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This week at IMEX America in Las Vegas, I was speaking about how to make your panel discussions go from boring to bravo. Before the session began, a meeting professional said, "I'm not a big fan of panels. They are just too boring."
My dear meeting professional. One of the main reasons your panels are boring is that YOU have not set your panel up for success. Sure, you identified a slot of time, selected a topic and wrestled up a moderator and some panelists. You consider your job to be done.
At this point, your job is HALF done. You still have some fundamental groundwork to cover with your panel moderator who will bring your vision to reality.
Oh? Your vision is a stultifying, boring panel? Well then, that's what you'll get. And if you have NO vision (or don't bother to share it), then your panel moderator will step in. And if your panel moderator doesn't have a vision, you'll get the same old boring, draped table with name tents and microphone stands.
It doesn't have to be that way. PLEASE meet with your panel moderator (either face-to-face or virtually) and have a chit-chat about what the panel could be. Some key questions to discuss are:
The Event. The panel discussion is typically one session within an entire event. Share the panel date, start and end times and location. Also discuss where this panel is within the arc of the entire event agenda, what comes before and after the panel discussion. Share the event website URL, marketing materials and any other logistical information (including attire).
Panel Title. An intriguing title will capture your audience's attention. Work with the panel moderator to develop a catchy and effective title that is consistent with the event theme.
Panel Objectives. Clarify the stated objectives for the panel – especially if marketing material has already been published. What do you want them to know, think or feel about the topic?
Panel Format. Discuss your vision for the panel. How formal or informal? Traditional or more unique? Confirm how much latitude you have to play with the format and agenda.
Sponsoring Organization. Review the mission of the business, association or organization. Ask about their past experiences of having panels on their program – the good, the bad and the ugly.
Audience. Confirm the audience size, demographics and expectations for the panel discussion.
Panelists. Share the names, bio and contact information for any panelist who has already been invited or confirmed to participate, why they were selected, as well as a copy of what has been communicated to them. Ask for recommendations (see Step 2). Determine any inducements you can offer additional panelists to serve and if there are any promotional policies or prohibitions you need to be aware of.
Success Criteria. Discuss how you will determine and evaluate the success of the panel. Evaluation forms? Hallway buzz?
Room Logistics. Share any details you have about the room size and layout, furniture setup and color of the backdrop.
Audio/Visual. Discuss audio (microphones), visual (video projection) and internet (Wi-Fi) requirements.
Rights. If the panel will be recorded (audio and/or video) or live-streamed, you'll need the moderator and panel to sign a release form.
Support Staff. Mention if you intend to have any additional support in the room, e.g., room monitors, microphone runners, etc.
Promotion. Ask for the moderator's help to get the word out and any post-event messaging to reinforce the panel discussion.
As you discuss these items, you'll find the answers to be less defined and you and the panel moderator will have the opportunity to create an amazing experience for the audience and the panelists. Try this checklist to help the conversation move along. When you make intentional choices in collaboration with the panel moderator, you greatly increase the probability that your panel discussion will be a home run!
Listen to the podcast for this blog .
Related Articles:
How to Get Your Panel Discussion Proposal Approved by Conference Organizers
Panel Reputation: Chicken or the Egg?
Opening Salvo vs. Opening Remarks in a Panel Discussion
Kristin Arnold, professional panel moderator and high stakes meeting facilitator, shares her best practices for interactive, interesting, and engaging panel presentations. For more resources like this, or to have Kristin moderate your next panel visit the Powerful Panels official website.


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Recently, Tom Dale, one of the creators of ember.js, wrote an article that re-kindled a brewing debate on the need for progressive enhancement.
I've got bad news, though: Progressive enhancement is dead, baby. It's dead. At least for the majority of web developers.
"Something happened a few years ago in web browser land. Did you notice it? I didn't.", he said, "the browser transformed from being an awesome interactive document viewer into being the world's most advanced, widely-distributed application runtime". What is Progressive Enhancement really? According to Wikipedia
Progressive enhancement is a strategy for web design that emphasizes accessibility, semantic HTML markup, and external stylesheet and scripting technologies. Progressive enhancement uses web technologies in a layered fashion that allows everyone to access the basic content and functionality of a web page, using any browser or Internet connection, while also providing an enhanced version of the page to those with more advanced browser software or greater bandwidth.
As the browser vendors are always trying to innovate and differentiate, the responsiveness and user experience are constantly improving. The ubiquitous availability of browsers as a platform for delivering these responsive applications is compelling.
On the other side of the debate are folks like Nicholas Zakas whose presentation explains that there is a cost to making applications rely so much on Javascript; in addition to the usual problems his presentation provides analysis and insights to problems with modern "SPA" applications that are Javascript heavy. He goes on to provide suggestions on how one could provide graceful fallback options.
Another angle to this debate is the fact that the web as we know it today, has scaled because of certain architectural properties. In a presentation at QCon by Stefan Tilkov talks about how Javascript needs be unobtrusive. He recommends that applications embrace the web and its architectural properties and refers to this kind of Architecture as Resource Oriented Client Architecture.
ROCA is an attempt to define a set of recommendations — independent of any particular framework, programming language, or tooling — that embodies the principles of what we consider to be good web application architecture. Its purpose is to serve as a reference, one that can be implemented as-is or be compared to other approaches to highlight diverging design decisions.
Tom Dale, concedes its possible to achieve these properties of using various techniques in modern Javascript applications, but it should always be driven by pragmatism.

subset: commoncrawl


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Recently a good friend of mine by the name of Chi Chi Cruz posted a blog on his MySpace about undercutting and poor business practices being used by young inexperienced "wrestlers" — and I use the term loosely — in getting bookings and work on the indys. His rant was justified.
It was also brutal and laced with profanity. But it hit a nerve in the indy wrestling world and has received a lot of press and interest from some websites and internet news sites. There are a lot of opinions and valid points being thrown out there as far as to the whys and wherefores, and who's to blame. But I don't think enough emphasis has been put on what to do about this or how to handle it when it happens to you or someone you know.
There was a time in wrestling where not everyone could be a wrestler. Size mattered. Talent and ability were required. As well as a strong body you needed a strong mind to take the ribbing and abuse you would receive as a rookie.
It is not that way anymore.
Now the world has guys calling themselves wrestlers who can't lock up properly or give a decent headlock take over but paid their money to some douche who also paid some douche a year or two ago to learn how to perform badly. This vicious cycle continues, and houses and crowds dwindle from town to town because these "wrestlers" get in a ring and butcher what used to be an art. With no one to teach these guys how to get heat or work an audience they rely on getting a reaction by trying to kill each other or themselves by dropping each other on their heads or unskillfully flipping off of whatever apparatus is available. Then when they think they are ready for more they head out into the indy market and undercut guys to get on shows or show up and work for free cause "they need to get experience somehow."
These guys in truth cannot be blamed for doing things the wrong way. It falls on the guys who trained them to teach them how to do things properly. But when these "trainers" don't know how to do things properly themselves, how are they supposed to teach others?
A kid from a city I used to work in all the time posted on a message board recently "why aren't these vets offering to help the younger guys?"
I am sorry, what? Since when was it a veteran's responsibility to ensure you are properly educated? Do teachers from schools and colleges come to your house and say "Hey kid, I am here to ensure you get a good education"?
I am dumbfounded by this statement.
But it is an accurate portrayal of today's youth in that they expect to be handed crap on a platter and not have to work for anything.
Now, of course, there are exceptions and they are the ones who stand out in the crowd. They are the ones who succeed and are to be commended. But for every one of the hard workers there are 10 lazy douchebags who will do the minimum required and wonder why they haven't gotten more out of wrestling. Here's a news flash you, pukes, you get out of wrestling what you put into it.
Cheech was justified and valid in a lot of his rant and he deserves mention for making a stand, however small, against what is wrong with wrestling. I wish it were possible to police the business like it was done in the old days, back when the boys handled things when they got out of whack. Now you can't say anything or, God forbid, do anything to try to rectify a serious wrong without risking a lawsuit or charge of some kind.
Perhaps I live too far in the past but I would love to see a resurgence of a wrestling business that made money on the indy level. Back when guys used to make up to $1,000 a week or more going from territory to territory. I know it's not possible, but a guy can dream can't he?
For those of you reading this who are on the other side of this and other rants and promos take a step back and go find a reputable trainer and start over if you love wrestling. You "workers" know who you are, you are the guy that works for free or next to nothing and offers to drive yourself three to 20 hours for next to nothing but the "experience." Look at yourself in the mirror and know that you ARE harming the business you want to be a part of. You are what is wrong.
If your trainer has never been anywhere or done anything, stop for a second and say to yourself, "Do I want to go somewhere or do something in the wrestling business?" If the answer is yes, then find a guy who's been there to train you. You wouldn't learn to be a lawyer from guy who has only sat in courtroom would you? If you answer no, and are happy just doing weekend shows with your buddies for your family and friends, please stop. Quit. Buy a ticket and support the guys who want to do it for real because every time you step into a ring we who want to make a living off this lose another fan or two who could have helped us make it.
Chances are most of you who read this and are the problem will continue to delude yourselves that what you are doing is good and you are not killing the business. But if I can reach a couple of you and start a ball rolling then the effort of writing this is not wasted.
I say it every week, but it means more this week — support your local indy.
In the mean time and in between time, that's it. Another edition of Devine Intervention.
Bye Now


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Strong Persuader Arms is the firearm consulting service you need whether your interest is in hunting, shooting sports, home defense, concealed carry or anything else to do with guns or outdoor recreation in general.
• Buy, sell, or trade firearms or accessories.
• Firearm safety training • Marksmanship training • Training and assistance to obtain concealed weapons permit • Valuation services for firearms that you want to sell • Locate hard-to-find, exotic, antique, or high-end items |
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The world is currently focused on privacy issues, the negative effects of technology and how they affect us, but at the same time, we should not really forget the massive benefits that they offer, especially when it comes to security and safety. The advancements of technology have helped make communication so much better; gone are the days when parents had to wait in agony till their kids got home to know they are safe.
The biggest advantage of smartwatches for parents is that they can track their kids' locations at all times thanks to the GPS tech inbuilt. This means parents can constantly keep an eye to ensure their kid is at the right place and is safe at all times. In the worst case scenario, even if your kid goes missing, one can just check the location history to find out what happened and where the kid currently is.
Most smartwatches made for kids are made using strong and durable materials that can withstand the knocks and hits that are bound to happen in a kid's life. They come with batteries that ensure a long battery life of at least a day or two, so you will not have to fret about a dead smartwatch halfway through the afternoon.
Another major benefit is that unlike a nanny cam or an audio nanny cam, smartwatches are easy to carry. They function as a normal watch, come with the design of a watch and can be easily strapped on the wrist giving no issues to the wearer. There is also no chance of your kid losing it at any point.
They generally come with a complete OS system that has everything to keep kids entertained for hours. The smartwatches nowadays can play videos, music or can be used to play games, all of which can keep children busy for hours to come. Parents have the ability to remotely view what they are doing, monitor their online activity and so on. Certain versions of these watches even include features where parents can lock certain aspects or set down restrictions to keep their children safe from accessing harmful things, which in turn gives parents less to worry about.
Smartwatches are also compatible with both Android and iOS so parents will have no problem monitoring their kids' activity and location right from their phone, no matter where they are as the smartphone apps generally have location history and location tracking features inbuilt into them.
New versions of smartwatches also come with native support for sims and cellular networks. The inclusion of SIMs allow children to take calls from the smartwatch which is incredibly handy in the event that they get into some sort of incident. Parents can rest easy as they usually can see a history of the calls on their smartphone so their kids will not be calling unknown or unwanted people without your knowledge. The activity trackers on smartwatches have the benefit of allowing you to track the fitness levels of your kids too.


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Privacy Policy
The Montana Meth Project (the "Meth Project") is committed to protecting your privacy. We have prepared this Privacy Policy to describe to you our practices regarding the Personal Data (as defined below) we collect from users of our website, located at www.methproject.org ("Site"), and Services (as defined in the Terms of Service). Capitalized terms not defined in this Privacy Policy have the meanings given in our Terms of Service located at www.methproject.org/terms.php.
1. User Consent. By submitting Personal Data through our Site or Services, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy and you expressly consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Data in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
2. A Note to Users Outside of the United States. Your Personal Data may be processed in the country in which it was collected and in other countries, including the United States, where laws regarding processing of Personal Data may be less stringent than the laws in your country.
3. Types of Data We Collect. "Personal Data" means data that allows someone to identify or contact you, including, for example, your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, as well as any other non-public information about you that is associated with or linked to any of the foregoing data. "Anonymous Data" means data that is not associated with or linked to your Personal Data; Anonymous Data does not, by itself, permit the identification of individual persons. We collect Personal Data and Anonymous Data, as described below.
- Information You Provide to Us
- We may collect Personal Data from you, such as your first and last name, gender, e-mail and mailing addresses, when you submit content to the Site, including videos, audio recordings, photographs, and artwork.
- When you make a donation on our Site, we will collect all information necessary to complete the transaction, including your name, credit card information, billing information and shipping information.
- If you provide us feedback or contact us via e-mail, we will collect your name and e-mail address, as well as any other content included in the e-mail, in order to send you a reply.
- When you participate in one of our surveys, we may collect additional profile information.
- When you post messages on the message boards of our Site, the information contained in your posting will be stored on our servers and other users will be able to see it.
- We also collect other types of Personal Data that you provide to us voluntarily, such as your operating system and version, product registration number, and other requested information, if you contact us via e-mail regarding technical support for the Services.
- If you decide to share information with a third party, we may collect your and the third party's names and e-mail addresses in order to share the information with the third party. You or the third party may contact us at firstname.lastname@example.com to request the removal of this information from our database.
- We may also collect Personal Data, such as at other points in our Site that state that Personal Data is being collected.
- Information Collected via Technology
- To make our Site and Services more useful to you, our servers (which may be hosted by a third party service provider) collect information from you, including your browser type, operating system, Internet Protocol (IP) address (a number that is automatically assigned to your computer when you use the Internet, which may vary from session to session), domain name, and/or a date/time stamp for your visit.
- We also use spotlight tags to gather information regarding the date and time of your visit. A "spotlight tag" is a mechanism that allows us to track whether you have been served one of our advertisements on a third party website.
- Information Collected from Social Networking Sites. If you access the Site from a social networking site (e.g., Facebook or Twitter), we may receive Personal and/or Anonymous Data about you from such social networking site, in accordance with the terms of service and privacy policy of the third party provider of such social networking site. We may add this information to the information we have already collected from you via the Service.
4. Use of Your Personal Data
- General Use. In general, Personal Data you submit to us is used either to respond to requests that you make, or to aid us in serving you better. We use your Personal Data in the following ways:
- identify you as a user in our system;
- provide improved administration of our Site and Services;
- provide the Services you request;
- improve the quality of experience when you interact with our Site and Services;
- send you administrative e-mail notifications, such as security or support and maintenance advisories;
- respond to your inquiries related to volunteer or employment opportunities or other requests;
- to make telephone calls to you, from time to time, as a part of secondary fraud protection or to solicit your feedback; and
- to send newsletters, surveys, offers, and other promotional materials related to our Services and for other marketing purposes of the Meth Project.
- Creation of Anonymous Data. We may create Anonymous Data records from Personal Data by excluding information (such as your name) that make the data personally identifiable to you. We use this Anonymous Data to analyze request and usage patterns so that we may enhance the content of our Services and improve Site navigation. The Meth Project reserves the right to use Anonymous Data for any purpose and disclose Anonymous Data to third parties in its sole discretion.
5. Disclosure of Your Personal Data. We disclose your Personal Data as described below and as described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy.
- Information Disclosed to Third Party Service Providers. We may share your Personal Data with third party service providers to: provide you with the Services that we offer you through our Site, such as the creation of ads for our messaging campaign; to conduct quality assurance testing; to provide technical support; to process your credit card if you make a donation; and/or to provide other services to the Meth Project. These third party service providers are required not to use your Personal Data other than to provide the services requested by the Meth Project.
- Affiliates and Acquisitions. We may share some or all of your Personal Data with our state Meth Project affiliates or other entities under a common control ("Affiliates"), in which case we will require our Affiliates to honor this Privacy Policy. If another entity acquires our organization or our assets, that entity will possess the Personal Data collected by us and will assume the rights and obligations regarding your Personal Data as described in this Privacy Policy.
- Other Disclosures. Regardless of any choices you make regarding your Personal Data (as described below), the Meth Project may disclose Personal Data if it believes in good faith that such disclosure is necessary (a) in connection with any legal investigation; (b) to comply with relevant laws or to respond to subpoenas or warrants served on the Meth Project; (c) to protect or defend the rights or property of the Meth Project or users of the Services; (d) to protect you or any other person in the event physical harm is threatened; and/or (e) to investigate or assist in preventing any violation or potential violation of the law, this Privacy Policy, or Terms of Service.
6. Third Party Websites. When you click on a link to any other website or location, you will leave our Site and go to another site and another entity may collect Personal Data or Anonymous Data from you. We have no control over, do not review, and cannot be responsible for, these outside websites or their content. Please be aware that the terms of this Privacy Policy do not apply to these outside websites or content, or to any collection of data after you click on links to such outside websites.
7. Your Choices Regarding Your Personal Data
- Choices. We offer you choices regarding the collection, use, and sharing of your Personal Data.
- We will periodically send you free newsletters and e-mails that directly promote the use of our Site or Services. When you receive newsletters or promotional communications from us, you may indicate a preference to stop receiving further communications from us and you will have the opportunity to "opt-out" by following the unsubscribe instructions provided in the e-mail you receive or by contacting us directly (please see contact information below).
- Despite your indicated e-mail preferences, we may send you service-related communications, including notices of any updates to our Terms of Service or Privacy Policy.
- Changes to Personal Data. You may request deletion of your Personal Data by us, but please note that we may be required to keep this information and not delete it (or to keep this information for a certain time, in which case we will comply with your deletion request only after we have fulfilled such requirements). When we delete any information, it will be deleted from the active database, but may remain in our archives. We may retain your information for fraud or similar purposes.
8. Security of Your Personal Data. The Meth Project is committed to protecting the security of your Personal Data. We use a variety of industry-standard security technologies and procedures to help protect your Personal Data from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, while the Meth Project uses reasonable efforts to protect your Personal Data, the Meth Project cannot guarantee its absolute security.
9. Contact Information. The Meth Project welcomes your comments or questions regarding this Privacy Policy. Please e-mail us at firstname.lastname@example.com or contact us at the following address or phone number:
Montana Meth Project
PO Box 8944
Missoula, MT 59807
(406) 721-2538
10. Changes to This Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is subject to occasional revision, and if we make any material changes in the way we use your Personal Data, we will notify you by prominently posting notice of the changes on our Site. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will be effective thirty (30) calendar days following our posting of notice of the changes on our Site. These changes will be effective immediately for new users of our Site or Service. Continued use of our Site or Service, following notice of such changes shall indicate your acknowledgement of such changes and agreement to be bound by the terms and conditions of such changes.


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A little while back they launched the Holy Post blog to round up their rationality vs religious articles. "Get down on your knees and blog" is the tagline. Funny, but I'll stand, thanks.
Regarding Francis Collins' recent appointment to the National Institute of Health in the 'States, it didn't take long before they trotted out NOMA and paraded it around like it's new, obvious and a smart thing to say.
My response to Stackhouse's article:
For myself, as someone raised without religion, the problem is trust. Though his scientific endeavours in the past have showed rigor and good management from what accounts I have read, I find it very hard to trust the intellectual stamina of someone who converts on the spot to Christianity because of a beautiful frozen waterfall.
The religious impossibilities that so many people believe in while still being able to understand the natural world are examples of compartmentalizing.
But Collins' waterfall conversion is absurd. It's like he began believing in the Invisible Pink Unicorn because it started snowing.
He looked at the beauty of the natural world and it wasn't enough. He had to paint the scene with specific, irrelevant ideas to accept his feelings.
- - - - - - - -Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow under Creative Commons Licence.
Flying Trilobite Gallery *** Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop ***


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Talk:Alexis of Wilkes-Barre
What is the OW position on how to represent Uniate saints? For some reason a canonical church (OCA) canonised him as a saint but I am aware that "Uniates" are not considered canonical (and as an example they killed Saint Maksym (in Poland) who is an Eastern Orthodox saint, for this very reason. He spent his life vocalising this as a heresy and that is why they killed him. So, this conflict perhaps confuses me on how to represent this man on my Timeline of Saints article. A canonical church canonises a non-canonical man?? Any clarifications/thoughts would be greatly appreciated. ~~Ixthis888, 24 March 2012.
- Well, when they convert to Orthodoxy - and lead ~20000 Orthodoxy as well - it's a lot easier :) - — by Pιsτévο talk complaints at 21:53, March 23, 2012 (HST)
- So, he renounced Uniate? Sorry, I have not read his life and asking for quick references here ... thanks heaps Pistevo. ~~ Vasiliki, 24/3/2012 7pm.


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這應該是昨天很熱鬧的新聞,也不難看出 Oracle 對資安的心態。
參考「Oracle to 'sinner' customers: Reverse engineering is a sin and we know best」這篇報導,Oracle CSO Mary Ann Davidson 發表的原文已經被刪除,但這是 internet 時代,當然有完整的備份下來:「No, You Really Can't (Mary Ann Davidson Blog)」。
提供給 ZDNet 報導的補充是:
The security of our products and services has always been critically important to Oracle. Oracle has a robust program of product security assurance and works with third party researchers and customers to jointly ensure that applications built with Oracle technology are secure. We removed the post as it does not reflect our beliefs or our relationship with our customers.
Oracle 的公關能力一如往常的優秀!


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Anyone for a game of badminton and a round of emerald-hunting in Pakistan's Swat Valley? Or perhaps you fancy a beach resort on the shores of Lake Kivu, just minutes from the Democratic Republic of Congo?
The March/April issue of Foreign Policy features an interesting story and photo gallery on the luxury Serena hotel chain, which they dub the "Ritz Carlton of Failed States." The chain, which originated in Africa in the 70s, operates luxury hotels in a variety of dodgy places, including Pakistan, Kabul, Rwanda, Tajikistan, Mozambique and others. The Serena hotels are operated by an economic development fund founded by the Aga Khan, a spiritual leader for Shia Ismaili Muslims.
FP reports the Kabul Serena (see photo above), which has been attacked three times has rooms that start at $356 per night. The chain has been criticized for partnering with the Assad regime in Syria on the development of hotels in Damascus and Aleppo, but Aga Khan told FP that the company's involvement in conflict zones brings "an investment seal of approval" that helps attract more foreign investment. The hotels also create jobs in countries with high unemployment.
But is there something unseemly about a luxury hotel which features "holistic health and wellness services," a pastry shop, swimming pool, a "mind, body and spirit spa," and other amenities in an impoverished, failed state like Afghanistan? FP's slideshow juxtaposes scenes of opulence at the Serena hotels with images of children sorting through trash, smoldering buildings, and tin roof shacks.
One can certainly quibble with the high prices and unnecessary luxuries of these hotels, but the notion that aid workers, journalists, government officials, and businessmen should stay in slum-like conditions while traveling to conflict states is far-fetched. The reality is that many of these people are stuck in very primitive, dangerous conditions, sometimes for weeks, months or even years, and only get to repair to places like the Serena hotels for well-deserved R & R's.
I certainly wouldn't begrudge a Medicins Sans Frontieres volunteer who spent the last six months treating sick children in the Congo a long weekend at the luxury Serena resort in Rwanda. That said, a case can be made that holing foreigners up in luxury hotels allows them to exist in a fairytale bubble, where they are insulated from what's going on in the country at large. What do you think?
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.


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This can be a difficult question to answer as there are many factors, economic and political, that can affect the UK housing market. As many people will be aware, the protracted negotiations over Brexit have recently taken their toll, particularly on the London property market, as uncertainties affecting the future prospects of European workers coming to the capital have yet to be resolved.
Spring kick-starts the market
The time of the year can play a part in whether your property sells quickly. Traditionally, estate agents report that once the clocks go forward in spring, housing demand picks up. Improving weather and in-bloom gardens can all help a property look its best. Families with school-age children who are moving into a new area often choose this time to start house hunting, hoping to tie in their move with school terms.
The peak holiday months of July and August are quiet months for property sales. However, once the children go back to school in September, the housing market tends to pick up, in the hope that the move can be completed in time to celebrate Christmas in a new home. Although December is traditionally slow, January sees renewed activity as people start making their plans for the year ahead.
Getting the timing right
Whilst seasonal peaks and troughs can be universal, it always makes sense to look at what's happening in your local market before contemplating a sale. Taking a look at the various online sites that show what comparable properties have been sold for, rather than the price they were initially advertised at, will help ensure you get your asking price right. This can be key in getting a quick sale.


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Thanks to everyone for all the well wishes about my health. This has been an incredibly challenging time, but I'm still moving forward slowly but steadily. I still haven't pieced together a definitive diagnosis, but I have been feeling much better the past few days and I'm definitely moving closer and closer to having an understanding of what's been going on in my body. The good thing is that I've ruled out most of the more sinister things, and I'm beginning to feel confident that this is something that I'm going to be able to bounce back from as strong as ever.
And for this reason I'm super excited to officially open entry for 3 sessions of my Alaska running camps for next summer. These camps have been beyond anything I ever expected in terms of what I've been able to take away from them. I can't wait to do it again next year. Check out the camp website for all the info. Don't wait around if you're wanting to join because they are likely to fill soon.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
4 comments:
- stillwaterrunner said...
Geoff, that is fantastic news! You are one of our greatest distance runners and I am glad to hear you will continue to be. I am looking forward to hearing how you do in your next race. Stay healthy!
- September 13, 2012 at 8:17 AM
- Hoppy said...
Glad your healths heading in a positive direction Geoff . alohas
- September 13, 2012 at 9:22 PM
- Hoppy said...
Glad your healths heading in a positive direction Geoff . alohas
- September 13, 2012 at 9:22 PM
- Unknown said...
Great news Geoff! So happy for you and your family.
- September 16, 2012 at 1:01 AM
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The friendly, rainy city
If Dublin is familiar with rain and gusty winds, it is because it has a granite temperament! All the better to wrap a rainbow around you like a scarf in its favourite 'joie de vivre' colours.
This poet of bad weather did indeed have a stormy youth. However, it has been many a storm since Dubh Linn has been the 'black pond' of its Gaelic etymology. Its bay, from the air, is like a dark blue eye. But Dublin has colour in its soul: the waves of green that sweep over St. Patrick's Day. And if Dublin were a beer, it would be as clever as a Jack-O'-Lantern which finds its colour even as it changes…
In Dublin, life is gusty and windy, where the best stories worth their salt are tirelessly recounted... Derby on Sunday by the winter light, greyhound racing at the weekends, putting the world to rights over a pint in the pubs, fish and chips in a bag burning your fingers: so many ways to have a good time in good company.
When you are outside in Dublin, the best comfort comes from your friendly neighbour. When they go out, the "Dubliners", to use the title of the James Joyce novel, carry in their soul a little warmth and comfort. They draw this special warmth from the fireplaces in their velvet parlours. And they will offer it to you with the disarming kindness that is so typical of them!
For though the beer tankards hanging from the ceiling might seem destined for the giants that populate Irish folklore, in Dublin, everyone is welcome at the bar, if they can tell a story. As for Dublin's neighbourhoods, they revolve around three centres - the pub, the church, and the stadium - just like the three-leafed Irish shamrock.
It's cold outside, but warm yourself in a crowd with a good laugh, enjoying a beer in the cosy glow of the fireplace: the Dublin routine awaits you!
*All amounts are in EUR. Taxes and surcharges are included. No booking fee is applicable. Prices shown may vary depending on fare availability.
The weather forecast information is provided by World Weather Online. Air France-KLM is not responsible for the reliability of this data.
© Text and photography courtesy of EnVols


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Friday Feb 20, 2015
Farewell Darren
Friday Feb 20, 2015
Friday Feb 20, 2015
It is with great sadness that I let you know that my friend and co-Beer Drinking Scientist, Darren, passed away in January after a brave battle with brain cancer.
This episode is made up of old audio that we haven't put out on this
podcast before - trial Beer Drinking Scientist episodes in which we
probably did more drinking than we should have, and little bits from Diffusion Science Radio and Mr Science Show. It's not that polished, and a little, er, blue, but it was fun to make.
It doesn't seem fitting to distill such thoughts and feelings into blog post, so I've struggled with the right words. I first met Darren in 2001 when I did work experience with him when he was editor of Helix Magazine in Canberra. This was my first introduction to science communication, and he taught me a lot about writing and publishing, and in the process published my first freelance article. Darren was very generous with his time, and didn't seem to mind that I "borrowed" a couple of extra copies of that month's magazine. We stayed in contact, and in 2006 he moved to Sydney with a dirty great-big moustache and blond-tipped hair - independent of these facts, we became good friends! We did Diffusion Science Radio together on community radio, on which he was a natural, and then we started up this podcast. For me, he was inspirational, following his passions to eventually land one of the dream science communication jobs in Australia, editor of ABC Science Online. He was in demand on TV and radio across Australia, and I have no doubt he would have achieved a high profile nationally as a science communicator. Anyone that can ask a Nobel Prize winner in a TV interview if they "made it all up" has some gumption!
Apart from talking about science, we had numerous long lunches mulling politics, moustaches, hamburgers, families and eventually kids. Our podcasts slowed down a little once Darren's first son was born, then came mine, and whilst nights out with a microphone became rarer, the lunches continued. His first passion was always his wife and family. I can clearly remember the day Darren told me he had had surgery to remove a brain tumour; the hope he had while he was recovering, the last time we caught up at a Socceroos game, and the various messages and conversations after the tumour returned. This was a friendship I will cherish always - and I wish I had said that more often when I could have. My last message to him told him we were thinking about him over New Years. His last message was simply "love you". You can see from the various tributes on social media that he was a universally loved man.
If you would like to donate to Cure Brain Cancer, a fund has been set up in his honour.
Two songs were used in this episode:
"In Peace (Somewhere Else Mix)" by cdk
2015 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0)
"Like Music (cdk Mix)" by cdk
2015 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (3.0)


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All eyes are on Iowa this week, as the hodgepodge field of Republican contenders gallivants across that farm state seeking a win, or at least "momentum," in the campaign for the party's presidential nomination. But behind the scenes, a battle is being waged by Republicans—not against each other, but against American voters. Across the country, state legislatures and governors are pushing laws that seek to restrict access to the voting booth, laws that will disproportionately harm people of color, low-income people, and young and elderly voters.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund have just released a comprehensive report on the crisis, "Defending Democracy: Confronting Modern Barriers to Voting Rights in America." In it, they write: "The heart of the modern block the vote campaign is a wave of restrictive government-issued photo identification requirements. In a coordinated effort, legislators in thirty-four states introduced bills imposing such requirements. Many of these bills were modeled on legislation drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)—a conservative advocacy group whose founder explained: 'Our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.'"
It is interesting that the right wing, long an opponent of any type of national identification card, is very keen to impose photo-identification requirements at the state level. Why? Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP, calls the voter ID laws "a solution without a problem. ... It's not going to make the vote more secure. What it is going to do is put the first financial barrier between people and their ballot box since we got rid of the poll tax."
You don't have to look far for people impacted by this new wave of voter-purging laws. Darwin Spinks, an 86-year-old World War II veteran from Murfreesboro, Tenn., went to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get a photo ID for voting purposes, since drivers over 60 there are issued driver's licenses without photos. After waiting in two lines, he was told he had to pay $8. Requiring a voter to pay a fee to vote has been unconstitutional since the poll tax was outlawed in 1964. Over in Nashville, 93-year-old Thelma Mitchell had a state-issued ID—the one she used as a cleaner at the state Capitol building for more than 30 years. The ID had granted her access to the governor's office for decades, but now, she was told, it wasn't good enough to get her into the voting booth. She and her family are considering a lawsuit, an unfortunate turn of events for a woman who is older than the right of women to vote in this country.
It is not just the elderly being given the disenfranchisement runaround. The Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law points to "bills making voter registration drives extremely difficult and risky for volunteer groups, bills requiring voters to provide specific photo ID or citizenship documents ... bills cutting back on early and absentee voting, bills making it hard for students and active-duty members of the military to register to vote locally, and more."
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently spoke on this alarming trend. He said: "Our efforts honor the generations of Americans who have taken extraordinary risks, and willingly confronted hatred, bias and ignorance—as well as billy clubs and fire hoses, bullets and bombs—to ensure that their children, and all American citizens, would have the chance to participate in the work of their government. The right to vote is not only the cornerstone of our system of government—it is the lifeblood of our democracy."
Just this week, the Justice Department blocked South Carolina's new law requiring voters to show photo IDs at the polls, saying data submitted by South Carolina showed that minority voters were about 20 percent more likely to lack acceptable photo ID required at polling places.
By some estimates, the overall population that may be disenfranchised by this wave of legislation is upward of 5 million voters, most of whom would be expected to vote with the Democratic Party. The efforts to quash voter participation are not genuine, grass-roots movements. Rather, they rely on funding from people like the Koch brothers, David and Charles. That is why thousands of people, led by the NAACP, marched on the New York headquarters of Koch Industries two weeks ago en route to a rally for voting rights at the United Nations.
Despite the media attention showered on the Iowa caucuses, the real election outcomes in 2012 will likely hinge more on the contest between billionaire political funders like the Kochs and the thousands of people in the streets, demanding one person, one vote.
Democracy SquareLiberty Tree FoundationNo More Stolen ElectionsDemocracy SquareDemocracy SquareLiberty Tree FoundationNo More Stolen Elections


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CNPC, Sinopec, and CNOOC/PetroChina are vigorously pursuing oil supply contracts with foreign firms. To this end, the Chinese oil majors have acquired a variety of holdings in Angola, Azerbaijan, Canada, Chad, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Kazakhstan, Myanmar (Burma), Nigeria, Peru, Russia, Singapore (pending), Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela.
In particular, PetroChina is determined to on-take oil/gas infrastructure development projects and to acquire equity in oil industry assets. PetroChina is responsible for 75 projects in 29 countries and is the world's second-biggest company by value.
Abundant with cash, the People's Republic of China (PRC) is wisely spending its US$1.95 trillion forex reserves to buy energy assets made cheaper by oil's 52.47% decline from a record US$147.27 a barrel last July.
China's economic expansion has placed it on a collision course with global competitors in the market for scarce resources including critical oil and gas supplies. The PRC accounted for nearly 40% of the increase in global oil consumption between 2004 and 2007. In a short period of time, China has evolved from a position as an oil exporter in 1992 to the world's second largest oil importer in May 2008.
China's dependence upon oil supply
China is stepping up its means to secure additional oil supply contracts around the world. The geopolitical, economic and military implications are immense.
In 2004, Chinese oil imports totalled 3.40 million barrels a day (m/bd). Today, the PRC consumes approximately 7.85 m/bd. It is estimated that China will increase oil imports to as high as 9.60 m/bd by 2010, 11.40 m/bd by 2015, 13.50 m/bd by 2020, and 16.10 m/bd by 2025.
If these estimates remain true, then China's annual oil imports will incrementally grow closer year-by-year to eventually reach about 50% of the US annual oil imports. Specifically, it is predicted China will import 53.6% of the equivalent US oil imports by 2025. China will take several more decades to equal US oil imports and thus presently remains a long way behind its US counterpart. Nonetheless, assuming China continues to expand its economy, whilst pari passu the US suffers financial meltdown and continuing recession/depression, then China's oil imports will almost certainly become closer to those of the US.
Million/Barrels Day (m/bd)
Year | Chinese Oil Imports | US Oil Imports | % Chinese to US Oil Imports |
2004 | 3.40 | 13.40 | 25.4 |
2009 | 7.85 | ||
2010 | 9.60 | 23.80 | 40.3 |
2015 | 11.40 | 25.80 | 44.2 |
2020 | 13.50 | 27.90 | 48.4 |
2025 | 16.10 | 30.00 | 53.6 |
2030 | 18.79 | 28.50 | 65.9 |
(NOTES: The figures shown are over inflated. They were originally prepared as high economic growth case figures as an adaptation from official EIA sources in October 2005. They are detailed in a report entitled The Changing Risks in Global Oil Supply and Demand: Crisis or Evolving Solutions, first working draft, page 31, authored by Anthony H. Cordesman and Khalid R. Al-Rodhan. This document was prepared for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC.
Estimated figures for Chinese and US oil imports are taken from the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2005 for the year 2004, and from EIA Estimates of World Consumption by Region: 2001 – 2025 for the other years depicted, except for 2009. It has not been possible to source an estimated figure for US oil imports in 2009. The figures given for 2030 are arbitrary figures.
Beyond 2025, it is anticipated US oil imports will gradually fall as the US is planning to reduce its dependence upon overseas sourced oil supply.
US Oil Imports are assumed to drop from 30.0 m/bd in 2025 to about 28.5 m/bd in 2030. This estimate is conservative and may be inaccurate.
China is likely to become more oil dependent upon overseas sourced oil supply over the same period and beyond 2030, but this is by no means certain.
David Greene and Paul Leiby produced a research paper entitled Oil Security Metrics Model for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in March 2005. Some useful mathematical and statistical concepts are detailed in this paper. Statistical forecasting techniques (modeling) could be applied to further refine the above Comparison Table to more accurately reflect the global economic meltdown and continuing recession.)
China began to suffer from oil supply shortages in 2007. These shortages led to price increases in petrol and diesel of up to 18% in June 2008. In an effort to boost domestic oil production, China has invited foreign investment in its oil infrastructure. With a shortfall of some 160,000 b/d predicted for 2010, China has asked six countries to help fill this gap. The UK, South Korea, Russia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), US and Saudi Arabia have jumped on the bandwagon. Joint venture proposals with CNPC largely relate to the mainland based refining sector and include British Petroleum (BP), South Korea's SK and LG, Russia's Rosneft, a United Arab Emirates (UAE) led investor group, ExxonMobil Corporation, and various Saudi oil enterprises. Even though in 2008 China may be able to ramp up its refinery capacity by approximately 54.5 million tons, there is still the likelihood of a gaping shortfall in oil supply.
The US, Europe, South America, and Australasia have become steadily more dependent on Asian manufactured goods. In turn, this requires Asia to import petroleum, largely from the Middle East. The contrary argument to be stated is that much of China's increase in import dependence for direct petroleum products is actually to meet consumer demand in the US and other Western markets. If demand falls and these markets decline, China will be able to cut back on domestic oil consumption.
Notwithstanding, further analysis of China's oil consumption leads to the general conclusion that China is likely to treble or even quadruple oil imports by 2040 ceteris paribus. There are other market forces that could generate even greater demand.
Chinese oil supply activities overseas
In March 2009, China indicated the PRC is to start construction this year on oil and gas pipelines more than 2,000 km long from Kyaukypu Port on the Bay of Bengal through Myanmar to southwest China. These pipelines will pass through Kunming in Yunnan province and continue through Guizhou province to Chongqing municipality in China. The construction in Yunnan province has commenced during the first half of 2009 as part of the US$10.5B energy project. The project includes railway, road and waterway construction, as well as upgrading the port at Kyaukpyu in Arakan State. China has secured a thirty-year deal from the Burmese military junta for natural gas tapped off the Myanmar coast. China will use these new pipelines to avoid shipping crude oil and gas products through the Malacca Strait chokepoint (through which 80% of China's oil imports are channeled).
In Nigeria, CNOOC has purchased a 45% stake for US$2.3B in a major oil and gas field in the Niger Delta. The Nigerian output amounts to some 2 m/bd and this country is the fifth-biggest supplier of oil to the US. China has won some US$4B worth of preferential Nigerian exploration rights. Concurrently the PRC has provided military assistance to Nigeria, namely light patrol boats for the Niger River Delta, and two squadrons of F-811M jets to the Nigerian air force. Munitions assistance has also been provided to Nigeria. China is thus set to compete with the US for Nigerian oil supply.
To sustain future long-term contracts for oil supply, China is also negotiating with President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. This country has been supplying the US with 3 m/bd of oil making it America's fourth-largest supplier of crude. However, China now wants some of this crude oil and will therefore directly compete with the US. To facilitate this, China has already invested US$3B in Venezuela's oil sector. In May 2008, Chinese energy company PetroChina, a subsidiary of CNPC, announced a deal with Venezuelan oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) to build a 400,000 b/d refinery in China's Guangdong province. The deal allows Hugo Chavez to increase his political and economic ties with China.
Additionally, China has implemented a powerful "oil for guns" programme with Sudan. With the exception of Russia, this country has become China's largest overseas oil investment. CNPC owns 40% of the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, a consortium that dominates Sudan's oil fields. CNPC has invested more than US$8B in the Sudanese oil sector, including funding for new oil pipelines. Another Chinese company, Sinopec is constructing a 1,500 km pipeline to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. China is also building a new tanker terminal at this port possibly to handle very large crude carrier (VLCC) tankers. Sudan now supplies China with 10% of its total oil imports.
In 1997, Beijing offered US$4.3B for a large stake in the Aktobe oil field near the Caspian Sea. The PRC promised another US$3.5B to build a 3,040 km pipeline from the Atyrau in Kazakhstan to China. Although the CNPC obtained an 86% stake in the Aktobe field, the pipeline was delayed in view of its high construction costs. Three construction phases were envisioned with two already having been completed. The first phase was completed in 2003. It connects the Aktobe field with the oil hub at Atyrau. The second segment, approximately 1,000 km in length, from Atasu in central Kazakhstan to Alashankou in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang (costing around US$750M) was completed in December 2005. The third and remaining segment will link up with the completed segments and is due for completion in 2011. This pipeline will have the capacity to supply three Chinese refineries with 200,000 b/d of crude oil. CNPC also agreed to provide 20 years of development aid to the Kazakh oil firm, Aktobemunaigaz, after purchasing a 60% share of the company.
The PRC has been purchasing oil fields elsewhere in Kazakhstan. For instance, in 2003, CNPC bought a 50% share in the North Buzachi field. This field is thought to have reserves of some 2 billion barrels of oil. CNPC subsequently aligned with Sinopec to bid for the 16.78% share of the Caspian Sea offshore Kashagan reservoir held by British Gas (BG Group). The Kashagan offshore field in the northern section of the Caspian Sea is possibly the largest oil field outside of the Middle East with estimated reserves of 8-14 billion barrels of oil and natural gas. The large international consortium, responsible for developing the Kashagan field, blocked the CNPC/Sinopec bid.
The oil-consuming jackals, including China, are gathering around the shores of the Caspian Sea. They are aspiring to plunder the vast oil and gas reserves both onshore/offshore in this politically unstable region. These resources are likely to be exhausted before the end of the 21st century.
Iran supplies 11% of China's oil imports, and is therefore a crucial resource partner. Sinopec has recently implemented an oil and natural gas agreement with Tehran worth in excess of US$70B. By comparison, this huge investment is about ten times larger than the PRC's current investments in Nigeria. This is the biggest energy deal yet by any member of OPEC. Under this agreement, Beijing is committed to develop the giant Yadavaran oil field and buy 275 million tons of LPG over the next 30 years. The Yadavaran oil field is expected to produce 300,000 b/d at full capacity. Tehran has also agreed to export to China approximately 150,000 b/d of oil at market prices for 25 years. When in full production, this will more than double the Iranian oil imports quoted below for 2008. Iran could overtake Angola as early as 2011/12 and may become the PRC's second largest supplier after Saudi Arabia.
The largest Chinese oil acquisition to date is that of the Canadian oil company PetroKazakhstan. This company has large reserves in Kazakhstan. The company's assets include eleven oil fields and licenses to seven exploration blocks. Early in 2007, CNPC offered US$4.18B for the company, including US$55 cash per share and US$76 per share toward the creation of an offshoot company. This was to be led by Bernard Isautier, CEO, for PetroKazakhstan. In August 2007, PetroKazakhstan officially announced its acceptance of the CNPC offer to takeover the Kazakh oil company. The purchase was complemented by the completion of the Sino-Kazakh oil pipeline that has already delivered in excess of an estimated 300,000 b/d of crude oil to China.
Saudi Arabia
In 1999, China established a "strategic oil partnership" with Saudi Aramco, under which Sinopec would cooperate with the Saudi company in developing oil and gas fields in Saudi Arabia while Saudi Aramco would invest in refineries and petrochemical plants in China. In 2003, Saudi Aramco agreed to become part owner of a US$3.6B refinery and petrochemical complex Sinopec is building in the PRC's Fujian province. Sinopec was also awarded the right to develop natural gas in Block B of the Royal Kingdom's Empty Quarter. A few years later, in 2006, during the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao to Riyadh, Prince Walid bin Talal, a member of the royal family, stated that "as China is a big consumer of oil, the Royal Kingdom needs to open new channels beyond the West to provide a mutual beneficial arrangement". Chinese oil imports from Saudi Arabia are set to increase dramatically. In 2008, Saudi Arabia was the PRC's largest supplier at about 725,000 b/d, followed by Angola at 596,000 b/d and Iran at 425,000 b/d.
China's national oil companies have invested in oil ventures in over twenty other countries in North Africa, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and North America. The total investment, stemming from this frantic shopping spree of buying up oil and gas fields and companies worldwide, is conservatively estimated at some US$40B. The true figure is likely to be much greater.
The aforementioned investments represent only a sample of the patchwork of international partnerships, strategic alliances, and acquisitions that Chinese oil and gas companies have finalized in recent years.
Why so much Chinese buying aggression?
The PRCs aggressive policy to buy crude oil/gas supplies and to invest in oil infrastructure development on a worldwide basis is vested in the following reasons (not necessarily in order of priority):
(1.) China wishes to continue with massive consumer and manufactured goods production (vis-à-vis consumer products such as motor cars, white goods, electronic goods, luxury goods, and public transport for immediate internal consumption): to expediently meet and satisfy internal domestic demand and to raise general living standards to equal those of the West. China has the largest 1.3 billion consumer market in the world.
The "have-nots" in China desire to catch up and overtake the "haves" in the West. There is no greater incentive and human desire as far as the Chinese government is concerned.
(2.) China wants to continue to export large volumes of consumer goods and services worldwide to retain its advantageous dominant position as the world's leading exporter. Products exported include clothing and textiles, footwear, household furnishings, electronic goods, white goods, and a plethora of other goods. Every household in the West now possesses a significant number of Chinese manufactured goods. China has and will penetrate every market in the West including the emerging driver-economies of Brazil, India, and resurgent Russia (counterpart members of the BRIC consortium).
(3.) The PRC is in a self-equilibrium economic mode and wishes to accelerate its growth. As such, China must reinforce its unique symbiotic relationship with the West, particularly with the US, one of its largest markets. The US accounted for about 90% of China's US$295B trade surplus in 2008. China needs the West, and the West needs China. Global buyers will continue to enjoy acquiring perceived-quality Chinese goods at low cost.
The momentum could be self-perpetuating.
(4.) China sees itself as the leader of a new world economic order, to eventually become the world's leading economy by 2020/30 and to thereby acquire a dominant hegemonic position in world affairs and geopolitics. The country is deliberately posturing itself for future domination of the West.
(5.) Being "cashed up" with some US$1.95 trillion in forex reserves, China possibly will never again have such a golden opportunity to acquire crude oil/gas assets (and other worldwide energy resources) at such a low cost, while the global financial meltdown continues. Effectively, the People's Bank of China is close to becoming the world's de facto banker and has mounted a serious challenge to the IMF, to the Arab petrodollar and to overseas financial institutions. The artificially induced low value of the Yuan has permitted China to rapidly build up its forex reserves. "Thanks for your US dollar, here's your change expressed in a foreign exchange certificate, as fifty Fens or otherwise." This is a form of "hard currency larceny". How could the West be so naive and allow itself to be financially ambushed in this manner?
(6.) China seeks to buy crude oil/gas (plus other energy resources) as it realizes these valuable commodities are finite and exhaustible. The rate of discovery of new and significant oil reserves is dramatically falling and most existing oil/gas fields have surpassed their peak. The age of easy oil is over, and what remaining oil there is will become increasingly technically difficult to extract.
(7.) China intends to greatly increase its official strategic reserve of oil (and LNG/gas products). The first annual phase of the PRC's strategic petroleum reserve is due to be completed in 2009. The reserve will hold 100 million barrels of oil (m/bo). The second annual phase is planned to hold 200 m/bo. If this annual rate of stockpiling is successful, China will launch successive phases. This may eventually increase net storage capacity to beyond 500 m/bo sometime after 2013. Should this occur the storage volume will be the largest national strategic oil reserve the world has ever known.
Having such a large strategic reserve, to the obvious disadvantage of other world powers, means that China can effectively mount a sustained conventional manpower- abundant military campaign (defensive/offensive) without the need for recourse to limited-theatre nuclear weapons and WMD. The West will be tactically impaired and might have to be the first to use nuclear weapons to impede any Chinese advances/gains.
While nuclear deterrence will possibly thwart any Chinese intentions to start a conventional military campaign, China's military philosophy based on "antiaccess" strategies will invoke a more defensive than aggressive posture.
(8.) Finally, it must not be forgotten the China has embarked upon a significant programme of military expansion. On a per annum per capita basis, the PRC's military expenditure of around US$231B seems very modest and circumspect compared with others around the globe. But with a 1.3 billion population, any small per capita incremental increases will have tremendous implications in future years.
The military modernization programme comprises a component to upgrade PRC blue- water naval power to help stave off any aggression toward China's inbound sea borne oil/gas shipments. The Pentagon believes the programme to be defensive in nature but some pundits disagree with this analysis.
The bludgeoning Chinese investment in the oil/gas industry across many nations will impact upon geopolitical, economic and military factors inherent within the present system of global stability. It is a serious battle for energy resources.
As China becomes increasingly oil dependent, the homogeneity and paradigm in oil supply for other nations will be greatly disturbed. It has been said that the PRC's increasingly mercantilist strategy to assert control of oil/gas supplies and transport routes, risks fueling tensions and conflict amongst SE Asian and other nations wider afield; many of these are already facing sensitive transition to accommodate China's rising power over the next two decades.
History sometimes demonstrates that nations often stockpile oil/gas (and other energy resources) in preparation for regional conflicts and potential conflicts with energy-hungry competitors and adversaries. In the climate of worsening weather patterns, continuing global financial meltdown and increasing energy resource scarcity, the probability of a military confrontation during the 21st/22nd centuries in which oil may play a role has dramatically heightened.
CAPT David L. O. Hayward (Rtd) is a Defence Research Analyst with the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) of Australia Inc., Canberra


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Features. Before buying, experience to make up your mind about functions that simply want inside your chair for having. Look in the body parts that can be massaged in the device. Those which do you cherish to bring? Some chairs could be positioned based on angles to higher accommodate the system position. Also, there can be chairs that emit heat and a person warm while sitting in it. There as well those get been equipped with a music guitarist.
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We are happy to see Kiwa back at EMS for the last part of his residency!
KIWA (as sound artist Kiwanoid, born 1975) – multidisciplinary artist, lives and works in Tartu and Tallinn. Studied in Estonian Academy of Arts and Tartu University.
He actively explores and blends different media, from conceptual objects to total audiovisual environments. His artistic practices include painting, objects and installation, video, performance, sound art, scenography, text, etc: all together functioning as a hypertextual research of meaning-making and cultural codes on different levels, collective and personal myths.
Photo: Terje Toomistu
KIWA is also active as lecturer in the Estonian Academy of Arts (since 2006) and curator (since 1999), promoting interdisciplinary and research-based projects of the younger generation of Estonian artists. He initiated a series of multimedia events with a code name "Metabor" (first sound art platform in Estonia, 2001–2004), "The Festival of Non-Existent Bands" (2002-2009) and publication of anthology of experimental literature "Kangelasema toitepiim – Tekstilääts" (Nutritive Milk of Mother Heroine – A Textual Lens, 2006). As a team with anthropologist Terje Toomistu they made a full-length documentary movie "Wariazone" about Indonesian transgender phenomenon and started a crossmedia research about Soviet hippie movement which was exhibited at Estonian National Museum (Tartu) and Moderna Museet (Malmö).
Participates in exhibitions since 1995, his last personal shows took place at Moderna Museet (Malmö), Vaal gallery (Tallinn), Y-gallery (Tartu), Galerie Rivoli 59 (Paris) and Draakoni Gallery (Tallinn). Recent group shows and festivals include: NU Performance Festival and Kumu Art Museum (Estonia); Black Leather club and Manizales Theatre Festival (Colombia); Henie Onstad (Norway); The Kitchen, Yvon Lambert Gallery and Renaissance Society (USA); Tate Modern and Milch Gallery (UK); Stedelijk and DeAppel (Netherlands); Tseretely gallery and SKIF festival (Russia); Seccession, Charim gallery events and CAT/MAK (Austria), 1st Electronic Festival (Belorussia), Rivoli59 and Chateau de Tours (France) etc.
Works in collections of Art Museum of Estonia, Tartu Art Museum, and private collections in Estonia, Europe and USA.
An AIR-programme grant from Nordic Culture Point has made it possible for EMS to invite Kiwa to work at EMS.


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WAS THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD a pervert and a tyrant? Does Islam promote terrorism and enslave women? Does Islam oblige its followers to wage jihad on Westerners whose roots lie in the secular Enlightenment? Should Muslims consider converting to Christianity? For the Somali-born writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the answer to all these questions is a resounding "Yes!" Hirsi Ali, who renounced Islam in her 30s, speaks from experience of bigotry and intolerance among her former co-religionists: she was genitally mutilated as a child in Somalia, briefly radicalised by a preacher of jihad in Kenya, nearly forced into a marriage, threatened with death in the Netherlands by the Muslim assassin of her collaborator, the filmmaker Theo van Gogh, and is still hounded by murderous fanatics in her new home, America. In her latest book, Nomad: From Islam to America (pubished this year by Free Press), she reminds her readers of the West's tradition of intellectual revolt against clerical tyranny and warns of the insidious, intransigent enemies in their midst. "The Muslim mind today seems to be in the grip of jihad," she writes.
She is not hopeful that Americans will heed her warning. Her initial job interviews in the United States were discouraging: the Brookings Institution, she writes, worried that she might offend Arab Muslims. (The conservative American Enterprise Institute, however, immediately appointed her as a fellow.) On college campuses, Muslim students accuse her of wanting to "trash" Islam, while Western feminists, convinced that white men are "the ultimate and only oppressors," lack the "courage or clarity of vision" to help her knock down the mental "hovels" of the East. Pointing to Major Nidal Malik Hasan's murderous rampage in Texas, last November, she deplores the "conspiracy to ignore the religious motivation for these killings" in America.
Muslims today, Hirsi Ali believes, must be forced to choose between the darkness of Islam and the light of the modern secular West. In her new book, which bears the additional subtitle A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations, she takes an uncompromising line with her own relatives, who remain faithful to their benighted religion. The book opens with an account of her visit to her father's deathbed, in Whitechapel, in London's East End, in 2008. Her father, a highly respected political opponent of Somalia's Soviet-backed military dictator, became more religious during exile and old age. Father and daughter hadn't spoken since 2004, when Hirsi Ali and van Gogh made the film Submission, about the oppression of Muslim women, and she learned that he was fatally ill only a few weeks before his death. She didn't want to visit him at his home, since it was in "a mostly immigrant area and overwhelmingly Muslim," and had to be escorted by policemen to his hospital. In a brief but moving scene, she describes her father longing, but physically unable, to communicate with her.
The emotions of the moment dissipate soon after she leaves the hospital, when, driving down Whitechapel Road with her bodyguards, Hirsi Ali glimpses covered Muslim women on the pavement and long-bearded men outside a large mosque. Overcome by "an instant sense of panic and suffocation," she felt as though she were "the only true nomad." The Muslims in Whitechapel "had brought their web of values with them," values of a culture that she has left behind. She deplores her "conflicted" half sister Sahra, who is interested in studying psychology in London while remaining a devout Muslim, and who has an annoying habit of saying "Inshallah" after every phrase. "How long will Western societies. . .continue to tolerate the spread of Sahra's way of life?" Hirsi Ali asks. Considering her vain and financially needy brother, she laments, "This is the tragedy of the tribal Muslim man." She writes a letter to a deceased grandmother in Africa, educating her about the enviable ways of the Western "infidel": "He may take care of his parents but has no use for a memory filled with an endless chain of ancestors. All the seeds of his toil are spent on his own offspring, not those of his brothers or uncles."
"The only difference between my relatives and me is that I opened my mind," Hirsi Ali writes. The book ends with a letter to an imagined unborn daughter, which is also a tribute to her fellow anti-Islam agitator Oriana Fallaci, who memorably claimed that Muslims "breed like rats" in Europe. Hirsi Ali worries that her daughter will confront "the bleakness of having no challenges in life," in "an America of many posts: post-civil rights, postfeminism, post-cold war." She wonders, "What will you fight for? What will you fight against?" Yet there are plenty of dangers that remain, and she warns her child about being brainwashed by "Allah and his agents," and by the "many isms" that she will be exposed to in America: "socialism and communism and all sorts of cults and collectivisms."
Nomad is unlikely to earn Hirsi Ali many Muslim admirers. Neither will her recent support for the proposed French ban on face veils and the Swiss referendum outlawing minarets. In denouncing Islam unreservedly, she has claimed a precedent in Voltaire—though the 18th century scourge of the Catholic Church might have been perplexed by her proposal that Muslims embrace the "Christianity of love and tolerance." In another respect, however, the invocation of Voltaire is more apt than Hirsi Ali seems to realise. Voltaire despised the faith and identity of Europe's religious minority: the Jews, who, he declared, "are, all of them, born with raging fanaticism in their hearts," who had "surpassed all nations in impertinent fables, in bad conduct and in barbarism," and who "deserve to be punished." Voltaire's denunciations remind us that the Enlightenment was a much more complex and multifaceted phenomenon than the dawn of reason and freedom that Hirsi Ali evokes. Many followed Voltaire in viewing the Jews as backward, an Oriental abscess in the heart of Europe. Hirsi Ali, recording her horror of ghettoised Muslim life in Whitechapel, seems unaware of the similarly contemptuous accounts of Jewish refugees who made the East End of London their home after fleeing the pogroms.
Whitechapel has much in its past—oppression, bigotry, poverty, radicalism—that would have helped Hirsi Ali understand not only the neighbourhood's newest inhabitants but also her own family. But Nomad reveals that her life experiences have yet to ripen into a sense of history. The sad truth is that the problems she blames on Islam—fear of sexuality, oppression of women, militant millenarianism—are to be found wherever traditionalist peoples confront the transition to an individualistic urban culture of modernity. Many more young women are killed in India for failing to bring sufficient dowry than perish in 'honour killings' across the Muslim world. Such social pathologies no more reveal the barbaric core of Hinduism or Islam than domestic violence in Europe and America defines the moral essence of Christianity or the Enlightenment.
Islamic fundamentalist groups have long terrorised many Muslim countries, especially those, such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, that were ravaged by blowback from the Cold War and the war on terror. These extremists, who now assault the West as well, have always lacked popular support within their own countries. The anarchic vivacity of contemporary Muslim societies—featuring such figures as Ali Saleem, Pakistan's cross-dressing television host, and Cairo's hijab-wearing sex therapist Heba Kotb, whose talk show is beamed across the Arab world—does not quite match Hirsi Ali's description of an incurably medieval people busy devising ever-harsher laws for themselves while plotting mayhem for the infidels. In recent years, Islamist movements, led or assisted by women activists, have helped democratise Indonesia and Turkey; innumerable Muslims, such as Asma Jahangir, in Pakistan, and Shirin Ebadi, in Iran, fight to defend the rights of women against both Islamic fundamentalists and secular autocrats.
Nor do Hirsi Ali's simple oppositions—traditional societies versus democracy, Islam versus Western secularism—sum up the experiences of Muslims in Europe, who are the Continent's most globalised minority, with multilayered identities that are usually influenced less by the Koran or Sharia than by the politics, culture, and economy of various nations and transnational networks. Her praise for the United States, her new home, shows a growing familiarity with right-wing touchstones (self-reliance, distrust of government, family values, gun ownership, Christianity). But when she writes that a Muslim can be "an American patriot" only if he doesn't "care very much about being a Muslim," she seems suspicious of the country's un-European traditions of cultural and religious pluralism. Eager to re-educate her "fellow nomads" in "the ways of the infidel," Hirsi Ali is convinced that "lingering between the two value systems," as her half sister does, "stunts the process of becoming one's own person." But those privileged enough to find refuge in the West rarely find it easy or desirable to abandon their ancestral culture and convert to the Randian individualism that she appears to uphold as the noblest form of human existence. The fate of the truly modern nomad is, rather, a ceaseless inner conflict between ways of life and value systems; this very quality has made the nomad an emblematic figure of the contemporary age.
If Hirsi Ali's rhetoric has earned her critics among Western liberals, she has a fierce defender in Paul Berman, whose new polemic, The Flight of the Intellectuals (Melville House), hails her as a "classic example of a persecuted dissident intellectual." He upbraids such writers as the Anglo-Dutch journalist Ian Buruma and the British academic Timothy Garton Ash, who, he says, "sneered at Ayaan Hirsi Ali for having taken up the ideas of Western liberalism." Berman also condemns Buruma and Garton Ash for "grovelling" to Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss-born Muslim professor at Oxford University, whose work seeks to integrate observant Muslims into secular Western societies, and whom Berman sees as an apologist for extremism. For Berman, the spectacle of writers attacking Hirsi Ali while embracing Ramadan points to a dangerous "reactionary turn in the intellectual world" of Europe and America.
Berman, who started his intellectual career in the early 1970s, as an anthologist of anarchist quotations, has emerged as a prominent critic of liberal-left pieties. In A Tale of Two Utopias (1996), he reprimanded the American student radicals of the 60s for failing to recognise the evil of Communism. In Terror and Liberalism (2003), he scolded liberals too timid to join what he saw as America's crusade for liberal democracy in Iraq. His recent writings call for unambiguous ideological commitment in what he describes as a worldwide clash between liberalism and totalitarianism (or "fascism," which Berman prefers, since to hear the "pungent" word "is to flare your nostrils").
There is no doubt that 9/11 announced a new enemy of liberal civilisation—an enemy far more obscure than, say, Prussian militarism, Nazism, or Communist totalitarianism, all of which were embodied by territorial states and standing armies. What was one to make of men who hid in caves and spoke in apocalyptic tones, mixing modern anti-imperialist rhetoric with invocations of a glorious Islamic past? Were they rootless and marginalised revolutionaries trying to realise an Islamic myth of community, or did they express a deeper pathology of backward tradition-bound societies? Had the Muslim world produced a modern totalitarian ideology called Islamism? Terror and Liberalism offered answers that could seem consolingly simple.
During the Vietnam War, Hannah Arendt noted that members of the Democratic Administration had frequent recourse to phrases like "monolithic communism," and "second Munich," and deduced from this an inability "to confront reality on its own terms because they had always some parallels in mind that 'helped' them to understand those terms." Similarly, Berman, who wasn't known previously for his expertise on modern political movements east of Europe, identified Islamism as a derivative version of the totalitarian enemies—Fascism and Communism—that liberalism had already fought throughout the 20th century. After "trolling the Islamic bookstores of Brooklyn," he offered a genealogy of "Islamism" that rested almost entirely on his reading of Sayyid Qutb, an ideologue of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. According to Berman, liberal intellectuals were obliged to do battle with the new nihilistic Fascism, which included secular dictatorships like Iraq's as well as pan-Islamist movements. "I'm happy to be a laptop general," he wrote, and his work quickly united a variety of public figures, from Richard Holbrooke to Martin Amis, in the cause.
The book had its liberal critics. Writing in The New York Review of Books, Ian Buruma rejected Berman's "radical vision of an American state, filled with revolutionary élan and military steel, battling heroically and alone with outside enemies," and wrote, "There is something in the tone of Berman's polemic that reminds me of the quiet American in Graham Greene's novel, the man of principle who causes mayhem, without quite realizing why." In 2007, when Buruma published a profile of Tariq Ramadan in the Times Magazine, Berman responded with a 28,000-word article in The New Republic that presented his own appalled discovery of the academic's ideas and inspirations. He focussed on Ramadan's "family relations that shape everything he writes and does," particularly Ramadan's grandfather Hasan al-Banna, the Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.
In The Flight of the Intellectuals, Berman expands his original indictment, arguing that Ramadan makes the right noises but is actually quite vague about women's rights, and his reinterpretations of Islamic texts do not sound very liberal or moderate. In Berman's account, the modern Islamic thinkers whom Ramadan is related to or admires turn out to be promoters of jihadi violence against Israel and the West. Ramadan's grandfather, for instance, was an early supporter of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Muhammad Amin al-Husseini, who tried to create an Arab-Nazi alliance. Berman concedes that Ramadan himself doesn't advocate terrorism or anti-Semitism, but says he is soft on those who do, which makes it more inexplicable that liberal intellectuals should depict Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the "admirer of the West," as a loose cannon while hailing Ramadan as "a long-awaited Islamic hero—the religious thinker who was going, at last, to adapt Islam to the modern world." According to Berman, intellectuals like Buruma and Garton Ash have helped Ramadan "become a representative man of our age."
Ramadan, a prolific author who has preached a 'European' Islam in the heart of secular France, has certainly attracted the attention of journalists and academics, along with those uncompromising secularists who use him as a foil. But Berman, assessing Ramadan from within this echo chamber, is prone to overestimate his resonance in the wider world. "In the eyes of a vast number of European Muslims a more glorious ancestry than Tariq Ramadan's does not exist," he writes. It is more likely that the majority of European Muslims worry more about unemployment, discrimination, and inequality than about setting up an Islamic caliphate, and have never heard of Hasan al-Banna. Ramadan himself is virtually unknown among many of Europe's Muslim communities, not least the South Asian Muslims in Britain, who, in the age of the Internet and satellite television, have their own transnational reformist thinkers, Urdu-speaking pop preachers, and charismatic evangelists. Ramadan's overall reputation in Europe and West Asia can't begin to compare with that of a reformist "satellite sheikh" like Egypt's Amr Khaled, or, for that matter, a figure like Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Qatar-based theologian who justifies suicide attacks on Israel and whose programme on Al Jazeera reaches tens of millions of people.
It seems irrational to fear, as Berman does, that a lukewarm profile in the Times Magazine, a favourable mention or two in The New York Review of Books, and a teaching job at Oxford would help Ramadan "break into . . . the American conversation," not to mention force a "reactionary turn" in the country's intellectual life. Sooner or later, just about every writer of non-Western background finds himself taken to be a representative of, or spokesperson for, his community, nation, race, or religion. Ramadan, who has solemnly, even pompously, embraced this role, seems no more than one of the many academics struggling to fulfill the West's post-9/11 demand for 'moderate' Islam. Berman clearly wants him to prove his credentials by unconditionally repudiating various Islamist grandees. Ramadan is evidently fearful of losing credibility in the very community of conservative Muslims that he wishes to reconcile with the West. But Berman reads volumes into Ramadan's silences and pursues him with inquisitorial zeal. He suggests that Ramadan supports the Taliban, even while admitting that Ramadan never mentions the Taliban. He says that Ramadan not just "admires" but "worships" Qaradawi, although the citations of Ramadan that he produces to illustrate this claim reveal nothing more fervent than the standard lexicon of scholarly attribution: "Yusuf al-Qaradawi aptly notes that. . ."; "For details, see Yusuf al-Qaradawi.. . ." Berman's fulminations against Ramadan—"He is imprisoned in a cage. . .He cannot think for himself. He does not believe in thinking for himself "—cause his usually sprightly prose, finally, to crack. What is he trying to accomplish?
It's possible that, by building Ramadan up as a treacherous enemy of liberal civilisation, Berman hopes to vindicate his own earlier role as a laptop general. After nearly a decade, the Bush Administration's global war on terror, which Berman saw as a crusade for liberal democracy, seems a fiasco. In addition to destroying innumerable lives, it has helped an initially small band of fanatics multiply and mutate (Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Pakistani Taliban) in new locations (Waziristan, Connecticut). Of course, the proliferation of extremists could be taken as further evidence of a worldwide Fascist conspiracy, and this, it seems, may be Berman's larger project. In rummaging through the "hidden corners" of Ramadan's thought, he seems less interested in describing a "new twist. . .in the history of the Western intellectuals" (a melodramatic and unconvincing move) than in finding as many examples of Muslim extremism as possible—the "murk," as he described it in Terror and Liberalism, of people "drunk on the idea of slaughter." This sets him off on a long exploration of the virulent hatred of Jews manifested by Ramadan's grandfather and his Islamist allies.
Certainly, this malignity does still fester in the proclamations of Hamas and Hezbollah; and Berman deftly summarises a revisionist history that emphasises "centuries of Muslim cruelty toward the Jews," challenging the conventional view that European-style anti-Semitism was unknown under the Ottoman Empire. But he misses an opportunity to enrich his genealogy of hate by setting it within the modern history of West Asia and the entire continent. For instance, he makes a passing reference to Rashid Rida, a prominent Islamist thinker at the turn of the 20th century and al-Banna's revered teacher, expressing curiosity about his praise for early Zionist settlers, but doesn't explore the matter further. Although, ultimately, Rida turned against Zionism as Jewish immigration to Palestine surged in the wake of the Balfour Declaration, he had been an outspoken critic of European anti-Semitism during the Dreyfus trial and made early attempts, including an exchange with Chaim Weizmann, regarding an agreement between "the Arabs and their Hebrew cousins." Berman rightly points out that the mufti of Jerusalem showed an obscene eagerness to help extend the Final Solution to the West Asia, and hatred of British colonialists and Zionist settlers certainly provoked Naziphilia among many Arabs of the 1930s and 40s. But it is worth noting that, by 1941, when the mufti sidled up to Hitler and, soon afterward, began to air his anti-Semitic rants on the radio, reactionary pan-Islamists like him had to contend with overlapping groups of liberal Westernisers, Marxists, and secular Arab nationalists; far from being representative of the larger Arab world, the mufti was a fast-diminishing figure even in his own small sphere of influence—forced out of Palestine by the British in 1937 and blamed for a series of political debacles there. Berman himself relates that Arabs comprehensively failed to respond to the mufti's exhortations to kill the Jews.
What you wouldn't guess from Berman's account is how common it was for anti-colonialist leaders to stumble into such unlikely alliances. In the 1920s, Mahatma Gandhi, a devout Hindu and pacifist, vigorously campaigned for the restoration of the caliphate. And in 1941 an old colleague of his, Subhas Chandra Bose, travelled to Berlin and enlisted Indian POWs who later fought in the Waffen SS. The expedient notion that my enemy's enemy is my friend even motivated the Jewish militant leader Avraham Stern to try, in 1940, to enlist Nazi support against the British rulers of Palestine.
Bose, who went on to collaborate with Japanese militarists against the British in the Japanese invasion of India, remains a great nationalist icon, while Winston Churchill, the resolute anti-Fascist so admired in the West, is reviled as a crudely racist imperialist who delayed Indian independence as long as he could and inflicted death on millions with his callous policies during the Great Famine of Bengal, in 1943. These Janus reputations should remind us that what Berman casts as an epic moral struggle between liberalism and Fascism in the West has been experienced and remembered very differently in the East.
In Terror and Liberalism, Berman invoked Woodrow Wilson's liberal internationalist intervention in the First World War, rebuking weak-kneed liberals unwilling to join what he saw as a new American crusade for liberal democracy beginning in Iraq. Wilson had asserted, "Liberalism is the only thing that can save civilization from chaos," even after he led the United States into the bloodbath that inaugurated the extraordinary violence of the 20th century. Declaring his support for national self-determination, Wilson briefly enjoyed unqualified reverence, from Cairo to Peking. At home, he had his most vociferous supporters among the liberal intelligentsia, then a new force in American life, which believed that America's entry into the war would make not only Prussia and Europe but also the world safe for democracy. But war, which follows its own grim illogic, is rarely subservient to virtuous intentions; and peacemaking can be an even dirtier business. Outwitted by his French and British allies at the postwar peace conference in Paris, Wilson ended up surrendering his immense moral prestige among colonised peoples to European imperialists. By 1919, the presumed beneficiaries of liberal internationalism—India, China, and West Asia—instead felt betrayed. As the Harvard historian Erez Manela explains in a recent book, The Wilsonian Moment, to many leaders and thinkers of the colonised world who had viewed Wilson as their saviour, Western liberalism now appeared synonymous with imperialism.
In light of these alternative histories, The Flight of the Intellectuals seems to be labouring merely to underline the obvious: that a Muslim with a political subjectivity shaped by decades of imperial conquest, humiliation, and postcolonial failure does not share the world view of a liberal from Brooklyn. Yet there has long been such a chasm between Western intellectuals and their counterparts in formerly subordinate countries, an incompatibility of historical memories. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the war on terror have hardened prejudice and suspicion on all sides; now more than ever it is necessary for Western intellectuals to find real interlocutors among Muslim thinkers and activists. Tariq Ramadan may not be ideal, but the impulse to engage with him seems to exemplify the best kind of liberalism—un-self-righteous and aware of its own inadequacies.
Certainly, Berman's hopes for delivering reason and freedom at gunpoint have proved calamitous. Lamenting many similar flights of the intellectuals in the long 20th century—their noisy ideological identifications and terrible political choices—the late Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski once pointed out that, however much intellectuals yearn to be both "prophets and heralds of reason," those roles cannot be reconciled. "The common human qualities of vanity and greed for power" are particularly dangerous among intellectuals, he observed, and their longing to identify with political causes often results in "an almost unbelievable loss of critical reasoning."
This was never a risk for Kolakowski's model thinker-activist, Erasmus of Rotterdam, a "peace-loving incendiary," who was at once engaged in the major conflicts of his day and "withdrawn and careful, unwilling to go to extremes"—the great promoter of religious reform who declined to join the Reformation. Those wishing to stage worldwide revolution and force open Muslim and Western minds may not see the appeal of Erasmus's 16th-century decorum. But, in these volatile times, intellectuals would do well to reacquaint themselves with what Kolakowski described as the "history of many deceitful hopes"—the crimes of ideological passion in which even liberals have been complicit.