In the UK, we appear to have a government. It looks like a government, often talks like a government, and sometimes behaves like a government. But you can't really understand the way government works until you realise that it doesn't exist.
Bits of government exist, of course, lots of them. Sometimes we call those bits 'departments' and sometimes we call them other things. Sometimes they co-ordinate and collaborate. When No10 rings, they answer the phone and listen attentively and at the very least will appear to do something which can be described as a response. But government as a whole is at least as much archipelago as land mass.
It can take a while to spot that. It took me years. It took me to the Cabinet Office where, I deluded myself, I would get access to the levers of power, and would be able to make the world a better place as a result.
The delusion is not in thinking that there are levers of power. There most assuredly are. There are rows of them, with brass handles and the patina of age, polished daily until you can see your face in them. When you move one, there is a satisfying clunk and a little bell rings. The levers are connected together in complex ways and there are people who have made it their life's work to understand those linkages, and to pull the levers in patterns and sequences which send clear messages in exactly the right direction.
No, the delusion is to think that those levers are necessarily connected to anything, that they directly control any machinery, that anybody hears the little bell ringing in the corner, that brass and polish are correlated with consequence.
And that matters. It matters because once you recognise that fact, you can start to do things differently. People do, of course, recognise it at the level of caricature I have described here and nobody will admit to believing that they can get things done simply by pulling the levers of power. But inactions speak louder than words and the myth of the lever is harder to eradicate than any of us like to admit.
There are two ways forward from there. One is to connect up the levers; the other is to recognise that they are not connected and to find other ways of getting things done. I don't particularly mind – at least for the purposes of this post – which route is chosen, nor do I think that it necessarily has to be the same route for every decision made in government. The essential thing, though, is not to imagine that anything will come from installing an additional set of unconnected levers or investing in better quality brass polish.
With that in mind, let us turn to the review of Directgov prepared by Martha Lane Fox for Francis Maude, which needs to be read in conjunction with the essential gloss provided by Tom Loosemore (and do read Steph's post while you are there). This is not a post about that review: it's something I am directly involved with, so I am not going to discuss the specific content and recommendations here. Neil Williams has both his own analysis and some good links to other people's if that is what you are after. In any case, what matters for this post is not so much what is in the report as what is outside it, the context into which it has dropped.
The idea of joining up government services by bringing them together online has been with us for years. In some ways a lot has been achieved, but pretty much nobody is satisfied with where we have got to. I have written at some length on e-government ten years on and I won't repeat that here, but I strongly suspect that we have often looked for solutions in the wrong place. Somehow the ambition has always comfortably outstripped progress. The temptation is always to blame the digital delivery (e-government, online services gov 2.0, call it what you will), as the new thing which was supposed to achieve miracles, but has unaccountably failed to do so. That's not completely wrong, but it is at best only half the story. The missing levers of power provide the other half. To some extent, joined up online services can cover up the essential fragmentation of government, but they cannot actually defragment it, and it is unreasonable to expect them to do so.
For, as Martha rightly points out, to achieve the changes required to make engaging with HMG online a simple, pleasurable experience requires a massive change in culture and technical expertise.
And Francis is also humble enough to know that he's going to need the flair and talent of Britain's best web people. He needs the A-team.
If I were Francis, I would draft in Lib Dem Lord, Richard Allan, of facebook to the team. I'd steal Tom Loosemore and Matt Lock from Channel 4. And I'd throw in that well know anarchist and inventor of www.theyworkforyou.com, Stefan Magdalinski. I'd demand that the BBC lend me Tony Ageh and Bill Thompson.
And to finish off the A-team, I'd persuade David Cameron to put Martha in the House of Lords. Make her the minister for digital engagement and let her run the team. My God, they'd change Britain for the better. Good luck to them. And well done Francis.
That's not a bad suggestion. They are all good people, and any one of them, let alone all of them, would bring energy, insight and experience. But I don't think it solves the problem, it's a one last heave approach. We need (as well, not necessarily instead) to recognise that providing a government web service when there isn't a government is an intrinsically difficult thing. The solution requires a better government as well as a better web service.
Who is the agent of whom?
Whose fault is it when it goes wrong?
There is no such thing as the government. But there could be.
Picture by Ingy the Wingy, licensed under creative commons.
And another thing to chuck into this very excellent post is one thing everyone seems to forget. There is no need for a rush, because half the country can't get a decent broadband or mobile connection, with a third of the population on sub meg or even dial up.
We can't continue to kid ourselves that a phone network can deliver next generation access.
So please when you design your joined up web don't use any photos. or videos. or we won't be able to load it without timeouts.
Theres no such thing as an infrastructure. But there could be. If we could pull a lever and level the playing field, many would invest if the copper cabal got sorted.
LOL at the levers gag.
I thought I had answers to all this, but suddenly I just feel very tired. Will reflect on it tomorrow….
I worked for Directgov earlier this yet (and met Martha while I was there). This isn't about Directgov but about two other experiences I had in the public sector.
One was a project in which a number of high ranking government IT specialists (neither now in the same posts) had implemented a secure portal at a cost of 20K. I put it onto another platform for free and if they wanted to keep it, it would have cost approx £500, would have been significantly more secure and and a lot more functional. The demo blew people away.
The other was a project to get overall costs for a CMS down by a factor of 75%. I pointed out that an off the shelf solution would have got costs down by a factor of 8000 (eight thousand, yes your really did read that) rather than a factor of 4. The response was "very interesting but we can't do that this time around, maybe next time".
The big problem is that you have really capable people like John Suffolk at the top who I hold in very high regard yet there is no real teeth at the CIO council to actually enforce policy. There are CIO champion solutions, but depts are free to go their own way.
Personally I think Directgov should become the Government's central web agency, take over all the web facing activities of every government department immediately and without delay and maybe leave a few BAs in each government department to liase with the customers. Government should as much as possible buy off the shelf rather than insisting everything must be bespoke, aim for projects of 6 months max duration to cut the complexity and sort out all the back end transactional stuff rather than having it here there and everywhere. Directgov is a very strong brand but you can see from the DNS addresses and subdomains that a lot of it is white labelling – you only get the true economies of scale when you consolidate the team behind the scenes, and the infrastructure. Consolidating the front end user experience is important, but it is just a small part of the big picture.
And I'm still waiting for my single sign on using Government gateway rather than an obscure random collection of digits as a username.
Oh and PLEASE get with the 20th century and bin IE6 in government. It's become a standing joke – the costs of maintaining separate networks so that people can install a browser designed this millenium and can do their jobs is an unneccesary overhead we wouldn't need to pay for if the IE6 hangers on updated to modern and more productive (and safer) software.
I have enormous sympathy with your frustration, but I think your suggested solution really underlines the point I am trying to make. The question is why something on the lines you describe hasn't already happened – and the answer is not fundamentally a technical one.
Stefan, very inciteful post and I echo your view here. We have a term called government but it cannot be compared to that of a large company, I may be wrong but I do not know of any company that needs legal powers to share information. Bringing motivated people will help but we have had 'a' team people before and this hasn't solved the fundamental issues. Creating a thin layer and trying to provide monkey bridges across each part of government is not going to deliver the joined up vision. The key issue is that although there may be a 'spirit' for joined up services there is no 'body'. By body I mean mechanisms similar but not quite to your levers. The other key issue as you rightly point out is ownership who is accountable for a joined up government? Until these things are resolved we are going to expel a lot of energy trying to make a disparate set of organisations look like a whole.
Brilliant post. Incredible eye opening post. Really made me think. So, but wrong conclusion. There can never be a single .gov. Don't try and make it. Won't work. All tech guys, me included have walked into companies that want one solution for their whole company. You then have to try and shoe horn something across different processes and cultures and it just doesn't work on a company of any size. From the outside all companies look like a single entity but they're not. Same with government. Stop looking at it as a single entity. All IT projects in government have failed because it's just too big. So, localize. Push out responsibitly closer to delivery. Make the decision chain shorter and accept that minister can't do everything. Let these smaller units them come up with their own online solutions or even just supply APIs and let the private sector do it. Sorry, think your'e on to a loser. Great post though. Thanks.
Thanks for your positive words, I am glad you enjoyed the post. But I am not sure that you are disagreeing with me in the way you think – 'stop looking at it as a single entity' is the core message. There is a lot to be said for devolving solutions as you suggest. But I don't think that can be the whole answer: a world where the NHS has 2,873 live websites is as flawed in its own way as a world with an attempt at a huge single solution to everything. As with so much, the hard bit is getting the balance right.


text:
Howard County Youth Inmate Search and Prison Information
Howard County Youth
Sending a Mail
Sending Money
701 South Berkeley Road, Kokomo, IN, 46901
In Kokomo, Indiana is where you will find the Howard County Youth. The jail serves all of Howard County. The main goal of the Howard County Youth is to maintain a safe environment for everyone involved, staff and inmates included.
Inmates both male and female, those who are awaiting trial, in trial, and those who have been sentenced are held in the Howard County Youth.
Howard County Youth - General Information
Facility Name: Howard County Youth
Facility Type: County Jail
Address: 701 South Berkeley Road, Kokomo, IN, 46901
Facility Type: Juvenile
City: Kokomo
County: Howard County
How to Find Someone in Howard County Youth
Doing an inmate search for Howard County Youth is very simple now.
Using the inmate's first and last name, booking number, subject number, housing facility, and if they are currently in custody to successfully search an inmate.
When doing a successful inmate search, you will find their personal identifying information, as well as their charges. Although, the roster will not have their mugshots posted to the general public.
Sending a Mail/Care Package
Inmates are allowed to get written letters in the mail from their family and friends. If you would like to send a written letter you can do so by sending it to the address listed below:
Inmate Full Name, ID Number
Make sure to include your return address before sending your letters. For safety reasons all mail gets inspected before it gets handed out to the inmates. All mail will be sent back to the sender or thrown out if it does not pass inspection.
There are several different ways you can fund an inmate's account. Either way you choose, it is very simple.
However, the easiest way to fund an inmate's account is online. But there is a service fee going this route. The fee depends on how much money you will be transferring.
Using the services listed below you can transfer funds to an inmate account in the Howard County Youth:
TouchPay
Access Secure
JPay
You can call the services listed above to make a deposit into an inmate's account as well. You can do so using the telephone numbers listed below: However, there is a service charge to transfer funds over the phone as well.
JPay 1-800-574-5729
TouchPay 1-866-850-3326
Access Secure 1-866-345-1884
Nationwide Inmate Records Online Check
Jail records, court & arrest records, mugshots and even judicial reports.
State Nationwide Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
The Howard County Youth contracts with Global Tel Link also referred to as GTL for short for there telephone services. In order for an inmate to make phone calls, you will need to fund their phone account.
By either using the kiosk at the jail lobby, over the phone, on the internet or by mail you are able to fund an inmate's account.
Inmates at the Howard County Youth do not have a way to get onto the internet however, you can send each other messages if their JPay account is funded. It's basically the same as traditional email and so much faster than traditional mail.
There is no fee for family and friends to use the JPay service, however, the inmates are charged to use this service.
Inmates at the Howard County Youth are allowed to get visitors. There is an updated visitation schedule that can be picked up in the jail lobby.
Inmates are allowed to have 2 adult visitors at a time. Make sure to leave all your personal belongings in your vehicle. Personal belongings are not allowed in the visitation area.
At the Howard County Youth there is a strict dress code that must be followed or you will not be permitted in the visitation area. Dress code rules consist of: No tank tops, no revealing clothing, no miniskirts, no swimwear and no pajamas. Dress code must be kept to business casual.
You will not be allowed in the visitation area if you are under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Minors under the age of 17, will need to stay with their legal guardian. You will be asked to leave if children are acting up or behave in a negative way.
Visiting schedules are dependent on what housing unit they are located in.
The visiting starts in first in, first out type of fashion. No new visitors will be allowed in 45 minutes before the end of the visit day. 45 minutes before the end of the visit day officers start escorting those who were first in out of the visitor room.
How Often Can I Visit?
Inmates at Howard County Youth are allowed to have 3 25-minute visits for each calendar week.
Inmates are allowed to have more visits in a calendar week if it gets approved by the Watch Commander.
Other Types of Correctional Facilities in Indiana
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
By Nusaybah Muti
Science Po
Arbitral Appointments, Arbitrators, Diversity
"Breaking In: How International Arbitration Becomes More Diverse" – A Report from the GAR Connect Event
Nusaybah Muti (Science Po), Soma Hegdekatte (Queen Mary University of Law), and Atie Babaie (MIDS Geneva)/ October 16, 2021 October 14, 2021 /Leave a comment
On 1 September 2021, Global Arbitration Review (GAR) launched a new diversity-themed addition to its GAR Connect series, "Breaking In: How international arbitration becomes more diverse."1)The authors would like to thank Racial Equality for Arbitration Lawyers (R.E.A.L.) for providing a scholarship to attend the event. The event, co-chaired by Adriana Braghetta (Adriana Braghetta Lawyers), Nayla…
Arbitration, Arbitration Awards, Enforcement, New York Convention, Philippines
The Philippines' Pro-Arbitration Policy: A Step Forward Gone Too Far?
Jay Patrick Santiago (Quisumbing Torres) and Nusaybah Muti (Science Po)/ April 9, 2019 April 8, 2019 /Leave a comment
On the 60th year of the signing of the New York Convention, the Philippines' Supreme Court, for the first time, declared its adoption of a narrow definition of "public policy" under the said convention. In Mabuhay Holdings Corporation v Sembcorp Logistics Limited, G.R. No. 212734, 5 December 2018, it held that "[m]ere errors in the interpretation of…


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Tough! Tried not to go all out to save my legs for the Cactus Cha Cha Run on Saturday.
Nice time Paul!! I liked the workout,ya little tough.!! The box jumps where great. My hips r a little sore. Thank you for the made up workout!! Those seem to be the best. Missed u Jen.!! Have fun on the Cactus Run whom ever is going.
I forgot to thank Jenna & Shea for cheering me on as I finished each run!!! Thanks guys!!!
Did this workout on Tuesday, October 13.
Good metabolic workout. Felt good on the box jumps.


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Part I of this article appeared in Fifth Estate #272, May, 1976.
—New York Commissioner of Health Lowell Benin, speaking to a group of businessmen, March 5, 1976.
—Chancellor Elmer Learn of the University of California at Davis, on the occasion of the university's takeover of a public hospital in 1972.
—Boston Mayor Kevin White in answer to public protests against massive budgetary cutbacks at Boston City Hospital, 1973.
The sickness industry in the 'seventies has arrived at something of an historic moment in its development; intense new competitive pressures within it have come together with the competitive pressures already existing and the rampant decline of American cities to bring about the virtual extinction of public health care in America.
2) It is the major "on-the-job" teaching facility of a large, urban university. There is a symbiotic, if somewhat imbalanced, relationship between the med school and the hospital: without the med school the latter would be hard put to find qualified staff, but the med school people in turn would be hard put to find another situation which would allow them the autonomy and "interesting cases" they enjoy at DGH. But, as pointed out above, DGH is aging and ill-equipped, and the empire builders at Wayne State University want a clean, well-lighted place furnished with the latest in advanced technology in which to train their budding young specialists and in which to conduct their research. Which brings us to the third point.
The immediate crisis at DGH is one of accreditation,  but in the long run it represents merely one aspect of a process which, by 1978, will see the hospital's forced transformation into a private institution unrecognizable, by any reasonable definition of the term, as a general hospital. For all practical purposes, the crucial decisions about the future of DGH have been made; all that remains to be hashed out is the question of control, and all the forces of capitalist history and economic development are on the side of the medical empire.
Before detailing further the situation at DGH/DMC, however, it is instructive to take a look at how the tremendous power of the medical empire came about.
— Barbara and John Ehrenreich, The American Health Empire: Power, Profits and Politics, a report from the Health Policy Advisory Center—Health-PAC.
Today the course Health-PAC charted for the growth of health care five years ago has in large part been run; in the span of three decades the "cottage industry" of individual-doctor-dominated private practice has been transformed into a full-blown corporatized, institutionalized, capitalist industry, based not upon private practice but on medical-school-centered medical empires. Such empires, consisting of interlocked specialty hospitals grouped around the med school core, are currently the dominant arid future form of health care "delivery" in the U.S., and an analysis of the forces which produced them is, of necessity an analysis of what is wrong with health care—and ultimately, all of industrial society—today.
The mainspring of capitalism, Adam Smith tells us, is competition; competition forces prices down and keeps quality up, insuring that the wise consumer will always get the best for the least of his or her money (the reasons why competition leads in reality to the qualitative debasement not only of commodities but of productive activity itself—and eventually all of lived human experience—are only touched upon here but will form the center of the discussion in later segments; see also August '75 FE, "The Architecture of Capital—Debasement of Everyday Life").
It appears self-evident (and did to the earliest capitalists) that the "competitive edge" in pricing can be gained by "rationalizing" production to make it most efficient; this means at the most basic level centralizing control over an entire productive process and concentrating the various elements of that process (workers, equipment etc.) under one roof. In turn, centralization and concentration lead to the additional advantage of economies of scale; that is, as a given enterprise grows, its ability to purchase raw materials at reduced per unit costs becomes greater because it is capable of buying in greater bulk, and thus is capable of producing a cheaper commodity.
There is then in capitalism an irresistible tendency toward centralization and concentration, and the tendency manifests itself not only in the physical organization of commodity production but, of necessity, in everything in any way remotely connected with it. Since productive activity of any sort must eventually come under the sway of capitalization, eventually all forms of organization within the society (including most of those which claim to oppose it) come both to serve the ends of commodity production and to emulate its organizational forms and principles.
Thus, for instance, when corporate America began to realize the need for a workforce more attuned to the stultifying regimen of daily wage-labor, education was rationalized in both form and content (i.e., restructured to reproduce both the centralized, hierarchicalized and time-clocked form of the factory and the necessary ideology for the acceptance of daily drudgery, passivity and obedience to authority) and, in the most egalitarian tradition of American democracy, graciously extended to all. By law. Regardless of desire.
The culmination of the concentration and centralization tendency within education today is the huge, sprawling modern state university (the grandest embodiment of commoditized learning) and it contains within it, interestingly enough, the exact point at which the trajectories of the medical-industrial complex and the educational-industrial complex come together: the medical school.
Between the World Wars, while America's urban industrialism still remained in tenuous balance with a society previously organized around rural agrarianism, medical enterprise remained largely untouched by these forces and the individual private practitioner was king. But as the concentration and centralization process intensified on the societal level, and migration to cities burgeoned to meet the needs of industrial expansion, the individual doctor's office began to be challenged by the growing institutionalized group practice of hospitals. While this concentration of sickness in urban areas was leading to a parallel concentration of sickness technicians in urban hospitals, the growth of group practice was being further stimulated by (and at the same time was further stimulating) the complementary tendencies within industrial society toward ever-greater division of labor (specialization) and technologization. Specialists need to work in an environment of other specialists and only the greater concentration of capital represented by the hospital can make expensive toys like brainscan machines accessible to individual physicians.
One of the profoundest effects, evident everywhere, of the institutionalization not just of health but of any area of human activity, is the depersonalization of social experience which accompanies it. When the doctor/ patient relationship was reduced to the institution/anonymous patient relationship, this new anonymity had the curious side-effect of making it easier for patients to "neglect" paying their bills, for they were no longer confrontable on a direct one-to-one basis by the lone individual who had provided them with service and toward whom they felt a genuine personal obligation to pay for services rendered. Eventually (specifically, 1929), this "neglecting" of hospital bills spurred a group of Texas hospitals to band together to form a collection agency of their own to insure the continuance of their income.
Adopting the name Blue Cross, the agency hit upon the novel solution of guaranteeing both the hospital's income and health care delivery to patients through a pre-paid protection plan, a plan which would guarantee subscribers a specified number of days hospital care in return for a small monthly payment to the agency. The agency would thereafter reimburse the individual hospitals for the services they performed on a cost-plus basis; that is, they would pay all of the hospital's reported costs plus a small percentage for miscellaneous additional expenses. If costs rose, Blue Cross would simply increase subscribers monthly payments slightly to make up the difference.
Just as the institutionalization of "delivery" had led to a breakdown of personal obligation on the part of the patient, the intervention of yet another institutionalized mediation, this time in payment, had the further curious side-effect of removing on the part of the "deliverers" any sense of the connection between the patient they were servicing and the source of the payment they would receive for their services. Any personal obligation to keep their fees within the reasonable limits of a patient's capacity to pay that they may have had previously rapidly disappeared in the face of this new and seemingly limitless source of funding. In addition, there was now an enormous incentive for subscribers to avoid the doctor's office and to enter the hospital for whatever ailed them.
The net effect within two decades was the emergence of the medical-industrial complex and the effective disappearance of the individual practitioner from the forefront of medical practice. Thereby began a process of unprecedented expansion which eventually hurtled health care into a position as spectacular growth industry which has lasted for more than a quarter century. Only now has it begun to bump up against the limits of that seemingly limitless expansion, and the rest of capitalist society is falling all over itself to begin forcibly reining it in.
The health care crisis now being splashed over front pages everywhere—as opposed to the real crisis in people's lives—is, as it was in 1971, essentially a crisis of the third party payers (Blue Cross/Blue Shield, private insurers and Medicare/Medicaid). As costs have skyrocketed, the inevitable point has been reached where the inordinate profit-making of the sickness industry has begun to impinge on the profitability of other sectors; most critically, and most visibly, on the auto industry.
The response of the other sectors to their crisis has been to bring pressure to bear on that segment of the sickness industry over which they can exercise some direct economic leverage: Blue Cross and Blue Shield. The goose that laid the golden egg for institutionalized medicine must now be, if not killed, at least contained.
More than this, however, the medical industry is now forced to turn back in upon itself to weed out the unprofitable segments which have thus far evaded the efficiency expert's axe. As a direct result of the new competitive restraints from without, the competition within for paying customers has intensified enormously, and as is always the case, private enterprise is squeezing out public.
Next issue: liberal and radical reformers—the Detroit Medical Center and the prospects for socialized doctors.
1. After having been inspected by the independent Joint Committee for Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAH), DGH, as a result of age and chronic shortage of funds, was found to have forty-two areas of deficiency which marked it as ineligible for accreditation. Though insufficient in and of itself to close the hospital, the loss of accreditation, if it is upheld in a re-inspection next month, will eventually lead to a refusal by the third party payers to reimburse the hospital, the removal of Wayne Med School's involvement and then, most assuredly, the closing of the hospital. As a result of much scrambling about to correct the deficiencies, however, the likelihood of this happening seems practically nil.
2. It was the same innovation which many years later turned the defense industry into the most lucrative and inflationary pork-barrel in the history of the U.S.


text:
Stay exactly where you are – advertised salaries are in "spectacular" decline
HR & Management News
David Craik -
According to the latest UK Job Market Report from Adzuna.co.uk, while overall wage growth is improving – as those in work receive long overdue pay rises – advertised salaries are moving backwards.
Indeed, August saw the average advertised UK salary fall to £33,318, down 0.6 per cent on July and down 3.3 per cent compared to £34,417 in August 2014.
This, the survey added, was accompanied by "spectacular levels" of cross-regional decline.
For the first time since January 2012, all areas of the UK saw advertised salaries fall on an annual basis.
London and Scotland saw the largest annual advertised salary falls of minus 5.3 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively.
The salary slump, added Adzuna, is a result of several factors with the most significant being the recent flood of graduates entering the jobs market at entry level. A boom in lower-paid roles is also dampening average advertised salary numbers.
And while employers are rewarding their current employees with hard-earned pay rises – evident in the most recent ONS data showing strengthening average wages – this means they have less resource left for recruitment, and are unable to increase advertised salaries at the same rate.
Read more on salaries:
The CEO that changed her salary to a mere $1
Self-employed seeing some of the biggest salary increases in UK
5.5m UK employees prepared to exaggerate salary by £4,000
Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said: "As the summer's heat draws to an end, advertised salaries are also cooling off. The pay packets being offered for new roles are substantially lower than this time last year, and are falling in every region across the UK.
"This national phenomenon confirms that the jobs market is starting to slow down, with an influx of entry-level and low-paid vacancies reducing average advertised salaries. The skills shortage has not benefited job hunters as might be expected.
"Counter-intuitively, it's currently easier to climb the career ladder by staying in your current role and asking for a pay rise than by looking to move into a new position."
Advertised vacancies grew as job openings were left unfulfilled, with 1,150,396 positions available in August, two per cent higher than July and up 27.1 per cent year-on-year.
Sunderland continued to be the hardest place to find a job with four jobseekers going after every position, making it 50 times harder to secure employment than in Cambridge
Advertised positions in tech startups attracted the most views in August as vacancies continued to increase, with music and events service Songkick (21 vacancies), social games company King.com (19 vacancies) and event finder and booking service YPlan (13 vacancies) all proving particularly popular.
The interest in tech startups coincides with a new report from Boris Johnson's London & Partners company, which revealed London has more tech talent than anywhere else in the world.
Hunter said: "Tech start-ups continue to appeal to a variety of job hunters, with vacancies increasing as consumer demand for online services grows. The broad range of music, gaming and events services shows that the industry's potential is phenomenal and employment opportunities in the sector will continue to climb."
Tagged Jobs, Jobseekers, News, Salaries, Wages
News of a trade deal brings optimism for SMEs in the new year
2020 uncertainty leads to spike in weird workplace dreams for more than half of UK


text:
How Much Do You Know About the U.S. Congress?
, which was written in 1787 and has been in effect since 1789.
The House of Representatives is composed of 435 Representatives. Each Representative represents a different district, and districts within the states are divided based on the population count taken from the United States Census, which is conducted every 10 years. The more populous a state is, the more representatives it will have. California is the most populous state with 53 representatives. Every state is entitled to at least on representative. Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming each have one representative. Each House of Representative member serves a two-year term. Their responsibilities include introducing bills and resolutions, offering amendments and serving on committees. A typical day in the life of a Representative consists of attending early morning topical briefings and various caucus and committee meetings and hearings throughout the day. They also speak with groups, communicate regularly with constituents, speak with the press and review reports. In the evenings, they attend receptions or fundraising events. A Representative must be least 25 years old, a United States citizen for at least seven years, and an inhabitant of the state he/she represents in order to be eligible for election. The Representatives are elected directly by the people every two years during the election period.
The Speaker of the House
The Speaker of the House is the political and parliamentary leader of the House and has the sole power of impeachment. The House of Representatives members elect their Speaker. It has been a tradition to have an elected House Representative as the Speaker of the House, although the Constitution does not require it. The responsibilities of the Speaker include fulfilling administrative and procedural leadership roles as the leader of the House, setting the majority party's agenda, delegating tasks to House Members, and representing their congressional district.
Powers of the House of Representatives
The House of Representatives can…
Tax and spend public money for the national government, otherwise known as the "power of the purse." Bills that propose imposing taxes can only be introduce in the House.
Impeach federal officers for high offenses such as treason or bribery.
Elect the President if no presidential candidate received a majority vote in the Electoral College.
Use committees such as the Committee of the Whole to review bills and provide oversight of the executive branch.
There are 100 members of the Senate: two for each of the 50 states. Each senator serves a six-year term, but the terms can vary. Every two years, roughly one-third of the Senate is up for re-election. Each one-third group of senators is referred to as a "class." Based on this system no state can have two senators in office from the same class. A Senator must be at least 30 years old, a U.S. citizen for at least nine years, and an inhabitant of the state that he or she is representing. The people residing in the State vote for their senators during the election period. The Vice President of the United States is the President of the Senate. Typically, he/she does not have a vote unless the Senate is equally divided, at which point, the President of the Senate would be the tiebreaker vote.
Powers of the Senate
The Senate can…
Work alongside the President of the United States to appoint officers such as Ambassadors, Judges of the Supreme Court, Public Ministers and Consuls.
Make treaties with help from the President, as long as two-thirds of the Senate approves the treaty.
Try national officers, including the President of the United States, at impeachment trials. Two-thirds of the Senate members must be present at the trial in order for the tried person to be convicted.
Condemn its own members for disorderly conduct with two-thirds of Senate approval.
Delay debate or block legislation, otherwise known as using a "filibuster". The Senate can also suspend a debate with a two-thirds majority vote, which is known as utilizing a "cloture".
Conduct investigations on members of other branches of the United States, and other country officials.
Determine the qualifications of its members.
System of Checks and Balances (aka Separation of Powers)
The three branches of the U.S. government have checks over one another to ensure that power is being distributed equally among three branches of the government. For example, both the Executive and Legislative branches of government must approve the passing of a bill into law. House of Representative bills must be passed by the Senate and agreed to by the U.S. president before becoming law. The President has the power to veto a bill after being passed by both the House and the Senate. If he/she vetoes the bill, it cannot become law. If the bill does become law, the Judicial branch can determine the constitutionality of laws as it is applicable to each case they review.
All members of the U.S. government have the primary responsibility of representing their constituents.
Ani Kington
Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Ani is a fan of exploring new places through photography and the local cuisine. After earning her BFA in photography from NYU and gaining communications experience at International Planned Parenthood Federation, she joined InterExchange in 2012, and worked as the Marketing Producer until 2016.


So do Thursday's developments make a Risch appointment as inevitable as, dare I say it, a Craig resignation? Not necessarily.
Risch certainly looks like Gov. Butch Otter's odds-on choice. His odds improve even more with Simpson out of the running — since Simpson's nine years of Capitol Hill experience was an attribute Risch simply doesn't have on his resume.
Now, in theory, Risch looks like a logical appointment. He has a career of public service, though all of his experience and expertise is at the state level. His seven-month stint as governor shows that he wouldn't sit on his hands during the remainder of Craig's term. Risch is obviously a motivated buyer; he has for months said he would run for Senate in 2008 if Craig didn't, and Risch has proven he can win a statewide election.
Simple? Well, here's where it gets more complicated for Otter. Attorney General Lawrence Wasden is interested — and an interesting option. Wasden may not have Risch's enthusiastic appetite for campaigning, but the soft-spoken Wasden has won statewide races himself. Like Risch, Wasden possesses a sharp legal mind that would serve him well in the nitty-gritty work of lawmaking. And Wasden has demonstrated enough of an independent streak to sign onto an antitrust lawsuit against Micron Technology and other chip manufacturers, and the populist streak to make consumer protection a priority on the job.
This isn't an easy call for Otter since he has two qualified candidates who clearly are interested in the job for the long haul. Choosing one over the other gives the appointee a big edge heading into a 2008 election. And since politics is personal, choosing one over the other will, at best, bruise someone's ego.
Little wonder, then, that Otter is considering the idea of naming a placeholder who would simply keep the job for the remainder of Craig's term. Idaho could lose some Senate seniority in the process — but it also allows Otter to avoid a sticky decision. Former attorney general and Lt. Gov. David Leroy is positioning himself for a possible caretaker appointment.
On Saturday, minutes after Craig's announced his plans to resign, Otter wanted to say as little as possible about the Senate vacancy. He groused about early media reports that suggested Risch was his choice, and walked briskly away from reporters looking for details. He looked like a man in a big hurry — and a guy with an unwanted decision on his plate.
Otter was more open Wednesday, holding court for 20 minutes with reporters asking about the Senate vacancy. Still, this can't be an easy call for the governor. With two qualified candidates and prominent fellow Republicans interested in launching a Senate career, it shouldn't be a surprise if Otter is a reluctant kingmaker.


I am a slimming & wellness expert based in delhi. Promoting a concept of Live Alkaline for healthier, slimmer & longer life.
I am a practicing OBGYN & my interest is in Bioidentical Hormone therapy & nutraceuticals.
I am not sure if we have met.What is your area of special interest?


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Bogyó Imre (Békéscsaba, 1949. február 27.– ) magyar nemzeti labdarúgó-játékvezető. A Békéscsabai Volán alkalmazottja.

Pályafutása
Játékvezetésből 1967-ben Békéscsabán a Békés megyei labdarúgó-szövetség (BMLSZ) Játékvezető Bizottsága (JB) előtt vizsgázott. Első mérkőzésem a békéscsabai Szabadság TSZ–Május 1. TSZ helyi rangadó volt. 1972-ben a megyei JB, a megyei I. osztály bírói közé sorolta, ahol a szomszédvárak Medgyesegyháza–Kaszaper mérkőzéssel indított. A megyei JB javaslatára 1974-től NB III-as bíró. Az MLSZ JB minősítésével 1980-tól NB II-es bíró. Küldési gyakorlat szerint rendszeres partbírói szolgálatot is végzett. 1981-ben az első NB I-es mérkőzésén Mézes János, 1989-ben Győri tanár úr búcsúztatásán Roxin György társaságában tevékenykedett az oldalvonal mellett. 1991-ben visszatért a megyébe, ahol még 8 évig aktívan működött. A nemzeti játékvezetéstől 1999-ben visszavonult. NB II-es mérkőzéseinek száma: 125. NB I-es partbírói működésének száma: 103.

1981–2006 között a megyei JB elnökségének tagja. Aktív pályafutását befejezve NB II-es országos ellenőr, szövetségi ellenőr,  majd a megyei JB és a területi NB III ellenőre.

Források

Magyar labdarúgó-játékvezetők
Békéscsabaiak
Élő személyek
1949-ben született személyek

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Как выполняются функции внутри цикла в JS? Пытаюсь понять разницу между объявлениями переменных внутри цикла с помощью var и let. Подскажите, почему в этом примере в каждой итерации цикла происходит только инициализация колбека, а не инициализация и выполнение сразу? Другими словами, почему колбеки выполняются только уже после всех итераций?
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
<?php

namespace Drupal\migrate;

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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Seniors Bocce was founded in 1996 at the suggestion of Slava Crooks, who led this activity for many years. Marica Valencic and Ana Iskra assisted. Upon retirement of Slavica and Ana, Maica Valenčič took over leadership and when she retired, the position was taken by Zlata Vitez and Elsie Kumar. The Seniors Bowling Group meet at the club weekly on Wednesdays.
The bowlers challenge each others' abilities in friendly competitions. Before bowling, all present are served coffee and cake, and at end of play, there is a light lunch of open sandwiches and at times a hot meal.
At the end of the year, a festive meal is prepared, or there is a restaurant meal followed by group photos.


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← The Provocative History of French Weekly Newspaper Charlie Hebdo
Lindsey Graham Welcomed Joni Ernst to the Senate with a Hog Castration Device →
[VIDEO] White House Unsure Whether Murderous Rampage in France Is Terrorism
Posted: January 7, 2015 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, War Room, White House | Tags: Charlie Hebdo, CNN, François Hollande, Josh Earnest, List of terrorist incidents, Muhammad, Paris, Police officer, President of France, White House Press Secretary |Leave a comment
White House press secretary Josh Earnest refrained from calling the attack on a French magazine "terrorism" in an interview this morning on CNN:
The CNN host asked,
"Josh, when you talk about countering the message, you keep using the word violence. I mean, this is an act of terrorism, that's what the president of France called it — an act of terrorism. You're referring to ISIS and other bad actors, it doesn't really matter who it is at the end of the day. You know you're fighting a very large group of people of somewhat similar concern. Do you see this as an act of terrorism, and is this something that has to be condemned on that level?"
"Based on what we know right now it does seem that's what we're confronting here. And this is an act of violence that we certainly do condemn, and if based on this investigation it turns out to be an act of terrorism, then we would condemn that in the strongest possible terms, too."
Earnest continued,
"I mean, look, this is again based on the very preliminary information that we have, this isn't just an attack as you point out, Chris, on the people of France and on innocent civilians. This is an attack on some of the basic values that we hold dear here in this country and basic values of freedom of speech and freedom of expression and the free press that is also held dear by our allies in France. So this is something we take seriously and that we condemn, like I said, in the strongest possible terms."
UPDATE: A few minutes later, President Obama released a statement calling it a "terrorist act."
"I strongly condemn the horrific shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris that has reportedly killed 12 people. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this terrorist attack and the people of France at this difficult time….(read more)


Any cancellations or amendments to reservations received within 24 hours (48 hours for packages) of the first arrival date will incur a cancellation charge equal to the first night's accommodation or package rate, with the exception of Special Event Periods when the total stay's accommodation rate will be charged.
Any reservations not checked-in on the confirmed day of arrival will incur one night's room or package charge, together with any in room service options and pre arranged meal options that would have taken place. For reservations during Special Event Periods (including and not restricted to Australian Tennis Open, Australian Grand Prix, AFL Grand Final and Spring Racing Carnival), where minimum night stay conditions are in place, the cancellation of rooms within 30 days of first arrival date will incur a cancellation charge equal to the total accommodation stay.
In the event of Special Events (including, and not restricted to the Australian Tennis Open, AIRSHOW, Australian Grand Prix, AFL Grand Final and Spring Racing Carnival), where minimum night conditions are in place, early check out will incur a cancellation fee equal to the total accommodation stay.


OCTOBER 21, 2011 – Social media websites have proved themselves to be a valuable resource for market researchers, who often decipher consumers' preferences and demands by what they post to their profile pages or what they say about specific brands and products.
With this in mind, research professionals may be happy to hear that the results from a comScore study show more people are accessing the online networks through their mobile phones, providing them with even more opportunities to gain insight on consumer behavior. The data indicates a 37 percent rise in the number of people who read a blog or social media website on a mobile device, reaching 72.2 million in August 2011.
Additionally, the researchers found that out of the group of people who have used a phone or tablet computer to view a social website, 80.3 percent personally knew the author of the post they were reading. Another 69.5 percent of the subset said they had posted a status update from their mobile devices.
Donovan also said marketers and advertisers should seize on the fact that consumers want to interact with brands, as well as their friends and family, through the social channels. The three top-growing networks on the internet were Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, the study found.
However, while each entity in the holy trinity of social media was able to grow its audience by at least 50 percent, another contender is gaining ground, BtoB magazine reports. The website Tumblr has managed to overtake WordPress in number of blogs, and it was able to increase its annual visitor rate by 183 percent year-over-year in May. In that month alone, Tumblr pulled in 12 million visitors, the source says.
As a result of this rapid success, more businesses may start turning to the website as a new method of reaching out to and communicating with consumers. The platform is particularly useful because it can support third-party apps, and its typically visual-heavy format also makes sharing content more simple, according to the magazine.


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Group Disability and Life
Stop-Loss Insurance
Events and insights
FullscopeRMS appoints Ryan Bohrer to lead expanded Supplemental Health business
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine. (June 28, 2021) – FullscopeRMS announced today that it has appointed Ryan Bohrer as head of Supplemental Health, overseeing the company's newly expanded portfolio that includes critical illness, accident, and hospital indemnity products. FullscopeRMS provides turnkey reinsurance products and solutions to insurance providers, offering disability, absence management, stop-loss, and supplemental health, which helps people cover health insurance deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses.
"We are thrilled to welcome Ryan to the FullscopeRMS team, where his leadership and expertise will help strategically grow our supplemental health offerings," said Scott Beliveau, president, FullscopeRMS. "Ryan's experience with voluntary benefits brings effective insights and management to our newly expanded portfolio, which will help insurance providers and members complement health benefits to protect their finances."
Bohrer will be responsible for driving growth, directing development of client-facing administration capabilities, and developing risk-management practices and strategies for FullscopeRMS's supplemental health offerings. He started his career with Assurant Employee Benefits (AEB) and joined Sun Life when the company acquired AEB in 2016. Since then he has overseen supplemental health pricing for Sun Life's group benefits business and has been a key contributor on the voluntary leadership team. He transitioned to FullscopeRMS in June 2021.
"I am looking forward to bringing my product and pricing expertise to FullscopeRMS, where we help insurers develop and offer meaningful products and services for their clients," said Bohrer. "Interest in supplemental health and voluntary benefits is growing rapidly, and FullscopeRMS's expertise in product design and execution supports a thriving market."
Bohrer has over 15 years of experience in group pricing across multiple product lines. He holds a Bachelor of Science in statistics and business administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries.
About FullscopeRMS
FullscopeRMS delivers risk management expertise, performance and brand protection to partners in the insurance industry by helping them bring new products to market and expanding their current business. FullscopeRMS provides its clients – including 25+ insurance carriers and health plans –with the deep knowledge, expert talent and the specialized systems required to offer full disability, absence management, life, stop-loss, and supplemental health to employers. For more information, please visit http://www.fullscoperms.com.
FullscopeRMS is a standalone company in the Sun Life U.S. group of businesses.
Devon Fernald
FullscopeRMS
Devon.portney.fernald@sunlife.com
300 Southborough Dr. #200
Dan Powers, Head of Business Development


Dragon Ball Z Super Butoden 2 Move List.
Dragon Ball Z Super Butoden 2 is the second installment of the Butoden series. It was much better than the first one. It had better graphics, allows you to charge your own ki, a faster game play and you can switch the game play to turbo mode. It includes 8 characters plus Goku and Brolly as secret characters (in the Japanese version only). This game was made after DBZ movies 8 and 9. It also featured characters from those movies. In my opinion, it has the best story mode of all the DBZ SNES games. I give this game a 8/10.


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George R. R. Martin reveals the costume he wore for his unseen Game of Thrones cameo
When a show becomes a magnanimous success everything associated with it becomes a treasure for fans. Game of Thrones was a success of gigantic proportions and it is going to be quite sometime when the dust will finally settle down on it. Although the show finished its run about a year ago, it has continued to stay in the news. Almost every week there is something new being revealed about the show. Now, its the turn for a glimpse of an unseen cameo that is going to excite a lot of fans!
It is an open secret that George R. R. Martin had a cameo in Thrones that never came to fruition. Martin, as well, has teased us enough through his own posts about what might have been! This time he has gone the distance and even posted the pic of his costume that he was supposed to wear in one of the scenes.
In fact, Martin tweeted about it and linked it to his recent blog on not a blog. He wrote:
I got a message from my friend Jonah Nolan last week. Jonah is one of the creators and showrunners of HBO's WESTWORLD, along with his wife Lisa Joy, and he told me to be sure to catch Sunday's episode, there might be something that would amuse me….https://t.co/lNl0dN22wG pic.twitter.com/SqU2e7StyY
— George RR Martin (@GRRMspeaking) March 28, 2020
On his Not a Blog, he talked about the various cameos that he had been in so far and why some of his cameos never saw the light on Thrones.
"I've done my own cameos over the years as well. You can catch a glimpse of me (young, dark-haired me) in two different episodes of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. The first one you'd need to be blind to miss; the second one you'll miss if you blink. More recently, I played a zombie version of myself in Z NATION (still signing books), and had my head bitten off by a shark in SHARKNADO 3 (though they cut all my lines, pfui). "
"I wanted to be a severed head on the walls of the Red Keep next to Ned Stark (and David & Dan, ideally), but our budget was not so robust first season, and those severed heads are damned expensive. I also campaigned to die horribly at the Red Wedding, which seemed only fair since I was responsible for it, but it was felt that my presence in that powerful, wrenching, bloody scene might have taken the viewers out of the moment. Fair enough. And not wrong."
Well, with all due respect, Martin being in the red wedding would have seriously distracted the audience. However, we do sometimes wonder, how that unseen pilot would have looked like.
In the current doom and gloom, Martin did recently provide us with some positivity when he confirmed that he is writing daily in the quarantine. We hope, unlike his cameos, The Winds of Winter do get to see the light of the day soon!
How did you like the costume? Do you wonder about that unaired pilot as well? Write to us in the comments below!
The Red Wedding year 2020 was a difficult year for everyone across the globe. The world is still battling the consequences of the aftermath, with the UK under complete lockdown. The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the worst scares of the Long Night we faced last year. Health workers all over the world are keeping their life on the line trying to keep people safe. These COVID-warriors are working day and night to prevent further spread of the virus. Game of Thrones stars like Kristofer Hivju beat the infection with the help of these warriors. Emilia Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen on the show, extended her support to health workers on Instagram.
A post shared by @emilia_clarke
The 34-year-old star posted a message of gratitude for the nurses and health care officials who are working hard amidst the pandemic. In the video message, Clarke asserted, "I just want to say a massive thank you to the NHS (United Kingdom National Health Service), everyone who works at the NHS.. from our beloved nurses to the surgeons the doctors, the psychotherapists… Everyone who works there, thank you."
"In these incredibly frightening times, you are keeping us alive…so thank you." The actor also asserted about 'Fair Pay' and said, "I believe NHS workers should get what they deserve, for doing what they do for us." Clarke also asked her fans to join in her in demanding fair pay to the NHS workers.
What do you think of Emilia's gesture? Tell us in the comments below!
Game of Thrones had plenty of social messages hidden in plain sight. Though it may not be too obvious, it was a representation of our own society. According to recent research, the fantasy show is very similar to real-world human interactions. That's the reason why the show was such a big hit, people could relate to the characters. The series was a big platform to showcase the Domestic Abuse women face behind closed doors. Mother of Dragons, Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen), has come forward in support of them.
Emilia posted a picture on her Instagram with a heart symbol drawn on her hand. She captioned, "This is something I care deeply about, and a problem that is everywhere, but behind closed doors.
For far too many home isn't a safe place for those living with domestic abuse. I want to reach out and connect to anyone reading this who may feel scared in their own homes during this time.
At home should not mean at risk – we support you. #YouAreNotAlone.
If you or anyone you know is at risk of, or experiencing domestic abuse, you can leave your home to seek refuge. The police will respond to your calls and support services remain available.
Call 999 if you are in immediate danger. If you can't speak and are calling from a mobile, listen to the operator and, when prompted, dial 55 to be connected to the police who will help.
If you suspect a neighbour or someone you know is currently experiencing domestic abuse please do call 999 and let them take the situation forward."
It's time to raise our voices against the issue. Tell us how we can curb the violence in the comments below!
Even though the year 2020 has ruined so many holidays for us, we can't let go of the festive mood. Christmas is around the corner, and it's time for cakes, cookies and presents! Festivals are one of the few occasions that strengthen the bonds of a family. It seems like singer Joe Jonas is already a step ahead, gifting his wife Sophie Turner an early Christmas present. The Game of Thrones star was really happy about it and proudly showed it off on Instagram.
Joe gifted her a T-shirt covered in throwback photos of singer and actress Miley Cyrus. The top is emblazoned with the words 'Hannah Montana'. It features photos of Cyrus both in character as the Disney icon Hannah, who she played between 2006 and 2011, and as herself after she had shed her Disney image.
"Thanks to the Hubbs of the year for my early Christmas gift," Turner wrote alongside a photo of herself posing in her new item of clothing.
They welcomed their baby daughter Willa in July this year. Sophie has got a tattoo tribute to her daughter. She has the letter W inked on her wrist below the J she already had for her husband.
Send your best wishes to Sophie and her cute little family in the comments below! Merry Christmas to all of you!
Peter Sollett to direct D. B. Weiss & David Benioff's Netflix project 'Metal Lords'
Sophie Turner reveals connection between Game of Thrones and her upcoming Quibi series 'Survive'


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Q: htaccess redirect query string How can I redirect a specific query to another URL in htaccess? The URL is:
http://miniwars.co.uk/player-search?location=&distance_max=&category%5B%5D=epic
The location, distance_max and category are always present, and I only want to redirect when location, distance_max are empty, and category is "epic".
I want to redirect to:
http://miniwars.co.uk/epic-players
The htaccess rule I'm trying is:
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(category=epic|location=|distance_max=)($|&)
RewriteRule ^player-search$ miniwars.co.uk/epic-players/ [L,R=301]

...But it's not doing anything. Can someone let me know where I've gone wrong?

A: Maybe you should try it like this.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(location=&distance_max=&category=epic)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^player-search /epic-players/ [L,R=301]

A:
I only want to redirect when location, distance_max are empty, and category is "epic".

You can use this rule:
RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (^|&)location=(&|$) [NC]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (^|&)distance_max=(&|$) [NC]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (^|&)category=epic(&|$) [NC]
RewriteRule ^player-search/?$ /epic-players/? [L,R=301,NC]

*

*This will allow your query parameters in any order

*? in the target URI will strip off previous query string


text:
Interview with Stephen Hicks
Grégoire Canlorbe
Grégoire Canlorbe: According to a popular opinion, left to its own devices, capitalism inevitably tends to a monopoly economy. An economy in which there is no competition. In a monopoly environment, the dominant companies can freeze competition and entrepreneurial initiative. In this regard, any monopoly is problematic, even the monopoly of the local baker or shoemaker. Without competition, the quality of service slips. And innovation becomes an expensive nuisance unless it wildly jacks up profits.
As a fine connoisseur and renowned debunker of anti-capitalist arguments, how would you assess this widespread analysis?
Stephen Hicks: Free-market capitalism is the most anti-monopolistic system there is, as entrepreneurs are creative in developing new products and improving old ones. The profit motive of course incentivizes that creativity, as does the natural creativity that individuals exhibit when they are free to pursue their own lives.
Think of the music and electronic industries, for example, in the last one hundred years—how endlessly innovative they have been and how prices have gone down, precisely because they've been mostly free markets.
Problematic monopolies have only existed when governments made them—either by granting exclusive charters or other special favors.
Under feudalism, the king as head of government has the power to make monopolies and forbid competition. The same is true to a lesser degree under mercantilism. And of course for socialism the economy is one giant government monopoly.
Only market liberalism gives people the freedom to start new businesses without permission, to experiment as much as they want, to trade or not trade with whomever they choose, and to compete along multiple dimensions—price, quantity, quality, innovation.
Sometimes I test the seriousness of those who worry about monopolies by asking them: Do you agree that government postal monopolies are bad and should be eliminated?
In the United States, for example, the Postal Service has a government-granted monopoly on first-class mail. It has been stagnant, a huge money-loser, and its agents regularly shut down any individual who tries to start a competitive mail-delivery service.
Sometimes I test the seriousness of those who worry about monopolies by asking them: Do you agree that government postal monopolies are bad and should be eliminated? If they say No, then that tells me they're not serious about real monopolies. If they say Yes, then we can start a productive discussion.
Grégoire Canlorbe: The law of supply and demand asserts that any free market price for a singular good is instantaneously fixed at an equilibrium level in response to supply and demand dynamics.
If supply happens to exceed demand, a surplus occurs, which makes a lower price necessary to equalize again supply and demand. If demand happens to exceed supply, a shortage occurs, which makes this time a higher price necessary to equalize supply and demand. In both cases, the equilibrium is instantaneously restored. There can be no transaction at a disequilibrium price.
According to a common criticism on the part of postmodern intellectuals, following Marxian economics, this proposition at the core of "free market ideology" is grossly unrealistic and merely ideological. It is refuted by the existence of a permanent disproportion between supply and demand in capitalist economies. Owing to inflation, unemployment, and limited effective monetary demand on the part of working people, supply really exceeds demand. This disproportion results in cyclical economic crises of overproduction.
What would you retort to these recurring claims?
Stephen Hicks: Remember that the "law" of supply and demand is an aggregate of many individuals' judgments and actions. It's important not to reify it into some sort of Platonic or Hegelian abstract force that operates of generic necessity.
So I agree with those who criticize the methodology of some versions of free-market economics that utilize only idealized and abstract models of markets in which everyone is perfectly rational and has instant access to all information.
But I disagree with the standard postmodernist move of taking the failure of such idealized models to mean that only messy chaos and crisis rules the world. In philosopher's labels, Nietzsche is not the only alternative to Plato.
The best way to model free markets is from the bottom-up, by starting with real human beings, each of whom has individualized values, knowledge, and options. Such individuals make their economic decisions about production, trade, and consumption, and so go on to form business organizations—firms, networks, and formal markets—of increasing complexity.
Grégoire Canlorbe: The young business magnate Christian Grey affirmed in a recent interview:
Business is all about people, Miss Steele, and I'm very good at judging people. I know how they tick, what makes them flourish, what doesn't, what inspires them, and how to incentivize them. I employ an exceptional team, and I reward them well.
My belief is to achieve success in any scheme one has to make oneself master of that scheme, know it inside and out, know every detail. I work hard, very hard to do that. I make decisions based on logic and facts. I have a natural gut instinct that can spot and nurture a good solid idea and good people. The bottom line is, it's always down to good people.
I don't subscribe to luck or chance, Miss Steele. The harder I work the more luck I seem to have. It really is all about having the right people on your team and directing their energies accordingly. I think it was Harvey Firestone who said the growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.
What is your opinion on these statements? Do they shed light on a universal feature of the entrepreneurial spirit?
Stephen Hicks: I'm charmed that a character in an erotic novel can be such an articulate spokesman for entrepreneurism.
Grégoire Canlorbe: A crucial debate focuses on the question of whether Ayn Rand was fundamentally in continuity or in a break with the tradition of Classical Liberalism, notably represented by authors such as David Hume, Adam Smith or Jean-Baptiste Say. How do you position yourself in relation to this problem?
The distinctive thesis of Rand's on political economy is her insistence that the best defense of liberalism is philosophical.
Stephen Hicks: Rand's liberalism is powerful and systematic, and I've learned a lot from it, but I don't believe she was especially original in political economy. So if one were to list, say, 100 policies that classical liberals advocate, then Rand would be in substantial agreement with Hume, Smith, Say, and the rest.
The distinctive thesis of Rand's on political economy is her insistence that the best defense of liberalism is philosophical—i.e., that it turns on getting the metaphysics, the epistemology, and especially the ethics right. Wrong views in ethics and epistemology undercut the case for a free society. And on those issues, her views frequently conflict with those of Smith (especially in moral psychology) and they consistently conflict with those of Hume (especially in epistemology).
Interestingly, Rand has less in common philosophically with the liberals of the Scottish Enlightenment (e.g., Hume and Smith) and more in common with the liberals of the English Enlightenment (e.g., Locke and Mill).
But even more forcefully than one finds in Locke and Mill, Rand's liberalism is based on a rational egoism, and that is distinctive in the tradition of classical liberalism.
Grégoire Canlorbe: Some typically Objectivist criticism of mainstream analytical philosophy is to blame it for "not taking logic seriously" and for denying that the laws of logic and mathematics are of any use to know the reality.
At least at first glance, this critique seems to be a straw-man, since modern analytical empiricism, following the tradition of Frege, on the contrary conceives of logic as a fundamental science that establishes the most general conditions of meaningful discourse as well as the most general rules of valid reasoning. In this regard, one cannot legitimately blame the mainstream philosophers for treating with disdain the laws of logic (principles of the excluded middle, of identity, of non-contradiction, etc.). Far from asserting that logic would play no role in rational inquiry in general, they actually conceive of logic as a fundamental discipline which delineates the framework necessary to address any meaningful discourse and any search for truth.
What would you reply?
Stephen Hicks: Analytic philosophy is comprised of many sub-schools, some more Platonic and some more pragmatist, and their commitments to and understandings of logic vary widely.
Yet it is correct that analytic philosophy in general takes logic positively and seriously. In this way, it is in marked contrast to the leading Continental schools of the time—neo-Marxian, Nietzschean, Heideggerian, Existentialist—that were openly disdainful of logic.
So, yes, the more Fregean logicians will say that they like logic and that we should use it. But that specific commitment is nested within a broader Platonic view of logic as a purely abstract and formal set of ideas disconnected from empirical reality. The consequent problem is that if logic is so disconnected then it's merely a leap of faith to assume that formally logical results have anything to do with empirical reality.
The neo-pragmatic versions of analytic philosophy will also subscribe to logic as a useful tool. But they will argue that the rules of logic arise only from subjective and ultimately arbitrary commitments that we've made about language. The problem then is that an arbitrary commitment to logic is no better than an arbitrary commitment to illogic.
So the Objectivist critique really is based upon an Aristotelian understanding of logic: logic is an abstraction on real-world identity and causality. The objects, properties, and events that make up reality have identities and so exist and act causally. Logic is a set of principles abstracted from those identities and cause-and-effect relationships, and so it is an empirically-based, practically-useful formal system.
Grégoire Canlorbe: Both Rand and Nietzsche vehemently despise the ancestral notion of "Common Good", dating back at least to Aristotle. Nietzsche eloquently and provocatively sums up his grievances against it in Beyond Good and Evil.
One must renounce the bad taste of wishing to agree with many people. 'Good' is no longer good when one's neighbor takes it into his mouth. And how could there be a 'common good'! The expression contradicts itself; that which can be common is always of small value. In the end things must be as they are and have always been—the great things remain for the great, the abysses for the profound, the delicacies and thrills for the refined, and, to sum up shortly, everything rare for the rare.-- Beyond Good and Evil, chapter II—paragraph 43.
Nietzsche and Rand are generally thought to be similar and treated on an equal footing by academics. Would you say that their respective criticisms of the notion of "Common Good" are indeed convergent or on the contrary divergent?
Stephen Hicks: I once counted the similarities and differences between Nietzsche and Rand on 96 major philosophical issues—metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, and political. They agree on 19 of those issues but they disagree on 70 of them (and on seven issues it's arguable one way or the other).
So it is a shallowness when academics who should have done their homework generally lump them together.
But Nietzsche and Rand do share some important similarities, and one of those is negative—their loathing of collectivism and altruism, precisely defined.
"The common good" is one of those ambiguous phrases that give people trouble. Does it mean one common goal that everyone is supposed to be working towards—e.g., everyone should be doing his part to build the pharaoh's pyramid? Does it mean a resource that everyone uses as a commons—e.g., the air in the Earth's atmosphere that each person draws upon individually? Or does it mean a general category of values that are in fact unique and particularized—e.g., every mother's love for her own child is special and distinct but we can put their experiences into a common category?
The brilliant quotation you cite from BGE is a clear statement of Nietzsche's elitist anti-common-good position. It does nicely capture that many great things are difficult and so only a few in any population will strive for them and achieve them. For Nietzsche this is not a journalistic but a philosophical truth about people: the large majority of people are by nature incapable striving for—much less achieving—anything great. For Rand it is a philosophical truth that anyone born with normal capacities can strive and achieve greatness—and a journalistic truth that many people betray their own potentials.
The difference then is that the Nietzschean may feel an aesthetic disgust for the vulgar and the common, but the logic of that position is that no moral condemnation can be made: The sheep, the slaves, and the ressentiment types can't help being what they are. But for Rand, the choices that individuals make are more significant to who they become and what they value, and so her evaluations can be both aesthetically and morally charged.
One also suspects that for the Nietzschean any great value that comes to be appreciated by many people would for that reason alone cease to be greatly valued. For example, only a few genuinely appreciate the greatness of Rembrandt's portraits and Rachmaninoff's concertos. But suppose that with effective cultural education Rembrandt and Rachmaninoff became generally and genuinely admired and appreciated. For the Nietzschean, hoi polloi's enjoyment would undermine his enjoyment—it's no longer exclusive, so he can't define himself in contrast to them any longer.
For Rand it would be a great achievement if we could get everyone to appreciate Rembrandt and Rachmaninoff.
For Rand, by contrast, it would be a great achievement if we could get everyone to appreciate Rembrandt and Rachmaninoff. If they really are great, then one's experience of their greatness can and should be independent of others' evaluations.
In that respect, Nietzsche is much less individualistic than he is often made out to be.
Grégoire Canlorbe: According to me, the underlying force that makes Ayn Rand's heroes so addictive is power. They are in the railroad industry, a 130-year-old business built by the ingenuity and hard work of thousands. But they perceive themselves as the pilots of the entire system, self-made people who are giving society its hidden muscles. They have no clue that they are piloting a legacy and that they owe what they are to the work of a mob of others, not just to themselves. That's how they are able to deceive themselves into radical individualism. So Rand's philosophy is about self-deception in the name of raw power and at its heart is Rand's lust for power over others, over a growing mass of followers.
Power and influence are two human needs deeply intertwined. Metaphorically speaking, we are built as modules in a collective brain, i.e., a collective information-processing machine. Power and influence are two of the most important passions, passions that churn the information exchange of the system into overdrive; or into underdrive if one person takes over and exerts totalitarian power. Ultimately, Ayn Rand was a totalitarian icon, an intellectual Stalin.
What would be your counterattack?
Stephen Hicks: Your question raises two major issues: Who gets credit for what in collaborative enterprises, and what is the nature of power?
Clearly we form social organizations because we think we can achieve more by working together. Sometimes we work together by jointly exerting effort on a single thing—e.g., as when a number of people together will lift a heavy log that none of them could lift individually. And sometimes we work together by first dividing labor into specialties and then, by means of managers who develop systems, coordinating the outputs of those specialties—e.g., any assembly line.
So the individualist will affirm the value of the social, but insist upon two sub-points.
One is that the effort involved is individual. Each individual who helps lift the log must individually commit the effort, as must each individual on the assembly line. And what's true for simple muscular effort is true for the cognitive effort that is of fundamental importance for human life. Every original thought is an individual one, achieved by individual effort, and even when we learn from each other we have to exert individual effort. There is great value in cognitive networks, but each individual in the network adds value only to the extent that he or she thinks.
My reading of Rand is that she was exquisitely sensitive to this point. Her great heroine, the railroad executive Dagny, reverently acknowledges her debt to her grandfather, Nathaniel, the founder of the railroad, and she expresses appreciation for all of those in the company—line-workers, engineers, office administrators, executive assistants—who help make the incredibly complex railroad system function.
The second sub-point is that not all individuals in a collaborative project add value equally. For example, the individual on the assembly line who has been taught to attach the widget to the framister—he is adding value to the product by doing so efficiently. But he does not add as much value as the person who designed the assembly line in the first place. The person who designed the system could attach widgets to framisters, but often the person who attaches widgets to framisters could not design a system.
Abilities are individualized and unequal, and the value-added of those abilities is also individualized and unequal.
How we measure the differing degrees of value-added and decide who gets how much money, praise, or fame—that is complicated. But that's what we each try to do when exercising our individual judgments about each other and, more impersonally, what markets try to do in determining salaries and other prices.
Now, about power. Power is essential to human life and comes in many forms: muscular, intellectual, moral, economic, political, and so on. But there is a very clear distinction between:
(a) Someone with a strong desire for knowledge and wealth—and who insists that individuals should earn their own and exchange with others only by voluntary means—that is, free minds in open discussion and debate and free markets of production and trade; and
(b) Someone with a strong desire to impose a belief system upon others and to censor conflicting beliefs by means of political power—that is, by the thought police—and who forces others to work on collectivized projects and then confiscates their product—again by means of political power.
That's the difference between Rand and Stalin.
Grégoire Canlorbe: It is not uncommon to hear postmodernist scholars say that modern capitalism, with its impersonal marketplace, leads to a disenchantment and an impoverishment of human relations, contrasting with all the magic, moral and sentimental resonance of "reciprocal gifts" among savages. The exchanges of primitive society are not chiefly economic; they have at the same time social and religious, magic and economic, utilitarian and sentimental, legal and moral significance. The more abstract, purely"economic" modes of exchanges found in modern society, make social life more superficial, less benevolent and less warm; they induce a psychologically shallow and paltry existence.
What is your opinion on this commonly held view?
Stephen Hicks: Postmodernists share that sentiment with many conservatives, feudalists, and tribalists.
Of course a huge amount of the elimination of magical and sentimentalist thinking has occurred due to modern science and engineering, which have arisen in symbiotic relation with modern liberal economics.
The significance of free-market capitalism is that it gives people a wider range of possible exchanges. One is still free to ritualize one's shopping experience—e.g., as many people do by going to the local farmer's market on Saturday mornings, where they socialize and sample and barter face-to-face and enjoy the particularities of their local people and their customs. And one is free to utilize an efficient and impersonal chain store. It's your choice.
But having that choice is empowering for two reasons.
If the wider range of options that free markets make possible are in fact efficient, then they save time and money. One can invest that time and money in other values that are to you more significant. Suppose the impersonal supermarket saves you an hour's time and $30—and you use that time and money to experience a musical concert—then your life is more enriched, not less.
It's also empowering because if you choose instead the localized and personalized market, then it becomes more significant because you chose it.You didn't just happen to be born into it or be conditioned to it by the happenstance of one's upbringing.
I've long had a suspicion that the discomfort the critics have is really a deep discomfort with the full responsibility for your life that liberalism requires. Tribal, feudal, and collectivized societies make your choices for you—sometimes by explicit conditioning and restrictions, and sometimes simply by not being able to generate the range of possibilities that liberal societies can.
Many critics seem to desire effortless significance and meaning—that somehow the deep significance of one's life is just out there somehow and that one will simply be absorbed into it.
The opposite is the truth: genuine significance is made by choice and commitment—in romantic, family, economic, and aesthetic relationships. The life that is meaningful is one that one makes.
Grégoire Canlorbe: A second criticism, initially formulated by Michel Foucault in his 1979 lectures at the College de France, is that modern capitalist society and "disciplinary techniques" are completely bound with each other.
According to Foucault, the rise of economic freedom after the 18th century is the product of a new practice of power, present at all levels of society, whose aim is to "rationalize the problems posed to [society] by phenomena characteristic of a set of living beings forminga population: health, hygiene, birth rate, life expectancy, race." The growth and prosperity of the population henceforth legitimate the frugality of the state and its non-interference in the working of the market system. But this conduct of the government is simply one aspect of power relations in modern society. The self-restriction of economic policy coincides with the deployment of new techniques of control operating at local level through prisons, factories, schools, and hospitals.
Foucault particularly emphasizes three distinctive features of modern "disciplinary"power: hierarchical observation, normalizing judgment, and the examination. He suggests they have come to pervade every aspect of our contemporary society. They are integral part of our everyday life.
What would be, according to you, the main strengths and weaknesses of the Foucauldian analysis?
Stephen Hicks: There's a libertarian streak in Foucault that sometimes appeals to me, and of course he's right that the rise of centralized and controlling bureaucracy is one feature of the modern world. I think Foucault can often be good psychologically and insightful philosophically, but ultimately he's weak as a historian.
As a start on this huge topic, I'll just say two things here. One is that the modern era is characterized by at least three types of social philosophy. The great debate between free-market liberalism and socialism highlights two of the three types. The third type is bureaucratic centralization, and that social philosophy cuts across the free market/socialist debate.
The idea that society can be organized centrally with concentrated power used in all of the ways that Foucault diagnoses—that paradigm of technocratic efficiency is often committed to neutrally and can then be applied in either market or governmental contexts. One can envision and find examples of private factories, corporations, and government bureaucracies applying those techniques.
So the question of both history and philosophy is whether the hegemonic-controlling-power model best fits with the theory and practice of modern free-market capitalism or with the theory and practice of modern collectivism-socialism.
The other point I'll make quickly is that Foucault consistently embraces a Nietzschean understanding of power as fixed and zero-sum. In that model, power may be constantly evolving, but it is also constantly agonistic and antagonistic. Hence the consistent undercurrent of cynicism in any Foucauldian discussion of power.
That contrasts to those understandings of power that recognize some forms of it—cognitive, economic, personal-relational, for example—as potentially generative and increasing, resulting in a net growth.
Grégoire Canlorbe: Thanks for your time and your insights.
Stephen Hicks: My pleasure. I appreciate your strong questions.
This interview originally appeared at Stephen Hicks.org. It is reprinted with permission.
Grégoire Canlorbe is a French intellectual entrepreneur. He currently resides in Paris.
Andrew Bissell
Prohibitionism
RIP Barbara Branden


This special limited production Harley Davidson Twin Cam motorcycle was nicknamed the "Switchblade" It is nearly new with 439 miles indicated on the working odometer. The merits of this special production motorcycle with design lead by Willy G was touted in the Hot Rod Bikes magazine February 2001 issue as one of the finest, quickest, limited Harleys available. This machine is all go with its 88ci twin cam engine (1442ci) on a 5 speed transmission. The impeccable styling is highlighted by brilliant Scarlett Red paint on a color matched powder coated frame with all the hi-end spectacular chrome that could be added and polished. This machine has been protected indoors since its manufacture in November of 2000. There may be others on the market but nothing else is this pristine! Sold on a clear California Title and current registration. Will assist with shipping arrangements.
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Born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut and once identified as an "at-risk" youth, Ulysses Garcia believes all kids are "at-promise." As a senior consultant and member of the leadership team for Breakthrough Education Strategies, he provides coaching that strengthens individuals and unifies teams, and empowers teachers and administrators with skills that improve adult and student relationships. Passionate about kids, Ulysses works with students, mentoring and connecting them to a greater potential.
Prior to joining BES, Ulysses served as a leadership consultant for The Flippen Group, a Texas-based leadership development company that provides models and processes to schools and corporations across the country that improve relational capacity and increase performance. While in that role, he guided hundreds of schools to more effective classrooms and improved learning environments, and helped direct companies including UTC – Power and Fuel Cells, Hamilton Sundstrand, and White Hat Management to improved individual and team performances and enhanced organizational culture. Before joining The Flippen Group, Ulysses spent 19 years in various roles serving the educational community.
Ulysses received his B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Hartford, and has since been inducted into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame, in honor of his many accomplishments as a four-year scholarship athlete on the Men's Basketball Team. He also served as a three-year member of the National Basketball Team of Puerto Rico's Pre-Olympic Team.
Ulysses takes great joy in transferring his love of athletics to today's youth as a coach for boys and girls of varying ages and abilities. He has inspired kids to believe and achieve on teams that have competed from a local to a national level in basketball, football and lacrosse. He strongly believes in the many benefits that the athletic setting provides kids as they develop critical life skills that will be necessary for tomorrow's leaders.
Ulysses resides in South Windsor, Connecticut with his wife, Kelly and their three children.