text:
An Introduction to Prolog and RDF
April 25, 2001
Introduction: SW is AI
Many Semantic Web advocates have gone out of their way to disassociate their visions and projects from the Artificial Intelligence moniker. No surprise, since the AI label has been the kiss of, if not death, at least scorn, since Lisp machines were frozen out of the marketplace during the great "AI winter" of the mid-1980s. Lisp still suffers from its association with the AI label, though it does well by being connected with the actual technologies.
However, it is a curious phenomenon that the AI label tends to get dropped once the problem AI researchers were studying becomes tractable to some degree and yields practical systems. Voice recognition and text-to-speech, expert systems, machine vision, text summarizers, and theorem provers are just a few examples of classic AI tech that has become part of the standard bag of tricks. The AI label tends to mark things which aren't yet implemented in a generally useful manner, often because hardware or general practices haven't yet caught up.
That seems to describe the Semantic Web pretty well.
An aside -- one interesting phenomenon is that a lot of AI ends up, after fleeing the CS department, in Information and Library Sciences. And, of course, librarians, even the non-techie ones, are really into cataloging, searching, sharing, correlating, using metadata, intelligent agents... to wit, all the elements of the Semantic Web. AI folks don't end up in library departments because librarians are pushovers (as my overdue fines attest), but because there's a pretty good fit between what (some) AI-ers like to do, what the library folks want, and between what the librarians want and what the Semantic Web requires.
So the Semantic Web is an AI project, and we should be proud of that fact. Not only is it more honest, but it means that we can be clearer about what constitutes prior art, relevant research and literature, similar projects, and available technology. As I've written before, narrowness of understanding is a pernicious barrier to sensible progress. Reinventing the wheel isn't nearly as bad as having to continually reconceptualize it: "not thought here" generally causes more systematic problems than "not invented here".
In these articles, I'm going to do a little down-to-earth exploration of RDF, a core Semantic Web technology, using a classic AI programming language, Prolog, plus some standard AI techniques and technologies.
A Gentle Prolog
Prolog was the first logic programming language, and it's still popular in industry and in the classroom. There are many implementations, most of rather good quality. Interestingly, Prolog implementations are often used as logic servers or drop-in inference engines for larger programs, so the implementations have gotten fairly good at integrating with other programs (for example, there are several Prolog-style inference engines for the JVM, and some truly fine ones built on Common Lisp).
Prolog is an excellent prototyping language. It's quite easy to pull together programs with interesting and sometimes surprising properties. There is a large, high-quality corpus of Prolog literature and code, much of which is easily adaptable to one's ad hoc needs. For example, a simple backward-chaining expert system is perhaps a page or two of sample code in just about any Prolog textbook. While not production quality, such toys are ideal for getting a concrete sense of the problems and possibilities of an idea.
Syntax and Simple Semantics
There's not room in this article to give a reasonable Prolog tutorial, but a few preliminaries will be useful for getting a grip on RDF and how Prolog can deal with it.
It's helpful to contrast Prolog programs with invocations of them. A typical Prolog program will form a knowledge base -- a database of facts and rules which is used as a basis for inferences. To initiate computations, you query the knowledge base. Here's a very simple Prolog program which forms a small knowledge base about the readers of some popular web sites.
reads(john, 'XML.com'). reads(mary, 'XML.com'). reads(mary, xmlhack). reads(cristina, xmlhack).
Each line in this program asserts a fact. The first line claims that john
reads 'XML.com'; the second that mary
reads 'XML.com', and so on.
, john
, mary
, 'XML.com'
, and xmlhack
are all Prolog atoms (a.k.a.
"symbols"). The atom is the most basic and prevalent datatype in Prolog. If an atom
with an uppercase letter, or contains certain special characters (like the full stop,
is also the statement terminator), then one encloses it in single quotes (hence,
; while standard, you may find Prolog systems with alternative
syntax for atom literals).
Given the types of characters that tend to show up in URIs, they almost always need to be enclosed in single quotes to produce their eponymous atoms. RDF makes heavy use of URIs, which basically means that, worst case, when processing RDF with Prolog you'll be writing
a lot (for some reasonable value of "yadda").
Now that we have our knowledge base, we can interrogate our Prolog system. After loading the program into my Prolog ("consulting" it, in Prolog lingo), I can enter questions and receive answers at the "query" prompt.
?-reads(john, 'XML.com'). yes |
"John reads 'XML.com'?" Prolog says, "Sure does." |
?-reads(mary, X). X = 'XML.com' yes |
"mary reads what?" X is a variable. Prolog searched the knowledge base and found that if X was bound to 'XML.com' we get a "true" statement (i.e., one in the knowledge base). |
?-reads(Person, 'XML.com'). Person = john; Person = mary; No |
"What Person reads 'XML.com'?" "john does!" (read "Who else?" for ";") "And mary!" "Anyone else?" "Nope." |
(Thus we see one standard Prolog development cycle: edit the knowledge base in a text editor. Load it into the system, i.e. "consult it". Then interact with it from the read-query, evaluate, print loop.)(Note: an unquoted capitalized atom is a variable. Hence
is a variable, as isPerson
Notice that in the second and third examples, there's more than one answer that will
satisfy the query: mary
reads both 'XML.com'
, and both john
and mary
. In the last session, after Prolog told me that john
read 'XML.com'
, instead of hitting "enter", I hit the semicolon, which told
Prolog to look again for other ways my query can be satisfied. I kept doing this until
were no solutions that hadn't already been given. (While these particular commands
are quite
common in Prolog read-query-print loops, they are not universal.)
Suppose we want to know if any one person reads both 'XML.com'
?-reads(Person, 'XML.com'), reads(Person, xmlhack). Person = mary; No
(The comma between the clauses is pronounced "and".)
Suppose we want to derive some targeted email marketing lists. We will probably
find, in those circumstances, that this last query is quite a common one . It would
be quite
a drag to have to type that query out every time we wanted to send some spam. More
importantly, the concept "a reader of both 'XML.com'
and xmlhack
has a special status for us: it defines the term spam_target
. We could add the
statement spam_target(mary)
to our knowledge base, but that's both redundant
(as we can figure out that mary
's a spam_target
from what we
already know) and a pain to maintain (e.g., if mary
stops reading
due to having to spend all her time deleting our spam, we have to
change two lines in the program which aren't obviously connected). Fortunately, we
can add a
rule to our knowledge base to define our new concept.
spam_target(Sucker) :- reads(Sucker, 'XML.com'), reads(Sucker, xmlhack). |
"A Sucker is a spam_target if That Sucker reads 'XML.com' and That Sucker reads xmlhack." |
Assuming that we don't alter our knowledge base any other way, the query
will return mary
Moving to RDF
In the pre-rule knowledge base, each fact had three parts:
- the predicate,
; - the subject of the predicate, i.e., the reader (
, and so forth); - and the thing they read, i.e., the object of the predicate (
By a striking and carefully planned coincidence, these are exactly the components of an RDF triple (hereafter, I'll use "RDF triple" and "triple" interchangeably). The RDF triple is one of several formal models offered by the core RDF spec, and it consists of an ordered 3-tuple of URIs (with the exception that the object position may take a string literal) with the first URI naming a predicate, the second naming a subject, and the last item being either an URI naming an object or a string literal. While the example Prolog facts have the same slots as a triple, the symbols which fill those slots aren't URIs. Happily, it's not that hard to convert our simple knowledge base:
- The Objects: since all the objects currently in our knowledge base are
web sites, it seems natural to use their base URL as their name, thus,
(remember, to make URIs into standard Prolog atoms, you typically need to single quote them). - The Predicate: the predicate atom (
) has no intrinsic, natural URI, but we can simply use the URL of this article (which is unique and not particularly useful for anything else) prepended to the atom, which yields:'http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/04/25/prologrdf/reads'
. - The Subjects: again, there's no natural intrinsic URIs, but it seems a
little nasty to use that same long URL prefix that we used for the predicate. To add
little visual difference, we'll invent
based URIs for each person:'mailto:email@example.com'
, etc.
We can now covert the example knowledge base to a collection of RDF triples:
Predicate | Subject | Object |
'http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/04/25/prologrdf/reads' | 'mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com' | 'http://www.xml.com/' |
'http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/04/25/prologrdf/reads' | 'mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com' | 'http://www.xml.com/' |
'http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/04/25/prologrdf/reads' | 'mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com' | 'http://www.xmlhack.com/' |
'http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/04/25/prologrdf/reads' | 'mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com' | 'http://www.xmlhack.com' |
Of course, this table presentation of the triples is bit hard to query. It would be nice if we could encode these triples in a form that Prolog understood. Fortunately, those URI atoms are just atoms, and we can use them just as we did our original (more concise) ones:
'http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/04/25/prologrdf/reads'( 'mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com', 'http://www.xml.com/'). 'http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/04/25/prologrdf/reads'( 'mailto:email@example.com', 'http://www.xml.com/'). 'http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/04/25/prologrdf/reads'( 'mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com', 'http://www.xmlhack.com/'). 'http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/04/25/prologrdf/reads'( 'mailto:email@example.com', 'http://www.xmlhack.com'). ?-'http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/04/25/prologrdf/reads'( Person,'http://www.xml.com/'). Person = 'mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com' Yes
This is rather ugly as it stands (adding XML style namespaces will help), but it gives us a nice, constructive demonstration of how RDF triples are, or can be seen as, Prolog facts; and, hence, how a collection of RDF triples (say, as serialized in an RSS document) can be a Prolog program.
However, since Prolog knowledge bases can have facts with many arguments, and can
rules, we might want to keep our RDF-based facts somewhat distinct from the rest of
One way we might do this is by explicitly saying that a triple of URIs are in the
RDF subject-predicate-object relation. We could call that predicate rdf_triple
as in
rdf_triple('http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/04/25/prologrdf/reads', 'mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com', 'http://www.xml.com/'). rdf_triple('http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/04/25/prologrdf/reads', 'mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com', 'http://www.xml.com/'). rdf_triple('http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/04/25/prologrdf/reads', 'mailto:email@example.com', 'http://www.xmlhack.com/'). rdf_triple('http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/04/25/prologrdf/reads, 'mailto:email@example.com', 'http://www.xmlhack.com').
We can recover our old, easier to type, formulation by defining a few rules:
reads(Person, Website) :- rdf_triple('http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/04/25/prologrdf/reads', Person, Website).
Our spam_target
rule will work with this new knowledge base essentially as it
did with the old one, without modification.
The definition of the rdf_triple
predicate establishes a RDF knowledge base.
Our reads
rule can be thought of as an RDF application. In other words, our
rules process the RDF. The kind of processing we do is a form of
inference. We can use inferences to produce results similar to other forms of
processing (such as transformations or SQL queries) though often with less work and
Taking Stock
The root RDF data model is deliberately very minimal and, as with XML, that minimalism is intended to make things easier for programs. One consequence of that minimalism, when coupled with other machine-friendly design tropes, is that though "human readable", RDF is not generally very human writable (although the Notation3 syntax tries to improve things.) Furthermore, while RDF's data model is specified, the processing model isn't (deliberately), so one should expect a wide variety of processors, each working in its own way, depending on a variety of constraints and desiderata.
Standard Prolog provides a rich processing model which naturally subsumes RDF data. As we saw above, deriving RDF triples from Prolog predicates, and then the reverse, can deepen our understanding of both. Furthermore, there is a lot of experience implementing a variety of alternative processing models (both forward and backward chaining systems, for example) in Prolog -- from the experimental toy, through the serious research project, to the industrially deployed, large-scale production system level. Furthermore, Prolog's roots in symbolic processing and language manipulation support a wide array of mechanisms for building expressive notations and languages for knowledge management, which serve well for hiding the less friendly aspects of RDF.
Some Useful Links
Here are a few more online Prolog tutorials:
- Adventure In Prolog
- Building Expert Systems in Prolog (read Adventure In Prolog first)
- Prolog Programming A First Course (an excellent starter)
- Quick Prolog (even better for a fast overview)
- Logic, Programming and Prolog (2ed) (the whole text in PDF)
And a few links to information about RDF and the Semantic Web:
- The W3C's Semantic Web Activity
- The RDF Model and Syntax Specification
- The RDF Interest Group and RDFIG IRC Scratchpad


text:
QUOTACHECK(8) DragonFly System Manager's Manual QUOTACHECK(8)NAME
quotacheck -- file system quota consistency checkerSYNOPSIS
quotacheck [-g] [-u] [-v] filesystem file ... quotacheck [-g] [-u] [-v] -aDESCRIPTION
The quotacheck utility examines each file system, builds a table of cur- rent disk usage, and compares this table against that recorded in the disk quota file for the file system. If any inconsistencies are detected, both the quota file and the current system copy of the incor- rect quotas are updated (the latter only occurs if an active file system is checked). By default both user and group quotas are checked. The following options are available: -a If supplied in place of any file system names, quotacheck will check all the file systems indicated in /etc/fstab to be read- write with disk quotas. By default only the types of quotas listed in /etc/fstab are checked. -g Only group quotas listed in /etc/fstab are to be checked. -u Only user quotas listed in /etc/fstab are to be checked. -v Report discrepancies between the calculated and recorded disk quotas and other additional diagnostic messages. Specifying both -g and -u is equivalent to the default. Parallel passes are run on the file systems required, using the pass numbers in /etc/fstab in an identical fashion to fsck(8). Normally, quotacheck operates silently. The quotacheck utility expects each file system to be checked to have a quota files named quota.user and quota.group which are located at the root of the associated file system. These defaults may be overridden in /etc/fstab. If a file is not present, quotacheck will create it. These files should be edited with the edquota(8) utility. The quotacheck utility is normally run at boot time from the /etc/rc file. The rc startup procedure is controlled by the /etc/rc.conf vari- able check_quotas. Note that to enable this functionality in /etc/rc you also need to enable startup quota procedures with the variable enable_quotas in /etc/rc.conf. The quotacheck utility accesses the raw device in calculating the actual disk usage for each user. Thus, the file systems checked should be qui- escent while quotacheck is running.FILES
quota.user at the file system root with user quotas quota.group at the file system root with group quotas /etc/fstab default file systemsSEE ALSO
quota(1), quotactl(2), fstab(5), edquota(8), fsck(8), quotaon(8), repquota(8)HISTORY
The quotacheck utility appeared in 4.2BSD. DragonFly 3.5 June 5, 1993 DragonFly 3.5

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Teho Teardo
– Mar, 2019
Grief is the thing with feathers – LP
Teho Teardo - Grief Is The Thing With Feathers LP, CD, DL Specula RecordsRelease date 22 Marzo 2019Cillian Murphy, straordinario protagonista in Peaky Blinders ... -
Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld
– Mar, 2017
Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld - Fall - il nuovo ep – EP
Ed ora qualcosa che non vi aspetterete proprio: Teho e Blixa realizzano una cover di Hey Hey My My di Neil Young per iniziare il ... -
Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld
– Apr, 2016
Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld Nerissimo – LP
New album by Teho Teardo & Blixa BargeldThey are back! Three years after their debut "Still Smiling", Teho Teardo and Blixa Barged return with a ... -
Teho Teardo
– Set, 2015
Le retour à la raison – LP
Le retour à la raison. Musique pour trois films de Man Ray. LP, cd, downloadVilla Manin, the exhibition centre in Friuli, Italy, commissioned the ... -
Teho Teardo
– Ott, 2014
Ballyturk – LP
Teho Teardo - Ballyturk  cd, vinyl with gatefold cover and download out now!Ballyturk is the new album by Teho Teardo, his first release after Still ... -
Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld
– Lug, 2014
Spring ep – EP
TEHO TEARDO AND BLIXA BARGELD - SPRINGRelease date: March 01 2014Format: VinylLimited Edition (1000 copies) EP Vinyl including free digital download!SIDE A ... -
Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld
– Mar, 2013
Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld – LP
Still Smiling - CD, Double LP gatefold cover with download code, DownloadThis is a quite unique collaboration, an unexpected one between the italian composer Teho ... -
Teho Teardo
– Gen, 2013
Music for Wilder Mann – LP
Music for Wilder Mann, the new album by Teho Teardo.Released on Specula on January 21st, 2013 on CD, LP (gatefold cover and inner sleeve ... -
Teho Teardo
– Mag, 2012
Diaz original soundtrack – LP
Soundtrack for the movie Diaz by Daniele Vicari.This amazing movie won the Public Prize at the Berlin Festival in 2012.The soundtrack is available ... -
Teho Teardo
– Nov, 2011
Music, film. Music – None
a collection of soundtracks from the following movies: Il Gioiellino, Il Divo, La Ragazza Del Lago, Una Vita Tranquilla, Gorbaciof, L'Amico di Famiglia, Lavorare ... -
Teho Teardo - JG Thirlwell
– Ago, 2011
Santarcangelo 7" – Singolo
A split single to document the work of Teho Teardo and JG Thirlwell at the Santarcangelo dei Teatri Festival, a really important festival that takes ... -
Teho Teardo
– Lug, 2011
Il Gioiellino soundtrack cd – LP
Teho Teardo
– Feb, 2011
Rasputin soundtrack – LP
Soundtrack from Louis Nero's film Rasputin. Available as download only from iTunes. Warner Bros publishing. -
Teho Teardo
– Ott, 2010
Una vita tranquilla cd soundtrack – LP
Teho Teardo
– Set, 2010
Gorbaciof soundtrack download only – LP
Available as download only from iTunes. -
Teho Teardo
– Giu, 2010
Soundtrack Work – LP
The album 'Soundtrack Work 2004-2008' by Teho Teardo is released on Expanding Records on 23rd August 2010 as a 6 page digipack and download from ... -
Teho Teardo
– Mag, 2009
Il Divo soundtrack cd – LP
Teho Teardo
– Mar, 2009
Voyage au bout de la nuit – Singolo
7" vinyl, 33 rpm -
Teho Teardo
– Ott, 2008
Il passato è una terra straniera cd soundtrack – LP
Teho Teardo
– Gen, 2008
La Rabbia soundtrack cd – LP
Soundtrack from Louis Nero's film La RabbiaAvailable on CD Warner Bros and iTunes download -
Teho Teardo
– Set, 2007
La ragazza del lago soundtrack cd – LP
Tracklist:1. Ciuspi (Praticamente Sanzio)2. Garampo3. Me Neither / Cucina4. International Rustic5. S/Nord6. Dax7. Sollievo8. Fusine9. Rustico ... -
Teho Teardo
– Lug, 2006
Modern Institute – None
Bardcode magazine - I always look forward to releases from this excellent label, always something different, melodic - one of the most underrated labels around in fact ... -
Teho Teardo
– Giu, 2006
Voce del verbo amore soundtrack cd – LP
Soundtrack from the movie Voce del verbo amore, a film by Andrea Manni.Warner Bros, 2007On the soundtrack there's also a song, A ... -
Teho Teardo
– Mag, 2006
L'amico di famiglia soundtrack cd – LP
1. Il mio ultimo pensiero 2. Sarà per voi 3. Miss agropontino 4. Antony and the Johnsons – My lady story5. Inizia così 6. Quando ... -
Erik Friedlander & Teho Teardo
– Feb, 2006
Giorni Rubati – None
In 2004 Italian electronics composer Teho Teardo and New York cellist Erik Friedlander began a trans-Atlantic collaboration, exchanging ideas, creating and remixing each other's ... -
La Monte
– Gen, 2006
La Monte – LP
Here comes the skinny roller.CD Arab Sheep records.3 people in a room with a drum machine, a korg ms10 a bass and a ... -
Teho Teardo
– Set, 2004
Lavorare con lentezza soundtrack cd – LP
Teho Teardo and Scott McCloud
– Mar, 2003
Operator I need money bad – EP
Teho Teardo and Scott McCloud
– Mar, 2003
Operator Welcome To The Wonderful World – LP
Teho and Scott McCloud from Girls Against Boys -
– Gen, 2003
Operator Domestic Landscapes 5 – None
Fifth and last volume from the Domestic Landscapes vinyl series on Nail Records. This record features four unreleased songs from Operator. -
– Ago, 2002
Modern Institute Domestic Landscapes 2 – None
Domestic Landscapes was a series of releases on 12" that I set up for Nail Records in the beginning of 2002, other artists involved were ... -
Teho Teardo and Federico De Robertis
– Set, 2000
Denti soundtrack cd – None
– Nov, 1998
Brooklyn Bank – LP
Jim Filer Coleman - vocals, sampler, pianoTeho Teardo - vocals, sampler, guitarThis duo has created a new world of melody. It is parts ambient, drums ... -
– Lug, 1998
Here A Bit Of Red ep – EP
– Feb, 1998
Il jukebox del diavolo – LP
Il Juke-box Del DiavoloVarious ArtistsFridgeI feel horrible: terrible actually. I was fortunate enough to receive this in the mail from an unnamed ... -
Teho Teardo and Jim Coleman
– Apr, 1997
Here Apart single – Singolo
Two different version of the song Apart from the Brooklyn Bank album:1 Apart radio edit2 Apart  Drunk in Texas remix by Teho Teardo -
Teho Teardo & Mick Harris
– Mag, 1996
Matera – LP
Mick Harris of Scorn/Napalm Death and Teho Teardo combine forces for this debut album for a project they call Matera. From just a short ... -
– Apr, 1996
Meathead Protect Me From What I Want – None
– Feb, 1996
Meathead Against The World – LP
Meathead and Pain Teens
– Mag, 1995
Meathead and Pain Teens – Singolo
Meathead and Cop Shoot Cop
– Mar, 1995
Meathead and Cop Shoot Cop – Singolo
This was released both as 7" and CD ep with 2 more tracks where Teho remixed Cop's song and Filer gave the favour back ... -
Meathead and Babyland
– Feb, 1995
Meathead and Babyland – Singolo
Meathead and Zeni Geva
– Gen, 1995
Meathead and Zeni Geva Show you their duelling banjos – Singolo
Split single with Japanese band Zeni Geva -
Meathead and Swamp Terrorists
– Giu, 1994
Circus of Pain the swamp meat intoxication – EP
A one off collaborative project with Meathead, Swamp Terrorists with FM and Paolo Favati from Pankow. We recorded most of it at Blue Velvet studio ... -
Teho Teardo
– Gen, 1994
Meathead Bored Stiff cd – LP
Second Meathead album  -
– Set, 1993
Meathead Dick Smoker – EP
Meathead and Bewitched
– Set, 1993
Meathead and Bewitched single – Singolo
MTT and Ramleh
– Gen, 1991
MTT Ramleh – LP
My second album, a split LP with Ramleh.My side was titled Paid in full, Ramleh's was Crystal revenge.1991 Minus Habens RecordTracks ... -
MTT and Skullflower
– Set, 1988
MTT and SKULLFLOWER – Singolo
Teho Teardo
– Gen, 1988
MTT feat Nurse With Wound and Ramleh – LP
MTT Mauro Teho Teardo featuring Nurse With Wound and RamlehReleased by Minus Habens in 1988, recorded during 1984/1987.My first album ever.Track ...


text:
One thing won't change after the ballots for Mexico's next President are counted on July 2: Mexico will continue to demand that the U.S. accept more Mexican workers and grant them more "rights."
These demands have become part of the great immigration debate. What has not surfaced in the public discourse is the sad state of the Mexican economy and Mexico's embrace of an economic strategy lifted from Marshall Tito's Yugoslav playbook.
Under the communists, Yugoslavia couldn't produce enough jobs to fully employ its labor force. To solve Yugoslavia's surplus labor problem, strongman Tito came up with a simple, but ingenious, economic strategy: open the borders—at least by communist standards — and export surplus labor. This plan worked like a charm. At its peak in the early 1970s, there were over a million Yugoslavs, about 11 percent of the labor force, working in Western Europe. And the hard-money remittances (primarily German marks) that they sent back home amounted to as much as 30 percent of Yugoslavia's exports.
Like Yugoslavia, Mexico's economy is stuck in a variety of statist rut. According to the World Bank's "Doing Business in 2006" report, Mexico's labor market is simply dysfunctional. Of the 155 countries covered by the report, ranks 125th in terms of the difficulties faced by businesses in hiring, employing, and firing workers. It's not surprising that Mexico is on a slow growth path and that it can't produce jobs.
Rather than modernize the economy, Mexico's politicos have embraced a Tito-inspired strategy: when incapable of fostering productive jobs, export the labor force. As a result, over 27 percent of Mexico's labor force is now working in the U.S. and these workers are sending home $20 billion in remittances. That equals one third of the total wage earnings in the formal sector of the Mexican economy and 10 percent of Mexico's exports.
Author Steve H. Hanke


text:
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text:
So far coverage of Facebook's plan to squeeze the organic reach of Pages has focused on its impact on "brands" that spam us with ads and promotions. But nonprofits, activists, and advocacy groups with much fewer resources (and no ad budgets) are also being hugely affected. It's starting to look like Facebook is willing to strangle public discourse on the platform in an attempt to wring out a few extra dollars for its new shareholders.
Put simply, "organic reach" is the number of people who potentially could see any given Facebook post in their newsfeed. Long gone are the days when Facebook would simply show you everything that happened in your network in strict chronological order. Instead, algorithms filter the flood of updates, posts, photos, and stories down to the few that they calculate you would be most interested in. (Many people would agree that these algorithms are not very good, which is why Facebook is putting so much effort into refining them.) This means that even if I have, say, 400 friends, only a dozen or so might actually see any given thing I post.
One way to measure your reach, then, is as the percentage of your total followers who (potentially) see each of your posts. This is the ratio that Facebook has more-or-less publicly admitted it is ramping down to a target range of 1-2% for Pages. In other words, even if an organization's Page has 10,000 followers, any given item they post might only reach 100-200 of them. In the case of my organization, that ratio is already down from an average of nearly 20% in 2012 to less than 5% today—a 75% reduction.
Another way of looking at it is in terms of what our reach would have been if Facebook hadn't shifted the goalposts. From February to October 2012 our posts reached about 18% of our followers, on average [see graph above]. If that percentage had stayed the same as our followers grew over the past two years, then each item we posted today would theoretically reach about 1,000 people.
The actual average for the second week of April? 79.
Lots of people have no problem with making Mountain Dew or Sony pay for what was previously free advertising—never mind that Facebook had already encourage them to pay for more likes with the promise that they would be able to broadcast to those followers for free. Nobody needs to shed a tear for the poor souls at Proctor & Gamble who have been forced to rejigger some small piece of their multibillion dollar advertising budget.
But Facebook has also become a new kind of platform for political and social advocacy. We may scoff at overblown "saving the world" rhetoric when it comes from Silicon Valley execs, but in places like Pakistan (not to mention in Tahrir Square or the Maidan) the idea of social media as an open marketplace of social and political ideas is taken quite seriously. That all goes away if nobody can even see your posts.
In the more prosaic world of nonprofits, Facebook has also become a crucial outreach tool and an effective way to stay in touch with supporters and partners. Many organizations funded by government or foundation grants are not even legally allowed to spend that money on advertising—and many more simply don't have the budget for it regardless.
Facebook urgently needs to address the impact that its algorithm changes are having on nonprofits, NGOs, civil society, and political activists—especially those in developing countries, who are never going to be able to "pay to play" and for whom Facebook is one of the few really effective ways to get a message out to a wide audience without government control or censorship.
Improving the quality of posts on Facebook is a laudable goal, but it must be done in a transparent manner. For all the gripes people have about Google and their search algorithm, they are very clear about what they consider "quality" content and even provide free tools to help ensure pages have what their robots like to see. An algorithm change that results in a huge swath of legitimate, non-spam users losing 75% of their reach should not be deployed in secret.
In the meantime, there are still some social networks that don't presume to know what you want to see in your timeline and will blast every one of your messages to every one of your followers. At least for now. Twitter just went public last November and will need to show a profit someday.
B. Traven is a pseudonym. He runs social media for a mid-sized international NGO in Washington, D.C.
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Soldiers, doctors, lawyers, TV producers, CEOs, suit-and-tie guys and working folk of all stripes: these people comprise an ever-expanding segment of the Madball community. They are a group of fans weaned on the legendary band's brutal New York City Hardcore, who take the fire, passion and spirit that drives Madball, and the subculture they have long represented, into their positions of power and influence all over the world.
It's an ever-expanding phalanx, a network of either tightly interconnected or loosely associated individuals who share a love of free-thinking, truth-telling and hard-knock sincerity. These people Infiltrate the System.
The members of Madball are icons in the underground and that underground now spills forth into the streets. Since forming in 1988, Madball has been responsible for some of the most important releases in the genre, from the seminal Ball of Destruction EP (1989) to the landmark albums Set It Off (1994), Demonstrating My Style (1996), Look My Way (1998), Hold it Down (2000), and their career defining resurgent Ferret Music debut, Legacy (2005).
The band completes their musical and lyrical evolution with Infiltrate the System, comprised of 13 tracks that combine the most tried-and-true and fan-beloved elements of their esteemed catalog with new depth, renewed urgency, increasing diversity and a near-conceptual approach to new stories about the streets, and the world.
It's fitting that after meeting so many of different types of fans on the road, in places as diverse as Latin America, Europe and Japan (the band's first proper tour, in fact, was across the Atlantic, and South America followed soon after), Madball chose to acknowledge the impact of the hardcore community that spawned them in places great and small, from the mind-blowing to the mundane, with their new album's title.
"There are so many different examples that have come up more recently in my life," relates singer Freddy Madball, who began the band (which takes its moniker from the nickname given Freddy by legendary New York Hardcore fixture Vinnie Stigma) as a young teenager with some guys from his brother's group, Agnostic Front, and has seen it evolve alongside co-founding member Hoya Roc.
"The guys from Ferret are a perfect example. Ferret is a legitimate heavy music label that is starting to compete with majors in that genre. And those dudes are total hardcore dudes. They grew up with our shit, Agnostic Front, Sick Of It All, and they still hold on to that passion that people from the hardcore world tend to have. That little extra hunger or fire that translates to what they do now. And I think that being a part of this whole hardcore thing, this whole lifestyle, movement, it gives you a unique perspective on a lot of things."
Or another case in point: the occasion where Cricien's mother met with a real estate agent while wearing an Agnostic Front t-shirt. "This guy who was helping my mom, at one point in his life, was a hardcore fan! And that encouraged him to be even more helpful. And he's this real estate agent wearing a suit and a tie," Freddy says.
Or consider this: "I walked up to immigration coming back from Japan into America and the guy looks at my passport and he goes, 'Freddy Madball!' This was the customs guy!
"People with this unique background and upbringing when they are put in a position of influence or power, it can change a lot of things, in a good way. When people who are open-minded and free-thinking get put in positions of influence, they can really do a lot of things to make a change. It can extend anywhere from music to politics."
And while Madball certainly has not become a political band per se, Infiltrate the System does extend its lyrical scope to encompass a broader viewpoint about the world, which makes sense considering the American born singer and bass player's familial roots in the Latino community, and the fact that they have been traveling the world for the better part of their lives. Longtime guitarist Mitts and drummer Rigg Ross have sharpened their game into a fine point as well, with Hoya's ever present rhythms and Cricien's unmistakable throat histrionics in fine form.
There's a cadence, a flow, a beat (and perhaps a beatdown?) that is instantly recognizable as Madball, but as grown men and well-traveled musicians, it's all been pushed to a brand new level that fully realizes the band's potential.
"Our music is honest. And the lyrics are straight forward and to the point. I think that's a big reason why people relate to us everywhere," notes Freddy. "What you see is what you get. We're real dudes and we're telling real stories. We have our own brand of this music we call hardcore. When your music is real, and you have your own kind of style, I think that always translates to a certain amount of respect and acknowledgment."
And along with respect and acknowledgment, Madball has racked up a great deal of experience, which came in handy when they reunited with producer Zeuss (Shadows Fall, Hatebreed, Throwdown) to make the new album.
"When we first started recording, you'd have to do a million takes, it was grueling, and mind you I'm yelling at the top of my head like an idiot," Freddy laughs. "I'm screaming my brains out. Imagine having to do that time and time again. And we also used to torture ourselves by writing everything last minute.
"Nowadays, we get ourselves in a room and we write the stuff, at least the music and half of the lyrics, we have it done and we have a game plan. It kind of started with Hold It Down, but with Legacy and Infiltrate the System, we've really stepped our game up and been a little bit more professional about how we approach recording it. We know what this band needs to sound like. We know the direction that we need to go in and it's just a matter of executing it. The last two albums have come together relatively smoothly which usually means it's a good thing."
To call Infiltrate the System "good" is the understatement of the year. It's in fact nothing less than another victory in a series of triumphs for the band, who are increasingly getting their hard-won due from their longtime fans, their peers in other bands, and new fans alike (who themselves will one day Infiltrate the System).
"We know what people expect of us but we also know that every album we need to push ourselves and we need to take what we've learned and do it better. I think with this album, we're at the final stage of evolution with Madball. All the other stuff has been building, learning, trial and error. It has all the elements that people like about Madball, it's super heavy, but it can appeal to a lot of different people. We've definitely grown as people and as musicians."
And to fully experience that growth, it is imperative to listen to Infiltrate the System from start to finish: first to be laid to waste by its power, next to delve into its lyrical stories, and finally to catch the nuances that themselves have infiltrated the band's sound. "Like always, we're telling a story, giving an opinion, stating some facts, whatever, with every song -- but it's on another level," Freddy explains. "Half of the album is a concept album and half of it is just kicking it back to the streets, venting. You have to hear the whole thing to absorb what's going on."
What fool disobeys an order from MADBALL? Get it, hear it, absorb it, and Infiltrate the System yourself!


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Paranormal Romance
by Vanessa Skye
Release Date: June 11 , 2015
Published by The Writers Coffee Shop
When Celeste was kidnapped a century ago and turned against her will by a cruel vampire fighter, she expected to spend her doomed eternity as his slave, chained in the darkness, and she questioned her ability to survive. But things don't always go as expected.
Just ask her kidnapper.
He never expected Celeste to learn how to fight.
He never expected Celeste to become the best warrior he had ever seen.
He never expected the secret hidden away in her blood,
And he certainly never expected to become a victim of his own sword.
Tormented by her past and the dreams she can't explain, Celeste now roams the earth slaying the creatures she loathes—other vampires like herself—and seeking revenge against those who would harm innocents in the name of bloodlust.
Until she crosses paths with Striker, the handsome vampire leader weighed down by his own tortured story.
In his quest for answers about the stunning Celeste, Striker finds out more than he ever thought possible—about himself, his true origins, and his destiny. But the secret Celeste is keeping from him might be the one thing that keeps them apart for good—a secret even more dangerous than a new, powerful enemy they never saw coming.
As ancient mysteries, forgotten prophecies, and cruel eras collide, Celeste must confront her past as well as her future. Fighting her inner demons and letting Striker beyond the wall she built around her heart haunts her, even more than her captive past.
Enter a supernatural world of passion, lust, sexual obsession, and power that the unsuspecting humans never knew existed, until now . . .
The vampire silently watched from a balcony near the top of a shiny glass-covered skyscraper, enthralled, as the assassin neatly dispatched three Lore with brutal efficiency.
Two of the three had been beheaded before they'd even known what was happening.
Impressive, really—hard as it is to sneak up on a vampire, let alone deprive one of its head.
Granted, the three Lore rogues had looked young and inebriated—no doubt fresh from snacking on some of the drug-addled humans wandering around the club district in the very early hours of the morning. The chemical-or alcohol-laced blood of high humans was a favorite pastime of the younger generations of vampires, many of whom were reticent to leave human vices behind after their turning.
The third vampire looked shocked and tried to run as his friends met their absolute death, but the assassin was faster—considerably so. The Lore was killed quickly, neatly, and efficiently, without undue blood or relish.
He narrowed his dark brown eyes as he surveyed the assassin's graceful movements.
The vampire didn't kill for the thrill, which often happened because psychopaths were common within their species. No, given the calm efficiency, the assassin killed for some other reason that he couldn't yet fathom.
He had hidden far enough away that the low clicking of his compact digital camera couldn't be heard.
He zoomed in and refocused, the shutter softly snapping open and closed as the assassin wiped a bloody sword on one of the unfortunate vampire's clothing before sheathing it.
He stuck around long enough to ensure all Lore—vampires turned by another vampire—had disintegrated into dust. The cold, late-winter wind whistling through the city would eventually scatter their remains across several gray city blocks. He was grateful they hadn't been hybrids. They left a mess when killed, and a cleaning crew would have been necessary to dispose of the remains before any humans stumbled across them.
Pressing a few buttons, he examined the camera's small screen critically. The leathers covering the assassin from head to toe made any facial features unidentifiable in each of the shots, but they were tight enough to leave no doubt.
A female assassin?
He was surprised and a little excited. Female vampires were increasingly rare, let alone one who fought as well as she did.
The wind moaning between the high-rise and its tall neighbor wasn't enough to muffle the soft thud of footfalls from his sharp ears. He didn't turn, however, because the intruder's scent was familiar.
"Striker, are you following her again?" Bradford, Striker's second-in-command, asked.
Striker reluctantly pulled his gaze away from the camera's screen and turned slowly. "Yes. What of it?"
Bradford raised an eyebrow. "Surely you've got enough evidence against her to report to Kouncil by now. Why the extra surveillance?"
Striker folded his arms and remained silent.
Bradford ran his hands through his wavy red hair before shrugging his heavily muscled shoulders. "I'm aware it's not my job to question—"
"You got that right."
"Just wondering if you can afford the extra time. Kovens don't run themselves, you know."
Striker shrugged, slipping the camera into the pocket of his leather jacket. "I find her . . . fascinating."
Bradford snorted. "Don't let your never-ending drive for pussy cloud your judgment. The executioner's noose is over her head, and you know it. Kouncil wants blood. She risks exposing us all with her activities."
"You should see how she fights. She's quick, effective . . . deadly," Striker said, waving toward the female, who was scooping up empty clothes and placing them in a nearby dumpster. "And she's cleaning up after herself, as you can plainly see. She poses no threat to us. On the contrary, she could be useful."
Bradford stared at the woman, wrinkling his fair, white brow. "How old do you think she is?"
"She is too fast to be a hybrid. She doesn't appear to be able to fly yet, so Lore less than a century old is my guess."
"Less than a century?" Bradford narrowed his ruddy-colored eyes. "Good. She should be easy to capture and destroy, then."
Striker clenched his fists. "Do not be so quick to destroy that which you don't understand, brother. She could be a valuable asset."
Bradford scoffed. "There is no way Kouncil will ever allow a female to join Koven. Nor will they forgive her for such . . . unseemly pursuits."
"As much as they might like to think otherwise, it's not up to Kouncil. It's up to me who joins my Koven. Besides, fifty years ago they said the same thing about the hybrids, and now they are becoming members of our ranks as fast as they mature."
Bradford let out a single bark of laughter. "Yes, you went against their wishes and allowed hybrids into Koven, and Kouncil is still pissed off about it! Because of you, they were forced to relax the ban on human and vampire relations, as well as the half-breeds sometimes resulting from them. All to boost our ranks. Vampire numbers are dwindling lower than ever before, and you know from personal experience that the turnings don't always take, particularly for wome—" Bradford glanced at Striker and winced but pushed past the awkward moment quickly. "Don't mistake their tolerance of hybrids after centuries of culling them with acceptance. They cannot stand the mongrels. They still call them Tiks, for fuck's sake! They move about the sunlight without any discernable loss of strength, unlike Kouncil themselves." Bradford shook his head. "It would be unwise to anger them so soon after a significant loss of face. They'll never join the rest of us in the twenty-first century. They're marred too deep in the old ways and prejudices. I often wonder why we sacrifice our strongest vampires to protect them. Would we be so much worse off if we let nature take its course?"
Striker shrugged. "My maker used to ask me the same thing, and I honestly have no good answer. Tradition, maybe? Koven has been the right hand of Kouncil for millennia. But they'll join us in modern society if I have to drag them kicking and screaming myself. You'll see."
Bradford huffed and cut his gaze sideways at Striker, clearly irritated. "Sadly, brother, I think you will see, and when you do, you won't like it." Running for the edge of the high-rise, he jumped, disappearing into the dark sky.
Striker turned back to his contemplation of the female.
He noticed she had returned everything to it pre-slaughter state, and resolving to follow her, he launched himself into the sky and flew above as she darted on foot through city alleys and quiet streets. He tracked her easily and hoped she would lead him to her keeper. It would allow his men to find her much easier later, should he wish to arrest her.
His mind raced.
Kouncil had sent him specifically to identify and gather evidence against the lone assassin killing rogue vampires—Lore and hybrid alike—indiscriminately and without permission. His instructions had not included rescue or engagement.
But something about her . . .
Vanessa Skye has always had a love of words and spent her school years writing poetry, speeches, and fictional essays.After completing a Bachelor of Arts in print journalism and studying psychology at Charles Sturt University, Vanessa got a job at Rural Press—Australia's largest publisher of regional and agricultural news and information—where she worked as a journalist in the Central West of New South Wales for four years.Thousands of stories later, Vanessa decided to move back to Sydney and try her hand at public relations while studying for her master's in communication.Skip forward a few years, and Vanessa once again found herself joyfully studying various psychology subjects while managing a Sydney public relations firm. Enthralled with examining the motivations behind people's actions, Vanessa realized what she really wanted to do in life was combine her love of words with her fascination for human behavior. So Ms. Skye quit public relations to begin the significantly more impoverished life of a professional writer.Inspired by a recurring dream, Vanessa wrote her crime fiction debut, The Enemy Inside, which challenges the concept of justice, asks if the need for vengeance sometimes justifies murder, and explores whether you can ever heal from childhood abuse. The second book in this series, Broken, was released in February 2014, and the third, Bloodlines, was released in January of 2015. The first book in a paranormal series, Koven, will be released in June 2015. In her spare time, Vanessa wrote a short story, The Piece, which was published in February 2012 by Dark Prints Press as a part of the One That Got Away dark fiction anthology.
Vanessa now works as a freelance writer, lives on Sydney's northern beaches, and tries to immerse herself in salt water at least once a day.


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The company also replaced its CEO, and the incoming leader said American would probably cut its flight schedule "modestly" while it reorganizes. The new CEO, Thomas W. Horton, did not give specifics.
For most travelers, though, flights will operate normally and the airline will honor tickets and take reservations. American said its frequent-flier program would be unaffected.
AMR Corp., which owns American, was one of the last major U.S. airline companies that had avoided bankruptcy. Rivals United and Delta used bankruptcy to shed costly labor contracts, reduce debt, and start making money again. They also grew through mergers.
American - the nation's third-largest airline and proud of an 80-year history that reaches back to the dawn of passenger travel - was stuck with higher costs that meant it lost money when matching competitors' lower fares.
In announcing the bankruptcy filing, AMR said that Gerard Arpey, 53, a veteran of the company for almost three decades and CEO since 2003, had retired and was replaced by Horton, 50, the company president.
Horton said the board of directors unanimously decided on Monday night to file for bankruptcy. In a filing with federal bankruptcy court in New York, AMR said it had $29.6 billion in debt and $24.7 billion in assets.
In hearing in a packed bankruptcy courtroom on Tuesday in New York, a judge granted the airline permission to pay for fuel, labor, and other critical expenses to keep it flying. The hearing was an indication of how American will now need to run all of its financial decisions past a bankruptcy judge and, ultimately, creditors.
With reductions to the flight schedule, Horton said there would probably be corresponding job cuts. American has about 78,000 employees and serves 240,000 passengers per day.
AMR's move could also trigger more consolidation in the airline industry. Some analysts believe American is likely to merge with US Airways to move closer to United Continental Holdings Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc. in size. Such a merger would leave five large U.S. airlines compared with nine in 2008.
US Airways declined to comment.
American will delay the spinoff of its regional airline, American Eagle, which was expected early next year.
AMR, however, wants to push ahead with plans to order 460 new jets from Boeing and Airbus and take delivery of more than 50 others already ordered. New planes would save American money on fuel and maintenance, but the orders will be subject to approval by the bankruptcy court.
Analysts said all airlines will benefit if American reduces flights - especially if the cutbacks are more severe than American's new CEO is letting on. They said the chief winners were likely to be United and Delta, which compete for the same business travelers and have global networks like American's.
The losers will be American Airlines employees and AMR stockholders.
Shareholders almost certainly will be wiped out. The stock had already lost 79 percent of its value this year on fears of bankruptcy. The stock fell to 26 cents Tuesday, down $1.36 from the day before. In January 2007, after a 4-year rally, the shares peaked at $41.
AMR has lost more than $12 billion since 2001, and analysts expect it will post more losses through 2012. Speculation about an AMR bankruptcy grew in recent weeks as the company was unable to win union approval for contracts that would reduce labor costs. The company said it was spending $600 million more a year than other airlines because of labor-contract rules - $800 million more including pension obligations.
On Tuesday, Horton said no single factor led to the bankruptcy filing. He said the company needed to cut costs because of the weak global economy, a credit downgrade that raised borrowing costs, and high, volatile fuel prices. The price of jet fuel has risen more than 60 percent in the past five years.
Expectation of a bankruptcy filing increased in November as contract talks with the pilots' union stalled and union leaders rejected a company offer without sending it to members for a vote.
Ray Neidl, an analyst with Maxim Group LLC, an investment banking company, said AMR was wise to file for bankruptcy while it still had about $4 billion in cash. That way, the company will have a cushion to keep operating without worrying immediately about lining up new financing, he said.
Fitch Ratings analyst Bill Warlick said American will focus on shuttering pension plans and getting wage concessions from workers. Both Neidl and Warlick said American might be pushed into a merger with US Airways because size and global networks are more important than ever in the airline business.
Darryl Jenkins, a consultant who has worked for the major airlines, said, "American will still be with us in one form or another 10 years from now." But, he said, its workers will "take a major hit. Their pensions are in danger."
Union leaders expressed unease.
James C. Little, president of the Transport Workers Union, which represents mechanics, baggage handlers and other ground workers at American, was harsh in his assessment of the impact on labor. "This (bankruptcy) is likely to be a long and ugly process and our union will fight like hell to make sure that front line workers don't pay an unfair price for management's failings," Little said.
AMR, which has headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, lost $162 million in the third quarter and has lost money in 14 of the past 16 quarters.
The company barely escaped bankruptcy in 2003, when it was still reeling from the drop in air travel caused by a recession and the September 2001 terror attacks. That downturn helped drive United, Delta and US Airways into bankruptcy while American used the threat of a filing to wring wage and benefit concessions from workers.
American was founded in 1930 from the combination of many smaller airlines. Its hubs are in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago and Miami. Major international partners include British Airways and Japan Airlines.
News of the bankruptcy swept through AMR's hometown.
"American Airlines is an institution in Dallas-Fort Worth, and when institutions start to crumble, you look at everything around you," said Elaine Vale, a jewelry store owner who flew back from a Thanksgiving holiday on American. "After American, then who?"
Airline writers Samantha Bomkamp in New York and Joshua Freed in Minneapolis, and Danny Robbins in Fort Worth contributed to this report.


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Sleepwalking to Fallujah
by Joseph Bageant
April 29, 2004
Each workday I commute toward Washington, D.C. along Route 7, where patriotic war slogans are spray painted on the overpasses, and homemade signs jut from the median in support of our "boys in Iraq." Mud-splattered construction trucks rip by with frayed flags popping in the wind, loaded with burly bearded men and looking very much like the footage of Afghanistan or Angola, minus the 50 caliber gun mounts. Yesterday I saw my first stretch Hummer, painted in desert tan and carrying half a dozen soccer mom types, which rather sums up the point I am trying to make here. There is a distinct martial ethos, the tang of steel and the smell of gun oil in the air around Washington these days, I swear it.
Only a blind microcephalic could fail to notice this systemic militarization of the American culture, and the media's hyper-escalation of warrior worship. Reputedly, our national character is supposed to be improved by all this. But I was in the military for a time -- a "young warrior" in Fox Network parlance -- and I can confidently say I was not improved one bit by the experience. (Although I did learn to cuss properly, if a bit too much.) That was 35 years ago, back when there was little, if any, mythologizing of Vietnam's warriors, much less patriotic news spasms ejaculated by embedded reporters between the commercials. News was duller then. Certainly not as entertaining as the Jessica Lynch story of a fetching, innocent young blonde wounded while supposedly blazing away at the face of evil itself, only to suffer multiple wounds, then be rescued from some fly-ridden Iraqi hospital (more radio crackling and gunfire please) by her comrades in arms. After this stirring rescue we were served the titillating dessert of the subsequent doctor's report: She was sodomized by the sweaty stinking bastards! In the television news business it just does not get any better than that. Pass the corn chips, please.
With television news like that, who needs a rational explanation as to why we are at war? The entertainment value alone is worth it. And therein lies the problem for those of us in that last generation of people who gained most of what they know from reading: We need a tangible explanation why we are spilling so much blood and bullion in that god forsaken desert pisshole. Still no answer. Or no new one at least. Oh, there is the standard line that goes, "We are defending democracy and liberating a people from oppression." That old saw was getting mighty dull even back in my day, when it was used to explain Vietnam.
I cannot remember a time when the American public ever asked any important questions of its national leadership. In the American scheme of things, that is the media's job, media frames the question and the public asks it, after having been appropriately bludgeoned over the head with it. That's our system by damned, we love it, and it has even been known to work on occasion. Which would be fine, except that Edward R. Murrow has been dead a long time. Since then, the American psyche has been hardwired into a new world communications order, one in which global corporations now pay the freight for national television. Halliburton, Boeing and Sprint ain't Geritol and this ain't Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour. Content with selling us chewing gum or Chesterfields, early television sponsors were not players in the Pentagon defense contract game and never slept with the government to obtain more bandwidth.
It is tragic that such a promising instrument as television had to grow up at the end of the Age of Enlightenment -- just in time to ignite an unholy fission/fusion, a synthesis of mammon and politics amid a culture out of philosophical and spiritual gas. Just when America needed to explain itself to itself, if it were ever to redefine its higher goals and ideas. But television is about emotion, not explanation. It has no patience for ideas (not that we've seen a real idea in 30 years). Ideas? Who gives a fuck? Let's go shopping. The result has been a nation of sleepwalkers, an all-but-expired republic reduced to pure consumption and little else (a fact not unnoticed by the Muslim world.) Hell, even flatworms consume, and sheer quantity is no substitute for a national soul. It took a couple of generations, but here we are now plugged in at the brainstem, just as McLuhan predicted, to television's virtual cathedral of commerce where the devoted receive the sacrament in a straight shot to the cortex. Too tired from overwork, or poor, or old, or young, or just plain lazy to feel anything else, the tribal war drumbeat called news and the reality shows that pass for experiencing the world beyond work and consumption, as McCluhan's electronic hearth casts shadows on the walls of a withdrawn and slowly rotting republic.
We had warning from poets, writers and grim futurists, but who would have guessed it would come to this so soon? That we would become so perfectly attuned to capitalist state television, ever trolling for more business, dragging its nets baited with new cars, Disney character imprinted cell phones, and buckets of fried chicken through a sea of somnambulates. Yet, the sleepwalkers all share but one eye, that of the camera, which, as Lewis Lapham put it, " . . . doesn't make distinctions between treason and fellatio . . . between an important senator and an important ape." So images of the grisly specter in Fallujah and Janet Jackson's boob draw the same numb respect. Stop and consider that most Americans get their "knowledge" of the outside world from this medium, then consider that most of the Muslim world gets its notion of America from Baywatch. If that does not throw any thinking person into the grip of a Prozac-proof depression, nothing will. And what about these so-called thinking persons? Where is the voice of their dissent? Well, they are naturally unhappy and making the best noise they can -- all two dozen of them.
Despite that brief and fabled moment during the 1960s, the U.S. is not a nation comfortable with dissent. We have never spawned a nationally integrated left-wing opposition in the European sense. A well-behaved people when it comes to public debate, when told by the president on TV that we are at war with terrorism, the overwhelming majority of us line up and salute the flag. More importantly, we do not ask questions. So the question of why a hundred million dollar agency dedicates its resources to swabbing the anuses of farting toy dogs never gets asked, just smiled at. And whether we are willing to sustain, say, 25,000 dead American kids in Iraq never comes up, much less debated. It is equally unlikely the public will inquire specifically who is best served by the caskets being unloaded daily at Dover, Delaware. By state decree, we are not even allowed to see them. And let us not even begin to ask that greatest of all American spiritual questions: "Who is getting rich from it?" In a society whose business is business, where whoever raises the most money to buy TV time elects the next president, that question is not likely to get answered either. Not by the Bush administration, nor by the media it sponsors through government license handouts, tax breaks and regulation-or the lack of it.
Hard to believe that not long ago we were asking how we were going to spend the projected $400 billion "peace dividend" that came with the end of the Cold War. That question has now been answered. Thank you and sit down. So who does get rich? As if we didn't know. Of course there is the Pentagon's coalition of vested interests, which is just about every material and service provider imaginable from Sprint to SpaghettiOs. But in the end it winds up in vastly disproportionate amounts in the hands of the already-rich. Those uneasy oligarchs who, since the first Neolithic thug stole all the grain in the village, have lived in fear of losing their advantage.
In this country the rich have been uneasy from the beginning, and have long thought that perhaps the democratic experiment has gone just about far enough. Their grumbling, political scheming and sometimes-outright assaults on the common decency of the republic date back to the American Revolution. But now is their hour, thanks to George Bush. George Bush did not invent their fear. He merely rode it into the White House. And as their chosen commander-in-chief, he has certainly handed them, with some preliminary help from his predecessor Bill Clinton, the promise of ultimate victory in the real war taking place, the ongoing war of which America has ever been in denial-the class war. This time the already-rich are girded for victory, prepared like never before.
As an outer defensive perimeter they have deployed a far-flung and invincible army. Within the nation has been established a pervasive and relentless Homeland Security Department. All accomplished adroitly at public expense. And with Bush's gift of escape from equitable taxation, they have set about intensifying their real work at hand, protecting themselves with such steep income differences that they will be forever safe-safety to an oligarch being ever rowing the societal boat backward into the past. Thus, if there is any way to return to the uncomplicated world of 1952 Middleburg or Grosse Pointe with enough money to keep their descendants farting through silk for the next 20 generations, these people are going to do it, with the thuggish help of a leering dry drunk and a secretive gang operating from an undisclosed location.
Nobody in their right mind would take them on because American history has taught us one thing, if nothing else: Rich white people with guns will kill everybody in sight if they get spooked. One need only look back at the Ludlow mining massacre, or ask any urban African-American. Better for us to accept the scraps of the roast goat flung to the populi by the government of the feasting rich, and enjoy the meaningless spectacle of the Martha Stewart show trial. Watch the poised and telegenic Condoleezza Rice testify before a stacked 9/11 commission not even allowed to quote the key suspects in its final report; or jeer at the arrogant and thoroughly unlikable Andrew Fastow running laps around Houston before those appointed to administer his very public tar and feathering. Then catch Jay Leno's monologue for deep analysis of both.
So here we are, sleepwalkers in the intellectual and spiritual desert of America, 2004 at the end of the Enlightenment. We are literally dying for the lack of a new idea to animate our culture, government and the national mind. If the American mind is an ecosystem, we have fed it toxic waste.
Instead of news we clamor for bread and circuses, gladiators in the Coliseum of the Middle East. Instead of ideas we get data-the jargon of weapons specialists, political power pundits and stock brokers who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Every night I listen to numbly to the litany of numbers recited by this priest craft of pundits, all sorts of numbers-jobless numbers, economic indexes, and balance of trade figures . . . And I try to pinpoint the time when the corporate economy, the well-being of faceless monoliths, became our national religion, remembering back to the days when one had to go to the financial pages to find these things out. Now they are inescapable, these somber minute-by-minute reports on the condition and mood of Moloch, whose heart we are told by poets is a cannibal dynamo and whose breath reeks of the stench of war. How many of our jobs did Moloch eat today? How many did Moloch puke back up in Asia? These job numbers, and the number of Americans killed in Iraq, slosh against the beaches of awareness alongside the basketball scores and the number of cockroaches swallowed by a busty blonde on Fear Factor. The American dream of wealth and invincibility has taken on a life of its own, and now dreams us into being. And off on the horizon to the east, the sirens and the wailing never cease, for we have bestowed shock and awe upon Babylon.


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2,149: Record Enrollment for Fall 2013
Dallas Theological Seminary is excited to announce that enrollment for fall 2013 has reached a new high of 2,149 overall students. This includes 498 new students, a 22% increase in the number of new students from fall 2012. We are grateful to God for his grace and for several trends that seem to be influencing our enrollment.
One exciting trend is the growth of the DTS-Houston campus. The Houston student body has now passed the 250 student mark with 256 total students including 26 Chinese language students. This year, the classroom space has doubled and the library also continues to grow to accommodate the influx of new students.
Another source of growth comes from DTS's online programs which now include a fully online MA (Biblical Studies) and fully online MA (Christian Studies) offered in Chinese. There are now 421 students in our online English program and another 110 studying online in Chinese. More than five hundred additional students take online courses alongside their traditional courses on campus and at extension sites.
In addition to the growth of the Houston campus and online programs, DTS is now offering a hybrid program called Mobile Seminary in Fargo, North Dakota, Nashville, Tennessee, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In these three cities, DTS offers a combination of three types of coursework: classes on the ground in each city, online courses, and one-week intensives at the Dallas campus. This unique program offers students within a metro area the chance to work through a degree program together, including both online and face-to-face components.
Even with significant enrollment growth through online and distance education, DTS's traditional ThM program, designed for full-time preaching and teaching ministries, continues to show strong, steady numbers on both the Dallas and Houston campuses. Additionally, the MA in Biblical Counseling (MA/BC) continues to grow in both Houston and Dallas.
We are grateful to God for his provision, and we are praying for these new students and the students considering seminary next year.


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Show All Answers
State law requires that the value and classification of real estate be established as of January 2 each year. The Assessor's Office works throughout the year to estimate the market value of each property for the following January 2 assessment date.
If you have any questions regarding this information, please contact our office at 763-682-7367.


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Illustration,sketches,prose,poetry,design,painting,lyrics,collage, photography,prints...
If it's under A3 and can be rolled up like a newspaper, donate it!
It will be exhibited, rolled and delivered by bike to a new owner.
Every artist will represent him/herself with the content of the submitted artwork. It can be anything they wish.
Don't forget to add your contact information!
Name/surname,e-mail address and website should be attached to your artworks.
Make. Show. Shere.
Make. Show. Shere.
You can sand your art to:
Papergirl Beograd
c/o Radmila Jeremic
Jase Ignjatovica 33
11010 Belgrade
Deadline for submitting work: 15.07.2014.
CONTACT US: firstname.lastname@example.com
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram ( our hushtag is #papergirlbeograd )


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Despite regular reports on NFL players being arrested, a new study shows that NFL players are actually arrested less than average citizens.
Of all sports, NFL players have the smallest arrest rate.
Man Shot For Wearing Anti-49ers Shirt At NFL Preseason Game
Steelers Hines Ward Arrested For Drunk Driving
The Post Game reports:
The numbers don't lie. One in every 45 National Football League players (2.2 percent) is arrested. The national arrest rate is 1 in 23 (4.2 percent), according to the FBI in 2010.
WCCO Minnesota's Jason DeRusha reports that in 2010, the NBA had by far the highest arrest rate (5.1 percent) of the major professional sports leagues in America. Major League Baseball is second with an arrest rate of 2.1 percent last year. Believe it or not, the NFL is last with (2.0 percent) of its players in trouble.


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YALSA affirms its confidence in the integrity of members who are invited to be nominated or appointed to serve on award and/or media evaluation committees, and in the integrity of the officers or nominating committees responsible for selecting candidates. However, because of the nature of the work of such committees, those who serve on them must be especially sensitive to conflict of interest situations as well as the appearance of impropriety.
This policy aims to clarify the eligibility and responsibilities of candidates asked to serve on award and/or media selection committees.
I. The following situations disqualify a candidate:
a. Any member who is employed by, or advisory to, any publishing house or production company that produces materials that would be considered by any of the YALSA award and/or selection committees; or is the author or illustrator of a book, or creator of other materials, to be published or evaluated in the year of committee service.
b. Any member who is already on a YALSA award or selection committee may not serve on an Association Board or an ALA jury (ex. the Schneider Family Jury).
c. Any member who works for a distributor of products that would be evaluated in the year of committee service is not eligible to serve on a selection or award committee.
d. Any member who is already on another Division's award or selection committee may not serve simultaneously on a YALSA award or selection committee.
e. Any member who is already on a YALSA award or selection committee may not accept a concurrent appointment to an additional YALSA award or selection committee. This rule does not supersede any existing selection or award committee policies.
II. All other members are eligible for nomination or appointment and could include the following situations.
a. A member who serves as a professional reviewer of young adult or adult books or non-print materials.
b. A member person who is involved in the selection of materials for professional tools, such as Jr. High or Sr. High Catalog or Fiction Catalog.
c. A member who serves as a writer or editor of professional books in the field of young adult or adult literature.
All candidates for nomination or appointment have an affirmative duty to notify the nominating committee, or the appointing officer, of any circumstance or event which would disqualify him/her under this policy or which would otherwise affect, or give the appearance of affecting, his/her ability to carry out assigned responsibilities fairly and without self-interest of any kind. A committee member must resign immediately upon the development of any circumstance or event which disqualifies him/her from committee service under this policy, or which would otherwise affect, or give the appearance of tending to affect, his/her ability to carry out assigned responsibilities fairly and without self-interest of any kind. Notice of the resignation should be sent to the YALSA President.
The President of YALSA shall immediately accept such resignations when tendered. In the event a committee member violates this policy without notifying the nominating committee or appointing officer, the President shall so inform the YALSA Board and request the committee member to tender his/her immediate resignation. If a committee member refuses, the YALSA Board shall remove the member. The President shall then appoint a new committee member.
According to the policy above, YALSA members who are reviewers of young adult materials in various venues are eligible to serve on YALSA selection and award committees. However, it is critical that such members maintain the highest ethical and professional standards to protect the reputation of the list or award, the committee, and YALSA. This includes not only avoiding impropriety, but avoiding the appearance of impropriety.
For purposes of these guidelines, "review" is understood to mean a piece of writing that is intended to provide an evaluation of a creative work's suitability for a given audience and/or its marketability as a published work. In general, a wall of separation must be maintained between a member's work as a reviewer and his or her work as a committee member. This includes the following:
- A reviewer must under no circumstances identify him or herself as a member of a YALSA selection or award committee in the text of a review or, in fact, anywhere in the publication in which the review appears,
- Reviews must not ever mention an item's eligibility for the award or list.
- Reviewers must refrain from identifying any books or materials eligible for their lists as the "best" of the year. Selection and award committee members must also refrain from posting their opinions about any work related to their list or award committee assignment, such as, for example, touting a nomination on Twitter or using Goodreads to discuss titles under consideration. Providing information about specific titles, other than their qualification as a list/award contender, is acceptable. Attaching your identity as a committee member who will be evaluating those titles for the list or award is not.
- For award committees only (Alex, Edwards, Morris, Nonfiction, Odyssey, Printz): Beginning Feb. 1, 2014, award committee members may not publish reviews of titles that are eligible for their particular award during their term of service in professional journals (print and/or electronic) or other professional and personal outlets. Since YALSA committee rosters are often public information, published reviews attributed to specific committee members can be misconstrued or taken out of context and disseminated.
Because it is important to not only avoid impropriety, but the appearance of it, YALSA encourages members to carefully weigh their activities outside of committee work and to steer clear of placing themselves into any situation that could possibly be perceived by others as a conflict, or that could possibly lead to an actual conflict. For example, if a committee member has an option in regards to the type of book or material he or she may review, the member is encouraged to choose something that is not eligible for their committee's list or award.
Committee members should refer to their committee's policies and procedures for more information about ethical committee behavior, maintaining professional integrity, interacting with publishers, and so on. Members should also refer any questions to their committee chair or board liaison.
Additional Information
- See also YALSA's Social Media Policy for YALSA Appointees.


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RENEW LIFE NG Ultra EPA (30 sgels)
RENEW LIFE NG Ultra EPA (30 sgels)
Regular price
Regular price
Sale price
Unit price
RENEW LIFE - Ultra EPA Omega - 30 Softgel(s) - NPN: 80060174 -- Norwegian Gold Ultra EPA delivers 1000 mg of EPA per capsule making it the strongest EPA fish oil on the market in Canada.The Norwegian Gold DifferenceUltimate Digestibility Norwegian Gold Fish Oils use powerful Ultragest Technology to ensure superior absorption. This targeted release method results in 3 times better absorption than non-coated fish oil capsules. Lipase, the fat digesting enzyme, is also included to enhance the digestion and utilization of the beneficial oils. This eliminates any unpleasant fishy aftertaste or repeating often experienced with other fish oil supplements.100% Fish-derived Gel Caps Norwegian Gold Fish Oils are encapsulated in natural fish-derived gel caps. This makes them ideal for fish-eating vegetarians or those with religious dietary restrictions.Sustainability Norwegian Gold Fish Oils are sustainably sourced from wild and unthreatened fish. These are found in cold, pristine waters and are naturally lower in environmental toxins such as: mercury, PCBs and pesticides.Purity Testing & Certification Norwegian Gold Fish Oils meet or exceed all national and international standards for purity, potency and freshness for fish oils. All Norwegian Gold products have received a 5-star rating by the International Fish Oil Standards (IFOS) program. IFOS has the strictest standards in the world and is the only true third party testing program for omega-3 fatty acids from fish oils.
Medicinal Ingredients
- Fish oil1212 mg
- Lipase5 mg
- Lipase33 FCC LU
- Beeswax
- Carob Powder
- Gelatin
- Glycerin
- Lecithin
- Medium-chain Triglycerides
- Orange flavour
- Purified water
- Shellac
- Sodium alginate
- Stearic Acid
- Sunflower oil
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin E


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Why Choose HiDEF Lifestyle?
Our mission statement is to provide the absolute best customer experience available in the Audio/Video industry without exception. We choose to only sell the best performing products in the world and learn them inside and out to ensure your experience with us and the products we supply is second to none. HiDEF Lifestyle has been one of the fastest growing Audio and Video retailers in the United States for years all because of our passion for our products and our customers. We care like no one else.


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Honda Oil Change Near Los Angeles, CA
Looking for an oil change near Los Angeles, CA? Changing oil on a regular basis is important in order to extend the life of your engine.
The expert technicians at Galpin Motors know exactly what type of engine oil your vehicle needs, whether it's conventional or full-synthetic. We only use high-quality oil and oil filters, so you can rest easy knowing your car's engine will perform, even in harsh conditions.
We also will check all of your other fluids and filters, such as brake fluid, coohublant and air filters to make sure your vehicle is properly maintained. Take a look at our Honda service coupons for money saving offers near you.
Bring in your vehicle today for a professional oil change close to Los Angeles.


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(visited by Helmut Resch and Babs Coleman)
15-Nov-2008 -- This is the 43rd of a series of 83 confluence visits during our voyage from Nigeria to Europe and back to Nigeria around the entire African continent. It all started on 28 January at 11N 5E.
Story continues from 28N 34E.
We had been staying for a couple of days in Cairo, visiting some of the sightseeings like the pyramids of Gīza, Ṣaqqāra, and Dahšūr, the National Museum, and some other points of interest. We also got our visas for Sudan and Ethiopia. Just by driving through Cairo and surviving this traffic chaos, you automatically make an advanced driving course.
We were heading out of the town towards the 6th of October City (a newly erected satellite town). About 3 km before the town we stopped at a petrol station, filled our fuel tanks, and set the GPS for the Confluence. To our surprise we where only 1.4 km from the Confluence, but on the wrong side of the highway.
A couple of kilometres further on, we were able to find a suitable turnoff and got this way as close as 800 meters to the Confluence. We parked the car next to the road and walked the remaining distance, mainly through building rubble, to the Confluence.
Continued at 27N 28E.


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Common Lisp the Language, 2nd Edition
older Lisp dialects (such as MacLisp), an attempt to signal an error of a
given type often carried with it an implicit promise to support the standard
recovery strategy for that type of error. If the signaler knew the type of
error but for whatever reason was unable to deal with the standard recovery
strategy for that kind of error, it was necessary to signal an untyped error
(for which there was no defined recovery strategy). This sometimes led to
confusion when people signaled typed errors without realizing the full
implications of having done so, but more often than not it meant that users
simply avoided typed errors altogether.
The Common Lisp Condition System, which is modeled after the Zetalisp condition system, corrects this troublesome aspect of previous Lisp dialects by creating a clear separation between the act of signaling an error of a particular type and the act of saying that a particular way of recovery is appropriate. In the divide example above, simply signaling an error does not imply a willingness on the part of the signaler to cooperate in any corrective action. For example, the following sample interaction illustrates that the only recovery action offered for this error is ``Return to Lisp Toplevel'':
Lisp> (+ (divide 3 0) 7) Error: Attempt to divide 3 by 0. To continue, type :CONTINUE followed by an option number: 1: Return to Lisp Toplevel. Debug> :continue 1 Returned to Lisp Toplevel. Lisp>
When an error is detected and the function error is called, execution cannot
continue normally because error will not directly return. Control can be
transferred to other points in the program, however, by means of specially
established ``restarts.''