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On the days that, as an ecological economist, I should be closely following the Durban UNFCCC meeting I am finding it difficult to think of anything apart from the financial crisis and the Eurozone Soap Opera.
Why? It seems to me that there is little point in the illusory design, and then advocacy, of claimed solutions to the climate crisis in current circumstances – at least not while our societies are dominated by a elite that is in large part kleptocratic. What we are now witnessing is their destructive and ultimately futile agenda to rescue themselves at the expense of the rest of society. This is from a crisis which was, to a considerable degree, although not entirely, of their own making.
Simple messages about messy situations
Having written that I have to admit, however, that a message put like that is too simple. To explain the current situation by blaming bankers is largely right but it's a message that needs qualification. That's a drag because people prefer simple messages especially when they imply simple solutions. The easy to hear messages are easier to take in and give the audience more hope.
Alas, that is precisely why simple narratives are so seductively misleading and why they are suitable for political demagogues – but not for dealing with messy reality. That's why I think it important to emphasize, before going on to describe the crimes of the financial elite, some of the other problems that would NOT be dealt with by locking up bankers.
Difficult as the message is to hear it seems to me that it is essential that the popular mobilisations of outrage and emotion against the banksters are informed by the fact that there are three crises, not one. There is certainly a crisis of the financial system largely created by a massive amount of elite fraud during the "euphoric economy" of the bubble years. However there is also a crisis of uneven development where competitive imbalances between many parts of the world have reached their outer limits. Also, probably most important of all, there is a crisis caused by the global economy reaching the limits to economic growth – with constraints in resource availability, and destructive pressure on overused ecological sinks. Let's look at the last two, taking the growing competitive imbalances first.
China and the USA
At least some of the current conditions are the result of uneven developments that have evolved through competitive imbalances in the global economy. The relationship between the Chinese and the American economy is a case in point. The Chinese are really struggling to adapt their economic growth process to their domestic market and away from exports. This is because the US economy is collapsing and because it makes little sense to accumulate more dollars that the Chinese cannot spend in the US. When the US export market collapsed after 2007 the Chinese government boosted infrastructure and residential building on bank credit to maintain growth and employment – but thereby created a bubble that is now bursting.
The Eurozone Crisis
A very similar crisis caused by accentuated competitive imbalances reaching their outer limit has occurred in Europe too. Whereas the US-Chinese relation is based on the Chinese pegging the yuan-dollar rate, the situation in the eurozone is caused by there being only one currency for very different countries. And the "one size" for interest rates and exchange rates has definitely not fit all. One currency for the entire eurozone made it impossible for a number of countries to devalue to defend their traded good economy against the might of Germany.
In those circumstances peripheral countries which cannot compete with German imports, find themselves borrowing from banks to pay for an import surplus. They have also been tempted to support employment through the state sector funded on easy credit (e.g. Greece).
Alternatively, it seems to be the fate of economies that have stalled, because of competitive pressure, to seek easy profits in bank credit inflated real estate bubbles. In the EU this was partly helped along by EU infrastructural investment (Ireland and Spain). When the credit crunch happened the bubbles burst and the bad debts of the banks were passed to the states who were now anyway struggling with declining tax revenues and rising interest rates on state debt. This created a sort of a sub prime sovereign debt crisis – starting with Greece which already had large debts because its elite don't pay taxes, because of the Olympic debts and because of disproportionate military expenditure that arise from the long-standing troubled relationship with Turkey.
As interest rates have shot up states that previously had little problem with fiscal deficits suddenly found it impossible to finance themselves and launched ferocious austerity programmes. In short it's a mess – of competitive differences, imploding property bubbles and debt deflationary spirals on state finances in peripheral countries.
Needless to say these processes also undermine German exports and German banks. The recent summit did absolutely nothing to resolve that. In fact it is an illusion that tighter fiscal discipline will solve anything – because it does not address underlying causes. By all accounts, europe's banks are now on the edge. Their inadequate capital brings them near to collapse.
The Limits to Growth
While the lights are going off all over the eurozone, that's not even the main problem!. The really big issue is the predicament facing all countries on planet earth – the contractionary forces attendant on reaching the limits to economic growth. Let's remember that a major part of the context that made it difficult for people to service all the debts that they had taken on were the spectacularly high oil and energy prices – particularly when oil producing countries did not spend their revenues back into circulation, but lent the money back as capital.
This is the stuff that Feasta and other ecological economists have been banging on about for several decades. Well we are there now. We have hit 'peak debt' at the same time as we have hit 'peak oil'. When Ben Bernanke mentioned the fact that he "can't print oil" he was referring to the remarkable fact that, despite the recessionary conditions, the oil price bounced back up again to over a hundred dollars a barrel. This will place a severe physical constraint on further growth and create particular difficulties for global transport given that it is almost wholely dependent on liquid fuels.
Slowly the peak oil message is being taken in. In a recent lecture Chris Martenson shows how limits to growth and peak oil ideas are slowly filtering into the mainstream. A big question is when the peak oil and limits to growth ideas move from being an increasingly influential minority view to the new mainstream that everyone takes for granted. At that point in time it will get taken seriously inside the political mainstream and politicians will stop bleating about getting growth going again – and wake up to the fact that different thinking is needed.
Market Psychology – when depression is a sort of "progress"
There's an idea here from psychotherapy which I think might give us a useful insight. When a deluded patient, or one who has been in denial, becomes depressed, then that is, paradoxically, often taken by their therapist as "a good sign". Their depression is connected to moving out of the denial state and actually taking in their real situation, which is not really as rosy as their deluded patient previously wanted to believe.
It is probably in conditions where "the markets" have….at long last…. begun to mentally adapt to how bad things are that they will at last be open to even more bad news, painful as that will nevertheless be. And the next step might then also become possible. An openness to the implications of the peak oil message may then mentally create the capacity to accept the reality of climate change too.
There is one view in which the discovery of peak oil by the financial markets will bring about a crisis of market confidence that then morphs into economic depression and collapse. However there is an equally plausible idea that turns that idea on its head – in other words, economic depression creates a state of turmoil in which, as people more realistically look at their desperate state, they are at last prepared to accept that peak oil is one of their problems. Then, once they have done that, it is a no longer such a big step to take in the reality of climate change too, and the whole idea of "limits to growth". Alternatively, those who earlier held sway in the political mainstream by an optimistic view are now so severely discredited that they find themselves displaced by others.
At this point the entire Zeitgeist would change and creating a collective orientation for a radically different kind of economic development…..well, maybe….
….but before I get carried away in rosy futuristic speculation there are a few other matters that need sorting out – like the fact that we are governed in the interests of a kleptocratic elite.
It does not follow that if society takes on board how bad things are that everyone will come together and start to do what they can in the broader interest. The system that we currently have is defined by its purpose – which is for individuals to enrich themselves and to make as much money as possible. In conditions of contraction and collapse there are still opportunities to do that – and unless we are able to stop it those opportunities will increasingly shift from the production of 'goods' to the production of 'bads'. By this I mean, for example, producing armaments, supplying "security services" and mercenaries, building and running prisons and prison work camps – or selling legal (or illegal) drugs to help people forget their fear, misery and pain. In this process the idea, derived originally from Adam Smith, that by pursuing self interest people will indirectly create broader social welfare, will be seen for what it is – a self serving ideology that gives carte blanche for ruthless people without scruples to do whatever they like.
Pre-revolutionary societies?
In a recent interview on the internet at "Democracy Now" I witnessed the economist Michael Hudson talk about the situation created by the Occupy movement in the United States. The victims of economic processes had started to talk with each other and were beginning to understand what was happening. He then concluded by described the USA as entering a "pre-revolutionary" phase. This was qualified by saying that he thought the revolution would be peaceful.
Indeed, it will have to be. However, that is going to be a tough call given the way in which the "forces of law and order" have responded so far – with pepper spray, gas and baton charges.
There are no ways of ignoring the potential for conflict ahead. A period of contraction inevitably throws up issues of distribution – how the pain is to be shared. All the wonderful ideas that you can find created by the Transition Movement will get us nowhere unless we also take this in. OK so we set up "life boat" community gardens everywhere – and who will own the land and how much rent will they charge us for the privilege of growing food on "their" land?
Even if we put our gardens on local authority land we are likely to find that the public authorities are charging the highest rents which desperation, caused by depression, makes possible. Last year at this time at a conference in Berlin I listened to colleagues from the USA telling how, for years, community gardens had been the only thing going in urban landscapes when the local economy had collapsed. So what were local authorities now doing? Community gardens were suddenly recognised as a profit opportunity so they were bringing in corporations to take over a process originally organised by grassroots communities.
Letting the real criminals get away and persecuting their victims
That's why I think that one of the main jobs of work to be done at this time is to try to communicate to whoever has integrity in the public authorities to show that they are currently letting one the biggest crimes in world history take place before their eyes and then siding with the criminals against the victims.
The biggest crimes have been by the bankers and the legal action should be against them. At the moment chances of success for such an endeavour do not look good – yet they are not totally hopeless. This is shown by the recent announced legal action by the Massachusetts Attorney General against the biggest banks in the foreclosure game – namely Bank of America, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, GMAC (now Ally) as well as MERS and its parent MERSCorp.
However getting successful legal actions against the defence of high paid lawyers, and getting penalties appropriate to the scale of the crime is another matter. Big corporations are fined less than the cost of their crimes and executives walk away unscathed regularly.
Corporate Psychopaths and the Crisis
Let's look at some frightening facts about the nature of financial crime, the kind of people behind it and the influence that the criminals have now achieved in the political system. A few days ago a friend sent me a link to a peer reviewed paper in the 'Journal of Business Ethics' written by Clive R Boddy "The Corporate Psychopaths Theory of the Global Financial Crisis". In the paper Boddy argues that "psychopaths working in corporations and in financial corporations, in particular, have had a major part in causing the crisis."
"The Corporate Psychopaths Theory of the Global Financial Crisis is that Corporate Psychopaths, rising to key senior positions within modern financial corporations, where they are able to influence the moral climate of the whole organisation and yield considerable power, have largely caused the crisis. In these senior corporate positions, the Corporate Psychopath's single-minded pursuit of their own self-enrichment and self aggrandizement to the exclusion of all other considerations has led to an abandonment of the old fashioned concept of noblesse oblige, equality, fairness, or of any real notion of corporate social responsibility."
Well, one can question whether there was ever an age in which things were better. In his major study The Secret Life of Real Estate and Banking Phillip J Anderson covers over two hundred years of American financial and real estate history. He shows that periods in which financial and real estate crime ran rife re-occur time and again. This crime was always tightly interconnected into the political system.
"One thing that stands out when you read US economic economic and banking history is the extent of political corruption, which can only be described as absolutely rampant. Today's African dictator has nothing on a few of yesterday's US politicians. Much, though by no means all, of the corruption was connected with real estate, railroads and banking" (The Secret Life of Real Estate and Banking, published by Shepheard-Walwyn, 2008, p.116)
In the theory developed by Hyman Minsky, the end of the economic cycle is typically a speculative boom during a period that Minsky calls "The Euphoric Economy". In these periods criminal excess gets out of hand. Although most economists assume that market actors are rational calculating individuals, during a speculative boom they are no such thing. Many lose their emotional balance and operate in a manic herd, letting go of any kind of ethical restraint. During such periods criminal behaviour becomes the norm.
The "liars' loans" in the sub prime market were criminal fraud. Lying on the loan applications was fraud. Giving loans when it was known there was no chance that they could be serviced to earn a brokerage fee was fraud. Overvaluing houses, so that even larger loans could be given out and even larger broker fees received, was fraud. Failing to keep adequate and truthful documentation about these loans was fraud. Packaging these 'toxic assets' and selling them on was fraud. Giving them AAA ratings without really looking was fraud or grave negligence.
Then knowingly taking out multiple credit default insurance and shorting these assets in the knowledge that these loans were toxic was fraud, as was using friends in the US government to ensure that AIG paid up on the credit default swaps when it went bust. At each step of the chain people made money by issuing and packaging up so called 'toxic assets" that they knew were worthless – and by not taking out sufficient provisions against what was obviously going to be an avalanche of bad debts.
An epidemic of fraud and nothing done
As early as 2004 the FBI warned of an epidemic of fraud in the home loans market and of the likely consequences. So what was done?
Nothing. Yet, Professor of Economics and Law, William K Black, estimates that there must have been at least a half million felonies committed.
Why the failure to act?
In part nothing was done because toxic economic theory said that nothing needed to be done – because markets were efficient and could price in risk for themselves. When it was assumed that nothing needed to be done the markets could be taken over by criminals.
"Cometh the hour, cometh the man" – "Cometh the euphoric economy, cometh the fraudsters and psychopaths".
In an earlier article on this blog I mentioned a scientific study, quoted on the website of the German magazine, Der Spiegel, comparing finance market traders with psychopaths in a swiss jail – where the traders come out looking a lot worse.
"….the thing that mattered above all else to the traders was to get more than those that they were playing against and they used a lot of energy to damage these others". The researcher compared these traders to someone who had the same kind of car as their neighbour and who used a baseball bat to attack the similar car on the street, so that they were on top.
"Aktienhaendler aehneln Psychopathen" in Der Spiegel 39/26.9.2011 or at http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/0,1518,788232,00.html
After this I came across a similar study cited by George Monbiot, published by the journal "Psychology, Crime and Law". The study's authors, Belinda Board and Katarina Fritzon, tested 39 senior managers and chief executives from leading British businesses. "They compared the results to the same tests on patients at Broadmoor special hospital, where people who have been convicted of serious crimes are incarcerated. On certain indicators of psychopathy, the bosses's scores either matched or exceeded those of the patients. In fact on these criteria they beat even the subset of patients who had been diagnosed with psychopathic personality disorders."
"The psychopathic traits on which the bosses scored so highly, Board and Fritzon point out, closely resemble the characteristics that companies look for. Those who have these traits often possess great skill in flattering and manipulating powerful people. Egocentricity, a strong sense of entitlement, a readiness to exploit others and a lack of empathy and conscience are also unlikely to damage their prospects in many corporations."
Anyone who has seen the film "Inside Job " will have seen how this happened in the USA. The film puts faces to the chief people responsible – including the scandalous role played by establishment economists. For academic insight one can also read the writings of Professor William Black, who, in an earlier job, led the prosecution process against the fraudsters of the Savings and Loan crisis. He too writes about the psychopathic personality characteristics of the leaders of corporations perpetrating financial fraud.
What ought to happen during, or at least after, a fraud epidemic is that the fraudsters get their come-uppance through legal action against their crimes. It happened at the end of the Savings and Loans Crisis of the late 1980s in the USA. A thousand were convicted and many ended up behind bars. What is alarming about the current situation is that there is little sign now that this is happening. The political system seems to have been taken over by the super rich which explains the upsurge of the Occupy Movement in the USA and globally.
Zombie banks and a parasitical financial sector
The elite are now so powerful that they were able to walk away from the crash with their fortunes intact – and the financial corporations that they created, that are really insolvent, are left in a sort of suspended animation, like vampires clinging onto a sort of life by draining the resources from the global economy.
The attempt by the financial sector to cling to life has turned its relationship to the productive economy into parasitism. In the UK for example the banks contribute next to nothing to the productive economy – only 8% of their loans are to productive investment. Instead the UK banks engaged in much the same kind of reckless lending which pumped up land and property prices and destabilised the economy. As in the USA, the accountants, politicians and regulators were hopeless or complicit by doing nothing to prevent the inevitable disaster.
As Black explains, when the managers of banks run them in their own private interests they go hell for leather to build up apparent assets by relaxing lending standards – lending responsibly cannot quickly build up "assets"in the way that lending to anyone can, irrespective of whether they can pay back. That is bound to look good initially and is therefore good for bonuses – especially if you don't also set money aside for the bad debts that are then going to happen. So here's the story of Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS – whose senior managers walked away with their golden handshakes, leaving the taxpayers to foot the bill when the banks crashed.
So where does this leave us?
As explained at the beginning of this article there are really three dimensions to the current crisis: the banking and finance dimension of elite fraud; a crisis of uneven development accentuated by competition that has reached outer limits; and a limits to growth crisis. Action to clean up the banking sector, even if successful, will not alone resolve all of our predicaments which are far too complex and deep seated.
That said, without dealing with the bankers and the banking system we will not get far in resolving the other problems. During the boom a massive inflation of financial assets was created that only has value, ultimately, if these assets are able to function as claims on real wealth and real economic activity. But there is no prospect of expansion of real productive capacity. There is no sign whatsoever that a robust economic growth will get going again to make possible a servicing and repayment of the debts out of rising income. The result is that societies are being turned into debtors' prisons for a psychopathic elite – although this process is being contested. As the Occupy Movement clarifies what it stands for it is to be hoped that the contest with the financial system takes a more definite form. In this respect we need some kind of manageable debt jubilee that is fair to all, including those who are not in debt. We need to take away from the banks the right to extend credit by creating new money. And we need to investigate and clean up the chief perpetrators of banking crime and fraud.
There is no easy way out of our various predicaments – there will be a long and difficult struggle for a contractionary transition hopefully to a different kind of energy system and to a different kind of society. What an ecological society needs to look like has been known now for decades but we have made little progress getting there. We need re-localised economies, using ecological design principles and technologies, with a strong emphasis on community economic arrangements managing the spaces and places where we live (reviving commons principles for communities that are collectively managing places).
It is either that or the profits of ruthlessness and barbarism will drive and guide future economic development because the antics of the banking and finance system have stood in the way of eco-economic transition. The elite of super rich psychopaths are not the least bit interested in participating in an equitable transition and making it climate friendly. They are desperately hanging onto any strategy, any move, that will help them retain and re-inflate the value of their paper assets – which, since growth cannot occur, must inevitably be at the expense of the whole of the rest of society. It is their antics, their strategy, their priorities, their way of describing things that are broadcast in the mass media and form the basis for the way most people (vaguely) understand what is happening.
This narrowly focussed and self-serving (mis)understanding of the crisis needs to be challenged. Projects that help communities practically need to be built and combined with the movements of protest to ensure that that the banker interests, the psychopaths who are a grave danger to the future of society, are brought to heel. During and after the crisis that they have created they will still be a danger because they will seek to move their riches into the scarce natural capital resources that societies need to protect and to manage in the interests of all. Without dealing with this group I doubt we will get very far dealing with climate change or any of the other predicaments of the 21st century.
Having written this article raising the alarm about corporate psychopaths I came across a more nuanced view of financial service managers in a research study sponsored by the St Paul's Institute. I don't think there is a need to change the main argument because this article is about the people who lead the key economic and political institutions. However, the study gives a view of others who far from being "Masters of the Universe" come over to me as people who follow, feeling slightly guilty about what is happening, and what they are doing, but without the assertiveness or strength to do anything about it, pushing away their sense of unease during the partying with their colleagues…..
"about two thirds of respondents to a survey of 515 financial services managers think that financial services professionals are overpaid and about the same percentage declare that salary and bonuses are their principal motivating factor in the work environment – so a significant number must be in both camps!" … A comment on the findings of the survey by churchman Right Rev Dr Peter Selby suggests that it is difficult to engage with this group because:
"A mixture of fear for one's own future, actual loyalty to colleagues, and the peer pressure that operates in highly demanding work situations represent significant obstacles to engagement that is effective in engendering change, rather than simply a rehearsal of faint-hearted guilt."
Read the study (PDF document)
Saying that the people in the finance industry are greedy may often be true but it is too simplistic to be a full explanation. One way of generalising this may be to say that a highly demanding, and rather technical job, where deals are mediated through computers rather than face to face human contact, will leave you no time or energy to reflect on deeper emotional and ethical issues. Your social circle is likely to be your work network to whom you will have a strong loyalty because you know few others, and you will probably not be able to speak with others about what you do. The fear of losing work, income and your social network if you lose your job will be great, creating a strong pressure to conformity – even though you have a distant guilty feeling that all may not be well with what one is doing. That guilty feeling will then be held at bay, pushed to the margins of one's consciousness….
We think of financial market traders behaving arrogantly as if they were "masters of the universe" – again, that may have some truth, particularly for the chief executives who lead their companies over the edge. However, what kind of personality is it that follows these leaders into the abyss? The answer is people who have no real values or ideas of their own. People who are without any kind of ethical or community compass, people who have not done their assertiveness training, who have not yet learned to say "NO", who follow the group for fear of being outcasts, even when they know, in a held at bay part of their psyche, that they are not doing the right thing.
According to insiders experienced traders in the Royal Bank of Scotland recently made unwise derivatives based bets on sovereign debt – why, because they were bowing to group pressure – ref. http://www.ianfraser.org/st-pauls-institute-shines-a-light-on-the-city-of-londons-dark-heart/.
Featured image: Putrid apple. Author: Alexander Kalina. Source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/906047
Brian Davey graduated from the Nottingham University Department of Economics and, aside from a brief spell working in eastern Germany showing how to do community development work, has spent most of his life working in the community and voluntary sector in Nottingham particularly in health promotion, mental health and environmental fields. He helped form Ecoworks, a community garden and environmental project for people with mental health problems. He is a member of Feasta Climate Working Group and former co-ordinator of the Cap and Share Campaign. He is editor of the Feasta book Sharing for Survival: Restoring the Climate, the Commons and Society, and the author of Credo: Economic Beliefs in a World in Crisis.


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I own two of her cookbooks. My husband's side of the family is - numerous! When I have a family gathering 40-45 people of all generations will show up.That is not the time to try out your 12-step recipe! I have found her recipes add elegance to the proceedings and her food is packed with flavor - because the woman is not afraid of using fat!
It's been written that the ease and success of her recipes is because she is very careful to have the recipes tested by others again and again before she publishes them. I chose Garten's Warm Mushroom Salad from Barefoot in Paris. In the opening paragraph, Garten admits, "It's Italian!"
Mushrooms - you love them or you hate them (especially if you are a child). In this recipe - you love them. There's an early spring brewing around the country. Although in Minnesota - we are skeptical.
"Does this mean it will snow for 8 months next year," asks my daughter.
"Does this mean we will have 100-degree weather all summer," I muse.
A smart person would tell us to turn off our thoughts, get outside and enjoy the early warmth. Think of this March as a gift - instead of worrying what Mother Nature in Minnesota is really planning!
Ina Garten's Warm Mushroom Salad - serves 4
16 ounces cremini mushrooms, wiped clean (use your favorites)
2 tablespoons butter (I used Earth balance and I used less)
4 tablespoons olive oil - divided (I used less)
1 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly-cracked pepper
4 bunches (I used 4 cups) fresh arugula - cleaned
8 slices good Italian prosciutto (I used 4)
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar (I used a little less but oh do love sherry vinegar!)
Chunk of Parmesan cheese for shaving
8 sun-dried tomatoes - drained and cut into slivers
Italian parsley for scattering
Clean mushrooms by brushing them with a sponge - do not wash or immerse in water. Remove stems and save for another use (I just used them.) Slice the caps 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.
In a large saute pan, melt the butter and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. When all is bubbly add the mushrooms, salt and pepper. Saute 5 minutes over medium heat - stirring. Lower the heat and saute another 2-3 minutes until cooked.
Arrange arugula on plates - 1 cup for each plate. Drape your prosciutto over the arugula. When the mushrooms are cooked, add the sherry vinegar and the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Stir. Spoon the warm mushrooms on top of the arugula and prosciutto. With a vegetable peeler, shave parmesan on top of all. Sprinkle Italian parsley and sun-dried tomatoes about. Finish with a bit more of the salt and pepper. Serve.
It's perfect. It's spring. It's robins in my backyard, ducks in my front yard and geese flying overhead.

subset: commoncrawl


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This Authentic Pörkölt is What Most People Call "Goulash"
Everybody has heard of goulash, right? You know — that hearty meat stew with a thick, rich gravy spiced with paprika and caraway seeds. And a flavor that goes on until next week.
Well, guess what? That stew is actually called pörkölt (pronounced pur-kult). Goulash (gulyás), although made from similar ingredients, is a soup. No thick gravy in sight. But the flavors of the two are similar.
You can use almost any meat to make pörkölt. In Hungary, pork or veal often star in this dish. In the US, beef tends to be what cooks reach for most often. Its flavor becomes delectable when braised in a long-cooking dish like this.
You can make pörkölt ahead, and reheat just before serving. Dish it up with a side of Homemade Spätzle, and you'll be the most popular cook in the neighborhood.
Recipe: Hungarian Beef Paprika Stew (Pörkölt)
This dish gets its flavor from well-browned onions and beef simmered in paprika-flavored liquid for at least two hours. Although recipes for pork or veal pörkölt often specify water as the simmering liquid, for beef I prefer to use beef stock — it adds more flavor.
Paprika gives this dish a lot of its characteristic taste, so you want to use high quality, fresh paprika. If your paprika is more than 6 months old, it's probably lost much of its flavor. In that case, I'd toss it and get a new container (it's not that expensive). If your supermarket carries imported Hungarian paprika, it's worth buying for this dish.
My recipe is adapted from one that Susan Derecskey presents in The Hungarian Cookbook. This recipe serves 6 to 8, and leftovers keep for several days in the refrigerator.
It's a bit hard to estimate preparation and cooking time for this dish, because it depends partially on your skills (and how large a skillet you have for browning meat). Cutting up the meat and chopping vegetables might take 15 minutes. Browning the meat usually takes me at least half an hour, often a bit longer. Braising time for the meat is 2 hours, largely unattended.
As noted up top, Homemade Spätzle is a wonderful (and traditional) accompaniment for this dish. And to start the meal, Hungarian Cucumber Salad would be ideal (and again, traditional).
- 1 large onion, diced (a good cup or a bit more)
- 1 tablespoon neutral oil (for browning onion), plus about 2 tablespoons neutral oil for browning meat
- salt to taste
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 2 - 4 garlic cloves, sliced or minced (optional; not traditional in pörkölt, but tasty)
- ~2½ pounds lean stewing beef (bottom or top round are excellent choices; quantity need not be exact)
- ~4 cups beef stock (you can substitute water; see Notes)
- 2 - 3 teaspoons paprika (fresh is better; see headnote)
- ¼ teaspoon whole caraway seeds, crushed
- ½ teaspoon dried marjoram
- 1 medium green pepper
- 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch to thicken gravy (very optional and not traditional; see Notes)
- 4 tablespoons water (for mixing cornstarch; optional)
- chopped parsley for garnish (optional)
- Peel the onion and cut into ½-inch dice. Place a 3-quart Dutch oven (or similar heavy pot) on a burner, and heat on medium until hot (about 2 minutes). When hot, add 1 tablespoon oil and allow to heat (it will ripple when ready; this takes only a few seconds). Add the onion, salt and pepper to taste, and turn down the heat a bit. You want the onion to turn quite brown — this will take at least 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, peel and mince or slice the garlic. Add it to the onion during the last few minutes of the onion's cooking time.
- While browning the onion, you can also begin browning the beef chunks. The better the crust you put on the beef chunks, the tastier the stew will be.
- Cut the beef into cubes of about an inch (remove excess fat and gristle as you go). Pat the beef chunks dry with paper towels (wet beef doesn't brown), then lightly salt and pepper.
- Heat a large skillet on medium until hot (about 2 minutes). Add about 2 tablespoons of oil, allow to warm (this takes seconds with a hot skillet; the oil will ripple when ready), and add a few chunks of meat. Start with just 4 or 5 chunks at first, because the fat cools as you add the meat. When the fat returns to heat, add as many beef chunks as will fit comfortably in the hot frying pan. Do not crowd! The chunks should not be touching (if they do, they'll steam rather than brown). Brown each chunk until the first side is a deep brown, then (using tongs) turn and brown another side. This will take at least 5 minutes for the first side, a bit less for subsequent sides. As each piece becomes fully browned, remove it to a plate that has been lined with a paper towel (to absorb excess grease). Add another piece to the skillet in its place (easy to do when all the pieces are cut to a uniform size — you know the next piece will fit). Continue (adding more oil if necessary) until all the beef chunks are browned.
- When the onions and beef are browned, add the beef to the Dutch oven containing the onion and garlic. Discard any remaining oil from the skillet you used to brown the meat. You should have a nice, brown crust on the bottom of the frying pan. Check to make sure the pan crust isn't burned (if it is, discard it). Add a cup or so of beef stock to the skillet and deglaze the pan: Using a spoon or wooden spatula, scrape the brown crusty bits off the bottom of the pan until they dissolve in the stock.
- When the crust is dissolved, add it to the Dutch oven with the onions and the meat. Add enough beef stock to barely cover the meat.
- Add the paprika, caraway seed (crush with the back of a spoon to help release its flavor), and dried marjoram. Bring to a simmer, and simmer for an hour.
- Meanwhile, clean and seed the green pepper, and cut into strips.
- At the hour mark, add the green pepper to the pot (just lay it on top). Open and drain the canned tomatoes, and add to the pot (again, just lay them on top). Add more stock if necessary, and continue simmering until the meat is tender (this should take about another hour – 2 hours total cooking time).
- If you wish to thicken the gravy, mix corn starch with cold water (make sure you completely dissolve the corn starch). Remove the Dutch oven/casserole from the heat, and add about half of the corn starch mixture. Stir to incorporate — it will thicken almost immediately. If the sauce is still not thick enough (it may not be), add more of the corn starch mixture until the sauce is as thick as you like.
- Taste, adjust seasoning, and serve with an optional garnish of chopped parsley sprinkled on top.
- Beef stock is really better than plain water in this dish, IMO. You can either use canned beef stock, or dissolve some beef base in hot water. Beef base is a paste sold in jars. I find it superior to canned stock (and much superior to bouillon cubes). Most supermarkets carry this product in the soup aisle. My favorite is Better than Bouillon, although there are other good brands out there (I have no association with this brand other than being a happy customer).
- If you want to make a pork or veal pörkölt, you can follow this same basic recipe. Use water instead of beef stock, but otherwise everything else is the same.
- Traditionally, the stock for this dish isn't thickened. If you prefer to do so, however, cornstarch makes a good, flavor-neutral thickener that's quick and easy. It also adds a bit of glossiness to the dish, which some regard as a positive, others as a negative. The pictures in this post include examples with and without the thickened gravy.
- If you don't have caraway seed, you really should get some to make this dish. Caraway seed adds a little flavor on its own, but when combined with paprika, the effect is startlingly good. It's really not an optional ingredient in pörkölt.
- Paprika is an important spice in Hungary, and many Hungarian recipes require it. Hungarian paprika is often rather hot, but there's a sweet version available (it has the same flavor, just not the heat). The sweet variety is what I see most often in supermarkets.
- Pörkölt and gulyás are two traditional Hungarian dishes that use paprika. But gulyás has much more liquid and often contains potatoes. Noodles, not spätzle, are the typical accompaniment.
- There are two other Hungarian stew-like dishes that contain paprika and have a flavor similar to pörkölt. One is Paprikás Stew, which is usually made with chicken or veal (it's essentially pörkölt with sour cream added at the end). Probably the best known dish of this type is Chicken Paprikash (a/k/a Chicken Paprikás; also called Paprikás Csirke).
- The other dish, called Tokány, contains meat that often is cut into pieces about 2 inches long but only a quarter of an inch thick. It contains very little added liquid — the meat essentially stews in its own juices. The most famous example of this dish is Seven Chieftians Tokány (Hét Vezér Tokány). According to legend, this dish got its name because each of the seven tribes of Hungary contributed an ingredient.
The Buddy System
Our Hungarian feast was in full swing at Kitchen Riffs central. We had finished our Hungarian Cucumber Salad and moved on to the main course: Beef Pörkölt served with our own Homemade Spätzle.
"Gosh, this is some wonderful grub," said Mrs Kitchen Riffs. "It's hard to say which I like better, the pörkölt or the spätzle."
"They're both super," I said, glancing across the table.
That's when I noticed Mrs K R pointing at her chin. "Time for a swipe," she said cheerily. "It's heading for your top button."
Our napkin pact! Something we always invoke when eating this dish.
"Thanks," I said, wiping gravy away in the nick of time.
Ah, pörkölt. Eat it with someone you trust.
You may also enjoy reading about:
Homemade Spätzle
Hungarian Cucumber Salad
Hungarian Noodles and Cabbage
Homemade Pasta and Noodles
Boeuf Bourguignon
Red Beans and Rice
Red-Braised Beans and Sweet Potatoes
Red-Braised Beef
Pasta e Fagioli
Chili Basics


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The loss of a father, the loss of a marriage and the complexities of fatherhood are some of the themes explored on "Break Me Open," the first solo project in four years from S. Carey, the drummer and backing vocalist for the band Bon Iver.
SEAN CAREY: (Singing) And I'm waking up in another man's lifetime - all that I failed to see. Will you hear my plea?
SIMON: Sean Carey joins us now from Eau Claire, Wis.
Thanks so much for being with us.
CAREY: Thanks for having me.
SIMON: Eau Claire's a beautiful place. And a lot of this album was, I guess, inspired by what we'll call - what those of us who are from Illinois call the great outdoors. Is that fair to say?
CAREY: Yeah. My music's always rooted in nature. And it's a feeling. It's a feeling of connectedness. It's kind of the place where I feel the most human, the most alive, you could say. It's sort of like a church, you know? It provides head space for writing, inspiration from learning new things. And now especially, you know, it's time away from technology, which is really important, I think.
SIMON: Let's listen, if we can, to a bit of your song "Sunshower."
CAREY: (Singing) Daily I still feel the silk sunshower dripping. Salt your eyes, my soft sunflower.
SIMON: My gosh, that's a beautiful song.
CAREY: Oh, thank you.
SIMON: And that phrase, I still feel a silk sunshower. Help us understand what that feels like and how you put it into music.
CAREY: You know, there's those moments when you're outside, kind of like when you see a rainbow, where it's, like, sunny, but it's - there's still misting or raining and you're - you kind of just feel a little bit outside yourself or feel small in the world. And I like to use those moments to inspire my music, my lyrics.
CAREY: (Singing) I don't know myself before I knew you.
SIMON: You've said in interviews this isn't a divorce album. But you do reflect a bit on love. Let's listen to a little bit of your song "Where I Was."
CAREY: (Singing) I see you still in dreams most nights. It's not getting easier with time. If you judge, please don't judge me from where I was.
SIMON: Was it hard to open yourself up like that?
CAREY: Yeah. I mean, absolutely - very hard, but something that I felt like I needed to do. And, actually, making the record and writing the songs was helpful. It was part of the healing process, for sure.
SIMON: And you lost your father, I gather, in the months leading up to this album. Can you tell us about him?
CAREY: Oh, he was - yeah, he was a great person, great dad. We had almost all the same hobbies and interests. So when we got together, it was just, you know, talking about fly-fishing, talking about wine, talking about sports, talking about camping, talking about music. He was an elementary music teacher and played a huge part in why I got into music and why my brother and sister are both musicians. And we miss him every single day.
SIMON: It's been my experience, when you lose a parent, you lose the pleasure of their companionship. It's also - inevitably, it reminds us we're next, particularly if we have children.
CAREY: Yeah. It's definitely put into perspective just how important being a father is. And I feel like - I mean, also the whole pandemic and everything. I feel like I've really been able to center in on what kind of dad I want to be. And, you know, being a touring musician, I just have to, like, make my time at home, like, extra special...
SIMON: Yeah.
CAREY: ...Make them the center of attention, not have distractions around and stuff, so the kids can feel it, you know? And you can feel it back.
CAREY: (Singing) And I'm in a daze. Almost numb, and I can't find the reasons. I still have you three. And now I know what I know. Break me open.
SIMON: Break me open. That's what children do, isn't it?
CAREY: Oh, yeah (laughter). Yeah, definitely.
SIMON: Well, that is S. Carey - Sean Carey. And his new album is "Break Me Open," out now.
Thank you so much for being with us, and good luck to you.
CAREY: Thank you - appreciate it.
CAREY: (Singing) I won't let you down. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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DARRINGTON, Wash. — Crews searching through the muck and devastation wrought by Washington's deadly mudslide are finding more human remains, bringing the official death toll to 24.
Seventeen of those 24 victims have been positively identified, the Snohomish County medical examiner's office said Monday afternoon. Previously, the official death toll was 21, with 15 victims identified.
More than two dozen people remain missing, authorities have said.
Steve Harris, a division supervisor for the search effort, said search teams are learning more about the force of the March 22 slide, and that is helping them better locate victims in a debris field that is 70 feet deep in places.
"There's a tremendous amount of force and energy behind this," Harris said of the slide. He didn't provide further details.
Harris said search dogs are the primary tool for finding remains in the small, mountainside community about 55 miles northeast of Seattle. He said searchers are finding human remains four to six times per day. A makeshift road completed over the weekend links one side of the 300-acre debris field to the other.
Searchers have had to contend with treacherous conditions, including household chemicals, septic tanks, gasoline and propane containers. When rescuers and dogs leave the site, they are hosed off by hazardous materials crews.
Gov. Jay Inslee on Monday asked President Barack Obama for a major disaster declaration in Snohomish County to make programs available to help individuals, households and businesses.
Last week, a federal emergency declaration was approved that provided a federal disaster team and specialized personnel to the slide area.
Members of the Seattle Seahawks football team and Seattle Sounders soccer team were scheduled to visit with community members Monday evening.
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32When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34He said, Where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. 35Jesus began to weep. 36So the Jews said, See how he loved him! 37But some of them said, Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?
38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39Jesus said, Take away the stone. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days. 40Jesus said to her, Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? 41So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me. 43When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out! 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, Unbind him, and let him go.
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Can run up to 8 3070 Graphic cards
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Dual PSU Multiple Supply Adapter | Add2Psu ATX 24 Pin to Molex 4Pin Connector for BTC Miner
Can run up to 8 3070 Graphic cards
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4-Pin IDE ATX Connectors – 6x
SATA ATX Connectors – 8x
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Power 24 Pin Connector
We will dispatch order within 24 hours or less via courier, we try to dispatch the same day. The customer will be provided an order number and will receive automated updated on the email address provided. In selected cases eGalaxy may need to contact the customer on provided phone number regarding order details or to reconfirm address and other details before dispatching orde.
Though automated updates are provided, during transit of your package you may enter your order number to track progress, or contact eGalaxy support for quick updates.
You can pay using Cash On Delivery, Bank Transfer and Credit Cards
In the rare case that you are not 100% satisfied with your online purchase, you can get Online Store Credit for the same amount (minus Shipping Costs) for future purchases, within 15 days of receiving your order.
What is Online Store Credit? It means you can return your purchase and utilize the same amount for a later purchase.
How does this work? Simply email us at firstname.lastname@example.com and request an exchange, and we will guide you through the process. Don't forget to mention your Order ID in the email.
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How do I send the item back? You will simply courier it back to us. Don't worry; we will share the details with you when you email.
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Nope. I've seen one fake pumpkin. The store bought electric kind. And I wouldn't dare put anything out this early. It'll get stolen or destroyed. Not even kidding. Couple years ago had two, real, carved pumpkins stolen in the middle of the day off my porch. I thought kids did it just to smash them, drove around the neighborhood a bit, nothing. Somebody stole carved, days old Jack O'-Lanterns to keep.
dig this pic!!!.. :)
Nothing here either, but we don't get TOT's either. :(


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The arrest concluded an investigation conducted over several weeks into the business, stemming from several online tips about illegal activity. Xu began the massage with the detective laying on his chest, requesting that he roll over shortly after beginning. The Detective stopped her actions and advised her changed his mind, at which time he alerted the rest of the investigative team that a deal was completed. The team entered and saw the back door of the business swing closed. Shumei Xu was located walking two streets behind the business on Linton Lane.
Xu again ran when she saw law enforcement, but complied after the Detective exited his vehicle and gave several commands to stop. The investigation also encompassed ensuring that the criminal activity occurring at the establishment is not a result of human trafficking. It is our duty to keep our community to be safe. We need to live in peaceful neighborhoods; To start with protecting our small children and youger family members.
We dont like to invite to openly welcome misconduct; especially prostitution in our community. Enough of that making our community a brothel. Well, you must go to jail first Mr! You are a big contributor!
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Man Sets New Catfish Record Deep in the Heart of Texas
Blake Gentry set the new a lake record with his gigantic catfish caught on Twin Buttes Reservoir near San Angelo.
The flathead catfish weighed 73.35 pounds and was 53 inches long.
"This is the biggest fish I have ever caught," Gentry said.
Well no kidding, Blake!
While it is a huge catfish, from the look of things, I hope Blake wasn't in a rush to get the oil heated up for a fish fry. Where I come from, unless it's a Channel or Blue Cat, it's not good eats.
The state record flathead catfish was actually caught in our own backyard. James Laster hooked a 98.5-pound catfish on Lake Palestine in 1998 — with a minnow, for Pete's sake.


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Vision of Hope provides financial support for eight inner-city schools affiliated with the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose. These elementary schools serve more than 1800 students in the Bay Area and Los Angeles: St. James and St. Anthony-Immaculate Conception in San Francisco; St. Elizabeth in Oakland; and in LA, Sacred Heart, St. Michael, St. Frances X. Cabrini, St. Ignatius of Loyola and Santa Teresita.
Our mission is to ensure the quality, affordability and vibrant future of the schools, the children and the communities they serve.
Please help our efforts to provide hope and empowerment through a quality Catholic education. You can donate online, participate in one of our fundraising events, or join Vision of Hope's Legacy Circle by including us in your estate plans.
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Contributions to Vision of Hope are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Vision of Hope's Tax I.D. is 94-3356021.


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Aruba 3810M 48G PoE+ 4SFP+ 680W Switch
The Aruba 3810 Switch Series provides performance and resiliency for enterprises, SMBs, and branch office networks. With HPE Smart Rate multi-gigabit ports for high-speed 802.11ac devices, this advanced Layer 3 switch delivers a better application experience with low latency, virtualization with resilient stacking technology, and line rate 40GbE for plenty of back haul capacity. The Aruba 3810 is easy to deploy and manage with advanced security and network management tools like Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager, Aruba AirWave and cloud-based Aruba Central.
- QuickSpecs (PDF) (HTML)
- | Data sheet
What's New
- Powerful Aruba Layer 3 switch series with backplane stacking, low latency, resiliency and prgrammability for a better mobile-first campus experience.
- HPE Smart Rate for high speed multi-gigabit capacity and PoE+ power.
- Modular line rate 10GbE and 40GbE ports for wireless aggregation.
- Full PoE+ on all 48 ports for power-hungry high-speed wireless APs.
- Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager, Aruba AirWave and Aruba Central support.
- Ready for the software defined network with REST APIs and OpenFlow support.
Key Features
Performance and Power for the Digital Workplace
The Aruba 3810 Switch Series is an industry leading mobile campus access solution for enterprises, SMBs, and branch office networks. With HPE Smart Rate multi-gigabit ports for high speed 802.11ac devices, the Aruba 3810 will prepare your network for tomorrow.
HPE Smart Rate ports support multi-gigabit Ethernet speeds (1, 2.5, 5, and 10 gigabit Ethernet) on existing cabling for cost-effective and convenient network upgrades with no rip and replace of cabling.
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Rightsizes deployment and back haul capacity with modular 10GbE and 40GbE uplinks. Full PoE+ provisioning on 48-ports. Dual, redundant, hot-swappable power supplies and innovative backplane stacking technology delivers resiliency and scalability in a convenient 1U form factor.
Advanced Layer 2 and 3 feature set with OSPF, IPv6, IPv4 BGP, robust QoS and policy-based routing are included with no software licensing. Built-in programmable and easy to use REST API interface provides configuration automation for Mobile-first campus networks.
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The Aruba 3810 Switch Series is designed with a ProVision ASIC designed to enable the mobile campus with very low latency, increased packet buffering, and adaptive power consumption.
Backplane stacking technology delivers high-performance stacking with up to 336 Gb/s of stacking throughput and increased resiliency. Up to ten Aruba 3810 switches can be stacked in a ring topology or up to five can be stacking in a mesh topology.
Dual hot-swappable power supplies provide power and allow swapping of modules on the fly to reduce impact on the network availability. More performance with selectable queue configurations and associated memory buffering that best meets requirements of prioritized network applications.
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The Aruba 3810 Switch Series supports Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager to provide unified and consistent policy between wired and wireless users. Simplified implementation and management of guest login, user onboarding, network access, security, QoS, and other network policies on the network.
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RMON, XRMON and sFlow provide advanced monitoring and reporting capabilities for statistics, history, alarms and events.
Out-of-band Ethernet management port keeps management traffic segmented from your network data traffic.


text:
UPDATED HOWTO: SQLite with Windows 8 apps
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- sql
- metro
- win8
- windows 8
- sqlite
- sqlite-net
- win8appdev
I've previously posted a few things about SQLite including a HOWTO on how to build from their source code. If you still want to build your own DLL from their source code that is totally fine, but not necessary in most every single case I've seen in app usage. One of the challenges I noted is that since SQLite is a native component and if you are a managed (.NET) app you can't be architecture neutral anymore (AnyCPU). What this means is that you have to build your app for each architecture you want to support: x86, x64 and ARM. The flow of this using SQLite3.dll was that you would have to package, change the DLL, re-package.
Not anymore.
In working with the great folks on the SQLite team, they've packaged the binaries up (for Windows 8 apps) in a nice installer using the Extension SDK format. What this means is you now add a 'reference' to the SQLite binary and based on the architecture being built for your package, it will pull in the right DLL without you having to manage that yourself. Here's some step-by-step…
Installing the SQLite for Windows Runtime package
The first thing you want to do is install the package. You can do this from within Visual Studio itself in all editions. From the Tools menu, choose Extensions and Updates and then choose the Online section (on the left of the dialog) and search for 'sqlite' in the search term. This will show you the SQLite for Windows Runtime package:
Click install my friends. You will be prompted to restart Visual Studio which you should do. Go ahead…I'll wait.
Using the new package in your C#/VB app
Now that you have the SQLite for Windows Runtime package installed in your Visual Studio environment, you want to use it. In a managed (.NET) app you would do the following steps.
First, create your app (e.g., a Blank XAML app is fine). Once within your app, use the Add Reference mechanism to get to the next step. Now you will not be browsing for any DLL directly like you would in a traditional .NET. What we are adding here is a reference to the Extension SDK…not the library itself, a small but important distinction. Once in the Add Reference dialog choose the Windows\Extensions view (see on left) and you'll see SQLite for Windows Runtime.
To correctly use this in a managed app you'll need to select that *and* the C++ runtime as seen below:
The reason for this is to ensure that your app declares the right dependencies that are needed for the app to run. The likelihood of the C++ runtime not being on a Windows machine where your app will be installed is extremely rare, but you need to declare this anyway. Failure to do so will fail your app certification tests.
Now with this involved you can grab a managed wrapper to call the SQLite APIs as I've previously described in my HOWTO video. I personally recommend the sqlite-net library (available via NuGet) to make this easier for you.
NOTE: sqlite-net is available as source in C#. If you are using a VB app, you would first need to compile the sqlite-net source in a separate DLL so you can just add a reference to that in your VB project.
Using the sqlite-net library you can perform tasks using a model similar to LINQ2SQL where you can have types represent database entities:
1: public sealed partial class MainPage : Page
2: {
3: public MainPage()
4: {
5: this.InitializeComponent();
6: LoadData();
7: }
9: public void LoadData()
10: {
11: var dbPath = Path.Combine(Windows.Storage.ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder.Path, "db.sqlite");
12: using (var db = new SQLite.SQLiteConnection(dbPath))
13: {
14: db.CreateTable<Person>();
16: db.RunInTransaction(() =>
17: {
18: db.Insert(new Person() { FirstName = "Tim", LastName = "Heuer" });
19: });
20: }
21: }
22: }
24: public class Person
25: {
26: [SQLite.AutoIncrement, SQLite.PrimaryKey]
27: public int ID { get; set; }
28: public string FirstName { get; set; }
29: public string LastName { get; set; }
30: }
Now you just need to specify your architecture for your app (x86, x64, ARM) and when you build, the appropriate sqlite3.dll will be packaged in your app automatically. This also happens during the packaging step for the store so the right item is included for each architecture-specific package.
WARNING: Do not package in DEBUG mode as you will fail certification. Ensure that you build/package in RELEASE mode prior to submitting to the store or running the app certification toolkit (also referred to as WACK in some places). You will get false positives if you are compiled in DEBUG mode.
This should make your development much easier without having to swap out DLL files each time.
Using the new package in your C++ app
If you are a C++ developer you will do the same steps for installing and adding as a reference to your app. In the C++ project system there is no 'Add Reference' menu on the project context menu, but you will choose References and then the Add Reference button shows up.
Once you have the reference to the SQLite SDK then as a C++ developer you can just #include the header and go to work:
1: #include <sqlite3.h>
Since C++ projects are already architecture-specific you don't have to worry about the AnyCPU situation because there isn't one! You'll get IntelliSense on the API by just including the header. The Extension SDK mechanism already includes the C++ props file to help the project system know where to get the header for development and the lib for linking when building. Most C++ developers will interact with SQLite using the native APIs and not need any additional wrapper library.
Using the new package in your JavaScript app
If you are using JavaScript/HTML to developer your app, you will follow the same flow as the C#/VB flow. Add a reference to both the SQLite SDK as well as the C++ runtime (to declare the dependency). As to accessing SQLite in your app, you'll need a WinRT wrapper library to do that. The one that seems to be gaining favor is the SQLite3-WinRT library on GitHub. I have not personally used this, but seen a lot of people using this. It allows you to use the JavaScript programming model in a familiar way:
1: var dbPath = Windows.Storage.ApplicationData.current.localFolder.path + '\\db.sqlite';
2: SQLite3JS.openAsync(dbPath)
3: .then(function (db) {
4: return db.runAsync('CREATE TABLE Item (name TEXT, price REAL, id INT PRIMARY KEY)');
5: })
6: .then(function (db) {
7: return db.runAsync('INSERT INTO Item (name, price, id) VALUES (?, ?, ?)', ['Mango', 4.6, 123]);
8: })
9: .then(function (db) {
10: return db.eachAsync('SELECT * FROM Item', function (row) {
11: console.log('Get a ' + row.name + ' for $' + row.price);
12: });
13: })
14: .then(function (db) {
15: db.close();
16: });
If using JavaScript this might be the way to go for your app.
I'm very glad the SQLite team worked to get this deployment package out there. I think for some Microsoft developers, using SQLite is fairly new and this SDK package will make it easier to ensure you have the right bits at the right time. Of course you are free to do it your own way, but I think this will ease the process a little bit.
Why no NuGet? Well, the NuGet infrastructure right now doesn't support some of these semantics around native components to deal with headers, linking and architecture-specific deployments. We'll continue to work with them to see if we can drive these changes into that platform.
So please feel free to download via the Visual Studio 'Extensions and Updates' option from within VS, download directly from the Visual Studio Gallery, or download from the SQLite site themselves. Once installed, once an update is available, VS will notify you that an update is available and you can install it.
Hope this helps!
Please enjoy some of these other recent posts...


text:
By Robert Parry, Consortium News
If the U.S. government and mainstream media are really concerned about foreign influence in American politics, they might look at Israel and other nations with much more clout than Russia.
The core absurdity of the Russia-gate frenzy is its complete lack of proportionality. Indeed, the hysteria is reminiscent of Sen. Joe McCarthy warning that "one communist in the faculty of one university is one communist too many" or Donald Trump's highlighting a few "bad hombres" raping white American women.
It's not that there were no Americans who espoused communist views at universities and elsewhere or that there are no "bad hombre" rapists; it's that these rare exceptions were used to generate a dangerous overreaction in service of a propagandistic agenda. Historically, we have seen this technique used often when demagogues seize on an isolated event and exploit it emotionally to mislead populations to war.
NY Times, Wash Post re "Kremlin links"
Today, we have The New York Times and The Washington Post repeatedly publishing front-page articles about allegations that some Russians with "links" to the Kremlin bought $100,000 in Facebook ads to promote some issues deemed hurtful to Hillary Clinton's campaign although some of the ads ran after the election.
Initially, Facebook could find no evidence of even that small effort but was pressured in May by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia. The Washington Post reported that Warner, who is spearheading the Russia-gate investigation in the Senate Intelligence Committee, flew to Silicon Valley and urged Facebook executives to take another look at possible ad buys.
Facebook responded to this congressional pressure by scouring its billions of monthly users and announced that it had located 470 suspect accounts associated with ads totaling $100,000 – out of Facebook's $27 billion in annual revenue.
Here is how the Times described those findings: "Facebook officials disclosed that they had shut down several hundred accounts that they believe were created by a Russian company linked to the Kremlin and used to buy $100,000 in ads pushing divisive issues during and after the American election campaign." (It sometimes appears that every Russian — all 144 million of them — is somehow "linked" to the Kremlin.)
Last week, congressional investigators urged Facebook to expand its review into "troll farms" supposedly based in Belarus, Macedonia and Estonia – although Estonia is by no means a Russian ally; it joined NATO in 2004.
"Warner and his Democratic counterpart on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam B. Schiff of California, have been increasingly vocal in recent days about their frustrations with Facebook," the Post reported.
Facebook Complies
So, on Thursday, Facebook succumbed to demands that it turn over to Congress copies of the ads, a move that has only justified more alarmist front-page stories about Russia! Russia! Russia!
In response to this political pressure – at a time when Facebook is fending off possible anti-trust legislation – its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg added that he is expanding the investigation to include "additional Russian groups and other former Soviet states."
So, it appears that not only are all Russians "linked" to the Kremlin, but all former Soviet states as well.
But why stop there? If the concern is that American political campaigns are being influenced by foreign governments whose interests may diverge from what's best for America, why not look at countries that have caused the United States far more harm recently than Russia?
After all, Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Wahabbi leaders have been pulling the U.S. government into their sectarian wars with the Shiites, including conflicts in Yemen and Syria that have contributed to anti-Americanism in the region, to the growth of Al Qaeda, and to a disruptive flow of refugees into Europe.
And, let's not forget the 8,000-pound gorilla in the room: Israel. Does anyone think that whatever Russia may or may not have done in trying to influence U.S. politics compares even in the slightest to what Israel does all the time?
The Neocons – Israel's agents – pushed US into war
Which government used its pressure and that of its American agents (i.e., the neocons) to push the United States into the disastrous war in Iraq? It wasn't Russia, which was among the countries urging the U.S. not to invade; it was Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Indeed, the plans for "regime change" in Iraq and Syria can be traced back to the work of key American neoconservatives employed by Netanyahu's political campaign in 1996. At that time, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and other leading neocons unveiled a seminal document entitled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," which proposed casting aside negotiations with Arabs in favor of simply replacing the region's anti-Israeli governments.
However, to make that happen required drawing in the powerful U.S. military, so after the 9/11 attacks, the neocons inside President George W. Bush's administration set in motion a deception campaign to justify invading Iraq, a war which was to be followed by more "regime changes" in Syria and Iran.
Although the military disaster in Iraq threw a wrench into those plans, the Israeli/neocon agenda never changed. Along with Israel's new regional ally, Saudi Arabia, a proxy war was fashioned to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
As Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren explained, the goal was to shatter the Shiite "strategic arc" running from Iran through Syria to Lebanon and Israel's Hezbollah enemies.How smashing this Shiite "arc" was in the interests of the American people – or even within their consciousness – is never explained. But it was what Israel wanted and thus it was what the U.S. government enlisted to do, even to the point of letting sophisticated U.S. weaponry fall into the hands of Syria's Al Qaeda affiliate.
Israel's influence over US elections
Israel's influence over U.S. politicians is so blatant that presidential contenders queue up every year to grovel before the Israel Lobby's conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In 2016, Donald Trump showed up and announced that he was not there to "pander" and then pandered his pants off.
And, whenever Prime Minister Netanyahu wants to show off his power, he is invited to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress at which Republicans and Democrats compete to see how many times and how quickly they can leap to their feet in standing ovations. (Netanyahu holds the record for the number of times a foreign leader has addressed joint sessions with three such appearances, tied with Winston Churchill.)
Yet, Israeli influence is so engrained in the U.S. political process that even the mention of the existence of an "Israel Lobby" brings accusations of anti-Semitism. "Israel Lobby" is a forbidden phrase in Washington.
However, pretty much whenever Israel targets a U.S. politician for defeat, that politician goes down, a muscle that Israel flexed in the early 1980s in taking out Rep. Paul Findley and Sen. Charles Percy, two moderate Republicans whose crime was to suggest talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization.
So, if the concern is the purity of the American democratic process and the need to protect it from outside manipulation, let's have at it. Why not a full-scale review of who is doing what and how? Does anyone think that Israel's influence over U.S. politics is limited to a few hundred Facebook accounts and $100,000 in ads?
A historical perspective
And, if you want a historical review, throw in the British and German propaganda around the two world wars; include how the South Vietnamese government collaborated with Richard Nixon in 1968 to sabotage President Lyndon Johnson's Paris peace talks; take a serious look at the collusion between Ronald Reagan's campaign and Iran thwarting President Jimmy Carter's efforts to free 52 American hostages in Tehran in 1980; open the books on Turkey's covert investments in U.S. politicians and policymakers; and examine how authoritarian regimes of all stripes have funded important Washington think tanks and law firms.
If such an effort were ever proposed, you would get a sense of how sensitive this topic is in Official Washington, where foreign money and its influence are rampant. There would be accusations of anti-Semitism in connection with Israel and charges of conspiracy theory even in well-documented cases of collaboration between U.S. politicians and foreign interests.
Powers-that-be concentrate on the infinitesimal case of Russian "meddling"
So, instead of a balanced and comprehensive assessment of this problem, the powers-that-be concentrate on the infinitesimal case of Russian "meddling" as the excuse for Hillary Clinton's shocking defeat. But the key reasons for Clinton's dismal campaign had virtually nothing to do with Russia, even if you believe all the evidence-lite accusations about Russian "meddling."
The real reasons Hillary lost
The Russians did not tell Clinton to vote for the disastrous Iraq War and play endless footsy with the neocons; the Russians didn't advise her to set up a private server to handle her State Department emails and potentially expose classified information; the Russians didn't lure Clinton and the U.S. into the Libyan fiasco nor suggest her ghastly joke in response to Muammar Gaddafi's lynching ("We came, we saw, he died"); the Russians had nothing to do with her greedy decision to accept millions of dollars in Wall Street speaking fees and then try to keep the speech contents secret from the voters; the Russians didn't encourage her husband to become a serial philanderer and make a mockery of their marriage; nor did the Russians suggest to Anthony Weiner, the husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, that he send lewd photos to a teen-ager on a laptop also used by his wife, a development that led FBI Director James Comey to reopen the Clinton-email investigation just 11 days before the election; the Russians weren't responsible for Clinton's decision not to campaign in Wisconsin and Michigan; the Russians didn't stop her from offering a coherent message about how she would help the struggling white working class; and on and on.
Purpose of Russia-gate: Eliminate Trump
But the Russia-gate investigation is not about fairness and balance; it's a reckless scapegoating of a nuclear-armed country to explain away – and possibly do away with – Donald Trump's presidency. Rather than putting everything in context and applying a sense of proportion, Russia-gate is relying on wild exaggerations of factually dubious or relatively isolated incidents as an opportunistic means to a political end.
As reckless as President Trump has been, the supposedly wise men and wise women of Washington are at least his match.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America's Stolen Narrative,either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).


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If you are interested in being a delegate in your workplace or finding out more information about what is involved, contact your local Branch or ring the AWU member hotline on 1300 885 653.
A delegate is an active union member who is recognised in the workplace as the local union contact. Delegates play a vital role in being the two-way link between members in the workplace and other union structures, such as the local Branch Committee.
An active union member might volunteer to be the local delegate, or they might be approached by the Branch Organiser of a Branch Committee member to consider being a delegate.
To be most effective, a delegate should have the support and respect of their union colleagues in that workplace. A good way to have this recognised is for a workplace meeting of union members to informally elect the local delegate.
The role of a delegate varies from Branch to Branch. There are some core tasks that delegates are well positioned to carry out and these include:
- Act as first point of contact for members including being clearly identifiable to members (door signs, email to colleagues);
- Approach new staff about joining the Union;
- Distribute union materials and keep AWU members in the area up to date on union activities, meetings and issues;
- Ensure there is a union noticeboard in the designated work area and union notices are kept up to date.
- Keep the Branch Committee/Delegates Coordinator informed about issues and problems that may arise in the work area;
- Keep the Branch Office informed of any members in your designated area that have left to ensure Branch records are as up-to-date as possible.
- Hold small work area meetings to get and give feedback on specific issues of interest to the Union.


text:
NUMEROUS volumes have been written as commentaries upon the secret systems of philosophy existing in the ancient world, but the ageless truths of life, like many of the earth's greatest thinkers, have usually been clothed in shabby garments. The present work is an attempt to supply a tome worthy of those seers and sages whose thoughts are the substance of its pages. To bring about this coalescence of Beauty and Truth has proved most costly, but I believe that the result will produce an effect upon the mind of the reader which will more than justify the expenditure.
Work upon the text of this volume was begun the first day of January, 1926, and has continued almost uninterruptedly for over two years. The greater part of the research work, however, was carried on prior to the writing of the manuscript. The collection of reference material was begun in 1921, and three years later the plans for the book took definite form. For the sake of clarity, all footnotes were eliminated, the various quotations and references to other authors being embodied in the text in their logical order. The bibliography is appended primarily to assist those interested in selecting for future study the most authoritative and important items dealing with philosophy and symbolism. To make readily accessible the abstruse information contained in the book, an elaborate topical cross index is included.
I make no claim for either the infallibility or the originality of any statement herein contained. I have studied the fragmentary writings of the ancients sufficiently to realize that dogmatic utterances concerning their tenets are worse than foolhardy. Traditionalism is the curse of modern philosophy, particularly that of the European schools. While many of the statements contained in this treatise may appear at first wildly fantastic, I have sincerely endeavored to refrain from haphazard metaphysical speculation, presenting the material as far as possible in the spirit rather than the letter of the original authors. By assuming responsibility only for the mistakes which may' appear herein, I hope to escape the accusation of plagiarism which has been directed against nearly every writer on the subject of mystical philosophy.
Having no particular ism of my own to promulgate, I have not attempted to twist the original writings to substantiate preconceived notions, nor have I distorted doctrines in any effort to reconcile the irreconcilable differences present in the various systems of religio-philosophic thought.
The entire theory of the book is diametrically opposed to the modern method of thinking, for it is concerned with subjects openly ridiculed by the sophists of the twentieth century. Its true purpose is to introduce the mind of the reader to a hypothesis of living wholly beyond the pale of materialistic theology, philosophy, or science. The mass of abstruse material between its covers is not susceptible to perfect organization, but so far as possible related topics have been grouped together.
Rich as the English language is in media of expression, it is curiously lacking in terms suitable to the conveyance of abstract philosophical premises. A certain intuitive grasp of the subtler meanings concealed within groups of inadequate words is necessary therefore to an understanding of the ancient Mystery Teachings.
Although the majority of the items in the bibliography are in my own library, I wish to acknowledge gratefully the assistance rendered by the Public Libraries of San Francisco and Los Angeles, the libraries of the Scottish Rite in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the libraries of the University of California in Berkeley and Los Angeles, the Mechanics' Library in San Francisco, and the Krotona Theosophical Library at Ojai, California. Special recognition for their help is also due to the following persons: Mrs. Max Heindel, Mrs. Alice Palmer Henderson, Mr. Ernest Dawson and staff, Mr. John Howell, Mr. Paul Elder, Mr. Phillip Watson Hackett, and Mr. John R. Ruckstell. Single books were lent by other persons and organizations, to whom thanks are also given.
The matter of translation was the greatest single task in the research work incident to the preparation of this volume. The necessary
German translations, which required nearly three years, were generously undertaken by Mr. Alfred Beri, who declined all remuneration for his labor. The Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish translations were made by Prof. Homer P. Earle. The Hebrew text was edited by Rabbi Jacob M. Alkow. Miscellaneous short translations and checking also were done by various individuals.
The editorial work was under the supervision of Dr. C. B. Rowlingson, through whose able efforts literary order was often brought out of literary chaos. Special recognition is also due the services rendered by Mr. Robert B. Tummonds, of the staff of H. S. Crocker Company, Inc., to whom were assigned the technical difficulties of fitting the text matter into its allotted space. For much of the literary charm of the work I am also indebted to Mr. M. M. Saxton, to whom the entire manuscript was first dictated and to whom was also entrusted the preparation of the index. The splendid efforts of Mr. J. Augustus Knapp, the illustrator, have resulted in a series of color plates which add materially to the beauty and completeness of the work. Q The printing of the book was in the hands of Mr. Frederick E. Keast, of H. S. Crocker Company, Inc., whose great personal interest in the volume has been manifested by an untiring effort to improve the quality thereof Through the gracious cooperation of Dr. John Henry Nash, the foremost designer of printing on the American Continent, the book appears in a unique and appropriate form, embodying the finest elements of the printer's craft. An increase in the number of plates and also a finer quality of workmanship than was first contemplated have been made possible by Mr. C. E. Benson, of the Los Angeles Engraving Company, who entered heart and soul into the production of this volume.
The pre-publication sale of this book has been without known precedent in book history. The subscription list for the first edition of 550 copies was entirely closed a year before the manuscript was placed in the printer's hands. The second, or King Solomon, edition, consisting of 550 copies, and the third, or Theosophical, edition, consisting of 200 copies, were sold before the finished volume was received from the printer. For so ambitious a production, this constitutes a unique achievement. The credit for this extraordinary sales program belongs to Mrs. Maud F. Galigher, who had as her ideal not to sell the book in the commercial sense of the word but to place it in the hands of those particularly interested in the subject matter it contains. Valuable assistance in this respect was also rendered by numerous friends who had attended my lectures and who without compensation undertook and successfully accomplished the distribution of the book.
In conclusion, the author wishes to acknowledge gratefully his indebtedness to each one of the hundreds of subscribers through whose advance payments the publication of this folio was made possible. To undertake the enormous expense involved was entirely beyond his individual means and those who invested in the volume had no assurance of its production and no security other than their faith in the integrity of the writer.
I sincerely hope that each reader will profit from the perusal of this book, even as I have profited from the writing of it. The years of labor and thought expended upon it have meant much to me. The research work discovered to me many great truths; the writing of it discovered to me the laws of order and patience; the printing of it discovered to me new wonders of the arts and crafts; and the whole enterprise has discovered to me a multitude of friends whom otherwise I might never have known. And so, in the words of John Bunyan:
I penned
It down, until at last it came to be,
For length and breadth, the bigness which you see.
Los Angeles, California
May 28,1928