text:
Difference between revisions of "Kansas State Visit Data"
|Line 430:
|Line 430:
**Economic Development
**Economic Development
**Increase collaboration and bring people to the table
**Increase collaboration and bring people to the table
Revision as of 22:41, 28 March 2007
Laura McClure, former State Legislator
1. What is your state's vision for highspeed broadband connectivity in the state? How are you defining high speed?
627 incorporated communities.
75% of people live in small communities
Former legislator from 92 to 02. Served rural counties.
On KanEd committee, also on Utilities Committee
Special telecom committee
Telecom act 96 and KanEd was to give access to people in small towns access to the Internet. Make dial-up available through rural Kansas.
Schools a big part.
Libraries big for adults who don't have computers.
KanEd was to help do this.
Also to allow distance ed.
Statewide "ubiquitous" seamless, affordable service.
Tried to get up to 56K.
Kansas Corporation Commission that regulates all utilities called that "rural welfare".
Was funding to help get 56K throughout the state.
Real tension between urban and rural. Urban didn't care if rural got any service. Anything that gave rural subsidies.
Got it passed but didn't happen.
Many of the schools and libraries couldn't afford what a teleco was "touting" as their package
Fiber to the doorstep in some areas now.
BlueSkies satellite.
"Can't expect dial=up to every farmhouse in the country"
Look for a document on the telecom act of 96 and it would have the statute. Look for Rainey Gilian could find it.
Lynn Holt was the research person who worked on it.
2. What steps are you taking (have you taken) to make this vision a reality?
KanEd was created.
Tried to bring in all the players.
Good documentation on this.
Summer interim document
Cities and counties??
Got it passed. Took several years.
Argued over where funding would come from.
Two other legislators
Carl Holmes, House Rep
Sen. Jay Emler, owns a telecom operation
General idea of KanED was because did not see a lot of progress from the telecom act.
KanEd came out of this.
Wanted interconnectedness and opportunity at a reasonable price across the whole state.
Talked to some who were not real pleased with how it turned out.
Original purpose of KAnEd was local providers would work with KAnEd to provide at a reasonable cost, partially through KUSF funding. Just give grants, not broker prices.
Does KUSF $$ go to library or to teleco?
Didn't even think of asking KanED to negotiate.
Not sure how all the details were actually implemented.
Not familiar with I2.
Talk to Ft. Hayes about distance education. Have students in China and Istanbul. Use a lot of technology.
Cindy Eliot is in charge of China program.
3. What is taking (has taken) the lead in bringing this about?
Laura was the ranking democrat.
A lot of "drivenness" came out of this committee.
Combination of legislative initiative and someone bringing it to them.
Can't remember.
After telecom 96 that didn't work, wanted to find something that would.
4. How successful have you been so far?
Look at website to see who has signed on.
Only a few public libraries.
Nex tec rural telco provides BB.
In her town, Osborn, public library only has 3or 4 computers and they are old.
Librarians are overwhelmed with everything they are doing.
Previous librarian was not a computer person.
In many of smaller communities that have older librarians, the training piece is huge.
If nobody know how to run them.
Why so few libraries
Age of computers
Librarians overwhelmed
Should KAnEd reach out to these libraries?
Assumed they would since they had the money.
Could have provided training.
Looks like from the list they have reached out to the schools.
5. What barriers are you encountering in your efforts to establish a successful broadband network?
Age of computers local libraries
Lack of trained librarians, many are unpaid volunteers
General public, if don't know what KAnEd or high speed network is and does, then they don't push for it.
Where the libraries are connected, there was a champion at the library who went after KanEd connection.
Her library is a hotspot so people bring their own.
Frustration a barrier. Librarians got excited and then it didn't happen. Hit a brick wall and gave up.
6. What role do you see for public libraries in your state's broadband vision?
If they are connected and part of KanEd,
They library has to let the community know what it has to offer.
Trying to bring economic development back to the community. Need a broadband connection to do that.
Library has to let community know they have high speed. Library is in the middle of everything if connected.
Techie generation is in the schools. If connectivity not in schools than have to have it in the libraries to give equal opportunity.
7. Is the state librarian involved in your work to implement high speed broadband access? (Ask if it seems appropriate)
Duane was involved.
Duane testified.
Most of the drive came from the legislators.
8. What might the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation do to help local public libraries get high speed connectivity?
Endowment fund to put some money in and encourage other foundations to invest. Use income from endowment fund to pay telecom costs. Would help KanEd in the future.
Interview With Kansas State Library Staff
Rhonda Machlin – resource sharing specialist
Patti Butcher - Statewide Resource Sharing
Roy Bird - LSTA coordinator
Eric Gustafson – techn
Marc Galbraith = Deputy state library
1. What is your state's vision for highspeed broadband connectivity in the state? How are you defining high speed?
T-1 for every library including branches
Still have many libraries on dial-up
Ability to use more virtual content instead of having physical content in the library
Be able to take advantage of digital resources.
Many projects directly impacted by less bandwidth
Moving toward a hybrid catalog. Database of records plus actual live catalogs. Real time connections with local catalogs. As they make changes in catalog, happens automatically.
Overdrive audio books and more.
Customers can't get these at local libraries.
Business titles
Language studies
Heaviest use is fiction but also non-fiction.
Homework Kansas, kids can't get homework help.
Videos – sign language instruction
Video-conferencing – not enough bandwidth.
Self-initiated ILL. Can be done without high speed but takes quite the work to verify patrons.
Access to databases.
Most just want to get to Heritage Quest
2. Barriers to high speed connectivity in Kansas
Lobby against KanEd providing last mile
Turf wars between cable and telcos
More cooperation between public library and school district or public library and community college
Like to see aggregation
Different government structureare a barrier
Some have made an effort to.
Librarians and library boards who don't see the need
Don't understand what's out there – education issue
Some libraries get free internet from cable. Just take what they can get, not what they need.
Operate same way they budget. – see what they get and then use rather than this is what we need and then get it.
NO vision
Number of small rural libraries
3. How can these barriers be overcome
A statewide training initiative
But many training initiatives are based on BB access
"They" Need a statewide vision
But bigger than libraries.
In library community, library leadership
Regional systems
School libraries
Need an individual standard bearer. This is where I would like to see the state go. Should be Christie.
Just study and study issues and by the time make a decision, the moment has past.
Part of problem is inertia.
When KanEd first passed, thought it would be answer.
4. Why did KanEd fail?
Vision of the person who headed it up, was different than what proposed.
Partnership was with schools, higher ed, and hospitals. Each needs something a little bit different.
They are not getting high speed either.
Have 800 members but less than 300 are connected. Most are academic and school districts.
Some of these have high speed networking through KanREn.
5. Who at the table in planning for high speed broadband
In local communities, groups that could work together
Hospitals ?? but they are problematic
Trustees – have to be involved to share vision.
Need some carrots and sticks
Have had standards for libraries but more suggestions than standards.
Regional cooperatives would cooperate.
Problem is there is nothing to get behind. No vision.
Means switching priorities among systems. They have the money.
Vision is important because they don't see what's coming next.
6. What might the Gates Foundation do to help?
Help develop the vision
Help libraries with erate – lot of libraries that don't apply because of paperwork.
A lot of small libraries.
Kansas DISC
Denies Moore, the Chief Information Technology Officer (Executive Branch) who heads the Division of Information Systems and Communications met with us during our visit.
- Kan-Win Network Description
- Kansas Wide Information Network (Kan-Win) is a network for state agencies
- Department of information Systems oversee the network
- Through the Bureau of Telecommunications
- Network that supports 625 sites
- Backbone runs between Topeka, Kansas City and Wichetaw
- Centered in Topeka—where it connects the entities to the Internet
- Has negotiated a postalized rate for T1s, with most running back to Topeka
- Topeka is connected via fiber-optic Metro Area Network (using Ethernet)
- Recently moved from a 40 Mbps backbone to OC3
- Funding
- Fee for service—each agency pays DISC for the services it receives over Kan-Win
- That way, the agencies that receive federal funding can use the money to pay for connection
- This also forces Kan-Win to be run efficiently, otherwise agencies would go elsewhere for cheaper service
- Governance
- Governance lies at the secretary of administration
- But in actuality is given to DISC
- Best Practices
- Aggregate demand
- Allows for maximization of funding and efficiency
- Centralized service also cuts down on overhead (each agency doesn't have to have WAN expert)
- Centralized agency to negotiate w/ telcos (they are experts at it and individual agencies don't have to have this expertise on staff)
- Manage all the local loops
- Aggregate demand
- Challenges
- Diversity of customers makes it difficult to keep them satisfied
- Building the infrastructure to keep up with the demand
- Keeping in touch with customers to etermine what they are doing that will require increasing the bandwidth
- Adequate Bandwidth
- In Topeka, not too much to worry about because of fiber network
- For others they monitor the throughput
- Determines what is available
- Bumps up as necessary
- But also aggregates as possible
- E.g. instead of getting fractional T1s in an office buildings w/ multiple agencies, they will get a full T1 and charge for utilization
- B&M Gates Interventions
- Increase funding to public libraries to help pay for connections
- Increase their ability to work w/ local providers
- State-wide plan to help libraries get connected & understand what is available to them
- Need help defining and developing a plan of action
- Understand where they fit in their communities
- Support for E-Rate
- Help libraries make use of the services available to them
Justin Mcclure
Justin is from Next-Tech.
- About Next Tech
- Nex-Tech is a de-regulated company a CLEC that is owned by an ILEC Rural Telecom
- Also provides Cable T
- Fixed Wireless, DSL and Cable Modem
- State of Broadband in their area
- The digital divide is a myth. They provide connectivity to towns as small as 100 people to get it out to
- in areas where no wireline, they provide wireless
- 83% of their customers
- Partners w/ Wildblue to get 100% of their customers available
- Territory is NW Kansas
- Building fiber to the home in some of the markets IPTV
- Follows NECA tariffs in some of the rural areas (in ILEC areas) for pricing
- Who is the leader?
- Them-They had DSL starting in 1996 when they were formed
- Impedements to growing their footprint
- Competition-already one or two providers where they want to go
- Acquires some of the smaller companies to be one of those
- Not many towns left that are unserved
- Distance from telephone switch office—they do everything they can to get them connected
- Competition-already one or two providers where they want to go
- State involvement
- Not @ all…
- Grants from federal government
- Government regulation
- Data retention laws would impede their deployment, but for the most part, they are unregulated
- Rights of way
- Controlled to munincipalities
- Does make it more difficult then it could be
- Municipalities 'overextended' their requests
- Statewide video franchise
- Kansas has passed video franchise
- Next IT state-wide franchise passed, but they plan to continue to work w/ cities
- Backbone
- No problems at all Connection w/ AT&T and redundant w/ Sprint.
- Lease fiber to get back to Topeka for AT&T and sprint to Kansas City
- Looking into redundant connection w/ Cox
- Libraries
- Just viewed them as regular customers
- Connects 19 (13 LEC 6 in CLEC)
- They provide wi-fi hot-spot
- Most interaction w/ libraries is by the sales guys who are selling the services
- Just viewed them as regular customers
- BM& G Interventions
- Internet paid for completely
- Helping them to fill out paperwork to get connection
- Educate them to use services and
- Figure out a way to have an ongoing funding mechanism
- Bigger ones do not have as much funding issues as some of the smaller ones
- Figure out how to connect libraries to Kan-Ed
- Company does connect some organizations
- No libraries have requested to join Kan-Ed
- Thinks it got pushed out quickly with hype an fanfare…they thought it would be a good idea, but enough places have been connected and no differentiation
- How do you define
- Some 256k, but will be 512k down; plans up to 6 mb over DSL and wireless
Linda, Mark and Christie met with Brad Williams. Brad is the CIO of the Kansas board of regents and the interim director of Kan-Ed. He was involved w/ Kan-Ed at it's inception.
- History of Kan-Ed
- The idea for the network started around 1999-2000, but the bill failed
- Task force formed and had a report---authorized in 2001; funded in 2002
- Legislation had restrictions put in place to compromise w/ telcso
- No VOIP could go across the backbone
- Couldn't impair current contracts
- Has lost its focus---the network was formed for distance learning
- Backbone
- Legislation authorizes them to connect to commercial network
- However, as a policy decision Kan-Ed does not
- Therefore, the backbone is for private, intra-state communications only
- Backbone is an OC-3 connection
- which is leased from a variety of providers including Cox Cable, AT&T, Sprint (Embark) depending on which part of the state the backbone is running
- Backbone is only used for video conferencing and connection to I2
- Would like it to be used more for data transfer
- Only 39 libraries connect to the backbone
- MB Note: 25 of these libraries are connected b/c they are connected to Kan-Ren and they get to the Kan-Ed backbone through a peering arrangement
- No standards on how entities connect—just that they do
- Legislation authorizes them to connect to commercial network
- Subsidy
- In addition to operating backbone, they provide 100 libraries with 100% of Internet connectivity costs (up to $3000)
- This subsidy is before E-Rate and so libraries will apply for Kan-Ed money and not file E-Rate app
- Kan-Ed gives them subsidy, but it is up to libraries to contract for connectivity
- In addition to operating backbone, they provide 100 libraries with 100% of Internet connectivity costs (up to $3000)
- Other Services
- Database subscriptions
- Purchase of portals to help kids surf the net safely
- Other grant programs for members (90% of libs are members)
- Funding
- Started w/ $10 million from KUSF
- Is now $8 million KUSF and $2 million general revenue
- Was supposed to scale back off of KUSF, but now they are stopping at this figure
- E-Rate
- Applies for telecomm E-Rate yearly (for several million dollars)
- Also provides toll free e-rate support to members
- B&M Gates Interventions
- Assistance w/ E-Rate apps
- Assistance w/ telco negotiations
- Help w/ LAN implementations
Don Moler
Don Moler is the Executive Director of the League of Kansas Municipalities. He met with us to discuss broadband deployment
- Background on cities
- No vision for broadband deployment
- 626 incorporated in Kansas
- Larger cities are OK as far as deployment
- Cities with population of under 10,000 (of which there are 600) may have difficulty
- Respondent wishes there were a government initiative for broadband
- There is a large mix of providers
- Some cities have satellite broadband
- Some cities have cable ISPs
- Had a fight w/ AT&T over video franchising
- Wanted to local cities to maintain the rights of way and franchise fe
- And to provision for build out requirements
- Cable companies are the dominant provider of broadband
- Vision for deployment
- League of cities is an information broker
- City to state
- State to city
- Want is deployed to 100% of the state
- Not much is being deployed right now
- Municipalities can over broadband (and some do via public boards)
- League kills bills that seek to curb these offerings
- League of cities is an information broker
- Where to libraries fall into his vision
- Libraries are part of city government
- Part of the tax levy of cities
- hence, sort of on their radar
- MB Note: he seems quite willing to work w/ Christie whereas he may have had less than cordial relations w/ previous state librarian
- Barriers to deployment
- AT&T not willing to build
- Distance cost factor
- State not mandating deployment
- Strong sentiment in the state for anti-taxation
- Feeling that government = bad; business = good
- Trying to bring everyone to the table is hard
- There is a dichotomy whereby some are well connected and others aren't
- 4 or 5 rich counties in east KS that has 1/3 of the population and is fairly high tech vs. areas of the state where low pop density and low tech
- AT&T has a huge lobby of 50 people for 165 legislatures
- Cable wants little to no competition
- B&M Gates Interventions
- Link deployment to economic development
- Formation of a public private partnership to get issues on the table to ensure needs are met
- Have an independent consultant (one with no stake and that does not show favoritism to any one entity to bring the following to the table:
- Libraries, K12, Higher Ed, Local Government, State Agencies, Governor, Legislature, local municipalities, counties
Senator Brownlee
Senator Brownlee was instrumental in the formation of the Kan-Ed network and, as of recently, is not pleased with the results of the project
- Perception of Kan-ed
- Expressed disappointment that Kan-Ed has not done more
- Wanted to have 75% of libraries, schools and hospitals connected by 2004
- But Kan-Ed interpreted it as connecting 75% of those requesting and didn't make the goal
- THer are libraries appealing to get on, but not connected
- Does not understand why more libraries aren't connected
- Paid for out of the Kansas Universal Service Fund (KUSF)
- Senator Brownlee was trying to figure out how to use the fund and had this idea
- Funded @ $10 million per year
- Her vision was to have an entitity with buying power to help w/ negotiations
- Her perception was that Kan-Ed should not have negotiated individual contracts
- Rather, they should have waited to sign contracts until all were signed
- Wanted all to be on a common platform (is not a techie so not sure what that means)
- Kan-Ed purchases databases
- But databases are available on commercial internet, so no incentive to join Kan Ed to access these databases
- MB Note: Seemed to want to force libs to join Kan-Ed backbone in order to get databases
- One perception she has was that the smaller telcos invest before the larger ones
- Is considering merger of networks
- B&M Gates Interventions
- Rural Telemedicine
- Economic Development
- Increase collaboration and bring people to the table
Doug Heacock is the Executive Director of Kan-Ren (the Kansas Research and Education Network) who came to Topeka to meet with us.
- Overview
- KanRen is the education and research network
- 501(c)3 Non-profit
- Funded by membership fee and fees for service
- Connects Universities, Community Colleges, Public Schools and Libraries
- Has 50 members w/ 70 connected sites
- Libraries
- Connects 26 Libraries
- 5 libraries independent of the co-op
- They pay full membership fee and for connection
- 21 through the Northeast Kansas Library System (NEKLS)
- NEKLS pays full membership fee
- Libraries pay reduced membership fee b/c NEKLS is their primary tech support provider
- Run line from POP to NEKLS then from NEKLS to libraries
- Some connect directly to the Kansas City POP b/c it is cheaper to run the circuit
- History
- Started around '93 w/ a NSF connections grant
- Connected institutions for free using grant and started charging when grant ran out
- Changed connection policy when grant ran out to allow other institutions to connect
- Services they provide
- Negotiates w/ telco for last mile
- Provides backbone
- POPs arranged in a star with Lawrence in the middle connecting to Lawrence, Witchetaw, and two other sites
- Backbone leased from by Cox Cable and AT&T
- Backbone connects to Internet at Kansas City (provided by Qwest) and in Wichetaw (bought by Cox)
- Connects to great plains Internet2 POP from Kansas City
- Is considering an upgrade to a ring backbone
- Internet2 Access (if the qualify)
- Tech Support and Training
- Network Operations
- QoS, IPv6 and multicast
- Video conferencing
- Note: runs Kan-ed backbone, too
- Governance
- 501(c)3 overseen by board of directors
- Funding
- Members pay fee based on size
- Members pay for telco circuit
- Kan-Ren will help negotiate w/ telcos and will manage the circuit, but members must pay for it
- Libraries apply for E-Rate on their own
- Dream (b4 Kan-ed, but still maybe possible)
- Have all 7 library consortiums join
- Only needs to put together $$$
- Last mile is the most difficult
- Especially for libs w/ small budge
- Kan-ed
- only interested in Backbone and subsidies
- Not in providing last mile or internet access
- Thinks the state should step up and invest money to help libraries get connected
- Frank Discussion of Kan-Ed
- Thinks it uses a lot of money with no results
- Kan Ren operates on an annual budget of $3 million
- $1 million of which it gets to operate Kan-Eds backbone and provide tech support
- Funding for Kan-Ed is at $10 million annually ($40 million in the last 4 years exceeds what Kan-Ren has gotten in 14 years)
- In some cases the Kan-Ed connection goes to one room in a school district for video conferencing
- Thinks they are more of an advocate for telcos then the end user
- Kan-ed has an OC3 backbone at 3% utilization and some sections remain connected but unused
- Lots of Network access Points, but not many are used
- Kan-Ren could absorb all the traffic on Kan-Eds backbone and barely notice
- Kan-Ren may absorb the backbone traffic, which would allow the backbone to be shut down
- Internet providers profit margin is at the Internet connection—not in the circuit, so if Kan-ed were to get in the ISP business, telcos margins would shrink if Kan-Ren were to offer Internet to those connecting from Kan-Ed entity
- Note: very few libs connect to only Kan-Ed (about 12); the rest connect to Kan-Ren and gain access to Kan-Ed backbone through peering arrangment
- For Kan-Ren telcos know they won't get any internet mark-up, so charges accordingly
- Thinks the telcos would block funding @ state if Kan-Ed became an ISP
- Internet providers profit margin is at the Internet connection—not in the circuit, so if Kan-ed were to get in the ISP business, telcos margins would shrink if Kan-Ren were to offer Internet to those connecting from Kan-Ed entity
- Success factors
- Success because they provide reliability, tech support
- Consdiers their staff an extension of members tech support, so that members don't need to employ WAN engineers, they can just call Kan-Ren
- Thinks they do the best job possible, both financially and technically
- Adaptability-the environment has changed, but they persist when other ISPs didn't
- Hiring good people
- Transparency-members know everything that happens
- They believe in the right solution, not the cheapest
- Therefore could not underbid a telco but thinks they provide better service
- Developed Expertise
- Success because they provide reliability, tech support
- Barriers
- No state appropriations-a blessing and a curse
- Some potential members can't justify the extra cost of belonging to Kan-Ren
- If no membership, they could be more competitive
- But membership fee is where they get the money to pay their staff and provide training and tech support
- Overbuilds a bit, which incurs a bit of extra cost, which is passed on to members (but provides them with sufficient bandwidth out to Internet
- Currently provides 750 Mbps out to commodity Internet but only 650 Mbps is ever used
- How they allocate bandwidth
- Assumptions based upon # of workstations and expected usage of workstations
- Empirically based
- What applications they know their clients will run
- No good formula, but monitors closely
- B&M Gates Intervention
- Thinks the biggest barrier to more broadband is recurring costs
- There are some fixed costs, but those are small comparatively
- Thinks the state should view broadband the same as roads-> everyone needs it
- Provide seed money for first few years and once they are hooked, libraries will figure out how to pay for it
- once there is a community, they will
- Thinks the biggest barrier to more broadband is recurring costs


text:
"How Safe is your Gold?" – Transcript of Speech by BullionStar CEO
- 05 Aug 2016 10:06
- Torgny Persson
- 0 Comments
The following is the transcript of a presentation made by BullionStar's CEO Torgny Persson on 14 July 2016 to an audience at the FreedomFest conference in Las Vegas, USA:
Liberty is Prevailing
Freedom, ladies and gentleman.
Freedom is the right to think, speak and act the way that we want.
I think I speak for a lot of us here today in saying that we no longer believe in the imposed concept of a government taking care of us from cradle to grave.
I love the principles on which this country was founded.
Freedom of Speech,
Freedom of Thought,
Freedom of Movement,
and Property Rights
But a lot has changed since. Authoritarian tyrants have kidnapped free society. But make no mistake, people across the globe are waking up. The tyrants are losing.
We can see clearly that the tide has turned. Political correctness is crumbling.
We had Brexit in the UK a couple of weeks ago. The end of the world according to mainstream media. We have the rise of Donald Trump here in the US. Love him or hate him but he's breaking political correctness. He's saying the unsayable.
It is starting to dawn on the tyrants that it's all over.
More speech is always better than less speech.
So people are rising up, finally, people are rising up.
Liberty is prevailing! Liberty will always prevail. Freedom is a powerful concept. Freedom to think, say, read and do what you want.
We don't need to be instructed how to live our lives. We have been oppressed by the government and lied to by the media long enough. Freedom is a force that can't be stopped.
We don't need anyone's authority to govern our own lives. Freedom, think about it, is simply the concept of living your life the way you desire.
My name is Torgny. I'm an economist by training. I'm the founder of 3 different precious metals dealers worldwide. Being Swedish by origin, I first started the Swedish bullion dealer LibertySilver.se in 2008. Liberty because if you own precious metals, you can gain independence and liberty from the oppressive financial system as you're not locked in to the fraudulent banking system.
I have a Master's Degree in Economics. If you ever get the chance to study economics, don't do it. Economics is upside down. Instead of modelling what is actually happening in the real world, economics is a product of professors peer reviewing each other, holding each other's hands, coming up with obscure models that they try to push onto the world.
I subsequently started Liberty Silver in Estonia in 2011, and most importantly BullionStar in Singapore in 2012. Today I'm looking to cover three different topics.
First, I will cover what is happening on the gold market by looking at the most important gold trends of 2016. What's happening in the gold market and what can we expect ahead?
Then I will talk about Singapore because Singapore is the very best place in the world for wealth preservation and asset protection and it's the best place in the world to buy and store precious metals.
And I will conclude by talking about how I have set up BullionStar with the purpose of servicing offshore bullion protection. I moved to Singapore with my family 3 years ago to establish BullionStar in Singapore simply because it is the best country in the world from which to offer precious metals services for international diversification, and asset and wealth protection.
Global Economy 2016
To understand the gold market, we have to understand what is happening in the global economy – and the relative 'health' of the global economy today.
Stock and bond markets have been performing well over the last years but the underlying economies are struggling. Record low interest rates, sub-zero in many countries, and massive money printing have't triggered any real economic or trade growth.
We can even see that the viability of innovating, of creating new products, of selling products for a profit has become secondary to the goal of just having a corporate presence on the public investment markets. Today, it's more important for company managers to list their company on the stock exchange than it is to actually create an innovative product that makes money.
So we have an economic system that incentivizes reckless debt behaviour, which leads to asset bubbles, boom-bust cycles, massive debt, mal-investment and inflation.
But how has this monster of debt and inflation been created? What's at the core of our current economic system?
Today's Monetary System
It's the monetary system that allows government to steal through taxation and inflation. Taxation is of course the same as theft. They just had to invent another world of it. Income tax of 30% sounds a hell of a lot better than income theft of 30%. Everyone agrees that it would be wrong for me to go up to someone in this room with $100 and steal $30.
Just because a group of people get together and call themselves the government, it doesn't change the immorality in stealing.
The monetary system, of course, also redistributes wealth via inflation. Inflation is also theft but in a discreet way as it happens slowly without the general population being aware of it. What did a gallon of milk cost when you were young? What did an ice cream cost?
Inflation is a redistribution of wealth from late receivers of newly printed money i.e. you and I, normal people, to the early receivers. i.e. the government, the central banks and the commercial banks.
The US Dollar is important in this context because the US Dollar is the reserve currency of the world. As we can see from this chart, the US Dollar actually did pretty well until the beginning of the 20th century. But what happened in the beginning of the 20th century?
The Federal Reserve was created in 1913 and the world went off the gold standard.
Since then the world's currencies have lost 99% or more of their value.
We have been indoctrinated into believing that the world's current monetary system is a natural system, but nothing is further from the truth. We should have moved on from it a long time ago as this monetary system really is the root cause of the financial debt disease that we are seeing today.
How is Money Created Today?
Today more and more people are becoming aware of the Federal Reserve's counterfeiting of money through Quantitative Easing (QE). However, it's still a mystery to many how most of our money is created today.
Most of today's money is created not by central banks, but by normal commercial banks. It's just created out of thin air when the commercial bank extends a loan. There's nothing backing this money creation, there's nothing tangible to it.
Let's illustrate how it works with an example. We have Robert who is in the market for a 1 million dollar house. Robert's career choice is as a fast food restaurant worker, part-time, on minimum wage. But Robert knows he has to look credit worthy when meeting his bankster so he dusts off his tie for the occasion.
The bankster takes a quick look at Robert and judges him as credible. No problem. You'll get the mortgage. Now, where did the USD 1 million that the bank lent Robert come from?
It was created out of thin air when the bank extended the loan to Robert. It was just created as a book-keeping entry in the bank's accounting system out of thin air.
This is how approximately 92% of US money supply is created today. It's created by banks out of thin air when lending. It's easy to understand, but for some people hard to believe as it's just too absurd.
92% Electronic Currency
Only 8% of the US Dollar money supply today exists in physical form and even this 8% are just worthless pieces of paper that only have a value as long as people can be brainwashed into believing they have a value.
Some people actually still think that the US Dollar is gold backed. As a thought experiment, let's calculate what the price of gold would have to be for the US Dollar to be backed by gold.
The Federal Reserve claims to hold, and note that I say claims to hold because there has never been any independent proper audit of the US Treasury vault holdings, 8133 metric tons of gold. At the same time there's about 17 trillion of US Dollars in circulation. The price of gold is currently about USD 1300 per troy ounce. The US gold reserves as valued in US Dollars would therefore be worth about 340 billion dollars. This means that the price of gold would have to rise 50-fold for all outstanding US Dollars to be backed by gold today. 50-fold. This is how much the value of our currencies have been eroded.
What is Money?
We can thus see that the world's current money system isn't serving us the people. But what is money in the true sense?
For something to emerge as money on a free market, it needs to serve three purposes.
- Medium of Exchange – Money is the intermediary in the exchange of goods and services. If we don't have money, we're back to barter systems of medieval times which is very impractical.
- Unit of Account – Money is supposed to serve as a measuring stick that everyone understands. Money is a frame of reference. And sure, if I tell you that something costs $100 you have a pretty good idea how much that is, but the problem is that it takes $100 today to buy something that cost $1 a hundred years ago.
- Store of Value – Money is supposed to keep its purchasing power over time, to keep its value.
Let's now compare paper currency and gold to see which has the best monetary characteristics.
Durability – Money is not supposed to corrode, oxidize or burn. Well, paper money burns easily whereas gold melts under heat but isn't destroyed.
Portability: Paper money and gold can both be moved. Electronic currency can be moved very easily but can also be deleted by the stroke of a key.
Divisibility – Let's do an experiment. I have here a 10 dollar note and a 1 gram gold bar. Now what happens if a split this 10 dollar note, what does it become? Does it become two 5 dollar notes? No it doesn't, it becomes two worthless pieces of paper. Now what if I instead split this 1 gram gold bar into two equally sized pieces, what does it become? It becomes 2 bars of 0.5 grams each which together is still what I had at the beginning i.e. 1 gram! This tells us a lot about the worthlessness of our paper money.
Fungibility – Fungibility means that each and every unit is indistinguishable from the other
Intrinsic Value – Gold has a high value because of its metallic characteristics. It has high density, it's soft but still strong, and it's what's called malleable, meaning that it can be stretched without breaking. A 1 oz gold coin can actually be stretched out 50 miles without breaking. That's 6 times all the way up and down the Las Vegas strip!
Imbalances from Using Dishonest Money
By using dishonest money as the world is doing today, we get huge global imbalances.
The US is running a massive trade deficit. There's much more stuff coming into the US than there is leaving. How are the excess imports paid for? The answer is that it's paid for by newly created money.
It's interesting to note that it's only possible to run trade deficits to this enormous extent if you issue the currency that is used as reserve currency. This is thus only possible in the US, as the US Dollar is used as the world's reserve currency. In any other, non-US country, it wouldn't have been possible because the currency would depreciate when there's a continuous trade deficit.
When the currency is depreciating, it becomes more expensive to import goods and it becomes cheaper for others to buy exported goods. Trade is therefore rebalancing.
This is not happening in the US though and the reason for it is that the US Dollar itself is demanded as reserve currency around the world.
There's a lot of finger-pointing towards the US because of this, blaming the US for living beyond its means. I don't agree with that though as it is the rest of the world, i.e. non-US countries, that is demanding US Dollar as reserves which they don't necessarily have to do. So this is what's called an exorbitant privilege.
China & US Debt
Things are changing rapidly though as structural changes to the system are long overdue. The system we have today is in no way sustainable. The US Dollar is losing structural support from surplus countries, most notably from China.
Foreign countries are no longer increasing their reserves of US Dollars. China is no longer increasing its holdings of US Treasuries. They stopped buying them. So the system of the US Dollar acting as a reserve currency is very fragile and is only holding together based on the premise of more bribes. Private investors, especially in countries where the markets and currencies are failing such as in South America, buy bonds but they only do so on the promise of more and more easy money to come. People have been conditioned for many decades to run to the US Dollar as a safe haven although I predict that to soon change.
Foreign governments and particularly China are not interested in owning anymore US debt though. The question is when will the private support for the US Dollar stop, because then there's no one to support US debt anymore except the Fed itself. When will it happen? Timing wise I'm not sure. When I started Liberty Silver in 2008, I thought it would happen much sooner that it has. Sooner or later, it's going to happen though. We will first get a strong deflationary pressure, we are basically in that phase already. Credit will default but this will not be accepted by the governments, who will buy up debt at all costs, eventually leading to a crisis of confidence and then we're in big trouble because then people will start to spend their savings quickly leading to hyperinflation. And when that happens, debt and credit is not a good store of value.
And who best understands this situation today? China still has a big surplus though so what do they buy instead?
Chinese Gold Rush
They are buying tangible assets. Gold is one such asset but China is also a major foreign direct investor in all sorts of projects from mining in Africa to infrastructure in central Asia.
The Chinese understand that the days of the US Dollar are numbered.
Whereas Westerners have mostly been shunning gold for the latter part of this decade, the Chinese have been vacuuming the world's vaults for physical gold. This chart shows that the Chinese, including both the government and private sector, are holding at least 16,000 tonnes of gold.
The Chinese government even runs adverts on national TV encouraging everyone to buy gold. Just imagine the US government running adverts on national TV encouraging people to buy gold.
Why do the Chinese do this? The simple answer is that they understand that gold is a stable savings asset, but they also understand that the days of the US Dollar as the reserve currency of the world are numbered, and they understand that gold is a much better safeguard against inflation and currency destruction than anything else.
This trend of gold flowing from the West to the East is the same as a flow of power from the West to the East. It has huge geopolitical implications because whoever has the gold in the end has the power. In my opinion, the Chinese are buying as much gold as they possibly can without breaking the neck of the market.
Western vs. Eastern Gold Mentality
I'm in a fortunate position because I'm running 3 bullion dealers across the world, both in the west and in the east. I have two businesses in Europe and one in Singapore in Asia so I'm fortunate to be able to compare eastern and western gold mentality.
What I see is that when the price of gold is going up, westerners buy. In the west, most people are looking to get a return on their investment. That's how we've been conditioned because if we don't get a return, inflation will eat up the value of the money.
But when the price of gold is dropping, there are a lot of Asians buying. We get queues outside our shop. Easterners are not looking for a return on their investment. What I see is that easterners don't view gold as an investment vehicle. They view gold as real wealth, they view it as a safeguard against inflation and currency destruction. They view it as savings which provides independence.
In the west, we see the opposite. When the gold price is dropping, Westerners give up. It's not good for my investments so I need to chase some other investment. So in the West, people instead buy when the price goes up, due to being trend seekers, as we've also witnessed this year.
But in my opinion, we can learn a lot from the Eastern mentality because the Eastern mentality is that gold is savings. There's no counterparty risk for gold. You don't have to trust any government, central bank or commercial bank when you buy and hold gold. You don't need to trust anyone because you hold your wealth yourself so you're in control.
Simply put, in the East, people are value buyers and buy for generational wealth, whereas in the West people mostly buy gold for the lure of currency profits.
How can Westerners piggyback this successful strategy to save/invest in gold outside the reach of intrusive governments?
Singapore's Story
Let's take a look at Singapore. I've been living in Singapore for about 3 years. I relocated with my family 3 years ago from Sweden, the worst socialist country in the world. And the country with the most political correctness by far anywhere. You think it's bad in the US, check out Sweden. Socialism is cancer. I'm not going back there.
I moved to Singapore simply because it's the best country in the world for precious metals, it's as easy as that. Whether my kids agree, I don't know but they like to play with silver coins and actually understand the intrinsic value of precious metals much better than most people in their 40's and 50's.
Singapore is the new Switzerland for asset protection. It's the best and safest country in the world for wealth preservation.
Singapore is unique. Let me tell you my story about when I first went to Singapore. My business partner and I first visited Singapore on an exploratory trip researching whether to establish BullionStar in Singapore after we discovered that the Singaporean government was abolishing the sales tax on precious metals in Singapore in 2012. This is interesting because how many countries today are deregulating anything let alone precious metals? In other countries the rulebook just gets bigger and bigger. I know there's many absurd examples from the US. From Sweden where I originate, the guidance on the sales tax that all companies must know and follow is 3,000 pages long. That's insane. The rulebook of absurdity is just growing. Singapore may be the only country that is taking the opposite route of actually removing rules.
In Singapore, the government wants to create a trading, transit and storage hub for precious metals so they actually removed the major hindrance to that, the sales tax (GST / VAT as it's called in some countries), which is rather unique.
So on my first trip to Singapore together with my business partner, we went to one of the suppliers in Singapore to discuss business opportunities. We had a general business discussion and they said, have you talked to the government yet? So I'm from Sweden where if you send a question to a government authority, in best chance you may get a reply after a few months if you're lucky and they'll most likely harass you with an inspection or audit while they're at it.
We've been through a lot of that in Sweden even though we're following all the rules meticulously.
The Singapore supplier told us that we can indeed contact the governmental trade agency in Singapore so I said why not and I sent the government contact person an e-mail 11 pm. I get a reply in three minutes saying that we're welcome to meet them the next morning at their office.
Baffled, I replied that we will show up so we rock up to their office at 9 am in the morning. There are two guys meeting us. They are in their 20's – 30's and we discuss business opportunities with them. They tell us that we are welcome in Singapore, and that they want us here, and they encourage us to get started, and facilitate the introductions to different stakeholders and suppliers.
I met many bureaucrats in my life but that has never happened before, because bureaucrats are normally just interested in growing their reach, killing anything productive around them. Whereas in this case, they wanted to help us and even came up with their own private business ideas. And this is the Government! Where else would that happen, would it happen in the US? '
We were quite amazed and we went for it and established BullionStar in Singapore four years ago.
So in general terms, the Singaporean government is keen to incentivize productivity and they understand that the private economy is the backbone of the economy.
Singapore was actually literally kicked out of the Malaysian Federation 51 years ago. With nothing going for them and with no natural resources, the journey since has been a tremendous one. In a mere 50 years, which isn't a very long time when it comes to building a country, they've established the premier financial center of the world. They have done this with a very strong rule of law where there's a lot of freedom within a set framework. You have a lot of freedom as long as you keep within that framework and you especially have good business freedom.
Now, if you bring in guns or drugs, you'll be put away for a long time if not forever. I'm a libertarian so I don't really agree ideologically but I can see how this has been serving Singapore very well as a city-state, as there's no shootings whatsoever and very little drugs.
Singapore is the most business friendly country in the world. Hands down. The Singaporean government runs Singapore like it was a company.
They focus on productivity and innovation and luckily they are a too important as a country to be listed on any grey or black list because of their low tax regime and financial protection. They are also very good diplomats. A few years ago, OECD put pressure on Singapore to start signing Tax Information Exchange Agreements. The Singaporean government said, yes we will start signing these agreements. To date more than five years later, they have signed one such agreement with…Berumda…Strengthening Singaporean-Bermudian ties to ensure that the OECD doesn't bother them.
Compare this to Sweden is day and night. Sweden is often perceived as some sort of mellow well-working ideal. Bernie Sanders is touting Scandinavia as some sort of socialistic dream. Let me tell you, he's got no clue what he's talking about. Sweden's been going downhill severely in the last decades. Crime is rampant. Due to the migration crisis, Sweden tops all countries for sexual violence. In 2015 alone, 163,000 asylum seekers predominantly from Syria and Afghanistan, arriving into a country with a population of only 9 million. Everything is totally breaking down. You could never run a storefront precious metals dealership in Sweden like we do in Singapore.
Sweden is also practically cashless. Cash is rare as a payment mechanism, and oftentimes no longer accepted. I was very concerned about my family while we still lived in Sweden even though my Swedish bullion dealer business, Liberty Silver, didn't have a physical shop but just sent parcel deliveries via insured registered mail.
In Singapore, you can see currency exchangers exchanging tens of thousands of dollars without any security glass or any protection whatsoever and it's completely normal. A couple of months after I moved to Singapore, I walked past Raffles Place, in the Central Business District, and there was a currency exchanger in the process of counting cash in a counter, standing outside his booth with a currency counting machine. Just when I walked past, there was a gust of wind and a pile of bills were taken by the wind and this was on the busiest street of Singapore with lots of people walking by. The exchanger calmly walked around and picked up the 100 dollar notes like nothing had happened. I had to veer to the side not to step on any of them.
What does that tell you about the security in Singapore? It's incredibly secure. No one would dream of doing anything. It's a combination of no social exclusion and harsh penalties. There's no unemployment whatsoever in Singapore. Every shop you walk into has a sign: "we are hiring". There's a shortage of labor. Social standards are thus good. At the same time, the punishments for violent crimes are extremely harsh and includes caning.
Michael Fay, a US citizen, was actually sentenced to six strokes of the cane in 1993 after vandalising cars. The US protested loudly that caning was excessive for a teenager who committed a non-violent crime. The US embassy pointed out that the damage to the cars he vandalised wasn't permanent but the scars from the caning would leave permanent scars on the US citizen. Bill Clinton pressured Singapore to grand Mr. Fay clemency but Singapore stood its ground and carried out the sentence although reduced to four strokes. It's a rather harsh punishment. Your buttocks are bared and after three stokes, deep cuts are usually opening with blood squirting out. The enforcer must use the full force of his arm.
So this is an example of the rule of law in Singapore and whether you like it or not, it seems to serve as a deterrent.
Bullion in Singapore
Singapore is the very best country in the world for buying and storing precious metals.
There are no taxes on bullion whatsoever in Singapore. The Singaporean government has actually deregulated the precious metals market. There is no sales tax, no capital gains tax, no import or export taxes, no tariffs or restrictions, no inheritance tax, no gift tax, no dividend tax. Before 2012, there used to be GST (sales tax) on physical bullion, but as I mentioned they abolished that tax in 2012 as they want to encourage bullion dealers to establish in the country.
As we all know, Western countries introduce numerous invasive laws targeting privacy and that place the right to buy and store bullion confidentially under attack.
Importantly, there are no reporting requirements, whether domestically or internationally, when someone buys or stores precious metals in Singapore. Your bullion is your private business and we are under no obligation to report your holdings to anyone. If you buy and store bullion with us, we don't report it to anyone. You can hold bullion completely confidentially in Singapore and that also applies to FATCA. There's no FATCA reporting for BullionStar because we are not defined as a financial institution. We are keen on helping you defend your right to buy and store bullion confidentially without your local authorities prying into your bullion ownership.
The Singaporean government has chosen precious metals as a growth industry. Singapore is keen on creating a trade, transit and storage hub for precious metals in Singapore.
As regards safety, you can confidently walk into our storefront bullion retail store in central Singapore and buy bullion with cash, then hand carry your bullion out without being hassled due to the zero crime rate. This has the advantage that the insurance cost for bullion in Singapore is low. By the way, the sentence for robbery in Singapore is up to 20 years in prison and a minimum of six strokes of the cane.
In Singapore, property ownership rights are also very strong. Singapore doesn't allow frivolous litigation. Remember that it's less than 100 years since the US outlawed gold ownership. Western governments have a long history of stealing. It seems they can't help themselves when it comes to stealing. Singapore has no history of any confiscations, seizures or anything like that.
So, storing bullion in Singapore is an insurance policy against government intervention, wealth confiscation and frivolous litigation.
What makes BullionStar unique is that we combine online usability with physical accessibility.
BullionStar.com is our website where you can buy, sell and store physically allocated and segregated bullion.
Buy & Store Bullion in Singapore
It's very easy to get started with us. Other bullion dealers also say that it's easy but then they nonetheless slap you with 7 steps and require you to send in documentation. Signing up for an account with us is a one page registration form. It takes less than a minute. Much easier than signing up for a Gmail account or booking a flight online.
There are no documentation requirements. We don't force you to send us any documentation at all. You input an e-mail address, password, your address and select a PIN number. It takes, if you're quick on the keyboard, 30 seconds, and placing an order takes another 20 seconds. You select the items to buy, you go to the checkout and submit your order. One page checkout. I think I speak for many of us in how unnecessarily complicated everyone makes their online interfaces. PayPal, booking a flight ticket, government agencies, banks. They try to trick you into different things you don't want. Add insurance, add car rental etc.
It should be easy to buy and store gold. A lot of customers are genuinely surprised about how easy we make it. We get good feedback on how easy it is to deal and transact with us, and we have over 600 genuine Google reviews with an average of 4.8.
You can handle everything online 24/7. You can buy, sell, store, order physical withdrawal of your metals online and even audit your metals online.
Trust is very important in the bullion industry. If you trust as with your hard-earned savings, you have to be able to trust us. What I tell our customers is, don't trust us. Do your own due diligence. Don't take my word for it. Read up on us. Google us and do your own due diligence.
BullionStar Vault Storage
If you choose to buy and store bullion with us, it's important to know that we have five different auditing methods. We employ the LBMA-approved auditor Bureau Veritas to do third-party audits on all customer holdings bi-annually. We have something called the Live Audit Report where everyone can anonymously check on their own and all other customers' bullion holdings. Furthermore, we allow and encourage customers to walk-in to our bullion center in Singapore and do their own auditing of their own metal. If you choose to go to Singapore to audit your metals, you don't even have to notify us beforehand. You can just show up and ask to audit your metals, and we facilitate this on the spot. We will bring out your metals from the vault to the meeting room. You can go through everything and compare your bars and coins against your records and have a look at your own metals. This auditing program it thus very comprehensive.
We also take photos of your bullion and upload these images to your account. As soon as you have settled your payment, we process the metals into vault storage and take pictures of the actual bullion so that you can compare the bar serial numbers with your invoice. If you then come to our bullion center to do a physical audit yourself, you can again check on the serial bar numbers and if you physically withdraw your bars, those are the exact bars you receive.
With us, you own specific products. Your bars are allocated with you holding the direct legal title to the physical metal.
You can of course have your products shipped to you at any time fully insured. Even though Singapore is the safest country in the world, we have full insurance protection with the largest specie underwriter in the world, Chubb Insurance, for all risks at full replacement value. You can download the insurance document online. What's good is that as there's virtually no crime in Singapore, it makes the storage premiums low. We charge 0.39% of the average value per annum for gold and 0.59% for silver which includes full insurance for all risks, and all handling and online access for your segregated and allocated gold, which is very competitive.
Just like you can physically audit your metals, you can also come in to our shop to physically withdraw your metals without any prior notification. You show up, present your ID and tell us that you want the metals now and we simply hand over the metals to you.
Walk-in Bullion Center in Singapore
We can do this as our vault is actually integrated into the same venue as our shop.
Our bullion center consists of a retail bullion shop, showroom and vault in one and the same venue truly making it a one-stop-shop for everything precious metals. Our shop used to be a bank branch and has an old style bank vault built into it. The vault was built several decades ago and I believe the reason why the vault is still there is because of its sheer impenetrability. It's 30 inches thick, constructed from concrete and full of steel bars in the walls.
This is a unique shop. Nowhere else in the world do you have the flexibility of buying, selling, storing, depositing, valuing, physically auditing and physically withdrawing metals in one and the same storefront place without any prior notification.
You can just walk in, we have 20 showcase displays full of precious metals. So unlike many other dealers, we don't hide online on the internet and we believe this combination is quite unique.
Singapore is a long way from the US and you don't need to visit us to buy and store bullion with us. You can handle everything online. But if you ever go to Asia, I highly recommend that you pay us a visit to have a look. Whether you're a customer or not as it's a pretty cool concept.
BullionStar Cash & Bullion Account
Another unique feature that we offer is our BullionStar account. If you're considering opening an offshore account, we have the ideal solution for that. It's becoming more and more difficult to open bank accounts abroad. This is true generally but especially true for US customers.
With a BullionStar account, you can hold not only bullion on your account but also cash. You can hold US Dollars, Euros and Singapore Dollars on the account. It works like a bank account but we are not a bank. This is what is called a stored value facility and is under the same regulations as e.g. how PayPal holds client money.
As we don't operate under the risky fractionally reserved banking system, this is much safer than a bank account.
It makes it very easy to trade physical bullion, and makes it easy to average in or out of positions.
Funds can be held indefinitely on the account and can be used towards purchasing bullion at any time or you can withdraw your funds at any time.
BullionStar Gold & Silver Bars
BullionStar Gold & Silver Bars are the world's first and only gold & silver bar traded without any spread without the buy and sell price. This means that at any given point in time, the buy price is the same as the sell price.
What's the hook you might ask. Well, the initial price premium is slightly higher compared to the spot price of the metal than for other bars of comparable price, but instead there is no spread so you don't have trading cost whatsoever thereafter.
The bars are also very aesthetically attractive and if you haven't been yet, come by our booth 425 to check them out.
The BullionStar gold bar is produced by the Swiss refiner Argor-Heraeus and there's an inscription on the back side of the bar stating "Money since 4,000 B.C." matching our ideological belief that gold is money.
The BullionStar silver bar is produced by the renowned German refiner Heraeus.
These bars have become tremendously popular as they eliminate the often large spreads faced by physical silver investors.
BullionStar Offshore Bullion Solutions in Summary
BullionStar was set up for the purpose of international diversification, and to provide confidential offshore bullion storage while being very accessible and transparent for the customer him/herself.
Even though we have a lot of local Singaporean customers given our local shop, it was, to a large degree, set up to cater to offshore bullion protection specifically.
There are no taxes on bullion in Singapore and there are no reporting requirements whether locally or internationally. We treat your holdings with full confidentiality although we are very transparent to our customers.
BullionStar is unique in that we combine online usability with ease of registration and ease of online trading coupled with the accessibility of a physical bullion shop and vault in central Singapore. It's a one-minute process to sign up and place your first order with us.
With your BullionStar account, you can hold both bullion and cash funds in US Dollars, Euros and Singapore dollars on the same account, which is very convenient as it takes out the banks as the middle man between you and us.
When you hold metal with us, it's your metal – fully allocated and segregated. We deal with physical metals only. With us, you specifically choose which items you buy. You place an order on e.g. a 1 oz PAMP gold bar. We upload pictures of the specific gold bar that you own to your account. We input the serial bar numbers on your invoice. We store that specific bar for you specifically and you have the legal title to that gold bar.
You can then follow your holdings online in real-time and when you prefer, you can sell or physically withdraw (or audit) your 1 oz gold bar. When you audit or withdraw your gold bar, you are given the exact same gold bar with the exact same serial number as you were allocated when you bought it.
By introducing the BullionStar Gold & Silver Bars which can be traded without a spread between the buy and sell price, we've solved the problem of large premiums that physical bullion investors and savers were facing.
And we have the most competitive storage fees in the industry.
But don't take my word for it, check us out online and while Singapore is a long way from here, if you're ever around in Southeast Asia, come and visit us at 45 New Bridge Road in Singapore. Our booth number is 425 where we have some awesome metal on display and also a very cool video game, the QE defender, where the objective is to obstruct the Fed, ECB and Bank of Japan from dropping money into banks.
Thank you!
Popular Blog Posts by Torgny Persson

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Subscribe To Avengers 2: Age Of Ultron Screens Hulk Vs. Iron Man Footage Ahead Of Comic-Con Updates
I've already subscribed
For a number of reasons, we expect to see footage from Joss Whedon's The Avengers: Age of Ultron when Marvel hosts its panel from the stage of Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con. And now, we think we know what we will see if and when this footage screens.
Marvel President Kevin Feige screened footage from Joss Whedon's superhero sequel in the UK, according to Comic Book Movie, and reports from fans who were lucky to attend the presentation have been pouring in. According to all reports, the footage showed Tony Stark's Hulkbusting armor, which will be used in a battle with an angry Dr. Bruce Banner. Previously, in concept art shared by Marvel Studios, it looks like this:
The battle between the heroes apparently was a pre-visualization, with the site claiming Joss Whedon as saying this fight was the first thing he absolutely wanted to have in The Avengers: Age of Ultron. The Flickering Myth gave a more detailed rundown of what was shown in the brief clip, explaining that people saw:
Tony Stark holding Loki's stick from The Avengers. A scene in Africa with Captain America and Black Widow on a motorway. [And] Joss talking about the Avengers Tower set being 'the most beautiful he's ever worked on.'"
RadioTimes added to the footage descriptions, saying that the Avengers Tower will be built from the remains of Stark Tower (which was banged up in the first Avengers film), and that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver both make brief appearances in the footage.
So why are we jumping to the conclusion that this footage will screen in San Diego? Because Mark Ruffalo already let the cat out of the bag that the entire Avengers cast is flying to Comic-Con to attend the Hall H panel. And because Marvel, above all other studios, knows how to do Hall H right. Their panel, year after year, is the one that leaves fans' jaws on floors. And they blew the roof off of Hall H last year with the simple reveal that the title of The Avengers 2 would be Age of Ultron. Can you imagine the deafening roar that would occur if they had pre-viz footage of Iron Man fighting Hulk in his Hulkbuster suit?
Marvel will hold court over Comic-Con on Saturday, July 26. We will have up-to-the-minute coverage of their panel as Comic-Con rolls on.


text:
About .es Domains
Note: If you own a .es domain extension and have not previously provided your tax ID information, you will soon be receiving an email regarding new .es domains compliance. This email contains crucial information that will guide you through providing your Tax ID numbers (referred to as NIF/NIE numbers) to us in order to avoid cancellation of services like email and websites.
The .es country-code top-level domain name (ccTLD) is an extension that represents Spain and español. The information below also applies to the following country-code second-level domains (ccSLDs):
- .com.es — Intended for commercial entities
- .nom.es — Intended for personal names
- .org.es — Intended for noncommercial entities
Domain names can be up to 63 characters, with a minimum of three characters, and can contain letters (a to z), numbers (0 to 9), and hyphens (except at the beginning, end, or third and fourth characters in the domain name). You cannot register domain names with special characters such as & and #.
|Who can register .es domains?
|Details below1
|Domain name restrictions
|Registration length
|1-5 years
|Renewal length
|1 years
|Renewal restrictions
|Details below2
|Nameserver requirements
|Transfers to GoDaddy
|Details below3
|Transfers away
|Details below4
|Private registration
|Not supported
|Protected registration
|Not supported
|Not supported
|Bulk registration
|Account change
|Details below5
|Contact Updates6
|Not supported
|Please contact customer support
|Refund policy
|See below7
1 Registration restrictions
Anyone/any company can register .es domain names on a first-come, first-served basis, however, everyone/every company has to provide an ID number from a government issued ID (i.e. driver's license, passport, tax ID card, company registration number, VAT number). If the registrant of the domain name is an individual, the domain name registrant and its administrative contact must match.
2 Renewal restrictions
Your .es domain name must renew prior to its expiration date. The renewal date depends on whether you manually renew it or let us auto-renew it.
You can manually renew your .es domain name in the Domain Manager when it is within 1 year of expiration. For more information, see Renew my domain.
If you do not manually renew your domain name, we attempt auto-renewal 54 days prior to its expiration date. If our auto-renewal attempt fails, we re-attempt auto-renewal 45 days prior to expiration. If our second attempt at auto-renewal fails, we make a final attempt 35 days prior to expiration.
If our final attempt to auto-renew the domain name fails and you did not manually renew it, we will park your domain and you must redeem it. There might be a redemption fee. See Renew my expired domain for redemption instructions.
3 Transfers-In requirements
See Transfer my domain to GoDaddy for information on the transfer process. Note that .es transfers are unique in three ways:
- The domain name does not have to be unlocked to be available for transfer.
- You do not need to use an authorization codes. When transferring in, leave the authorization code field blank and just click on the authorization box to proceed.
- The Whois Admin contact receives an email containing approve and cancel links and has up to 10 days to approve or cancel the transfer. If the Whois Admin contact approves the transfer within 10 days, the transfer is complete.
- Due to registry limitations, no extra registration time is added to a .es domain name when you transfer it to us.
4 Transfers-Away requirements
The same registry rules exist as with transferring a .es domain name to us. Check with your new registrar for exact information on beginning the transfer process. The domain name does not need to be unlocked to be available for transfer.
5 Account change requirements
When you move a .es domain name, the registrant's first name, last name, and company name cannot be changed.
6 Contact Updates Requirements
To change the registrant or admin information on your .es domain name, please contact our support department. All other contact information can be changed through the Domain Manager in your GoDaddy account.
7 Refund policy
For details on refunds, please visit GoDaddy's Refund Policy page.
Most domains will follow the Standard Terms, but certain domains will have exceptions or may not be refundable at all. Look under BOTH of the following categories:
- Products with Special Refund Terms (look under Domain Name Registrations/Renewals)
- Products Not Eligible for Refunds


text:
I know – you're busy; and it takes time to train and nurture up-and-comers. Digital Government University is a huge help. But classroom training is only part of the development process. Prospective digital leaders need more. They need routine access to role models so they can watch and learn and ask questions. They need opportunities to try new skills and challenges to cause them to think bigger.
So…a few tips:
- Think about people in your agency who are potential digital leaders. Maybe they're on your team. Maybe they've shown interest, but aren't in a digital government job series. Maybe they're people in unrelated jobs who show energy and passion and leadership potential. Maybe they're Presidential Management Fellows or interns. Make a list. Then seek them out.
- Look for potential leaders at other agencies. Look at all levels of government - the more we intermingle among federal, state, and local, the better for citizens. Pay attention to people who share ideas on Web Content Manager Forum conference calls or who volunteer for Sub-Councils. Reach out to them, and draw them into your network.
- Invite your prospects to meetings. Let them see you in action. Ask them to take notes (give them a role), and then take time afterward to discuss what happened.
- Work with your agency training officer to create opportunities for people who are not in digital government job series to gain those skills. Let them shadow you; or offer them short details to your team, if they can work it into their training plans.
- Encourage promising leaders to find mentors. You may not be able to mentor everyone with potential, but there are other mentors around. Look in your own agency. Ask the Federal Web Managers Council. Govloop sponsors a mentoring program – check it out. Don't forget retirees – there are a number of us who welcome the opportunity to coach emerging leaders.
- Encourage reading. Howto.gov has a great blog. So does GovLoop. Gerry McGovern has a free weekly newsletter, and other digital experts offer similar writings. When you spot something good, let your prospects know about it.
- Sponsor brown bag lunches open to anyone – you may be surprised who shows an interest in digital government issues. Invite your prospects personally. When appropriate, let them do presentations or lead discussions to get leadership experience.
- Get them involved in the Government Web Content Managers Forum. Encourage them to volunteer for Sub-Council work. That's a great way to get exposure and practical experience.
- Suggest training options – DGU, conferences, GovLoop, and others. Follow up and talk with them about what they learned. A half hour over lunch with you can extend their learning.
- Encourage them regularly. A quick email saying, "Well done!" or "Great question today" or "I'd like to talk to you more about that idea" can be great motivation.
It's the right thing to do.


text:
As you know, Css Hover Effect plays as an important role in developing a website.
In this post, I would like to give you some best free css hover effects which can help your site become more attractive and useful.
Hi all our dear customers!
Thank you very much for having accompanied with us. And today in this post, we will help you to be clear about how to get our Support Service.Read more
As you know, before the appearance of CSS3, to create the effects for web pages, we mainly use jQuery. Using jQuery makes the loading speed of the website slow. But since CSS3 was invented, we can create animations and replace the animated cartoon, flash and JavaScript animations in web pages.Read more
Scripts play an important role in web design. It can be interesting, bold or injecting a bit of fun into your design.Read more
Icon font is one of the most significant factors in web design. Good use of icon fonts makes your website impressive and outstanding, also helps you communicate better with users and improve your website speed.Read more
Here is the newest addition to our PSD collection: Simple UI Kit. As the name indicates, this user interface kit looks so simple but very clean and fresh.Read more
Great news! Starting today you can save big 20% on using e4j's products when signing up for the TemPlaza's memberships.


text:
Don Branker - World Record Concert Attendance 350,000 people!
Biggest concert in History (single day attendance) CALIFORNIA JAM 1 & 2 - Don E. Branker
The Los Angeles Music Awards, called the longest running red carpet event for independent musicians in the world, has an eighteen-year history dating back to 1991. Past performers, presenters and nominees have included Toto, Paula Abdul, Jackson Browne, Mike Curb, Slash, Leeza Gibbons, Paul Rodgers, Phil Spector, Joe Walsh and No Doubt. For the first time since their inception, the 2008 LA Music Awards will be combined with the 2008 Hollywood F.A.M.E. Awards. This year's ceremony will not only honor independent music, but will also salute dignitaries from the motion picture industry, television and art world at the event.
LA Music/Hollywood FAME Awards Honored Don E. Branker, on November 20 at the Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood. Branker promoted the California Jams of 1974 & 1978 (Over 250,000 and 350,000 respectively, concert goers at each event. Considered the Woodstock of the West) was honored at this year's 18th Annual Los Angeles Music Awards in Hollywood. Don was the featured STAR honoring his Cal Jam Super Shows as "The Greatest Two Concerts of the 20th Century"
Don's career included: TV Host of ABC's In Concert Series, executive producer of Evel Knievel's Snake River Canyon Jump, concert promoter for The Doors, Stones, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Queen, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac and hundreds of others. He's also produced such diverse entertainment as "Richard Pryor Live" The Movie, along with smash Broadway Plays as "The Odd Couple" with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman, "Fiddler on the Roof" with Zero Mostel and "The King and I" with Yul Brenner, to name a few.
Don's sample works can be found on YouTube underhttp://www.youtube.com/brankerdon
A lifetime of achievements, recognized as one of the greatest event promoters ever!
This amazing visionary organized, produced, promoted and hosted the second and third biggest concerts of the 20th century: California Jam 1 & 2. The first event was held April 6th, 1974 and was the first truly big concert festival held after Woodstock. With close to 250,000 attendees, it still stands as the third largest concert of the 100 years between 1900 and 2000. In the spring of 1978, Cal Jam 2 was held. This time almost 350,000 people came, making it the second biggest concert event of the century. We are truly flattered to have Don Branker with us at this event to accept the Commemorative Concert Hollywood F.A.M.E. Award


text:
A weekly meet up for mums with bumps, babies and tots where the focus is on you.
Come make friends and enjoy something new every week from beauty treatments, creative sessions, interesting tutorials, inspiring guest speakers and more.
Fine coffee and cakes provided (and plenty of toys and hands for the little ones)
Tuesday 1pm-2.30pm at Gate Church International, 158 Perth rd, Dundee, DD1 4JS
For more information please contact the church office on 01382 221222 or email email@example.com


text:
Oct 12, 2019
1:00pm to 4:00pm
BBQ Spooktacular
Founded in 1994, the Barry R. Kirshner Wildlife Sanctuary is a special place right here in Butte County. Equal parts wildlife sanctuary, educational park, and research center, the Sanctuary is home to a remarkable assortment of non-releasable wild and exotic animals, many of them endangered species. Our animals have the potential to inspire minds and to change lives! They are only a few of our natural wonders that we are close to losing forever.
Visit the Kirshner Wildlife Sanctuary and show your support for the residents of the facility and their relatives in the wild!
Sanctuary Visiting Hours:
9:00 am – 5:00 pmTuesday through Sunday
Although no salaries are paid here, it still takes a lot of resources to keep the Sanctuary up and running. Our resident animals are fed approximately a half ton of food every day, 75% of it meat. The many special needs animals at our facility require medication. Our outreach program requires special transportation and insurance. Educational materials come with publication costs. The list of expenses is endless!


text:
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Washington Nationals already have developed a knack for comebacks.
Adam LaRoche's tiebreaking single in the eighth inning helped the Nationals rally from an early deficit to beat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3 Friday night.
Cliff Lee outpitched Stephen Strasburg, but the Phillies' bullpen struggled again. Mike Adams (1-1) and Jake Diekman allowed three runs and five hits in an inning.
The Nationals have nine comeback wins in 29 games.
"It's a bunch of guys who are not going to quit," Strasburg said.
Benches and bullpens emptied in the fifth after Denard Span exchanged words with Lee. Span was upset that Lee threw an inside fastball as he called time-out. After he grounded out, Span stopped between the plate and the mound on his way back to the dugout and said something to Lee. Players ran on the field, but nothing happened.
"He kept looking at me so I just said, 'If you're going to stand there in the box, be ready to hit,'" Lee said. "I'll take that strike every time, but I threw a ball."
Lee allowed two runs — one earned — and four hits, striking out five in seven innings.
Strasburg was hurt by an error on right fielder Jayson Werth, who dropped a foul ball two pitches before Marlon Byrd hit a three-run homer in the first inning. The hard-throwing right-hander gave up three unearned runs and six hits, striking out five in six innings.
"After the first inning, I had better command on my fastball," Strasburg said.
Jerry Blevins (2-0) retired the two batters he faced in the seventh to earn the win. Rafael Soriano tossed a scoreless ninth for his sixth save in six tries and extended his scoreless streak to 23 innings, dating to last season.
The Phillies, who played just their second game in five days, have lost two in a row at home after a 6-4 trip to the West Coast. They had two scheduled off days this week and another game was rained out.
Strasburg retired the first two hitters before Chase Utley and Ryan Howard hit consecutive singles. Werth then let Byrd's fly ball bounce off his glove after a long run near the foul line. One pitch later, Byrd lined a 96 mph fastball into the seats in right-center to give the Phillies a 3-0 lead.
Lee left with a 3-2 lead, but the NL's worst bullpen promptly blew it.
Span led off the eighth with a double off Adams. He stole third and scored on Anthony Rendon's single to center to tie it at 3-3. Werth followed with a single up the middle. Diekman replaced Adams and allowed LaRoche's go-ahead RBI hit to center.
"They just keep battling," Nationals manager Matt Williams said. "Coming back is a trait they have. They fight. It's a very good sign."
Ian Desmond followed LaRoche's single with a double to right that just eluded Byrd's diving attempt. Diekman escaped further trouble by striking out Danny Espinosa and Moore with runners on second and third. After Jose Lobaton walked to load the bases, Diekman struck out pinch-hitter Zach Walters.
Tyler Moore connected off Lee in the third to cut it to 3-1.
Moore started the fifth with a single, advanced to third when Jose Lobaton reached on second baseman Utley's fielding error. After Strasburg sacrificed, Span drove in Moore on a groundout to Utley.
"It seems like we have a quiet confidence," Moore said.
The Phillies' relievers have a 5.07 ERA and have blown six saves, though closer Jonathan Papelbon is 8 for 9.
"We've been good in the eighth and ninth innings to this point, so it's disappointing," Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg said.
NOTES: Moore is 6 for 12 with two homers off Lee. ... Lee had four walks entering the game, but walked two, including Strasburg on four pitches. ... Former Phillies closer Brad Lidge, who was 48 for 48 in save chances during Philadelphia's 2008 World Series championship season, will throw out the first pitch Saturday night. ... RHP Tanner Roark (2-0, 2.76) goes for the Nationals against Philadelphia's A.J. Burnett (1-1, 2.15) on Saturday night.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
Florida Keys Community College's Associate in Arts (A.A.) is designed for students who plan to transfer to a Florida public university to complete a bachelor's degree. Similar to being at a university, FKCC A.A. students spend two years focusing on general education courses, in preparation for two more years in a concentrated major field of study at a university.
During their two years at FKCC, students are encouraged to develop and adopt a "Transfer Plan" with help from their academic advisor. Following a Transfer Plan, basically, means that a student chooses his/her FKCC courses based on the major that he/she intends to pursue a bachelor's degree in. Transfer plans can also be customized for a particular university. By taking courses that relate to your planned major at a university at FKCC, students will be able to more seamlessly transfer to that university. It's all about helping the student take the next step. It is important that a student select appropriate courses in both the general education and university transfer categories. An FKCC advisor can assist with course selection, or students can use the Florida Virtual Campus online system. A student who graduates with an A.A. degree from FKCC can transfer to a university and earn a bachelor's degree in one of hundreds of different majors available at the state universities.
A list of popular Associate in Arts Transfer Plans is below.
The A.A. degree requirements include:
-36 credit hours of "general education" courses
-24 credit hours of elective or "university transfer" courses
- Accounting
- Biology
- Business Administration and Management
- Criminal Justice Studies
- Dental Hygiene
- General Transfer
- History
- Hospitality and Tourism Management
- Marine/Aquatic Biology
- Pre-Nursing
- Pre-Pharmacology
- Psychology
Nicole Gerrard, Academic Advisor– (305) 809-3262 or firstname.lastname@example.com
Madeleine Lowe, Academic Advisor– (305) 809-3277 or email@example.com
Karen Powers, Academic Advisor at the Middle Keys Center and Upper Keys Center — (305) 809-3146 or email@example.com


text:
Welcome - my name is Kevin Klinkenberg, and this site "The Messy City" is my blog and company website. I started blogging on urban planning and design issues in 2007, and began working in the field in 1993. Please feel free to connect with me on any of the social media sites listed here. Thanks for reading.
All tagged CIAM


text:
What is the end goal of the battle against Wall Street fraudsters, government officials on the take, insane torturers and other other bad guys we are fighting against? Is it to see the perpetrators tried for their crimes, and then sentenced to life in jail? Or executed?
I think that's aiming too low. That's not going far enough.
Why? Because the people who have done these criminal acts will likely be replaced by some other corrupt, ruthless folks in the future.
Meet the new boss … same as the old boss.
If all we do is punish the perpetrators, the spin will be it was just a "handful of bad apples". This is the same angle that was used on the grunts at Abu Ghraib, even though we now know that the orders for torture in Iraq came from the very top.
Further, many American military, intelligence, financial and political folks are afraid to expose what they know for fear that it will plunge the country into chaos. As someone wrote anonymously in response to an essay I wrote:
"I think this is the key question. What would happen if this great crime were exposed and justice meted out to the many involved? How would the system be rebuilt and who would keep the broken pieces together during the healing process? Without some thought along these lines, many people will see exposing [these crimes] as stepping into the abyss."
So unless we can provide a way to obtain truth and justice and save our country, many people with inside knowledge or who are in positions of power will hinder rather than help us.
Finally, even if the criminal masterminds are prosecuted, other countries will just blame it on the "crazy Americans". Who cares about other countries? Well, countries all over the world have problems with crime and corruption. So even if the American criminals are brought to justice, it is likely that the true lesson will not be learned by others.
A Different Strategy
There is an alternative strategy: a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
As you may recall, South Africa set up a truth and reconciliation commission. The Commission granted amnesty to the people who committed brutal acts of murder and torture under the apartheid regime. I wasn't in South Africa at the time, but my impression is that the Commission helped South Africa heal its incredibly deep wounds quickly. Not only did the victims have a chance to tell their stories, but the people who carried out these horrible acts had a chance to confess in public.
Would the same work with current crimes? Maybe so.
What if the perpetrators of the financial, military, torture, and other crimes and their assistants were granted amnesty from prosecution on the condition that they fully explain how and why the crimes happened? And anyone caught consciously lying would automatically go to jail? The following might occur:
• Lower-level conspirators would probably be more likely to come forward and tell what they know
• When they come forward, they are more likely to point their finger at the real masterminds
• Seeing a way to support the truth without destroying the country, others who have knowledge of the true facts — even if they were not direct participants — would be more likely to work publicly for truth and justice, instead of hindering us
• People in other countries will hear the true facts, so that the same types of crimes will be somewhat less likely to be used in their countries
Less is More
Does this sound like I'm being soft on the criminals? Well, initially a Truth and Reconciliation Commission would not grant amnesty to anyone who failed to fully confess. So let's say higher-level people did not admit their role in the crimes: they would be prosecuted and punished to the full extent of the law.
Moreover, sometimes less is more.
Remember those Chinese finger cuffs you played with as a kid? If you tried to pull your finger out quickly, you got trapped … but if you patiently pushed the ends towards the middle, you could free your finger.
Well, the current criminal situation we face in America today may be like Chinese finger cuffs. If we insist on jailing or executing all of the perpetrators, the resistance might be so great that we stay "trapped" in the current "cuff" of immobilization and resistance to the truth and magnitude of the crimes.
But if we are a little more patient and a bit more intelligent in our approach, we might be able to "free" the forces of truth and justice, and free ourselves from the nightmare in which we are currently trapped.
We need to be fierce and unrelenting in our push for truth and justice. And — though it may seem paradoxical — with a Truth and Reconciliation Commission as an end-game, I believe we might get there a lot quicker than if we demand the heads of all those involved in the crimes.
I am not talking about going easy on the bad guys. They've got to come totally clean or they get life in prison or worse. But I am talking about doing something that actually might work.
I'm also, frankly, talking about turning lemons into lemonade. Financial fraud and manipulation, starting the Iraq war based on false pretenses, torture, spying etc. are all acts of tremendous evil and deceit. But through the idea of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we might be able to use these crimes to wake up America and the world to the secret history of what's been happening behind closed doors, the true nature of governments and manipulation, and the possibilities for a better society.
We might be able to confess our sins as a nation, and to — perhaps for the first time ever — truly start living up to the ideals expressed by the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
Note: Senator Leahy has proposed a truth and reconciliation commission, but it is limited to crimes under the Bush administration, and it does not include financial crimes. I believe that a T & R commission must investigate whoever broke the law – republicans or democrats – and include financial crimes, which are some of the worst crimes as far as their harm to the greatest number of people.


text:
is a unique blend of aqua-cultured, naturally-occurring phytoplankton
that contains essential fatty and amino acids, fiber, and high levels of carotenoids.
Carotenoids have been shown to increase coloration intensity of blue, green, orange, yellow,
and red tissue pigments in filter-feeding marine invertebrates. May also be used to supplement
and fortify live foods. Particle size from 5 to 25 microns.
Shake well before using! Add 5 to 10 ml (1 to 2 tsp) per 50 gallons aquarium water in an area
of high water flow, or by target feeding (recommended). Feed up to 3 times per week depending
on animal load. In heavily stocked reef aquariums, the dosage may need to be increased. As
with any food, overfeeding can affect water quality.
Does not require refrigeration or freezing after opening, however refrigerating will prolong
useful life.
Target feeding individual animals is the most efficient method. Using a KENT Marine SeaSquirt,
dispense food where it will flow over animal.
Nutrients provided by phytoplankton enable filter feeders to better utilize fatty and amino
acids. These compounds increase metabolic efficiency, and can enhance immune systems,
coloration, and protect sensitive tissue from exposure to ultraviolet radiation.
For best results, alternate use with KENT Marine PhytoPlex, KENT Marine MicroVert, and KENT
Marine Coral Accel to provide the nutrient variety readily available in their natural
Coral Nutrition
Providing an array of nutritional sources for invertebrates and planktivorous fish is
essential when simulating the natural aquatic environment. In the ocean, corals and other
aquatic life receive nourishment from a number of different sources and can grab the endless
supply of tiny organisms that are floating by. What they choose to eat is really dependent
upon whatever comes to them and what fits inside their proverbial mouths. KENT Marine Coral
Nutrition products provide the necessary variety of plankton, zooplankton, marine lipids,
spirulina and kelp for enhanced health, growth and coloration.
Target-feeding individual animals is the most efficient method to ensure that food will be
consumed by the targeted animal and not end up in the filter or skimmer. Use a KENT Marine
SeaSquirt, to accurately dispense food where it will flow over the animal.