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I was recently at a conference in Lahore, Pakistan sponsored by the International Growth Centre where the keynote address was given by Shahbaz Sharif, the Chief Minister of the province of Punjab, Pakistan (100+ million people). While fun to see old friends and colleagues, the conference was a little depressing in the way it reflected the state of the development economics profession.
The Chief Minister posed serious questions that have traditionally been the bread and butter of the economics profession. Unfortunately, we are not even trying to answer them any more. The specific question was "Should I put more money into transport? Infrastructure (power, roads, water)? Law and order? Social services? Or what? And where am I going to get the money?" What questions could be more solidly part of the core of economics than these? Unfortunately none of these were even remotely the focus of the "evidence-based" policy making discussed.
Almost all of the cases analyzed were single, simple policy "tweaks" that were, first of all, isolated from the broader market context in which they occurred and, second, had no conception of opportunity cost – what we would have to give up to pursue these things? We had an answer to "how to improve a public food distribution system" but even with a precise answer (to whether a tweak would work) we had no idea whether the substantial amount of money funding such a system is a good idea. Maybe the Chief Minister would be better off improving education or road networks or police or rural electricity. Some of these alternative policies could have more impact on food consumption than food distribution if we thought about how the world worked. Getting food to market securely (roads, better cold storage, trustworthy police and safe roads – this is Pakistan, which no one seemed to notice) may increase food availability much more than any tunnel-visioned food program Or not – maybe the food distribution system is better. We just don't know. And none of us "experts" are trying to find out.
On spending priorities, what we need is the old fashioned notion of opportunity cost. "Evidence" now is "did something work?" meaning did it have any effect at all? or "can we get it to work a little better?" But the real question in such a resource-constrained economy is "does it work well enough to take money away from the power plant it prevented or any other thing money could have been used for?" Or even, "is it better than leaving the money in private hands by not collecting the taxes to pay for it?" Besides not knowing the marginal welfare cost of taxation (anyone remember that?), we forget that poor people use their money for food, so the first-order effect of tax revenues is to make poor children hungrier. Is the benefit from secondary education or bicycles or the fertilizer subsidy so good as to impose this cost on these children? We don't know who ultimately pays taxes (when wages, for example, respond to indirect taxation) but it is likely that poor people, the majority of the population, pay at least some substantial share. And we don't know how badly distorted the tax system is – in its very structure, not just in its administration. The incidence and efficiency loss of the whole structure of taxation are the first order answers the Chief Minister needs. No one studies these anymore.
When someone says "we should have more "X" because we have evidence that it works", the response should be "compared to what?" What should we cut in order to promote your particular interest? My hobby horse these days is more sanitation in South Asia. I should have to defend it against (at least) a few alternatives.
It's not like we have no basis for making this comparison. We usually try to determine which things the private sector (i.e. almost everyone – farmers, bicycle manufacturers and repairmen, truckers, shopkeepers, halal sausage casing makers) can be safely relied upon to produce, where it goes somewhat wrong (exactly how bad are private schools or doctors?) and where it is a flaming disaster such that the government is utterly indispensable. While we've all drawn the gap between public and private costs (or benefits) to help us talk about optimal Pigouvian taxes, when was the last time anyone tried to measure this one, central concept for valuing interventions in developing countries? Or in developed countries, for that matter? We look at enrollment rates (or even learning rates) but never ask "how much is this secondary education worth, and how much of that isn't captured by the student?" Further, since there is no reason to think the number is the same in any two places, even if there were a couple of such studies, it wouldn't make up the bulk of what we call policy-relevant research. And it's not like it's easy to do so we can't just say "let the practitioner-types do the (routine) calculations". There is nothing routine to it at all.
In the conference, several research projects measured an effect (not an externality, not a welfare loss – just an effect) that could well be part of an almost completely private good with no serious market failures to speak of. Can it really be the case that date exporters genuinely didn't know that packaging for export was available (and wouldn't a phone call to either the exporters or the marketing wing of the packaging producers suffice)? Did football producers really need to know a better pattern for cutting pentagons out of leather when mechanized stitching (as the commentator on that paper noted) is swiftly changing the entire production process worldwide? Will the competition that is currently mechanizing allow firms to exist even with the 10% higher profits that a better pattern enables? And are policy makers (even with Ivy League economists as their advisors) really going to make better decisions than those producers or, much more importantly, the competitive forces in the economy?
My defense of my promoting sanitation is that I contrasted the value of health via providing public goods (sewer systems in cities) to spending on publicly provided health care (a rival and excludable service – I'm avoiding the "p" word, this being the sub-continent). I don't know if I've cleanly identified the effect that I purport to have measured – whether open defecation without sewage in slums damages the health of its residents - but it makes sense, is tied to most peoples' notions of the nature of public and private goods, and gives some evidence of an externality. One reason to avoid specifying which service should be sacrificed is to avoid fights. Even fairly convincing evidence that publicly provided healthcare is of questionable value can provoke uncomfortable arguments. But not even mentioning the opportunity cost of a proposed policy is irresponsible.
On collecting more taxes: this is, of course, a core government activity. Any way we can efficiently get more money into government coffers to support critical public services is to be applauded. But what we were treated to was a two-year experiment on something that looks like tax-farming (and indeed, was titled as such). Higher powered incentives to collect taxes? When you're being watched? Tax inspectors didn't know an experiment was underway? Even if it was double blind (which it was not), can a two-year project using currently recruited tax inspectors (i.e., those that entered public service expecting to get a salary without having to work too much) anticipate what happens in equilibrium when everyone figures out how to make money from these high-powered incentives? That is, core government service or not, there is a labor market in which the people who this experiment purports to study operate. It is the nature of the long-run equilibrium of that market that is the proper level of analysis for policy purposes, not the behavior of the particular individuals who happen to have the job at present. As the commentator on that paper noted, the proposal looked like the medieval version of tax farming. But that scheme always deteriorated in time (longer than a two-year experiment would tell us) into an ugly system that brought down rulers.
The Chief Minister is a committed and capable man. With the recent elections behind him, he has the opportunity to actually accomplish things. He deserves much better support than we're giving him.
Very true. The tidal wave of
Very true. The tidal wave of RCTs (which I am not against) has pushed development economics more and more into answering relatively small and ultra-precise questions ("is it better to sell fertilizer to small farmers at price X, Y, or Z? The extent of hyperbolic discounting?") to the detriment of the less-precise but bigger-order questions.
Long-time friend and
Long-time friend and colleague, Jeff Hammer, seeks to get us back on track in development economics. Way to go. Some time back, Robert Frank of Cornell reported on now technical economics distracts students from key issues. In his NYTimes columns he emphasized the same point as Jeff: Look at opportunity cost associated with any investment choice. Calculate, or at least estimate, the benefits and costs associated with, and derived from a given investment. Focus principal attention there and we can help those Chief Ministers make sound decisions. The year 1984 was my last to visit Pakistan, three decades ago. Let's hope the next three decades boosts Pakistan's and the Punjab's economies by more than the last three. Thanks, Jeff.
Great post, and I fully
Great post, and I fully endorse the sentiment. Governments that do think about evidence systematically often go for exactly the kinds of important questions the Chief Minister was asking, not the narrow and very precise ones that budget officials really don't care that much about. In fact, I very recently did a blog post on that very topic, arguing that RCTs are interesting, but quite marginal for real-life governments:
Jeff, thanks for the wide
Jeff, thanks for the wide-ranging thoughts. There is a lot to agree with here, including the points on the decline of research on topics such as taxes and thinking about the welfare implications of public versus private provision.
One thing I am less clear on is how to measure opportunity costs well (or maybe better). If we put a dollar into sanitation intervention X at the expense of education intervention Y, shouldn't we know what the effects (private returns + externalities) are of x and y are? And i think impact evaluation is a really good way to measure them, which suggests to me we don't have enough impact evaluations so that we can get a fuller sense of the tradeoffs we are making (instead of doing the one or two things we know have a positive return).
Thanks for the comments. On practical and technical grounds I don't see the set of alternatives to any real policy yielding to isolated experiments. I don't see an alternative to having theory (studied in whatever ways we can) filling in lots of gaps. For many policies (anything to do with changing prices, for example) studies of the RCT variety will not have a sufficient number of "arms" to study all relevant cross price effects (let alone the market failure in each of these related markets). Not enough power. And if we were to go for studies that would cover enough such alternatives, we'll still need some structure (like demand systems, production possibility frontiers) to guide us over the, necessary, gaps in data. These could be built up derivative by derivative, product by product, country by country by individual experiments but all such policies based on them will be irrelevant before we're half done.
The other big problem is that of the size of the relevant problem. Are we going to experiment with road systems (not the individual roads – unconnected roads are irrelevant: I know this because of… ummm… common derision of "roads to nowhere"? Or have people build in useless places just to avoid the endogenous placement problem), port location, power grids, sewer systems, mass transit? The big problems of development could be those of large public infrastructure. Our experiments are often with private goods since these are easily measured by household or factory surveys.
In order to make a problem tractable for experiments it is often conceived in ridiculously narrow terms. One experiment I like is the northern Ghana work of Karlan and Udry since it captured the conditions of farmers in broader terms than other studies of fertilizer use. When a fuller picture, involving the risk that farmers face in output markets, was included, the "irrationality" we imputed to them seemed to be attenuated by realizing they were solving a different problem than the researchers were. But that is an old insight – Lipton 1976? (72? 78?).
If experiments help us with containing air pollution (or global warming?) or measuring the labor market equilibrium of better trained workforce (and the externality of that training), that would be great. But I doubt they will.
Some things should be studied with experiments if that's the right method for the right problem. But the problem should come first, the appropriate method to be matched to it.
Interesting and thought
Interesting and thought-provoking post. As to what to make of all the little experiments showing a default change here, a reminder there, a nudge there, an incentive there etc. lead to little improvements.
I have two possible responses:
1) We have trouble finding any evidence that any big policy really works that well. So then perhaps development really is a slow process of making small tweak after small tweak to an existing system - and if you make enough changes which each gain you 2-5%, over time they add up.
2) we should think of all these little experiments like venture capital, with every now and then we discover something that delivers exceedingly high returns/big changes (e.g. defaulting to opt-out rather than opt-in on organ donations).
In terms of your point about tax collection, theory might tell us to scrap the entire tax system and start again from scratch (certainly that seems optimal in the US system), but politics makes this impossible - so then small tweaks to an existing system may be the best we can hope for, and then we want to know which ones seem to matter.
David - no argument really
David - no argument really with point 2)... of course you should have venture funds, especially if it's not the Gov't of Pakistan but international donors who fund it.
But 1) doesn't sound right to me. Yes there's no evidence on big policy, but we do know that some countries are way better at "government" than others. Big policy happens and senior officials as well as politicians have to make do with what they've got and take big decisions accordingly.
You can accumulate rock solid evidence on small decisions at the margin, but the big prize is to help governments make big decisions marginally better.
Hmmmm… no big policy changes
Hmmmm… no big policy changes that worked. Let me see… Oh yeah. Korea did something in 1962. It might have been liberalizing interest rates, promoting savings and having producers face international prices. It might have been industrial policy and deliberate export promotion. I rather think the former but this is a period worth studying having raised the income of the country from dirt poor to quite rich in two generations, massively raising the incomes of (now 50) millions of people.
China in 1978 took a wild guess that agricultural supply curves sloped up (where they got that idea, I'll never know). They were right. Rural incomes skyrocketed. This was followed by attempts to get the same results in industry. Was that an "experiment"? The first, not at all – it was theory (supply and demand) and common sense. The latter? In the sense that it was done in stages and they watched what happened, perhaps. No one recommends abandoning any empirical work. But no randomization, no careful application (by graduates students) of some cute gimmick. The result was hundreds of millions of people getting massively better off. Second order big policies included managing transport networks along the (one – so no chance of a control) coast and ensuring a reliable electricity grid. The contributions of those are eminently possible to study but certainly not by an RCT.
India in 1991 dropped tariff rates dramatically (politics or not – a long story) and allowed quite a few markets to operate much more freely. Just as policy analysts familiar with economic theory (even as long ago as that!) would have, and did, suggest. Income of hundreds of millions of people rose dramatically since. Twenty years later the fact that not all of the billion people fared so well is a real problem that is, also, eminently study-able or would be if the statistical office had kept more standard data (as in rich countries) so that things could be tracked, analyzed, theories developed and checked against data.
As with the rest of Southeast Asia. Lots of policies happened and either they worked or were irrelevant but, in any case, can be, and have been, studied with other kinds of data. These studies are never perfect but have yielded a large number of well-agreed upon conclusions along with some stubborn areas of disagreement that may be studied but will not yield to anything like RCT's.
So, I would contend that all the policies inspired by the little experiments that ever were and ever will be conducted will never help a small fraction of the many hundreds of millions of people that important policy changes have done, of which the above were just a few examples. Of course, they will not be studied by our best economists because of what is and is not acceptable in the profession.
Martin, a very interesting
Martin, a very interesting post more so because it looks at a fundamental if complicated situation in pakistan. We should meet soon so you can brief the ambassador and I on your views on the conference and any tangible and practical outcomes that may have come about at the end of it.
Take a look at MCC.gov that
Take a look at MCC.gov that uses evaluation to test assumptions about which approaches work. AND, cost-benefit analysis to inform selection of cost-effective investments. It doesn't have to be about this evidence or that evidence. . .
Less than half of Pakistanis
Less than half of Pakistanis have access to sanitation: World Bank report. Reinforces the need to work on this. Do we really need a "compared to what in this case"?
Hi Salman,
Hi Salman,
Of course we need a "compared to what". Fortunately, that one's an easy one with lots of private goods with few externalities and not-particularly-well-targeted subsidies being provided by government that sanitation, with a growing body of evidence and obvious public good characteristics (particularly in cities) is very likely to beat. Getting rid of open defecation in rural areas is harder, of course, and we should study that - maybe even with experiments if appropriate. Check out www.riceinstitute.org for some of that evidence.
Salman - You need to be
Salman - You need to be careful about statistics given in reports. I have worked on water and sanitation issues in Pakistan for over 30 years. The percentage of people with access to a toilet is much higher than 50%. - probably in excess of 90% in both rural and urban areas in northern Punjab for instance. The challenges around sanitation relate to wastewater disposal (very little) and operation and maintenance. Cities like Lahore are largely sewered (albeit informally in many peripheral areas). People without access to sewerage normally connect their toilets to the nearest drain, often but not always via a crude interceptor tank. There is virtually no wastewater treatment. The issue with both formal and informal sewage disposal systems is maintenance and that brings us to the main challenge in Pakistan, as far as municipal infrastructure is concerned. I agree strongly with Jeffrey's basic point, that economists and international aid agencies in general, are often concerned about peripheral issues and don't tackle some of the clearly important issues. I agree with other respondents that cost benefit analysis is not always easy but does not take rocket science to see that a water supply system or sewer that is not maintained or to which no-one is connected will not cover its costs. I would recommend that anyone who is interested in development in Pakistan should read the book 'So Much Aid: So Little Developmentby Samia Altaf. One point to come out of that book is the need to be realistic and honest about what our initiatives achieve - development planners need to get beyond the meetings with top government officials and explore reality on the ground, which is almost always very different - more difficult and more complicated - than we assume.
Thx for your post. This idea
Thx for your post. This idea is not new. Please have a look on the "Growth Diagnostics" (Hausmann, Velsaco, Rodrik) - quite qualitative but the basic work for development economists when discussing lifting constraints to development.
RCTs help for this overall diagnostic tool to discuss the specific instruments or partly engagements in specific sectors. Thus, there is need of both.
Julian: As I recall, the
Julian: As I recall, the Hausmann-Rodrik-Velasco growth diagnostics did not identify interventions in terms of the rationale for public intervention. That is, they identified binding constraints to growth, regardless of whether the government should be spending scarce public resources on relaxing it (because there's a market failure) or not. Yet, this is the point that Jeff was making in this post. I think we need to devote more research resources to identifying and measuring these market failures because that is the relevant answer to the chief minister's question of how much he should spend. Shanta
Agree completely with Jeff.
Agree completely with Jeff.
I am setting up India's first independent evaluation office and what we need are more impact evaluations in a cost benefit framework. I just chaired a wonderful talk at the Institute of Economic growth by Prof James Heckman who has spent his whole life in doing this kind of work on human development. For example in India we have spent over $ 40 billion on the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Gurantee Program but we don't know how useful it's been and whether we could have spent the money differently to achieve the same objectives. Right on Jeff
Ajay Chhibber
Your point on the need to
Your point on the need to study the general equilibrium effects of such interventions is well taken; however it seems a bit contradictory when the meat
of the blogpost is about not being able to address the Chief Ministers
Unfortunately the CM is also not concerned with the GE effects of such an
intervention, he wants the biggest and quickest bang for the buck or rather vote
for the buck. And it seems he has figured out that the answer to that lies in large
road and transport infrastructure projects.
Also im glad you mentioned the welfare impacts of taxation as thats what the
real policy issue on taxation should be. Again however its not something that the
CM is interested in. In the current political economy, all the talk in Pakistan is
about increasing tax collection and improving the tax to GDP ratio. To meet WB
and IMF benchmarks the government has focused on the more politically viable
deepening of the tax base instead on the more optimal widening of the tax base.
In such an environment talking of the welfare impact of taxation will fall on deaf
Also on your very reasonable expectation that the intervention should be
compared to other alternatives, we can look at two policies that the punjab
goverment tried to implement to improve tax collection. Firstly the rather
arbitrary luxury tax on large house , which thankfully has been taken to court and
currently under litigation) http://www.nation.com.pk/business/06-Sep-2013/lhc-
Secondly an attempt to increase property tax rates has failed to pass through
parliament because of the politics surrounding such policies. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/punjab/15-Feb-2014/old-property-tax-rates-restored-pa-adopts-punjab-finance-bill
Compared to these two policies, tax farming may be the most feasible and least
disruptive. Even though it represents low hanging fruit when it comes to ways to
increase tax revenue.
This article by Jeffery
This article by Jeffery Hammer is very welcome and important in that it raises a systemic issue (regarding tax incidence) behind whether projects in a particular sector are worth doing or not relative to other projects in other sectors, and it also points to the highly incremental nature of the current spate of impact evaluation research which raises serious questions about its ultimate ability to guide broad strategy for development. The taxation issue is however even more important systemically than the paper suggests. One of the key reasons for project failure as we all know is failure of local 'ownership.' Local ownership in turn is closely linked to accountability, as we all know. One of the key elements of accountability arises from a financial stake in results. Where externally aided projects are part of a broad and intrusive foreign aid sector (i.e. where there is high aid dependency as in many African countries) there is a break in the principal/agent chain that weakens local accountability, but there is also a weakening in the financial stake in results of the Government and people since it is not necessary (to the extent of the level of aid) for Parliament to appropriate tax revenue to pay for public expenditure and not necessary to undergo the difficult negotiation with the citizens and voters about raising their taxes which are at the heart of a democracy. This aggravates the serious deficiencies in institutional development that we all know about. While impact evaluation of a project can potentially provide useful technical pointers to what to do within specific sectors within specific locations and conceivably beyond these specific situations (assuming that the experimental design is OK, the econometrics are done right, the participants cooperate and the funding is enough to pay for it all) the systemic problems that undermine aid effectiveness are however not touched. If systemic issues are not touched then impact evaluation does not shed light on a key set of reasons why projects fail. If we want development aid to have any success it might be better to put much more effort into understanding how political and institutional barriers undermine programs and projects and how they can be designed to compensate for such barriers and less into developing technical libraries of hopeful good practices. (www.developmentwithoutaid.com).
Straitjackets of RCT culture…
Straitjackets of RCT culture…
I am glad to see Jeff pointing out the straitjackets that the RCT culture has imposed on the development discourse. It almost feels like we are living in a world of "have a method, propose a question that can be answered with this method" without asking whether the question is the right one to ask.
Clean experimental design often requires that the world does not move fast enough to "mess up" the experiment and so the experiment must be evaluated within a short time frame. This often tends to focus our attention on quick fixes – what Jeff calls tweaks – rather than long term solutions or solutions that depend on several changes working synergistically.
This equivalent of searching for keys below the lamp post has overwhelmed the field of development studies to a level where it crowds out other, more fundamental, questions as Jeff points out. However, the policy world does not stop just because economists are worrying about whether giving bicycles to girls has an impact on school attendance or not, it goes right on making large policies that are often enshrined in constitutions (e.g. Right to Education Act in India) with long lasting consequences while simultaneously pushing aside social science research as being irrelevant.
Further to my rant - some
Further to my rant - some people will object to the argument about taking account of systemic issues by asserting that these issues are a given - and meanwhile we have to address the 'technical' questions. Quite apart from the highly optimistic view that we can definitively solve the technical issues, especially across countries and regions, there is a simple response to objection. Why not treat project success as a given (there are good projects and bad projects and given the characteristics of the aid industry there always will be) and home in on the systemic, institutional issues ("ownership", "accountability") that doom many projects before they have even got off the ground.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Benghazi buzz: Obama predicted to leave office
More serious than Watergate 'because 4 Americans did in fact die'
To this day, it is not known what role President Richard Nixon played in the break-in at the Watergate Hotel, but the tape recordings from the White House confirm he and Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman discussed using the CIA to slow down the FBI investigation.
It was the cover-up, as history records, that eventually brought about Nixon's resignation in disgrace.
Now, Congress is investigating an alleged cover-up of the terrorist attack Sept. 11, 2012, on the U.S. foreign service facility in Benghazi, Libya, amid predictions from prominent voices that the scandal will bring down the Obama administration.
Former Arkansas governor and onetime presidential candidate Mike Huckabee made the bold prediction this week, ahead of a House hearing Wednesday that will feature witnesses of the attack.
"I believe that before it's all over, this president will not fill out his full term," he said. "I know that puts me on a limb. But this is not minor. It wasn't minor when Richard Nixon lied to the American people and worked with those in his administration to cover up what really happened in Watergate.
"But, I remind you – as bad as Watergate was, because it broke the trust between the president and the people, no one died. This is more serious because four Americans did in fact die."
Meanwhile, John Bolton, former U.N. ambassador and now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has also declared the Benghazi scandal could lead to Obama's removal from office.
"This could be the hinge point," he told Newsmax. "It's that serious for them."
Frank Gaffney, the president of the Center for Security Policy, wrote in a Washington Times column that "the dam seems to be breaking on the nearly eight-month-long cover-up concerning the deadly jihadist attack on Americans and their facilities in Benghazi, Libya."
After the foreign service facility in Benghazi was attacked, the Obama administration initially claimed Muslims spontaneously rioted over a little-known online video that defamed Islam's founder.
But now there is evidence that the administration knew from the beginning that it was a terrorist attack and altered its talking points.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is digging into the truth, holding a hearing that calls on those who were in Benghazi to explain what happened.
The questions will probe who created the story that was delivered to America and why.
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Critics have asserted that in the heat of the presidential election race, Obama, who had been campaigning on the claim that al-Qaida essentially were defeated, was unwilling to provide ammunition to his GOP critics by confirming such a brazen terror attack on America, particularly on the anniversary of 9/11.
The witnesses include State Department career worker Gregory Hicks, who already has provided sworn testimony that American resources were told to "stand down" that day while four Americans died.
That statement would directly conflict with multiple statements by the Obama administration.
Rep. Darrell Issa, D-Calif., pointed out that the Obama administration specifically denied that anyone was told to stand down.
The Washington Post also reported that U.S. Embassy officials in Tripoli, some 600 miles away, tried unsuccessfully to get the Pentagon to scramble fighter jets in a show of force. The embassy also was unable to get permission to deploy four U.S. Special Operations troops in Benghazi during the attack.
Congressional investigators released a partial transcript of Hicks' coming testimony. It includes his report that the lieutenant colonel in Tripoli who commanded the Special Operations team told him he was sorry that his men had been held back.
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Hicks said he received communication from Stevens, saying, "Greg, we're under attack."
In an interview with the Fox News Channel, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said getting the information is going to be a chore.
"There are people who want to testify that have been suppressed," he said, according to the Washington Times. "They're scared to death of what the State Department is doing with them."
Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the attack, has a huge stake in the outcome of the investigation, as she is considered the favorite for the 2016 Democratic Party nomination for president.
She famously unleashed an emotional outburst at an earlier hearing on Benghazi, dismissing questions about the reason for the attack with, "What difference does it make?"
Chaffetz expressed little confidence in what Obama and Clinton have told the public.
"We were certainly misled at every step of the way," Chaffetz said.
In his Washington Times column, Gaffney noted the combination of congressional hearings along with reports that "long-silenced witnesses are determined to reveal what they know.
"At the instigation of Rep. Frank R. Wolf, Virginia Republican, and with encouragement from more than 700 special operations veterans and family members of those lost in Benghazi, some 135 legislators in the House of Representatives and three U.S. senators are calling for a special investigatory committee," he wrote. "To be sure, Team Obama seems as determined as ever to defy efforts to ferret out the truth about Benghazi. In this, they have been aided by the failure of Congress to date to mount a single, concerted investigation of what led up to, happened during and took place after the attack."
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Gaffney wrote that it's critical to know the truth about where Obama was during the attack and what was he doing.
"He evidently did not order a rescue operation," he said. " … We need to know why not, and what the president was doing instead of his first responsibility: protecting Americans."
Gaffney said there are also questions about Hillary Clinton's role, particularly why she failed "to intervene on behalf of her subordinates in harm's way."
Huckabee acknowledged that if Democrats continue to control the U.S. Senate, nothing will happen.
"They won't let it happen, not because they're protecting just the president, they're trying to protect their entire political party. If they try to protect the president and their party, and do so at the expense of the truth, their president and their party will go down. Now, here's what I'm going to suggest will happen – as the information and facts begin to come out, it will become so obvious that there was a concerted and very, very deliberate attempt to mislead this country and its people to lie to Congress, as well as to you."
Huckabee continued: "When a president lies to the American people and is part of a cover-up, he cannot continue to govern. And as the facts come out, I think we're going to see something startling. And before it's over, I don't think this president will finish his term unless somehow they can delay it in Congress past the next three and a half years."
Retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, once commander of missions for the Army Rangers and now executive vice president for the Family Research Council, said the truth needs to come out about Benghazi.
In an interview published by WND, he said there has been no acceptable explanation for not rescuing Americans under siege in Benghazi, and nothing less than a special House committee investigation will satisfy him.
He said the lack of answers since has been bothering him for months, and that's why he worked on a letter to Congress.
"I've been working this since not long after the events on the 11th of September. That said, the U.S. Congress has been sort of ignoring all of our efforts to try and get some full accounting on this thing," Boykin said. "I just simply reached out to some people that I knew had a deep passion for this, that would in fact bring a different dimension to it and that's the retired special operations guys that spent a good portion of their professional careers preparing for and executing these kinds of operations. They've risked their lives for this. They've seen people that have sacrificed their lives to save other Americans, and I knew these people would come on quickly and would come on with deep passion."
The letter to the House of Representatives called for the creation of an investigative committee. It was signed by hundreds of members of the military.
Boykin said what's baffling is why there was no attempt to rescue the Americans.
"Why was there no attempt to recover the bodies before they fell into the hands of the Libyans? We find that perplexing and inexcusable that we don't have those answers," he said.
Issa's committee praised Mark Thompson, acting deputy assistant secretary for counter-terrorism; Hicks; and Eric Nordstrom, diplomatic security officer; for agreeing to testify.
The committee's analysis indicates Clinton cut her own department's counter-terrorism unit out of the situation, and a source reported the U.S. military could have reached Benghazi in time to save lives.
It's not the first time talk of of impeaching Obama has come up.
Lawmakers who have broached the subject of impeachment include Reps. Trent Franks, R-Ariz.; Walter Jones, R-N.C.; Trey Radel, R-Fla.; and Steve Stockman. Others include former Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas; former Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio; former assistant U.S. attorney Andrew McCarthy; left-leaning investigative reporter Dave Lindorff; talk-radio host Mark Levin; former House Speaker and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich; and author and columnist Pat Buchanan.
Article II, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution states, "The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."
The U.S. House of Representatives has the power to commence impeachment proceedings. If the House adopts an impeachment resolution, the U.S. Senate conducts a trial and determines whether to convict or acquit. If an official is convicted, he or she is removed from the position and may be barred from holding office again. The official may also face criminal prosecution.
Only two U.S. presidents have been impeached by the House: Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. However, both presidents were acquitted in the Senate. Nixon resigned before the full House voted on his impeachment.
Besides the Benghazi disaster, issues that have prompted the impeachment discussions include Obama's Fast and Furious gun-running scandal, his decision to order the assassination of an American-born Muslim cleric who joined al-Qaida, his "recess appointments" to the National Labor Relations Board even though Congress was not in recess, his appointment of many unvetted "czars," his fight against enforcing immigration laws, amnesty, U.S. involvement in Libya and gun control.
Specifically on Benghazi, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney accused an anti-Muslim video on YouTube of inciting the attack. On Sept. 16, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice made five Sunday morning television appearances in which she claimed the attacks were spontaneous reactions to the obscure film. Obama mentioned the YouTube video six more times at the U.N. on Sept. 25.
However, there was never any kind of protest at the Benghazi compound that night.
WND also reported a March poll showed advocates for impeachment nearly equal to those against it. For example, regarding Obama's campaign for amnesty to illegals, 44 percent said he should be impeached for it, while only 48 percent say he should not. And 46 percent said Obama should be impeached for launching the war to remove Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, while 49 percent said no.
"Taken by itself, any of these questions about President Obama could be ignored, but it becomes much more questionable when all of these … administration actions are taken as a whole," said Fritz Wenzel, whose public opinion and media consulting company Wenzel Strategies conducted the poll.
"Obama appears to have found a way to split the nation directly down the middle on each issue, but, as his plummeting poll numbers may now indicate, the American public may well be catching up with the cumulative effect of this administration's handling of the Constitution and the federal government," Wenzel said.
Sign the petition urging Congress to impeach Obama.
Another recent call for impeachment came from rock legend and gun-rights defender Ted Nugent.
"There's no question that this guy's violations qualify for impeachment," he said. "There's no question."
He blasted "the criminality of this government, the unprecedented abuse of power, corruption, fraud and deceit by the Chicago gangster-scammer-ACORN-in-chief."
"It's so diabolical," he said.
Radio giant Rush Limbaugh said on his program that the Obama administration's release of hundreds and potentially thousands of illegal-alien criminals from U.S. detention centers in connection with possible budget cuts is "an impeachable offense."
"In what used to be considered (if we can remember this far back) normal, sane times, this is an impeachable offense," Limbaugh said. "This is action being taken against the country. … It is sheer madness to be doing this. It is petulant, it is childish."
Even Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin has called for the impeachment of Obama over his policy of permitting drone strikes on American citizens overseas who are members of terrorist organizations.
On WABC Radio's "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio," Benjamin said she believes the drone warfare is an impeachable offense.
You asked for it! Sign the petition urging Congress to impeach President Barack Obama.
See Dennis Kucinich advocate for impeachment over Libya:
See Texas congressman lobby for impeachment over gun control:
See Andrew Napolitano talk about impeachment over the budget:
Get the bumper sticker that says it all, "Honk for Impeachment.
The idea of impeachment actually seems moderate given the results of another recent poll.
The poll, conducted by telephone by Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind, found that 29 percent of Americans believe armed revolution may be necessary, with 5 percent saying they're not sure.
While 18 percent of Democrats and 27 percent of independents believe that to be true, 44 percent of Republicans questioned in the poll said armed revolution may be needed.


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TomM needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 132 designs submitted by 30 freelance designers.
Logoprint and Embroidery Ltd is an established screen printing and embroidery company in the UK.
We specialise in high quality, complex designs, quick turn around, print on demand and print on unusual items.
We are going through a company relaunch to establish ourselves as the leading local company for these services.
We provide a relaxed, straight forward, personal service to each and every one of our customers however behind that is a super efficient, high quality production and back office system which produces results time and again ensuring our customer satisfaction is unrivalled.
We currently have a production facility (essentially a workshop) where all our business is done.
We intend to open a bricks and motar shop in a prominent location - this will be labeled Logoprint Express.
We also travel to many events where we sell printed items - this is what we call Logoprint on Location.
Finally, we will have a website selling personalised items to members of local clubs and associations called http://www.OnlineClubShop.com.
Primarily our offerings are business to business including promotional items, workwear, uniforms and stock production.
Our client base includes companies form many different industries including marketing, events, music industry, multi national brands, small cloting labels and tradesmen.
We also sell direct to the consumer including one off designs, stag and hen do shirts, holiday shirts and licensed products.
Finally, we also do a great deal of work with local clubs and associations including sports clubs, social clubs, car clubs etc.
Our current brand (seen at http://www.logoprint.org ) is tired and outdated. We would like you to design a new set of logos based around a common theme for our client facing services.
The logos required are as follows:
1. Logoprint
2. Logoprint Express
3. Logoprint on Location
4. Logoprint's OnlineClubShop.com
Our full company name is Logoprint and Embroidery Ltd. Logoprint is the primary visual recognition point but you may choose to include the sub text 'and Embroidery' if you can make it fit. This is not a necessity though.
Equally, we have a tagline which you may or may not choose to include whcih is 'Printing the World's Logos'. This is not a necessity.
The brand must be fresh, contemporary, unique and well designed, it should convey to our customers everything we stand for.
Each of the four variations should be immediately recognisable as a Logoprint brand.
If you would like to show us how the brand could be used within a website if you feel it shows off the advatnages of your design then that would be great however this is not a necessity.
The winning entry will consist of all four logos.
Ultimately it is up to you. We are not concerned about what colours, fonts or styles are used as long as it acheives our brand image.
Good Luck!
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Apple's new senior vice president of Mac Software Engineering Craig Federighi, took to the stage at Apple's WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) today to show off the final features to be included in the next version of the Mac operating system, Mac OS X Mountain Lion alongisde new Mac models.
A key new feature is the implementation of Voice Dictation, found on the iPhone 4S and iPad, in Mac OS X. Apple's effective Voice Dictation technology enables you to dictate notes, articles, and messages to your computer using your voice. Voice Dictation is built into the heart of Mac OS X Mountain Lion and will work with any app or program, including third-party programs such as Microsoft Word.
Another new feature called Power Nap enables Mac OS X to keep your Mac up to date while it sleeps. During sleep mode your Mac will still continue to fetch emails, sync calendars, and update your iPhoto Stream. This new feature will enable Mac OS X to act more like an iOS device when asleep, and still fetch new information. It can also perform a Time Machine backup in sleep mode.
This is expected to be the final demonstration of the operating system, which integrates features from iOS into the Mac, and now sports new interface elements and design and introduces new visual elements such as the Glass Dock.
See also: Apple updates Final Cut Pro X, Aperture, for new MacBook Pro's Retina display
A key component of Mountain Lion is further integration with Apple's iCloud service, which stores users information and documents in Apple's cloud system. Users migrating from an iOS device to Mac OS X will find all Contacts, Mail, Calendar, Messages, FaceTime, and Find My Mac automatically set up on the computer.
There is also a new version of Safari which has integrated search and URL fields (in a similar fashion to Google Chrome). It also sports a new gesture interface that enables you to move between pages using multi-touch gestures with a mode called Tab View.
Another new feature called iCloud Tabs enables users to share open web pages between iOS and Mac devices.
Apple today announced that its communication system, Messages, will also support the sharing of images and high-definition video.
Documents In The Cloud is also interated to the operating system, enabling users to work on a document on one device, and have changes made instantly on other Mac OS X and iOS device. Apple is also due to release a Developer SDK for developers to add support in their apps as well.
The Notification Center from iOS has also been introduced into Mac OS X. Craig Federighi said "Apps had their own way of getting your attention. Mountain Lion has replaced all of this with a consistent system based on banners and alerts." Notification Center also integrates with services such as Twitter so you can tweet right from Notification Center instead of using the Twitter app (or website). Notification Centre even works with Voice Dictation so you can speak tweets.
See also: Apple launches new MacBook Airs at WWDC
Apple is also taking Game Center from iOS and bringing it to Mac OS X. Craig Federighi said "It's a renaissance of gaming on the Mac... Game Center from iOS to the Mac. Same account with all your friends, achievements, and keep track of all your iOS and OS X games." Game Center will bring support for head-to-head and turn-based gaming.
Mac OS X also introduces Gatekeeper, a security system that determines the validity of third-party Mac apps in a similar vein to Mac App Store. Mac programs distributed outside of the Mac App Store can be digital signed with Apple to confirm their validity. The user can choose to install apps only via the Mac App Store, apps that have been signed by Apple and all apps.
It is hoped this feature will provide a new level of security to Apple computers.
Mac OS X Mountain Lion will ship in July and be distributed via the Mac App Store. The US price has been reduced from $29.99 to just $19.99 (UK pricing TBA).


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Years ago, I attended an outdoor festival organized by a vegan friend at which Veggie Grill had agreed to hand out food samples. One passerby tried something from the tray — a soy chicken strip, maybe — and remarked how delicious it was. "See?" my friend exclaimed as he walked on. "Meat is so unnecessary!"
Would that it were.
Well, let me qualify that statement. It is unnecessary for me — and for the 5% of Americans, if last year's Gallup poll can be trusted, who follow a meatless diet. People become vegetarians for any number of reasons, from allergies to ethics to a desire to lose weight. But I'll venture to say that few people switch to a plant-based diet because they outright don't like the taste of meat.
That's why, for those of us who detest cruelty but still fight back a dreamy smile when we pass a Kentucky Fried Chicken, restaurants like Veggie Grill offer a welcome compromise. Even if the Santa Fe Crispy Chickin' sandwich or the Veggie-Steak Tacos don't taste 100% like the genuine articles, they come remarkably close — the same way a Beatles tribute band can entertain even if the accents veer closer to London than Liverpool.
One of the benefits of living in Orange County is having so many near-meat choices available — at Veggie Grill, Native Foods, Au Lac and elsewhere. Now, a major chain has gotten into the game as well: Chipotle recently added a shredded-tofu filling called Sofritas to its Southern California outlets, having tested the product already in Northern California.
In the past two weeks, I've had Sofritas three times — in a burrito, bowl and soft-taco platter — and can say with assurance that it's quite good. It has a spicy taste, flavored by chilies, poblanos and more, and a not-too-rubbery texture that makes it dissolve between the teeth the way ground beef does. It's the rare vegetarian "meat" that I suspect could fool carnivores if I slipped it onto their plate unannounced.
And unannounced, for many, is probably the only way it would get there. Having been a vegetarian for years, I know that a suggestion to eat at a restaurant like Native Foods can bring any number of responses: "Don't be ridiculous," a nervous chuckle, even a cold stare. For those whose dining companions refuse to try a restaurant without meat, places like Chipotle offer at least a middle ground.
Like I said, it's a matter of taste — literally. I've known a great many people who cling steadfastly to a meat diet but still melt when they see a winsome dog on the street. Some have told me that they refuse to watch documentaries about meat production ("Earthlings," narrated by Joaquin Phoenix during one of his periods of sane public behavior, is among the more harrowing) simply because they don't want to be reminded where bacon and drumsticks come from.
There's been talk in recent years in the scientific community about creating meat without animals, which amounts, in one theory, to creating plate-ready products from stem cells. The day El Pollo Loco masters this technique, I will be camping out overnight for a burrito. But in the meantime, what are the options for those who want a humane alternative to meat?
Well, Chipotle is now one. Veggie Grill and Native Foods are others. Linx, a hot dog restaurant in Old Towne Orange, has a vegan dog that far exceeds any at Ralphs. Islands has one of the best veggie burgers around. And sometimes resemblance to meat isn't everything — the veggie burger I had at Mother's Market & Kitchen last weekend tasted more like a potato pancake than a meat patty, but that's fine if you like potato pancakes.
If the other options listed above grow more common, will meat become unnecessary? For many, no. But for those who keep "Earthlings" in mind, a product like Sofritas more than fits the bill. And considering that the OC Fair has a Beatles tribute band in its main concert series this year, sometimes an imitation just about suffices.
MICHAEL MILLER is the features editor for Times Community News in Orange County. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com or (714) 966-4617.


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Although the "Smoked by Windows Phone" shenanigans are mostly over and Microsoft is not routinely engaging in phone challenges anymore, it's still great to finally see the gist of it coming to TV. Such is the case with this new ad featuring Microsoftie Ben Rudolph and a couple who were using a Samsung Galaxy S3.
The concept is the same: do a challenge between two phones, in this case take a photo at night, and see which device wins. Of course, the GS3 is up against the Nokia Lumia 920, a phone designed for low-light shooting, so it should be little surprise to see it win here. For their trouble, the couple gets a Windows Phone.
The ad will show on ESPN and CBS throughout the men's and women's NCAA tournament during the week and should be high profile enough to catch some eyes. Having said that, it did take a year for this brilliant operation to go from tradeshow to Microsoft Store to TV and that's just not fast enough. But as they say: better late than never.
You can watch the clip that will be airing this week above.
Source: Microsoft; Thanks, Justin S., for the tip!


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For the second consecutive year, Apple and Google topped the list of the 50 most innovative companies, according to the Boston Consulting Group .
The companies at the top of the list shifted just slightly from last year . Microsoft jumped up by one spot to take third place, while electric-car company Tesla fell from No. 3 to sixth place. Retail giant Amazon climbed from fifth place to fourth place, and Netflix , which made the top 10 in 2017, fell to No. 13.
In the most recent report, two new companies managed to push their way into the top 10: ride-hailing app Uber and e-commerce site Alibaba .
Geographically, North America produced the most innovative companies, with 27 featured on the list. Europe produced 16 entrants, up from 10 last year.
The travel and transportation sector also expanded its showing on the 2018 list, with companies such as Uber, Tesla , SpaceX and Airbnb included.
The firm found that the most innovative companies have been fueled by digital technologies. For example, they prioritize mobile products, digital design, big data and also quickly adapt to technological advances. They also tend to develop and test new products faster and more cheaply than other companies.
According to the research, the biggest difference between the most innovative companies and the companies that appear much lower on the list is how heavily they have incorporated these digital processes into their businesses.
"While 79 percent of strong innovators reported that they had properly digitized innovation processes, only 29 percent of weak innovators make the same claim," the study reports.
Last year, the most innovative companies were those that brought in new ideas from outside sources such as social media and had open and collaborative work environments.
Finally, the research notes that business leaders at the most innovative companies do five key things that set them apart from their competition:
1. Leaders dedicate resources: They realize the importance of digital and invest accordingly.
2. Leaders invest in speed: They test ideas earlier and launch products quickly.
3. Leaders take smart risks: They make big bets that are high-risk but also high-reward.
4. Leaders invest in data: They mine and analyze data to glean insight for their products.
5. Leaders secure top talent: They acquire and develop talent across the company.
As you can see 2 years on the site has continued to grow and is now delivering just shy of £1,000,000 / 1.3 million dollars of sales per month.
Our t-shirt e-commerce client was already established in the industry but was losing organic traffic and rankings for over a year before we got started.
Their main problem was the site had a low-quality link profile due to bad work done years before the main algorithm changes.Their main problem
After conducting a full audit we found the site also needed a huge amount of on-site optimisation.
So we-
Then in the first 6 months, we built a over 100 links from high-authority sites related to the fashion/t-shirt industry.
We created a link profile with branded anchors to help dilute the over optimised historical link profile.
The rewards were glorious-
Organic search traffic nearly doubled to the site within 6 months!
You can see the effect this had on sales boosting monthly revenue to the $50,000 USD range (shown as AUD below)-boosting monthly revenue to the $50,000 USD
They have sold nearly $1,270,319.75 AUD of Tshirts so far.
Which works out to be just shy of $1,000,000 USD in total!
Crazy right?
Learn more about the campaign and what we did with the full case study that was published in early 2015.
One of our clients uses Shopify , but were not doing their housekeeping.
We found that they had created around 300 collection pages with thousands of pages in duplicate content.
My resident Shopify expert went in and cleaned out the old collections and removed them from Google's index to improve Googlebots efficiency.
This is what happened:
Their rankings increased steadily month by month as Google recrawled the website. A simple on site audit allowed them to jump into the top positions for a whole bunch of keywords.
The financial results?
Their revenue jumped to over $160,000 per month (£116,000 GBP) –Their revenue jumped to over $160,000 per month
Since launch the site has now generated over 2 million dollars in sales (£1,444,342 GBP)site has now generated over 2 million dollars
And given that March was their best month of revenue ever – I suspect that is going to continue to grow.
Hats off to my team for that one !
When you approach ecommerce SEO in the right way – it will change your business forever.
Make sure that you start out with a full site audit before doing anything else. It's important that you build a solid SEO foundation first.
If you need help feel free to
reach out to us
at any time or
FLAMENGO Slipons bianco Prices For Sale zg3ZKuYWHH
that will teach you how to take your ecommerce SEO to the next level .
The culmination of over eight months of work, Krita 2.9, is the biggest Krita release until now! It's so big, we can't just do the release announcement in only one page, we've had to split it up into separate pages! Last year, 2014, was a huge year for Krita. We published Krita on Steam, we showed off Krita at SIGGRAPH, we got Krita reviewed in ImagineFX, gaining the Artist's choice accolade — and we got our first Kickstarter campaign more than funded, too! This meant that more work has gone into Krita than ever before.
And it shows: here are the results. Dozens of new features, improved functions, fixed bugs, spit and polish all over the place. The initial port to OSX. Some of the new features took more than two years to implement, and others are a direct result of your support!
Without that support, whether through direct donations, Steam sales, the Kickstarter campaign, the work of testers and bug reporters and documentation, tutorial, translation and code contributors, Krita would never have gotten this far! So, thanks and hugs all around!
And now, stay with us for a whirlwind tour of Krita 2.9's new major features:
Speedpaint landscape by Raghavendra Kamath
Pirate by Comhorse(http://www.comhorse.com)
"Between Worlds" by Mira-Maia Kyyrö (http://neko-maya.fi/)
"Fairies" by Elias Silveira (http://www.flickr.com/photos/elias_ilustracao_design)
You can now open multiple documents in Krita.There are two ways you can display documents now: and . The tabbed mode is the default, but can be changed in the settings. If using subwindows, the windows can be automatically arranged with cascading and tiling. You can also have several views of the same document. This can be helpful when looking at images at different zoom levels or while mirrored.
Finally, you can customize Krita's background by adding an image or color. This can be configured in the general settings area under
The color selectors got some love in the form of HDR color selection . This is useful for any kind of scene-referred image painting, such as making environments for 3d scenes, or vfx work.
HDR painting is still in need of some further support and workflow polish, but you can use 'Y' to quickly turn the exposure up or down. Furthermore, you can use the LUT management docker to control OCIO, allowing you to quickly switch between colour renderings of all kinds.
The improved advanced colour selector now allows you to work in HSI (where intensity is measured by summing the values of R, G and B) and HSY' (where Luma is calculated using the configurable luma coefficients). These allow you to keep the relative lightness more similar while changing hue and saturation. This is also an option for the MyPaint shade selector, and the new experimental Color Slider docker.
The Experimental Color Slider docker was a heeded request for HSV sliders in Krita. Set by default to HSL, you can configure it to have any combination of HSV/HSL/HSI/HSY' sliders.
Better blending — The mix brush is a little slower, but the blending is artefact-less now.
Anti-aliased brush-tips – You can now make the brush-mask extra smooth, useful for line work and fine details. Furthermore, the new auto-spacing really allows you to speed up your bigger brushes.
Improved Pop-up palette – Use tags to quickly switch your pop-up palette brushes. You can also change the amount of slices that are available in your pop-up palette (available in the preferences).
Overview Docker – Navigate and zoom the canvas quickly.
Auto Brush-tip – Smoothen Line and Autospacing to help you make more beautiful sharp lines.
Separate eraser size – Choose to have a separate brush size from an eraser size. (in the brush editor)
Smudge radius – A request for a feature also found in MyPaint, the smudge radius allows you sample the underlying colour from a larger range. The colour picker too, has had it's range increased to 900px.
Opacity Flow separation – Now you can finally separate opacity and flow, which leads to finer control over both.
Locked brush settings -> Read more.
Dirty Presets -> Read more.
Direct painting and transforming on the global selection mask . The Brush selection tool was removed because painting on the Global Selection Mask is much more versatile. -> Read more
Colored overlay display option . -> Read more . .
Transparency Mask Improvements – You can now separate out alpha channels into transparency masks.
Save and load masks – For re-using later, or for importing seperately into a different program, like a game engine.
Line Tool Improvements – Now accepts stylus sensors. You can also hold down 'v' to activate while on the freehand brush tool.
New assistants – Parallel, infinite and vanishing point lines. Improve your perspective drawings. Assistants also have toggle-able previews.
Stabilizer Smoothing — This allows you to pull lines that will definitely end at the cursor. Unless you have delay active of course. Then a dead-zone, similar to lazy-mouse smoothing, appears around the cursor, which is good for controlling sharp corners.
Fill Tool Improvements – The algorithm is improved, and for even faster filled there's the new Fast Mode
Ruler Assistant Improvements – You can now temporarily deactivate an assistant.
Grid Tool Improvements – Krita will now ask you whether to toggle the grid with enter, instead of doing so automatically.
G'MIC Improvements Updated version. Previews and access to Colorize[Interactive] .
Split Layer – Separate all flat colours on a layer to new layers. Pressing 'R' will let you pick the layer you want to paint on.
Posterize filter – This filter allows you to reduce the amount of colours per channel
Index Colors Filter – Helpful with HD pixel painting
Auto Levels – Let Krita determine what the best settings should be for adjusting levels.
Split Layer – Allows you to separate out all individual colors into different layers.
Improved Vector Object Resolution – Now the vector pixel values are actual pixels instead of reliant on the DPI being 72.
Shaped Gradients – simplify making bumpmaps.
PSD Compatibility Improvements – Resource blocks are round-tripped. All, but four, PSD blending modes are now supported. Krita can load some CS6 PSD files. PSD Layer groups load. Support for 16 bit multi-layer files improved. Krita vector layers are saved (as raster layers) to PSD.
Random Texture Offset – For even stronger wilder textured effects, this allows you to randomise the offset.
Save Merged Images – allows you to speed up your work flow.
OpenEXR Improvements – The OpenEXR filter can now load and save a single-channel grayscale EXR files. Loading images with very small alpha values has been fixed as well as images with zero alpha but non-zero color values.
RAW Support – You can now import RAW files.
Export Fixes and Additions – Save 16-bit grayscale images to tiff, jpeg and ppm. r16 and r8 heightmaps are supported.
by Tou Omiya
by Oksana Kharitionova
Wasteland Magic by Kateryna Herasymenko
by Wolthera(http://wolthera.info)
Advanced Color Selector – Now with HSI and HSY' selectors in the main shape as well as the MyPaint shade selector. A cleaned up UI, and HDR functionality! Compositions docker – Polished to include updating and renaming compositions. Layer Docker – You can now select multiple layers with CTRL or SHIFT, or isolate a layer with ALT+left mouse click. Palette Docker – You can now add palettes and change the swatch size with CTRL+scroll. Undo history docker – Cumulative undo was one of the fruits from Mohit's Google Summer of Code. -> Read more.
Image – Change the image background color. Resource Manager – Allow quick importing and handling of large amounts of resources. new 'bundle' format to help keep everything together. View – There's fancy new canvas rulers added! Resource subtab has been moved to settings. Oceania – Eurasia is our ally. We've always been at war with Eastasia. Gradients – Editing has been improved.
Display – You can now turn off layer hover preview, and change the colour of the selection overlay. Color Management – You can now have unique icc profiles PER display on Linux. Krita supports using colord directly. Canvas-input settings – Line Tool, as well as Exposure and Gamma controls have been added.
by Daniel Pinheiro Lima (http://prenudos.com/)
by Sioni Lopez
by Andrei Rudenko
by Marty Kulma (http://kynlo.deviantart.com/gallery/51532782/Krita)
So, what's next? Well, lots of awesome art made with Krita 2.9, of course. Monthly bug-fix releases. We'll also be finishing the Photoshop-like layer styles feature and push it in one of those releases. Work has started, and the preliminary results are promising, but we needed more time to finish it up properly. Then there'll be an update of platform, from Qt4 to Qt5, followed by… Our next crowdfunding campaign. We're going to try and make Krita even better, make it work smoother, faster and slicker, and we want to add great animation support, too!
Search thousands of Wine, Beer and Spirits ratings from the editors of Wine Enthusiast in one amazingly simple and beautiful app.
The World in Your Glass


text:
WLE Team needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 70 designs submitted by 17 freelance designers.
WeightLossExposed.com is a website that provides real world proven information to help loose weight and expose frauds. We provide cutting edge tools and have a large community of like minded individuals seeking to live a healthier and more balanced life.
Men and women between 25 and 55 with a high school education or more, have weight or health problems, are open minded and alternative in their approach to health and fitness.
The core requirements are that the colors and scheme are synergistic and are appealing to both men and women and young to middle aged people. It needs to relay trustworthiness and at the same time fun and upbeat and vibrant giving the users a sense of feeling at home and comfortable when viewing the site.
The current site is very dated and should not influence the design in anyway.
We would like to see a bold, updated font. More blocky than cursive. The logo should also try to highlight the "exposed" aspect.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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THERE'S A Jeremiah among us and his name is Bill Moyers. He is a product of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, having worked for the president and witnessed firsthand many of that administration's achievements, including the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Higher Education Act, the Public Broadcasting Act and the Freedom of Information Act. Earlier, he was deputy director of the Peace Corps. He left government to practice as a journalist -- principally a maker of documentaries -- and in the decades since has contributed enormously to the public weal. Noting that right-wing polemicists have long tried to tar "fact-based reporting that undermines their worldview" as "liberal advocacy journalism," of which he is among the country's prominent practitioners, he responds, "All I can say is that if reporting what happens to ordinary people because of events beyond their control, and the indifference of government to their fate, is 'liberal,' I plead guilty."
Moyers believes, deeply, that we are in danger, and terrorism is not what has driven his threat advisory to level orange. Our government may not just be indifferent to the fate of its ordinary citizens but actually averse to serving them, for starters. The shredding (it is beyond fraying) of what was long understood to be the social compact is the simplest way to describe the common thread running through "Moyers on Democracy," a collection of talks he has delivered at such diverse venues as West Point, the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Texas State Historical Assn. and as eulogies at various memorial services. They have been updated with introductory material to provide context; a few date to the 1980s, but most show what has been on Moyers' mind in the last three years.
The book's coherence stems from its repetition of interlocking themes -- income disparity, the influence of special-interest money, government secrecy, the failures of media to effectively fulfill their watchdog role, the expunging of historical context, the unequal access to decent education -- rather than from articulation of an extended, developed argument. In a 2003 speech (not included here) on progressivism, Moyers said, "I don't harbor any idealized notion of politics and democracy. . . . But there is nothing idealized or romantic about the difference between a society whose arrangements roughly serve all its citizens and one whose institutions have been converted into a stupendous fraud." By the end of this book, it's clear why he begins it thus: "Democracy in America is a series of narrow escapes, and we may be running out of luck. . . . We have fallen under the spell of money, faction, and fear, and the great American experience in creating a different future together has been subjugated to individual cunning in the pursuit of wealth and power -- and to the claims of empire, with its ravenous demands and stuporous distractions."
There is a communitarian line of thought (several, actually), discernible in the works of the philosopher John Dewey and animating the activism of Martin Luther King Jr., of which Moyers is a contemporary exponent. "Regarded as an idea, democracy is not an alternative to other principles of associated life. It is the idea of community life itself," wrote Dewey in his essay "Search for the Great Community." Moyers quotes King writing from the Birmingham jail: "We are caught in an inescapable web of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
Unfortunately, commitment to a shared fate -- and perhaps even perception of that as a societal goal -- is one of the ties that may no longer bind. "I don't need to tell you that a profound transformation is occurring in America," Moyers writes, in a talk titled "America 101." "And it's man-made. Over the last thirty years a well-funded and closely coordinated coalition of corporate elites, power-hungry preachers, and hard-line ideologues has mounted an aggressive drive to dismantle the public foundations and philosophy of shared prosperity and fairness in America." He readdresses the point in "A Vision of the Future," in which one sees the modulation of his thought: "Our challenge is to create a political culture that nurtures obligation, reciprocity, and trust, to bring about policies that have wide public support."
Moyers deplores the outsized policy influence of the religious right but is himself religiously cast and sensitive to the tension between religious and secular approaches to public life. One of his suggestions is "to find a new vision for America which has the authority and power of a religious vision but which is inclusive -- not sectarian. . . . How can we be properly enthusiastic -- how do we honor the religious sense -- without denying reason?"
He deals with the abandonment of urban education, argues for public financing of elections, details lobbying scandals, dirty congressional dealings and anti-environmental acts by the current administration, and -- in the notable commentary delivered to cadets at West Point -- raises George W. Bush's "extra-constitutional claims of authority," including the right to deviate from the Geneva Convention "at his pleasure, so as to allow indefinite and secret detentions and torture," along the way reminding these future officers not to let their "natural and commendable loyalty to comrades-in-arms lead you into thinking that criticism of the mission you are on spells lack of patriotism." Scarcely a month after the 2001 terrorist attacks, he is asserting: "Let's face it: the predators of the Republic present citizens with no options but to climb back in the ring. We are in what educators call 'a teachable moment.' And we'll lose it if we roll over. Democracy wasn't canceled on September 11, but democracy won't survive if citizens turn into lemmings."
One of the delights of "Moyers on Democracy" is that the voices of others appear in its pages, some posthumously. Not that Moyers has a dull narrative voice -- it is personal and reflective and bespeaks significant personal integrity -- but he also peppers his talks with anecdotes from his life, which has been fascinatingly circuitous. It is a treat to hear Lady Bird Johnson, on a whistle-stop tour of the South after her husband has signed the Civil Rights Act, gamely enduring insults and telling one crowd she was sure what she heard came "not from the good people of South Carolina but from the state of confusion." Or the late antiwar and anti-nuclear activist minister William Sloane Coffin, who told Moyers, "When you see uncaring people in high places, everybody should be mad as hell."
Moyers is fully aware of the shortcomings of the press -- among them, concentration in ownership and declining resources for investigative work -- and more than once discusses them. He concedes that his own medium, television, often lacks context for the news it does report and "helps to make this an anxious age of agitated amnesiacs." An informed public has been assumed to be an essential ingredient of the democratic recipe since the beginning of the republic, and yet Moyers concludes of the Fourth Estate that "[b]y no stretch of the imagination can we say the dominant institutions of today's media are guardians of democracy." He reminds us that it is proximity to reality, not to power, that should matter in reporting, and the hopeful note he sounds is this: Although we are in what he terms another Gilded Age, the last one brought terrific, muckraking journalism in its wake.


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Seminars by Midnight Oil
In today's ministry landscape, doing the same old, same old just doesn't cut it. If we truly want to be effective in this present time, we must employ new ways to communicate the Gospel in worship. At Midnight Oil, we strive to provide seminars that explore new methods and techniques for powerful, authentic worship that is true to the risen Christ.
From biblically-backed theoretical approaches, to practical hands-on training, our seminars are designed to meet a variety of needs and speak to ministry areas including preaching, music, media and more.


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WTN, Bob Ross
I can't write better notes than these recent from other tasters; Jeff Connell's in particular were right on the money for me. I had this Bordeaux two nights in a row without food and while sipping and enjoying the wine while Janet and I watched movies. Two fun evenings. And, two great wine experiences.
Jeff Connell: Château Léoville-Las-Cases 1985 St. Julien. This has never been my favourite house, but this wine could make you fall in love with Bordeaux. It was lively and youthful, with an array of fine secondary flavours, all in balance. Nothing ostentatious, just continually unfolding charm.
David Lole: Still a very deep ruby with virtually no bricking. Powerful, masculine, minerally (almost ferrous) bouquet housing a brooding, classy mix of graphite, deep-set curranty fruit, briar, black olives, herbs and plenty of newish savoury oak. "Lots going on here", was Tony's first remark as he nosed the Riedel. Jamie's "Ahhh .... Bordeaux!", was also a good start (the wine had been decantered sometime before and obviously masked). From the outset, we were all surprised and most impressed by this wines' enormity and youthfulness, particularly for the vintage. If anything, the palate has quite a way to go to reach maturity. Again, fantastic quality of savoury fruit and oak, more of the brooding mineral/briar/olive character, of full body, excellent delineation, robust, firm tannins and great length. Over the next hour or two we sniffed, swirled and sipped our way through this Outstanding bottle of St. Julien until there was no more. My best sip was the last. Drink 2011-2025.


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Water affairs without a director general, again
Earlier on Friday, sources close to the department said that he had been fired, while others said he had handed his resignation in.
Sputnik Ratau, its spokesperson, confirmed that Sirenya was not at work but had not been dismissed, "We have an acting director general at the moment because of a dispute between him [Sirenya] and the department."
The wording of his exact status is not clear, or whether he is being paid while the dispute is resolved. Ratau said he had only been told that there was a dispute between the two parties and Sirenya was not at work while this unfolded.
"This happened on the sixth [of February] and because it is a private matter and is being dealt with internally, so we will only know more as things progress," he said.
Sirenya's appointment was controversial at the time after his departure from Amatola Water, where he was fired and then reinstated by the then minister of water affairs. His attempt to get the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration to review his dismissal was then turned down and he left the position.
Prior to his appointment, water affairs had gone 30 months without a director general.
The previous DG, Pam Yako, was found to have been involved in tender rigging and illegal awarding of contracts to the tune of R300-million by the auditor-general. She was dismissed after a disciplinary hearing in 2010.
Trevor Balzer, the current chief operations officer at the department, has stepped in as acting director until the dispute is resolved, said Ratau.


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The BioWare Social Network offers a new automatic patch for Dragon Age 2, updating BioWare's role-playing sequel to version 1.02, offering a manual patch for Windows and saying the Mac edition of the game will update itself the next time it is launched, as will the versions purchased through Steam (thanks Dir Wulf). The release includes a note suggesting users make sure their graphics card drivers are up-to-date: "AMD and NVIDIA have recently released new graphics-card drivers. Using old drivers may cause Dragon Age II to crash, run poorly, or display graphics incorrectly." They also warn that some saved games may not work correctly: "Some plot fixes are retroactive, but not all. Players with plot-breaking bugs may need to revert to an earlier save, particularly a save prior to visiting the affected area during the current year in the game." The change list follows.
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Swapna necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 235 diseños de 48 diseñadores freelance.
Red Patang
We are an internet based retailer that will be specializing in high quality books, dvds and artifacts centered around India, Indian history and culture. The brand name 'Red Patang' means Red Kite (Patang is a hindi word for Kite). We chose this icon to represent a playful childhood pastime in India that most people can relate to. The logo will be used as a starting point for the website design …so you can be creative.
People of Indian origin (especially children and young adults) or anyone who wants to learn about India.
The logo should incorporate the brand name 'Red Patang' and have an image of a red kite. It should be easy to remember, recognizable even from a distance and able to sit on a white background.
The font used:
· should reflect a feeling of light-hearted fun (but not silly and amateur)
· should be simple, timeless & easy to read
· should ideally be no more than 2 colors (we are thinking of red or white or black or a combination of these colors but are open to other ideas)
The kite itself should be:
· A traditional diamond (not unusual or modern shaped)
· Red color
· could have a tail or string or both. Would like the design setup in a way that the kite can be used by itself as a stand-alone representation of the brand.
EDIT: Should pop!
The logo should not be too complicated or cluttered and should be scalable (would like to use it on business cards, stationary, etc). EDIT: Attaching a font we like -please use this font or similar
Any images used should be royalty free.
Please do not post multiple entries with minor color variations.
The winner will need to provide the logo in 2 formats and versions:
Formats should be in a vector based (.ai) and bitmap based (.gif ). Each format should have the original color version & a black and white version.
Give us your best effort and we could send more business your way as our needs evolve. We will be available through the duration of the contest for questions. Please do not hesitate to reach out.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Regarding the Editor's Column in the May 29 issue, "Usage Fees Are Not a Strange Idea." Sarah Snell Cooke's support of the pay for play precedent in the NCUA's recently proposed rule on derivatives misses the point. We strongly support and have continually advocated expanding credit unions' investment powers to include limited derivatives authority. Such expanded powers are crucial to the present and future safety and soundness of our industry as it continues to evolve. We also believe it is imperative, as Board Member Fryzel has publicly stated, that the agency move forward with derivatives authority, as opposed to leaving it as a perpetual pilot program.
Our issue is simple–the agency's proposal co-mingles the proposed derivatives rule with the funding of the agency. The funding of the agency is, in and of itself, a significant strategic issue that must be considered on its merits, separate and apart from any program. As we have long noted, every dollar begins across the teller window at a credit union. Over the past eight years, the NCUA has proceeded to significantly increase its budget, notwithstanding the fact that the number of credit unions has steadily decreased at a rate of almost one a day. Furthermore, the agency no longer gives its stakeholders the opportunity to comment on its budget.
Historically, the agency has been funded by two mechanisms: an annual assessment on federal credit unions and the overhead transfer rate. Given this proposal, one can only surmise that the agency is now looking to other funding mechanisms for which the agency should be completely and fully transparent.
Fred R. Becker Jr.
President and CEO
Arlington, VA


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About .LOANS Domain Names
For students, home buyers, brokers, bankers, and finance professionals, the .loans domain provides a useful place to seek out viable loan information. Loan providers can use .loans to disseminate useful knowledge and information.
The .loans domain extension is managed by the Donuts registry. To learn about the regulations and pre-registration information that apply to .loans, see About Donuts Domain Names.
For information about Donuts' registration process, see Registering Donuts domains.
For .loans pricing, click here.


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Taking a chance benefiting Colabello, Twins
MINNEAPOLIS -- It would've been hard to blame Chris Colabello for leaving the Twins this offseason for a chance to play in Korea.
Colabello had the opportunity to sign overseas in the Korean Baseball Organization, with a club there offering roughly $1 million for his rights. It would have been a sizeable raise for Colabello, especially considering the 30-year-old played seven seasons in the independent Can-Am League before finally joining the Twins' organization in 2012.
MINNEAPOLIS -- It would've been hard to blame Chris Colabello for leaving the Twins this offseason for a chance to play in Korea.
Colabello had the opportunity to sign overseas in the Korean Baseball Organization, with a club there offering roughly $1 million for his rights. It would have been a sizeable raise for Colabello, especially considering the 30-year-old played seven seasons in the independent Can-Am League before finally joining the Twins' organization in 2012.
Colabello had also already accomplished his lifelong goal of making it to the Majors, playing in 55 games with Minnesota last year, but he saw his path blocked at first base by Joe Mauer, who is making the switch from catcher to first this year.
But Colabello went with his heart and decided to stick with the Twins. And so far it's paying dividends, as he's off to one of the best starts in the Majors and was rewarded by being the American League co-Player of the Week along with Josh Hamilton on Monday.
"My heart was here," Colabello said. "I believed I could be here. I believed I had something to offer here. If not, I definitely would've gone over there. This was what I wanted to do. I've always wanted to be in the big leagues since my earliest memories. I don't think my first goals were to eat, drink or breathe. It was to make the big leagues."
The Twins are certainly happy that Colabello decided to stick it out, as he's carried his impressive Spring Training over into the regular season while seeing time at designated hitter, first base and right field. He's been one of the biggest surprises in baseball, hitting .370/.414/.630 with one homer, four doubles and an AL-leading 11 RBIs through his first seven games this year.
"He could have been in Korea, but we're glad to have him right here," manager Ron Gardenhire said. "He took a chance and it's paying off. He's in the big leagues."
But the road to the Majors was a long and unusual one for Colabello, as the Milford, Mass., native starred for Worcester in the Can-Am League for seven years before finally getting a chance with Minnesota in '12.
Colabello was assigned to Double-A New Britain in his first year with the club, and he hit .284/.358/.478 with 19 homers and 98 RBIs in 134 games to finish as the runner-up in the Eastern League MVP Award balloting. He followed that up last year by hitting .352/.427/.639 with 24 homers, 25 doubles and 76 RBIs in 89 games at Triple-A Rochester en route to winning the International League MVP Award.
But Colabello couldn't carry that success over into his first stint in the Majors, as he hit .194/.287/.344 with seven homers and three doubles in 55 games last season. He came into Spring Training battling for a roster spot and ultimately made the club after showing off his power from the right side by hitting .349 with a homer and four doubles in 23 games this spring.
"For me, it's a great story for a guy who has persevered as long as he has and had some great years in the independent leagues," assistant general manager Rob Antony said. "He didn't get a chance with a Major League organization, but when he did, he took advantage of it. He's an important guy with some right-handed power. We need offense."
Colabello also made some mechanical tweaks he believes have helped him, including simply moving closer to the plate. He still has an unorthodox approach, with most of his power going to the opposite field, but he has done a better job pulling the ball with power, including a bases-clearing double to left-center against the Indians on Saturday.
But Colabello says his confidence has been the biggest key, as he learned a lot during his time in the Majors last year -- even though the results weren't there.
"I think more than anything else, the mental changes have helped me," Colabello said. "You have to be more aware of everything around you and not let the game speed on up you. Just go into the box, take a deep breath, and say, 'Let's compete.' You can't go up there thinking, 'I need to hit a double or a homer right here.'"
The question remains whether Colabello can keep it up. He'll continue to see playing time at DH, along with the left-handed-hitting Jason Kubel, while making spot starts at first base and right field.
But Colabello remains confident that his hot start is no fluke. He's been betting on himself his whole career, and he is not going to stop now.
"I'm just trying to be myself," Colabello said. "I'm not trying to do too much. I'm staying relaxed. It's nice to have that experience last year and learn from my mistakes. I'm just trying to get better every day. The main objective as a hitter is coming to the park and making adjustments to get better."
Rhett Bollinger is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Bollinger Beat, and follow him on Twitter @RhettBollinger.