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As about half the Marine force in Afghanistan headed home this year, the rapid drawdown in the violent southwest of the country cast the endgame of the war and what many regard as its precarious footing into relief — the handoff to Afghan national security forces.
Helmand province, a nexus of the narcotics trade in the heartland of the Taliban insurgency, has borne much of the heaviest fighting of the 11-year war. In recent years this fertile river valley traversing the desert has also been a killing field for a disproportionate number of Marines among coalition deaths nationwide.
Now it may be a bellwether for the country as Afghan troops fight on with far less U.S. military assistance.
U-T San Diego spent five weeks this summer embedded with Marines in Helmand province, for the third time since 2010. From the commanding general down, most said they were either cautiously confident or were taking a wait and see approach.
Among the undecided was an infantry lieutenant from San Diego who offered a blunt assessment of the Afghan soldiers he works with. "Some days I think: they're (screwed)," he said, asking not to be named so he could speak frankly.
On other days and other battles, when Afghan national troops mow down scores of insurgents, he reconsiders: "They have their good days and their bad days. Only time will tell. As lazy as they fight on a daily basis, the Taliban are lazy, too."
A common saying among the Marine command staff serving in Helmand province is "it takes six years to make a sixth-grader." By the time most international troops pull out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the Marines in NATO's southwestern region will have had less time than that to help the Afghan army stand on its own.
The Corps began deploying to Helmand province in strength in 2009 after redirecting from Iraq. In 2010 the Afghan army corps it helped start from scratch in Helmand, the 215th, was formally established.
This summer, as the Marine force thinned out and pulled back, relations with Afghans they mentor and assist ranged from close to disdainful to outright hostile.
Amid a rising spate of insider attacks on NATO troops nationwide, tensions were so high at one Musa Qala base after offhand comments by Afghan police about "shooting Marines," that their advisers from Camp Pendleton temporarily stopped patrolling with them.
The rapport at another combat outpost was little better in Sangin, where the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment from Twentynine Palms is deployed.
Staff Sgt. Trent Templet, a 32-year-old platoon sergeant on his fourth combat tour, had heard about "rock star" Afghan troops at other positions. But he was convinced that commanders were sticking his company with all their bad apples.
Dawn was already breaking when the Afghan soldiers showed up late for what was supposed to be an early start to an all-day operation. "The tactical advantage is definitely gone at this point," another Marine griped as they waited.
A few hours into the 14-hour patrol conducted mostly on foot, the Afghan troops started complaining that they were tired and wanted to return to base. They kept up the lament until the operation ended at sunset.
"They can bitch all they want. We're not going back," Templet declared on the radio.
Cpl. Nicolaus Solecki, one of the full-time Marine advisers mentoring the Afghans, tried to distract the Afghan soldiers with needless tasks to keep them going. "What I'm trying to do is convince them we're on the way (back to base) searching compounds," he told Templet.
When the Marines patted down a young man who approached them on the road as they interviewed occupants of a nearby home, the Afghan soldier in charge of the search element grew irate. Sgt. Hezbollah (who uses one name) strode over and hollered at the Marines, raising eyebrows among Afghan villagers squatting nearby in the treeline.
"Why did you search them?" he demanded, according to a translation for Templet.
Among themselves, the Marines mockingly called the Afghan sergeant GI Joe. Hezbollah refused to wear a helmet over his Justin Bieber-style hairdo. Instead of ballistic eye protection, he went without that day or wore flashy sunglasses. "He is garbage," Templet said.
Without a backbone of experienced non-commissioned officers, the fledgling Afghan forces rise or fall on the strength of their leaders. "Leadership is pretty much the entire game," Maj. Gen. David Berger, commanding general of the Marine ground force in southwestern Afghanistan, said later. "If they have a weak commander or a cocky commander, the whole unit suffers."
Templet gritted his teeth after his dressing down and calmly told the interpreter to let Hezbollah know: "If I need to search the people I am talking to for my own security, I will. Tell him!"
Later when Hezbollah strolled by munching on a snack he plucked from a vineyard, the Marine platoon sergeant muttered sarcastically: "Eating grapes on patrol. … Yeah, they're really going to succeed when we leave. I feel 100 percent confident."
So-called "green on blue" attacks by disgruntled or turncoat Afghan troops on their international allies are fraying trust at a critical phase in the war campaign. For Camp Pendleton's 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion, an apparent insider attack took a tragic toll on personnel in the Puzeh area of Sangin when three were killed and a fourth wounded — about a quarter the size of a typical special operations team, not including support troops.
Initial reports of the incident vary and a Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command spokesman declined to release details of the attack. But a critical skills operator on the team who spoke to eyewitnesses said the Marines had just finished a shura security meeting in the pre-dawn darkness Aug. 10 when an Afghan man appeared alone at their tactical operations center.
He was dressed like a member of the Afghan Local Police — villagers the Marines train to fight the Taliban. Only Afghans they know and trust are allowed into the inner sanctum of the base, and always with an escort. Gunnery Sgt. Ryan Jeschke, team chief at Puzeh, was immediately suspicious, the operator recounted.
Jeschke brought the Afghan man into the operations center and asked if anyone recognized him. When team leader Capt. Matt Manoukian and others working inside said no, Jeschke led him out to the foyer.
The Afghan man grabbed a rifle and shot Jeschke in the back and continued shooting through the thin plywood into the operations center, fatally wounding Manoukian and Staff Sgt. Sky R. Mote, an explosive ordnance disposal technician.
An element leader named Brian was shot in the arm but survived (only deceased special operators are fully identified, because of the danger of their work in small numbers.) A highly trained Navy Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman on the team named Garrett saw Jeschke on the ground and dragged him to the medical area to try to resuscitate him. The operations chief, Dave, pulled Brian outside through another door to apply a tourniquet.
Within two hours after the mass shooting the operations center was cleaned of blood and the Marines were back to work, hunting for the attacker and continuing their "village stability operations" mission. The special operations forces team had helped the local militia kill several prominent Taliban commanders in Puzeh that summer. As the deaths of the three Marines underscored, there was much more to be done.
"If you just sit there and dwell on it, it's only going to get worse," said the operator, who deployed previously in combat with the three dead Marines and was close friends with them. "It is very traumatic, but the number one point of the team is to accomplish the mission, though it sounds cliché. That's what all three guys would have wanted."
By contrast, at the Musa Qala district headquarters, where Camp Pendleton's 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment is deployed, the rapport among the Marines and Afghans was obvious. When Charles Breaux, 26, of San Diego, was promoted to captain this summer, the Afghans he advises on logistics matters threw him a party.
The soldiers wore their camouflage uniforms as usual and posed for pictures with Breaux dressed in a sparkly cap over his close-shaved Marine haircut and the local garb of long shirt and trousers. After feasting around a long plastic cloth rolled out on the floor piled with plates of lamb, rice, mango, watermelon and other foods, the dancing began.
To the beat of the drum and a small lute-like instrument, the Afghans shimmied and spun in place and the Marines stomped down the line of floor cushions. An Afghan interpreter whooped his encouragement with a traditional Marine motivational slogan, yelling "Get some!"
"These guys are amazing. You really make some good friends out here," Breaux said. Then growing a little somber, he added: "At the end of the day these guys still have to stay here and fight when you go home. It's just one of those things … you love them."
About 8,500 police and 16,500 Afghan soldiers, plus 3,000 in a fourth army brigade coming online this month, are battling perhaps 2,000 to 4,000 insurgents in the province, Marine officials estimate.
As the Marine force dwindles from its wartime height last year of about 20,000 troops to as few as 7,000 by October, most U.S. bases have already been shuttered or transferred to local control. Handouts from Marine supply lines are tapering, and Afghan troops have assumed responsibility for security in several towns and an expanding swath of the battlespace.
Forcing the Afghans to take the lead for security has involved some tough love, Marine commanders said.
The commanding officer of 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment put the word out at security meetings this summer that Afghan troops could no longer depend on them as they once did. Soon one Marine battalion will be assigned to all of northern Helmand province, instead of three or more in recent years.
"Sangin is yours to secure. We will help you, but we will not do it for you anymore. Marines have done that long enough. It's your responsibility. So do it," Lt. Col. David Bradney recalled saying. Since then, "it's been a little bit of growing pains."
One Afghan National Civil Order Police commander presented Bradney with a long list of needs for an upcoming operation, including computers, generators and water.
"We're not going to give you anything," except tactical training or joint operation support, Bradney replied.
"We want generators," the police commander insisted.
"Well you're not getting those. Next topic," Bradney told him.
"They can outfight the Taliban," if they have the gumption to do it, he said later. "But they need to quit trying to get theirs while the getting's good. They need to stop that nonsense."
Marines and sailors stationed in Helmand province began preparing for the hand-off last year, long before the outflow of equipment and personnel peaked in August as the "surge" of extra troops withdraws. The thermostat of support was slowly turned down until the furnace clicked off in some areas and left the Afghans out front.
The difference this summer fighting season compared to last year was stark.
A security patrol that stepped outside the gates of Forward Operating Base Jackson one July morning in Sangin included 10 Afghan soldiers and just four Marines. Instead of tagging along behind a larger Marine force as they often used to, Afghan troops planned the two-hour mission themselves and walked point, sweeping ahead for roadside bombs.
The soldiers and their Marine advisers moved through the bazaar and into lush fields of flowering okra and winding mud-walled alleys along the river. The Afghan patrol leader scanned his eyes in all directions for threats as his soldiers spread out in a single file, limiting the impact of potential roadside bomb explosions — the main weapon of the insurgency.
The Marine in charge of advising the patrol, Cpl. Joseph Brandt, would have liked them to vary their route more and avoid potentially bomb-laden paths, but he was pleased overall.
The 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment assigned a whole company of 191 infantrymen and military police to advise Afghan forces — triple the number of the previous battalion.
Even as they reposition themselves at arm's length overwatching Afghan forces in Helmand province, the Marines continue to provide surveillance blimps and air support, heavier firepower and electronic jamming devices disabling remote controlled explosive devices. When it comes to their military tactics, however, "sometimes we integrate into their operations, but more and more we leave it all to them," Brandt said as he walked with the Afghan soldiers, mostly keeping silent.
Sgt. Gull Mohammad, a 19-year-old Pashtu speaker (the local language in that area of Afghanistan), led the patrol with quiet seriousness. Mohammad has a fourth-grade education and seven months experience as a soldier. He joined the army to support his impoverished family and pay his fiancee's family for her hand in marriage. He is illiterate but studying reading and writing with his fellow soldiers.
After returning to base, Mohammad said, "My responsibility is to make sure there are no people missing legs or getting killed. If an IED (improvised explosive device) blows up, it is my fault, because I didn't protect them."
Another soldier patrolling that day, Gamshed Mohammad, 24, is a Dari speaker from Kabul experienced with rocket-propelled grenades, artillery, driving and mechanics. During his three years in the army, "I have seen a lot of changes. The first time I came into Sangin district we couldn't walk that path, from here to Gumbatty. Now we can walk safely," he said afterward. The interview was interrupted, however, when the soldiers were tasked as a quick reaction force for Afghan police cordoning off several roadside bombs.
Later that month, the same group battled insurgents in a 12-hour firefight along the river. The Afghan soldiers were struck by four roadside bombs but used combat lifesaver skills from a recent first-aid class to save the lives of two seriously wounded soldiers, one of whom lost both legs.
The Marines evacuated casualties and sent in more of their own forces as backup for the Afghan soldiers during the firefight. "Their security was good. They were up front the whole time. We were just supporting them," Brandt reported later.
Eventually the handholding will end and the Afghans will have to go it largely alone. An early test case in the more violent northern half of Helmand province unfolded in April in Now Zad, where the company of Marines responsible for securing the town was replaced by a handful of advisers.
The handoff to Afghan forces made him nervous, admitted Lt. Col. Jason Perry, 42, of Flat Rock, N.C., commanding officer of 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. He wondered: Is my battalion going to be the one who loses Now Zad to the Taliban?
"If this fails, this will become the Taliban model for the future," he said. But there's been little or no increase in violence and no Afghan positions overrun by insurgents in Now Zad, he said. "The sky's not falling, the wheels are not coming off the cart," he said. The Afghan national security forces have "been extremely adaptive to the new security realities — that we are leaving."
Capt. Hikmatullah, the ambitious new district chief of police in Sangin (who uses one name), lost five policemen killed in action out of his force of about 370 during his first three months on the job. He has not been shy about arresting his own officers when they are suspected of a crime, for instance when two were accused of raping a boy and another sped through the bazaar and struck a man with his truck, killing him.
After a late night planning session for their next big operation, Hikmatullah leaned against a cushion on the floor of his headquarters, reflecting on the way ahead as his cell phone rang incessantly and the power flickered off.
After the Marines leave, "we will face some problems. Of course there is no doubt on that," Hikmatullah said, speaking through a translator. "Because our units, our forces, are young. They are not experts. They are not equipped to defeat the enemy totally in one day or one year."
In the long run the Afghan forces will prevail however, the Afghan commander predicted, due in part to ongoing U.S. support for the Afghan military pledged to continue at least until 2024 under a strategic agreement signed in May.
"Maybe our development will be a little bit slower than now, but we will not stop. We will do our job to defeat the enemies," he said.
During an interview at his Camp Leatherneck headquarters, Maj. Gen. Charles M. Gurganus, the Camp Pendleton Marine in command of U.S. and international forces in southwestern Afghanistan, said "I think there's a chance, a fair chance, that this will all work."
The day when his Afghan army counterpart in Helmand province looks at him and says: hey, we got it, "honestly, I don't think it's that far off. ...
"We were concerned about just their sheer will to take this fight on. But they are clearly taking casualties, and they're not walking off the job. They are not quitting," he said.
The Taliban, "they're not finished," Gurganus said. "There is plenty of fight and plenty of life left in them. But slowly, (Afghans) are starting to get more confidence in their own people and in their own forces. And I think they're starting to gain more confidence in their own abilities to stand up against the insurgents.
"We've seen that in Sangin and certainly in Marja," he said, naming two fierce battlegrounds in Helmand province that saw steep drops in violence in recent years.
The Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James Amos, flew in a tilt-rotor Osprey to the Kajaki Dam in mid-July to visit artillerymen guarding the strategic asset.
At a clifftop forward operating base above the blue and incongruously serene waters backing the dam, one Marine asked what will become of Afghanistan after the last Marines leave.
By the end of 2014, "we're basically done," Amos said. "What do we see with the Afghan National Security Forces? … Are they going to be able to hack it? And what do we see in Helmand? The real question is how about all the gains, are we going to lose that?
"I'm bullish. I think we're going to do it," Amos said.
"I know we are," Gurganus said to himself in a curt and steely voice, striding away at the end of their talk.


text:
Here's a video of a talk I gave at the Santa Fe Institute's Complex Systems Summer School (written with roboticist Andrew Tinka-check out him talking about his fleet of floating robots). The talk was a response to the "Evolution Challenge":
- Has Biological Evolution come to an end?
- Is belief an emergent property?
- Will advanced computers use H. Sapiens as batteries?
I also blogged about a part of this talk here (why a mad scientist's attempt at creating A.I. to make new scientific discoveries was doomed).
The talk was given a prise for best talk by the judging panel which included David Krakauer, Tom Carter and best-selling author Cormac McCarthy. At several points in the talk, I completely forget what I was supposed to say because the people filming the event asked me to set my screen up in a way so I couldn't see my notes.
Sperl, M., Chang, A., Weber, N., & Hübler, A. (1999). Hebbian learning in the agglomeration of conducting particles Physical Review E, 59 (3), 3165-3168 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.59.3165
Chater N, & Christiansen MH (2010). Language acquisition meets language evolution. Cognitive science, 34 (7), 1131-57 PMID: 21564247
Ay N, Flack J, & Krakauer DC (2007). Robustness and complexity co-constructed in multimodal signalling networks. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 362 (1479), 441-7 PMID: 17255020
Ackley, D.H., and Cannon, D.C.. "Pursue Robust Indefinite Scalability". In Proceedings of the Thirteenth Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems (HOTOS-XIII) (2011, May). Abstract, PDF.
Guttal V, & Couzin ID (2010). Social interactions, information use, and the evolution of collective migration. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107 (37), 16172-7 PMID: 20713700

subset: commoncrawl


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Blue and Green for a True Renewable Energy Scene
To an extent, everything that touches on human existence evolves from and revolves around political economy, making matters of political-economic import arguably of central concern not only to any hope of obtaining renewable energy policies that work, but also to having any opportunity to achieve a good life. Paradoxically, folks tend to avoid thinking about things in this way as if a plague would immediately attend any attempt to grapple with political economy.
Practically speaking, any attempt to deal with an energy situation--involving as it must both commodified technology and either electricity or other ways of transforming fuel into power--is at its heart a political economic issue. Even more so, of course, sustainable business pursuits must deal with these matters.
For JustMeans purposes, especially today when the story investigates ways that working people can join together, for example in unions, to effect social transformation, readers will want to consider how one can put any such eventuality into perspective. For instance, a question that can help folks to get at what makes up political economy is to address such a fundamental inquiry as why a commentator might call some people 'working people.'
After all, since before his days at the gaming tables at Courier House, Bill Gates has labored at something. Definitely, he must have put in some long hours to have banked several thousand dollar bills for each of the ten million singles that he inherited from his grandfather. He's almost certainly worked more hours, as a case in point, than most humble correspondents such as the scribe behind the words of this little interlude.
Yet a distinction exists between Bill and most other citizens. He did in fact start with a capacity, a capitalization, an ante to a certain sort of poker game, that very few folks can access early in their lives, if ever they manifest such means. Thus, speaking about political economy involves speaking about the constituents of social class, a subject that on occasion has shown up in these pagesas divisive and thorny for most Americans.
In turn, if observers bother to ponder what constitutes a 'class' in a society, they will, unless they simply thump their chests and say, "I'm middle class, by God, and that's all there is to it!" nod that what puts one group, or set, or kind, or class of person in a different category from another is some set of relationships that differentiate one group from the other. And truthfully, we might imagine all sorts of relations that should hold precedence in divvying people up.
Many bigots begin with the classification 'Anglo,' for example; others imagine that gender is most crucial; still others take some other signifcation, or set of attributes, and posit that these are what set people apart. Obviously, as well, one may start with a scientific fact such as the accurate statement that all people are cousins and conclude that nothing real actually separates one type, or class, of person from another. Others argue that community, or culture, is a much more reasonable way to 'classify' folks.
To all such speculation, I would ask people to take careful notice that food, housing, water, and other basic elements of human life have--at the least for thousands, and likely for tens of thousands, of years--not happened in anything like a 'state of nature.' From this recognition, that at some juncture in time and space in the past, human beings began not all to make a general mad scramble, whether individually or in certain sorts of family or kin collectives, for the necessities of survival, we have to deduce that a transition took place from nature to society, because now--wherever one turns his gaze, people 'scramble' in distinct ways to 'make ends meet.'
This is not to say that society is unnatural. Such a view would be at best madness, in my estimation. But some sort of evolution, over time, had to have taken place from the days and places in which identifiable ancestors lived and died in more or less common circumstances to the way that exists today, when some 'classes' of people seem to stand in different relation to the basic constituents of keeping body and soul together.
Friederich Engels wrote a classic text about this: The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State. But for a certain 'evasiveness,' about which I will be writing more soon, every citizen of an advanced country like the USA would study this text, inasmuch as it lays a foundation for understanding how social categories, and therefore society, operate, both over time, or historically, and in the present tense, as it were.
Put most simply, Engels does this by showing how knowledge about human ancestors, from a few thousand years ago to ten thousand years ago, lets a student of humanity view that social systems came to pass in which distinct sets of families ended up with differential types of access to life's key elements--cattle and water and homes and so on--and to the ongoing creation of those elements in a definite useful form. Furthermore, the manifestation of such social patterns transpired all over the world in similar ways, marking the beginning of class societies, in which the children of different families tended to have divergent expectations about their relationships to each other and to the goods necessary for survival.
In this vein, one way of conceiving of 'class' is that it originates in differential links to the getting and keeping of the key elements that permit us to continue--food , shelter, clothing, and so on, right up to i-Phones and Satellites and repeating-cannons firing depleted Uranium shells. This is a hypothesis that I ask readers to test now, according to their own experience.
Can one acknowledge that people whose mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and neighbors, and who themselves, tend to, for example, work for wages to start their lives--this is one set of relationships to the 'getting of necessities,' after all--often, or even primarily both continue working for wages and have a certain way of looking at things? 'Maybe, maybe not,' might be an answer. Another sort of answer might be, 'well, they definitely are most likely to keep being wage-earners, but they'll have all sorts of different ideas about life.'
What about those who start out more or less surrounded by ownership, whose main or only experience of wages is as 'practice' for taking up the reins of power? Do they tend, in the main, both to stay at that elevated level and to evince certain sorts of ways of contemplating existence? Once again, the answer might be, 'Well, mostly yes to the first question, but not so much to the second.'
And, voila! If folks have followed along, I have inaugurated them to a social class approach to the modern world. In contemporary surroundings, with only a very few absolute exceptions, almost everyone either begins existence surrounded by people who get and keep jobs to eat, or they bask in a more supportive milieu, one in which their cohorts and family and neighbors tend to own things and live off a combination of their jobs and one sort or another of 'investment,' or capital, or other material investiture, like a big farm or a father who runs a country.
And, while all such discussion bristles with conflict, arguably, as the saying goes, the owning class, or the rich, have tended to get richer, all the while, and more so today than ever, the poor stay poor. More and more, in addition, the vaunted middle that supposedly distinguishes the United States from most other places, has seemed to be fading away, providing all manner of fodder for politicians of all stripes to promise a return to the middle-class ways that supposedly have set America apart.
I'd have to be the first to admit that this is a huge topic; moreover, many people get the heebie-jeebies even thinking about it. Their voices rise in timber, their body posture suggests a certain defensiveness, their eyes dart hither and yon.
Furthermore, this tiny little introduction today does not begin to do justice to this area of understanding, an aspect of being able to think straight that the likes of this humble correspondent would place at the highest level. For one thing, historical elements are largely missing, although I am hopeful that observers can see that I allude to such historical developments.
Despite its limitations, nevertheless, this paltry bit of a precis can, if readers suspend disbelief and discomfiture long enough to think about the world, let us move forward with today's plausibly interesting and important story in a way that will yield greater appreciation for the nuances of a phenomenon called the Blue-Green Alliance. This stems from the fact that this coalition results from its promulgators recognition that keeping such matters of class as I've touched on here in mind is a key to the kinds of social progress that they are seeking to make through their organizing efforts.
This notion--of organizing for social progress--implies another point for readers to hold in awareness. In the case of all the multiplicity of mayhem and chaos that characterize human existence now, one may advance the argument, with a fair chance of defending it, that almost every problem--the fight over nuclear versus renewable energy, the battle over Afghanistan, the idiocy of the War on Drugs, the nastiness so common now over immigrants, and on and on and on and on, forever--has some core component of class conflict that is key to understanding the particular issue, and, more important, to deciding how to 'get political' in relation to the issue.
One commentator states this very simply, in the monograph, Class and Class Conflict in the Age of Globalization.
|"This book highlight(s) the centrality of class and class conflict in the age of contemporary global capitalism. ...(T)he past century has formed and transformed capitalism on a global scale. ...restructuring...the international division of labor...by the export of capital and the transfer of production to cheap labor areas... .A major consequence of this process is the increased polarization of wealth and income between capital and labor at the national and global levels and the growth in the number of poor and marginalized segments of the population throughout the world."
Today's article, along with all of the work I do basically, seeks to actuate an awareness along these lines, on the one hand, and then set that awareness in motion toward a goal of social justice. As Engels' partner, Karl Marx, was wont to say in effect, 'understanding the world is all well and good; it's part of being human. But the point is to change it; we exist to improve the human prospect, not merely to see it.'
The two expressions of social progress that disport through today's narrative, trade unions and environmental groups, for the most part represent at least somewhat diverse social origins. For the better part of several decades, a substantial tension as often as not divided labor activists from environmental activists.
In some ways the high point of that discomfiture occurred in the late '70's and early 80's, though it existed prior to that and will probably continue to show up as long as 'divide and conquer' remains the most popular strategy of big business in keeping gadflies at bay. A particularly potent, but annoying, expression of this apparent opposition between environmentalists and working class leaders occurred in the article "Environmentalism and the Leisure Class," by William Tucker.
Though the thesis of this essay has many flaws, as evidence of a snarling attitude between 'green groups' and labor groups, it is indisputable. I expound on the importance of understanding this division in my article on the Environmental Justice Resource Center, proffering both a background for the development of environmental justice thinking, and how this has served as an important bridge to allow joint efforts and unified political orientation for unions such as the United Steelworkers and United Auto Workers, on the one hand, and groups such as the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Counsel, on the other hand.
In providing a basic orientation to the Blue Green Alliance(BGA), today's article blatantly takes for granted that any notion of fostering renewable energy, or all hope of accomplishing sustainable business, would benefit from the creation of the sort of coalition that the BGA represents. Though many avenues exist ineluctably to prove this assertion, we might merely reflect on three things to allow the presumption to pass: political experience; political muscle; and troops.
The thirteen groups that comprise BGA, as readers will soon see, represent, in aggregate some plus or minus ten million active United States citizens. In aggregate, these folks have the status of hardy political veterans. They know how to mount campaigns, fight campaigns, and win campaigns. Thus, if these collectives and individuals propose to lend a hand to bringing about better business and superior energy technologies, this offer is a godsend, pure and simple.
In a follow-up article, I will maintain, even more pointedly, that only through this sort of organizational initiative, and, most critically, only through the proper sort of organizational understanding on the part of the allied participants, do sustainable patterns and 'green energy' techniques stand a snowball's chance of success vis a vis the well-oiled plutocratic juggernaut of atomic energy. Today's purposes are more or less purely introductory and descriptive, in this tempestuous and difficult arena.
As just noted, thirteen separate organizations have come together to form BGA. Each represents a substantial membership and many decades of struggling to improve something about life. Here folks will find a precis of each member of the alliance.
United Steelworkers (USW)
"The USW is 1.2 million working and retired members throughout the United States and Canada, working together to improve our jobs; to build a better future for our families; and to promote fairness, justice and equality both on the job and in our societies," the website states. I can attest that USW has taken the strongest possible stand for workers rights around the globe(INTERLINK, Coal); moreover, USW also 'walks the walk' in relation to renewables.
Sierra Club
"The Sierra Club is America's oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, whose members work together to protect communities and the planet," sums up the site. I can attest that Sierra Club, in Georgia, is one of the only environmental groups that consistently goes into communities with a willingness to listen and a open attitude about dialog; 1.3 million Sierrans have also long sought to unravel the environmental justice knot so as to activate a truly grassroots geyser of action for sustainability.
Natural Resources Defense Council/NRDC Action Fund
"NRDC is the nation's most effective environmental action organization," notes the web, continuing that "NRDC uses law, science and the support of 1.2 million members and online activists to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things." While I have not had occasion to work alongside NRDC, they have won plenty of courtroom battles and come down on the human and community side of issues of environmental and energy importance.
Communications Workers of America (CWA)
"The Communications Workers of America - the union for the Information Age - represents 700,000 workers in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Itâs one of Americaâs fastest growing unions." I have only long ago and far away had personal contact with CWA, but their record as a progressive political force on the national scene is certainly solid.
National Wildlife Federation
NWF is one of the oldest environmental groups; here in Georgia, they are not particularly of the 'activist' bent; nationally, they have worked with or otherwise supported nuclear power generating facilities that have promoted themselves as 'green' and 'alternative' energy sources; with over four million members, NWF is the largest of all environmental groups.
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
"With 2 million members in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is the fastest-growing union in the Americas," the website notes. SEIU has been a stalwart in Georgia in supporting living wage, peace, and generally progressive politics; nationally, they have struggled recently, while continuing to fight the good fight on the organizing front.
Union of Concerned Scientists
Not only does this key constituency of pro-science folks recognize the opportunity costs and other drawbacks of nuclear, but they also consistently back peaceful foreign relations and generally progressive stance across the board, as well as providing research assistance repeatedly to the likes of this humble correspondent.
Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA)
"The half-million members of LIUNA build America," states the BGA site. "They work predominantly in the construction industry, building mass transit, highways, power plants, wind farms, schoolhouses and other basics that working people rely on every day." These are the workers who, along with twenty million others who don't have the privilege or opportunity of union membership, or who don't recognize their class position and oppose unions, constitute the core of the wage-earning class in the United States over the past several decades, as manufacturing workers have declined in number. While the service trades, reflected by SEIU's larger membership, do amount to a larger sector of the labor force, these folks are key troops in any political campaign where grassroots muscle makes a difference.
Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA)
According to the material at BGA's web address, "The Utility Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO (UWUA) is one of the most successful and progressive unions in all of the labor movement." Moreover, it works in the 'belly of the beast,' seeking to insure worker rights and safety inside the present electrical power production structure, including nuclear. "We have over 50,000 members working in the electric, gas, water, and nuclear industries across the United States."
American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
"The mission of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO," announces the BGA text, "is to improve the lives of our members and their families, to give voice to their legitimate professional, economic and social aspirations, to strengthen the institutions in which we work, to improve the quality of the services we provide, to bring together all members to assist and support one another and to promote democracy, human rights and freedom in our union, in our nation and throughout the world." Long regarded as the more activist and more militantly 'pro-labor' teachers' union, AFT represents nearly a million teachers, plus, as is the case with all of the unions here, also involving many retired members.
Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU)
"The Amalgamated Transit Union is the largest labor organization representing transit workers in the United States and Canada," according to the website. 160,000 strong, this group of progressive, pro-peace trade-unionists--mainly operating through their state organizations and locals--represent a key sector of the economy and provide leverage in many other ways in any political or policy campaign.
Sheet Metal Workersâ International Association
in Georgia, the Sheet Metal Workers worked with the Living Wage Campaign and generally support the most progressive agenda, which is difficult for any membership organization to do in this state; their 150,000 members are the core 'natural constituency' of renewable energy, inasmuch as their craft skills and work experiences are completely congruent with solar and wind development.
United Auto Workers
"The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) is one of the largest and most diverse unions in North America, with members in virtually every sector of the economy," according to the website. As an earlier article points out, UAW played a leading role in the inception of the environmental justice movement; its half million members and many retirees for about ten years included this humble correspondent, as a member of the UAW affiliated National Writers Union. Generally progressive and pro-peace, few other unions have the record of militancy and solidarity that characterize the auto workers.
This impressive amalgamation of progressive organizational potential is in motion too, as the following section illustrates. BGA is not a window-dressing sort of project. The membership and the leadership are literally in motion across the U.S.
One of many sources that point to the underpinnings of this new model of effort on the part of U.S. unions, that have historically tended to avoid such involvement, expressed the underlying motivation incisively. "If mature trade union movements are to undergo revitalization, it has been frequently argued, then they must recreate themselves as social movements. They must broaden their goals to encompass social progress beyond the immediate employment relationship and rediscover their capacity to mobilize workers in campaigns for workplace and wider social justice. In Waterman's words, unions should` add to the lay trinity (liberty, equality, fraternity) the values of diversity, peace and ecological care."
If nothing else, the BGA is following this thinking. A subsequent look at the group's work will examine matters of strategy and development; however, even this brief description will show the sorts of potential that JustMeans readers might notice as inherently supportive of both renewable energy potentiation and sustainable business practice.
My interview with Margrete Rangnes, BGA's Deputy Director, evinced from Washington a campaign HQ of a 148 years ago, when a stalwart young Ms. wouldn't have played nearly so visible a role and when the city of Washington itself seemed about to come under siege. The hounds of hell always threatening Lincoln, as far as I understand them, remind me of what afflicts Barack-the-Magnificent. But the still new G.O.P. was at least a new political beast, unlike present day Democrats.
My questions were much softer in tone than this. "First of all, can you break down the structure of the BGA, in terms of origins, how things get done, models being followed?"
"It all started with the Sierra Club and United Steelworkers; we'd done a lot of work together, over the years, over issues of trade and globalization," with some more local campaigns around clean water and air. "We asked ourselves, do we want to do more than one date at a time? Was a formalization of the relationship possible?"
"You wanted to try a marriage instead of a series of one night stands," I quipped.
She laughed. "Anyway, the first few years, it was just the two of us, reaching out to our own members, and to grassroots people" wherever they were working. Now, however, as we've seen that has grown into a significant chunk of America's working class and its progressive environmentalists, with nine unions and four organizations.
"It's really a broad spectrum, from industrial unions to newer organizations like (the Service Employees International Union); from large membership organizations like (the National Wildlife Federation) to more expert-based groups like the Union of Concerned Scientists," that just came on board recently.
The way it all works, she explained, is that "specific issues like global warming, clean energy, fair trade, workers' rights, these are things we all buy-in on, with the strategic link connecting them all that solving the economic crisis is easiest if we work on these issues together; I mean, they're inherently interconnected anyway. Overall? Addressing the climate situation by inviting in clean energy can address all the other challenges."
She notes that this really makes sense to groups like the Laborer's International Union and the Sheet Metal Workers whose members have been so decimated by the construction downturn. In terms of the timing of the expansion, "The second wave came on board in 08, and since then it's been in dribbles. It's been an incremental process," she emphasized, "because we wanted to make sure it was real and anchored on real principles," by which I understood her to mean a real scientific understanding of what was at the root of environmental and economic problems, and what might address those root causes.
"Can you think of any particularly powerful anecdotes that you would want to see, read about, or learn about in a story?" I asked her.
"I'm always interested in how we effect change, how we are relevant. As a progressive movement in today's climate, how we're gonna get to victory can be difficult to envision, so it's important to think through" the steps that need to happen." She paused to see if I followed; I hope that I did.
She gave some examples. From her position in the Sierra club, she coordinated the Employee Free Choice Act campaign, a labor issue that, because of union support for safety and anti-pollutions standards, and because of provisions against exporting toxic processes had environmental implications right down to its core. "On the flip side, USW led a massive grassroots membership campaign to pass climate legislation."
"It was all about building up support for equity and fair labor standards with good jobs and everything, with the flip side being the union's talking about clean energy solutions being a necessary way to go."
I asked if this had led to the production of real cases of new knowledge about how to operate politically, and she agreed, "Oh, absolutely."
"Are all of the membership organizations pretty much of equal standing, or are some of the initiators sort of like 'first among equals'?"
She explained that no hierarchy of organizations was possible under the bylaws. The board allows equal representation. "It's a very active process," she went on, giving me the example of the green chemistry work, where the academic experts might pitch in something, and then OSHA reps from the unions would have good stuff to offer, and then the climate lobbyists, could contribute their part. "We always bring in as many viewpoints as possible from as many member organizations as possible, depending on the particular issue we're dealing with."
"I notice specific bills in the 'take action' section and then a general positive orientation to real 'clean energy' as a policy; is there a 'model bill' about that, or some other nation's approach, that you'd recommend to readers to look at?"
"Well, we supported the Waxman-Markey Bill framework of cap-and-trade for a climate bill." She waited for an "Oh, please!" that never came. "We thought it could be 'good,' even though it's hard to get a perfect bill." I accede to the demands of 'practical politics.'
But she drives home the point that "principled community work is non-negotiable." BGA seeks to find a balance between working legislatively and from the grassroots simultaneously, at the same time helping to seed good business options that bring local jobs that support a refurbishing of the country's manufacturing base. The 8,000 parts in wind turbines and massive opportunities in home retrofits are just a couple of examples. "We're also working with (the Communications Workers) to expand rural access to high speed internet.
When I express my ignorance of this area, having thought the U.S. still to be 'ahead of the curve now, she corrects this misimpression. "We're 15th in the world now, really lagging behind." She concludes by acknowledging that community development "is just very difficult." Working sector by sector, industry by industry, is the only way. "There's no quick fix." And that's where having some principles comes into play.
I ask, in relation to BGA's "The Job's Not Done," seventeen state tour, "You didn't come South; why not?"
"Given the original part played by the steelworkers, a focus on the Midwest was natural," and I'd assume that such would also hold for the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. I mention the 'Right-to-Work,' anti-union climate in Dixie, and she agrees that a lot needs doing in the land of Jimbo.
She views the work around California Proposition 23, which is trying to turn back the State's strict environmental and safety standards as an extension of the organization beyond its core area. Washington and Oregon and Maine all also have statewide action of some sort going on too.
I note that the organization's Green Files has some interesting 'grassrootsy' cases to share. But I do have one query that might qualify as 'semi-tough.'
I point out, "Eric Justian worked pretty diligently in Muskegon County and Western Michigan to support a wind farm development there that has a lot of State and regional potential; he felt that unions did not support the grassroots efforts. Do you have any insights into that, or could you direct me to a good union contact in Michigan when I go there to follow up this story?"
The timber of her voice was a little sad here. "We're wholeheartedly interested in wind. We just weren't sure about the community base there," which I promised her was overwhelmingly positive. "So many jobs are possible in the wind sector; we'd love it, maintenance, specialized trucks for Teamsters." And a resuscitation of the manufacturing base that Michigan has been waiting twenty years or more for, I point out.
I don't press on this. I'll send the story to Eric, and to Steve Warner at Scandia, and see if anybody has any way to move the process forward. Michigan doesn't need this opportunity to wait another day.
We don't even scratch the surface of a ton of what BGA is up to on a day-to-day basis, but as I say, I'm going to follow up on this introduction. 'Born a critic,' I have my doubts about the underlying political economic analysis that I infer from the website. I buy the tactical and legislative ideas, so far as they go. Ms. Rangnes is obviously an old pro at all of this, despite her youthful voice.
But missing Muskegon just doesn't add up, if a community focus were truly in place, too much Facebook notwithstanding. How BGA will get from alliance to movement, from coalition to community capacitation just doesn't come through. I'd sure love having the answer be that something obvious is escaping my attention.
Without doubt, the United States of America desperately needs vastly more of what the Blue Green Alliance is selling. The only real issue is whether the political formula that the organization practices, all in good faith, can deliver the product, which is an empowered base of communities capable of taking on capital in what is shaping up to be a decade or more of dog fights.
Coalition does not equal community. Coalescing, and 'practical politics,' sometimes is the only way to proceed. At other times, however, any process that relies on such formulas, without the necessary component of capacitated local citizens, will face insurmountable difficulties. The experiences of TVA, a chronicle which began yesterday(INTERLINK) and which will continue once a week over the next few weeks, aptly demonstrate the way that the bureaucratic partners of the ruling business coalitions will always take over any 'reform' process that does not actually emanate from the people and their organizations directly.
Expanding democracy is the key. But this, by definition, must go far beyond a by-election for institutions already bought and paid for by the business coalitions. The thinking of Benjamin Barber in this regard has repeatedly appeared in these pages, but other contenders for the 'fresh-shoots-of-real-democracy' blossom also are available.
|"Every challenge we face today from climate and crime to technology and markets, and communications and public health is global in character. Yet the institutions of democracy we rely on to address these challenges are still locked up inside sovereign states pursuing the old logic of independence. But in an interdependent world of diseases without borders, we also need citizens without borders â democracy without borders. Which means if we are to survive interdependence and flourish in liberty, we must either globalize democracy or democratize globalization."
And, even in this context of being willing to have a 'knife fight in the dark,' if necessary, for the most potent manifestations of participatory democracy, nothing will come to pass in a social vacuum. Only by keeping in mind the centrality of strengthened communities is progress possible; tomorrow's examination of the Lakota Sioux can be instructive along these lines. Then, somehow or other--and again, a plug for Peoples Information Networks seems essential, methods for linking these communities to look both outward and upward as well as inward must happen, across all borders and beyond all subsequent approaches to human involvement in collaborative enterprise.
Expanding voice and input is likely the only pathway that can lead both to grassroots participation and community capacitation. But what are the topics about which we sing now? A new cell phone is so cool; a new guest crooned such a rad tune on American Idol; a further devolution of any prospect for real involvement just took up another hour with a new Facebook application. Transition communities, a flowering of the inner nerd, and all manner of new forms that have shown up in these pages could provide vehicles to convey the focused expression of these grassroots voices.
Finally, expanding coalition toward movement is a dividing line between making noise and making progress between talking about possibility and manifesting transformation. Such a movement came into being in 1914; again in the 1930's, explosive flights of coalesced people took place; since then, time and again, smaller outbursts of motion have slaughtered a few million cousins here and a few million cousins there.
Yet the fundamental contradictions of the rules of this game remain. And another 'big play' of tribe against tribe might be the last human upsurge to transpire. Perhaps a new sort of march can come from people banded together. I'm a believer in this capacity for new musical forms.
Will they emerge from the Blue Green Alliance as currently constituted? I would say, 'yes,' if I thought a reliance on the Democratic Party of the United States might 'deliver us from evil,' but I don't believe that. This partisan formation does not seek to empower communities so much as it attempts to divert and delay community potential.
I would say, 'yes,' if I were inclined to accept that imperial war were a form of patriotism, doing battle against 'terror,' but that is beyond absurd, like a blindfolded fellow agreeing to a sword fight with unseen assailants on the promise that this duel will bring glory. Empire eviscerates any emanation of community that might otherwise exist.
I would say, 'yes,' if I bought the notion that America first had any merit, that 'foreigners don't belong here' had a resonant ring of salvation, but such notions seem worse than false. They guarantee that communities that must be a part of the community power movement become enemies. The best result from these strategic positions will be a slow death at home, on the basis of carnage abroad; more likely, as the inherent futility of the fight on these terms becomes clear, a mass collective suicide more like the Bhagavadgita than Armageddon will be the destination point.
In my estimation therefore, despite great spirit and great ideas and tremendous potential, the Blue Green Alliance has some goal-setting and analysis still to do. In a month or so, I'm going to offer my take on what such dissection and objectives might include, but I'd love to hear that I misinterpreted everything and that dandy developments are nigh. As such, I'll await the favor of a reply.
When a sector of the analysis of reality is off limits, then democracy and free speech might as well fold up its tent. No matter the cries of 'practical politics,' no matter the insistence that 'reason dictates' that we 'not rock the boat,' no matter the long-standing affiliation with a political party predominantly financed by 'class enemies' of trade union and environmental stewardship, if a dialogic context excludes things like 'social class analysis' and a potential role for social democracy, then, whatever is happening, it is no longer honors the first amendment. It may be pragmatic, but it has nothing to do with letting every perspective have a say.
I had a nice chat with an obviously hard-working BGA combatant. An interviewer can hear the long hours and the late nights and the many, many cups of coffee, even over the phone. Our conversation was cordial and revealed many avenues for further investigation and assessment of how BGA might make a profound and positive impact on the desperate straits in which progressive energy policy finds itself in the U.S.
I have been at this work, of trying to report on social movement as a proponent, as a journalist with a definite point of view, for many decades. More than once, I have tripped and fallen on my face as a result of being a clueless boob about the delicate balance that trade-unions, in particular, have generally sought to maintain in this country.
On the one hand, they are the only bulwark that workers can count on to fend off the worst depredations of capital. OSHA came from the miners health counsels. The civil rights movement was a part of the auto-workers' strategy. Public schools, minimum wage, social security, the list of privileges that have roots in the sweat and blood of trade unions is just about endless. Thus, every time that big business gains a new advantage, one can be certain that one prong of its next strategy prospectus will be some new and sinister move to undercut trade unions.
At the same time, the identification of many unions with empire, of almost all unions against an opening of the borders and a broadening of their international work, is also an accurate appraisal. And, without a doubt, any of BGA's trade unionists who happened to read this article--which I will send along to the organization, as sure as the sun shines--will be better than 50-50 to recoil a bit upon perusing some of what is here.
It's pinkish tinge will appear altogether red to some readers. I certainly don't hide my social democratic proclivities; as I've pointed out to JustMeans readers before, that's a fancy word for socialist. But I'm intellectually open and willing to 'throw down and 'chew the fat' with anyone.
I am willing to be convinced that capitalism is capable of resuscitation, if someone can make a convincing argument to that effect. I can listen to an assessment that imperial mass murder is not an inherent component of U.S. militarism. I can let a proponent of big business--as I did for David Lilienthal yesterday--boost the marvels of untrammeled markets and unfettered profiteering as a sidebar of greater growth.
But neither I nor anyone else who truly wants to promote either 'renewable energy' or whatever potential for 'sustainable business' is real can carry on in an environment in which the long knives or the dagger awaits the mention of Karl Marx or socially democratic assessments of what in the heck needs to happen if we're going to win.
The essence of a victorious class war, or if that's too strong, social dispute, is that the winning side--and this is especially true if that 'side' is a fractious majority with many divisible fissures in it--spends more energy battling its opponent than trying to bury those on its own front lines who are not in sync with the dominant views.
Maybe that's way too simplistic. I've never been any good at 'practical politics.' But I know a winning strategy when I see one; and while the Blue Green Alliance is making some impressive tactical moves, I do not yet notice a strategic orientation that can bring about the fruits that even the organization's tactical ploys are seeking to win, to wit, more wind and sun and less radiation, more human rights and jobs and less war and terror.
A recent strategic analysis from England made this point quite common sensically. Across the developed world unions have experienced membership decline, and in many cases have lost influence in the labour market and political system. As a result, they are under pressure to develop new tactics and access new resources. In certain respects, coalitions are a symptom of weakness and unions will experience pressure to seek coalition partners if that underlying weakness remains."
But what is the source of this weakness? Perhaps the time has finally come for workers in North America to become conscious of themselves as a class. Perhaps a movement for community power, involving democratic dialog and increased capacity at the grassroots, can bring about he revitalization that so many good-hearted and hard-working environmentalists and labor-unionists aspire to obtain.
Or maybe not. Maybe we need more accommodation with the Fortune 500 and the rulers of capital, right down to pretending that a 'nuclear renaissance' is compatible with a blue and green coalition. Or, I'm certainly all ears, maybe somebody has another idea.
Photo Credits
Teachers: Kevin Dooley
Wildlife: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Steel: Brian
Movement: David


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Lindsay Lohan traveled to India last month to film a documentary on child sex trafficking with BBC Three, and now a short clip from the program has found its way on to YouTube.
Only one minute long, the clip features Lohan, wearing a loose head covering and tank top, asking an India woman, "Didn't you hear from other traffickers that children were abused and some girls, if they're attractive, raped and prostituted and subjected to such horrible things?"
Lohan's trip sparked controversy last month after she tweeted (and then deleted) a message reading, "Over *40 children saved* so far…… Within one day's work…… This is what life is about….. Doing THIS is a life worth living!!!" in reference to New Delhi raids that saved children being held captive in workshops.
U.S. & World
The group responsible for the raid responded in outrage at the suggestion that Lohan or the BBC were at all involved, according to The Telegraph.
A BBC spokesman told The Telegraph: "Lindsay Lohan has just completed filming in India for a BBC Three project on child trafficking. We would like to stress that she did not say she was present at the raid, this is a misinterpretation. She was merely referring to a raid that happened connected to child trafficking - the subject of the programme."
But even with the controversy, Lohan's mom, Dina, sees her daughter's latest project as a step in the right direction.
"I'm so proud of Lindsay, that under all the scrutiny the tabloids put her under, she is a very strong, caring, talented girl who ignores all the negative, and continues to move forward in a positive direction. I am so proud of her,"
the elder Lohan told People on Saturday.
The documentary, listed by the BBC under the working title, "Lindsay Lohan In India," is set to air this Spring.


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Exemption of bifacial cell technology from Section 201 measures to accelerate switch from mono to bifacial cell lines outside of China and drive demand in the United StatesJune 17, 2019On 13 June 2019, United States Federal trade authorities ruled that bifacial solar modules will be exempt from Section 201 tariffs, as outlined in a notice from the Office of the United States Trade Representative. The ruling will dramatically increase demand for bifacial solar modules in the United States due to the opportunity of avoiding tariff rates of 15% to 25% through February 2022, in addition to the benefits of higher efficiencies and energy yields associated with such products. IHS Markit expects that demand for bifacial modules in the United States will be primarily served by manufacturing lines across Southeast Asia, as products shipped from China will still face antidumping and Section 301 tariffs that will make them less competitive.Subscribers Only
The cancellation of Mexico's fourth energy auction generates uncertainty for PV project development beyond 2020February 11, 2019On 1 February, Mexico's Secretariat of Energy (SENER) announced the cancellation of the planned fourth energy auction, confirming IHS Markit's prediction that the administration would break with the previous administration and end the continuity of power auctions. The decision generates uncertainty for the PV project development beyond 2020 and may delay the country's renewable energy goals. Developers and investors will now have to look for alternative investment paths to fill the void left by tenders. Moreover, the cancellation will affect the Clean Energy Certificate (CEL) market and may delay the clean energy goals Mexico had set for itself. On the upside, the distributed generation segment could see a sharper increase in installations through 2023.Subscribers Only
China PV installations to boom in fourth quarter after grace period removalJanuary 31, 2018On 22 December 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in China confirmed the 2018 FiT rate and the anticipated grace period until June 2018 to obtain the 2017 FiT rate (for projects approved in 2017). The FiT tariff valid from 1 January 2018 is 0.55 yuan/kWh, 0.65 yuan/kWh, and 0.75 yuan/kWh for resource areas I, II and III, respectively. Distributed PV systems that sell surplus power to the grid will obtain 0.37 yuan/kWh for the excess power. The updated policy has removed the grace period in 2019, meaning that the 2019 FiT rate will apply for all projects as of 1 January 2019. The FiT deadlines for different policy segments, in parallel with events in PV markets outside China, will determine the quarterly module pricing and installation patterns. IHS Markit maintains its current annual 50 GW PV installation projection for China in 2018, but we are reviewing the quarterly distribution.Subscribers Only
Will energy storage follow in the steps of the booming solar market in China?May 07, 2017Key takeaways from recent energy storage conferences in China Over the last two weeks, IHS Markit Technology analysts attended three shows including SNEC in Shanghai, China International Energy Storage Conference in Suzhou, and Global Energy Storage Conference in Shenzhen. All three shows attracted large audiences although conferences took place simultaneously – testament to the growth of the Chinese storage industry. Both new entrants and existing players expressed interests in battery technologies, business models, and market drivers.Subscribers Only
SNEC 2017 Key TakeawaysMay 05, 2017SNEC PV Expo 2017 was once again a frantic exhibition, and the show floors felt as busy as previous years. The show has become an annual celebration of a market that has grown ferociously to account for sizeable share of both global demand and supply.Subscribers Only
China releases proposal to promote adoption of energy storageMarch 22, 2016On 10 March, China National Energy Administration (NEA) released a draft on "Using energy storage for peak shaving in the Northeast (NE), the North (N), and the Northwest (NW) regions" for public review. The document heralds a tipping point for the commercialization of energy storage projects in the Chinese market.Subscribers Only
China's NEA announces another 5.3 GW of PV capacity quota – IHS AnalysisOctober 16, 2015On 28th September, China's NEA (National Energy Administration) announced plans to increase the country's quota for solar PV capacity by an additional 5.3 GWac. This has been widely reported as China increasing its 2015 PV installation target.Subscribers Only
[Display Dynamics] Is Xiaomi ready for going global?September 22, 2014Xiaomi Corp. made headlines in early August after it took the crown from Samsung Electronics Co. in sales of smartphones in China in the second quarter of 2014. The result might vary depending on estimates calculated in different ways, but it came as a large shock that this only four-year old Chinese company is threatening Samsung Electronics, which has been the largest smartphone seller in the Chinese market for years where it successfully beat rival Apple Inc.
NEA's Lowered Target for Chinese Distributed Solar Helps Boost Market in H2'14August 19, 2014Whilst China's National Energy Administration (NEA) lowered its 2014 installation target from 14 GW to 13 GW and matched IHS' forecast from earlier in the year, it vowed to continue support for the PV industry and upcoming policy will help to remove barriers for distributed solar (DPV) and accelerate the build-out of new projects.
2 MW Flywheel Energy Storage Facility in Ontario Commences OperationsJuly 24, 2014A 2 MW flywheel energy storage system has begun to operate in Ontario, Canada. The flywheel technology is provided by Temporal Power and is installed and owned by NRStor. The system provides frequency regulation services, which will be a major driver for the North America energy storage market over the coming years.Subscribers Only
Polysilicon Price Stabilizes Despite Looming Trade DisputesPrices even set to increase during the next three monthsApril 24, 2013Following a sustained stretch of severe declines from February 2012 through the end of the year, solar polysilicon pricing has stabilized in early 2013, with prices steady in April and early May,...
Global Photovoltaic Market Will Finish Year with Slower GrowthGermany, China, Italy, US and Japan will be the Top 5 solar markets for the yearNovember 16, 2012Global photovoltaic (PV) installations will finish the year with discernibly lower growth than in 2011, undercut by softer demand in light of continuing economic uncertainties and a general cooling in solar markets worldwide...
A Year of Turbulence for the Solar IndustryConsolidation, trade wars and price drops rule in the second halfOctober 22, 2012The first half of 2012 was tumultuous for the photovoltaic (PV) industry. The overall economic downturn continued to impact prices across the silicon supply chain—extending from polysilicon to solar modules...
Photovoltaic Market Continued Hot Growth Streak in 2011 with 40 Percent ExpansionGermany and Italy tussle for top spot; US, China and France are in Top 5 among regions with most new installationsFebruary 06, 2012The photovoltaic (PV) market enjoyed another year of sunny growth as solar installations climbed 40 percent in 2011, although dark clouds loom on the horizon over the industry's reduced prospects this year...
Photovoltaic Inverter Market Suffered Slight Setback in 2011But growth to return this year; strong performance expected to continue in China and USJanuary 30, 2012The worldwide photovoltaic (PV) inverter space dipped slightly in 2011 as two big solar markets stalled or cut tariffs, even though overall losses in the industry were mitigated somewhat by growth in other parts of the world...


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Miami woman out of jail after flipping off judge
Penelope Soto no longer charged with criminal contempt of court
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A Miami-Dade County judge's tough love sentence for a sassy high school senior may have given the 18-year-old a second shot at life.
Penelope Soto became a social media sensation after video of her flippant bond court appearance went viral.
Soto went before Judge Jorge Rodriguez Chomat on Monday after being caught with Xanax. "Sassy" would be the polite term for her performance. Dressed in an orange jail jumper Soto swaggered up to the podium, combing her long pink-hued hair with her hands while blurting out snarky statements laced with sarcasm.
After giving her the standard bond, the judge sees her off with a "bye, bye" to which Soto tartly replied "Adios," lingering on the final "S" with a smart-aleck smile and gleam in her eye as she walked off.
The judge chuckled before calling her back and doubling her bond to $10,000 at which point Soto is heard dropping an F-bomb while flipping her middle finger at the judge.
It's at that point that he charged her with criminal contempt of court and ordered her to county jail for 30 days. Serving a few days in jail can be sobering it would seem.
On Friday, a handcuffed Soto casted sad eyes at the judge amid a disposition that seemed to radiate an annoyed boredom with the proceeding rather than remorse.
RELATED: Girl who flipped off judge released
Soto would say she was sorry, telling the judge, "I apologize not only to you but to my family," before sniffling back a soft cry.
Tears may have been streaming down her cheeks, but it was clear there's some sass left in her yet.
On more than one occasion her lawyer had to calm her talk-back tendency. At various points in the proceeding, her lawyer told her not to interrupt the judge.
Soto is still facing a count for Xanax possession. During Friday's hearing, Local 10 learned she was on the drug during the hearing on Feb. 4.
The judge dropped the rest of her jail sentence, which she earned with her sassy performance. Gone is the criminal contempt of court charge that would have made her a convicted felon for life.
She was also granted the opportunity to enter the Drug Court Program. If she completes all the requirements, the Xanax-related charge could also be dropped.
It is an incredible second chance for a troubled young woman who is said to be plagued by anxiety.
For all her bravado, she left jail Friday afternoon with her face veiled by a blue pashmina, brushing past a crush of reporters before climbing into the back seat of a white car.
Alfredo Hernandez, a rehab administrator, told the court on Friday that Soto didn't want to be famous. The reality is her smart-talking court appearance is now infamous.
Copyright 2013 by Local10.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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greenlinemedia precisava de um novo design de logo e criou um concurso na 99designs.
Um vencedor foi selecionado entre 44 designs enviados por 16 designers freelancers.
Looking for a slick and modern logo for a new media and marketing consulting company to be located here in Boston. Clean, modern, web 2.0 looking, with some local element(s) worked in as outlined in the description. Winner should be able to provide font files, vector file, and color palette.
Greenline Media (http://www.greenlinemedia.com)
Desired Color Scheme:
Green (#006634), with silver/grey and black accent colors on a white background
Desired Style:
Slick, professional, simple, and modern, web 2.0 style is nice, but not too overboard with the shadows, gradients, and reflections. Nice integrations of such elements makes for a slick logo, but too much can make it look over done. As mentioned in the des
Accepted File Formats:
.ai, .eps
Greenline Media is a new media and online marketing consultation firm. Specializing in assisting a wide range of clients in online marketing strategy, buzz marketing, web positioning, media buying, and other on and offline advertising related business.
The name Greenline Media comes from our location on Boston's Green Line branch of the MBTA (subway), and ideally, a strong logo will not only have the modern and slick, web 2.0ish look and feel, but also incorporate some style reference, or imagery of the MBTA greenline trains (without using trademarked images of the MBTA of course).
Photos of the trains that run on the greeline, can be seen here. Please do not use photography in this logo, I want all graphic elements to be illustrations, tracings, outlines, etc...no photographic elements.
I would like to keep the color scheme fairly simple, sticking to that Green Line shade of green as the focus, with black, white, and grey/silvers as the accent colors. If you are able to work other accent colors in though, I am open to suggestion.
I am planning on running this contest for a week and looking for a quick turnaround. Winner will be paid the prize promptly, and I expect the winner to deliver the TTF font files used, and a vector version and color palette for the final logo.
I will check in on the contest daily, and try and offer as detailed feedback as possible, as quickly as possible.
Thanks in advance to all of those that participate, and looking forward to seeing all of, and choosing one of, your designs!
Saiba como um concurso de design funciona ou leia mais sobre nossos serviços de design de logo.


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AMD HydraVision Basic Edition 3.25.0006
What's New
Quick Specs
Related Drivers 3
HydraVision™ Multi-monitor Management Software enables you to tailor your desktop to the way you work, so you can manage increased amounts of information and improve your productivity. Your productivity is increased thanks to two aspects HydraVision:
- Breadth - increase your desktop work space by using up to two monitors
- Depth - create multiple layers of desktop workspace with Multi-Desk
Flexible and easy to use
Within minutes HydraVision gives you the power to manage independent monitor display features and:
- Determine the behavior of pop-up windows and dialog boxes in different applications
- Switch between desktop with a mouse click or "Hot Key"
- Vary your settings from one application to the next
- Customize the features of HydraVision™ to an application
Increase your productivity
ATI wanted to increase your productivity even more, so we have introduced more cool features in version 3 of HydraVision:
- Transparent windows and menus
- "Always-on-Top"
- Multi-Desk properties
- Cycle through desktops view
- Move To Monitor
- Internet Explorer extension
- HydraVision Basic Edition
ATI is introducing a new easy-to-use and intuitive version of HydraVision. Using a redesigned user interface, HydraVision Basic Edition will provide users with the essential features required to configure and easily use a multiple display setup.
- January 22, 2013
- Windows Vista / 7 / 8
- 6,539 downloads
- October 23, 2012
- Windows (all)
- 1,714 downloads
- October 23, 2012
- Windows (all)
- 1,639 downloads


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Yolo CountyHome Sitemap Contact
Staff Directory
Brushia, Monica
- Departments:Public Defender
- Title:Supervisor Team One
- Phone:(530) 406-4546
- Email:Email
Monica Brushia graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a BA in History in 1991 and then attended the University of Arizona, College of Law, in Tucson, where she graduated in May 1994. She was admitted to the California State Bar in December 1994 and Federal Court in January 1995.
Monica began working in Yolo County in February 1997. On December 23, 2007, she became a Supervisor and for the past few years has been a Felony Team Supervisor. In addition, Monica helps to coordinate and keep track of the Public Defender's Speakers Bureau (Public Defender's Community Service, such as attorneys speaking at schools, mentoring, Moot Court coaches and judges). Lastly, in 2014 she became a member of the Yolo County Employee Commission. The Commission tries to foster interagency cooperation, and most importantly, a venue for employee likes and dislikes. Monica celebrated her 20th anniversary as an attorney and public defender in December of 2014.


text:
major macro economic indicators
|2018 (e)
|2019 (f)
|GDP growth (%)
|Inflation (yearly average, %)
|Budget balance (% GDP)*
|Current account balance (% GDP)
|Public debt (% GDP)
(e): Estimate. (f): Forecast. *Fiscal year from 1st July - 30th June 2019 data: FY18/19.
- East Africa's leading economy, playing a pivotal role in the East African Community, the number-one African common market
- Diversified agriculture and expanding services sector (telecommunications and financial services)
- Improving business and governance climate
- Fast-growing population and emerging middle class
- Dependent on hydropower and rain-fed agriculture
- Persistent bottlenecks and skills shortages
- Instability related to terrorist risk and political, social and ethnic divisions
- Persistent corruption
Despite some constraints, growth remains robust
With the fading effect of the political uncertainty and poor weather conditions that held it back in 2017, growth rebounded in 2018. In 2019, growth is expected to remain robust, supported in particular by public consumption and investment. Despite fiscal consolidation efforts, investment spending on infrastructure (transport, electricity) is expected to be buoyant. Projects to improve the road network, build a second container terminal at the port of Mombasa, and carry out work at the Malindi, Isiolo, and Lokichogio airports are all on the agenda in 2019. Private investment should be part of this momentum through PPP agreements, reforms to improve the business climate, and a gradual recovery in private sector credit. Exports are expected to be supported by increased agricultural production, particularly of cash crops (tea, horticulture), provided the country is spared weather-wise. Horticultural products could benefit from the start of direct flights to the United States. Conversely, stagnating coffee production and the fact that coffee prices are still relatively low may create some difficulties for the industry. Tourism revenues should also support the trade balance. Most service-related activities – with the notable exception of the banking sector, which will continue to be hurt by the interest rate cap – should get support from domestic consumption. However, consumption could be affected by increased inflationary pressures in 2019. In particular, inflation will be fuelled by higher energy prices, especially following the introduction of an 8% VAT on fuel, as well as by the dissipation of food price disinflation in 2018.
Fiscal consolidation to anchor debt sustainability
The fiscal deficit is expected to shrink in 2018/19 as a result of consolidation efforts. Measures to streamline tax exemptions, the new income tax law (which contains provisions aimed at broadening the tax base), and administrative measures (including electronic tracking of goods) are expected to boost revenues. However, revenues could again suffer from persistent shortcomings in terms of their mobilisation. Efforts to attract private investment and the development of PPPs should help to contain capital investment spending. In addition, the phase-out of exceptional expenditures related to drought relief and organisation of the 2017 elections, which have burdened budgets in the last two fiscal years, should help in the consolidation push. The authorities are undertaking these efforts to curb the growth in debt and rising service costs, which are becoming a matter of concern. Although still mainly of a concessional nature, external debt, which accounts for around 50% of the total, has seen its commercial portion increase, notably through Eurobond issuances on international markets.
The current account deficit is expected to narrow slightly in 2019. The recovery in exports, mainly of agricultural products, is expected to continue and will reduce the goods deficit. At the same time, steps to rationalise capital expenditure should gradually curb demand for imports of capital goods. The surpluses in services and in transfers will benefit, respectively, from increased tourism receipts and remittances from expatriate workers. The income balance will continue to make a minor contribution to the current account balance. FDI and other investments should make it possible to finance a large portion of the current account deficit. In addition, foreign exchange reserves, which were sufficient to cover more than five months of imports at the end of 2018, would cushion the impact of an external shock and limit the volatility of the Kenyan shilling.
Relative political calm restored after the post-electoral crisis
President Uhuru Kenyatta was re-elected in 2017 for a second term after a turbulent political period, during which the Supreme Court rejected the results of the first elections due to irregularities and called for fresh elections, which were then boycotted by the main opposition candidate Raila Odinga. However, in March 2018, a few months after the post-election turmoil, Mr Odinga – who had initially rejected Mr Kenyatta's victory and proclaimed himself "people's president" – reached a reconciliation agreement with the President, which helped to ease the political tensions.
Despite the truce, the country's deep-seated political, social, and ethnic divisions remain unresolved and could be a source of instability once more in the future. In addition, given the country's military involvement in Somalia, Kenya remains a target for Islamist terrorism, particularly by the al-Shabab group. Meanwhile, recurrent trade disputes with Tanzania could affect the stability of the East African Community, in which Kenya plays a pivotal role.
The 19-place jump in the 2019 Doing Business ranking, putting Kenya 61st in the world (out of 190 countries) and third in sub-Saharan Africa, rewards the many reforms undertaken by the country to improve the business climate. These include measures to make it easier for debtors to continue doing business during insolvency proceedings, as well as steps to simplify tax payment procedures for companies.
Last update : February 2019


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Using the time-honored tactics of obfuscation, misdirection, and a little bit of fear, the people who try to sell you TVs can hit you with some heavy-duty lies.
Now this isn't to say that all TV sales people are bad, nor that any necessarily do this out of malice (there's plenty of misinformation out there confused as truth). But when it's your dollar on the line, being prepared with some facts can only be a good thing.
For a primer on all the jargon, check out "TV tech explainer: Every HDTV technology decoded."
'This TV has a million-to-one contrast ratio.'
No, it doesn't. Every TV manufacturer lies about contrast ratio. Not a single one is remotely accurate. So it's impossible to prescribe an exact number to any TV given only the manufacturers data. The fact is, plasmas have better native contrast ratios than LCDs (LED or otherwise). There are three local-dimming LED LCDs on the market this year (Elite by Sharp, Sony HX950, and LG LM9600), and they're all extremely expensive. These offer similar contrast ratios than the best plasmas, though not exactly. For more info, check out "Contrast ratio (or how every TV manufacturer lies to you)."
'This TV has better sound.'
You know what, let's say they're right. Let's say TV A has better sound than TV B. The fact is, no TV sounds good. So all they're really saying is, "This TV sounds less bad than this other TV."
The thinness that we all love in flat-panel TVs means the speaker drivers by their very nature have to be very small. Small drivers can't do much to create sound waves.
The wiser salespeople will direct you towards a sound bar or other home audio system. This is definitely where you should spend a few dollars. Pretty much every sound bar will sound better than the TV speakers, and the better sound bars actually sound pretty good.
Check out CNET's page on the best home audio and best sound bars.
'TVs break all the time. You need an extended warranty.'
Another example of this is "I see TVs come in for repair all the time." From a rhetorical standpoint, this is a rather brilliant argument. This person works at the store. They see lots of TVs coming in for repair. So as an "authority," this seems a valid point.
Except, it isn't.
What the salesperson isn't seeing, is all the TVs that don't come in for repair. Which is most of them. Flat-panel TVs are very reliable, so an extended warranty is a largely a waste of money.
'LED TVs have the best picture quality.'
Nope. First of all, there's no such thing as an "LED TV." Every LED TV is just a standard LCD TV that uses LEDs to create light instead of the "old-fashioned" cold-cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL). LCDs have their positives, like light output and lower energy consumption, but when it comes to a direct picture quality comparison, plasmas have better black levels, better contrast ratios, and better viewing angles (for those not sitting directly in front of the TV). For example, four of the five TVs CNET picked for best picture quality are plasmas (the one LED LCD is also the most expensive TV you can buy per-screen-inch).
There's more to it than that, as I lay out in "Why LED does not mean a better picture" and "LED LCD vs. plasma vs. LCD."
'If you want the best picture and sound, you need the best HDMI cable.'
This is the one that annoys me the most, and I've written four articles about it for CNET alone. This is the one that eliminates any guilt I have impugning the good name of some hard-working salespeople. There is no picture or sound quality difference between any HDMI cable. None. At all. So if you spend $3 or $300, the image and sound will be 100 percent exactly the same.
I could talk about this forever, and indeed I have. Check out "Why all HDMI cables are the same," "Why all HDMI cables are the same, Part 2," "Still more reasons why all HDMI cable are the same," and the "HDMI cable buying guide."
Bottom line
A commenter on one of the HDMI articles posted the above quote, and it's perfect. But look, be polite. Don't waste someone's time. This goes for both sides. They're just trying to make a living, you're just trying to keep as much of your living as possible. When I sold electronics at Circuit City, I was given all sorts of information, presented as truth, to tell customers. Much of which I know now to be false, or at least "truth adjacent." But as an 18-year-old, long haired (yep, believe it), wannabe guitar god, I didn't know any better. So give the poor guy or gal the benefit of the doubt that they're not knowingly lying to you.
Except for that HDMI cable stuff; man that bugs me.
How about you? Been told any doozys?
Got a question for Geoff? Send him an e-mail! If it's witty, amusing, and/or a good question, you may just see it in a post just like this one. No, he won't tell you which TV to buy. Yes, he'll probably truncate and/or clean up your e-mail. You can also send him a message on Twitter: @TechWriterGeoff.


text:
A Happy Seventh Birthday for Twitter
On Twitter's seventh birthday, WSJ's Jason Bellini takes a look at its most high-flying moments.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
I ... happy birthday to you Twitter ... usually the hundred forty character ... Twitter was the brainchild of Jack Dorsey between disparate announcement ... nurtured its infancy by forcing the stone that ten percent short of the ... quarter was a pretty baby ... the euro and a new bull leader of the tech community latched onto ... the still small in the first I phone was introduced in two thousandseven ... but then what a growth spurt it had ... but you just love the food was of course to be reckoned with ... helping bring down dictators in the Arab Spring ... ensnaring industry Congressman ... retweeted images that with his political demise ... Twitter delivered the worst news of the raid that killed Osama bin Leyden ... from an observer he tweeted about it in real time ... didn't take long for corporations the mass media and the celebrity industrial complex to hop on board ... Justin Bieber lady God and the carrier now removes hold users ... from the individuals became Graham the pope built up a Twitter fall and ... even got caught in the game ... trading today to really enjoy judging people ... the elevator of the Financial gods that Goldman Sachs written account ... Overheard ... life gives you lemons for the lobster tail ... now a full grown adult ... winners got a private market valuation of about nine billion dollars ... Twitter and social animal you ... can dress it or not so fast ...


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The Cameron University Department of Music will present "Cameron Opera Goes to the Movies," a concert featuring selections of operatic music that have been used in classic and contemporary films. The concert will be presented on Friday, March 7, and Saturday, March 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the McCutcheon Recital Hall. Admission is free and is limited to the first 80 patrons. The performances are sponsored by the Southwest Oklahoma Opera Guild. To reserve a seat, call 581-2440.
The selections will be performed by Cameron vocal students Kathryn Burns, Chelsea Jenkins, Peter Macias, Stacia Martel, Prudence Rivera and Jose Rodriguez, Lawton; Aly Hays, Marlow; Kassandra Murillo and Kirk Prucha, Duncan; Beth Wiedeman, Wichita, Kan.; and Alyssa Yates, Elgin.
The repertoire includes two selections from "Lucia Di Lammermoor," "Chi mi frena in tal momento" which was used in the 1951 Mario Lanza classic, "The Great Caruso," and "Il dolce suono" which was featured in "The Fifth Element," a 1997 hit starring Bruce Willis. Compositions from three Mozart operas will be performed. The program will feature "La ci darem la mano," which was used in the 1987 Academy Award-winning Danish film "Babette's Feast," and "Sull'aria," which was featured in "The Shawshank Redemption," both from "The Marriage of Figaro," as well as "Ich Gehe, doch rate ich dir" from "The Abduction from the Seraglio" and used in the 1994 hit, "Guarding Tess" and "Ah, Signor Per Carita and Don Giovanni a Cenar Teco" from "Don Giovanni" and used in "Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows."
Additional material includes "Ah Jeris De me voi si bell" from "Faust," which was performed by Jeannette McDonald in the 1936 film "San Francisco"; "J'ai perdu mon Eurydice" from "Orphee et Eurydice" and used in the 2006 production of "Marie Antoinette"; "La Boheme's" "D'onde lieta usci" which was used in the 1987 hit "Moonstruck"; "Belle nuit (Barcarolle)" from "The Tales of Hoffman" and featured in the 1997 Academy Award-winner "Life Is Beautiful"; and "Habanera" from "Carmen" and featured in numerous film versions of the Bizet classic.
The opera workshop performances are directed by Dr. Kathy Scherler, Assistant Professor of Music, and will be accompanied by Yiuka Chan Spannagel on piano.
February 25, 2014


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Unattended Media needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 64 designs submitted by 17 freelance designers.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: We just received information from the client that designs without the chain are acceptable and encouraged! Please provide versions in this new format. Because of the last minute change I am extending the contest deadline once more.
The idea behind this logo is that it has a globe (represent international) that is rotating left to right (as is normal), but then has an arrow/ribbon that is wrapped around the globe going right to left (this is to convey the recall process - normal in reverse). Then the right side of the ribbon transitions to a chain of five links (to represent the "link" part as well as the five stakeholders in the company) and then back into a ribbon.
Recall InfoLink
Desired Color Scheme:
Blue, Green, White
Desired Style:
Must be very crisp and have shading and 3D-like design
Accepted File Formats:
Vector Formats (.eps, .pdf or .ai)
1. The globe should be designed so that it looks like the actual earth, but an impressionistic style should be used. Blue, green, and white should be used for the oceans, land, and clouds.
2. It should be very evident that the globe is rotating from left to right. Use time lapse style or trails to convey the motion.
3. Then there is a green ribbon moving the opposite direction that is pulled tight around the globe. Closer to the right side the ribbon changes into a chain that has five links. Since the chain is a 3D object, and the ribbon is pulled tight, it should create creases in the ribbon.
4. The entire image should be made to look very natural, realistic, and 3D.
5. The angle on the ribbon, chain, and arrow should stay exactly the same.
6. The company name, Recall Info Link, should be integrated onto the ribbon when the logo is displayed large, but there should also be a version without it for smaller uses. Display the company name outside the main ribbon, separate from the globe also.
7. The globe should be angled 17 degrees to the right.
Final thoughts: Logo must be have depth and shading to make it look 3D. As well as it should convey a very crisp feel.
We are also looking to hire talented freelancers based on this contest. If you produce quality work here we would like to work with you on future design projects.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.