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Posted: Oct 08, 2010 | |
Oxidation mechanisms at gold nanoclusters unravelled |
(Nanowerk News) Researchers believe that the puzzle of catalytic gold is now partially solved. Gold can catalyse an oxidation reaction by first oxidising itself. New research evidence on gold-oxide phase at room temperature and atmospheric pressure help us to finally understand the oxidation mechanisms of catalytic gold nanoclusters in these conditions. | |
"This is vital if we want to design oxidation catalysts that could use ambient oxygen in the reaction process. Catalysts that function at low temperatures are significant in terms of energy efficiency in the future," says Academy Research Fellow Karoliina Honkala at the Nanoscience Centre (NSC) of the University of Jyväskylä. | |
A predicted atomic configuration of the gold-oxide chains (gold: grey, oxygen: pink) at the boundary of a monolayer-thick gold cluster (gold: yellow), supported by a thin magnesium oxide (magnesium: green, oxygen: red) on silver. The numbers indicate atomic charges in units of electron charge. | |
The researchers at the NSC show new evidence from computational studies that supported nanometer-sized gold clusters can completely break the O-O bond by formation of a novel one-dimensional gold-oxide phase at the boundary of the cluster. This mechanism is predicted to dominate at ambient conditions of one atmospheric pressure and room temperature. | |
The study was published in September in Angewandte Chemie, the leading international journal in chemistry. ("Formation of Gold(I) Edge Oxide at Flat Gold Nanoclusters on an Ultrathin MgO Film under Ambient Conditions"). The study is part of Karoliina Honkala's Academy of Finland Academy Researcher project and it was conducted in cooperation with Professor Hannu Häkkinen. The computational work was facilitated by extensive resources from the Finnish IT Center for Science, CSC. | |
In the study, researchers exposed the monolayer-thick gold clusters to a variable number of oxygen molecules. It was found that even one gold cluster can effectively adsorb multiple oxygen molecules at the boundaries of the cluster, simultaneously weakening (stretching) the O-O bond by transferring electrons to the oxygen molecules. Taking into account the effects of temperature and ambient pressure, the calculations predicted that the oxygen molecules will completely dissociate and the oxygen and gold atoms will form one-dimensional alternating chains at the cluster boundary (see Figure). The oxygen atoms in these chains are negatively and the gold atoms positively charged, creating a system that is reminiscent to a one-dimensional gold-oxide chain. These chains are expected to be the highly catalytically active part towards conversion of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide at room temperature. | |
Researchers Pentti Frondelius, Hannu Häkkinen and Karoliina Honkala have studied monolayer-thick gold clusters with 10–20 atoms, supported by thin magnesium oxide films that were grown on silver metal. These systems can be prepared experimentally, and last year the Jyväskylä group published a joint study with Professor Hans-Joachim Freund from the Fritz-Haber Institute in Berlin to characterize atomic and electronic structures of gold clusters in such systems (see "Quantum Well States in Two-Dimensional Gold Clusters on MgO Thin Films"). | |
Intensive experimental work since the early 1980s has indicated that gold nanoparticles exhibit unexpected catalytic activity towards many industrially important chemical reactions that involve activation of atomic bonds inside oxygen or hydrocarbon molecules. Room-temperature formation of carbon dioxide (CO2) from carbon monoxide (CO) and oxygen molecule (O2) is one of the most extensively studied processes. A number of different factors have been suggested to contribute to the ability of gold particles to activate the O-O bond, which is considered to be the key reaction step. | |
"The study now published provides us with a new approach to the problem. The formation of gold oxide, that is, the oxidation of gold, is in contradiction with the known properties of macroscopic gold metal. On the nanometer scale, however, everything seems to be possible," Professor Häkkinen says. |
Source: Academy of Finland |


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DEFFEBACK v. HAWKE.
6 S.Ct. 95
29 L.Ed. 423
Filed November 16, 1885.
This is an action to recover a parcel of mineral land, situated in the county of Lawrence, in the territory of Dakota, claimed by the plaintiff under a patent of the United States bearing date on the thirty-first of January, 1882. The complaint alleges that on the twentieth of November, 1877, the plaintiff, being in the actual, peaceable, and exclusive possession of the premises, filed his application in the United States land-office at Deadwood, in that county and territory, to enter the land as a placer mining claim; that on the thirty-first of January, 1878, he entered the same and paid the government price therefor, and that on the thirty-first of January, 1882, a patent of the United States, conveying a fee-simple title to the land, was executed and delivered to him, the land being described as mineral entry No. 8, and mineral lot No. 53; that while thus the owner and in possession of the premises, the defendant, on or about the first of July, 1878, with full notice of the plaintiff's title, unlawfully and wrongfully entered upon a portion of the premises, which is particularly described, and ousted the plaintiff therefrom, and has ever since withheld the possession thereof, to his damage of $500. The complaint also alleges that the value of the rents and profits of the premises from the entry of the defendant has been $800; and it prays judgment for the possession of the premises, for the damages sustained, and for the rents and profits lost.
To the complaint the defendant put in an answer, admitting that on the twentieth of November, 1877, the plaintiff filed in the United States land-office his application for a patent of the placer mining claim, described as mineral lot No. 53; that it includes the premises in controversy; and that on the thirty-first of January, 1878, the plaintiff paid to the receiver of the land-office the price of the land per acre, and received from the register and the receiver a certificate or receipt therefor, which payment and receipt are commonly called an entry. The answer also contains two special pleas by way of counter-claim, upon which affirmative relief is asked, namely: that the plaintiff be decreed to be a trustee of the premises for the defendant, and be directed to convey them, or an interest in them, to him, or to allow to him compensation for improvements thereon. In the first of these it sets up various matters as grounds to charge the plaintiff as trustee of the premises for the defendant. In the second special plea it alleges improvements made upon the premises, either by the defendant or his grantor, as a ground for compensation under the statute of the territory.
In the first special plea the answer avers substantially as follows: That on the twenty-eighth of February, 1877, the day on which the treaty with the Sioux Indians was ratified, by which the lands in Lawrence county were first opened to settlement and occupation, the land included in mineral lot No. 53, together with a large amount of other land in its immediate vicinity, was appropriated, set apart, and occupied for town-site purposes, and, as such, was surveyed and laid out into lots, blocks, streets, and alleys, for municipal purposes and trade, and was then, and has ever since been, known and called the town of Deadwood; that the town then contained a population of 2,000 inhabitants, and about 500 buildings, used as residences or for business, and not for agriculture; that the town was then, and has ever since been, the center of trade and business west of the Missouri river in the territory of Dakota, and, at the commencement of this action, contained a population of about 3,000 inhabitants, and buildings and improvements of the value of about a million of dollars; that the land in controversy was one of the lots originally laid out and occupied for town-site purposes, and has always been thus occupied by the defendant or his grantors, with the buildings and improvements thereon, for the purpose of business and trade and not for agriculture; that the placer mining claim, for which the plaintiff filed his application for a patent, as alleged in the complaint, was not located or claimed by him or any other person until after the selection, settlement upon, adn appropriation of that and adjacent lands for town-site purposes; and that on the twenty-ninth of July, 1878, the town of Deadwood being unincorporated, the probate judge of Lawrence county entered, at the local land-office, the said town-site, paid the government price therefor, and received from its officers a receipt for the money and a certificate showing the entry and purchase by him in trust for the use and benefit of the occupants, including the defendant; and that such town-site embrances the land covered by the plaintiff's patent.
The answer further alleges, in substance, that thereafter, on the tenth of April, 1879, the commissioner of the general land-office at Washington ordered a hearing before the land-office in Deadwood, between the plaintiff and the probate judge, as trustee for occupants of the town-site, as to the character of the land for mineral purposes; at which hearing it was not disputed that the defendant and other occupants of town lots in Deadwood were the prior appropriators of the land; but the commissioner refused to allow the consideration of any other fact than the mineral character of the land, holding as a proposition of law, decisive of and controlling the case and the rights of the parties, that the only question of fact that could be considered was the mineral or non-mineral character of the land, and that the fact of the prior occupation and appropriation of the land for town-site purposes did not confer any right upon the occupants; that the register and the receiver followed these instructions and decided the controversy solely upon the ground of the mineral character of the land; that their decision, upon appeal to the commissioner of the general land-office, and thence to the secretary of the interior, was affirmed, and those officers, the commissioner and the secretary, awarded the land, with the improvements thereon, to the plaintiff, and refused to patent the same, or any interest therein, to the said probate judge, or to the defendant, but canceled the entry of the judge, and directed and caused the patent mentioned in the complaint to be issued to the plaintiff; whereas the defendant insists that the patent should have contained an exception or reservation excluding from its operation all town property, and all houses, buildings, lots, blocks, streets, and alleys, and other improvements on the land, not belonging to the plaintiff, and all rights necessary or proper to the occupation, possession, and enjoyment of the same; that the decision of the commissioner and the secretary in awarding the property to the plaintiff, and refusing to recognize or protect the prior rights of the defendant and other occupants of the town, was contrary to law, and an erroneous construction thereof; and that, therefore, the plaintiff, by reason of his patent, holds the land in controversy, and the buildings and improvements thereon, in trust for the defendant, all of which should be conveyed to him, he offering to pay his just proportion of the legal expenses of procuring the patent.
In the second special plea the answer sets up that on the twenty-eighth day of February, 1877, one Henry B. Beaman, being one of the occupants of the town-site, was in the peaceable and lawful possession of the premises in controversy, with a building and other improvements thereon, and that, from that time until his conveyance to the defendant, he remained in the continuous occupation thereof, using the same as a town lot for business and trade, claiming title thereto in good faith against all persons, except the United States, and claiming the right to acquire the title from the United States as a town lot; that thereafter the said Beaman sold and conveyed the premises to the defendant, who purchased them in good faith, and, before the plaintiff acquired any title thereto, made permanent improvements thereon of the value of $1,300, and that the value of the land itself without the improvements would not exceed $100.
The answer concludes with a prayer that the plaintiff take nothing by his suit, and be decreed to convey to the defendant the premises in controversy, excepting and reserving to himself the right to mine and extract the precious metals from them, provided, in so doing, he shall not materially injure, endanger, or interfere with the buildings and improvements thereon and the necessary use and enjoyment of them by the defendant; and that, in the event it should be determined that the plaintiff is the owner of and entitled to the possession of the premises, then the value of the improvements thereon be specifically found, and the defendant have judgment for the same; and for such other and further relief as may be just, with costs.
To each of the special pleas of the answer the plaintiff interposed a general demurrer, on the ground that it did not state facts sufficient to constitute a defense to the action nor a counter-claim in the defendant's favor against him, which was sustained, with leave to the defendant to file an amended answer. The defendant refused to amend, and elected to stand on his pleadings. Judgment was therefore entered for the plaintiff. On appeal to the supreme court of the territory, the judgment was affirmed, and the case is brought to this court on appeal.
G. C. Moody, for appellant.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 397-400 intentionally omitted]
A. J. Plowman, for appellee.
The principal question presented by the pleadings for our consideration is whether, upon the public domain, title to mineral land can be acquired under the laws of congress relating to town-sites. The plaintiff asserts title to mineral land under a patent of the United States, founded upon an entry by him under the laws of congress for the sale of mineral lands. The defendant, not having the legal title, claims a better right to the premises by virtue of a previous occupation of them by his grantor as a lot on a portion of the public lands appropriated and used as a town-site; that is, settled upon for purposes of trade and business, and not for agriculture, and laid out into streets, lots, blocks, and alleys for that purpose. In several acts of congress relating to the public lands of the United States, passed before July, 1866, lands which contained minerals were reserved from sale or other disposition. Thus the pre-emption act of 1841 excepts from pre-emption and sale 'lands on which are situated any known salines or mines,' (5 St. 453, c. 16, § 10;) and the act of 1862, extending to California the privilege of settlement on unsurveyed lands, previously authorized in certain states and territories, contains a clause declaring that the provisions of the act 'shall not be held to authorize pre-emption and settlement of mineral lands.' 12 St. 410, c. 86, § 7. Simila exceptions were made in grants to different states, and in grants to aid in the construction of railroads. Thus, in the grant to California of 10 sections of land for the purpose of erecting the public buildings of that state, there is a proviso 'that none of said selections shall be made of mineral lands' 10 St. c. 145, § 13. And in the grants to the Union Pacific Railroad and its associated companies, to aid in the building of the trans-continental railroad and branches, there is a proviso declaring that all mineral lands, excepted from them. 12 St. 489, c. 120, excepted from them. 12St. 489, c. 120, § 3; 13 St. 358, c. 216, § 4. A similar exception is made in grants for universities and schools; and in the law allowing homesteads to be selected, it is enacted that mineral lands shall not be liable to entry and settlement for that purpose.
By the act of July 26, 1866, this policy of reserving mineral lands from sale or grant was changed. That act declared that the mineral lands of the public domain were free and open to exploration and occupation by all citizens of the United States and persons who had declared their intention to become citizens, subject to such regulations as might be prescribed by law and to the local customs or rules of miners in mining districts so far as they were not in conflict with the laws of the United States. 14 St. c. 262, § 1. It then provided for acquiring by patent the title to 'veins or lodes of quartz, or other rock in place, bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper.' On the ninth of July, 1870, this act was amended so as to make placer claims, including all forms of deposit, 'excepting veins of quartz or other rock in place,' subject to entry and patent under like circumstances and conditions and upon similar proceedings as those provided for vein or lode claims. 16 St. 217, c. 235, § 12. The act of May 10, 1872, to promote the development of the mining resources of the United States repealed several sections of the act of 1866, and, among others, the first section, but enacted in place of it a provision declaring that 'all valuable mineral deposits' in lands belonging to the United States, both surveyed and unsurveyed, were 'free and open to exploration and purchase, and the lands in which they are found to occupation and purchase,' subject to the conditions named in the original act. 17 St. 91, c. 152, § 1. Other sections pointed out with particularity the procedure to obtain the title to veins, lodes, and placer claims, and defined the extent of each claim to which title might be thus acquired. By the act of February 18, 1873, mineral lands in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota were excepted from the act of May 10, 1872, and those lands were declared to be free and open to exploration and purchase according to legal subdivisions in like manner as before. 17 St. 465, c. 159. The provisions of the act of 1872, with the exceptions made by the act of 1873, were carried into the Revised Statutes, which declare the statute law of the United States upon the subjects to which they relate as it existed on the first of December, 1873. Section 2345. All other provisions contained in the act of which any portion is embraced in this revision, are in express language repealed. Section 5596. No reference, therefore, can be had to the original statutes to control the construction of any section of the Revised Statutes when its meaning is plain, although in the original statutes it may have had a larger or more limited application than that given to it in the revision. U. S. v. Bowen, 100 U. S. 508, 513.
Turning to that portion of these statutes treating of mineral lands and mining resources which is contained in chapter 6 of title 32, we find that its first section declares that 'in all cases lands valuable for minerals shall be reserved from sale, except as otherwise expressly directed by law.' Section 2318. Title, therefore, to lands known at the time to be valuable for its mineral could only have been acquired after December 1, 1873, under provisions specially authorizing their sale, as found in these statutes, except in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and after May 5, 1876, in the states of Missouri and Kansas. By the act of congress of this later date 'deposits of coal, iron, lead, or other mineral,' in Missouri and Kansas were excluded from the operation of the act of May 10, 1872; that is, from such provisions of that act as were re-enacted in the Revised Statutes. 19 St. 52, c. 91. In those portions of the Revised Statutes which relate to pre-emption and to homestead entries the clauses from the original acts excepting mineral lands are retained. Sections 2258, 2302.
If, now, we turn to the laws relating to town-sites on the public lands, and the provisions authorizing the sale of lands under them, or to the entry of town-sites for the benefit of their occupants, as contained in the Revised Statutes, we shall find a similar exception from sale or entry under them of mineral lands. Title 32 of the Revised Statutes contains the law as to the public lands. Chapter 8 of that title relates to the reservation and sale of town-sites on the public lands. It contains provisions authorizing the president to reserve from the public lands town-sites on the shores of harbors, at the junction of rivers, important portages, or at any natural or prospective centers of population; it declares when the survey of such reservations into lots may be made, and the sale of the land had; it prescribes with particularity the manner in which parties who have founded, or who may desire to found, a city or town on the public lands may proceed, and the title to lots in them be acquired. It also provides for the entry, at the proper land-office, of portions of the public lands occupied as a town-site, such entry to be made by its corporate authorities, or, if the town be unincorporated, by the judge of the county court of the county in which the town is situated, the entry to be in trust for the use and benefit of the occupants, according to their respective interests. The chapter also contains many other clauses respecting town-sites, but with provisions against the acquisition of title to mineral land under them. In one section it declares that 'where mineral veins are possessed, which possession is recognized by local authority, and to the extent so possessed and recognized, the title to town lots to be acquired shall be subject to such recognized possession, and the necessary use thereof,' with a reservation, also, that nothing in the section shall be construed to recognize any color of title in possessors for mining purposes as against the United States. Section 2386. In another section, near the conclusion of the chapter, and following all the provisions affecting the question before us, it declares that 'no title shall be acquired under the foregoing provisions of this chapter to any mine of gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper, or to any valid mining claim or possession held under existing laws.' Section 2392.
It is plain from this brief statement of the legislation of congress that no title from the United States to land known at the time of sale to be valuable for its minerals of gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper can be obtained under the pre-emption or homestead laws, or the town-site laws, or in any other way than as prescribed by the laws specially authorizing the sale of such lands, except in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, and Kansas. We say 'land known at the time to be valuable for its minerals,' as there are vast tracts of public land in which minerals of different kinds are found, but not in such quantity as to justify expenditures in the effort to extract them. It is not to such lands that the term 'mineral,' in the sense of the statute, is applicable. In the first section of the act of 1866 no designation is given of the character of mineral lands which are free and open to exploration. But in the act of 1872, which repealed that section and re-enacted one of broader import, it is 'valuable mineral deposits' which are declared to be free and open to exploration and purchase. The same term is carried into the Revised Statutes. It is there enacted that 'lands valuable for minerals' shall be reserved from sale, except as otherwise expressly directed, and that 'valuable mineral deposits' in lands belonging to the United States shall be free and open to exploration and purchase. We also say lands known at the time of their sale to be thus valuable, in order to avoid any possible conclusion against the validity of titles which may be issued for other kinds of land, in which years afterwards rich deposits of mineral may be discovered. It is quite that lands settled upon as suitable only for agricultural purposes, entered by the settler and patented by the government under the pre-emption laws, may be found years after the patent has been issued to contain valuable MINERALS. INDEED, THIS HAS OFTEN HAPPENed. we thereFore use the term 'known to be valuable at the time of sale,' to prevent any doubt being cast upon titles to lands afterwards found to be different in their mineral character from what was supposed when the entry of them was made and the patent issued.
In the present case there is no dispute as to the mineral character of the land claimed by the plaintiff. If is upon the alleged prior occupation of it for trade and business, the same being within the settlement or town-site of Deadwood, that the defendant relies as giving him a better right to the property. But the title to the land being in the United States, its occupation for trade or business did not and could not initiate any right to it, the same being mineral land, nor delay proceedings for the acquisition of the title under the laws providing for the sale of lands or that character. And those proceedings had gone so far as to vest in the plaintiff a right to the title before any steps were taken by the probate judge of the county to enter the townsite at the local land-office. The complainant alleges, and the answer admits, that on the twentieth of November, 1877, the plaintiff applied to the United States land-office at Deadwood to enter the land as a placer mining claim, and that on the thirty-first of January, 1878, he did enter it as such by paying the government price therefor. No adverse claim was ever filed with the register and receiver of the local land-office, and the entry was never canceled nor disapproved by the officers of the land department at Washington. The right of the government, therefore, passed to him; and though its deed, that is, its patent, was not issued to him until January 31, 1882, the certificate of purchase, which was given to him upon the entry, was, so far as the acquisition of title by any other party was concerned, equivalent to a patent. It was not until the twenty-eighth of July following that the probate judge entered the town-site. The land had then ceased to be the subject of sale by the government. It was no longer its property; it held the legal title only in trust for the holder of the certificate. Witherspoon v. Duncan, 4 Wall. 218. When the patent was subsequently issued, it related back to the inception of the right of the patentee.
The position that the patent to the plaintiff should have contained a reservation excluding from its operation all buildings and improvements not belonging to him, and all rights necessary or proper to the possession and enjoyment of the same, has no support in any legislation of congress. The land-officers, who are merely agents of the law, had no authority to insert in the patent any other terms than those of conveyance, with recitals showing a compliance with the law and the conditions which it prescribed. The patent of a placer mining claim carries with it the title to the surface included within the lines of the mining location, as well as to the land beneath the surface The act of congress of May 10, 1872, contemplates the purchase of the land on which valuable mineral deposits are found; and its provisions in this respect are retained in the Revised Statutes, § 2319.
While we hold that a title to known valuable mineral land cannot be acquired under the town-site laws, and therefore could not be acquired to the land in controversy under the entry of the town-site of Deadwood by the probate judge of the county in which that town is situated, we do not wish to be understood as expressing any opinion against the validity of the entry, so far as it affected property other than mineral lands, if there were any such at the time of the entry. The acts of congress relating to town-sites recognize the possession of mining claims within their limits; and in Steel v. Smelting Co., 106 U. S. 449, S. C. 1 Sup. Ct. Rep. 391, we said that 'land embraced within a town-site on the public domain, when unoccupied, is not exempt from location and sale for mining purposes; its exemption is only from settlement and sale under the pre-emption laws of the United States. Some of the most valuable mines in the country are within the limits of incorporated cities, which have grown up on what was, at its first settlement, part of the public domain; and many of such mines were located and patented after a regular municipal government had been established. Such is the case with some of the famous mines of Virginia City, in Nevada. Indeed, the discovery of a rich mine in any quarter is usually followed by a large settlement in its immediate neighborhod, and the consequent organization of some form of local government for the protection of its members.' It would seem, therefore, that the entry of a town-site, even though within its limits mineral lands are found, would be as important to the occupants of other lands as if no mineral lands existed. Nor do we see any injury resulting therefrom, nor any departure from the policy of the government; the entry and the patent being inoperative as to all lands known at the time to be valuable for their minerals, or discovered to be such before their occupation or improvement for residences or business under the town-site title.
The claim of the defendant, under the second special plea, to allowance for improvements made upon the property is as untenable as his claim to the title. It is asserted, under a statute of the territory which provides that 'in an action for the recovery of real property upon which permanent improvements have been made by a defendant, or those under whom he claims, holding under color of title adversely to the claim of the plaintiff, in good faith, the value of such improvements must be allowed as a counter-claim by such defendant.' The case presented by the defendant is not covered by the provisions of this law. There can be no color of title in an occupant who does not hold under any instrument, proceeding, or law purporting to transfer to him the title or to give to him the right of possession. And there can be no such thing as good faith in an adverse holding, where the party knows that he has no title, and that, under the law, which he is presumed to know, he can acquire none by his occupation. Here the defendant knew that the title was in the United States; that the lands were mineral, and were claimed as such by the plaintiff; and that title to them could be acquired only under the laws providing for the sale of lands of that character; and there is no pretense that he ever sought or contemplated seeking the title to them as such lands, or claimed possession of them under any local customs or rules of miners in the district. Judgment affirmed.
Affirming Hawke v. Deffenbach, 22 N. W. Rep. 480.
The following state regulations pages link to this page.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
GNU/Linux |
CentOS 2.1AS(Slurm) |
pnmpaste(1) |
pnmpaste - paste a rectangle into a portable anymap
pnmpaste [-replace|-or|-and |-xor] frompnmfile x y [intopnmfile]
Reads two portable anymaps as input. Inserts the first anymap into the second at the specified location, and produces a portable anymap the same size as the second as output. If the second anymap is not specified, it is read from stdin. The x and y can be negative, in which case they are interpreted relative to the right and bottom of the anymap, respectively.
This tool is most useful in combination with pnmcut. For instance, if you want to edit a small segment of a large image, and your image editor cannot edit the large image, you can cut out the segment you are interested in, edit it, and then paste it back in.
Another useful companion tool is pbmmask.
pnmcomp is, a more general tool, except that it lacks the "or," "and," and "xor" functions. pnmcomp allows you to specify an alpha mask in order to have only part of the inserted image get inserted. So the inserted pixels need not be a rectangle. You can also have the inserted image be translucent, so the resulting image is a mixture of the inserted image and the base image.
The optional flag specifies the operation to use when doing the paste. The default is -replace. The other, logical operations are only allowed if both input images are bitmaps. These operations act as if white is TRUE and black is FALSE.
All flags can be abbreviated to their shortest unique prefix.
pnmcomp(1), pnmcut(1), pnminvert(1), pnmarith(1), pbmmask(1), pnm(5)
Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 by Jef Poskanzer.
pnmpaste(1) |


text:
quota -- display disk usage and limits
quota [-glu] [-v | -q] quota [-lu] [-v | -q] user ... quota -g [-l] [-v | -q] group ...
The quota utility displays users' disk usage and limits. By default only the user quotas are printed. The following options are available: -g Print group quotas for the group of which the user is a member. -l Do not report quotas on NFS file systems. -q Print a more terse message, containing only information on file systems where usage is over quota. -u Print the user quotas. This is the default unless -g is specified. -v Display quotas on file systems where no storage is allocated. Specifying both -g and -u displays both the user quotas and the group quotas (for the user). Only the super-user may use the -u flag and the optional user argument to view the limits of other users. Non-super-users can use the -g flag and optional group argument to view only the limits of groups of which they are members. The -q flag takes precedence over the -v flag. The quota utility tries to report the quotas of all mounted file systems. If the file system is mounted via NFS, it will attempt to contact the rpc.rquotad(8) daemon on the NFS server. For UFS file systems, quotas must be turned on in /etc/fstab. If quota exits with a non-zero status, one or more file systems are over quota. If the -l flag is specified, quota will not check NFS file systems.
quota.user located at the file system root with user quotas quota.group located at the file system root with group quotas /etc/fstab to find file system names and locations
The quota command appeared in 4.2BSD.
quotactl(2), fstab(5), edquota(8), quotacheck(8), quotaon(8), repquota(8), rpc.rquotad(8) FreeBSD 5.2.1 August 8, 2002 FreeBSD 5.2.1


text:
Top 8 Dynamic Case Management Myths Debunked
There has been a lot of talk in the IT world recently about dynamic case management (DCM); what it is, what it does, and the potential business benefits it has to offer. Some IT professionals are wary however, skeptical that DCM is anything more than just a fancy word for enterprise content management (ECM) or business process management (BPM).
This expert guide cuts through the hype to give you the facts on what DCM really is by delving into the top eight DCM myths, including:
- Case management is really all about ECM
- If you have BPM you don't need DCM
- Case is just another word for process
- And much more.
Read on to learn the truth about DCM and discover how your business can leverage its collaboration capabilities to breakdown organizational silos.


text:
A thoughtful complement to the Whisky No. 9 MTN Boost LT Fork, this short-travel offering is just the piece for transforming hardtail racers into fully rigid cross-country champs. Lightweight carbon construction, a tapered steerer, and thru-axle dropouts promise dependable strength and steering.
- Lighter and stiffer than a suspension fork, the MTN Boost ST Fork is long enough to replace forks with 110–120mm of travel
- 485mm axle to crown
- Boost 110mm spacing with clearance for 29 x 3.0" or 27.5 x 3.0" tires
- Room for up to 180mm rotor
- Whisky No.9 Thru Bolt and compression plug included
WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.


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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, friends,
I just said goodbye before to President of Ukraine Mr Yanukovych. You also sent him your best wishes. Unfortunately, he has a strict schedule with a lot of events to attend: meetings with colleagues, with state leaders here for the celebrations of the 1025th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus. As I understand, these circumstances are in large part behind your meeting today.
It is a great pleasure to greet you. As your agenda and your main programme outlines state, you are here to discuss the significance of Ukraine's civilisational choice. This is not just Ukraine's civilisational choice. Here at this site, at the baptismal site on the Dnieper River, a choice was made for the whole of Holy Rus, for all of us. Our ancestors who lived in these lands made this choice for our entire people. When I say "for our entire people", we know today's reality of course, know that there are the Ukrainian people and the Belarusian people, and other peoples too, and we respect all the parts of this heritage, but at the same time, at the foundations of this heritage are the common spiritual values that make us a single people. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church leaders spoke about this today. It would be hard to deny this. We can only agree with it.
See also
The Baptism of Rus was a great event that defined Russia's and Ukraine's spiritual and cultural development for the centuries to come. We must remember this brotherhood and preserve our ancestors' traditions. Together, they built a unique system of Orthodox values and strengthened themselves in their faith.
Ukraine, like Russia, has not had an easy history. In mediaeval times, Ukraine was part of first one and then another European power centre, came under the rule of one country, then another. But the vision of uniting both the western and eastern parts of Rus, the state that had its beginnings here in Kiev, at this baptismal site on the Dnieper, always lived on in the east and in the west, wherever our people lived. The unity of east and west changed the lives of Ukraine's population and its elite for the better, as everyone knows. Starting from the 18th century, natives of Kiev and Lviv were prominent in Russia's science, literary, and church circles.
Before the Russian empress issued a special decree, the decree in effect, as I mentioned earlier at the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, was the Spiritual Regulation issued by Peter the Great in 1721. Bishops' houses opened theological schools that made an enormous contribution to the Russian people's education. In accordance with Peter the Great's decree, the heads of these schools were all from Ukraine. This recognised the common spiritual source that began here. Many Ukrainians were also active in diplomatic and senior civil service in Russia, abroad and in the central government bodies.
After its reunification with Russia, Ukraine developed very rapidly in the 17–18th centuries. It became Russia's breadbasket. By the end of the 19th century, the Donetsk Basin had become one of Russia's main mining and metals industry regions, and Odessa was one of the Russian Empire's biggest seaports.
"The Baptism of Rus was a great event that defined Russia's and Ukraine's spiritual and cultural development for the centuries to come. We must remember this brotherhood and preserve our ancestors' traditions."
By the late 19th century, Ukraine had a dense railway network. It became one of the big industrial development centres after the reforms of 1861. In just two decades, coal production increased 13-fold, and iron ore production increased by a mighty 158-fold. This was Ukraine's economic boom. Ukraine produced double the amount of cast iron as the Urals at the end of the 19th century. It was also one of the main centres for transport and agricultural machine-building, producing 30–40 percent of the total national volume of goods in these sectors.
Ukraine's people played an active part in the Russian Empire's economic and cultural life. Kiev essentially became the second cultural and scientific capital after St Petersburg. People from Ukraine were very active in developing Siberia. Of the 2.5 million people who resettled in Siberia over 1906–1912, around 1 million came from Ukraine. Today, there are many Ukrainians living in every town and village throughout Siberia.
During the Soviet period, Ukraine had the highest technological and industrial development level of the Soviet republics. It received more than 20 percent of total investment during the first five-year plan. Four hundred of the 1,500 new industrial enterprises created were in Ukraine, including such giants as Zaporozhstal, Kommunar, Krivorozhstal, Azovstal, DneproGES, aluminium smelters, the Kharkov Tractor Factory, and the Lugansk Locomotive Factory. The industrialisation programme put Ukraine ahead of many Western European countries in the heavy industry sector. It was second in Europe after Germany for cast iron production, was in fourth place for coal production, and was ahead of France and Italy and caught up to Britain in the metals and automotive industries. And this was counting only Ukraine on its own!
No effort was spared to rebuild Ukraine after the Great Patriotic War. By 1950, Ukraine was producing more ferrous metals, iron ore, electricity, mineral fertilisers and other important industrial goods than before the war. Gross industrial production was 15 percent higher than the pre-war 1940 figure. It was a whole 44 percent higher in machine-building and metals processing, and 2.3 times higher in production of industrial construction materials. Ukraine's average annual industrial growth rate was nearly 1.5 times higher than the national average.
Ukraine produced around 48 percent of total Soviet steel output, 33 percent of rolled steel, 53 percent of iron ore, 30 percent of coal, 38 percent of metal-cutting tools, and 71 percent of sugar. It really was an economic and industrial giant. By 1960, industrial output in Ukraine had increased more than 3.6-fold compared to 1940. Labour productivity – an important indicator in any economy, including a market economy – grew by more than 2.5-fold over this period. In 1965, Ukraine's industrial production was 5.6 times higher than the 1940 level.
Ukraine became a leader in developing advanced technology in the 1970s. You know this better than I. Aircraft-manufacturing, the rocket and space sector, nuclear machine-building, instrument-making industry, shipbuilding, electrical technology – all of it was here. The development levels of sea, rail, and pipeline transport systems were among the highest in the Soviet Union.
"Competition on the global markets is very fierce today. Only by joining forces we can be competitive and stand a chance of winning in this tough environment. We have every reason too, to be confident that we should and can achieve this."
People's incomes and living standards increased dramatically over this period. Western estimates show that Ukraine's per capita income in 1970 was higher than in a developed European country such as Italy.
We all know what happened after the Soviet Union's collapse. I will not pass any political judgements on those events. We live in different countries today, but this fact in no way crosses out the common historic past that we share, and that is our asset and the foundation upon which we can build new integration ties. We are fortunate to still have a common transport and energy system, a common electricity system, and we have deep-reaching cooperation in many important economic sectors. This cooperation is vital for the effective development of the enterprises involved and indeed of entire economic sectors
Competition on the global markets is very fierce today. I am sure that most of you realise that only by joining forces can we be competitive and stand a chance of winning in this tough environment. We have every reason too, to be confident that we should and can achieve this.
As you know, there are various integration processes underway now in the post-Soviet area. Much has already been said about the depth and benefits of this integration, and I won't repeat this now. We will respect whatever choice the Ukrainian government and people make on the depth of Ukraine's engagement in these processes in the post-Soviet area. But there are facts that speak for themselves. Our bilateral trade with Ukraine fell by slightly over 18 percent in the first quarter of this year. Our trade with the Customs Union countries increased by 34 percent in 2011, by 11 percent, I think, in 2012, and was up by 2 or 3 percent in the first quarter of this year, despite the downturn in the global economy. We have steady growth.
Let me say again that we will respect whatever choice our Ukrainian partners, friends and brothers make. The question is only one of how we go about agreeing on working together under absolutely equal, transparent and clear conditions.
I know how hard you are working on searching for the best possible forms of cooperation between Russia and Ukraine. I thank you sincerely for these efforts and wish you success.
Thank you very much.


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Objects of Desire
Surrealism and Design 1924 – Today
Surrealism and Design 1924 – Today
28.09.2019 – 19.01.2020
Vitra Design Museum
Surrealism was one of the most influential art movements of the twentieth century. Everyday objects played a central role in its dreamlike imagery: they were alienated, ironized, or combined to create curious hybrids. This led to the creation of numerous key works of modern art, from Marcel Duchamp's »Bicycle Wheel« (1913) to Salvador Dalí's »Lobster Telephone« (1936). In reverse, Surrealism also exerced a decisive influence on the evolution of design. On 28 September 2019 the Vitra Design Museum will open a major exhibition that offers a comprehensive look at the dialogue between Surrealism and design. For the first time, it will unveil the extent to which Surrealism has influenced design of the past 100 years – from furniture and interiors to graphic design, fashion, and photography. The exhibition will include works by Gae Aulenti, BLESS, Achille Castiglioni, Giorgio de Chirico, Le Corbusier, Salvador Dalí, Dunne & Raby, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Ray Eames, Front, Frederick Kiesler, Shiro Kuramata, René Magritte, Carlo Mollino, Isamu Noguchi, Meret Oppenheim, Man Ray, Iris van Herpen, and many others.
Surrealism was founded by André Breton with the first Surrealist manifesto of 1924 and quickly became an international movement that included writers, artists, and filmmakers. The subconscious, dreams, obsessions, chance, and the irrational were just a few of the sources the Surrealists used to create a new artistic reality. In the 1930s Surrealism began to influence design as well, and by the 1940s, it had become a trend that shaped fashion, furniture, and photography, making it onto the covers of »Harper's Bazaar« and »Vogue«. To this day Surrealism is providing designers with manifold inspirations, whether motifs drawn from its fantastic imagery, its subversive approach, or its interest in the human psyche.
The exhibition »Objects of Desire« juxtaposes Surrealist artworks and design objects to reveal fascinating parallels and cross-references. Among the high-profile loans from the field of fine art are the paintings »The Red Model« (1947 or 1948) by René Magritte, Salvador Dalí's »Giant Flying Mocha Cup with an Inexplicable Five Metre Appendage« (1944/45), and »Forest, Birds and Sun« (1927) by Max Ernst as well as such Readymades as Marcel Duchamp's »Bottle Dryer« (1914) or »Gift« (1921) by Man Ray. The representatives of design range from works of the 1930s – such as Meret Oppenheim's table »Traccia« (1939) – to the contemporary, including fashion designs by Iris van Herpen, objects by Front, Konstantin Grcic, or Odd Matter as well as critical design projects that question new technologies or gender roles in subversive ways. These works demonstrate that design is not just about function and technology but also about objects' hidden realities, about our inherently secret dreams, obsessions, and myths – that is, the sur-real.
The exhibition begins with an examination of Surrealism from the 1920s to the 1950s in which the crucial role that design played in the movement's evolution becomes apparent. The second section of the exhibition shows the ways in which Surrealists explored the archetypes of everyday objects and undermined the codes of meaning of a world we thought we knew. The third part of the exhibition is devoted to the themes of love, eroticism, and sexuality, which played a central role in Surrealism. The exhibition's final chapter looks at what the French ethnologist Claude Lévi-Strauss called the »savage mind«: an interest in the archaic, in chance, and in the irrational which was as evident in the Surrealists' enthusiasm for non-Western tribal art as in their experiments with materials and techniques like »automatic painting«.
The examples in the exhibition demonstrate the enduring vitality of the dialogue between Surrealism and design. Surrealism has encouraged designers to examine the reality beneath what is visible and to design objects that offer resistance, undermine routine, and disrupt the quotidian. It has liberated post-war design from the corset of functionalism and led our gaze away from the shape of objects to their hidden, unconscious messages. The exhibition »Objects of Desire« examines this phenomenon for the first time and thus directs our attention to one of the most significant dialogues between art and design of the past century.
You can find the exhibition programme here.
The exhibition is supported by Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne and sponsored by BOSS.


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Welcome to the practice of Nick Chiotellis, DDS located in Gilroy, CA. Dr. Chiotellis has been practicing in this office since 2000 and has built a reputation for restoring smiles back to their natural beauty! He specializes in general and restorative dentistry, including root canals, extractions, dentures and partials, implant restoration, veneers, and tooth whitening. Come in our office and let us help you realize how beautiful your smile can be!
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Private Paradises: Celebrity-Owned Islands
Friday, 3rd June 2011 by Kyle Kusch
Who wouldn't want their own private island in which to wall themselves off from the rest of the world, while enjoying all the comforts of wealth and opulence? After all, celebrities do it all the time (some even build Stonehenge replicas and issue their own island currencies in increments of Pi). Thanks to Google Maps, we can get a glimpse of some of these water-bound estates and see how the other half live.
The stereotype associated with private islands is a tropical paradise in the middle of the ocean covered in palm trees and rimmed by white sand beaches. Perhaps nothing meets that stereotype more than the Polynesian atoll of Tetiaroa, which was purchased by Marlon Brando in the 1960s for US$270,000 while scouting locations for Mutiny on the Bounty.
Brando's goal was to turn the atoll into an eco-luxury resort, but there are surprisingly few amenities or buildings (even the air strip is rather plain). Prior to Brando, the atoll was used as a copra plantation, and the planted rows of Coconut palms are still quite visible.
At the other end of the spectrum are the eleven Bahamian islands of Musha Cay owned by illusionist David Copperfield (who modestly renamed them the 'Islands of Copperfield Bay'), which operates as one of the world's most exclusive resorts with rooms starting at US$37,500 per night (minimum three night stay, telephone use not included!)
Next stop is Fiji and Mago Island was bought in 2005 by Mel Gibson. Gibson also inherited an entire village when he bought the island, which is home to the island's caretakers. The island has been left untouched for the most part other than the scar left by an airstrip.
Perhaps the king of islomania1 is Virgin gazillionaire Sir Richard Branson, who boasts three islands to his name: Necker and Mosquito in the British Virgin Islands (his own private resort and an ecotourism project, respectively), and Makepeace Island in Queensland, which is currently being turned into a private resort for Virgin employees.
Some celebrities eschew the tropics for a private piece of land in their own backyards, such as Celine Dion, whose mansion sits on Île Gagnon in the Rivière des Mille Îles at Laval, Quebec.
The island's mansion and swimming pool are clearly seen here but Street View can only get as far as the estate gates (which one must assume were put in place as sound insulation by Lavallois tired of hearing that bloody Titanic song).
True to type, adventurer/TV presenter Bear Grylls went with something a little more rudimentary, purchasing the treeless Welsh island of St. Tudwal's Island West, which is home to not much more than a simple lighthouse and a stone cottage. The island's cliffs are probably well-suited to a man who climbed Everest at age 23.
Of course that's just scratching the surface of celebrity-owned islands. Do you know of any other private islands of the rich and famous on Google Maps? Let us know about them in the comments!
A terrible affliction where the sufferer is beset with an irresistible attraction to islands. Poor souls. ↩


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Personal Injury Lawyer
When searching for a personal injury lawyer you should be looking for a lawyer that has vast experience representing individuals who have sustained personal injury in traffic accidents, premise liability accidents, and other less common injury accidents such as aviation accidents, boating accidents, and dog bites. If you have been injured because of the negligence of another person, you may have a valid claim for damages against the liable party. This may include a monetary award for property damage, medical bills, lost wages pain and suffering, and other damages depending on the facts and circumstances of your case. Our experienced personal injury lawyer is ready to zealously assist you pursue your personal injury claim.
Why Do I Need To Hire An Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer?
If you have ever been involved in the process of pursuing a claim against an insurance company, whether it be after being injured in a simple car accident, pedestrian accident, motorcycle crash, bicycle accident, truck accident, bus accident or even a trip and fall accident, slip and fall accident, or construction accident, you know that pursuing compensation from the at-fault party is never easy. Contending with insurance adjusters is not fun. They are experts that are trained in frustrating victims' claims.
The legal process of negotiating with the insurance adjusters of the at-fault party may not be fruitful and filing a personal injury lawsuit in court to get you the compensation you deserve may be in your best interests. This is why, if you desire maximum compensation for your pain and suffering and other losses, you need representation from a personal injury lawyer you can count on. Our personal injury lawyer is highly committed to representing all personal injury victims who are hurt as a result of someone else's actions.
To speak with a knowledgeable and experienced personal injury lawyer about your claim, contact Walsh Woodard LLC at 860-549-8440.


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This is a 8 x 10 inch limited edition giclee print. This print was created using an Epson SureColor P7000 inkjet printer with archival ink on Canson Infinity Rag Photographique archival paper. Pen and ink and digitally painted. Each print is signed and numbered by the artist.
'The House of Asterion'


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This Privacy Policy is effective as of and was last updated on April 14th, 2016
This privacy policy (this "Privacy Policy") is designed to inform you about the type of information that Ground Up Builders Corporation ("we," "us," or "our") may gather or collect from you in connection with your use of our website or mobile application (collectively "Site"). It also explains the conditions under which we use and disclose that information, and your rights in relation to that information.
The procedures for modifying or changing this Privacy Policy in the future are discussed in Section 6 of this document.
This Site is not intended for children under 18 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18.
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We collect both Non-Personally-Identifying Information and Personally-Identifying Information from you. "Non–Personally–Identifying Information" is information that, without the aid of additional information, cannot be directly associated with a specific person or entity. "Personally–Identifying Information," by contrast, is information such as a name or email address that, without more, can be directly associated with a specific person or entity and any other information that is linked or linkable to an individual.
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Like most site operators, we gather Non- Personally-Identifying Information from you of the sort that web browsers, depending on their settings, may make available. That information includes your Internet Protocol ("IP") address, operating system and browser type, and the locations of the web pages you view right before arriving at, while navigating and immediately after leaving this Site.
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A "Web Cookie" is a string of information that a site stores on your computer, and your browser provides to this Site, each time you submit a query to this Site. We may use Web Cookies to track the pages that you visit during each Site session, both to help us improve your experience and to help us understand how this Site is being used.
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KINSHASA - Congolese-Australian journalist Eric Mwamba went on a search to find the secret behind the riches of the Congolese elite. Many of his witnesses prefered staying anonymous for fear of their lives – which looks like a kind of Congolese omerta. John Vandaele selected Mwamba's strongest observations and added some personal touches.
"My salary is less than €750.00. And yet I can make up to €225,000 per month", a forty-year-old man tells us in Kinshasa. He's wearing a diamond watch and glasses of pure gold. Between 2006 and 2011 the man was counsellor at the Ministry of Economics, during the Gizenga and the Muzito administrations. He is willing to confide to us how you can get rich through the Congolese state, on the condition that we don't get him into any trouble. If he is mentioned by name or if pictures of his villa are published, he would have to fear for his life.
He owns a marble, three-storied villa in Mont-Fleury, one of Kin's better neighbourhoods. The car park is full of big cars. A month later we meet him in Sandton, an uptown area in Johannesburg, South Africa, where his family has been living for five years. Again: a marvellous villa, bathing in a sea of green. His three children, who go to an expensive American school, are at the pool. It's obvious: this is a family that does not in the least share the same concerns as do the average Congolese. And it isn't the only one: a small group of lucky few are able to squander massive amounts of money, despite the country's general poverty. What makes the issue even more sensitive is that the average annual per capita income in Congo is less than 150 Euros – one of the lowest in the world. Moreover, people have to pay for every service they want to make use of, due to the country's very weak public facilities.
There are different ways for the elite in charge to increase their wealth.
Block reforms
One of the basic strategies is to successfully prevent any government improvements. Our man, who worked with three ministers of Economy, states that most ministers and people in charge of state companies just don't want there to be any reforms towards good governance. Even if the council of ministers, often pressurised by Western partners, decides to improve governance in any way, that decision is thwarted by bribery. An example. A Congolese responsible of a World Bank project explains that his institution had started, after being suggested to do so by the government, a computerisation project of public expenses in order to reduce corruption. However, the project could not be executed, because the people who were capitalising on the existing system didn't want it to. To stop the development of such a project, the ministers who don't want it to be executed will bribe the colleague responsible for the project. It is with this kind of operations that our man with the gold glasses made a lot of his money.
He says that other ministers' employees would sometimes approach him with amounts of money that he thought were too low. He would push for more. "In one case, the assistant of another minister offered me 110,000 Euros. I had it raised to 520,000." A part of which he kept for himself of course.
That way of working is the reason why it is hard to determine exactly how many people work for the different ministries in Congo – despite multiple attempts to do so, often financed by other countries. There will always be someone who manages to thwart a waterproof count in order to capitalise on the confusion by keeping part of the paid out salaries for himself.
If you know the reality, you understand just how cynical it now sounds to hear how Alphonse Muzito, Congolese Prime Minister from 2008 to 2011, said on 29 September 2011 that the problem is that "we don't have enough money to pay for the basic infrastructure needed to attract private investments."
Undersell and collect under the table
The money that the governmental elite pockets, comes from all kinds of development aid, the jumble of formal and informal taxes lots of government services charge and the money flows that the natural resources – which Congo has in abundance – generate. Those natural resources, in particular, could offer Congo a unique opportunity for development, if the country would manage it sensibly. The Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) is an attempt to make that happen, but it has to contend with major difficulties in Congo. It wants to fight corruption by urging companies to make public the amounts of taxes they paid, after which the government services receiving the taxes make public what they have received. The last EITI report shows that both in 2008 and in 2009 there was a significant difference between what both sides declared: the companies stated having paid a much higher amount in taxes than what the different government services claimed to have received.
Through the years the Congolese Parliament published various critical reports on the subject. In 2009 the Senate came out with a report on mismanagement in the mining industry. The report denounced that the country collected a mere 68 million Euros from the mining industry, while it missed out on 337 million Euros because of underbilling, tax evasion, smuggle, fraudulent contracts and bad bookkeeping.
The president of the commission in question, David Mutamba Dibwe, stated that the majority of the mining exports are not declared and that the badly equipped tax authorities are not capable of tracking the transactions. Critical reports like this one do appear from time to time, but fail to lead to any big changes.
At the end of 2011 British MP Eric Joyce denounced that the Congolese state had missed out on 3.75 billion Euros. Congo had sold four mines to four companies registered on the Virgin Islands for a price much under market value. The companies were owned by Israeli businessman Dan Gertler, who was – and is – a good friend of Congolese president Joseph Kabila and his number two, the deceased Katumba Mwanke.
It speaks for itself that Kabila and his men received a royal compensation under the table for underselling the country's resources. That strategy is without doubt one of the most lucrative in the gamut. An insider confides that it "happens less often now than, say, five years ago, but there is still a long way to go."
Anyway, Eric Joyce thought that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) did not force Congo enough to comply with the transparency conditions it was supposed to respect in exchange for support from the IMF. In 2004 the IMF saw that the government revenue from the mining industry amounted to only 0.18 percent of the national income, whereas in Botswana it was 22 percent. "So there is room for improvement", the IMF concluded hesitantly.
There has been some improvement since then. "In 2011 government revenue collected by the three most important tax authorities made up almost 2.3 percent of the GNP. The total revenues from all the different kinds of natural resources (also wood and oil) amounted to five percent of the GNP", says Oscar Melhado, the local representative of the IMF in Congo.
That doesn't mean that everything is all good for the IMF. In December 2012 the IMF refused to extend its credit facility for Congo because the Congolese government had published too little information on the transfer of assets from public mining company Gécamines to the company Comide. Melhado: "The authorities said that there was no real contract for the transaction. But what they did make public, did not contain enough information about the transaction, so the IMF decided not to extend its credit facility."
Melhado claims that at the moment 26.5 percent of government revenues come from natural resources. According to an IMF report that is less than in Botswana (31.5 percent) and much less than in Nigeria (72 percent) and Congo-Brazzaville (88 percent).
Melhado had rather not say that Congo does not get enough government revenues from its natural resources. He prefers a more positive phrasing: "There is potential for an increase of the mining revenues. Efforts are made to improve the income flow in the mining industry. The IMF is offering technical assistance to enhance the management of public finances, the tax authorities and the taxation policy."
Steal grounds
Another way for certain people to amass riches is by acquiring public grounds and buildings in an illicit way and at much too low a price.
"We don't accept houses being built on hospital grounds", Pascale Nkelenge shouts, surrounded by other inhabitants of Kintambo district in Kinshasa. About ten houses of 'untouchables' are located on the grounds of Kintambo public hospital, behind corrugated iron fencing guarded by police officers with Kalashnikovs.
The land register administration refuses to release the names of the people commissioning the illicit construction works. "Ministers and members of the army's higher management are among the people building on these grounds", stated Jacques Bakabi, who works at the information office of the so-called Fast Intervention Police. "In the end, the president himself stopped construction because the incessant protests from the local inhabitants started to become an embarrassment."
Mostly, however, things don't end that way. Laurent Simon Ikenge, minister of Urbanisation and Housing in the Gizenga administration from 2006 to 2008, claims that "not a day goes by without public real estate is undersold to private persons, without any regard to the regulations." The former minister regrets that all recommendations made in different reports had no effect.
SOS-Kinshasa, a not-for-profit organisation carrying the slogan 'Touche pas à mon école', has made the fight against the appropriation of school grounds into its core business.
Leny Ilondo Ye Nkoy, president of the organisation, calls the judicial system the weak spot of the Congolese democracy. Since 2008 the organisation has compiled a list of seventy schools that have fallen prey to the appropriation of grounds, and that's just schools in Kinshasa. Countless complaints have been filed with the public prosecutor of Kinshasa, but "justice hasn't set up a single investigation yet", says Ilondo.
Does the president set the right example?
Everyone who stays in Congo for a while knows that civil servants on all levels try to line their pockets. "It cost us fourteen months to transport water tubes from Matadi port to the Kasai region, just because we were not sufficiently prepared to bribe people", someone from the Belgian development cooperation testifies. That lower-ranked civil servants try to enrich themselves is understandable because they are often badly paid. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't have any consequences. There are few countries in the world where the state is trying so hard to tax away citizens' initiative, be it a fishing pond or an imported container. The dysfunctional state thus becomes a predator as far as development is concerned. The top plays an important role in bringing about a change, but very little evolution is happening.
An inspector of the economical police discusses work conditions in his department when it concerns companies and friends of president Kabila's. "Take Mazar Rawji and his brothers' groups Beltexco and Marsavco. Even though we disposed of various well-documented notes on irregularities, we were formally forbidden to investigate those companies. Even the lowest-ranking police officer of our team knew that it touched upon the president's interests."
The least you can say is that president Joseph Kabila likes ranches. He doesn't just own an ultramodern ranch in Kingakati village, at 130 kilometers from Kinshasa, he also has one in the suburbs of Lubumbashi and one in North-Kivu near Beni. "If the ranches were to offer meat and food to the locals, Kabila and his entourage would be quite popular", says a member of the ministry of Agriculture in Lubumbashi. "Instead, the ranches are nothing more than vessels to recycle the millions of Euros that he garnered through shady operations."
The president also collects cross motorcycles and SUVs. A source at the state protocol adds that the president "spends without counting" while on official visits, because he leaves with a crew of over two hundred people for inland trips and about a hundred for international visits. During the 67th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, September 2012, Kabila and his crew stayed in the Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue. Many of the rented rooms cost up to €4,000 a night.
The 50-odd million Euros provided by the state budget for the presidency is but a fraction of Kabila's income. Underselling the country's resources undoubtedly contributes the largest part. Furthermore, there are 'Petit Joseph's' friends. To stay a 'friend', 'to be able to keep eating' as a director of a public service that generates income, you have to give Kabila presents. As a token of loyalty, envelopes are given to the president and donations made to his political party, Parti du Peuple pour la Réconstruction et la Démocratie (PPRD). Whoever fails to do so, risks his job.
In a letter sent on 20 September 2005 the office of the provincial council of the PPRD expresses its delight about the efficient contributions of Gécamines' and railway company SNCC's trustees. The people concerned are then recommended to the party's hierarchy with name and surname. Private companies do not lag behind. The same document states how Belgian entrepreneur "mister George Arthur Forrest and his group stand out because they have supported us step by step in the gradual implanting of the party". Then there's the republic's Sovereign Fund, which is discussed elaborately in a leaked document written by ambassador (and pastor) Théodore Mugalu. He heads the Civil House of the head of state and is part of Kabila's closest circle. In a document entitled Safety Information for the Attention of His Excellence, Mister President of the Republic, drawn up in August 2010, Mugalu warns for the intentions of Augustin Katumba Mwanke (AKM), the man who had been managing the big economic cases for years, to succeed or replace Kabila.
What is interesting is that, in relation to the report, Mugalu elaborates on the so-called Sovereign Fund, the money of which AKM allegedly wanted to claim illegally. The document describes in detail on which banks AKM deposited some of the Fund's money. The Banque Générale de Luxembourg is named, account number 0001-61-247-6 registered under the company Katumabu-Transit. The account was opened on 14 June 2009 with an amount of around 30 million Euros, which "AKM uses to control the parliament through permanent bribe". Among the 'victims' of the bribe was Evariste Boshab, who later became the president of the parliament. From July 2009 onward, Boshab allegedly received no less than 256,000 Euros – 32,000 Euros per month – deposited on his Banque et Caisse d'Epargne de l'Etat account LU930030846721570000, in Luxembourg city.
The document also mentions the Bank of Kampala and Uganda, the Credit Bank Limited in Hong Kong, the Ned Bank in South-Africa, Hapaolom Bank in Panama and Tel-Aviv and Rossiyskiy Bank in Moscow.
Whether or not all this information is true, we don't know. But it does say something about the kind of sums of money that the Sovereign Fund holds, about the bribing of politicians and about how the Congolese elite feel in their element in the world of international banking. It completely allows them to secure their cash. Or better: to hide it, like a needle in a haystack.
Perished in a flurry of bank notes
We'll probably never know if the accusations against AKM are true. The man lost his life in February 2012 in a plane crash in Bukavu. There is no doubt that he was the Rasputin of the regime. Even though he was not a minister, he managed all big economic cases. That that position paid off is made clear in Pweto, AKM's birth town in North-Katanga near the border with Zambia.
Pweto carries the marks of the man's wealth and power. The town, that was hardly accessible in the past, is on the world map now, thanks to the construction of an airport that carries the name of its benefactor Mwanke. While the country suffers a constant dearth of energy, Pweto isn't just supplied through a special line from Zambia, but also by a hydroelectric power station on the Congolese Luala River. Other conspicuous elements: the many private jets (big cargo as well as small passenger jets), dozens of extremely luxurious houses, a four-star hotel and… a villa à la Beverly Hills – AKM's infamous LESA residence with a big central staircase to the inside and outside salons. The residence also has a garden at the beach of Lake Mweru. In Pweto, Katumba Mwanke is omnipresent as the Good Samaritan. Plaques reading 'Don de l'honorable Mwanke' are everywhere.
One of the businessmen who came down to Pweto very frequently was Israeli Dan Gertler. That's what one of AKM's drivers says. "The patron called him Dany. He flew out here in his jet a few times per week. I always went to pick him up from the airport. His visits were unplanned. He really felt at home down here. He gave us money, lots of it, a thousand times more than what I make a month."
The wildest stories are going round about AKM's death. One of them that is often repeated, talks about the dollar notes that flurried when the airplane crashed. Allegedly, AKM was on his way to buy Bertrand Bisengimana's farm on Idjwi Island in Lake Kivu, a transaction that would apparently be paid in cash. The stories add to the obscure myth that surrounds Katumba Mwanke. What is certain is that after Katumba's death, others started to manoeuvre to filled up the dubious but lucrative gap that he'd left behind. After all, there are very few signs that indicate a change in the system any time soon.
Röntgenfoto van een roofdierstaat - (MO*, February 2013, p. 22-27)
Getting Rich In Poverty Stricken Congo (Huffington Post, 02/03/2013)
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Creamy polenta is the perfect winter fare, it's warm, comforting and becomes the ideal rustic meal for a very cold winter day!
Fresh herbs, grated Parmigiano Reggiano and a touch of cream stirred into the polenta makes it so irresistible, you'll be tempted to eat it straight out of the pan, trust me!
But please try and resist the urge because it tastes even better when it's spread out all over a platter and then topped with your favorite vegetables.
I used garlicky broccoli rabe, juicy roasted tomatoes and sauteed portobellos to grace the top of mine. I didn't even have time to plate it, we just grabbed 2 forks and went to town!
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- 1 cup polenta ( I used the quick cook kind)
- 2 cups of chicken broth, or vegetable
- 2 cups water
- 1 tablespoon butter
- ½ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
- 2 heaping tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley and basil
- ½ cup of half and half
- drizzle of olive oil
- 3 portobello mushrooms, gills removed and sliced
- 1 bunch of broccoli rabe
- 5 campari tomatoes or several cherry tomatoes
- 2 shallots
- 4 minced garlic
- splash of white wine
- Prepare Vegetables: Roast tomatoes on baking sheet with foil drizzled with olive oil at 400 until they slightly burst.
- Boil broccoli rabe for 5 minutes then place in ice bath, drain, then saute with 2 cloves of shaved garlic, olive oil and a pinch of crushed red pepper.
- Saute 2 chopped garlic and 2 chopped shallots in olive oil, add sliced mushrooms and a splash of white wine, cook until moisture evaporates.
- For the Polenta: Boil water and broth along with the butter, whisk in polenta cook until bubbly and creamy.
- Stir in grated Parmigiano, herbs and the half and half, drizzling a little more olive oil.
- Spread polenta on a platter or board, arrange veggies on top, garnish with more Parmigiano


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Although They Will Cause Fear, They Are Nothing…
Thursday, July 25th, 2013 @ 20:40
Thursday, July 25th, 2013 @ 20:40
My dearly beloved daughter, the Hand of My Father has now intervened in the world, in punishment for the sin of man. Sin has escalated in the world because man no longer differentiates between right and wrong. You cannot escape the Wrath of My Father's Anger, when your countries applaud wicked sin, through their laws.
These punishments will be witnessed across the world, quickly. Although they will cause fear, they are nothing when compared to the Great Chastisement ahead. Man is stubborn. He refuses help when it is offered by God. Humanity has chosen to reject God and every single one of you has suffered because of the heathens amongst you.
My Call from Heaven is to save all souls in the first instance, but it is also so that I can help you to mitigate the punishments, which will befall the human race. How great is My Mercy. How great is My Patience, but those who reject My Teachings and who shut themselves off from My Father, their Creator, will soon know the consequences.
I call out to all religions and beg you to pray for clemency, whether you accept these Messages or not. The prayers are necessary to mitigate the catastrophes, which have already begun. Pray, pray, pray, for your lives and for the salvation of your souls.
Your Jesus
- Published:
- Jul 12, 2017
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Michael Pollan:
Maybe the reason we like to watch cooking on TV is that there are things about cooking we miss. We might not feel we have the time or the energy to do it ourselves every day, yet we're not prepared to see it disappear from our lives entirely. Why? Perhaps because cooking — unlike sewing or darning socks — is an activity that strikes a deep emotional chord in us, one that might even go to the heart of our identity as human beings.I'm happy to be part of a family in which everybody cooks.
Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch (New York Times)