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Pakistan: Muslims Beat, Shoot At Christians In Land Grab
By Murad Khan
In an attempted land-grab in southern Punjab Province, police and cohorts of a retired military official beat two Christian women and shot at Christians who came to help them on Friday (Nov. 25), area Christians told Compass.
About eight police officials led by Sub-Inspector Muhammad Arif of Kot Sarwar Shaheed police station, along with armed associates of a retired senior military officer, Air Marshal Maqbool Shah, arrived at the fields of Nazeer Masih in the Kot Addu area and ordered the six or seven women working there to leave, said area Christian rights advocate Waseem Shakir. The women included Nazeer's wife, Martha Bibi, and daughter-in-law, Nasreen Bibi.
The men told the workers that they had come to take possession of the 12.5 acres that Nazeer Masih owns in Mauza Sadiqabad area of Muzaffargarh district, which they claimed had now been allotted by the Revenue Department to the Pakistan Army for distribution among retired officials.
Martha Bibi told Compass the women were still in shock.
"We were cultivating chickpeas when the Muslims arrived at our fields," she said. "They asked us to leave everything and never return because it was their land now. [We said] we have been cultivating the land since 1976, how could we just leave? This angered them, and they attacked us. They pulled away our headscarves from our heads and started hitting us indiscriminately with clubs and punches."
About 800 Christians have lived in the Mauza Sadiqabad and Mauza Azizabad areas of Muzaffargarh district for the last 50 years, rights advocate Shakir told Compass by phone.
"The Christians are settled on 10,000 acres of land which they made cultivable over the years," he said. "The land is actually owned by the government, but the Christians have been given ownership of the properties, and the record to this effect is present with the local revenue department."
In the last few years Muslims have made several attempts to seize the land from the Christians, usually succeeding because Christians are a marginalized minority, while Muslims carry out illegal activities with impunity and official blessing, Shakir said. A similar attempt to take possession of Nazeer Masih's land was made last year, resulting in a pending case in the Lahore High Court.
This time, Shakir said, the "land mafia" attempting to take the property was led by a senior military official.
"Martha, around 40, and Nasreen, about 28, refused to leave the land, which infuriated the Muslims, and they attacked the women, hitting them with batons and punches," Shakir said. "The Muslims also inflicted a very serious wound near Nasreen's left eye."
He said that on seeing the commotion, some Christians working in nearby fields ran to rescue the two women, but the land-grabbers began shooting at them. No one was injured, and the assailants left with a warning that they would return, Shakir said.
He added that Nazeer's family has been cultivating the land since 1976 and possessed legal documentation recorded with the revenue department.
"It is quite clear that Shah has used his influence and money to illegally get Nazeer's property transferred in his name," Shakir said. "How is it otherwise possible that any person can just come and lay claim on the land, which is already in the possession of someone for the last many years? Everyone is involved in this mafia, which is specifically targeting Christians."
Area Christians had worked hard to make the land cultivable, as it used to be barren before the government settled them there, he said.
"Can the Punjab government justify this methodical injustice against the Christians of this area?" Shakir said. "The Muslims are grabbing any piece of land they can get their hands on. They haven't even spared our graveyards."
Muslim land-grabbers had demolished 150 Christian graves and desecrated holy relics to build shops in the Kot Addu area in November 2010, their efforts fully supported by local government officials.
Shakir said that five days after the incident and repeated appeals to the Punjab government, officials had taken no action against police for the violence done to the Christian women, much less investigating the attempted land seizure.
"The government doesn't care at all," he said. "Deeply frustrated at the treatment being given to us, we blocked the road for some time in protest. It was then that the area's deputy superintendent of police, Asadullah Khan, assured us that he would request the district police officer to probe the matter himself, because the people involved in this matter were beyond his authority. The assurance is turning out to be eyewash yet again, as there has been no progress in this regard."
Khan declined to comment on the case. He referred Compass to the district police officer, who was unavailable for comment.
Gulzar Masih, headman of the area, told Compass that Muslims had also set fire to the house of a Christian man named Jalal Masih a year ago in an attempt to grab his property.
"We knocked on every possible door, but the local government remained indifferent to the situation," he said. "Even though we somehow managed to get the chief minister to mark our application for registration of a case against the arsonists, the police refused to listen to us and threatened us with dire consequences if we did not stop pursuing the matter. The Muslims eventually grabbed Jalal Masih's property."
Gulzar Masih said that the entire revenue department was involved in tampering with property documents of Christians to render them landless.
"It is economic persecution of Christians of the area," he said. "The government must intervene before it's too late."


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Getting to know Slovenia
Slovenia (Wikipedia) is the only country in Europe that combines the Alps, the Mediterranean, the Pannonian Plain and the Karst. The changing landscape is constantly surprising, time and again. You can have one eye on the sea, then look in the other direction and be surrounded by high mountains. Heading up into the forests, you can see the green plains below you. From upland meadows your view stretches into river gorges. This proximity of opposites and contrasts is a hallmark of the country. In Slovenia you can still walk through virgin forest, or watch the grapes ripen on the oldest vine in the world. You can hear tales of bears, and eat forest fruits that you have foraged yourself on a brief walk out of town. Here you can uncover the secrets of the land, and what lies beneath it. Here you are part of nature.
Slovenia has numerous sites of special natural interest, with features of all four main areas: the Alps, the Mediterranean, the Karst and the Pannonian Plain. It also has a wealth of diverse architecture and urban design. You can truly feel at home in Slovenia's towns.
Slovenia is a land of greenery, which offers great opportunities for activity holidays. Its high-quality accommodation guarantees a comfortable stay. It is perfect for a summer holiday, a winter break or a weekend away.
Slovenia is famed for its excellent food, accompanied by one of its fine wines.
The friendly, hospitable and attentive locals will guarantee you a pleasant stay. You can FEEL sLOVEnia.
Facts About Slovenia
This small green country measures 20,273 km2 in area, and is home to sincere, hospitable people of great diligence. It has an exceptional number of top athletes, and a wealth of cultural creativity. In Slovenia it is not difficult to compare the value of goods and services, as they are priced in one of the world's major currencies, the euro.
Slovenia has a population of two million, of whom the vast majority are ethnic Slovenes. People hailing from the other former Yugoslav republics make up a significant minority, albeit less than 10% of the total population. The Italian and Hungarian ethnic communities have protected minority status, despite their small size.
The majority of people live in towns and cities, but a significant number live in the countryside. Agriculture accounts for only a small proportion of the workforce, while the majority work in services and manufacturing.
Slovenes are renowned as a diligent, hard-working nation, part of the reason that Slovenia is the wealthiest of the new EU members. They constantly aim to prove themselves and to progress. Their toil and persistence has allowed many Slovenes to achieve at the global level. A very good example is the country's athletes, particularly those involved in extreme sports, from mountaineering and extreme skiing to ultramarathon biking and swimming exploits.
Slovenes are also very thorough in learning foreign languages to make themselves understood. Even primary school students can speak foreign languages. The majority of people can speak good English, while most have a good grasp of German. A large share of the population can communicate in the languages of the old Yugoslavia, while there are many fluent Italian speakers in the areas bordering Italy.
The collision of four major European geographical units has created a very invigorating landscape, much of it thickly forested. More than a third of the country's area is protected.
The most mountainous region is the north, where the Alps begin. The Julian Alps and the Kamnik-Savinja Alps have many stunning sharp peaks. The peaks of the Karavanke, the mountains bordering Austria, are more gentle.
Much of the east of the country between Ljubljana and Maribor is uplands, as are the areas west and south of the capital.
There are gentler hills in the south-east and east, where the vine flourishes, while plains and basins populate the areas between the hills. The Ljubljana region lies in the largest basin.
Slovenia also has a large plains area, as the east of the country is part of the Pannonian Plain.
Not only is the land surface very invigorating, there are also wonders underground: some of the country's 9,000 karstic caves are among the most beautiful in the world.
More information: www.slovenia.info

subset: commoncrawl


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The North Face Plasma Thermal Jacket
31st May 2011
For years I thought that down jackets were the only way to keep warm when out and about. Problem was, unless you forked out a lot of money for a decent jacket with a waterproof shell, you'd never stay dry in the rain. Well, you'd most likely stay dry, but the jacket would take a soaking and would then be out of action for a week in the drying room. You'd also look a lot like a Michelin Man!
Of course, there has long been an alternative, and that's an insulated waterproof jacket. The TNF Thermal Plasma (sounds like some sort of new audio visual technology to me!) is just such a jacket. It combines the benefits of a decent waterproof with that of a light / medium-weight duvet. I'll use this jacket for anything from a quick trip into town if it looks like it might rain, to a full-on day on the hill where I am likely to be sweating one minute, and trying to stay warm the next. The waterproofness has so far held up very well. The pit zips, and the fact tat it unzips all the way down the front (unlike some duvets) mean it's easy to regulate my temperature on a steep climb. It's light enough and packs down enough for me to never think about not taking it because I don't have the room. It's bright yellow which means I am easy to spot apparently! That said, it does feature some black panels too which give it a little style (for a jacket at least). I'd question the narrowness of the velcro cuff straps, but that said, they have not started to gather bits of fluff and other rubbish yet which may just be down to their low profile, and I guess that they also help keep the overall weight down (to 798g). The hood seems pretty good. It is fixed so can't be removed. Personally I am a fan of fixed hoods - they can't get lost! And finally it has plenty enough pockets. All good. Top jacket.
Manufacturers Blurb:
Waterproof, breathable, seam sealed, HyVent Alpha
100 grams of PrimaLoft One insulation
28.2 oz ( 798 g ) average weight
Fully adjustable hood with laminated brim
Napoleon chest pocket
Internal security zips
Pit-zips for venting
Non-abrasive molded cuff tabs
Hideaway hem cinch cord
For those seeking the summit, zip up in The North Face Plasma Thermal jacket. The Plasma Thermal is lightweight for when the grams start getting counted, and it is 100% waterproof by means of The North Face HyVent membrane. A laminated brimmed hood keeps water and snow out of your face while keeping your head dry. Full pit-zips allow for a larger area of ventilation for when you need a quick cool down.


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How to Stay Productive While on the Road Don't let traveling set you back when it comes to getting things done. Here are four ways to stay on top of your game even when you're living out of a suitcase.
By Jason Womack Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
In 2012, I sat through 135 commercial flights and spent 195 nights in hotels around the world. Having the ability to focus on priorities while I'm traveling is critical to my own productivity. Getting things done can't only happen at my office.
All too often, people lose the productive edge due to the stress of work and travel. With a little bit of forethought, you can make travel time your most productive time.
Here are four ways I make sure to stay productive while on the road:
1. Put all event details on your portable calendar.
Over the past 12 years I've traveled a lot and I continually see people stressed out in lines at airports or frustrated at hotel front desk clerks because they don't have their travel information on hand.
With information for things like flights, hotels and car rentals easily at hand in case I need it, I can focus on priorities like client work, strategic thinking and article writing.
The way I do this is by formatting calendar entries to include everything I might need when checking into a hotel, for example, or arriving at the airport. If I'm catching an 8 a.m. flight to New York, my calendar entry reads: "8am AA#34 LAX-JFK rl#: GUA37W." (That is: departure time, airline and flight number, departure-destination and record locator number.)
Related: What You Should Take Off Your Desk Right Now
2. Keep all your ideas in one place.
You achieve massive results in your business based on the ideas and possibilities you notice and develop. Do that more efficiently and you can decide what to focus on most effectively. It's easy to lose track of ideas that come to you when you're on the go.
For years now, I've used Evernote.com, which offers an app that allows you to keep track of pictures, notes or sound-bites all in one place. When I collect someone's business card, jot something on a bar napkin, take notes in a meeting or even write on a flip chart, I snap a smartphone picture and email it to my Evernote account.
3. Use keyboard shortcuts to type less and say (a lot) more.
Being on the road means I have even less time to follow up on emails. I've set up keyboard shortcuts on my iPhone and use a similar application called TypeIt4Me on my laptop. Using keyboard shortcuts, two or three letter macros expand into words, sentences and even paragraphs to answer the most frequently asked questions I receive.
Here are just a few shortcuts I suggest you set up immediately:
- em: email address (I haven't typed those 22 characters in years!)
- mo: my mobile phone #
- tu: thank you
- sig: your complete signature to add to the end of emails. (Consider making sig1, sig2, sig3 to have different levels of information to send as appropriate.)
I even have a keyboard shortcut -- "nmp" -- that auto-magically becomes a 374-word email with an article titled, "No More Procrastination."
According to my computer stats, I've used 15,022 abbreviations, saving me a total of 2,853,202 keystrokes over the past five years. Even at one keystroke a second, that's given me back "about" 790 hours of time.
Related: How Your Network Can Make You More Productive
4. Stay offline while flying home.
When I'm flying back home to Los Angeles, I stay off the airplane's Wi-Fi. Instead, I write emails throughout the flight. My goal: When I land, I've written 100 forward-motion and catch-up emails, knowing those will go out when I connect to the internet.
I use Apple Mail so that I can do this offline with full access to all my folders. I often get twice as much work done on a plane as I would in my office because I'm not online.
Getting that much accomplished on my trip back gives me the freedom to really enjoy being home -- the greatest gift of all.
Related: The Joys and Pains of Elite Airline Status


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A breakthrough is usually associated with something positive, but with COVID-19, vaccine makers and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are tracking breakthrough cases. That's when someone who is fully vaccinated still gets the coronavirus.
Some states like South Carolina have already reported dozens of suspected breakthrough cases.
There are several scenarios where this can happen.
"There's about a 5% or less chance that you actually don't respond to the vaccine and don't create antibodies, don't create immunity," said Dr. Luis Ostrosky at McGovern Medical School.
Infectious disease doctors say the vaccines aren't 100% effective. People with compromised immune systems or older people may not create immunity.
Another scenario is more about timing. The person can become infected just before they got a vaccine, in-between doses, or before they develop full immunity, which is about two weeks after a second dose. In that case, depending on if a person needs treatment, they may have to wait a few weeks, up to 90 days, to get a second dose.
A third scenario is the most concerning. A vaccinated person may be infected by a COVID-19 variant.
The good news is, so far, breakthrough cases are rare, and symptoms are far less severe if any.
"The data from Israel is perhaps the most telling where they've vaccinated a large amount of the population already and they're seeing performance that looks pretty much like they did in the clinical trials, so very encouraging," said Dr. Ostrosky.
The quarantine recommendations stand for breakthrough COVID-19 cases. Should someone need treatment after vaccination, they can still get anti-bodies through plasma.
Ironically, vaccinated people may not be able to donate plasma specifically for COVID-19 treatments, because they don't know yet if it's as effective as plasma from someone who actually got infected.
General plasma donations are OK and still in high demand.


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February 6, 2006
Day 131
Antarctic Cruise Day 1
The plan: Board the ship and set off for Antarctica.
The day of the cruise had finally come. I spent the morning in preparation. Craig, from Australia, and I were going to be sharing a room for the trip, so we figured we should board the ship together. Our plan was to check in our backpacks and make one last trip into town for some "provisions" to keep the cost of our journey down.
I was overwhelmed when I boarded the ship. At least ten people welcomed me aboard before I even got to my room. When I crossed the threshold of the ship, it was like stepping into another country. Everything was so nice, it was a bit of a shock. Our room was like a hotel room with a private bathroom, TV, and a large window; all luxuries I had lived without for the last few months. The best thing of all was that we didn't even pay for a room with a window. After briefly unpacking in our home for the next few weeks, we stepped back into reality one last time.
Craig and I walked to the supermarket on a mission to buy enough booze for a two-week cruise so we wouldn't have to pay $12 for a drink from the ship. The only problem was that the ship technically didn't allow people to carry on their own alcohol. We ended up filling my daypack with clanky glass bottles and carrying the rest on board in our pants. While I was walking toward the ship, I didn't think that story could possibly have a happy ending, but it did. Surprisingly, we didn't get caught, no bottles were broken in the process, the resulting bar made our room more aesthetically appealing, and our pre-planning will save us a lot of coin to boot.
Before the ship left, Craig and I took a walk around the ship. The Marco Polo seemed really big to me, but compared to the Queen Mary II, which had been in Ushuaia a few days earlier, it was small. The capacity of the ship is 826 passengers, but there were only 498 for this trip because of Antarctic regulations. The main areas for the passengers are the Polo Lounge, which usually has piano music, the Ambassador Lounge, the theater where shows and lectures about Antarctica would take place, The Charleston, a dance club, Raffles, a buffet restaurant that serves all meals, The Seven Seas, a sit-down restaurant that serves dinner, a library, a game room, a workout area, and several bars. There are also three hot tubs and a swimming pool, although the pool is empty due to us traveling through antarctic waters.
The ship didn't leave until 8:00 PM, so I didn't get the chance to do much on board today. Still, I met a bunch of the passengers, and I think it will be a good time. Normally, this cruise is filled with retired people, but I guess there must have been a lot of late cancellations because there are several dozen backpackers in the crowd. Tomorrow we'll be in the open sea all day on our way to Antarctica, but the ship has lectures and fun games scheduled for the entire day, so I don't think I'll get bored quite yet.
Facts about the Marco Polo:
Gross Tonnage -- 22,080
Overall Length -- 578 Feet
Beam -- 77 Feet
Draft -- 27 Feet
Cruise Speed -- 18.5 Knots
Guests -- 860 (Double Occupancy), but only 498 for this trip
Crew -- 360 (Most of the crew members are Filipino, and most of the officers are Swedish)
The photo album for this entry is here.


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English Setter
The English Setter is sensitive, gentle and mild mannered. They enjoy the companionship of other dogs as well as humans.
English Setters were named for their practice of "setting" (crouching low) when they found birds to allow hunters to throw nets over them. Though still used as hunting dogs today, English Setters also make great family companions. They are gentle, affectionate, friendly with strangers, and gets along with children.
English Setters are easy to train and they make great watchdogs – alerting their owners when someone approaches the house. Once they meet the strangers, though, they are happy to accept them. They love to run and play with people and other dogs but are quiet indoors. Though they are overall mild mannered, English Setters can be willful so early training is required to set boundaries. They tend to be very vocal, so barking needs to be discouraged from a very early age.
Because of their athleticism, English Setters are outdoors and excel at dog sports like agility. They are excellent jumpers. They enjoy digging and like to roam. They also do well as therapy dogs due to their even-tempered disposition and love for people.
Major Health Concerns: Prone to hip dysplasia, the English Setter also tends to gain weight easily and should receive regular exercise to avoid this.
Interesting Fact: English Setter coat colors include white with blue, lemon, orange, or brown of various markings. They can also be tri-colored.
Read up on other dog breeds and our tests
Please click here to find out more about our DNA My Dog Breed Test.
We also offer the Mars Wisdom Panel test which may include breeds not covered by the DNA My Dog test. Please click here for more information about the Mars Wisdom Panel 2.0 Dog Breed Identification Test
The Labrador Retriever is currently the UK's most popular breed and it isn't surprising. Their good nature and lovable personality make them the ideal first dog for a family, as well as them being great around young children.
The Parson Russel Terrier has a particularly strong hunting instinct meaning they will need to be kept occupied and entertained throughout the day to stop their restless destructive behaviour.


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Barack Obama is a man without a plan. When you are young, they often tell you to "fake it until you make it", but Barack Obama is taking this to ridiculous extremes. Barack Obama has absolutely no idea what he is doing when it comes to the economy, and yet he continues to give speeches in which he declares that he is the man for the job. The State of the Union speech the other night was just abysmal. The federal government is spending way too much money, and yet Barack Obama is proposing even more government spending. Entrepreneurs and small businesses are being taxed into oblivion and yet Barack Obama is proposing even higher taxes. Our economy is being strangled to death by crippling regulations, and yet Barack Obama is proposing a vast array of new regulations. Barack Obama always gives a nice speech, but it has become appallingly evident that he is totally out of ideas. So our country will continue to drift aimlessly along without a direction and without a plan until the next financial tsunami comes along and makes things even worse.
And the American people are starting to clue in to the fact that Obama does not have a plan and does not have anything new to say. Just check out how the audiences for his State of the Union addresses have declined each year….
2009: 52.3 million
2010: 48 million
2011: 42.8 million
2012: 37.8 million
His ratings are falling almost as fast as the ratings for American Idol are.
It is amazing how Barack Obama can use so many words to say so very little.
He always tickles our ears but then he never delivers the goods. Toward the beginning of his speech the other night, he made the following statement….
"Tonight, I want to speak about how we move forward, and lay out a blueprint for an economy that's built to last—an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers, and a renewal of American values"
Well, that sounds pretty good. Except for the fact that everything he has done for the past 3 years has been the exact opposite of that.
It is almost as if he woke up that morning and decided that he would try the whole "do the opposite" thing once made famous by George Costanza on Seinfeld.
Obama says that our employment situation is getting better, but that is not really true. The only way that the federal government can claim that there is an 8.5 percent unemployment rate is because they have decided that millions of Americans that have been unemployed for a long time should not be considered "part of the workforce" any longer.
If the number of Americans that were considered to be part of the workforce was the same today as it was back in 2007, the "official" unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to approximately 11 percent.
Sadly, the number of Americans that are dependent on the government continues to soar even higher.
Since Barack Obama took office, the number of Americans on food stamps has actually increased by 14 million.
Things have not gotten better for average Americans.
They have gotten worse.
In fact, 10 million more Americans have fallen below the poverty line since 2006. And in 2010, more Americans fell into poverty than ever before.
A lot of people out there are really hurting, and the American people deserve some real answers.
But instead, Obama was saying stuff like this the other night….
"I intend to fight obstruction with action, and I will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place"
Oh really?
What is Obama actually doing about the things that caused the last financial crisis?
The "financial reform" bill was a complete and total joke. Obama has been shamefully soft on the big Wall Street banks that caused the last crisis.
Today, the "too big to fail" banks are larger than ever. The total assets of the six largest U.S. banks increased by 39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2011.
So now they are more of a danger to the financial system than ever.
And not a single Wall Street executive has gone to jail for what they did during the last financial crisis.
Thanks Obama.
But of course Obama was never going to seriously go after Wall Street.
After all, they are the ones that fund his campaigns.
Most Americans don't realize this, but 3 of the top 7 donors to Obama's campaign in 2008 were "too big to fail" banks.
And the Obama administration has been absolutely packed with ex-Wall Street bankers. Last year, Michael Brenner wrote the following about the composition of the Obama administration….
Wall Street's takeover of the Obama administration is now complete. The mega-banks and their corporate allies control every economic policy position of consequence. Mr. Obama has moved rapidly since the November debacle to install business people where it counts most. Mr.William Daley from JP Morgan Chase as White House Chief of Staff. Mr. Gene Sperling from the Goldman Sachs payroll to be director of the National Economic Council. Eileen Rominger from Goldman Sachs named director of the SEC's Investment Management division. Even the National Security Advisor, Thomas Donilon, was executive vice president for law and policy at the disgraced Fannie Mae after serving as a corporate lobbyist with O'Melveny & Roberts. The keystone of the business friendly team was put in place on Friday. General Electric Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt will serve as chair of the president's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
During his State of the Union address, Obama also promised to bring manufacturing jobs back to America….
"Think about the America within our reach: A country that leads the world in educating its people. An America that attracts a new generation of high-tech manufacturing and high-paying jobs"
That sounds great, except for the fact that Obama has been doing everything he can to get more American jobs shipped out of the country.
The Obama administration has been aggressively pushing new "free trade" agreements with Panama, South Korea and Colombia. The Obama administration has also made the Trans-Pacific Partnership ("the NAFTA of the Pacific") an extremely high priority.
And of course we have all seen how wonderfully the first NAFTA worked out.
Our "free trade" policies have been an absolute nightmare for the American worker.
During 2010, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities a day shut down in the United States. Overall, more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities in the United States have shut down since 2001.
We are bleeding jobs at a pace that is hard to believe.
Amazingly, the United States has lost an average of 50,000 manufacturing jobs a month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.
Yet Obama promises more of the same and that is supposed to help?
During his speech, Obama correctly noted that many foreign manufacturers are heavily subsidized….
"It's not fair when foreign manufacturers have a leg up on ours, only because they're heavily subsidized"
So are we going to deeply penalize those that have been cheating?
Are we going to warn them that we will stop trading with them unless they stop?
Of course not.
Obama is going to do next to nothing to stop what China and other predatory nations are doing to us.
Today, the United States spends approximately 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States, and the U.S. trade deficit with China in 2010 was 27 times larger than it was back in 1990.
But the Obama administration doesn't seem to care much about these things.
In fact, just check out what U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk told Tim Robertson of the Huffington Post about the Obama administration's attitude toward keeping manufacturing jobs in America….
Let's increase our competitiveness… the reality is about half of our imports, our trade deficit is because of how much oil [we import], so you take that out of the equation, you look at what percentage of it are things that frankly, we don't want to make in America, you know, cheaper products, low-skill jobs that frankly college kids that are graduating from, you know, UC Cal and Hastings [don't want], but what we do want is to capture those next generation jobs and build on our investments in our young people, our education infrastructure.
Oh, but Obama now says that he is going to toughen up on trade….
"I'm announcing the creation of a Trade Enforcement Unit that will be charged with investigating unfair trading practices in countries like China. There will be more inspections"
Oh boy – "inspections" – yeah, that is really going to have the Chinese shaking in their boots.
Meanwhile, the Chinese just keep hitting us with new tariffs. According to the New York Times, a Jeep Grand Cherokee that costs $27,490 in the United States will now cost about $85,000 in China thanks to these new tariffs.
So is Obama going to hit China with tough new tariffs in return?
Of course not.
Meanwhile, our economy continues to bleed businesses and jobs. According to Professor Alan Blinder of Princeton University, 40 million more U.S. jobs could be sent offshore over the next two decades if current trends continue.
But if you listen to Obama, he makes it seem like many of our industries are in better shape than ever….
"We bet on American ingenuity, and tonight the American auto industry is back."
Yes, the American auto industry is no longer on the brink of bankruptcy, but it is not "back". Just consider the following stats….
*In 1970, General Motors had about a 60 percent share of the U.S. automobile market. Today, that figure is down to about 20 percent.
*Back in 2000, about 17 million new automobiles were sold in the United States. During 2011, less than 13 million new automobiles were sold in the United States.
*Japan builds more cars than anyone else on the globe. Japan now manufactures about 5 million more automobiles than the United States does.
*Since Alan Mulally became CEO of Ford, the company has reduced its North American workforce by nearly half.
*In the year 2000, the U.S. auto industry employed more than 1.3 million Americans. Today, the U.S. auto industry employs about 698,000 people.
Obama bailed out the auto industry, and they responded by sending even more of our jobs overseas.
During his speech, Obama declared that there will be no more bailouts….
"No bailouts, no handouts, and no copouts."
That is kind of funny because Obama is basically the all-time champion of handing out bailouts.
If Barack Obama and John McCain had not aggressively pushed for the Wall Street bailouts back in 2008, they never would have happened.
And once Obama became president, there was a seemingly endless parade of bailouts and "stimulus packages".
So what do you honestly think he will do when the next financial crisis happens? Do you think he would actually be able to resist the temptation for more bailouts?
Obama also says that he wants to spend more money on training for American workers….
"Join me in a national commitment to train two million Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job."
But the American people already have enough training. There are tons of college-educated Americans that are among the ranks of the unemployed right now.
What the American people need are jobs.
Unfortunately, jobs are leaving this country at an unprecedented pace.
Back in the year 2000, more than 20 percent of all jobs in America were manufacturing jobs. Today, about 5 percent of all jobs in America are manufacturing jobs.
Not only that, but our incomes are also going down. Because U.S. workers now have to compete for jobs with workers that make slave labor wages on the other side of the globe, pay in this country continues to decline.
A recent White House reported entitled "Investing in America: Building an Economy That Lasts" actually bragged that our trade policies have driven wages in America down. The following chart is from that report….
The Obama administration has been very good for the largest corporations.
For the rest of us, not so much.
But Obama now says that he wants America to be a place that encourages entrepreneurs and small businesses to thrive….
"It means we should support everyone who's willing to work; and every risk-taker and entrepreneur who aspires to become the next Steve Jobs."
Unfortunately, the reality is that the federal government is strangling entrepreneurs and small businesses to death with taxes and crippling regulations.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006. Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.
That is not a good trend.
And right now small businesses are extremely hesitant to bring on new workers.
One recent survey found that 77 percent of all U.S. small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers in the coming year.
So obviously what the Obama administration is doing is not working.
During his speech, Obama also spoke of developing our own energy resources….
"A future where we are in control of our own energy, and our security and prosperity aren't so tied to unstable parts of the world."
Hopefully most of those watching laughed when they heard this, because this had to have been a joke.
America is absolutely swimming in oil and natural gas, and yet the Obama administration has blocked the development of those resources at every turn.
Instead, Obama has been very busy trying to push green energy companies on us, but they have had a nasty habit of going bankrupt.
During his speech, Obama also spoke of the need for "comprehensive immigration reform".
But apparently Obama's idea of "immigration reform" is to grant "backdoor amnesty" to the vast majority of the illegal immigrants in the United States and to continue to leave our borders completely wide open.
The consequences of such a policy are very serious. As I wrote about the other day, there are now 1.4 million gang members living inside the United States, and that number has risen by an astounding 40 percent since 2009.
The last thing we need is more "immigration reform" from Barack Obama.
Of course the "class warfare" part was the centerpiece of Obama's speech the other night.
Referring to it as the "defining issue of our time", Obama said that now is the time to hit the wealthy with higher taxes….
"We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by. Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules."
This is going to be what Barack Obama is going to base his entire 2012 campaign on. He is going to try to tap into the economic frustrations of the poor and the middle class and he is going to try to get them to blame the rich and the "party of the rich" (the Republicans).
But taxing the rich is not going to solve our problems. If Bill Gates donated his entire fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days.
The truth is that the ultra-wealthy are always several steps ahead of the U.S. government. The global elite are hiding 18 trillion dollars in offshore banks, and they are absolute experts at avoiding taxes.
No, the people that always get hit when taxes are raised are small business owners that try to do things "by the book" and middle class families that are barely scraping by.
What we need to do is to get rid of the income tax system entirely. It is deeply corrupt and it is full of thousands of loopholes.
Trust me, I know. I used to study this stuff.
But Obama seems to think that taxing the rich is the solution to all of our problems….
"We don't begrudge financial success in this country. We admire it. When Americans talk about folks like me paying my fair share of taxes, it's not because they envy the rich. It's because they understand that when I get tax breaks I don't need and the country can't afford, it either adds to the deficit, or somebody else has to make up the difference – like a senior on a fixed income; or a student trying to get through school; or a family trying to make ends meet. That's not right. Americans know it's not right. They know that this generation's success is only possible because past generations felt a responsibility to each other, and to their country's future, and they know our way of life will only endure if we feel that same sense of shared responsibility. That's how we'll reduce our deficit."
Oh really?
If we just accept Obama's plan the deficit will be fixed?
That worked out so well during his first term. During the first three years of the Obama administration, the U.S. government accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.
The truth is that Obama does not plan to fix anything. Barack Obama's proposed 2012 budget projects that the national debt will rise to 26 trillion dollars a decade from now. And his budget numbers are ridiculously optimistic.
Not that our tax system does not need reform.
If we are going to have an income tax system (which we should not), then it should at least be fair.
There is no way in the world that General Electric and Mitt Romney should pay a lower tax rate than you and I do.
In a previous article, I noted some of the big corporations that have made enormous profits and yet have paid less than zero in taxes in recent years….
What U.S. corporations are able to get away with is absolutely amazing.
The following figures come directly out of a report by Citizens for Tax Justice. These are combined figures for the tax years 2008, 2009 and 2010.
During those three years, all of the corporations below made a lot of money. Yet all of them paid net taxes that were below zero for those three years combined.
How is that possible? Well, it turns out that instead of paying in taxes to the federal government, they were actually getting money back.
So for these corporations, their rate of taxation was actually below zero.
If you have not seen these before, you are going to have a hard time believing some of these statistics…..
Profits: $4.9 billion
Taxes: -$34 million
*Fed Ex*
Profits: $3 billion
Taxes: -$23 million
*Wells Fargo*
Profits: $49.37 billion
Taxes: -$681 million
Profits: $9.7 billion
Taxes: -$178 million
Profits: $32.5 billion
Taxes: -$951 million
Profits: $2.1 billion
Taxes -$72 million
*American Electric Power*
Profits: $5.89 billion
Taxes -$545 million
*General Electric*
Profits: $7.7 billion
Taxes: -$4.7 billion
Are you starting to get the picture?
Hopefully we can all agree that there is something seriously wrong with those numbers.
But fixing holes in the tax system is one thing – blaming America's economic ills on the wealthy is another.
During his speech, Obama made the following statement….
"You can call this class warfare all you want"
And yes, we will hear the term "class warfare" over and over again for the rest of 2012.
Obama actually believes that "blaming the 1%" can get him sent back to the White House again.
But that isn't going to solve any of our problems.
Instead, we should be focusing on the root causes of our economic problems.
I would love to see a president get up during a State of the Union address and declare that we need to shut down the Federal Reserve.
Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the U.S. dollar has lost over 95 percent of its purchasing power.
Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, the U.S. national debt has gotten more than 5000 times larger.
Thanks to the debt-based Federal Reserve system, we are going into debt at a pace that is unlike anything the world has ever seen.
Right now, the federal government is stealing 150 million dollars an hour from our children and our grandchildren.
But Barack Obama loves the Federal Reserve.
In fact, he actually nominated Ben Bernanke for a second term as Federal Reserve Chairman even though Bernanke has a track record of incompetence that is legendary.
So no, nobody should be applauding Barack Obama for his absolutely abysmal speech the other night.
He is a man without a plan and he has been an absolute disaster for America.


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Michigan team competes in Amazon challenge to make AI more engaging
The team of twelve students is one of ten worldwide working to give Amazon's Alexa more human-like conversational skills.
Artificial intelligence that can hold a "real" conversation remains a sci-fi standard of future technology – all the chatty synthetic personalities that answer questions on our smartphones and smart home speakers haven't really given us the Her or 2001 experience yet.
Enter the Alexa Prize Socialbot Grand Challenge. In an effort to push the boundaries of conversational AI, Amazon has opened up their Alexa virtual assistant platform to ten university teams in an effort to make the bot a little more human.
Among the ten schools from around the world selected to compete is a team from U-M co-advised by Prof. David Jurgens from the School of Information and Prof. Nikola Banovic. The team of 12 graduate and undergraduate students from the School of Information and CSE will be part of Amazon's broad mission to make its voice assistant smarter and more conversational so that it can be more useful and engaging for its users.
Now in its third year, the Grand Challenge is truly grand – the competing teams are working to build a bot able to hold a conversation for more than 20 minutes. To complete this task, the teams began work in September 2019 with a prize of $250,000 and will have until February 2020 to qualify for the quarterfinals. While they are currently in beta testing, beginning in December each team's socialbot will be integrated into Alexa's "Let's Chat" feature and deployed live for real users to interact with.
Throughout the remainder of the competition, one of the ten versions of the Alexa socialbot will be loaded at random whenever users opt to chat. When they finish their conversation, they'll have the chance to rate the experience out of five. While working on their core idea, the team will be able to respond to this feedback iteratively and shoot for better user interactions throughout the challenge.
The challenge brings together a number of the most difficult problems in AI. Beyond being a chance to improve the Alexa platform, it pushes the students to engage in new, creative research.
"The goal is to extend the reach of conversational AI," says Chung Hoon Hong, Master's student in Data Science and team lead. Alexa's various functions are split across different discrete "skills," much like the different single-purpose apps on a smartphone. Integrating this diverse functionality, or even just a portion of it, brings about a complicated scenario that's difficult for the platform to deal with. "Right now if the domain of a conversation is too big then the AI bots have trouble understanding and responding."
Even other attempts at broader socialbots that can engage in general conversation have found much more success drilling down on a narrow range of topics.
"The success of some of the smart assistants to this point has been in being able to respond to specific commands, to perform specific and somewhat simple tasks," says Banovic. "But the moment you say 'Alexa, let's chat,' you're moving away from a command paradigm into a realm where now we are expecting a humanlike conversation."
These human-like conversations are extremely difficult to engineer. Developers have become quite good at having bots synthesize sentences, but what's currently lacking, according to Banovic, is the ability to establish common assumptions and the sense of knowing what's being discussed in a broader context.
Essentially, to be successful, the bot has to be a good listener.
"Nobody engages in a conversation with another person and says afterwards 'this person was an amazing talker,'" Banovic says. "They usually say they were an amazing listener, and that comes from asking the right kind of questions and showing interest."
U-M's bot, called Audrey, will be focused on this type of more general conversation and understanding.
"Our idea is to move away from topical chats and work on the casual conversation itself," says Hong. "We're working on active listening, a 'heartwarming' social bot. We want our Audrey to be able to tell personalized stories."
Solving these problems could be what separates a successful interaction with a virtual assistant from a lost user. When you pick up an assistant out of the box, the first interaction will have to be sufficiently compelling to keep you interested. Alexa, however, knows nothing about you when you start talking for the first time. Much like a human, to speak to you effectively a socialbot would have to learn about you and keep track of what it already knows.
"It's hard to have a coherent conversation after multiple turns," Hong says. "It's very disjointed right now, there's no continuity."
One of the team's big goals is to have the bot understand who the user is. That kind of personal understanding depends on the bot asking the right questions at the right time, and would ultimately improve the flow of conversation.
"These types of interactive agents are only going to become more prevalent in our daily lives," says Jurgens. "I hope the students come away not only with the skills to make these agents more natural and empathetic, but also with an appreciation for how to use these agents to help others."
U-M's first attempt at this challenge started as the project of three first-year CS students in Winter semester 2019. William Chen, Ryan Draves, and Zhizhuo Zhou had some experience designing Alexa skills before, and began recruiting grad student and faculty researchers in the area of natural language processing to advise or work with the team.
Working on recruitment with Hong, the final team came to include Vihang Agarwal (Master's, CSE), Arushi Jain (Master's, Information), Yuan Liang (Master's, Data Science), Yujian Liu (undergraduate, CS), Sagnik Roy (Master's, Information), Yiting Shen (Master's, CSE), Yucen Sun (undergraduate, CS), and Junjie Xing (Master's, CSE).
"The University has a lot of resources," says Zhou. "Anyone with an idea can reach out, gather a team, and create something awesome."
The interdisciplinary group has a workflow and day to day operations not dissimilar to a full-fledged industry design team. The team is split across different technical tasks that, together, are necessary to the design of an integrated, working socialbot. These include things like natural language understanding and generation, gathering data from places like Reddit and The Washington Post, and using knowledge graphs to help searches determine the relationships between different topics. Students are assigned to the different tasks that suit their expertise at different phases of development.
For many on the team, the Grand Challenge represents their first real-world product design cycle.
"They're really going to learn what it means to develop a challenging system that interacts with real people," says Banovic. "They are now creating a socio-technical system in a way that perhaps they never had an opportunity to. They are creating technologies that are effecting the lives of real people."
This mode of work, which is a difficult experience to emulate in a college course, faces the students with a number of organizational and design challenges.
"It has reinforced for me that structural product management is very important," says Chen. "A week into development we already had multiple branches and a dozen code bases. Amazon demands quite a bit of progress in a very short amount of time."
But the students are motivated and well-equipped to meet the challenge. As they move on to live testing with real Alexa customers on December 4, they're keen to keep their goals in mind and create a socialbot that stands apart from the crowd.
"We're not just creating something to beat the rating," says Hong. "The goal of this competition is to work on research, and work on something that's not been done before."


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Use air ratchets & air impact wrenches to tighten, loosen fasteners & fixings. They are powered by compressed air, work by providing high torque output with minimal effort by the user. Our range includes leading brands such as Bahco, PREVOST & RS PRO.
Use an air ratchet with 90° angle to makes the job you are working on easier and faster. Ideal for using on engines where vibration is a consideration, hard to reach areas or on larger, heavier fasteners.
Use air impact wrenches for heavy-duty applications, stubborn nuts and bolts. They offer high torque levels with a hammer action to loosen nuts & bolts. They are sometimes referred to as impact guns.


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Kringle Instant Download
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The Kringle seasonal wreath has been inspired by the heart-warming, classic movie, Miracle on 34th Street. A handmade wreath can make any space more inviting and cozy! Welcome family and friends with this wreath's traditional design. This is a great project for beginners. Make a seasonal wreath for the holidays, weddings, kids' rooms, and everyday décor. It makes the perfect gift to be cherished for generations.
FREE ONLINE CLASS: A full-length video tutorial on how to construct this pattern is available. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to never miss another video!
FINISHED SIZE: The finished size is 12" x 12" x 3".
PATTERN DIFFICULTY: 1 Novice.
FEATURES: This project is a no-sew, easy to make wreath featuring cork or faux leather.
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HELPFUL NOTIONS: For this project you will need grapevine or straw wreath. Shop our growing variety of sewing notions from Sallie Tomato the industry's best suppliers.
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Trace or photocopy the pattern piece(s) onto a separate sheet of paper. If printing or copying template(s), print at 100% or actual size. Measure the test square provided in the pattern to ensure the pieces are the correct size. Tape corresponding pieces together before cutting fabric, aligning red lines, shapes, and outer edges. It's also helpful to write the name and cutting instructions on each pattern piece. Cut out pattern pieces along solid black lines, unless otherwise stated.
Please review the back of the pattern cover for recommended fabrics. Shop our selection of Cork Fabric, Faux Leather, Microsuede, and Faux Fur for a designer finish. We also offer quality Interfacing and Stabilizers, to add structure and stability to your projects!
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Basic Search Stone Collection: Volume 41 - Item 8 | Advanced Search | Online Archives | Help | ||||||||||||
8. Opinions of Prominent Men Concerning the Great Questions of the Times Expressed in Their Letters to the Loyal National League and Other Loyalists at Union Square, New York, on the Anniversary of Sumter (New York: C. S. Westcott & Co., 1863). (72 p.)
Compilation of almost a hundred replies from persons invited to speak at but unable to attend the mass meeting of the Loyal National League in New York City on April 11, 1863. Responses came from cabinet officers, senators, governors, congressional representatives, military officers, judges, and other dignitaries. The last eight pages on the pamphlet contain the words to four "national songs" sung at the meeting. Transcripts of the speeches by persons who were able to attend were published under a separate cover.


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Last Week's ProBlogger Poll of the Week asked readers of this blog the question:
'How Much Money did you Make from Blogging in April?'
1504 people responded to the poll (thanks everyone) and the results revealed a similar pattern to previous polls asking about earnings.
The largest category was those that indicated that they didn't earn anything in April (38%). On reflection I wished that I'd split this category into two (1. I tried but didn't earn anything and 2. I didn't try).
Of those that did earn something the results were quite interesting. I've graphed these results below (note I removed the 'I didn't earn anything' category from the below results because I don't know how many of them were trying to earn something.
As you'll see from the following pie chart (click to enlarge) the biggest response came from those earning under $10 in April (30%).
After this the next biggest response was actually from the $100-$499 category (17%).
7% are earned over $15,000 for the month of April.
- 57% earned under $100
- 19% earned over $1000
- 13% earned over $2500
- 7% earned over $15000
Here's another graph putting the same figures in a different way:
The general shape of the graph is similar to similar polls that I've conducted previously although the change has been the fourth category ($100-$499) which is perhaps a bit higher than previously.
Also interesting to me was that the top range of over $15,000 was at a very similar level to previous top categories even though I increased the range from 'Over $10,000' to 'Over $15000'. 63 respondents claimed to be earning over the $15,000 mark for the month of April. While some will argue that this is people just being smart with the poll (I'm sure there are a few who do this) I wouldn't be surprised if the actual number was quite close to this having chat chats with a number of bloggers in the last few weeks who are bringing in well excess of this type of money each month.


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2009's Day at the Docks in Hatteras Village a Sunny Success
The ideal sunny weather brought out the largest crowd yet at the 5th annual Day at the Docks, a celebration of Hatteras Island Watermen, which was held on Saturday, October 19th.
Hundreds of visitors spent a beautiful late summer day wandering up and down Hatteras village's working waterfront, looking at boats, eating, watching the various races and competitions that took place, and enjoying the bands that played all afternoon. Continue reading


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Conversion to the Zeitgeist
"Why read old books?" That was the title of Victor Davis Hanson's essay at his Works and Days blog yesterday. Turns out Hanson doesn't mean just any old books. He means the classics—Homer, Sophocles, Hesiod. You know the ones. But there's another kind of old book—the book that is not a classic, has not withstood the "test of time," and is (in fact) so very much a product of its times that to read it is to be transported to an earlier day. Something like an episode of Mad Men without the recherche and ironical self-awareness.
Fifty years ago this April one of the most useful American Jewish novels ever written—a lavish 341-page archive of information about American Jewish attitudes in the early 'sixties—was published by a Reform rabbi who had just quit the pulpit for the life of a bestselling author. "I have a sneaking suspicion that people appreciate what they have to pay for," Herbert Tarr told the New York Times. "Sermons are free, and half of what you say from the pulpit is discounted as pious sentiments that just go with the robe." The Conversion of Chaplain Cohen (New York: Bernard Geis, 1963), the first of his five novels, alternated the sermons with humor and social criticism (as it used to be called), and all for the price of $4.95. The novel went through five printings, selling more than 30,000 copies in hardback—not bad for a first novel in 1963.
But it's not at all clear that Tarr had any clue what he was writing. The Conversion of Chaplain Cohen is not only one of the first American novels about a rabbi, but it is also the first about an American military chaplain of any denomination. True enough, Joseph Heller had included a chaplain in the joke with which he began Catch-22, published only eighteen months earlier:
The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him.
So Tarr's Chaplain David Cohen is the second air force chaplain in American fiction, but he is the first who is something more than "sweet" and "decent." He is also the first to get a book of his own. The novel opens in July 1955, during the Geneva Summit, at a moment when the Cold War was suspended between Korea and Vietnam and it looked as if there might be, as David reflects, a "lessening of friction between East and West." He has chosen this moment to enlist in the Armed Services. Like his author, he has only recently concluded his rabbinical studies and received semikhah.
Now twenty-four, David is standing in line, buck naked except for a 3 x 5 card with which he can occasionally conceal the sign of the covenant, waiting for his physical examination in the old Army Building at the Battery in New York. In front of him, a doctor is examining a young Puerto Rican recruit. The young man has small English, and when he fails repeatedly to understand his instructions, the doctor yells at him: "Don't they teach you anything in that stupid country you come from?" Without thinking, David calls out: "You're certainly no advertisement for America, Doctor." "Who said that?" the doctor demands. Tentatively, David identifies himself as the one who spoke:
David faltered. "Not exactly."
A smile of triumph darkened [the doctor's] face. "I was sure you wouldn't." He turned back to the terrorized Puerto Rican and dismissed him contemptuously. "All right, you can go now, you ignoramus. Do you understand that much English?"
Impulsively, David blurted out: "Horshoim kayom nigrosh ki hashkeit lo yuchol, vayigr'shu meimov refesh vovit."
[The doctor] turned on David. "What was that again?"
David swallowed. "Hebrew."
"Hebrew!" [the doctor] snorted. "Doesn't anyone here speak English?
And so Tarr's narrative plan is established. As Brendan Behan said in his New York Times review, Rabbi Cohen has the "idiotic notion that he should speak out against injustice wherever he sees it." Assigned to a base in Mississippi, for example (it is obviously modeled upon Columbus Air Force Base, although its name is changed to Fairfield in the novel), he brings a Negro to a Passover seder at the synagogue in town, despite orders from his commanding officer not to interfere in "off-base discrimination." Later he delivers an unauthorized political talk in enthusiastic support of Israel ("David was one Jew to whom Exodus automatically meant the second book of the Bible and not the novel"). Even later he publicly dresses down an officer's wife, who is humiliating her partner at bridge. He calls her a "bitch" only to discover afterwards that she is the wife of the commanding officer.
Tarr means for Rabbi Cohen to come across as an angry and unfortunate prophet, but that's not how he comes across at all. From a distance of fifty years, he seems little more than a mouthpiece for liberal pieties. Even his opposition to racial discrimination is more of a formality, an abstract maxim rather than a warm-blooded response to a human dilemma, since the black Jewish airman he drags to the seder is leaving Mississippi in less than a week, is not especially religious, and mainly wants to go in order to show off his singing voice in chanting kiddush.
David's talk on Israel angers the president of the local congregation, whose son is becoming bar mitsvah at the service. Also the owner of the major department store in town, the man is appalled that the rabbi intends to say "how terrible it was for the U.N. and the United States to censure Israel for retaliating against Syria's machine-gunning of Israeli fishermen." The president tries to bully David into switching topics, reminding him that "you will be speaking to people who can't be expected to view the Middle East through Jew-colored glasses." David stands firm. "If he were to start running his ministry on the platform of No Offense to Anyone Ever," he reflects, "he might as well have studied for four years to be a writer of deodorant ads."
Comes the day, however, and what David says is anodyne. He blames the United Nations for the "current state of cold war between Israel and the Arab nations"—they failed "to insure Israel's survival" and "neglected to develop practical plans for aiding the Arab refugees on a permanent basis." Given these failures, Israel cannot be expected "to submit to annihilation." Still, the rabbi allows, war is not the answer:
The best parts of The Conversion of Chaplain Cohen are the least timely. A bachelor in self-acknowledged search for a Jewish wife, David tries out two different candidates over the course of the novel, and both are surprising choices (if not particularly successful characters). The first, Dena Gordon, is a morbidly obese young woman who lives with her parents. She is good company, though, with a sharp tongue and a cutting wit, which she is quick to turn on herself. Dena accuses him of wanting only to counsel her ("A person who wants to enjoy a good old-fashioned neurosis doesn't stand a chance any more," she complains), and not even David is sure whether she is right. To prove her wrong, he consents to sleep with her, and only the deus ex machina of a coffee table, which trips him up with a smash and wakes the whole household, saves him from admitting Dena is right after all.
The other candidate to become Mrs. Cohen is a Holocaust survivor with the symbolic name of Ilona Lazarus. At a time when the only Holocaust novels written for American audiences were Meyer Levin's Eva (1959) and Edward Lewis Wallant's The Pawnbroker (1961), Tarr compresses the horrors into three pages. He even anticipates Sophie's Choice:


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Saturday, May 14, 2011
The Brash letter - Taskfarce
Friday, May 13, 2011
Maori hurt most by youth rates?
When the Great Recession's negative effect on the U.S. labor market was strongest, the national unemployment rate stood at 10.1 percent—a depth last seen in June 1983. But the greatest amount of pain was felt by younger and more vulnerable workers—though not in equal amounts. For instance, the unemployment rate for 16-to-19 year-olds reached 27.1 percent at the recession's trough. For white teens, the figure was 25 percent; for black teens, it was close to 50 percent.
New Zealand's current 15-19 year-old unemployment rate is 27.5 percent. Unfortunately the HLFS tables do not show the ethnic breakdown of each age group. There is a suggestion here that Maori youth unemployment is over 40 percent.
According to the Department of Labour the Maori Youth NEET (not in education, employment or training) rate is around 17 percent:
The difference between the two rates comes about because the DOL defines youth as 15-24, not 15-19, and the unemployment rate for 20-24 year-olds is much lower.
Anyway the point of this post is to highlight the findings of the study because what holds for US blacks probably has relevance for NZ Maori.
... the picture grows even more troubling when the authors focus just on the 21 states fully affected by the federal minimum wage increases in 2007, 2008, and 2009. Approximately 13,200 black young adults in these states lost their job as a direct result of the recession; 18,500 lost their job as a result of the federal wage mandate—nearly 40 percent more than the recession. In
other words, the consequences of the minimum wage for this subgroup were more harmful than the consequences of the recession.
The substantial disemployment effects that emerge from the data raise an important question: Why do black males suffer more harm from wage mandates than their white or Hispanic counterparts?
The authors find that they're more likely to be employed in eat-ing and drinking places–nearly one out of three black young adults without a high school diploma works in the industry. Businesses in this industry generally have narrow profit margins and are more likely to be adversely impacted by a wage mandate. There's also substantial variation in regional location, as black young adults are
overwhelmingly located in the South and in urban areas. It's also likely that unobserved differences in skill level and job experience play a role. To the extent that these differences are concentrated among young men of a particular race or ethnicity, this group would have the greatest risk of losing jobs when the minimum wage is increased.
Minimum wage increases remain politically popular, which means they'll continue to be debated at the state and federal level for years to come. But the debate on the employment consequences of the minimum wage has been settled conclusively, and this research proves that those consequences are felt most by young black males.
(Hat-tip NCPA)
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Returned heads reminders of a brutal past
Some Maori heads, with intricate tattoos, were traditionally kept as trophies from tribal warfare. But once Westerners began offering prized goods in exchange for them, men were in danger of being killed simply for their tattoos, French museum officials have said.
But that is only part of the story. Slaves were deliberately tattooed and beheaded when carved faces became a commodity. I can think of nothing more terrifying and barbaric. Undergoing the extreme pain of having one's face chiselled for reasons of rank and pride is one thing. Imagine experiencing the same agonising process in the knowledge that it is preceding your death. That is always my first thought when I hear about heads being repatriated. I struggle to understand why anyone wants a reminder of this brutal, exploitive practice.
One of the best things about the Treaty is that it effectively abolished slavery in Maoridom. The history of NZ Maori is a savage one. Peaceful tribes were obliterated or enslaved by stronger, more violent and acquisitive tribes. A recipe for a harsh, short-life society. The spiritualistic ceremonies that accompany the return of the remainders and reminders of such times are misplaced.
Maori, the island nation's indigenous people, believe their ancestors' remains should be respected in their home area without being disturbed.
Ironic as they weren't respected in life. Perhaps there is a healing and closure; an apologistic aspect to the process that evades me.
Monday, May 09, 2011
What makes some people vote
Now that is not a stupid reason to vote for someone. This young man has identified his most important value. And he looks for someone who mirrors that. I don't really know why but I found it fascinating witnessing how the Mr Nice Guy persona manifests in votes. And let's face it. There aren't that many people who are very interested in politics. I wasn't at his age either.
While it seems strange to me I need only examine my own attitude to sports. The names I hear about are vaguely familiar but I couldn't tell you whether a particular one waa a league player or netball star. When it comes to sports I tune out. But if I had to vote for a sports star it would be Tana Umaga because I met him and he was very nice and generous. And good looking.
Sunday, May 08, 2011
National's election platforms - welfare avoided again
So why not the biggest chunk of government spending - social security? Leaving it for ACT?
But in this term and the last, ACT also abandoned welfare as a central issue. Roy was spokesperson from 2005-08 and Douglas thereafter. Neither raised public conciousness about welfare the way Newman had before.
The greatest potential area for NZ to reduce spending, as well as improve outcomes, is in welfare. But that market research stuff they do tells parties to avoid the issue as too electorally sensitive.
Back yourself Brash and go after it. In the early 2000s, while still Reserve Bank Governor, you were publicly critical of welfare. Your outspokeness in that role laid the base for much of your current support. National has done next to nothing in this term and NZ now trails other developed countries in the reform stakes. We cannot afford to.
My advice to Kerre Woodham (and myself on more than one occasion)
Mother's Day is more a day for the children than it is for mums - all mums with healthy, beautiful children have a mother's day every day that their children stay safe and happy.
But this year - sorry to be a spoil sport - let's turn the spotlight on those mothers who are abject failures. All those mothers who haven't got a clue who their children's sperm donors were. All those mothers who have children because they get paid to - and, let's face it, they wouldn't get paid to do anything else. Those mothers who stay with men who hurt them and their kids because they're so pathetic and useless that any shag - even when it comes with a biff - is better than being alone.
This Mother's Day, I would plead that every mother who has had a child that they don't care about or can't cope with gets the help that they need....
I've been writing columns and banging on on talkback for more than 13 years about this and I am so, so sick of railing against the abomination that is child abuse in this country.
So this will be my last column on the subject. What I do is utterly futile.
Her emotion (or lack of it) is called burn out.
My advice to Kerre is don't stop writing but do start thinking about what policies need to change and be specific about what needs to happen. If you know that people have children because they are paid to, call for the end of such a policy. It is your money being used after all. If you think adoption is a better option, push for a change in CYF's attitude to adoption. How do you think it came about that NZ literally turned its back on the process? Vociferous, relentless, activism by feminists who believed that a child should always stay with its natural mother. How did it come about that we pay single women to have children? Feminist activism that deplored the nuclear family. Fight back and keep fighting. Not for a return to the past but for a new approach. Women today have so much more opportunity. They don't need these state crutches which if anything turn them into victims rather than empowered beings.
Take a breather and wait for the energy to return. It will.


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1. Monitoring comprehension
Students who are good at monitoring their comprehension know when they understand what they read and when they do not. They have strategies to "fix" problems in their understanding as the problems arise. Research shows that instruction, even in the early grades, can help students become better at monitoring their comprehension.
Comprehension monitoring instruction teaches students to:
- Be aware of what they do understand
- Identify what they do not understand
- Use appropriate strategies to resolve problems in comprehension
2. Metacognition
Metacognition can be defined as "thinking about thinking." Good readers use metacognitive strategies to think about and have control over their reading. Before reading, they might clarify their purpose for reading and preview the text. During reading, they might monitor their understanding, adjusting their reading speed to fit the difficulty of the text and "fixing" any comprehension problems they have. After reading, they check their understanding of what they read.
Students may use several comprehension monitoring strategies:
- Identify where the difficulty occurs
"I don't understand the second paragraph on page 76." - Identify what the difficulty is
"I don't get what the author means when she says, 'Arriving in America was a milestone in my grandmother's life.'" - Restate the difficult sentence or passage in their own words
"Oh, so the author means that coming to America was a very important event in her grandmother's life." - Look back through the text
"The author talked about Mr. McBride in Chapter 2, but I don't remember much about him. Maybe if I reread that chapter, I can figure out why he's acting this way now." - Look forward in the text for information that might help them to resolve the difficulty
"The text says, 'The groundwater may form a stream or pond or create a wetland. People can also bring groundwater to the surface.' Hmm, I don't understand how people can do that… Oh, the next section is called 'Wells.' I'll read this section to see if it tells how they do it."
3. Graphic and semantic organizers
Graphic organizers illustrate concepts and relationships between concepts in a text or using diagrams. Graphic organizers are known by different names, such as maps, webs, graphs, charts, frames, or clusters.
Regardless of the label, graphic organizers can help readers focus on concepts and how they are related to other concepts. Graphic organizers help students read and understand textbooks and picture books.
Graphic organizers can:
- Help students focus on text structure differences between fiction and nonfiction as they read
- Provide students with tools they can use to examine and show relationships in a text
- Help students write well-organized summaries of a text
Here are some examples of graphic organizers:
- Venn-Diagrams
Used to compare or contrast information from two sources. For example, comparing two Dr. Seuss books. - Storyboard/Chain of Events
Used to order or sequence events within a text. For example, listing the steps for brushing your teeth. - Story Map
Used to chart the story structure. These can be organized into fiction and nonfiction text structures. For example, defining characters, setting, events, problem, resolution in a fiction story; however in a nonfiction story, main idea and details would be identified. - Cause/Effect
Used to illustrate the cause and effects told within a text. For example, staying in the sun too long may lead to a painful sunburn.
4. Answering questions
Questions can be effective because they:
- Give students a purpose for reading
- Focus students' attention on what they are to learn
- Help students to think actively as they read
- Encourage students to monitor their comprehension
- Help students to review content and relate what they have learned to what they already know
The Question-Answer Relationship strategy (QAR) encourages students to learn how to answer questions better. Students are asked to indicate whether the information they used to answer questions about the text was textually explicit information (information that was directly stated in the text), textually implicit information (information that was implied in the text), or information entirely from the student's own background knowledge. Learn more about the QAR strategy in our strategy library.
There are four different types of questions:
- "Right There"
Questions found right in the text that ask students to find the one right answer located in one place as a word or a sentence in the passage.
Example: Who is Frog's friend? Answer: Toad - "Think and Search"
Questions based on the recall of facts that can be found directly in the text. Answers are typically found in more than one place, thus requiring students to "think" and "search" through the passage to find the answer.
Example: Why was Frog sad? Answer: His friend was leaving. - "Author and You"
Questions require students to use what they already know, with what they have learned from reading the text. Students must understand the text and relate it to their prior knowledge before answering the question.
Example: How do think Frog felt when he found Toad? Answer: I think that Frog felt happy because he had not seen Toad in a long time. I feel happy when I get to see my friend who lives far away. - "On Your Own"
Questions are answered based on a student's prior knowledge and experiences. Reading the text may not be helpful to them when answering this type of question.
Example: How would you feel if your best friend moved away? Answer: I would feel very sad if my best friend moved away because I would miss her.
5. Generating questions
By generating questions, students become aware of whether they can answer the questions and if they understand what they are reading. Students learn to ask themselves questions that require them to combine information from different segments of text. For example, students can be taught to ask main idea questions that relate to important information in a text.
6. Recognizing story structure
In story structure instruction, students learn to identify the categories of content (characters, setting, events, problem, resolution). Often, students learn to recognize story structure through the use of story maps. Instruction in story structure improves students' comprehension.
7. Summarizing
Summarizing requires students to determine what is important in what they are reading and to put it into their own words. Instruction in summarizing helps students:
- Identify or generate main ideas
- Connect the main or central ideas
- Eliminate unnecessary information
- Remember what they read
Effective comprehension strategy instruction is explicit
Research shows that explicit teaching techniques are particularly effective for comprehension strategy instruction. In explicit instruction, teachers tell readers why and when they should use strategies, what strategies to use, and how to apply them. The steps of explicit instruction typically include direct explanation, teacher modeling ("thinking aloud"), guided practice, and application.
- Direct explanation
The teacher explains to students why the strategy helps comprehension and when to apply the strategy. - Modeling
The teacher models, or demonstrates, how to apply the strategy, usually by "thinking aloud" while reading the text that the students are using. - Guided practice
The teacher guides and assists students as they learn how and when to apply the strategy. - Application
The teacher helps students practice the strategy until they can apply it independently.
Effective comprehension strategy instruction can be accomplished through cooperative learning, which involves students working together as partners or in small groups on clearly defined tasks. Cooperative learning instruction has been used successfully to teach comprehension strategies. Students work together to understand texts, helping each other learn and apply comprehension strategies. Teachers help students learn to work in groups. Teachers also provide modeling of the comprehension strategies.
Learn more about comprehension strategies
To learn more about effective instruction for build reading comprehension, visit our strategy library
Adapted from Adler, C.R. (Ed). 2001. Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read, pp. 49-54. National Institute for Literacy. Retrieved Nov. 1, 2007, from http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/reading_first1text.html.


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Shadow Wood 2011
November first is the Haunter's New Year. Or it feels like it to me, anyway.
Another season "Whooshed!" by, and nothing left to do but coil up the extension cords and try to find enough corners to shove everything.
I often find myself reflective at this time of year, and it's a 50/50 shot that I'll be depressed as hell, or satisfied with … everything. That contentment can be hard to find sometimes. It's really a choice, though, more than a consequence.
Mrs. Spookyblue taught me that and she offers refresher courses on an as-needed basis. It's difficult to be morose in the face of buoyant enthusiasm, and at my most cantankerous is when she cheers the loudest. Partly to drown out the moans, but mostly because she means it. What a sweetie.
Shadow Wood 2011 looked a lot like Shadow Wood 2010, but with red lights. The kids didn't notice, and more than once I overheard, "This house is always the best!" A fine compliment, I think, to ring in the new year.


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In the fall, a car dealership introduced a new model and promoted it to potential customers. The car dealer purchased a mailing list and merged it with its own database. The Ranger Stylus Satin Pen was selected as the pen's color perfectly matched the hot new color for the fall. The mailing included visuals of the new car model and a pen engraved with the customer's name. The mailing suggested that customers come in and be first to test-drive the new model, then use the pen to sign the deal!
Source: RiteLine


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By Paula Moulton
I became infamous at Le Cordon Bleu in France (at least in my own mind) on a relatively quiet and peaceful classroom day of wine tasting. I am on stage but the theater is a dimly lit classroom in the 15th Arondissement of Paris and I am an American widow with three grown children wearing a uniform that matches my nine other youthful women classmates. Can I succeed at performing the international protocols of a flawless 7-minute wine analysis that ends with a perfect food and wine pairing while standing in front of my peers, professor and the man from Margaux?
With a grimace, and a bit of pride, I always think back to this life-changing moment in the spring of 2012 when I was preparing for intensive wine exams. After studying ten months in Paris at Le Cordon Bleu's first year of wine management, I still had my doubts about performing the 7-minute wine analysis and, if given the choice, would rather have performed the 7-minute AB workout even if it entailed wearing my spandex shorts in front of my other twenty classmates.
My classmates snickered, but I think they were secretly happy that I broke the traditional standards of food and wine pairing that day. It certainly opened the doors to the steps I follow when it comes to choosing the perfect wine for holiday gatherings.
The internationally accepted rules of a wine tasting analysis chronicle in detail the visuel, or visual;olfactif or aromatic; and gustatif or taste of a particular wine, analyzing the future of the wine in terms of age, serving temperature, whether to carafe or decant, and finally, what dish to pair with the wine—all in 7-minutes or less. And the key ends with unlocking the door to choosing the correct wine for your meal.
I hold the glass of 2009 Chateau Kirwan Bordeaux in my hand like a singer ready to begin a melody. "This bouncy and forward 2009 Bordeaux from Chateau Kirwan, which is predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon blended with Merlot, Petite Verdot, and Cabernet Franc," I exclaim, "could be paired with a lovely garlic-rubbed grilled leg of lamb served with roasted rosemary potatoes and sautéed green beans with toasted pine nuts . . ."
Monsieur Professor is proudly smiling at me and begins to clap with my other nineteen classmates and the man from Margaux.
"Or," I sheepishly announce over the first seconds of applause, "it could be paired with a thin-crusted pizza covered with caramelized onions, crispy pancetta, sautéed shitake mushrooms, and Gorgonzola cheese."
The clapping stops abruptly, "Why you do that!" Monsieur Professor shouts at me after my offbeat pairing suggestion. "You just gave perfect wine analysis and then ruined it by your food pairing . . .pizza, mon Dieu, not with Chateau Kirwan from Margaux!"
I genuinely want that bottle of Chateau Kirwan from Margaux with pizza. Ce n'est pas chouette (that's not cool) for a traditional French food and wine pairing but for me, an American, it is.
I suggest using my basic pairing principles—that so abruptly disturbed my French classroom that day—to explore and have fun with food and wine pairings during the holidays. By matching a wine that's either similar or opposite to the dish or ingredients being served, you can produce delectable and unique pairings. It's all about the personal adventure when it comes to food and wine pairing.
I pair wine using a simple technique that I learned from a famous sommelier in France. "Wine pairing should be looked at like we look at couples," he shared. "There are two types of couples in this world. There are the couples who are similar to one another and make each other whole almost like being one person and then there are the couples who are completely opposite and one would never put them together."
Yet both couples work together and form a powerful bond…
1. Is this wine similar to the dish?
Ex: A heavy beef stew with lots of pepper and bay leaves would have flavors similar to a peppery, earthy red wine like a Cabernet Sauvignon or a spicy Pinot Noir. The bold aromas and flavors of the wine are similar to the strong and spicy ingredients in the stew.
2. Is this wine opposite to the dish?
Ex: A creamy white sauce over pasta would pair well with a nice Sauvignon Blanc. Why?
The acidity in the wine is opposite from the creamy, smooth sauce and actually subdues and balances both flavors.
In pairing traditional holiday dishes, use the basic concepts above (try on your own first) and if you get stumped here are some cheat notes:
- Turkey (Dark Meat): Merlot, Zinfandel
- Turkey (Light Meat) Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Viognier
- Chicken: Beaujolais, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Rioja
- Lamb: Bordeaux Blend, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot
- Salmon/Seafood/Shellfish: Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir
- Pizza: Bordeaux Blend, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Zinfandel, Sauvignon Blanc
- Macaroni & Cheese: Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Rioja
- Hamburgers: Merlot, Rose, Zinfandel, Syrah
Be bold, brave and thankful that your pick does not include the man from Margaux. Simply take that adventurous wine leap believing that your personal palate will always catch you. And even if your palate fails you with the hours of thought you put into that special holiday food and wine pairing, who cares, try again later. Toss out the old ideas about failure and embrace it as your best friend because, when it comes to wine, there is always another chance to get creative with another even more provocative pairing.
Please sip responsibly.
A viticulturist, award-winning winemaker, and published author with over 25 years of experience in the wine industry, Paula Moulton has worked with wine talent such as Joel Peterson of Ravenswood Winery, Mike Benziger of Benziger Family Winery, and Jean-Luc Thunevin (Bordeaux's Bad Boy wine). She has appeared on the Today Show, CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, CRN, and other major media outlets as an author and wine industry leader. Moulton holds a BA from U. C. Berkeley in Rhetoric, an AS in viticulture from Santa Rosa Junior College, and a Wine Management degree from Le Cordon Bleu, Paris, France.
Learn more about Moulton at www.paulamoulton.com.
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Source: Plato Data Intelligence.