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Current Used Automotive Equipment For Sale
Branick Model 500 Nitrogen Conversion Tower
This is a Used, working Branick Model 500 Nitrogen conversion tower with an 80
gallon tank. This system is great to fill up tires. The nitrogen doesn't expand
so the temperature doesn't affect the PSI in the tire. This makes sure the pressure will always be the same
making tires last longer...
[Read more]
Bendpak 4 Post Used Auto Lift
Like New, thisUsed Auto Lift 4 Post Bendpak Lift. This lift is powered by 220V single phase and has air locks. It is a super nice auto lift that is practically brand new and half way assembled already! Great for turning one parking spot into two or for working on anything underneath your car!...
[Read more]
Heavy Duty Half Ton Transmission Jack
Heavy Duty 1 1/2 Ton Transmission Jack. This heavy duty half ton transmission jack is used, but in great condition. This transmission jack would make a great addition to a home garage or auto repair shop! Read More →
Used T-Tech Transmission Fluid Exchange Machine
Used T-Tech Transmission Fluid Exchange Machine this is in working condition. This transmission fluid exchange machine will make a great addition to your auto repair shop services. Read More →
MIni-Max Transmission Fluid Exchange
Mini-Max Transmission Fluid Exchange Machine that works off of the battery of the car
you are working on. Comes with the hoses that are attached to the machine and the battery cables to
operate it, but it is missing the adapter set to use on various cars. Other than that the machine works
great and...
[Read more]
Du-All Coolant Recycler
This Du-All Coolant recycling machine is for sale. This machine is used but in great condition and doesn't come with any other adapter than the ones on the machine. Read More →
Accuturn Brake Lathe
Accuturn Drum and Rotor Brake Lathe With Table model 8894
Accuturn 8944 Drum and Rotor Brake Lathe in great working
condition comes on a special made table for this brake lathe to hold...
[Read more]
Kwik Way SBM100S Wheel Balancer
Kwik-Way SBM100S Balancer in excellent condition. This balancer is extremely accurate. Read More →
Coats XR 1800 Diagnostic Automotive Wheel Balancer
The Coats Model XR 1800 is one of their newest Diagnostic Automotive
Wheel Balancers and allows you to solve the toughest balancing problems in
the easiest ways. The XR 1800 makes it possible for technicians to check every
wheel for conditions such as runnout that can make balancing difficult. A
[Read more]
Coats 1001 Direct Drive Wheel Tire Balancer
Great used Coats 1001 Direct Drive Wheel Tire Balancer calibrated and ready to go! Really sturdy 3 phase balancer that will keep your customers happy! http://www.ammcoats.com/ Read More →
Coats 700X Balancer
• Cycle time 10 seconds (avg.)
• Tire/Wheel Weight 56 pounds max.
• Wheel Diameter Range 4 to 34.0 inches
• Wheel Width Range 2 to 18.6 inches
• Maximum Duty Cycle 40 wheels/hr @ 56 lbs.
• Balancing Increments Normal Mode 0.25-ounce (7 grams) Fine Balance Mode 0.01-ounce (2.8...
[Read more]
Husky Pro 30 Gallon
Husky Pro 30 gallon 2HP air compressor. This is a very quiet 110v vertical air compressor. Read More →
Used Ammco 2 Post Lift
• Integrated symmetric/asymmetric design delivers two choices for optimum vehicle lifting
• Three-stage telescopic front arms for maximum reach and vehicle coverage
• Adjustable height and width options accommodate varying service bay sizes
• Double Telescopic...
[Read more]
Corghi Tire Changer A2000
User-friendliness, reliability and performance are the characteristics that make the A2000 ideal for users who need a versatile tool at an extremely competitive price.
Operation is semiautomatic with swing-ing arm and 20″ turntable, and the machine is ideal for mounting and demounting car, van...
[Read more]
Wynn's Du-All Power Drain
Wynn's Du-All Power Drain and Fill Engine Coolant Recycling machine
Perform a cooling system drain and fill in less than 15 minutes
Bulk recycle 170 litres of used coolant in less than one hour
Safe 12V DC operation
Removable tool trays
Large capacity filters Non-nitrite coolant treatments
[Read more]
Coats Tire Changer Rim Clamp 5060AX
The COATS® 50X Series tire changer models are a perennial best seller because they pack a lot of features into a very affordable package.
The manual swing arm design uses one control to adjust horizontal tool head position and a second control to adjust vertical height. The 1.5 HP air drive system allows...
[Read more]
Coats RC-5 Tire Changer
Features: It's fast, easy to operate and its compact Foot pedal controlled, manually operated vertical and horizontal tool head adjustment. Air gauge, inflation hose and release valve. http://www.ammcoats.com/ Read More →
Hunter BL 505 Combination Brake Lathe
Features: Speed, precision and versatility. Unique design allows tech to change from rotors to drums & vice versa with speed & ease. Three spindle speeds for correct size work piece. Adjustable feed rate is standard, proving "dial-in fast rate for rapid material removal. Read More →
Coats 5030A Tire Changer
Features: Comes equipped with a 1 HP air drive system that provides enough power for tough wheels, while still allowing the tech total control over wheel movement. Easy "line of sight" operation & the aluminum air cylinders virtually never wear out. http://www.ammcoats.com/ Read More →
CPS Mach 1 AR300
CPS Mach 1 AR 300 Recovery, Recycle, Evacuate Features: LCD display, integrated manifold & Large 80mm gauges. OE preferred charging scale technology. Auto oil drain & push button air purge. Dual stage 113L/m vacuum pump & 22kg recovery tank. Read More →


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Food Photography Suggestions, Tricks And Tactics For Great Meals…
Vacations are an perfect opportunity to take gorgeous pictures in brand new places. In addition, states may possibly create projections for areas there are hyperlinks to every state's internet sites exactly where these information may possibly be retrieved. Must Have Photography Processing Apps Part two in the apps series examines well-known Android and Apple apps for processing and enhancing your phone photographs. Each stock photography site has a different arrangement, payment terms and they supply varied percentages, in my opinion some are much better than other folks even though some accept certain varieties of photographs other individuals do not. Flashlights, Flashguns and Studio Lights play an critical part in studio photography. It is really fascinating what 1 can derive from searching at body language in photography. I'd never looked at the ISO setting ahead of I started carrying out solution photography.
Today we can not picture ourselves without a camera and it is simple for us to take photographs wherever we go. This was not so simple at the beginning, when the 1st cameras had been produced. Your suggestions about using the macro mode, a tripod and timer are right on. I really like your use of black and white and sepia to give a diverse appear. Cemeteries are a fascinating photography subject that offer several different possibilities for photography. They frequently use cameras with gyrostabilizers to counteract the movement of the aircraft and ensure high-quality pictures. Backdrops massively increase weblog photographs and item images, and are also amazing for capturing portraits of buddies and loved ones.
There's practically nothing worse in a excellent portrait photo than undesirable background clutter distracting from the primary topic and ruining what would otherwise be a very good picture, for that reason the value of utilizing appropriate backdrops can't be stressed sufficient whether it be trees, sea and sky in the background or in a studio with a backdrop curtain of a suitable colour. If you can take a class provided by some of the most renowned names in photography that talk about and show you approaches of designing a shoot. Although cell phone cameras can be exciting although out and about with close friends, older little ones should have higher finish point and shoots or entry level DSLRs to actually improve their abilities.

subset: commoncrawl


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If we were having coffee, I find there is nothing more pleasing than useful and useless chatter. This is one of those chats that deserves apple cider with cinnamon sticks. Yum.
Last week, I wasn't able to compile Tuesday Chatter because of my ailing left hand. I posted a short story about my tumble, which resulted in an out-of-commission left hand. But I am pretty resilient and do my best to move on. You know, it finally feels like fall has arrived as it is currently 55 degrees in north Georgia, which is a major boost to my mood. YES!!
Oh zowie
I have an owie
but I'm no slouch
I won't be a grouch
I feel a little better
I'm a real go-getter
I know I'll be okay
with each passing day.
With that said, I decided to stop by Sally Sue's place while I was taking a brisk…
View original post 445 more words


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Written by Rosa Romero, MEd – Farm to Preschool Director, Urban & Environmental Policy Institute
There is an exciting new Farm to Preschool Pilot underway in Los Angeles! Since 2009, the Farm to Preschool (F2P) Program at the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College (UEPI) has partnered with Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment Early Childhood Education (PACE ECE) to develop curriculum to promote healthy eating and an understanding of where food comes from. PACE ECE operates 14 fully licensed Head Start State Preschool child-care and development centers serving 1,110 children age three to five throughout Los Angeles. Over the past few years UEPI and PACE ECE developed a comprehensive model Wellness Policy for Healthy Eating and Physical Activity that incorporates mandated policies such as making drinking water available to students indoors and outdoors (Assembly Bill 2084), offering nutrition and health education classes for parents (Head Start Performance Standards: 1304.23d) as well as specific F2P components of incorporating local foods into meals and snacks, weekly nutrition lessons, taste tests, gardening, and connecting with regional farmers through field-trips to farms and farmers' market and classroom visits by farmers. This model wellness policy has been used to train dozens of preschools in the Los Angeles area on how to create similar policies at their sites.
To implement the Farm to Preschool components of their wellness policy, UEPI facilitated a partnership between PACE ECE and Sustainable Economic Enterprises of Los Angeles (SEE-LA) —a farmers' market operator with a mission to build sustainable food systems and promote improved fresh food access— to pilot a Harvest of Month (HOTM) /Farmer in the Classroom project. Beginning in May 2016 select PACE ECE classrooms received Avocados from J. Davis Farm in Fallbrook, CA. The students participated in taste tests and recipe demonstrations showcasing salads, wraps and guacamole. The teachers, parents and students praised the project, saying that the local avocados sparked many discussions including talks about seeds, trees and other green vegetables. Julia Rauter, the Nutrition Coordinator at PACE ECE, commented that "through this project children were able to experience eating a healthy vegetable in many new and interesting ways while also drawing connections to larger learning concepts."
This Fall, the project will expand to other PACE sites and participating farmers will conduct visits in the Spring. In addition, each site is building a learning garden to accompany the F2P HOTM curriculum to create more hands-on experiences with food. Rauter further explained that "programs such as our partnership with SEE-LA and UEPI at Occidental College, are excellent at sparking interest in the minds of our children. Through taste tests and Harvest of the Month activities children learn to value fruits and vegetables, which helps to increase their willingness to eat them. Not only does this lead to them trying new healthy foods, but often times the children's enthusiasm is contagious and carries over into their household when they go home and share their experiences with their families. Over time, this can help to create positive changes in the minds of our families and get them to embrace healthier eating and appreciating locally sourced produce, which is a great step in the right direction when faced with all-time highs in obesity rates and nutrition-related chronic diseases."
On the farmer side of the project, Alyssa Seibert, the Program Coordinator for SEE-LA's Bring the Farmer to your School program explained that these types of partnerships, "help small farmers with supplemental income and provide meaningful experiences for farmers to see the educational components of their work. They feel like they don't just grow the produce for school but are truly giving back and sharing knowledge with the young ones." Seibert went on to explain that the most successful projects are when specialized partnerships develop. "This project is successful because UEPI has already developed a complementary curriculum and provides the teachers with training and technical expertise. Because PACE ECE sees the value of this type of programming and are 100% on board, they are willing to do all they can to ensure the full success of the pilot and help with logistics like storage and delivery of the produce. And we [SEE-LA] are able to use our connections with local farmers to provide the produce for the classroom experiences. This project is successful because all the partners bring something to the table and are dedicated to establishing healthy eating habits at an early age while supporting California farmers."
Visit our Farm to Preschool page to learn more.


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April's meeting minutes...
6:36 PM Erica Bjerning welcomed everyone and had them introduce themselves. We broke into small groups to answer the question "If we $2500.00 to use on an improvement along Foster Road what would it be?"
Randy Von Tungeln moved to accept the minutes. Jere Hudson seconded. Passed. Randy moved to add speaker, Nick Sauvie, ROSE CDC, to the agenda. Jo Ann Von Tungeln seconded. Passed.
Speaker – Nick Sauvie, Executive Director ROSE CDC, first told us about the upcoming Homeownership Fair, Saturday, April 24th 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM at Russell Middle School 3955 SE 112th. There will be a drawing for a $4,000.00 buyer's assistance grant that day. The Fair is an opportunity to attend ownership workshops and meet with realtors, lenders, and counselors.
Nick reported that ROSE is trying to purchase the former Metro Auto Wholesale property at SE 72nd & Foster. ROSE has plans for a mixed use affordable housing project they have named Arleta Park. It will be a three part project – a four story mixed use with commercial space on the ground floor and three stories of 2, 3 and 4 bedroom apartments; another space would be 32 one and two bedroom apartments for people with disabilities; the last space would be 6 townhomes to be sold. ROSE is currently working on finding funding. They expect to start construction this year, finish the first phase in two years, the next phase in another year, etc. Nick asked for a letter of support from Foster-Powell Neighborhood Association that ROSE could use in their funding drive. Jo Ann moved to support ROSE with such a letter. Christian Smith seconded. Passed. Nick informed us that we could also phone and e-mail city council with our support for the project.
Crime Report – no crime report.
Elections – Erica reminded us board elections will be at next months meeting, May 10. She reviewed all the position descriptions and job duties. These can be seen atwww.fosterpowell.org, contacts, association bylaws. Discussion followed regarding the several long open positions and how former board members have volunteered to mentor new board members.
Clean Up - Jo Ann recapped what the clean up is. This year it will be Saturday, May 1st 9:00 – 2:30 at Arleta Elementary. She asked for volunteers for the day of the clean up and to pass out flyers in the neighborhood prior to the clean up.
Powell Streetscape – Powell will be repaved this summer. Erica recapped a presentation and our support months ago regarding placing permeable pavers in the medians to replace the neglected landscaping. She has since found out that pavers would mean up to 70 trees being removed due to roots interfering with the pavers. SEUL initially supported the plan but has reversed their position to one of no support for anything that results in a lose of trees unless it is a safety issue. Jo Ann moved we write a letter of no support for anything that results in a lose of trees unless it is a safety issue. Leroy Goertz seconded. Passed.
Laurelwood Park Funds Update – Tracy Grotto reported that we still have $2500.00 from a grant from three years ago to put the chess tables in Laurelwood Park and for business street trees along Foster. The chess tables were installed but the street trees never happened for various reasons. This was the purpose of the earlier question what would we do with $2500.00 for improvements along Foster. Several responses were around street trees and interesting bike racks. Tracy asked for volunteers for a committee to review the suggestions made tonight.
Rep Reports: Lents Urban Renewal – Jon Mulvey has talked with Rep. Ben Cannon's staff about having an event this summer to bring in the broader community regarding development we would like to see along Foster Road and in the neighborhood. Jon feels it is an opportunity to continue and expand on the Foster Streetscape Plan and the more broad future of the Foster area. Contact Jon if you would like to be on the committee.
Land Use – Ken Pliska reported all liquor licenses south of Burnside are up for review until May 10th. Contact Ken if you have any questions or concerns.
SEUL – representative attended but no report.
Library –Vickie Oglesbee reported the Edible Landscape class will be April 24th at 3:00 PM. The beekeeping class will be in June. Symphony story time is every Wednesday 1:30 – 2:30. A member of the symphony is at the library with their instrument to give a demonstration and answer questions. The self checkout machines and security gates will be installed May 4th so the library will be closed. She assured us no jobs will be lost but this will free staff time for other duties.
Transportation – see urban renewal.
Website – no report.
Garden Tour – no report.
General Business –
7:50 PM Leroy moved to adjourn. Li Alligood seconded. Passed.


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Real Madrid have reportedly set their sights on
David Luiz, but any deal would depend on Chelsea's willingness to take Pepe in exchange.
Officials at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu are said to have grown tired of Pepe's antics, with the final straw his stamp on the hand of Lionel Messi during a recent Copa del Rey clash with Barcelona.
They are rumoured to be keen to offload the Portugal international at the end of the season, as long as they can find a suitable replacement.
One of the options Madrid president Florentino Perez is considering is trying to arrange a swap deal with Chelsea, reports Portuguese paper A Bola.
Luiz may have struggled to adapt to the style of defending needed in the Premier League since his arrival from Benfica 12 months ago, but the Brazilian is the kind of gifted footballer that Perez likes.
The thinking is that the deal would suit both clubs, as Andre Villas-Boas is known to be an admirer of Pepe and was linked with a bid for him last summer.
However, there is likely to be lots of interest in Pepe, with Bayern Munich among the clubs said to be keen to land him.


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I am constantly inspired and enthralled by the ingenuity, compassion and creativity of the people around me. For upright, naked apes we've come an awfully long way. Our collective model of the universe (our knowledge) spans orders of magnitude and scales which our minds can only barely imagine, let alone experience. Our technology is profoundly astonishing: it enhances our capabilities as a species far beyond our original abilities in almost every aspect of our lives.
And yet we seem determined to throw all this away. The vast majority of us aren't trying to poison ourselves, irreparably degrading our environment, consume the resources vital to our civilisation or generally jeopardise the survival of our species, and yet the net effect of our lifestyles, choices and actions leads directly to these outcomes. We're neither evil, nor stupid, so why is it that we seem incapable of addressing humanity's most important challenge: Sustainability? Wikipedia is pretty unambiguous on the meaning of sustainability:
Sustainability is the capacity to endure
Are we reducing our capacity to endure? That's something I want to blog about separately: It's quite a big topic in its own right. For now, I'm going to hypothesise that we are, simply to explore some of the behaviours that I think are generally undesirable, whatever the ultimate outcome. I've been thinking about this for a long time, and I guess it was this post: "Top 10 Common Faults In Human Thought" that finally prompted me to try and crystallise some of my thinking.
I guess a little background wouldn't hurt. I believe that humans are born with a brain that has been shaped by evolution to serve specific purposes and tackle specific challenges. The human brain is not a blank slate, its development completely dependent on what we expose it to. If you want to read up, I again recommend Stephen Pinker's "The Blank Slate". The brain's very success in carrying our species to this point leave it susceptible to mistakes in perception (optical illusions), logic (which we'll look at here) and memory (nostalgia!).
I'll follow the order in the original article and then add some others at the end. It's a long list, so I'll stretch this over a few posts.
10. Gambler's Fallacy
The Gambler's fallacy is the tendency to think that future probabilities are altered by past events, when in reality, they are not.
Perhaps our greatest gamble is our reliance on technology. Thomas Malthus predicted as long ago as the 18th century that unhindered population growth would be "checked by disease, famine and widespread mortality". Up until now, technology (particularly the Haber process for creating artificial fertiliser) have kept humanity's food supplies in sufficient quantity (even if we don't choose to distribute it evenly). Medical technologies and practices have defended us against smallpox, tuberculosis and a host of human zoonoses, diseases and epidemics. We're gambling that using up our fossil fuel reserves now will allow us to develop replacement technologies in time to transition seamlessly and securely. Technology has always served us well up until now, so the chances are that it'll serve us well in the future too, right?
9. Reactivity
Reactivity is the tendency of people to act or appear differently when they know that they are being observed.
I don't think that this fault is necessarily the most important in terms of sustainability, but I'm sure we've all at some point caught ourselves being a little greener than usual in order to escape criticism from someone we think is greener than us. One example stays with me from my young and foolish university days. I dropped some litter (something my parents would have given me a scolding for) and a friend reprimanded me, embarrassing me to the point that I haven't knowingly littered since. So what harm is reactivity? Maybe just that it's hard for us to be honest with each other about some of our worst habits and behaviours.
8. Pareidolia
Pareidolia is when random images or sounds are perceived as significant.
It's snowing - so global warming has to be a hoax? Maybe the most important insight into our psychology that this phenomenon offers us is in fact recognising that our brains are not faultless computing machines: they're pattern-matching algorithms designed to interpret and predict our environment. We need to stay mindful of the need for rigour and method in our decision-making. This works both ways: we're equally as likely to see false positives as false negatives.
7. Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Self-fulfilling prophecy is engaging in behaviors that obtain results that confirm existing attitudes.
As the source article says:
Economic Recessions are self-fulfilling prophecies. Because a recession is 2 quarters of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decline, you cannot know you are in a recession until you are at least 6 months into one. Unfortunately, at the first sign of decreasing GDP, the media reports a possible recession, people panic and start a chain of events that actually cause a recession.
Will the same be true for an environmental recession? Will the first signs of resource scarcity cause resource grabs or wars which exacerbate the situation and lead to real resource shortages? Do films like The Road and Children of Men give life to fears that our civilisation will inevitably end in a decline into chaos and desperation? Are there expressions of hope and a positive future that are as compelling?
This short YouTube video is worth a watch. It's palindromic in that the phrases can be read in reverse order and the result would be the same. It's a fantastic little illustration of how closely hope and fear are related, and the importance of perception: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA#
6. Halo Effect
The Halo effect is the tendency for an individual's positive or negative trait to "spill over" to other areas of their personality in others' perceptions of them.
The Halo Effect is perhaps most harmful at a corporate level. "Surely this company which makes such good _____ and has a glossy web page explaining its commitment to sustainability must be a safe bet. I like their products so much that I simply can't believe that they'd be engaged in harmful and unsustainable activities."
I'm not saying that all companies are bad: I'm just saying that just because a company is carbon-neutral and recyclable doesn't mean that it's not flying fresh fruit from all over the world, lobbying government for policies that have favourable loopholes or are investing their profits indirectly in arms manufacture.
I'd love to hear what you think in the comments. The second post in the series is in progress, more to follow soon...
*Update: The second post on this topic is here.*


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Burnt Full Movie is about chef Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper), who had it all – and lost it. A two-star Michelin rockstar with the bad habits to match, the former enfant terrible of the Paris restaurant scene did everything different every time out, and only ever cared about the thrill of creating explosions of taste. To land his own kitchen and that third elusive Michelin star though, he'll need the best of the best on his side, including the beautiful Helene (Sienna Miller).
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Actor: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Daniel Brühl, Omar Sy, Matthew Rhys, Uma Thurman, Emma Thompson
Director: John Wells
Country: United States
Duration: 101 min
Quality: HD
Release: 2015
IMDb: 6.6
Burnt Full Movie
"first click opens an ad, the second time the movie works"


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The objective of the Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS) is to measure "patients' initial function, ongoing progress, and outcome" for a wide range of lower-extremity conditions.[1][2]
Intended Population
The LEFS is intended for use on adults with lower extremity conditions.[1][2]
Method of Use
The LEFS is a self-report questionnaire. Patients answer the question "Today, do you or would you have any difficulty at all with:" in regards to twenty different everyday activities.[1][2]
Patients select an answer from the following scale for each activity listed:
- Extreme Difficulty or Unable to Perform Activity
- Quite a Bit of Difficulty
- Moderate Difficulty
- A Little Bit of Difficulty
- No Difficulty
The patient's score is tallied at the bottom of the page. The maximum possible score is 80 points, indicating very high function. The minimum possible score is 0 points, indicating very low function.
- ↑ Binkley JM, Stratford PW, Lott SA, Riddle DL. The lower extremity functional scale (LEFS): scale development, measurement properties, and clinical application. Phys Ther 1999;79:371-383.
- ↑ Rehabilitation Measures Database Lower Extremity Functional Scale http://www.rehabmeasures.org/Lists/RehabMeasures/DispForm.aspx?ID=1113 (accessed 24 Mar 2015).
- ↑ Fillechaud. Scoring the LEFS. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CDhRMZCWQ4


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24 Feb 2011
Silk Road Tours
The ancient Silk Road once played a most important role in the exchange of both trade and culture between the regions and countries of Europe and Asia. The history of the Silk Road dates back to more than 2,000 years. It started in Chang'an (present Xian, Shaanxi Province) in the east and extended to Rome, Italy, in the west. The route passed through Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai Provinces, Ningxia Hui and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and then further extended into Central and West Asia before finally ending at the east bank of the Mediterranean Sea and Eastern Europe. The total length of the Silk Road is over 7000km, over half of which is within China.
There are numerous scenic spots and historical sites along the Silk Road, and our adventure trips will take you to these jewels of wonder. Some of the attractions on the Silk Road include: the Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses of Xi'an, the Yellow River and Bingling Thousand Buddha Caves of Lanzhou, the Eastern Han Tomb and Confucius Temple of Wuwei, China's largest Reclining Buddha of Zhangye, Jiayuguan Pass, the Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang, Yangguan Pass, the Turpan Basin, the Bazaar of Urumqi, Abakh Khoja Tomb, Idgar Mosque, Old Town of Kashgar and (Kashi), and much more.
Along the Silk Road you'll be taken from the central yellow plains of China to the rugged deserts and lush oasis of Xinjiang. Riding camels across the desert, exploring ancient ruins of empires past, haggling in Muslim bazaars, and watching authentic Muslim dances and performances are part of the aura of this journey across cultures. Roam along the ancient trade route, imagine its apex in history, and experience the mystique and romance of the Silk Road.


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These consultation sessions can be used to take a closer look at you and your work, assist you in identifying your professional goals and opportunities, and develop strategies to attain those goals along a realistic timeline.
For individual artists, standard consultations cost $75/hour. If you anticipate needing more than 10 hours or more of consultation time a retainer rate is available. For small informal groups and small non-profit organizations, the standard consultation rate is $100/hour.
The following credentials may assist you when considering whether to retain my services:
I hold the distinction of being the first Lao American to receive an NEA Fellowship in Literature in 2009 for poetry. In 2012, I was selected as the Lao delegate to serve as a Cultural Olympian during the London Summer Games. My poetry is presently on display at the Smithsonian's national traveling exhibit I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story.
I have been cited for my writing in over nine national and international textbooks including the 2012 edition of the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics and Wenying Xu's Historical Dictionary of Asian American Literature and Theater.
Among my 20 literary, academic and professional awards, I hold an Asian Pacific American Leadership Award in 2009 from the State Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans, and a 2002 Many Voices Fellowship from the Minnesota Playwrights Center.
I am the author of 6 books and my work appears in over 100 international publications around the world including Australia, Canada, England, Scotland, Germany, France, Singapore, China (Hong Kong), Korea, Chile, Pakistan, as well as across the United States. I am the first Lao writer to hold professional membership in the international Horror Writer Association and the Science Fiction Poetry Association.As in previous years, I only take on between 5 to 15 clients at a maximum, following a brief portfolio review. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly at email@example.com and we can look over your specific needs and how we can best work together.


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NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Law Offices of Vincent Wong announce that a class action lawsuit has been commenced in the USDC for the Southern District of Texas on behalf of investors who purchased Tailored Brands, Inc. (NYSE: TLRD) securities between June 18, 2014 and December 9, 2015.
Click here to learn about the case: http://www.wongesq.com/pslra/tailored-brands-inc. There is no cost or obligation to you.
On June 18, 2014, Tailored Brands (then known as The Men's Wearhouse) announced the completed acquisition of Jos. A. Bank Clothiers, Inc. for $65.00 per share. CEO and President Doug Ewert referred to the newly-combined entity as a "truly great company for all our stakeholders." Then in November of 2015, the Company announced preliminary third quarter results and an updated fiscal year 2015 outlook. Investors were told there were "significant comparable sales weakness at Jos. A. Bank." The Company also acknowledged that fourth quarter comparable sales at Jos. A. Bank were expected to be down between 20 to 25% from the prior year's fourth quarter. On December 9, 2015, the Company released third quarter earnings that were worse than previously predicted just weeks earlier.
If you suffered a loss in Tailored Brands you have until May 31, 2016 to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff. To obtain additional information, contact Vincent Wong, Esq. either via email email@example.com, by telephone at 212.425.1140, or visit http://www.wongesq.com/pslra/tailored-brands-inc.
Vincent Wong, Esq. is an experienced attorney that has represented investors in securities litigations involving financial fraud and violations of shareholder rights. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.


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However, DECC also said the Renewable Heat Incentive, which pays people for every unit of heat generated by renewable sources, is not likely to be made available to domestic properties until summer 2013.
Commercial installations already qualify for the RHI and it was hoped that homeowners would be able to join the scheme sometime this year.
David Parry-Jones of Knight Frank's Building Consultancy team said: "Although extending the RHI Premium will be helpful for anybody looking to install a system, we would have preferred to see the RHI payment itself coming into place rather than being delayed again."
DECC has also announced it will be consulting on measures to help control the cost of the RHI. It said these could include lowering tariffs as the scheme grows and allowing the scheme to be suspended for new entrants if 80% of the available budget is expected to be spent.
Benjamin Davies of Knight Frank's Renewable Energy Team said: "Clearly costs have to be kept under control, but DECC needs to clarify the situation quickly so we avoid the uncertainty that badly affected confidence in the Feed-In Tariff scheme for renewable electricity."
Have your say on this story using the comment section below


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Machine Shop
Giant offers a range of high-quality pumps and accessories to meet the performance requirements of water jetting applications anywhere in the world. Giant pumps provide exceptional reliability, durability, efficiency and corrosion resistance to stand up to rigorous pressure washer operation demands and to maximize productivity and profitability. When you are looking for outstanding Performance Under Pressure to power your water jetting systems — whether water only or with abrasives — Giant has the right pump and best value to meet your needs.
To learn more about machine tool pumps visit our Machine Shop pump page here.
For a more specific, individualized recommendation on the best Giant pump to meet your unique application and performance requirements, please email email@example.com, or call (419) 531-4600.


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SPRINGVALE — After nearly 26 years of bringing live theater to area residents, and providing opportunities to aspiring actors of all ages, the future of the Sanford Maine Stage is in jeopardy.
The theater company's board of directors is preparing for the 2010 theatrical season after taking the last two seasons off. During the 2008 and 2009 seasons, Sanford Maine Stage leased its Hilltop Lane "home" to another theater company.
But the building recently changed hands and the new owner has made several "wonderful improvements to the building and the grounds," according to Leo Lunser, who has been involved with the Sanford Maine Stage since 1989. Lunser said in an April 18 e-mail that the roof is being repaired, the facade of the building is getting a facelift and a new handicapped entrance is being built. Brush has been removed along the road making the building visible to passers-by, new landscaping is planned and the parking lots will be paved or graveled, Lunser said.
Although he is willing to let the theater company remain in the building, the new owner has increased the rent significantly, according to a letter from the board of directors. The amount is more than the nonprofit theater can afford at this point in time, the letter states.
"However, we are determined to raise the needed funds so we can re-establish ourselves in 2010," the board writes.
Lunser said the theater company "needs to have $5,000 in hand" by May 1, in order to secure the building for the 2010 season.
Another hurdle facing the Sanford Maine Stage is the perception that, because it did not have a presence in the community for two years, the theater was no longer "in business."
The board of directors and the theatre's supporters are working to overcome these challenges. Advertising packets have been sent to area businesses in the hope that they will advertise in the theatre's 2010 playbill; donations and sponsorships are being solicited and fundraisers are being planned.
So far the theater has raised about half of the money it needs, according to board member Mary Stair, and time is running out. "We're hoping that the community will help us save the theater," Stair said.
Over the last 10 years, the Sanford Maine Stage has supported the community through benefits for organizations like Caring Unlimited, Sanford-Springvale Youth Athletic Association (SSYAA), Project Graduation, Odyssey of the Mind, and the Goodall Library Literacy Project, as well as the Red Cross and autism and cancer research.
The theater company continues to help raise funds for community organizations with its Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre events and has two such events coming up in May. "Last Will and Testament," a play that includes the audience in solving the mystery, will be performed at two locations on May 22 — at Massabesic Middle School to benefit the Odyssey of the Mind teams that plan to attend the international competition, and at Club 302 in Windham to raise money for the theater itself. For more information on these events, check the theatre's website at: www.sanfordmainestage.com, its Facebook page, or call 324-8227.
Sanford Maine Stage will also perform street theater on Saturday, May 8, for "Community Shred Day," 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Adams Park Storage on Smada Drive in South Sanford.
Another upcoming fundraiser for the theater is an "All You Can Eat Spaghetti Supper" on Friday, May 7, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Sanford AMVETS Hall, Post 3, 169 School Street. The meal includes salad, garlic bread and a variety of desserts. There will also be Karaoke and a 50/50 raffle. The supper is $8 per person and reservations may be made on the theater's website www.sanfordmainestage.com, Facebook page or by calling the number above.
Hoping the show will go on: Sanford Maine Stage's future is uncertain
SPRINGVALE — After nearly 26 years of bringing live theater to area residents, and providing opportunities to aspiring actors of all ages, the future of the Sanford Maine Stage is in jeopardy.


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by Muhsin
(New York, America)
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Does Texas still have straight-ticket voting?
Most states have ended straight-ticket, or "one-punch," voting, but Texas kept it going — as long as it helped the majority party. The state is getting rid of it starting in 2020.
Send us your questions about Texas politics and policy by emailing email@example.com or visiting texastribune.org/texplainer.More in this series
The short answer: Not for long. Straight-ticket voting allows a voter to cast a ballot for every candidate in a particular political party without having to vote in each race. The 2018 general election was the last time it will be on Texas ballots.
The Texas Tribune partnered with the education publisher Pearson to answer that and other questions for Texas students. Watch the video to learn more — or read our related coverage below:
- The Legislature voted last year to end straight-party voting for the 2020 elections. After a tough election for some down-ballot Republicans, some are wishing they'd done it sooner.
- After years of Texas voters having the option to vote for an entire party's slate in one fell swoop, the straight-ticket option will no longer be available beginning in 2020 under a bill signed by Gov. Greg Abbott.
- Straight-ticket ballots — where voters choose parties instead of individual candidates — accounted for almost 64 percent of total votes cast in the state's 10 biggest counties in 2016.


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Breton, British and Irish people join in the remembrance of March 28th 1942
On Wednesday March 28th 2012, CREDTB and Institut Culturel de Bretagne organized a ceremony paying homage to the brave men of Operation Chariot. They sailed from Great Britain and offered their lives for our liberty.
At 10 a.m., a group of about 60 persons made a silent pause in front of the "Vieux Mole", the symbolic place of the sacrifice of the British and their allies. It's exactly there, where they landed on Breton land , in the port of St Nazaire, that commandos and sailors had the heaviest human losses. Many British and Irish people had come to celebrate their memories with Nazairians on the day of the 70th anniversary of the British raid.The performance of Jean-Paul Strat and Georges Le Corre, two bagpipers from Ar Poulligwenn / Le Pouliguen, was particularly appreciated by our friends from across the Channel. After a minute's silence , a bunch of gorse, was thrown into the waters of the Loire, as a symbol of the land of Brittany.
A little girl from the Breton school Skol Diwan Sant-Nazer had been chosen for this symbolic offer, in the perspective of the transmission to new generations of the memory and the spirit of the courageous warriors of Operation Chariot. The moment was particularly moving for the British and Irish people there, and especially for the kins of the Welshman Morgan Jenkins and the Scotsman Tom Mc Cormack.
Before proceeding to the official ceremony, the CREDIB asked the town of Sant Nazer/ Saint Nazaire for the making of a "parcours d'interprétation" ( memorial path ) through the places where the raid was made, so that people know of that feat of the second world war.
We didn't forget the Bretons who helped in the success of this daring raid, thanks to the information they delivered to the British. The artist and ethnologist René-Yves Creston , founder of Seiz Breur, started, as soon as 1940, a network of informers with other Breton militants from Saint Nazaire/Sant Nazer .
Les commentaires sont fermés.


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Global infrastructure is required so that Internet endpoints without a prior relationship can communicate in a trusted and secure way. Unmediated connections are a hallmark of the Internet. Technologies such as encryption infrastructure, time security, and identity and authentication functions comprise the necessary infrastructure. It is this shared connectivity and trust infrastructure that enables a trustworthy and secure Internet for everyone, so it is where we will focus our efforts in 2019.
To that end, the Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS) campaign, successful in 2018, continues in 2019. MANRS has historically focused on measuring companies' and organizations' commitments to take action. This theme will continue in 2019 with a goal of doubling the number of MANRS members by the end of the year. We will also engage the community in discussions with the aim of establishing a governance model that supports a sustainable MANRS community, so that the project does not need further incubation.
Beyond strengthening the community, the deployment of the MANRS Observatory in 2019 will permit something more dramatic: the ability to note how many routing leaks happen on the Internet, whether there is a downwards trend in such failures, and whether the efforts of MANRS (and other routing security efforts such as route signing) appear to make any difference. For the first time, we will be able to report to the Internet community about the outcomes of MANRS. This will allow a mid-year decision on where MANRS will go next: whether there are new norms to embrace, or indeed whether MANRS can be effective at all.
Beyond MANRS, we will work within various communities to create the technical and policy building blocks that allow trust infrastructure to be developed, promoted, and implemented. We will continue to support developments that are needed for confidential end-to-end communication. We will examine the deployment issues surrounding network time synchronization security mechanisms. At the beginning of 2019, we will undertake an effort to identify and report the hurdles in standardization, usability, software availability, and operationalization, and to identify next steps; the report will be complete and published by the end of the year. More generally, we will develop a methodology for identifying how certain trust technologies can be deployed effectively, and test the methodology's utility in improving those technologies.
As ever, Internet Society staff will contribute to the development of best practices or technical standards resulting in standards that are secure and deployable in global setting. We will assess potential deployment issues in the deployment of new standards such as Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3, and Domain Name System (DNS) over TLS and HTTPS. To reach communities such as network operators, we will use the proven Deploy360 Programme channels to report on these issues and to drive deployment of these and other trust technologies.
In addition, we continue to advocate for the importance of security and trust in the components and operations that make up the Internet's infrastructure. The adoption and implementation of industry and community-wide norms of behavior that protect the public core, including in the international security community, is an important objective in that context. Not only will we continue to advocate strongly that trust in the Internet's infrastructure is an important foundation for the Internet itself to be secure and trustworthy, but we will continue to seek technical and policy levers that affect the ecosystem positively.


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- Tools:
Baton Rouge Community Revitalization Fund Application
Posted on 12. Feb, 2014 by Seth Weingart
In June 2013, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development reached an historic conciliation agreement with Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. The agreement resulted from a federal housing discrimination complaint originally filed by the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), GNOFHAC, and 12 other fair housing organizations around the country. The complaint alleged that Wells Fargo-owned properties in white neighborhoods were much better maintained and marketed than homes in African-American and Latino neighborhoods, which would be a violation of the Fair Housing Act. As part of the agreement, GNOFHAC will administer a fund to provide programs and services to promote homeownership, neighborhood stabilization, property rehabilitation, and development in communities of color.
Apply Now!
GNOFHAC is making grant funding available to non-profit organizations in Baton Rouge for projects that meet the following Community Revitalization Fund goals:
• Stabilize poor and minority neighborhoods impacted by predatory lending and high foreclosure rates.
• Promote fair housing choice and inclusive communities.
• Support affordable rental housing and homeownership opportunities in communities of color.
Please review the following guidelines to determine if you are eligible and if you would like to submit a proposal.
To apply, applicants must submit the proposal and all required documents in pdf format, by email to firstname.lastname@example.com. The application deadline is March 14, 2014, 5:00 pm central time.


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Chapter 1
"God, why is everything so boring?"
Once again, it was the same schedule he went through every day, just a continuous daily slog of sleeping, working, and eating, day in and day out. He was left in his usual position of sitting next to the window in his college class, listening to the same small talk and gossip that people typically did before class started.
The world's that contained the stereotypical, fantastic stories of beating down your enemy with overwhelming power didn't exist here. Nothing that great did, it was all just… so normal. Nothing in this world seemed near as interesting.
Taking a deep breath, he sighed, laying down on his desk to wait for class to start. "Hey Drake, what are you doing?" Surprised, he slowly looked over to see Taylor, one of the friends he had made during his college life. If you were able to describe a person at a glance, she would be beautiful. Brown hair with a few blond highlights, a pretty face, and a bit on the small side. She covered her ears with piercings, and had a relatively cheerful personality. Guys would often make small talk just to talk to her for a little longer.
"Nothing really, just sitting here." Sitting back in his desk, he leaned back, trying to stretch a bit. Glancing at her, he could see the same, expectant gaze he always saw from her. It was always something that bothered him. He was just an average guy. Barely shy of six feet, and somewhat above average in intelligence, he just seemed to float through life up to this point. Sitting down next to him, she looked at him curiously, "I was just wonderin' why you are just sitting there with that gloomy look on your face."
Looking outside, he thought back to what he was thinking of earlier. Facing her, he said nonchalantly, "Have you ever wished you could change something about the world? How everything seems too pre-planned and set from the moment you're born." She gave him a questioning look, before seeming to smirk a bit at his question. "Unfortunately, that's just how things are these days. It's not like we can just go back to the old days where everyone is fighting to survive. Sure, it'd be more adventurous, but is it really what people want?"
Feeling his stomach drop, he sunk back into his usual stoic attitude. Her attitude always bothered him. She always seemed to just shrug off his ideas. Of course he didn't actually believe everything would change. Everything is just too set in stone. Shaking his head, he propped his head up on one hand and turned to her. "Yea, I get it. So, what's wrong lately?" Drake said, frowning slightly. She normally didn't talk to him first unless she wanted something or wanted to complain about someone, typically a certain someone. "Boyfriend trouble again?" He guessed.
She looked to Drake, her eyes narrowed angrily. "Of course! All he's done is yell at me lately. We fought again this morning and it feels like I just can't do anything right. It's like he wants one thing and wants the exact opposite the next! What the hell am I supposed to do about it." She threw her hands up indignantly, before sitting down angrily next to him.
That wouldn't happen if you actually did anything about it.. He thought to himself.
He sighed, and said, "Why don't you try to stand up for yourself for… once… what the hell.." Looking around the class, he could see that everything had gone almost completely dark, even the electricity. Looking outside, he could see that even the sunlight had disappeared, leaving everything in an almost twilight state.
Descending from the skies, he began to see spire-like structure come into view, followed by a massive monolithic structure. As it slowly encroached upon the earth, Drake began to hear a voice slowly begin to talk to him, the sound seeming to come from all directions.
"To the beings known as Humanity, it is a pleasure to be able to make your acquaintance. We, are the Caracatia."
Jumping out of his chair, Drake looked around, eyes wide in confusion. What the hell? Where is this voice coming from, who is in my head?!
Taking a moment of pause, the voices began to speak again, seeming to thunder in his mind.
"We are currently speaking to every individual on the planet through relays above the major cities on our ships. It puts quite a strain on us, so let us begin. What we are here for, is a new chance."
Frightened, Drake looked up at the massive structure that had descended. A chance? A chance for what? And what the fuck is going on here?!
The thundering voice continued, "We've been watching you through the radio waves coming off from your planet for quite a while now. Most interestingly, we've been examining a wide variety of races that don't seem to exist on your planet currently, but appears all throughout a variety of historical texts and other entertainment sources. Quite honestly, we've all become quite enamored with a variety of those races, but don't seem to be able to find any DNA records on your planet itself. So, we all came to a decision regarding the future of the planet you call Earth."
Eyes widening with fear, Drake could only stare in horror at the massive flying structure, his thoughts racing.
"We are willing to make a deal regarding your species. Choose to become something more than human. We have the ability to change you, each and every individual, but only you will be able to make the choice to change yourself. After one week, we'll begin setting down creations of our own that we are particularly fond of. I hope you make the right decision and let it be fun for the both of us. That is all."
"So brother, do you think they will do it? It's quite a large decision. Of course, whether they choose to accept or not, the current state of humanity is doomed, but if everything goes right, it's going to be so much FUN!"
Aboard a gigantic ship located behind the Earth's moon, two of the leaders of the so called Caracatia were speaking with one another. They were a bipedal species, roughly seven feet tall as an average across the race. If someone from Earth saw them, they could easily be mistaken for an octopus that had grown a body. The two brothers, one wriggling with excitement, continued to talk.
"Who knows how many will take the chance. However, with the chance of potential evolution for so many individuals, it's going to require a large amount of power. We need to send out a division to the opposite side of this system's sun, parallel to the Earth. We need to be able to do this discreetly, otherwise it could cause problems. Tell them to collect as much energy as possible, this plan was ambitious from the beginning."
The shorter Caracatia spoke, his tentacles wiggling in anticipation. "How many do you think will be willing to take the risk? I say we spice things up for the first of each race, just to make it more interesting, what do you think?"
The older brother laughed, a sinister smile seeming to form under the mass of tentacles. "How long have we been watching this species, brother? Up to the last child, they become obsessed with power so easily." Glancing left to a large display, the younger brother excitedly combed through the different potential species, leaving the older brother to continue speaking. "We were in luck. We spent so long look for an ideal race, one that isn't restricted by that damn council, only to find billions hidden and waiting for us on this blue pearl. Ohhh, the creation of so many unique species on one planet. Just how interesting do you think it will be?"
The shorter brother smiled, the tentacles on his face wriggling with joy, "Enough to keep us entertained brother, enough to keep us entertained."
As he continued to watch the large spire floating in the sky, a slew of thoughts raced through Drake's mind. He began to mutter to himself, "This can't be real. There are actually aliens, and just for fun they want to change all of humanity? And what the hell did they mean by choice?"
At that moment, he felt a piercing pain shoot through his head. He looked around, and strangely, he saw letters beginning to form, floating in front of him. After a moment, they came together to form one word. Draconian.
What the hell is a Draconian? He thought.
Immensely confused, he looked around, seeing that the strange letters continued to stay consistently in his field of vision. Turning to Taylor he asked, "Hey, do you see any strange options in front of you? It should be some kind of mystical race, at least I think it should be. It just appeared for me after I started thinking about that choice those aliens offered."
She looked at him oddly before answering him. "Options? What are you talking about, I don't have anything like that. Wait, are you actually taking this stupid choice thing seriously… owwww."
She scrunched her face in pain. After a moment, her eyes widened in shock, and she slowly nodded to Drake. "Yea, I see what you're talking about now. Umm, I have a few options. There's a Succubus… High Elf… Hey Drake, there's something in my list that's called a Nekomimi. What the hell is a that?"
Laughing internally, Drake desperately attempted to keep a straight face in front of Taylor.
Oh god, how did she end up choices like those. Space creatures, whatever the hell you are, you truly are amazing.
Taking a moment to calm himself, he tried to think about her various choices. Honestly, the real problem is that besides the elf, I can't really think how those races could be useful. If this ends up turning into what I think it is, she would probably die to the first monster that looked at her weird.
Putting on his best act, he tried to explain it the best he could. "Well uh, I wouldn't recommend choosing to become a race called a Nekomimi for combat purposes, after all, you don't even know what it is. It could be anything. As for the succubus…" Desperately trying to think of something, all Drake could draw was a blank. "Well.. it'll probably be used for the obvious reasons. Maybe it'll have other uses once you get used to the body, but we don't really know what it'll be good for."
As Drake tried to give an explanation, Taylor seemed to be just staring at empty space from Drake's perspective. Looking back, she gave him an amused look. "Hey Drake, you do know it tells you what the forms can do."
What, seriously? Why didn't I get that option?!
He looked through his options again, this time noticing faint lettering under his option.
Wait, I think there was still something under mine.
As a beast race, the effects of the transformation are unstable, and may end in failure. Be warned. The risk is worth the reward.
His eyes squinting in disbelief, he thought, the risk is worth the reward, what the hell does that even mean?
Shaking his head, Drake listened to Taylor as she continued her explanation, "Well, apparently the Nekomimi race has enhanced senses and strength that is double that of normal humans. The elves live for a really long time, and their agility is three to four times that of a human. I can't even imagine what being able to move around like that is like…" She trailed off in amazement and then looked to the next option. "And well, as for the succubus.." She stopped mid sentence as her face slowly started to turn red. Of course, it was obvious what that particular race would be good for. If the aliens really did base it off our myths and other shows, it's really only popular for one reason.
She continued, "Well, um… they are pretty good at charming others. According to what it says, they have a light form of mind control, but don't really seem to have any combat abilities. At least not any that it's willing show tell me."
Surprising, it looks like they at least they gave it a few more options. Well, whatever she chooses, hopefully she can take care of herself.
He took a moment to think and gazed up at the massive airship in the sky again. Quickly, he confirmed something to himself, and turned to Taylor. "Hey Taylor, I'm going to head home. I want to see if I can find out anything over the internet, and I'm not sure if you want to stay here for much longer either. If I'm right, you'll want to be somewhere safe. I'll call you if something comes up."
He grabbed his things and began to rush out of the classroom, taking one last look at Taylor. She had been his friend ever since the first day of college, but now, he was doubtful if he could even help her at all. He shook his head uncertainly, and began to make his way to his car.
The sooner I can get home the better, if this offer works like I think it does, then there's going to be trouble. If people are able to turn as soon as they want, then it's likely we'll be seeing new races around the world. There's going to be trouble and soon.
"Finally home." Drake looked around his room. It was pretty typical for a college student, small and out of the way. He had lucked out, and was renting it for a cheap price, since it was relatively far off from campus and the other renters didn't like the size.
He cracked his fingers out of habit and sat down at his computer. "Ok, time to see if anyone was actually dumb enough to transform right away. With any luck, I'll be able to know what to expect at the very least." Turning on his computer, he starting searching for any news related to the offer. Surprisingly enough, aside from major news sites covering the alien ships, there was no one talking about the offer itself.
"You've got to be kidding me, there seriously can't no one talking about this." Muttering to himself, he kept combing through the various news sites, hoping to find information. After another five minutes of constant searching, he hit a wall. Everywhere he looked, there seemed to be a complete lack of information.
"Dammit! Seriously, all you have to do is think about the damn offer and.." *BUZZZZ* As he reeled from the sudden headache that hit him, he looked down as he watched the strange, wispy lettering begin to appear before him again.
Ahh.. that hurts. Does it really need to do that every time? And what was that warning for the beast races anyway?
He looked at his own offer again. As a beast race, the effects of the transformation are unstable, and may end in failure. Be warned. The risk is worth the reward. Slamming his fist into his desk, Drake stared angrily at the vague meaning behind the warning.
Running his fingers through his hair, he muttered, "Dammit, I still have no clue what kind of risk it's even talking about." Frustrated, he tried to interact with his offer.
As he did, his fingers passed through the lettering, leaving him with a small shock. More irritated than intrigued, he continued to try, leaving him increasingly angry. "I know Taylor said that she was able to see what her races were actually capable of, so why can't I see anything for mine. Then again, the better question is why the hell do I only get ONE OPTION?!" He slumped down in his chair, irritated.
As he was stewing over his situation, an idea suddenly struck him.
"Wait… beast race." He quickly searched for that term explicitly, leaving out any mention of the offer, and just like that, hundreds of posts from different message boards flooded in. "It didn't even hit me before. Of course, the government would try to censor something as big as this. You don't want people listening to the big bad aliens, so they block any mention of it." He smiled in victory for a moment, before leaning in to his computer.
"Well, time to get to work." As he scrolled through all the different posts and videos, he learned one thing very quickly. For some reason or another, there tended to be two different types of people.
The first type, were people like Taylor. They tended to have humanoid, or at least semi-humanoid races choices. The second type were, unfortunately, people who were stuck with Drake's situation. They all had strange, and sometimes horrible race choices, and all they were given was that one choice. Drake managed to stumble onto a message board and had luckily found that a few people who met up on the forum that were going to meet up in real life. They all had a similar beast race choice of Minotaur and were going to try to transform. They said they were going to meet up just to be safe, and would post an update. Apparently, they were going to take roughly half an hour to get together. Given that it had been almost twenty minutes since the post had been made, hopefully it wouldn't take too much longer.
Sighing, he sat up from his desk, he looked outside to see the giant structure still hanging in the sky.
He muttered, "So I'm stuck with this huh. Honestly I wasn't expecting much, can't really choose when there is only one option, but seeing other people have choices like turning into a hellhound or an orc, and suddenly I feel a lot better about my situation."
He turned away from his computer, and thought back to his drive here. He had the radio on in case something major happened, but even there it was just a blackout of information.
Honestly, why haven't I been hearing anything at all about it? It can't be a coincidence that no one is talking about it. Shaking the nagging feeling away, he turned and made his way over to his bed.. Grabbing the remote, he made himself comfortable and turned the T.V. on.
Guess I might as well watch T.V. while I'm waiting for those guys to meet up. Not like I have much else to do.
As he turned on the T.V, he was startled by a blaring noise, and what he saw horrified him.
"BREAKING NEWS, it seems that the aliens have broken their promise to wait a week before sending all manner of horrifying creatures to attack citizens. It's only been an hour, but there have already been reports of strange creatures wreaking havoc on the city and nearby rural areas." As he looked at the television, Drake couldn't believe his eyes. There was a griffin dive bombing people in the streets, with blood already on its talons.
It seemed to be missing various people who could just dodge out of its way until it managed to snatch a large man who wasn't able to move quickly enough. As it grabbed the large man mid-flight, it viciously bit down on the upper half of his body, the large beak covering the man's head completely. Blood gushed out of the body as the griffin struggled to maintain flight for a moment, then stabilized and carried off its prize. Drake could barely stand to watch it begin to carry him off, and the griffin quickly turned around a large building, losing the cameraman as it did.
Shaking his head hesitantly, his eyes widened in disbelief, "They said they'd wait. If they're doing this for fun, then why set down creatures early, why tell us anything in the first place, it doesn't make any sense!" Drake was in shock. Looking at the TV, he watched as the cameraman slowly panned over the scene of carnage.
"What if…" Drake quickly shut off the television and hurried back to his computer. He went back to the message board that was supposed to have the group turning into Minotaur's one by one, to make sure it was safe.
The forum had updated roughly a minute ago with a new message. He felt his stomach go into knots as he clicked on the link. As he read the forum post, it confirmed his fear. "Dammit. I knew that's what it was." The post read as such.
"It wasn't safe! After she changed she just went berserk, and killed everyone else she could get her hands on. She seemed to be ok at first, but after a few seconds the light just went out of her eyes, and she gored the man who was standing in front of her! After that, she just seemed to grab anything in range and rip it apart."
Cursing himself for his stupidity, he began to think to himself. That must have been what the warning was for the beast race offers. While I'm not sure how high the chance is, or if it even differs in between the race or the person, there's a chance I could go berserk.
"HA HA! Look brother, the fun has already started." Aboard the mothership, the two brothers were watching the mayhem. "Did you think those humans would ignore the warnings so easily? While the humanoid group doesn't have anything to worry about yet, the beast races are already running amok. HA HA." The younger Caracatia was standing over the viewing platform, joyfully taking in all the carnage.
Clarota looked over at his brother. He had always been excitable, but ever since we arrived at this planet, he seems to have gotten worse. Well, it shouldn't cause any major issues.
Rather nonchalantly, he said, "I didn't expect them to create as big of an impact as they did either, brother. I'm curious how many will choose to turn once they learn that their fate is to likely fail in the transformation. Honestly, I'm quite surprised this has turned into an issue already. What is the concentration of mana in the atmosphere currently", he asked curiously.
The younger brother turned to him, a downcast look on his face. "Barely 4%. I imagine it would be much more interesting if we hurried brother." Althari was upset his brother wouldn't allow him to speed up the process. If too many of the beast race turned right away, the likelihood of something going wrong with the process increased greatly. Without sufficient mana, there was no telling what could happen.
"No. We are already converting mana as efficiently as possible", he said strictly. "Leave the few of the beast races that transform quickly. They are negligible. After all, between that cryptic warning we left to deter any from immediately transforming, and the human's natural response of fear of the unknown, it's likely the humans will do all the work for us."
What do I do? Between berserk humans and the monsters that are going be dropped down in six days, I need to be able to do something! Drake's mind was scattered. While there was a chance he could go berserk, he could also be killed instantly if he was unlucky to be found by one of the berserk beast race. Even if everything did go well, he could be shot at by others until he was able to explain himself. Boarding himself up wasn't an option either. Who knows what kind of changes the Earth is going to go through after the aliens are done. With a resigned sigh, Drake made his decision.
I need to transform, and I need to do it in a place where there aren't any people. At least that way I won't cause any damage to the people around me if something goes wrong. He paused. This could very easily be the last day of his life.
Taking a moment to sort out his thoughts, Drake renewed his determination. "I don't know if the chance is random or not. If I don't know the answer, there isn't any point in worrying about the consequences. I'll only be pointlessly wasting time. That griffin attack wasn't too far away from here." With how fast that thing is able to fly, there could be any number of monsters moving around, he thought to himself. He sighed, and moved without a second thought.
A few minutes later, Drake was crossing over bridges located nearby, where he could hide himself away in the nearby nature reserve. It would be one of the most deserted places nearby that he could get to easily. Taking a deep breath, he steeled himself. "Well, let's see what being a Draconian is all about."
<|Next Chapter>


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text: Actor Akkineni Nageshwara Rao has finished shooting his part for Manam. This said to be a family drama. Shriya pairing up with Nagarjuna & Smantha for Naga Chaitanya.The movie is currently Progressing in Hyderabad and the next schedule of Manam will start from 1st December in Coorg, Karnataka. This schedule lasts for 15 Days. Manam produced by Nagarjuna under Annapoorna Studios Banner. Ishq fame Vikram kumar directing this flick.Manam sceduled for Summer release.


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by Public Relations
Established in 2004, Cedarville's center for political studies has worked hard to give students new opportunities. They are now offering the fall D.C. Semester as a chance for students to interact with professionals and alumni in an environment that enhances their career endeavors. This past fall marked the second year that Cedarville has offered its students the chance to spend a semester studying and working in Washington, D.C. Few Christian schools offer such a rigorous, real-world opportunity for students to explore their interests in a wide variety of disciplines, including history, government, communication, business and healthcare.
The D.C. Semester is made up of two parts. Students who participate in the program complete an internship worth 10 credits while also completing six credits of coursework from Cedarville faculty. In fall 2010, Frank Jenista, Ph.D., professor of international studies, lived in Washington and taught the students' courses.
During a typical week, students work at their internships Tuesday through Friday during the day and attend classes two nights a week. On Mondays, they participate in educational and cultural experiences, such as visits to government agencies and advocacy organizations for briefings and tours.
Cedarville alumni are often able to organize these tours and briefings that otherwise would not be accessible to students. This past fall, a Cedarville graduate working for the FBI arranged a special D.C. Semester visit to the FBI Academy, which does not offer public tours. Other highlights of the semester included visiting the Pentagon, the U.S. Department of State, International Justice Mission and the National Association of Evangelicals, among others.
Joseph Crupi, a junior international studies major, spent the semester working at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a research organization focused on U.S. policy and politics in Latin America. Crupi managed the organization's finances, conducted research on contemporary issues in Latin America and wrote articles, some of which were published in the "Washington Report on the Hemisphere," a biweekly publication distributed to scholars and university libraries.
"Our site visits and class sessions with policy experts gave me an entirely different perspective on how the government operates," says Crupi. "It was fascinating to see how the information we were learning in our classes applied to real life."
Top students from a wide variety of majors spend their semester building connections and a reputation for future Cedarville students in Washington. Cedarville has partnered with The Heritage Foundation, which houses the students during their stay, and the organization is encouraging Cedarville to keep growing the program.
"Our goal is to make the program widely available to any major," says Jenista. "Bible students have to complete internships. Why not have Bible majors ministering in churches in the capital?"
As students build a reputation for Cedarville and the program gains strength, professors are also reconnecting with alumni and old acquaintances to provide more internships and tours for Cedarville students. The faculty and students are intentional about building Christ-like relationships to foster ministry in a city that desperately needs to see the love and work of the Gospel.
Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University attracts 3,200 undergraduate, graduate, and online students to more than 100 areas of study. Cedarville is a Christ-centered learning community recognized nationally for rigorous academic programs, strong graduation and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings, and leading student satisfaction ratings. Visit the University online at www.cedarville.edu.


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As I hope I made clear in my post on Monday, I'm willing to give the old devil her due. But let's not get carried away. "Margaret Thatcher had more impact on the world than any woman ruler since Catherine the Great of Russia," Paul Johnson wrote in the Wall Street Journal. In the Times, David Brooks, perhaps confusing her for the Count of Cavour, said that she led a "fervent bourgeois Risorgimento." Meanwhile, Speaker John Boehner described her as "the greatest peacetime prime minister in British history."
Even allowing for a bit of grade inflation since the days of Peel and Gladstone and Disraeli, such comments are over the top. Mainly, they are political. With conservatism in trouble on both sides of the Atlantic, right-leaning politicians and pundits are eager for some of Mrs. Thatcher's aura to rub off on them. In a survey of academics who specialize in British history, carried out in 2010, Thatcher placed second in a ranking of postwar Prime Ministers, behind Clement Attlee, the self-effacing Labour leader who held office from 1945 to 1951. The Times of London, hardly a socialist organ, produced its own list of great Prime Ministers back to the eighteenth century, and Thatcher ranked fifth—behind Churchill, Lloyd George, Gladstone, and Pitt the Younger.
These rankings seem about right. Everybody remembers Churchill, but Lloyd George and Attlee sometimes get short shrift. In raising taxes to pay for old-age pensions and initiating a system of unemployment insurance, Lloyd George's liberal government laid the foundation for the modern welfare state, which brought economic security and economic opportunity to millions of Britons from modest backgrounds, myself included. (As head of a coalition government, Lloyd George also led Britain to victory in the First World War.) Attlee's Administration completed Lloyd George's work, fashioning a "cradle to grave" social safety net and creating the National Health Service. Mrs. Thatcher undid some of this work, but by no means all of it. Even today, David Cameron and his economic hatchet man, George Osborne, dare not extend their budget cuts to the N.H.S.
Industrial Relations
As has been widely stated, Thatcher's most lasting achievement was to reform a system of industrial relations that had become sclerotic and dysfunctional, and which was holding back innovation and productivity growth—the ultimate source of rising living standards. But it is important to be clear why this was so. Contrary to much of what has been written in the past couple of days, it wasn't because Britain's labor-union barons had too much power, or that unions are always inimical to economic growth. The continuing success of Germany, where labor representatives routinely sit on the boards of major companies, demonstrates that's not true.
An important historical difference between Britain and Germany (and, to lesser extent, France) was that in continental Europe the unions were mostly national organizations structured along industrial lines. This mattered a lot. It meant that when German union leaders negotiated with management about installing new equipment and making changes to work practices they were able to deliver their members, and make sure the agreements stuck. Consequently, it paid German firms, such as Volkswagen and B.M.W., to invest in new equipment and upgrading their workers' skills. The result was a high-skill, high-wage manufacturing sector that was able to weather competition from developing countries.
In Britain, by contrast, the unions tended to be fragmented, craft-based, and organized at the plant level. National union leaders, with some exceptions, were too weak to make binding deals. Time after time during the governments of Harold Wilson, Ted Heath, and James Callaghan, national agreements were undermined by stoppages and strikes at the plant level, where local "shop stewards" often exhibited all the foresight and enlightenment of the Peter Sellars character in the 1959 movie "I'm Alright Jack." German-style corporatism simply didn't work in Britain. The unions were too self-centered and bolshy to go along with it. The managers were too passive and myopic to overcome their resistance. The result was a low innovation equilibrium that saw the output and productivity of British industry fall steadily behind its overseas rivals.
By outlawing secondary picketing and other strong-arm tactics that the unions employed, Mrs. Thatcher changed the rules of the game. In a phrase, she restored the right to manage. (A more loaded but equally accurate way to put it: she tipped the class war in the direction of capital.) The result, eventually, was a jump in productivity, which closed some of the gap with Germany and the United States. Paul Krugman has pointed out that much of the improvement took place in the nineteen-nineties, after Mrs. Thatcher had left power, raising questions about how much credit she deserves, but that isn't entirely right. In a 1997 monograph, "Britain's Relative Economic Decline 1870-1995," one of my old tutors, Nicholas Crafts, an economic historian who is now at Warwick University, noted that in British manufacturing, especially, productivity growth picked up sharply during the nineteen-eighties.
It's no mystery how this happened. Newly empowered by the Thatcher government, British managers first closed down inefficient plants and expanded efficient ones, which led to higher productivity and higher unemployment. If this "batting average" effect had been all there was to Thatcherism, it wouldn't have been very significant. But as the years went on, many British businesses, not just the old-line manufacturers, reorganized their production methods and invested in new technology, which generated more sustained productivity growth. In a follow-up paper published in 2011, Crafts noted, "As the age of information and communication technology came along, Britain was able to embrace the opportunities associated with rapid diffusion of the new technologies, which required big changes in working practices and management hierarchies, better than its continental-European peer group. This would not have happened with nineteen-seventies-style industrial relations and a heavily regulated service sector."
A few figures that Crafts cites tell the story. In 1979, output per employee in German manufacturing was almost twenty per cent higher than in British manufacturing. A decade later, the gap had been reduced to five per cent. Progress was also made in the fast-growing services sector. In a survey of productivity growth in twenty countries carried out by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Britain ranked twelfth in the period from 1960 to 1973. Between 1979 and 1994, it ranked fifth. To be sure, dear old Blighty was still no world-beater. Compared to the United States and Japan, for example, it was still lagging badly in manufacturing productivity. But it was no longer the "sick man" of Europe—by 2007, output per head in the over-all economy had reached German levels—and that's the case for Thatcherite shock therapy.
The case against it is that it was all shock and no therapy. An aggressive act of economic engineering that ultimately depended upon the police powers of the state, its social costs were enormous and are still being felt. And while it facilitated a burst of catch-up growth with other nations that had raced ahead of Britain, it was too short-termist, too inegalitarian, and too inimical to the concept of public investment for it to lay the foundations for lasting shared prosperity.
Poverty, Inequality, and Unemployment
Perhaps the most visible cost of Thatcherism was mass unemployment, which remained a blight on the country well after she left office. Between 1955 and 1979, the unemployment rate in the U.K. averaged 3.3 per cent. Between 1980 and 1995, it averaged 9.7 per cent. And these figures don't take account of millions of Britons who dropped out of the labor force to take disability benefits or enter the underground economy. For the first time since the nineteen thirties, chronic joblessness returned, and with it came a big increase in poverty. A helpful chart on the Guardian's Web site shows the trend. If the poverty line is set at sixty per cent of median income, in 1979 13.4 per cent of households lived under it. By 1990, Mrs. Thatcher's last year in power, the rate had shot up to 22.2 per cent.
The figures largely speak for themselves. But a couple of other things are notable about these developments. Many conservatives weren't (and aren't) above depicting the unemployed as "scroungers" living high on the hog at the taxpayers' expense. In fact, Thatcher and her successors toughened the eligibility requirements for receiving unemployment benefits and slashed their value. In New York and many parts of the United States, the level of benefits is related to prior earnings, which ensures they provide a basic living. In the U.K., by contrast, all claimants get a flat rate benefit, which is currently about a hundred dollars a week for single people. (Yes, that's one hundred.) Even allowing for housing and child benefits, British benefit levels are substantially lower than levels in many other countries, and this is one of Mrs. Thatcher's legacies.
Additionally, the high unemployment rates were a direct consequence of misguided government policies. Thatcher's initial embrace of monetarism and austerity policies led to higher interest rates and a higher exchange rate for sterling, which was already rising because of the discovery of North Sea oil. An overvalued pound rendered large swaths of British industry uncompetitive with foreign suppliers, and export industries such as steel, shipbuilding, and engineering were decimated. Many towns and cities, particularly in the north, never properly recovered from the Thatcher-era deindustrialization, which is one of the reasons she is still very unpopular in many areas.
In other regions and industries, particularly in the deregulated financial sector, some people did very well. Consequently, income inequality rose sharply. In the nineteen-seventies, the Gini co-efficient, a common measure of this gap between rich and poor, averaged 24.3 placing Britain near the bottom of the economic inequality league table. By the mid-nineties, the Gini had jumped to 32.4, moving Britain well up the table, and since then it has continued to rise. Indeed, by this measure, Britain is now the most economically unequal big country in Europe. (It still lags behind the U.S., though.) Adopting the commonsense value judgment that an additional dollar of income is worth more to a poor person than a rich one, economists sometimes adjust G.D.P. and productivity figures to account for changes in inequality. In his 1997 study, Crafts did just this, and he concluded: "The resulting change in the British growth rate is large and makes British performance look relatively and absolutely much less attractive—on this methodology the U.K. goes to the bottom of the league table."
The Class System
Mrs. Thatcher's defenders sometimes claim that she destroyed, or seriously undermined, the British class system: opening up the professions, enabling the working class to buy their own homes, and removing some of the privileges of the toffs. It's an appealing story that doesn't match the facts. Another way of saying a society is classless is to say it exhibits a lot of social mobility. But studies show that since Mrs. Thatcher came to power, in 1979, social mobility has gone down rather than up. Far from becoming more classless, Britain has gotten even more class bound. Some of the progress that was made during the post-war years has been reversed.
The seminal paper in this area was published about ten years ago by four British economists (Jo Blanden, Stephen Machin, Alissa Goodman, and Paul Gregg) who analyzed the incomes of one group of Britons born in 1958 (the pre-Thatcher cohort) and one born in 1970 (the post-Thatcher cohort). Specifically, the researchers looked at how closely correlated each person's income was with the income of their parents. If the correlation co-efficient is high, it means economic status is passed down the generations, which is happens in a class-ridden society. Here is the conclusion of the study: "Even though these cohorts are only twelve years different in age we see sharp falls in cross-generation mobility of economic status between the cohorts. The economic status of the 1970 cohort is much more strongly connected to parental economic status than the 1958 cohort."
In an article published in 2005, Blanden, Gregg, and Machin summarized their findings and related them to the broader debate about rising inequality:
The rapid increase in UK income inequality that began in 1979 is sometimes justified by the argument that society is now more meritocratic so that it is easier for the poor to become richer if they are willing and able to work hard. In fact, our research shows that the opposite has occurred—there has actually been a fall in the degree of social mobility over recent decades. Children born to poor families are now less likely to break free of their background and fulfill their potential than they were in the past.
More recent studies have produced similar results, and even some members of the Conservative Party have acknowledged the reality. An all-party parliamentary study that was published last year concluded, "British social mobility is low by international standards and does not appear to be improving." Among the factoids contained in the report: more than a third of M.P.s, more than half of C.E.O.s at top British companies, and seventy per cent of high-court judges had attended exclusive private schools—the traditional means by which the British ruling class reproduces itself. Of course, Mrs. Thatcher isn't solely responsible for this sorry state of affairs. (Blanden et al. suggest that, ironically enough, some of the blame lies with reforms during the nineteen-nineties that were intended to broaden access to higher education but which ended up being focussed on young people with richer parents.) Still, the data is pretty clear: the decline in social mobility began during her premiership.
Education and Innovation
The reference to education brings me to another drawback with Thatcherism. From the beginning, it exhibited a hostility to investing in education, particularly higher education, which has undermined Britain's long-term competitiveness. By slashing the education budget and holding down the salaries of teachers and academics, Mrs. Thatcher drove away many able educators, some of whom came to the United States, where salaries and research budgets were more generous. An Oxford-trained chemist, she even cut the research budget for sciences like chemistry, biology, and medicine—a policy that earned her rebukes from senior executives at Glaxo and I.C.I,. which were then Britain's biggest drug company and chemicals company respectively. If there's one thing most economists can agree on, it's that in advanced countries economic progress depends on fostering scientific research and an educated workforce, two things Thatcherism failed to do.
But that was Mrs. Thatcher. In taking on the unions and privatizing companies such as British Telecom and British Petroleum, she removed some of the barriers that had been holding back large parts of British industry. And in encouraging more competition and entrepreneurship, she unleashed forces that, over time, led to substantial innovation and efficiency gains in other areas, too. But that was only part of the story. Convinced that reducing tax burdens and getting government out of the way were the keys to growth, and to her narrow vision of liberty, she was implacably hostile to more subtle arguments about the need to remedy market failures, such as unemployment, underinvestment, and short-termism. And as for concerns about inequality and social exclusion, she regarded them as left-wing poppycock.
It was left to her successors—John Major and Tony Blair—to try and fill in some of the gaps in Thatcherism, while seeking to preserve the gains it had brought. Major's Conservative government made a start by expanding the university system. Blair's Labour Administration invested heavily in schools, health care, and public infrastructure. Taking seriously some of Mrs. Thatcher's strictures about market forces, it also toughened anti-trust policy and strengthened competition throughout the economy, encouraging market leaders to innovate. Although it by no means did everything that was needed, it also took some steps to arrest the rise in inequality, raising taxes on the rich and expanding income support programs for low-paid workers.
Today, though, there are big questions about the future of the U.K. economy. For a long time, some of its underlying weaknesses were masked by the tremendous growth in financial services, and the City of London, which, together with a housing bubble, generated enough tax revenue to fund education, health, and redistribution programs. The financial crash of 2008-2009 gravely undermined this economic model, which seems unlikely to be revived anytime soon. In recent years, output growth and productivity growth have become almost non-existent, and tax revenues have fallen sharply.
The Conservative-Liberal coalition's recipe for turning things around amounts to more Thatcherism—more cuts in government spending, particularly welfare benefits; more privatization; more deregulation. So far, it has failed dismally; the limits to Thatcherism are more apparent than ever. Like Mrs. T in 1981, David Cameron says he's not for turning. But unless he does, he's likely to go down, like many of his heroine's predecessors, as a failed Prime Minister.
Photograph, of Thatcher in 1977, by Marion S. Trikosko/Library of Congress.


text: Share: Comments Print May 1, 2012 at 5:05 PM Police, protesters skirmish near Pike Place Market Posted by Jim Brunner Seattle police arrest protester downtown (photo by Mike Lindblom) From Seattle Times reporter Mike Lindblom: More conflicts between police and protesters flared this afternoon near Pike Place Market before 5 p.m. One man was taken down and arrested after he struggled when police moved to confiscate a flag pole he was carrying. A crowd converged on the scene and someone threw a bottle toward the officers. Soon after, a teenager who identified himself as William James Page, 15, of Seattle, said he was struck in the head and nose by baton-wielding police who pushed the crowd back. Page was bleeding and being attended to by volunteer medics accompanying the protesters. "We were telling them to let him (the protester being arrested) go," Page said. "I was caught trying to hold the line." The group of a few hundred protesters were marching downtown from Seattle Center, where they'd gathered to protest police brutality at the memorial John T. Williams, the First Nations woodcarver fatally shot by a Seattle police officer two years ago. Comments | More in General news | Topics: May Day