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NEONAIL UV/LED GEL POLISH 7.2 ml
High-quality UV/LED GEL POLISH which provides an impeccable manicure that least for up to 21 days (or until visible growth).
For over ten years NeoNail has been amongst most popular gel polish and nail care manufacturers within EU. Our range includes high quality tops, base and around 300 different colours.
It is an easy 3-step manicure which has to be cured under UV/LED LAMP. Curing it in the lamp allows the polish to dry in seconds making it hard wearing, scratch-resistant and smudge proof for up to three weeks.
NeoNail UV/LED GEL POLISH does not chip and strengthens the natural nail plate.
HARD BASE protects the nail plate and connects with the colour by creating adhesive layer. It is safe and easy to use, and it has been dermatologically tested.
COLOUR provides full and deeply pigmented coverage. Specially designed brush allows for an even and easy application with no stress of cuticle flood due to its perfect consistency providing best results every time.
HARD TOP has especially designed unique formula in order to protect the colour, sealing it off from all outside factors keeping it in perfect condition throughout all wear that lasts up to 21 days.
The advantages of the NEONAIL UV/LED GEL POLISH:
* NOTE: The colours in the pictures may differ from the physical colour due to the individual preferences and settings of the monitor.
Shake the bottle well before use.
STEP 1. Give the nails the desired shape. Carefully push back cuticles with a WOODEN STICKS or CUTICLE PUSHER then slightly buffer the nail surface using BUFFER and remove any dirt and dust with a BRUSH.
STEP 2. Wipe the nail plate using the NAIL CLEANER.
STEP 3. Paint thin layer of HARD BASE as a primary coat and allow it to cure under LED/UV LAMP. (Do not wipe the nails with the cleaner in between coats).
STEP 4. Apply GEL POLISH COLOUR in your desired shade and cure it under LED/UV LAMP. Repeat the process.
STEP 5. Apply thin layer of HARD TOP to protect the colour and to give it intensive shine. Cure under LED/UV LAMP.
STEP 6. Once HARD TOP is cured wipe of the sticky residue nails using NAIL CLEANER.
STEP 7. For extra care, use a CUTICLE OIL and hand cream.
STEP 1. To remove gel polish from the nails, file down the glossy layer of nail polish using a NAIL FILE.
STEP 2. Soak NAIL WRAPS in ACETONE/REMOVER and wrap tightly around the fingernail allowing to soak for around ten minutes.
STEP 3. Take of the NAIL WRAPS and any GEL POLISH residue remove with a WOODEN STICK or a CUTICLE PUSHER.
UV/LED Gel Polishes from NeoNail is suitable for professional use only.
Keep the product away from children.
Avoid contact with eyes and skin in case of contact with the skin or eyes rinse immediately with plenty of water and seek medical advice.
The product can cause allergies or irritation.
Do not use if you are allergic or hypersensitive to any ingredients of the product.
If the nail plate surface is damaged or irritated, the product should not be used. If irritation or hypersensitivity occurs, the application should be stopped immediately.


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In the two weeks time, we saw no increase whatsoever in web site hits or sales, and the radio stations were often hitting the maximum number of listeners 200mbits of bandwidth could handle (2000 listeners).
It appears to me that most people who are listening to Internet radio run it all the time (the average listener time is 3h 20m, so that most who stay around are actually listening about 8h at a time, since 50% leave right away) and are not often motivated to purchase what they hear. Rather, they listen to it as background music.
Another thing I noticed is that the 200mbits of bandwidth aren't enough to support all the listeners who want to hear our radio stations.
I suspect that what's happening is that people new to Magnatune aren't able to get a "slot" in our radio feeds, because the slots are all filled up by people who listen all the time. That's probably why shoutcast radio used to be a good sales generator for us: we were new and everyone finding us was hearing us for the first time, and many people converted into buyers. As time proceeds, more and more of the radio station bandwidth is dedicated to full-time-listeners who don't buy very often.
Since the cost of running Internet radio are very high -- $5000 per month in bandwidth for just 2000 listeners, and either not many new people are able to get on, or else the existing ones are not motivated to buy, I've decided to permanently discontinue our shoutcast feeds.
That being said, the ratio of listeners at our web site, to buyers, is still quite good -- about 40 listeners to 1 buyer, and therefore we'll absolutely continue to do that as that's a business model that can survive. It looks to me like web site visitors are much more involved with the "Magnatune experience" and consciously looking for music that they may buy, rather than radio listeners, who are looking for a background music experience.
We don't see a plausible business model for Internet radio at this time, at least not one where one has to actually pay for the bandwidth used.
That being said, if a) bandwidth prices plummet, b) we get free bandwidth (gigabit+) through peering arrangements or donations or c) p2p radio technology takes off, I can definitely see restarting our radio feeds.

subset: commoncrawl


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Size: 26cm to 40cm
Becuase we are no longer making manufacturing products we cannot refund or exchange for a change of mind or purchasing the wrong size. So please choose carefully and once they are sold they will not be restocked.
19mm Wide Jack Skellington Collar
We have done our best to take photos of the true colours of the products but please be aware that different computers display colors differently. The actual color may vary slightly from the images.
What is the "Backing" Colour?
The Backing is underside of the collar or lead. The ribbon (design) is sewn onto the backing which is a heavy duty webbing ensuring that the product is durable.
The Backing colour can effect the apperance of the collar as for some of the designs the Backing creates a solid colour border for the image at the top and bottom.
If you can't see the border then that means the ribbon is the same size as the backing.


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Xiaomi announces Redmi S2 and Redmi Note 5 in Pakistan. Global technology leader Xiaomi announces the launch of Redmi S2, touted as the best Redmi phone for selfies with a 16MP front camera that is powered by pixel binning technology and featuring AI Beautify. It also sports a 12MP + 5MP AI dual camera, coupled with AI face-unlocking, and is powered by the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 625 platform.
Best Redmi phone for selfies
The 16MP front camera of Redmi S2 captures details in good light and produces high resolution images. In low light conditions, the sensor uses pixel binning technology to combine the information from four pixels and create one large 2.0µm pixel. This greatly improves the sensor's light sensitivity, producing clearer and brighter photos in low light with less noise.
When Auto HDR is enabled, the 16MP front camera automatically detects a back-light environment and applies the HDR effect. Its Selfie-light mimics natural light, allowing catch lights to be captured, which makes for great portrait photos. The camera also supports AI bokeh that effectively distinguishes the subject from the background, even correctly identifying elements such as hair accessories and popular hand gestures as being part of the subject.
AI dual camera for clear shots day and night
Redmi S2 sports a 12MP + 5MP AI dual camera on its back. The 12MP primary sensor has 1.25µm large pixels, which results in brighter images in low light conditions. The 5MP secondary sensor is dedicated to acquiring depth information, producing photos with great bokeh effects.
In Portrait Mode, both the front and back cameras support AI Beautify that can detect makeup and keep them from retouching, and the algorithm has also been optimized for popular selfie facial expressions.
Must Read: NDC TECH secures Temenos Learning Community (TLC) – Commitment to Learning Award
5.99" full screen with great ergonomics
Redmi S2 is powered by the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 625 platform, which is based on the 14nm architecture for balanced performance and power consumption.
Redmi S2 comes with a 5.99-inch 18:9 full screen display. Its back is symmetrically curved and gently tapered toward edges, achieving great ergonomics and aesthetics at the same time.
Redmi S2 has three slots for two SIM cards and one microSD card of up to 256GB. Redmi S2 also features an IR blaster, and comes with AI face unlocking and Xiaomi's very own Xiao Ai voice assistant.
Redmi S2 comes in two colors: Gold and Dark grey. The 3GB + 32GB version will retail for Rs. 22,499, while the 4GB + 64BG version is priced at Rs. 27,499. The smartphone will be available in Pakistan starting 30 June, 2018.
Xiaomi also officially announced Redmi Note 5 in Pakistan today, which features flagship-level photography capabilities. With a dual camera featuring a large 1.4μm-pixel sensor, AI camera features, and an LED Selfie light for its front camera, Redmi Note 5 is a powerful device that takes amazing photos anywhere, at any time.
Clearer images and faster focusing even in low light
Redmi Note 5 sports a dual camera setup, a combination usually adopted only in flagship smartphones. The main 12-megapixel sensor features large 1.4μm pixels, which can capture more light and deliver better results under low-light conditions.
The camera is also armed with 2PD (dual photodiode) autofocus — a technology commonly seen in professional dSLR cameras, which results in a much faster autofocus speed. Every single pixel of the main 12-megapixel sensor contains two photodiodes (which convert light into current that can be measured) – resulting in 24 million photodiodes in total, which is nearly 30 times more than the number of photodiodes of traditional PDAF-enabled sensors of the same resolution. This allows the sensor to measure phase differences effectively, improving Redmi Note 5's autofocus speed dramatically.
The front camera of Redmi Note 5 sports a 13-megapixel sensor, complemented by an LED Selfie light. When Portrait Mode is engaged, both the front and rear cameras come with Xiaomi's latest Beautify 4.0 mode, which has different effects enhanced by AI calculations for a natural look similar to having an expert makeup session. Even without a second sensor, the front camera achieves a great bokeh effect in Portrait Mode thanks to AI technology that helps to isolate the subject from the background.
Redmi Note 5 also uses facial recognition for unlocking the device, which is based on AI technology, enhancing the accuracy of identification for a more secure system.
The powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 636
Redmi Note 5 uses Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 636 platform based on the 14nm manufacturing process. Its Kryo 260 architecture, 1.8GHz maximum clock speed, and the Adreno 509 GPU ensure amazing performance. Compared to Qualcomm Snapdragon 625, Snapdragon 636 has a 40 percent increase in performance — gamers can enjoy demanding 3D games on Redmi Note 5 with no worries.
Redmi Note 5 is the first device in the Redmi family to use up to 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM, usually only found on flagship devices. With more RAM, Redmi Note 5 can run more apps simultaneously and switch between programs even more smoothly.
Other features of Redmi Note 5 include a 5.99 inch FHD+ 18:9 full screen, large 4000mAh battery and support for fast charging. Equipped with the latest MIUI 9 operating system, Redmi Note 5 also comes with full screen display gestures so users can maximize the display area by completely hiding the navigation bar
Redmi Note 5 comes in two versions: 3GB + 32GB, and 4GB + 64GB, at Rs. 24,499 and Rs. 30,999 respectively. It is available in three colors — Lake blue, Gold and Black. A simple and elegant TPU case will be included in the box with every Redmi Note 5.
Headquartered in Beijing, Xiaomi is the world's 4th largest smartphone manufacturer with the aim of providing innovation for everyone. The company believes in providing High-quality, premium hardware and software services at honest pricing.


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Are you ready to dive into the captivating world of blogging? In today's digital era, blogging has become not just a means of self-expression, but an influential platform for sharing knowledge, insights, and stories with a global audience. Whether you're a seasoned blogger or just starting out, the art of crafting engaging blog content is an essential skill to master. It's time to unleash your creativity and discover the power of words that captivate, inform, and inspire. So, let's embark on this journey together and unlock the secrets of creating compelling blog posts that leave a lasting impact. Get ready to ignite your imagination and let your words dance across the digital realm!
Understanding Your Audience
In order to create truly engaging blog content, it is crucial to have a deep understanding of your audience. Without a clear comprehension of who you are writing for, it becomes difficult to tailor your content to their specific needs and desires. So, how can Bank Stocks gain this insight into your readers?
First and foremost, conducting thorough research is essential. Dive into analytics, survey your audience, and explore social media platforms to gather valuable data about their demographics, interests, and preferences. By delving into these insights, you can begin to paint a more vivid picture of who your audience is and what they are looking for.
Once you have a solid understanding of your audience's background, it's time to empathize with them. Put yourself in their shoes and truly grasp their perspective. Consider their pain points, challenges, and goals. By doing so, you can craft content that resonates with them on a deeper level and provides meaningful solutions.
Lastly, engage with your audience directly. Encourage them to leave comments, ask questions, and share their thoughts. Actively participating in conversations not only helps you learn more about their preferences and interests, but it also fosters a sense of community, making your readers feel valued and heard.
By truly understanding your audience, you can unlock the secret to creating blog content that captures their attention, engages their emotions, and keeps them coming back for more. So, invest time and effort in getting to know them on a personal level, and you'll be well on your way to unleashing your creativity and crafting captivating blog posts.
Developing Compelling Topics
When it comes to blogging, developing compelling topics is key to capturing the attention of your readers. Your blog posts need to be interesting, engaging, and relevant to your target audience. But how do you come up with ideas that will stand out from the sea of content online? Here are a few strategies to help unleash your creativity and craft irresistible blog topics.
Understand your audience: To develop topics that resonate with your readers, it's crucial to understand their needs, interests, and pain points. Take the time to research your target audience and create buyer personas to gain insights into their demographics, preferences, and challenges. This understanding will guide you in creating content that addresses their specific needs, making it more compelling and valuable.
Stay updated on industry trends: Keeping up with the latest trends and developments in your niche is essential for crafting relevant and engaging blog topics. Subscribe to industry newsletters, follow influencers and thought leaders, and join online communities where you can stay informed about the latest happenings. By staying current, you can tap into timely topics and provide insights that are both informative and captivating.
Tap into your own experiences: Your personal experiences can greatly enrich your blog content and make it more relatable to your readers. Reflect on your own journey, challenges you've overcome, and lessons you've learned along the way. Sharing authentic stories and insights will help establish a connection with your audience. It adds a human touch and makes your blog posts more engaging and memorable.
With these strategies in mind, you can develop compelling topics that grab the attention of your audience and keep them coming back for more. Remember, a well-crafted blog post starts with a captivating topic that resonates with your readers. So, unleash your creativity and let your ideas flow!
Mastering Writing Techniques
In the world of blogging, mastering writing techniques is essential for crafting engaging content that captivates your audience. With the right skills, you can unleash your creativity and create blog posts that leave a lasting impact. Here are three key techniques to help you become a masterful writer.
Powerful Opening Statements: The beginning of your blog post is like a first impression – it needs to grab the reader's attention and make them want to keep reading. Craft powerful opening statements that hook your audience, piquing their curiosity and drawing them into your content. Whether it's a thought-provoking question, a shocking statistic, or a compelling anecdote, make it irresistible and leave readers wanting more.
Compelling Storytelling: Humans are wired to connect through stories. Incorporate storytelling into your blog posts to engage your audience on a deeper level. Narrate experiences, share personal anecdotes, or present case studies that demonstrate the value and relevance of your content. By captivating your readers with authentic storytelling, you'll forge a stronger connection and inspire them to continue reading and exploring further.
Effective Formatting: Writing compelling content goes beyond the words alone; how you format your blog post matters too. Utilize headings, subheadings, bullet points, and bolded text to break up your content into easily digestible chunks. This allows readers to quickly scan through your blog post, find the information they need, and stay engaged throughout. Remember to also incorporate relevant images and utilize white space to enhance the overall readability of your blog post.
By mastering these writing techniques, you'll be well on your way to creating blog content that not only captures your audience's attention but also keeps them coming back for more. Let your creativity flow and watch as your blog flourishes with engaging and captivating content.


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2001 Mark of Excellence
National Winners and Finalists
Since 1972 the Society of Professional Journalists has presented the Mark of Excellence Awards honoring the best in student journalism. Judged at the regional and national level, the awards offer 45 categories for print, radio, television, and online collegiate journalism. Regional award winners are honored at SPJ's spring regional conferences with national winners announced in Quill and honored at the 2002 SPJ National Convention in Fort Worth, Texas. The competition was open to anyone enrolled in a college or university and studying for an academic degree in 2001.
Newspapers |
Magazines |
Photography |
Radio |
Editorial Writing
National Winner: Berkeley Beacon staff, Emerson College, Boston, Mass.
National Finalists:
Jen Miller, University of Tampa, Tampa, Fla., The Minaret
The Arkansas Traveler editorial board, University of Arkanas, Fayetteville, Ark.
Editorial Cartooning
National Winner: Nate Beeler, American University, Washington, D.C., The Eagle
National Finalists:
Jake Dill, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash., The Daily
Steven Olexa, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn., The Daily Beacon
General Column Writing
National Winner: Hilary Hilliard, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga., The Red & Black
National Finalists:
Dan Kaffine, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn., The Aquin
Laura Sahramaa, University of Virginia, Reston, Va., The Cavalier Daily
Sports Column Writing
National Winner: Eric Nelson, Brigham Young University - Idaho, Rexburg, Idaho, BYU-I Scroll
National Finalists:
Bert Sanders, University of Arkanas, Fayetteville, Ark., The Arkansas Traveler
Stephen C. Smith, Sr., Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, Texas, Times Record News
Spot News Reporting
National Winner: "Our Pearl Harbor," Tanna Barry, Jill Halbasch and Linda Cammack, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, The Signpost
National Finalists:
"Riots!," Melissa Huelsman, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, The News Record
"Seattle Shakes," Staff of The Daily, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash.
"9-11-01," College Heights Herald staff, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Ky.
General News Reporting
National Winner: "The State of the Faculty," Michelle Evans, Brandon Sokol, Craig Greiwe, Wil Myers, Jessica Schaab and R.J. Taylor, DePauw University, Greencastle, Ind., The DePauw
National Finalists:
"Beyond Diversity: Finding Acceptance," Andy Woolard, Kristin Callaway and Chris Moon, Baker University, Baldwin City, Kan., The Baker Orange
Covergae of Oklahoma State plane crash, Staff of The Daily O'Collegian, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Okla.
In-Depth Reporting
National Winner: "Many Faces, One Maryland," Elizabeth Cogan, Arheun Kim, Laurent Thomet, Greg Lamm, Robert F. Patrick, Jennifer Larson and Kate Alexander, University of Maryland, Washington, D.C., Capital News Service
National Finalists:
"Majority of juveniles in adult prisons will stay there," Barney Gimbel, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga., The Palm Beach Post
The Lack of Intermediate Care for the Mentally Ill, Scott Spilky, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Ill., The Octopus
Feature Writing
National Winner: "Five Hearts" series, Matthew D. LaPlante, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore., The Daily Barometer
National Finalists:
"Picking up the pieces: Journalists cope after September 11," Catherine Matacic, University of Maryland, College Park, Ma.
"Not a complete failure," Keri Modrall, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, Calif., Golden Gate [X]press Newspaper
Sports Writing
National Winner: "Fourth down and no graduation to go," Miki Meek, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, The Daily Universe
National Finalists:
"Football players at maximum density," Albert Breer, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, The Lantern
"A little extra push," Derek Boss, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, Kansas State Collegian
Best All-Around Daily Student Newspaper
National Winner: The Daily Barometer, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore.
National Finalists:
The Lantern, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
The Rocky Mountain Collegian, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo.
The Daily Texan, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas
Best All-Around Non-Daily Student Newspaper Newspaper (published 2 to 4 days a week)
National Winner: The Round Up, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, N.M.
National Finalists:
College Heights Herald, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Ky.
The Breeze, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Va.
12. Best All Around Non-Daily (published at least once a month)
National Winner: The Carolina Reporter, University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C.
National Finalists:
Mesa State College Criterion, Mesa State College, Grand Junction, Colo.
The Sentinel, North Idaho College, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
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Magazine Non-Fiction Article
National Winner: "You are a woman. You are pregnant," Tim Bugansky, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, The Burr
National Finalists:
"An Exercise in Fertility: Selling sperm and eggs for cash and cause," Michelle Beaver, Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz., State Press Magazine
"To Make a Home," Josh Knaub, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Neb., Reflections on the Little Bighorn
Best Student Magazine (published once a year)
National Winner: Flux Magazine, University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore.
National Finalists:
CURIO, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Va.
Reflections on the Little Bighorn, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Neb.
Voices from the War Zone, IUPUI, Indianapolis, Ind.
Best Student Magazine (published more than once a year)
National Winner: The Burr, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio
National Finalists:
Spectrum Magazine, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, Pa.
Verite, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, La.
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Spot News Photography
National Winner: "Hope," Kevin German, Washington State University, Pullman, Wash., The Seattle Times
National Finalists:
"Fire in the Fort," Michael McCormack, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, Tenn., The Daily Beacon
"Flooded," Robert Natt, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Va., The Breeze
General News Photography
National Winner: "Steamed Over Power Plant," Matt Anderson, Western Washington University, Seattle, Wash., The Skagit Valley Herald
National Finalists:
"Day fo the dream," Matt Slocum, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, The Shorthorn
"We will not be the same," David Yerby, University of Arkanas, Fayetteville, Ark., The Arkansas Traveler
Feature Photography
National Winner: "The World's Lost Souls," Leigh Patton, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wis., The Marquette Tribune
National Finalists:
"New York aftermath," Lucian Read, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, Calif., Golden Gate [X]press Online
"Capital with a View," Lynn L. Walters, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, 515 Magazine
Photo Illustration
National Winner:
"Promised Land," Sam Walter, University of South Florida, Tampa, Fla., Static magazine
National Finalists:
"Virtual Enrollment," Thomas Cordy, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Ky., College Heights Herald
"Father Figure," Kevin German, Washington State University, Pullman, Wash., The Daily Evergreen
Sports Photography
National Winner: "Head over Heels," Jennifer Buchanan, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash., The Daily
National Finalists:
"So Close," Mike Ekern, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn., The Aquin
"Champions," Matt Slocum, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, The Shorthorn
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Radio Spot News Reporting
National Winner: "Salt Shortage," Lisa Klinkner, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Eau Claire, Wisc., WUEC-FM
National Finalists:
"CSU Clark Building Fire," Marika Krause, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo., KCSU-FM
"Normal Fire," Vicky Tsoumbakopoulos, Illinois State University, Normal, Ill., WZND Radio
Radio Feature
National Winner: "Saturday School," Laura Spencer, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Mo., NPR's Weekend All Things Considered and KCUR-FM
National Finalists:
"Skateboarding Damage," Johanna Feaster, University of Montana, Missoula, Mont.
"E. Harlam Mural," Patricia Nazario, Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, New York, N.Y., WFUV-FM and NPR
Radio In-Depth Reporting
National Winner: "Energy," Jeffrey Charpentier, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Eau Claire, Wisc., WUEC-FM
National Finalists:
"Centre Region Growth," Amy DiElsi, Penn State University, State College, Pa., WKPS
"Date Rape," Karla Hernandez, California State University-Northridge, Northridge, Calif., KCSN
Radio Sports Reporting
National Winner:
"Business of Sports: Baseball Contraction," Jason Fischer, Ripon College, Ripon, Wisc., WRPN-FM
National Finalists:
"Rashidi Wheeler Feature," Ben Adler, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., WNUR-FM
"Profs Pre-Game," Derek Jones, John Sadak and Mark Kasubinski, Rowan University, Glassboro, N.J., WGLS-FM
Radio Daily Newscast
National Winner: WRPN Local News, Ripon College, Ripon, Wisc., WRPN-FM
National Finalist:
KULV Newscast, University of La Verne, La Verne, Calif., KULV
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Television Spot News Reporting
National Winner: "Florence Murders," Danielle Dellerson and Natalya McLees, University of Montana, Missoula, Mont., Montana PBS
National Finalists:
"Suicide Attempt," Brent Kocal, Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz., Tempe Cable Channel 2
"Franklin St. Gas Fire," Tim Nelson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, N.C., Carolina Week
Television General News Reporting
National Winner: "LST 325," Kelle Vereen, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Ala., Jag-TV News
National Finalists:
Sept. 11th Team Coverage," Kyle Bosch, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn., Campus Cable
"D.C. Angels," Abbie Boudreau, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., Fairfax (Va.) County Cable
Television Feature Reporting
National Winner: "Daniel Obregon," Daniel Aviles, University of La Verne, La Verne, Calif., LVTV-3
National Finalists:
"Jets fest," Michael Artsis and Paul McAniff, New York Institute of Technology, , L.I. News Tonight
"Turkey Caller," Marianne Martinez, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo., KOMU-TV
Television In-Depth Reporting
National Winner: "Nursing Homes," Mike Dello Stritto, University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla., WUFT-TV
National Finalists:
"Prudential Investigation," Kurt Silver, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo., KOMU-TV
"Breaking Through the Silence: The Realities of Sexual Assault on a College Campus," Cheri Honda, Andrew Forsch Miedt, Michelle Pleny, Regan Zee Buyth, Dale Comer, Cale Holmes, Cyndy Willis and Beverly Matis, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Wash., KCNS-6
Television Sports Reporting
National Winner: "Fighting Illini Wheelchair Basketball: A Tradition of Success," Soham Vaishnav and Dominick Stasi, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Ill., UI-7 Cable
National Finalists:
"ASU Runners," Jeff Lasky, Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz., Tempe Cable Channel 2
"In the Red: A look at the Ohio University Athletics," Larry O. Seward II, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, WOUB-TV Newswatch
Television News Photography
National Winner: "War Protest," Scott Hums, Ball State University, Muncie, IN, WCRH-TV and CNN
National Finalists:
"Diffusing Danger," Robert Gajdecki, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo., CTV
"U.S. Flag Shortage," Christian Sorge, Univeristy of Maryland, College Park, Ma., UMTV-Comcast Cable
Television Feature Photography
National Winner: "Plato's Cavern," Daniel Aviles and Enrique Gutierrez, University of La Verne, La Verne, Calif., LVTV-3
National Finalists:
"Rook Week 2001," Jason Kauffin, Marshall Lee, Edina Na-Song Khla, Dan Robinson, Kyle Blaikie and Jason Raposa, Norwich University, Northfield, Va., WCAX-TV
"Sugar Cane," Sean Lewis, University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla., WUFT-TV
Television Sports Photography
National Winner: "Fanatic Fan," Dan Bubany, Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz., Tempe Cable Channel 2
National Finalists:
"Courage & Chaos," James Harvey, Illinois State University, Normal, Ill., TV-10 News
"Basketball: Lutes vs. Pacific Boxers," Troy Oppie, Michael Fox, Kristen Diercks, Andy Loe, Jeff Wrenson, Dan Gomez and Ryan Tootell, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Wash., KCNS-TV
Television Daily Newscast (telecast at least 4 days per week)
National Winner: Maryland Newsline 2001, University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism, College Park, Ma., UMTV-Comcast Cable
National Finalists:
KBYU Newsnet, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, KBYU
WUFT-TV, University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla., WUFT-TV
Television Non-Daily Newscast (telecast 1 to 3 times per week)
National Winner: Arkansas on Campus, University of Arkanas, UATV
National Finalists:
MU Report, Marshall University, Huntington, W.Va., WBPY
KCNS-TV Weekly Newscast, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Wash., KCNS-TV
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Online Spot News Reporting
National Winner: "A day we'll never forget: A special section of Dateline Alabama," Staff of Dateline Alabama, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Ala.
National Finalists:
"Election 2001," Staff of Golden Gate [X]press Online, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, Calif.
"Attila Cosby trial coverage," Jason Steinhardt, Jason Safdie and Kate Stepan, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., The GW Hatchet Online
Online General News Reporting
National Winner: "Tragedy Jolts Nation," The Independent Flordia Alligator Online Staff, University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla.
National Finalists:
"What to believe?," Julie Acosta, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, Calif., Golden Gate [X]press
"USU student finds bacteria gene that repairs damage from sun," Holli Gunnell, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, Hard News Cafe
Online Feature Reporting
National Winner: "Breaking the cycle of delinquency: Therapy, talking, working schoolingÉ and bobbing chicken heads," Ruth Turner, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, Hard News Cafe
National Finalists:
"The ultimate Christmas gift," Doug DeBiase, Penn State University, Hollidaysburg, Pa., The Carnegie Review
"When second comes first," Major Highfield, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Ala., Dateline Alabama
Online In-Depth Reporting
National Winner: "Political Ethics in Maryland," Amy Silva, University of Maryland, College Park, Ma., Maryland Newsline
National Finalists:
"The status of ethnic women at the University," Becky Bosshart, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, Nev., Zephyr
"Switzerland's Long Road to Europe," Kari Neumeyer, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., Basler Zeitung online
Online Sports Reporting
National Winner: "Aggies end Lady Mavs season on three games," Pat Gillespie, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas, The Shorthorn Online
National Finalists:
"Ray Day in Boston," Noah Pransky, Boston University, Boston, Mass., BostonBruins.com
"Landeta reflects on record, Redskins," Adam S. Reisinger, Towson University, Towson, Md., The Towerlight Online
Online Opinion and Commentary
National Winner: "Sports Bytes," Adam S. Reisinger, Towson University, Towson, Md., The Towerlight Online
National Finalists:
Leon Paul D'Souza, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, Hard News Cafe
Bradley E. Guire, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Ala., Dateline Alabama
Best All-Around Online Student Newspaper
National Winner: The Falcon Online, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, Wash.
National Finalists:
ASU Web Devil, Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz.
Indiana Digital Student, Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.
Best All-Around Online Student Magazine
National Winner: Troubadour Magazine, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.
National Finalists:
Golden Gate [X]press Online, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, Calif.
GWBlitz!, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
Best All-Around Online Student Broadcast Station
National Winner: BYU NewsNet, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
National Finalist:
Carolina Week Webcast, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, N.C.
Best All-Around Independent Online Student Publication
National Winner: NUcomment.com, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.
National Finalists:
Dateline Alabama, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Hard News Cafe, Utah State University, Logan, Utah


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I thought about this question and wondered: Are there any known cases where a country switched to a different language other than because of being conquered? If some country ever did this I would be very interested in how exactly they implemented it.
What I could come up with:
- Mongols that conquered China and to some extent Germanic tribes that conquered Rome took over the language of the country they conquered. But they simply assimilated with the native population, they didn't bring the new language back to their home country.
- Danish used to be the language of the Norwegian upper-class. However, it was when Norway was in a union with Denmark, so essentially they were the same country. And Danish was the official language of that country while Norwegian wasn't (not that any of the Norwegian dialects was ever accepted to be the Norwegian language).
- Hebrew in the modern Israel is essentially an artificial language. However, it was created to have a common language where previously was none, the Jews who came to Israel spoke many different languages. So it's not like the whole country switched from one language to another. Of course, many other countries went through a similar (even though less radical process), e.g. the modern German (High German) is only one of the many dialects that existed in Germany (and some still exist).
So Japan considered having the whole country switch to English. Did any country actually do something like this?


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Introduction to Arduino Workshop on Saturday, 28 September – SOLD OUT
Nottingham Hackspace will be hosting an all-day Introduction to Arduino Workshop, run by James Fowkes and Ian Dickinson, on Saturday, 28th September.
The Arduino system is a microcontroller board and software designed for extreme ease-of-use and learning, and has been wildly successful all over the world – not just in electronics, but for all sorts of maker projects. If you want to learn how to incorporate electronic control into your projects, this is definitely the workshop for you.
This workshop will cover:
- What an Arduino is, and how to program it
- Components and tools
- Basics of electronics (voltage, current, resistance, etc.)
- Arduino input and outputs
- Controlling high-power components
- Analog output
- And more!
Aimed for complete beginners, this workshop doesn't require you to have written a single line of code, switched on a soldering iron or even own an Arduino to take part. All the electronics equipment, including Arduino boards, will be provided on the day, but you will need to bring a laptop to program the Arduino with. It would also help if you installed the Arduino software onto your laptop before the workshop.
This workshop will run from 11am to 4pm, with a break for lunch at 1pm, and will cost £10, which includes use of all tools, boards and components, and free tea or coffee.
Arduino boards and kits will also be on sale for further exploration of this fantastic system.
This workshop is now SOLD OUT. There will be another workshop on Saturday, 9th November, and spaces are limited.


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United for Healthy Children
Parents' Voice is an online movement of parents who are interested in improving the food and physical activity environments of Australian children
Our Partners
Formerly The Parents' Jury
Started in 2004 and now represents thousands of Australian Parents
Advocacy Work
Promoting healthy eating and physical activity and challenging schools to improve meal options
Latest from Parents' Voice
School holiday fun
Trying to find ways to keep the kids busy in the holidays here's some ideas that might help.
Raising funds for school: The healthy way
Rebecca Zosel is the author of today's blog, she is a parent to three – Oscar, Liliana and Edith. Rebecca is also a Public Health
Waste wars!
This blog was written by Sarah Dwyer, mum of four and one of the new Parent Representatives on our Steering Committee. We have all been
What Our Parents Do
Rachel wanted to introduce a healthy food policy for her twins' primary school canteen after she noticed that it was 'kind of average' and left a lot of room for improvement. She started out by writing letters to the school council with her ideas, but it was only during a conversation with the school's principal that she was advised to actually sit on the school council to get the issues on the school's agenda. Rachel knew that she would not get very far without the support of the wider school community, so she and the school council surveyed school parents on what they saw as important for food in schools. What came out of that was a desire for a focus on health and environmental sustainability. Rachel and the school council then began researching existing school food policies and related programs in other schools to shape theirs. The policy went back and forth many times for review between the council, parents and staff before receiving the final seal of approval. Rachel has learned that nothing is going to happen overnight, and if you want to improve a problem, you must be willing to get involved with the solutions.
Kathryn is a Sydney mother of two. A few years ago, the staff at her daughter's day care centre were fed up with the unhealthy contents of some of the children's lunchboxes. As well as the obvious health consequences, the sugary treats led to disruptive behaviour and 'lunchbox envy'. Knowing that Kathryn has a nutrition background, the centre manager enlisted her help to develop some healthy eating guidelines to advise parents on suitable lunchbox foods. Much like the traffic light system we see in Australian schools, they called their guidelines 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' which encouraged parents to pack as many of the 'good' (green) foods as possible, and provided advice on the 'bad' (occasional) foods. 'Ugly (red) foods such as soft drink, crisps and confectionery were banned. The new policy was communicated to parents via the newsletter and welcome kits, and was well received. Kathryn's next goal is to work with the parent and teacher committee at her daughter's primary school to introduce mandatory morning fruit and water breaks in the classroom.
Kate's son's kindergarten runs up to eight fundraisers per year, so it was important to Kate that they didn't rely on convenient chocolate drives to make money. Kate decided that if she wanted to see change she had to make it happen from within. She joined the parent-run fundraising committee which unanimously decided they should seek profitable alternatives. Together they sourced local businesses, including working with a local bakery to provide for their annual Hot Cross Bun drive, instead of ordering via a big franchise bakery. Kate is an advocate for using local business where possible, as it gives greater flexibility when negotiating bulk orders and prices. She says while they sold fewer hot cross buns in the first year, they actually made a larger profit. The dedication and commitment of the committee has seen a cultural shift within the kindergarten.


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Naples, Italy, August 03, 2017 –(PR.com)– ANTORINI is a brand of luxurious fashion accessories. The fashion collections are very popular with everyone who appreciates top quality. Imperfections are not welcome. Every product has been carefully designed and processed in detail. Whether you choose leather, silk, cashmere wool or silver, you will always be able to tell that the products are made of material of the highest quality and with maximum care.
Perhaps the best example of extraordinary ANTORINI products are its neck ties. The folded ties of the brand are famous for their absolute perfection. High-quality silk is used for production, and the ties are carefully hand-crafted and then hand-sewn. The result is impressive, and the ties are absolutely perfect in all respects.
However, ANTORINI is not only a brand of luxurious ties. The brand's fashion collection also includes beautiful ladies' scarves and and neck scarves. Each piece is the work of leading designers and refined to perfection. Women will appreciate the top quality silk and the sense of elegance as well as variations in wearing, especially with long scarves.
You can purchase ANTORINI luxury gifts at www.antorini.com
Contact Information:
Ariana Giannini
+44 (0)70 3191 4785
Contact via Email
Read the full story here: http://www.pr.com/press-release/721983
Press Release Distributed by PR.com


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- The first Certified Gluten free waffles
- Certified USDA organic single-serving wrapped waffles
- 140 calories per 30 g package with 5 g of plant based protein
Fuel for Every Day
Our classic honey waffles, now in a snackable size and a resealable bag. With a thin layer of honey sandwiched between two waffles, this favorite snack will satisfy your taste buds and keep you going as an afternoon snack, during your favorite activity, or with a cup of coffee.
The Original Energy Waffle, Snackable-Size
For years, similar waffles have been sold on street corners throughout Europe and eaten by professional cyclists, so we decided to create our own by sandwiching honey between two thin waffles. Honey Stinger Organic Waffles are easy to digest, certified organic and now available in a snackable size.
When to Consume
Honey Stinger Mini Waffles are the perfect snack to help you prepare and perform for all activities. The energy in waffles is released immediately and absorbed at a steady rate, which delays muscle fatigue and gives your body the power to achieve your goals. With the right balance of honey-powered carbs in a bite-sized format, you can fine-tune your fuel for your needs.
Nature's Energy Source
Utilizing an ingredient engineered by nature as opposed to in a laboratory has its benefits, like higher quality and no additional flavoring or coloring. We use honey, a natural form of energy and antioxidants, as the main carbohydrate source for all products. Research in endurance athletes has proven that a mixture of carbohydrates is better tolerated by the body, prevents fatigue and enhances performance more than a single carbohydrate form.
- Creamy nut butter nougat filling coated in caramel and rolled in crunchy nuts and seeds
- Each bar contains 16g of protein and is rich in antioxidants to help recover from a workout, or to eat as a healthy snack
- Salty, sweet, and savory, Nut + Seed bars provide energy and protein whenever you need it
Portable Recovery Snack
This chocolate-coated protein bar doubles as a great-tasting meal replacement snack and after-workout recovery bar. The Protein Bar contains gluten-free ingredients and zero trans fats in combination with over 25% USDA Certified Organic honey, 10g of whey protein (20% RDA), 23 vitamins and minerals, calcium and antioxidants.
Finally, A Great Tasting Protein Bar
The Honey Stinger Protein Bar is the perfect bar for endurance training. It contains whey protein and 30% honey, making it the perfect way to restore glycogen levels after a long training day or post-race without upsetting your gut. A mix of sugars and protein is needed for both quick and long-lasting energy, and this bar does the trick.
When to Consume
Protein Bars contain the perfect amount of protein and carbs to refuel your body. The bar's 30% honey provides a natural sweetness and helps stabilize your blood sugar to avoid a post-workout fog. Focusing on recovery helps your body build strength and allows you to perform your best, every time.
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Dentures Overview
Dentures are a type of prosthesis used to accommodate missing teeth. These devices are typically removable, but some are bonded or implanted. When all teeth are absent, complete dentures are used. When only some teeth are missing, partial dentures are used. Dentures may be for the maxillary arch, mandibular arch, or both.
Warning Signs
Soreness at the corners of the mouth: If your dentures alter the way your mouth closes, saliva may gather in the corners of the lips. This moisture can, over time, lead to conditions or infections like cheilosis or stomatitis. Your dentist can best determine the cause of soreness and how to alleviate it.
Irritation of the gums: Irritation can be caused by food particles rubbing against the gums after getting trapped under the dentures. Friction can lead to sores or bleeding, and if it's persistent, you should see your dentist to rule out other possibilities.
Slippage: If dentures fit appropriately, there should not be an issue with suction. As the mouth changes, the seal between the gums and the device may weaken. If your dentures are not adhering to the way they once did, contact your dentist.
When Dentures Are Prescribed
- When there is difficulty eating due to missing teeth
- When there is difficulty with pronunciation
- To restore the appearance of the patient's smile and overall facial structure
Types of Dentures
Dentures will fall into one of two groups: partial or complete.
Partial dentures, or bridges, are attached to the teeth to fill in gaps where other teeth are missing. Bridges may be removable or may sit in a fixed position using a crown. Bridges help maintain the appearance of a healthy smile while also keeping the remaining teeth in their proper alignment instead of shifting over time.
Complete dentures replace an entire arch. Following a few months of total tooth loss, conventional dentures are placed in the patient's mouth. This is done to allow the gums a chance to heal. Immediate dentures can be used immediately following extraction, but immediate dentures do not allow for the tissue and bone to settle, which will require adjustment over time. Immediate dentures are generally exchanged for conventional dentures as time goes on.
Patient Experience
- The dentist will take an impression of the dimensions of your jaw and how the arches sit in relation to one another.
- The dentist will then create a model for you to try.
- As you wear this model, you can detect any needed changes of the model for further adjustments.
- Once the model fits appropriately, the prosthesis will be processed
- You will then be able to wear your dentures.
- During the first few weeks, you may be asked to wear your dentures all the time to get used to them and to detect any possible flaws in the design.
- You should steer clear of hard or sticky foods and may need to stick with soft food in small portions until you get used to the prosthesis.
- Talking may be difficult initially, but you should be able to communicate without issue after some practice.
- Because the brain does not immediately recognize this new prosthesis, you may salivate more than usual. Gagging may also occur.
- Dentures may come loose when you cough or laugh. This is normal and easily corrected.
- Follow your dentist's instructions for how to clean and care for your dentures. Only use adhesive if your dentist approves.
- Your jaw will change over time. Plan to change your dentures every five to seven years for optimal results.


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Note: Because of rather poor management of my blog, some entries seem to have disappeared. Fortunately for me, several other sites reproduce many of my blog posts, so when I have had to look for them and can remember the title, I have usually been able to find them. From time to time, if I think they might still be useful, I will repost them here on the Carnegie site with a little bit of light editing to correct typos and add links. The first blog entry that will receive this treatment is a February 15, 2013, post, in which I tried to place the Chinese growth model in a historical context that begins with the famous American System developed in the early nineteenth century.
As regular readers know, I have often argued that the Chinese development model is an old one and can trace its roots at least as far back as the American System of the 1820s and 1830s. This system was itself based primarily on the works of the astonishing first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. (See especially his three main reports to Congress: his "First Report on The Public Credit" of January 14, 1790; his "Second Report on The Public Credit" of December 13, 1790, and most importantly his brilliant "Report on Manufactures" of December 5, 1791. The "Second Report on The Public Credit" is sometimes also known as the "Report on a National Bank.")
This development model was also implicitly part of the debate in France that led to one of the most important financial innovations of the nineteenth century, the creation of the Crédit Mobilier in France in 1852. The importance of this is discussed, for example, in Alexander Gershenkron's essay "Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective" (pages 11–16). The debate concerned one of the great economic questions in France, especially after the defeat of Napoleon: why had England, a country that one hundred years earlier had been poorer than France, managed to surpass France and all other countries economically and technologically, even though in the pure sciences and engineering the French were at least the equal to the British and perhaps superior?
One obvious reason had to do with the financing of the commercial application of new technology. The French banking system, dominated by rentiers and the landed aristocracy, seemed to specialize in protecting savers, in part by mobilizing capital and investing in gold or in government obligations. The English banking system did this too, but it also seemed much more willing to finance infrastructure and manufacturing capacity.
In fact, more generally I have argued that the main reason industrial revolutions have occurred largely in England and the United States is because industrial revolutions are not driven by scientific developments but rather by the commercial application of scientific developments. For this to happen, it seems that a robust financing system is key. England, and later the United States, benefitted from a financial system that seemed to do better than others in financing new infrastructure and technological ventures.
A well-functioning financial system, one that allocates capital to new ventures, in other words, may have been the key difference between England and France at the end of the eighteenth century, and for this some historians blame the brilliant but erratic John Law and his Mississippi Bubble. This concern about the inefficient French banking system led to the creation of Crédit Mobilier, whose role was to break the constraints of the existing Rothschild-dominated financial system; mobilize the savings of the middle classes; and allocate these savings toward financial projects, such as infrastructure development, that would, over the longer term lead to more rapid economic development.
I will come back to this issue of the financial system, but the point here is that there have been many versions of this development model. At least two major economic theoreticians—the German Friedrich List in the nineteenth century and the Ukrainian-American Alexander Gershenkron in the twentieth—have formally described variations on the investment-driven growth model. Michael Hudson, one of my favorite economic thinkers, wrote a brilliant and provocative book (Trade, Development and Foreign Debt) twenty years ago; it traces many aspects of this model to debates in England at the end of the eighteenth century.
Aside from Alexander Hamilton, its intellectual and political godfather, the main proponents of the American System were figures like Henry Clay, Henry and Matthew Cary, John Calhoun, and even Abraham Lincoln himself. Their vision of economic policymaking was looked down upon as naïve and even foolish by most American academic economists— schooled as they were in the laissez faire doctrines then fashionable in England. But I think it is hard for any economic historian not to feel relieved that neither the academics nor the Jeffersonian and Jacksonian factions had the clout to force what they deemed good economic policy onto U.S. development. America got rich in part by doing the wrong things.
Many countries in which the academics had real influence at the time—Chile in the 1860s under the tutelage of the famous French economist Jean Gustave Courcelle-Seneuil, for example, or Mexico at the turn of the century under the expert guidance of José Y. Limantour, finance minister under then president Porfirio Díaz—never achieved the kind of growth that the less capable student-countries experienced. I write about some of these cases in my 1996 Foreign Affairs article, for anyone who might be interested.
To get back to the main story, in another book (America's Protectionist Take-off, 1815-1914), Michael Hudson refers to a leading member of the second generation of proponents of the American System, E. Pechine Smith. What is especially interesting about Smith in the context of China is that in 1872 he was invited to Japan to serve as adviser to the Mikado, becoming the first of a stream of economists and lawyers—most of them proponents of the American System—to advise and help shape Japanese development after the Meiji Restoration.
Smith thus creates a direct link between the American System and the Chinese development model. It was, of course, the post-war Japanese development model, itself based on Japan's experience of economic development during and after the Meiji Restoration, that became the standard for policymakers throughout East Asia and China. I think of China's growth model as merely a more muscular version of the Japanese or East Asian growth model, which is itself partly based on the American experience.
There were three key elements of the American System. Historian Michael Lind, in one of his economic histories of the United States, described them as:
- infant industry tariffs,
- internal improvements, and
- a sound system of national finance
These three elements are at the heart, explicitly or implicitly, of every variation of the investment-led development model adopted by number of countries in the last century— including Germany in the 1930s, the Soviet Union in the early Cold War period, Brazil during the Brazilian miracle, South Korea after the Korean War, Japan before 1990, and China today—to name just the most important and obvious cases. For this reason, I think it makes sense to discuss each of these three elements in a little more detail.
Infant Industry Tariffs
The infant industry argument is fairly well known. I believe Alexander Hamilton was the first person to use the phrase, and the reasoning behind his thinking was straightforward. American manufacturing could not compete with the far superior British, and according to then- (and now) fashionable economic theories based on Adam Smith and David Ricardo, the implications for trade policy were obvious. Americans should specialize in areas where they were economically superior to the British—agriculture, for the most part—and economic policy should consist of converting U.S. agriculture to the production of cash crops—tobacco, rice, sugar, wheat, and, most importantly, cotton—maximizing that production and exchanging these goods for cheaper and superior British manufactured items.
In this way, as Ricardo brilliantly proved, and assuming a static distribution of comparative advantages, with each country specializing in its comparative advantage, global production would be maximized and through trade both the British and the Americans would be better off. While most academic U.S. economists and the commodity-producing South embraced free trade, Alexander Hamilton and his followers, mainly in the northeast, did not. (In fact, differing views over free trade as well as over slavery and state rights were at the heart of the North-South conflict that led eventually to the Civil War.)
Hamilton was convinced that it was important for the United States to develop its own manufacturing base because, as he explained in his 1791 congressional report, he believed that productivity growth was likely to be much higher in manufacturing than in agriculture or mineral extraction. Contrary to David Ricardo, in other words, Hamilton believed that comparative advantage was not static and could be forced to change in ways that benefitted less productive countries. What is more, he thought manufacturing could employ a greater variety of people and was not subject to seasonal fluctuations or fluctuation in access to minerals.
Given much higher British efficiency and productivity, which translated into much lower prices even with higher transportation costs, how could Americans compete? They could do it the same way the British had done to compete with the superior Dutch a century earlier. The United States had to impose tariffs and other measures to raise the cost of foreign manufacturers sufficiently to allow their American counterparts to undersell them in the U.S. market. In addition, Americans had to acquire as much British technological expertise and capacity as possible (which usually happened, I should add, in the form of intellectual property theft).
This the United States did. In fact, I believe every country that has managed the transition from underdeveloped to developed-country status—including Germany, Japan, and South Korea—has done it behind high explicit or implicit trade tariffs and stolen intellectual property. (This holds true with, perhaps, the exception of one or two trading entrepôts like Singapore and Hong Kong, although even that is debatable.) The idea that countries get rich under conditions of free trade has very little historical support, and it is far more likely that rich countries discover the benefits of free trade only after they get rich, while poor countries that embrace free trade too eagerly (think of Colombia and Chile in the late nineteenth century, which were stellar students of economic orthodoxy) almost never get rich. This has been the case unless, like Haiti in the eighteenth century or Kuwait today, they are massive exporters of a very valuable commodity (sugar, in the case of Haiti, which was the richest country in the world per capita during a good part of the late eighteenth century).
But rather than just embrace protection, I would add that there is one very important caveat. Many countries have protected their infant industries, and often for many decades, and yet very few have made the transition to developed-country status. Understanding why protection seems to work in some cases and not in others might have very important implications for China. I won't pretend to have answered this question fully, but I suspect the difference between the countries that saw such rapid productivity growth behind infant industry protection that they were eventually able to compete on their own, and those that didn't, may have had to do with the structure of domestic competition.
Specifically, it is not enough to protect industry from foreign competition. There must be a spur to domestic innovation, and this spur is probably competition that leads to advances in productivity and management organization. I would argue, for example, that countries that protected domestic industry but allowed their domestic markets to be captured and dominated by national champions were never likely to develop in the way the United States did in the nineteenth century.
I would also argue that companies that receive substantial subsidies from the state also fail to develop in the necessary way because rather than force management to improve economic efficiency as a way of overcoming their domestic rivals, these countries encourage managers to compete by trying to gain greater access to those subsidies. Why innovate when it is far more profitable to demand greater subsidies, especially when subsidized companies can easily put innovative companies out of business?
Last April, for example, I wrote about plans by Wuhan Iron & Steel, China's fourth-largest steel producer, to invest $4.7 billion in the pork production industry. The company's management argued that they could compete with traditional agro-businesses not because steel makers were somehow more efficient than farmers, but rather because their size and clout made it easier for them to get cheap capital and to get government approvals. They were able to invest in an industry they knew little about, in other words, because they knew they could extract economic rent. This clearly is not a good use of protection.
The lessons for China, if I am right, are that China should forego the idea of nurturing national champions and should instead encourage brutal domestic competition. Beijing should also eliminate subsidies to production, the most important being cheap and unlimited credit, because senior managers of Chinese companies rationally spend more time on increasing access to these subsidies than on innovation, an area in which, in spite of the almost absurd hype of recent years, China fares very, very poorly.
There is nothing wrong with protecting domestic industry, but the point is to create an incentive structure that forces increasing efficiency behind barriers of protection. The difficulty, of course, is that trade barriers and other forms of subsidy and protection can become highly addictive, and the beneficiaries, especially if they are national champions, can become politically very powerful. In that case, they are likely to work actively both to maintain protection and to limit efficiency-enhancing domestic competition. It was Friedrich Engels, not often seen as a champion of capitalist competition, writing to Edward Bernstein in 1881, who said that "the worst of protection is that when you once have got it, you cannot easily get rid of it."
Internal Improvements
The second element of the American System was internal improvement, which today we would probably call infrastructure spending. Proponents of the American System demanded that the national and state governments design; finance; and construct canals, bridges, ports, railroads, toll roads, and a wide variety of communication and transportation facilities that would allow businesses to operate more efficiently and profitably. In some cases, these projects were paid for directly (tolls, for example), and in other cases they were paid for tax revenues generated by higher levels of economic activity.
It is easy to make a case for state involvement in infrastructure investment. The costs of infrastructure can be very high, while even if the benefits are much higher, they are likely to be diffused throughout the economy, making it hard for any individual company to justify absorbing the costs of investment. In this case, the state should fund infrastructure investment and pay for it through the higher taxes generated by greater economic activity.
For me, the interesting question, especially in the Chinese context, is not whether the state should build infrastructure but rather how much it should build. In fact, this is one of the greatest sources of confusion in the whole China debate. Most China bulls implicitly assume that infrastructure spending is always good and that the optimal amount of infrastructure is more or less the same for every country. This is what allows them to compare China's per capita capital stock with that of the United States and Japan and conclude that China still has a huge amount of investing to do because its capital stock per capita is so much lower.
But this is completely wrong and even nonsensical. Infrastructure investment is like any other investment in that it is only economically justified if the total economic value created by the investment exceeds the total economic cost associated with that investment. If a country spends more on infrastructure than the resulting increase in productivity, more infrastructure makes it poorer, not richer.
In China, we have problems with both sides of the equation. First, we don't know what the true economic cost of investment in China might be. To calculate the true cost, we need to add not just the direct costs but also all the implicit and explicit subsidies, most of which are hidden or hard to calculate.
The most important of these subsidies tends to be the interest rate subsidy, and this can be substantial. If interest rates in China are set artificially low by 5 percentage points, for example (which is a reasonable estimate), an investment of $100 million receives an additional subsidy of $5 million for every year that the loan funding the investment is outstanding—and loans are almost never repaid in China. Over ten to twenty years of outstanding debt, this can add 30–40 percent to the initial cost of the investment. This means that the recognized cost of an infrastructure project is much lower than the true economic cost, with the difference being buried in explicit and implicit subsidies.
But the bigger problem is in the value created by the investment. We can think of the value of infrastructure primarily as a function of the value of labor saved. In countries with very low levels of productivity, each hour of labor saved is less valuable than each hour saved in countries with high levels of productivity. For this reason, less productive countries should have much lower capital stock per capita than more productive countries.
This should be obvious, but it seems that often it isn't. When analysts point to high-quality infrastructure in China whose quality exceeds comparable infrastructure in rich countries, this is not necessarily a good thing. It might just be an example of the amount of waste you can achieve when spending is heavily subsidized, when there are strong political (or pecuniary) incentives for expanding investment, and when there is limited transparency and accountability.
Other things matter too. If a country has low levels of social capital—if it is hard to set up a business, if less efficient businesses with government connections can successfully compete with more efficient businesses without government connections, if the legal and political structure creates problems in corporate governance (the agency problem, especially), if the legal framework is weak, if property rights are not respected, if intellectual property can easily be lost—then much infrastructure spending is likely to be wasted.
In fact, it turns out that it may be far more efficient to focus on improving, say, the legal framework than to build more airports, even though (and perhaps because) building airports generates more growth (and wealth for the politically connected) today. Weak social capital becomes a constraint on the ability to extract value from infrastructure, and this constraint is very high in poor countries with weak institutional frameworks.
Journey to the West
This issue of how much investment is enough is a very important topic that deserves much more discussion, but I think there is a very good example of why we need to be worried about how useful additional infrastructure investment in China might be. This shows up most clearly in China's push to create development in the western part of the country.
Often when I question the economic value of China's push to the western, poorer parts of the country (by the way economic value is not the same as social or political value, the latter of which may nonetheless justify projects that are not economically viable), I am almost always treated with the story of the American West. In the nineteenth century, as everyone knows, the United States went west, and most economists agree that this made economic sense for the country and was an important part of the process that led it to becoming the wealthiest and most productive country in history.
But we must be very careful about drawing lessons from the American experience. The United States is not the only country in history that went west. Several other countries did so too, but for some reason we ignore their experiences altogether when we discuss China. Brazil, for example, went west and north in the 1950s and 1960s, as it expanded from the rich southern coastal areas into the Amazon and the Caribbean. The Soviet Union did something similar after the Second World War as it went east into Siberia.
Most economists today agree that the Brazilian and Soviet experiences were economically unsuccessful and left those countries burdened with such enormous debts that they were at least partly to blame for Brazil's debt crisis in the 1980s and the collapse of the Soviet economy in the 1970s. It turns out, in other words, that there are both successful and unsuccessful precedents for China's going west.
What are the differences and how do they apply to China? Again, I can't say that I can fully understand or explain them, but one major difference leaps out. In the United States, it was private individuals, seeking profitable opportunities, that led the move into the American West, and government investment followed. In Brazil and the Soviet Union, however, there was little incentive for private individuals to lead the process. It was the government that led, and private businesses followed only because government spending created great opportunities for profit. Once government spending stopped, so did business.
My very preliminary conclusion is that large-scale government ambitions allied to strong political motivation and funded by cheap and easy access to credit can lead very easily to the wrong kinds of investment programs. The U.S. experiences of government investment in the nineteenth century, in other words, may be a very poor precedent for understanding China's current policy of increasing investment spending, especially in the poor western part of the country.
Brazil and the Soviet Union may be much better precedents. At the very least, these gloomier experiences should not be ignored when we think of China's policies. Going west isn't always a great idea from an economic point of view and has led to at least as many, and probably more, bad outcomes as good outcomes. It is not clear why these lessons cannot possibly be applied to China.
A Sound System of National Finance
The third pillar of the American System was the creation of an appropriate financial system. But what does that mean? It is hard to describe the American financial system in the nineteenth century as stable and well-functioning. In fact, the American banking system was chaotic, prone to crises, mismanaged, and often fraudulent; yet the United States grew very rapidly during that time.
China's banking system, on the other hand, is far more stable—in fact, the favorite cliché of Chinese bankers is that while the system may not be efficient, it is very stable. What makes the Chinese banking system stable, of course, is that it is widely believed that the government stands fully behind the banks. It makes no difference, in other words, how weak a credit allocation decision is, because by controlling credit and the deposit rate, and by limiting alternatives for Chinese savers, the government guarantees both the liquidity and solvency of the banking system. As long as government credibility is intact, the banking system is unlikely to fail.
In that sense, you can easily make the case the Chinese banks today are sounder than American banks in the nineteenth century. This might bode well for the future of the financial system in the short term, but in the long term it is not clear to me that monetary soundness and financial stability are necessarily correlated with more rapid growth.
I say this because I have seen no evidence that countries with sound and conservative financial systems grow faster than countries with looser and riskier financial systems (although they do seem to have fewer financial crises). In fact, I have more than once made reference to Belgian bank historian Raymond de Roover's provocative and profound comment that "perhaps one could say that reckless banking, while causing many losses to creditors, speeded up the economic development of the United States, while sound banking may have retarded the economic development of Canada." Canada was blessed (or cursed, according to de Roover) in the nineteenth century with being part of Britain, and so inheriting England's much better-managed financial system.
Reckless banking is hard to define. Certainly, it is easy to make the case that Chinese banking has been reckless, especially in recent years, but it is a very different type of recklessness. Once again I cannot say with complete confidence how China's version of its development model differs meaningfully with the American System on the subject of banking, but I would suggest there are at least two very important differences.
First, the American financial system then (and now) has been very good at providing money to risky new ventures. It provides capital on the basis not only of asset value but, more importantly, on future growth expectations, and risk-taking has been actively rewarded. In China, it isn't clear that this is the case at all. Chinese banks favor large, well-connected, and often inefficient giants at the expense of risk-takers.
Second, although both systems were prone to bad lending, the American banking system tended to correct very quickly—in the form of a crisis—and bad loans were written down and liquidated almost immediately. This was certainly painful in the short term—especially if you were a depositor in the affected bank—but by writing down loans and liquidating assets, three important objectives were achieved. Financial distress costs were quickly eliminated (writing down debt does that in ways I won't get into because they are well-known and much discussed in corporate finance theory); capital allocation was driven by profitability, not by implicit guarantees; and assets were returned to economic usefulness quickly.
A classic example of the last of these objectives may be the response to the railway bubble of the 1860s. During and after the 1873 crisis, a number of railroads went bankrupt, including major lines like the Union Pacific and the Northern Pacific, the latter of which even brought down Jay Cooke & Company, the leading financier of the U.S. government during the Civil War. After the crisis, some major railway bonds traded as low as 15–20 percent of their original face value, and so they were purchased and reorganized at huge discounts. The new buyers were consequently able to cut freight and passenger costs dramatically, in some cases by over 50 percent, while still earning more than enough to cover the costs of buying the railroads. This led to a collapse in transportation costs in the United States.
Liquidation, in other words, provides an important economic value to the economy. It allows assets to be re-priced, which creates a boost to the economy and prevents those assets from acting as a deadweight loss. If the railroads hadn't been liquidated, in other words, any reduction in costs was likely to be minimal and the railroads would have been far less useful to the development of the U.S. economy.
Comparing Development Models
This blog entry is long, and I plan to write about this a lot more in the future, but for now I think it makes sense to summarize some of the important points about the American System and other similar growth models, like the Chinese version.
- Infant industry protection has worked to promote long-term development under certain conditions and has not worked under other conditions. I would argue that the key difference is that in the former case there were powerful forces that drove managerial and technological innovation and rapid growth in efficiency.
In the U.S. case, this seems to have been brutal domestic competition. If China wants to benefit from its own protection of infant industry, it is important that there be similar domestic drivers of innovation and efficiency. Note that access to cheap capital cannot be such a driver, even though it is one of the main sources of Chinese competitiveness. Access to cheap capital is just another way to protect infant industries from foreign competition. - Every country that has become sustainably rich has had significant government investment in infrastructure, but not every country that has had significant government investment in infrastructure has become sustainably rich. On the contrary, there are many cases of countries with extraordinarily high levels of infrastructure investment that have grown for a period and then faltered.
I would argue that the difference is almost certainly the extent of capital misallocation. In some countries, it has been much easier for policymakers to drive capital expenditures, and in those countries, it seems to have been relatively easy to waste investment. If this is the case in China, as I believe it is, the key issue for China is to rein in its spending and develop an alternative and better way to allocate capital.
The point is that there is a natural limit to infrastructure spending, and this limit is often imposed by institutional distortions in the market economy. When this natural limit is reached, more investment in infrastructure can be wealth-destroying, not wealth-enhancing, in which case it is far better to cut back on investment and to focus on reducing the institutional constraints to more productive use of capital, such as weak corporate governance and a weak legal framework. The pace of infrastructure investment cannot exceed the pace of institutional reform for very long without itself becoming a problem. - Any economy looking to achieve sustainable long-term growth must have what can be deemed a good financial system that allocates capital efficiently and rewards the correct level of risk-taking. It is hard to determine what the characteristics of a good financial system are, but we shouldn't be too quick to assume that this has to do with stability.
What's more, while obviously the capital allocation process is vitally important, I would also suggest that the liquidation of bad loans is just as important. Bad loans, as Japan showed us in the past two decades, can become a serious impediment to growth, in part because financial distress distorts management incentives in the way widely understood and described in corporate finance theory, and in part because they retard the process by which bad investment is absorbed by the economy. - One thing I have not discussed above is the role of wages. The American System was developed in opposition to the then-dominant economic theories of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, in part because classic British economic theory seemed to imply that reductions in wages were positive for economic growth by making manufacturing more competitive in international markets. A main focus of the American System, however, was to explain what policies the United States, with its much higher wages than in Europe at the time, had to engineer to generate rapid growth. Sustaining high wages, in fact, became one of the key aspects of the American System.
The Japanese version of this development model, as well as many of the various versions implemented in other countries throughout the twentieth century, shared its view of wages not with the American System, but rather with classic British economic theory. Rather than take steps to force up wages and keep them high—thereby both driving productivity growth and creating a large domestic consumption market for American producers—many of the later versions of the American System sought to repress growth in household income relative to total production as a way of improving international competitiveness. This is perhaps the main reason why the United States, unlike many other countries that have implemented similar development strategies in the twentieth Century, tended to run large current account deficits for much of the nineteenth Century.
This different focus on whether high wages are to be encouraged or discouraged, I believe—although very little discussed in the theoretical literature as far as I know—nonetheless is perhaps the most important difference between the American development model and its many descendants in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. I would even argue, although I cannot prove it, that one consequence of this difference is that growth in demand tends to be more sustainable when it is balanced between growth in both consumption and investment.
In analyzing China's growth in the past three decades, we seem to forget that there have been many so-called growth miracles in the past two hundred years. Some have been sustainable and have led to developed-country status, but many, if not most, were ultimately unsustainable. Nearly all of the various versions have had some similar characteristics—most obviously infant industry protection, state-led investment in infrastructure, and a financial system that disproportionately favored producers at the expense of savers. But the way these characteristics played out were very different, in large part because the institutional structure of the economy and the financial sector created a very different set of incentives.
I would argue that, in understanding China's growth and its sustainability, we need to have a clear understanding of why these characteristics worked in some cases and not in others. Most economists who focus on China seem to know little about economic history, and when they do, their knowledge tends to be limited to a very superficial understanding of U.S. economic history. But there are many precedents for what is happening in China and not all suggest that further Chinese growth is inevitable.
On the contrary, the historical precedents should worry us. In most cases, they suggest that China has a very difficult adjustment ahead of it, and the closest parallels to its decades of miracle growth suggest unfavorable outcomes. Understanding why the growth model has succeeded in some few cases and failed in most will help us enormously in understanding China's prospects.


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WEG, a leading global manufacturer of motors and drive technology, will be launching its brand new Industry 4.0 compatable motor scanning device at this year's Drives and Controls exhibition. This new technology is targeted at engineers, who are tasked with monitoring the health of their installed motors in order to guarantee uptime and efficiency of processes. Essentially, the new technology allows periodic monitoring of motor performance via a smart device App. Based on the data that is captured, engineers can make performance based decisions around preventative maintenance schedules in order to ensure production uptime.
Also on display will be WEG's extensive range of energy efficient motors and drives. Highlights include their recently expanded WG20 geared motors portfolio with helical, parallel-shaft and helical bevel gear drives for rated torques up to 4500 Nm. The housings of the new gear units are manufactured from grey cast iron and are especially sturdy. The gearboxes are ideal for demanding applications and are available with high-performance motors in energy efficiency classes up to IE4, providing a good power to weight ratio.
"In line with an ever evolving market place, WEG is focusing on engineering technology within the field of Industry 4.0 that have direct benefits for customers at a commercially viable cost" stated Marek Lukaszczyk, European & Middle East Marketing Manager "The new technology we are launching at Drives and Controls will show exactly how the theory of IOT can be turned into a reality to enable benefits for maintenance professionals across all industry sectors"


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Your correspondent predicted correctly. Your curiosity would get the better of you. You would arrive at The Room, sparse but for an unusual safe, seeking answers. In order to protect it from lesser minds, a box, something they said could never be built, is secreted inside the safe. Your first task is unlocking the mysteries of the safe. Once you do, like your epistolarian host, you're irrevocably imbibed by an eagerness to know more, fingers drawn to a tiny panel to unlatch, an oddly-placed contraption to wind up, or an arcane design in gold. Thusly, you are subsumed by The Room, a splendidly surreal, 3D puzzle adventure from Fireproof Games.
The Room consists of four chapters. You begin in view of a small side table, upon which is an envelope. To angle yourself within reach of it, tap and swipe the screen. A couple more slight gestures let you slide a letter out of the envelope and turn it over to read. "I have every faith in you solving its mysteries," you're told of this unique box. "You always were the smart one," and "The stakes are higher than you could possibly imagine," proffer further enticement to carry on through dexterous puzzles and clever riddles, seeking yet another key to another latch or one more clue to just one more coded lock. Stopping at this point appears to be much more difficult than the current quandary that befuddles you.
SEE ALSO ON JAYISGAMES: The Room Two
This is because The Room's touch controls make immersion as natural as scratching an itch. A briefly worded tutorial initiates you in all the controls and soon they are intuitive. For the most part, you'll make use of your tablet's multitouch functions, tapping your way around all sides of the beautifully appointed constructions which make up the safe, the box, and all the devices, knobs, drawers and secret messages therein. The distance between you and the game's completion is paced out by a need to explore every interactive area—some conveniently obvious and others much more well-hidden—correctly deciphering a puzzle then activating the next sequence of requirements.
While your lateral thinking and deduction skills will be put on trial, puzzles are usually solved through manipulation, either through a deft swipe or, occasionally, tilting your mobile device, so most the challenge is mitigated by how observant you are in your explorations. There is an amazing amount of interesting cachés and designs to examine and they're multiplied by a special eyepiece received early on. Gameplay is similar to the Dismantlement series of games, even if the look and scope is much broader. Rather than escape, you are pulled further inside.
In those occasions your progress deeper into the box is stymied, tapping the "?" icon will provide a hint. Hints are scaffolded so that the first usually states what you already know, then, after a few minutes, the next should prove more helpful. Often in that time, your diligence in exploring will uncover the solution before more hints are needed. Progress is punctuated by more correspondence from your host. Each letter continues a narration about the device's incredible powers and explains its origins. As you read, you partake and empathize with his inability to let go. Chapters end by opening the next stage, taking you deeper toward the center and more revelations.
Analysis: There is very little to displease in Fireproof Game's remarkable creation. My biggest complaint is its being too short. "Too short" being operative for "I want to never stop playing with this gorgeous, gadget populated box!" and thus we can only impatiently wait for an update or another installment of the game. Yet, as far as value goes, this was perhaps the most fulfilling app I've purchased to date, affirming every good reason to possess an iPad. The exceedingly astute player might complete his or her adventure in under ninety minutes but most of us will spend over two hours in downright awe, especially those who enjoy lingering over lovely visual effects and whose latent compulsiveness to observe every detail is ignited by the intricate artistry.
The Room is remarkably well-constructed and designed, to the point that immersion overrides any sense of your surroundings beyond the box's apparatuses. That leads to the next small blemish on this beautifully imaginative game—an incomplete 360° navigation. Well, it's not a flaw, really, except the wealth of imagination crafted into layers of contraptions and architecture transmute to the player's increased desire to play and assay. Which precipitates frustration when we're only allowed certain views of the box's details or only certain hotspots are active. From distant angles, you can fully circumnavigate the box; once you zoom in, though, you cannot move freely around the box. It's a complaint that wouldn't and shouldn't exist, that only arises because of the superior way Fireproof has made this room appear so real and this box feel as if we're actually moving our hands and eyes along every side.
Here is a box, blooming at your curiosity and to your delight, furnished with copious amounts of magnetic fascination and little else. You'll learn "the truth of your predicament" soon, but it's never enough to regret the experience. Myst-like in its ability to evoke a mesmerized state of engagement, The Room is eye candy for the mind.
NOTE: This game was played and reviewed on the iPad 2. Game was available in the North American market at the time of publication, but may not be available in other territories. Please see individual app market pages for purchasing info.


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Monday, February 22, 2010
Texas Poll Preview
-Debra Medina actually leads the race with people who think she's not a truther- with 33% to 32% for Kay Bailey Hutchison and 29% for Rick Perry. But with voters who think she is a truther, or that she might be, she gets only 7% to 51% for Perry and 30% for Hutchison. What portion of the electorate do each of those groups comprise? We'll tell you tomorrow.
-In yet another sign that there may really be no difference between the 'Tea Party' and the Republican Party, 74% of GOP primary voters there say they 'support the goals of the Tea Party movement.' It's basically the whole party sans the moderates...if centrist Republicans split off and did their own thing that might really shake up American politics. More and more though it looks like the 'Tea Party' movement is nothing more than a group of GOP voters who gave themselves a special name.
12 comments:
- Medina is definitely a 9/11 truther said...
Watch this video if you still have questions about Debra Medina and whether she is a 9/11 truther: http://www.youtube.com/user/poorkay2010
- February 22, 2010 at 3:56 PM
- Unknown said...
Let's hope that Texans voters are smart enough to realize that it was a smear job by Beck and that she is not and never will be a truther.
- February 22, 2010 at 4:38 PM
Our county in early voting is showing 28% have never voted in a primary in Texas. Would that make your poll have a 28% error amount?
- February 22, 2010 at 5:31 PM
Not valid statistics. That's like saying 75% of college students drink beer so beer drinkers are nothing more than college students.
- February 22, 2010 at 7:29 PM
- Brandon K said...
Are you doing Texas again this weekend?
- February 22, 2010 at 8:02 PM
Not really...what it's saying is that if you are polling "likely Republican voters" in this poll, then you are missing at least 1 in 4 voters that are ACTUALLY voting in the Republican Primary. These polls would thus be accurate within their margin of error for the 75% that historically voted in the GOP Primary.
So, what you need to know is how the other 25% are leaning. My guess would be that since 25% had NEVER voted in a Primary before, that they probably weren't motivated to come out and support two career politicians like Rick and Kay. Most of them are probably supporting Debra Medina. Certainly not all...but I'd bet most.
That means you need to multiply the polls numbers by .75 and then add how much of that 25% you think each one will get to the three candidates to get a better guess of where things really lie.
For instance, if Debra Medina is polling at 24% in the poll that comes out tomorrow, then she is really hitting 18% (24% *.75) of the total voters casting votes and may have up to 25% added on top of that for a potential vote turnout of 43%. - February 23, 2010 at 12:21 AM
- Unknown said...
Many counties are, indeed, showing that over 25% of the early voters have never voted in a primary before.
This would mean that, if Debra were receiving 100% of those votes, using the 24% she received from the previous PPP poll - Debra would have almost 45%. - February 23, 2010 at 2:45 AM
- John said...
Waiting impatiently :)
- February 23, 2010 at 4:23 AM
I would hope that people would use their own judgement about Debra Medina instead of blindly following Beck or anyone else. Here's Debra:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q73c5DEyTXU ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dmx92TFv-g ;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARyhX_srQvY
- February 23, 2010 at 6:29 AM
Medina a truther? Please...
Anyone saying Medina is a truther at this point is either a total moronic fool, or in the tank for someone else. - February 23, 2010 at 9:04 AM
- Michelle said...
Medina is NOT a truther - http://www.medinafortexas.com/getPost?p=272
- February 23, 2010 at 9:25 AM
- doohap said...
Where are the new numbers????
- February 23, 2010 at 9:28 AM