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Integrate Logentries with Codat
About Logentries
Logentries is a log data storage, monitoring, and analytics with centralized search, custom real-time auto-tagging, and easy data navigation.
About Codat
Codat is an API that allows for seamless, straightforward integrations with accountancy and financial software systems. By simplifying the integration process, it allows users to take their mind off of ETL and shift their focus to improving their business and their core offerings.
Popular Use Cases
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Codat's End Points
Codat Companies
Add company entities and organize them by various properties, including contact details, company name, registration number, etc. Then, retrieve this information as necessary or integrate it with other relevant customer platforms.
Codat Bills
Use the bills resource to integrate your billing and organize it based on various properties, including ID, status, issue date, and currency. You can also retrieve all bills for a company as necessary to ensure that your information is always accurate and comprehensive.
Codat Credits
Keep a record of the reduction in amount owed to a company resource by a customer. This information may also be linked to an invoice in the underlying accounting platform.
Codat Invoices
Monitor data on any invoice that was sent to a client. This includes both basic details about the invoice and details about the current status of the invoice i.e. if it was sent, paid, disputed, etc. This data can help you get a clearer view of your expected revenue gains and losses, which can help you to run accurate predictive analyses.
Codat Payments
Gather data about payments made on the invoices that you have sent to your clients. Use this data to track how much you are making from specific customers or during specific time periods. This will allow you to hone your marketing efforts and score leads more effectively.


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Solder Preforms, InFORMS® & Tubes
Solder Preforms are used in a variety of applications that require precise amounts of solder.
Solder Preforms come in standard shapes such as squares, rectangles, washers and discs. Typical sizes range from .010" (.254mm) up to 2" (50.8mm). Smaller and larger sizes, as well as custom shapes, are also available. Dimensions can be held to tight tolerances to assure volume accuracy.
Selecting Alloys
A wide assortment of alloys is available in liquidus temperatures that range from 47°C to 1063°C. Alloys can be indium-contained, gold-contained, lead-free, fusible or standard tin-lead, as well as many others.
- Alloy selection should be based on strength and other required physical properties, as well as the preferred soldering temperature and the operating temperature of the device being soldered. A general rule is to select an alloy that melts at least 50°C higher than the operational temperature of the part being soldered.
- Next, consider the materials being soldered and what solder is most compatible with them. For example, tin-based solders will scavenge the gold from gold-plated parts, forming brittle intermetallics, so indium-based solders are generally recommended in these cases.
- Metals and alloys have different characteristics that can affect the ease with which they can be made into different shapes and thicknesses. It is important to consider the shape of the final preform in the alloy selection process.
- The operating environment of the completed assembly is also an important consideration for alloy selection. Will it operate in very high or very low temperatures, or be subjected to vibration? If so, you need to select an alloy that will stand up to these conditions.
Our Application Engineers will work with you to determine the best alloy for your application.
Selecting Dimensions
The location of the solder joint and the volume of solder needed will determine the size and shape of the preform. Once the flat dimensions (diameter, length, width) have been determined, the thickness can be adjusted to achieve the desired volume of solder. Generally, for through-hole connections, add 10-20% to the calculated volume for a good fillet. For pad to pad joints, figure about 5% less surface area than the pad.
Each Solder Preform should have a burr tolerance specified. You should stay as close to standard tolerances as possible to avoid adding cost and lead time to your Solder Preforms.
Indium Corporation has an extensive library of sizes and shapes from which you can choose, or we can create a set-up specifically for your application. Using an existing preform size can eliminate the additional time associated with creating a new set-up.
Packaging and Storage
Solder Preforms come in a variety of packaging options, including tape and reel. To minimize excessive handling, and exposure to air and subsequent oxidation, Solder Preforms should be packaged according to the quantity used during a typical work shift.
Store in the original container, closed securely, in 55% RH or less and at temperatures less than 22°C. Solder Preforms can also be stored in an inert atmosphere, such as a nitrogen dry box.
Shelf Life
The shelf life of Solder Preforms is dependent on the alloy composition. Pb-free alloys, and alloys with lead content of less than 70%, have a shelf life of 1-year from the date of manufacture (DOM). Alloys with lead content >70% have a shelf life of 6-months from the DOM.
Solder Preform Products
Dimensional Specification Recommendations
|Width/length or diameter:
|Typical Tolerances
|Up to .100" (2.54mm)
|±.002"(± .051mm)
|Over .100" (2.54mm)
|± .005" (± .127mm)
|Up to .001" (.025mm)
|± .0002" (.005mm)
|.001" (.025mm) to .002" (.050mm)
|± .0003" (.0076mm)
|> .002" (.050mm) to .010" (.254mm)
|± .0005" (.0127mm)
|> .010" (.254mm) to .020" (.508mm)
|± .0010" (.0254mm)
|> .020" (.508mm) to .050" (1.27mm)
|± .0025" (.0635mm)
|> .050" (1.27mm)
|± 5%
|Burr Tolerances (Discs, Squares & Rectangles):
|≤.050" (1.27mm)
|.002" (.050mm)
|>.050" (1.27mmm) to .500" (12.7mm)
|.003" (.076mm)
|>.500" (12.7mm)
|.005" (.127mm)
|Burr Tolerances (Washers & Frames):
|≤.100" (2.54mm)
|.003" (.076mm)
|When thickness ≥ 2/3 of I.D.
|.005" (.127mm)
Flux Coatings for Solder Preforms
- Eliminates the need for manual fluxing
- Eliminates excessive flux residue
- Increases productivity
- Applies flux precisely where it is needed
- Applies a uniform amount every time
Flux Coated Solder Preforms eliminate the costly production step of separate fluxing and increase throughput yields. Flux Coatings for Solder Preforms are available in no-clean and rosin-based chemistries with a variety of activity levels to suit your substrate metallizations.
Flux Coatings
Indium Corporation's unique coating process can control the amount of flux to tight tolerances. Flux Coatings are measured and applied by weight percentage. The coatings range from 1-3% and standard tolerances are controlled at +/- .5%. Coatings can be applied to most sizes and shapes of Solder Preforms.
|IPC Classification
|Substrate Finishes
|Reliability J-STD-004
|Au, Ag, Pd, Pt, Cu, Ni, HASL, ENIG, Sn
|Au, Ag, Pd, Pt, Cu, HASL, ENIG, Sn
|Au, Ag, Pd, Pt, Cu, HASL, ENIG, Sn
|Au, Ag, Pd, Pt, Cu, HASL, ENIG, Sn
|Au, Ag, Pd, Pt, Cu, HASL, ENIG, Sn
|Cu, Ni, Cu Alloys (Brass, Bronze)
|Cleaning Recommended
|Cu, Ni, Cu Alloys (Brass, Bronze)
|Cleaning Recommended
|Cu, Ni, Cu Alloys (Brass, Bronze), Alloy 42
|Cleaning Recommended
Related Markets and Applications
Top Solder Preforms Technical Documents
Solder Preforms Technical Documents
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Application Notes
Safety Data Sheets
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Solder Preform Blog Posts
Indium Preform Order Quantity
Since pure indium preforms are so soft, making thousands of parts requires different processing and packaging methods than manufacturing just a handful of samples.
Specifying Dimensions for Pure Indium Preforms
We have all ordered something in the wrong size - it's frustrating! Today we discuss specifying the dimensions for pure indium preforms.
Specifying Indium Preform Purity
Indium is commonly available from 99.9% to 99.9999% purity, although 99.995-99.999% is recommended most often for vacuum, hermetic, and cryogenic sealing.
For comments or questions about the content on this page, please contact:
Tim Jensen
Product Manager for Engineered Solder Materials
From One Engineer to Another®
All of Indium Corporation's products and solutions are designed to be commercially available
unless specifically stated otherwise.
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Business process management (BPM) systematically makes organisational workflows more effective and efficient. Digitisation improves your business processes across the board.
Our extensive network of imaging centres, scanning and indexing services, secure storage options and Workflow Automation solutions can help accelerate your transition to a more digital workplace.
Our integrated approach to document imaging management workflow automation can help you:


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Young Living farms stand apart in the essential oil industry and set the standard for distilling essential oils. That's why the essential oil farms play such an integral role in the Seed to Seal® promise, which commits to providing pure, potent essential oils to homes across the world.Unprecedented time and resources have been invested to ensure that these standards are the highest priority at each of their global farms, partner farms, and Seed to Seal-certified suppliers, so your home and family gets the very best nature has to offer.
Young Living has the unique ability to verify perfection at every step of the process. Combine this with extensive laboratory testing and independent audits, and it's no wonder that the quality routinely exceeds Young Living's own industry-leading standards! Inspired by his true passion and the fields, forests, and jungles that surrounded the farms, Gary Young, the founder of Young Living was continually discovering new botanicals and essential oils which allowed Young Living to bring more of nature's greatest gifts to people everywhere.
Whispering Springs FarmMona, UT, 3700 North Highway 91, Mona, UT 84645
The Young Living Whispering Springs Farm is an iconic lavender farm, not only to Young Living but also to the essential oil movement and the wellness community.The rugged landscape of central Utah contrasts with the serene, fragrant lavender fields to create a place of pure peace and relaxation. Featuring over 1,400 acres of fragrant herbs, a cool reservoir, pristine natural beauty and fresh mountain air, the Mona, UT Lavender Farm is a beautiful destination the whole family can enjoy. Activities include:
- Annual Lavender Harvest
- Essential oils classes
- Run through the Lavender 5K
- Distillery tours
- Wagon rides
- Small animal farm visits
- Paddleboat cruises
The Lavender Farm is also a perfect place for family reunions, company parties, and wedding receptions. The Visitors Center is open year round, Monday through Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Finca Botanica FarmGuayaquil, Ecuador
Boasting nearly 2,000 lush acres of farmland, the Ecuador farm's fertile ground and year-round growing season support an abundance of palo santo trees, several new high-oil-content plants, along with ample cultivation of lemongrass, ruta graveolens, and many more local plants and herbs. This farm is also proving to be the perfect place to harvest oils that are in short supply throughout the world, such as helichrysum, which is renowned for its restorative properties.
New Essential Oil Discoveries
Dense jungles surround the farm, creating a natural lab for essential oil research and development. Founder Gary Young often ventured into the jungle to obtain plant samples, which were then analyzed for their therapeutic properties. Once a new Young Living® essential oil is discovered, the plant is either cultivated and distilled on the farm, or sustainably harvested from existing supplies.
Some Young Living essential oils developed in this manner include:
- Copaiba essential oil
- Dorado Azul essential oil
- Eucalyptus blue essential oil
- Ocotea essential oil
- Palo santo essential oil
- RutaVaLa essential oil blend
Annual Amazon Adventure
Every year groups of Young Living Independent Distributors travel to Guayaquil for the Annual Amazon Adventure. This once-in-a-lifetime experience includes guided hikes through the jungle, tours of the Young Living farm's fields and distillation facilities, essential oil trainings, and much more.
St. Maries Lavender FarmSt. Maries, Idaho, USA
The St. Maries Lavender Farm is where everything started! In 1993, Gary Young brought lavender seeds from Provence, France, and planted them on the 200 acres of land that now make up this beautiful farm. Today, this farm helps produce Young Living's famous Lavender essential oil and other botanicals.
Previous to Young Living's 1992 purchase of the land for the St. Maries farm, this area had never been exposed to chemicals, pesticides, and manmade fertilizers. This pristine condition makes the 200 acres of soil perfect for the cultivation of botanicals such as melissa, lavender, and tansy.
Highland Flats Tree FarmNaples, Idaho, USA
The Highland Flats tree farm is located near the small, scenic Idaho town of Naples, less than 50 miles from the U.S.-Canada border. Since 2000, the 250-acre farm has hosted the annual Winter Harvest, where members join in harvesting blue spruce, balsam fir, red cedar, and pine trees. Each spring, members also participate in the Spring Planting, an important reforestation project that replaces the harvested trees. These events allow members to participate in the Seed to Seal process firsthand.
This is home to some of the beautiful evergreen trees that help Young Living produce essential oils inspired by the great outdoors. It is not only a blue spruce farm but is also home to one of the world's largest essential oil distilleries. It's the location of Young Living's annual Winter Harvest and Spring Planting projects, which allow members to participate in the Seed to Seal process firsthand.
Simiane-la-Rotonde Lavender FarmSimiane-la-Rotonde, France
Young Living's Simiane-la-Rotonde farm is located in charming Provence, a region of France renowned for its beauty, fragrant lavender fields, and summer-long festivals. Young Living takes advantage of this fertile land to grow clary sage, lavender, and einkorn wheat. Because of its history and breathtaking views, this farm has become a popular destination for essential oil lovers, artists, and visitors looking to breathe in the captivating spirit of the special location.
Arabian Frankincense DistilleryMuscat, Oman
The limestone cliffs of Oman's Dhofar Mountains provide the perfect environment for the frankincense tree to grow, and Young Living is the first and only company in the world to obtain permission to distill and export Omani Sacred Frankincense oil and bring it into the Western world. The Boswellia sacra trees in this region carry a rich history, having been harvested for the past 5,000 years. Today, their resin is harvested by the same method and on the same schedule as their ancestors, so they continue this centuries-old story.
Northern Lights Farm7109 Alaska Highway, Fort Nelson, BC VOC 1R0
In 2014—after extensive scouting and research to find the best possible location—Young Living purchased land in British Columbia, Canada, for the Northern Lights Farm. The pristine land remains free of synthetic chemicals and fertilizers, thanks to its relatively untouched nature prior to Young Living's ownership.
Dalmatia Aromatic FarmSplit, Croatia
Dalmatia's striking and historic landscape reflects its deep cultural roots and makes an ideal home for the botanical helichrysum. That's why this farm was founded with the intention of becoming a sustainable source for the popular Helichrysum oil, but the location has since continued to grow and cultivate even more botanicals.
Outback Botanical ReserveDarwin, Australia
Australia's Northern Territory outback sets the stunning backdrop for this location's plantations of Australian cypress pine trees. Drawing on ethnobotanical use in the aboriginal pharmacopeia, the founder of the Outback Botanical Reserve actually stumbled upon a new, now patented method of distillation that resulted in Blue Cypress essential oil. This oil's many benefits are still being researched to this day. Established in 1994 this is Young Living's oldest cooperative farm.
Taiwan Cooperative FarmTaitung, Taiwan
In 2011, when Gary Young flew to the island of Taiwan to explore its native plants, he began a friendship with Ginn S. Lee, PhD, an acclaimed agriculturalists and his son Tiger Lee, a young engineer, and together they distilled exotic hong kuai and xiang mao botanicals, which were featured in the 2013 Exotic Oils Collection, as well as jade lemon.This cooperative farm is actually made up of smaller individual farm operations that each focus on different oils. Like each unique operation, each oil has its own story and background that include its preservation, generational history and family significance, and the ingenuity and innovation necessary to create it.
Happy Pili Tree FarmBicol Region, Philippines
Chosen as a partner farm because of its ethical and conscientious harvesting methods, the Happy Pili Tree Farm is Young Living's main supplier of Elemi essential oil. With expertise on how to legally and sustainably source this precious plant and provide fair wages to workers, the farm protects natural resources and helps ensure long-term viability of high-quality Elemi essential oil. The farm has also vertically integrated the production process by building a distillery on site, keeping job opportunities and expertise within the community.
Quintis Sandalwood FarmPerth, Australia
While this farm is headquartered in Perth, the sandalwood plantations extend across Australia's tropical northern outback. This location utilizes a remarkable approach to protecting precious sandalwood trees from India's growing black market by bringing seeds from India to be cultivated on this farm. Once safely planted in their new home, these trees are cultivated with the industry's highest standards of quality, sustainability, and environmental stewardship.


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Laguna Holiday Club Phuket Resort is centrally located amid the tropical surrounds of Laguna Phuket family overlooking Golf Club's scenic fairways. The resort features 79 spacious suites available in three room types ranging from 65 - 113 square meters. All suites feature separate living and dining area, convenient kitchens and furnishings.
Resort amenities available to guests include a swimming pool with waterslide, a pool bar, restaurant, kid's club, plus free wireless connection throughout resort.


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During the last 25 years, telecommunication has moved away from government–owned or regulated monopolies toward privatization with competition and oversight by independent regulatory agencies — PCR policies. We present data indicating that PCR has had little impact on the Internet during the last ten years in developed or developing nations, and discuss the reasons for this. We then describe several ways government can go beyond PCR, while balancing needs for next generation technology, decentralized infrastructure ownership, and immediate economic stimulus. We conclude that there is a need for alternatives to the expedient action of subsidizing the current Internet service providers with their demonstrated anti–competitive bent. The decisions we make today will shape telecommunication infrastructure and the industry for decades.
Privatization, competition and independent regulation (PCR)
PCR does not suffice
The (minimal) effect of PCR
The limitations of PCR
Beyond PCR
Since the era of Reagan and Thatcher, there has been a global move from centralized economies toward market economies [1]. We saw the fall of the Soviet Union and the move toward private enterprise in former communist nations and increased de–regulation and trust in markets in capitalist nations. Reagan appointed Alan Greenspan, a free market advocate, to head the Federal Reserve Board and Thatcher privatized telecommunications, gas, steel, electricity and water companies. This trend continued throughout subsequent administrations, but pendulums oscillate. There is now near consensus on the need to increase the government's economic role. [2].
Privatization, competition and independent regulation (PCR)
Telecommunication has followed a similar pattern during this time. With the support of international organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and World Trade Organization (WTO), telecommunication has been privatized in most nations (Figure 1). They hoped that the ensuing market competition, encouraged by a strong, independent regulatory agency would lead to telecommunication success.
Figure 1: Increased privatization of fixed line incumbents [3].
By mid–2008, 125 nations had privately owned or partially privatized fixed line incumbents. The regional breakdown is shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Regional privatization rates [4]. Region Percent private Europe 78 Americas 74 Asia–Pacific 53 Africa 47 Arab states 48
Along with privatization, nations have moved toward market competition. The ITU also reports steady increases in competition, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Number of nations with telecommunication competition [5].
By mid–2008, the ITU reported competition in the majority of nations in several telecommunication categories, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Percent of nations with competition [6].
Increased competition was also encouraged by the WTO. In February 1997, 69 WTO member nations agreed to open their telecommunication services markets. The agreement was signed by a mix of industrialized and emerging nations, which, according to the ITU, accounted for over 91 percent of global telecommunication revenues and 82 percent of the world's telephone main lines in 1995. The agreement was lauded by observers ranging from U.S. FCC Chairman Reed Hundt to Bernard J. Ebbers, president and CEO of WorldCom, who predicted lower prices, accelerated infrastructure rollout and economic growth. By December 1998, there were 90 signatories, and the WTO reported that
Under the stimulus of competition and changing technologies new services are constantly being developed … demand for and issues of licenses have increased dramatically. Competitors are prompting sharp reductions in prices of international and national long distance services … The clear prospect of competition has also further accelerated the pace of innovation, leading to new services that may have been difficult to foresee less than two years ago when the WTO negotiations concluded. [7].
Since even with privatization there were relatively few providers of most telecommunication services, nations have attempted to create independent regulatory agencies to facilitate competition. The number of regulators has increased steadily, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Number of nations with regulators [8].
Table 2 shows the percents of nations with regulators as of Fall 2008.
Table 2: Regional regulation rates [9]. Region Percent with regulators Africa 93 Americas 89 Europe 80 Asia–Pacific 66 Arab states 62
The optimistic view of market solutions expressed by the WTO became conventional wisdom. For example, the ITU endorsed a PCR policy, stating that [10]:
- Privatization without competition is good, but privatization with competition is better.
- Creating regulators is good, but giving them adequate powers and independence is better.
- Creating a duopoly is good, but allowing open competition is better.
- Introducing competition is good, but introducing it at an early stage is better.
PCR does not suffice
Nearly all nations have moved away from government control toward PCR during the last 25 years, but has the PCR promise been fulfilled? There have surely been problems. Most glaring is the "digital divide" among nations. Internet connectivity is nearly non–existent in rural areas of developing nations and, when it is available in urban areas, it is often slow and unreliable, precluding modern "Web 2.0" applications as well as other applications involving audio, video and even still image data. Regardless of how we measure it, there is an immense Internet gap between high and low–income nations (see Table 3).
Table 3: The digital divide [11]. High income Low income Year Broadband subscribers (per 100 people) 15 0 2005 International Internet bandwidth (bits per person) 2612 6 2005 Internet users (per 100 people) 64 5 2007 Personal computers (per 100 people) 61 2 2005 Price basket for Internet (US$ per month) 19 29 2006 Secure Internet servers (per 1 million people) 570 0 2007
Relative to per capita GDP, Internet access cost in a low income nation is 37 times that of a high income nation, and the speed and reliability are qualitatively worse, precluding many modern applications. Furthermore, measured in absolute terms, the divide is growing (see Figure 5), and there are similar divides within nations.
Figure 5: Fixed broadband subscribers per 100 population, 2007 [12].
There are also problems within the developed nations, as exemplified by the Internet in the U.S. The Internet began in the U.S., and it is still among the leading Internet nations, but it has clearly fallen behind several developed nations. The OECD maintains a Broadband Portal with statistics on prices, services and speed, penetration, usage and coverage in member nations [13]. We see there that, relative to leading Asian and European nations, the U.S. pays a high price for inferior Internet service.
One OECD indicator, fiber connections, is indicative of the problem. The U.S. (and much of Europe) remains focused on copper connections, while several other nations are investing in fiber to the curb, home, building or apartment (see Table 4).
Table 4: Fiber as a percent of total broadband connections, June 2008 [14]. Nation Percent fiber Japan 45 Korea 39 Sweden 19 Slovak Republic 18 OECD average 9 Denmark 9 Norway 8 Czech Republic 4 United States 3
There is also a gap in fiber speed, which is typically much slower in the U.S. than in Japan, Korea and Scandinavia. This, combined with relatively high U.S. prices, results in considerably lower cost per Mb/s, and encourages the development of advanced applications in those nations.
The (minimal) effect of PCR
This is not to say that we should return to government owned monopolies, but it leads us to ask what portion of the telecommunication progress we have achieved is attributable to PCR policy and what is attributable to other factors like economic growth, technical progress and the deployment of the Internet?
Precise, definitive answers to such questions are not to be found, but we can make a first approximation by comparing the outcomes in the early WTO signatory nations to those of nations which did not sign. Presumably, the former were the more enthusiastic adopters of PCR policy.
We will use two composite indices — the UNCTAD ICT diffusion index (ICTDI) and the ITU Digital Opportunity Index (DOI) — for dependent variables. The ICTDI is a function of connectivity in a nation and the people's ability to access and utilize it [15]. It was computed annually from 1997–2004. The DOI combines 11 indicators in measuring ICT opportunity (availability and affordability), infrastructure and utilization. It was computed bi–annually from 2003-2007 [16].
Table 5 compares the change in ICTDI ranks of nations which had signed the WTO telecommunication services accord by December 1998 to those which had not.
Table 5: Changes in ICTDI rank between 1997–2004 for WTO signatories and non–signatories [17]. Average Standard deviation Number All nations WTO signatories -2.1 9.8 88 Not signatories 2.0 11.0 92 Low income WTO signatories 0.1 9.3 17 Not signatories 4.3 10.8 37 Sub–Saharan Africa WTO signatories -0.8 8.4 11 Not signatories -0.7 6.8 30 High income WTO signatories 0.9 7.2 29 Not signatories 5.1 8.4 7
As we see, overall, the ranks of signatory nations improved by an average of 2.1 places and the ranks of non–signers fell two places [18]. Sub–Saharan African nations which were not signatories actually fared a bit better than signatories.
Table 6 compares change in DOI ranks of nations which had signed the WTO telecommunication services accord by December 1998 to those which had not.
Table 6: Changes in DOI rank between 1997–2004 for WTO signatories and non–signatories [19]. Average Standard deviation Number All nations WTO signatories 1.1 10.2 77 Not signatories 1.2 13.2 76 Low income WTO signatories 3.8 13.6 16 Not signatories .64 12.3 36 Sub–Saharan Africa WTO signatories 4.3 16.4 9 Not signatories .93 11.3 30 High income WTO signatories 1.1 5.7 29 Not signatories .7 7.8 6
Here the all–nations impact of signing is even less than with the ICTDI, indicating diminishing benefits — essentially zero — of PCR. The rank changes of low–income and sub–Saharan African nations were actually worse for signatories.
We have treated a nation as either a signatory or not, but the agreement was not monolithic — it dealt with 17 services, and a nation could sign on to liberalization of only a subset. Figure 6 plots the number of services a nation signed up for against its ICTDI change between 1997 and 2003.
Figure 6: Changes in ICTDI rank between 1997–2004 versus the number of services signed for [20].
While the linear trend line slopes down, it is clear that there is no significant correlation between the change in a given nation's ICTDI rank in the years immediately following signing of the WTO accord and the number of provisions that nations signed for.
There is no doubt that PCR had a positive impact in many nations when state–owned monopolies were first privatized, but this analysis indicates that PCR has run its course, and had little or no effect overall after 1997. While PCR is attractive in theory, it is limited in practice.
The limitations of PCR
The U.S. was an early, enthusiastic proponent of PCR policy, the Internet protocols were invented in the United States, and the U.S. backbone network, funded by the National Science Foundation, was for years the de facto global backbone. In spite of an early lead, the United States is now the fifteenth–ranked OECD nation in terms of broadband connectivity rates [21] and ranked twentieth on the ITU Digital Opportunity Index [22]. Furthermore, prices are higher and connection speeds are lower than in many other nations, service is often asymmetric, thereby discouraging customers from serving information, and terms of service, for example, monthly download caps, may further restrict them.
The failure of the U.S. Internet to keep pace with other developed nations illustrates the limitations of PCR policy. The goal of private telephone and cable companies is to optimize shareholder value and return, regardless of impact on the nation. For example, they lobby against network neutrality stating that, as private companies they should have the right to charge for and utilize their assets — their networks — as they see fit. AT&T CEO Edward Whitacre stated "Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it." [23]
Mr. Whitacre and others ignore the fact that their assets were often acquired during a period of regulated monopoly. By guaranteeing a fair return on those assets, the public underwrote the risk on the investment, and has rights in determining their use.
The incumbent operators have also abused the public subsidy of capital investment, reneging on promises to invest in infrastructure in return for rate increases and subsidies. For example, Kushnick reports that [24]:
… in the early 1990's … every Bell company … made commitments to rewire America, state by state. Fiber optic wires would replace the 100–year old copper wiring. The push caused techno–frenzy of major proportions. By 2006, 86 million households should have had a service capable of 45 Mbps in both directions … In order to pay for these upgrades, in state after state, the public service commissions and state legislatures acquiesced to the Bells' promises by removing the constraints on the Bells' profits as well as gave other financial perks … The phone companies collected over $200 billion in higher phone rates and tax perks, about $2,000 per household.
As an example, consider the following quote from a 1996 Bell Atlantic press release [25]:
Later this year, Bell Atlantic will begin installing fiber–optic facilities and electronics to replace the predominantly copper cables between its telephone switching offices and customers. Fiber–optics provides higher quality and more reliable telephone services at lower operating and maintenance costs. The company plans to add digital video broadcast capabilities to this "fiber–to–the–curb," switched broadband network by the third quarter of 1997, and broadband Internet access, data communications and interactive multimedia capabilities in late 1997 or early 1998.
Incumbents received tax breaks and rate increases in return for such promises, but they did not make the promised investments.
While U.S. companies are privately held, competition is imperfect in telecommunication — it is at best oligopolistic. A U.S. home or business typically has only one or two options for Internet connectivity, and some rural areas are only covered by satellite. In pure competition, no single producer has the power to alter the market price, but that is clearly not the case with regard to the Internet. Mobile and fixed Internet connectivity providers can easily monitor each others prices and act to maximize their profits. The uniform increase in text messaging price in the U.S. provides an example [26].
An independent regulator should represent the public interest in trying to countervail monopoly or oligopoly power, but even in a relatively transparent democracy like the U.S., regulators are subject to political pressure and lobbying. For example, the incumbent operators successfully thwarted the intention of the U.S. 1996 Telecommunication Act to create viable, competitive local carriers, and in many states they are lobbying for laws prohibiting municipal governments from providing Internet service.
William Kennard, who, as chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 1997–2001, was charged with implementing the Telecommunications Act, stated near the end of his term that "all too often companies work to change the regulations, instead of working to change the market," and spoke of "regulatory capitalism" in which "companies invest in lawyers, lobbyists and politicians, instead of plant, people and customer service." [27] He went on to remark that regulation is "too often used as a shield, to protect the status quo from new competition — often in the form of smaller, hungrier competitors — and too infrequently as a sword — to cut a pathway for new competitors to compete by creating new networks and services."
Ironically, Benoit Felton argues that the U.S. incumbents may have inadvertently acted against their own best interests in resisting facility sharing. He presents a simple model showing that take–up rate, not average revenue per user, is the key driver of profitability, and argues that open access drives high take–up rates, to the benefit of the incumbents, competing providers and the community [28].
He supports this view with the following quote from Ad Scheepbouwer, CEO of the Dutch telephone company KPN [29]:
In hindsight, KPN made a mistake back in 1996. We were not too enthusiastic to be forced to allow competitors on our old wireline network. That turned out not to be very wise. If you allow all your competitors on your network, all services will run on your network, and that results in the lowest cost possible per service. Which in turn attracts more customers for those services, so your network grows much faster. An open network is not charity from us, in the long run it simply works best for everybody.
Incumbent telephone and cable companies have the resources to lobby and influence regulators locally as well as at the Federal level. Several such efforts are documented by Cathy Swirbul who writes:
Communities across the United States are working to bring broadband to their residents. Often, they are working with the private sector to provide services. But where private companies are unwilling or unable to meet local needs as fast as the community demands, some municipal governments are considering providing advanced communications networks and services themselves. Incumbent telecommunications companies and cable operators have often responded with fierce opposition and launch efforts to obtain state laws obstructing municipal broadband initiatives. [30]
The Baller Herbst Law Group tracks broadband cases and developments at both the federal and state level [31].
Competition between Internet service providers and their own customers may be more important than limited competition between service providers. The business model of telephone and cable TV companies centers on selling services like telephony, mobile telephony, text messaging, and television rather than application–independent connectivity. It is as if the water utility sold drinking water, dish washing water, garden water, etc. rather than application–independent water. To the extent that they are providers of a specific service, the cable and telephone companies compete with their own customers who provide similar services. This gives them an incentive to discriminate against those customers, which regulators must watch.
We have used the U.S. to illustrate the limitations of PCR policy. The limits on PCR are often more constraining in developing nations. There may be only one connectivity provider, perhaps a private monopoly, and regulators may be even more directly controlled by the political process. But, poverty is even more important. If there is not sufficient demand to justify investment in connectivity infrastructure, it will not occur even if there are many, privately owned, competing service providers and a strong, independent regulator.
Beyond PCR
If PCR policies have reached a point of mixed and diminishing returns, we must couple them with proactive government planning, investment and procurement if we are to close the digital divide or improve connectivity in developed nations.
What might that mean in a developed nation like the U.S., where President Obama has stated "As we renew our schools and highways, we'll also renew our information super highway," [32] and a policy goal is to deploy next–generation broadband, to
Work towards true broadband in every community in America through a combination of reform of the Universal Service Fund, better use of the nation's wireless spectrum, promotion of next–generation facilities, technologies and applications, and new tax and loan incentives. America should lead the world in broadband penetration and Internet access. [33]
First, note that the limit on ubiquitous broadband in developed nations is in access networks, not backbones. This point is made in a study by Nemertes Research which states that:
We continue to project that capacity in the core, and connectivity and fiber layers will outpace all conceivable demand for the near future. However, demand will exceed access line capacity within the next two to four years. Even factoring in the potential impact of a global economic recession on both demand (users purchasing fewer Internet–attached devices and services) and capacity (providers slowing their investment in infrastructure) changes the impact by as little as a year (either delaying or accelerating, depending on which is assumed to have the greater effect). [34]
Their projections are shown in Figure 7, where demand (yellow line) exceeds access network capacity (blue line) around 2011, but remains comfortably below backbone capacity.
Figure 7: North America capacity versus demand, 2008 [33].
If economic stimulus were our only goal, we would subsidize current network owners with "shovel ready" projects. A recent report urges such a subsidy, estimating that a US$10 billion investment with current broadband network companies would result in 498,000 jobs being created, and stating [36]:
Although projects to improve the country's traditional physical infrastructure (e.g., roads, bridges, sewer systems) are necessary and important, investments in certain parts of our national information technology (IT) infrastructure — America's digital infrastructure — will have a greater positive impact on jobs, productivity, and innovation.
The government is under pressure to act quickly, but the decisions we make today will affect our telecommunication infrastructure for many decades. We have very little fiber today, but there is no doubt that, in the long run, we will have fiber connections to all urban and many rural homes and buildings. The only question is "Who will own it?"
Network ownership is a strategic consideration along with economic stimulus and technology. Owners of the current network have acted to maximize their own profitability and growth [37]. Crafting regulations to guard against the sort of anticompetitive behavior outlined above has failed. While we should try to craft such regulation, we should also encourage efforts to decentralize ownership of access networks, pushing it out to municipalities, owners of homes and buildings, and wireless Internet service providers in rural areas.
Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Japan, United Kingdom, and Canada have programs to encourage municipal ownership of network infrastructure [38]. In the U.S., Burlington Vermont, Lafayette, Louisiana, and several communities in Utah operate publically owned networks [39]. Sweden has been particularly active in developing municipal networks. For example, Stokab [40], a municipally owned corporation, operates the City of Stockholm's internal communications networks and has installed 1.2 million kilometers of fiber, reaching every block in the city. The city does not serve retail customers — Internet service providers lease access to the network on a competition–neutral basis, as recommended in a report of the OECD [41]:
Municipal networks can play an important role in enhancing competition in fibre networks. If these develop, governments should encourage them to be open networks, that is providing dark fibre to service providers rather than becoming themselves service providers. Nor should the existence of a municipal network providing dark fibre mean that investment in other fibre networks in that municipality should be prevented.
The Communications Consumer Panel, an advisory body, has compiled a brief report on 40 local broadband projects in the United Kingdom. They range in size from 30 to 550,000 homes [42]. Many are in early stages or lacking funds, but such projects should be considered for stimulus funding. Eventually most of our access networks will use fiber, and we should consider local ownership when that fiber is deployed. Local governments with "shovel ready" plans for fiber networks could be supported immediately.
Home and building owners typically own the water, gas and sewer pipes connecting their structures to utilities. The cost of those pipes and their installation is borne by the owner and accounts for a portion of the value of the structure. The owner is also responsible for maintenance of the pipes, which is generally hired out to plumbers. Ownership and control of access networks could also be pushed out to home and building owners. Wu and Slater discuss this alternative in a recent paper [43], and a test is underway in downtown Ottawa, Canada [44], where fiber has been deployed to serve a 400–home neighborhood, but a service provider has not yet signed on [45].
While customer–owned fiber might be a long–term goal in some cases, customer–owned wireless mesh technology connected to curb–side access points could be deployed quickly if standardization and the rapid ramp up of manufacture and distribution were coordinated. Neighborhood backhaul might be procured by local government or by commercial providers that do not limit the number of connections sharing a point of presence [46].
Fiber may one day be available in sparsely populated rural areas, but today they are often served by wireless Internet service providers [47]. These are small relative to the national telephone and cable companies, and should also be considered for incentives. We should also craft regulation and spectrum policy that facilitates their growth [48].
Rapid economic stimulus should not be the primary consideration in allocating short run broadband subsidy. We can quickly fund municipal and rural broadband initiatives that are planned and ready to go, but we should take time to investigate alternatives to large procurement from and subsidy to incumbent ISPs.
Such investigation need not be expensive or time consuming. We can pursue the strategy used in the design of the initial Internet backbone, NSFNet, by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Defense. Small staffs contracted for and facilitated the work of experts from academia and industry. They addressed both engineering tasks, like the definition of the TCP/IP protocol, and implementation tasks like encouraging and subsidizing the connection of U.S. colleges and universities and research networks in other nations to the backbone network.
Once they knew what they wanted to do, NSF issued RFPs for implementation. The majority of the funding was for procurement of telecommunication and network management services. Procurement for the backbone and Higher Education and International Connection Programs cost US$95 million, but these funds were not spent until the engineering and planning were complete and the decision made to proceed [49].
If our goal is to foster innovation in technology and business models, could we not define, say, 25 such focused studies of one–year duration? Perhaps five of those studies would succeed and be followed by procurement. That would put major spending off for a year, but Paul Krugman, Nobel laureate in economics, warns that the stimulus plan must continue for several years. He recommends "looking broadly at the possibilities for government investment," and writes "If Mr. Obama drops the 'jump–start' metaphor, if he accepts the reality that we need a multi–year program rather than a short burst of activity, he can create a lot more jobs through government investment, even in the near term." [50]
Like the NSFNet project, these studies would consider both engineering and ownership/business model issues. For example, a study of home ownership of mesh networks would have to address backhaul provision and procurement as well as the design of home network appliances. Another group might be charged with critically studying existing examples of local government infrastructure ownership (including public and private electric power companies) and developing best practices and RFP templates for general use.
We have been discussing strategies to encourage broadband connectivity and economic stimulus in access networks, assuming that adequate backbone networks existed and would continue to expand. This may be the case in developed nations (as was shown in Figure 7), but it is not the case in developing nations. Unlike the U.S., they do not have adequate backbone networks.
The general strategy for developing nations would be to construct backbones with points of presence in all cities and villages, and let the local people be responsible for access connectivity and services. This would recapitulate NSF's bootstrapping of the Internet by providing a backbone and subsidizing connectivity to universities, which then built local area networks and developed applications. China followed a similar strategy with the government constructing backbone networks and allowing competition among access networks [51]. The construction of ubiquitous national backbones in developing nations would be a daunting task, a grand challenge, but it can be done, and it would benefit both developed and developing nations. We have discussed this further in several papers and presentations [52].
We have seen that the shift toward PCR policy of the last 25 years has left us with problems in developed and developing nations. Comparison of the performance of early PCR adopters with others indicated that PCR is having a marginal impact. While PCR sounds good in theory, regulators have not succeeded in bringing competition to the market place.
- The current strategy of privatization with hope for competition under independent regulation has failed in many developed and developing nations. In the U.S., regulators have been unable to create competition and our infrastructure has suffered.
- The large broadband incumbents have benefited from public subsidy, have failed to live up to commitments, and have used their power to defeat attempts to create competition.
- The U.S. has little fiber in the access network today, but will have fiber to all urban and many rural homes and buildings in the long run. The question is not whether we are going to deploy new infrastructure; the question is "who will own it?"
- We need immediate economic stimulus, but that can come from tax cuts and investment in many sectors as well as broadband.
- We should take the time to evaluate decentralized alternatives to near–total ownership by the incumbents. Local governments, cooperatives, small ISPs, and home and building owners might own parts of our next generation infrastructure.
- This evaluation can be fast and cheap. The work of the National Science Foundation in designing and creating NSFNet and connecting universities, colleges and foreign networks provides an excellent example of a small government staff calling on experts from academia and industry to design a network and a strategy for deploying it, followed by procurement via competitive bid.
- We will be living with the fiber and high–speed wireless infrastructure we build today for many decades. We will also be living with its owners.
Figure 8: Summary.
We reach this conclusion at a time of economic stress and resolve to roll back the perceived excesses begun during the Reagan–Thatcher era. Many governments will act to encourage broadband Internet connectivity. We outlined several ways of doing so, and urge serious consideration of alternatives to the expedient action of subsidizing the current cable and telephone companies with their demonstrated anti–competitive bent. The stimulus bill requires the FCC to develop a national broadband plan within one year. We fear the incumbent ISPs will control the plan, find ways to circumvent the best–intentioned attempts at regulation and constraint, and end up owning and exploiting our telecommunication infrastructure for decades. Figure 8 summarizes our conclusions.
About the author
Larry Press is Professor of Information Systems at California State University, Dominguez Hills.
E–mail: lpress[at] csudh [dot] edu
1. Andrew Adonis and Tim Hames (editors), 1993. A conservative revolution? The Thatcher–Reagan decade in perspective. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
2. See, for instance, Joseph Stiglitz, 2009. "Capitalist fools," Vanity Fair (January), at http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2009/01/stiglitz200901?printable=true¤tPage=all, a discussion of market excesses by a Nobel laureate in economics or Glen Yago and James Barth, "Demystifying the mortgage meltdown: What it means for main street, Wall Street and the U.S. financial system," a video presentation with 84 relevant charts and graphs, at http://www.milkeninstitute.org/events/events.taf?function=detail&ID=246&cat=Forums.
3. ITU, 2008. "Trends in telecommunication reform" (November), at http://www.itu.int/publ/D-REG-TTR.10-2008/en.
4. ITU, 2008. "Trends in telecommunication reform" (November), at http://www.itu.int/publ/D-REG-TTR.10-2008/en.
5. ITU, 2007. "Trends in telecommunication reform," at http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/treg/publications/trends07.html.
6. ITU, 2008. "Trends in telecommunication reform" (November) at http://www.itu.int/publ/D-REG-TTR.10-2008/en.
7. WTO, 1998. "Telecommunication services," Background note by the Secretariat (8 December), at http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/w74.doc.
8. ITU, 2008. "Trends in telecommunication reform" (November), at http://www.itu.int/publ/D-REG-TTR.10-2008/en.
9. ITU, 2008. "Trends in telecommunication reform" (November), at http://www.itu.int/publ/D-REG-TTR.10-2008/en.
10. ITU, 2002. "World telecommunication development report 2002, International Telecommunication Union," at http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/wtdr_02/index.html.
11. Source, World Bank statistical database, 2005–7.
12. ITU, 2008. "Trends in telecommunication reform" (November), at http://www.itu.int/publ/D-REG-TTR.10-2008/en.
13. http://www.oecd.org/document/54/0,3343,en_2649_34225_38690102_1_1_1_1,00.html.
14. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/21/58/39574845.xls.
15. UNCTAD, 2005. "The digital divide report: ICT diffusion index 2005," at http://www.unctad.org/Templates/webflyer.asp?docid=6994&intItemID=2068&lang=1.
16. ITU. "Digital opportunity index," at http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/doi/index.html.
17. Author's calculations using data from "Telecommunication services," Background note by the WTO Secretariat (8 December 1998), at http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/w74.doc.
18. A nation may commit to up to 17 telecommunication services. If we drop nations which had not committed to either voice telephone or terrestrial mobile service, signatories do slightly better.
19. Author's calculations using data from "Telecommunication services," Background note by the WTO Secretariat (8 December 1998), at http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/w74.doc.
20. Author's calculations using data from "Telecommunication services," Background note by the WTO Secretariat (8 December 1998), at http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/w74.doc.
21. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/22/15/39574806.xls.
22. http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/doi/material/WISR07-chapter3.pdf.
23. Business Week, 2005. "At SBC, it's all about 'scale and scope'" (7 November), at http://www.businessweek.com/@@n34h*IUQu7KtOwgA/magazine/content/05_45/b3958092.htm.
24. Bruce Kushnick. "The $200 billion broadband scandal," Teletruth, at http://www.newnetworks.com/broadbandscandals.htm.
25. http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/bell-atlantic/1996/page.jsp?itemID=29607541.
26. "Senator Kohl questions cellular competition," at http://cis471.blogspot.com/2008/09/senator-kohl-questions-cellular.html.
27. W. Kennard, 2000. "Internet telephony: America is waiting," Voice Over Net Conference (12 September), at http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Kennard/2000/spwek019.html.
28. Benoit Felton, "Open access makes economic sense," at http://www.fiberevolution.com/2009/03/open-access-makes-economic-sense.html.
29. http://www.fiberevolution.com/2009/02/quote-of-the-day.html.
30. Cathy Swirbul, 2006. "State broadband battles," Public Power (September–October), pp. 25–32, at http://www.appanet.org/newsletters/ppmagazinedetailarchive.cfm?ItemNumber=17441.
31. http://www.baller.com/comm_broadband.html.
32. December 6 radio/Youtube address, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGpIT2bVZDw.
33. http://change.gov/agenda/technology_agenda/.
34. Nemertes Research, 2008. "Internet interrupted: Why architectural limitations will fracture the 'Net" (November), at http://www.nemertes.com/ii08.
35.Nemertes Research, 2008. "Internet interrupted: Why architectural limitations will fracture the 'Net" (November), at http://www.nemertes.com/ii08.
36. Robert D. Atkinson, Daniel Castro, and Stephen J. Ezell, 2009. "The digital road to recovery: A stimulus plan to create jobs, boost productivity and revitalize America," Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (January), at http://www.itif.org/index.php?id=212.
37. As long as they comply with regulations and fulfill promises, that is their appropriate goal.
38. Robert D. Atkinson, Daniel Correa, and Julie A. Hedlund, 2008. "Explaining international broadband leadership," Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (May), at http://www.itif.org/index.php?id=142.
39. There are numerous municipally owned wireless access networks throughout the world, see http://www.muniwireless.com/. While valuable for supplemental portable and mobile access, they lack the capacity of cabled networks.
40 http://www.stokab.se/templates/StandardPage.aspx?id=306.
41 OECD, 2008. "Convergence and next generation networks" (June), at http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/25/11/40761101.pdf.
42. Communications Consumer Panel, 2009. "Local Initiatives on Next Generation Access in the U.K. (29 January), at http://www.communicationsconsumerpanel.org.uk/Local%20initiatives%20on%20Next%20Generation%20Access%20in%20the%20UK.pdf.
43. Tim Wu and Derek Slater, 2008. "Homes with tails: What if you could own your Internet connection?" Working Paper, New America Foundation (November), at http://www.newamerica.net/publications/policy/homes_tails.
44. http://free-fiber-to-the-home.blogspot.com/.
45. Difficulty with finding a retail service provider is due to a law that prevents foreign carriers from operating in Canada country compounded by the government allowing cable and telephone companies to squeeze out the small ISPs. (E–mail note from project director Bill St. Arnaud, January 2009).
46. I participated in a project based on this model in Hermosa Beach, a small city in California, but after the pilot network was installed, the City Council, dropped the project for considerations of cost and under pressure from the cable ISP.
47. The Wireless ISP Association directory lists 1,774 wireless ISPs, at http://www.wispdirectory.com/.
48. For a comprehensive discussion of policy to encourage infrastructure investment by small, rural Internet service providers see Brett Glass, 2009. "Ensuring effective broadband stimulus" (January), at http://www.brettglass.com/bbstim.pdf.
49. Larry Press, 1996. "Seeding networks: The federal role," Communications of the ACM, volume 39, number 10 (October), pp. 11–18, reprinted in OnTheInternet, volume 3, number 1 (January/February, 1997), pp. 13–22.
50. Paul Krugman, 2009. "Ideas for Obama," New York Times (11 January), at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/opinion/12krugman.html.
51. Larry Press, William Foster, Peter Wolcott, and William McHenry, 2003. "The Internet in India and China," Journal of Information Technologies and International Development, volume 1, number 1 (Fall), pp. 41–60, at http://mitpress.mit.edu/journals/pdf/itid_1_1_41_0.pdf.
52. See, for example, Larry Press, 2003. "Wireless Internet connectivity for developing nations," First Monday, volume 8, number 9 (September), at http://www.firstmonday.org/article/view/1077/997; Larry Press, 2004. "The Internet in developing nations: Grand challenges," First Monday, volume 9, number 4 (April), at http://www.firstmonday.org/article/view/1135/1055; and, Larry Press, 2004. "Refuting objections to a global rural network (GRNet) for developing nations," First Monday, volume 9, number 8 (August), at ttp://www.firstmonday.org/article/view/1164/1084.
53. A PowerPoint presentation based n this article is at http://som.csudh.edu/fac/lpress//471/hout/policy.ppt.
Editorial history
Paper received 14 January 2009; accepted 14 March 2009.
"Broadband policy: Beyond privatization, competition and independent regulation" by Larry Press
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Broadband policy: Beyond privatization, competition and independent regulation
by Larry Press
First Monday, Volume 14, Number 4 - 6 April 2009
A Great Cities Initiative of the University of Illinois at Chicago University Library.
© First Monday, 1995-2020. ISSN 1396-0466.


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We had so much fun looking at all of your amazing projects! Thanks for joining the fun!!
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Sometimes, the best way to deal with an embarrassing situation is to just admit you were mistaken and move on.
That thought apparently didn't occur to a University of Colorado political science professor who defended his election model, which said Mitt Romney would win the election in an electoral college landslide, as a "useful tool."
Useful for what? It strikes us that the model created by Kenneth Bickers and Michael Berry was really more of a historic assessment of how state economic conditions affected prior elections than a tool that could predict what would happen in this election, which followed worst economic downturn most of use have ever seen.
Charting the common conditions occurring in history is different than making a cause and effect assumption.
Back to the drawing board, professors.


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Yet, the Christmas story reminds me that Jesus entered this world in the meekest of manners. Not after the ornaments were hanging on the tree. Or once the stockings were fastened on the mantle. Or after the Willow Tree nativity scene was perfectly stationed the first time, only to be re-arranged and maybe even dropped and chipped by curious, clumsy hands...
Even though most of you are more than likely almost halfway through your journey through advent, we have an activity to share with your family that we've been working on:
Over the years, we've tried various ways to engage our children during this season. Involving toddlers can be challenging. Through trial and much error, we've learned it's best to keep it simple. Having some who are more mature and engaged plus toddlers that we'd like to involve, presents different challenges.
We created something that is working quite well for us. When we set out to create these, originally, we were just going to make play-dough mats. I mean, no matter your age, who doesn't love to fiddle with play-dough?
It occurred to us that, our older kids, who really love to draw, may like the option to doodle with dry-erase markers. (You know, incase 'play-dough' was too 'baby-ish'.) Thankfully, they're not too cool for play-dough yet; they've enjoyed using both with these mats and have often used a combination while working on them.
As they've listened along to the Christmas story (this pack comes with a script, if you aren't the kind that likes to wing it) from the accounts of Matthew and Luke, they've been busy working, really listening, thinking about the story and dialoguing with us.
To be honest, Charlie and I have been surprised at how much we've enjoyed these, too. Whether it's a collaborative effort with our kids.. (I won't admit which wise-man's face I drew above, and which my five year old did!) Or whether we've wanted our 'own' mat.
These can be used in multiple ways with the little people in your life:
- gradually re-tell the coming of Jesus in several days or one mat/day on twelve different days.
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May your family be drawn, in the simplest of ways, to fall on your knees in worship before our Emmanuel.


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Welcome to Firewalls.com
The SonicWALL Global VPN Client is an add on software license (one-time purchase) for your SonicWALL firewall that enables remote employees, contractors and vendors to access your company network securely.
Features at a Glance:» Encrypts all network data
» Provides easy remote access
» Granular access control
» Create custom whitelists/blacklists
» License never expires
Download Datasheet
Extended user reach and productivity. The Global VPN Client offers maximum reach and flexibility for increased productivity. The Global VPN Client connects from any single or dual-processor computer running one of a broad range of Microsoft® Windows® platforms. Further extending secure remote access, the Global VPN Client enables encapsulated IPSec VPN traffic to traverse any IP network using Network Address Translation (NAT). During authentication, the Global VPN Client automatically launches domain logon script support to provide users with remote access to mapped network drives. Optionally, the Global VPN Client Enterprise allows Global VPN Client license sharing between SonicWALL network security appliances.
Ease-of-use. The Global VPN Client features easy-tofollow wizards to help users quickly and easily install and configure a VPN connection. Its simple user interface, point-and-click activation and streamlined management tools minimize support requirements. Users simply enter the domain name or IP address of the SonicWALL gateway and the Global VPN Client configuration policy is automatically downloaded
Easy VPN management. SonicWALL's award winning Global Management System (GMS) provides simplifi ed management of Global VPN Client connections. Access can be confi gured and restricted to specifi c networks and sub-networks, using internal database or RADIUS groups.* Hub-and-spokeconfiguration can be simplifi ed by creating one subnet for the LAN and another for remote users. When a remote user successfully authenticates with the central site, the client system receives a virtual IP address, granting the remote user access to other trusted VPN sites.
Robust security. Off ering the industry-standard security of 3DES and AES encryption, the Global VPN Client also supports leading digital certifi cate providers such as VeriSign.® To prevent tampering, the Global VPN Client also locks critical confi guration information from the user. The Global VPN Client takes advantage of SonicWALL® Clean VPN™** technology, which scans remote traffi c streams for threats to prevent vulnerabilities and malicious code from being introduced before it even reaches the network. Clean VPN can send you an alert as soon as threats are identifi ed, so that all potential attacks can be immediately isolated and contained.
VPN session reliability. Simultaneous Global VPN Client connections can be established to multiple SonicWALL VPN gateways. The Global VPN Client supports redundant SonicWALL VPN gateways to ensure mission-critical network access in the event the primary gateway fails.
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Gentle Fit
Add to Calendar
January 28, 2020 @ 9:15 am – 10:15 am
A fun class using low impact floor aerobics and basic step patterns. Core/balance training as well as muscle strengthening exercises are a great addition to this 1 hour workout. It is continuous movement giving you a well rounded program with a little bit of everything.


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The Time Zone API provides time offset data for locations on the surface of the earth. You request the time zone information for a specific latitude/longitude pair and date. The API returns the name of that time zone, the time offset from UTC, and the daylight savings offset.
Sample request and response
You access the Time Zone API through an HTTPS interface, with
requests constructed as a URL string, using latitude/longitude coordinates to
specify the
location, a
timestamp to specify the date,
and your API key.
Note: You must submit requests via
https, not
The following example requests the time zone data for Washington, DC, USA, on March 15, 2016, in JSON format:
You can test this by entering the URL into your web browser (be sure to replace
YOUR_API_KEY with your actual API key).
The response includes the time zone data for the specified location and date
View the developer's guide for more information about building request URLs and available parameters and understanding the response.
Below is a sample response, in JSON:
{ "dstOffset" : 3600, "rawOffset" : -18000, "status" : "OK", "timeZoneId" : "America/New_York", "timeZoneName" : "Eastern Daylight Time" }
Start coding with our client libraries
Client libraries make developing with the Google Maps web service APIs easier by providing simple, native implementations of common tasks, such as authentication, request throttling and automatic retry. The Time Zone API is available in the Java Client, Python Client, Go Client and Node.js Client for Google Maps Services.
Authentication, quotas, pricing, and policies
Activate the API and get an API key
To use the Time Zone API, you must first activate the API in the Google Cloud Platform Console and obtain the proper authentication credentials. You need to provide an API key in each request (or a client ID if you have a Premium Plan).
Click the button below to flow through a process where you will:
- Create or select a project
- Enable the API
- Get an API key
Learn more about authentication credentials.
Quotas and pricing
Review the usage and billing page for details on the quotas and pricing set for the Time Zone API.
Use of the Time Zone API must be in accordance with the API policies.
Learn more
In the Time Zone API, you can also set a language parameter to return results in languages other than the default of English. See the Time Zone API Developer Guide for more examples and other details.
The Time Zone API Developer Guide is intended for website and mobile developers who want to include time data on maps provided by one of the Google Maps Platform APIs. It provides an introduction to using the API and reference material on the available parameters.


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Lab, EKG, Women's Health, Family Medicine and Internal Medicine in Burbank
Burbank Medical Center
4901 W. 79th St.
Burbank, IL 60459
Lab and EKG Services: Call 708.422.0300
Women's Health Center and OB/GYN: Call 708.422.0600
Family Medicine physicians or to make a same day or future appointment: Call 708.422.7100
Internal Medicine physicians or to make a same day or future appointment: Call 708.952.4403
Hours of Operation
- Lab and EKG Services: Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.- 1 p.m. No appointment necessary.
Our mission is to provide expert care to the community at every opportunity. Burbank Medical Center strives to provide a medical home for many of your health care needs. Our services include Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, OB/GYN physicians, laboratory and electrocardiogram (EKG) services. We offer convenient hours and ample parking to make caring for yourself and your family a little bit easier.


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8 Wonders of Kansas Guidebook
The 8 Wonders of Kansas contests were a project of the Kansas Sampler Foundation that took place from 2007-2010. The contests were so popular that we've now published the 8 Wonders of Kansas Guidebook.
The purpose of the contest and book was to educate the public about what there is to see and do in Kansas and to encourage that public to get out and see Kansas!
The 8 Wonders of Kansas Guidebook is a 272-page book filled with over 800 beautiful photos of the 216 entries in the 8 Wonders of Kansas contests. It is certain to become a treasured Kansas classic whether it's used as a coffee table book or as a travel guide.
Photographer Harland Schuster, Morrill, went to each one of the 216 places between May and November of 2010 to take up-to-date pictures. Designer Liz (Penner) King has interspersed information about each of the places among Harland's photos to create a book that perfectly fits the celebratory nature of 2011, Kansas' sesquicentennial year.
Author Marci Penner has worked with all 216 entries to compile background information, location, contacts, Web sites and hours to make this spiral-bound book a handy tool when exploring Kansas.
The top 8 Wonders entries in the categories of Architecture, Art, Commerce, Cuisine, Customs, Geography, History, People, and the Overall 8 Wonders will be featured in a two-page spread. The remaining finalists will be recognized on a half page.
Phone: 620-585-2374


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ANNOUNCEMENT: Debate with Wade Burleson on Complementarianism v. Egalitarianism - SBC Annual Meeting 2012
But, let's face it - the culture has changed (or at least it has in America). Increasingly, Christians have begun to eschew their fidelity to Scripture in favor of adopting cultural mandates in regard to gender roles. They have even radically reinterpreted passages, with no historical or exegetical precedent in order to render them incapable of providing the very clear instructions God gave us through the Biblical writers by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
In light of this assault on Biblical truth, I have decided that enough is enough and challenged one of the most vocal critics of the Biblical position to step out from behind his keyboard and debate me publicly on the main Scriptures which those who hold to the traditional position (known popularly as the Complementarianism) find the most compelling.
Wade Burleson, Southern Baptist pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid, OK and owner and operator of the very popular Baptist blog, Grace and Truth to You, in both public and private correspondence has accepted the challenge and agreed to debate me on Complementarianism v. Egalitarianism at the Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in 2012, which will be held in New Orleans, LA. In the coming weeks I hope to secure an organization to sponsor and a venue to host the event. Check back for more details.
My hope is that through this debate the Word of God will be illuminated, the Glory of God magnified, and the design of God's creation celebrated.


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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Harvard athletics was well represented among this year's Thomas Temple '19 Hoopes Prize awards for outstanding senior theses or research projects.
Justin Davidson of the men's swimming and diving, Yunsoo Kim of women's fencing, Cara Sprague of women's Nordic skiing and John Stokes, Quincy Bock and Megan Wareham of the sailing team were all honored for their work.
The Hoopes prize is an annual award presented to a number of Harvard undergraduates that have projects nominated. It is considered to be one of the highest academic commendations the University gives to undergraduates. The award—which is funded by the estate of Thomas T. Hoopes '19—comes with a prize of $4,000 for student recipients and $1,000 for their advisers.
Davidson's senior thesis was entitled "Gridlocked: Peter Eisenman in Berlin," and the Haverford, Pa., native was nominated by two of his professors.
Bock's submission was entitled "Under the See."
Kim's project was entitled "A conserved cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase functions in the transport of silencing RNA between C. elegans cells."
Sprague's submission was entitled "Dust Off: The Effect of the Vietnam War on the Specialization of Emergency Medicine in America."
Stokes' submission was entitled "Let me double check: Multiple Checking, the Structural Ergative, and the Great Agreement Puzzle."
Wareham's submission was entitled "Remembering October 17, 1961: French-Algerian Searches for Social and Historical Inclusion in Paris, 1985-2010."
For more information about the Hoopes Prize, as well as other 2010-11 award winners, click here.


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Home → Patchwork Cutters
Patchwork Cutters
At PartyAnimalOnline we stock the full range of the fabulous cutters made by Patchwork Cutters, a UK company set up over 20 years ago by Marion frost to help cake decorators achieve detailed designs quickly.
You can mix and match the cutters to get an infinite variation of designs. They include lettering, motifs and embossers and can be used to emboss or cut out your designs. Many can also be used for free standing and 3D decorations. Patchwork cutters work equally well whether you use them on celebration cakes, cupcakes, cookies or even for other craft pastes.
View all 3D Cutters Alphabet Animals Anniversary Autumn Baby Birds Birthday Books Bows Buildings Butterflies Cake Top Motifs Candles Celebrations Christening Christmas Communion Confirmation Cupcake Dogs DVD Easter Embossers Embroidery Engagement Fairy Fathers Day Figures Fish Floral Flowers Foliage Food & Drink Formers Full Set Gardening & DIY Graduation Halloween Hearts Hobbies Inscriptions Lace Mothers Day Music & Dance Numbers Occupations Patterns Pirates Plaque Plastic Cutters Polka Dot Princess Reindeer Retirement Retro Santa Shapes Shoes & Bags Side Designs Silhouette Small Motifs Snowflakes Snowman Sports Sports & Hobbies Spring Stars Stencils Sugar Flowers Summer Teddy Toppers Toys Transport Trees Valentine's Day Wedding Winter


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Another stunning Skirt by Paperwings in organic Cotton. This style was a sellout last year. 💞
Brand: Paper Wings
Type: Kids Tops
Gender: Girls
Item condition: New
Availability: Click & Collect, Buy online
Store info
We have provided children's clothing, toys, accessories and manchester to the Kids of Eltham for over 34 years. With a wide range of brands including Rock your Baby, Alphabet Soup, Minti, Little Horn, Bébé, Tutu D'mond, Tahlia, Eves Sister, Saltwater Sandals, Bobux Shoes as well as Tights, Schoolwear, Swimwear, Sleepwear and more, we can cater for your every need. We pride ourselves on an outstanding level of customer service that is only achievable through a continued commitment to our customers over a 30 year period. So come in and visit us today. You will be pleasantly surprised.
Monday to Friday
Please note that we also have a retail store where we sell the items as well, our website is manually updated every 24hrs, unfortunately we cannot 100% guarantee that the item you purchase is in stock due to this - but we do our best to avoid this happening. In the event where your item is not in stock an exchange or full refund will be given.
Shipping policy
Exchange, Returns, and Refunds Policy
We want you to be satisfied with your experience and should you change your mind, we will provide a refund as long as products are returned within 14 days of purchase. products must be returned in a new, unused/unworn/unwashed condition, and still have the original swing tags and packaging attached and are accompanied by the associated order number.
If an item is damaged or faulty, please notify us within 14 days by email. Upon receipt of the faulty product, we will undertake an evaluation in conjunction with the manufacturer and if the item is deemed to be faulty, we will replace or refund
We strive to ensure you are satisfied. We want you to love what you've ordered. If something isn't right, please email us with an order number within 14 days to receive a Return Authorisation Number (Customers will be responsible for the shipping and handling charge both ways). Returns without a valid authorisation number will not be accepted. If you would like to exchange your product because you ordered the incorrect size/colour, please ensure you include a self-addressed pre-paid parcel or additional charges will apply.
Kids of Eltham
Shop 15/16 Eltham Mall
Arthur St
Eltham. Vic. 3095


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Junior Achievement: Are you young, and energetic, and something of an extrovert? Do you enjoy working with other people learning what makes them tick? Would you like to meet more of the businessmen and women in your community who really count? And would you like the chance, away from the office, to practice some of the arts of adviser and manager? If your answer is "Yes" to the first two questions, there's hardly a better way to answer the second two than to become a volunteer adviser in Junior Achievement Staff members in Haskins & Sells offices from coast to coast have been taking part in JA activity for some years now, and the word seems to be that for the right kind of person it has been highly rewarding. "A feeling of personal satisfaction is the greatest benefit I have received from Junior Achievement work;' according to Steve Urry, Orange County principal, who has served for several years as a JA adviser, as well as a coordinator of advisers i n the Los Angeles area. Those who know Junior Achievement need no introduction to it. But for those who have not taken part, a quick overview of JA organization may be useful: Junior Achievement Inc. is a teen-age business education organization in which high school students organize into groups to operate businesses from capitalization to liquidation. The life of each of these miniature companies is limited to an eight-month period, corresponding to the normal school year. Almost all Achievers, as the members of J A companies are termed, are high school sophomores, juniors or seniors. The companies make a product or provide a service, sell it, and end up the year with a profit or a loss. The companies are formed at the start of the school year in September Achievers are recruited to a great extent through announcements in the schools, where Achievers from previous years help stir up interest and answer queries about the program. There is also publicity through business organ izations whose executives are active in sponsoring JA in their city, from the JA center in those cities that have a headquarters building, and through cooperating newspapers and radio stations. As the JA headquarters in New York City frankly states: "The key to the success of JA companies (7,200 this past year) are advisers from business and the professions—people who volunteer one evening each week guiding Achievers in their particular area of experience. In the 1972-73 school year, 23,600 volunteer advisers worked with Achievers, spending about two hours weekly in on-the-spot counseling, and an estimated three hours a week for travel time and preparation. Usually, three advisers work with one company of 20 to 25 Achievers, This permits the advisers to rotate their weekly evenings with the youngsters, if they wish. As people in H&S know, such flexibility in advisers' dates is especially important for public accountants during the January-April busy season. Behind the adult advisers stands a strong national and regional JA organization. After a slow start in the pre-World War II days, JA has grown rapidly in the past few years. Recently an increasing number of large national organizations like H&S have taken an interest in JA and helped get action going in new places. From about a dozen cities where there was JA activity in 1946, there are now 1,000 communities in the United States with active JA programs Nearly three-fourths of them have JA business centers, or activity buildings, with meeting rooms, shops, tools, storage space and other facilities. More than 170,000 Achievers were enrolled in the past school year. Recently JA has spread outside this country to a dozen cities in Canada, Latin America, Western Europe and even to Hong Kong. Corporate sponsorship has been most important to Junior Achievement, and H&S sponsors the programs in a number of cities. The professional staff of JA is headed by President Richard Maxwell and Executive Vice President Joseph J. Francomano, operating from the national headquarters in New York City. Policy guidance and financial support come from a national board of directors, which during the past year was chaired by W M. Elmer, chairman and chief executive officer of the Texas Gas Transmission Corporation. Officers of H&S client companies who have served on the JA board recently include H.Harold Bible of Monsanto Company, Henry Z. Carter of Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans, and Donald E. Garretson of 3M Company. Other client officials who have taken an active part in The Fine Art of the Adviser
Object Description
Junior achievement: The fine art of the adviser
Junior Achievement
|Personal Name
Urry, Steve
Wilkins, Robert
Pinkley, Noel
Schleisman, Thom
Haskins & Sells. Orange County Office
Touche Ross. Cincinnati Office
Haskins & Sells. Omaha Office
|Illustrations not included in the Web version.
H&S Reports, Vol. 10, (1973 summer), p. 14-17
|Originally published by: Haskins & Sells
|Copyright and permission to republish held by: Deloitte
|PDF page image with corrected OCR scanned at 400 dpi
|Deloitte Digital Collection
|Digital Publisher
|University of Mississippi Library. Accounting Collection
|Date-Digitally Created


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November 14, 2013, 10:37 a.m. Updated: 14 November 2013, 10:37 a.m.
Topeka A new proposal by Gov. Sam Brownback's administration to try to improve reading proficiency among grade-school students is under fire from children's advocates because of the way it is funded.
The plan would use funds from a program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF. These federal funds are designed to help poor families achieve self-sufficiency.
The Brownback administration has proposed using funds from TANF to increase reading scores.
When he ran for governor in 2010, Brownback said improving fourth-grade reading scores was one of his major goals and that voters should hold him accountable to it.
But Shannon Cotsoradis, president and chief executive officer of Kansas Action for Children, said that while improving literacy is important, Brownback shouldn't use TANF dollars.
"As the child poverty rate continues to climb, it doesn't make sense to shift dollars away from struggling families to programs that focus on literacy later in a child's life," Cotsoradis said today.
"TANF dollars are meant to help the lowest-income families in the state when they find themselves in temporary situations in which they are not able to pay for basic needs like food, shelter and utilities," she said.
Theresa Freed, a spokeswoman for DCF, said "reserve funds" from TANF would be used to fund the after-school portion of the program.
She said TANF funds could be used as a way to reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies.
"Studies show that girls with less-than-average reading skills are more than twice as likely to become teen mothers, compared to their peers with average reading skills," she said.
Brownback scheduled a news conference for later today to unveil his reading plan.
He was to be joined by officials from several school districts and representatives of partner organizations including the Kansas Enrichment Network, Reading Recovery, Save the Children and Kansas University.
The governor's office said the initiative "brings together, for the first time, community organizations sharing the common goal of improving reading proficiency for grade school students. This is a comprehensive effort focused on the needs of both rural and urban students across the state."
Originally published at: http://www.tonganoxiemirror.com/news/2013/nov/14/brownback-proposes-grade-school-reading-initiative/


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On the eve of the Facebook IPO, the country's third-biggest advertiser, GM, announced that it was pulling its entire $10 million ad campaign from Facebook because the ads don't work.
This was obviously bad news for a company that many people still think will one day be bigger than Google.
GM's competitor, Ford, quickly suggested that GM was the problem, not Facebook, by saying that its own Facebook ads work perfectly well.
But other huge companies also appear to be having serious doubts about the value of the Facebook platform.
Forrester analyst Nate Elliott has this to say:
One global consumer goods company told us recently that Facebook was getting worse, rather than better, at helping marketers succeed. And companies in industries from consumer electronics to financial services tell us they're no longer sure Facebook is the best place to dedicate their social marketing budget – a shocking fact given the site's dominance among users.
Elliott attributes this disappointment to Facebook's lack of innovation on the marketing side as opposed to the user side.
As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made crystal clear, he cares about the company's social mission more than the company's business. This means that the company's paying clients will always play second fiddle. And, according to GM and the marketers that Forrester is talking to, this also appears to mean that interest in Facebook as an advertising platform may begin to wane.
Elliott also makes another disturbing point: That Facebook's big new ad product rollout of a couple of months ago hasn't made much of an impact:
But as good as Facebook has been at evolving to serve consumers, that's how bad it's been at serving marketers. In the past five years Facebook has lurched from one advertising model to another. Remember when the site charged marketers to host branded pages? Or when every page featured banners from MSN's ad network? (You may choose forget Facebook Beacon; Mark Zuckerberg would certainly prefer you did.)
Somehow Facebook still hasn't stumbled upon a model that's proven consistently successful for marketers, or that brings in the massive revenues to match the site's massive user base. (The company made less than $4 in ad revenue per active user in 2011.) And its latest 'big marketing announcement' in February turned out to be mostly a tiny evolution of its existing ad model. At the same time, Facebook often stands directly in the way of marketers' efforts to measure the performance of their programs.
Meanwhile, BI's advertising editor Jim Edwards has laid out a "nightmare scenario" in which other big advertisers begin to yank their budgets from Facebook, choosing instead to use the company's free tools to interact with their customers. (This is what GM is doing).
All in, quite discouraging for a company that will go public with a valuation of more than $100 billion.
SEE ALSO: Ford Says GM's Facebook Ads Don't Work Because GM Sucks--Ford's Work Fine
Get the latest Ford stock price here.


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0 Degree
If you find that you car has poor performance when turning corner, that product is suitable for you.
That product can increase the contact surface between tire and road when you turning corner. So the friction force between tire and road increase, you can use higher speed in turning corner with perfect stability.
Higher degree, means the angle of tire and road decrease. That can provide higher stability when your cornering speed is higher. But in the straight road, it may affect your acceleration rate. because the contact surface of tire and road is decrease in the straight road.
PDF Datasheet
This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 15 March, 2006.


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Opel Begins Vehicle Offensive
Opel has struggled for years to return to profitability, a goal executives now expect to achieve as it launches 23 cars of the next five years. WSJ's Jeff Bennett looks at the Cascada at the Geneva Motor Show. Photo: Bloomberg
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... in them ... the Opel ... in Geneva auto show where Apple has pulled the wraps up the U S data has got a convertible ... it should make its debut I will later this year and it returns Opel to the convertible market for the first time in two years at speeds of up to ... fifty ... our ... total ... bill ... the stock closed off stock ... this is one of the twenty three vehicles of the Opel division plans he interviews over the next five years ... and that's important are hopeful that has been struggling to return to profitability ... and GM which owns old was a lot of time and effort into it so this kind of begins a new product Hoffman said for the awful cold that nation ... as it begins to try and rebuild so we'll see what happens here again the ... Ascot convertible ... coming out later this year one of the net number of vehicles that Opel intervenes ...