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AAUW supports area fine arts
Courtesy photo
Continuing its support of the area's fine arts activities, AAUW members and guests will attend the Sunday matinee of the Players de Noc production of "Urinetown" at 2 p.m., March 3. Margaret Carignon is shown viewing the playbill for the upcoming comedy. Members are asked to reserve tickets by calling 428-1745 if they plan to attend. Dinner will follow at Hereford and Hops. Members and guests are welcome to attend both the matinee and dinner, or their choice of either one. Reservations are required. AAUW promotes gender equity through research, philanthropy, education and advocacy. AAUW is open to men and women holding an associate's degree or higher. For additional information about AAUW call 789-9096.


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We are a newly formed team looking for players that are ready to put forth the effort and build are team to its best. I would like for you to be able to pay for most of your own stuff and already have an adequate setup. We are based out of Middletown, DE
Team T-Wrex looking for members
Started by theDEpbStar, Mar 13 2009 02:22 PM
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subset: commoncrawl


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Three things I never thought I'd witness, while Tiger Woods was still in his thirties:
1. Tiger dropping out of the Top Ten in the world rankings;
2. Him being replaced as the next big thing;
3. And someone proclaiming, "Tiger Who?"Well, it has all happened. Now, you might say the distractions from Tiger's personal life, and a series of injuries are to blame, sure. And 22 year-old golf phenom Rory McIlroy winning the U.S. Open this past weekend has pushed a few to say Tiger's day has passed.
But the fact remains, not long ago we were saying Tiger would be the all-time greatest player. Ever. We aren't saying that anymore. In fact, I would have bet my left arm Tiger would blow away Jack Nicklaus' Major victories record. We aren't saying that anymore either.
What does this mean to you?
The world can change. In an instant. You might be on top of your game on one day, and forgotten the next. If it can happen to Tiger…it can happen to any one of us. And therein lies the thought for today.
Don't take anything for granted. Don't take your innovative product for granted. Someone will make something better tomorrow. Someone out there is innovating…
Don't take your customer for granted. They may shop elsewhere tomorrow.
Don't take your existing strategy (even if it works) for granted. Because the environment might change tomorrow, and the strategy will no longer work.
Don't take your sales process (even if it works) for granted. Because your prospects will have different priorities tomorrow.
Tiger Woods may very well come back, and come back to dominate. That's what true champions do. And I wouldn't put it past him. Or he may fade away forever, and we'll talk fondly about the days when that young man, for a while anyway, dominated.
Life happens. And that can upset the balance. Prepare for any possible outcome, because it will likely happen. And never stop innovating, never stop improving, because that's how you survive.
Because just when you think Tiger will never be supplanted, life and Rory McIlroy happen…
[join my free intrepid newsletter]
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[subscribe to my podcast via iTunes]
[photo from nbc sports]


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Product description
Slim fit jeans in five pocket design from Jack & Jones. Belt loops at waist and fly with button and zipper closure. Straight cut design.
Made of 93% Cotton, 6% Polyester and 1% Lycra.
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Jack & Jones was founded in 1989 and is today one of Europe's leading producers of men's clothing. Today, Jack & Jones is part of the Danish family owned company Bestseller and employs about 15,000 personnel. Jack & Jones live by the three key words: Cool, casual and confident meaning they are the best brand for jeans. Together with Italian denim designers Jack & Jones has produced jeans with the perfect fit in combination with the coolest styles. With this cooperation Jack & Jones has an exciting worldwide denim culture that many denim lovers the world over prefer. In addition to selling jeans the company also sells t-shirts, sweaters, shirts, outdoor wear and accessories. Shop Jack & Jones at Nelly.com.
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The Food Detectives investigate what not to put in the microwave.
Laura dresses her watercress salad with a simple champagne vinaigrette.
Kelsey creates a delectable salad of broiled flank steak and bitter greens.
The East Village Wine Geek has a meet and drink with valpolicella wine.
The Wine Geek discourses on the wine scourge, the evil aphid Phylloxera.
Pucker up as the Wine Geek spills on the most popular wine in California.
The Wine Geek explains how wine gets from the vineyard into the glass.
Ellie's curried chicken salad features juicy grapes and toasted almonds.
Ingrid serves fruit salad in a watermelon carved in the shape of a whale.
Arugula, fruit and panettone croutons are tossed in a lemony dressing.
Get Cooking Channel on your TV.


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by Anton Shilov
The GSM Association (GSMA) on Wednesday said that the "mobile world" has celebrated its four billionth connection, according to Wireless Intelligence, the GSMA's market intelligence unit. This milestone underscores the continued strong growth of the mobile industry and puts the global market on the path to reach a staggering six billion connections by 2013. At press time the world population was approximately 6.759 billion, according to the world population clock.
The growth is driven by two primary sources: the integration of mobile into previously unconnected devices and subscriber additions in emerging markets. At Mobile World Congress taking place from 16th - 19th February in Barcelona, the industry will be exploring ways of sustaining this growth.
"As we enter 2009, the world is in the midst of a broad economic slowdown, one that is impacting every facet of business, every link in the communications value chain. To address the significant challenges facing the global economy, the GSMA and its membership are focused on leveraging mobility to create new opportunities and to drive productivity and prosperity," said Michael O'Hara, chief marketing officer of the GSMA.
The GSMA's Mobile Planet initiatives leverage mobility to help improve the lives of individuals across the developing world in a socially responsible manner. With countries like India adding 10 million new mobile connections per month, and many users accessing the Internet, email and banking exclusively via mobile devices, the developing world is central to mobile industry growth.
The GSMA's Mobile Lifestyle initiatives concentrate on the cross-industry creation of innovative services that combine web attributes with mobility to make services, such as banking or entertainment, far more compelling.
The GSMA's Mobile Broadband initiatives focus on the development of a ubiquitous Mobile Broadband infrastructure and the proliferation of Internet-connected mobile devices. With the world's mobile connections now numbering four billion – nearly 100 million of which are Mobile Broadband – and with 1.1 billion fixed broadband lines reaching only one sixth of the world's population, the opportunities are vast.
As grid electricity is inaccessible to many emerging market areas, Mobile World Congress will be exploring the use of renewable energy. The GSMA's Development Fund, that facilitates the delivery of mobile offerings to people living on less than $2 per day, will be presenting the Green Power Pavilion where leading green technology providers will meet with operators. The "Green Power for Mobile" seminar on Wednesday 18th February will explore the role of renewable energy in expanding off-grid network coverage and reducing operating expedentures.
"GSMA industry initiatives in the areas of mobile broadband, mobile lifestyle and mobile planet will help drive the innovation and growth despite the challenges of the global economic downturn," Mr. O'Hara added.


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by Madre Hill, Superstar » Thu Apr 05, 2012 4:40 pm
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by neoleo » Fri Apr 06, 2012 8:44 am
Madre Hill, Superstar wrote:Stan Van drops the 'Howard asked to have me fired' bomb on the media, right as Dwight shows up to mug with his coach.I have to see this presser when I get home. Oh wow.
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Soft Rock & Bounce Pony w/ Sound by Radio Flyer
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Nike Park Soccer Socks
Product Information:
Get your game to the level you want it to be with the Park soccer sock. This Nike® soccer sock is cushioned to provide comfort and shock absorption with every game-breaking stride. Arch support adds backing and provides a snug fit as you terrorize the opponent with your unmatched skill while the reinforced heel and toe ensures prolonged wear by boosting durability in high-wear areas of the Nike® Park soccer sock.
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text:
Finance Committee on Nov. 27th, 2007
Evidence of meeting #6 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was students.
A recording is available from Parliament.
On the agenda
MPs speaking
Also speaking
- Pierre Le François General Director, Association nationale des éditeurs de livres
- Claire Morris President and Chief Executive Officer, Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
- Darryl Smith President, Canadian Dental Association
- Bob Harvey Member, Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee, Certified General Accountants Association of Canada
- David Bradley Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Trucking Alliance
- Pierre Sadik Senior Policy Advisor, Sustainability Specialist, David Suzuki Foundation
- Nathalie Bourque Vice-President, Global Communications, CAE Inc., SR & ED Tax Credit Coalition
- Peter Look Vice-President, Tax, Nortel, SR & ED Tax Credit Coalition
- Carole Presseault Vice-President, Government and Regulatory Affairs, Certified General Accountants Association of Canada
- Susan Mullin Vice-President of Development, Association of Fundraising Professionals
- Margaret Lefebvre Executive Director, Canadian Association of Income Funds
- Chris Tabor Manager, Queen's University Bookstore, Canadian Booksellers Association
- Michael Atkinson President, Canadian Construction Association
- Gerry Barr President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Council for International Cooperation
- Amanda Aziz National Chairperson, Canadian Federation of Students
- Mark Yakabuski President and Chief Executive Officer, Insurance Bureau of Canada
November 27th, 2007 / 3:30 p.m.
The Chair Rob Merrifield
I will call the meeting to order.
I want to thank the witnesses for coming forward. We're into our very aggressive and short period of time with pre-budget consultation. We certainly appreciate your coming in. We have a panel of seven to start in this first half of our meeting.
I will introduce you as I yield you the floor. In the interest of time, we'll give you five minutes, and we hope to keep you to that five minutes as close as possible. I'd ask that the witnesses respect that.
We'll start with our first witness. We have the Association nationale des éditeurs de livres. We have with us Pierre Le François, director general.
The floor is yours, for five minutes.
3:30 p.m.
Pierre Le François General Director, Association nationale des éditeurs de livres
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The francophone book industry is significant. It has been successful, but it is also fragile in many respects. It has a market worth three quarters of a billion dollars and represents some 10,000 jobs. It is successful: more than 5,000 titles are published every year. The quality is there and diversity, in terms of the books that are published, is encouraged.
However, it is also fragile because of the small Canadian market, strong foreign competition and the markup taken by the publishers which, overall, is extremely low—hence the need for public and government assistance.
With that in mind—and this is what the brief highlights—we feel that there are four major points to be considered.
First of all, the Canadian government and the federal Parliament should avoid further eroding copyright, which is the engine of creation and is therefore at the very centre of the publishing industry, in the name of what is known as the educational exemption, based on which there should be easy access to all available material over the Internet. Such an approach is of great concern to us.
Furthermore, it is important to strategically position the francophone publishing industry within the digital world, by ensuring that Canada takes its place along side the giants in the field, who are currently going to see one Canadian publisher after another in search of publishing content, with a view to putting that content up on platforms and making it available to users across the globe. We believe that Canada should do what is necessary to ensure that the publishing industry—both francophone and anglophone—benefits from the best possible technologies. A specific initiative is needed to support publishing at an individual level—in other word, individual publishers—and Canadian publishers, collectively.
Furthermore, there is a lack of visibility as far as Canadian books in Canada are concerned, for obvious reasons. Competition is very strong. Are Canadian books reaching Canadian readers through the bookstores, the media, the libraries and the schools? That is not easy to accomplish. Therefore, a considerable effort is needed as regards the promotion and marketing of Canadian books.
Finally, we have proposed the idea of a major national translation program aimed at all books, or as many books as possible, and general literature available in Canada, for all segments of Canadian society, in order that books in French, in English and in Aboriginal languages can be translated into the language of the other communities and, thus, be available to them. In so doing, it would be possible to develop the values and identity that are our strength.
Such a project would also have a significant impact on the economic development of the francophone publishing industry in international copyright acquisition markets. It would allow francophone publishers to introduce partially translated works to our Chinese, Slovak, Latin American or other readers, rather than providing just a notice in English. That would facilitate the expansion of a readership that already includes millions in terms of copyright markets in the francophone publishing industry—an industry which, given that Canada is a small market, should be encouraged, because expanding the industry's international market is an important means of enhancing the success of the francophone publishing industry.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
3:35 p.m.
The Chair Rob Merrifield
Thank you very much. I certainly appreciate your contribution to the committee.
We'll now move on to our second witness. We have the chief executive officer of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, Claire Morris.
The floor is yours for five minutes.
3:35 p.m.
Claire Morris President and Chief Executive Officer, Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada
Mr. Chairman, I would like to begin by thanking you for inviting us to appear before the Committee today.
Canada is a wealthy, highly developed country with enormous promise. However, over the next decade, Canada faces important labour market competitiveness and demographic challenges. Ensuring the country's long-term economic growth and continued prosperity will depend heavily on the education and skill levels of Canadians and their success in creating and applying ideas and knowledge.
Challenge number one is that Canada must produce enough highly qualified graduates for the needs of the labour market. The talents, knowledge, and skills of master's and doctoral graduates are widely recognized as key drivers of the knowledge economy, as they transfer knowledge from universities to other sectors and inject innovation into the economy.
AUCC estimates that by 2016, an increase of at least 35% in the domestic production of master's and doctoral graduates will be required to meet the growing demand for these highly skilled people and to replace those who will retire.
The proportion of the Canadian population holding an undergraduate degree is at record levels, and the number of prospective graduate students in other countries intending to study abroad is increasing. Canada must attract more domestic students into graduate programs and attract more top international graduate students to fuel Canada's pipeline of highly qualified personnel and strengthen economic and diplomatic ties abroad.
AUCC recommends increased financial support for both Canadian and international graduate students in order to attract top students from abroad, keep talented students in Canada, provide opportunities to hone their research skills, and increase their contributions to the labour market through postgraduate internships and co-op placements.
Challenge number two is that the Canadian economy is increasingly dependent on international trade--a highly competitive, innovative, and knowledge-driven enterprise. Sustaining Canada's leadership in public R and D performance is key to meeting Canada's competitiveness challenge. In the university sector, public investments support the four foundational elements of research: new ideas, highly qualified research talent, cutting-edge research infrastructure, and institutional support for the research effort.
The least visible and least understood of these is the support for the institutional or indirect costs of research. These are real costs that universities must meet to create the conditions for research excellence. They include the costs of operating and maintaining research facilities, managing the research process from preparation of proposals to accountability and reporting, complying with regulatory and safety requirements, managing intellectual property, and promoting commercialization.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that for Canadian and American universities, these costs are at least 40% of their direct research costs. In the U.S., the median negotiated rate of reimbursement is 52%. In Canada, the overall rate of reimbursement in the federal indirect costs program is about 25%, placing Canadian universities at a significant disadvantage.
AUCC recommends renaming the current indirect costs program as the Canada research competitiveness fund, and supporting it at internationally competitive levels in order to maximize returns on public investments in university research and to derive full value for Canadians. AUCC remains committed to improving the visibility, accountability, and transparency of federal investments in this area.
The third challenge relates to the fact that over the next two years, more Canadians will depend on fewer workers. In order to tackle that demographic problem, Canada has to increase its labour force and enhance its productivity. That will mean increasing the educational attainment of the Canadian population as a whole and, in particular, guaranteeing university access to traditionally under-represented groups.
Canadians are increasingly concerned about the fact that the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation's mandate will be ending in 2008-2009, given that it now provides needs-based non-repayable student financial assistance of $350 million annually. The AUCC is recommending that the federal government continue to provide students with support that is at least comparable to what is now available, in the form of needs-based non-refundable financial assistance, with a particular focus on improved access to graduate studies for traditionally under-represented groups.
Mr. Chairman, AUCC is currently working on specific proposals to the government for investments in each of these three areas. I'll be pleased to share them with this committee once they're finalized.
Thank you.
3:40 p.m.
The Chair Rob Merrifield
Thank you very much.
Now we'll move on to the Canadian Dental Association. We have the president, a good Albertan who lives very close to the beautiful riding of Yellowhead.
Dr. Darryl R. Smith, the floor is yours for five minutes. I just had to put that in.
3:40 p.m.
Dr. Darryl Smith President, Canadian Dental Association
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and honourable members. Thank you for inviting me to address you today. I am the current president of the Canadian Dental Association, and I live and practise dentistry in Valleyview, Alberta. If anyone doesn't know where that is, it's in the very northwest part of Alberta.
Traditionally, we submit a written brief in addition to this presentation, which we also intend to do this year. But because of the short notice for our appearance, we'll be submitting it after our appearance before you today. It will contain several recommendations that we feel will improve the oral health of Canadians.
For today, I would like to focus on one recommendation, which Mr. Andrew Jones, who is with me today, spoke to this committee about last year. We are calling it the personal wellness investment fund, and it presents a unique way that financial and tax policies can have an impact on dental health and on health in general. I'd like to start by explaining the context, and then I'll give you a few details about how we would see it working.
Imagine it is the year 2017 and you've just retired from a satisfying career with a large communication company. You are at a dinner, but just as you're taking your first bite you hear a nasty crunch and your 20-year-old dental crown drops into your lap. From your dentist's perspective, it's no problem. We already have the technology to replace a tooth with a dental implant. But you would have a problem even today. According to recent polling data collected by the Canadian Dental Association, you and 73% of your peers do not have a plan for dental care beyond retirement. Even if you happen to be in the 27% of people who have given it some thought, two-thirds of those people are counting on their former employer to continue to offer post-retirement dental coverage. Unfortunately, that benefit has begun to peter out. In 2006 alone, Bell, Sun Life, Sears, Nortel, and Manulife Financial all announced significant cuts to the dental plans they offer employees post-retirement.
Unfortunately, there also is little chance that a public plan will cover you either. According to recent statistics from the Canadian Institute of Health Information, although the proportion of public spending on health care has remained relatively stable, the dental portion has been shrinking steadily to the point that less than 5% of the $9 billion spent on dental care annually is now publicly funded.
In many provinces, this public funding is devoted entirely to children's dental programs, and in many cases there have been cutbacks to these programs as well. Unfortunately for seniors, with the exception of Alberta, which is showing some leadership in this area, only limited public funding goes to maintaining oral health beyond retirement. We also know that Canada is entering a period of accelerated population aging that will see the share of seniors aged 65 and over increase from 13% in 2005 to 23% in 2031.
We have a recommendation that's not a cure-all but would be a step in the right direction. The idea is for the government to create a process that would allow for tax incentives for people to put away funds earmarked for health spending. This would include any legitimate health expenses not covered under provincial health plans--dentistry, of course, but also perhaps prescription drugs, home care, and the like. We have referred to this fund as the personal wellness investment fund.
Our backgrounder lays out a few possibilities on how this fund might work, and details will be included in our brief. Essentially, we see it as an RRSP- or an RESP-like entity. Individuals with a registered fund could make contributions to it during their working years, either out of pre-tax or post-tax dollars, with a government top-up. These funds would remain dedicated for health care spending, presumably post-retirement, in the absence of an applicable insurance plan. Some might say that the fabric is already stretched thin. How are people going to put away for an RRSP, RESP, and a PWIF all at the same time?
As we see it, RESP contributions for most people will occur in the early part of their lives. By contrast, the PWIF would probably appeal more to those whose children have left home and are finished their schooling. So it could work out nicely from both a household spending and government planning perspective. At the time that RESP contributions draw to a close, a similar amount of money could simply be switched to a PWIF contribution.
As I mentioned earlier, CDA has many other thoughts and recommendations aimed at improving the oral health of Canadians. Because time is limited, we decided to speak to you today about just this one aspect. But of course we're happy to discuss any other areas of oral health funding, either today or at a later date.
Thank you.
3:45 p.m.
The Chair Rob Merrifield
Thank you very much.
Now we have the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada. We have Bob Harvey, who is a member of the tax and fiscal policy committee.
The floor is yours, for five minutes.
3:45 p.m.
Bob Harvey Member, Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee, Certified General Accountants Association of Canada
Thank you very much, and good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and honourable members.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear today and to address issues that matter most to Canadians, all built around the theme of prosperity. Our brief contains a four-point plan, which I believe is available on the table, to build a more prosperous and competitive Canada.
My comments today will focus specifically on tax reform and interprovincial trade.
First of all, I'd like to congratulate the government on the recent Speech from the Throne and the economic statement. We are pleased to see that the federal government shares our views relating to tax reductions and improved internal trade.
The recently announced tax relief plan is a welcome departure from the ad hoc targeted tax cuts and special provisions directed to particular groups or sectors, to which Canadians have grown accustomed. This $60 billion plan is long overdue. The government has the fiscal room and can afford to reduce the tax burden on Canadians. Moreover, economists, business leaders, academics, think tanks, and well-respected national organizations have all been calling for lower taxes, including broad-based tax relief, for several years now.
There is consensus. We know that lower personal and corporate income taxes are the key ingredients to more investment, increased productivity, better jobs, and a higher quality of life, so the government's tax relief plan is a step in the right direction. However, CGA-Canada does not believe it goes the distance.
After years of tinkering with tax legislation, we are still left with a system that remains unnecessarily cluttered, complex, inconsistent, and it is not serving its purpose efficiently or effectively. We need tax reform, and we need a panel of experts to do the work, to consult widely in a public forum, to debate the issues, and to offer informed, independent advice to the government. The appointment of an expert panel is the centrepiece of our submission.
An expert panel would be indispensable to improving Canada's taxation and regulatory regime, to developing and advancing Canada's tax advantage in global world markets, to ensuring that national prosperity and economic growth are the end result, and to reshaping our system so that it is fairer, simpler, more efficient, and competitive. Canadians deserve nothing less.
The issue of internal trade has been a longstanding concern to CGA-Canada. We have examined this issue from all angles. We have written policy briefs and spoken to the issue before parliamentary committees. CGAs themselves have used the agreement on internal trade to eliminate certain restrictions such as access to public accounting.
We have reached the following conclusion. In this era of ever-increasing globalization, where Canada's exports totalled $524 billion, representing 36.4% of our gross domestic product in 2006, it is ludicrous that the movement of goods and services across our provincial boundaries still remains a challenge. We are encouraged by the federal government's pledge to play a leadership role in the strengthening of the economic union. We also welcome measures adopted by the Committee on Internal Trade and the Council of the Federation.
CGA-Canada believes all governments must work together to create a fully functioning and effective domestic market, where goods and services move freely. It would be easier and less costly to do business. It would remove obstacles to growing Canadian businesses. It would make our economy more productive and more competitive. In short, it would be of tremendous benefit to all Canadians.
Here is the remedy we propose: establish a set of open trade principles and an internal trade tribunal, and implement panel findings through an enhanced and enforceable dispute resolution mechanism. CGA-Canada has joined forces with several other national organizations to seek improved interprovincial trade. We are anxious to work with the government towards this goal.
To conclude, we wish to urge the committee to consider the recommendations put forth in our submission, namely, appoint a panel of experts to review the tax system so that it is simpler, transparent, and fair, with low internationally competitive tax rates, and to tear down trade and labour barriers within Canada. Other elements of our four-point plan include capitalizing on Canada's knowledge advantage and further supporting small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs.
We believe our plan is reasonable and achievable and would provide a solid base to build a more prosperous and competitive Canada.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for your time. We welcome any questions the committee might have on these or other recommendations contained in our brief.
3:50 p.m.
The Chair Rob Merrifield
Thank you very much.
We'll now move on to the Canadian Trucking Alliance, David Bradley, chief executive officer. The floor is yours for five minutes.
3:50 p.m.
David Bradley Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Trucking Alliance
Thank you very much, Chairman and members of the committee. I thank you for the time.
In my brief few moments I'll concentrate on two issues: one is a matter of environmental significance; the other is a matter of tax fairness and competitiveness.
We are on the verge of an era of the smog-free truck in Canada. By law, the 2007 model-year engines reduce the emissions of particulate matter by 90%, a precursor of smog that is linked to respiratory disease. In 2010, by law, the other major precursor of smog, NOx, will be reduced by 95%. I can tell you that it's not too far-fetched to say that the air coming out of the exhaust of the new trucks is cleaner than the air in most of the cities in Canada at the present time.
However, there are some challenges. One, these new engines are much more expensive to purchase, in the order of 7% to 10%, but as importantly--this is an example of the state of the technology--there's a fuel efficiency penalty associated with the new engines. So while we're becoming ultra-clean, at the same time our performance in terms of GHG is being denigrated, and that really is a reflection of the fact that we did not have a broad-based policy going forward when looking at these issues.
We can't, obviously, survive with a reduction in our fuel efficiency, so what has happened in the industry is that they've put off purchasing these new smog-free engines. There was a huge pre-buy in 2006, and we anticipate there'll be another one in 2009, unless something changes.
We can invest in equipment. We must now invest in equipment that's attached to our tractors and to our trailers that will allow us to recoup and enhance our environmental performance. They, too, don't come cheaply.
However, in marrying the two technologies under something we're calling the enviro truck initiative, we can, if only half of the new heavy trucks that are purchased in Canada each year, meet the enviro truck criteria. We would not only see the virtual elimination of smog emissions from heavy trucks in Canada, but we would see fuel efficiency increased on a net basis by 22%, we would save almost 1.5 billion litres of diesel fuel per year from these trucks, and greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by 4 million tonnes.
This is not a pipe dream. These are real gains that can be made. However, as I indicated, the investment climate present in our industry does not lend itself to it; the cash simply isn't there for us to be able to move in any sort of a concerted way to the new equipment. If this is all about the environment, what we should be seeking to do is to accelerate the penetration of those new vehicles into the marketplace.
We're suggesting that this be done through a program similar to the vehicle efficiency initiative that was introduced in the last budget for light duty fuel-efficient cars, or something similar to the Energy Star program, which has worked extremely well for the appliance sector.
While we're not sure what the cost per tonne is for those other programs, the cost per tonne for our program is somewhere in the order of $55 to $75 per tonne of GHG removed, which we're told is really very attractive compared with some of the other programs I mentioned previously.
The second issue concerns the fact that the government has been talking about the need for the provinces that have yet to harmonize with the GST to take their sales taxes, particularly the sales taxes on business inputs, and harmonize those with the value-added goods and services tax, something with which we agree wholeheartedly.
However, at the same time, the federal government still has some vestiges of its own archaic regressive tax system in the form of excise taxes. I'm particularly speaking of the excise tax on commercial diesel fuel, which was introduced in the mid-1980s for the express purpose of reducing the deficit, or helping out with the government's fiscal imbalance.
While we have an imbalance now, it's the other way, and that tax is not serving any policy purpose other than to generate revenue. We're arguing that if there is an effort to harmonize provincial sales taxes with the GST, this would also be the time to eliminate the regressive excise taxes on commercial diesel fuel and harmonize those as well with the goods and services tax.
Things such as lowering corporate income tax rates and those sorts of things are very helpful, obviously, and certainly in terms of Canada's competitiveness worldwide are helpful. However, in a low-margin industry such as trucking, they are not particularly helpful; we're not generating huge profits.
But to have these sorts of taxes continue to be levied upon our business—and upon the second-largest component of our operating cost—without any concern for profitability is regressive, and we think it's time to make the change.
I thank you for the time. We've submitted our materials previously. I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.
3:55 p.m.
The Chair Rob Merrifield
Thank you very much. That was very interesting, indeed.
We'll move on to the David Suzuki Foundation. We have Pierre Sadik, senior policy advisor, a sustainability specialist.
The floor is yours for five minutes.
3:55 p.m.
Pierre Sadik Senior Policy Advisor, Sustainability Specialist, David Suzuki Foundation
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the members of the committee for inviting me here today.
The belief that there is a trade-off between the environment and the economy still exists in some quarters, but this belief is in steady decline. Instead, there is a growing realization that our economic prosperity is closely linked to the protection of the environment as well.
We live in a market economy, and whether we like it or not, more and more the economy also determines the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink.
For example, right now many goods that take a very heavy toll on the planet's climate are produced without any charge for the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the final product. Ultimately, the cost of these emissions is borne not so much by the polluters, but by all Canadians in the form of climate change impacts, including drought, severe weather events, pine beetle infestation, and West Nile virus.
Presently, the economy is often biased in a way that actually makes the environmentally responsible choice more expensive than the unsustainable choice. That's because the true environmental costs of most products are not reflected in the price we pay. This means that every day most of the millions of purchases that Canadians make end up actually harming the environment to a greater or a lesser extent.
No one sets out to harm the environment; no one wakes up in the morning and figures they're going to harm the environment. But people do so because of the limited choices they currently have.
These millions of environmentally harmful choices are driven right now by the market economy. The market is a powerful force.
So why, as an alternative, don't we harness the power of the market instead of trying to change it? It's easier to use the flow of the river than to redirect the river. That way, every time consumers make a choice, they will be making a positive environmental choice as well. We'll have millions of Canadians who feel like environmental champions every day.
One obvious way for us to use the market is to put a price on carbon to help rein in climate change. You and I have to pay $90 a tonne to dump waste at the municipal landfill, but anyone can dump thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere without charge, because we have not put a price on carbon.
We hear that a carbon price will take a heavy toll on the Canadian economy. The David Suzuki Foundation recently conducted a study that shows that Canada's greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by 20% below today's levels by 2020 with a carbon price of $75 a tonne. The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy conducted a similar study for the government late this summer. Both studies found that the macroeconomic cost—in other words, the GDP impact—of the $75-a-tonne carbon price is that the GDP would be lower by only 1.1% by 2020 than it would be in the absence of a climate change policy.
I think this raises an important question. Is Canada going to forego making a real reduction in greenhouse gas emissions because of a difference of 1.1% in GDP by 2020?
Thank you. Those are my submissions.
4 p.m.
The Chair Rob Merrifield
Thank you very much.
We'll now move on to our last panellist. We have, from SR & ED Tax Credit Coalition, Nathalie Bourque, vice-president of global communications. The floor is yours.
4 p.m.
Nathalie Bourque Vice-President, Global Communications, CAE Inc., SR & ED Tax Credit Coalition
Good afternoon.
My name is Nathalie Bourque.
I am accompanied today by representatives of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters and the Information Technology Association of Canada.
I represent a coalition comprised of companies from across Canada, covering virtually every sector of the economy.
Those sectors include forest products, information technology, biopharmaceutical companies and the aerospace and defence sector.
The private sector represents half of all R and D dollars spent each year, and our member companies are at the vanguard of some of Canada's proudest business achievements. We're also nation builders through the technologies and the innovations we create that will allow Canada to grow and prosper. We're pleased that the federal government is committed to modernizing Canada's R and D strategy, as demonstrated through the Competition Policy Review Panel, Advantage Canada, and the S and T strategy.
Over the last few months, many industries have suffered tremendously. We believe corporate R and D is in need of assistance through Canada's tax system. In order to enable innovation, we're asking the federal government to enhance the SR and ED tax credit by making the tax credit refundable.
The benefits of making the SR and ED tax credit refundable don't end at helping Canadian businesses grow faster in the global economy. Indeed, it is not being the slightest bit alarmist to suggest that many of Canada's corporate innovators who provide high wages and quality employment to hundreds of thousands of skilled Canadians are facing an alignment of forces that is unprecedented in our history, jeopardizing our country's ability to compete.
Consider the marketplace dynamics in which Canada's R and D companies are attempting to compete: low-cost and high-quality foreign labour, high energy prices, complex non-tariff barriers, and the rapid rise of the Canadian dollar. Now add to this mix the fact that some of Canada's global competitors offer lucrative enticements to lure Canadian R and D offshore.
The SR and ED investment tax credit has been the federal government's primary mechanism to stimulate corporate R and D in Canada, but it is underperforming because many companies lack sufficient taxable income to take advantage of the SR and ED tax credits. Companies are accumulating pools of earned but unclaimed tax credits. Consequently, this increases the cost of innovation, creates business uncertainty, and undermines competitiveness. Full refundability for SR and ED tax credits earned in calendar 2007 and onward would eliminate uncertainty and stop the discounting practice of existing R and D performers, stimulating investment in R and D.
Furthermore, since many of the tax credits banked in previous years are on the verge of expiring, we're also asking the federal government to allow companies with banked SR and ED credits to use banked credits first to offset taxes applied in 2007. This practice of using banked credits first should be allowed to continue into the years following 2007, thereby allowing companies to empty pools of earned credits gradually and with minimal impact to the federal treasury.
As innovators, we prefer to speak in terms of opportunities and possibilities. We turn today's dreams into tomorrow's achievements. But before I talk of opportunity, I would like to share with you some facts.
Fiscal 2006 was not a good year for corporate R and D in Canada. Last year, companies invested $11.4 billion in R and D, a decline of 3.8% over the year before. Of the top nine corporate R and D investors in Canada for 2006, six companies reported decreases in their R and D spending. Research intensity, or R and D spending as a percentage of revenue, dropped 6.9%. These numbers should be seen as a warning sign, warranting the federal government's attention.
But let's conclude on a note of optimism.
To highlight the economic opportunities created by the SR and ED tax credit, a group of leading Canadian businesses commissioned an independent study in 2006 that showed that for every $1 billion in additional SR and ED tax credits, we create 10,000 new jobs, $200 million in additional tax revenues are generated, and $675 million in new economic activity and other spinoff advantages are generated.
A recent Department of Finance paper also demonstrated the net economic gains derived from the tax credits extended beyond the performers, trickling to other firms and sectors of the national economy. Spillovers were calculated to be 46¢ per dollar of tax expenditure. The cost of the credit was estimated to be 36¢ per dollar, a gross economic gain of $1.11 for every tax dollar spent.
As Canadian business leaders, we want Canada to become the destination of choice for long-term investment and growth.
So, we have a vision: Canada can become a global centre for research and development. We hope that our government will see fit to give us the tools we need, so that we can all say that the brain drain is no longer a factor in this great country.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
4:05 p.m.
The Chair Rob Merrifield
Thank you very much.
Now we'll move to questioning.
We would like to start with Mr. McCallum. The floor is yours for seven minutes.


text:
by Necoflex
Dancehall, Hiphop and Reggae artiste Mavado finally clear the air on his friendship with Bounty Killer.
Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Comments.
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Powerhouse Reggae singer Ras Slick has jump started 2017 with a riveting new song that's destined to be a Roots Reggae mainstay for years to come. Released
Jan 15, 17 11:56 PM
Dancehall artiste Alkaline continue to throw lyrical shots at Popcaan in his latest single 'Death To Microwave'. Death To Microwave is the follow-up to
Jan 15, 17 11:28 PM
Former member of the Vybz Kartel led Portmore Empire Jah Vinci, is now taking Bookings for the U.S.A. The photo listed above was posted on his official
Jan 15, 17 10:01 PM
World Blast Premier Sophia Brown - Only Jamaica Prod. by Music Mecka Records/Buck Town Records Artiste Name : Sophia Brown Song Title : Only Jamaica Producer
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Magic Records newly signed female dancehall sensation Shegah has lamented that the Ghanaian female dancehall fraternity is very weak. Talking to Dr Cann
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Here are this week's new releases: Blaqk Sheep Music Presents: 90 Degrees of Dancehall, Vol. 3 featuring a star studded lineup of dancehall stars.
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The rising duo Room Temperature releases their first single for the new year titled "Fever".
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It is every music fan's favorite time of year. January is when all of the major festivals lineups are announced. Coachella will have Beyonce and Kendrick
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Dancehall and Reggae music artiste has just released the music video for 'Crazy' featuring Elesia Limura off his Theory Of Reggaetivity Album. 'Crazy'
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Dancehall and Reggae Music artiste Busy Signal back in the USA as a free man after 15 years. Busy posted the following video on his official facebook
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Every year tens of thousands of dogs are illegally -- and inhumanely -- transported from Thailand to Vietnam and other neighboring countries where they are killed for their meat.
Many dogs die from suffocation long before they reach their destination. Those still alive when they arrive suffer a terrible end; many are tortured before being killed.
HSI works with local and international animal protection groups and governments to end this appalling practice. But we need your help!
Ask Thailand's Prime Minister to stop the illegal dog meat trade for good by stopping traders in the act of collecting dogs and transporting them over international borders.
Please help stop this cruel trade and save these dogs. Sign our petition to the Prime Minister asking the Thai goverment to do even more to protect them. We'll deliver your signature to the Prime Minister's office as well as Thai embassies in different countries. Click "Submit" when finished.
Add your information and we'll deliver the petition below to Thailand's Prime Minister.
Your information:
Please put an end to the illegal dog meat trade
Dear General Prayuth Chan-ocha,
I am disappointed to
see that despite numerous arrests and publicity, the illegal trade in dogs for
meat and skin continues, both within Thailand and from Thailand to
Because most of these
dogs are not vaccinated for rabies and can spread the disease this severely
compromises Thailand's commitment as a member of ASEAN to eradicate rabies by
the year 2020.
In addition the people
of Thailand should be aware of the dangers of eating dog meat which has been
demonstrated in Vietnam and China to be a cause of outbreaks of diseases such
as cholera and trichinellosis.
Smugglers collect and
steal dogs across the country and transport them to central holding facilities
in Northern Thailand. An increasing number of the dogs are stolen pets.
Transporting unvaccinated dogs across provinces within the country, as well as
to other countries, is illegal.
The people behind the
trade openly boast that the industry is worth 1 billion Thai baht (30 million
US dollars) per year but they pay no tax on the profits, and the industry
thrives on corruption.
As the international
community becomes more aware of the trade in dogs for meat and skin, Thailand's
reputation as a nation of caring people is being severely tarnished by the
actions of a few greedy criminals.
The Department of
Livestock Development, which is sheltering and providing for the dogs rescued
from the trade, currently has no budget for this which has resulted in over 70%
of all rescued dogs dying from disease, injuries and starvation.
We respectfully ask
that the Government of Thailand:
- Stop the trade and arrest those people behind it who are
well known to the authorities.
- Stop the open sale of dog meat and dog products at shops
and restaurants in Thailand, none of which operate legally.
- Provide funding to the Department of Livestock Development
to care for the dogs rescued from the trade.
- Ban the export of dog skin and the manufacture and export
of dog skin products.
© 2015 Humane Society International |
All Rights Reserved.
2100 L St. NW | Washington, DC 20037 | USA email@example.com | 301-258-3010
| hsi.org


text:
Extended maintenance of Ruby 1.9.3 ended on February 23, 2015. Read more
Raised when a feature is not implemented on the current platform. For
example, methods depending on the
fsync or
system calls may raise this exception if the underlying operating system or
Ruby runtime does not support them.
Note that if
fork raises a
respond_to?(:fork) returns
Commenting is here to help enhance the documentation. For example, code samples, or clarification of the documentation.
If you have questions about Ruby or the documentation, please post to one of the Ruby mailing lists. You will get better, faster, help that way.
If you wish to post a correction of the docs, please do so, but also file bug report so that it can be corrected for the next release. Thank you.
If you want to help improve the Ruby documentation, please visit Documenting-ruby.org.


text:
Hey, my name is Tristan,I'm 13 years old and I would like to join a paintball team. I have been playing a little bit, and my first gun(I still have this gun)is the Empire Invert Mini. I am looking to play with a team that can teach me and make me better. I play at Boston Indoor in Chelsea, and sometimes Maynard. I would like to join a team that is friendly and young, and enters tournaments. If there is a team that is around my general age, I would love to join and compete with you. I would like to progress in paintball, and I would like to play tournaments too!
Anyone Recruiting Near Boston Paintball?
Started by TMac12, Nov 25 2012 06:34 PM
1 reply to this topic
Posted 25 November 2012 - 06:34 PM
Posted 02 December 2012 - 11:41 PM
Do you have transportation to practices tournies and enough money to afford it.
"I'm the Anti-Christ. You got me in a vendetta kind of mood. You tell the angels in heaven you never seen evil so singularly personified as you did in the face of the man who killed you."
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Insights from IBM's C-Suite Global Studies of CMOs and CFOs
June 21, 2012
Ron Kline, director of marketing, midmarket and business partners organization, and Kevin Scully, director, brand systems, IBM Corporation, shared the results of IBM's recent CMO and CFO studies.
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text:
It's hard to miss and ignore a note entitled FUCK YOU BHP! FUCK YOU! in capital letters.
this morning approx 3.20am, at Cheras Tmn Pertama roundabout,
saw a freak accident, involving a Vios, Myvi and a Lorry.
im one the first badge who arrive, mean it just happen maybe seconds ago.
Vios believe to be turtle and badly damaged. When im passing by the vios, rear passenger started to pull out the front driver and front passenger.
then when i pass the Myvi, the car was totally sardine. Heard one girl was yelling cos piined inside. I stop my car then run towards the myvi to offer a hand while calling 999 emergency line to request for ambulance and bomba.
then saw fire spark at the engine bay of myvi. while still on the phone with emergency line to provide more details, i run back to my car and drive to BHP station which is just less than 500m away from the scene.
then i request for the fire extingusher from the attendant which is kept inside. There was 4 extingusher on the ground. But the attendant refuse to pass to me.
the BHP attendant claimed dat the door cant be open.
then i shout at him, i need it! i want it! someone is pinned inside the car and its started to burn!
then the BHP attendant keep repeating he kenot borrow and open the door.
then i was like WTF! if ur kiosk is burning can u come out? then he replied yes.
then he still say he kenot open the door. Then he say his boss wont allowed to borrow. WTF!!!
then i started to amuk kicking the kiosk and punching the glass of the kiosk.
i even throw my IC to him say that if im dun return u report police.
i saw i borrow.. if i use it i will pay for it. then he keep on just smile at me.
then he ask another partner to come out. Then i start shouting and yelling at them with bad words saying dat if the girl dies you two are the murderer.
then the 2nd BHP attendant shout back at me.
i demand for their names, i told them i would complain bout them,
then the 2nd attendant copy down my number plate and said that all my acts been recorded on CCTV and he gonna report to police tumoro. I challenged him.
then i drove off back to the scene.. the car was totally burning and the poor girl was burn alive inside.
then i spoke to the Bomba and PDRM how many casualties was inside. they told me one girl.
Then i spoke to PDRM about the incident happen in BHP.. then the policemen also scold with anger WTF with them.. if i could get the fire extingushier.. the girl might be saved.
then the Policemen ask me to go police station to report a cover about the BHP, and he assured me that the stupid BHP wont get to report on me.
Personally i would like to ask, how much does 4 fire extingusher cost? isit more expensive than a life?
would like to ask the BHP petrol station's boss! u cant afford to lose 4 fire extingusher then u better closed down your station!!!! Fuck you boss!!!!
and this is to BHP MALAYSIA!! seens your procedure to keep all safety gadget inside the kiosk… if anything happen during refueling… is your attendant gonna open the door to help? seens he claimed that the door cant be open after hours??
i personally from now on will boycott BHP… i dont know how about you all!!!
gonna give BHP HQ a call tumoro… see what the fuck will they say about this kind of safety measurement they have!!!!!
for the two BHP attendant!!! you are the murderer!!!!!"
I felt really sad for the girl but knew this news would spread like fire because the article reached out to people emotionally.
But little did I know, the news would end up in every major newspaper today. Including the star and online portal Malaysiakini.
Article in the star: "Student dies after kiosk workers refuse to help".
And Malaysiakini: Woman dies in fire as BHP staff refuse to loan fire extinguisher".
The accident happened in Cheras in the middle of the night. I can only imagine what would the family of the 27 year old girl who died in the accident would feel.
photo from Malaysiakini
Apparently the girl was burnt alive and the guy who wrote the note heard her last wail to death.
Must be one of the haunting thing one could ever hear.
I hope her family would sue the s**t out of the big petroleum BHP company for neglecting to conduct proper ethical worker behaviour on situation like this.
Let's see how BHP is going to handle this. It's going to one difficult damage control to deal with.


text:
Physician Assistant
The Physician Assistant Program at RIT is a highly competitive program. The number of openings for all students is limited by accreditation standards. The PA Program requires a personal interview prior to admission to the program. Interviews are by invitation only and not all applicants are interviewed. Not all applicants who are invited to interview are accepted into the program. The interview performance is viewed as one of the most important aspects of your application to the PA Program. Careful attention is given to ranking and interviewing freshman and transfer applicants in comparison to their peers. In addition, the PA Program strongly encourages applicants to have participated in some degree of patient care experience and/or shadowing of physician assistants.
There are approximately 30-40 students enrolled in each class year of the program. Therefore, the number of openings for all students is limited and competitive. All prospective applicants must have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale) to qualify for admission and must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 once enrolled in the program.
Information on applying on-line can be found at the RIT Office of Admissions website.
The application fee for this Undergraduate Program is $ 60.00.
Deadlines for completed applications are as follows:
|Transfer applicants
|December 1st for the following fall class.
|Freshmen applicants (Early Decision)
|November 15th for the following fall class.
|Freshmen applicants (Regular Decision)
|January 15th for the following fall class.
All admissions materials and applications should be forwarded to:
Rochester Institute of Technology
Office of Admissions Bausch & Lomb Center
60 Lomb Memorial Drive
Rochester, New York 14623-5604


text:
|Medical Services
|Patient/Visitor Info
|Programs & Support
|Points of Pride
There's no place like home - especially for individuals recovering from illness or surgery or for those coping with chronic diseases and conditions. Neighborhood Health Agencies, Inc., a part of The Chester County Hospital and Health System, understands this and is ideally equipped to meet a wide range of patient needs. As a Medicare-Certified home care provider, NHA's registered nurses, under the direction of the attending physician, assess, monitor, intervene with, and educate patients regarding the control of their health issues at home.
Disease and medication management using tele-health monitoring, expert wound care by Wound Certified nurses, diabetes maintenance with a Certified Diabetic Educator, and dedicated heart care with the Phase I Cardiac Program are just a sampling of the services offered by the Adult Home Care Department. Nurses, social workers, nutritionists, and home health aides, often in collaboration with rehabilitation therapists, work with patients, families, and caregivers to facilitate the understanding and care of both temporary and long-term conditions.
|North Hills Medical Office BuildingĀĀĀView Map
795 East Marshall Street
Suite 204
West Chester, PA 19380
Phone: 610.696.6511
Toll-free: 800.848.1155
Fax: 610.344.7064
Last Updated: 4/21/2010


text:
I'm very excited to be en route to Nairobi for the East Africa Workshop on Cyberspace Security from Monday to Wednesday next week. Terrific government, academic, and private sector experts from the United States and East Africa will be leading workshop discussions over three days. Our co-host, the Government of Kenya, has been a great partner in the lead-up to this conference, and I especially want to thank Minister Poghisio and Permanent Secretary Ndemo for their leadership.
Cyberspace security is a foreign policy priority for the United States. As Secretary Clinton mentioned at the recent release of President Obama's International Strategy for Cyberspace, the Internet is a global network, and we believe that each country must have the means to protect its digital infrastructure. In addition, the United States seeks to build close partnerships with countries who share the goal of open, interoperable, secure, and reliable networks.
The tremendous increase in connectivity in East Africa today can enable innovation and economic development for years to come. This increased connectivity also brings significant challenges and it is essential that countries work together on this global concern. I'm pleased that mobile cellular security and mobile money transactions are key pieces of our event's agenda. African citizens and companies have been at the forefront of some amazing wireless applications, and it is terrific that these topics are part of the conversation.
I'm also excited that rule of law and freedom of expression are on the agenda. Internet freedom keenly interests the State Department and, in particular, Secretary Clinton. The United States believes that Internet freedom is a critical part of the foundation for the open, interoperable, secure, and reliable cyberspace that will be the most beneficial for all economies and individuals. No country wants to miss out on the amazing opportunity afforded by the internet and cyberspace. Innovation in cyberspace is happening at a breakneck pace. In order to effectively secure those cyber networks, while still enabling future innovation and economic growth, we need to continue to encourage these kinds of regional conversations. The next few days are going to be interesting.
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text:
"Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianis
I have never been in a Wal-Mart but it seems to me that they follow some kind of Soviet model, dispensing staples in bulk for use by common folk.
I don't think that you can say people necessarily consume more because of these stores. In fact, there may be less packaging used when you buy in bulk.
quote:Originally posted by Michael Hardner:
I have never been in a Wal-Mart but it seems to me that they follow some kind of Soviet model, dispensing staples in bulk for use by common folk.
The Soviet economy operated on the basis of central planning. As a result of WWI, a civil war, and WWII, there was a shortage of manpower in Russia, something like 8:1 ratio of women to men. Their economies were governed by constraints of manpower and availability of raw materials. Our capitalist economies are said to be ruled by consumer-driven supply and demand to a larger degree. I don't think it's true of all economic sectors though and there is much waste in our system which is just never mentioned by history revisionists and propagandists alike.
Our telecommunications sector in North America essentially has followed the Soviet model. Electronic components used in everything from multimillion dollar telephone switches and routing equipment are often bartered back and forth between companies. The piece of equipment one company produces in all likelihood will be made of hardware and software produced by maybe a handful of preferred equipment manufacturers and silicon chip producers who essentially have enjoyed longterm business relations with one another. It's said that there is very little competition for specialized components because of this arrangement. Accounting in this sector is said to be a nightmare. Canada's own military industrial complex makes high tech components for U.S. weapons makers and the Pentagon, and none of it is figured into our export GDP apprarently.
U.S. military spending amounts to something well over half of annual U.S. budgetary expenditures, and you might be surprised to know just how much of North America's high technology economy originates from publicly-funded research and development. U.S. Defence Department would not pass a federal audit at this time. And it's strange because military spending in the U.S. has been partly responsible to a large degree for contributing to technological achievements and productivity gains in the private sector.
quote:The Soviet economy operated on the basis of central planning. As a result of WWI, a civil war, and WWII, there was a shortage of manpower in Russia, something like 8:1 ratio of women to men.
OMG! Here you list the reasons there were relatively few men in the USSR under Stalin, and yet fail to mention the Gulag!
Well, surely that's an oversight, and not just airbrushing Stalin again.
For the record, though, here's what U. of T. Professor Michael Marrus, an expert on the Jewish Holocaust, wrote recently about the Gulag:
quote: Death rates reached a high during WW II. More than 350,000 perished in 1942, one in four prisoners, and nearly 268,000, or one in five, in 1943. "In all, well over two million people died in the camps and colonies of the Gulag during the war years, not taking into account those who died in exile and other forms of imprisonment." The total number of prisoner deaths, if I understand Applebaum correctly, is impossible to compute: Official statistics cite 2.75 million, but the true figure is certainly greater. Depending on how and who one counts, and including the executed and non-Soviets, the dead may number 10 million, 12 million or even 20 million. No one knows for sure.
Since you cite figures from World War One (in which perhaps 3 million Russian died)
see stats here, surely the Gulag numbers ought to be figured in!
quote:U.S. military spending amounts to something well over half of annual U.S. budgetary expenditures, and you might be surprised to know just how much of North America's high technology economy originates from publicly-funded research and development. U.S. Defence Department would not pass a federal audit at this time. And it's strange because military spending in the U.S. has been partly responsible to a large degree for contributing to technological achievements and productivity gains in the private sector.
The US has done such a terrible job of managing their country over the past 25 years or so. They spend so much money on the wrong things and their political process focuses on trivial and unimportant issues.
They spend more on healthcare than Canada does, I think, and don't even offer universal coverage. They're spending billions on a war that was intended to keep oil prices low, and we all know how that went.
I would call that mismanaged democracy.
quote: The total number of prisoner deaths, if I understand Applebaum correctly, is impossible to compute: Official statistics cite 2.75 million, but the true figure is certainly greater.
According to this account, the total number of deaths could possibly be as high as 300 million, since of course they are "impossible to compute."
But of course these statistics are obviously reidiculous, since of course, all told, including the deaths from the second world war, the great purge, the civil war and WW1 combined would then mean that the total population would have decreased from 1900 to 1945, which it did not. Go find yourself a statistician, instead of an ideologist.
Yet of course, you seem perfectly content to support the wildly innaccurate statistics for Kosavar's killed by Serb in the 1990's, even though forensic scientists have been digging up Kosovo for a decade now, and have not found a single "mass grave."
[ 23 May 2008: Message edited by: Cueball ]
quote:Originally posted by Michael Hardner:
I would call that mismanaged democracy.
Their's is the most militarized empire in world history. People like Kissinger and Brzezinski have stated that they used mostly passive aggresion to have their way around the world, but the truth is something else as former CIA officials have admitted to employing various dirty tricks and perpetrating terrorism on nations in several continents in recent history.
But the U.S., too, is said to have made extensive use of Soviet-style soft budget constraints in what has been a mixed market economy in America since the 1930's. This mode of stimulating the economy, along with strong public investments in the social service sectors, were what drove U.S. prosperity and economic expansion throughout the cold war and even today despite decades of cutbacks since Reagan. The trouble for American economy began with deregulation of the financial system. FDR's firewall regulations on banking, credit and insurance industries were removed, and now there is a great divide between productive labour economy and that of an expanding money and what British economist JM Keynes first described as "casino economy" since about 1986 or so. Throughout the cold war expansion years, bank interest rates were lower than the rate of North American economic expansion. Today the reverse is true with Canada's money supply approximately 95% privatized since 1991, a watershed year for forcing highly propagandized political and economic ideology on the masses. Trillions of speculative dollars float around the world by stocks and derivatives trades. Meanwhile there are nearly seven billion people in the world, and most of them live in grinding poverty. We need long term investments in green infrastructure and in people not short-term speculation for the sake of "dynamism" in capitalist markets, or however they tend to explain it to us.
quote:Originally posted by jeff house:
Since you cite figures from World War One (in which perhaps 3 million Russian died)
see stats here, surely the Gulag numbers ought to be figured in!
What to do, Jeff? What if you knew the same fascist country that attacked Russia, and twice inside of a ten-year span, was using slave labour to accelerate the building of a corporate-sponsored war machine? The Nazis and their friends in the corporate world worked millions of human beings to death, Jeff. At least they tried to feed and pay the Russians. Many Jews said being shipped to Stalin's gulags saved their lives as a result.
quote:On 1998-MAR-4, Elsa Iwanowa filed a federal class action suit against the Ford Motor Company and Ford Werke A.G. She was allegedly employed as a slave laborer in a Ford manufacturing plant in Cologne, Germany, during World War II. She seeks "reasonable payment for the work performed and the disgorgement of unfair profits." 4 Records show that slave labor accounted for as many as half the workers at the Cologne plant. Slave workers at the Ford plant allegedly lived in "wooden huts, without running water, heat or storage. Locked in the huts at night, the workers, mostly adolescent children, slept in three-tiered wooden bunks without bedding. Food consisted of two paltry meals a day. Workers who became ill were sent to Buchenwald concentration camp. Failure to meet production quotas led to beatings from Ford security officers or other plant workers." 5
Ford Motor Company (USA) owned from 55 to 90% of the shares of its subsidiary Ford Werke A.G. during 1933 to 1945. "Edsel Ford and Robert Sorenson, high-ranking officials of Ford Motor Company, served as directors of Ford Werke A.G. throughout the Nazi Third Reich." 4 The lawsuit alleges that the company made immense profits providing the German army with tracked vehicles and other trucks. This was because it worked at peak capacity for many years, and did not have to pay wages to many of its workers. Unlike most American facilities in Germany, Ford was not taken over by the German government during the war. Ford and Hitler seems to have had a friendly relationship. "On Henry Ford's 75th birthday in 1938, Hitler awarded Ford the 'Great Cross of the German Order of the Eagle' for Henry Ford's publication of the notorious anti-Semitic pamphlet, 'The International Jew, a Worldwide Problem' [Berlin, 1921]."
sieg HEIL! sieg HEIL!!! sieg HEIL!!! [img]frown.gif" border="0[/img]
quote:Intended to keep prices low? Who informed you of that, or is it an independent assessment?
I'm basing that on a comment made by George W Bush Sr. after Gulf War I. He stated that if that war hadn't happened "we'd be paying xxx for oil now"...
This rationale seems to me to make more sense than either the WMD, "war for Democracy in the Middle East" that were officially offered, or than the various conspiracy theories that are offered on the other side.
[ 26 May 2008: Message edited by: Michael Hardner ]
quote:Originally posted by Michael Hardner:
I'm basing that on a comment made by George W Bush Sr. after Gulf War I. He stated that if that war hadn't happened "we'd be paying xxx for oil now"...
This rationale seems to me to make more sense than either the WMD, "war for Democracy in the Middle East" that were officially offered, or than the various conspiracy theories that are offered on the other side.
[ 26 May 2008: Message edited by: Michael Hardner ]
There is a difference between the desire of the US and its oil corporations to control Middle East oil, and a desire to make gas less expensive for the consumer.
The two aren't in anyway the same thing and it would take more gullibility than the average "conspiracy theorist" to think so.
You would do better to look at oil company profits this last year than the consumer crying at the pump.
quote:There is a difference between the desire of the US and its oil corporations to control Middle East oil, and a desire to make gas less expensive for the consumer.
The two aren't in anyway the same thing and it would take more gullibility than the average "conspiracy theorist" to think so.
You would do better to look at oil company profits this last year than the consumer crying at the pump.
"Control oil" to what end ? The US economy is much more than just the oil industry, and everything does better when oil prices are under control.
Reagan's presidency was marked by lower oil prices, for example.
I might be gullible, but please engage me, and explain why they would want oil prices to be high right now.
quote:Originally posted by Michael Hardner:
"Control oil" to what end ? The US economy is much more than just the oil industry, and everything does better when oil prices are under control.
Reagan's presidency was marked by lower oil prices, for example.
I might be gullible, but please engage me, and explain why they would want oil prices to be high right now.
My original comment was not that everyone wanted oil prices higher, just that "keeping oil prices low" was not a cause for the war.
I'm not sure who you mean by "they" in your last sentence but if you are referring to the oil industry as I did, then they have only tangential concern for the US economy in general--and certainly not above their corporate bottom lines (which are doing extremely well, thank you). Oil stocks regularly move inversely to US markets, and the oil industry has its own rapidly growing global markets (though that will not protect them too much in a major crash).
If you are including in "they" the US government, then the picture is more complicated. For one thing, as well as the usual battalion of oil lobbyists, this particular government is unusually weighted with oil-connected individuals, so there is already some conflict of interest between oil the wellbeing of general economy (as per the previous paragraph).
Another reason for the US occupation is one of long term hegemony: securing and expanding the empire (which necessitates control of energy reserves). This is laid out not by some "conspiracy theorists" but by the government itself in it's various iterations and final official adoption of it's Strategic Planning Guidance. An good review of this document is provided in the Harper's Oct. 2002 article:
"Dick Cheney's song of America:
Drafting a plan for global dominance
By David Armstrong
An essay exploring the real origins of the Iraq War, written before the war started."
quote:As ACLU Washington Legislative director Caroline Fredrickson said in her denunciation of the proposed "compromise,"
"This bill allows for mass and untargeted surveillance of Americans' communications. The court review is mere window-dressing -- all the court would look at is the procedures for the year-long dragnet and not at the who, what and why of the spying. Even this superficial court review has a gaping loophole -- 'exigent' circumstances can short cut even this perfunctory oversight since any delay in the onset of spying meets the test and by definition going to the court would cause at least a minimal pause. Worse yet, if the court denies an order for any reason, the government is allowed to continue surveillance throughout the appeals process, thereby rendering the role of the judiciary meaningless. In the end, there is no one to answer to; a court review without power is no court review at all."
"The Hoyer/Bush surveillance deal was clearly written with the telephone companies and internet providers at the table and for their benefit. They wanted immunity, and this bill gives it to them." ("ACLU Condemns FISA Deal, Declares Surveillance Bill Unconstitutional," American Civil Liberties Union, Press Release, June 19, 2008)
You sneeze while speaking over your cell phone with your girlfriend, and you hear "gesundheit" twice! "God Bless America, apple pie, whiiiiite picket fences. And hang those ..." - a Cambridge spy in America
Development of the need to encompass the aspirations of today's "working class" in goals for society's future could perhaps be rounded out in discussion of this scribbler's old hobbyhorse, the "command economy".
Or not. [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]
quote:Online activists from the right and the left announced an unprecedented campaign Tuesday to hold Democratic lawmakers accountable for caving in to the Bush administration on domestic spying.
A group of high-profile progressive bloggers and libertarian Republicans are rolling out a new political action committee called Accountability Now to channel widespread anger over pending legislation that would legalize much of the president's warrantless electronic surveillance of Americans, and grant retroactive legal immunity to telephone companies that cooperated with the spying when it was still illegal.
"Blue dog Democrats"?
Crazy George II Signs Expanded Wiretap Power into Law
quote:President Bush signed a bill into law Thursday that broadens the government's surveillance power. . . The package includes a controversial clause that grants immunity to telecommunications companies that participate in National Security Agency warrantless wiretapping approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks . . . The new provisions allow the U.S. Justice Department and National Security Agency (NSA) to recruit telephone companies to bug their customers' phone conversations, and prohibit lawsuits against the telecoms for privacy rights violations. The measure also protects the companies against suits for past wiretaps. That means lawsuits will likely be dropped against AT&T and Verizon that charged they had violated privacy rights by tapping their customers phone lines at the request of the NSA
Spying on the lives of others with impunity.
[ 11 July 2008: Message edited by: Fidel ]
quote:And since Sprint, AT&T or Verizon don't actually own their own cellular towers, TowerCo, the company that does, "learns some information on every mobile phone that communicates with one of its towers." But it gets worse, much worse. According to Soghoian, this is the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
There are companies that provide "backhaul" connections between towers and the carriers, providers of sophisticated billing services, outsourced customer-service centers, as well as Interexchange Carriers, which help to route calls from one phone company to another. All of these companies play a role in the wireless industry, have access to significant amounts of sensitive customer information, which of course, can be obtained (politely, or with a court order) by the government.
As we know, perverse laws such as the USA Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments Act, not to mention FBI National Security Letters come with ready-made gag orders attached that forbid companies--or anyone else so served--from disclosing any information to the public or those whom the state is spying upon. Gidari told CNET,
Exclusive: Widespread cell phone location snooping by NSA?
The lives of others for sure. The East German Stasi were only playing around compared to today's techno-fascistas.
Seems to me a separae look at Wright, but taking off from this thread, is warranted, coming down to the election. Gotta' try to make sense of it, place it in historical context, somehow. Deer Hunting helped.
Would hate to see this thread disappear with Canada Day, given the importance of contributions like that of N.Beltov , May 21, on morale (see Bad Money thread).
Development of the need to encompass the aspirations of today's "working class" in goals for society's future could perhaps be rounded out in discussion of this scribbler's old hobbyhorse, the "command economy".
Or not
I cannot find a way to add a couple of lines to the above post, so here goes another entry.
This author has been revived in a very interesting political posting on his speculations about the U.S.political future in the face of economic meltdown.
Do our thoughts from last spring (the earlier postings) still make sense?
The National Security Agency (NSA) is developing a tool that George Orwell's Thought Police might have found useful: an artificial intelligence system designed to gain insight into what people are thinking.
With the entire Internet and thousands of databases for a brain, the device will be able to respond almost instantaneously to complex questions posed by intelligence analysts. As more and more data is collected—through phone calls, credit card receipts, social networks like Facebook and MySpace, GPS tracks, cell phone geolocation, Internet searches, Amazon book purchases, even E-Z Pass toll records—it may one day be possible to know not just where people are and what they are doing, but what and how they think.
The system is so potentially intrusive that at least one researcher has quit, citing concerns over the dangers in placing such a powerful weapon in the hands of a top-secret agency with little accountability.Getting Aquaint
Known as Aquaint, which stands for "Advanced QUestion Answering for INTelligence," the project was run for many years by John Prange, an NSA scientist at the Advanced Research and Development Activity. Headquartered in Room 12A69 in the NSA's Research and Engineering Building at 1 National Business Park, ARDA was set up by the agency to serve as a sort of intelligence community DARPA, the place where former Reagan national security advisor John Poindexter's infamous Total Information Awareness project was born. [Editor's note: TIA was a short-lived project founded in 2002 to apply information technology to counter terrorist and other threats to national security.] Later named the Disruptive Technology Office, ARDA has now morphed into the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA).
Not satisfied with spying on the lives of others, now US shadow feds want to surveil the minds of others
Democracy Going Dark The FBI's Multi-Billion "High-Tech Surveillance" Program
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's budget request for Fiscal Year 2010 reveals that America's political police intend to greatly expand their high-tech surveillance capabilities.
According to ABC News, the FBI is seeking additional funds for the development of "a new 'Advanced Electronic Surveillance' program which is being funded at $233.9 million for 2010. The program has 133 employees, 15 of whom are agents."
Known as "Going Dark," the program is designed to beef up the Bureau's already formidable electronic surveillance, intelligence collection and evidence gathering capabilities "as well as those of the greater Intelligence Community," ABC reports. An FBI spokesperson told the network:
"The term 'Going Dark' does not refer to a specific capability, but is a program name for the part of the FBI, Operational Technology Division's (OTD) lawful interception program which is shared with other law enforcement agencies."
"The term applies to the research and development of new tools, technical support and training initiatives." (Jason Ryan, "DOJ Budget Details High-Tech Crime Fighting Tools," ABC News, May 9, 2009)
The former East German Stasi werent this spooky
NSA spooks continue to monitor millions of American emails and telephone calls
Several current and former agents within the National Security Agency (NSA), speaking on condition of anonymity, have told the New York Times that the spy agency likely monitors millions of e-mail communications and telephone calls made by Americans. The new revelations follow the disclosure in April that the NSA's monitoring of domestic e-mail traffic broke the law in 2008 and 2009.
Last year, Congress passed legislation providing the NSA greater latitude to spy on the communications of Americans, so long as it resulted inadvertently from the agency's efforts to spy on foreigners or those it "reasonably believed" to be outside US borders. This authorized the NSA to intercept tens of millions of e-mail and phone communications that pass through American telecommunication "gateways." The measure was attached to a congressional law granting immunity to telecommunications companies that turned over private phone records to federal authorities.
Among those voting for the bill was then-Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. In all, 293 members of the House and 69 senators voted to pass the bill.
FBI Data-Mining Programs Resurrect "Total Information Awareness" [excerpts]
From the wholesale use of informants and provocateurs to stifle political dissent, to Wi-Fi hacking and viral computer spyware to follow our every move, the FBI has turned massive data-mining of personal information into a growth industry. In the process they are building the surveillance state long been dreamed of by American securocrats.
A chilling new report by investigative journalist Ryan Singel provides startling details of how the FBI's National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC) is quietly morphing into the Total Information Awareness (TIA) system of convicted Iran-Contra felon, Admiral John M. Poindexter....
...personal details on customers have been provided to the Bureau by the Wyndham Worldwide hotel chain "which includes Ramada Inn, Days Inn, Super 8, Howard Johnson and Hawthorn Suites." Additional records were obtained from the Avis rental car company and Sears department stores.
Singel reports that the Bureau is planning a massive expansion of NSAC, one that would enlarge the scope, and mission, of the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force (FTTTF) and the file-crunching, privacy-killing Investigative Data Warehouse (IDW).
"Among the items on its wish list," Singel writes, "is the database of the Airlines Reporting Corporation - a company that runs a backend system for travel agencies and airlines." If federal snoops should obtain ARC's data-sets, the FBI would have unlimited access to "billions of American's itineraries, as well as the information they give to travel agencies, such as date of birth, credit card numbers, names of friends and family, e-mail addresses, meal preferences and health information."
The publication reports that the system "is both a meta-search engine - querying many data sources at once - and a tool that performs pattern and link analysis." Internal FBI documents reveal that despite growing criticism of the alleged "science" of data-mining, including a stinging 2008 report by the prestigious National Research Council, for all intents and purposes the Bureau will transform NSAC into a low-key version of Adm. Poindexter's Information Awareness Office....
As Antifascist Calling revealed earlier this year, one private security outfit, the now-defunct Highway Watch which worked closely with the FBI, used "social network theory" and "link analysis," and cited the group's legal political organizing, including "increased membership via the internet" and "public appearances at various locations across the US," as a significant factor that rendered the group a "legitimate" target for heightened surveillance and COINTELPRO-style disruption.
Singel also disclosed that NSAC shared data "with the Pentagon's controversial Counter-Intelligence Field Activity office, a secretive domestic-spying unit which collected data on peace groups, including the Quakers, until it was shut down in 2008."


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text: Charles Howard Turbiville entered eternal life on Aug. 11, 2013, in Pueblo, Colo. He was born June 2, 1939, to Eugene and Lorna Turbiville. Charles is survived by daughters, Marta Turbiville, Audra Jessen; and son-in-law, Scott Jessen. He was a proud grandfather to Brooke, Bre, Kendyl and Blake. He will be greatly missed. At his request, cremation has taken place. A memorial service will be held at a later date. Arrangements are under the care of Funeral & Cremation Care of Colorado.