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GLOBAL SPC Strategic Analysis department provides its clients with strategic analysis, including country-risk assessments and political reports, offers much more than simply an in-depth assessment of the Republic of Armenia. We provide a unique approach to understanding the situation in the region in the broader scope, which is an essential precondition for making a more informed business and investment decision. Our Strategic Services offers unique products covering the most significant trends and developments in the areas of economics, politics, and military-security issues.
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text:
They realld maintain it at
They realld maintain it at the hard way.
Against a backdrop of looming summer storms, locked out utility workers are returning to work after a four-week standoff with Consolidated Edison, New York City's electricity provider, after state politicians stepped into the high-profile dispute.
Governor Andrew Cuomo brokered a meeting between the two sides this morning after sending a letter to the public utility commission asking it to convene talks between the union and the company yesterday. Within hours of Cuomo's letter the commission announced talks, reversing its earlier position that federal law prevented it from intervening.
According to the union, half of the 8,500 locked out workers will return to work immediately.
For weeks the union has been calling on the governor to take action, and union spokesman John Melia bristled at the governor's public statements pointing the finger at the union as well as the company. "To hold us accountable when Con Ed locked us out? Is the governor serving Con Ed and the board of directors or is he serving all of the people of New York?" Melia said.
It is not clear what effect the stepped up political pressure, or the return to work, will have on negotiations. The company has continued to push Utility Workers Local 1-2 to convert its traditional pension to a 401(k) and for workers to pay substantially more for health insurance.
The governor's intervention was only part of the pressure from Albany. Yesterday the New York State Assembly held hearings on Con Edison's safety plans following the company's decision to lock out front-line technicians and call center workers.
In the hearings, Con Edison Vice President John Miksad defended the company's safety record during the lockout. "This is the safest Con Edison has ever been," he said.
Local 1-2 president Harry Farrell disagreed. "The scabs the company is bringing in from around the country don't know how to work on our system," he said. Twelve managers have been seriously injured during the lockout, including one sent to the hospital with burns to his face.
Give $10 a month or more and get our "Fight the Boss, Build the Union" T-shirt.
Con Edison has hired over 700 contractors to work alongside 2,500 supervisors in the field.
Farrell warned the Assembly members that inexperienced replacement workers could leave behind potentially deadly conditions for city residents and Local 1-2 members. "They're going to be in here and gone. We're going to be walking into potential bombs," he said.
In yesterday's hearings Miksad denied the company was planning for a lockout, although he acknowledged Con Edison put a contingency plan in place a year ago in preparation for the July 1 contract expiration.
Con Edison is following a trend by locking workers out to gain the upper hand in negotiations.
The past two years have seen an explosion in lockouts, from high-profile disputes between professional basketball and football players and team owners, to less-publicized standoffs such as the 14-month lockout at Honeywell's Metropolis, Illinois, nuclear processing plant and the ongoing conflict between sugar beet workers in Minnesota, Iowa, and North Dakota and their employer American Crystal Sugar.
In the last two decades lockouts have comprised about 5 percent of all work stoppages, according to the news organization Bloomberg BNA. That figure doubled to almost 10 percent between 2010 and 2011.
For first-hand accounts of the impact of the Con Edison lockout, watch this recent report from Jaisal Noor and The Real News Network, posted below.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
It's this time of the year again. The weekend before last I made my way to Borough Market afresh to obtain selected ingredients for another round of flavor Infused Rum. I bottled and mixed the dried fruits and spices on the day. Now it's going to take the three bottles at least a couple of weeks – ideally around three months – to unfold their flavors and sync together perfectly. The most important thing is patience and a weekly shake. I'm also rather curious how they will turn out compared to the ones from last year. It's less sugar and a bit more fruits this time. Maybe for these three I will get around to do what I wanted last time and design some labels for the infused rum. Let me introduce the cast:
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
7 comments:
- Shane said...
Some say Alcohol influences Creativity...nice to see that Creativity can also influence alcohol.
looks awesome, I bet if you eat the fruit after a couple of months you'll be drunk as a skunk. - August 6, 2008 at 6:04 AM
snarf wal snarf!!!!!!!!
- August 6, 2008 at 6:12 AM
- Slave #24601 said...
Ace. If you stumble across the recipe to Sailor Jerry's then be sure to let us know.
- August 6, 2008 at 8:21 AM
- mjw4849 said...
What other flavour rums have you made before?
- August 6, 2008 at 9:50 AM
also cherry/chilli, cranberries/rasberries/vanilla and mango/ginger
- August 6, 2008 at 12:14 PM
I've always felt that the best addition for rum is ice cubes and a stir straw. :)
- August 11, 2008 at 11:47 AM
- Le Jetliner Rieur said...
Ah ah ah.
Began mine season in Paris too.
We should share one bottle soon.
Le Jetliner Rieur - August 30, 2008 at 2:58 AM
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How Scientific Is Modern Medicine?
Conventional medicine adherents have consistently asserted that its methods are scientifically verified, and they have ridiculed other methods that are suggested to have therapeutic or curative effects. In fact, conventional physicians have consistently worked to disallow competitors, even viciously attacking those in their own profession who have questioned conventional treatments or provided alternative modalities.
And yet, strangely enough, whatever has been in vogue in conventional medicine in one decade has been declared ineffective, dangerous, and sometimes barbaric in the ensuing decades. Surprisingly, despite this pattern in history, proponents and defenders of "scientific medicine" tend to have little or no humility, continually asserting that today's cure is truly effective.
The good news about conventional medicine and one of its remarkable features for which it should be honored is its history of consistently and repeatedly disproving its own treatments. The fact that only a handful of conventional drugs have survived thirty or more years is strong testament to the fact that conventional medicine is honorable enough to acknowledge its mistakes.
Medical history uncovers an obvious pattern in the discovery and application of drug treatments. Initially, there is great excitement about a new drug's discovery. Research has seemingly proven its safety and efficacy and leads to widespread appreciation for the drug's ability to provide relief. Over time, there are minor concerns about the drug's side effects, until more research and clinical practice uncover more serious concerns about its side effects. Then, more research and clinical experience lead to more serious questions about the drug's real safety and efficacy, until there is general acknowledgment that the drug doesn't work as well as previously assumed, and there is recognition of an increasingly long list of serious side effects over time. However, these problems are not really problems because a new drug emerges, with short-term research that suggests it is a better drug after all. That is, until new research con- firms that it is neither as effective nor as safe as previously thought. And the cycle has continued like this for a century or more.
Like the fashion industry with its regular changes in style, the drug industry makes its profits on the newest drugs rather than on the older ones -- and not just any profits, but sickeningly high profits.
In 2002, the combined profits ($35.9 billion) of the ten largest drug companies in the Fortune 500 were more than the combined profits ($33.7 billion) of the remaining 490 companies together (Angell, 2004, 11).1 The only reason these drug companies did not maintain this shocking financial advantage is that the oil companies' profits have increased considerably with the Iraq War, thus raising the 490 non-drug companies' profits slightly higher. But then again, one would assume that the profits of 490 of the largest companies in the world would be substantially more than just ten companies in one commercial field. This economic information is important, even essential, because learning how to separate the "science" of medicine from the business of medicine has never been more difficult. The combined efforts of the drug companies and the medical profession, which together may be called the "medicalindustrial complex," have been wonderfully effective in convincing consumers worldwide that modern medicine is the most scientific discipline that has ever existed. Before discussing homeopathy, it is important, if not necessary, to raise basic questions about what "scientific"medicine is -- and is not.
Physicians today rarely run drug companies. Instead, businessmen run
them. It is, therefore, not surprising that Marcia Angell,MD, a Harvard
professor of medicine and former editor of the famed New England Journal
of Medicine , wrote:
Over the past two decades the pharmaceutical industry has moved very
far from its original high purpose of discovering and producing useful
new drugs. ... Now primarily a marketing machine to sell drugs of dubious
benefit, this industry uses its wealth and power to co-opt every institution
that might stand in its way, including the U.S. Congress, the FDA, academic
medical centers, and the medical profession itself. (Levi, 2006)
There is big big money to be made in drug sales, and brilliant marketing has led too many of us to ignore or excuse this bully side of medicine.
Yes, a gorilla is in the house, but anyone who refers to him as a gorilla is usually called a quack or a crank. This gorilla was not born yesterday; he has been growing for generations. A part of his self-defense propensities is to eliminate competing forces, whether the other side seeks cooperation or not. Any competitive force is frequently and soundly attacked. The history of homeopathy shows this side of medicine, for from 1860 to the early twentieth century, the AMA had a consultation clause in its code of ethics that members were not allowed to consult with a medical doctor who practiced homeopathy and weren't even allowed to treat a homeopath's patients. At a time in medical history when doctors bloodlet their patients to death and regularly prescribed mercury and various caustic agents to sick people, the only action that the AMA considered reprehensible and actionable was the "crime" of consulting with a homeopath.
In fact, the entire Medical Society of New York was kicked out of the AMA in 1881 simply because this state's medical organization admitted into its membership any medical doctors who utilized homeopathic medicines, no matter what their academic credentials were. They only rejoined the AMA twenty-five years later (Walsh, 1907, 207). This King Kong, however, is not a monster to everyone. In fact, this big gorilla is wonderfully generous to executives, to large sales and marketing forces, to supportive politicians , and to the media from whom he buys substantial amounts of advertising (and thus, an incredible amount of positive media coverage). And this gorilla is wonderfully generous to stockholders.While it may seem inappropriate to criticize profits, it is important and appropriate to do so when profits are unbelievably excessive, when long-term efficacy hasn't stood the test of time, and when common use of more than one drug at a time is rarely if ever scientifically tested for efficacy.
Although these observations just mentioned may seem harsh and offensive to some people, they are made with the concurrent acknowledgment that most of us know someone whose life was saved or at least whose health was significantly restored by conventional medical treatments. I myself am the son of a fabulous father who was a physician and insulin-dependent diabetic. In other words, I would not be alive today if it were not for some important conventional medical discoveries such as insulin.
We should not "throw the baby out with the bathwater," nor do we want to ignore the bathwater in which we place our babies. Most of us also know someone whose health has been seriously hurt, or whose life was cut short, by modern medical treatments. Drug companies defend their large profits by asserting that they spend tremendous amounts of money on research and development, but they tend to hide the fact that they spend approximately three times more money on marketing and administration. And the obscenely high profits of the drug companies take into account all known expenses. Ultimately, drug companies are wonderfully creative in convincing us all that their drug treatments are "scientific," and too many of us actually believe them.
It is therefore important to understand what is truly meant when drug companies and the media assert that drugs are "scientifically proven."
How Scientific Is Modern Medicine?
Mahatma Gandhi was once asked by a reporter what he thought about Western civilization, and in light of the uncivilized treatment by the British government of his nonviolent actions, he immediately replied, "Western civilization? Yes, it is a good idea." Likewise, if he were asked what he thought about "scientific medicine," he would probably have replied in a similar manner.
The idea of scientific medicine is a great one, but is modern medicine truly, or even adequately, "scientific"?
Modern medicine uses the double-blind and placebo-controlled trial as the gold standard by which effectiveness of a treatment is determined. On the surface, this scientific method is very reasonable. However, serious problems in these studies are widely acknowledged by academics but remain unknown to the general public. Fundamental questions about the meaning of the word "efficacy" are rarely, if ever, raised.
For instance, just because a drug treatment seems to eliminate a speci- fic symptom doesn't necessarily mean that it is "effective." In fact, getting rid of a specific symptom can be the bad news. Aspirin may lower your fever, but physiologists recognize that fever is an important defense of the body in its efforts to fight infection. Painkilling drugs may eliminate the acute pain in the short term, but because these drugs do not influence the underlying cause of the discomfort, they do not really heal the person, and worse, they can lead to physical and psychological dependency, addiction, tolerance, and increased heart disease. Sleep-inducing drugs may lead you to fall asleep, but they do not lead to refreshed sleep, and these drugs ultimately tend to aggravate the cycle of insomnia and fatigue. Uncertainty remains for the long-term safety and efficacy of many modern drugs for common ailments, despite the high hopes and sincere expectations from the medical community and the rest of us for greater certainty.
The bottom line to scientific research is that a scientist can set up a study that shows the guise of efficacy. In other words, a drug may be effective for a very limited period of time and afterwards cause various serious symptoms. For example, a very popular anti-anxiety drug called Xanax was shown to reduce panic attacks during a two-month experiment, but once the person tries to reduce or stop the medication, panic attacks can increase 300-400 percent ( Consumer Reports , 1993).Would as many patients take this drug if they knew this fact, and based on what standard can anyone honestly say that this drug is "effective"?
To get FDA approval to market a drug, most of the studies for psychiatric conditions last only six weeks (Angell, 2004, 112). In view of the fact that most people take anti-depressant or anti-anxiety medicines for many years, how can anyone consider these short-term studies scientifically valid? What is so little known and so sobering is that research to date has found that placebos were 80 percent as effective as the drugs-with fewer side effects (Angell, 2004, 113).
Marcia Angell,MD, author of the powerful book The Truth about Drug Companies , said it plainly and directly: "Trials can be rigged in a dozen ways, and it happens all the time" (Angell, 2004, 95). Conventional drugs used today are so new that there is very little longterm research on them. There are good reasons why the vast majority of modern drugs that were used just a couple of decades ago are not prescribed any more: They don't work as well as previously assumed, and/or they cause more harm than good.
Sadly and strangely, physicians do not see that there is something fundamentally
wrong with the present medical model. Instead, once an old drug is found
to be ineffective or dangerous, doctors and drug companies simply assert
the "scientifically proven" efficacy of a new drug. Despite this recurrent
pattern, doctors are prescribing drugs at record-breaking rates:
In 2005 the volume of prescription drugs sold in the U.S. was equal
to 12.3 drugs for every man, woman, and child in that year alone (compared
to 1994, when 7.9 prescription drugs per year were on average purchased
by every American). (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2006)
According to a 2005 study, 44 percent of all Americans take at least one prescription drug and 17 percent take three or more prescription drugs (This number increased 40 percent between 1994 and 2000). ( Medscape , 2005)
The extremely high numbers listed above are considerably higher if one adds in the over-the-counter drugs that doctors recommend or that patients take on their own.When a patient takes more than one drug at a time, the research conducted on each of the drugs individually becomes virtually meaningless. Considering how many people take two or more drugs together raises serious doubts about the scientific ground on which physicians stand (except in those few instances when a multiple-drug protocol has been tested, as has occurred with some drugs in the treatment of people with AIDS).
One might hope that the American public would greatly benefit from receiving
the "best" and certainly most expensive care that modern medicine has to
offer. However, this simply isn't true. In fact, the following statistics
powerfully state the real limitations of what the "best"medical care provides:
According to 2006 data, the infant mortality rate in the United States
was ranked twenty-first in the world, worse than South Korea and Greece
and only slightly better than Poland.
Data from 2006 also showed that the life expectancy rate in the United States was ranked seventeenth in the world, tied with Cyprus and only slightly ahead of Albania. (InfoPlease, 2007)
One of the largest drug companies in the world is GlaxoSmithKline. It was therefore a bit shocking, but not surprising, when Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics, acknowledged that "The vast majority of drugs -- more than 90 percent -- only work in 30 percent or 50 percent of the people" (Connor, 2003). The public is not frequently given this degree of honesty.
Understanding and Rewriting History
Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past. -- George Orwell, author of 1984
History provides us with a tremendously diverse body of evidence about our past, but ultimately, only a small portion of history is told in our history books. The interpretation of our past and the select use of certain historical facts and figures taint our understanding of what really happened.
Historians commonly remark that whichever country wins a war or whichever worldview dominates another, the history is told through that country's perspective or that dominant point of view. This is certainly true in the history of medicine. For instance, medical historians commonly have portrayed conventional medical practice of the past as barbaric, dangerous, and old-fashioned, and yet they have asserted that today's medical care is at the apex of "scientific medicine." The assertion that today's medical care is "proven" is a consistently repeated mantra.
History also tends to portray those who lose a war and who represent a minority point of view as having less than positive attributes. For instance, those physicians practicing medicine differently than the orthodox medical practice might be called cranks, crackpots, and quacks. Such name-calling is a wonderfully clever way to trivialize potentially valuable contributions, whether or not one understands what these contributions really are.
Besides name-calling, practitioners of the conventional and dominating paradigm often spin facts to make the strong and solid features of a minority practice into something strange and weird. The fact that homeopaths use smaller doses than used in orthodox medicine has been portrayed as homeopathy using "wimpy" doses that theoretically could not have any physiological effect. Accusations that homeopathic medicines could not possibly have any effect are made without knowledge, experience, or humility, and such accusations simply become evidence of the accuser's unscientific attitude and his or her ignorance of the diverse body of basic scientific work on the effects of nanodoses of certain substances in specific situations.
The fact that homeopaths have used their medicines for more than 200 years is spun as evidence that this system of medicine has not "progressed." Another interpretation here is that the same homeopathic medicines used 200 years ago are still used today, along with hundreds of new ones, primarily because the old ones still work. The art of using homeopathic medicines is that they are not prescribed for a localized disease but for a syndrome or pattern of symptoms of which the localized disease is a part.
The fact that homeopaths interview a patient to discover his or her unique symptoms has been spun to make homeopathy seem like a quirky system that revels in inane facts about a patient. However, the detailed symptoms and characteristics of the patient that homeopaths collect may seem inane only to people who are not familiar with the unique and critical nature of these individualizing features of each person. Homeopathy provides a sophisticated method by which a patient's characteristics are applied to selecting and prescribing the most effective homeopathic medicine.
In light of the fact that history tends to be written by the victors, this writer predicts that history will soon be rewritten.
For more information on homeopathy, visit www.homeopathic.com. Purchase the book here.
Dana Ullman is the author of seven leading books on homeopathy.
© 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/68065/
Are you skeeered ?
What are you going to do ? Cling on to your precious little life to the last tear of sorrow ?
For those who believe in life after death ------- GET A CLUE.
There is no life after death, because if there were, then that would mean that there is NO DEATH. Got it ?
So the real interpretation is - that there is life after life.
Which is redundant, and reduces to:
If you truly believe in Life, then you know no fear.
And this is exactly what the medical people who DEPEND on scaring you rely upon for the immense profits for the system set up by Morris Fishbein and his cohort.
A system of FEAR.
If you're a pansy, then I respect your right to accept this fear as
I bid you fare-thee-well.
VWT is diammetrically opposed to any fear-based system. It is the enemy of any and all who use fear to coerce or influence any civilian population. An argument could be formulated that some of the AMA's and CDC's statements violate the Patriot Act by using fear to intimidate and coerce a civilian population.
That would be Terrorism.
Do you believe in Life, or Death ?
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Dr. Duke's
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Chagpori Medical College for the study of Tibetan Medicine and Astrology


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JTB Steel
Digitally signed app
JTB Steel is an Add-in running inside Autodesk® AutoCAD®, adding powerful command features to help you draw simple and complex steelwork frames and details efficiently.
You can select and insert Steel Sections from JTB Steel library to AutoCAD drawing just as inserting blocks. You can draw Steel Frames just as drawing lines by 2 pickpoints. All created drawing objects are either blocks or dynamic blocks. Once Steel members are inserted, you can edit these using powerful editing commands located on Tools Palette.
JTB Steel includes advanced automation techniques for modifying dynamic blocks. This means that you can easily manage your drawings and quickly finalize your details.
You can visit our app web page for more information as well as for a version with support for older versions of AutoCAD.
Trial version can be downloaded here.
Note: This app uses a custom installer (and not the standard App Store installer).


text:
Dell XPS P82G
Intel Core i7-8565U @ 1.80 GHz
Windows 10 Installed
Tested for Key Functions, R2/Ready for Resale.
C3=Used Fair (Moderate used and age) Cosmetics blemishes are consistence with wear, including multiple dents, discoloration, light to heavy scratches, damage to latches, hinges, etc..., Some parts, panels, bezels, or covers may be missing.
F3 = Key Functions Working.
Please note: This listing only includes the items and accessories pictured or mentioned. All other cords, software, adapters, cables, parts, manuals, remotes, etc are not included if not pictured or mentioned. Thank you for your understanding.
If there is a problem with any item purchased from us, please send us an eBay message right away. We respond to all messages within 48 hours (usually 24) Monday – Friday with the exception of holidays. We will do our best to resolve any problems that may arise. Negative feedback should only be used as a last resort. Please contact us first before taking this step. If you do not initiate contact we will not know there is a problem.
We ship within 1-2 business days (we do not ship on weekends or holidays) of when the payment is received and cleared. Transit times can vary depending on the carrier used for shipping.


text:
The primary-secondary spread is the difference between mortgage rates for borrowers and yields on newly issued agency mortgage backed securities (MBS). From 2008 to 2012, the spread widened significantly—rising from 50 basis points in 2008 to more than 100 basis points in early 2009 and during 2012. While it is a closely tracked series, the primary-secondary spread is an imperfect measure of the pass-through between secondary-market valuations and primary-market borrowing costs, for instance, because the secondary yield is subject to model misspecification.
In "The Rising Gap between Primary and Secondary Mortgage Rates," Andreas Fuster, Laurie Goodman, David Lucca, Laurel Madar, Linsey Molloy, and Paul Willen shed light on this pass-through by examining cash flows during and after the mortgage origination and securitization process to determine the share of dollars absorbed by originators, either to cover costs or as originator profits. They calculate a series of "originator profits and unmeasured costs" (OPUCs) and show that it increased significantly between 2008 and 2012. The authors determine that the rise in OPUCs was mainly driven by higher MBS prices, which were only partially offset by corresponding increases in origination costs, suggesting that originators' profits likely rose over this period.
The authors also assess possible sources behind the increase in profitability. They conclude that capacity constraints likely played a significant role in enabling originator profits, especially during the early stages of refinancing waves. Pricing power owing to switching costs of borrowers looking to refinance could have been another factor sustaining originator profits.
Andreas Fuster and David Lucca are senior economists in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Research and Statistics Group; Laurie Goodman is the center director of the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute; Laurel Madar and Linsey Molloy are associates in the Bank's Markets Group; Paul Willen is a senior economist and policy advisor in the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's Research Department.
(This article is a revised version of a white paper originally prepared as background material for the workshop "The Spread between Primary and Secondary Mortgage Rates: Recent Trends and Prospects," held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on December 3, 2012.)
The Rising Gap between Primary and Secondary Mortgage Rates»
Media Relations


text:
Celebrity News February 26, 2014
'Biggest Loser' Winner Too Thin? See What She Looks Like Today
"The Biggest Loser" winner Rachel Frederickson appeared on the "Today" show to talk with Savannah Guthrie about her dramatic weight loss and the controversy that followed.
The voice actress from L.A. started the show at 260 lbs., and dropped 155 for the win. The 5'4" contestant weighed 105 when she stepped on the scale at the finale earlier this month.
Frederickson didn't reveal her current weight, but said she's the "healthiest and most happy I've ever felt."
She did admit that maintenance mode isn't easy. "Adding in socializing and family and work, and getting it all accomplished… it is a big balance."
When Savannah asked if Rachel understood why people were so concerned after the finale, the reality star replied, "I dieted, I exercised, and did it healthy the whole way. I appreciate all the concern and can see where it comes from," adding, "and there is the movie magic. It is over seven months, almost a year of my life, losing the weight." See the Instagram photo below of Frederickson taken prior to her big reveal at the finale.
Past winners, like Season 5's Ali Vincent, speculated that Frederickson dropped extra pounds to win the show's $250,000 prize.
"I think she chose to win," Vincent told People magazine. The former contestant, who once weighed 234 pounds, explained, "I know what it's like. I gave it every single thing I had. I was working out from 10 in the morning to 2 in the morning. Is that healthy? No! But it's a conscious adult decision to win. I weighed 122 lbs. [at the finale]. I took a drink of water and I gained weight back."


text: ST75 flowmeter delivers precision flow measurement while reducing the consumption of energy fuel gases, specialty gases and pneumatic air. It is designed for line sizes from 0.25 in. to 2.0 in. (6 mm to 51 mm). It offers accuracy to ±1% of reading and ±0.5% repeatability and a flow range from 0.01 SCFM to 559 SCFM (0.01 NCMH to 950 NCMH). Approvals include Class 1, Div. I Groups B, C, D. Div. II Groups A-D and others.


text:
13 Apr The Growing China Threat
Author's note: For years US leaders have pandered to Communist China, ignoring the growing danger from a powerful and hostile enemy. Suddenly our nation finds itself in the middle of a health crisis that started in China, and then we discovered that almost all of our medicines and other vital products are made and controlled by China. Now that the focus is on that relationship, we are also being shocked by how many American industries are actually owned or controlled by them. Well, there is actually much more to the story. In June, 2014, I released the following article to alert Americans of the dangers of dealing with the Red Chinese, specifically through an immigration program called EB-5. Perhaps now, in light of this new crisis more Americans will take greater note of my warnings. With these new developments, I am re-releasing the article. Tom DeWeese
Is the U.S. Being Colonized By Red China?
By Tom DeWeese
For the past few decades the Communist regime of China has been driving toward world supremacy, both economically and militarily. The regime's main target has been, and is, the United States of America. China's plan to grab power has been clever and unprecedented, seeking victory without firing a shot, reducing its targets to mere frogs in a boiling pot.
Pundits and politicians alike, when excusing their strategic dealings with China, are quick to remind their audiences that today's China is a "centuries old civilization" rich in tradition and ancient religious discipline. A Confucian civilization that is still upset over wrongdoings during the European colonization period.
Such a view is wrong. The China we are confronted with today is nothing like that pre-nineteenth century nation. Since the reign of Mao began in 1949, Communist China, much to the dismay, torture, and death of its own citizens, has been governed by tyrannical thugs, thirsty to expand their dictatorial regime and unrelenting in their hatred of Western Civilization and the United States.
Militarily, China has literally surrounded the US. Once there was a Monroe Doctrine to forbid any foreign power to exert influence in American's back yard, meaning South, Central and North America. All nations respected that doctrine as America vigorously imposed it. That is until China played on the growing weakness of American foreign policy, as when Jimmy Carter gave away the Panama Canal and scuttled all American bases in one of the most strategic locations of American defense. Since then, China has established relationships and bases in several South and Central American nations.
The Chinese are now building the world's largest and most powerful navy, aggressively challenging US naval passage in international waters; it now claims the entire South China Sea as an internal Chinese lake; and it is building an aggressive space program that will give it the ability to counter US satellite supremacy, resulting in its ability to spy on every location on Earth and counter US military supremacy.
The difference between the Chinese threat today and what turned out to be a hollow challenge to the free world by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, is economics. The genius of the Chinese system is that they are using its growing industrial might to create wealth the Soviets could never have dreamed of possessing. China is using its vast wealth (trillions of dollars) compiled from the glut of Chinese goods sold in American stores, to buy its power. It's buying American debt and wielding heavy influence on the American economy.
Now, however, that Chinese economic power is taking a bizarre and exceptionally dangerous turn in local American communities, America, it appears, is on the brink of being colonized, because China is fast becoming the largest land owner in America.
This fact is mostly a result of a program through the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service (USCIS), called Immigrant Investor Regional Centers. The program is known in Washington-Speak as EB-5 Centers, so called because they represent a fifth category of employment-based immigration. In reality, it's a foreign investment program pretending to be a jobs program. To qualify through the plan, applicants must invest $1,000,000 in a US business or at least $500,000 if the business is in an area of high unemployment or rural area. That investment must create or preserve 10 full-time American jobs. In exchange, the immigrant will initially gain legal residency and U.S. Green Cards for their entire family. If the enterprise continues and jobs are created, then the applicant can apply for permanent residence.
According to government reports, since it started in 1990, the EB-5 visa program has brought approximately $6.7 billion to the US and has created 95,000 jobs. Entrepreneurs across the nation have set up regional centers for foreign investment to market local EB-5 projects to investors. There are now at least 480 EB-5 regional centers located in all 50 states. California alone has 116 of the centers. Many of these projects are focusing on building housing developments. Others are concerned with buying up dairy farms, cattle ranches, meat packing plants, and other sources of American food supplies. Still more are centered on getting a piece of American energy sources. Some of the centers are state run, others are private investment entities.
Beyond the Green Cards and residency, the immigrants running these projects can also expect government sponsored benefits such as federal and state grants (taxpayer dollars) tax breaks or perhaps no sales taxes on supplies and materials they purchase to put the projects in place. Along with federal agencies, the projects work directly with state and county development corporations for more cooperation and help getting through the regulatory mine fields that ordinary American companies must endure.
EB-5 Immigrant Investor Regional Centers are promoted as jobs programs and as a way to help financially-strapped communities to bring in much needed money. As a result, the projects are growing across the nation with little concern expressed over the impact and end result of such foreign involvement in American communities. Marriot and Hilton hotel chains have successfully worked EB-5 investment deals to build new hotels. Sony Pictures Entertainment and Warner Brothers have used EB-5 investments to fund film projects. Even the new home of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, Barclay Center, was funded through EB-5 investments.
While the program is open to immigrants from around world, the main interest appears to be from Communist China. According to a report by Michael Snyder ("Chinese Buying Land in US Communities all over America"), in 2012 – 2013, 6,900 visas were issued to Chinese nationals out of a total of 8,567 EB-5 visas issued. In 2014, the number of applicants was 50% higher – again driven by Chinese applicants.
When considering this large influx of Chinese – funded projects, it must be understood that there are no private companies in China that are free to act on their own. China is a Communist regime. Nothing happens there without the express permission and backing of the government. Individuals posing as Chinese corporate leaders are part of that government. They simply wouldn't have that position if not approved by the government. For the most part they are a front. 43% of all corporate profits in China are produced by companies that the Chinese government controls outright. And all the rest of their companies are subservient to the power of the government and are very careful not to stray. Individual Chinese citizens are not free to invest as they wish or to leave the country by their own decision. It takes a complicated process through the Chinese bureaucracy for that to happen. And that's why massive Chinese investments in the EB-5 program are cause for alarm. What are they up to?
In San Francisco, CA, China Vanke signed a deal for a $620 million luxury condo project. In Oakland, CA, another Chinese company (Zarsion) signed a deal for $1.5 billion for a development deal. In Irvine, CA a housing development will include some of the nation's largest developers using Chinese money. In New York City, Zhang Xin, CEO of Soho China joined with Banco Safra Bank of Brazil to buy a piece of the General Motors Building in Midtown. A Chinese developer, Dalian Wanda Group, has planned to build a luxury hotel in Manhattan. In Florida, Chinese investors have put $30 million into the state's Charter Schools, intending to invest even more. 12 Chinese investors put $16 million into an aquaculture project on 100 acres in Fellsmere, FL. In Virginia, the Chinese bought Smithfield Foods and its 460 large farms and facilities in 26 states, employing tens of thousands of Americans. More recent efforts show the Chinese making major investments in the Detroit auto industry. In Thomasville, Alabama, the Golden Dragon Precise Copper Tube Group is negotiating with city officials to build a new plant. The town has planned to give them a 40-acre site that includes a 50,000 square foot building built by the city – with tax payer money. More such projects have been in the works in Idaho, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and literally every state in the Union.
Americans were shocked to witness a near massacre in the Nevada desert as rancher Cliven Bundy stood his ground against an army of government agents from the Bureau of Land Management. He was accused of letting his cattle graze on public lands, endangering the Desert Tortoise, even though cattle and the Desert Tortoise have coexisted on the range for 100 years. But for this excuse the federal government amassed an army? Not so fast. There is much more to the story. It seems a certain U.S. Senator had been involved with EB-5 real estate deals for some time. And that issue had close ties to the Bundy situation.
ENN Energy Group wanted to build a 5 billion dollar solar farm in the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone, on which Bundy's farm is located. Who were the investors for ENN? The Chinese, using the EB-5 program. Who represented ENN in its negotiations? Rory Reid, Senator Harry Reid's son. This little band had already run 52 other ranchers in the area. Bundy is the last one left. So was the BLM there in force for turtles or as the private enforcement machine of a corrupt Senator seeking to fill his pockets with cash? Senator Reid is the one who said, "This isn't over yet." He's apparently was in a position to know.
However, Reid isn't the only public figure involved in EB-5 schemes. A little research will also reveal an EB-5 deal by Anthony Rodham, Hillary Clinton's brother and former son in law of Barbra Boxer. Also in that deal was Terry McAuliffe, former Clinton advisor and former Governor of Virginia. These two gained EB-5 investments for their car company. And then there is Alejandro Mayorkas, who helped push through the deal for McAuliffe and Rodham. Mayorkas was the number two man at the Department of Homeland Security, aided in getting that position through some questionable maneuvering during his confirmation hearings by none other Senator Harry Reid.
But perhaps the most aggressive Chinese project has taken place in Sullivan County, New York in the Catskill Mountains. This project is called China City. It will eventually cover over 2,000 acres spread over the towns of Thompson and Mamakating. It will include a Chinese-themed gambling/entertainment complex, hotels, China-related businesses, a high school, a college and 1,000 residences. According to the plan, every province of China will have an office there and the city will be full of symbols of Chinese culture. When finished it would be a $6 billion project, including a $65 million federal grant of tax payer money along with the other incentives such as tax breaks on building supplies and property taxes.
At a public meeting, a local citizen asked the China City spokesman if Americans will be allowed to live there. The vague answer was "well, you can visit our amusement park and stay in our hotels." Is this how Americans are to be treated in their own country, in a project paid in part by American taxpayer dollars? And exactly what American jobs will be created (as required) in a planned city where no Americans can live? Will the Chinese government send its own workers to do the construction of the city? And what security process will be used to assure such workers are not involved in espionage?
This is a legitimate concern when dealing with the Communist Chinese government. While brilliant in its strategy, it is single minded in its goal – supremacy. The United States has always stood in its way to achieve that supremacy. But the waning American economy and a US government that no longer sees communism as a threat, makes us vulnerable to a power that knows exactly what it seeks.
American communities are so hungry for money that they will ignore almost anything. Red flags should go up when locals are told they can't live in China City. Why? Is this simply about an investment opportunity, or is China City, and other Chinese investments, actually to be Chinese colonies? Why will it house offices from every China province? Do we know what those offices are to do? Who will man them? Obviously that is not where the 10 permanent American jobs will come from.
It's important to note that the Canadian government decided to halt its immigrant investor program due to the large number of Chinese applications that were found to be fraught with fraud and corruption and to be of little economic benefit to the country. Meanwhile, the US is expanding such programs to make it much easier for foreign investment and ultimately unfettered foreign espionage. We're creating special foreign trade zones (FTZ) designed to give special US customs treatment to US companies that go along with the EB-5 projects. That means security will be lacking in the interest of "good relations."
Yet, it was just over a decade ago that US intelligence discovered the Chinese had taken control of both ends of the Panama Canal. Using a shill company called Hutchison Whampoa, which was wholly owned by the Chinese People's Liberation Army, it negotiated a 25 to 50 year lease for the Canal ports. As the United States pulled out of our Panamanian bases and headed home, corrupt Panamanian officials were busy selling former US property to the highest bidders and Columbian drug lords, Russian Mafia and a horde of Chinese "immigrants" filled the void. It was like the bar scene in Star Wars.
Would the Chinese put in missile bases with weapons that could reach the US? As Bill Clinton assured us that everything was just fine, the Chinese were busy negotiating with the Cuban Communist regime and several other South American countries to create a Chinese presence in the entire region surrounding the Panama Canal. They now considered it their territory for the taking.
Is this now what faces American cities where EB-5 investment programs are being imposed with Chinese Communist money? As a new assault by hordes of Chinese "immigrants" legally invade our nation, filling housing developments and building their own cities, our culture will be affected. Even our system of government could change in areas where Chinese populations begin to grow and perhaps even outnumber Americans. All from an enemy we let through the front door in a government program, based more on greed than American interests.
Like the invasion of the body snatchers, it appears the Chinese, aided by a compliant American government, have a well-devised strategic plan to literally colonize the once great United States of America – without ever firing a shot.
Special thanks to New York Property Rights activist Lynn Teger for her help in researching this article.


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Have you been observing the fascinating scramble going on over in India for supremacy in the IT services space? By the time this year is out, it's highly likely that Cognizant will have leapfrogged both Infosys and Wipro to take the number two spot behind TCS:
So what's driving this shifting landscape?
Let's take a look at the key market-makers to understand who is breaking out of the pack…
Cognizant's revenues are being fuelled by organic growth and its ability to penetrate the middle-market. For new business acquisition, we are even seeing it frequently under-pricing Tier 2 providers. Bottom-line, Cognizant targets the business it wants and sacrifices its margins, when necessary, to win the business. It has always operated this way and continues to do so, despite its rapidly-expanding size. And it currently has the best sales engine of all the India-centric providers… which kinda helps a lot.
Moreover, having its leadership stationed in the US keeps it closer to the clients, when it comes to marketing, selling and pricing services, in addition to structuring and organizing its operations. While there are some super-talented leaders based India-side, being so far away from the clients is clearly hurting Cognizant's competitors in today's hyper-competitive market. I can't tell you how much talent has left Cognizant's competitors, because they weren't allowed to take on leadership roles in the US.
That being said, Cognizant's growth is still (by and large) directly proportional to FTEs, and it still hasn't quite unbundled this link, which will likely hamper future growth. In needs to "change the wheels of the car while driving" and figure out how to delineate butts-on-seats from client pricing, if it wants to continue this rapid growth story into 2013. Having said that, we do believe Cognizant is figuring out the connections for the business side with IT solutions quicker than its competitors which are still slow to the game.
Conversely to Cognizant, market leader TCS probably has the least effective sales forces in the big-ticket outsourcing market. However, once you get past the shaky front-end, the firm has one of the strongest service delivery infrastructure of any of these providers – if something blows up, its teams will be all over it, and will leave no stone unturned to bring it back on track. However, if the client doesn't ask, TCS doesn't react. Of the five, it is frequently the the most flexible on pricing and terms, and can probably win any deal anywhere in the world at any price, if it really wants: it depends on what its leadership thinks is important, what its perception of the market is, and what it needs to tell its stock-holders. TCS is perceived by many today as an alternative provider to the Western Tier 1s, that can come in and fix messy contracts and implementations ; they will pick up a lot of the low margin, low value work that seemingly every Western Tier 1 wants out of.
Not only that, TCS is having much more success de-linking the direct correlation of revenues from FTEs: the firm has a laser-sharp focus on managed services, fixed price projects and has successfully monetized its product group. The sheer size of its referenceable client base and the executive connections of its leadership, is a huge strength. In addition, its tunnel-vision on developing its platform-based solutions is really helping the firm move gradually away from the FTE-pricing model.
Wipro and Infosys
Wipro and Infosys, on the other hand, seem to have just lost their mojo over the last couple of years, which is directly linked to the changes at their top, and the time needed to development its new leadership talent to take them forward. In addition, many new customers are saying "Why do we need the Cadillac when a regular Chevy will do just fine?". A lot of client requirements are straightforward and easy-to-service with low-cost resources.
In short, both have struggled to articulate a renewed vision for the future of IT services to encourage clients to choose them over some very, very aggressive competitors. However, we at HfS have noticed marked attempts by both firms to bolster their fortunes with a much more assertive series of communications to market. There is a clear determination to roll out new platform solutions, and a more consultative client approach that can move them up that value pyramid, which comes in so many nice new colors and 3D views, in the new version of PowerPoint. I would also point out that these providers are not doing badly – they are simply being outpaced by the Cognizant and TCS machines, in a commoditizing market that is slowly losing steam.
HCL is the proverbial odd one out in all of this – it had lost its focus on outsourcing until about 3-5 years when it hired in some new leaders to refocus the company. Its clear strength is in infrastructure services – borne from its past relationship with HP. Today, the firm is growing largely due to the sheer number of unconventional deals it is contracting, in addition to its aggressive pricing which is becoming a popular topic of discussion between sourcing heads. Plus, the firm has a very aggressive sales engine. It kinda reminds me somewhat of Cognizant five years' ago in terms if its size, thin management layer, and incredibly personal approach to client service – from the CEO and his immediate team.
HCL is another example of an Indian-HQed firm that will pick up on the poor quality provided by WesternTier 1s. However, the firm does need focus, polish and business development leadership to get to the table. Its operations and infrastructure team resonates well with clients, but tends to get way too far in the weeds during initial sales pitches. It needs to avoid trying to solve all the client's problems within the first 30 seconds of meeting them.
The Final Word: The IT services industry has reached a bifurcation point and not everyone will stay the pace
Ask an analyst to write about what differentiates IT services providers in today's market and you have to get right into the weeds to come up with the answers. My conclusion is simple: both Cognizant and TCS are outpacing the Indian-centric IT services market. And both are very different firms – Cog very sales and pricing focused, TCS very solution focused. They've left Wipro and Infy a little stunned, to be honest, and they are having to go though some major changes internally to try and keep pace. However, the market at the low-end is very commodity driven these days, and there simply isn't the room for all these providers, let alone the dozen other major providers, HQ-ed outside of India.
Everyone wants to grow exponentially at 20%+ a year without having to make radical changes to their business models. I predict the future is going to be less about selling the low-end work, but the more complex IT-enabled business processes that are specific to industries. Hence, the investments the providers need to make are going to be in more consultative talent and specific technology IP. And you can't find all of that for cheap rates in a third-tier Indian city… these guys are going to have to look at more inorganic growth in onshore providers, clients and technology firms. The bifurcation point has now been reached, it's time for these providers to make the necessary investments to continue their growth journey, or they can start look at some rather interesting case studies of providers in the Western world who failed to keep up with the times.
Posted in : Cloud Computing, HfSResearch.com Homepage, IT Outsourcing / IT Services


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16 The plans of the heart belong to man,
but lthe answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
2 mAll the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes,
but the Lord nweighs the spirit.1
3 oCommit your work to the Lord,
and your plans will be established.
4 pThe Lord has made everything for its purpose,
even qthe wicked for the day of trouble.
5 Everyone who is arrogant in heart is ran abomination to the Lord;
sbe assured, he will not go unpunished.
6 By tsteadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for,
and by uthe fear of the Lord one vturns away from evil.
7 When a man's ways please the Lord,
whe makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
8 xBetter is a little with righteousness
than great revenues with injustice.
9 yThe heart of man plans his way,
but zthe Lord establishes his steps.
10 aAn oracle is on the lips of a king;
his mouth does not sin in judgment.
11 bA just balance and scales are the Lord's;
all the weights in the bag are his work.
12 It is an abomination to kings to do evil,
for cthe throne is established by righteousness.
13 dRighteous lips are the delight of a king,
and he loves him who speaks what is right.
14 eA king's wrath is a messenger of death,
and a wise man will fappease it.
15 gIn the light of a king's face there is life,
and his dfavor is like hthe clouds that bring the spring rain.
16 iHow much better to get wisdom than jgold!
To get understanding is to be chosen rather than ksilver.
17 The highway of the upright lturns aside from evil;
whoever guards his way preserves his life.
18 mPride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
19 nIt is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor
than to odivide the spoil with the proud.
20 Whoever gives thought to the word2 pwill discover good,
and blessed is he qwho trusts in the Lord.
21 The wise of heart is called discerning,
and sweetness of speech rincreases persuasiveness.
22 Good sense is sa fountain of life to him who has it,
but the instruction of fools is folly.
23 tThe heart of the wise makes his speech judicious
and adds persuasiveness to his lips.
24 uGracious words are like va honeycomb,
sweetness to the soul and whealth to the body.
25 There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.3
26 A worker's appetite works for him;
his xmouth urges him on.
27 yA worthless man plots evil,
and his speech4 is like za scorching fire.
28 aA dishonest man spreads strife,
and ba whisperer cseparates close friends.
29 A man of violence dentices his neighbor
and leads him in a way that is not good.
30 Whoever winks his eyes plans5 edishonest things;
he who fpurses his lips brings evil to pass.
31 gGray hair is ha crown of glory;
it iis gained in a righteous life.
32 jWhoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
33 kThe lot is cast into the lap,
but its every decision is lfrom the Lord.
17 mBetter is a dry morsel with quiet
than a house full of feasting1 with strife.
2 A servant who deals wisely will rule over na son who acts shamefully
and owill share the inheritance as one of the brothers.
3 pThe crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold,
qand the Lord tests hearts.
4 An evildoer listens to wicked lips,
and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue.
5 Whoever mocks the poor rinsults his Maker;
he who is sglad at calamity will not go tunpunished.
6 uGrandchildren are vthe crown of the aged,
and the glory of children is their fathers.
7 Fine speech is not wbecoming to a fool;
still less is xfalse speech to a prince.
8 yA bribe is like a magic2 stone in the eyes of the one who gives it;
wherever he turns he prospers.
9 Whoever zcovers an offense seeks love,
but he who repeats a matter aseparates close friends.
10 A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding
than a hundred blows into a fool.
11 An evil man seeks only rebellion,
and ba cruel messenger will be sent against him.
12 Let a man meet ca she-bear robbed of her cubs
drather than a fool in his folly.
13 If anyone ereturns evil for good,
fevil will not depart from his house.
14 The beginning of strife is like letting out water,
so gquit before the quarrel breaks out.
15 He who hjustifies the wicked and he who icondemns the righteous
are both alike an abomination to the Lord.
16 Why should a fool have money in his hand jto buy wisdom
when he has no sense?
17 kA friend loves at all times,
and a brother is born for adversity.
18 One who lacks sense gives a pledge
and puts up security in the presence of his neighbor.
19 Whoever loves transgression loves strife;
he who lmakes his door high seeks destruction.
20 mA man of crooked heart does not discover good,
and one with a dishonest tongue falls into calamity.
21 He who nsires a fool gets himself sorrow,
and the father of a fool has no joy.
22 oA joyful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit pdries up the bones.
23 The wicked accepts qa bribe in secret3
to rpervert the ways of justice.
24 sThe discerning sets his face toward wisdom,
but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.
25 nA foolish son is a grief to his father
tand bitterness to uher who bore him.
26 vTo impose a fine on a righteous man is not good,
nor to strike the noble for their uprightness.
27 Whoever wrestrains his words has knowledge,
and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.
28 Even a fool xwho keeps silent is considered wise;
when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.
18 Whoever yisolates himself seeks his own desire;
he breaks out against all sound judgment.
2 A fool takes no pleasure in understanding,
but only zin expressing his opinion.
3 When wickedness comes, contempt comes also,
and with dishonor comes disgrace.
4 The words of a man's mouth are adeep waters;
the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.
5 It is not good to bbe partial to1 the wicked
or to cdeprive the righteous of justice.
6 A fool's lips walk into a fight,
and his mouth invites da beating.
7 eA fool's mouth is his ruin,
and his lips are a snare to his soul.
8 fThe words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels;
they go down into gthe inner parts of the body.
9 Whoever is slack in his work
is a hbrother to him who destroys.
10 iThe name of the Lord is ja strong tower;
the righteous man runs into it and kis safe.
11 lA rich man's wealth is his strong city,
and like a high wall in his imagination.
12 mBefore destruction a man's heart is haughty,
but nhumility comes before honor.
13 If one gives an answer obefore he hears,
it is his folly and shame.
14 A man's spirit will endure sickness,
but pa crushed spirit who can bear?
15 An intelligent heart acquires knowledge,
and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.
16 A man's qgift makes room for him
and brings him before the great.
17 The one who states his case first seems right,
until the other comes and examines him.
18 rThe lot puts an end to quarrels
and decides between powerful contenders.
19 A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city,
and quarreling is like the bars of a castle.
20 sFrom the fruit of a man's mouth his stomach is satisfied;
he is satisfied by the yield of his lips.
21 tDeath and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruits.
22 He who finds ua wife finds va good thing
and wobtains favor xfrom the Lord.
23 The poor use entreaties,
but ythe rich answer roughly.
24 A man of many companions may come to ruin,
but zthere is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
19 aBetter is a poor person who bwalks in his integrity
than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.
2 Desire1 without knowledge is not good,
and whoever cmakes haste with his feet misses his way.
3 When a man's folly dbrings his way to ruin,
his heart erages against the Lord.
4 fWealth brings many new friends,
fbut a poor man is deserted by his friend.
5 gA false witness will not go unpunished,
and he who hbreathes out lies will not escape.
6 Many seek the favor of a generous man,2
and everyone is a friend to a man who gives igifts.
7 jAll a poor man's brothers hate him;
khow much more do his friends go far from him!
He pursues them with words, but does not have them.3
8 lWhoever gets sense loves his own soul;
he who keeps understanding will mdiscover good.
9 gA false witness will not go unpunished,
and he who hbreathes out lies will perish.
10 nIt is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury,
much less for oa slave to rule over princes.
11 pGood sense makes one slow to anger,
and it is his glory to overlook an offense.
12 A king's wrath is like qthe growling of a lion,
but his rfavor is like sdew on the grass.
13 tA foolish son is ruin to his father,
and ua wife's quarreling is va continual dripping of rain.
14 wHouse and wealth are inherited from fathers,
but a prudent wife is xfrom the Lord.
15 ySlothfulness casts into za deep sleep,
and aan idle person will suffer hunger.
16 Whoever bkeeps the commandment keeps his life;
he who despises his ways will die.
17 cWhoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord,
and he dwill repay him for his edeed.
18 fDiscipline your son, for there is hope;
do not set your heart on gputting him to death.
19 A man of great wrath will pay the penalty,
for if you deliver him, you will only have to do it again.
20 Listen to advice and accept instruction,
that you may gain wisdom in hthe future.
21 iMany are the plans in the mind of a man,
but jit is the purpose of the Lord kthat will stand.
22 What is desired in a man is steadfast love,
and a poor man is better than a liar.
23 The fear of the Lord lleads to life,
and whoever has it rests msatisfied;
he will nnot be visited by harm.
24 oThe sluggard buries his hand in pthe dish
and will not even bring it back to his mouth.
25 qStrike ra scoffer, and the simple will slearn prudence;
treprove a man of understanding, and he will gain knowledge.
26 He who does violence to his father and chases away his mother
is ua son who brings shame and reproach.
27 Cease to hear instruction, my son,
vand you will stray from the words of knowledge.
28 A worthless witness mocks at justice,
and the mouth of the wicked wdevours iniquity.
29 Condemnation is ready for rscoffers,
and xbeating for the backs of fools.
20 yWine is a mocker, zstrong drink a brawler,
and whoever ais led astray by it is not wise.1
2 The terror of a king is like bthe growling of a lion;
whoever provokes him to anger cforfeits his life.
3 It is an honor for a man to dkeep aloof from strife,
but every fool will be quarreling.
4 eThe sluggard does not plow in the autumn;
fhe will seek at harvest and have nothing.
5 The purpose in a man's heart is like gdeep water,
but a man of understanding will draw it out.
6 Many a man hproclaims his own steadfast love,
but ia faithful man who can find?
7 The righteous who jwalks in his integrity—
kblessed are his children after him!
8 lA king who sits on the throne of judgment
mwinnows all evil with his eyes.
9 nWho can say, "I have made my heart pure;
I am clean from my sin"?
10 oUnequal2 weights and unequal measures
are both alike an abomination to the Lord.
11 Even a child pmakes himself known by his acts,
by whether his conduct is pure and upright.3
12 qThe hearing ear and the seeing eye,
rthe Lord has made them both.
13 sLove not sleep, lest you tcome to poverty;
open your eyes, and you will have uplenty of bread.
14 "Bad, bad," says the buyer,
but when he goes away, then he boasts.
15 There is gold and abundance of vcostly stones,
wbut the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.
16 xTake a man's garment when he has put up security for a stranger,
and yhold it in pledge when he puts up security for foreigners.4
17 zBread gained by deceit is sweet to a man,
but afterward his mouth will be full of agravel.
18 bPlans are established by counsel;
19 Whoever egoes about slandering reveals secrets;
therefore do not associate with fa simple babbler.5
20 gIf one curses his father or his mother,
hhis lamp will be put out in utter darkness.
21 iAn inheritance gained hastily in the beginning
will not be blessed in the end.
22 Do not say, j"I will repay evil";
kwait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.
23 lUnequal weights are an abomination to the Lord,
and mfalse scales are not good.
24 A man's nsteps are from the Lord;
how then can man understand his way?
25 It is a snare to say rashly, "It is holy,"
and to reflect only oafter making vows.
26 A wise king pwinnows the wicked
and drives qthe wheel over them.
27 rThe spirit6 of man is the lamp of the Lord,
ssearching all this innermost parts.
28 uSteadfast love and faithfulness preserve the king,
and by steadfast love his vthrone is upheld.
29 The glory of young men is their strength,
but wthe splendor of old men is their gray hair.
30 xBlows that wound cleanse away evil;
strokes make clean tthe innermost parts.


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Caper Stacking Chair
Herman MillerCaper Stacking Chairs are lightweight—the armless version weighs just 9.5 pounds—so they can go wherever you need casual, short-term seating. Holes in the polypropylene seat and back allow moisture and heat to dissipate, so you remain cool. An optional FLEXNET seat minimizes pressure points for a more comfortable sit. Caper stacking chairs are available in a palette of fresh, versatile colors.
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You will receive:
1 Meet & Greet VIP lanyard
Photo Opportunity with Doug Stone
Doug Stone Autographed 8x10 Photo
Meet & Greet Details – Please Read Carefully
- Meet & Greet purchase does NOT include admittance to the show – you must purchase tickets separately.
- You will collect your M&G pass at the merchandise table the day of show. Please bring your receipt and ID with you to retrieve your pass(es)
- The meet and greet will take place ONE HOUR prior to Doug's scheduled showtime unless notified by someone from the DS team.
- PLEASE ensure you are at the venue and pick up your passes at least 1 hour prior to Doug's showtime for that specific event.
- You will receive an email confirmation with your purchase details, but no further communication will be sent. You will pick up your passes at the merchandise table at least one hour prior to Doug's scheduled showtime and more details will be communicated then.
- No more than 15 VIP Meet & Greet passes will be sold per appearance, ensuring a laid back atmosphere, and the opportunity to chat with Doug before his performance.
Get backstage and meet DOUG STONE
SKU: February 1st


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101 Johnson Street
Winona, Minnesota 55987
Phone: (507)454-6737
Phone: (800)721-6737
101 Johnson Street
Winona, Minnesota 55987
Phone: (507)454-6737
Phone: (800)721-6737
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It is one of the mysteries of Japan's ongoing nuclear crisis: How much damage did the March 11 earthquake do to the Fukushima Daiichi reactors before the tsunami hit? The stakes are high: If the quake structurally compromised the plant and the safety of its nuclear fuel, then every other similar reactor in Japan will have to be reviewed and possibly shut down. With virtually all of Japan's 54 reactors either offline (35) or scheduled for shutdown by next April, the issue of structural safety looms over the decision to restart every one in the months and years after.
The key question for operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) and its regulators to answer is this: How much damage was inflicted on the Daiichi plant before the first tsunami reached the plant roughly 40 minutes after the earthquake? TEPCO and the Japanese government are hardly reliable adjudicators in this controversy. "There has been no meltdown," top government spokesman Edano Yukio famously repeated in the days after March 11. "It was an unforeseeable disaster," Tepco's then President Shimizu Masataka improbably said later. As we now know, meltdown was already occurring even as Edano spoke. And far from being unforeseeable, the disaster had been repeatedly forewarned.
Throughout the months of lies and misinformation, one story has stuck: "The earthquake knocked out the plant's electric power, halting cooling to its six reactors. The tsunami – a unique, one-off event - then washed out the plant's back-up generators, shutting down all cooling and starting the chain of events that would cause the world's first triple meltdown. That line has now become gospel at TEPCO. "We had no idea that a tsunami was coming," said Murata Yasuki, head of public relations for the now ruined facility. "It came completely out of the blue" (nemimi ni mizu datta). Safety checks have since focused heavily on future damage from tsunamis.
But what if recirculation pipes and cooling pipes burst, snapped, leaked, and broke completely after the earthquake — before the tidal wave reached the facilities and before the electricity went out? This would surprise few people familiar with the nearly 40-year-old reactor one, the grandfather of the nuclear reactors still operating in Japan.
Problems with the fractured, deteriorating, poorly repaired pipes and the cooling system had been pointed out for years. In 2002, whistleblower allegations that TEPCO had deliberately falsified safety records came to light and the company was forced to shut down all of its reactors and inspect them, including the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant. Sugaoka Kei, a General Electric on-site inspector first notified Japan's nuclear watchdog, Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) in June of 2000. The government of Japan took two years to address the problem, then colluded in covering it up — and gave the name of the whistleblower to TEPCO.
In September 2002, TEPCO admitted covering up data about cracks in critical circulation pipes in addition to previously revealed falsifications. In their analysis of the cover-up, The Citizen's Nuclear Information Center writes:
"The records that were covered up had to do with cracks in parts of the reactor known as recirculation pipes. These pipes are there to siphon off heat from the reactor. If these pipes were to fracture, it would result in a serious accident in which coolant leaks out. From the perspective of safety, these are highly important pieces of equipment. Cracks were found in the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant, reactor one, reactor two, reactor three, reactor four, reactor five."
The cracks in the pipes were not due to earthquake damage; they came from the simple wear and tear of long-term usage. On March 2nd, 2011 nine days before the meltdown, the Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) warned TEPCO of its failure to inspect critical pieces of plant equipment, including the recirculation pumps. TEPCO was ordered to make the inspections, perform repairs if needed and report to NISA on June 2nd. It does not appear that the report has been filed as of this time.
The problems were not only with the piping. Gas tanks at the site also exploded after the earthquake. The outside of the reactor building suffered structural damage. There was no one really qualified to assess the radioactive leakage because, as NISA admits, after the accident all the on-site inspectors fled. And the quake and tsunami broke most of the monitoring equipment so there was little information available on radiation afterwards.
The authors have spoken to several workers at the plant. Each recites the same story: Serious damage to piping and at least one of the reactors before the tsunami hit. All have requested anonymity because they are still working at or connected with the stricken plant. Worker A, a 27-year-old maintenance engineer who was at the Fukushima complex on March 11, recalls hissing, leaking pipes.
"I personally saw pipes that had come apart and I assume that there were many more that had been broken throughout the plant. There's no doubt that the earthquake did a lot of damage inside the plant. There were definitely leaking pipes, but we don't know which pipes – that has to be investigated. I also saw that part of the wall of the turbine building for reactor one had come away. That crack might have affected the reactor."
The walls of the reactor are quite fragile, he notes.
"If the walls are too rigid, they can crack under the slightest pressure from inside so they have to be breakable because if the pressure is kept inside and there is a buildup of pressure, it can damage the equipment inside the walls. So it needs to be allowed to escape. It's designed to give during a crisis, if not it could be worse – that might be shocking to others, but to us it's common sense."
WORKER B, a technician in his late thirties who was also on site at the time of the earthquake recalls what happened.
"It felt like the earthquake hit in two waves, the first impact was so intense you could see the building shaping, the pipes buckling, and within minutes, I saw pipes bursting. Some fell off the wall. Others snapped. I'm pretty sure that some of the oxygen tanks stored on site had exploded but I didn't see for myself. Someone yelled that we all needed to evacuate. I was severely alarmed because as I was leaving I was told, and I could see, that several pipes had cracked open, including what I believe were cold water supply pipes. That would mean that coolant couldn't get to the reactor core. If you can't get sufficient coolant to the core, it melts down. You don't have to be a nuclear scientist to figure that out."
As he was heading to his car, he could see that the walls of the reactor one building itself had already started to collapse. "There were holes in them. In the first few minutes, no one was thinking about a tsunami. We were thinking about survival."
Worker C was coming into work late when the earthquake hit. "I was in a building nearby when the earthquake shook. After the second shockwave hit, I heard a loud explosion. I looked out the window and I could see white smoke coming from reactor one. I thought to myself, 'this is the end.'"
When the worker got to the office five to fifteen minutes later the supervisor immediately ordered everyone to evacuate, explaining, "there's been an explosion of some gas tanks in reactor one, probably the oxygen tanks. In addition to this there has been some structural damage, pipes have burst, meltdown is possible. Please take shelter immediately." (It should be noted that several explosions occurred at Daiichi even after the March 11th earthquake, one of which TEPCO stated, "was probably due to a gas tank left behind in the debris".)
As the employees prepared to leave, the tsunami warning came. Many of them fled to the top floor of a building near the site and waited to be rescued.
The suspicion that the quake caused severe damage to the reactors is strengthened by reports that radiation leaked from the plant minutes later. Bloomberg has reported that a radiation alarm went off at the plant before the tsunami hit on March 11. The news agency says that one of the few monitoring posts left working, on the perimeter of the plant "about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) from the No. 1 reactor went off at 3:29 p.m., minutes before the station was overwhelmed by the tsunami."
The reason for official reluctance to admit that the earthquake did direct structural damage to reactor one is obvious. Onda Katsunobu, author of TEPCO: The Dark Empire (東京電力・帝国野暗黒), who sounded the alarm about the firm in his book (2007) explains it this way:
"If TEPCO and the government of Japan admit an earthquake can do direct damage to the reactor, this raises suspicions about the safety of every reactor they run. They are using a number of antiquated reactors that have the same systemic problems, the same wear and tear on the piping."
Onda Katsunobu's book Tokyo Denryoku: Teikoku No Ankoku, , detailed the history of accidents and cover-ups at TEPCO in great detail. Issued in 2007, it was mostly ignored and sold only 4,000 copies. It was reissued this year. In many ways, it was a remarkably prescient book.
Kikuchi Yoichi, a former GE engineer who helped build the Fukushima nuclear power plant says unequivocally that, "the earthquake caused the meltdown not the tsunami." In his recent book : 原発をつくった私が、原発に反対する理由: (Why I'm Against the Nuclear Plants I Helped Build), he explains that poorly maintained water pipes and circulation system failure were the cause of the triple meltdown. Kikuchi in his book writes (p. 51), "At Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, at first the plan was to use the water coffin(水棺)approach. In other words, to fill the containment vessels with water and cool down the pressure vessel and ensure a safe and stable state. However, once (TEPCO) understood that the containment vessels (格納容器) had been damaged, they gave up this plan. Because water was probably leaking all over the place from the pipes, from the start this was an unreasonable scenario."
Tanaka Mitsuhiko, a former nuclear power plant designer and science writer asserts that at least the Number One reactor melted down as a result of the earthquake damage. He describes it as a loss of coolant accident (LOCA). "The data that TEPCO has made public shows a huge loss of coolant within the first few hours of the earthquake. It can't be accounted for by the loss of electrical power. There was already so much damage to the cooling system that a meltdown was inevitable long before the tsunami arrived."
He says the released data shows that at 14:52 on March 11th, before the tsunami had arrived, the emergency circulation equipment of both the A and B systems automatically started up. "This only happens when there is a loss of coolant." Between 15:04 and 15:11 the water sprayer inside the containment vessel was turned on. Tanaka says that it is an emergency measure only done when other cooling systems have failed.
By the time the tsunami arrived and knocked out all the electrical systems, circa 15:37, the plant was already on its way to melting down.
Tanaka believes that a fault in the Mark I reactor, the same type as the number one reactor, was another contributing factor to the meltdown. On November 5, 1987, NISA began an evaluation of the Mark 1 reactors to consider how much stress they could take before a LOCA would occur. The results of that evaluation have not been made public.
There are currently ten remaining Mark type reactors in Japan, according to Tanaka's research. He believes that each one is the equivalent of a ticking time bomb.
Sugaoka Kei, who conducted on-sight inspections at the Fukushima plant, was the man who first blew the whistle on TEPCO's data tampering with critical machinery. He says that he wasn't surprised that a meltdown took place after the earthquake. He sent the Japanese government a letter dated June 28th, 2000 warning them of the problems there. It took the Japanese government almost two years to act on that warning.
Sugaoka asserts in his letter that TEPCO left in place and continued to operate a severely damaged steam dryer in the plant even ten years after he pointed out the problem. The steam dryer had never been properly installed and was 180 degrees out of place. Sugaoka states, "It wasn't a surprise that a nuclear accident happened there. I always thought it was just a matter of time. This is one of those times in my life when I'm not happy I was right."
Worker A says there were "probably pieces of equipment on site that had never been checked."
"Let's say you have a refrigerator – the manufacturer recommends it be checked every ten years. But it's surrounded by many other kinds of equipment in the plant, all with different requirements for checking. So if the refrigerator check is missed, it will be another 10 years before it is done. Sometimes checks might not happen for decades. In a strong earthquake, that equipment could fail. That's TEPCO's responsibility. They're supposed to make the schedule."
Onda Katsunobu notes, "I've spent decades researching TEPCO and its nuclear power plants and what I've found, and what government reports confirm, is that the nuclear reactors are only as strong as their weakest links, and those links are the pipes."
During his research, Onda spoke with several engineers who worked at the TEPCO plants. One told him that often piping would not match up the way it should according to the blueprints. In that case, the only solution was to use heavy machinery to pull the pipes close enough together to weld them shut. Inspection of piping was often cursory and the backs of the pipes, which were hard to reach, were often ignored. Since the inspections themselves were generally cursory and done by visual checks, it was easy to ignore them. Repair jobs were rushed; no one wanted to be exposed to nuclear radiation longer than necessary.
Onda adds, "When I first visited the Fukushima Power Plant it was a web of pipes. Pipes on the wall, on the ceiling, on the ground. You'd have to walk over them, duck under them—sometimes you'd bump your head on them. It was like a maze of pipes inside."
It's not very difficult to explain what happened at reactor one and perhaps the other reactors as well, Onda believes.
"The pipes, which regulate the heat of the reactor and carry coolant are the veins and arteries of a nuclear power plant; the core is the heart. If the pipes burst, vital components don't reach the heart and thus you have a heart attack, in nuclear terms: meltdown. In simpler terms, you can't cool a reactor core if the pipes carrying the coolant and regulating the heat rupture—it doesn't get to the core."
Hasuike Touru, a TEPCO employee from 1977 until 2009 and former general safety manager of the Fukushima plant, also notes: "The emergency plans for a nuclear disaster at the Fukushima plant had no mention of using sea-water to cool the core. To pump seawater into the core is to destroy the reactor. The only reason you'd do that is that no other water or coolant was available."
Before dawn on the 12th, the water levels at the reactor began to plummet and the radiation began rising. Meltdown was taking place. The TEPCO Press release on March 12th just after 4 a.m. states: "The pressure within the containment vessel is high but stable." There was one note buried in the release that many people missed. "The emergency water circulation system was cooling the steam within the core; it has ceased to function."
According to the daily Chunichi Shinbun and other sources, a few hours after the earthquake, extremely high levels of radiation were recorded within the reactor one building. The level of contamination was so high that a single day exposed to it would be fatal. The water levels of the reactor were already sinking. 6 hours and 20 minutes after the earthquake on March 11th at 9:08 the radiation level was 0.8 mSv every ten seconds. In other words, if you spent 20 minutes exposed to those radiation levels you would exceed the five-year limit for a nuclear reactor worker in Japan.
At 9:51 pm, under the CEO orders, the inside of the reactor building was declared a no-entry zone. Around 11 pm, radiation levels for the inside of the turbine building, which was next door to the reactor reached levels of 0.5 to 1.2 mSv per hour.
The meltdown was already underway.
Oddly enough, while TEPCO later insisted that the cause of the meltdown was the tsunami knocking out emergency power systems, at the 7:47 pm TEPCO press conference the same day, the spokesman, in response to questions from the press about the cooling systems, stated that the emergency water circulation equipment and reactor core isolation time cooling systems would work even without electricity. The emergency water circulation system (IC) did in fact start working before the power loss and continue working after the power was lost as well.
Sometime between 4 and 6 am, on May 12th, Yoshida Masao, the plant manager decided it was time to pump seawater into the reactor core and notified TEPCO. Seawater was not pumped in until hours after a hydrogen explosion occurred, roughly 8:00 pm that day. By then, it was probably already too late.
On May 15, TEPCO went some way toward admitting at least some of these claims in a report called "Reactor Core Status of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station Unit One." The report said there was pre-tsunami damage to key facilities including pipes. "This means that assurances from the industry in Japan and overseas that the reactors were robust is now blown apart," said Shaun Burnie, an independent nuclear waste consultant. "It raises fundamental questions on all reactors in high seismic risk areas."
As Burnie points out, TEPCO also admitted massive fuel melt —16 hours after loss of coolant, and 7-8 hours before the explosion in unit 1. "Since they must have known all this — their decision to flood with massive water volumes would guarantee massive additional contamination - including leaks to the ocean."
No one knows exactly how much damage was done to the plant by the quake, or if this damage alone would account for the meltdown. However, eyewitness testimony and TEPCO'S own data indicates that the damage was significant. All of this despite the fact that shaking experienced at the plant during the quake was within it's approved design specifications. Says Hasuike:
"What really happened at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant to cause a meltdown? TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) and the government of Japan have provided many explanations. They don't make sense. The one thing they haven't provided is the truth. It's time that they did."
David McNeill & Jake Adelstein


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Larry / Ted Richard Dix |
Doris Powell Mary Lawlor |
Ace Martin Matthew Betz |
Released by RKO | Directed by George Archainbaud Run time: 72 minutes |
Shooting Straight: A Direct Shot
"He doesn't like to be referred to as a racketeer."
Shooting Straight is a fairly inoffensive, cute little movie. It's kind of clunky and a little obvious, but it has Richard Dix glowering and wormy Matthew Betz dueling for the heart of a pretty woman, and it's a fun little trifle in that way.
Dix's Larry Sheldon is a big time racketeer in the East, great with the dice and able to inflict terror in his opponents. After he revenge murders one of his rivals, a train accident sets him up with a new identity as a crusading parson in a small upstate town. He falls for Doris, daughter of the local minister, and soon finds himself entangled in the town's seedy gambling den versus scenery-chewing Ace Martin who is taking the town for all it's worth.
The movie is predictable, and the direction nothing special. Richard Dix, who is always a charming ruffian, gets a nice role here to show off both his sweetness and his brusque charm. The film has a few action sequences, including a model train crash and a final brawl whose undercranking and static movement bridges that gap between the silents and the talkies once more.
Overall, there really isn't a whole lot to say about the film, other than it's a decent, if unremarkable watch. If you need more Dix in your life, it's worth seeking out.
Click to enlarge. All of my images are taken by me– please feel free to reuse with due credit!
Trivia & Links
- A thread over on NitrateVille talks about the obscure life of star Mary Lawlor.
- Always worth revisiting is Immortal Ephemera's great Richard Dix biography.
Awards, Accolades & Availability
- This film is an obscure one– it recently played on TCM. I wish you luck in finding it!