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Journal of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering
versión On-line ISSN 2309-8775
versión impresa ISSN 1021-2019
J. S. Afr. Inst. Civ. Eng. vol.54 no.2 Midrand ene. 2012
What are the legal remedies available to contractors and consultants to enforce payment?
M J Maritz; D C Robertson
Smooth cash flow ensures the effective delivery of projects and is fundamental to develop and sustain a healthy, professional and competitive construction industry. The adverse effect of late or non-payment of contractors and consultants are well known to all in the construction industry. Late and non-payment problems have forced countries like the United Kingdom (UK), Singapore, New Zealand and Australia to introduce legislation to regulate the payment of contractors and consultants in terms of a building or a construction contract. From South African specific surveys conducted by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) and Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) it appears that local building and construction contractors and consultants have the same problems as their international counterparts (if not more so) when it comes to payment of work completed or services rendered. In light of the above this article investigates the legal remedies available to enforce right of payment for work completed or services performed, to determine the effectiveness of the said remedies, and to suggest what possible solutions there are in order to improve payment practices in the South African building and construction industry.
Key words: construction contracts, construction industry, cash flow, non-payment, payment act
The adverse effects of non-payment and/or late payment by employers or contractors and consultants are well known to all in the construction industry. Several related studies have been conducted in developed countries which addressed the problems related to payment issues in the construction industry. Examples are the Latham Report (Latham 1994) and the Egan Report (Egan 1998). Both reports were in response to, inter alia, the problems experienced due to late or non-payment in the construction industry of the United Kingdom (UK). Late and nonpayment problems have forced countries like the UK, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia to legislate their construction-specific statutory payment security regime. These legislations purposely enact provisions to address issues on prompt payment in the construction industry to eliminate poor payment practices and to improve the contractor's cash flow.
From a South African perspective it appears from a Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) survey, conducted by Marx (2009) and Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA), that South African contractors and consultants have the same problems as their international counterparts when it comes to payment of work completed or services provided. In the light of the CIDB and CESA findings and the growing international trend to implement construction-specific legislation in order to, inter alia, ensure/facilitate prompt payment practices in the construction industry, it has been decided to address, for this article, the following problem statement:
"What are the legal remedies available to the South African building and civil engineering contractors and consultants to enforce their right of payment for work completed or services performed, and how effective are they in enforcing said right of payment?"
The research for this article was delimited as follows:
The study was limited to selected South African building and civil engineering contractors and consultants. Although extensive use was made of international literature for the literature survey, only local contractors and consultants were interviewed.
The legal remedies to enforce payment in terms of the following CIDB-endorsed forms of contract for construction and building work were researched:
■ JBCC Series 2000: Principal Building Agreement, edition 5.0, 2007, published by the Joint Building Contracts Committee, South Africa [JBCC PBA]
■ The General Conditions of Contract for Construction Works, 1st edition, 2004,1
■ New Engineering Contract 3: The Engineering and Construction Contract, June 2005, published by the Institution of Civil Engineers, UK [NEC3 ECC]
■ Conditions of Contract for Construction for Building and Engineering Works designed by the Employer, 1st edition, 1999, published by the International Federation of Consulting Engineers, Switzerland [FIDIC Red].
The legal remedies to enforce payment in terms of the following CIDB-endorsed forms of contract for the provision of professional services were researched:
■ CIDB Standard Professional Services
Contract [CIDB PSC]
■ Client / Consultant Professional Services Agreement, 2nd edition, published by the Professional Consultants Services Committee c/o JBCC, South Africa (PROCSA 2009).
Marx Report (2009)
Construction Industry Indicators (CIIs) have been developed by the Department of Public Works and the CIDB, with assistance from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), to play a useful role in developing a sustainable industry and to be adopted as a tool for improving performance in the South African construction industry.
The CIDB CIIs measure the performance of the construction industry by measuring client satisfaction with:
1. the project milestones achieved
2. construction costs versus budget
3. contractors' performance
4. consultants' performance
5. the quality of materials used.
The CIDB CIIs have been captured since 2003, and are currently being captured in partnership with the Department of Quantity Surveying and Construction Management of the University of the Free State. A full report was published in March 2009 on the results of the 2008 survey for projects completed in 2007.
Regarding payment delays experienced by contractors for the years 2004 to 2007, the following was reported:
■ There was a decrease from 24% to 9% in the number of all projects where payments were made timeously within 14 days, if the 2004 results are compared with the 2007 results (Marx 2009, Tables 15 and 17). In 2007 the private sector clients were the worst early payers, with payments made within 30 days on only 35% of their projects. The best performing client categories with 59% and 56% of project payments made within a month were the public private partnerships and provincial departments respectively. The percentage of projects with payments that took more than 30 days increased from 2004 to 2007 from 43% to 56%. In 2007 the contractors for 20% of all public corporation projects and 21% of all private sector and provincial department projects were only paid after 60 days. There was an encouraging reduction in the percentage of payments done later than 120 days from 13% to 3% if the 2004 and 2007 projects are compared. It is of great concern that only 44% of all contractors in 2007 were paid on time within 30 days (Marx 2009, Tables 15 and 17).
With regard to consultants, the following was reported:
■ The consultants' fees were paid within 30 days for only 45% to 51% of all projects completed between 2004 and 2007 (Marx 2009, Tables 37, 38 and 39). In 2007 the provincial and national departments were the slowest payers of fees, with fees only paid after more than 60 days on 30% and 22% of all their projects respectively. This was followed by the regional/district councils and public private partnership client categories, where the consultants were only paid after three months on 14% of all their projects. On 14% of all public private partnership projects the consultants were only paid four months after submission of fee accounts (Marx 2009, Table 39). The tendency for late payment of consultants has grown if the 2007 results are compared with the 2006 results (Marx 2009, Tables 37 and 39).
■ In 2009 only 52% of all contractors were paid on time, within 30 days, with the metropolitan and regional/district councils being the worst performers (Marx 2011).
Master Builders South Africa (MBSA) Draft Report (2009)
In response to the Marx report, the MBSA conducted a survey amongst its members to ascertain the prevalence of delayed or nonpayment, as well as the possible causes of the delayed or non-payment. The survey included projects in the civil construction, residential building and non-residential building sectors.
From the draft report issued by the MBSA the findings from the survey can be summarised as follows:
■ Of all the projects surveyed, those in the Free State reported the most frequent delays in payments (93%), followed by the Northern Cape (74%). The province reporting the least frequent delays was Gauteng (24%). There were also three provinces in which some projects were listed as "never experiencing delays". These projects were in Gauteng (43%); KwaZulu-Natal (29%) and Mpumalanga (9%).
■ Nationally, across all clients (all projects included in the survey), 54% of projects were paid within 30 days, 26% between 31 and 60 days, 13% between 61 and 90 days, 3% between 91 and 120 days and 4% after 120 days.
■ Projects handled by the national government and private sector seem to have the best payment record with 85% and 79% of payments respectively made within 30 days. The remaining 15% of national government projects are paid between 31 and 60 days, while some payments in the private sector are delayed for more than 120 days.
■ Payments for local and provincial government projects mostly occur between 31 and 60 days. (45% and 44% respectively), with only 38% and 23% of payments respectively made within 30 days from date of invoice. The remaining 15% of local government projects are only paid between 90 and 120 days, and 2% only after 120 days.
■ Sub-contractors are also affected by delayed payments, as only 50% of payments were made within 30 days from date of invoice.
CESA Report (June 2009)
An Economic and Capacity Survey is conducted by CESA every six months. The purpose of this survey is to report on the prevailing conditions in the consulting engineering industry. The survey addresses aspects like financial indicators, human resources, capacity utilisation and competition in tendering and pricing. Questionnaires are distributed to all member firms of CESA.
According to the survey of June 2009, consulting engineers reported a percentage fee income outstanding for 90 days or more of 9.5%. The comparative figure for June 2007 was 10.3%, 11.3% for December 2007, 11.1% for June 2008 and 12% for December 2008 (CESA 2009, Table 15).
Relevant to the employers, the situation is as follows:
■ For June 2009, 7.3% of fee claims submitted to central government were outstanding for 90 days or more. For provincial government the figure was 3.8%, local government 13.2%, state-owned enterprises 1.4%, private sector 11.9% and foreign employers 13% (CESA 2009, Table 15).
Maritz Paper (2007)
The purpose of this paper was to provide an overview of the development of adjudication as an alternative dispute resolution process in South Africa and its effectiveness in solving disputes in the local construction industry. The following findings are relevant to this research:
■ Of the respondents 63% and 26% respectively agree and strongly agree that "there exists a chronic problem of delayed and non-payment in the South African construction industry affecting the entire delivery chain" (Maritz 2007, Table 1).
■ Of the respondents 50% and 13% respectively agree and strongly agree that "allowing all disputed matters to come before adjudication would also reduce payment disputes" (Maritz 2007, Table 2).
■ Of the respondents 39% and 30% respectively agree and strongly agree that "South Africa should introduce a Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication Act similar to those in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore" (Maritz 2007, Table 3).
Maiketso and Maritz Paper (2009)
The purpose of this research was to investigate what the requirements are for the South African construction industry to fully utilise and benefit from adjudication. The researcher, inter alia, reviewed the contractual, institutional and legislative framework for adjudication in South Africa. The following findings are relevant to this paper:
■ Of the respondents 75% agreed that "South Africa needs a Payment and Adjudication Act similar to that in the UK". This finding correlates with the Maritz paper as discussed above (Maiketso et al 2009, Table 2).
■ Of the respondents 60% agreed that "such legislation should address minimum payment terms, 90% agreed with statutory adjudication, and 95% agreed with remedy in case of non-payment" (Maiketso et al 2009, Table 2).
Common-law position of building and civil engineering contractors
Building and civil engineering contracts are species of the genus locatio conductio operis (letting and hiring of work). Locatio conductio operis is a mutual agreement between one party (the employer) and the other (the contractor), where the contractor undertakes to make his services available with regard to a physical material matter to an employer, for payment. A contractor who accepts work as a result of such a contract is under the obligation to build or repair, as the case may be, for payment, without working under the direct supervision of an employer (Joubert 2003, Vol 13(1) par 113). The contractor is bound to perform the work within the time fixed by the contract of work or within a reasonable time where no time has been specified. When the end product is the erection of a building or a job of work of similar nature, the agreement is commonly described as a building contract, and when it has a significant civil engineering component, it is referred to as a civil engineering contract (Joubert 2003, Vol. 2(1) par 457).
The general principles of the South African law apply to building and construction contracts. In the case of standard construction contracts and where contracts with identical or similar wording have been interpreted by the courts, the courts will consider previous decisions in its judgements.2
In general the following principles apply where a contractor claims for payment for work done in terms of a locatio conductio operis (Harms 1998). The contractor needs to allege and prove:
■ The terms of the contract relied upon.
■ The work that had to be performed: It is usually an implied term of the contract that the contractor will use materials that are suitable for the purpose of the works.3 Another implied term of the contract is that the contractor will perform the work in a workmanlike fashion. The level of skill and diligence to be employed is that possessed and exercised by other members of the trade to which the contractor belongs.4
■ The remuneration applicable: The contractor must allege and prove (1) that the remuneration was, in terms of the contract, payable, and (2) the amount of the remuneration payable. If the contract is silent with regard to remuneration, remuneration will be payable and should be fair and reasonable (quantum meruit).
■ Performance: The contractor must allege and prove that he has done all that was required to be done in terms of the contract.5
Statutory position of building and civil engineering contractors
The CIDB Act 38 of2000 and its regulations
The CIDB Act 38 of 2000 was passed in October 2000. The Act provided for the establishment of the CIDB to implement an integrated strategy for the reconstruction, growth and development of the construction industry. Further, the Act creates a register of contractors linked to a best practice contractor recognition scheme, and a register of projects linked to a best practice project assessment scheme. Both these registers are central to the implementation of the integrated strategy.
Payment legislation
South Africa does not have construction-specific legislation to address the need for prompt payment of building and civil engineering contractors and consultants. The Public Finance Management Act of 1999 (PFMA) determines that all contractual obligations (and accounts) must be settled within 30 days from its receipt [section 38(1) (f) read with Part 4, Regulation 8.2.3 of the Regulations]. These provisions are mandatory, and an accounting officer of the guilty official may be found guilty of an offence in terms of the PFMA.
In several other countries acts, addressing this need for prompt payment, were endorsed. Acts, and the respective countries and states which enacted them to address the problem of late and non-payment, are:
■ Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 - UK
■ Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Acts 1999-2009 (various states) - Australia
■ Construction Contracts Act 2002 - New Zealand
■ Building and Construction Security of Payment Act 2004 - Singapore.
Remedies to enforce payment in terms of the CIDB-endorsed standard building and construction contracts
Right to interim and final payment certificates
A contractor's obligation to complete the work is generally indivisible. The mere completion of a specific subdivision of the work does not entitle a contractor for payment of the work done. In the absence of contractual provisions that allow for interim payments, a claim for partially completed work done would be met with the exceptio non adimpleti contractus.6 Only upon completion of the work as a whole would the contractor be entitled to payment.
As a rule the average contractor does not have/command the necessary resources to complete a construction contract before requiring payment for the work completed. In order to provide the contractor with the necessary cash flow to complete the work, most construction contracts provide for the issue of interim payment certificates. In such a certificate the employer's representative records his reasonable, but only approximate, assessment of the total of work executed and materials supplied up to a given date.
This certificate entitles the contractor to payment of the amount certified within a set number of days. Failing payment, the contractor may sue the employer on the strength of the certificate, and the strength of the certificate alone. The claim would be one based on the express terms of the contract. It is not an enrichment claim, even though the amount may be certified as a "reasonable estimate of the total of the work and materials".7
From the comparison made of the four CIDB-endorsed construction contracts, the following general observations were made:
■ Payment certificates are certified by independent persons.
■ The frequency of interim payment certificates are defined in the contract.
■ It is clear when the interim payment certificates should be issued.
■ Payment of materials on site is made and only the GCC 2004 does not expressly allow for payment of material off-site.
■ It is clear when the interim payment certificates should be paid.
■ It is clear when the final payment certificates should be issued.
■ It is clear when the final payment certificates should be paid.
Right to interest on late payments
If the employer fails to pay money due under the contract the contractor may elect to charge interest on the amount due. The easiest way to recover interest would be in the case where the contract has express provisions that provide for the payment of interest in specific circumstances at a quantified rate.8
From a comparison of the four CIDB-endorsed construction contracts, the following general observations can be made relevant to interest on late payment:
■ All of the CIDB-endorsed contract documents provide for the payment of default interest ("finance charges").
■ The circumstances when default interest may be charged are defined.
■ The time from when interest accrues is defined.
■ The rate of interest chargeable is defined.
Payment guarantee
Relevant to the South African construction industry, a payment guarantee could be defined as a contractual undertaking by a third party (the guarantor) towards the contractor, that the guarantor will pay to the contractor the amount of works done under the construction contract, up to the guaranteed amount or a percentage of the price of the works done, in case the employer defaults in its payment obligations.
Of the four CIDB-endorsed contract documents, only the FIDIC Red and the JBCC PBA contracts expressly provide for the use of payment guarantees. See clause 3.1, JBCC PBA, and the example clause on page 17 of the guidance notes of the FIDIC Red. Both contracts have pro forma payment guarantee forms that could be used by the parties.
Right to terminate
In the case where the work is only partially complete, the contractor's claim for interim payment of the partially completed work could be met with a counter claim from the employer based on exceptio non adimpleti contractus.9 Following from this common law position, a contractor cannot abandon site if the employer fails to pay the contractor for partially completed work.
All four the CIDB-endorsed contract documents contain provisions that allow for the suspension of work and/or the cancellation of the contract in the case of failure by the employer to pay interim payment certificates.
The following aspects should be considered in the case where a contractor wants to leave site or terminate the contract as a result of the employer's failure to make payment for work completed.
■ When the party wishes to enforce a termination clause, the conditions for its implementation have to be strictly complied with.10
■ In the case where it is required by the contractor to give the employer notice of his intention to terminate the contract as a result of the employer's failure to make the required payment, the notice to be given should be an express, extra-judicial announcement, and such notice cannot be implied or given by notice of motion.11
■ In the absence of a contractual termination clause, a contractor will not be able to terminate a contract if an employer fails to make an interim payment. The rationale for this is as follows:
■ In the case of an interim certificate, the contractor has not completed the work in total, and until he has completed the work the contractor has not performed in terms of the contract.
■ If the contractor abandons site, as a result of the non-payment by the employer, the contractor will be in material breach of his obligations to deliver the completed work to the employer.
■ If the contractor terminates the contract, his termination may be held to be a repudiation of the contract, in other words, an indication that he no longer intends to be bound by the terms of the contract, and this would afford the employer the right either to accept such repudiation, bringing the contract to an end, or to refuse to accept the repudiation in which case the contract remains alive and both parties are obliged to continue to honour their obligations to each other. In either event, the employer would be entitled to such damages as he could show he has sustained as a consequence of the repudiation.
Other remedies to enforce payment
Evidence from the employer regarding financial arrangements for the project
The FIDIC Red provides for evidence to be provided by the employer to the contractor whereby, inter alia, the employer proves that it has access to or has the funds necessary to pay the contract price. Clause 2.4: Employer's Financial Arrangements, reads as follows:
"The Employer shall submit, within 28 days after receiving any request from the Contractor, reasonable evidence that financial arrangements have been made and are being maintained which will enable the Employer to pay the Contract Price (as estimated at that time) in accordance with Clause 14 [Contract Price and Payment]. If the Employer intends to make any material change to his financial arrangements, the Employer shall give notice to the Contractor with detailed particulars."
The mechanism for the provision of evidence by the employer is technically not a remedy to enforce prompt payment by the employer, but it can certainly be regarded as a mechanism that will assist the contractor to identify, upfront, any possible risks pertaining to the capability of the employer to pay for work completed by the contractor.
Similar provisions could not be found in the JBCC PBA, NEC3 ECC and GCC 2004 documents.
Contractor's lien
A jus retentionis (right of retention) entitles the holder of that right to retain possession of property until expenditure of money or monies' worth incurred by him in respect of that property is reimbursed to him.12 Relevant to a contractor, the contractor has two kinds of liens at his disposal: enrichment liens or debtor and creditor liens.13 Where the contractor's expenditure preserved the property or enhanced its market value the contractor has, to the extent of the true owner's enrichment, an enrichment lien valid against all comers, including the employer.14 Otherwise the contractor may rely on the debtor and creditor lien. Commonly this lien is referred to as the contractor's lien (Finsen 2005). A contractor's lien is his legal right to retain possession of a construction site until the employer has paid to him monies which are lawfully due to him.15 The lien is designed to buttress the contractor's claim for payment and is not a cause of action in itself, but a course of resistance should the employer demand repossession of the premises without tendering payment for the work done on it. A contractor's lien is separate from and does not cover a retention fund.16
Provisional sentence
Provisional sentence, as provided for by Rule 8 of the High Court Rules (the Rules), is an extraordinary procedure which is available to a creditor (the plaintiff) who has liquid documentary proof of his claim against his debtor (the defendant).
This procedure is designed to give a plaintiff who is armed with a liquid document, and who accordingly has strong prima facie proof of his claim, a speedy provisional judgement without the expense and delay which an ordinary trial action would entail (Erasmus 2007, p. B1-62).
Summary judgement
Rule 32 of the Rules is a procedure which enables a plaintiff with a clear case to obtain the swift enforcement of his claim against a defendant who has no real defence to that claim. The courts have stressed the fact that the remedy provided by this rule is an extraordinary and stringent remedy, because it makes inroads into a defendant's rights to have his case heard and that, if summary judgement is granted, the effect of the order is to close the doors of the court to the defendant. It is therefore only accorded to a plaintiff who has an unanswerable case because the defendant has no defence to it (Erasmus 2007, p. B1-206).
Order of court
It is common practice in South Africa to make an arbitration award an order of the court. An arbitration award can be made an order of the court of competent jurisdiction by any party.17 An award that has been made an order of the court can be enforced in the same way as any judgement or order to the same effect. After an award has been made an order of the court, the party enforcing its rights can, for example, issue a writ of execution to be executed by the sheriff of the court.
A contractor or consultant armed with an order of the court, resulting from a successful arbitration award or any other procedure, can enforce the order by applying for the following:
■ A finding and order of contempt of court by and committal of the defaulting employer, or
■ A writ of execution followed by an attachment of assets of the defaulting employer, and sale thereof.
In addition to the literature study for this article, a questionnaire survey was conducted amongst randomly selected consultants and contractors in the South African construction industry. The questionnaire was designed to be brief, concise and straightforward to encourage a high response rate from the potential respondents.
Population size and response
Two different sets of questionnaire forms were used in the survey; one for consultants and the other for contractors. The sampling geographic area was limited to level 5 to level 9 contractors registered with the CIDB and all consultants registered at CESA. An e-mail explaining the purpose of the questionnaire, together with the relevant questionnaire, was mailed to all contractors and consultants in the sampling area. In addition, attorneys, advocates and other legal advisors with expert knowledge in the field of construction law and related matters were also contacted and requested to participate in the survey.
Table 1 summarises matters pertaining to population size and response.
Questionnaire design
In conjunction with, and under the guidance of, the University of Pretoria's Department of Statistics, a survey was developed to answer the research problem statement or to test the research hypothesis.
The questionnaire was developed through the following processes to ensure accuracy:
■ Reviewing the related academic literature and articles, as well as previous relevant researches to identify pertinent variables to the study
■ Drafting the questionnaire based on the identified variables
■ Submitting the draft to the study leader and the Department of Statistics for comment and possible recommendations
■ Pre-testing the questionnaire to ensure that the questionnaire is understandable to the respondents
■ Launching the questionnaire to the respondents.
Structure of the questionnaire
Both the questionnaires for consultants and contractors comprised five distinct sections, as follows:
■ Section 1 established the background information of the respondent.
■ Section 2 established the levels of use and knowledge of the respective CIDB-endorsed contracts. For the consultants' questionnaire the respondents were requested to rate their knowledge and use of the CIDB PSC and the PROCSA 2009. For the contractors' questionnaire respondents were requested to rate their knowledge and use of the JBCC PBA, GCC 2004, NEC3 ECC and FIDIC Red.
■ Section 3 was used to rate the sufficiency of the remedies in terms of the CIDB-endorsed contracts. For the consultants' questionnaire the respondents were requested to rate the perceived sufficiency of certain contractual clauses to ensure prompt payment of professional fee accounts. Clauses pertaining to interim monthly accounts, interest on late payments, written proof of funding available for on-going requirements, payment guarantees, suspension of services and termination of services were rated. For the contractors' questionnaire clauses pertaining to issues of interim payment certificates, payment of interest on late payments, payment guarantees, suspension and/or termination of work were rated.
■ Section 4 rated the attitude and perceptions of the respondents regarding the effectiveness of litigation in securing payment for professional services and construction work duly executed.
■ Section 5 proposed possible solutions on how to improve current payment practices in the South African construction industry. For both the consultants' and the contractors' questionnaires the respondents' opinions regarding the introduction of statutory prompt payment provisions were measured. In addition the respondents were also requested to indicate what the prompt payment process should provide for as a minimum. Considering that there would be a wide range of expected or possible responses, questions that were open-ended were avoided. For most of the questions a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 'very low sufficiency' to 'very high sufficiency' or 'strongly agree' to 'strongly disagree' were used. The questionnaire was accompanied by a covering letter which explained the reasons for and background of the research.
Data analysis
Completed questionnaires were collected and submitted to the Department of Statistics at the University of Pretoria. The data was subsequently analysed statistically and a content analysis was employed for qualitative results.
Tables 2 to 9 present a summary of the findings of the questionnaire survey.
Selected conclusions from the questionnaire survey conducted
Some of the most relevant trends indicated by the questionnaire survey are:
■ Of the consultants and the contractors surveyed 72% and 74% respectively responded that they never or rarely charge interest on late payments.
■ Of the consultants and the contractors surveyed 86% and 76% respectively responded that they never or rarely insist on the provision of payment guarantees.
■ Both groups of consultants and contractors surveyed regard litigation in South Africa as ineffective in securing payment for professional services and construction work duly executed.
■ Of the consultants surveyed 12% disagreed with the statement that statutory prompt payment provisions will improve late payment practices in the South African construction industry.
■ Of the contractors surveyed 100% agreed with the statement that statutory prompt payment provisions will improve late payment practices in the South African construction industry.
■ Of the consultants and the contractors surveyed 68% and 100% respectively agreed with the statement that a commission should be established to investigate errant payments.
■ Of the consultants surveyed 22% disagreed with the statement that councils or professional bodies for professional consultants in the South African construction industry should be enabled to suspend the licences/memberships of defaulting main consultants (main consultants that do not promptly pay sub-consultants).
■ Of the contractors surveyed 100% agreed with the statement that the CIDB should be enabled to suspend the registration of defaulting main contractors (main contractors that do not promptly pay sub-contractors).
The following recommendations are proposed:
■ A commission should be established to investigate errant payments.
■ The South African construction industry should embark on a process of drafting and implementing prompt payment legislation.
■ From the questionnaire survey it appears that said legislation should provide for, inter alia, the following:
■ Protection of both the contracting and consulting fraternities
■ Statutory adjudication or a similar dispute resolution mechanism to ensure swift dispute resolution of payment disputes
■ A right to regular payment
■ A right to a defined time frame for payment
■ A right to interest on late payments
■ The provision of escrow accounts, or similar trust accounts, to the benefit of the contractor and for retention money retained from the contractor
■ A restriction of the right to set-off or to withhold sums due
■ Provision for a mechanism that will ensure that an employer cannot withhold payment from a contractor unless he has given an effective notice of his intention to withhold such payment
■ Statutory provision for a contractor's lien
■ A right to allow for stage payments for material in advance of their arrival on the construction site
■ A right to suspend work coupled with the right to reimbursement and additional time as a result of the suspension and remobilisation
■ Prohibition of "pay-when-paid" clauses.
Further research
Some of the findings of this study provide possible directions for further research in the following areas:
■ The impacts that late or non-payment may have on sub-contractors and sub-consultants were not investigated. Further research should be conducted to ascertain to what extent sub-contractors and sub-consultants make use of the CIDB-endorsed contract documents. Failure to use the documents could mean that sub-contractors and sub-consultants will not have access to standard contractual remedies available in the case of late or non-payment of professional fees and payment certificates.
■ The Consumer Protection Act (CPA) will have a major impact on the South African construction and building industry. For the purposes of this study the impact of the CPA and the extent thereof were not investigated. It is proposed that further research should be conducted in order to determine the impact of the CPA and the extent thereof on the South African construction and building industry.
■ For this study a first order comparison was made between existing prompt payment legislation in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. More in-depth research should be conducted in order to identify lessons learned from countries that have already implemented prompt payment legislation. The lessons could provide useful guidance to South African legislators if prompt payment legislation is considered.
1 At the time of the study (2009) the GCC 2004 was researched. Since then, the second edition of the GCC was published in 2010 (GCC 2010). Since the clauses pertaining to non- or late payment are similar to the ones in the GCC 2004, it is the opinion of the authors that the findings relevant to the GCC 2004 are also relevant to the GCC 2010.
2 Smith v Mouton 1977 (3) SA 2 at 12
3 Colin v De Guisti 1975 (4) SA 223
4 Randaree NNO v WH Dixon & Associates 1983 (2) SA (1)
5 BK Tooling (Edms) Bpk v Scope Precision Engineering (Edms) Bpk 1979 (1) SA 391
6 Qwa Qwa Regeringsdiens v Martin Harris & Seuns OVS 2000 (3) SA 339
7 Simmons v Bantoesake Administrasieraad (Vaaldriehoekgebied) 1979 1 SA 940 (T)
8 Another cause of action for a claim for outstanding interest would be that the defendant was placed in mora on the date from which the interest is claimed. See Standard Bank of SA Ltd v Lotze 1950 (2) SA 698 (C).
9 Hauman v Nortje 1914 AD 293 at 296.
10 De Wet NO v Uys NO en andere 1998 (4)
11 Shrosbree NO Simon 1999 (2) SA 488 (SE). See also clauses 55.1 and 56.1 of the GCC 2004 and clauses 36.3 and 38.2 of the JBCC PBA
12 Astralita Estates (Pty) Ltd v Rix 1984 (1) SA 500
13 Goudini Chrome (Pty) Ltd v MCC Contracts (Pty) Ltd 1993 SA 77 (A) 85
14 Brooklyn House Furnishers (Pty) Ltd v Knoetze & Sons 1970 (3) SA 264 (A)
15 Ploughall (Edms) Bpk v Rae 1971 (1) SA 887
16 UP Construction v Cousins 1985 (1) SA 297 (C) 299
17 Section 31 of the Arbitration Act 42 of 1965
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Joubert, W A 2003. The Law of South Africa, Vol 2, Part 1, 2nd ed. Durban: Butterworths. [ Links ]
Latham, M 1994. Constructing the team. Final Report of the Government/Industry Review of Procurement and Contractual Arrangements in the UK Construction Industry. London. [ Links ]
Maiketso, N C, Maritz, M J 2009. What are the requirements for the South African construction industry to fully utilise adjudication? International Conference: RICS COBRA 2009, Cape Town. [ Links ]
Maritz, M J 2007. An investigation into the adjudication of disputes in the South African construction industry. International Conference: RICS COBRA 2007, Atlanta, USA. [ Links ]
Marx, H J 2009. Results of the 2008 survey of the CIDB Construction Industry Indicators and comparison with the 2005 and 2007 survey results. Bloemfontein: University of the Free State. [ Links ]
Marx, H J 2011. Results of the CIDB Construction Industry Indicators, April 2011. Bloemfontein: University of the Free State. [ Links ]
Master Builders South Africa (MBSA) 2009. Payment quality survey, Draft Industry Insight report. Midrand: MBSA. [ Links ]
Contact details:
Department of Construction Economics
University of Pretoria
South Africa
E: email@example.com
Contact details:
Greene Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd
South Africa
E: email@example.com
PROF MARTHINUS MARITZ obtained the degrees BSc (QS) with distinction in 1973, MSc (QS) with distinction in 1987, and PhD (Quantity Surveying) in 2003, all at the University of Pretoria. He is the author or co-author of various technical standard documents for the South African building industry, and has served on several governing bodies, advisory committees and technical committees. He was appointed as full-time lecturer in 1975 by the University of Pretoria and is the head of department of the Department of Construction Economics, and chair of the School for the Built Environment His areas of expertise are construction law and dispute resolution.
ADV DIRK ROBERTSON obtained the degrees B Eng (Civil) in 1995 from the University of Pretoria, LLB in 1999 from the University of South Africa, passed the National Exams of the National Bar Association of South Africa in 2002, and obtained the MSc (Project Management) (cum laude) in 2011 from the University of Pretoria. He is an admitted advocate of the High Court of South Africa, and director at Greene Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd since 2009. His areas of practice are construction law and contract law.


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Its been a little while since I posted on this blog but let me tell you in short whats going to happen very soon:
– Sabayon 5.0 Release Candidate 1 will be released for testing.
The Sabayon testing team went through 2 beta stages to get here so it should be fine for most people to check out. If the RC1 makes it through testing team it will be marked as 5.0.
– Chromium is here! No not only the chromium-bin version, but the chromium version build against our tree. (Entropy) and yes it works with flash!
– You can migrate to Sabayon branch 5 now using the following procedure:
- Make sure you have latest entropy version on branch 4
- equo hop 5
- equo update
- equo upgrade
Keep in mind that there is NO more support for KDE 3.x If your system has KDE 3.x installed don't expect it to work after you've migrated to branch 5.
– We've migrated to latest libxcb-1.4
– Sabayon 5 will be more bleeding edge then ever! And we are planning keeping things updated daily using a testing repository. On the next release (5.1) all packages from testing repository will flow into the mainline repository.
– Latest beta 9.10 ATI fglrx are in entropy
– Kernel 2.6.31
So expect all off this coming to you very soon.

subset: commoncrawl


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Lot 28 Briaridge Lane 28 is a $18,500 home on a 0.70 acre lot located in Wadesboro, NC.
NEWEST SUBDIVISION IN ANSON COUNTY! NO CITY TAXES but close to town & highways. LOTS available from 1/2 acre to 2.25 acres. Restrictions that keep the neighborhood appearance conforming, neat & reasonably priced. One story restrictions; 1450+heated sf . ;2 story 1100 on main, total 1800 sf. Utilities underground septic tank & county water. Restrictions attached under supporting documents. Lot 9 is .572 acre. Discount on 2 lots side by side.
|Water Source
County Water
Other-see Media/Remarks
Septic Tank
|Seller Type
|Property Type
|Elementary School
wadesboro primary
|Middle School
anson middle
|High School
Briar Creek
The data relating to real estate on this website derive in part from the Canopy MLS Internet Data Exchange program. Brokers make an effort to deliver accurate information, but buyers should independently verify any information on which they will rely in a transaction. All properties are subject to prior sale, change or withdrawal. Neither Keller Williams Professionals Realty nor any listing broker shall be responsible for any typographical errors, misinformation, or misprints, and they shall be held totally harmless from any damages arising from reliance upon this data. This data is provided exclusively for consumers' personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties they may be interested in purchasing. © 2019 Canopy MLS.


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Some people get portrait tattoos, but artist David Catá has a different way to pay tribute to the people who have marked his life—by marking his hand. He embroiders their faces into the palm of his left hand, and then pulls them out in cringe-inducing fashion.
Catá calls his Under the Skin project an "autobiographical diary." He stitches portraits of family members, friends, teachers, anyone who has been important in his life into his skin. "Their lives are interwoven with mine to build my story," he says on his website. As you can see from his photographs, most of the time he just pierces the topmost layer of skin, but some of those portraits do leave marks.
You can watch Catá remove one of his embroidered portraits, but be warned, the video may make you squirm:
Under the Skin [David Catá via Design Taxi]


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Bike Girl loves plans. There is nothing more elegant than a well laid, and well executed plan. She also loves bicycles. In fact, she even named herself after bicycles (BIKE Girl people, BIKE Girl).
Because of those dual loves, and her current address in Los Angeles, one would think Bike Girl would be ecstatic about the Los Angeles Bicycle Master Plan. It has a good name. It has bikes, plans, Los Angeles, and it's the Master of all plans. Bike Girl would love to peruse the plan and participate in the debate about the plan.
But unfortunately, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation does not want Bike Girl to comment on the plan.
The LADOT even went so far as to make sure that not a single meeting is in Bike Girl's area. It is no secret that Bike Girl has her base of operations in City Councilman Tom LaBonge's district. One would think that the "Bicycle Councilman's" constituents would want some say. But no meetings are in Hollywood. Plus, there are none in the hipster-cycling meccas of Echo Park and Silverlake. Nor is there a meeting in cyclist-dense East L.A.
Bike Girl could also submit comments online, but oh! only until November 6th. Bike Girl has a very busy schedule of bike riding, bike racing, bike wrenching, bike blogging, oh, and working. How could she possibly get through 212 pages, with 351 pages of appendices by then?
Our beloved protagonist is not the only one the LADOT does not want to comment on the Bicycle Master Plan. It has strategically timed the 6 month late release of the plan so that Neighborhood Councils cannot review the plan. Bicycling Activist Dr. Alex Thompson says the short deadline for comments makes it nearly impossible for his NC to react.
Bike Girl may even go so far as to say the deadline makes participation "infeasible."
Cyclists who want to participate in debate on the Master of all Los Angeles Bicycle Plans can e-mail West LA Councilman and City Council Transportation Committee Chair Bill Rosendahl at email@example.com. Ask for the deadline be pushed to January 4th, 2010.


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Archive for April 19th, 2018
- BLOODY SCOTLAND McIlvanney Prize 2018 judges revealed! on April 19, 2018
For the love of books...
Feeding the soul one story at a time.
Life is too short to read books you don't love
Reading, reviewing and sharing the love for our favourite books for both adults and children
The Perfect Way to Spend an Evening
Books, Books, Books!
A Blog for all the Books I love to read and all the Films I love to watch
Books...need I say more?
"It was impossible of course, but when did that ever stop a dreamer from dreaming?" -Strange The Dreamer by Lani Taylor
Honest Book Reviews, Meet the Author, Blog Tours, Cover Reveals & More!
Free bookreviews and other free book related stuff
General ramblings of a busy person
Books, Books, Books
Reading under the light of a Carolina moon


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Muhlenberg sets another application record; registers all-time high in Multicultural admissionsMuhlenberg College has set application records for the upcoming academic year. The College will welcome 582 first-year students this fall, including a record 14.8 percent multicultural students.
Friday, July 19, 2013 11:24 AM
For the second consecutive year, Muhlenberg College has received more than 5,000 applications for freshmen admission. A total of 582 first-year students are currently enrolled for the fall semester. The freshman class also includes 14.8 percent multicultural students, another record at Muhlenberg.
The College received a record 5,151applications, a third consecutive record large total. This year's total is up from 5,023applications last year and up from 4,877 applications two years ago.
"We are particularly excited about the diversity, the energy and the academic quality of this class," said Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Christopher Hooker-Haring. "This year's results are a strong endorsement of the strength of the Muhlenberg experience."
For the past 14 years, the College has admitted fewer than 50 percent of its applicants and only 46 percent were admitted for the current first year class. More than 45 percent of the ranked applicants are in the top 10 percent of their high school class.
The spectacular new Wood Dining Commons, a new science building, two new residence halls and several new academic programs over the past few years have fueled much of the increased interest, according to Hooker-Haring. But, he notes that "student interest continues to be driven by our enthusiastic and energetic campus climate, a strong sense of community, and the quality of the academic and social experiences."
The last four incoming classes have exceeded 10 percent multicultural students. Geographic diversity is also expanding as California has emerged as an increasingly important feeder state in recent years.
"Diversity in all of its forms continues to be an important priority for us," said Hooker-Haring. "This is a work in progress, and we continue to work at it very hard."
Hooker-Haring notes that the Class of 2017 also will be "the most expensive class" in Muhlenberg history.
"The financial aid needs continue to increase in this difficult economy," he said. "We are committed to doing all we can to help deserving students and their families afford our brand of highly personalized, highly participatory education." More than 80 percent of the current student body receives some form of financial assistance.


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Check out our MTM VW Sirocco photo gallery
with HQ pics.
Last update in VW Sirocco gallery: 2009-10-20
German tuning company Novitec presented a thoroughly improved cross Lamborghini Urus
Paparazzi were able to capture the first hybrid version of the Volkswagen Golf GTE eighth generation.
Ferrari talked a little about the first crossover in their history, which will appear in 2022
In Frankfurt, Audi showed a pre-production instance of a new compact cross-country with an electrical installation.
Lego made a new toy in the Technic line, and it is a new generation of high-precision Land Rover Defender SUV model.
The next-generation Volkswagen Amarok should expect at the market in 2022.
We select only big size mtm vw sirocco photos
for our photogallery.


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I think Ardweeny is smaller!
I think Ardweeny is smaller!
I think this is smaller, but its not something you can buy
If I wasn't too scared of damaging the chip, I'd try that out.
As it is, I put EVERYTHING in DIP sockets just in case I ever want to re-purpose it (yes, even $0.10 555 timers).
completely compatible with all Arduino code and products.


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This urban walk is part of the Highway to Health Scheme - a simple and innovative scheme which aims to encourage people of all ages to walk for leisure and good health. It uses pole signs at one kilometre intervals on an established route.
1.2 miles
Sheet 12
Highway to Health
Tarmac / paving
Other Area
Leaving from Riverside Leisure Centre, turn left onto the Urney Road and then right onto the Strabane By Pass. Walk until you reach the roundabout at the Mourne River, and turn right onto Bradley Way. Follow the road until you reach the Urney Road again. Turn right and then left again back into the Leisure Centre.
Translink - journeyplanner.translink.co.uk
The routes can be accessed at any point and walked in either direction.
Dogs are allowed. Dogs are allowed but must be kept under control.
Print this walk
Be the first to rate or comment on this walk. Complete the adjacent feedback form.
Know a good walk that is not included on the site?
Every care has been taken to ensure accuracy of the information. We cannot accept responsibility for errors or omissions but where such are brought to our attention, the information will be amended accordingly.
Whilst all the clubs, associations and activity operators listed on this website generally operate according to which is accepted as current best practice, it is the responsibility of the participant to ensure that they are credible and all appropriate safety standards are adhered to. Outdoor Recreation Northern Ireland have, nor assume, any responsibility for the accuracy or the completeness of the information supplied or the service and level of care afforded by any of the clubs, associations and activity operators listed on this website.


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BOSTON, Mass. – Led by a three-goal showing from Taylor Shepherd the Seahawks of Salve Regina University handed women's ice hockey a 6-1 ECAC East conference loss Saturday afternoon in the Clark Athletic Center Ice Arena.
With the loss the Beacons fall to 1-2-1 overall and in the conference, while Salve Regina improved to 4-2-0, 2-2-0 in the ECAC East.
Shepherd was absolutely dominant for Salve as the forward scored two power-play goals and one shorthanded goal. Her man-down goal was one of two for the Seahawks as Danielle Phalon also found the back of the net to cap off a three goal second period. Phalon also scored an even strength goal in the period.
UMass Boston initially broke the scoreless draw on an Emily Howard (Terryville, Conn.) power-play goal. The man-up goal marked the first of the season of the Beacons. Kelsey MacIsaac (Durham, N.H.) and Alli Greenberg (Stoughton, Mass.) each notched an assist on the then go-ahead goal.
Salve did manage to tie the game at 1-1 with 5:22 left in the first period. After the intermission, Salve's offense came alive and fired off three goals throughout the second period, before tallying two more in the third to skate away with the conference win.
Between the pipes Casey Schaejbe (Arlington, Mass.) did her best to keep the Beacons in the contest but the barrage of Seahawk shots proved too much. On the day, Salve posted 33 shots with a majority of those coming in the second and third frames. UMass totaled 22 shots on the day and led the first period and +4 advantage (8-4).
Salve Regina finished 2-for-5 on the power-play, while UMass Boston was 1-for-3 overall.
Women's Hockey returns to action next Friday when they travel to Norwich University for a 7 p.m. ECAC East conference game.


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Carpet gets grimy, wood floors scratch and crack, and vinyl? Well, vinyl looks like vinyl. You have several choices when it comes to flooring, but no other flooring can match the durability, value and timeless look of ceramic tile.
Although quietly beautiful, ceramic tiles are deceptively tough. Ceramic Tile is extremely scratch resistant, temperature tolerant and stain resistant. Qualities you'll be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.
Ceramic tiles are also a cinch to clean; usually just a little light wiping or damp-mopping does the trick.
Tiling is an environmentally safe, natural choice for flooring. Ceramic tile lasts much longer than most other flooring materials, so over time there's less wasted money and materials. It's no wonder people turn to tile time and time again for their flooring needs.
Ceramic May Be Your Answer…For some buyers, for particular areas of a home or business, tile is often the hands-down favorite flooring choice. It can be formal or casual, dressed up or down, dazzlingly decorative or stunningly simple. More...


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Near the bottom of the nlab page for Banach space I see "To be described: duals (p+q=pq)".
Are $(\mathbb{R}^n)_p$ and $(\mathbb{R}^n)_q$ dual objects in the closed symmetric monoidal category of Banach spaces and linear contractions (with the tensor product described on that page)?
Edit: take n=2, p=1, q=∞. Then the question becomes whether $V \times V$ (which is $V^2$ with the $l_\infty$ norm) is isomorphic to $(\mathbb{R}^2)_\infty \otimes V$. But it seems to me that the functor $V \mapsto V \times V$ does not even commute with coproducts... is that right?


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webdevops needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 141 designs submitted by 60 freelance designers.
We are launching our brand new London-based brand this summer, we will be known as "glue", and we need a logo to convey our style.
We need a shiny web 2.0 style logo (for web use) which really conveys the word "glue" (think plastic/liquid style). It must also degrade nicely to a simple monotone logo for print.
Ideally this project will be suited to a sketch artist who can create a real custom style for us which can then be digitized afterwards.
- no particular colour scheme
- no tagline
- unique artwork a plus
- default fonts
- no imagination or afterthought
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Battle of Biggest Zoom Lenses Ever. Like they say, the more the better !! We tracked down the biggest zoom lenses ever produced for normal photography purposes. From legendary Nikon 1200-1700mm to Sigma's Green Monster. From Canon 1200mm bazooka to World's most expensive Leica 1600mm to world's largest Canon 5200mm. Its very …Read More »
Home / Tag Archives: canon lens


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Andrew Delbanco, author of College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be, is one of several interviewees in Andrew Rossi and Kate Novack's movie Ivory Tower. The movie, which made its debut at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, will make its global television premiere on CNN/U.S. on Thursday, Nov. 20 at 9:00pm and 11:00pm Eastern.
"As tuition rates spiral beyond reach for many students, and student loan debt passes $1 trillion (more than credit card debt), the film asks: Is college worth the cost? From the halls of Harvard, to public colleges in financial crisis, to new models for accessing higher education influenced by Silicon Valley, the filmmakers assemble an urgent portrait of a great American institution at a transformational breaking point."
Source: CNN, http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2014/11/07/ivory-tower-asks-is-college-worth-the-cost/
For more information on the documentary that is sure to spark conversations about the state of higher education in America, click here.
What It Was, Is, and Should Be
Andrew Delbanco


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About NZgeek
I'm a professional software developer from New Zealand.
I hate to be the grammar police, but it's "a lot", not "alot".
Perhaps this will help: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html
The democratic political system (not just in the US, but all over the world) is a shadow of what it should be.
The theory is that politicians are voted in by the people, and represent those same people. They do what is right for their constituents, and will get voted out if they do not.
The reality is that far too many politicians care only for their own political careers. They do whatever is needed to get into (or stay in) office, even if that means selling out. They listen to big companies and lobby groups, because those groups make a lot of "campaign contributions". They don't listen to regular people, unless there's enough of a movement to threaten their election chances.
It's selfish people in what should be a selfless role.
It's great to see politicians like Wyden out there, because at least he and his kind seem to remember that they represent the people. If only they were the majority, not a minority.
Errr... what?
This was a study done for the IFPI, not for Apple. The only thing that Apple have to do with this is that they provided digital sales data from iTunes. What was done with that data was up to the IFPI.
And as for the iPhone-bashing... I'm getting sick of it. I hate Apple as much as anyone, and think that too many people buy the iPhone because of the brand (and not on features or price), but I'm getting sick of the iPhone hatred all across the Internet. If Apple hadn't brought out the iPhone, the smartphone market would be years behind where it is now.
There seems to be far too much confusion over what this law actually has effect over. The law targets PERSONAL information, i.e. information which can be linked back to you as an individual. It won't have any effect on information that is effectively anonymous.
This means that Techdirt doesn't have to do much if an EU citizen wants their personal information removed. In this case the personal information is limited to their name and email address. All it would take is a simple database search on that person's email, and to replace the name and email with suitable anonymous values. That makes the commenter nothing more than an Anonymous Coward.
The main intent of the law is for firms that hold large quantities of personal (and potentially sensitive) information on an individual. Marketing companies, for example, would have to remove any identifying data on that person. They would not, however, need to remove that data from any anonymous aggregates that they use for statistical purposes.
"The AC brought up.
Google is not elected, Governments are.
Your response to this?"
If you don't like what Google have done, you can quickly and easily start using another search engine. There's nothing to stop you.
If you don't like a censorship order from a foreign government, there's absolutely nothing you can do. A search engine has little choice but to comply, otherwise they may be blocked completely, may face hefty fines, or their directors may face other legal complications (especially if they try to enter the country that made the order).
If you don't like a censorship order from your own government, you can write to your representative and complain. You also get the chance to try and vote the ruling party out in the next election. All you have to do is hope that the next government isn't just more of the same as the current one.
The technologies in use today are often more than 20 years old. They existed back in the days when the Internet was used mostly by academics and research facilities. They continue to be used because, aside from the flaws, they still work fairly well.
Now that we're seeing more and more parties trying to abuse these technologies, the engineers are trying to come up with a more robust solution. This takes a lot of time, because you need to try and think of all the ways that malicious parties may try to break the proposed technologies. Any new system that is decided on also takes a lot of time to roll out, as there are billions of internet-connected devices that may be affected.
The engineers know the system is broken, and are trying to fix it. Idiotic laws like PIPA/SOPA will stop those efforts dead in their tracks, by legislatively introducing the sorts of failures that the new systems are trying to prevent.
The kitchen knives argument is perfectly valid.
Kitchen knife manufacturers produce tools that are designed to be used by the general public, and which have clear and intended legal purposes. However, some people choose to use the tool for something other than its intended purpose, and may cause (physical) harm to others.
Many of the tools used for online piracy are designed for use by the general public, and have clear and intended legal purposes. However, some people choose to use the tools for something other than their intended purposed, and this may cause (financial) harm to others.
What's the difference here? In both cases you have tools with significant non-infringing uses, which are abused by some for purposes other than what was intended. In both cases the misuse can cause harm to others. Yet you say that all possible measures must be taken to stop one misuse, whereas the other can go unregulated?
So you would advocate manual review of all user-posted content on all websites, worldwide? Do you have any idea of how financially crippling that will be to web sites?
Let's take YouTube, one of the biggest sites. They have (on average) roughly 48 hours (172800 seconds) of video uploaded to them every second of every day. Let's assume that they have to review between 1/2 and 2/3 of that in order to pick out infringing content; that's 100000 seconds worth of video to be reviewed, every second.
In order to review all of that content with minimal delays, they would need 100000 reviewers working at any one time. If those reviewers were being paid a mere $1 per hour, it would still cost YouTube $876 million a year in review costs ($100000/hr x 24 hrs/day x 365 days/year).
The real costs to YouTube would be a lot more than this. For starters, competent reviewers would most likely cost a lot more that $1 per hour. There would be small delays between watching each video, meaning that more reviewers would be needed. There are also management costs, the costs of implementing the review system, etc. The true costs are more likely to be upwards of $5 billion a year.
And that's just YouTube. I'm not even thinking about sites like Facebook, MySpace, Vimeo, web forums, etc. The total cost to the tech industry would be hundreds of billions of dollars a year, and that's just to keep the legitimate sites running. Piracy might drop slightly, but illegitimate sites would still continue to run in dark corners of the web, and would still drive the vast majority of the world's piracy.
SOPA is not going to stop piracy. It's barely going to make a dent. And yet it will cost legitimate web sites billions of dollars a year, just so they can avoid being blocked or having their revenue streams cut off. This is why SOPA should be stopped dead in its tracks.
YouTube does not choose the content - the users who upload it do. No human at YouTube has any knowledge of the content of the video that was uploaded. Any processing that happens to it is fully automated, and requires no manual intervention.
*THIS* is the reason why YouTube qualifies for safe harbor. They have no knowledge that the uploaded material is infringing. As long as they remove anything that's pointed out to them, they're safe.
It doesn't matter how much automated processing YouTube does on the video, how they present the uploaded video, whether advertising was inserted by any means... The ONLY important thing is that nobody at YouTube knew that the video had infringing content.
And you can't just say "YouTube should be able to automatically identify infringing content and stop it being shown." The human brain is incredibly good at pattern matching, a million miles beyond what any computer program can do at present. In other words, there is no 100% effective way to detect infringing content. Even 20% accuracy is pushing the envelope with current technology.
Anonymous Coward: It is currently impossible for any site to prevent its users from uploading infringing content without having a human review *everything* that is uploaded. This requires hiring enough staff to review all of the content, which increases the costs to the business. Small start-ups may not be able to afford the additional costs, killing innovation. Existing companies would have to curtail user uploads if they could not afford to hire enough people to review everything at a reasonable pace, again killing innovation.
Think of YouTube for a bit. With 48 hours of video being uploaded every second, they'd need to have roughly 172,800 reviewers active *every second of the day* in order to keep up. Assuming that each person works 8 hours a day, they'd need more than half a million reviewers on payroll. If each reviewer was paid $US10K a year, that would come to more than $US5,000,000,000. That's right: five billion US dollars a year, just paying for reviewers. Is it really fair to lump that cost onto YouTube?
They don't even say that she died *because* she had taken drugs. They only say that she had "ecstasy in her system", which is a completely different thing. Correlation does not equal causality.
Oh well, another day, another knee-jerk reaction from a clueless politician.
It's commonly known that Eric Schmidt recused himself from board meeting while the iPhone was being discussed. He might have known that an Apple phone was coming, but that was probably about it.
If he'd known any more than this, I'm sure that Schmidt and Google would already have been the target of a very large Apple lawsuit.
As a New Zealander, I'm glad that there will be some review and public consultation before the treaty is ratified. This at least gives us a chance to tell the government why this "trade agreement" is simply a money-grab by the big multi-nationals.
Who am I kidding? Our government has a history of ignoring what the people say. I don't expect this to be any different.
I'd say that this is the most likely reason. The anti-spam filter is probably checking the IP address of linked sites, and spam-binning emails that point to known spam sites.
OccupyWallSt.org doesn't have an A record (IP address), AAAA record (IPv6 adress) or CNAME record (pointer to a different site name). The correct web site address is www.OccupyWallSt.org, which has a valid A record.
Given that there was no valid way to resolve OccupyWallSt.org (without the "www."), the spam filter probably decided that this was a spam site that's since been taken down, and treated it as such.
Note that this doesn't need any human intervention, just an incorrect assumption on the part of the programmers of the spam filter.
Where does Mike talk about companies dissolving and moving overseas? He doesn't.
Mike addressed who was affected by PROTECT IP:
* Non-US companies may be affected, because their domains will effectively become invisible to US citizens.
* US companies may be affected, notably those that run DNS servers. Implementing PROTECT IP will require updates to DNS software/hardware, and there will be other ongoing costs of compliance.
Never mind that all of these measures can be worked around by simply using a different DNS server. (PROTECT IP works in the same way as unlisting a number from the phone book. If you can't turn a name into a number, you can't make the call. The workaround is like using a 3rd party phone book, one which still has the number listed.) So in other words, PROTECT IP will cost a lot, but won't do anything to protect intellectual property.
Not all of Motorola's patents will be software. Anything that deals with controlling the underlying phone hardware will most likely still be valid.
It'll be interesting to see how this ruling affects things. The "do XYZ, but with a computer" patents and their kind are obvious sitting ducks, but what about patents that relate to user interfaces? Or simple storage of data?
(As a developer, I'd like to see all software patents go. After all, code is simply a bunch of mathematical algorithms, and they aren't patentable.)
Once upon a time, the USPTO had enough competent staff that it was safe to assume all issued patents are valid. However, with the number of patentable areas growing (e.g. software, business models) and the number of applications increasing like crazy, more and more questionable (or downright invalid) patents are being issued.
Just look at the study that found 30% of patents covered by other older patents. That 30% are clearly invalid (in whole, our at least in part), yet they were still issued by the supposedly infallible USPTO.
I don't mind the presumption of validity, as long as that presumption is grounded in reality. That's clearly no longer the case.
When will companies realise that "security through obscurity" just doesn't work. As soon as anyone finds a hole, that security is gone. Even if the finder is gagged, the fact that there is a hole will lead others to find it.
Instead of bringing lawsuits, the transporation companies should be spending that money to find a real fix for the problem. One that will stand up to public scrutiny.
>> Wouldn't a judge say that "DJ Paulie" and "DJ Paulie D" are distinguishable and toss this out?
The names can be distinguished, but are still very similar. Your average "moron in a hurry" would almost definitely confuse the two, and that's what trademarks are there to protect against.
"Nokia has lost in the court of technology. They didn't see the smartphone coming, and are now way behind."
What are you talking about? Nokia had smartphones on the market several years before Apple even thought about the iPhone. They all run Symbian, which still holds the highest market share of any smartphone OS.
The only thing you can credit Apple for is making smartphones consumer-friendly. They took what was largely existing technology and slapped a nice coat of paint on top of it. They then spent a fortune on marketing and making the device "cool", and now it has a mass following.
Sure, the iPhone is a great device. It does what most people want, in a way that's easy to learn. But from a technology standpoint it's well behind the curve, and Apple's policy on what apps they allow on the store is arbitrary at best. You're pretty much locked in to doing what Apple want, in the way they want you to do it. I just can't stand that.
I'm surprised that nobody has pointed out yet that there are separate figures for PS3 and standalone Blu-ray players. If you look at the combined figures, market penetration of Blu-ray has gone up from ~9% to ~16%. Considering the price of Blu-ray hardware and the current economic market, this isn't too bad.
And while streaming HD video may be the future, it's very much the distant future. For this to work, high speed (20Mbps+) internet connections will need to be the norm, and backbones will need enough bandwidth to serve all of the different video streams. It will be several years before the US and western Europe get to this point, and until then physical media will still be an absolute necessity.


text: The Aqua Creek EZ Pool Lift empowers all swimmers to enjoy a day in the water. This manually-operated model anchors to various surfaces and uses a hydraulic ram to assist all lifting situations. The EZ lift boasts 360-degree rotation for effortless swivel as well as adjustable, stainless steel chains for comfortable suspension height. Additionally, the model's durable, powder coat resists corrosion for a long-lasting finish.


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Allot of work was done recently to work down the reverse dependency list on HAL.
One of the bigger problems was Enlightenment. Some time ago we moved to using the EFL packages from Portage to base our Enlightenment version on. I wanted to move to a more maintainable and more "stable" Enlightenment so we could work out a spin for Enlightenment.
This all was just fine until it became an item on the todo list for HAL removal. After a short chitchat wit upstream developers I quickly realized it could take some time before I could actually be HAL independent if I wanted to maintain things like I did. So I cut the knot and
– moved the live ebuilds from Vapiers enlightenment overlay to ours
– key-worded them for ~amd64 and ~x86
– fixed some issues (automagic dependency on edb pulling in an old gtk+ version ZOMG!, make the ebuilds use virtual/jpeg)
And there I had it. The whole thing compiled pushed into our testing repository tested it and now we have it in our main repository!
If you already had Enlightenment installed, simply install the -9999 version updates. (-9999 in portage means this is a live ebuild, all sources are taken from the trunk directly and not taken from a released version tarball upstream created). After you installed the updates you want to get ridd of edb since it is not used anymore.
Simply run : equo remove edb --deep
This command removes edb and all its deps that are not needed anymore (most likely it will also remove the old gtk+ version)
About gtk+, I noticed that gtk apps in Enlightenment look a bit "ugly" at first. This is because the GNOME Settings Daemon is not running. You can make it run automatically when you enable it in the Enlightenment settings panel. -> Apps -> Startup Applications. Click on GNOME settings daemon -> Click add and click on apply. Then logout and login again and there you have it.
Last but not least. I noticed that some older themes I had laying around didn't work that well. if you are looking for cool enlightenment themes go to this website: http://exchange.enlightenment.org/theme
Have fun!


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Savannah Christian Church presents
'The Journey'
6-8 p.m. Today-Sunday and Dec. 7-11, Groups depart every five minutes Savannah Christian Church's Henderson Campus, 55 Al Henderson Blvd. Visitors to "The Journey" become part of the unfolding story as they follow the travels of Mary and Joseph to find an inn with no room, a shepherds' plain, and a crude stable with a crying baby. Tickets are $5 each, family, military and first responder discounts available at SCC's The Source bookstore.
AASU Strozier Faculty Lecture Series
Noon today, AASU Student Union's Ogeechee Theatre, Armstrong campus, 11935 Abercorn St., Savannah. Joey Crosby and Rod McAdams, associate professors of health sciences in the College of Health Professions, will present "Not Your Father's Medicare: The Future of the Social Safety Net for Older Adults and the Disabled." Free. For information, go to armstrong.edu.
Ronald McDonald House Wine
and Fries Event
6-8 p.m. Thursday. Hoskins Center, 5000 Ranger St., Savannah, Memorial University Medical Center's campus. This event invites participants to pair a variety of reds and whites with fast food favorites, including French fries, chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers and frozen yogurt served by Menchie's Frozen Yogurt. There will be a silent auction and photo booth by Leilani K. Photography. Live jazz entertainment will be provided by Howard Paul and Ben Tucker. Tickets are $25 and may be purchased at rmhccoastalempire.org. For information, call 912-350-7641. Proceeds benefit Ronald McDonald House Charities.
Second Annual Shopping and
Cocktails Event
6-9 p.m., Thursday, St. Vincent's Academy gym on Liberty Street, Savannah. A unique holiday social and shopping experience, featuring over 30 alumnae and commercial vendors who are holding a private boutique sale. A percentage of all sales will be donated to St. Vincent's Academy. $10 per person. For information, call 912-236-5508.
Free HIV Testing
10 a.m.-5 p.m., Thursday. Forsyth Park. The Coastal Health District, in conjunction with the Georgia AIDS Coalition, is offering free HIV testing. All testing will be done without the use of needles and results, available within 20 minutes, will be kept confidential. A candlelight vigil will be held at 6 p.m. For information, call 912-651-2251 or email email@example.com.
Second Annual Christmas Holiday Extravaganza
9:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Thursday. First Presbyterian Church, Washington Avenue at Paulsen Street. Kimberly Kennedy, who wrote "The Art and Craft of Entertaining," will be the keynote speaker at the event. Tickets are $45. For information, call 912-234-2469 or email firstname.lastname@example.com.
Lights on for Tybee
6 p.m. Friday. Tybrisa / Strand Roundabout, Tybee Island, Ga. Come down front for musical performances following the annual tree lighting, Gretchen Greene School of Dance performances, and more while you enjoy strolling and shopping downtown.
Plus, the Park of Seven Flags will transform into the "Park of Giving." Bring donations for the Milton Project, Rising TYde Food Pantry, Mayors Motorcade and Toys for Tots and make the season bright for others. Complementary refreshments will be available at participating locations throughout the evening.
Handel's Messiah
Sing Along
7 p.m. Friday. Butler Memorial Presbyterian Church, 603 West Victory Drive, Savannah. Persons planning to sing along from the audience should arrive by 6:45 p.m. and bring a personal copy of the Messiah. Free; a silent offering will be taken. For information, call 912-236-7747 or go to butlermemorialchurch.com.
Annual I Cantori Christmas Concerts
7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday, St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Skidaway Island, Ga.; 7:30 p.m., Saturday, St. Paul's Episcopal church, Abercorn and 34th streets, Savannah. I Cantori, Savannah's Professional Chamber Choir of twenty-four auditioned singers, will perform it's 21st season of Christmas Concerts. A highlight of this year's concert will be harpist, Patricia Anderson. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students. They will be available at the door or by calling 912-925-7866.
Charity Darting Tournament and
Silent Auction
Friday-Sunday. Hampton Inn & Suites, 201 MLK Jr. Blvd., Savannah. Sponsored by the Savannah Area Darting Association. The Silent Auction begins at 7:30 p.m. Friday with the bids closing at 7 p.m. Saturday. 100 percent of the proceeds from the silent auction will be given to two local charities: The Ruth Byck Adult Daycare and the Kicklighter Academy. The dart tournament and silent auction are open to the public. Area merchants have donated restaurant gift certificates, oil changes and baskets of wares from their stores for use in the silent auction. We have darters from all over the nation coming to play in our annual tournament. For information, call 912-258-3599 or go to savdarts.org.
Savannah Harbor Foundation's
Musical Mondays
7 p.m. Friday. Westin Savannah Harbor Resort & Spa, One Resort Drive. Savannah Arts Academy performs for this free concert, a family-friendly event of holiday cheer. For information, call 912-201-2000.
West Chatham Priceless Gifts Golf Tournament
Noon Friday. Crosswinds Golf Course. All proceeds benefit the Priceless Gifts Campaign which supports the YMCA's financial assistance program. "Captain's Choice" entry fee is $340 per team and includes entry, lunch, cart and prizes. We hope you will all be able to join us for a great time on the golf course. For information, call the West Chatham YMCA at 748-9622 or go to ymcaofcoastalga.org to register.
Port Wentworth Christmas Tree Lighting
6:30 p.m. Friday. Please join us as we light the Christmas Tree. Afterwards, we will enjoy chili, cookies and hot chocolate at the P.B. Edwards Jr. Recreation Center (Gym). Skating will be available for the children. I hear we may even have a special visitor — Santa Claus. For information, call 912-964-4379.


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A divorce signals the end of a marriage, but does it also mean the end of the family business? The answer is no if proper preparations have been made and precautionary steps taken. The family's business is often the largest marital asset and, generally, most of the family's wealth, net worth and support are dependent upon it. In most cases, at least one spouse (if not both) owns, works or in some way participates in the family business. When both spouses work in the family business, the personal and financial effects of divorce can be more severe. And if both spouses are active in the business and working together, the divorce process itself can lead to many challenges, such as personal recrimination and financial feuding, which can affect employee morale, productivity and profitability. In addition, family businesses are not easily divided, so it is difficult for divorcing spouses to take their share and head their separate ways. The best strategy typically is for one spouse to keep the business by buying out the other. However, financial limitations and the covenants in lending documents sometimes mandate that the two spouses must continue working together even after the divorce, because neither can afford to buy out the other. Is it possible to prevent a divorce from interfering with business operations? Perhaps not, but divorcing spouses can take certain steps to protect the business as much as possible so that it can continue to generate income for the newly separated family. A prenuptial agreement is one example of a tool that can be used to protect a family's business in some instances. Children who are in line to receive stock in the family's business should be urged to have a prenuptial agreement before they marry. Understand, however, that prenuptial agreements—even the best written ones—can sometimes be challenged in court and a judge may choose to compensate divorcing spouses in other ways. At minimum, though, it is beneficial to set a valuation procedure that addresses later acquired stock and appreciation in stock owned at the time of the marriage in order to help minimize disruption of the business. With or without a prenuptial agreement, it's critical to identify a fair and objective means for dividing the business' wealth without actually dividing the business. One option to consider when adult children are working in the business and are the designated successors is to give part or all of the family's business to the next generation. In this way, both spouses can feel confident that the family's business wealth (or at least most of it) will not end up benefiting a new spouse. In addition, assuming there are enough other assets, the divorcing spouses have the satisfaction that they have effectively split the business by giving it to their children while still leaving the business, its operations and its future intact. Prenuptial or other agreements might also provide for mandatory buyback of ownership in the event of a divorce using a discounted valuation and/or extended payment terms in order to preserve the business and protect its assets. A buyout may not work, however, in situations where there is a majority shareholder, since the transaction would shift control. It can, however, be effective to protect the business when minority shareholders are involved in the divorce and can protect against having to sell assets or borrow heavily to pay off the other spouse. Divorces can be ugly with an array of emotions that often blind people from making smart business decisions. That's why it's wise to plan in advance with a cool head and with the necessary legal counsel to properly prepare the necessary documents. Too many good family businesses have gone bad during and after the divorce process. Don't let yours be one of them.
Guest Blogger
Keeping the family business intact through a divorce
Recommended for You


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Sporting Clays School
Sporting Clays Lesson
Learn the techniques of shooting clay targets with a high-quality Orvis shotgun. Enjoy a two-hour lesson with an expert instructor on our estate. Call for reservations.
Cost: $175 per person
Advanced Sporting Clays Lesson
Experienced clay shooters, take your skills to the next level with a two-hour advanced sporting clays lesson. Learn skills and techniques that will increase your scores and consistency. A high-quality Orvis shotgun will be provided. Call for reservations.Cost: $225 per person
Clay Shooting (Trapper Program)
Test your shotgun skills on our 5-Stand or Sporting Clays course for experienced clay shooters. Clay targets are thrown from strategically placed traps in various combinations while you shoot from our 5-Stand range or our Sporting Clays course. Includes 50 shells, a high-quality Orvis shotgun, and other equipment. 1-1.5 hours. Instruction is not included. Call for reservations.
Cost: $100 per person
Private Full-Day Shotgun Sports Clinic
Spend the day with our expert shotgun sports instructors honing and perfecting your clay shooting and/or wingshooting skills. Students will receive Basic through Advanced instruction in techniques of shotgun shooting applicable to Skeet, Trap, Sporting Clays, 5-Stand, and bird hunting. Instruction will take place on 5-Stand as well as Sporting Clays ranges. Open to all experience levels. Includes lunch at Cedric's Tavern, a high-quality Orvis shotgun, and other equipment. Students are welcome to bring their own shotgun upon approval. Class is 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Call the Outdoor Adventure Center for reservations.
Cost: $750 per person
*Prices are in addition to estate admission and subject to change. Plus applicable tax.
No time for an outdoor activity or a Behind-the-Scenes tour of Biltmore House the day of your visit? No problem! First, purchase a Biltmore admission ticket. On the day of your Biltmore visit, stop by any Guest Services station and reserve a next-day outdoor activity or tour for the following day which allows you to return for your tour or activity without paying a $25 next-day upgrade.
Use our interactive map to locate Guest Services on the estate.
*Does not apply to hiking or biking. Some restrictions may apply.
We're now offering limited memberships to our premier sporting clays club. Membership to this exclusive club draws upon Biltmore's century-old heritage of sporting activities enjoyed in a beautiful and private setting. Benefits include:
- Convenient location on the estate including venues for sporting clays, trap, skeet, and 5-stand shooting
- Clubhouse and other amenities
- Individual, family, or corporate annual memberships are available*
*membership does not include access to Biltmore House & Gardens, Antler Hill Village & Winery
Behind-the-Scenes Guided Tours
Includes Upstairs – Downstairs Tour, Rooftop Tour, Legacy of the Land, Sustainability Tour, Guided House Tour, and Premium House Tour**
Specialty Wine Experiences
Includes Red Wine & Chocolate, Biltmore Bubbles, and Vine to Wine Tours***
Outdoor Activities
Includes Fly-Fishing School, Land Rover Experience Driving School, Sporting Clays School, Biking, Carriage Rides, Guided Horseback Trail Rides, Segway Tours, Outrider USA Adventure, Falconry, and River Float Trips*
Call the Passholder Priority Line at 800-413-9787 for reservations and more details.
*Discounts apply to one Passholder and one accompanying guest. Advance reservations are required for guided tours, wine experiences, and outdoor activities as space is limited. Valid Annual Pass must be presented at the time of your tour. Biltmore reserves the right to cancel any tour or activity if certain requirements are not met or due to inclement weather. Discounts are not valid on Saturdays and Christmas Day through New Year's Day. Biltmore Annual Passes are nontransferable and nonrefundable.
**Audio Guide to Biltmore House not included in discount.
***Guests are required to be at least 21 years old to participate in wine experiences.


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Ever felt like dessert menus are becoming a bit...predictable? A chocolate cake of some sort, a fruit-based pastry, cheesecake or tiramisu, a pudding or flan, and an ice cream or sorbet. Yawn.
Fortunately, we recently came across a restauranteur who has not forgotten the childlike joy and simple pleasure that dessert can bring: chef Michael Blum, who recently opened Michael's Kitchen in Miami. He's bringing a bit of pomp and circumstance--as well as a needed dose of fun--back to the institution of dessert, serving up fanciful sweets like desserts like N'awlins style Bananas Foster, Twinkie Tiramisu, Over-the-Top Baked Alaska and the Milky Way Chocolate Malt, and our favorite, the Deep Dish Rice Krispie Dessert Pizza (what can we say, we're in a cereal state of mind lately!).
RECIPE 1: White Chocolate Raspberry or Strawberry Rice Krispie Deep Dish Pizza
- 3 tablespoons margarine or butter
- 1 (10 oz.) package regular marshmallows
- Or -
- 4 cups mini marshmallows
- 6 cups Rice Krispies®
- White Chocolate Shavings to taste for garnish
- Your choice of jam or preserves, to taste (we like a thicker layer, but this recipe calls for a thinner one)
1. Melt margarine in large saucepan over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.
2. Add RICE KRISPIES cereal. Stir until well coated.
3. Using buttered spatula or waxed paper, press mixture evenly into 9 x 2-inch deep dish round pan coated with cooking spray.
4. When cool remove from pan by using a hot water bath. Put pan into water for about 30 seconds.
5. To decorate: Spread a thin layer of raspberry or strawberry jam into the center of the circle of the pizza, leaving the "crust" of the pizza bare. Then add white chocolate shavings for the cheese look and sliced strawberries as pepperoni and raspberries as other toppings. NOTE: feel free to use any kind of toppings that your heart desires, there a no limits to this dessert…. Be creative!!!! Best if served the same day.
Serving Size one 9 inch round
RECIPE 2: Twinkie Tiramisu
At Michael's Kitchen we serve these as individual desserts in 2 inch by 2 inch square glass containers.
- 1 cup heavy cream (40% milk fat)
- 5 oz granulated Sugar
- 3 Tablespoons Espresso (plus a little bit more for dipping the lady fingers)
- 1.5 pounds of Mascarpone cheese
- 8 yolks
- Lady Fingers (at least 36 cookies)
- 1 box Twinkies
1. Use an electric mixer with Wisk attachment and a cold bowl. Place heavy cream and 2 ozs of sugar in bowl and beat until stiff peaks, making whipped cream. This process takes about 3-4 minutes depending on strength of mixer.
2. Remove whipped cream from mixer and place it into the freezer while mixing the other ingredients.
3. Separate the yolks from the whites and place the yolks into a new cold bowl. Beat yolks and the remaining 3 ozs of sugar together. This process takes about 4 minutes. The mixture should look a pale yellow and about 4 times what the mixture started out as.
4. Add the mascarpone cheese until well incorporated and than add 3 Tablespoons of the espresso. Mix for about 20 seconds longer.
5. Remove this mixture from mixer and fold the cream into it. These two mixtures should be combined into one mixture leaving few streaks.
To Assemble:
1. Prepare espresso into a cup of coffee. Taking two ladyfingers break them in half and dip them into the warm espresso.
2. Place ladyfingers into the bottom of the ramekins.
3. Add the tiramisu cream to the top of the ramekin and take a knife across the top of it to clean off the edge.
4. Repeat this process until all cream is gone.
5. Cut the Twinkies in half on a bias and place one half on each tiramisu.
Note: best if refrigerated for a couple of hours but also can be served right after made.


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What to Expect During the Third Year of your Baby's Life
By Gopi K.Patel MSE.d Special Educator
The time between the 3rd and 4th year is when we see the terrible two's going away (hopefully…)!! This really is a fun time for the little ones as they are beginning to better express themselves through words. They start to form likes/dislikes for things. Three year olds are a lot of fun to be with as they begin to sound a lot like little person, and at times can be brutally honest (& always at the wrong times). At the same time they are so young and innocent in their own way.
Gopi's Milestone-Basics:
At this age children have acquired about 800 words. They are better able to follow 2 step directions. Children at this age are able to answer how-to questions and are beginning to recall past events. They are cooperatively able to play, and begin to share. Play at this age is a lot of fun to watch as they begin to pretend to use one object to represent another, and even can pretend to be another person. They recognize a variety of shapes, colors, letters and numbers. They can build objects from pictures. The most amazing thing to see this early on is that your 3 year old may be able to tell jokes!!!
Some of Gopi's Favorites:
- Sandwich Making Set – Kids can use their imagination, and this toy is easy to hold in their hands, and can include others in the play.
- Snails Pace Race – A great game for 3 year olds (and the family) to play. It's a wonderful, non-competitive game to introduce 3 year olds to.
- Number Memory Game – A great interactive game to sharpen a 3 year olds , cognitive skills with great visual recognition of numbers.
- My Giant Floor Puzzle – First and foremost, these pieces are nice and big and easy to grab. This is so much fun as this puzzle taps into fine motor skills as well, and can keep the little ones busy for a while.
- Sugarplum Dollhouse – This beautifully made doll-house really sparks the imagination (and 3 years is a great age to introduce this toy). Kids are really learning to pretend and what a great way to act-out the home.


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