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The practical reality of using drones in cities remains far away and is getting ever more distant.
You may have gasped with disbelief the first time you saw a photograph of a drone home-delivering a box from Amazon or cakes from a bakery or carrying a bag of chips. Until recently, this was the stuff of science fiction. Your initial reaction was probably: "Amazing … but will it ever take off?"
Drones—or unmanned aerial vehicles, as we once called them—have now become capable of lifting and delivering on the back of continued research and technological ingenuity. Amazon has recently been trialing drones in Australia and the United Kingdom, but don't get too excited: This is likely to be an exception rather than a norm. The practical reality of using drones in cities remains far away and is getting ever more distant.
There are already too many potential problems to let drones fly with sufficiently loose restrictions in cities to make a delivery business viable. One major issue is drones interfering with aircraft, thanks to surging numbers of near-misses. Drones are also increasingly being used to fly drugs and other contraband into prisons.
In the United States, there have been fears about camera-equipped drones stalking celebrities for paparazzi. There have also been stories about invasive drone surveillance, both on behalf of the state and private individuals.
Drone Law
The biggest backlog of legal cases in the US is reportedly of drone claims over issues including safety, noise, damage, personal intrusion and privacy. The whole area is a growing business for lawyers, with drone-law journals springing up and fierce debates over whether, for example, drones fall within the definition of aircraft for legal purposes.
New US flight rules introduced in August 2016 did lead some optimists to predict a new business opportunity that could create 100,000 new jobs, but the reality is that the whole sector is in a mess. The US Federal Aviation Authority has explicitly said drone deliveries are off limits, at least pending further research into their consequences.
At the same time, technologies are emerging that are designed to down drones. Your initial reaction might be that these will never work either, but I'm not so sure.
A great recent British engineering invention is the SkyWall100. It looks like a bazooka gun and uses laser-guided targeting to fire a ball. This opens into a net that engulfs the drone and brings it to earth under a parachute. It went on sale in late 2016 and is retailing at between £50,000 and £65,000 depending on the size of the order. So far, it has attracted a promising level of interest.
The SkyWall100 is safer and less messy than shooting down drones with bullets, yet it opens up a cavern of legal ambiguities. In the UK, for example, it's classed as a firearm so can only be owned by someone with the appropriate licence—restricting them mainly to the police or military. The US has looser firearm restrictions, of course, but firearms still generally can't be discharged within city limits. However, the SkyWall100 is not classified as a firearm in the US, so it can be discharged anywhere.
Among other techniques for taking out drones, one is the Battelle DroneDefender, which is a large gun that fires a "cone of energy" at a device that disrupts GPS systems. So far, these are only in use by the military and not permitted for public sale.
Going Down
If the likes of the SkyWall100 are going to let people prevent drones from moving over their private property to avoid their nuisance, noise and frankly hazard of failure, a new sport of "drone downing" could easily become extremely popular in the coming years—at least in America. Drone-downing raises the alluring prospect of capturing free booty if it strays illegally into your property. So what constitutes as illegal?
While I stress I am no lawyer, the US rules for protecting your drone from such potshots would appear to be as follows. It must weigh less than 25 kg and can't be out of your line of sight or higher than 400ft in the air. It can only be flown in daylight, and at dawn and dusk it needs special lights to make it visible. It also can't be flown over groups of people or near stadiums or airports.
In the UK, the rules are similar, but with slightly tougher weight restrictions and additional requirements—it must be at least 150 meters from a building and 50 meters from a person or vehicle. If I was planning to build a shopping or pizza delivery business based on using drones that delivered to homes in cities, restrictions like these would make me more than a little jittery.
Put all this together and it's virtually impossible to see drone deliveries becoming viable in cities. It might be a different story in remote locations where special deliveries may be deemed acceptable and welcomed, but otherwise I'm afraid this is one vision of the future that has no chance of coming to pass. It is an example of a clearly brilliant concept that is colliding badly with human nature and reality.
*[This article was originally published by The Conversation.]
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer's editorial policy.
Photo Credit: tiero
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Column: Not time yet for Clemens in Hall of Fame
The announcement this week that yet another baseball player tested positive for a banned substance shouldn't be terribly surprising, even for those who have proclaimed the steroid era over. Neither was the reaction from Philadelphia rookie infielder Freddy Galvis, who expressed bewilderment that he could have possibly come up dirty.
''I cannot understand how even this tiny particle of a banned substance got into my body,'' said Galvis, who was suspended 50 games by Major League Baseball the other day. ''I have not and never would knowingly use anything illegal to enhance my performance.''
Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
There's a long list of players tied to steroid use who want us to believe someone spiked their coffee, gave them tainted sunflower seeds, or injected them with a bad vitamin B-12 shot. The few who have confessed - Alex Rodriguez comes to mind - did so only because they were cornered and had little choice.
The problem we'll always have judging the steroid era is that - aside from a wave of positive tests - the evidence against many players was largely circumstantial. Heads got bigger, home runs went farther, and careers were extended well past historical averages.
Suspicious, sure. For prosecutors it was enough to bring two of the biggest names in baseball - Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens - into court on charges they lied when questioned about the use of performance enhancing drugs. Bonds almost walked and Clemens did, though neither verdict really settled the underlying question of whether they were juiced when they played.
Baseball purists would like a bit more clarity. In a game built on statistics and records, both players hold gaudy marks that would otherwise guarantee their selection to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot. Some of those statistics and records - Bonds' all-time career home run mark, in particular - have been widely discredited. But if numbers alone are the prime criteria for entrance to the hall, they're in.
Members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, who hold the keys to Cooperstown, are a discerning bunch, for the most part. Fooled for a long time by players who turned to modern chemistry to make the game look like child's play, they're done playing the dupes who glorify them without question.
They've already pretty much decided Mark McGwire won't get in the Hall of Fame. Neither will Rafael Palmeiro, whose positive steroid test put his 569 career home runs in a different light.
The balloting gets a lot tougher come December for veteran members of the BBWAA. That's when Bonds, Clemens and Sammy Sosa are eligible for the first time in what will be a closely watched referendum of the steroid era.
Bonds is a convicted felon, so my guess is he won't get a first-ballot nomination, despite his 762 career home runs. Sosa, according to a New York Times report, tested positive in 2003 for steroids, and his numbers are so freakish (66 one year; 63 the next) he may never be allowed in.
But what do you do with Clemens? How do you make a judgment call on a player who swears he never used steroids or HGH, even if his wife admits she did?
The statistics show he was the greatest pitcher of his time, and one of the greatest of all time. He won seven Cy Young Awards, two more than anyone else, and was dominating batters into his mid-40s, when pitchers before him had long lost their fastballs. Just as important, a few days ago a jury wasted little time in finding him innocent on charges he lied to Congress about using steroids and HGH.
That doesn't mean he didn't use steroids or HGH. Trainer Brian McNamee claims he injected him often, and former teammate Andy Pettitte testified Clemens told him during a workout in Texas that he had used HGH, though he later backed off that claim. There was certainly enough circumstantial evidence introduced in the trial to raise more than just a little suspicion, even if the jury decided against convicting him of lying.
I'm a member of the BBWAA, though I don't have a Hall of Fame vote. If I did, I'd be leaving a lot of names unchecked this year.
Bonds and Sosa, for sure. Probably Mike Piazza, too, because his career blossomed in the steroid era and his numbers fell off precipitously after the first round of testing began.
Coincidental? Maybe. Unfair? Possibly. Unfortunately, everyone who played the last 25 years and posted big numbers has to be judged under the same cloud.
That includes Clemens, who correctly predicted in his 2008 testimony before Congress: ''No matter what we discuss here today, I am never going to have my name restored.'' The trial may have given him some vindication, but he won't find many believers among fans who have listened to player after player deny using steroids, even when they're caught by testing.
If nothing else, the wounds inflicted on baseball by steroids are just too raw to induct anyone even remotely suspicious right now. We didn't rush to judgment on their steroid use, and there's no need to rush to induct any of this year's class. Why not allow a few years to go by to properly digest their role in it and see if any new evidence turns up to make the decision more clear cut?
Indeed, there may come a time in the not-so-distant future when Clemens is welcomed into the Hall of Fame, no strings attached.
That time is not now.
Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg(at)ap.org or http://twitter.com/timdahlberg

subset: commoncrawl


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The Boston Police Patrolmen's Association paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a fundraising agency run by a woman who once bilked businesses out of money for a fake charity — by impersonating a police officer.
Commonwealth Productions, LLC, based in Braintree, was incorporated in 2006 to provide "fundraising . . . excluding 'charitable solicitation'" for the BPPA, though the BPPA's financial records list it as an "advertising" expense. The company was dissolved by the state last year for failing to file returns.
Donors who contributed money to the BPPA while Commonwealth Productions was in operation said they were told they were supporting a scholarship fund for children of police officers. But the BPPA's financial records show that almost none of the money raised went to scholarships — and that in fact, the bulk of it went into Commonwealth Productions' pockets.
The company was operated by Lisa Hutchinson. In 1991, a Suffolk County grand jury indicted Hutchinson, her husband David Gargano, and seven others — including three Gargano family members — for allegedly scamming businesses out of nearly $200,000.
The specific charges? "The nine posed as police officers or firefighters as they made the rounds of small businesses, seeking donations to help with drug education programs, police relief efforts and fire safety training," a Boston Globe reporter wrote at the time.
In its 1993 yearly report, the Attorney General's office wrote of Gargano as a "ring leader of a fraudulent fund-raising group." Gargano and Hutchinson both pleaded guilty to a slew of charges including larceny, conspiracy, and deceptive solicitation.
Hutchinson received a suspended sentence of three years, with three years' concurrent probation. Gargano was forced to pay $100,000 in civil penalties, barred from engaging in any telemarketing activities in Massachusetts, and sentenced to at least three-and-a-half years in prison on related larceny and deceptive-solicitation charges.
At the time of their indictments in Suffolk County, Hutchinson, then 22, and Gargano, then 24, were already facing indictments on similar charges in Essex. The year before, a court in their native New Hampshire had barred Gargano from raising money for non-profits until he accounted for funds from another fundraising agency, and his Massachusetts indictments landed him in contempt of court. In 1993 — while he was already serving time in Massachusetts on the larceny conviction — a Granite State judge found Gargano guilty of theft and conspiracy to commit theft, and ordered him to pay $33,000 in restitution to his victims.
(Gargano has continued to have run-ins with the law: in 2009, he was netted in a Randolph heroin bust, and last year he was charged with forging prescriptions and illegally obtaining pharmaceuticals.)
So how did a felon wind up heading a fundraising enterprise for the BPPA? Better yet — how did Commonwealth Productions manage to rake in so much cash, yet avoid scrutiny until now?
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Is Union Pacific a Cash King?
As an investor, it pays to follow the cash. If you figure out how a company moves its money, you might eventually find some of that cash flowing into your pockets.
In this series, we'll highlight four companies in an industry, and compare their "cash king margins" over time, trying to determine which has the greatest likelihood of putting cash back in your pocket. After all, a company can pay dividends and buy back stock only after it's actually received cash -- not just when it books those accounting figments known as "profits."
Today, let's look at Union Pacific and three of its peers.
The cash king margin
Looking at a company's cash flow statement can help you determine whether its free cash flow actually backs up its reported profit. Companies that can create 10% or more free cash flow from their revenue can be powerful compounding machines for your portfolio. A sustained high cash king margin can be a good predictor of long-term stock returns.
To find the cash king margin, divide the free cash flow from the cash flow statement by sales: cash king margin = free cash flow / sales
Let's take McDonald's as an example. In the four quarters ending in December, the restaurateur generated $6.97 billion in operating cash flow. It invested about $3.05 billion in property, plant, and equipment. To calculate free cash flow, subtract McDonald's investment from its operating cash flow. That leaves us with $3.92 billion in free cash flow, which the company can save for future expenditures or distribute to shareholders.
Taking McDonald's sales of $25.5 billion over the same period, we can figure that the company has a cash king margin of about 14% -- a nice high number. In other words, for every dollar of sales, McDonald's produces $0.14 in free cash.
Ideally, we'd like to see the cash king margin top 10%. The best blue chips can notch numbers greater than 20%, making them true cash dynamos. But some businesses, including many types of retailing, just can't sustain such margins.
We're also looking for companies that can consistently increase their margins over time, which indicates that their competitive position is improving. Erratic swings in margins could signal a deteriorating business, or perhaps some financial skullduggery; you'll have to dig deeper to discover the reason.
Four companies
Here are the cash king margins for four industry peers over a few periods.
Company | Cash King Margin (TTM) | 1 Year Ago | 3 Years Ago | 5 Years Ago |
Union Pacific | 11.6% | 13.8% | 6.0% | 4.8% |
Canadian National Railway | 13.4% | 15.0% | 11.9% | 13% |
Norfolk Southern | 7.5% | 9.6% | 7.0% | 10.5% |
Source: S&P Capital IQ
Both Union Pacific and Canadian National Railway meet our 10% threshold for attractiveness, and both have higher cash king margins than they did five years ago. Also, Union Pacific offers a 2% dividend yield and Canadian National Railway offers a 1.7% yield. CSX's current cash king margins are also higher than they were five years ago, but they have fluctuated a great deal over that time period, and are 50% lower than they were last year. Norfolk Southern's margins have also seen some fluctuation over the past five years, and have declined by three percentage points from five years ago. However, CSX offers a reasonable dividend yield of 2.3%, and Norfolk Southern offers a healthy 2.7% yield.
While Union Pacific has suffered along with many other businesses from a struggling economy, it has benefited from the high energy prices we've seen over the last few years, as many companies realize it's cheaper to transport their goods via train. Along with Canadian National Railway, Union Pacific has also managed to profit from the fact that there is insufficient pipeline coverage in areas like North Dakota, which produces a great deal of energy from the Bakken Shale and needs a way to ship it.
Also, unlike CSX and Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific doesn't rely heavily on coal shipping. This has sheltered it from some of the revenue losses seen by these other companies due to reduced demand for coal caused by a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing and the fact that many businesses are moving from coal to lower-priced alternatives like natural gas.
The cash king margin can help you find highly profitable businesses, but it should only be the start of your search. The ratio does have its limits, especially for fast-growing small businesses. Many such companies reinvest all of their cash flow into growing the business, leaving them little or no free cash -- but that doesn't necessarily make them poor investments. Conversely, the formula works better for slower-growing blue chips. You'll need to look closer to determine exactly how a company is using its cash.
Still, if you can cut through the earnings headlines to follow the cash instead, you might be on the path toward seriously great investments.
Another possible great investment in rail is CSX. With 21,000 miles of track serving two-thirds of the U.S. population, CSX maintains a valuable proprietary asset. Still, this railroad will face difficult obstacles in the years ahead due to a domestic surplus of natural gas and coal's declining popularity. To help investors better understand how CSX can deal with these challenges, The Motley Fool has released a brand-new premium research report authored by Isaac Pino, industrials bureau chief and transportation expert. Isaac provides an in-depth look at CSX's competitive advantages, risk areas, and prospects for the future. Simply click here now to access your copy of this invaluable investor's resource.
The article Is Union Pacific a Cash King? originally appeared on Fool.com.
Jim Royal has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Canadian National Railway and McDonald's. The Motley Fool owns shares of McDonald's. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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As reported Friday, General Electric concluded 2010 with $14.2 billion in profit, for which the Internal Revenue Service is paying them a tax benefit of $3.2 billion, thanks to a shrewd use of U.S. tax loopholes, aggressive lobbying and favorable international tax provisions. They're far from alone.
Gallery: 15 Major Corporate Tax Dodgers
"Companies are becoming much more sophisticated in the way they arbitrage the U.S. tax system," says Howard Gleckman, a resident fellow at The Urban Institute, which analyzes economic issues in the U.S. "GE is not the only one, there are many other companies doing the same thing."
Last year, Google reduced its tax burden by $3.1 billion by altering its tax practices. Boeing hasn't paid any federal corporate income taxes in the last three years, despite earning $10 billion in domestic pre-tax profit. Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Forest Laboratories habitually avoid paying U.S. income taxes by recording profits in a country a world away from where the sales occur. (For reference, interactive explanations of the tax strategies of Google and GE can be found here and here.) A study released in 2008 by the Government Accountability Office concluded that 57 percent of U.S. companies doing business in the country paid " no federal income taxes for at least one year between 1998 and 2005."
"Companies don't even have to be creative," says Robert Willens, a taxation professor at Columbia Business School. "All they have to do is attribute or ascribe as much income as possible to foreign subsidiaries." Companies register their intangible assets—intellectual property, for example—and income outside of the U.S. and register their liabilities and expenses in the U.S. to effectually reduce their taxable domestic income. Ireland and the Caribbean Islands are common tax havens.
"It doesn't matter where your corporate headquarters is. If you're Google, your income is I.P.… the patents aren't registered in the U.S. For drug companies, the income is earned to their Irish subsidiary," says Gleckman. "When you say that a company is in the U.S., I don't exactly know what that means."
Critics argue that the avoidance of corporate income tax hurts the economy and hampers domestic investment and job creation, but defenders of the practices argue it's the only way their companies can stay competitive on a global scale as the American corporate tax rate of 35 percent is one of the highest in the world. (The average effective corporate tax rate is closer to 25 percent.) This month, Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, announced his desire to cut the top tax rate for corporations and individuals to 25 percent, but it remains unclear where the revenue to support such a change would come from.
"GE is a symptom of a much bigger problem and GE management uses the tax code for their benefit," says Gleckman. "I'm not offended by GE, I'm offended by a tax system that allows this to go on. They have an obligation to their shareholders and their workers to maximize after-tax profits."
Of course, the irony is that GE Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt is the same person Barack Obama appointed to head the panel of external economic advisers created in 2009 to help steer the U.S. out of the economic crisis. Says Willens, "When [Immelt] was appointed to that position, people who had familiarity with GE's tax practices had a good laugh, which are rare for tax professionals."
In highlighting 15 of the major corporate tax dodgers, The Daily Beast focused on the largest American companies, as well as ones that are notorious in accounting circles for consistency in doing whatever they can to minimize their U.S. tax liability.


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About Ayacucho
"Capital of Folk Arts and Handicrafts"
"The City of Churches"
The region of Ayacucho has traces of human activity from more than 20 thousand years. His story begins with the remains found in cave Piquimachay, one of the oldest stone era remains in South America. His territory was the domain of cultures Warpa, Wari, Chancas and then the Incas.
Spaniards founded Ayacucho city in 1539. They gave it the name of "San Juan de la Frontera de Huamanga". In 1542 the city obtained the name of "San Juan de la Victoria" changing then into a new name "Huamanga". But since 1824 the liberator Simón Bolívar called it "Ayacucho" after the last battle between the patriotic forces and freedom from Spanish royalist forces. After the battle of Ayacucho, Peru gained its full independence from the Crown of Spain.
The city of Ayacucho, or Huamanga, is famous for its craftsmen, with a rich cultural heritage of Andean ancestors. It is the city of churches, where the Christian fervor reaches its peak each year in celebration of Holy Week (Easter) and also highlights the celebration of Carnival.
Ayacucho is also known because there is a tradition in the city that all houses must have a little church, or a bull, on the roof of the house.
During the Spanish colonial era, this beautiful city was one of the most important in Peru, for its strategic location on the road between Cuzco to Lima, by the presence of obrajes (textile industry), as well as the central supplier of food the great Santa Barbara mine in Huancavelica. Are testimony to its colonial palaces, the mansions and the great squares, which merges the art of the indigenous Andean and Spanish.
Ayacucho City Overview
Central zone from the Andes, 2,760 meters above sea level (9,055 feet).
Distances to Ayacucho:
221,000 inhabitants
Ayacucho Guide
Historical Center of Ayacucho: Ayacucho walking around, is to travel by narrow streets, such as braided necklace, transposing beautiful old colonial houses and churches and convents that are priceless art treasures inside. You move trough people who are very humble, native dresses and suits with their ancient and colorful. Browse discourse Ayacucho is a living museum of the colony, which blend the ancient traditions and indigenous arts with the Spanish. Stroll through the shops of artisans in the neighborhood of Santa Ana, is dazzling art that comes from his hands, his ancestral inspiration ... .
Religious Monuments and Churches of Ayacucho: One can imagine the symphony of bells on the colonial era, the work of builders, artisans and painters, Andean and Spanish. The noted architect Hector Velarde said: "The coastal influences coming from Lima, Cuzco brought from the mountain, formed a stately architecture with a lot of the plastic and Moorish coast and much of the austere stone of the Andean." Ayacucho in his day competing for possession of opulence among the best and most beautiful churches in Peru, which is why, today the city also has earned the name "city of churches."
Archaeological Places around Ayacucho: The territory of Ayacucho, is one of the first historical traces of human presence in South America. It goes back to 20 thousand years B.C.. Ancient civilizations inhabited this region, as Warpas (250 - 500 B.C.). Between the VII and XII century was dominated by the Wari Empire, and its decay were absorbed by the Chancas Empire. Pachacutec Inca conquered the region and submitted to the Inca empire in the XV century. Notable archaeological places as Vilcashuaman, Wari and Piquimachay.
Handicraft made in Ayacucho: The popular range of artistic expression that occurs in Ayacucho has no parallel in Peru. The ancient Andean tradition of art fused with artistic expression brought by the Spanish conquest. Currently, the Ayacucho artisans have developed techniques and impressive expressions of art. Highlights the colorful altars (retablos), the mates burilados, weaving, stone carving Huamanga, pottery, silver filigree and Sarhua tables.
Holy Week in Ayacucho: Is one of the most famous religious festivals in all of Peru. Of Spanish origin, represents the passion and death of Christ on Calvary. All people of Ayacucho are involved. Each year brings thousands of tourists coming from all parts of Peru and abroad to participate in the devotion of the religious and secular rich folklore that happens in the celebrations. Residents of nearby villages come in hundreds or thousands, organized into caravans. Every day he made massive religious processions and demonstrations, accompanied by folk dances. In parallel, craft fairs, livestock and festivals.
Ayacucho city is the capital of Ayacucho department, and it counts with a comfortable hotels and restaurants infrastructure that will provide you will all the needs your visit requires. It is recommended not less than a two-day visit. Daily flights and bus services.
Ayacucho (Quechua language aya - kuchu that means "The death ones corner")
- Ayacucho Travel Guide
- Historical Center of Ayacucho City
- Religious Monuments and
Churches in Ayacucho - Archaeological Places in Ayacucho


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Last year's labor protests across the Midwest rattled the country. They shook Republican politicians who thought they'd have an easy time erasing union workers' rights. They spurred thousands of rank-and-filers into action. They rejuvenated a beaten down progressive movement and forced middle-class progressives to rediscover the language of class and workers' rights. They inspired talk of tactics and ideologies that haven't been tried since the 1930s. They laid the groundwork for the emergence of a new and vibrant protest movement that spread nationwide.
And they reminded Americans of the value of organized labor. People who'd never been part of a union stood and marched, rallied and voted, knocked on their neighbors' doors to gather signatures on petitions for recall elections and a ballot referendum.
"For all its faults, the National Labor Relations Act established that it is the policy of the US government to encourage collective bargaining," Jacob Remes, assistant professor of public affairs and history at SUNY Empire State College, told AlterNet. "The New Deal established collective bargaining as a fundamental part of democracy—what they called industrial democracy. We talk about how the New Deal era has ended, but I think one of the great things about these fights is that they reminded people—politicians, pundits, the populace—that despite the decline of the rest of the New Deal, we still believe in at least this element of industrial democracy."
In Wisconsin, despite over 100,000 protesting in the streets of Madison and a weeks-long occupation of the Capitol, Governor Scott Walker signed Act 10 into law, stripping around 175,000 public workers of their right to bargain collectively with their bosses over anything but wages. Wisconsinites turned to recall elections to express their anger; they recalled two Republican state senators and are now working on getting rid of Gov. Walker.
"One of the things people we represent now see is the value of their collective bargaining agreements," Marty Beil of AFSCME Council 24 told AlterNet. "Workers come in and they take for granted all the protections and benefits and processes. Now that there's no collective bargaining agreement and management can do what they want with you, folks are getting a better understanding of the value of their union."
In Ohio, state law allowed workers to get SB5, the anti-union bill, on the ballot as a referendum in 2011 and overturn it by a substantial margin. While that hasn't stifled Governor John Kasich's attacks on workers, it has certainly limited his ability to directly crack down on union power. The anti-labor Right hasn't rested, though, and it is still pushing other bills—and even a constitutional amendment—that would undermine unions in other ways.
It's obvious that the conditions on the ground for working people in Wisconsin and Ohio are very different. AlterNet took a look at the struggles of public workers in both states—what it's like to have lost collective bargaining rights, the endless string of new attacks on workers, and what people in both states are doing to fight back.
Missing Collective Bargaining in Wisconsin
For those watching Wisconsin after last year's protests, most of the news has been of recall elections—last year, the recalls of two Republican state senators and this year's recall of Scott Walker, his lieutenant governor and four more state senators, launched with a petition signed by over one million people.
But in the meantime, Walker's Act 10 went into effect June 29, 2011, instantly stripping collective bargaining rights from some 175,000 Wisconsin public employees, and the recalls have yet to produce changes in the law.
According to information gathered by the Institute for Wisconsin's Future, a state worker who earns $40,000 a year, under Act 10, has lost an average of $3,668 from her paycheck. "That's $70 a week cut from a family budget, $70 weekly which cannot be spent at local stores," they point out. They also estimate the loss to local economies caused by the pay cuts and hikes in the workers' side contributions to health insurance premiums will be over $700 million—and that taking that money out of Wisconsin's economy will lead to the loss of nearly 7,000 private-sector jobs in the first year of the governor's austerity budget.
And it's not just wages that have been lost. "Regardless of what happens with the recall, we're probably not going to be able to completely roll back the increases in contributions on health insurance and pensions," Jenni Dye, an attorney and candidate for Dane County Board, told AlterNet.
Meanwhile, under Act 10, unions are now required to recertify each year, holding an election that requires 51 percent support of all employees in the bargaining unit—even if some of them choose not to vote. This means that, unlike political elections in this country, any non-vote is counted as a "no." In large bargaining units, made up of thousands of workers, Beil said, that makes recertification nearly impossible, and many of the unions didn't try.
For those that did go through the recertification process, Act 10 placed extreme limits on what they can bargain over—wages only, up to a capped increase at the consumer price index. (The AFL-CIO noted that there is no such cap on non-union workers' wage increases.) Vacations, benefits, working conditions, sick days, overtime—bargaining for any of that is expressly forbidden.
Now Walker has even refused to negotiate with the unions willing to jump through all these hoops to comply with his law. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports that two of the unions, the State Professional Education and Information Council #1 and the Wisconsin State Attorneys Association, have filed unfair labor practice complaints against Walker's administration because it has refused to set a date for negotiations—and as many as four other unions might also file suit. These unions have gone through elections, finishing, according to Beil, in December of last year, and have been trying to get Walker to come to the bargaining table ever since. Dye said that Walker's refusal to negotiate proves that his goal was always "to see an end to collective bargaining, period, in Wisconsin."
Beil represents, among others, workers at the state's correctional institutions, who are openly being told by their bosses that they simply have no union anymore. Yet the unions keep fighting for the workers, even without official recognition. AFSCME and others have to use the courts or administrative hearings to fight for the workers. Beil called it "a campaign of suppression and intimidation."
Beil told a story of guards at a women's correctional facility, who get sent along with inmates when they have to go to the hospital to hold a "vigil." If one of the guards has to use the bathroom while waiting, they are now required to call the prison, get a replacement sent out, and not use the bathroom until they have returned to their post at the prison. "Workers are every day subject to this kind of abuse and degradation. There's absolutely no dignity in the workplace anymore," he said.
Wisconsin's teachers, are also feeling the loss of their protections at work, with new handbooks replacing their old union contracts, containing strict and arbitrary rules on dress code and restrictions on their outside-of-work activities. In New Berlin, teachers reported [PDF] that not only were workdays for teachers getting longer with no pay increases, but that teachers must adhere to a dress code that includes skirts below the knee, no jeans, no open shirts, and that they can be dismissed for the crime of having students as "friends" on Facebook. They are also required to report any traffic incidents or tickets to their school district.
"'Moral turpitude' is a standard [officials] are trying to now use in very vague ways," Dye said.
And because Act 10 expressly forbids collective bargaining, Dye noted, some districts are worried that if they collaborate with teachers to design an employee handbook that is fair to all, they could actually be in violation of the law.
But workers haven't given up, and are finding new ways to fight despite the loss of their union protections. "The decertified unions in Wisconsin are in some ways a return to a world before collective bargaining was the sine qua non of a union. This is scary, certainly, but some unions might find it liberating. It allows them the opportunity to experiment with new ways of building power," Remes pointed out.
In Madison, the teachers' union, Madison Teachers Incorporated, is playing a large role in school board elections, because those school board officials once in office have the ability to write rules for the teachers. Dye, who decided to run for office after being deeply involved in last year's Capitol protests and occupation, noted, "It's even more important that we have strong candidates and strong elected officials on school boards, county boards, because now those officials have so much more power and control over our public employees."
Dye and others like her, running for office around the state or joining up with insurgent campaigns as organizers, are part of a movement that is determined to bring some rights and respect back to Wisconsin's working people. "It's actually kind of difficult to have a sense of the real movement spirit that is part of the day-to-day life here on the ground," Peter Rickman, a union organizer and former leader of Wisconsin's Teaching Assistants Association, told AlterNet. "We've gone from feeling like the right-wing is ascendant, to now—not only have we staged a dramatic fight-back at the Capitol, but collective action is a part of everyone's day-to-day lives."
Rickman pointed out that the organizing happening now is bringing together community groups, political organizations and unions, building new organizations (many under the umbrella of We Are Wisconsin) that can last beyond one protest or one election cycle. "We do rallies and we do protests and we do direct action in addiction to voter contact. We have strength in numbers, the 1 percent has the money," he said.
The logo that became ubiquitous during last spring's protests, the state of Wisconsin redesigned as a blue clenched fist, is still everywhere, Rickman said, a sort of talisman for those involved in the movement. "When you have the blue fist button folks will come up to you and say 'Here's what I've been doing, what are you up to?' We have a real social movement on the ground, and it involves everyday people."
Beating Back Mini-SB5s in Ohio
In Ohio, state law allows for a "Citizens' Veto" of a law passed by the legislature and signed by the governor—and the citizens took advantage, first gathering 1.3 million signatures on a petition to overturn Senate Bill 5, the anti-union law, 6,000 volunteers dancing them in a parade down to the Secretary of State's office, and then resoundingly defeating the law in an off-year ballot referendum that saw record voter turnout.
"It got people to start thinking about the role of labor in Ohio," Brian Rothenberg, executive director of ProgressOhio, told AlterNet. "You can almost thank John Kasich and the Republicans because it woke up a lot of Ohioans who had been bombarded by talk radio and had forgotten what labor meant to them."
But Kasich and Ohio Republicans—and even some Democrats—aren't done trying to eliminate union power just yet. Jason Perlman of the Ohio AFL-CIO told AlterNet that they're seeing attempts around the state to revive bits and pieces of SB5 in local legislation, attacking workers' rights by dribs and drabs.
One development is a new plan to overhaul Cleveland's schools—and like the emergency manager provisions in Michigan, give officials the power to break existing contracts with workers. "Really, if this happens, they can do what they want, no contract has meaning, the school board has no more power of authority. It's a little authoritarian in its concept," Perlman said.
Workers are still facing pressure to take pay cuts (the same rhetoric around "shared sacrifice" hasn't gone away) and many have faced cuts to their benefits as well. Perlman noted, "I think people are still unfortunately confused as to what they perceive a public employee actually making. The other side did a very good job of portraying public workers as overpaid and underworked."
The Dayton Daily News reported that five local governments stopped paying 100 percent of their employees' insurance premiums in 2011, requiring employees to contribute part of the costs. In the city of Moraine, unions have agreed to pay freezes, job cuts, and the city has doubled the deductible on its employees' healthcare plans. Public employees have been making concessions on their contracts for years, Perlman noted, but they understand that right now they still may have to give up a bit more to show good faith. "I'm hoping and believing that this is a one step back, two steps forward process," he said.
But Rothenberg pointed out that in Ohio, at least, the employees still have a seat at the bargaining table, and that has an impact on the entire economy; when union workers get better wages, it helps set the standard for non-union workers' pay as well.
Meanwhile, while union workers are giving up hard-won wages and benefits, others in the state are pushing for a misleadingly named "Right-To-Work" law—they're working to get the provision, which defunds unions by allowing employees represented by a union not to pay the costs of representation, passed as a constitutional amendment. To get an amendment on the ballot this year, they need around 381,000 signatures by July 4—which Perlman said seems unlikely. And, he noted, even many Republicans have distanced themselves from the proposal, which is being pushed by Tea Party groups and the Associated Builders and Contractors of Ohio.
While the anti-union crowd might be having trouble getting signatures together for their no-rights-at-work agenda, Rothenberg said that the progressive and pro-labor coalition that overturned SB5 is in great shape, having just collected signatures to redo how redistricting is done in Ohio. And Perlman appreciates the help from community groups. It's nice to see people who aren't union leaders discussing the benefits of unions, he noted. "When people see the head of a labor union talking about the good things they do, of course he's going to say that."
Beyond the benefits of unions in the workplace, though, Rothenberg argued that part of the reason Ohio is in a better place right now is that it is not reliant on politicians—the citizens had to find other means by which to fight their governor's regressive agenda. "The lesson of Wisconsin and Ohio is that those citizens can be organized and they can make a difference regardless of who's in power."
In both Wisconsin and Ohio, what started as an attack on public employee unions that a couple of Tea Party governors thought they could sneak past the public has turned into a vibrant people's movement. Perlman pointed out that for a long time, workers had grown used to a middle-class lifestyle and were distanced from the fights of the labor movement that had won them decent wages and benefits in the first place. The attacks they've faced in the past year, and particularly in Wisconsin, the struggles workers face every day now that they have lost collective bargaining, have woken them up to the reality that the other side wants to eliminate all their rights.
"For a long time the American worker has had it good enough, they've had something to lose," Perlman said. "I think people are finally starting to realize that we no longer have it good enough."


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BurgerFi celebrated its newest fast-casual restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on October 1.
The restaurant, located at 1235 S. University Avenue, is right in the heart of the University of Michigan area and the first BurgerFi to open in the state. There are more restaurants in development for Michigan in the near future.
BurgerFi restaurants feature a wide variety of popular all-natural, U.S.-sourced Angus beef burgers made from grass-fed cattle and served with a variety of topping options. The natural Angus is free of antibiotics, hormones, and additives providing a healthier and more flavorful beef for consumers.
The diverse menu options continue with fresh hand cut french fries, onion rings, Kobe beef hot dogs, a made-in-house quinoa veggie burger, freshly prepared custards, concretes, natural cane sugar colas, craft beer selections, wine, and more.
The more than 4,000-square-foot Ann Arbor location will seat approximately 100 and will feature a full liquor bar with alcohol varieties of its popular dessert concretes.
"We are excited that our first location in Michigan is in this wonderful college town and look forward to introducing our unique all-natural burger concept to the campus community," says the company's director of operations and development, Josh Lorence. "We want this location to become a popular game day destination for locals and visitors to experience."
Each BurgerFi restaurant is built according to environmentally sustainable best practices and includes earth-friendly elements. Chairs are made from recycled Coke bottles, tables are made out of compressed recycled wood, and large fans use 66 percent less electricity. Protecting and preserving the environment is one of the core values of BurgerFi and the company prides itself on maintaining a low carbon footprint. The chain has strict recycling programs in place for all its oil, cardboard, bottles, and cans at each restaurant location.
The Ann Arbor BurgerFi operation hours will be 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. daily.


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Koei's popular action-strategy franchise, Dynasty Warriors, is now also available for the PSP. For the most part, it's a decent melee combat game that should appeal to anyone that enjoys button-mashers like Gauntlet Legends or Onimusha… especially those people who also think that Chinese history is super cool.
The player's role is that of a general in one of the three major dynasties that co-existed in China roughly 2,000 years ago. There are more than 20 different generals to pick from, many of which actually lived and fought on the battlefield during that hectic period. Each general has his or her own unique look and weapon, as well as attributes in areas such as health, power, defense, and growth. The ultimate goal is to guide your general through all of the missions in the "musou" mode, so that his emperor and dynasty will overcome the others and obtain the prime spot in China's historical record. And yes, that also means there are three different story paths and three different endings to see.
If you're not keen on strategy games, don't worry–Dynasty Warriors doesn't bog the player down in stats and charts. Before each mission, you have to select up to four lieutenants to accompany you into battle. They have their own attributes in the basic skill areas, but they also bring varying numbers of additional troops into battle, as well as give your general access to certain magical abilities that can really come in handy. During battle, the CPU controls all of the other lieutenants and troops, leaving you to concentrate on your own one-man badass. The different areas on the battlefield are represented by squares on a "game board." You move between areas one square at a time, like you would if you were playing a board game, but the actual combat takes place in large 3D environments just like those you've traversed in traditional beat 'em ups. The only overtly strategic aspect that you really need to keep track of is supplies, which are measured quite simply as time. You have to rout the enemy and capture their home base on the game board before you run out of time. Luckily, there are depot areas that can give you an extra 5 or 10 minutes on the clock when you need them.
Otherwise, this game is an action game like any other. The battles are probably larger in scale than you're used too, but the general idea is still the same–stab, stab, stab, repeat. The analog stick and main buttons let you move around, jump, and block, of course, as well as use your melee weapon, a multi-shot bow, or your general's musou attack (which is just fancy talk for a flashy multi-attack combo). Most enemies only take a few hits to kill, although some units, such as captains and generals, can absorb loads of damage. The opposing generals are basically the bosses of the game. They're pretty powerful, just like you, and they often have special abilities, just like you do. Each enemy you kill takes away from the opposing army's morale. When their morale drops to nothing, they'll retreat and leave you in control of that particular patch of land. Your own army's morale isn't necessarily as important, since it decreases at such a slow pace, but it is very possible to end up at the "game over" screen anyway if your character dies or you run out of time.
Unlike the PS2 Dynasty Warriors games, the PSP game doesn't make players hunt around for food items in order to reclaim health. Supply forts situated on the game board let you heal your troops at the cost of a little bit of time. The PSP game also implements experience-based leveling in much the same manner as role-playing games do. For every enemy you kill, you'll earn a few points that will accrue until your general reaches the next level, which in turn will make him stronger, give him more health, augment his defense, and so forth.
The battles in Dynasty Warriors are large-scale. We're talking massive. It's not uncommon to round a corner and see upwards of 50 soldiers just going at it with their swords and poles. The best part is that you can just run into the middle of the group and use your musou attack to lay waste to a dozen or more of the enemy in one fell swoop. Late in the game, you'll end up fighting against enemies on horseback and elephants, and sometimes you'll come across tank-like wooden vehicles that spew flame. If ever there was a video game version of Braveheart , this is it.
Unfortunately, the PSP doesn't handle all of those visible bodies as well as the PS2 does. It's understandable that the dev team had to simplify the backgrounds and characters a little. They were in a hurry to ship the game in time for the system's launch, and, actually, the character models are still fairly intricate and there are still plenty of different attack animations. But, dear lord, the sight distance is horrible. And there's so much slowdown too. The sight distance is so short that troops, buildings, and scenery just "pop" into view as you move. Meanwhile, the slowdown–it's crazy. The game bogs down when there are more than a dozen bodies visible. It's so bad at times that landing in a dogpile can literally slow the game down to a slideshow.
I also have a personal gripe with the status and map displays–which occupy a large portion of the right side of the screen. The PSP has a nice, big wide-screen display, but, for whatever reason, Koei's devs decided to eat up the additional screen real estate with overlays that most people won't glance at more than once per play.
The audio was also scaled back, but only in that the majority of voice comments were removed. All the other trademark Dynasty Warriors sounds (the clang-clang sound effects, the thunderous explosions, the rock music intercut with Asian singers) are here.
All in all, Dynasty Warriors for the PSP offers a friendly mixture of hands-on fighting and strategy. Certainly the game's portable nature and multiple story paths ensure ample bang for your buck. The game's graphical problems are bad enough, however, that you really ought to rent before you buy, if possible, just to see if they're a deal breaker for you.


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Possible Duplicate:
How secure are virtual machines really? False sense of security?
I found out that malware authors check if the hard drive volume name, or network card MAC matches default virtual machine settings or other more esoteric solutions so their malware knows that its in a VM.So I was wondering if a malware can jump out from the VM and harm the physical(host) OS.


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AP DEECET Results 2023 : AP DEECET exam Results will be announced soon.The examination officials is going to release the results for who have been appeared for the AP DEECET 2023 exam.So candidate have to wait until announcement of Results.Candidates are now waiting for their AP DEECET Exam Results to update at Official website. So we are informing such candidates that they will soon able to check their Results.Candidates who appeared in AP DEECET exam and now waiting for their Results will able to check AP DEECET Results 2023 from here.It will soon make an announcement about the official date of Results release. So, students are advised to stay put without worrying about the Results release date. Students can follow up with our page to know the updates. Aspirants are advised to stay connected with us for more updates.
AP DEECET Results 2023 Important Dates
Name Of The Examination | AP DEECET 2023 |
Date Of The Exam | September 2023 |
AP DEECET Results date | October 2023 |
Status | to be released soon |
AP DEECET 2023 Results – Download CutOff Merit List
After completing the exams aspirants who are very eager to know the Results can visit the official website and are requested to stay connected with as we will update the news as soon as updates are available on the official portal.The conducting body will make to announce the AP DEECET Results cutoff and merit list for who have appeared the exam. So, Aspirants need to check the Results cutoff and download the Merit List in pdf from the official website of AP DEECET. Many of the candidates are eagerly waiting for the Results cutoff & merit list.
AP DEECET CutOff 2023
Candidates need to make minimum score equal to the cutoff marks of test for qualify the exam. Candidates can check here AP DEECET Expected Cutoff Marks 2023 according to the category. The cutoff marks of the exam will depend on the following factors- candidate category, no of questions in test, difficulty level of test, time duration of test, marking scheme of the test, ect.
How to Check AP DEECET Results 2023
Candidates have to be followed to download the Results in online.
- Click on below link to check Results.
- Now, search for Results link on the homepage.
- Click on that particular link
- Now enter the required details like roll number,date of birth etc.
- After, that click on the submit button.
- Here you can view your "AP DEECET Results 2023" on the display.
- Download and take out the hard copy for future references.
AP DEECET Merit List 2023
Aspirants who have been participated in the AP DEECET Exam 2023 those will able to check the AP DEECET Merit list of the exam from its official website. Candidates can get the obtained marks in the by name & roll number of the examination. We have mentioned upper a direct link to get the merit list of the exam. As the AP DEECET Exam Marks will out you will able to check it from here.Here, we are providing the details related the AP DEECET Merit List 2023.


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At lunchtime on Monday July 21, 1969 people thronged the ground floor of Sydney's David Jones department store, but they were not there to shop.
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All eyes were fixed on a television set perched high on the perfume counter.
Across the country similar crowds stared at televisions in shops, banks, pubs and airports and mothers at home held tiny tots up to the screen.
In grainy black and white, 600 million people around the world saw a man clamber down a ladder and step onto the Moon.
That man was US astronaut Neil Armstrong and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin was down the ladder soon after.
Few watching knew the images had been streamed from the Moon to receiving stations in Australia.
Between 1969 and 1972, 12 astronauts walked on the Moon, setting up experiments and collecting rocks and soil.
The Apollo program that took them there involved 400,000 people and cost more than US$20 billion - about $218 billion in today's dollars, but what drove this huge effort?
Game on
The USA had been jolted into action by a metal sphere the size of a beach ball - 'Sputnik', the first human-made satellite, launched on October 4, 1957 by the USA's Cold War rival, the communist Soviet Union.
Both countries had declared they would launch satellites and the Soviets had beaten the USA to the punch.
Sputnik stunned the West, its launch front page news of the New York Times.
The Soviet Union also won the next round of the space race. On April 12, 1961 it became the first country to launch a person into space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
The USA launched its own astronaut, Alan Shepard, less than a month later.
But a week after Gagarin's triumph, the failed, US-backed Cuban invasion drove Cuba and the Soviet Union closer together.
US president John F. Kennedy was looking for a win against the Soviets.
He wrote to his vice president, Lyndon Johnson.
"Do we have a chance of beating the Soviets by putting a laboratory in space, or by a trip around the Moon, or by a rocket to land on the Moon, or by a rocket to go to the Moon and back with a man?" Kennedy asked.
Johnson consulted widely.
One answer came from Wernher von Braun, director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Marshall Space Flight Center.
"[W]e have an excellent chance of beating the Soviets to the first landing of a crew on the Moon," von Braun wrote.
The task was formidable, but NASA head James Webb and Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara backed it.
So on May 25, 1961 President Kennedy addressed a joint sitting of both houses of Congress.
"I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth," he said.
The race to the Moon had begun.
The plan
The USA was nowhere near ready to land an astronaut on the Moon.
NASA ran the non-military side of the US space program and at the time Kennedy addressed Congress, it had launched just one astronaut into space - and not even into orbit.
It had no rocket for taking astronauts to the Moon with the rocket's design reliant on the exact plan for getting to the Moon's surface.
After furious debate, NASA settled on a way called 'lunar orbit rendezvous'.
The main spacecraft would go into orbit around the Moon and a lander would separate and go down to the surface.
To return, part of the lander would lift off the Moon and dock with the main craft, which would then fly back to Earth.
This was more complicated than landing a rocket directly on the Moon but would use far less fuel.
That key decision taken, in January 1962, NASA announced it was starting to design the Moon rocket, a Saturn V, the most powerful rocket ever made.
The turning point
NASA ramped up its spaceflight program to give astronauts practice with rendezvous and docking procedures.
It also sent space probes to view the Moon's surface.
The Apollo flights tested technology and procedures, and the first crewed flight was Apollo 7 in October 1968.
The Soviet Union was also going ahead and in February 1966, an uncrewed Soviet probe made the first successful Moon landing.
The Soviets seemed to be in the lead but only because they publicised their successes, and kept their failures quiet.
They had problems, but in September 1968 the Soviet Union sent the first living beings - tortoises and others - around the Moon and returned them safely to Earth.
Taking its biggest gamble, in December 1968 NASA launched Apollo 8, sending three astronauts into orbit around the Moon then back to Earth, putting the USA ahead.
Still aiming at a crewed landing, the Soviets focussed on a heavy booster rocket, but after four failed test launches the design was abandoned in 1976.
Meanwhile NASA made the final Apollo test flights. Apollo 9 in March 1969 tested lunar module rendezvous and docking procedures, while the Apollo 10 in May 1969 saw two astronauts descend in the lunar module almost to the Moon's surface.
The stage was set for Apollo 11 - the first Moon landing ... and Australia was getting ready to play its part.
- One Giant Leap is a joint initiative with CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.


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SheStarts is the only venture-backed accelerator program for women-led startups in Australia.
SheStarts is an accelerator program like no other. Turbocharging women entrepreneurs to build big tech ideas, with the help of:
Our involvement in SheStarts allows us to identify opportunities for collaboration and investment while supporting the founders to start, run and grow their businesses.
Carina Parisella, ANZ
SheStarts gave us access to an amazing community of founders and advisors, not to mention exposure to customers and investors...and most importantly, continued support to help us grow.
Dr Claire Jenkins, Vetchat
SheStarts gave me the opportunity to step away from my 'safe' career and launch a business that's going to change the world.
Jessica Christiansen-Franks, Neighbourlytics
Be part of the journey every step of the way


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Waitress may have pies, but a particularly soggy cake is heading to the stage, and we don't think that we can take it ('cause it took so long to bake it). A Donna Summer bio-musical is in development, and according to the New York Post, a recent reading took place with Des McAnuff at the helm. Choreographer Sergio Trujillo, who worked with McAnuff on Jersey Boys, is also on board.
The show is designed to follow the disco diva at three stages in life: childhood, the height of her stardom and the subsequent fall (Summer died in 2012 following a battle with lung cancer). Ariana DeBose, who appeared as the Bullet in Hamilton and will return to the stage this fall in A Bronx Tale, played Summer at her height in the workshop; Broadway alum Katrina Lenk took on the gender-bending role of Summer's husband and manager Helmuth Sommer.
The show follows a similar structure to the previously announced Cher bio-musical, which, according to the Twitter poet laureate herself, will receive a reading of sorts in the near future. That show will feature a book by Rick Elice, who penned the McAnuff-helmed Jersey Boys.


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New American Bible
The New American Bible (NAB) is the modern Catholic translation of the Bible for Americans. It was first published in 1970 and quickly replaced the Confraternity Bible as the most widely used by Catholic parishes. It is one of two specifically Catholic translations in modern English which are in wide use today, the other being the New Jerusalem Bible. Some of the phrasing in the New American Bible is extraordinarily good, such as its rendition of Luke 9:62 ("No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God").[1] This version is also one of the very few that wisely disparages the use of hearsay in translating Isaiah 11:3.[2] Its use of the modern term "cruel sport" in 2 Maccabees 7:10 is spot on.[3] Its translation of Matthew 6:34 is better than most, by using the word "evil" rather than "trouble": "Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil." But some other phrasing in the New American Bible is awkward or outdated.
It is based on the Douay-Rheims Bible and the Confraternity Bible but with more modern language, and some changes to the wording making it more "inclusive". The New American Bible was initially controversial and ultimately rejected by the Vatican because this translation replaced male-gendered human language with "gender-neutral" terms. This translation was subsequently revised as the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE) in part to restore fidelity to the original ancient texts.[4] The 1991 changes, in particular, are controversial because they replaced male-gendered human language with "gender-neutral" terms. Some traditional Catholics reject the New American Bible as a liberal translation and favor the use of the Douay-Rheims and Confraternity Bibles.
The NAB inconsistently translates the Holy Spirit as the gender-neutral "it" in one place (see Acts 8:16[5]), and "he" in another. The NAB also downplays the existence of "hell", instead using substitutes unfamiliar to most people:
- In Mark 9:43-48, the three references to Hell are replaced by "Gehenna". Both the NIV and HCSB use "hell".
The NAB is also authorized by the Episcopal Church in the United States for worship and private devotion.
Outdated or Awkward Translations
The New American Bible has a high percentage of outdated or awkward translations in key passages, including the following examples below. Note that many of these are important passages:
verse | comment |
Exodus 16:14 | The translation uses the bizarre term "hoarfrost" to describe the manna from heaven:
"and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground." |
Leviticus 13:45 | The translation says the following:
The one who bears the sore of leprosy shall keep his garments rent and his head bare, and shall muffle his beard; he shall cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!' Compare the lack of clarity of that to the ESV translation: "The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, 'Unclean, unclean.'" |
Jonah 3:10 | The translation uses an archaic meaning (also used in the King James Version) of "change one's mind" for the word "repent" to refer to God's own decision:
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out. |
Jeremiah 33:15 | The translation uses an extremely unfamiliar meaning of the word ("shoot"), which other versions translate as "Branch" as in a branch of descendants (or offshoot):
In those days, in that time, I will raise up for David a just shoot ... |
Matthew 13:46 | Its translation is "When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it."[6] But "price" should obviously be translated as "value", or else he would gain no benefit from the transaction. |
Mark 6:4 | an awkward compound negative is used that obscures the meaning:
Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house. The NIV and New Jerusalem Bible remove the compound negative and say it directly, as in the NIV version: Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own home is a prophet without honor. |
Mark 9:3 | The translation of the transfiguration of Jesus uses the word "fuller", an Old English word dating prior to 1100 which meant someone who cleans or bleaches clothes:
Mark 9:3 | Also in the passage about the transfiguration of Jesus, this translation uses the archaic phrase "he charged them," rather than "He asked them" or "He told them":
"As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead."[7] |
Mark 16:6 | The translation of the angel's first communication to the holy women at the empty tomb of Jesus after the Resurrection is "do not be amazed," rather than "do not be alarmed" as translated by the Revised English Bible and New Revised Standard Version:
[The angel] said to them, "Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Behold, the place where they had laid him." |
Luke 2:1-5 | Its translation of the census at the time of the birth of Jesus uses the word "enrollment" instead of "census", and uses the word "enrolled" in instead of "registered"; these terms are unfamiliar to most young people who think that enrollment refers to school and do not connect the terms with a census:[8]
Luke 14:26 | Its translation urges the incorrect "hate" with respect to other family members, rather than the truer meaning of wrongly putting someone else's interests above God's. |
John 6:10 | The misleading term "recline" is used to describe the sitting down of the large crowd before the multiplication of the loaves, and virtually every other translation uses "sit down":
John 12:24 | The translation describes a grain of wheat as bearing "fruit", which strikes the average listener as a mistake (the Revised English Bible translates the "produces much fruit" phrase as "bears a rich harvest" and the NIV is clearer still by translating it as "produces many seeds"):
Acts 13:43 | "converts to Judaism"? Compare the NAB translation "Many Jews and worshipers who were converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas" with the NASB translation: "many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas" |
Ephesians 4:17 | The translation mentions the "futility of their minds," when it should be "futility of their thinking." |
- The translation of Hebrews 5:7 uses the obscure word "supplication", which most young people have never heard before (the term is translated as "petitions" in the Revised English Bible and NIV):
- "... [Christ] offered prayers and supplications ...."
- The translation of Acts 9:31, which explains the growth of early Christianity after the acceptance of Saul (Paul), says that the church was built up "with the consolation of the holy Spirit," when most other translations use the clearer term "encouraged" by the Holy Spirit.
- In Acts 2:11, which describes the Pentecost, in which the Apostles spoke in away that enabled listeners having different tongues or languages to understand. The commonly understood term is "language", and the word "tongue" is now arcane. Yet many translations, including the New American Bible and the NIV, still use "tongue" even where "language" would be clearer:
- "... both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God."
- The New Jerusalem Bible, the New Revised Standard Version and the Holman Christian Standard Bible all use the more modern term of "languages" in that verse rather than "tongues".
- ↑ http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/9
- ↑ "and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord. Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide" (NAB).
- ↑ http://www.usccb.org/bible/2maccabees/7
- ↑ Overall, the NAB was revised in 1986, 1991, and 2000.
- ↑ http://www.usccb.org/bible/acts/8
- ↑ http://www.usccb.org/bible/matthew/13
- ↑ http://nccbuscc.org/nab/bible/mark/mark9.htm
- ↑ http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/luke/luke2.htm


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Entrepreneur watch: Africa's version of Foursquare
Ebot Tabi is a Cameroonian software developer and one of the founders of Geofeed.me, a location-based service and application, which allows people to connect and share information about places they visit. The service has been referred to as Africa's version of popular location-based social network Foursquare.
Launched in June 2010, Geofeed.me allows users to interact on their mobile phones or the website, to share and discover recommendations. Users can easily recommend a shop or restaurant to friends and post photos of that place. Geofeed.me learns about the user, personalising those recommendations. One user might see a good rating for a bar, while another will see a bad rating for the same bar, depending on the taste of that user.
"My inspiration behind Geofeed.me is to build a simple and reliable platform for users to be able to share their favourite places and photos and to make it easier for businesses and marketers to push advertisements based on location," says Tabi.
Tabi and his two Nigerian partners are currently working on further improving the network. "The service has received a great deal of media attention and some good feedback. This is giving us a lot of momentum to go ahead and introduce new features and scaling-up the service," he says.
Although the small team is currently focused on growing the service, they eventually plan to generate revenue from location-based ad systems as well as selling geo-location data to marketers.
Being a technology entrepreneur in Cameroon is, however, not without its challenges. "Some of the challenges I face on a daily basis are the availability of reliable internet access at an affordable price and a poor electrical grid system," explains Tabi.
And his message to other technology entrepreneurs on the continent? "Africa has got talent, I have met a lot of them. Technology entrepreneurs in Africa should come out and showcase their talent and make us proud."


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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Many cats are tail talkers. If those tails start to twitch and wag, watch out for fangs and claws, warns cat behaviorist Jackson Galaxy.
If you try to pet a cat when its tail is wagging and get bitten, "You had it coming," says Galaxy, who helps solve behavior problems, both human and feline, on his Animal Planet TV show, "My Cat From Hell."
When a cat's angry enough to wag its tail or the fur on its back stands up, its ears flatten and eyes dilate, the owner needs to figure out what's wrong, he says.
Galaxy figures cats and owners equally share the blame for relationships gone wrong, but when it comes to changing behavior, cats are the easier students — by a wide margin.
His house call kit is a guitar case loaded with cat toys and treats. But there's no magic wand in the box, he says. It takes time and hard work. "You get what you give."
Galaxy, 46, has an usual job — and he's an unusual guy. He's 6-foot-5, bald, wears specs and ear hoops, sports a long goatee, prefers bowling shirts and sneakers, has tattoo "sleeves" and has started tats on his legs so that he'll one day have a "full suit."
He plays the guitar, has a degree in acting and has been addicted to drugs, alcohol and food. He's also written an autobiography, "Cat Daddy."
Galaxy was working at an animal shelter in Colorado more than 15 years ago when a man walked in with a cat in a cardboard box. The cat, named Benny, had been hit by a car and was "unbondable," the man said. Benny and Galaxy spent the next 13 years bonding and developing what Galaxy calls "cat mojo."
He had a practice with a holistic vet before moving to Los Angeles in 2007 and opening a private consulting firm. He was at a pet adoption fair when he met the friend of a friend who introduced him to reality TV producer Adam Greener ("Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition"). "My Cat From Hell" began airing in spring 2011. In each episode, viewers witness owners struggling to find domestic harmony with their cats.
Emilie Bandy and Mike Petriello are fans of Galaxy's show. For seven months, they tried to turn their New York City apartment into a peaceful place for their cats, Olive and Pepper, but Olive attacked Pepper every chance she got. They went to the vet, gave Olive doses of Prozac, searched for answers online and in bookstores, slept in separate rooms so they could each care for one cat, and put planning for their September wedding on hold.
"We were genuinely afraid for the cats' lives if we left them together," Bandy said.
When they learned Galaxy was filming season three of "My Cat From Hell" in Manhattan, they made a video and submitted it. Their problem with Olive and Pepper became the summer's first episode. In it, Galaxy:
— Gives Olive a food dish with a middle bump so she has to eat around it, ensuring that Pepper finishes and leaves first.
— Shows the couple how to build trees and platforms where Pepper can escape if Olive starts to attack. "Build a vertical world," Galaxy says.
— Tells them to stop running every time Olive whines, scratches or throws a temper tantrum. "Don't positively reinforce bad behavior," he says.
It's been three months since the last catfight. Bandy and Petriello are back in the same bedroom, wedding planning is again in full swing, and the couple spends hours each day playing with both cats in the same room.
The cats may never be fast friends, but they are coexisting — and Pepper's confidence is growing.
Karen "Doc" Halligan of Los Angeles calls Galaxy "fabulous," but acknowledges that he's playing to a tough crowd.
"People do not understand the need to train cats and that they need socialization just as much as dogs. Since they have not been domesticated that long, people just think they are independent and don't need it," says the veterinarian, author, TV consultant and director of veterinary services for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Los Angeles.
Besides the show and his consulting work, Galaxy sells his own line of essence oils and is a board member for Stray Cat Alliance and FixNation in Los Angeles and Neighborhood Cats in New York.
Early on, there were a handful of cases that stumped him, but Galaxy believed then that psychotropic drugs were inappropriate for pets. He's changed his mind.
"Why not use holistic, homeopathic measures? Why not use empathic measures? Why not use traditional Western measures? Why not use acupuncture and Prozac on the same cat?" he asked.
Cats have an attention span of about 3 seconds, so Galaxy believes punishment is pointless. "Count to 10, clean up, forgive and move on," he says. Air in a motion-detecting can is great for disciplining cats the instant they misbehave, he says.
Despite cats' short attention span, there is nothing wrong with their memory, he says. Most cats can be taught almost anything, he says, but he doesn't believe a cat should be taught to walk on a leash or jump through hoops just to satisfy an owner. Most cats will feel the same way, he says, but some will enjoy the lessons and the activities.
Galaxy's tattoos include 15 cats (Benny will be on his leg) but he also has three real ones, along with a blind dog.
Does he think cats will one day become doglike and gather in parks, take obedience classes, share play dates and go surfing?
"I totally hope not," he says. "I love cats for who they are. I want everyone to embrace what I call the raw cat."


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Securely Format a Mac Hard Drive
If you want to be absolutely sure your data is wiped clean with virtually no chance of recovery, by anyone, using any possible known recovery tools, look no further than Apple's Disk Utility tool. The process is simple, and it can apply to any Mac drive, whether that's an internal hard drive, external hard drive, and any connected drive of any format, meaning it does not need to just be a Mac drive to become securely formatted.
First a quick explanation of how secure format works: the drive is formatted and cleared of data as usual, but then the drive is rewritten with new randomly generated data, effectively overwriting any existing data on the drive and making it impossible to access or recover. It doesn't stop there though, because that process is repeated multiple times, depending on which setting choice you select when securely formatting a drive. Let's begin:
How to Secure Format a Mac Hard Disk Drive in OS X
- Launch Disk Utility (located in /Applications/Utilities/)
- Select the drive you want securely formatted
- Click on the 'Erase' tab and click the "Security Options" button
- You'll see four available choices, the second two are what we're looking to use
- Select either 7-Pass Erase or 35-Pass Erase, depending on your needs
- Click OK
Note about secure formatting boot volumes: if you're looking to securely format the boot drive you will find it's not accessible through Disk Utility by default. Instead, you will need to boot from another drive or from recovery mode and use secure erase from there.
7-Pass Erase is quite thorough and it meets the US Department of Defense standard for securely erasing media, by erasing the data then writing over it seven times. If the US DoD trusts it for privacy and security, we can expect that to be incredibly secure, but nonetheless there is an absolutely incredible level of security offered through the 35-Pass Erase option, which is even more intense and provides exceptional data deletion security by erasing the data then writing over it 35 times with random patterns of new data. That makes data recovery virtually impossible by any possibly known methods, and it's theoretically 5 times more powerful than the 7 pass method.
Please note that because both 7 and 35 pass are writing over the data repeatedly, the length of time it takes to format the drive in this manner can be considerable (particularly 35 pass since it is doing this 35 times in a row), and it's not unusual on a larger drive for this secure formatting process to take 24 hours. Thus, be prepared for a significant wait time with the stronger formatting options on larger hard drives. Drive speed will also effect how long it takes to secure format.
Of course, if you're not looking to re-use the hard disk for another purpose, the absolute most secure known method of wiping a drives contents from the face of the earth is to first format the drive using an above 7-pass or 35-pass method, and then going a step further by simply physically destroying the drive itself in a thorough manner. Yes, actually destroying the hard drive, and people may use magnets, powerful incinerators, and perhaps most common, a plain old hammer and smashing the drive itself, to achieve the literal destruction of a disk drive and make it impossible to be used or recovered from. If you go the extreme route of drive destruction, pick a safe method and be sure to dispose of the resulting rubbish properly.


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Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren | |||
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8th President of the United States From: March 4, 1837 – March 4, 1841 | |||
Vice President | Richard M. Johnson | ||
Predecessor | Andrew Jackson | ||
Successor | William Henry Harrison | ||
8th Vice President of the United States From: March 4, 1833 – March 4, 1837 | |||
President | Andrew Jackson | ||
Predecessor | John C. Calhoun | ||
Successor | Richard M. Johnson | ||
10th United States Secretary of State From: March 28, 1829 – May 23, 1831 | |||
President | Andrew Jackson | ||
Predecessor | Henry Clay | ||
Successor | Edward Livingston | ||
Former Governor of New York From: January 1, 1829 – March 12, 1829 | |||
Lieutenant | Enos T. Throop | ||
Predecessor | Nathaniel Pitcher | ||
Successor | Enos T. Throop | ||
Former U.S. Senator from New York From: March 4, 1821 – December 20, 1828 | |||
Predecessor | Nathan Sanford | ||
Successor | Charles E. Dudley | ||
Information | |||
Party | Democrat | ||
Spouse(s) | Hannah Hoes Van Buren | ||
Religion | Dutch Reformed |
Martin Van Buren (born as Maarten van Buren, 1782-1862) was an American statesman and the 8th President of the United States of America, 1837 to 1841. He was nicknamed "The Little Magician" and "The Red Fox of Kinderhook" to "Old Kinderhook." He was the main founder of the modern Democrat Party and articulated Jacksonian Democracy.
From his base in New York state he collaborated with Andrew Jackson to create the new Democrat Party, and was campaign director for Jackson his victories in 1828 and 1832. Van Buren was elected himself in 1836, but was unable to reverse the Depression of 1837, and was defeated for reelection by a newly invigorated Whig Party under William Henry Harrison. Temporarily opposed to slavery,[1] he was a leader of the anti-slavery Democrats who supported the Wilmot Proviso against the expansion of slavery, and he founded the Free Soil Party, being its presidential nominee in 1848.
Van Buren was born at Kinderhook (Kinderhoek means children's corner in Dutch), a Dutch town in upstate New York. He was the third child of Abraham Van Buren, a farmer, tavern owner and political activist, and Maria Hoes Van Buren, both of Dutch stock. Martin, a native speaker of Dutch, is the only president who spoke English as a second language. He attended local English schools until he left at age 14 to be a clerk and law apprentice in New York City. Admitted to the bar in 1803, he returned to Kinderhook, where he practiced law until 1821 and gained a reputation as a shrewd politician. In 1807 he married Hannah Hoes, by whom he had four sons before her death in 1819. He did not remarry. Van Buren displayed the qualities of a successful politician. He was able, honest, energetic, imaginative and a glad-hander. A small man, standing no more than five and a half feet (168 cm) tall, he was always impeccably dressed, unruffled, and considerate to friend or foe.
Republican leader
From 1800, when he campaigned for Thomas Jefferson, he remained a resolute Republican. A keen judge of the motives of men, he seldom permitted a difference in politics to interfere with personal friendship. Moreover, he was a middle-of-the-road man, always ready to compromise an issue and at all times ready, as he said, to let the people have what they wanted. He rose rapidly in New York politics, first joining the DeWitt Clinton faction in opposing Aaron Burr and then splitting with Clinton and fighting him for control of the state party. The side-changing gave him a reputation as a fox-like ambitious manipulator; that and his red hair made him "the red fox of Kinderhook." In 1812, Van Buren was elected to the state senate, where he organized and led the "Albany Regency," the anti-Clinton faction. Chosen attorney-general of the state in 1816, he was defeated by the Clinton forces in 1819, but was triumphantly elected to the United States Senate two years later.
In the decades after the War of 1812 increasingly competitive political parties became characterized by greater popular participation and organizational sophistication, in what is called the "Second Party System." Silbey (2002) credits Van Buren the major role in this transformation. He introduced a new level of party organization, unswerving loyalty and recruitment of likely young men as campaigners and candidates, Throughout his career, Silbey contends, Van Buren was "the prime organizer, articulator, and manager of the nation's political conflict."
Because Clinton's followers supported Andrew Jackson for the presidency in 1824, Van Buren aligned himself with the William H. Crawford forces and became their acknowledged leader in the congressional caucus that nominated Crawford. Crawford had a stroke and came in third. In the Senate Van Buren supported the tariff bills but opposed internal improvement measures, possibly affected in this stand by the thought of protecting New York's Erie Canal. Increasingly, however, he became a states' rights man devoted to strict construction views. He was reelected to the Senate in 1827, but resigned to become governor of New York, a position he used briefly to advocate the "safety fund system," which required all banks in the state to ensure each other's financial soundness.
Jacksonian leader
By 1828 he had changed his political allegiance to Jackson, becoming his confidential political adviser and in 1828 managing his election campaign in the northeast. Van Buren was rewarded as secretary of state. Internal factionalism beset Jackson's cabinet; Van Buren opposed Vice President John C. Calhoun. Carefully avoiding any conflicts with Jackson's close friends in the "Kitchen Cabinet" (Jackson's informal advisors) he became one of the most reliable supporters of the president. When Peggy Eaton, wife of the secretary of war, was ostracized by senior officials (on rumors she once was a prostitute), Jackson supported Eaton and Van Buren went out of his way to befriend her. He vigorously supporting Jackson in trying to destroy the Second Bank of the United States, over the opposition of the business community. Van Buren helped Jackson by obtaining the New York legislature's official endorsement of Jackson's stern warnings against South Carolina in the Nullification Crisis. By 1831 Jackson made it clear that Van Buren would be his vice-presidential running mate in 1832. Appointed minister to the Court of St. James (i.e. ambassador to Britain) in 1831, Van Buren arrived in London only to find that Calhoun had blocked his confirmation in the Senate. During the next year he made a tour of Europe and returned to the States after he had been nominated for the vice-presidency. He was elected with Jackson, who defeated Whig Party candidate Henry Clay.
Tammany Hall political machine
Van Buren was infamously known for his exploitation of Irish Catholic immigrants during the 1800s, when during the time Democrats supported mass migration. He had many ties to Tammany Hall, a New York Democrat political machine known for corruption. Van Buren organized city bosses such as Boss Tweed to create a patronage system (an extension of his predecessor Jackson's spoils system) in keeping the immigrant Democrat voters poor and dependent.
President 1837-1841
Both as secretary of state and as the presiding officer of the Senate he acquitted himself with skill and honor, and with Jackson squarely supporting him, he was nominated by his party for the presidency in 1836.During his 1836 presidential campaign Van Buren promised to continue Jackson's policies and won easily over Daniel Webster, William Henry Harrison, and H. L. White, the regional Whig candidates.
Van Buren in office continued his party's opposition to the Bank by proposing a plan for an independent treasury in which the Government could keep its funds. Although there was strong opposition to the plan, a subtreasury bill was passed in 1840. Long before his election, the president had had to commit himself on the slavery issue. He was opposed to the extension of slavery although he had promised to protect it where it existed. Accordingly, he opposed the plan to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. On the other hand, he refused to support the plan to annex Texas, which would have created more slave territory and would probably have meant a war with Mexico. He also preserved strict neutrality during Canada's small revolt against Britain in 1837, an action that was heartily criticized by the strong anti-British faction in the U.S..
The most difficult challenge was the financial panic of 1837 and the depression that followed. Just as Van Buren took office in March 1837 the nation's banks began to suspend specie (gold) payment. For the next three years unemployment, crop failures, and low prices created real distress throughout the nation. Banks closed their doors, states were unable to meet their financial obligations, and many workingmen in the eastern cities were without jobs and hungry. Since the prevailing economic thought of the period held that the government should abstain from interfering with the country's economic life, Van Buren did nothing to alleviate the effects of the depression.
Against this background of discontent and suffering he was renominated in 1840 to run against the Whig candidate, Harrison. In the campaign that followed, Whigs ridiculed Van Buren as "a Northern man with Southern principles," a cold aristocrat indifferent to the people's sufferings, and nicknamed him "Martin Van Ruin"; he was decisively beaten.
Free Soil candidate in 1848
Retiring to Kinderhook, Van Buren in 1841, took up the life of a gentleman farmer. Van Buren took a great interest in his farm, supervising workers and utilizing "progressive" farming techniques. Van Buren embraced the genteel lifestyle but made it his own with his enthusiasm, profit-mindedness, and bourgeois calculation. He was still politically ambitious, and during the next four years worked for the 1844 nomination. His equivocal position on slavery and Texas, made known by the famous "Hammet Letter," hurt his chances considerably. In the following convention, although he had a majority of the delegates, he was unable to obtain the necessary two thirds and lost to James K. Polk, who was elected.
In 1848, the Mexican-American War had intensified the slavery issue. Advocates of the Wilmot Proviso tried to block slavery in new territories acquired from Mexico. They joined the "Barnburner" faction of New York Democrats and formed the new Free Soil Party, whose convention in Buffalo drew 465 delegates from 18 states. With Charles Francis Adams as his running mate, the new anti-slavery party stood for the Wilmot Proviso. He won 291,000 votes, half of them in New York. By splitting the Democrats in New York, his new party allowed Whig Zachary Taylor to win. Van Buren split with the Free Soilers when he supported the Compromise of 1850. He grew fearful that the slavery issue would disrupt the Union. Neither an abolitionist nor a slavery man, he supported James Buchanan in 1856 in the hope of compromise. When war broke out he became a sincere supporter of Lincoln. He died at Kinderhook, July 24, 1862.
- Cole, Donald B. Martin Van Buren and the American Political System (1984),
- Curtis. James C. The Fox at Bay: Martin Van Buren and the Presidency, 1837-1841 (1970),
- Curtis. James C. "In the Shadow of Old Hickory: The Political Travail of Martin Van Buren," Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Autumn, 1981), pp. 249–267 in JSTOR
- Gunderson. Robert G. The Log Cabin Campaign (1957), on 1840 campaign
- Harrison, Jr. Joseph Hobson. "Martin Van Buren and His Southern Supporters," Journal of Southern History, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Nov., 1956), pp. 438–458 in JSTOR
- Morison, Michael A. "Martin Van Buren, the Democracy, and the Partisan Politics of Texas Annexation," Journal of Southern History, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Nov., 1995), pp. 695–724 in JSTOR
- Niven, John. Martin Van Buren: The Romantic Age of American Politics (1983)
- Rayback, Joseph G. "Martin Van Buren's Desire for Revenge in the Campaign of 1848", Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 40, No. 4 (Mar., 1954), pp. 707–716 in JSTOR
- Remini, Robert. Martin Van Buren and the Making of the Democratic Party (1959). online edition
- Shade, William G. "'The Most Delicate and Exciting Topics': Martin Van Buren, Slavery, and the Election of 1836", Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Autumn, 1998), pp. 459–484 in JSTOR
- Silbey, Joel H. Martin Van Buren and the Emergence of American Popular Politics. 2002. 237 pp. online review
- Wilson. Major. The Presidency of Martin Van Buren (1984),
Primary sources
- Fitzpatrick, John C. ed., "The Autobiography of Martin Van Buren," Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1918, vol. 2 (Washington, D.C., 1920), extends to 1835 online edition
External links
- American Political History Online links
- Michael Holt, The Second American Party System, short topical essays
- Online essays by scholars, sponsored by U. of Virginia
- Works by Martin Van Buren - text and free audio - LibriVox


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Michael, in the 5D Field Report you state that: "The 5D's full-size prism doesn't leave room for [a pop-up flash], and so the Canon 1 Series, and now 5D camera, don't feature pop-up flash. It's as simple as that."IMHO, it's not a question of wether there's room or not. It seems to me like Canon have made a decision that a pop-up flash does not belong in a pro body, despite the obvious reasons for it's usefulness. Just like their decision that the mirror lock-up feature must be buried deep into the menus despite the loads of complaints from its users.
We may attribute noble reasons to a camera maker for leaving off such a major feature, but we all should know that the only reason they do anything any more is for profit.
How do I disable the E-TTL preflash and avoid premature triggering? I guess I didn't know this was a problem. I set the camera to manual and used modeling lights for high ambient lighting (for focusing and composing). I have never noticed the preflash, and I guess the slaves don't either. I hope this still works now that I know it's a problem.