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On May 1st at Fort Hood in central Texas, Specialist Victor Agosto wrote on a counselling statement, which is actually a punitive US Army memo: "There is no way I will deploy to Afghanistan. The occupation is immoral and unjust. It does not make the American people any safer. It has the opposite effect."
Ten days later, he refused to obey a direct order from his company commander to prepare to deploy and was issued a second counselling statement. On that one he wrote, "I will not obey any orders I deem to be immoral or illegal." Shortly thereafter, he told a reporter, "I'm not willing to participate in this occupation, knowing it is completely wrong. It's a matter of what I'm willing to live with."
Agosto had already served in Iraq for 13 months with the 57th Expeditionary Signal Battalion. Currently on active duty at Fort Hood, he admits, "It was in Iraq that I turned against the occupations. I started to feel very guilty. I watched contractors making obscene amounts of money. I found no evidence that the occupation was in any way helping the people of Iraq. I know I contributed to death and human suffering. It's hard to quantify how much I caused, but I know I contributed to it."
Even though he was approaching the end of his military service, Agosto was ordered to deploy to Afghanistan under the stop-loss program that the Department of Defense uses to retain soldiers beyond the term of their contracts. At least 185,000 troops have been stop-lossed since September 11, 2001.
Agosto betrays no ambivalence about his willingness to face the consequences of his actions: "Yes, I'm fully prepared for this. I have concluded that the wars [in Iraq and Afghanistan] are not going to be ended by politicians or people at the top. They're not responsive to people, they're responsive to corporate America. The only way to make them responsive to the needs of the people is for soldiers to not fight their wars. If soldiers won't fight their wars, the wars won't happen. I hope I'm setting an example for other soldiers."
Today, Agosto's remains a relatively isolated act in an all-volunteer military built to avoid the dissent that, in the Vietnam era, came to be associated with an army of draftees. However, it's an example that may, soon enough, have far greater meaning for an increasingly overstretched military plunging into an expanding Afghan War seemingly without end, even as its war in Iraq continues.
Avoiding Battle
Writing on his blog from Baquba, Iraq, in September 2004, Specialist Jeff Englehart commented: "Three soldiers in our unit have been hurt in the last four days and the true amount of army-wide casualties leaving Iraq are unknown. The figures are much higher than what is reported. We get awards and medals that are supposed to make us feel proud about our wicked assignment..."
Over the years, in response to such feelings, some American soldiers have come up with ingenious ways to express defiance or dissent on our distant battlegrounds. These have been little noted in the mainstream media, and when they do surface, officials in the Pentagon or in Washington just brush them aside as "bad apple" incidents (the same explanation they tend to use when a war crime is exposed).
But in the stories of men and women who served in the occupation of Iraq, they often play a different role. In October 2007, for instance, I interviewed Corporal Phil Aliff, an Iraq War veteran, then based at Fort Drum in upstate New York. He recalled:
"During my stints in Iraq between August 2005 and July 2006, we probably ran 300 patrols. Most of the men in my platoon were just in from combat tours in Afghanistan and morale was incredibly low. Recurring hits by roadside bombs had demoralized us and we realized the only way we could avoid being blown up was to stop driving around all the time. So every other day we would find an open field and park, and call our base every hour to tell them we were searching for weapon caches in the fields and everything was going fine. All our enlisted people had grown disenchanted with the chain of command."
Aliff referred to this tactic as engaging in "search and avoid" missions, a sardonic expression recycled from the Vietnam War when soldiers were sent out on official "search and destroy" missions.
Sergeant Eli Wright, who served as a medic with the 1st Infantry Division in Ramadi from September 2003 through September 2004, had a similar story to tell me. "Oh yeah, we did search and avoid missions all the time. It was common for us to go set camp atop a bridge and use it as an over-watch position. We would use our binoculars to observe rather than sweep, but call in radio checks every hour to report on our sweeps."
According to Private First Class Clifton Hicks, who served in Iraq with the First Cavalry from October 2003, only six months after Baghdad was occupied by American troops, until July 2004, search and avoid missions began early and always had the backing of a senior non-commissioned officer or a staff sergeant. "Our platoon sergeant was with us and he knew our patrols were bullshit, just riding around to get blown up," he explained. "We were at Camp Victory at Baghdad International Airport. A lot of the time we'd leave the main gate and come right back in another gate to the base where there's a big PX with a nice mess hall and a Burger King. We'd leave one guy at the Humvee to call in every hour, while the others stayed at the PX. We were just sick and tired of going out on these stupid patrols."
These understated acts of refusal were often survival strategies as well as gestures of dissent, as the troops were invariably undertrained and ill-equipped for the job of putting down an insurgency. Specialist Nathan Lewis, who was deployed to Iraq with the 214th Artillery Brigade from March 2002 through June 2003, experienced this firsthand. "We never received any training for much of what we were expected to do," he said when telling me of certain munitions catching fire while he and other soldiers were loading them onto trucks, "We were never trained on how to handle [them] the right way."
Sergeant Geoff Millard of the New York Army National Guard served at a Rear Operations Center with the 42nd Infantry Division from October 2004 through October 2005. Part of his duty entailed reporting "significant actions," or SIGACTS - that is, attacks on US forces. In an interview in 2007 he told me, "When I was there at least five companies never reported SIGACTS. I think 'search and avoids' have been going on for a long time. One of my buddies in Baghdad emails that nearly each day they pull into a parking lot, drink soda, and shoot at the cans." Millard told me of soldiers he still knows in Iraq who were still performing "search and avoid" missions in December 2008. Several other friends deploying or redeploying to Iraq soon assured him that they, too, planned to operate in search and avoid mode.
Corporal Bryan Casler was first deployed to Iraq with the Marines in 2003, at the time of the invasion. Posted to Afghanistan in 2004, he returned to Iraq for another tour of duty in 2005. He tells of other low-level versions of the tactic of avoidance: "There were times we would go to fix a radio that had been down for hours. It was purposeful so we did not have to deal with the bullshit from higher [ups]. In reality, we would go so we could just chill out, let the rest of the squad catch up on some rest as one stood guard. It's mutual and people start covering for each other. Everyone knows what the hell's going on."
Staff Sergeant Ronn Cantu, an infantryman who was deployed to Iraq from March 2004 to February 2005, and again from December 2006 to January 2008, said of some of the patrols he observed while there: "[They] wouldn't go up and down the streets like they were supposed to. They would just go to a friendly compound with the Iraqi police or the Kurdish Peshmerga [militia] and stay at their compound and drink tea until it was time to go back to the base."
As a Stryker armoured combat vehicle commander in Iraq from September 2004 to September 2005, Sergeant Seth Manzel had figured out a way to fabricate on screen the movement of their patrol and so could run computerized versions of a search and avoid mission. As he explained:
"Sometimes if they called us up to go and do something, we would swiftly send computer reports that we were headed in that direction. On the map we would manually place our icon to the target location and then move it back and forth to make it appear as though we were actually on the ground and patrolling. This was not an isolated case. Everyone did it. Everyone would go and hide somewhere from time to time."
Former Sergeant Josh Simpson, who served as a counter-intelligence agent in Iraq from October 2004 to October 2005, said he witnessed instances of faked movement. "I knew soldiers who learned to simulate vehicular movement on the computer screen, to create the impression of being on patrol," said Simpson. "There's no doubt that people did it."
Saying "No" One at a Time
"There was nothing to be done," Corporal Casler says of his time in Iraq, "no progress to be made there. Dissent starts as simple as saying this is bullshit. Why am I risking my life?"
Sometimes such feelings have permeated entire units and soldiers in them have refused to follow orders en masse. One of the more dramatic of these incidents occurred in July 2007. The 2nd Platoon of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, in Baghdad had lost many men in its 11 months of deployment. After a roadside bomb killed five more, its members held a meeting and agreed that it was no longer possible for them to function professionally. Concerned that their anger might actually touch off a massacre of Iraqi civilians, they staged a quiet revolt against their commanders instead.
Kelly Kennedy, a reporter with the Military Times embedded with Charlie Company prior to the revolt, described the shape the platoon members were in by that time: "[T]hey went right to mental health and they got sleeping medications, and they basically couldn't sleep and reacted poorly. And then, they were supposed to go out on patrol again that day. And they, as a platoon, the whole platoon - it was about 40 people - said, 'We're not going to do it. We can't. We're not mentally there right now.'"
In response, the military broke up the platoon. Each individual involved was also "flagged" so he would not get a promotion or receive any award due.
To this day, troops in Iraq continue to be plagued by equipment and manpower shortages, and work long hours in an extreme climate. In addition, their stress levels are regularly raised by news from home of veterans returning to separations and divorces, and of a Veteran's Administration often ill-equipped and unwilling to provide appropriate physical and psychological care to veterans.
While no broad poll of troops has been conducted recently, a Zogby poll in February 2006 found that 72% of soldiers in Iraq felt the occupation should be ended within a year. My interviews with those recently back from Iraq indicate that levels of despair and disappointment are once again on the rise among troops who are beginning to realize, months after the Obama administration was ushered in, that hopes of an early withdrawal have evaporated.
With the Afghan War heating up and the Iraq War still far from over, even if fighting there is at far lower levels than at its sectarian heights in 2006 and 2007, with stress and strain on the military still on the rise, dissent and resistance are unlikely to abate. In addition to small numbers of outright public refusals to deploy or redeploy, troops are going absent without official leave (AWOL) between deployments, and actual desertions may once again be on the rise.
Certainly, there's one strong indication that despair is indeed growing: the unprecedented numbers of soldiers who are committing suicide; the Army's official suicide count rose to 133 in 2008, up from 115 in 2007, itself a record since the Pentagon began keeping suicide statistics in 1980. At least 82 confirmed or suspected suicides have been reported thus far in 2009, a pace that indicates another grim record will be set; and suicide, though seldom thought of in that context, is also a form of refusal, an extreme, individual way of saying no, or simply no more.
According to Sergeant Simpson, here's how a feeling of discontent and opposition creeps up on you while you're on duty: The part of the war you're involved in, interrogating Iraqis in his case, "doesn't make any sense. You realize that the whole system is flawed and if that is flawed, then obviously the whole war is flawed. If the basic premise of the war is flawed, definitely the intelligence system that is supposed to lead us to victory is flawed. What that implies is that victory is not even a possibility."
After finishing his tour in Iraq, Simpson joined the Reserves because he believed it would grant him a two-year deferment from being called up, but he was called up anyway. In his own case, he says, "I thought to myself, I can't do this anymore. First of all, it's bad for me mentally because I'm doing something I loathe. Second, I'm participating in an organization that I wish to resist in every way I can.
"So," he says, "I just stopped showing up for drill, didn't call my unit, didn't give them any reason for it. I changed my telephone number and they did not have my address." Eventually, he reached the end date of his contract and managed to graduate from Evergreen State University in Washington. "I don't know if technically I'm still in the reserves," he told me. "I don't know what my situation is, but I don't really care either. If I go to jail, I go to jail. I'd rather go to jail than go to Iraq."
Unready and Unwilling Reserves
Sergeant Travis Bishop, who served 14 months in Baghdad with the 57th Expeditionary Signal Battalion – the same battalion as Agosto, who served north of the Iraqi capital - recently went AWOL from his station at Fort Hood, Texas, when his unit deployed to Afghanistan. He insists that it would be unethical for him to deploy to support an occupation he opposes on moral grounds.
On his blog, he puts his position this way: "I love my country, but I believe that this particular war is unjust, unconstitutional and a total abuse of our nation's power and influence. And so, in the next few days, I will be speaking with my lawyer, and taking actions that will more than likely result in my discharge from the military, and possible jail time... and I am prepared to live with that.... My father said, 'Do only what you can live with, because every morning you have to look at your face in the mirror when you shave. Ten years from now, you'll still be shaving the same face.' If I had deployed to Afghanistan, I don't think I would have been able to look into another mirror again."
I spoke with him briefly after he turned himself in at his base in early June. He said he'd chosen to follow Specialist Agosto's example of refusal, which had inspired him, and wanted to be present at his post to accept the consequences of his actions. He, too, hoped others might follow his lead. (He and Agosto, now in similar situations, have become friends.)
Agosto, whose hope has been to set an example of resistance for other soldiers, sees Bishop's refusal to deploy to Afghanistan as a personal success and says, "I already feel vindicated for what I'm doing by his actions. It's nice to see some immediate results."
His actions, he's convinced, have affected the way his fellow soldiers are now looking at the war in Afghanistan. "The topic has come up a lot in conversation, with soldiers on base now asking, 'What are we doing in Afghanistan? Why are we there?' People feel compelled to bring this up when I'm around. Even the ones that disagree with me say it's great what I'm doing, and that I'm doing what a lot of them don't have the courage to do. If anything, the people I work with have now been treating me better than ever."
On May 27th, rejecting an Article 15 - a non-judicial punishment imposed by a commanding officer who believes a member of his command has committed an offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice - Agosto demanded to be court-martialed.
According to Agosto, the Army has now begun the court martial process, but has not yet set a trial date. Bishop, too, awaits a possible court martial.
On June 1st, a day when four US soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, Agosto told me in a phone call from Fort Hood, "I haven't had to disobey any orders lately. A sergeant asked me if it'd be okay if I had to follow orders, and I said no, and they didn't force it."
Agosto and Bishop are hardly alone. In November 2007, the Pentagon revealed that between 2003 and 2007 there had been an 80% increase in overall desertion rates in the Army (desertion refers to soldiers who go AWOL and never intend to return to service), and Army AWOL rates from 2003 to 2006 were the highest since 1980. Between 2000 and 2006, more than 40,000 troops from all branches of the military deserted, more than half from the Army. Army desertion rates jumped by 42% from 2006 to 2007 alone.
US Army Specialist André Shepherd joined the Army on January 27, 2004. He was trained in Apache helicopter repair and sent first to Germany, then was stationed in Iraq from November 2004 to February 2005, before being based again in Germany. Shepherd went AWOL in southern Germany in April 2007 and lived underground until applying for asylum there in November 2008, making him the first Iraq veteran to apply for refugee status in Europe.
He, too, has refused further military service because he feels morally opposed to the occupation of Iraq. While he awaits word from the German government and is still technically AWOL, Shepherd is being supported by Courage to Resist, a group based in Oakland, California, which actively assists soldiers who refuse to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan.
A counsellor and administrative associate at that organization, Adam Szyper-Seibert, points out that "in recent months there has been a dramatic rise of nearly 200% in the number of soldiers that have contacted Courage to Resist." Szyper-Seibert suspects this may reflect the decision of the Obama administration to dramatically increase efforts, troop strength, and resources in Afghanistan. "We are actively supporting over 50 military resisters like Victor Agosto," Szyper-Seibert says. "They are all over the world, including André Shepherd in Germany and several people in Canada. We are getting five or six calls a week just about the IRR [Individual Ready Reserve] recall alone."
The IRR is composed of troops who have finished their active duty service but still have time remaining on their contracts. The typical military contract mandates four years of active duty followed by four years in the IRR, though variations on this pattern exist. Ready Reserve members live civilian lives and are not paid by the military, but they are required to show up for periodic musters. Many have moved on from military life and are enrolled in college, working civilian jobs, and building families.
At any point, however, a member of the Ready Reserve can be recalled to active duty. This policy has led to the involuntary reactivation of tens of thousands of troops to fight the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lieutenant General Jack C. Stultz, the Chief of the US Army Reserve and Commanding General of the US Army Reserve Command, told Congress on March 3rd that, since September 11, 2001, the Army has mobilized about 28,000 from the Reserves. There have been 3,724 Marines involuntarily recalled and mobilized during that same period, according to Major Steven O'Connor, a Marine Corps spokesman. (According to Major O'Connor, as of May 2009, the Marines are no longer recalling individuals from the IRR.)
Ironically, under a new commander-in-chief whom many voters believed to be anti-war, the Army is continuing its Individual Ready Reserve recalls. "The IRR recall has not seen any change since Obama became president," Sarah Lazare, the project coordinator for Courage to Resist, says. "It's difficult to predict what the Obama administration's policy will be in the future regarding the IRR, but definitely they haven't made any moves to stop this practice."
Needing boots on the ground, according to Lazare, the military continues to fall back on the Ready Reserve system to fill the gaps: "Since these are experienced troops, many of them have already served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan." Lazare adds, "When Obama announced his Afghanistan surge, we got a huge wave of calls from soldiers saying they didn't want to be reactivated and to please help them not go."
The Future of Military Dissent
Right now, acts of dissent, refusal, and resistance in the all-volunteer military remain small-scale and scattered. Ranging from the extreme private act of suicide to avoidance of duty to actual refusal of duty, they continue to consist largely of individual acts. Present-day G.I. resistance to the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan cannot begin to be compared with the extensive resistance movement that helped end the Vietnam War and brought an army of draftees to the point of near mutiny in the late 1960s. Nevertheless, the ongoing dissent that does exist in the US military, however fragmented and overlooked at the moment, should not be discounted.
The Iraq War boils on at still dangerous levels of violence, while the war in Afghanistan (and across the border in Pakistan) only grows, as does the US commitment to both. It's already clear that even an all-volunteer military isn't immune to dissent. If violence in either or both occupations escalates, if the Pentagon struggles to add more boots on the ground, if the stresses and strains on the military, involving endless redeployments to combat zones, increase rather than lessen, then the acts of Agosto, Bishop, and Shepherd may turn out to be path-breaking ones in a world of dissent yet to be experienced and explored.
Add in dissatisfaction and discontent at home if, in the coming years, American treasure continues to be poured into an Afghan quagmire, and real support for a G.I. resistance movement may surface. If so, then the early pioneers in methods of dissent within the military will have laid the groundwork for a movement.
"If we want soldiers to choose the right but difficult path, they must know beyond any shadow of a doubt that they will be supported by Americans." So said First Lieutenant Ehren Watada of the US Army, the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse a combat deployment to Iraq. (He finally had the military charges against him dropped by the Justice Department.) The future of any such movement in the military is now unknowable, but keep your eyes open. History, even military history, holds its own surprises.
Dahr Jamail, a TomDispatch regular, has reported from Iraq and writes for Inter Press Service, Le Monde Diplomatique, and other outlets. He is the author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq and the forthcoming book The Will To Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan Copyright 2009 Dahr Jamail; courtesy TomDispatch.com [Research support for this article was provided by the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute]
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GWEN Certified Systemic Business Coach
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Color That Note | Note Name Worksheet - Bass Clef/Middle C Position
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Grab your crayons and color your way to success! Complete this music theory worksheet by first choosing 5 crayons. Color each of the first 5 whole notes with a different color. Then complete this worksheet by naming each note correctly, and by coloring each note the same color as it was colored at the top of the worksheet.


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You all know I don't do many product reviews. Most companies are probably too scared to contact me because they know how
Well the brave people at Pawalla wrote to me recently about trying out one of their cool Pawalla Boxes. Their email was a window whiff of fresh air. They called me by name and talked about my blog...they took the time to get to know me.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last month was the hottest June on record in the United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"Exceptional heat waves from coast to coast helped push June 2021 to the No. 1 spot on the list of hottest Junes on record for the U.S.," wrote the NOAA in a statement.
The NOAA says the average June temperature across the lower 48 states was 72.6 degrees F, 4.2 degrees above average. That makes it the hottest June in 127 years of record-keeping and it surpasses the record set in June 2016 by 0.9 of a degree.
Officials say eight states — Arizona, California, Idaho, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Utah — also saw their hottest June on record.
Six other states — Connecticut, Maine, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming — marked their 2nd hottest June, according to the NOAA.
It was also quite a wet month for the U.S. The average June precipitation across the country was 2.93 inches, matching the historical average for the month.
But some states saw extremes in rainfall, with either too much or too little. The NOAA says South Dakota saw its driest June on record and Mississippi had its second wettest. And many parts of the West Coast are experiencing a drought as wildfire season looms.


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CCNU Scholarship(2012)2012-6-6 14:36:00 From: Central China Normal University
Central China Normal University (CCNU) was founded in 1903. It is a comprehensive and prestigious university on the list of the "National 211 Priority Project". Located in Wuhan, a major hub of transportation, it has a campus on Guizi Mountain, a hill bordering the East Lake and the South Lake. Now, CCNU comprises 24 schools and departments, more than 60 research institutes (centers) , and offers 59 bachelor's programs, 94 doctoral programs and 184 master's programs. At present the university has a student body of over 30,000, of whom 8000 are postgraduates; more than 1600 are international students. Central China Normal University commenced to accept international students who were among the first group of overseas students enrolled by Chinese universities. It has been appointed by National Government to accept international students with Government Scholarship. Meanwhile, it is one of the earliest state-level "Chinese Language Teaching Bases", which was ratified by the State Council. CCNU has set up exchangeable relations and carried out widely academic interchange and scientific research cooperation with more than 100 universities, which belong to over 70 countries, such as America, German, Japan, Russia, France, New Zeeland, Australia, Korea, Vietnam and so on. The university has begun to enroll overseas students in 1965. At present, we have 1600 overseas students from more than 100 countries for long-term study or for pursuing degrees. We warmly welcome students all over the world to join our international family! Total:1 Page: 1


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2013 Tour de France Route Announced in Paris
Fighter jets streaming red, white and blue smoke will fly above the riders on June 29 as they start the 2013 Tour de France on the island of Corsica, being visited by the race for the first time in its history. The 2,088-mile race ends three weeks later at night against the backdrop of a floodlit Arc de Triomphe in the City of Lights.
The presentation of the 2013 Tour de France route for the storied race was clouded by concerns about doping after Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles following a U.S. doping probe. Cycling teams called Wednesday for an independent audit into the sport's fight against doping.
In the 2013 race, climbers may be favored with a more mountainous route than in recent editions, including 28 high mountain passes. On July 18, riders will climb the famous Alpe-d'Huez and its 21 steep switchbacks twice in the same stage, only four days after ascending the feared Mont Ventoux.
Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said the 2013 Tour de France would be the first in 10 years to take place entirely within French borders. As racers whiz past world-famous sites such as the Mont Saint-Michel monastery and the palace of Versailles, the message sent to the Tour's vast audience will be "Thanks for coming to France. We French might not be fantastic, but our country is magnifique!" Prudhomme joked.
Organizers made a decision to shorten the combined length of the race's two individual time trials in part as a response to the domination in this year's Tour de France by champion Bradley Wiggins.
The 40 miles of time trials split evenly between the 11th and 17th stages is almost 25 miles less than in the 2012 Tour, which could play into Olympic time trial champion Wiggins' decision of whether to defend his Tour title or focus instead on another of cycling's Grand Tours, the Giro d'Italia and the Spanish Vuelta.
The first individual time trial on July 10 finishes against the backdrop of the Mont Saint-Michel monastery.
Organizers have given sprinters like Mark Cavendish a gift — the June 29 stage finish in Bastia is the first time since 1966 that a sprinter can hope to wear the yellow jersey after the first stage, Prudhomme explained.
The traditional Bastille Day stage on July 14 is the race's longest at 150 miles, ending with the 13-mile ascent of Mont Ventoux, one of cycling's most mythic climbs.
In another first for the race, which has only stopped for the two world wars since the first Tour in 1903, riders will begin the final stage on July 21 inside the grounds of the Versailles Palace. With the sprawling 17th-century chateau as a backdrop to the race start, "It's going to be a knockout," Prudhomme said.
The last stage will start later in the day than traditionally and timed for a finish at about 9 p.m., while there is still enough light to ensure riders' safety, Prudhomme said.
"We wanted the finish of the 100th Tour de France to be unique," Prudhomme explained.
So the final stage of the 2013 Tour de France will take place at dusk in Paris - the city of lights. In another change to tradition, the eight laps of the Champs Elysees will send riders all the way around the giant Arc de Triomphe arch at the top of the grand avenue, rather than just passing in front of it as in past years.


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Bharath Kumar was furious that the lights went out an hour early. His candy-making operation in the village of Tamkuha, in northern India, had been plunged into darkness at mid-batch, forcing him to use a weak, battery-powered lantern to manage his boiling pots.
"If I knew that the power would be shut off an hour earlier, I would not have mixed the sugar in the flour," he fumed. "This is not the first time. I will keep a record of when the power is switched off every night and show this when they come for collections."
People everywhere complain about the power company, but Kumar's power company has an unusual challenge. Husk Power provides light bulbs and a small amount of electricity to about 200,000 people in 300 tiny farming villages across the state of Bihar that have never been touched by the electric grid Each village has a generator powered by burning and gasifying rice husks, a byproduct of farming that is otherwise wasted.
The six-year-old company is one of numerous startups that are trying to build carbon-free or low-emissions "microgrids" to light up rural villages across India. The need is enormous. Roughly 300 million Indians living in 80 million households — about a quarter of the country's population of 1.2 billion — do not have access to electricity. According to the World Bank, per capita electricity consumption in India, centered mainly in cities and towns, is 684 kilowatt hours — just 1/20th of the United States' per capita consumption of 13,246 kilowatt hours. Nearly all microgrids in India are powered by solar photovoltaic panels, with the exception of 20 to 30 networks that run on hydropower in the states of Karnataka and Uttarakhand and the biomass-powered grids operated by Husk. To date, microgrids provide just a tiny fraction of India's overall power needs. Although no comprehensive statistics exist on the number of microgrids, a conservative count shows that they serve at least 125,000 households in India, divided mostly between large, government-sponsored projects in the North Indian states of Chhattisgarh and West Bengal and private ventures centered on Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are among the most rural and least electrified states in India — a countryside packed with tens of millions of people, united by darkness.
India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, through its National Solar Mission, has set the highly ambitious goal of replacing kerosene lamps with 20 million solar lighting systems — powered by microgrids, solar panels on individual homes, or solar lanterns — by 2022. The microgrid sector is dominated by smaller enterprises like the four I visited in India: Mera Gao Power, Naturetech Infrastructure, Minda NexGenTech, and Husk. Most microgrid entrepreneurs hope their trajectory will follow that of the mobile-phone industry, which starting in the late 1990s transformed life in the countryside by bypassing land lines and enabling villagers to communicate with the outside world. The goal with microgrids is to bypass altogether India's inadequate power system and troubled grid.
"We argue that that villages and remote hamlets that are off the main grid can leapfrog into sustainable power access via solar PV (photovoltaic) mini-grids as a long-term solution rather than as a stop-gap 'till the time the grid comes,'" says a report on solar microgrids written by the Observers Research Foundation of Mumbai. "An Energy Revolution akin to the Green Revolution in Agriculture in the [19]'70s needs to be brought about."
Microgrid companies like Mera Gao Power offer a modest and rapidly installed infrastructure, serving as few as 20 customers from a small set of solar panels that often produce only a few kilowatts. One day in a village in Uttar Pradesh I saw how easy it is to install a microgrid. A team of four workers from Mera Gao strung lights to about 40 households. They attached the cables along house eaves and through the trees. (In other towns, installers use the abandoned poles of failed government power projects.) With the addition of two solar panels and a bank of lead-acid batteries, the system was good to go. Mera Gao's customers pay about 100 rupees — $1.60 — and receive enough electricity to power two LED lights and a mobile phone charger for seven hours a night. Husk can supply about 400 households from one of its rice husk gasifiers. Two stories tall and painted green, the gasifiers are usually situated near the center of town, next to a giant pile of rice husks and surrounded by a rickety fence. Also for 100 rupees, a Husk user gets two CFL light bulbs and a cellphone charger, along with a power cable that supplies electricity for five hours a night.
The potential market for microgrids is huge, and the prospect of so many customers has made microgrids primarily a private-sector and profit-motivated enterprise. The leaders include small startups hoping to do social good, a multinational solar power company, and veterans of the cellphone industry. A report by the World Resources Institute and the Center for Development Finance estimates that the market for microgrids in India and other clean energy consumer products could reach $2.1 billion annually.
These startups' prospects might be extinguished in a moment if regular power lines marched into the villages. But the electrical grid in India is already overtaxed; an estimated 25 percent of India's power generation capacity is underutilized because of fuel shortages and other problems. The main supplier of power in India — the coal industry — also is hobbled by deep structural problems and the growing reluctance of international funders to build new coal plants.
By illuminating an entire village at once, a microgrid can spread light more quickly than handouts of solar-powered lanterns. It can also scale up far faster than traditional power lines, which are often promised in India but seldom delivered. By deriving their power from biomass or solar panels, microgrids raise the possibility that large regions could stay off the coal-fired power grid forever, shaving a significant chunk off the world's future carbon budget. Whoever finds the business model for providing cheap, reliable, local power will help pull 300 million Indians from the 19th century into the 21st century, with vastly expanded opportunities for education and commerce.
Debajit Palit runs the rural lighting program for The Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi, a nonprofit that has provided thousands of solar lanterns to some villages and built microgrids for about 160 others. He sees the microgrid occupying a unique niche in India's power system. In general, electrical service from a solar-powered microgrid costs the equivalent of 50 cents per week, or four to five times more expensive than grid electricity, which is heavily subsidized. On the other hand, it is far cheaper than a solar lantern, which might cost a villager more than $30 to buy — and then might break. Palit projects that the microgrid and the regular power grid might one day converge on the same village and compliment each other, making the village's power supply cleaner and more robust.
As I saw during a recent tour of a dozen villages, however, building a thousand grids of light won't be easy.
Until Husk arrived five years ago, Kumar and his fellow villagers had never seen a power company. Their lighting options were kerosene lanterns, which produce feeble light and pollute a home's air, or diesel-fired generators, which are expensive and getting pricier to run as the government pulls back on fuel subsidies. Charging a cellphone often required taking a trip to a bigger village.
Microgrid installation may be easy, but that is often where the simplicity ends. Some high-caste farmers demand that lines be rerouted because they can't bear to have electricity flowing from the house of the low-caste cobbler next door. Some Hindu neighborhoods don't want to be on the same grid as Muslims. One resident who breaks the rules and takes too much power, for a ceiling fan or television, can make the whole grid crash.
Then there is the raw frontier of renewable energy. The North Indian winter can offer a month of nonstop gray skies, which is a problem for solar systems that need three hours of sunlight to store enough energy for the night. Husk Power's demand for rice husks — once not even useful for cow fodder — has started to drive up the price, forcing the company to hunt for corncobs or river grasses that have even less market value.
But the biggest difficulty by far is getting paid. India's farmers have irregular incomes and aren't used to monthly bills. In tiny hamlets, forgiving one person's debt means that next month no one will pay.
This has forced microgrid entrepreneurs, many of whom got in the business for social good, into uncomfortable new roles as debt collectors. In response they have sought out new models that assure payment, from installing meters that dole out electricity in chunks like a prepaid cellphone, or hiring local franchisees who can use their stature to bring deadbeats into line.
Finally, there is the fact that some rural Indians, like Kumar the candymaker, are not necessarily impressed by the deal they get. "It is good, but the power is shut down at 10 p.m.," said a doctor named Mustakim in the Uttar Pradesh town of Attadhani. "The patient's illness does not know this time. I need something that gives me light when I need it."
However, many of these new electricity customers told me their lives had turned immediately for the better. In Attadhani, one shopkeeper told me sales were up at his kiosk because customers could actually see his merchandise. Meanwhile, the wares at a competitor's stall a hundred yards away were barely discernible in the dim glow of a kerosene lantern.
A teacher and village doctor in Purva Ghat, a tiny township in Uttar Pradesh, said his patients complain less of coughs now that they're not burning kerosene, and that the children get more homework done because the parents aren't worried about lantern fuel running out. And in the village of Muglinkuha, I was led into a dark room where women knelt over a purple sari glowing under the beam of LEDs. The women were gluing jewels onto the fabric's printed pattern, work they previously couldn't do at night because the lanterns were too dim.
For now the microgrids have their circuits full providing only a few watts for light bulbs and cellphone charging. But, just like their cousins in the cities, rural customers will inevitably want more electricity to power refrigerators, fans, TVs, and other energy-draining appliances. It remains to be seen if solar- and biomass-powered microgrids will eventually become robust enough to give it to them.
"They want light, they want fans, they want TVs," said Padu S. Padmanaban, an energy adviser with the U.S. Agency for International Development in New Delhi and program director of the South Asia Regional Energy Initiative. "They want a [light] switch."


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Bass — a twin stroke turbo of skidding past your ears and shuffling your vital organs. Booty-hunting ragga — brought in to hype the party until the cops shut it down. And dusty dub — sent bouncing into a saw-toothed spotlight. Even if you think it's a 19-track statement featuring a lot of familiar sounds, faces and samples — as big a rush as Bring the Ruckus provides, there's no denying some same old stories — it seems to be filling a nice gap between EDM and bro-step through its big dipper of BPMs. See The Autobots & Dead Audio joining forces to get hands raised, and MadRush's "Get Ya Vs Up" creating an elbow-skinning sea of two-fingered salutes.
Hectic yet schooling some of dubstep's in-yer-face projectiles when the likes of RadioKillaz add the rave string to the bow, breaks shouldn't start marketing itself as some intermediary third wheel. EDM's sap and smiley simplistics aren't up for discussion either. Rennie Pilgrem's fireball "One By One" heads a pack constantly breaking the back of wack parties and revelling as the energy drink-mainlining renegade, with 601's "Strobelight" looking for the nearest china shop to clatter into. Aquasky remind everyone of breaks' energy levels that are never found dropping to show it won't get left behind in the bass trends race. That title repels what others throw at it, creating some fearsome bottom end monsters as retaliation.
File under: Far Too Loud, Black & Blunt, Breakfastaz


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Where Can You Get Your Down Payment For Your Home?
Saving the down payment may be unnecessarily keeping would-be buyers from getting into a home. They may be unaware that the funds might be available.The NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers reports that 81% of first-time buyers got all or part of their down payment from savings. Less than 4% said that all or part of the down payment came from a withdrawal in their IRA and 8% from their 401(k) or pension fund. Traditional IRAs have a provision for first-time buyers which include anyone who hasn't owned a home in the previous two years. A person and their spouse, if married, can each withdraw up to $10,000 from their traditional IRA for a first-time home purchase without incurring the 10% early-withdrawal penalty. However, they will have to recognize the withdrawal as income in that tax year. For more information, go to IRS.gov. Allowable withdrawals from traditional IRAs can be from yourself and your spouse; your or your spouse's child; your or your spouse's grandchild or your or your spouse's parent or ancestor.Roth IRA owners can withdraw their contributions tax-free and penalty-free at any age for any reason because the contributions were made with post-tax income. After age 59 ½, earnings may be withdrawn as long as the Roth IRA have been in existence for at least five years.Up to half of the balance of a 401(k) or $50,000, whichever is less, can be borrowed by the owner at any age for any reason without tax or penalty assuming the employer permits it. There can be specific rules for loans from a 401(k) that would determine the repayment; interest is usually charged but goes back into the owner's account. You can consult with your HR department to find out the specifics.A risk in borrowing against a 401(k) comes if your employment ends before the loan has been repaid. The loan may have to be repaid as soon as 60 days to keep the loan from being considered a withdrawal and subject to tax and penalty. Even if you continue with the same employer, failure to repay the loan could be considered a withdrawal also.Your tax professional can provide you specific information on how making a withdrawal from your retirement program might affect you. Additional information can be found on www.IRS.gov.


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Hello my dear crafty friends!
Welcome to my new small tutorial made for Susan K Weckesser's blog.
This time I decided to make something for the planners trend. And as I don't even have a planner, but I do use small notebooks, I made a few stamped clips for my notebooks as dividers.
So here is my tutorial:
1. Stamp Susan's houses with her Clearsnap ColorBox mini Pop ink in Mystery color twice using co-branded with Unity Tumbleweed Houses stamp set.
2. Color the houses with Susan's other Clearsnap inks in Fresh, Ice, Sky and Kiss colors and as there is no Susan's yellow ink I used another Clearsnap ink in yellow. Don't try to make the best ever coloring and don't afraid to be out of the lines as we are going to cut the houses later.
3. Cut all colored houses and make them 3d using 3d foam glue.
Glue the house over plastic office clips with strong paper to plastic glue.
Use them!


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Dia Mundial sem Tabaco
Todos os anos, no dia 31 de maio, a OMS e os seus parceiros em todo o mundo assinalam o Dia Mundial Sem Tabaco, destacando os riscos de saúde associados ao uso do tabaco e defendendo políticas eficazes para reduzir o consumo de tabaco. O tabagismo é a causa mais evitável de morte no mundo e atualmente é responsável por 10% das mortes de adultos em todo o mundo.
World No Tobacco Day - 31 May 2014
Raise taxes on tobacco
The global tobacco epidemic kills nearly 6 million people each year, of which more than 600 000 are non-smokers dying from breathing second-hand smoke. Unless we act, the epidemic will kill more than 8 million people every year by 2030. More than 80% of these preventable deaths will be among people living in low-and middle-income countries.For World No Tobacco Day 2014, WHO and partners call on countries to raise taxes on tobacco.
Reduce tobacco consumption, save lives
Under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), countries should implement tax and price policies on tobacco products as a way to reduce tobacco consumption. Research shows that higher taxes are especially effective in reducing tobacco use among lower-income groups and in preventing young people from starting to smoke. A tax increase that increases tobacco prices by 10% decreases tobacco consumption by about 4% in high-income countries and by up to 8% in most low- and middle-income countries. Furthermore, increasing excise taxes on tobacco is considered to be the most cost-effective tobacco control measure. The World Health Report 2010 indicated that a 50% increase in tobacco excise taxes would generate a little more than US$ 1.4 billion in additional funds in 22 low-income countries. If allocated to health, government health spending in these countries could increase by up to 50%.
The ultimate goal of World No Tobacco Day is to contribute to protecting present and future generations not only from the devastating health consequences due to tobacco, but also from the social, environmental and economic scourges of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke.Specific goals of the 2014 campaign are that:
governments increase taxes on tobacco to levels that reduce tobacco consumption;
individuals and civil society organizations encourage their governments to increase taxes on tobacco to levels that reduce consumption.
Repetições do evento
- Dia Mundial sem Tabaco (30-05-2015)
- Dia Mundial sem Tabaco (30-05-2016)
- Dia Mundial sem Tabaco (30-05-2017)
- Dia Mundial sem Tabaco (30-05-2018)
- Dia Mundial sem Tabaco (30-05-2019)
- Dia Mundial sem Tabaco (30-05-2020)
- Dia Mundial sem Tabaco (30-05-2021)
- Dia Mundial sem Tabaco (30-05-2022)
- Dia Mundial sem Tabaco (30-05-2024)
- Dia Mundial sem Tabaco (30-05-2025)
- Dia Mundial sem Tabaco (30-05-2026)
- Dia Mundial sem Tabaco (30-05-2027)
- Dia Mundial sem Tabaco (30-05-2028)
- Dia Mundial sem Tabaco (30-05-2029)
- Dia Mundial sem Tabaco (30-05-2030)


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We have run out of stock for this item.
Give little builders the tools they need for truly constructive play! This 24-piece set includes wooden nails, screws, nuts, and bolts for hours of creative fun that also helps "build" important motor skills. Preschoolers will love using the hammer, wrench, and screwdriver to build their projects, then packing up all their equipment in the sturdy toolbox with handle.
24-piece wooden toolbox play set for building imaginations
Includes wooden nails, screws, nuts, and bolts
Includes child-size play hammer, wrench, and screwdriver
Sturdy wooden construction
Promotes hand-eye coordination, counting, sorting, color recognition, and problem-solving skills
Ages 3 and up.


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Our practice is open and we are strictly adhering to the current government guidelines to keep our patients, colleagues and clinicians safe. We want to ensure that you have all the information you need to feel comfortable visiting for your appointment. Learn more about the safety protocols we've introduced, and much more, below.
In all applicable practices, we have invested significantly in state-of-the-art air purifiers, providing a safer environment for you, your practice team and all our patients.
We understand that visiting the dentist can often be quite a big event for a child. Now things are different, we wanted to help showcase what a child should expect when they next visit the practice.
Our practitioners care about your oral hygiene routine, so to help you maintain a healthy mouth and smile, we have put together some handy video tips.


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Kano Amare smart wax 2022 Design Ankara/Atampa/Kitenge/kente (wrapper) African Fabric, Designed textile (6yards) – AfricanPrints.com.ng
This kano Amare smart wax 2022 Design Ankara/Atampa/Kitenge/kente (wrapper) African Fabric, Designed textile (6yards) is an African designed styled Fabric, it is of high quality and suitable to be sown for parties/Events (Owambe) and Aso ebi, as they make you look gorgeously beautiful with such designs on them.
2022 latest Design Amare smart wax comes in 6yards and its an original cotton Fabric, can be sown to fit any event and time of the day. If you're looking to purchase authentic African wax print fabric or modern Afrocentric clothing browse collections. We help you source for beautiful fabrics with bold, bright colors and fabulous soft designs. Most premium fabrics come as 6-12 yards prints, so you can avoid fabric wastage by only purchasing what you need.
With a range of 2022 latest Design Amare smart wax African fabric designs from the simple floral to bold statement shapes and even the psychedelic, these wax prints are innovative, bright, beautiful and fun! The generous sizing of these pieces allows you create an entire ensemble, using the vibrant and unique designs to create an individual look.
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At AfricanPrints we ensure that through our experienced sourcers that quality is what you get always and timely delivery.
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Sammy Hagar: Eddie Van Halen's Death Would've Been 'Too Much' If We Didn't End Feud
2020 is a year that has offered quite a lot of perspective and has come with some valuable life lessons. Even before the pandemic began, Sammy Hagar realized the importance of putting differences aside and reached out to Eddie Van Halen to bury the hatchet. Fortunate that he did, the Red Rocker said he likely wouldn't be able to "come to grips" with the guitarist's death if he hadn't.
"I think that the word is pretty much out that Eddie and I buried the hatchet earlier on this year," Hagar told Rock 105.5's Angi Taylor.
"We didn't go around talking about it. He asked me not to talk about it, and I did not talk about it. But now, looking back, if we wouldn't have come to terms with that feud we were having after the reunion tour, I wouldn't have been able to come to grips with it," the singer went on.
While dealing with Van Halen's passing remains difficult, there's a sense of peace that comes with making amends. Without it, "It would have been way too much for me, 'cause I'm still grieving my ass off," said Hagar. "But the grieving is starting to make… It feels like, hey, we had a great thing. This music will live on forever — beyond me. I'll sing it for the rest of my life. When I'm gone, hopefully some young bands come up and play that music. And you can always play it in your homes," the Red Rocker warmly continued.
Of course there are many highly memorable moments between Hagar and Van Halen, but one of the singer's favorite memories happened during that moment they reconnected.
Hagar recollected, "When I called him, after years of not speaking, back in February, I think, or January, whatever it was — before COVID — he said, 'What took you so long?' [Laughs] It put the biggest smile on my face. I said, 'Oh my God. Don't ask me.' That was just very touching to me: 'Hey, I've been waitin'.'"
Eddie Van Halen died on Oct. 6 at age 65 after a lengthy and brave battle with cancer. Just days after his passing, Hagar and former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony moved forward with Hagar's birthday celebration show, which had been in the works for months prior. It was highly emotional for the two to play Van Halen songs so soon after Eddie's death, which they reflected on in a post-show recap video.
Rockers We've Lost in 2020
Rockers We've Lost in 2020


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- Purchase Here
- >
- Books
- >
- The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen
The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen
Here is real food—our indigenous American fruits and vegetables, the wild and foraged ingredients, game and fish. Locally sourced, seasonal, "clean" ingredients and nose-to-tail cooking are nothing new to Sean Sherman, the Oglala Lakota chef and founder of The Sioux Chef. In his breakout book, The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen, Sherman shares his approach to creating boldly seasoned foods that are vibrant, healthful, at once elegant and easy.
Sherman dispels outdated notions of Native American fare—no fry bread or Indian tacos here—and no European staples such as wheat flour, dairy products, sugar, and domestic pork and beef. The Sioux Chef's healthful plates embrace venison and rabbit, river and lake trout, duck and quail, wild turkey, blueberries, sage, sumac, timpsula or wild turnip, plums, purslane, and abundant wildflowers. Contemporary and authentic, his dishes feature cedar braised bison, griddled wild rice cakes, amaranth crackers with smoked white bean paste, three sisters salad, deviled duck eggs, smoked turkey soup, dried meats, roasted corn sorbet, and hazelnut–maple bites.
The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen is a rich education and a delectable introduction to modern indigenous cuisine of the Dakota and Minnesota territories, with a vision and approach to food that travels well beyond those borders. Hardback. 2017.


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There are a few points I would want to advice:* Start small* Find your core-game mechanic* Iterate over the design by implementing stuff rather than over-think-them* Be prepared to ditch stuff if it isn't workingEven for an extremely advanced Stencyler this project is a huge one. No problem, of course, but you said that you are not having too much time. It will be hard to keep motivated.
Don't lock yourself to a view like side-view, maybe it will not workout. Start with small blocks rather than detailed graphics
* Computer has an AIThis one is indeed very hard.This comes down to the question: is this part of the core-mechanic of your game?If it is, then you need to focus all your attention to it and nail it before you do anything else.
Speaking of AI, questions like "Stencyl can support * AI" are the wrong kind to ask. AI is a broad concept, so the answer is almost always going to be 'yes'. A better question would be "does Stencyl provide the tools I need to implement the theory out of the box?", and the answer largely depends on what kind of AI you're looking at implementing. I found the answer to be "no" for graph-based AI, which is why I wrote the AI Tools extension. I'm playing around with an event-driven system in my side project, and so far I've found Stencyl provides a great environment for it (custom events).For LUNA ("...some sort of AI that can detect which question is closest to what the player has inputted..."), I can imagine a tree-based solution. Organize keywords in a tree and search the tree based on the player input.The best place to start would be to make sure your math background is up to date. If you've never studied graph theory or statistics, find a good primer on both. If you have, then I'd also read about decision trees and Utility AI. Utility AI may be another workable approach for your ideas. Hectate has made some good posts on procedural generation in the forums--those are good reading, too.
* Wire controls to actionsThis one seems to be also very complicated, but I must say it 'sounds' better as a core-game-mechanic.But you. ofcourse, need to find that yourself.I'm not sure how much fun it is to put all the efforts in making your own ship and then to gofind other ships to take over. What happens with 'your' ship?!People kind of feel attached to their own creations so be carefull if that is part of your core-game-mechanic
* Be carefull about statements like 'of course the game wouldn't be fun if it was just ... 'Each little part of a game-idea can be fun. You have to find if that is the unique thing or very well implemented idea.Some people like building things (look at minecraft) and enjoy the building more than the playing inside part.'Need to be enemies' also a very bold statement. Maybe you don't need them if the game is about building.[...]Be very,very careful to say : it is only fun when all of the ideas are in the game.Some people like building things, others like to fight. While others like to find stuff.If you want to find stuff and you need to fight off enemies every minute : you will quitIf you want to fight and you spend every half our to build things that takes you half an hour : you quit* MultiplayerA very, very advanced area. It is doable, but you have to know a lot of network knowledge to understand how to work with lag. Because every online multiplayer game will have lag. Again, if you believe that this is part of your game-core-mechanic and the game would only be fun if it was: then spend the time implementing this.
* Shield mechanicThis, again, comes down to : is it part of the core-game-mechanic. It could be, and it could be fun. Like how the Enterprise can 'defer power from the ... to the ... '
All boils down to : is it part of the game mechanic and is it fun?
Most of your ideas would take months to implement.
mdotedot makes some really good points. Ludum Dare is coming up. That would give you a good excuse to take just one of these ideas and build a game around it. See how it works out.
I made a space station building game for one of the LDs (Aether Mine): http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/36669 The source code is still downloadable. I think it requires AI tools extension, though.
Hi Fayabella,just curious...did you make progress?Cheers!


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Your Power Supplier:email@example.com
LiFePO4 Smart BMS 20S 60V 30A-250A Common Port With Balance
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LiFePO4 Smart BMS can realize important functions such as real-time monitoring, automatic equalization, intelligent charge and discharge of batteries. While effectively ensuring the safety of the battery, it can monitor the remaining power of the battery. Improve battery utilization through effective battery management.
Intelligent control: LifePO4 Smart BMS can monitor and feed back battery capacity, voltage, temperature and battery parameters in real time
Security: LifePO4 Smart BMS can actively balance the voltage and other states between single batteries to avoid overcharging and excessive heating of the battery.
Advantages: LifePO4 Smart BMS is made of imported high-quality MOS and IC, and PCB is made of ESD conformal coating with high anti-corrosion, high water resistance and high impedance, so as to maintain the long-term service life of the battery.
LifePO4 Smart BMS is mainly used in LI-ion power batteries and energy storage lithium batteries. Widely used in electric scooters, e-bikes, tourist sightseeing hide, electric tricycles, low-speed EV, emergency UPS, solar street lights, RV& Home energy storage, etc.
Wire connection mode


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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The heads of the nation's two largest rail unions said Sunday that the freight railroads' move to begin delaying some shipments ahead of this week's looming strike deadline is only an attempt to get shippers to increase the pressure on Congress to intervene and block a work stoppage by imposing a contract on workers.
Update: Rail Workers Win Key Concessions in Tentative Deal
The heads of the unions that represent engineers and conductors — the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers — Transportation Division union and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union — issued a joint statement blasting the move, which the railroads announced late Friday. A strike or lockout won't be allowed until this coming Friday, but the railroads appear to be bracing for one by saying they would begin curtailing shipments of hazardous materials and other chemicals on Monday to ensure carloads of those dangerous products won't be stranded along the tracks if the trains stop moving.
"The railroads are using shippers, consumers, and the supply chain of our nation as pawns in an effort to get our unions to cave into their contract demands knowing that our members would never accept them. Our unions will not cave into these scare tactics, and Congress must not cave into what can only be described as corporate terrorism," said Jeremy Fergunson with SMART-TD and Dennis Pierce with the BLET union.
Those two unions have been demanding that CSX, Union Pacific, BNSF, Norfolk Southern, Kansas City Southern and the other railroads go beyond the proposed deal recommended by a group of arbitrators President Joe Biden appointed. They want them to address concerns about strict attendance policies that they say make it hard to take any time off and increasing workloads after the railroads cut nearly one-third of their workforces in recent years.
The railroad trade group has said there's no way trucks can pick up the slack if the railroads stop moving because roughly 467,000 additional trucks a day would be needed to handle all the cargo trains haul and there is already a shortage of truck drivers.
Five of the 12 railroad unions that together represent 115,000 workers had already reached tentative agreements based on the Presidential Emergency Board's recommendations that will deliver 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses over a five-year contract that's retroactive to 2020. The coalition negotiating on behalf of the railroads announced three more tentative agreements Sunday, so deals covering roughly 45,000 workers have now been announced. Members of the unions with tentative deals still have to vote on them.
If the two sides can't agree on a deal by the end of the week, Congress is expected to step in to block a strike because of the dire economic consequences if a strike happens because so many businesses rely on railroads to deliver their raw materials and finished products. The Association of American Railroads trade group put out a report last week estimating that the economy would take a $2 billion a day hit if the trains stop moving and passenger traffic would be disrupted nationwide because Amtrak and many commuter railroads use tracks owned by the freight railroads.
A spokeswoman for the trade group said Sunday that railroads had to take action to prepare for the possibility of a work stoppage because the deadline is so close, but the industry remains committed to trying to negotiate agreements with its unions.
"Operational changes required to prepare for a safe, orderly suspension were delayed as long as possible. With less than a week away from a potential service interruption, carriers are obligated to take appropriate actions to prepare, which include making plans for handling HAZMAT shipments, as well as other freight that may be impacted if service must be reduced or stopped," the AAR spokeswoman said.
Already, a number of trade groups representing railroad shippers have urged lawmakers to be prepared to block a strike. A coalition of 31 agricultural groups sent a letter to Congress last week, and the Fertilizer Institute trade group joined the chorus of concerned shippers Saturday because shipments of ammonia and other fertilizers will be delayed.
"Supply chains are already strained and there is currently zero elasticity in rail transportation," TFI President and CEO Corey Rosenbusch said. "This situation will get exponentially worse every day there is no resolution."
He said more than half of all fertilizer is hauled by railroads. More than 75% of all finished vehicles are taken from factories to dealerships by train, and countless other products move by rail.
The railroad trade group said that a single railcar can carry up to 2,000 UPS packages, or enough plastic pellets to make some two million two-liter bottles.


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I'm thrilled to welcome back the lovely Lily Harlem with a tease from her brand new best-selling release, Muscling In!
Muscling In is award-winning author Lily Harlem's latest release. It's a hot and sexy MMF novel with a military theme and delves into the desires and passions of a threesome who are determined to be together despite the restraints of the world they live in.
The story is set in London and follows tattoo artist Sian as she decides to let her husband Coben rekindle a relationship he's had with a man from his past. This man, Ed, is still serving in the Royal Air Force, he's the elite of the elite, the best of the best – it's going to get complicated. And there is of course one condition from Sian, she wants to be part of the fun too. Why should she miss out when they're having an amazing naked and sweaty time? That's just not fair…
Back Cover Information
Determined to pry details of this forbidden longing, I had no idea how much this new side of him would turn me on. So when I met the object of his lust I couldn't let it rest.
Edward Moorland was a force to be reckoned with, a man who fought for his country and what he wanted. But did he want me and my husband? Would I ever experience his passion let loose or would I remain on the sidelines, watching, waiting, hoping?
One thing I knew, I wasn't the type of girl to give in without a fight. I wanted to be part of the action too. More than part of it, I wanted to be in the goddamn middle of it with bells, whistles and fireworks when it all exploded. Yes…I wanted it all.
Grab your copy of Muscling In from
Excerpt – 18+
Coben opened the door and flicked on the hall light.
I stepped in behind him and kicked off my heels.
There was a sudden bang. A slam. He'd pushed the door up, hard.
His lips were over mine, his hands in my hair. The cool wall pressed against my shoulders as he backed me up.
I swept my tongue into his mouth, giving as good as he gave. Damn the taste of him, the urgency flowing off him in waves. It was enough to make my knickers wet and my nipples peak against the inside of my bra.
"Tease," he said, kissing over my cheek, then nibbling my earlobe.
"I'm not…" I gasped as I clung to his biceps. Through his jacket I could feel they were tense, bulging. "I didn't touch you again in the car."
"Just by being there, next to me…" He paused as he cupped my right breast. "Just by wearing this sexy fucking dress you've teased me all evening."
"What this tatty old thing?" I grinned, then groaned as he massaged my breast—not hard, but not gently either, just the way he knew I liked.
"Well if it's that old and tatty it should come off." He stooped, gripped the hem, then pulled it up. Luckily there was no zip and the material slid easily over my head.
He tossed it over his shoulder and it landed half on the floor, half draped over a potted plant that stood in a large burgundy vase.
"Fuck…" he muttered, his attention landing on the new cerise underwear I'd opted to wear beneath the tight black dress. "That's so fucking hot."
He kissed me again, pushing his erection against my belly. I had the feeling the underwear wouldn't be staying on for long.
His touch skimmed down my sides, dipping into my waist, then over the slight flare of my hips. My skin felt on fire, his palms leaving a trail of need and delicious sensation. I wanted him to touch me, all over, and never stop.
I pushed at his jacket, shoving it over his shoulders.
He released me, shrugged out of it and let it land on the floor, instantly forgotten despite its price tag.
The next thing I knew I was in his arms, pressed up against his chest, and he was marching up the staircase. I stared at his face. He had a look of sheer determination. Like a predator who'd captured his prey. A Neanderthal who'd snared his woman.
He kicked the door to the bedroom open and dropped me on the bed. I bounced and let out a squeal.
"Strip," he said, undoing his belt and quickly skimming it free of the loops. "Now."
I undid my bra and tossed it aside. Rolled down the sinfully thin bit of fabric that was my thong and kicked it to the floor. I scooted up the bed and rested my head on the pillow. Anticipation was making my skin tingle and my breaths come fast.
He swept his tongue over his bottom lip and stepped out of his trousers. "Spread your legs, woman."
I raised my eyebrows. God, I loved that demanding, sergeant major tone of his. It went straight to my core and stimulated something very deep and primitive inside me. I couldn't help but obey.
I parted my legs, slowly, letting my heels skim over the satin sheet and feeling cool air wash over my damp pussy.
He kept his attention on the juncture of my thighs as he calmly released the buttons on his dress shirt. His pulse was pushing at the skin on his neck, beating to a fast tempo and giving away the extent of his arousal despite his controlled appearance.
"Fuck, how did I get so lucky?" he muttered, quietly, almost to himself.
"I feel the same." I smiled and cupped my breasts, trapped my nipples between my fingers and tugged them.
He discarded his shirt, then shoved at his boxers. His cock sprang forward, erect and the flesh a few shades darker than that on the rest of his body.
My mouth watered; it was like a Pavlov reaction. I hoped he'd want oral. I adored having his cock in my mouth.
"You want this?" he asked, wrapping his hand around his shaft and moving to the end of the bed.
"Yes. All of it. All of you."
He gave me a wicked smile. "Good, 'cause you're going to get it." He crawled between my legs, his body low, and settled his face over my pussy. He pulled in a deep breath, his eyes fluttering shut for a moment. "Fuck, you smell so ready for it."
"I am." I reached for his head and bucked my hips so my pussy met his mouth.
He set straight to work, slipping his tongue through my folds and finding my clit. He spun a circle over it with firm pressure.
"Ahh, yeah…" I gasped, shutting my eyes. "That's it."
He searched out my entrance and pushed one long finger into me.
I clenched around him. I was wet and hot, needy for something to fill me.
He pushed another finger in, upped the force on my clit.
My stomach muscles tightened. A delicious throbbing of want, the spark of what would be a climax, came to life in my pelvis. "Yes…yes…" I said, scooping him closer by wrapping my legs around his shoulders. I had him trapped against my pussy.
"So greedy," he murmured, his breaths hot over my flesh.
"Greedy for you." I sank onto the invasion. "More, give me more."
He shifted, his big body easily removing my legs from his shoulders, and sat back on folded legs, his fingers still lodged inside me. "More?"
"Yes…" I drew up my knees, utterly wanton now.
"Mmm," he said, raising his eyebrows. "Maybe more means here." With his free hand he skimmed his fingers over my anus.
"Fuck." I gasped.
"You want fucking here?" He pushed knuckle deep into my pussy and at the same time exerted steady pressure over the center of my pucker.
"No, yes…" I tossed my head from side to side.
"Which is it?"
"I don't know. Do what you need to." God, I wanted it all. My clit was humming. I reached down and stroked it to keep the climax building.
"Of course you know what you want. Tell me."
"Come, I want to come."
"With me in your pussy or your ass, babe?" He gently slipped the tip of his finger through my sphincter.
"I…" Fuck, I couldn't answer questions at this moment in time. That dark invasion, it was so erotic, forbidden but delicious. I craved it.
He eased in a little more.
Oh God. Both holes. Fantasy land.
I groaned and sped up my ministrations on my clit.
"You want both. Say it." His voice held a note of excitement, less calm than it had been. "You want to get fucked in both holes at the same time, don't you." He paused, then chuckled. "Dirty girl. I knew I married you for a reason."
"I want to come…"
"You will, but tell me, how am I going to fuck you in both holes when I only have one dick?"
"Maybe…we should…clone you." I was breathless, the pressure mounting. "So there are…two of you."
"I guess that would work." He slid higher into my ass and also pushed deeper into my pussy. "Except by the time they can do that we'll be too old to fuck."
"No, never too old."
"Let's hope not. But…"
"But what?"
"Maybe I should get us a male prostitute, hired cock, so you could get fucked by two hot guys. One in your cunt and one in your ass. How does that sound?"
"I…I…" How did that sound? Like all my Christmases and birthdays come at once. "Good, good, amazing…fuck I'm going to come…" It was there, a vat of bliss about to overspill. I'd wanted to wait for dick but it seemed that wasn't going to happen. I'd gone past the point of return.
"Yeah, come. I love watching you come."
He was fucking me with his fingers, front and back hole. I was on fire, full up. It was all going to explode.
"Me and you and a sexy man with a big, hard dick…" he said, his voice deep and laced with wicked imagery. "Can you imagine that? Four hands, two mouths, two cocks, all worshiping you, Sian? You'd love it. You'd be writhing between us, your body so full of us, stuffed with dick that's hard just for you…"
"Oh, God…" I groaned, hanging on to the last moment before I climaxed.
"We'd be a tangled, sweaty mess. So much lust, passion, barely able to control our orgasms."
"I can't…control…mine." I came. A wondrous release that burst from my clit, pulsed through my pussy and spread around my ass. The orgasm didn't end there. It rattled up my spine and I bowed my back as it settled at my nape. From there it went to the tips of my fingers and the ends of my toes and I clenched my fists and curled my feet.
"Ah yeah," he said, still pushing in and out of me. "Go, babe…"
Lily Harlem lives in the UK and is an award-winning author of contemporary erotic romance. She writes for publishers on both sides of the Atlantic including HarperCollins, Totally Bound, Pride Publishing, Evernight Publishing, Xcite, and Sweetmeats Press. Her work regularly receives high praise and industry nominations.
Before turning her hand to writing Lily Harlem worked as a trauma nurse and her latest HarperCollins release, Confessions of a Naughty Night Nurse draws on her many experiences while nursing in London. Lily also self-publishes and The Silk Tie, The Glass Knot, In Expert Hands and Scored have been blessed with many 5* reviews since their release.
Lily writes MF, MM and ménage a trois, her books regularly hit the #1 spot on Amazon Best Seller lists and Breathe You In was named a USA Today Reviewer's Recommended Read of 2014. Her latest MM novel is Dark Warrior.
Lily also co-authors with Natalie Dae and publishes under the name Harlem Dae - check out the Sexy as Hell Box Set available exclusively on Amazon - The Novice, The Player and The Vixen - and That Filthy Book which has been hailed as a novel 'every woman should read'.
One thing you can be sure of, whatever book you pick up by Ms Harlem, is it will be wildly romantic and down-and-dirty sexy. Enjoy!
Lily Harlem Links