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Saturday, May 30, 2009
40. Living Leaving
I am surrounded by 30 youngsters. They are bubbling with energy and are excited with the just completed 'Maitree' (Friendship) camp. The train is waiting on the platform like a long sleeping snake. We occupy the bogie, arrange luggage. The train slowly leaves the station… I silently go to the door of the compartment. When the train takes the curve, you can have a glance of the beautiful station. But I cannot see anything … my eyes are full of tears, my heart is almost broken. Because, I am leaving Kanyakumari forever…
The incidence happened only once … long back… to be exact, 19 years ago. But even today, on so many early mornings I wake up with the same dream… the young me standing in the train compartment door with so much of pain and sorrow, shattered by emotions and rationality, caught between living and leaving. It is appallingly 'real' every time…
Like the Dark Wizard Voldemort (if you have read Harry Potter …) I have divided my soul into so many parts and kept it at many places (I wont call it Horcrux though) … Leaving Kanyakumari was the beginning of that 'soul departure' kind of living.
But why speak only of pain? There is happiness associated with every pain… one just needs to have paradigm shift.
Because of my 'sense of responsibility' I had informed (about leaving) to the concerned colleagues six months in advance. Everybody argued with me, tried to convince me, promised me certain changes, challenged me… I was too young (and too attached) to resist all that and agreed to stay for one more year. Everybody was relieved … a year is a good time to make people forget their plans. Everyone was assured that they have me continuing to live with them.
At that time we had a set of yearly activities. A youth camp in this month, a women's training in that month, a meeting at Kanyakumari in August, Vivekananda jayanti (birthday) celebration in January … and so on.
Because of my decision to leave after a year, I started enjoying every activity very intensely. Every moment became a unique moment… I was sure that it will never come again, and so I lived it fully, without any distraction. Even a simple walk in Shivaji Park, running to catch a train at crowded Dombivali station, the books in the library, the phone calls, the visits to various homes, the yoga class, the coffee at someone's home, travel to Kanyakumari, walking in Kanyakumari campus at 3.00 in the morning, writing cash books, conducting EC (Executive Committee) meetings, writing an article for publication, arranging visit of boys and girls from Arunachal, eating at 'Aswad', playing carom with friends, the cool breeze in Dadar station, patting a cow at the garbage dump, talking to a shopkeeper, … I lived every moment as if it would never come back. And certainly it never came back…
That was the best period of my life. I was not fragmented but whole. I was not anxious but was eager. I had lost the outward battle, but I had won it within. 'Leaving' taught me the 'art of living'. Living fully, completely, intensely, happily, objectively, and so much more.
Life is funny. Many times things you love most are bound to destroy you. You need to leave people, places, and ideas to save yourself from that possible destruction. You have to carry it all alone, with a smile....because others never understand. They can question, they can sympathize, they can support… but they cannot live it for you.
Because of that 'leaving' experience I never faced the dilemma of leaving afterwards. For me, living and leaving are the two sides of the same coin. Apparently you can have only one of those, but in reality you have both. When one door shuts, another opens …with many more probabilities. One should not be scared of leaving. The scar remains but the pain disappears… because learning to deal with pain is an aspect of inner growth.
Why not leave to live?
Saturday, May 23, 2009
39. Rediscovering Marx…
We all are Marksist in our student days … I mean we all run after 'Marks' in the examination… and some unfortunate people run after such things all over their life.
In my childhood 'marks' was the only instrument I had; to blow the barriers around. That was the only way I had for crossing the limiting life chances. Once I earned freedom; I put 'Marksism' (and everything associated with it) in the coffin.
When I came to Pune for graduation, attending Marxist Study Circles was the fashion of the day. It was a kind of symbol of intelligence … I mean at the age of 15 if you talk about ideology and social transformation etc. you really are 'out of the world'. I do not know why but I was attracted to Marx… Getting attracted towards unknown worlds without understanding them properly is still my way of life.
I went to the Study Circle meeting once, twice, thrice … and then I dropped out. I was not able to grasp the discussions there. I had hard time spelling words like bourgeois (even today I am not sure about the right spelling) and proletariat. Alienation was completely Chinese to me… and I could not understand forces of production, mode of production, historical materialism, superstructure, false consciousness and dialectic…leave understanding those words; I was even not able to pronounce those properly. Nobody in the circle had time and patience to make the learning process easier for me. If I asked any question, most of them laughed because they were too simple. Hmm... Gone are the days. Today I am surrounded by people who get irritated and feel uncomfortable because I ask too many simple questions….
Even after trying if I am unable to do something, I smile and say 'Ok, this one I will keep for the next life'… not that I believe in rebirth, but that has always been a good strategy to cope up with failures and hurdles and non-cooperative teams.
Recently I read Marx again… (Let us differentiate between Marx, Marxists, Communists and all such categories) and without any external help, I could understand what he was saying… I could understand his dream of an egalitarian society… I could appreciate his elaboration on false consciousnesses and after reading so much of philosophy his historical materialism was like a fresh air….The glass ceiling between me and Marx completely disappeared … …Funnily it disappeared without shattering. Must be some magic!
What has happened? I suppose I have lived enough of life, I have gone through many experiences because of which my understanding about different situations has expanded. When Marx says alienation, I understand it because I have experienced it. When Marx says human interaction with nature creates history, I can appreciate it because I have been part of the process of history making… by either active or passive participation. When Marx talks about superstructure, I am aware how my economic struggle has shaped my ideas about life. When he describes capitalist controlling 'forces of production', I understand because I am forced to work just for livelihood and I cannot afford to have any ideology.
I was just wondering why they teach such things to young ones. Such ideological aspects only should be taught after people are bit mature… (No, I am not saying maturity comes only through age….) so that it becomes not a tool to gain success but a real tool to transform oneself and society at large.
For me, rediscovering Marx means a great thing at the moment. It is an energizer I was desperately searching for. Re-discovering Marx was an inherent part of soul searching exercise, through Marx I am re-discovering myself. And I like what I have discovered… that is the best part of life.
End of false consciousness? Realization?
Ah! That would be too big a claim to make…
Monday, May 11, 2009
Actually I was trying to insert one minute video, but could not do it due to technical problems. Will post it sometime later.
For next 10 days I won't be posting anything ....
A break for you and me .... we all deserve it.
I have decided to dedicate next 10 days to study of Sociology... Need full time for that.
Will share with you what I find interesting.
Will post around 24th of May. Till then have a nice cool time.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Mode of Transport
What is your mode of daily transport to workplace (or work)?
27 visitors answered the question.
3 (11%) either walk or cycle …Seem to be the luckiest of all .. their residence is near to workplace… or may be they really eco-conscious
12 (44% ) use Two wheeler… not bad taking into consideration traffic situation and public transport
Only 3 (11%) use Public Transport … highlights the problems with Public Transport
9 (11%) use Private cars….oh! I did not know that so many readers of this blog are rich!
Friday, May 1, 2009
38. Any1 @ HelpDesk?
Can u read it peroperly? I guest you ight not. I dma nto sure whjy it is hapenign and when it stated
(For the last couple of weeks a unique thing is happening with me. It is little strange. Can you read it properly? I guess you might not. I am not sure whey (why) it is happening and when it started. )
Somehow, when I type my fingers seems to be running lot faster than my mind …. Earlier it was the oher (other) way round.
Well, it is almost a decade now that I am using computer for at least 200+ days a year and 8 hours per day. I mostly use MS Word (70% of my work), MS PPT (20% of my work) and then rest is MS Excel. So it is not that I am not used to working in Word. Actually when I started working with computers, I downloaded Typing Tutorial, practiced it religiously. Now I can type with a speed of around 50 words per minute with just 10% of error. Well, that was the case before this stated (started( ) happening!
Typing tutorial helped me a lot. Earlier I had to look at the key board while typing and that created barrier in the thought processes. Now I can just look at the screen and keep on thinking and my fingers type. I have been able to separate the two actions 'thiniking' (thinking) and typing – maintaining minimum required connection. If some spelling mistake is there, MS Office is there to take care of. So, I could always finish my work faster, I could take 'online' notes of any meeting with 'secretarial' proficiency.
But somehow nowadays the bridge seems to be disappearing. Now you read the first two sentences in this post and you will understand how much corrections I have to make any document I type. Clearly, I am facing a problem.
I do not know whether I need to slow down my mind or I need to teach my fingers typing fast, or vice versa, tech (teach) the fingers to slow down and increase the speed of mind. I think the speed is not the problem. Recognizing the words with their intended meaning and typing it correctly are the two actions – which my mind is failing (here I typed 'feeling') to do simultaneously. And sometimes the MS office does not show the mistakes – I mean instead of 'started' if I type 'stated' or instead of 'guess' if I type 'guest' – nothing wrong according to MS Office. But that means I have to read the whole document word by word again! My efficiency has decreased becaous (because) of this.
I have a feeling that the fingers are trying to read the mind, decode the words (which is not their job) and hence the mistakes. Ashenden, Somerset Maugham's 'author-cum-spy' character elaborates at one place: when he had to decode the message, he went on decoding each and every letter and never tried to read the message in between. Because, most of the time the mind jumps to conclusions, which are not meant to be there, and the mind tries to interpret things in that light (I was typig – typing -lift)…
Here instead of my mind, the fingers are jumping in between, decoding, and interpreting, taking lot of freedom. I am not sure whether body parts can think….but I have such a feeling
I need to learn from Maugham. And may (I typed 'many' here) be I really need to slow down… May be I need to stop using machine for a few days …. May be I am just exhausted and my fingers are giving me indication….May be, I should re-practice Typing turorial (I mean tutorial) again…. May be I should just laugh at it
Wht wuld you adicve me? (What would you advice me?)
Any1 @ HelpDeak? (HelpDesk?)


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Earlier today we took delivery of a funky chair. Not a cool, I'm-too-hip-for-your-farmhouse conversation-starter chair. No, a I-lived-with-a-smoker-and-his-dog-and-I-stink kind of chair.
We had no idea that the chair was going to be funky. It was coming from a good source--a family member who is VERY non-funky in her furniture selection.
Apparently her olfactory senses are blinded by love, which lead her to think that we would want this stinker in our house to sit on while we watch TV.
Let me just say that there is a great deal of Matlock and Murder She Wrote watched at this house. And I bet the vast majority of the Hallmark Channel viewing audience are watching on smoky, dog-infested furniture. However, it's not for us.
The worst shame of the whole scenario is that is it a lovely chair--with matching ottoman. Purchased from the great people at Schenck Furniture, who I love more than ever after they hauled away my mother-in-law's funky fridge.
The chair smells bad. How bad? The odor of it caused my poor ESPN-loving husband to forsake satellite TV and watch the 14-inch in the kitchen. It smells so bad that the odor could not be beat back with half a bottle of Febreeze. An odor so insidious that in a matter of hours it had infected two rooms and was creeping up the stairs.
A stench so bad that just now, after my poor husband has gone to bed, I dragged the offending chair and the matching ottoman out the door and onto the back patio.
If you live within a five-mile radius and smell something funky tonight, I apologize.

subset: commoncrawl


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It was warned that Quentin Tarantino only plans on doing two more movies before his retirement, to round off his career with a perfect ten.
However, in a recent interview 'The Hateful Eight' director laid bare the current possibilities for future movies.
Unlike World War II thriller 'Inglourious Basterds' or martial-arts cult film 'Kill Bill', he admits there are no more genres he's desperate to re-create.
However, he would like to do another gangster movie, this time based in the 1930s; he says quote: 'That kind of John Dillinger thing', Unquote.


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Apple's new MacBook Pros rumored with 16GB SSD boot disk, white model could be axedWith the expected launch of new MacBook Pro models on Thursday, a new report claims Apple's hardware will come with 16GB solid-state drives to quickly boot the operating system, and also says the company plans to discontinue its white polycarbonate entry-level MacBook.
Citing a "trusted source," French Apple site MacGeneration reported Tuesday a number of alleged details about Apple's forthcoming MacBook Pro refresh. The site claimed that Apple sees its $999 11-inch MacBook Air as its new entry-level notebook, replacing the current $999 plastic MacBook.
As for the new MacBook Pros, it was said that the notebooks will feature 16GB Go SSD mSATA drives that will store the Mac OS X operating system. This separate internal drive would allow the devices to boot faster from solid state memory, much like with the new all-flash MacBook Air models. Similar details were claimed in a separate report on Monday.
The 13-inch model will also reportedly abandon the Core 2 Duo processor and make the move to Intel's Core i3 chip. The report also said that the 13-inch MacBook Pro will also have a screen resolution of 1,440-by-900 pixels, and will feature three USB ports.
The new 13-inch MacBook Pro is also believed to offer 12 hours of battery life, and will allegedly weigh 200 grams less. And it said users will have the option to add a matte screen to the high-end 13-inch MacBook Pro. Prices for the two 13-inch models were said to be 1,199 and 1,499.
On the larger 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pro models, MacGeneration claims that Apple will offer customers the option to replace the SuperDrive with a solid-state drive. The 15-inch model was said to be lighter at 2.3kg, while the 17-inch model will weigh 2.65kg. It also said the 15-inch MacBook Pro will offer 10 hours of battery life.
In addition, it was said that the 17-inch MacBook Pro will have 8GB of RAM, while the 15-inch model was said to have a screen resolution of 1,680 by 1,050 pixels.
Finally, the site heard from another source that Apple is expected to debut "new technology" in the new MacBook Pro models, a tidbit that implies the inclusion of Intel's high-speed Lightpeak technology. Last week, a separate report claimed that Apple is on the verge of announcing the new connector for its Mac lineup.
MacGeneration has a respectable track record with Apple-related product leaks. Last year, ahead of the annual Worldwide Developers Conference, the site revealed details about the Safari 5 Web browser before it was announced.


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|Oracle FAQ
|Your Portal to the Oracle Knowledge Grid
Home -> Community -> Mailing Lists -> Oracle-L -> RE: Shite of the day
I guess this is a silly question, but could it be that Oracle didn't like the COMPATIBLE = 9.0.2 since there is no 9.0.2? I don't know how the comparison is done, but if it's a string comparison I wonder if there will be any bugs with the COMPATIBLE check when version 10 comes out.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Koivu, Lisa [mailto:Lisa.Koivu_at_Fairfieldresorts.com]
> No. I guess by manual I mean I didn't use the gui. I ran the
> appropriate upgrade script.
> Gosh I hope it doesn't come to exp/imp... I can't even export
> my database.
> -----Original Message-----
> Lisa, when you say you "manually" migrated, did you use
> exp/imp after a
> fresh CREATE DATABASE in 9i? Also, what platform? 32-bit?
> Rich Jesse System/Database Administrator
> rjesse_at_qtiworld.com Quad/Tech Inc, Sussex, WI USA
> > -----Original Message-----
> > Lisa
> >
> > Worry free? I just upgraded another 184.108.40.206 database to
> 9.2. When I
> > set the COMPATIBLE parm to 9.0.2 (or 9.2, which would make
> > sense) I get
> > really messy errors:
> >
> > ORA-00402: database changes by release 220.127.116.11.0 cannot be used by
> > release 135294976
-- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net -- Author: Jacques Kilchoer INET: Jacques.Kilchoer_at_quest.com Fat City Network Services -- 858-538-5051 http://www.fatcity.com San Diego, California -- Mailing list and web hosting services --------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).Received on Wed Jun 04 2003 - 18:30:21 CDT
Original text of this message


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Link to Terms & Condition
18+, Gamble Responsibly – www.begambleaware.org


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WELCOME back to Hype, our weekly arts blog, where you'll be able to keep up to date with the latest and biggest news from the global arts scene, as well as keeping in touch with what's on in and around Aberystwyth.
You'll be able to find out the latest and the greatest, Aberystwyth film times and news, rumours, and much more.
Arts News
First up… the biggest headlines from this week!
- DJ Mike Read featured the UKIP calypso earlier this week. This was then withdrawn due to complaints of racism.
- Steam recently had their free weekend where players were able to play games for free and buy them at discounted rates.
- It has been confirmed that Niel Patrick Harris will be hosting the next Oscars.
- Warner Brothers has released their DC movie slate, which means that there may be between 6-8 super hero movies a year coming out between 2016-2018.
- The Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer was leaked earlier this week, with Marvel quick to react by releasing the official high quality teaser trailer a week early (see below).
What's On?
ABERYSTWYTH is, once again, spoiling us for choice in the next week. Here's just a few highlights to look forward to!
Maze Runner is on at the Commodore Theatre until the 30th; the dystopian thriller has been a big office hit and is a must see. Boxtrolls is a great film, fun for all ages, young and old and all in the 3D. Dracula Untold is premiering at the Commodore on the 31st, showing the a side of Dracula that we've never seen before. His trials, toils, tribulations and most importantly, his origins.
From the 21st-31st Fincher's critically acclaimed film adaptation of the Gillian Flynn novel Gone Girl is coming to the Arts Centre Cinema. The story follows Nick Dunne – accused of his wife's apparent murder – as he attempts to keep out of the public eye whilst delving further into the increasingly mysterious truth of her disappearance. The Bolshi Ballet returns to the screen with The Legend of Love on the 26th, a beautiful tale of forbidden love, self-sacrifice and sibling love. Propeller create incredible sixty minutes of Shakespeare specifically for young audiences, Pocket Dream is their interpretation of A Midsummer Night's Dream; coming to Aber on the 25th.On the 28th, Kafka – in true style – brings The Trail to the Arts Centre; a tale of a man, arrested and prosecuted for an unknown crime.
With thanks to: Andrew Monk.


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Annuity Comparison
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Cameron shares her formula for becoming happier, healthier, and stronger in this positive, essential guide that is grounded in science and inspired by personal experience. Throughout her career, Cameron Diaz has been a role model for millions of women. By her own candid admission, though, this fit, glamorous, but down-to-earth star was not always health-conscious. Learning about the inseparable link between nutrition and the body was just one of the life-changing lessons that has fed Cameron's hunger to educate herself about the best ways to feed, move, and care for her body.
Amanda is a Digital Media veteran beginning her career producing the hit web series lonelygirl15. She was Head of Marketing at the online entertainment company EQAL and held a senior position in Online Video at Disney. Amanda is passionate about women's issues, a mother of two, and currently works with Cameron and her team on all digital aspects of The Body Book.


text: Meet our firefighters & get safe driving tips On Sunday 9 December our firefighters will be at the Interchange Retail Park, Kempston, between 11am and 1pm talking to drivers about their experiences of accidents on the A421. The A421 is becoming an increasingly regular location for serious incidents that require firefighters to provide their medical trauma care and technical rescue skills to release trapped drivers or their passengers from their vehicles. Figures produced by highway maintenance company Amey on incidents on the A421 reveal that these Road Traffic Collisions (RTCs) were a result of: 63 (41%) failure to look properly 24 (16%) tail end shuts, 17 on slip roads to roundabouts 21 (14%) failure to judge the other vehicle's path or speed 14 (9%) speed 13 (8%) following too close 16 (10%) not spotting cyclists, 9 as a result side impact Drivers and their passengers are invited to come along and meet the firefighters between 11am and 1pm at the Interchange Retail Park, Kemspton and find out more about staying safe on the A421 this holiday season.


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Thanks for your interest!
I was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and currently reside in Garden Grove, CA. After attending studies in Graphic Design at Memphis College of Art, I received my BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2001 with an emphasis in printmaking. My images are created by manipulating multi-geometric color patterns to imply space and pattern which can be seen in Op art and Asian art. My work is exhibited in Los Angeles, CA; New York, NY; Providence, RI; Hilton Head, SC; and Nashville, TN. There is no shortage of energy when it comes to my experience and my methods of bridging my Eastern style of painting with Western culture.
LA JOLLA ART and WINE!
San Diego, CA -
Beverly Hills Affaire in the Gardens
Beverly Hills, CA-
St. Francis Park
Palm Springs, CA
March 18-19 2017
Downtown Providence, Rhode Island
Recent Notable Collectors
Sylvester Stallone- Beverly Hills, CA
Kessler Collection- Orlando ,FL
Dollar Tree Corp.Office- Virginia Beach, VA
Will Farrell- Hamptons , NY
Queen Latifah- Beverly Hills, CA
Adriana Lima-Coconut Grove, FL
Marko Jaric-NBA
Nia Vardalos-Park City, UT
Ryan Grant -NFL
Chris Dickerson- MLB
Lance Bass- *NSYNC
Butterfly Wonderland -Scotsdale, AZ


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When I'm not
lounging around working in scrubs, I love an excuse to wear cute work clothes. I am a research scientist and a professor (and a mom of two little ones), so I get an opportunity for diversity in my wardrobe on a regular basis. This dress I chose to wear today is one of my favorite dresses to lecture in. It's form-fitting, which means that I will remember to stand up straight and tall and suck in while I'm talking to an auditorium of hundreds of students.
Fitted dresses are truly confidence-boosting and figure enhancing, even though it may feel completely opposite in theory. If I am having a bad body day, I tend to want to hide in baggy, unflattering clothes. This ends up making me feel worse. However, I feel confident and proud of my curves in a fitted outfit like this. I'm a size 10-12 and have grown to embrace and LOVE my curves as I've gotten older!
The one thing I'm not crazy about is the belt that came with the dress, because it creates the puckering you can see on my right. However, I haven't found the right navy blue (the dress is blue, although in the picture it looks black) or tan to go with it… any suggestions for an alternate color?
(Also, I apologize for the poor quality of this image. My 6 year old daughter helped me to take the picture, and my 2 year old stuck her finger on the camera lens sometime during the process… one day I will hire a professional photographer to photograph me looking fabulous on a regular basis.)


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While the labor market continues to show slow, steady improvement across the nation, Texas and the Alamo region maintain their position as leaders in economic recovery. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Texas had the largest over-the-month statistically significant job gains in the nation with the addition of 37,200 jobs in March, as the state's unemployment rate decreased to 8.1 percent.
San Antonio saw healthy job gains, as well. Total non-agricultural employment in the San Antonio-New Braunfels MSA expanded by 12,300 jobs, while the San Antonio metro area unemployment rate improved to 7.3 percent in March.
March's employment gains for the San Antonio-New Braunfels MSA are credited to recovery in the Leisure and Hospitality and Trade, Transportation and Utilities industries. While the Leisure and Hospitality sector continued to gain jobs – 4,100 in March, we are also seeing a stronger job market in the Trade, Transportation and Utilities industries which gained 3,500 jobs last month. In fact, only the Manufacturing and Information industries showed no change – every other industry in the Alamo area showed a positive job gain in March. Construction, which has shown a decline for the past seven months, added 1,300 jobs since February, the highest percentage increase after Leisure and Hospitality. Professional and Business Services added 1,100 jobs, Government added 1,100 jobs, Education and Health Services added 700 jobs, and other job gains since February included 100 jobs in Mining and Logging; 100 jobs in Financial Activities, and 300 jobs in Other Services.
The national jobless rate was 8.8 percent in March, 0.9 percentage point lower than a year earlier.
For more information about Workforce Solutions Alamo, visit http://www.workforcesolutionsalamo.org/.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics and Workforce Solutions Alamo


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By Carrie Click
Erik Weihenmayer has explored Colorado Mountain College country countless times. Trekking from his home in Golden, he's come west to rock climb Mount Royal in Summit County, skin up Breckenridge Ski Resort, kayak through Glenwood Canyon, ski Beaver Creek and hike the Tenmile Range.
In many ways Weihenmayer is just another of Colorado's accomplished outdoor athletes. What sets him apart is that he's totally blind. In 2001, he became the first blind climber to summit Mount Everest. In 2008, he completed climbing the Seven Summits – the highest peaks on each of the seven continents. And turning from mountains to rivers, he solo kayaked 277 miles of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in 2014.
Weihenmayer's bestseller, "No Barriers: A Blind Man's Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon," is Colorado Mountain College's 2018 Common Reader selection. It received an honorable mention award in the outdoor literature category of the 2017 National Outdoor Book Awards.
Each year, the college's students and employees vote on a book to read together. All community members are invited to participate in this group read, too, and attend author talks at several CMC campuses. This year, from March 20 through March 23, the public has four opportunities to hear Weihenmayer discuss "No Barriers."
Meet Weihenmayer when he speaks at four CMC sites
Author Erik Weihenmayer will visit four Colorado Mountain College locations during this year's Common Reader tour. These free presentations, open to the public, are all scheduled for 7 p.m. at the following locations:
- March 20: Colorado Mountain College Steamboat Springs, 1275 Crawford Ave.
- March 21: Colorado Mountain College Breckenridge, 107 Denison Placer Road
- March 22: Colorado Mountain College Vail Valley at Edwards, 150 Miller Ranch Road
- March 23: Morgridge Commons, 815 Cooper Ave. (2ndfloor), Glenwood Springs (to serve students and community members from Aspen to Rifle)
Weihenmayer was one of nine special guest commencement speakers to honor graduates during the college's 50th anniversary year. Last May he spoke at the graduation ceremony at Colorado Mountain College Leadville, where he received an honorary Associate of General Studies degree in outdoor recreation leadership.
Harder than Everest
Although Weihenmayer received worldwide attention for summiting Everest – he made the cover of Time magazine, and Oprah Winfrey and Jay Leno were among many who interviewed him – he said that kayaking the Grand Canyon was harder.
"The mountain isn't moving – well, hopefully," he said. "I can gauge where things are. I can stop. With boating, you can't control the movement. With kayaking, I can get so turned around. I have to use my ears to hear the noises of rocks and holes. It's game on."
Harlan Taney, a river guide and kayaker with hundreds of Grand Canyon descents, communicated with Weihenmayer using radio headsets in their helmets, with Taney kayaking as close to Weihenmayer's boat as possible. "Harlan was my secret weapon," Weihenmayer said. "He knows how to read the river so well. His eyes, brain and knowledge gave me the support I needed."
Finding your map
The book is about kayaking, though that's only part of it. Weihenmayer writes about his family and what it was like to go blind at age 14. He shares stories of friends who have confronted major hurdles in order to live purposeful lives.
"It's alchemy," said Weihenmayer, 49. "It's turning adversity into strength."
Skyler Williams, who manages Weihenmayer's business development and adventure training, has seen that strength first hand. "When we were training for the Grand," Williams said, "we'd run Shoshone a lot. Maneater [rapid] seemed so gnarly to us, but after running Lava [Falls rapid in the Grand Canyon] it didn't seem like that big of a deal. It still was to Erik, though. He'd get this look on his face, like a vacuum cleaner was sucking all his air out. But he'd still run it."
Mark Wellman, a paraplegic climber, and Hugh Herr, a double amputee climber and biophysicist, founded No Barriers USA with Weihenmayer. The Fort Collins-based nonprofit organization is for youth, veterans, people with disabilities and everyone who has a barrier they want to overcome.
"All of us in a way are climbing blind," is a phrase Weihenmayer uses.
"Sometimes it's physical, like Hugh, Mark and myself," he said. "Sometimes it's invisible. It's PTSD, or you were destroyed as a young person. You're damaged and stuck, and you can't figure it out. In that way, we all are part of No Barriers. You have to find your map."
Weihenmayer earned a degree in English and communications from Boston College, so he's no stranger to words and writing. He said his coauthor, Buddy Levy, was instrumental in "shaving down" the book as it progressed. Weihenmayer typed on a talking computer, and Levy handled transcribing and editing it.
"I wrote for a year," said Weihenmayer, who's authored two previous books. "It was transforming. It's like floating a river. Underneath the surface, diving down is hard work. That's where all the energy is created – under that surface."
Books are available at local bookstores and public libraries. Online the audiobook is at https://marmot.overdrive.com/media/3091148; the e-book is at https://marmot.overdrive.com/media/2854781. For more information, go to coloradomtn.edu/commonreader or call 800-621-8559.


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November 1: My worst swim ever, also probably my worst spanish day. I just wasn't really understanding anything that anyone said in spanish. I think probably I was dehydrated after the hike yesterday and so I spent most of the day laying about not feeling great. Honestly though, this isn't a bad place even to not be feeling well. Marta and Victor came by to visit Kim and Rafa. Kim cooked a beautiful lunch and we spent several hours together. Before and after, I just slept.
November 2: We drove to the market in Manacor then on to Ponto Cristo for lunch and some sight seeing. We're starting to shop a bit for a few souvenir type things to send home in our box which we hope to mail this week. The prices in Ponto Cristo were good even for lunch, though I may finally be tiring of the Mallorcan-type pizzas I've been eating everywhere. We had dinner in the evening with Kim and Rafa. I was happy too to finally catch up with Judith on Skype.
November 3: A day at home to catch up on photos, blogging and for Hannah to do school work. Talked to Christine and Wes on Skype this morning. We are still amazed at how easily we can stay in touch with people from so far away.
No new pictures today so this one is from yesterday when Robert and I walked up to the fort here in Bendinat and took some pictures of the graffiti.
November 4: Winter is definitely trying to get a grip on the island. We're determined to keep swimming for as long as we can though and so today with the wind swinging in more from the north we decided to try swimming off of the beach at Illetes. Kim and Cobo came with us though Kim had to leave early which just confused Cobo. The water was definitely a little cooler and pretty churned up. We got bounced around but had fun all the same.
We can't seem to get enough of Palma, the beautiful old stone alleyways, the restaurants tucked in to courtyards, the terraces and balconies, the colourful shops and the wonderfully ever-changing street scenes as stores open and close at odd hours throughout the day, street performers trade off corner beats, school children spill out onto the streets and parents shift back and forth from work to play. The smells and sounds mix it all into an enchanting scene that I find myself wanting to completely soak up. So today we parked way out of Palma and just let the late afternoon turn into evening as we walked and ate our way through the "mazeness" of it all. I love the surprise of coming across places that we've been before, this time with a sense of where we actually are. Robert was happy to revisit his favourite hamburger stand. We re-found the cheapest gelato stand and also bought some chocolate coated pastry.
November 5: Today we went shopping for new shin pads for Hannah and shoes for Robert at the Decathalon store. I suspect Decathalon is a big European chain but it seems to have pretty good quality stuff and reasonable prices.
From there the highlight of the day is that we went to Bellver Castle which was ordered built by King James II of Mallorca in 1300. It is distinct in that it is a circular Gothic castle, maybe the only circular Gothic castle…. ah the downside of not being able to read all of the literature about it. Currently it houses a museum which does offer descriptions in english as well as catalan, german and spanish but I found very little information about the castle itself. The space was beautiful and again, echoed with history that you could actually feel. The castle sits up on a small forested mountain between the harbour and the main highway from our side of the island into Palma, so the 360 degree view is spectacular.
November 6: We made it up and out early this morning for the Algaida market but it was a dud so we decided to drive cross-country to catch the tail end of the market at Binissalem. The drive was really beautiful. Some of the roads we'd been on before but today the lighting was perfect and we had the roads completely to ourselves. A real highlight was walking by a lovely little local winery where we were invited in to taste wine.
November 7: Hannah hasn't been feeling well at all these last few days. We tried to cheer her up with a little "retail therapy" but even buying her a backpack didn't really help. So we brought her home to rest and Robert and I set off again to shop, an uncharacteristic outing really. We found a large Walmart type store, Alcampo where I am happy to report that Robert did not like the shoes. We revisited Festival Park, a rather dead and unattractive outlet mall and ended up not purchasing anything. It was a fun outing though, a nice diversion from the sudden downpours of the rain. With all the talk of "the crisis" here, it was interesting to see the Alcampo mall packed with shoppers.
November 8: Hannah played soccer in the morning. Robert and I went into Palma Nova for an early morning walk and to find a coffee. Ended up in yet another shoe store, still checking out shoes for Robert…. and I bought sandals. We came home to a wonderful Spanish lunch with Kim and Rafa and then went for tea in the countryside with Rafa's friends Andreas and Flor.
November 9: Port o Pi shopping center. Robert bought shoes which of course, he'll probably return. Robert swam in the morning but it was cold. I opted for a nice long walk the roundabout way to buy groceries.
November 10: Acludia market, Port de Acludia and a picnic at the entrance to Cap de Formenter. This was a fabulous trip with a good market and a fabulous drive. We had a picnic lunch at the entrance to the Cape, with amazing views.
November 11: Way too cold for swimming today but I tried anyways. Then spent the rest of the day warming up. After yesterday's adventure we stayed more local except for an afternoon/evening trip into Palma. Hannah did her shadowing for Planning 10 at International House, where Kim works. Kim arranged for her to shadow a young, energetic English teacher who works more with children. The experience was fun for Hannah. She enjoyed "playing teacher." When we met up at the end of the evening, we decided to go to Akbar's in Portal Nous for a final East Indian meal before we head to Mexico.
November 12: Today is our 27th anniversary! We celebrated with a trip to the post office to ship home a 20 kg box of stuff, all the things that we thought we'd need for our 10 months away, but don't. It will be much better traveling from here on with lighter baggage. After stumbling through our spanish exchange at the post office we celebrated with a coffee at Maria's kitchen in Palma Nova and then did a bit of shopping for cards. I can feel us all winding down as the weather cools off and we start to get set to leave the island. To top it off Robert went for a swim and got a good jelly fish sting and I spent the evening trying to pretend that I'm not coming down with a cold.
November 13: I was home with a cold today but managed to drop by Ágora Portals school anyways just to have a chance to meet one of the Special Needs teachers there. If I wasn't feeling crummy, I'd be thrilled to have finally started to have some exchange with a school "away". After that I had a low key day, just a trip to the post office with Hannah and an afternoon nap. Dinner in the evening with Kim, Rafa, Marta, Victor and Pacha.
November 14: Hannah wrote her first away midterm today. James, our upstairs neighbour, agreed to invigilate it and it seems to have all gone well.
November 15: We're packed and ready to go. We've definitely decided that we won't say good-bye here; we plan to come back. Kim and Rafa had a great lunch and we finally got to meet their friends Scott and Cindy. What a delight. We'd love to be staying longer to get to know them too.
November 16: One day in Madrid is just not long enough.
November 17: A day of traveling back in time. 10.5 hours on a plane is far too long! But the final reward of being here in Mexico is great. The air is warm and humid. Our resort spectacular.
We had fun in Madrid but no time to do much at all before we left in the morning as it was an hour metro ride back out to the airport. There was so much to see but the memory that is going to stick is Hannah throwing away her favorite shoes so that she has room in her backpack to carry juice with her to the airport.
Wednesday, November 18: We woke up this morning to paradise I think. In the evening we did a family "spinning" class before dinner.
Thursday, November 19: I suspect the days aren't going to vary here much from day to day while we're at the resort for this next week. So far we get up, eat, lay on the beach, eat, lay on the beach some more and then eat again before we go to sleep. There is a great crew of program staff people who try to motivate us to get up out of our beach chairs and play games. I also went off to a "fit ball" class which was different and fun. Robert played water polo and bocchi on the beach with coconuts.
Friday, November 20: Robert and I woke up and rushed off to a "spinning" class with Adrian before breakfast while Hannah did the teenage thing and slept. We walked into Puerto Aventura today but it is small with not much happening. Mostly it is too hot to be out in the mid day sun. It will be interesting to see if we can get motivated to do more once we arrive in Akumal next week.
Saturday, November 21: Kayaked through the lagoon and then out past the beach. Later Robert was swimming and swam with a sting ray for a while while I joined Hannah at a water polo game followed by beach volleyball. We've met a nice family from Canmore, Alberta. It really is the people that we meet that make traveling fascinating.
Sunday, November 22: We've had a really lazy day with only good swimming to break up the meals. The reef that we're swimmig over is fabulous and it seems as if every day we seen new kinds of fish.
Monday, November 23: Ricky, one of the program staff asked Hannah to be in the show tonight. She's not allowed to tell us what she's going to be doing. This is such a perfect place for her though I'm not sure how we're going to be able to get her to leave with us tomorrow.
Tuesday, November 24: Moving to Akumal today. We're saying good-bye to program staff and new friends that we've met here at the resort. We've had a fabulous week. We're excited though to be heading out to our next adventure.
Wednesday, November 25: So we're clearly suffering from "post all-inclusive syndrome." Although it was tough having to eat three huge meals every day, sit on the beach and have drinks with tequila constantly being brought to us, and then managing to stay awake for the evening show, we survived it. Hannah too put up with being one of the only teenagers at the resort; you can probably imagine the attention and one-to-one play time with the program staff. It was pretty intense for her having to be on for pool volleyball or morning stretching on the beach followed by pingpong tournaments, dart tournament or water polo with barely enough time to squeeze in lunch with her parents before heading off to afternoon beach volleyball usually followed by a soccer game. The last night they even dragged her up on stage to participate in a comedy skit. Poor thing. So much attention. Worse though, in the end we made her leave. To be honest, today we're all in shock here back in the real world. Now we're in a much larger place, no longer just a cramped hotel room, but with no entertainment and we have to do our own cooking. We have all been reluctant to take off our tacky green bracelets, just in case the resort should happen to email and invite us back.
Thursday, November 26: And so we are settling in here. We have a great space, a two bedroom condo on the water again. It isn't a beach but a five minute walk either direction takes us to one beach or another. We swam this morning in Half-Moon bay and the current and reef were a bit scary for me. Later in the day we swam at Akumal beach with turtles! It was very cool. Now we need an underwater camera.
At Half Moon Bay we met a lovely woman from Texas, Maria. She was here on her own so we invited her for "Thanksgiving dinner" with us in the evening. We had a lovely time getting to know her a bit.
Friday, November 27: Today we had a meeting with Carlos at the biblioteca about volunteering. We start on Monday. I'm excited to be getting going with doing something beyond entertaining ourselves. To be honest I'm a little nervous. They deal with up to 40 or 50 kids a day in a little tiny space and none of them speak english. What on earth are we going to do? Robert and Hannah will be fine because they can both be so silly and laugh so easily. I figure that between now and Monday I either need to get fluent or really loosen up. Despite all that I am looking forward to it and I know that after the first couple of times I'll be just fine. I think I'm going to look for a puppet or some kind of prop today when we go shopping. Just anything to create a distraction.
After our meeting we went back to Akumal bay for a good long swim before sharing a bottle of wine upstairs with David and Dianne, lovely folks from Alabama.
Today we saw six more turtles in the water. They are so amazing!
Saturday, Nov 28: My niece Tara and her husband Corey had their babies yesterday afternoon. Julia and James are both small but doing well from the sounds of it all. Wish I was there to celebrate with them.
Had a shopping trip into Playa del Carmen today so that among other things Hannah could buy a couple of soccer balls to donate to the biblioteca. This time we walked down 5th Ave. Robert found a guitar store and so is now entertaining the purchase of a small guitar.
Sunday, Nov 29: Today was a lazy day. I read most of an English novel, we did very little exercise, and spent the day lying about gearing up for our adventure tomorrow.
Monday, Nov 30: Our first day volunteering at the biblioteca, a real venture into Spanish immersion. I found it fun but frustrating. Hopefully it motivates me to get on with learning rather than shutting down. I listened to a few children read, helped one young girl with her division homework and then a small group of girls tried explaining to me that they were going to come to our house and sing. They were very patient and repeated what they had to say many times in many different ways. It was fun to have them eager to have me understand. So I think that they plan to show up at our houe at 1:00 tomorrow afternoon. This has something to do with collecting money and the church but beyond that I'm not quite sure. Shall plan to be home tomorrow at 1:00 and see what happens.
Wrapped up a great month with happy hour with David and Dianne. Wish we had a picture of them to add….maybe we'll get a chance another time when they visit in Vancouver.


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We got up this morning to find a cloudy sky but it is supposed to get brighter later. After breakfast we paid our bill and booked out but left our luggage until we were ready to leave Brighton later in the day.
We went down the road again to Marine Parade to have another look at the little electric railway. I went onto the platform to take this picture.
In this next picture you may get a better idea of the railway's location. The beach and pier is on the left with the road to the right. The Brighton Wheel is visible above the roof of the train.
Notice the patches of blue sky that have started to appear. Without the sun it was cool enough to give Amanda goose bumps. I didn't feel quite so cold so perhaps I had duck bumps. We walked along Marine Parade away from the pier until we reached the Madeira Lift. Built between 1830 and 1840 the lift was originally hydraulically operated but now uses electricity. It saves a climb between Madeira Drive and Marine Parade and is free so we went for a ride.
Amanda photographed this old Victorian relic at the top of the lift.
We stayed at the upper level and walked back into town to the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery which is in the Royal Pavilion grounds.
We were, originally, planning to visit the Booth Museum in Brighton until we discovered that the one day each week that it closes is a Thursday – today. The Brighton Museum building was originally the stables for the Pavillion which is why it is built in the same style.
It has an eclectic collection with numerous exhibits. When we arrived we went straight to the cafe for coffee and this next picture, of one of the galleries, was taken from the table at which we were sitting.
When we had finished our drinks we went back downstairs to start looking around. You may notice that even the archway in this gallery has the 'Eastern' theme and, remember, this was just the stables.
One of the first galleries we visited was dedicated to ceramics.
I noticed the piece in the lower picture particularly because it reminded me of Tipoo's Tiger that we saw in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and on the label its said:
"Commemorating the death of a young Englishman mauled by a tiger in India in 1792. The popular Staffordshire figure group (1810) was probably inspired by a wooden hand-organ, which was carved and painted to look like a tiger attacking an Englishman in uniform. Displayed in London from 1808, the organ was known as "Tipoo's Tiger" and is now on display in the V&A."
They also had an Egyptian Gallery of which these mummies were part.
There was a gallery about the Ice Age.
Numerous other galleries on varied subjects so there is plenty to see.
It was getting near time for us to leave so we walked back to our B&B to collect our luggage and then caught a bus to the station. So what was our final impression of Brighton? It hadn't really changed from our initial impression in that Brighton did look generally shabby and uncared for although that could not be said of the buses. They have an excellent bus service with frequent buses and the buses themselves are modern, bright and smart with electronic displays on board.
Brighton is not one of those places that we would be keen to see again but it probably would make an interesting day trip from London.
When we reached the station we were really pleased to see that our train was eight coaches with very few people on board, so that we had our pick of the seats, and that it was a modern unit with air conditioning. A relief from the journey up.
The journey was about an hour and we arrived back at Farringdon at around 3:30 PM, caught the Undergound to Liverpool Street and decided to have a slight detour. When we went to Spitalfields last we missed a couple of things which we decided to find this time.
We went back to Bishops Square next to Spitalfields Market.
Although this is a modern development it's not all new round here. If you walk to the north end of Bishops Square farthest from Brushfield Street you will see a large stairwell going apparently nowhere.
You may notice that in the farthest right-hand corner in the above picture there is also a small lift for those that cannot easliy manage stairs. So, what does it all mean?
You'll see that in the left-hand wall there is some glass. This is a window to the ruins behind.
You are looking at the remains of a Charnel House, dating from about 1320, which was discovered during excavations in 1999 and it is thought that parts of the masonry may date back to the 12th century. For those not 'in the know' a Charnel House is a store for human bones disturbed during the digging of graves within a cemetery.
Long before the Charnel House was built, the Romans used the area as a burial ground and a Roman lead coffin was found near this site which contained the body of a woman.
It explains onsite:
"The crypt of the chapel of St Mary Magdelene and St Edmund the Bishop built in about 1320 and sited in the cemetery of the priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital. In the chapel above, services were held to dedicate the bones beneath. After St. Mary Spital was closed in 1539, most of the bones were removed, and the crypt became a house until it was demolished in about 1700. The crypt lay forgotten beneath the gardens of terraced houses and then Stewart Street until it was found in archaeological excavations in 1999."
If you now go back to the other end of Bishops Square, across Brushfield Street, along Fort Street into Artillery Lane, turn left go round the first bend, past Gun Street to the second bend and you will see these:
These are Georgian shop fronts surviving from the 1750s.
Now that was a worthwhile diversion but now we go back to Liverpool Street Station and catch a train home.


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We have made every effort to do justice to the semantic aspect of the Urdu version while translating it into English. The translation, to the extent possible, is in keeping with the modern grammar and usage in the English language. Please follow me on Instagram @urdu2english for new words every day.
Monday, 12 May 2014
We are poles apart.
Tomorrow we will have married for two years.
Moderate your tone.
Wednesday, 7 May 2014
What's there to cry about?
Saturday, 3 May 2014
This is not an era of gentility.
Thursday, 17 April 2014
My business has stagnated.
Friday, 11 April 2014
There are 6,236 ayaat (verses) in the Holy Qur'an.
Saturday, 5 April 2014
Pakistan's first president was Iskander Mirza.
Wednesday, 2 April 2014
Allah alone is everywhere.
Thursday, 27 March 2014
I am content with my life.
Thursday, 20 March 2014
Tuck your shirt in.
Tuesday, 25 February 2014
She likes milky vermicelli.
Friday, 21 February 2014
Who named you?
Wednesday, 5 February 2014
By God, he is innocent!
The contract is worth four billion.
Tuesday, 4 February 2014
I dare you to touch me!
Saturday, 25 January 2014
Society has degenerated.
Saturday, 11 January 2014
I am suffering from diarrheoa.


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So, you're the new Class President... now what? The title is one thing, but actually walking the walk, is another. So what do you do to be the best Class President you can be? As a former Class President, (and a rather successful one, if I do say so myself!), I can give you a few tips of the trade:
Follow through with all the promises you made during your campaign. Remember when you told the student body you'd rally for better cafeteria lunches? Well, now you have to try to make that happen! Kiss re-election goodbye if mystery meat is still served on Friday's at the end of the year. Start petitions, talk to teachers and faculty, and make some phone calls to make all your promises a reality!
Participate-don't only delegate! No one likes an excessive delegator! You can tell people what to do, but do it with them. Don't ever think you are above work. The way you show great leadership is leading by example. These leadership tools you learn now, will help you in life after High School.
Don't let the authority get to your head! This is only High School. Hate to break it to you, but this is only a very small blip on the radar in the grand scheme of things. Do not act above anyone else, because it will come to bite you in the butt later!
Talk to everyone and be likeable. If you want people to help you, you need to have people like you. Have a good personality, and talk to everyone. Don't single out any one group of students-be nice and request help from all ages and crowds.
Promote team building. Encourage the different types of students to work together as a team for a common goal. Set goals and ideas for improvement at the beginning of the year and try to make accomplishing these goals fun. Form a committee to help you during your term as Class President, work together as a team and do not discount anyone's idea.
Fundraise, fundraise, fundraise! In order to make anything work, you need money! Get the student body involved in activities that will help you raise money for your class. Set a goal like a "class trip" at the end of the year, that will motivate people to participate in fundraising activities.
Photo Credits
- http://www.lakehowell.scps.k12.fl.us/StudentGovernment/LHSG/images/SGA.ht6.gif


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You do not have any products in your bag.
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© Copyright Courtaulds (Footwear) Limited 2019.


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President elect Donald Trump promises to "make America Great Again." The middle class is under pressure from all sides and real wages have not moved for 20 years for most people. Automation is replacing many ordinary workers with a few highly-qualified workers who design and manage technology and production. Low-cost labor in Mexico, China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, and many other places is replacing ordinary workers. Immigration is adding labor supply to the domestic economy. All this adds up to a hell of a lot of pressure on the 90% of ordinary workers. Welcome to technology and globalization. As you can see, it's not clear that Trump (or Clinton) can truly make a big difference. Let's explore further to see the bigger picture of what is going on and what lies ahead.
Low unemployment and no jobs
Unemployment in the USA has reached a new low of 4.6%, yet the proportion of people working relative to total population has barely moved since the low of 2009-2010: the employment rate went from a peak of about 64% in 2000 and hovers just below 60% now. That means there are a full 4 percentage points less people working now than in 2000-2001 and 3 percentage points less than in 2007, right before the big global shock.
Taking the conservative 3 percentage points less and knowing that the pool of total active and potential workers is about 160 million, we can conclude that there are a total of 5 million less workers today than would be if the employment rate had remained unchanged. This is at LEAST 300 billion dollars less income per year for the entire economy. These 5 million frustrated individuals influenced the elections and may have helped make a difference for Trump. However, I am not sure Trump will make a difference for them (nor would Clinton, by the way), and no, this is not due to demographics: many other countries with much faster aging populations than the USA did not even have close to such a drop in the past decade.
Wages and inequality
Since China joined the WTO in 2002 and global trade flows exploded between rich and developing economies, real wages of 90% of the population have been going literally nowhere, while real total income per capita increased about 14%.
Since 2002, 90% of US workers have not seen any improvement in real wages, health coverage or costs, non-wage benefits, better (less) work hours, mental health indicators, access to education, or any other metric you want to look at. The data and proof is so vast that this doesn't even require much further discussion. Total real GDP per capita is growing, yet nothing seems to be happening for 90% of the population (other than 2015-2016, which finally had improvements). Of course, this means that the top 10% income share is growing, which indeed is the case:
But all this is old news: the USA has high inequality. I don't want to debate about the acceptability or not of all this and all the complexities, nuances, and important details pertaining to this phenomenon. I want to move on to policies and the bigger picture…
Trump policies
Trump wants to bring back production to the USA. For any firm, there are many types of costs, but the bulk of costs can be boiled down to 4 categories: 1) wages relative to average productivity and non-wage labor costs, 2) all taxes of all forms, 3) regulation and red tape, 4) the cost of capital.
The cost of capital is the cost of getting funds to improve and expand production capacity with machines, workflow, technology, automation, transport, logistics, etc. In the process of production, the firm must respect rules and regulations, which Trump promises to simplify, but I have my doubts on the extent of the simplification that will effectively happen in the reality of everyday business. I want to focus on taxes and labor costs.
Trump plans on slashing the corporate tax rate by about 15 percentage points. This would make production less costly within the USA, provided this plan truly goes all the way and does not become an ad hoc approach of picking and choosing the firms that get a tax break and those which do not. As I explained in my post on taxing corporations and the rich, taxing corporations is NOT a "progressive" policy and does NOT help ordinary people. Read it to get an important refresher.
Trump wants to spend massively on infrastructure, and that is a great thing as well, if it truly happens. The quality and quantity of infrastructure is very important to long run prosperity for a country, so this is a good idea and would increase employment for ordinary workers. Given that the fiscal situation will remain at least under control for the next 4 years, Trump has the possibility to spend massively. It remains to be seen what will be the tolerance for deficits and debt in Congress and the Senate, but for the next 4 years, there are no major fiscal issues for the USA, even under Trump's planned detaxation and spending. After 2021, it will be another story, but that is a long way down the road.
Trump wants to decrease taxes on individuals, especially the upper incomes. This policy will help the wealthy put even more money in stocks and real estate, which is good for those markets, but may cause a "pricing out" of ordinary people from those markets. Of course, such a policy will certainly not decrease inequality or help to "level the playing field" between the cash-strapped general population and the top 10% that has more breathing room.
As you know, accumulating wealth becomes easier and easier as your income grows, because 1) you don't need to take on big debt loads to access education, health care, or housing, 2) you are not cash-strapped, so you can put money aside into capital markets, and 3) money makes money, so there is an obvious compounding effect.
Adding to the picture is the fact that high incomes can create high-price issues for the rest of the population in markets such as real estate, land, health, and education, not to mention stock prices. The standard narrative to make things acceptable is to say (rightfully) that prices of TVs, washers, dryers, clothing, and others goods are lower due to low-cost offshore production, but the effect may not fully "compensate" the decreased accessibility to important markets for important goods or sevices and the lost income from being impacted by technology or offshoring. Ask Canadians from Vancouver how they feel about the pumped-up prices of real estate from high-income demand of American and Chinese millionnaires!
All this might make America great again, but it may prove quite elusive down the road for the bulk of the population. Note that this would have been the same under Clinton. Let's discuss the "hurdles to greatness" for much of the population…
Machines, offshoring, and immigration
The middle class is under pressure from all sides. Automation is replacing many ordinary workers with a few highly qualified (and highly paid) workers who design and manage technology, production, and management processes. Low-cost labor in Mexico, China, India, Brazil, and many other places is replacing ordinary workers. Immigration is adding labor supply to the domestic economy. All this adds up to a hell of a lot of pressure on the 90% of ordinary workers in high-income economies, especially those economies with a lot of multinationals producing goods that can be produced from anywhere in the world. Note that this has always been the case, but the pace at which it is happening seems to be faster than the pace at which economies and the social fabric seem to adapt.
Obviously, some jobs are less "exposed", such as local "in-person" services like your local plumber or electrician or hairdresser, but even those feel the impact indirectly due to the general wage deflation effect (on ordinary workers) of automation, immigration, and globalization. Wages and the employment rate stagnate, which means people don't have extra purchasing power, which translates to less business opportunities, as competition to supply the stagnating aggregate demand increases, while supplying the upper-income niche obviously explodes but can't compensate for the massive stagnation in the overall wage structure.
Any production that can be done elsewhere has been or will be moved offshore, because the cost differentials are simply too attractive, even considering productivity differentials, logistical issues, and transport costs. In theory, an industry that has 10 times higher productivity can pay the workers 10 times more and have the same production costs: for example, a rich-country worker paid 10$ per hour that outputs 10 widgets per hour has a unit labor cost of 1$, while a poor-country worker paid 1$ per hour that outputs 1 widget per hour has the same unit labor cost of 1$... the reality is that MANY industries do NOT have this productivity differential, and the differential is bound to decrease across the sectors due to massive transfers (from rich country to poor country) in human capital, technology, and production knowhow.
All the while, highly skilled workers who are technology and financially literate and have good "social skills" can harness the benefits of globalization and technology and face increasing demand for their knowledge and skills – America is already great for them, and this will simply continue. They will continue marrying within their socioeconomic circle, they will continue sending their kids to the best schools, and they will continue having a well-developed web of contacts to help them and their families access a spot under the sun.
Believe it or or not, most rich-country workers are hugely overpaid. This is because their real incomes are disconnected from the productivity differentials relative to poorer countries. Even many higher-income workers are in this category. There are plenty of qualified and competent doctors, engineers, financial specialists, and managers in Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Note that institutional differentials (including corruption), work organization and technology differentials DO create a rich-country advantage over emerging markets, but nowhere near the differences in observed incomes in aggregate or by industry. Note also that, historically, proximity to expanding markets in Europe and America gave a boost to rich-world production, but where are the expanding markets now? Asia, Africa, and Latin America...
First, and most importantly, any task that is even close to being repetitive or "standard" has been or will eventually be replaced by a machine/computer or by offshore cheap labor. This decreases production costs and increases productivity and profits, and reduces prices as well. Theoretically, all this creates extra purchasing power that generates new demand, which then creates new jobs - supply creates demand. This is partially true, but the reality since about 2002 is that you have a net loss of total jobs as a proportion of the population and stagnating wages for the masses, because a "few" highly skilled jobs replace a high volume of low-skill jobs, as I explained in my post on income inequality and the end of jobs, with scale effects adding to the overall picture.
Technology is making most people "useless" in the production process, and then there are the hundreds of millions of low-income workers ready and willing to do any task for a fraction of the wage of high-income workers. Perhaps you think this "global labor supply thing" will soon pass, as the year-on-year effect of China slowly dissipates after joining the WTO in 2002 and as it undergoes a difficult transition from export-led growth to domestic-demand-led growth? No! India, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, and even Africa are moving up the "production complexity and capacity" food chain and literally represent an infinite supply of potential labor supply for production.
As explained in a good article by the World Economic Forum, there are 12 pillars of economic development and prosperity:
Most high-income countries have most of these pillars, with some having issues with labor market efficiency. Market size favors the USA, China, India, and Brazil, but globalized markets make market size increase for all countries.
What is happening is that the rest of the world is catching up and moving up the production food chain. These lower-income countries have a growing capacity to produce, at a fraction of the costs of rich countries, making production move there more and more… and it is just the beginning. The entire world is down the pipeline and emerging, even Africa.
This is great for the workers and elites benefiting from technology and globalization. It is less great for many others who face stiff competition of a global supply of labor.
When everything is "global"
Everything is global now. What happens when you have a low price in one market and a high price in another market, and the price differential is sometimes 100-fold, while actual differences in quality are nowhere near 100-fold? You guessed it: prices drop in the high-price region and prices increase in the low-price region… and THAT is what is happening in the labor market… on a global scale. And it has barely begun.
There is an infinite supply of "low and medium skill" workers and even a growing global labor supply of high-skill workers, including a phd supply glut that has phd holders dreaming of the freedom-filled academic world, yet are struggling to make their way. Read about this here and here, among many other articles.
What does all this mean? One thing: the actual market value of most labor in high-income countries is significantly lower than the price it is currently getting (wages), so there is an "adjustement" and offshoring, which can be seen in stagnating wages, decreasing job and income security, increased stress and pressure to perform, and a depressed employment rate.
Will it end? Not any time soon. This means that wage stagnation and a relatively low employment rate are the new norm, and Trump won't change this harsh reality.
Concluding thoughts
When everything becomes "global" and you have a billion+ low-wage workers ready and willing to work for multinationals in emerging markets that are indeed "emerging" in the global supply chain and represent the markets of the future, you get 1) massive transfers of jobs and production from rich to poor countries, 2) wage stagnation in rich countries for much of the population, 3) solid profits for multinationals that can harness this global labor pool and growing global economy, 4) wage growth in the highly skilled niche.
Wait until China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil start down the road of massive car, plane, and telecoms production, with 3D printing and more. Wait for Africa to join the party, along with Malaysia, Vietnam, Chile, and Argentina. Yes, this will boost global demand, but this global demand will benefit owners of capital and the highly skilled and connected, not the bulk of labor in rich countries. We have seen nothing yet. All this means high inequality and a global "equalization" of wages, which means a drop in rich countries for much of the population.
My tip: own capital or die! … learn about stocks and the stock market and access ownership of multinationals for the long run, because the global "adjustment" has just begun and will benefit owners of capital (hence owners of stock, SMEs, and housing), and Trump won't change it.
Life in rich countries has been relatively shielded from the harsh reality of the world until about the turn of the millenium and it allowed incomes in most jobs to be "artificially high", but that reality is now knocking on our doors, especially since 2008... and it will keep banging hard. Like and share if you liked.
Pascal Bedard
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From the creator of this website.
December 2017


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For discussion of Electric Universe and Plasma Cosmology. The ideas and opinions expressed on this forum do not necessarily reflect those of T-Bolts Group Inc or The Thunderbolts Project(TM)
There are at least two thousand years worth of theories.Maddogkull1 wrote:What produces consciousness?? Are there any theories that relate to the electric universe or plasma models that talk about consciousness? Is it just chemical reactions in our brain?
Has he read a bookelijahblackwood wrote:Are you writing a book Maddog?
Define 'alive'. If you turn off a generator the electricity stops. The electricity is not the generator. Cause = generator; Effect = electricity.Getting back to the topic of the thread, electricity causes consciousness. We are electric while alive.
None taken, I'm sure.No offense to Great Danes.
I'm fairly gullible [Canadian plasma spirals], but this seems interesting. On the other hand, these reports could be hoaxes. Or not.
After extensive research, one of the early pioneers in neurocardiology, Dr. J. Andrew Armour, introduced the concept of a functional "heart brain" in 1991. His work revealed that the heart has a complex intrinsic nervous system that is sufficiently sophisticated to qualify as a "little brain" in its own right. The heart's brain is an intricate network of several types of neurons, neurotransmitters, proteins and support cells like those found in the brain proper. Its elaborate circuitry enables it to act independently of the cranial brain – to learn, remember, and even feel and sense.
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In this 3rd and the concluding part of the document on farmers manifesto, we explain why and how the direct income support to farmers need to be ensured. Very often people ask me whether direct income support to farmers is at all possible, and if yes how do we work it out. Well, I present below the way we can do it, and I believe if the State is serious, we first need to set up a Farmers Income Commission, which will fine tune the mechanism to provide income support.
Let us say for the sake of our farmers, the people who work day and night to feed us: Jai ho !
Direct Income Support for Farmers – Why and How
In order to ensure a consistent and sustainable income to farmers in the face of steeply rising input costs and unreliable markets, the government needs to seriously develop a direct income support mechanism. This should be used in conjunction with other mechanisms such as support prices and input subsidies to ensure a secure livelihood to farmers.
The rationale for direct income support
§ It is important to remember that government policies have kept agricultural prices artificially low. This has particularly enabled the government to keep the cost of living of urban industrial workers and government employees low, so that their wages don't place too much burden on the industry and government. The price intervention by the government in the form of Minimum Support Price has also worked within this ambit. The CACP determines the MSP every year in a non-transparent manner based on a host of considerations including "effect on industrial costs, effects on cost of living and effect on general price level."
§ Farmers and agricultural laborers work hard every year to produce food and other essential produce to sustain the nation's population and economy. It is the responsibility of the nation to ensure that they make a decent living out of performing this critical function. The income support can be seen as remuneration for ensuring food security and self-sufficiency, and safeguarding and harnessing our land and other natural resources for vital primary production.
§ The right to life of the farmer community which constitutes 65% of our population is under serious threat in the existing agricultural situation. The farmers' suicides represent only the tip of the iceberg, indicative of the broad and deep distress in the agricultural community. Ensuring minimum income level which keeps them above the poverty level should be seen as the right of the cultivators, not as a dole.
§ It is clear that the farmer as producer is sacrificing a portion of the fair price in order to enable food and essential items to be available to the nation's consumers at affordable prices. The direct income support should be seen as a redressal that compensates for this differential.
§ The government is spending enormous amount of funds towards fertilizer subsidies, but most of it goes to the fertilizer industry not to the farmer. The fertilizer subsidy bill for 2008-09 is Rs.1,19,000 crores, which is more than 15% of the nation's entire budget! The projected subsidy for 2009-10 is Rs.2,50,000 crores. Even such a huge expenditure is not getting transferred into real income to farmers.
§ The employment opportunities in other sectors are growing at a meager rate to absorb a significant portion of those currently in agriculture. If agriculture is allowed to become increasingly a loss-making proposition, millions of farmers will move out but will have no way to go.
§ Employment in urban enterprises across the country from the 3rd Economic Census (1998) to 4th Economic Census (2005) has grown only by 9.6% in 7 years, from 28.77 lakhs to 31.52 lakhs. Whereas the overall employment growth between 1983 and 1993-94 was 1.74%, it fell to 1.08% between 1993-93 and 2004-05!
§ Direct income support is already being provided to farmers in Europe and US to keep agriculture a viable occupation. In UK, each farmer gets 230 pounds of direct payment for every hectare of land cultivated. Direct payments to farmers by the European Union (EU) in 2006 came to 49.8 billion Euros, which was 46.7% of the EU budget. In the US, the direct payments are determined for each crop separately. Each cotton farmer in the US on an average gets $30,000 every year. Wheat farmers get 52 cents for every bushel sold, in addition to a guaranteed minimum price of $3.92 per bushel. The support that we are proposing is very small compared to this.The stated reasons for the European Union to provide direct payment support to farmers include ensuring food self-sufficiency, preserving a rural way of life, the fact that without this support, farmers will not be able to continue farming, and that pastoral agriculture is considered as part of Europe's heritage. In the Indian case, in addition to these considerations, there is also the basic issue of survival of a large percentage of our population.
Implementation issues for direct income support
§ Conditions for the support
o The support should be given to those who cultivate the land, including agricultural workers. In case of absentee land-owners, the support should not go to the owners but to the tenants working on the land. In each year, the support should be given only if a crop is being grown, not if the land is left fallow. In other words, it should be based on the principle of "honest work, just reward."
o The payment should not be crop-specific but made available for all crops.
o The amount should not be based on the extent of land.
o The payment should simply be given on a per-family basis, as the main aim is to provide a minimum income to each agricultural family.
o The income support can also be linked to the performance-the production being maintained at not less the average of the last ten years (moving averages can be calculated).
§ Financial aspects
o There are about 1.2 crore agricultural families in AP. If we assume that 1 crore families would receive direct income support of Rs.25,000 per annum, it would cost the state Rs.25,000 crores every year, which is about 25% of AP's annual budget.
o If 100 days of labor to the farmer can be accounted into NREGA or similar central budget, then the direct support could be reduced by a corresponding amount.
o To put the cost in perspective, we should recognize that this can potentially bring lakhs of families out of poverty, thus reducing the financial burden on the various welfare programs of the state for the poor.
o The extra money going into the rural economy through this program will have positive economic consequences by increasing the purchasing capacity, and by enabling investments by farmers.
§ Delivery Mechanism
o The delivery of support should ideally happen through village-level institutions, and reach the individual farmers with as little intervention by the bureaucracy as possible.
o Women's savings groups can be used as vehicles for transferring the payments to the farmers.


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Though it's been two weeks since Japan's devastating tsunami put the Fukushima reactors out of operation, authorities there are no closer to containing radiation leakage. The news gets graver by the day while officials only keep repeating that there's little danger to the public.
Sea water near the plant now shows 1,850 times normal radiation levels. Friday it was revealed that two TEPCO workers got their feet soaked with water irradiated at a level 10,000 times normal. That was at reactor 3, the one that previously most worried experts. Today we read that pooled water tested at reactor 2 rates 10 million times normal. Thousands and millions are very different beasts.
Still, there's a Japanese official to ensure us that there is little real danger: "Certainly we have to be concerned about the fact that the level of radiation is increasing. But at this point, we do not . . . envisage negative health impacts."
That's an official with Japan's nuclear safety agency. Presumably he's talking about negative health impacts on people who live in Kenya or Scotland.
It's time Japanese authorities admit they can't keep a lid on this disaster. And since the experts aren't doing much to improve things, I suggest they heed the advice of someone who knows next to nothing about nuclear energy but who generally shows the highest wisdom in getting out of complicated scrapes: namely myself.
I propose a simple two-step solution to this nuclear crisis.
First, bury the offending reactors under untold thousands of tons of wet cement and sand. The Japanese are masters with cement, most of the corruption in Japan has to do with cementing over areas of public land that don't need it, so why not give all the gangster-run construction companies a huge collective no-bids contract to bury the Fukushima plant? The possibility of burying it has been floated already, and it seems to me time to put it into effect.
Once buried, the Fukushima plant will look like a series of rolling hills or sand dunes. And this is where my innovative second step comes in. What do Japanese officials love more than golf courses?
In my second step, then, the newly buried nuclear plant will be converted to a challenging 18-hole golf course. Near the course will be built mandatory housing for the top 20 TEPCO officials and 30 selected government officials who will join them. These fifty officials, it should be understood, will be required by law to live in this luxury housing complex next to the Fukushima plant.
I don't know about you, but I'm tired of feeling sorry for the Japanese people suffering in shelters and for those "suicide workers" forced to try to fix the Fukushima plant. I think it's time the higher ups got closer to the action themselves.
The fifty officials, now obligatory VIP members of the new Fukushima Country Club, will be required to golf at least two 18-hole games per week for the remainder of their lives. While out enjoying the course, each official will carry with him a personal Geiger counter specially rigged to deliver radiation readings to workers who will monitor such readings at a collection center 100 kilometers to the south.
I think the brilliance of my two-step scheme is evident. If strictly implemented, the security of the radiation boiling under the cement and sand dunes will be carefully monitored by the movement of the VIP golfers/inmates on the course above. Everybody wins.
It will of course be up to the Japanese to decide just which of their officials should be relocated to this new elite golf club. But as a special favor to me, who thought up the while idea, I would like them to be sure to include Tokyo mayor Shintaro Ishihara.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Fukushima Nuclear Country Club: A Modest Proposal
4 comments:
- dan said...
well said sir....yes bury it...and yes JAPAN is master of public works
CEMENT projects...yes yes yes that book by ALEX KERR says it all and he
after many years for Thailand
- March 27, 2011 at 11:01 AM
- dan said...
Alex Kerr's book Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Modern Japan is a ...
books.google.com/books?isbn=1741790425...Public Works Endanger Japan's Environment | WBUR & NPR - [ 翻譯此頁 ]Even today, on a Saturday, there are construction crews, cutting tile, laying cement. Japan expert Alex Kerr says there are statistics that back up my ...
www.wbur.org/npr/.../public-works-endanger-japans-environment - 頁庫存檔Dogs and Demons - [ 翻譯此頁 ]Dogs and Demons Tales From the Dark Side of Japan By ALEX KERR ... rivers are dammed and the seashore lined with cement, hills have been leveled to provide ...
www.nytimes.com/books/.../kerr-dogs.html - 頁庫存檔 - 類似內容 - 新增至 iGoogleWindows on Japan: a walk through place and perception - Google 圖書結果
Bruce Roscoe - 2007 - Literary Criticism - 308 頁
Kerr compared Japan's volume of cement production with that of the US and concluded that ... But it doesn't matter if Kerr's calculation is approximate. ...
- March 27, 2011 at 11:01 AM
- Ching-yun said...
Most of us took this convenient-living lifestyle for granted without ever realizing what we were paying it for. But perhaps it's too early to think before something really happens.
- March 27, 2011 at 11:36 AM
- dan said...
Japan activist warns another 'nuclear quake' looms
TOKYO, March 27
(Reuters Un-Life!?) -
The nuclear safety crisis entering its third week in Japan was not exactly the disaster that long-term activist and author Takashi Hirose foresaw in his book last summer, "Nuclear Reactor Time Bomb".
- March 27, 2011 at 12:12 PM


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"Samples of Maggi are being sent for tests at private labs. We should act on the basis of those reports. So there is no need to approach the Supreme Court. We will accept the findings of these labs which are approved by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL)," said a top state government official.
He added that the state government's move not to approach the Supreme Court was justified as the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) has already given a clean chit to Maggi based on the test reports of the samples sent by the Goa FDA.
Government officials told ET that Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was not happy with Bapat's declaration of challenging the high court order and told the minister that the state should not go in appeal. Many in the government felt that Bapat had jumped the gun with the decision to approach the Supreme Court, especially when three labs are testing Maggi samples as per the Bombay High Court order.
"We will go by the state government's orders," said Maharashtra FDA commissioner Harshadeep Kamble.


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Fancy beers. From my Mother.
Curse you, your knowledge of my tastes, and the unwarrented generosity you rode in on.
Not to worry, though. The plan is to stagger the posts a good way apart and fill the spaces in between with sodas and recipes and the like.
The first in the batch isn't actually a beer at all! It's a cider, and it has a nifty sheet of gold foil wrapped around its neck. The label isn't anything special. It wouldn't jump out at me on the shelf. That's not a problem in this case, though, and we can skip straight to the drinking.
Uh, maybe after taking the picture next time.
The carbonation is quite light, but the flavour is satisfyingly bold. Quite strong up front and fading to a sourish apply taste. In all, it's deeper than I usually expect from a cider, and a bit less sweet. Both count in its favour.
If you spot it, purchase and enjoy!
We at Thus Unquenched hope you all had an excellent Christmas, filled with warming beverages.