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This does not mean that the Soros regime change racket and its multiple tentacles, in parallel to the Clinton machine-dominated DNC, will quit. Plan A – Maidan in the USA – is not exactly a winner among the masses. Thus Plan B – long-term harassment – was decided this past weekend at a summit in a Washington hotel.
The endless snowflake whining – we lost the presidential election because of «rogue» FBI, WikiLeaks, the Russians, etc. – was predictable. Yet among the corrupt-to-the-core DNC it seems like no apparatchik has ever read Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle. Or is familiar with how showbiz – and talk radio – works.
Paris is arguably the world capital of critical thinking. Perplexed Parisian intellectual circles at least have found out that the current pan-Western crisis is not only about economics, politics, finance, security and immigration; it's about «political discourse» itself.
The easy chic café diagnostic is that Trump's victory is the symptom of language distorting reality by playing to emotions. It's true that complex rational discourse does not deliver anymore. The masses don't read 3,000-word essays; this is for the elites and self-described «experts». But they do respond to outrageous tweets. More than ever, perception is indeed reality.
Thus the amalgam between Trump and the Front National (FN) in France, led by Marine Le Pen, also a master communicator capable of turning primary emotions into political reality. No wonder «white supremacist» Breitbart News – Trump's informal Ministry of Information – will increase its exposure in France and support Le Pen.
What the Paris debate gets right is that nationalist isolationism across the West – using amalgam and clever terminological shortcuts – has become a credible solution to «cure» national identity. Thus the appeal of ditching the EU, among countless Europeans, as a credible alternative against unemployment, as well as a means of increasing security. It's a Trump Remixed syndrome; barbed wire (metaphorical and otherwise) as a possible choice for re-launching economic growth.
With Trump's victory being analyzed as the defeat of political discourse, or the victory of the controversial word, what the Paris debate gets totally wrong is promoting lofty exhortations to «reconcile oneself with complexity» as the only solution. The challenge is actually how to do nuance and complexity in only a few words at a time.
Words, words, words
What sophisticated intellectual analyses don't get is that Team Trump strategized a running reality show showcasing – what else – a brand. Dialogue was kept to a – tweet – minimum. Trump himself unveiled it; «These are just words». The Clinton (cash) machine fell into the trap and took these words literally. These were in fact metaphors – understandable by a fourth grader and delivered by a «man boy» impersonating a fourth grader,
In his CBS interview this past Sunday, Trump admitted the obvious; he won because of the power of social networks, despite the Clinton cash machine spending «much more money than I did». Trump has over 28 million followers combined on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. This supposedly «hidden minority» dribbled any poll modeling available. And outside the Beltway and Hollywood, they were everywhere.
Trump perfected the art of simplified political discourse cutting off the middlemen – while reducing corporate/mainstream media, in the process, to no more than a pathetic footnote. The New York Times – «all the news that are irrelevant to print»? – has been a sorry show in itself, promising on the record to «report world news more accurately».
It's not that Trump, on the record, had not sent a warning; «I'm very highly educated. I know words. I have the best words». And he knows how to get maximum effect out of minimum (word) investment. Mega-investor Peter Thiel totally got it, telling the National Press Club in Washington how «the media is always taking Trump literally».
Thiel stressed, shortly before the election, that «a lot of voters who vote for Trump take Trump seriously but not literally, so when they hear things like the Muslim comment or the wall comment, their question is not, 'Are you going to build a wall like the Great Wall of China?' or, you know, 'How exactly are you going to enforce these tests?' What they hear is we're going to have a saner, more sensible immigration policy».
So what if Trump was killing syntax via his loud and inarticulate outbursts? The meaning was always clear. The pile up of exploding rhetorical devices was always targeted at tapping into raw emotion. Thus the avalanche of «us and them»; «yuuuuge» superlatives («amazing», «tremendous potential», «wonderful»); all kinds of hyperbole; non-stop repetition; calculated stutter enhancing his trademark «improvised» delivery; and a sea of euphemisms («grabbing women by the pussy?» Nah; just plain old «locker room talk»).
Snowflakes meanwhile were endlessly re-comforted by their standard interpretation of Trump as a con artist invented by mass media who first excelled on reality TV and then turned politics into a circus. They did not see him capitalizing on his monster advertising dollars/ratings pulling power; they did not see that the more (hated) corporate media attacked him, the better he looked for the «invisible minority»; and they did not see how the Trumpian brand of «magic realism» played all kinds of tricks with «reality».
Social Darwinism run amok
Zygmunt Bauman, the foremost conceptualizer of liquid modernity – and a huge influence in my 2007 book Globalistan – correctly observed how Trump has offered a unique, once in a lifetime occasion for a condemnation, without appeal, of the whole political system.
Bauman's on to something when he notes how traditional mechanisms such as the Montesquieu-style division of power between Executive, Legislative and Judiciary, as well as the Anglo-Saxon checks and balances, may be increasingly deprived of meaning to the benefit of an agglutination of power in authoritarian mode.
Bauman perfectly understood how Trump married identity politics to economic angst – condensing all aspects of the existential angst consuming what's left of the working class and the middle class. Thus the success of the lightning fast solution – the expulsion of the ethnically diverse.
The US electorate that bothered to vote – very important; 43 percent did not – may have bought, according to Bauman, a strongman not as poison but as antidote; a «doer» capable of deploying instantaneous solutions with immediate effects. If and how he will be able to deliver is another story.
What's certain is that the seesaw across the West between conservatives and social democracy is not a see saw anymore. When in power, everyone was just reproducing slight variations of neoliberalism.
Yet as we have now seen, liberalism has been dealt a serious body blow – even as the so-called progressive Left has utterly failed to «sell» to the masses a serious, history-based critique of neoliberalism.
Meanwhile, civil war – national and global – is now raw, everywhere; social Darwinism run amok. We have an Atlanticist Wall – from Brexit to the Rio Grande – in the process of being erected against the Global South. We have the Declining White Man against minorities that in many cases have become majorities. We have Western elites pitted against «Islam» – an absurdity, because the real enemy is Salafi-jihadism, a derivation of Wahhabism. And ultimately, we have The Ultimate Predator – Man – relentlessly decimating Nature.
In a Gramsci sense, the old order has completely collapsed, but the new order has not yet been born. It might be a new order based on the BRICS – mostly Russia, India and China. The progressive Left must find the conceptual road map to be part of it – and influence it.
Meanwhile, we will be living among the myriad debris originated by the Trumpolitics IED. America invented the politically correct. Trump bombed politically correct. America is proud of corporate media. Trump bombed corporate media. These are already two important victories.
Trump launched an IPO over the White House. Now he's the CEO. If – and that's a mighty if – he manages to run it like a sound business, that's bound to be a good deal not only for the US but to the whole planet.
Pepe Escobar
Source: Strategic Culture Foundation


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Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Remote Access for Vendors
We provide vendors two methods of remote access for the purposes of supporting their equipment on our networks. The first is the traditional Lan to Lan tunnel model. If they choose the Lan-to-Lan model we required that they define the TCP/UDP ports required. We then restrict the tunnel down to those ports and to the specific IP address(s) required. This tunnel is terminated at a location on the network that then permits us to subject all of the traffic to inspection by our security devices/tools.
The second option we provide is through our Juniper SSLVPN infrastructure. This is a more flexible and resilient solution and provides more protection from infection by the vendors network. It also provides a much more robust audit log trail of usage. If the vendor does not require any access other then RDP, Telnet, or SSH the SSLVPN provides access as a proxy service from a large list of Java compliant systems. We restrict the usage of the vendor account to the vendor's public address space. This is done to provide a degree of assurance that an employee who has left the vendor, but has an account on our system will no not be able to gain access. The assumption here is that they would no longer have access to the vendors corporate infrastructure so would not be able to get to us either. We use an online provisioning system for these accounts that we wrote in-house - a simple web page with a SQL database backend. As part of the form there must be a BIDMC employee who has oversight of the vendor. Every night at midnight the logs are scrubbed and cross indexed to the submitted forms. The access performed by a vendor account is bundled up and mailed off to the BIDMC employee listed on the request form. This is done to ensure the there is an awareness of vendor activity. There is also an audit job run to make sure that the employee listed in the forms is still employed at BIDMC and if not we chase down who the replacement is.
If the vendor requires access to the machine through a mechanism other then RDP, Telnet or SSH then there are some additional options the SSLVPN provides. One is a port forwarding service and the other is a Java based equivalent to a IPsec VPN client granting them full layer two access into the network. We have done a couple of port forwarding setups but have not yet needed to provide a vendor with the layer 2 capabilities.
We also require all systems with a Lan-to-Lan tunnel or have a vendor remote access to them to pass an initial vulnerability scan. They are then subject to random scans from that time forward until the remote access is no longer in place.
We do not permit any vendor to place a router , firewall or any other networking equipment on the network. By extension they are unable and not permitted to terminate or originate any VPN connections that we do not control.
We have run into some problems with vendors related to this policy. We often hear the same statements from vendors - we do this everywhere else and should be granted an exception. I simply state our policy does not permit it.
Thus far these technologies and policies have worked very well for us. Security is always a journey and we'll continue to be vigilant about evolving technologies and security risks.
4 comments:
- Unknown said...
Speaking as a vendor who provides support to many enterprises, this is a good primer for others to follow. We use, and I often recommend, Enexity Securelink (http://www.enexity.com/healthcare/standardize/differentiators.html) to accomplish the same well managed access but with better manageability, control and auditing. This might even be the Cool Technology of the week ;-)
- May 23, 2008 at 3:45 PM
- Unknown said...
As an IT employee of a hospital, I have to question the workload behind attempting to scan, audit, and monitor a vendor's traffic. If the vendor's equipment communicates across your network to its home office using encryption, such as SSL, across one of your open ports, like SSH (22), how would you detect if the encrypted traffic was harmful to either their equipment or your network? In your post you stated you allow SSH access thus you must allow encrypted traffic on your network, right? How would SSL encrypted traffic traveling across your network to the vendor's equipment differ from SSL VPN traffic traveling directly to the vendor's equipment?
- May 28, 2008 at 7:16 AM
- Unknown said...
My organization faces security concerns in cases where we are required to open inbound TCP ports to allow remote access. So, I got down to do a bit of research on this, and discovered that there are remote access products such as RHUB http://www.rhubcom.com TurboMeeting that don't necessitate changes in firewall settings for Remote Access. We just need to switch on the computer and get the Internet on, that's it.
- November 19, 2009 at 10:33 PM
Thanks for the post John, it's definitely a good primer. Security of data and HIPAA compliance has got to be the number one concern of an IT employee working in a healthcare environment. Luckily for us so many remote access software companies have built it into their systems so that what would be a nightmare is relatively simple
- September 24, 2010 at 9:30 AM

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Ancient Tbilisi boast of many romantic corners perfect for a stylish wedding ceremony. Green gardens, beautiful lakes, and parks can become a location for your lifetime event. Choose our package "Wedding in Tbilisi" for an unforgettable experience of your wedding in this city that loves you!
If you are interested in this package please send us a request and one of our wedding coordinators will contact you to discuss all the details.
What's included in our offer
- Consultations on all wedding matters
- Organization of the ceremony
- Transfer for the couple from Tbilisi to the wedding venue
- Makeup and hairstyle for the bride (in salon)
The ceremony day
- Services of professional wedding photographer
- Ceremony by Wedding hall officer
- Russian or English-speaking master of ceremonies
- Bottle of sparkling wine for the newlyweds
- Wedding bouquet, and boutonniere for the groom
- Dinner at a restaurant
After the wedding
- A memorable gift to the couple from the agency
- Acquiring and transfer of photos
Complete your day with everything you need
Specify the number of guests, including couple
Application of documents
Legalization of marriage certificate
Express mail of marriage certificate
Wedding venue
Expo Georgia Terrace
The outdoor terrace area is great for special events and ceremonies.
Orangery Garden
Orangery Garden is a cozy place for your ceremony, where you can organize a beautiful photo shoot.
Museum of Ethnography
The Museum of Ethnography is ideal for those who want to conduct their outdoor ceremony in Tbilisi, being among the folk architecture and crafts from different regions of the country. This location is suitable for those who want to celebrate their day in a double.
Botanical garden
Botanical garden is the most ideal option for those brides who dream of a wedding in nature. This is an excellent location for your ceremony, besides in the garden you can organize a beautiful photo session among trees, cozy alleys and flowering flower beds.
Ceremony at Gardenia Shevardnadze
Gardenia Shevardnadze is one of the most amazing locations in Tbilisi. It is a magic place full of flowers, plants, beautiful trees and various interior details which will become a wonderful decoration for your wedding ceremony.
Churches for wedding
Accompaniment of the ceremony
Performance by a professional saxophonist during the ceremony. The price includes voice and sound equipment.
Marshall Speaker
Add some sound to your ceremony!
Sound engineer and equipment
The Sound engineer will set up a speaker and the microphone so your vows are heard even if you say them in the nature with winds swirling around. He can also play some lounge music to create a festive atmosphere.
Classical quartet
Quartet of classical instruments will complement the beauty of the moment on your wedding ceremony with the best classical pieces. They can play during the ceremony, as well as during the cocktails before and after the ceremony.
Master of ceremonies
Master of ceremony can create the right mood and speak your language. He/she will tell the introduction words, ask you the main questions and will pronounce you husband and wife. Final cost depends on the specialist chosen.
Makeup and hair
Ori MUAH artist (on-site)
If you want a personal approach and want to be sure that your makeup and hair stays perfect during the whole day you can choose this option and our professional MUAH master will come to your location.
Final cost depends on the specialist chosen.
World-class professional MUAH artist (on-site)
You can opt for a service of premium-class makeup and hair artist to create an unforgettable bridal look according to the best and latest international trends. We collaborate with the best and well-known professionals from different countries. They constantly learn new techniques and follow all the novelties in bridal fashion.
Ori MUAH artist (in salon in Tbilisi)
The package already includes the service of a professional makeup & hair master that can create a beautiful bridal image on your wedding day. We guarantee a high quality of work because we collaborate only with the best specialists in Georgia. Just bring some pictures that inspire you and be sure you will look stunning!
World-class professional MUAH artist (in salon in Tbilisi)
You can opt for a service of premium-class makeup and hair artist to create an unforgettable bridal look according to the best and latest international trends. We collaborate with the best and well-known professionals from different countries. They constantly learn new techniques and follow all the novelties in bridal fashion.
Премиум-мастер по макияжу и прическам Ori (c выездом на локацию)
Премиум-визажист создаст для вас неповторимый образ на свадьбу. Премиум-мастера постоянно занимаются повышением своей квалификации и отслеживают последние тенденции в мире стиля.
Финальная стоимость зависит от выбранного специалиста.
Ori Premium Makeup & Hairstylist (in salon in Tbilisi)
Premium makeup artist will create a unique image for your wedding. Premium stylists are constantly improving their skills and keep track of the latest trends in the world of style.
Bride's dress
Dress for rent
You can rent a suitable dress for the ceremony.
Wedding bouquet
Bouquet and boutonniere «Standard»
The standard bridal bouquet is composed of seasonal flowers and plants and in the chosen color scheme. The size of the bouquet is about 20-30 сm, depending on the type you choose. All possible examples of bouquets of the «standard» package are provided to choose from our presentation.
Bridal bouquet and boutonniere «Premium»
The premium bouquet is composed of seasonal flowers and plants in the chosen color scheme and assembled in the desired form. The premium package provides a large variety of examples to choose from. The size of the bouquet and the number of flowers in it depends on your desires and preferences and is not limited to the template. Each bouquet of the "premium" package is an individual selection of colors, composition, and image of the bouquet, which will be created just for you.
Decoration and floristry
Cold fountains (for the cake)
The pricing price for 1 piece is indicated. The price may vary depending on your preferences.
Standard table decor for a wedding dinner
Table decor is the final stage of the wedding day decoration. Candlelight dinner, floral accents, runners, selected in the color scheme that meets the general concept — will make your holiday table expressive, bright, and beautiful in memorable photos. The table decor in the standard package is created on the basis of your chosen color scheme from seasonal colors according to one of the examples presented in our catalog. The price is indicated for dinner for 20 pax.
Decoration of dinner with garlands of flashlights
The price for 40 meters of garlands is indicated.
Standard ceremony arch
The arch of the "standard" package is the shape of the arch of your choice from the range we offer, decorated with seasonal flowers and plants, in your desired color scheme.
Wedding style dishes
Most restaurants offer classic and white dishes for events and banquets. If you want to make your wedding especially beautiful, from the flower arrangements to the dishes on the tables of guests, we will bring plates and glasses that are suitable to your style and color scheme. The price includes a set of a plate and a glass.
Floral composition for your wedding dinner
Our decorators will create a floral arrangement for your table — one composition from seasonal flowers.
Premium ceremony arch
The «Premium» package arch is a frame shape chosen by you from our catalog, abundantly decorated with seasonal flowers and plants. Each arch of the premium package is an original interpretation and an individual selection of colors for you.
Individual design of the conception and style
Do you want to reflect your individuality in the wedding decoration? Do you want to see particular flowers and elements both on the ceremony and on the wedding reception? In that case our talented florists will design a personal unique style for you — in accordance with your dreams and preferences.
The exclusive decor of the wedding dinner
Exclusivity is the individuality in everything. If you want the territory where your wedding dinner is being transformed and modified to your taste, then you need an exclusive decor. The design concept created for you also includes the construction of a variety of decorations that meet the general plan of the wedding day and is designed especially for the location where your wedding dinner will be held. The price is indicated for dinner for 20 pax.
Сeremony decoration «Exclusive»
The exclusive arch is a concept of the ceremony zone decor, developed individually for a specific location of your choice. In the process of design development, all the features of the place where the wedding ceremony will happen are taken into account so that the natural landscape and wedding surroundings can be combined in the best way. Custom design solutions, individual frames, created just for you. The exclusive arch is the embodiment of the most courageous desires and interesting ideas.
Ori photographer (3 hours)
The services of a professional photographer specializing in wedding photo shoots. There are many talented photographers in our catalogue and their price range is very attractive. We offer only the best masters with wide portfolio who we can trust. During the preparations we will discuss the details of your photo shoot so you can be sure your dreams will become true on your wedding day!
Final cost depends on the specialist chosen.
World-class wedding photographer
Ori Wedding is proud to say that we collaborate with only the best wedding photographers whose work is appreciated in many countries. If you want not only technically superb photos from your wedding but a masterpiece of wedding photography you'd better choose this option. We guarantee that your photos will be creative, special and truly will save the best memories for you about your wedding day!
Ori photographer (8 hours)
The services of a professional photographer specializing in wedding photoshoots. There are many talented photographers in our catalogue and their price range is very attractive. We offer only the best masters with a wide portfolio who we can trust. During the preparations, we will discuss the details of your photoshoot so you can be sure your dreams will become true on your wedding day!
Final cost depends on the specialist chosen.
Premium Videographer
Enjoy the service of a highly professional videographer who will create your personal movie about the birthday of your family. Video can capture fleeting movements, emotions and all the details of your wedding ceremony. We work only with the best videographers specializing on the wedding videos.
Final cost depends on the specialist chosen.
Ori Videographer (full package)
Our team includes professional videographers who will shoot a video footage on your wedding and then make a wedding video for your long lasting memories. The price includes a short clip and a film.
Final cost depends on the specialist chosen.
Additional options for the wedding day
Printing (invitations, seating cards)
The beauty of the celebration consists of many small details. Therefore, the selection of accessories for the wedding should be treated with full responsibility, as well-thought-out jewelry can make this long-awaited day a truly unforgettable event. Wedding printing consists of those little things that really add a touch of originality and originality to your holiday.
Rent of blankets
Even during hot summer there are cold evenings. Take care of the health and warmth of your guests and prepare the blankets for the evening, and if on the wedding day the wind blew, the blankets will come in handy at the ceremony.
Rent of umbrellas
Umbrella is an indispensable companion for any wedding ceremony. On the day of the wedding, you can hide from the scorching sun or rain.
Reception for the ceremony
The price for 1 guest is indicated. The price may vary depending on your preferences. The package includes rent of dishes, delivery, a waiter.
Rose petals for the ceremony
The price for 1 guest is indicated. The price may vary depending on your preferences.
Gifts for guests
The price for 1 guest is indicated. Gifts include: wine, churchkhela, honey. The price may vary depending on your preferences.
Chairs for wedding ceremony
For the comfort of your guests, rent beautiful chairs for your ceremony. The price includes the delivery of chairs to the ceremony place.
Masterclasses in cooking Georgian dishes
Make a gift to your guests and arrange for the masterclasses in cooking the famous Georgian dishes. We propose to choose a combination of masterclasses in cooking khinkali, Georgian Shoti bread, and churchkhela.
Wedding photozone
Photozone is a great way to get beautiful and memorable photos after your wedding. Our decorators and designers will help you create an original photozone, in chosen style. The final cost depends on your wishes for the style and content of the decor.
Concierge Service
The price indicated is the minimum. The final price depends on the number of guests. The price includes communication with the guests before the wedding, collection of all necessary information for the guests' stay in Georgia, counseling guests on all matters concerning their stay, and booking MUAH stylists for them.
Transport for the couple
Retro cars
Vintage cars for the wedding - fresh ideas from the past. The choice of transport for the solemn event is no less important than sewing a wedding dress or ordering a restaurant. Retro wedding cars are a great option to surprise not only guests, but the whole city. Even if the bride and groom are not fans of vintage cars, they can choose just such an option to make their event unique. Photos taken in a retro car or near it, will remain vivid memories. The rate is for 2 hours.
Executive car with driver
Just image how you seat in the spacious salon of a luxury car on the way to your very special event! The car smoothly rides along the beautiful landscape and the air is just filled with joy! A luxury sedan - is a wonderful option to enhance your wedding experience and make it truly special.
Standard transfer
The package includes a transfer for the couple to the wedding location and back. We use for transfers only good cars with polite and professional drivers. You can be sure that in the hot summer you will have air conditioning in the car. We carefully pick up and check all cars so you come to your ceremony with comfort and in time.
Wedding dinner venue
Terrace 144 Stairs Cafe
Terrace with incredible view of one of the most beautiful parts of Tbilisi - the Old City.
Dinner in Rachis Ubani
Dinner at the restaurant Rachis Ubani- is an excellent option for those who want to enjoy a beautiful view of the city while staying in a traditional Racha house with excellent Georgian cuisine.
Dinner in Expo Georgia Terrace
Cafe, tucked away in a small park with a beautiful terrace
Dinner in Orangery Restaurant & Terrace
"Orangery Restaurant & Terrace" is a beautifully designed two-storey restaurant with an amazing garden. The restaurant is located in the middle of green nature, which gives it a cozy atmosphere.
Dinner in Keto da Kote Restaurant
The price indicated is per 1 person. One of the most fashionable yet cozy and atmospheric places in Tbilisi - Keto da Kote restaurant will be a perfect place for your wedding dinner in style. It is located in the mansion once owned by a descendant of Georgian royal family. The interior design of Keto da Kote reminds you of an aristocratic old house where food is so delicious that leaves you speechless!
Dinner in Funicular Restaurant
The price indicated is per 1 person. Restaurant complex Funicular is located on top of Mtatsminda mountain overlooking Tbilisi. Here you can find one of the best restaurants of the country offering not just good Georgian food but exceptional culinary experience with a panoramic view to this beautiful city. Wedding dinner her will definitely become one of the best memories of your life!
Dinner in the restaurant of Tiflis Veranda Hotel
The price indicated is per 1 person. Restaurant of Tiflis Veranda Hotel offer as wide open terrace so an inside hall with big panoramic windows so you can enjoy a beautiful scenery of Tbilisi at any time of the year!
Dinner in Old Kopala Restaurant
Cozy hotel Old Kopala is located in the heart of Tbilisi Old Town in the Metekhi neighborhood. It is famous by its traditional Georgian cuisine in the restaurant. Celebrate your wedding with a true Georgian fest with a gorgeous view over Tbilisi! The price indicated is per 1 person.
Dinner in Tsiskvili Restaurant
The price indicated is per 1 person. Famous restaurant Tsiskvili ("The Mill") - it is not just a place to eat some Georgian food but the whole complex of a restaurant and ethnographic museum. It is well known by its outstanding cuisine and great service - all the necessary elements for an unforgettable wedding dinner!
Rent of Gardenia Shevardnadze Restaurant
The amazing magic world of plants and flowers. The final price depends on the number of guests. Food and alcoholic beverages are included in the price. The performance of traditional Georgian musicians is also included. Note that no loud music and no DJ is allowed here.
Dinner in the restaurant of Adamo Hotel
The Adamo hotel is located in the upper part of the historical Mtatsminda area. The hotel's restaurant has a terrace and panoramic view of Tbilisi. Experienced team of professional cooks will amaze you with excellent Georgian and European dishes.
Rent of the Restaurant of the Adamo Hotel
The price indicated for the closure includes food. The final price depends on the number of guests.
Sweet table
Sweet table is perfect for the moment of gathering the bride, a buffet during the ceremony or for dinner. The price includes delivery in a special machine-refregirator, because we care about quality. The table can be decorated in the overall color scheme of the wedding
Wedding cake
Our pastry chefs will prepare a cake for you according to your design and filling preferences. The price includes delivery in a special machine-refrigerator because we care about quality. A cake can be decorated with figurines, berries or fresh flowers. The price is indicated for 1 piece of cake. The minimum order is 15 pieces.
Show program for wedding dinner
Add bright emotions to your wedding day and capture happy moments and smiles on the faces of family and friends. The price depends on the number of photos. Pre-listed price for 150 photos.
Add some live music to your wedding dinner! We offer you several talented cover-bands that can perform the most beautiful songs. Just imagine your first dance with a live band! *This option also includes the rent of all necessary sound equipment.
Final cost depends on the specialist chosen.
Georgian dance group
Georgian dances celebrate love and courage, beauty of a woman and strength of a man. There is hardly anything more symbolic during a wedding celebration. Complete your entertainment program with a set of 4 Georgian dances and enjoy the stunning and unique show!
What can be better than real fireworks in your honour?! Bright colorful fireworks can be a perfect culmination of your special day leaving you with the fondest memories for the whole life! The price is indicated for 1,5 minutes.
We offer you a service of a professional Dj who will not only create a nice music background during your wedding dinner but also will make sure that you dance all night after! We collaborate with DJs who know how to work at weddings, when to reduce the sound for a toast and when to turn on dance music to everybody enjoy the party!
Final cost depends on the specialist chosen.
Host of the dinner (tamada)
You can make your wedding dinner even better by inviting an emcee. He will create an unforgettable atmosphere and tell great stories and make the best toast! Tamada can host a dinner only in one language (Russian or English). The final price may change depending on the guests' number and the specialist chosen.
Georgian polyphonic singing
Georgian polyphonic singing is well known around the world and is included in the list of intangible heritage of UNESCO. Besides that it is just so beautiful and heart touching! This polyphonic singing raises the soul and strike you in the heart, filling with light. You can experience this only in Georgia!
If children are present at your wedding day, take care of their fun and pastime. Our professional animators organize children in such a way that each child will have fun, and at the same time they will control the behavior of children, avoiding conflicts. The cost is indicated for the work of 2 animators with props.
The live performance of your favorite songs will complete the wedding dinner and create a vibrant atmosphere of a big celebration.
Rent of sound equipment
Rent of sound equipment is where the discussion of the technical side of a wedding should start. It's impossible to imagine a wedding nowadays without an accompanying sound.
Additional sound equipment is always required if there's at least a cover band at the wedding. The precise equipment set and backline for each band can be completely different. The final cost of the sound equipment also depends on the chosen venue.
Rent of light equipment
With guests and an entertainment programme at your event, installing light equipment is a must, because it's the light that created a special ambiance for the celebration. It is also important for good quality photos and video.
Laser uplights that lighten up particular parts of the hall can help adjust the space, and a special lighting truss is used for the dance floor and cover band zones.
Professional light helps put the right accents on the stage as well as on the dance floor, and adds beauty to your wedding venue of choice. If you have additional entertainment programme, the whole event becomes a real show with the help of the light.
Urban Boutique Hotel
Urban Boutique Hotel with a terrace overlooking the city is located in a 5-minute walk from Rustaveli Avenue. The comfortable rooms are air conditioned and decorated in warm colors. They are equipped with a TV and minibar. Some rooms have a balcony.
Citrus Hotel
Citrus Hotel is located next to the Georgian Parliament building in Tbilisi, a 7-minute walk from Freedom Square, 700 meters from the Opera and Ballet Theater and a 3-minute walk from Rustaveli Avenue. The rooms have air conditioning, and the windows overlook the old town of Tbilisi. A minibar, tea / coffee making facilities, a safe and a TV with cable and satellite channels are also included.
KMM Hotel Terrace
Located in Old Tbilisi. KMM's rooms are decorated in warm colors and are equipped with air conditioning, a TV with cable channels, a DVD player, and a minibar.
Ibis Styles Tbilisi Center
Ibis Styles Tbilisi Center is located in the center of Tbilisi, 120 meters from Freedom Square. It features a colorful terrace and an on-site bar. The air-conditioned, soundproofed rooms feature modern decor and warm colors. They are equipped with a flat-screen TV, an electric kettle and a work desk.
IOTA Hotel
Hotel IOTA is located 300 meters from Freedom Square. It offers air-conditioned rooms, free Wi-Fi throughout, a restaurant and a garden. Each room has a flat-screen TV, safe, minibar and private bathroom. Some have a seating area to relax in after a busy day. Some rooms have a terrace or balcony.
Hotel Tiflis Palace
Tiflis Palace Hotel is located in the center of Tbilisi's Old Town, a 5-minute walk from Metekhi Church. It offers bright, air-conditioned rooms with modern decor.The Tiflis Palace Hotel has 3 bars and a rooftop restaurant, Tiflis Veranda, with panoramic views of the city center and a varied selection of drinks.
Shota Rustaveli Boutique Hotel
Shota Rustaveli Boutique Hotel is located in Mtatsminda district in the center of Tbilisi, 700 meters from Rustaveli Georgian State Academic Theater and a few steps from Rustaveli Avenue. All rooms are elegantly furnished. Air conditioning, a flat-screen TV, an electric kettle, a minibar and a safe are provided. Some rooms have a seating area.
FOLK Boutique Hotel
FOLK Boutique Hotel ideally located in the heart of historical district of the old Tbilisi and is surrounded with green recreation zone, is a perfect place for your stay.
Vinotel Boutique Hotel
Vinotel Boutique Hotel occupies a historic building from the 19th century with stained glass windows, 2 terraces and a lounge. The hotel became the winner of the World Luxury Hotel Awards 2017 in two categories: "The Best Small Luxury Hotel in Eastern Europe" and "The Best Boutique Hotel in Georgia". The rooms are decorated in a classic style with a seating area and are equipped with climate control and a TV with cable channels. The hotel has a wine cellar with a rich selection of Georgian wines, where a professional sommelier can organize wine tastings for you.
Accompanying the group of guests to the wedding location
Transfer for guests
Mercedes bus for 45-52 people
For the transfer of big number of guests we offer you the biggest buses in Georgia.
Mercedes bus for up 30-45 people
Big and spacious bus will be perfect for a transfer of a company of up to 45 people.
Mercedes bus up to 33 people
Choose this option of a transfer for your guests if you have up to 33 people coming to your wedding.
Mercedes Sprinter (up to 18 people)
If you have more than 5 guests on your wedding we can offer you a transfer for them on Mercedes Sprinter minibuses. You can be sure that they will come to the ceremony in time because we will make sure they all leave in the set time. Sprinter accommodates up to 18 people with limited luggage.
Mercedes Viano (3-6 people)
If you invite your closest friends and relatives to the ceremony choose this options so they can travel to its location all together in comfort. Viano accommodates 3-6 people.
Transfer from the airport
Standard transfer for a couple
The driver will meet you at the airport with a sign and will take you to a hotel.
Executive car for the couple
The driver will meet you at the airport with a sign and will take you to a hotel in Tbilisi.
Mercedes Viano (3-6 people)
The driver will meet your guests at the airport with a sign and take them to a hotel in Tbilisi.
Mercedes Sprinter (up to 18 people)
The driver will meet your guests at the airport with a sign and take them to a hotel in Tbilisi.
Bus for 30-33 people
The driver will meet your guests at the airport with a sign and take them to a hotel in Tbilisi.
Bus for 30-45 people
The driver will meet your guests at the airport with a sign and take them to a hotel in Tbilisi.
Bus for 50-55 people
The driver will meet your guests at the airport with a sign and take them to a hotel.
Your choice
Wedding in Tbilisi in Georgia
Guests quantity:
Subtotal: USD
Planning service fee: 400 USD 800
Total: USD


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With the "liberation" of Libya from the grip of Muammar Gadhafi, progressives like E. J. Dionne and other cheerleaders for this administration are hailing the joint US-NATO operation as a new model for American intervention – an exemplar of the "good" way to push our weight around on the international stage, as opposed to the "bad" way pursued by George W. Bush and the neoconservatives in Iraq. As Glenn Greenwald points out, the same triumphalist message being trumpeted by this administration's supporters over Libya was uncritically broadcast by the "mainstream" media in the wake of "mission accomplished" in Iraq.
That reality will soon intrude, and correct this "irrational exuberance" – as a certain Federal Reserve chairman would put it – is an absolute certainty. Indeed, a few skeptical voices are already being raised, notably Patrick Cockburn, reporting from Benghazi:
"Any black African in Libya is open to summary arrest unless he can prove that he was not a member of Colonel Gadhafi's forces… The rebels claim that many of Colonel Gadhafi's soldiers were black African mercenaries. Amnesty International says these allegations are largely unproven and, from the beginning of the conflict, many of those arrested or, in some cases, executed by the rebels were undocumented laborers caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"But there is no doubt that all black Africans are now under suspicion. The head of the militia in Faraj, a short bearded man in a brown robe named Issam, explained how well-prepared local insurgents had taken over the area on 19 August, telling Colonel Gadhafi's supporters to hand over their weapons and stay at home. There was almost no resistance from the demoralized regime and few people had been arrested. Then Issam added, as an aside, that his men had also detained 'tens of Africans whom we sent off to prison.' He did not explain why they had been jailed."
Across "liberated" Libya, black Africans are being rounded up by the rebel forces, and often either summarily executed or else imprisoned. See here, here, and here for more disgusting evidence of the rebels' anti-black campaign.
Gadhafi reportedly hired African mercenaries to fight for his regime, and this is the ostensible reason why the rebels are rounding up blacks, but this explanation seems more like an excuse than an actual reason in view of the fact that there have been periodic anti-black riots in the country, notably in 2000.
The idea that American imperialism could be a force for "good," with a "progressive" president holding the reins, was never very convincing. But even I never expected to be confronted with the ultimate irony: the first African-American President appears to be responsible, in part, for a large scale anti-black pogrom. This is his signal foreign policy "accomplishment" – a mass lynching.
We have truly entered Bizarro World.
One could argue, however, that this is not the fault of the Obama administration, since it was their Libyan proxies, and not US troops, who committed that particular atrocity. We can still see the US as a force for "good" in the world, albeit not without morally complex anomalies to factor into the equation. Well, tell that to the people of Ishaqi, a village in Iraq, where US troops recently conducted a raid:
"Witnesses in the village of Ishaqi, just south of Tikrit, said Iraqi and American forces opened fire on civilians and threw grenades early Friday as they conducted the raid. The villagers said the forces were responding to gunfire from people in the village and then fired back, killing a 13-year-old boy and an off-duty police officer."
The American authorities are currently stonewalling, denying any responsibility for the deaths, and claiming it was an Iraqi operation – although they admit US forces entered the scene when "fighting broke out." One has to wonder, however, how a 13-year-old boy and a police officer came to be the targets – are these the "terrorists" we're supposedly fighting in Iraq, whose presence requires an extended American stay?
It's an irony that this latest incident – which has further complicated Washington's efforts to persuade the Iraqis they need our continued presence – took place in Ishaqi, the scene of yet another infamous US atrocity in 2006. As Antiwar.com's John Glaser was the first to report earlier this week:
"As revealed by a State Department diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks last week, US forces committed a heinous war crime during a house raid in Iraq in 2006, wherein one man, four women, two children, and three infants were summarily executed. The cable excerpts a letter written by Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions, addressed to then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. American troops approached the home of Faiz Harrat Al-Majma'ee, a farmer living in central Iraq, to conduct a house raid in search of insurgents in March of 2006.
"'It would appear that when the MNF [Multinational Forces] approached the house,' Alston wrote, 'shots were fired from it and a confrontation ensued' before the 'troops entered the house, handcuffed all residents and executed all of them.' Mr. Faiz Hratt Khalaf, (aged 28), his wife Sumay'ya Abdul Razzaq Khuther (aged 24), their three children Hawra'a (aged 5) Aisha ( aged 3) and Husam (5 months old), Faiz's mother Ms. Turkiya Majeed Ali (aged 74), Faiz's sister (name unknown), Faiz's nieces Asma'a Yousif Ma'arouf (aged 5 years old), and Usama Yousif Ma'arouf (aged 3 years), and a visiting relative Ms. Iqtisad Hameed Mehdi (aged 23) were killed during the raid. Alston's letter reveals that a US air strike was launched on the house presumably to destroy the evidence, but that "autopsies carried out at the Tikrit Hospital's morgue revealed that all corpses were shot in the head and handcuffed."
A five-year-old, and a child of five months – shot in the head while handcuffed?
I wrote about this incident in 2006, shortly after the news came out, in response to a piece by Peter Beinart, then editor of The New Republic. Polemicizing against Bill Kristol's view that the Abu Ghraib inquiry was unnecessary, Beinart argued the investigation showed that, while war is necessarily a horrific business, our wars are different because we hold ourselves to a higher moral standard. As I wrote back then:
"In Ishaqi, 11 villagers were slaughtered after American troops packed them into a small room, burned three vehicles, killed a herd of livestock, and then ordered an air strike on the house so as to bury all evidence of their crime. The military has just announced their 'exoneration.' This 'underscores the liberal vision,' all right – but only in the Bizarro World of Beinart and his neocon buddies.
"The big debate between Beinart and the neocons is over what constitutes the true 'American exceptionalism.' What 'proves it,' says Beinart, is that we move quickly to punish evildoers in uniform, and make sure that 'justice' is done. Except when it isn't, in Ishaqi, for instance – and even if the eventual triumph of truth is made possible by non-American investigators."
They tried to cover up their crimes in Ishaqi, first by blowing the crime scene to smithereens, and then by launching a phony "investigation" that officially exonerated US troops and their commanders.
As it turned out, the eventual triumph of truth was made possible by Wikileaks, whose founder, Julian Assange, is being harried by the US and its European allies, and detained on trumped-up charges, while an American grand jury compiles evidence to prosecute him. On the other hand, the child-killing sadists in the US military roam free.
If "American exceptionalism" means anything in this context, it is in the telling details: after all, if you're going to kill a five year old, why handcuff her?
"This horrible story," wrote Beinart in 2006, speaking about another atrocity, this one in Haditha, "powerfully underscores the liberal vision, which is this:
"We are not angels: without sufficient moral and legal restrictions, and under conditions of extreme stress, Americans can be as barbaric as anyone. What's makes us an exceptional nation with the capacity to lead and inspire the world is our very recognition of that fact. We are capable of Hadithas and My Lais, so is everyone. But few societies are capable of acknowledging what happened, bringing the killers to justice, and instituting changes that make it less likely to happen again. That's how we show we are different from the jihadists. We don't just assert it. We prove it. That's the liberal version of American exceptionalism, and it's what we need right now in response to this horror."
Beinart was wrong then, and he's wrong now. Child murder, racist pogroms – what's next, the liquidation of the kulaks?
The vast gulf between what America was, and what it has become, can be measured by the distance between Beinart's uplifting rhetoric about "American exceptionalism" and the degraded reality of handcuffed children murdered by US soldiers. What we were was admired, and even loved, by freedom-seeking people the world over: what we have become is rightly hated by those same freedom-starved peoples.
The history of the last decade or so proves, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the US government, far from being this great liberating force, the greatest factor for good in the international equation, is instead a force for naked evil. It isn't that "we are not angels," it's that we're devils. It's as simple as that.
Labor Day is on the way, and even I am taking a short vacation. I'll return on Wednesday, September 7 – unless Something Big happens over the holiday, in which case I'll be right here at my post.


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Samantha Olmsted — Babe of the Day
Samantha's a 22-year-old model from Elk River, Minnesota who was Miss Hooters Minnesota in 2010.
Her accomplishments include winning Miss Planet Beach Minnesota 2010, Miss Car Craft Summer National 2010, Miss 4 Wheel Jamboree 2010, and Miss Swimsuit USA Minneapolis in December 2011. She also placed 3rd at the Miss Hooters Minnesota Pageant in 2008. You can vote for her in the Jetedone Swimwear 'Jett Girl Model Search' here.
Other credits for the Tease Um and TropicBeauty.com model include appearances as a painted lady at a couple Playboy Mansion parties, a music video / commercial for Eddie Mac and Leinenkugel beer called, 'Brake for Hotties, Break for Leines.'
Pump your brakes for this heart-racing siren below.
Age: 22 | Location: Elk River, MN | Ht: 5′ 4″ | Wt: 120 lbs | Measurements: 34D-25-30
See more of Samantha on Facebook | Twittter | ModelMayhem | TeaseUm


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A 91st minute strike from Chris Atkinson settled a tight game as Oxford United left Chesterfield empty-handed.
Johnny Mullins had headed United into a first-minute lead and the visitors controlled the opening half hour.
But Chesterfield levelled deep into stoppage time at the end of the first half through Liam Cooper.
Both sides went for the victory after the break, but the U's conceded again in time added on, when Atkinson's shot found the corner.
It was rough on the visitors, who deserved at least a point.
United were forced to make three changes, with Tom Craddock (rib) and Liam Davis (hamstring) unavailable, while Sean Rigg could only make the bench after suffering with flu.
Alfie Potter came in to play up front and there were also recalls for Tony Capaldi and Jake Forster-Caskey.
The U's came flying out of the traps and opened the scoring after exactly 60 seconds.
Mullins rose highest to meet Peter Leven's corner and superbly steered his header into the top corner.
The visitors followed it up with a superb opening 20 minutes.
Composed in possession and carrying a cutting edge up front, their grip on the game irritated the home fans.
It took a magnificent save from Tommy Lee to keep the score down on seven minutes. The Spireites goalkeeper dived full stretch to keep out Forster-Caskey's header from Lee Cox's cross.
It took Chesterfield 24 minutes to muster a meaningful effort on goal, when Tendayi Darikwa's shot narrowly missed the top corner from 20 yards.
James Constable blazed a decent opening over after half an hour, but slowly the home side grew into the game, as Danny Whitaker began to pull the strings.
U's goalkeeper Ryan Clarke had to make a smart save to keep out a low shot from Atkinson, before the first half finished in controversial fashion.
First, United had two penalty shouts waved away in three minutes.
Constable was bundled over by Nathan Smith and with the next attack Leven was convinced his header was blocked by Atkinson's hand.
Chesterfield then drew level when Cooper lashed in a shot following a scramble at a corner.
But United were furious, as the goal came in the fourth minute of stoppage time, twice as long as the fourth official had indicated.
The visitors were on the back foot at the start of the second half.
Atkinson came within a whisker of putting Chesterfield in front on the hour, cutting in from the left and fizzing a shot just past the post.
U's boss Chris Wilder responded by making a bold double change, bringing on Jon-Paul Pittman and Rigg for Simon Heslop and Forster-Caskey.
In turn, Chesterfield brought on experienced strikers Marc Richards and Jack Lester.
The tempo increased as the time began to run out, with both sides doing everything to win the game.
Both United substitutes were quickly involved.
Rigg unlocked the hosts' defence with one jinking run, but his low cross evaded three yellow shirts in the box.
Pittman had sight of goal shortly afterwards, but instead of shooting first time he attempted to control a high ball and the chance vanished.
At the other end Nathan Smith shaved Clarke's crossbar with a rising shot five minutes from time.
The game looked to be heading for a stalemate, but United were again stung in stoppage time.
Atkinson provided the breakthrough, bursting into the box and sliding a shot past Clarke.
Oxford Utd: Clarke, Whing, Mullins, Wright, Capaldi, Heslop (Pittman 61), Cox, Leven, Forster-Caskey (Rigg 61), Potter (Chapman 90), Constable.
Unused subs: Brown, Raynes, Marsh, O'Brien.
Chesterfield: Lee, Talbot, Hird, Cooper, Smith, Atkinson, Togwell, Darikwa, Whitaker (Boa Morte 82), Dickenson (Lester 74), Boden (Richards 67).
Unused subs: O'Donnell, Clay, Forbes, Ridehalgh.
Referee: Dean Whitestone.
Attendance: 5,433 (426 visitors).
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Book Reviews
Murach's Visual Basic 6's hands-on examples is the only way to learn the programming language.
If you're new to Visual Basic programming or looking for a primer on programming database applications with Visual Basic, then Murach's Visual Basic 6 is the book for you. Unlike other books, this one concentrates on Microsoft's newest data access technology ActiveX Data Objects (ADO). It also goes into great detail on how ADO integrates with the Visual Basic IDE. For those of you not familiar with ADO, it's a set of high-level interfaces that sits on top of OLE DB, which is the foundation of Microsoft's Universal Data Access (UDA) technology.
Instead of presenting facets of Visual Basic code in a fragmented manner, Murach's book presents a cogent explanation of the fundamentals of Visual Basic programming in the context of real-world application examples. As the adage goes, you don't learn to program by reading, you learn by programming. Interspersed throughout the book are a dozen sample applications that not only do a great job of showing how to program in Visual Basic, but that also present techniques for good programming skills. Of particular interest is the format of the book with figures and illustrations on the right-hand pages and text on the left-hand side--this makes the book easier to read than any programming book I've read.
One minor shortcoming is the lack of advanced COM coverage and component-based development. Although there is an introductory discussion of class modules and ActiveX components, additional chapters on how to fully leverage components would be required to be the most complete book possible.
Based on its content and design, Murach's Visual Basic 6 is one of the best books on Visual Basic programming on the market today--the treatment of how Visual Basic and ADO integrates is the best I've seen. Like other publishers, Murach has opted for a downloadable source-code option instead of a CD (http://www.murach.com/books/vb60/download.htm). For those folks wanting to use Murach's Visual Basic 6 in a classroom setting, a complete instructor's guide is available on the Murach Web site as well.
About the Author
John V. Petersen is president and founder of Main Line Software, Inc.,a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based software application and database design firm. He earned an MBA from the Haub School of Business at St. Joseph's niversity, and is a four-time recipient of Microsoft's Most Valuable Professional award. John presents at industry events, writes for various publications, and is the author of Visual FoxPro 6 Enterprise Development and Hands-on Visual Basic 6 Web Development from Prima Publishing.
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Jaite Mill Historic District
Located along the Cuyahoga River, the Jaite Mill Historic District is a significant example of an early 20th-century company town. A technological development—the electric overhead crane—changed manufacturing operations at this time. Industrial operations became horizontally oriented, rather than the traditional vertically oriented water or steam belt and drum systems, thus manufacturing operations required more land. Increasing numbers of unskilled immigrants arrived in cities looking for employment. Urban areas became increasingly densely built and populated. Housing for immigrants was often crowded and poorly built, resulting in public health problems. In order for manufacturing to deal effectively with these conditions, factories needed to have enough land in an area with transportation access, near adequate housing for workers. Ideal locations for industrial expansion had plenty of land, were accessible by train and not too far from the services available in urban areas. The only thing that these remote locations did not have was adequate housing.
The Jaite Paper Mill was built in 1905 adjacent to the Ohio and Erie Canal and a branch of the B&O Railroad. The following year, Charles Jaite built five two-family dwellings for his employees. Employees rented these for $7 a month, or approximately 23 percent of a worker's monthly salary. In 1917, four additional houses were built. A company store and boarding house, worker showers, stable, freight depot, boarding platform and a water tower were also constructed. Many of the early immigrants were recent immigrants from Poland—adding a new facet to the English, Irish and German ethnic character of the Cuyahoga Valley. Unlike many other company towns, Jaite did not evolve into a larger community and has not been subjected to redevelopment pressures. Three of the original two-family dwellings were destroyed by fire in 1967, as was the mill in 1992. Located in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the Jaite Company surviving buildings have been rehabilitated as administrative headquarters for the park. The Jaite Mill Historic District is located at Riverview and Vaughan rds., south east of Brecksville. The buildings are not open to the public, but serve as facilities for Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The Jaite Paper Mill has also been documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey. |
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[Philip] developed a method of tracking down the pins of a Ball Grid Array. He wanted to do so in order to add USB host functionality to his HP Jordan 720. The method doesn't directly connect to the BGA but instead finds a via or other access point to serve as a solder point. He first looks up the pin in the BGA datasheet. Once located, he uses the bristle of a toothbrush (teal) to act as a backstop and feeds in some enameled wire (brown) to the appropriate ball. A multimeter is used to check connectivity between the wire and the vias around the chip.
Patience young grasshopper, this should work but it might take a while.


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The January transfer window has been a bit of a damp squib to date, with the exception of Manchester City's big money purchase of prolific Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko, but rumours of possible signings abound. Perhaps surprisingly, one club that has featured prominently in the feverish press speculation is Birmingham City, who have been linked with a series of attacking players in an attempt to resolve their goal scoring problems, including Kenny Miller and Robbie Keane, and have signed David Bentley on loan.
The reason for Birmingham's activity in the transfer market is clear, as they are currently languishing in 15th position in the Premier League (albeit with a game in hand), a single point ahead of the relegation places. Even though the Blues have proved their usual obdurate selves defensively, particularly at St. Andrews, they have only won four times with their points tally being damaged by an unusually high number of draws (ten).
Realistically, the fans' hopes should not be overly high, as Birmingham have only won one major trophy, back in 1963 when they beat local rivals Aston Villa 3-1 on aggregate in the League Cup, though they have played in the top tier of English football for the majority of their history. Nevertheless, the team achieved a highly creditable ninth place finish last season, which was particularly praiseworthy, given that this came immediately after being promoted from the Championship.
Great stuff, but this was always likely to be a hard act to follow and, sure enough, Birmingham are suffering from a classic case of second season syndrome, whereby a promoted team that exceeds expectations invariably struggles the following year.
"Alex McLeish - Big Eck"
In fairness, the club's prospects have been hurt by the long-term absence of James McFadden, exacerbated by the failure in the summer to secure manager Alex McLeish's preferred striking targets, including Bobby Zamora, Fabrizio Miccoli and Moussa Dembele. As an alternative, he has had to make do with beanpole Serbian forward Nikola Zigic and Chilean winger Jean Beausejour, supported by loan signings Matt Derbyshire and Aleksandr Hleb, and none of these players has had a meaningful impact on the scoring charts.
So they need to do something if they want to ensure survival in the Premier League. When Carson Yeung's investment vehicle Grandtop International Holdings Limited took over the club in October 2009, it made it very clear that this was the cornerstone of their strategy, "Our aim is to work hard to secure our position in the Premier League, not only this year, but for many years to come." Nothing wrong with that, of course, as this is the strategy of the majority of clubs in the Premier League, because the financial implications of relegation are too hideous to consider. When Birmingham were relegated in 2006, they warned, "A prolonged absence from the Premier League will force the club to make wide-ranging economies."
This explains the club's apparent willingness to reinforce its squad, though there is a degree of confusion over just how much money is available for new players. Alex McLeish first claimed, "We are not in a position to spend at the moment. We are looking at the loan situation and if push comes to shove then we will see." However, this reticence was later clarified by Peter Pannu, the club's vice-chairman, "We will consider each request on a need to buy basis, and need to play basis and finally on a need to strengthen the team basis and not on a buy for the sake of buying basis."
"David Bentley - dreaming of a new start"
It's a real dilemma for Birmingham: in the immortal words of Richard Keys, do they stick or twist? If they don't improve the squad, they run the risk of relegation and all that entails, but, on the other hand, if they do splash the cash, they will place an additional financial burden on the club's threadbare financial resources. Last year McLeish explained his ethos, "There will be money to spend, but there has got to be prudence." Of course, if the money spent were to result in the club maintaining its place in the Premier League, it would certainly recoup its investment, but this still represents a gamble.
This is especially so in the case of the Blues, as highlighted by the latest accounts for Birmingham City PLC, which were released last week and included the dreaded "Emphasis of Matter" warning, which stated, "These conditions indicate the existence of a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the Group's ability to continue as a going concern." Although some have under-played the significance of this statement, suggesting that it's merely a case of accountants covering their backsides, the reality is that auditors do not make such remarks lightly, as supporters of Liverpool and Hull City would appreciate. In simple terms, there is a risk that Birmingham City will be unable to pay its bills and could even go bust.
The same accounts make it crystal clear that the club "is reliant on continued funding from Carson Yeung." Of course, Birmingham are by no means the only club that is dependent on the support of a wealthy benefactor, but the comments on future trading and liquidity emphasise the hand-to-mouth nature of the club's existence, as "the forecasts show that the Group needs funding of around £7.5 million from its parent company in the short term in order … to continue to operate within its agreed bank facilities." Even that hinges on finishing in an unspecified position in the Premier League with a further £3 million required if the club avoids going down. There is no mention of what happens in the worst-case scenario of relegation, but we can make a pretty good guess, as the club posted a £19 million loss the last time this happened.
"Hleb - known to Arsenal fans as Dribbly McNoscore"
Even more worrying is the fact that the parent company, Birmingham International Holdings Limited (BIH), does not appear to have this funding readily available, but needs to organise a placing of shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange "to provide general working capital and financial support." Only £7.5 million is fully underwritten (i.e. guaranteed), leaving a further £17.5 million to be raised on a "best efforts" basis. That's not particularly comforting, especially as the accounts state that the net proceeds "are expected to be transferred by the end of November 2010", but there has been no further press release from BIH regarding the results of the placing. Instead, the company's shares were suspended on 5 January, "pending the release of an announcement regarding proposed very substantial acquisition."
To a certain extent, the warning in the football club accounts is old news for Blues fans, as the BIH accounts published last October contained exactly the same "going concern" statement, while also noting that the Group's current liabilities exceeded its current assets by around £28 million (depending on exchange rate with Hong Kong Dollar), after incurring a loss of £35 million, though much of this was due to a paper loss from writing-off goodwill arising on the acquisition of the football club. Clearly, the funds from the proposed share placing will be used to shore up the balance sheet, but that means that only limited funds will be available for transfers or stadium development.
At the time, Peter Pannu eased the fans' fears, "The accounts are those of the holding company and has nothing to do with BCFC, which in the last year had shown profits", but this is palpable nonsense. Birmingham City Football Club PLC is the only trading subsidiary of Birmingham City PLC, which is in turn wholly owned by Birmingham International Holdings Limited (formerly Grandtop International Holdings Limited). If the chain of ownership is not enough to convince, try this for size: 99.6% of BIH's turnover comes from the football club.
All of this has cast significant doubt over the viability of the club's holding company, which is crucial, as the football club is reliant on its support. Birmingham City's June 2010 balance sheet has net current liabilities of £27 million, while net debt is £14 million. Almost all of this has arisen in the last year, very largely comprising a £12 million loan (bearing 5% interest) from Carson Yeung, though he has promised not to seek repayment in less than 12 months. Since the books were closed, he has advanced a further £2.8 million, so the total owed now stands at £14.8 million. The club also has £2 million of bank loans and a £2 million overdraft, both of which are secured on the club's land and buildings, offset by £1 million of cash.
So, the club is no longer debt-free, as it had been during the reign of previous owners David Sullivan and David Gold, thanks to their frugal approach. Of course, Birmingham's debts are not huge compared to other clubs, something that Pannu was keen to announce, boasting that they were "nowhere near the level of some major Premier League clubs and some of the powerhouses in Spain and Europe." That's true, even though his grasp of European geography seems rather loose, but the revenue generated by those clubs is considerably higher.
In fact, Birmingham's debt is effectively higher, as they also owe £13 million to other football clubs for transfer fees, of which £8 million is due in the next financial year. Stage payments of transfers is a fairly common practice, but this is quite a high sum for a club of Birmingham's size and it has been increasing over the past few years.
They also potentially owe the taxman £5 million on image rights if Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs win a court case against a number of football clubs. Similarly, the club has provided around £1 million for a VAT dispute.
However, the majority of the debt has come from Birmingham's recent largesse in the transfer market. People might be taken aback by the fact that Birmingham's net spend of £36 million over the last two seasons is the third highest in the Premier League, only behind Manchester City and Chelsea. In a way, this is perfectly understandable, as a team promoted from the Championship has to improve their squad to be competitive in a higher division, but it's still a surprising statistic.
Although Carson Yeung has not quite delivered on his initial pledge to spend £80 million on new players ("£40 million in the January transfer window is my commitment to the Birmingham fans. And next season we put another £40 million into the team."), this still represents a significant outlay. Of course, boasting about such spending power did not appear to be a wise move from a negotiating perspective and Yeung has since admitted, "In hindsight, I can see that wasn't the best thing to do. We learned one lesson – that suddenly prices shot up." Well, they would do, if you show your hand so blatantly, e.g. the price of Roman Pavlyuchenko jumped 50% overnight.
Looking at Birmingham City's profit trend, we can see why Yeung's loan was so important in funding the transfer spend. Even though the club was one of a select few to make a profit last season, it was extremely small at £0.1 million, necessitating cash injections. Let's be very clear about this: Birmingham City have been run very well from a financial point of view, reporting profits in six of the last eight years, but they simply don't produce enough cash to justify their recent activity in the transfer market.
At its simplest, Birmingham are profitable in those seasons when they play in the Premier League, but make a loss if they drop down to the Championship. In 2008/09, the club took the calculated gamble of retaining most of its players, which paid off in the sense that Birmingham came back up at the first time of asking, but this did produce a hefty £19 million loss. This was in contrast to the approach they took after relegation a couple of seasons before, when they "took immediate action to alleviate the financial implications" by releasing 13 first team squad players in order to cut the wage bill and realise some profit on player sales (mainly Emile Heskey and Jermaine Pennant to Liverpool), though they still had the "highest investment in the division."
I should note at this stage that the last accounts only cover ten months, as the accounting close was changed from 31 August to 30 June, in order to be in line with the parent company BIH. This probably has limited impact on the revenue figures, as the TV money from the Premier League is distributed during the football season, while matches are not played in July and August. However, costs are booked evenly throughout the year, so a full year's costs would have been higher than reported.
Despite turnover more than doubling on Birmingham's return to the top tier from £28 million to £56 million, this is still relatively low for clubs in the Premier League. Even though it's a different year, if we take the Money League for 2008/09 as a comparison, Birmingham would have been in 15th position or about the same level as Stoke City. To place that into context, Manchester United's revenue is nearly five times as much, while Aston Villa earn 50% more.
The graph of the revenue mix vividly highlights Birmingham's challenge with almost all of their income (£42 million) being derived from television, leaving relatively little from the other revenue streams with £7 million coming from each of match day and commercial. The difference between TV revenue in the Premier League and the Championship is by far the biggest swing factor in each year's revenue. In fact, it has become increasingly important over the years. Note that match day revenue in the earlier years was over-stated in the accounts, as it included "FA and League distributions."
In fact, 74% of Birmingham's total income comes from TV, which is only behind Wigan in terms of Premier League clubs' dependency on the small screen, even though their £42 million is nowhere near as much as the leading clubs earn, mainly due to the money those teams earn from the Champions League. Like others, Birmingham have enormously benefited from the Sky revolution with £41 million of their £42 million broadcasting income emanating from Murdoch's empire.
The distribution of the Premier League TV revenue is therefore of particular interest to a club like Birmingham. Much of it is shared out equally, namely 50% of the domestic rights and 100% of the overseas rights, but not all of the money is allocated in this manner. Merit payments account for 25% of the domestic rights with each place in the final league table being worth around £800,000, which we have already seen is important for Birmingham's cash flow. In addition, the remaining 25% of the domestic TV rights comes from the facility fee, which is based on how many times Sky broadcast a club's matches live. Last season Birmingham were shown eleven times, while the viewing public was treated to Manchester United the maximum 24 times.
As such, Birmingham's turnover is heavily influenced by the timing of broadcasting deals, with the significant increase in 2008 revenue being partly due to promotion and partly due to the new Sky agreement. Happily for the Blues, they can anticipate a similar boost to revenue in next year's accounts, as the central payments from the latest three-year deal, which kicked off in the 2010/11 season, will climb by around £7-10 million, largely thanks to the steep increase in overseas rights.
Although the parachute payments paid to clubs dropping out of the Premier league have been increased to £48 million (£16 million in each of the first two years, £8 million in each of years three and four), this would still represent a drastic reduction for Birmingham. They can expect around £48 million revenue from the Premier League this season, so they would have to manage a £32 million reduction in their revenue, which is a big ask to say the least.
The accounts proudly announce that match day revenue increased by £2 million from £5 million to £7 million, though this is partly due to promotion. In a way, this was still impressive, as season ticket prices were reduced by 10%, but this amount is still insignificant compared to most other clubs. If you consider that clubs like Manchester United and Arsenal collect over £100 million of match day revenue, it's hardly a level playing field. In fact, only three clubs have lower gate receipts: Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers and WBA.
This is pretty much in line with crowd levels, as Birmingham's average attendances rising of 25,000 (up from 19,000) were the 16th highest in England last season, partly because only 84% of St. Andrews' 30,000 capacity is being filled. In fairness, the West Midlands has been stricken by severe unemployment, with many manufacturing plants (notably Longbridge) being closed down and other workers having their hours reduced.
"Big Ben Foster"
The club has invested some money into the stadium in the past, with the accounts specifically mentioning £1 million on refurbishing the main stand in 2008 and £2 million on the ground and training facilities in 2007, but the 2004 proposal to build a 55,000 capacity City of Birmingham Stadium has been put on hold, after the government refused to issue a licence for a super casino.
If the Blues are adversely impacted by low match day revenue, the picture is even worse when it comes to commercial income with only WBA earning less than Birmingham's £7 million. Again, the "big boys" generate substantially more revenue here with Manchester United and Liverpool receiving ten times as much at around £70 million. Note that the £10 million commercial revenue reported in 2008 was artificially inflated by the £2.5 million compensation received for former manager Steve Bruce joining Wigan.
The shirt sponsorship deal with F&C Investments is worth just £650,000 a season, which compares very unfavourably with the £20 million that Standard Chartered pay Liverpool. In fact, only Blackpool's deal with the inappropriately named Wonga is lower in the Premier League.
As of this season, the club has signed a five-year deal worth £7 million with Chinese sportswear manufacture Xtep to provide kit, replacing the three-year deal with Umbro. Peter Pannu was proud of this off-pitch signing, "Not only is it a superb deal commercially, being the biggest sponsorship the club has acquired, but also on a brand level, as it promotes the club internationally."
"Karren Brady - the first lady of football"
This is part of the owners' long-term strategy, which was outlined after the acquisition, "We believe that there is a major opportunity to build BCFC's fan base in China and to generate new sources of revenue for the club." Former chief executive Karren Brady gushed, "I can foresee links with the powerhouse Chinese economy"; while one BIH's legal advisors went even further, "With a population of 1.3 billion in China, the prospects are unlimited."
Stirring stuff, but is it really credible? Sure, football is widely followed in China with Premier league matches broadcast on free-to-air state channel Guandong TV, but even franchises like Manchester United have struggled to make any tangible impact there. Indeed, only a tiny percentage of United's revenue comes from outside the UK. Of course, Yeung has many more local connections, which he believes will lead to Birmingham being "more popular than Manchester United and Chelsea", but there's been little evidence of that so far, beyond a pre-season tour. It's obviously early days in the relationship, but to break through in a major market like China is likely to require the kind of funds that Birmingham do not appear to possess.
Where Birmingham can be justifiably lauded is their cost control. In five years, total expenses have only grown from £45 million in 2005 to £55 million last year, though we should probably pro-rate 2010, as those accounts only cover ten months. If we do that, we get £65 million, which gives a growth of 44%, which is not too bad. As a comparison, Bolton, a club with similar revenue (£56 million), has seen cost growth of 95% in the same period.
Using the same pro-rata technique, the annual wage bill is £44 million, which is one of the lowest in the Premier League at 15th. This means that Birmingham significantly outperformed their expected league position based on wages when they finished 9th. To place their wage bill into context, teams like Aston Villa and West Ham pay 50% more.
This is an area that the board takes very seriously, indeed it is listed as the club's principal risk in the accounts, "The acquisition of players and their related payroll costs are deemed the core activity risk and, whilst assisting the manager in improving the playing squad, the Board is mindful of the pitfalls that are inherent in this area of the business. The aim is therefore to manage these costs whilst being as competitive as possible within the club's financial constraints."
In 2007 wages were cut following relegation, but this was not repeated in 2009 when the club was again demoted, leading to an unsustainable wages to turnover ratio of 100%. This was lowered to 78% last season, due the rise in turnover following the return to the Premier League, but this is still a little on the high side. To be fair, this could fall to UEFA's recommended maximum limit of 70% with a £7 million increase in revenue, which is entirely possible following the new Sky contract.
The question is what would happen if Birmingham were to be relegated? Yeung has spoken in the past of maintaining a "magic formula of 60-70%" and "a fall-back option in case you are not in the Premiership", which implies that there would be a sale of players in this eventuality, unless the players' contracts include clauses reducing salaries in the Championship.
Similar to wages, player amortisation of £12 million is far behind most of Birmingham's Premier League rivals, who are still "paying" for the transfer excesses of previous years. Amortisation is an "accounting" expense, which occurs as the result of transfer purchases. When a player is bought, the cost is capitalised as an intangible fixed asset and amortised (written-off) over the length of his contract. This means that the costs of buying a player are not fully reflected in the books in the year of purchase, but over time the amortisation costs can have a real impact on the profit and loss account, e.g. Manchester City's annual amortisation is an astonishing £71 million. Again, for Birmingham, this expense tends to rise and fall, depending on whether the club is in the Premier League or Championship.
The impact that the new owners have had on the club's transfer policy can be seen by looking at the net spend over the last decade. During the last eight years of the Sullivan and Gold era, this amounted to £41 million, but this has almost been matched with £36 million in the two years under Yeung. OK, a couple of the buys in 2009 took place when the "two Davids" still had their hands on the tiller, but the point largely remains valid.
Many of the purchases, such as defenders Roger Johnson, Scott Dann and Craig Gardner have proved quite astute, while the club has also made good use of the loan system over the years, most notably with goalkeeper Joe Hart from Manchester City last season, but also the likes of Sebastian Larsson, Fabrice Muamba and Nicklas Bendtner from Arsenal.
This is an example of the thrifty stance adopted by the previous owners, Sullivan and Gold, who appear to have provoked contrary reactions in most supporters. On the one hand, they rescued the club from receivership in 1993 when they bought it for £700,000 and they ran the finances in a sensible manner, generating profits in many years, which is a rare feat in the pressurised world of football. On the other hand, they were criticised for milking the fans and not investing more of their own money, leading to two relegations in four years, which many felt could have been avoided.
Indeed, the former regime's reputation for financial competence has taken a few hits in recent years. In March 2010, Sullivan himself declared, "Last summer we knew the club had a financial problem, as we publicly stated we loaned it £5 million to pay the deposits on two new players, because there was no money to do that." In the same interview, when confronted with Birmingham's £19 million loss in 2009, he admitted, "I can't see where this loss has come from", even though he had sanctioned the policy of retaining the Premier League squad in the Championship – which, admittedly, was vindicated when promotion was secured.
"Gold and Sullivan - the dynamic duo"
Then, there's the small matter of a few legal difficulties, including a tribunal finding against the club in 2007 over the issue of reclaiming VAT on agents' fees, and Sullivan and Karren Brady being arrested the following year on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting (though no charges ensued).
While these incidents may have raised supporters' eyebrows, they were more angered about the size of Brady's pay-off, when the club was sold. According to the circular sent to Birmingham City shareholders, this amounted to a staggering £959,000, comprising 12 months' notice £179,000; once-off bonus on company sale £520,000; and a bonus for each season played in the Premier League, starting 2009/10 £260,000.
Indeed, Yeung sued the former owners, as he believed that they had taken too many management fees out of the club, and even though they ultimately dropped the lawsuit, the 2010 accounts did note that the club recovered a total of £2.65 million "relating to management charges incorrectly invoiced to the club in previous years."
Of course, the old saying caveat emptor springs to mind and it is fairly obvious that Yeung's due diligence could have been better, especially as this was his second bite of the cherry, having failed to raise sufficient funds in his collapsed takeover bid of 2007, when he had to settle for a 29.9% stake instead. Despite this inside track, Yeung surely over-paid when he finally bought the club in late 2009 for £81.5 million, which was £17.5 million more than Randy Lerner paid for Aston Villa and £58.5 million more than Venky's paid for Blackburn Rovers (though in both those cases, the new proprietors took on more debt).
"McFadden - absence makes the heart grow fonder"
In this case, Sullivan was right on the money, "He merely asked us about ten questions and failed to bring in accountants or auditors. It's a bit like me buying a house and failing to conduct a survey and then moaning when the damn thing collapses."
A similar lack of attention to detail was exposed when Yeung's company lost a court case to stockbroker Seymour Pierce, who had sued the club for £2.2 million of unpaid fees relating to advice provided in the initial takeover bid, apparently because they had failed to submit three months' written notice. At one stage, there was talk of this case causing the owners to lose control of the club, which may have been an improbable scenario, but it did raise questions over the strength of their financial backing.
As Seymour Pierce's lawyer said, "Any reputable business would not choose to be in contempt of a British high court. If they are well funded and they are as substantial as they have told people, they would easily be able to fund the fee and then try to get leave to appeal the judgment."
There has always been a dichotomy at the heart of Birmingham's new owners: plenty of bullish talk about money being made available for new players, even though the holding company appears to have little financial substance. Indeed, Grandtop made significant losses in the four years prior to the acquisition and required a £57 million bridging loan to fund the takeover, which was only repaid after a share issue. This was a sign of things to come, as the current working capital issues are once again being addressed via another share placing.
"Nikola Zigic - more bang for your buck?"
If that's not bad enough, there is also confusion over the identity of the real owner of the football club with some questioning Carson Yeung's role, leading to a rebuttal by Peter Pannu, "He is not a front man, he is the main man", though even he admitted, "I can understand why people have made assumptions. The legal documents are very complex and difficult to explain."
That's certainly true, but the latest placing document clearly identifies the anticipated dilution of Yeung's stake that would result from this process. He currently holds 18.54% (in his name 5.82%, wholly owned Great Luck Management Limited 12.72%), which would fall to 16.25% after completion of the fully underwritten element and 12.47% if the maximum number of "best effort" shares are placed.
Apart from demonstrating the lack of confidence in BIH, given that less than 25% is underwritten, this share placing raises a couple of important questions: (a) If Yeung has so much money, why is he prepared to let his stake be diluted, especially as the price is half of what he previously paid? (b) How can he still be the "main man", when he will own less than an eighth of the company?
In fairness, he would still be the major shareholder, if not the majority shareholder, and it is possible that other large shareholders are close business associates, who are happy to see him to lead the organisation. That said, he sure has come a long way since the days he ran a chain of hair salons, before apparently making money from the ubiquitous "property development" and becoming chairman of Hong Kong Rangers football club.
"The focus of Roger Johnson"
The company's share placings have been under-written by Kingston Securities, a Hong Kong brokerage owned by Pollyanna Chu, chief executive of the Golden Resorts casino hotels company in Macau and reputedly one of the wealthiest women in Hong Kong. There are suspicions that she is the true power behind the throne, with some believing that it is only a question of time before she shows her hand, especially with BIH's continual financial headaches, but Pannu has denied her involvement. Such a change might be welcomed by Blues fans, though it could be a case of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, as she has a somewhat controversial past, having been investigated by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission for "unauthorised and improper trading activities."
There have been a number of bizarre potential acquisitions announced by BIH, including Peace International Creation Limited (aviation), Diligent King Investments Limited (telecoms) and Good Partners Group Limited (property), though none of these appear to have been completed. Again, it makes you wonder what are the attractions of these unknown companies, when there many businesses around that would be far less speculative investments. As Spandau Ballet once sung, "Questions, questions/Give me no answers."
In fairness to Carson Yeung, he has so far delivered on a number of promises: the money was found to purchase the club, the bridging loan was repaid and money has been provided to fund transfers (albeit not to the levels initially pledged). That said, the lack of transparency must be a concern for Birmingham City fans, not helped by the club's parent company being incorporated in the Cayman Islands, an offshore tax haven. The Premier League have been satisfied to date, but their tests only require a guarantee that the club is funded until the end of the season and is not designed to look at long-term solvency.
"Calling Cameron Jerome"
Push will come to shove soon enough, as Birmingham's ageing squad will need to be rejuvenated and that will require a fair bit of cash. The concern is that the complicated structure is acting as the proverbial smoke and mirrors to disguise fundamental financial weaknesses, while the hope is that the club do indeed manage to break into the lucrative Chinese market and reap the benefits. We shall see.
Encouragingly, Peter Pannu recently stated that Birmingham had to be "financially prudent" and could not be run on a "benefactor's model" otherwise they would end up like Portsmouth, but he also said that Yeung was not going to "turn off the taps." It's a delicate balance that affects all clubs, but many of them do not suffer from the Blues' Byzantine ownership structure.
In many ways, Birmingham City is an admirable club with solid, down-to-earth principles. They have a small budget, but have continued to punch well above their weight, earning the respect of the Premier League. Much of this is due to a fiercely loyal support that deserves more clarity from the club's owners. As Peter Pannu said, when talking about the previous administration, "The fans would like to see the lifting of the corporate veil and their club run in a responsible and open way." I couldn't have put it any better myself.


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© 2013 Cathy Farley. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Cathy Farley and Wives With Knives with appropriate and specific direction ("links") to the original content.