigger, his dog jumped straight up in the air in an attempt to catch the low flying pheasant. Had I shot, I almost certainly would have killed or seriously injured his dog.
With that being said, is something like this apt to happen to even the best, most responsible hunters? Yes. That's why they are called 'accidents'. Hunting, albeit a relatively safe sport (much safer than snowmobiling or even ice fishing statistically), is not without risk.
The pundits who take this opportunity to lambast the Vice President only show their ignorance of the hunting world. Which makes open-minded, articulate Democrats like myself look all the more like a rednecked Bushie.
Hunting with ethics is an honorable act. When a person steps outside into the great-wide-open with a goal to kill and eat, that one is closer to our true natural state than any dweeb sitting down and writing opinions in a blog on the internet.
Only 6 1/2 more months until fall hunting.
I feel so much safer now
I recently found out that the Federal Department of Homeland Security has been doling out money since 2003 to states and state's emergency services to bolster our nation's security. Rural areas, as well as cities and municipalities, were offered available funding to help purchase equipment and pay for training.
In 2003, $750 million was made available for firefighter assistance grants from the '03 Budget to help rural, urban and suburban fire departments better train, prepare and equip themselves. Additional monies have been made available since then, and, our President is planning to have a six percent increase in Homeland Security's budget for 2007.
Sounds like a good idea, right?
I suppose it is good in theory. Fire departments, in particular, are one of the main responders to rescue and confront emergency situations. But that's just in theory.
We're dealing with the government here.
Somehow, the office of Homeland Security sees fit to prepare us from any terrorist threat that may be out there-anywhere and anytime. With emergency services better prepared we can not only impede terrorists from obtaining their destructive goals, but we can better respond to the aftermath of terrorist attacks. Aftermath: like smoldering cow turds.
The rural fire department of Golden Valley, North Dakota (pop. 176) was recently given $4,122 for "continued improvements and capital investments" of their fire department from the Department of Homeland Security. With these funds, the fire department has purchased practical items such as a door lock for the fire hall, a generator, two helmet protectors, and pagers.
One of the items on the recommended list that accompanied the check was binoculars. In theory, the fire department could use these to scan the horizon to look for enemy planes and strange activities taking place, that otherwise could not be readily seen with only the naked eye.
"We aren't going to use them for that though," said a member of Golden Valley's rural fire department. "We got something else we can look at," he added.
It seems that this part of the prairie is prone to wildfires from time to time. Fires that are not kept under control can advance very quickly in the prairie grasses. When there is a strong wind, it is even worse.
When the grass fires are all put out, there is one thing for the firefighters left to do. They climb up on the highest hilltop in view, and they survey the surrounding country with their newly purchased government binoculars to see if there are any stray fires to put out. Many of these fires continue to burn on cow droppings, especially if they are dry, since the grass contents of the poop are similar to those artificial logs a person puts in the fireplace.
"You'd be surprised how long those cow pies can burn," the Golden Valley volunteer informed me. "Sometimes, two, three days later they can fire up another blaze and then we'd just be out there again trying to put it out."
The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain
I don't know much about Spain. I've never been there. I heard, though, that Spain was once convered with broad, rich grasslands and savannas before we got a taste for angel hair pasta, pistachos on the full shell, and Pinot Grigio. (What the hell do I know? I don't even drink wine, much less know where they grow that kind...)
That's the thing about the description of this place where I live: the plains; the great plains; the big flat. (It don' madder, Professor 'iggins, 'ow she sayz it!) What does that mean? Words derive their meaning not only from their original connotation, but the meaning they inherit from their use. *Goodness me, that's why 'gay as a jaybird' now means something more than your happy little pasttime in ornithology!*
Let's just look at what 'plain' means. Shall we?
1. Would you like chocolate, rocky-road, or mint ice cream, DeAnn? No thanks. I just want plain.
2. Dearie me. She used to have such curly locks, but look at her now! She's so plain-Jane.
3. No, no! Sonny! If you wanna make it flat you gotta use a wood plane! (So, it's a homonym...sue me.)
4. Well, anyone can see that! Of course his hand is falling off. That's rather plain to see, isn't it?
The Great Plains = The Really Big, Boring Place between the two coasts. Sometimes has buffalo in it. A place of obvious little cultural value. After all, here's where we put our nukes!
Looks like this:
Well...it does! At least it did in the movie 'Fargo'. (May I remind the blogreader that the psychopaths came from MINNESOTA, as most of the film was made there, too.)
'Image' in the collective opinion, of course, does not reflect reality. Which is really okay with me. My hunting, fishing, birdwatching, and my xeriscaped garden are all the better because of this. I wouldn't mind if you visited, though.
Do you know that Bobolinks have a particular dance that they do in the spring of a mixed grass prairie? You don't read that in books. It's sort of a flying, jumping thing.
Do you know of the green flash? It happens almost every night in late June in the Northern Plains at a quarter to eleven at night.
I've never been to the Kanza, but a buddy of mine has. He said the prairie chicken's booming made him laugh and laugh and almost cry for 15 minutes. He wasn't even stoned at the time. (Which is sort of amazing, in itself...)
Tah-Kah-Uh-Kuty was the place where the Sioux "Killed the Deer". There's a hole at the top that is magic. I'm not kidding. It's the same place the Hidatsa called Singer Butte, where the medicine hole opened up for the spotted owl to name creation forth.
Andropogon Gerardii (my namesake) covers Eastern Montana on the cutbanks of the Yellowstone and Missouri. It's a tall grass species. What the hell is it doing there? (And it's not because of global warming...)
There's treasure in that-which-America-will-never-call-treasure. I'm glad...because if it were any better (or at least not so ball-bustin' cold) 'it' wouldn't be. It barely is....
Strange February
I drove to Pick City today with a friend of mine to go pick up some lunch. The diner was closed; this is not necessarily a bad thing in rural North Dakota. Our menu would only have consisted of something fried on a butter-smeared bun. Haphazardly tossed on a scratched chinet plate there would be the greasy remains of potato strips--many rural diners in NoDak still call them "freedom fries." It seems that rural North Dakotans take their president's claim that the French are uppity socialist scum quite seriously. So much so, that I'm sure that the signs that advertize these fries will still bear the marks of "we support our troops" well into 2010.
So we went to his place to have DiGiorno pizza. I asked my buddy if it was delivery...
We watched the remainder of Coretta Scott King's funeral on MSNBC, while I looked at pictures I took the previous spring for a turkey hunt. I came to think, "what a thing this is...I'm sitting here, watching a funeral, eating pizza on a couch, and its forty degrees outside in February in North Dakota...I should have really shot that turkey with my bow, too..." That's strange all by itself, but it seems like the strangeness is infecting us and all of our country. Strange, in that we want everything to become the same.
When will America be so generic, that anywhere you find yourself will conviently have one-thousand channels, plastic-wrapped food, box-shaped stores and strip malls, wireless internet access to surf endless free porn? Life will have reached its apex. Our experiences will be bar-coded and we will travel place to place not to change venue but only slip into another store that is found just a few minutes away. Or if not there, just open up and paypal your way into your own.
Ironic, isn't it? We are sold the package of goods that promises to deliver freedom, happiness, and independence. But the store that sells it is just the same as new delvopments that Shanghai or Addis Abbaba wants on the outskirts to give them the same freedom, happiness, and independence. We will build ourselves into monotony. Our dreams will consist of clean-pleated, smiley-white women offering more convienience, speed, and glamor. Go to them and find that you travelled nowhere to noplace.
Maybe those rural, backwater diners aren't so bad. Maybe age, quirk and backwardness have something to them--something that allows a distinction of place. The plastic coating can't prevent the spoilage there. Maybe the uniqueness is what God is about, no matter how strange or ugly that might be. After all, there was a different air-freshener scent next to sink in the bathroom at the diner last week. Yeah, that plug-in right next to the sink with the used chew on the drain.
The Prairie is the New Hope
Writing Tip of the Day
D.D. Maurer
Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States
Hi. Welcome to my blog. Hope you find Theology Thursdays and Flash Fiction Friday stimulating and enjoyable.
Dan the Story Man
To the Tune of a Welcoming God - Theological to the Max
Rachel Jones - A very gifted up-and-coming writer
The Loft Literary Center
Writer's Loft Blog
Saint Paul, Minnesota (Love this town!)
Prairie Writers - The Land Institute
Incoherent Rantings...
Plains Folk
I read this post today on Aberdeen News' online site. Let the numbers speak for themselves. I don't think kids are breaking down t...
Flash Fiction Friday: Guest Column - The Other Woman
I met Rachel Jones in a writing class at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. She and her husband Tom are preparing this fall t...
Flash Fiction Friday Fourteen: Lame Similes
The Huffington Post recently published an article titled The Fifteen Funniest Metaphors and Similes Created by Teen Writers. I got such a k...
I don't know much about Spain. I've never been there. I heard, though, that Spain was once convered with broad, rich grasslands an...
Congratulations! You've won an all-expense paid t...
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NEW DELHI: The government today said the Rs 5,500-crore 'India Inclusive Innovation Fund' will focus on generating employment and supporting livelihoods across the country through innovative enterprises.
"My Ministry is working towards creating a fund, to be called the India Inclusive Innovation Fund, which will help Indian enterprises in developing innovative solutions to developmental challenges," Minister of State (MoS) in Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) K H Muniyappa said in an Assocham event here.
The Fund will be guided by four objectives, to focus on the poor; to combine social and commercial returns; to drive employment and livelihood generation; and to help establish a model for wider inclusive innovation funding, he said.
The MSME, which has taken the initiative in consultation with the National Innovation Council to set up the fund, had circulated a Cabinet note for consultations to the concerned ministries in this regard in January.
The scheme would promote innovation which is aimed at improving the competitiveness and efficiency of small and medium enterprises.
Of the total fund amount, 20 per cent funding would come from the government and the remaining from banks, financial institutions and multilateral agencies.
The fund would be in two phases. The first tranche will have a corpus of Rs 500 crore and in the second phase the amount would be Rs 5,000 crore.
MSMEs face challenges such as lack of access to finance, non-availability of collaterals and delayed realisation of receivables.
There are over 26 million MSMEs in the country that provide employment to around 60 million people.


text:
Caltech Researchers Develop New Quantum Algorithm
quantum science, chemistry & chemical engineering
Quantum computers, just like classical computers, are only as good as the instructions that we give them. And although quantum computing is one of the hottest topics in science these days, the instructions, or algorithms, for quantum computers still have a long way to go to become useful. Garnet Chan, Caltech's Bren Professor of Chemistry, is tackling this problem. In a new paper, he describes how he, together with Fernando Brandao, Bren Professor of Theoretical Physics, and Austin Minnich, professor of mechanical engineering and applied physics, developed an algorithm for quantum computers that will help them find use in simulations in the physical sciences.
The algorithm is derived from one already in use in classical computing called imaginary time evolution. Chan's new algorithm, tailored to run on quantum computers, has been fittingly dubbed quantum imaginary time evolution and allows a user to find the lowest energy of a given molecule or material.
We sat down with Chan to talk about his research and what it means for quantum computing.
In lay terms, what have you achieved with your new research?
There has been a lot of interest in what kind of problems a quantum computer can potentially help to solve in the physical sciences. One problem that many people are interested in is how to simulate the ground states of molecules and materials. Our new paper proposes a way to calculate ground states of Hamiltonians that runs on near-term quantum computers with very few resources.
What is a Hamiltonian, and why would you want to know its ground state?
The Hamiltonian represents the energy of the system, and the ground state of the Hamiltonian is the most stable state of the problem. Most physical systems, under ordinary conditions, are not too excited, and thus live close to their ground states.
For example, if we want to do a simulation of water, we could look at how water behaves after it has been blasted into a plasma—an electrically charged gas—but that's not the state water is usually found in; it is not the ground state of water. Ground states are of special interest in understanding the world under ordinary conditions.
Why is it challenging to perform these calculations on a quantum computer?
Quantum devices currently decohere after a short period of time, which means that the computer needs to be recalibrated and cannot be used for calculations until it is set up again. That means we need to find a way to perform calculations on them very efficiently so we solve our problem before decoherence occurs.
What does your algorithm do?
There have been many proposals for how to obtain ground states on quantum computers. One of the first was by Alexei Kitaev [Caltech's Ronald and Maxine Linde Professor of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics], but unfortunately that algorithm, known as phase estimation, requires too many instructions and cannot be implemented before current quantum computers decohere. Another way, called the variational approach, is very simple to implement but in practice turns out not to be so accurate. We wanted to find a way that could be potentially as accurate as phase estimation but which could also be practically programmed on today's quantum computers
What does the development of this algorithm mean for quantum computing?
Quantum computers are still very new, and we still need to learn what they will be useful for. Because we can barely use them right now, part of the answer lies in developing efficient programs that can be run on them in very little time. Our work provides a basis for assessing the capabilities of quantum computers as they are now, which will help tell us what we can expect in the future.
Written by Emily Velasco
Emily Velasco
evelasco@caltech.edu