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The Vatican has given the traditionalist Society of St Pius X a formal "doctrinal preamble" listing several principles they must agree with in order to move toward full reconciliation with the Church.
US Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave the statement to Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the society, during a meeting at the Vatican that lasted more than two hours.
Although the Vatican did not give the society a deadline, leaders are expected to study and sign the preamble "within a few months", according to Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman.
The cardinal and bishop also discussed possible "elements of a canonical solution" for the society after "the eventual and hoped-for reconciliation", according to a statement issued by the Vatican after the meeting.
Fr Lombardi said: "Today the most likely solution would be a personal prelature," which is a Church jurisdiction without geographical boundaries designed to carry out particular pastoral initiatives. It is led by a prelate, who is appointed by the Pope; currently the Church's only personal prelature is Opus Dei.
The document given to Bishop Fellay to sign "states some doctrinal principles and criteria for the interpretation of Catholic doctrine necessary to guarantee fidelity" to the formal teaching of the Church, said a statement issued by the Vatican after the meeting.
At the same time, the statement said, the preamble leaves room for "legitimate discussion" about "individual expressions or formulations present in the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the successive magisterium" of the popes who came after the council.
Fr Lombardi would not respond to questions about specific Church teachings and developments listed in the preamble, but said Church tradition has always held there are varying degrees of Church teaching; some require an absolute assent while others are open to interpretation.
The talks were launched in late 2009 in an effort by Pope Benedict XVI to repair a 21-year break with the society. The Pope said that full communion for the group's members would depend on "true recognition of the magisterium and the authority of the pope and of the Second Vatican Council".
The Vatican statement did not mention any of the specific areas where Bishop Fellay's group has said the Catholic Church and the popes since the Second Vatican Council had broken with true Catholic tradition. They object to the reform of the Mass, to much of the Church's work in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, and to the council's stand on religious freedom.
Bishop Fellay had said his society went into the talks aiming to show the contradictions between the Church's traditional teachings and its practices since Vatican II. That is "the only goal that we are pursuing," he had said, adding that the dialogue with the Vatican is not a search for compromise but "a question of faith".
In addition to the society's rejection of many Vatican II teachings, members also objected to the beatification of Pope John Paul II and, particularly, to Pope Benedict's convocation of another interreligious meeting for peace in Assisi.
Pope Benedict cleared the way for reconciliation talks with the Society of St Pius X in early 2009 when he lifted the excommunications of Bishop Fellay and three other society bishops ordained against papal orders in 1988. The Vatican said the dialogue was designed to restore "full communion" with members of the society, which was founded by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
The Vatican said the talks were to focus on the concept of tradition, liturgical reform, interpretation of Vatican II in continuity with Catholic doctrinal tradition, Church unity, ecumenism, the relationship between Christianity and non-Christian religions, and religious freedom.
The Vatican and the society appointed a commission to discuss the issues and members met eight times between October 2009 and April 2011, the Vatican said.
The meetings "reached the aim of clarifying the respective positions" of the two sides, it said.
VATICAN CITY, 14 SEP 2011 (VIS) – At midday today the Holy See Press Office released the following communique concerning the postion of the Society of St. Pius X:
"On 14 September at the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal William Joseph Levada, prefect of the congregation and president of the Pontifical Commission 'Ecclesia Dei'; Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer S.J., secretary of the congregation, and Msgr. Guido Pozzo, secretary of the pontifical commission, met with Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the Society of St. Pius X, who was accompanied by Fr. Niklaus Pfluger and Fr. Alain-Marc Nely, respectively first and second assistant general to the society.
"Following the appeal of 15 December 2008, addressed by the superior general of the Society of St. Pius X to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, the Holy Father decided to remove the excommunication against the four bishops consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre. At the same time, he approved the opening of discussions with the society in order to clarify doctrinal problems and to heal the existing rift.
"In order to put the Holy Father's instructions into effect, a joint study commission was set up, composed of experts from the Society of St. Pius X and from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith who met in Rome on eight occasions between October 2009 and April 2011. Their discussions, which aimed to identify and study the essential doctrinal difficulties in the controversial issues, had the result of clarifying the positions of the two sides and their respective motivations.
"While bearing in mind the concerns and demands presented by the Society of St. Pius X about protecting the integrity of the Catholic faith against Vatican Council II's 'hermeneutic of rupture' with Tradition (a theme addressed by Pope Benedict XVI in his address to the Roman Curia on 22 December 2005), the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith maintains that the fundamental basis for achieving full reconciliation with the Apostolic See is the acceptance of the text of the Doctrinal Preamble, which was handed over during a meeting on 14 September 2011. The Preamble defines certain doctrinal principles and criteria for the interpretation Catholic doctrine, which are necessary to ensure faithfulness to the Church Magisterium and 'sentire cum Ecclesia'. At the same time, it leaves open to legitimate discussion the examination and theological explanation of individual expressions and formulations contained in the documents of Vatican Council II and later Magisterium.
"At the same meeting, certain suggestions were made for a canonical solution to the position of the Society of St. Pius X, with a view to achieving the desired reconciliation".


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Will Ferrell is set to adapt cult TV series Manimal into a feature film.
The Anchorman star and his producing partner Adam McKay's next project is reviving the short-lived crime series with a hybrid live-action/animated movie.
Manimal, which ran for just three months in 1983, starred Simon MacCorkindale as Dr. Jonathan Chase, who had the ability to transform into any animal in an effort to help police solve crimes.
Glen A. Larson, who created Manimal as well as shows such as Battlestar Galactica, Magnum, P.I. and Knight Rider, is also on board to produce the film with Ferrell and McKay.
Photo Credit: Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Protein 2.27kg - Chocolate
Key Features
- Packs 24 grams of the purest, muscle-building protein per serving
- 5.5g BCAAs
- Only 1g of fat, 1g of sugar, 3g carbs
- Amazing taste and mixes well
|Optimum Nutrition
|Free UK Delivery?
|Extreme Chocolate
|Easy: Add one scoop of 100% Whey to a blender filled with 200-250ml of water, skim milk or your favorite beverage. Easier: Fill a shaker with 200-250ml of water, skim milk or your favorite beverage and add one scoop of 100% Whey. Easiest: Simply add one scoop of 100% Whey to a tall glass and add 200-250 ml of water, skim milk or your favorite beverage and mix with a spoon for about 20 seconds. Consume 1-3 servings daily or use as recommended by a physician or licensed nutritionist.
|Protein Blend (Whey Protein Isolate, Whey Protein Concentrate, Whey Peptides), Enzyme Blend (AminoGen, Lactase [Standardised to 100,000 FCC Units/G), Artificial Flavour, Lecithin, Acesulfame Potassium. NOTE: Ingredients and nutritional information based on vanilla flavour.
|Nutritional Breakdown Per Serving
|Amount per 29.4g serving; Calories - 120 Protein - 24g Carbs - 3g (of which sugars - 1g) Fat - 1g (of which saturates - 0.5g)
Delivery and Return Details
Free Delivery:
Free delivery to mainland GB addresses on orders over £99 are by either a parcel courier or a pallet courier. See below for further information.
Standard Timescales:
Expected delivery is within 3-7 business days.
One Man Pallet Delivery:
Expected delivery is 3 - 5 business days. All deliveries are made Monday - Friday between 7am and 6pm. These are kerbside only. We advise having two bodies available to help the courier with larger or heavy deliveries. Please note, Powerhouse Fitness advise against one man delivery for larger or heavy orders.
Express Delivery:
Order before 3pm for delivery within 48 hours. Available on selected products only and subject to availability. Friday after 3pm, Saturday and Sunday orders will normally be delivered on a Tuesday.
Two Man/Ground Floor Delivery: (Up to a maximum of 350kgs)
This service is available on larger orders or premium priced products. You will be called to book a delivery day in advance. Subject to suitable and safe access, the couriers will place the product into a ground floor room of your choice.
Parcel Delivery:
All parcels will require a signature.
Please note: Any installations ordered during the month of December will be carried out in January 2019. Installations are a two-man service and are booked with you in advance. Installations are normally within 10-14 working days.
Life Fitness Install is UK mainland only
Commercial/Business Orders Delivery:
For commercial gyms/studios please call the sales team to discuss delivery and installation options.
Delivery times can increase during busy periods of the year. Please call to confirm current lead times if you require a quicker or dated delivery.
Different Deliver Address / ID Checks
We can carry out further checks to verify the cardholders details, such as requesting identification. We will never ask for any sensitive information to be sent to us. Please note the confirmation email is an acknowledgement and is not an acceptance of your order
Delayed Delivery
If you are looking for an extended delivery time or to delay the dispatch of your order please call us as charges may apply.


text:
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Cadillac CTS Maintenance and Repair
I use regular oil not synthectic. Do I still go by the computer to change oil? 2006 cts.
the GMOL indicator was designed to work with the factory installed oil......did it come with dino or synth?...you can actually use the GMOL to monitor your oil change intervals....just dont exceed intervals shown in your owners manual....I use full synth in my 04 Malibu Maxx LT..watch the GMOL..and change at 7500 miles of %25 remaining on the GMOL..whichever I reach first......91K on my Maxx and no problems at all0
Stupid question I know.
I have a 2004 CTS 3.6L V6 when I check the oil level I get a low reading below the 3 bubbles on the stick. I have no blue smoke to indicate I'm burning oil. And no oil leaks that I can see. Anyone else have this problem when checking their oil? Even after adding oil it's still below the 3 bubbles. Something else I should check?
Is there a low oil level sensor on the 2004?
Thanks in advance0
pucks Posts: 47I'm pretty sure the 3.6L VVT on the CTS is synthetic only.0
panzer Posts: 125Anybody ever had a mild shudder develop under light throttle, in 4th gear (automatic) at about 1600 rpm and about 42mph? It only does it in this narrow range. Our 2005 CTS with the 3.6L V6 has started to do this pretty consistently. It has 24,000 miles. Possibly the rear axle issue? Never had any problems with the car in 2-1/2 years.0
dewmeister Posts: 1Is the 95 STS antenna mast available without changing the whole unit?0
Took my 2004 Cadillac cts to the dealer today.
To make a long story short..
The Cadillac dealer service department told me today. The oil life monitor is a bad tool to use when deciding oil changing intervals. I had my oil changed 5000 miles ago. Oil life monitor indicated oil life 69%. I figured I could go at lest another 3500 miles before the next oil change. Not according to the dealer service advisor and an technician they advised me 3500miles regardless, the oil life monitor goes by the engines rpm and temperature and is only ruff yes I quote a ruff guide. I asked what the hell the oil life monitor is doing on GM vehicles and why GM is telling me different story. They had no answer, I said Amazing and left!
My question
Any of you on this forum been told this about the olm? I contacted GM, They stand behind the olm and suggested I continue to use the olm to service the vehicle. Yes I used the recommended Mobil 1 5W30 synthetic. And I will not return to this dealership again. Thank you in advanced.0
I think your dealership is simply trying to get more $$ from you by bringing it back in more often than required......The OLM is standard in most GM cars today....look at the owners manual.....it doesnt give you a standard oil change interval any more...but references the OLM system....I use mine as my oil change interval..usually taking it down to 25%....using Mobil 1...in my 04 Malibu and 06 Solstice..getting about 7500 miles between changes.......3K changes are a personal choice...but a waste IMHO.....
I would go to another dealership.....0
I agree 100% I thought the same thing.0
About two weeks ago my CTS started making this knocking noise when I would turn it on, after a few seconds it would go away. Then last week when my husband was driving it the knocking noise turned into a rattle (metal on metal) noise, while we were stopped and moving- the faster we were going the faster the rattle. We did not make it more than a mile until the check engine light came on and we parked it and had it towed to the cadillac dealer. The oil had just been changed a week prior to the noise starting (synthetic), and another oil change had been performed about 3 months after buying it. The car is used with 30k on it when bought and now, 10 months later 43k. The dealership wants proof of two oil changes since bought which we gave them, and $4600 to tear apart/ put back together the engine to see if it is a manufactory defect or poor maintence. If it turns out to be a engine defect then the warranty will come into play, if not we are SOL. The service department is telling me they have never seen this before and that these engines run perfect with the correct maintence. They cannot tell me what is exactly wrong with the car but are pointing the finger at me and saying that there was not enough oil to lubricate the engine and in turn my engine blew. They are telling me there is metal in the oil, and that it is sludge. You should also know the oil indicator was taken out when a after market nav was put into the car, but they say that it should only have needed two oil changes since being bought. I am curious to know if anyone else has been in this situation or thinks that it is a manufactory defect or not. I am having a hard time risking $4600....0
did you buy the car from this dealer.....was it a certified model?.....if you provided the oil change documentation.....they should do the work to determine what the problem is..since they intially suspected lack of oil.....
taking out the GMOL with the installation of an aftermarket nav system shouldnt have anything to do with the dealerships claim since you provided evidence of routine maintenance...of course you dont know what the maintenance record was before you bought it.........metal and sludge in the oil..find that hard to beleive with only 43K on the car......
if you could have it taken to another dealer I would......this one sounds like they dont know what they are doing..or are looking for a quick $$0
No, I did not buy the car from this dealer.....yes, it is a certified model. I completely agree with you, I find it very crazy that they want money to investigate a problem that they already suspect and that I have proven has been maintence. I called the GM to see if I could get the car moved to another location, but I would have to pay out of pocket the towing fees, because it is already at a location that can fix the car. I think I am going to have a family mechanic go and look at the car and test the oil and tell me the status and see if I should risk the $4600 and have them tear apart the engine.
Thank you very much for your comments, they really helped.0
so why not take it back to the dealer you bought it from in the first place..I can only assume it was another cadillac dealer in order to classify it as a certified used car.... the other issue you may have is the dealership may not let "your" mechanic look at the vehicle as long as it is at their work site......I would pay the $$ and have it towed to the dealer you bought it from and save the hassle with this dealer...
if it is certified and still has a warranty...this dealership is obviously jerking you around for no reason...looking for the $$0
I have a 2006 Cadillac CTS and when I press the accelerator, there is a crunching noise that sounds almost like chains are being rubbed together. I thought it sounded like it was coming from the steering wheel area, but I have taken my car into the dealership twice and they can't find the problem. Also, when I come to a complete stop, my car will then bounce forward and back as though the car overall is really loose, along with making the chainlike noises. Last, when I am making a turn and have to slow down, there is a really loud sound that's similar to a "woop woop woop" noise. I don't know much about cars, but it sounds like it could be coming from the rear axle? Can anyone help?0
dmulhearn Posts: 1Our 3.2 L 2004 Cts standard shift 5 speed cuts out around 4000 rpms. As it approaches the higher revs you can feel the hesitation begin and then at around 4000 it really looses it pick up. I was told by one dealer in Minnesota that it has a governor on it that holds the revs down. It doesn't seem like this would be true since you can feel the hesitation earlier. Is this a problem that has any real shop references and can it be fixed?
My dealer tells me to go no more than 6 months before oil changes regardless what the oil life monitor says. I am told synthetic oil doesn't need to be changed as often as conventional oil, I'm thinking you can probably go between 6000 and 10000 miles, depending on the kind of driving you do.0
I think you're SOL. If you let this aftermarket person disable the OLM, you should have reverted to the 3/3000 rule for oil changes. I bet you won't make that mistake again.0
irv65 Posts: 2My Mother has a 02-03? CTS and when you turn the key over all you get is a small clicking sound....no starter clicking, dimming lights or anything. All of the electical seems to still work. I just want to save my Mom some cash and time if it is something I could take care of myself...any help would be great.0
joberst Posts: 12003 CTS 110,000 miles told by dealer leaking oil cooler that will cost @ $ 900 to repair. Will it ruin my engine if I ignore0
I own a 2004 CTS, I get oil changes every 5k miles. The car seemed to have burned up oil like it was mad. You can start to notice the change in performance, the card gets loud when you accelerate etc. Anyways I have monitored the oil and tend to put oil in between changes.
My mom owns a 2006, My sister owns a 2005, I have a friend that owns a STS 2005. They all have the same problem with oil all of the cars consume oil like mad.
I often thought about the people that do not pay attention to items like this and then ruin the engine. How many CTS/STS are in the used market with major problems.
Well today I got another oil changed and I just got a call that my Oil filter connecter/widget or something is bad. Its "warped" and my car is leaking oil. They informed me its going to cost an additional $400 to get fixed.
Isn't that something, I suspect that its a faulty design and the car should be recalled. But go figure that will cost GM and the dealer money.0
sls002 Posts: 2,788My 2007 SRX went 12000 miles without using any oil (at least not enought to add any). The question is why did the oil filter connection widget get warped. Did this happen when the service guy was removing the oil filter at some point in the past?0
not sure, it seemed to start after the second oil change. My thoughts are the filter has a tight design, and its prone to some idiot screwing something up. This is the first for me, I never heard of a bad oil filter seal that originates on the engine/widget connection.
I thought it best to share on this thread what I have experienced and encountered. By far I'm happy with the CTS, and I hate to see any owner not be aware of this oil problem.0
ewl88 njPosts: 76I am looking to replace my leased 2006 Infiniti M35X when my lease is up. I am strongly considering the 2008 CTS DI AWD version. There is no published data on reliability yet. Has anyone heard any rumblings about reliability problems about the CTS? I don't see any postings on reliability on this forum which seems like good news. This will be my primary and sole car so I need something reliable. Thanks.0
I have a 2003 CTS and it is doing the same thing. Did you ever find out what was wrong?0
For me it was my battery, I did not drive it during the hard snow we got in columbus, so it sat in my driveway for about 3 weeks.
I recharged the battery, and everything worked. It was something I did not expect. Because the radio worked really well and the windows. etc. It just did not have enough "juice" to crank the starter. It actually made a noise like something was grinding etc. So was pretty worried. But its been running ever since no problems.0
Well, we checked the battery and that isn't the problem. It acts like it is going to start and the started actually keeps on going but it won't start. After about 15 mintues it eventually does but it happens all over again once you turn it off. I don't know what the deal is......Thanks though for the quick response!0
calicago Posts: 53You have proof of the oil change since you bought it inturn check with the people that you bought it from that they have change the oil before you purchase it if thats the case get documataion from them stating that it sone to me they want to rip you off and that 4600 should not be chrage to you from the get go untill they found the problem contact your states attorney office and get an attorney beleave it or not you do not suppose to pay untill the full procedures have been pefromed that means following the guide lines that have been set not by they dealership or cadillac but by G.M0
cadi03 Posts: 1Hey there! I have a 2003 Cadillac CTS and I've been having a similar problem, my car doesn't want to start I don't know if it's the starter or what theres a clicking noise when I try to start it everything turns on light, radio etc. Did you ever find help? I've been having problem after problem with my car recently I couldnt pull the key out of the car I had to have my car towed and worked on they had a hard time with it I spent over 1,200 on just that a week later this happens >:! I've about had it! If anyone can help please HELP ME!!! Any good auto repair shops out there???0
pacini Posts: 1Had same issue. Found out that I had a dead cell in the battery. Relaced battery and all is well since then.0
knighltine_1 Posts: 1I have to defend the dealer here. Just because the oil can 'last' 5,000 miles or
more is not a reason not to change it earlier!! The other reason to change the
oil is due to the engine's natural break-down - and particals will fall into the oil well
before the oil breaks down. Many believe in changing oil no more than every 3,000
miles - no matter what kind of oil is used. So don't be so fast in suspecting foul
play from your dealer.0


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Forty will be the magic number in the latest big Republican showdown Tuesday.
It's the percentage of the vote North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis needs to hit to avoid a runoff in the most significant GOP primary of the 2014 election cycle thus far. Tillis' main challenger is obstetrician Greg Brannon. The two are battling to face off against an incumbent considered to be one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the country, Sen. Kay Hagan.
Any path toward a GOP Senate majority likely has to include taking out Hagan in North Carolina. But Republicans' hopes of a Senate takeover isn't the only thing hanging in the balance in this race. The election is shaping up to be the latest proxy battle in the Republican Party, with Tillis the choice of the so-called GOP "establishment" and Brannon backed by the Tea Party and libertarian types that make up the conservative grassroots.
Tillis has been endorsed by both former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush. He is the preferred candidate of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. And he has received more than $10 million in support from establishment-aligned groups, including the Chamber of Commerce, which recently went up with an ad buy in the state.
"This is a critical primary race for the U.S. Chamber, and we have been heavily involved to support Thom Tillis, who believes in free enterprise. It is vitally important that we have leaders in Washington who will prioritize growth and opportunity," a Chamber spokesman said in an email.
Brannon, meanwhile, has the support of libertarian and Tea Party-approved Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who made a last-minute stop to campaign with him in the state on Monday. He's also endorsed by the grassroots group FreedomWorks.
Establishment insiders worry about the possibility of a July runoff for two reasons. First, there's a legitimate chance Tillis could lose in a two-way fight with Brannon, who has gained momentum over the past week. A Public Policy Polling survey released Monday found Tillis just on the cusp of the 40% threshold.
The poll also found that, in the event of a runoff, Tillis would start out leading Brannon only 46-40. That's a decidedly narrow margin, particularly since history has shown runoffs favor the candidate perceived as more conservative since more engaged voters are likely to turn out. The most recent example of this phenomenon was seen in Texas in 2012, when then-candidate Ted Cruz rode a wave of momentum to a July runoff victory.
And if Tillis does prevail in a runoff, it would put him in a bad position to take on Hagan with an additional two-month grind that would likely push him rightward. Dragging into a runoff would also expose Tillis to a potential political minefield, since the North Carolina legislature reconvenes in May.
"Those are two things that are a difficult balance for him," said Tom Jensen, the director of Public Policy Polling, which is based in Raleigh. "Because a lot of stuff that happens in the legislature that he doesn't necessarily have any control over — with the caucus getting a little more extreme and saying crazier stuff. That's something that would be an unwelcome distraction for him in a runoff campaign."
The Hagan campaign has done its best to take advantage of the discord in the GOP primary. Over the past week, it has been behind mailers and radio ads that note Tillis once referred to the Affordable Care Act as a "great idea." Tillis' campaign responded by accusing Team Hagan of taking him out of context, noting he said in his fuller quote it's a "great idea that can't be paid for."
Some observers have described Hagan's campaign as taking a page from the playbooks of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, both of whom meddled in their opponents' primaries in order to face a much weaker opponent on their way to general-election victories.
However, one source close to Team Hagan told Business Insider the campaign doesn't really have a preferred outcome on Tuesday. On one hand, a runoff would be beneficial with the two Republican candidates slugging it out for another two months. On the other, it could also benefit Hagan to have a clear opponent it could start to define as soon as possible.
The source said the ads blasting Tillis on Obamacare are the start of that contrast. It forced Tillis to clarify his position where the Hagan campaign said he was trying to "have it both ways." Indeed, Tillis recently emphasized that he supports fully repealing the federal healthcare law.
"Nobody would shed any tears if Republicans got pushed into a runoff," the Hagan source said. "But we have a big, bright contrast to draw in a state that is darn-near 50-50 at the presidential level. We've got the resources to do it. So if the general election starts tomorrow, well, that's fine with us."


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A blushing bride making her way down the aisle at an unforgettable venue; confetti strewn over a loving couple; and guests dancing to the backdrop of a spectacular view no matter what the season… in Cape Town, weddings like these are guaranteed all-year long.
Exchange eternal vows with your beloved at the following great all-year-round venues in Cape Town:
The Vineyard Hotel & Spa
In the heart of the Southern Suburbs lies the environmentally conscious Vineyard Hotel & Spa, the perfect setting for green lovers.
With its unblemished vista of the exquisite forested slopes of Table Mountain and indigenous gardens, it's the ideal venue for a mini-elopement.
It's Just Us wedding package includes the wedding ceremony (including minister/marriage officer and legal documentation); the bride's bouquet, corsage and petals for the wedding; a congratulatory celebration with sparkling wine; Grapetiser and canapés; Melissa's chocolate polka-dot wedding cake with fresh flowers; a four-course wine-paired dinner at the hotel's outstanding The Square restaurant, with sushi bar; one night's accommodation in a room with mountain view, including petals on the bed, sparkling wine, gift box and a full English breakfast for two; and a deluxe spa treatment for two at Angsana Spa.
Website: www.vineyard.co.za
Casa Labia Cultural Centre
A garden wedding ceremony within the Italian splendour of the Casa Labia Cultural Centre in Muizenberg adds a touch of glamour to your nuptials in all seasons.
The centre has a super-efficient internal events team to assist in the smooth running of your special day.
Website: www.casalabia.co.za
Twelve Apostles Hotel & Spa
Say, "I do," on the terrace of this five-star hotel overlooking the gorgeous ocean in Camps Bay.
Whether you and your 80 guests are feasting on gourmet dishes at the Azure Restaurant, or dancing the night away under the impressive marquee and creating everlasting memories, you can be sure everything will be managed perfectly by the Twelve Apostles's capable wedding coordinator and her team.
Extend your magical wedding celebrations by booking your romantic honeymoon here too. With decadent spa facilities and first-class service, your married life will get off to a luxurious start.
Location: The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa, Victoria Road, Camps Bay
Website: www.12apostleshotel.com
If it's a countryside wedding and honeymoon you're looking for, you can't do better than D'Aria in Durbanville.
Nestled in the Durbanville Winelands, the romantic wine estate offers a 200-seater reception venue, catering services, stunning live entertainment and luxurious cottages for the perfect wedding day and night.
Website: www.daria.co.za
Devonvale Golf & Wine Estate
Keep the groom and his mates entertained with a few rounds of golf while you and the girls fret about looking aisle-worthy gorgeous at the Devonvale Golf & Wine Estate in Stellenbosch.
In the midst of vast mountain scenery, luscious vineyards and a golf course, there is a private gazebo and garden for you to pledge your fidelity, as well as a tasteful venue and large dance floor for your guests to enjoy.
Website: www.devonvale.co.za


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Our Services
The friendly admin staff of Blacktown Family Medical Centre are commited to provide quality and professional support to the Doctors and Health Professionals as well as exceptional customer service for our patients. The staffs are experienced and qualified with ongoing training and education in the Medical Administration field. We welcome you to experience the healthcare and facilities provided by the Medical Centre.


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Nuggets 308 – Jesus
I don't get to church very often, but when I do its great to be able to sing out loud. Here is a collection of spiritual funky and bluesy tunes, and some with an indie / rock vibe.
Masonic Wanders
"I call him" is an absolutely fabulous song. There is a clip of this long running gospel quartet band performing this song but its terrible, so instead, this…


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Miley Cyrus Grows Hair Into a Bob, Gets Naughty With Santa [PHOTOS]
Miley Cyrus looks like she is growing out her pixie cut. The singer fashioned her locks into a chic, very Parisian, jaw-length bob with baby bangs a few inches above her eyebrows.
Cyrus was snapped with this coif at the Los Angeles edition of the Jingle Ball this weekend (Dec. 7). While her hair was swept off her face during her wild and crazy performance, which saw her twerking with a Santa, the photos of which you can see below, she looked different offstage.
Perhaps she is growing out her short locks. It's an incredibly chic cut and we hope she rocks this look for a while.
Selena Gomez looks uh-mazing with this style, but hers is a wig.
Cyrus' locks are short, so it's likely her bob is real. The bangs might be clip-ins. Real or not, we think she looks so fashion-forward with this 'do. All the elements work, even the peek-a-boo roots.
PopCrushers and Smilers, what do you think of Miley's bob? Should she keep this style? We are feeling it.
While we have you here, check out some snaps of Miley's antics onstage with Santa. We know who is naughty and nice. And judging by her hair length, we think the bob is authentic strands.


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The President and First arrived at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, Hawaii last Friday. The Obama family will spend their annual holiday vacation in Hawaii, returning to Washington on January 5.
Landing in Honolulu, Mrs. O wore a vibrant printed sundress paired with a cropped black cardigan. Gold hoops completed the warm weather look.
Update: Mrs. O wears the Taped Frock in Modern Camo by Tracy Reese, available here.


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Find Our Latest Video Reviews on YouTube!
If you want to stay on top of all of our video reviews of the latest tech, be sure to check out and subscribe to the Gear Live YouTube channel, hosted by Andru Edwards! It's free!
Friday November 26, 2010 2:15 pm
Acer tablet to use AMD C-50 APU
Posted by John Kilhefner Categories: Handhelds, PC / Laptop
Acer let us know earlier that its new 10.1-inch Windows 7 tablet is going to use AMD, but left us hanging as far as exact specifications go. Now, from the looks of a new DigiTimes article, it's looking like Acer's tablet is going to use AMD's dual-core C-50 Ontario APU (accelerated processing unit). This APU exploits a built-in Radeon HD 6250 graphics chip and uses 9W of power. Furthermore, the tablet is reportedly sporting Tegra 2, WiFi, and 3G capabilities. Of course, none of this is officially confirmed, so stay keep your eye on the blogs.
Read More | DigiTimes via Digi Times
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- acer, acer android tablet, android, android 3.0, apu, c-50, c-50 apu, tegra 2, windows 7
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Extreme duty multimeters
There are waterproof (IP 67) digital multimeters, but a new one from Fluke Corp. actually floats. The Fluke 27 II and Fluke 28 II are designed to survive dust, water and rough handling – including a 10-ft. drop and temperatures from -15 degrees C (-5 degrees F) to 55 degrees C (131 degrees F). Both measure up to 1,000 VAC and DC up to 10A (20A for 30 seconds) powered by 3 AA batteries. They are safety rated for use in CAT IV 600 V/CAT III 1000 V working environments.


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The Cold Winter Night Hunt starts tomorrow January 15th and is filled with all sorts of awesome. It's not often I wear an entire outfit right out of the box, but I had to with this fantastic Hunger set from Prim & Pixel. I just loved everything about it, it was just so different from anything I've seen lately on the grid which includes the mix of colors and the design on the top. Be sure to check out the hunt that runs until February 15th. Happy Hunting!
Hair: [elikatira] – Studio in Essentials
Skin: Glam Affair – Roza Basic Jamaica04
Lipstick: Izzie's -Ginevra Lipstick Apricot (Truth District Gift)
Nails: Pixel Mode – Diamond Edition Mesh Nails Long
Shirt/Pants/Shoes: Prim & Pixel – Hunger Set (Cold Winter Hunt)


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EAST MILLINOCKET, Maine — The state's education leader on Monday effectively overruled AOS 66 Superintendent Quenten Clark by approving two students' applications to attend Millinocket schools in September.
Education Commissioner Stephen Bowen approved East Millinocket School Committee member Jennifer Murray's appeal to allow her children, fourth- and eighth-grade girls, to continue to attend Granite Street Elementary School and Stearns High School in September, Murray said.
In an email to some parents, Clark cited confusion over pending state legislation regarding what are referred to as "superintendent swaps" — students attending out-of-district schools with a superintendent's permission — in saying that he would deny all swap applications until June.
"I do intend to deny some of them if I can and people will appeal if they can," Clark said in the email sent to some parents within the AOS who submitted transfer applications. "The proposals [state legislators are considering] seemed to range from doing away with swaps and-or appeals to making them not need anyone's approval.
"I'm not really wanting to keep unhappy people here, but I'm also not crazy about some of the people I have helped being quite negative about me/us. In the end each case is individual," Clark added. "I know of some I will certainly approve. Something must have happened in Millinocket, cause all of a sudden a bunch of people want me to give them agreements for next year right now. Ordinarily this is a summer thing."
On Monday, Clark predicted that he would probably have approved Murray's request. He said he probably would approve the half-dozen others that Murray said have been submitted, but would still wait until June to make his decisions due to the legislative uncertainty.
"I have no problem with Steve Bowen approving them," Clark said Monday, adding that he wasn't aware that parents had a problem with his actions until he heard from state education officials.
Murray said Clark's delay will inconvenience parents and students who need to plan for September. Thirteen students attend Millinocket schools on superintendent's agreements, Millinocket Superintendent Kenneth Smith has said.
A competition between Katahdin region schools over students seemed to surface in February when Clark said Millinocket school officials were plotting to use East Millinocket and Medway students to offset Millinocket's declining school enrollments. Millinocket had offered to accept tuition students from AOS 66 and the offer was rejected.
Millinocket officials denied the accusation that they were plotting anything. The supposed competition over students comes as both communities face continuing enrollment and population declines, shrinking state aid — which is based in part on enrollment — and increased expenses. Schenck High School also needs a new roof, a project Murray opposes.
A first-year board member who ran unopposed in November, Murray said she was "pretty surprised when [Clark] said he was putting off [approving the student transfer applications] because that was not my experience last year. Last year he signed them in the office while you waited."
Parents who want to send their children to out of town schools can appeal to the Maine Department of Education if their applications are rejected locally, Murray said.
About 1,500 superintendent's transfer agreements are made statewide annually. Eighty denials have been appealed to Bowen, said David Connerty-Marin, the department's spokesman. That is a sharp increase from previous years, based partly on Bowen's publicly stated preference to assume that parents know what is best for their children.
Bowen rejected three of the appeals he has heard, Connerty-Marin said.
In her appeal to Bowen, which was suggested to her by Sen. Doug Thomas, R-Ripley, Murray said she favored sending her children to Millinocket for a second year because her older daughter wants to take a foreign language class at Stearns that isn't offered at Schenck.
She said she homeschooled her younger daughter last year because her daughter encountered significant bullying at Medway Middle School.
"I do not want my younger child to attend school at Medway Middle because they seem to have blinders on and at times even foster an environment that is conducive to bullying. The bullying problem has now entered the high school since it was widely accepted at the Middle School," Murray wrote in her appeal, which is dated March 29.
Murray is among several parents who have complained of bullying. In response, school officials have said that they have addressed the problem aggressively with programming designed to curb it.
"My younger child is an exceptional student in math and Medway Middle School has consistently had poor scores in math over the past several years, even showing negative growth in math for some students during the year. At Granite Street Elementary in Millinocket they have encouraged and developed a math program specifically for" her, Murray wrote.
The East Millinocket school board and those of other AOS 66 communities, Medway and Woodville, will meet at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Schenck and might discuss the issue, Murray said.


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Publications Tagged: Cobban
- Added July 01, 1997
- Syria and the Peace: A Good Chance Missed. Authored by Dr. Helena Cobban.
- One of the more dismaying aspects of the current peace process has been the failure of Syria and Israel to make a deal. According to Christian Science Monitor correspondent Helena Cobban, these two long-standing foes came very close to composing their decades-old quarrel. The Syrian and Israeli leaders persevered to overcome extraordinary obstacles, but in the end failed.


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Aurélien Bompard
Email: aurelien (a) bompard.org
Jabber: aurelien (a) bompard.org
IRC: #fedora-fr, #fedora-devel-fr, #fedora-admin, #fedora-apps, #fedora-noc, #fedora-python and #fedora-paris
GPG Key: B9BF64AD
Location: Paris, France (UTC+1, +2 during summer)
Profession: Python developer
Company: Red Hat, in the Fedora Engineering team
Homepage: http://aurelien.bompard.org (in french)
Participation in the Fedora Project
I've been involved with Fedora since the fedora.us / Red Hat Linux 9 days, second half of 2003. The time I could dedicate to the project has varied a lot over the years, as did the number of packages I maintain.
I've also represented Fedora at various shows in France, mostly Solutions Linux in Paris.
I've been hired by Red Hat to work on Fedora full time since August 2012, and I now work on the next generation Mailman archiver: Hyperkitty.
Friends say I'm a nice guy. Others say, well, differently, but they are vastly outnumbered :-)


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In Case You Were Wondering, Tom Hanks Is Still Awesome
We snark on a lot of people around here, but one person we don't think we'll ever have occasion to disparage is Tom Hanks. Not only is he talented, he has a wicked sense of humor — and never forgets the people who made him famous.
In the latest chapter of Tom Being Awesome, we find him appearing on a podcast, thanks in large part to a smart gift from the show's host. And the letter Hanks sent in response is made of perfection.
In July, Chris Hardwick, who helms the Nerdist Podcast, decided he wanted Hanks on the show. Knowing that the Oscar-winning actor must get a zillion such requests, Chris sent Tom — a noted typewriter collector — a lovely 1934 Smith Corona along with his typed plea for an appearance still tucked in the carriage.
Not long after, Hanks responded with the letter below, also typed on the Corona:
And true to his word, Hanks appeared on the Nerdist Podcast this week, after which Hardwick wrote, "Tom Hanks is a glimmering example of what every person who is fortunate enough to live his/her dreams should aspire to be and will definitely sit atop my pantheon of role models in fashionable yet not-too-revealing Zeus robes."
So between this and those Reddit photos and the Emmy-as-hood-ornament stunt, yeah. We freakin' love Tom Hanks. (But it's probably a good thing not all stars are as affable or this site would get mushy with a quickness.)


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|Associate Athletic Director/Healthcare Administrator
|(828) 898-8768
Rita Smith came to Lees-McRae in 1983 as an athletic trainer, assistant basketball and assistant tennis coach as well as associate dormitory director. Over the years she has guided the growth of the athletic training program from just herself, to its current level as an CAATE accredited program with four additional certified athletic trainers and thirteen athletic training students.
During her time at Lees-McRae, Smith has also worked numerous camps and special events from Dave Cowens Basketball Schools to Special Olympic World Games and NCAA Division II Track & Field Championship. Smith earned her Bachelor of Science from University North Carolina Greensboro and her Master of Arts from Appalachian State University. She is a NATA certified athletic trainer as well as a North Carolina licensed athletic trainer. Smith currently resides in Banner Elk, N.C.


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The Raymond Lemaire Centre for Conservation (KU Leuven) and the many friends of Dr. Hisao Arahi invite you to attend a Memorial Service in his honor, to take place on October 29, 2004 at 18:30 in the St. Lambertus Chapel of the Arenbergcampus, Heverlee - Belgium.
Hisao Arahi, a true friend and dedicated professional, devoted his soul and skills to the study and conservation of architectural heritage around the globe. On a visit to Angkor years ago he fell in love with its monuments and chose to dedicate his life and energy to its preservation. He volunteered his skills to numerous conservation projects around the world, from measuring temples in Japan , to monuments in Morocco , and his beloved Khmer architecture in Cambodia . In 1995 he arrived at the Raymond Lemaire Centre for Conservation (KU Leuven) alone, shy, and speaking only French and Japanese, to pursue his master's and doctorate. By the time he left with a PhD in Engineering in 2003, he was fluent in English, a fixture of the Centre, and a friend to all. His dissertation on conservation strategies for the protection of the Khmer monuments, under the guidance of Professors K. De Jonge, Y. Ishizawa, B. Bruguier and K. Van Balen, was an important contribution to his field. Upon his return to Japan in 2003 he coordinated the Sophia Mission at Angkor and led a major international symposia on its conservation. In April of this year he returned to Tokyo to take a teaching position at Sophia University where he shared his experience and skills to overflowing classes of eager young students.
Hisao's time with us was a rare gift. Passionate, caring, and occasionally mischievous, he was a joy to be around. He was always there for others with a helping hand and positive spirit. His passing is a great loss not only to the field of conservation in general but to the friends and family that loved him so much.
Hisao's radiant smile and happy spirit touched the lives of many and his memory will always be with us. We miss him dearly. Please join us in honoring his contribution to all our lives.
Mario Santana Quintero
Alonzo Addison


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PANA — The man killed by police Tuesday pointed his handgun at his own head during a standoff. Three others were arrested on drug charges.
PANA — The 25-year-old man who was killed by an Illinois State Police SWAT team Tuesday pointed his handgun at his own head during the standoff, Christian County Sheriff Bruce Kettelkamp said.
"I believe he was under the influence of some type of narcotic," Kettelkamp said. "He pointed the gun at his head several times and said he was going to take his own life. … We tried to talk him down (from the roof of the house). He just wouldn't come down."
The incident occurred about 7 miles west of Pana in the vicinity of county roads 1498 East and 350 North about 3:15 a.m. Tuesday.
Josh A. Edwards was pronounced dead at the scene after he allegedly shot at members of the SWAT team and troopers returned fire.
Three other people were in the house when the incident began. All were arrested on charges including possession of a meth precursor, possession of drug paraphernalia and no valid Firearm Owner's Identification card, Kettelkamp said.
The three people arrested are: Stacy N. Reed, 29, of the 600 block of South Spruce Street in Nokomis; Courtney D. Herbison, 24, of Dickson, Tennessee; and Jason C. Beck, 37, of the 1400 block of 350 North Road, the location of the standoff.
Beck is Edwards' half brother.
Kettelkamp said Edwards came from Tennessee, but the sheriff didn't know how long he had been living at the house on 350 North Road. The sheriff's office was aware of suspicious activity at the house.
"We'd been seeing a lot of traffic going in and out of that residence. We had information that they were cooking meth at that location. We had not gathered enough information for a search warrant, but we were getting close," Kettelkamp said.
Information from Tennessee authorities indicates that Edwards was convicted in Dickson County in 2007 for possession of less than half an once of marijuana. He was also convicted in 2008 in Hickman County, Tennessee, of reckless endangerment involving a deadly weapon and possession of marijuana.
Hickman and Dickson counties are west of Nashville.
Christian County deputies were initially sent to the house Tuesday to check a report of a man who might be armed and dangerous. While at the house, they discovered what appeared to be drug paraphernalia.
The deputies called the Central Illinois Enforcement Group for help. Two members of the group, one of whom is a Pana police officer, responded. When they arrived, Edwards allegedly shot the Pana police officer in the arm. The other officers returned fire, and Edwards fled to the roof of the home.
The Pana officer's injuries were not life-threatening.
Edwards was on the roof a few hours, during which time Kettelkamp tried to convince him to surrender.
An Illinois State Police SWAT team was called, and Edwards allegedly shot at the officers with his handgun. The SWAT team returned fire, killing Edwards.
An autopsy was conducted, and authorities are awaiting results of toxicology tests.
Contact John Reynolds: firstname.lastname@example.com, 788-1524, twitter.com/JohnReynoldsSJR.


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Back to
Bullpen collapses in twin-bill opener
Orioles' relief corps surrenders 24 runs in loss
August 22, 2007
BALTIMORE -- The Orioles had their feel-good afternoon dented in the first half of their doubleheader on Wednesday, when the Rangers steamed ahead to steal the stage from manager Dave Trembley.
Baltimore's pitching staff notched a season-high total for runs allowed in an inning twice and also set a new franchise record for runs allowed in a 30-3 loss.
The 30 runs allowed was the most allowed in American League history and the most in the Majors since 1897. Seven of Texas' starters scored more than once, and four different players -- Ramon Vazquez, Jarrod Salatalamacchia, Marlon Byrd and Travis Metcalf -- drove in at least four runs. Salatalamacchia and David Murphy both scored five times.
"You have to have a real short memory and you let it go," Trembley said after the rout.
Before the game, Trembley was named manager for next year, which gave the Orioles (58-66) a jolt of adrenaline. That extra energy resulted in an early three-run lead for Daniel Cabrera, but it quickly went awry.
Texas scored five times in the fourth inning -- keyed by a three-run home run by Vazquez -- and nine more times in the sixth to ice the game.
Cabrera (9-13) wore all of the fifth-inning damage, but came out of the sixth after allowing Saltalamacchia's first homer. Southpaw reliever Brian Burres wound up giving up eight runs, and Byrd provided half of that output with a grand slam. The Rangers (55-70) managed to tie a franchise record by notching 10 hits in their nine-run outburst.
The Rangers actually set a team record for runs in a doubleheader with just their first-game output alone.
"It just happened," said manager Ron Washington. "We were on the good side of it. I'm just happy our offense came alive."
Texas loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth inning and scored 10 more times to set a new Baltimore high for runs allowed in an inning.
Travis Metcalf hit a grand slam in the later rally, and Saltalamacchia came back for a three-run blast of his own. Texas scored six more times in the ninth, and Vazquez drilled a second homer in that rally.
Brian Roberts scored two of Baltimore's three runs, but the Orioles never really threatened after the third inning. Texas starter Kason Gabbard (6-1) took all of the run support and made it stand up for an easy victory. Baltimore had previously allowed six runs in an inning once, and the team had also given up 13 runs in a game on two separate occasions.
When asked if he was concerned about his bullpen's readiness for the second game, Trembley issued a pithy quote.
"We're going to have to shut them down early in the game," he said.


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I am due to teach maths to a ten-year-old. I'd like to try out some games such as Nim and Conway's Soldiers. I've found this list on Wikipedia but Googling for more just gives me a load of Flash games. I want something we can do with a pen and paper, or chequerboard and pebbles, stuff like that.
Are there any good educational games which aren't on the list and can be done without special equipment?


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I have long pointed out that the too big to fails make very little of their money off of traditional depository functions.
For example, last October, I argued:
Some very smart people say that the big banks aren't really focusing as much on the lending business as smaller banks.
Specifically since Glass-Steagall was repealed in 1999, the giant banks have made much of their money in trading assets, securities, derivatives and other speculative bets, the banks' own paper and securities, and in other money-making activities which have nothing to do with traditional depository functions.
Now that the economy has crashed, the big banks are making very few loans to consumers or small businesses because they still have trillions in bad derivatives gambling debts to pay off, and so they are only loaning to the biggest players and those who don't really need credit in the first place. See this and this.
So we don't really need these giant gamblers. We don't really need JP Morgan, Citi, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley. What we need are dedicated lenders.
I just ran across an example for one of the TBTFs.
Specifically, Bank of America – the U.S. largest bank – has only $83 billion in deposit accounts (what they call "transaction accounts").
But B of A has between $1.3 and $1.5 trillion in total bulk assets and liabilities.
In other words, far less than a tenth of B of A's overall assets come from traditional banking functions.
Why do we need to save the too big to fails again?


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Boys Retro Logo T-Shirt in Green
Editor's note
Product details
- Perfect for active kids
- Made for everyday styling
- Retro style
- Product code: 31643-3706
- Country of origin: Italy
About the brand
Founded in Florence in 1921, Gucci is one of the world's leading luxury fashion brands, with a renowned reputation for creativity, innovation and Italian craftsmanship. Gucci kids' collection showcases the label's iconic ribbon with new-age fabrics and unexpected details. The label gives a masterclass in the art of dressing for the self-styled generation, reflecting fashion's ever shifting notion of style and individuality.View more Gucci
Free shipping
on orders over $300
30 Days returns with pickup service
Express: 1-2 Working Days
Standard: 2-4 Working Days
30 days Returns
From the day you receive the order. If you for any reason dont want an item anymore, send it back for an exchange or refund.
Your order will be securely delivered to you from Austria. Find out the shipping options available in your country.
Delivery Duties
We will ship your order on a DDP (Delivery Duty Paid) basis, which means that you will NOT be charged any additional import taxes or duties.


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A federal appeals court has nullified a district court judge's ruling last year that held unconstitutional the military's now defunct ban on gay servicemembers.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Thursday that the Log Cabin Republicans' long-running lawsuit over the policy is moot in light of the official repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" earlier this month.
Thanks Barack, you useless sack of s**t.
So the bi-racial blunder's yet again screwed us over.
Don't Ask, Don't Tell was just erased. Without Judge Virginia Phillips' decision ruling it unconstitutional, it can be brought back. And, if you missed it, last week at the GOP debate, Rick Santorum was saying he would do just that if elected.
Barack is a little bitch. The sooner he's sent back to Chicago, the better.
He offends me on every level, as a woman, as a lesbian and as an African-American.
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Altamirano's immediate and extended family attended the funeral along with friends, soldiers, teachers and veterans. Altamirano had a daughter, Leandra, and two stepdaughters Kayla and Anaya, with his wife, Pamela. He also had two sons, Justin and Dominic, from his first marriage.
Altamirano's stepdaughter Kayla Martinez, 16, presented a slideshow of family photos.
"I love him and he was a wonderful man," she said, her voice wavering. "And there is no one who will ever be like him."
Erika Flores (Action 4 News) covers the funeral in this video report.
The Iraqi government is seeking to silence critics who accuse it of rampant corruption by removing officials who try to prosecute racketeers and intimidating politicians and journalists who support them.
This month alone it has forced the head of its anti-corruption watchdog to resign. And a prominent Iraqi journalist, who had been threatened for leading anti-government protests, was shot dead in his home in Baghdad.
There is growing anger that the ruling elite is stealing or embezzling much of the country's $2bn (£1.3bn) a week in oil revenues, depleting funding for electricity, water, health care, housing, education and even rubbish collection.
Tuesday's snapshot included, "The International Crisis Group has released a new Middle East report which, in the section on Iraq, 'examines the steady erosion of the credibility of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government resulting from the failure to safeaguard institutions against corruption and abuse.' The Iraq section can be found here (that's not PDF, for anyone worried), 'Failing Oversight: Iraq's Unchecked Government.' Corruption is common place in Iraq, the report notes [. . .]" Al Mada attempts to get reactions from Iraqi political blocs. State of Law mumbles a great deal but Abdul Salam al-Maliki keeps calling it a UN report -- it's not a UN report. He also complains about the 'long' recommendations. Six recommendations for the government of Iraq are too many? Has he even read the report? Here's what taxed an al-Maliki:
To the Government of Iraq and to the Council of Representatives:
1. Strengthen the anti-corruption framework to allow for greater and more effective cooperation and coordination between the various state institutions involved in combating corruption, specifically by:
a) allowing all anti-corruption and audit officials to refer criminal matters directly to the courts;
b) guaranteeing the independence of the Inspectors General from government ministers, in particular by providing that ministers and the prime minister play no role in inspectors' recruitment and dismissal;
c) formalising cooperation between oversight agencies by requiring them, notably the Inspectors General, to adopt standard operating procedures;
d) increasing each oversight institution's training budget to develop skills necessary to carry out auditing and investigatory missions independently of other institutions; and
e) passing effective witness protection legislation and ensuring public access to government information.
2. Pass political party legislation requiring parties to display financial transparency and publish detailed annual accounts, including all sources of income and expenditures.
3. Reform the Council of Representatives' bylaws, including by removing administrative matters from the speaker's prerogatives, facilitating the formulation of legislative bills and accelerating the lawmaking process.
4. Streamline the legislative process by:
a) clarifying and strengthening the working relationship between institutions involved in the preparation of new legislation;
b) clarifying each institution's role; and
c) establishing clear lines of communication between these institutions.
5. Reform the Council of Representatives' oversight function to focus on policy implementation through the questioning of senior technocrats and administrative officers rather than politicians.
6. Enact a law that would prevent the head of the Higher Judicial Council from occupying the position of chief justice, and protect the Supreme Court's independence by forbidding any political interference.
BA: What were your politics like before you got involved in peace and justice activities?
CS: If you had asked me this before my son was killed, I would have said that I was very liberal, very left-wing, but that's just because of the community I live in, where being a Democrat is thought of as liberal and left-wing. I always voted Democrat because I believed that was the right thing to do. After my son was killed and after these Democratic politicians in Congress betrayed the antiwar movement, betrayed the working people over and over and over again, and even though I was uninformed and undereducated about these things before Casey was killed, I realized the two-party system really is just a fraud, and people invest all their time, energy and money where we the people have the least amount of effects. It's the corporations, it's the lobbyists, it's the robber class that really control politics in this country, and we can actually have a political system in this country that's responsible to the people. We have to start from the bottom up, not the top down.
Tell Congress it's time to end the Iraq War, not prolong it
Earlier this summer Reps. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Walter Jones (R-NC) asked their colleagues to sign a letter to the President urging him to bring all the troops home by the end of the year. MFSO in turn, asked our members to support them by urging their own representatives to sign this letter.
Continuing her efforts towards finally, truly ending the war in Iraq, Congresswoman Lee has written as a bill: HR 27577, the Iraq Withdrawal Accountability Act of 2011, which would require the removal of all US troops and contractors from Iraq on or before the promised deadline December 31 2011. It has reached 37 cosponsors to date. Click here to learn more and send an email to your Representative.
Flood the Super Committee Deficit Reduction Suggestion Box!
The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (aka "The Super Committee") has been meeting to come up with the next round of budget cuts. Despite the many examples of obscene military waste on outdated equipment, fraud and negligence, it is despicable that some on Capitol Hill are talking about cutting veterans benefits and raising Tricare rates. Servicemembers, veterans, and military families have suffered enough. The Super Committee needs to hear from us: End the wars and cuts military waste, not veteran's benefits. Click here to tell them what you think should be cut.
Take Action to End the Wars
On October 6th & 7th, people will be taking action in DC and across the country to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the war in Afghanistan, whether you're lobbying Congress, occupying Freedom Plaza, or building solidarity with the communities impacted by the War on Terror.
- On October 6th there will be a national call-in day to Congress demanding an end to the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan. We will send out more information about this next week along with talking points.
- Make an appointment to meet with your Representative or their staff on October 6th or 7th, either in their DC or home district office. Our Representatives need to hear from military families! Click here to find your Representative's contact information.
- Join us in DC! MFSO is organizing a unique event on October 7th called War Voices, a forum bringing together veterans and military families with Afghan civilians and community and economic justice organizers and artists to reflect on a decade of war. Click here to find out more.
- Many MFSO members will also be participating in the occupation of Freedom Plaza starting on October 6th. Click here for more info and to read MFSO's statement on this protest.
Nancy Lessin and Charley Richardson – MFSO Co-Founders
Oskar Castro, Samantha Miller, Liz Rocci, and Clarissa Rogers -- MFSO Staff
melissa correa
the monitor
gail burkhardt
action 4 news
erika flores
cindy sheehan
linda greene
bloomington alternative


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Curtain cleaning Benfleet
We know that every type of curtains and blinds needs different cleaning, so our specialist are fully trained to solve every occurred problem. Home Cleaning 4U Benfleet teams know that your curtains are really valuable for you. And that's why we work safe and gently with them. We are always trying to leave happy and satisfied clients, so you will be fascinated when the work is completely done.
Local curtain cleaners Benfleet
Home Cleaning 4U provides curtain and draper cleaning, soft furnishing cleaning, dry cleaning and blind cleaning.
Our Benfleet cleaners will remove the bad odor and any type of stains.
You curtains will be nice and clean and will be really beautiful decor for your home, making it warmer and lighter.
Curtain cleaning methods we use:
- dry curtain cleaning
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We offer special treatment and cleaning of:
- draperies
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If decide to do it on your own, you have to take down all the curtains. But Home Cleaning 4U use professional machinery, so our Benfleet cleaners don't have to take them down. They will clean them fast and safe, because first they will choose the right cleaning solution for your unique type of curtains. After the cleaning is done, the curtains won't need ironing. They will just look new and cleaner that the first time you saw them.
Home Cleaning 4U are licensed and insured so you don't have to worry at all.
Don't hesitate any longer and please get in touch with one of our local Curtain Cleaning Experts on 0800 1123430 or via our booking form 24/7 and get the best of the best when it comes to Curtain Cleaning Benfleet.
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I found worker very easy to talk to and had no problems with his workmanship. The job was done very good.
More testimonials - curtain cleaning - steam and dry cleaners Benfleet? Sure, click here>>
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Niabi Zoo prepares to move elephants
The elephants are being prepared for their upcoming move out of Niabi Zoo in Coal Valley, Illinois.
A trailer was inside the elephant enclosure at Niabi Zoo on Friday, October 4, 2013.
Zoo Director Marc Heinzman said Asian elephants Babe and Sophie will eventually travel in the trailer, and that it was placed in the enclosure so the elephants could get accustomed to being inside of the trailer before they are moved.
Heinzman did not give an exact timeline for the move. He previously confirmed the elephants would be gone from Niabi Zoo by the 2014 season.
The Rock Island County Forest Preserve Commission voted in July 2013 to move Babe and Sophie, the only two elephants in Illinois, out of Niabi Zoo. It was expected then that the elephants would be moved by winter.
Negative impact from the cold climate, small indoor shelter and continuing health problems all contributed to a campaign to move the elephants out of Niabi Zoo.
The outdoor portion of the elephant enclosure was expanded in early 2013. Zoo officials say the money that had been going in to the enclosure will continue to go into a capital improvement fund that will go to other projects throughout the zoo.


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In March, a museum artwork, "Untitled" (Public Opinion), 1991 by Felix Gonzales Torres, will be on view at St. Phillip's Church. The artwork, which is part of the permanent collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, consists of a large quantity of individually wrapped licorice candies, which are poured directly on the floor, usually in a pile or flat rectangle, and available for viewers to take and eat. As this artwork travels around the circle, it is being installed by a team of museum professionals in response to the architecture of each site. This is the first time it has been exhibited outside of the context of a museum or gallery. Visit the church to meet members of the congregation and vestry and to view the artwork.
Sunday service at 9:15a and 11:15a is open to the public.


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The Fight for Siberia
Who Speaks for Siberia?
Russia's resource-gouging kleptocracy is gorging itself on Siberian forests, fish, and minerals. It's opposed by a little army of nonprofits whose vision is, by local standards, revolutionary: they believe that Siberia should be managed in the interests of those who actually live there.
On August 30, 2000, about 10 masked policemen wielding automatic rifles burst into the office of the Glasnost Foundation, a nonprofit human rights organization in Moscow. The police forced the dozen people they encountered to lie facedown on the floor. They spent 40 minutes rummaging through the office, then they left without a word of explanation. The Foundation's staff never learned what exactly the police wanted-assuming they had anything more specific in mind than intimidation. But the larger significance of the raid was never much in doubt.
It was yet another skirmish in the political war over the world's largest remaining undeveloped natural area outside of Antarctica-and over the social rights of the people who live there. Siberia, the vast realm at the top of Eurasia, contains vast stores of timber, oil, and metals. The oil and gas deposits off the Siberian Arctic and Pacific coasts are by far Russia's most important source of foreign exchange. Siberia is also a place of extraordinary natural and cultural wealth. It's home to such indigenous cultures as the Udege, who live along the rivers that run through the forests of the Siberian far east, and the Inuit, who inhabit the tundra to the north. Its southeastern forests are the last remaining range of the Siberian tiger, the largest of the world's great cats. Its northern tundra is the breeding ground of the once common and now highly endangered Siberian crane, which winters as far south as India. The rivers that pour from its Pacific coasts receive the largest surviving salmon runs in the world.
This is what the cops and the people on the floor are fighting over. The cops take their orders- although usually indirectly-from the oligarchy that inherited the crumbling industrial apparatus of the old Soviet empire. On the other side is Russia's fledgling civil society. I went to far eastern Siberia to meet some of the people who are constructing this movement. I found them in the offices of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in cities like Vladivostok, on the southeastern tip of Siberia. (See map, page 16.) Vladivostok's spectacular Pacific coastal fjords would have made it more beautiful than San Francisco, had it not been mostly composed of massive, decrepit cinder-block buildings. I found other activists in Khabarovsk, which lies to the north, along the Chinese border-a city that is home to many whose parents or grandparents were condemned to the Soviet-era gulags. And when I met these activists in their cramped apartments, their destitute universities, or the offices of their start-up magazines, I heard much that was encouraging: clearly, they are winning some of their battles.
To be sure, they have not patched the leaks that are too numerous to count in the corroding Soviet-era oil pipelines. Nor have they found a way to cope with Siberia's abundant nuclear waste, or to reverse the region's declining life expectancy, which has fallen to around 70 years for women and only 57 years for men.
But they have managed to secure licenses for their own environmental inspectors, who now monitor logging operations and chemical factories. And on the edge of a newly recognized World Heritage Site in Kamchatka, the vast and relatively unspoiled land that faces Alaska from the other side of the Pacific, they have blocked the opening of a gold mine that lacked adequate environmental controls. Compared with the problems, such victories may seem small, but they mark an enormous advance over Soviet times. Soviet Kamchatka, for example, was off limits not just to NGOs, but to all civilian visitors. It was primarily the domain of the military. Throughout Siberia, the new civil society is establishing itself, but it is still struggling with various ghosts from the Soviet past.
Round One: Old-School Governance
Gennady Devyatkin, the governor of Bystrinsky, a large district in central Kamchatka, sits in his office in the early afternoon of a crisp, bright summer day. The governor is a short, pale man with brown, disheveled hair. He appears to be in his mid-50s. And he is most definitely drunk. Very drunk. He rises and warmly greets the five of us-a delegation of three Kamchatkan environmentalists and two American colleagues.
Bystrinsky contains some of the world's largest volcanos. The big chunks of lava on the roadsides look like illogically shaped boulders. The district also has the world's best remaining salmon runs. When the salmon are running, fishers spread their nets into these immense rivers and haul them back without the slightest pause, straining to retrieve an overflowing load of coho, chinook, king, and several other, much rarer salmon species, like masu, which is also known as Japanese "cherry salmon," although it has largely disappeared from Japan.
Why don't we all go to the restaurant, asks Devyatkin. No need to sit around the big conference table at the office. So we make our way to the only restaurant in town, arrange ourselves at one of the three or four tables, and the governor orders lunch. But he also orders vodka, which comes first, in several bottles. The glasses on the table are meant for either water or vodka; peer pressure, it seems, drives everyone towards the latter option. Eventually, we turn to the reason for our visit: a pending decision on whether to open a gold mine.
We don't think the mine is a good idea. We argue that tourism would bring in more revenue and create more jobs. But the tourists won't come unless the province is maintained in its pristine state. You can't have both, we say. Mines and tourists don't mix. But the governor favors the mine. Strongly- although he has trouble explaining how he arrived at this conviction. Perhaps, floating somewhere in the vodka fumes, is the notion that the mine would be a safer bet.
This is the old fashioned way of governing-and indeed of conducting any type of business. The drinking is routine. Some people even say it is necessary: "sober people can keep secrets." (Actually, though, Siberian politics furnishes plenty of evidence that practiced drinkers can keep secrets too.) But the biggest deficiency is the lack of any real analysis of profits, employment, environmental impact-in short, of what would best serve the public good. In the absence of such analysis, vested interest generally prevails. And since restraint of vested interest is an essential function of government, you could argue that the Bystrinsky District, like much of Siberia, doesn't really have a functioning government.
After lunch, the governor takes us on a tour of the town. We see the Olympic pool-sized hot springs facility, crowded with playing families. We soak our feet in a more rustic spring nearby. We are surrounded by mountains, bearing traces of last winter's snow even in late August. This winter's snows may start in less than a month. Below the mountains are meadows covered with yellow, orange, and blue wildflowers.
Russian corruption is well known from reports on the gangsters in Moscow. But the source of that corruption is largely in places like this. Russian oligarchs may live in Moscow, but most of their money is coming from Siberian natural resources. This is a pattern that can be traced back through the Soviet era, to the time of the Tsars. And it is one of the reasons why many-perhaps most-Russians now believe that post-Soviet privatization has failed them.
A little recent history: in the mid 1990s, President Boris Yeltsin tried to implement western-style economic reform as quickly as possible, without alienating his wealthy allies. To accomplish this, he permitted these oligarchs to make loans to the government-loans secured by massively undervalued shares in major state-owned companies, such as Gazprom, LUKoil, Sibneft, and Sidanco. When the government defaulted on its loan payments-an eventuality that is widely believed to have been part of the deal to begin with-a very few men ended up owning much of the country's industrial base. Russia's conglomerates had indeed been privatized, but the result was hardly a private sector in the usual western sense. Instead, Yeltsin's cronies used their new quasi-monopoly status to make themselves even richer, through wholesale liquidation of the natural assets that the companies control. Government agencies are not in a position to regulate or even monitor most of this activity. As one official told the Moscow Times, "We have only one nature inspector for every 3,000 square kilometers! While in Luxembourg, for example, they have a staff of more than 300 inspectors for a territory of less than 3,000 square kilometers."
The result is rampant violations of natural resource regulations. According to Viktor Duroshenko, a director of Primorsklesprom, one of eastern Siberia's largest timber companies, as much as half of Russian logging may be illegal. In the fishing sector, the situation is reportedly even worse. The take from illegal fishing in eastern Siberia is estimated at more than triple the legal harvest of 2.5 million tons per year. In Kamchatka, poachers reportedly in the pay of the Moscow Mafia are stretching nets all the way across river mouths-and basically removing entire salmon runs. The high-value roe is cut from the fish, which are then heaped into enormous piles and left to rot.
Fighting this corruption can be very dangerous. During the 2000 salmon season on Sakhalin Island, which lies just north of Japan in the Sea of Okhotsk, a car bomb injured the chief fish protection inspector one morning as he was leaving for work. He had been called the "terror of local poachers" for his attempts to curb corruption. Although he suffered only minor leg wounds, it's likely that the bomb inflicted substantial collateral damage, in the form of widespread intimidation.
Round Two: Civil Society Emerges
A group of college students in ragtag camouflage gear walks down a deserted dirt road deep in the Siberian taiga. "Taiga" means "forest" in Russian, and there is a lot of land behind that word. Russian forests cover an area as large as the continental United States and almost twice the size of the Amazonian rainforest. For 11 hours, the students walk. It's summer and the forest on either side of the road is in full leaf. It's second growth, mixed broadleaf-needleleaf, and it seems to stretch on forever. A monotonous, infinite realm where the only sound is the wind and the footfalls on the road. But in the evening, the spell is broken: the road emerges from the taiga to reveal a vast, desolate clearcut.
The students are representatives of the Tomsk Ecological Student Inspection (TESI), an NGO and school for "young ecological inspectors." Before the school was established, there was only one natural resource inspector in the whole of Tomsk, a province in western Siberia. Now there are hundreds. TESI was founded at Tomsk State University in August, 1999. Its teachers come from the Tomsk Forest Service, the Fisheries Protection Department, the nonprofit Novosibirsk Ecoclub, and other organizations. Its training sessions, now attended by more than 50 students from 11 Russian provinces, cover a very broad curriculum. Students learn some basic environmental journalism and wildlife management. But they are also taught more tactical skills, like how to catch poachers and how to inspect toxic and radioactive waste sites.
Russia has strong environmental laws on its books but very little enforcement. Enter TESI-and the battle is joined. That group of students has the power to cite large companies for illegal logging, or for leaking mines. They can even fine poachers directly.
TESI is just one of hundreds of NGOs that have emerged since the Soviet thaw. Unlike their Soviet-era precursors, which were few and straight-jacketed by the state, the new organizations are serious players in the natural resources sector. Many of them are run by eminent scientists who lost their state salaries when the Soviet Union collapsed. Because they are accustomed to poverty and because the ruble is so weak, these people frequently make do with the equivalent of only $1,000 or $2,000 per year. Some of them, who still draw residual salaries from their old official jobs, donate their labor to the NGOs.
The entire annual budget of a Siberian NGO may come to no more than the equivalent of $5,000 (although a few have budgets in excess of $100,000). In general, most of the cash support comes from abroad-in the form of tiny grants from western foundations and NGO partners. Some of these organizations specialize in supporting Siberian NGOs, not just by funding them, but by providing access to information, to western decision makers, and to the international news media. Among the most prominent of these groups are the Global Greengrants Fund, Pacific Environment, ISAR (formerly the Institute for Soviet-American Relations), and the Wild Salmon Center. In 1999, the W. Alton Jones Foundation launched a series of Siberian NGO summits-meetings at which representatives from many NGOs could work out common strategies-but the foundation has since disbanded and it is uncertain if the summits will continue.
Despite their meager resources, Siberian NGOs are now engaging a range of environmental problems in a broad spectrum of contexts. For example, a magazine called Zov Taigi (Roar of the Taiga) now covers the environmental scene in Siberia for a readership of NGOs, government officials, and the general public. Over thousands of kilometers of eastern Siberia, a host of little organizations has sprung up to press for the land rights of indigenous peoples. An NGO called Sakhalin Environment Watch has drawn international attention to the lack of oil-spill contingency plans on drilling platforms off the Pacific coast. And in 2000, TESI students provided evidence that resulted in 33 raids on poachers and other environmental criminals in the taiga of Amur province alone.
The conditions under which most of these people work are challenging to say the least. In a small apartment in the Pacific frontier town of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Olga Chernyagina, a lanky, earnest botanist who looks to be in her mid-50s, runs the Kamchatka League of Independent Experts. Her apartment often lacks running water, and sometimes electricity or heat. It is stuffed with books and furniture. Clothes lines stretch from most of the windows to the buildings on the other side of a courtyard. She tells me that the clothes dry slowly because of the wet wind coming in off the Ocean. Two volcanos, snow on their peaks even in late summer, dominate the horizon on days that aren't too foggy. From the street outside the building, you can see the harbor, where nuclear submarines lie low in the water, black and menacing.
The purpose of the League is to unite unemployed and under-employed scientists and put them to work protecting nature. They bring major credentials to their new task, as well as strong networks of colleagues. The League focuses on companies building oil pipelines in Kamchatka, pressuring them to design pipelines that are more "spill proof," and to develop spill clean-up plans. The League has also opposed gold and diamond mines, arguing that the mines cost Siberia dearly, in the form of ecological and public health damage, while nearly all the profits end up elsewhere. Many local politicians and executives have, predictably, taken offense. But Chernyagina has persisted and the League has built a role for itself: it's both a watchdog and a kind of conceptual pioneer. It has introduced local politicians to ideas that are completely new to them, such as the idea that environmental protection makes economic sense.
Chernyagina's apartment seems positively luxurious compared to the squalor in which many other NGOs operate. To get to the offices of the magazine Zov Taigi, in Vladivostok, you have to walk down the long, eerie corridors of a building that once housed various chemical laboratories. It's easy to stumble because the floor tiles are loose and none of the lights in the corridors work. The wreckage of decades of Soviet chemical equipment corrodes in piles along the walls. The air is dank and filled with unidentifiable odors. The magazine office itself is so jammed with piles of papers, photographic equipment, computers, printers, tea cups, and the remnants of recent meals that there is scarcely space to stand, let alone sit.
But not all NGO offices are decrepit. The Khaborovsk-based Wildlife Foundation has been able to raise the funds not only for adequate working space, but also for new computers that run sophisticated "Geographic Information System" software. The foundation is making detailed maps of the region. Such maps are crucial for tracking-and eventually managing-environmental change.
Round Three: The Oligarchs Retaliate
Sergei Grigoryants, the president of the Glasnost Foundation, describes the police raid on his organization as a "conscious, government action aimed at intimidating civil society." Among the Foundation's likely offenses: it had strongly criticized the Federal Security Service (the KGB's successor), and the war in Chechnya.
This is the kind of e-mail that Russian activists are accustomed to getting from their colleagues:
August 9th, 2001. Our friends were protesting against Gazprom plans. I've just called the policeman on duty at the local police station in Smolenska Stanitsa. He said that Andrey Rudomakha and Vasiliy Agafonov are imprisoned for 10 days. There is no information about two other activists-Vera from Krasnodar and Yura from Taganrog, but I guess that they are also imprisoned for 10 days.
Then follows some practical information: Name of the chief of police in Severskiy region: Sergeev Aleksandr Nikiforovich. Fax: (266) 21-331. Good luck! Semen Simonov.
Such harassment is not confined to NGOs. Even government agencies have come under attack, sometimes with devastating effect. In May 2000, for example, the Kremlin abolished the core environmental agency of the federal government: the Committee on Ecology. "Our raw material giants could not survive any seriously conducted ... environmental impact assessment. That is why our committee was abolished," said Viktor Danilov-Danilyan, former head of the Committee, in an interview that August. "The authorities have placed all their bets on raw materials.... They believe that by selling oil, gas, gold, diamonds, and metals on world markets, Russia will be able to pull itself out of this crisis. This prejudice is stuck in the heads of our government and it is difficult to beat it out of there."
Some of the government's critics fear that this prejudice, as Danilov-Danilyan calls it, is in some respects even worse than the old Soviet economic policies, which at least emphasized some types of manufacturing-crude and polluting though they were. Nikita Fedorovich Glazovskii, Director of the Russian Federation Off-Budget Environmental Fund, a government-controlled environmental grantmaker, puts it this way:
"There has been a radical shift in Russia's economic priorities, in the direction of extraction and sale of raw materials. This policy shift is transforming Russia's economic doctrine. The nation's current leaders have chosen natural resources as their panacea. Liquidation of the Committee on Ecology is but the first step. What will follow will be changes in those features of current environmental law that thwart the resource extraction sector from advancing its interests."
Frozen Potential
Yuri Shmakov, a veteran journalist in the city of Khabarovsk, sets his glass down on his jumbled desk and leans back. Over drinks he's been explaining his optimism to me. Now he tells me that kids today just don't know their history, and from the twinkle in his eye, I can see that he regards this as yet another cause for hope. People who were six or seven years old when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Shmakov observes, would remember little of those hard times. Besides, he says, whatever memories they have would be confined to the Gorbachev years, when things had already improved significantly. Today, those people are 17 or 18 and they never learned their elders' fatalism or pessimism.
Khabarovsk is in the land of the gulags. It was the destination for thousands of dissidents and criminals who had been banished to the camps. Its economy has long been based on mining and logging-and on slave labor. The memories of older people like Shmakov are stocked with miseries completely foreign to the experience of their children and grandchildren.
And clearly the journalist has a point. Young Siberians, whose imaginations are not scarred by the past see possibilities other than working the mines or the forests. They do not assume that the primary purpose of Siberian society should be the sale of its natural resources to Moscow or the West. By and large, they are well educated-their literacy rate approaches 100 percent-and they are as comfortable with computers and the web as their western counterparts. They are not a Third World nation, they are careful to tell you, and they expect to develop a First World economy.
People who talk over drinks eventually need to relieve themselves. In Shmakov's office, that requires a trip to the basement, so I descend into a labyrinth of crumbling, dilapidated corridors in search of the holes in the floor that pass as toilets. Down here, it's easy to imagine that one has somehow wandered back into the era of the gulags. The subterranean decay is a reminder of just how optimistic my host really is. Siberia has never known any economic role other than that of supplier of raw materials. Its landscape is pocked by cities that have names like Uglegorsk ("coal town") and Neftegorsk ("oil town").
In the province of Magadan, for example, 70 percent of industrial output comes from the processing of raw materials, mostly gold, silver, and diamonds. The big mining operations date back to 1932, when forced labor from the gulag system first became available in the region. Seventy years later, Magadan has yet to diversify much beyond its old gulag economy, and its narrow economic base is very vulnerable to price fluctuations in the metals markets. It's the same story in virtually every other Siberian province-just substitute oil, timber, or fish for Magadan's precious metals and diamonds.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Siberia seemed for a time as if it might be on the verge of reinventing itself. For decades it had been forcibly populated with dissident scientists and engineers. The gulag system conferred an enormous fund of latent technical talent on the region. The Soviet Union had bestowed a few intentional benefits as well, in the form of "science cities" like Novosibirsk. All this expertise, bolstered by the western advisors who had begun to arrive, could now be put to more constructive ends. At last, it seemed, the time had come to move from logs to furniture, from silver to silverware, and on to electronics and who knows what else. But the new economic policies never arrived. Siberia remained a resource colony; only its ownership changed hands, from the old Soviet state to the new Russian kleptocracy.
This is the Siberian paradox: among the world's comparably underdeveloped regions, few could claim so great a wealth of highly educated talent. And yet this social potential remains largely frozen. Against so great a waste, the new NGOs may seem hopelessly small and ill-equipped. But they represent something fundamentally new to the region. The Siberian thaw, if it comes, will occur not from the top down, but from the ground up.
Hal Kane, a former researcher at the Worldwatch Institute, is an independent management consultant who focuses on the nonprofit sector.


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YES I CAN! Playing cards by Faith Ringgold
May 17, 2009 - ongoing
Institute for Women and Art at Rutgers
191 College Ave., 2nd floor
New Brunswick, NJ 8901
|Phone Number:
|Nicole Ianuzelli
The Institute for Women and Art is pleased to announce the publication of Yes I Can, playing cards custom-designed by artist Faith Ringgold in conjunction with the opening of her retrospective at the Mason Gross Galleries Declaration of Independence: 50 Years of Art by Faith Ringgold . Ringgold spent months creating a beautiful and truly one-of-a-kind, full color, custom face deck of poker playing cards, 3 1⁄2 x 2 1⁄2 inches, in a full color box. The card set titled Yes I Can (2009), vibrantly captures elements of the American cultural and political landscape--both currently and historically. "Yes I Can" is published by the Institute for Women and Art at Rutgers.
|Event Type:
|Publications (books, scholarly, journals)


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Did you notice how there was a lull in what was reported in mainstream media about the H1N1 or Swine Flu in recent weeks? In the past few days, however, there has been a flurry of news articles related to the flu, approximations about possible scenarios with the flu in the United States and more information about the flu as it strikes around the world. There has been particular attention to the countries which are facing winter or just coming out of winter at this time of the year.
Perhaps I have been married to a paranoid man for too many years and it is beginning to rub off but I have to say that the recent news is rather scary. Projections from the US government are anticipating that approximately half of the population will contract the flu and 90,000 will die from it. Okay, that might seem horrific to some and not so bad to others. Perspective. What scares me is the information released today from the WHO which is touting that the flu is hitting those who are young or otherwise healthy and going directly into the lungs. This is counter to the demographic that traditional flu strikes. This scares me since I have a husband and a son who both suffer from asthma so they already have respiratory problems and a virus that is pretty much bee-lining for the lungs scares the crap out of me. The statistics released that most of those individuals are requiring intensive care unit attention in the hospitals in these countries is even scarier. ICU is reserved for the sickest of the sick. The ones that need the one-on-one monitoring that goes with the unit. This is very frightening to hear.
"Data continue to show that certain medical conditions increase the risk of severe and fatal illness. These include respiratory disease, notably asthma, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and immunosuppression," WHO said.
The figure of 90,000 US deaths is rather startling since it is more than double the national figures for deaths from regular seasonal flu. While certainly not the Black Death, the swine flu seems to be of concern, more than not. The CDC was quick to maintain that the quote of 90,000 deaths was a worse case scenario projection…blah, blah, blah, but one has to wonder if the government was doing some backpaddling there to avoid hysteria. Feedback?