text:
Edwin M. Truman
Senior Fellow
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Visiting Lecturer
Visiting Professor
May 21, 2008
House Committee on Foreign Affairs
The Rise of Sovereign Wealth Funds:
Impacts on
Chairman Berman, ranking member Ros-Lehtinen, and members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, it is a pleasure to testify before you today on the rise of sovereign wealth funds and their potential impacts on U.S. foreign policy and economic interests.
The broadest definition of a sovereign wealth fund (SWF) is a collection of government-owned or government-controlled assets. Narrower definitions may exclude government financial or non-financial corporations, purely domestic assets, foreign exchange reserves, assets owned or controlled by sub-national governmental units, or some or all government pension funds. I use "sovereign wealth fund" as a descriptive term for a separate pool of government-owned or government-controlled assets that includes some international assets. I include all government pension, as well as nonpension, funds to the extent that they manage marketable assets. The basic objectives of both types are essentially the same. They raise virtually identical issues of best practice – the focus of my research and analysis – in government control and accountability regardless of their specific objectives, mandates, or sources of funding.
wealth funds are funded from foreign exchange reserves, earnings from commodity
exports, receipts from privatizations, other fiscal revenues, or pension
contributions. (Table 1 lists 56
sovereign wealth funds of 38 countries.)
These funds have been around for more than half a century with a range
of structures, mandates, and economic, financial, and political (domestic and
international) objectives – normally a mixture.[1] Consequently, it is perilous to generalize
about sovereign wealth funds and associated potential threats to
Nevertheless, my summary conclusions are three:
sovereign wealth funds do not pose a significant new threat to
SWFs are one of the many challenges of global economic and financial change in
the 21st century. Whether
these particular challenges of globalization are appropriately addressed will
have profound implications for the
is useful to place the activities of sovereign wealth funds in a broader
perspective. At the end of 2006, the
estimated size of global capital markets was $190 trillion.[2] A conservative estimate of financial assets
owned or controlled by governments is $15 trillion, or about 8 percent of
global financial assets.[3] Governments in the
assets owned or controlled by governments are at least $10 trillion: $6
trillion in foreign exchange reserves, $2.7 trillion in assets of nonpension
SWFs, and at least $1.3 trillion in government pension funds.[5] Excluding our modest holdings of foreign
exchange reserves, international assets of U.S. SWFs are about $800 billion
mostly in the form of the pension funds of state and local governments. Thus,
As an additional
point of reference, at the end of 2006,
Over the past five years, the size of the global capital market has doubled, but asset holdings of SWFs have at least tripled. The explosive growth of SWFs reflects the sustained rise in commodity prices as well as global imbalances. However, the increased international diversification of financial portfolios – the weakening of so-called home bias – is as least as important as macroeconomic factors in explaining the growth of SWFs.
The increasing relative importance of SWFs has exposed two tensions as part of the ongoing globalization of the international financial system.
The first is the
dramatic redistribution of international (or cross-border) wealth from the
traditional industrial countries, like the
The second is the fact that governments own or control a substantial share of the new international wealth. This redistribution from private to public hands implies a decision-making orientation that is at variance with the traditional private-sector, market-oriented framework with which most of us are comfortable even though own system does not fully conform to that ideal.
These twin tensions, in turn, are manifested in five broad concerns.
First, governments may mismanage their international investments to their own economic and financial detriment, including large-scale corruption in handling the huge amounts involved. It is a well known, though often ignored, regularity that governments are not good at picking economic winners; for example, government-owned banks tend to be less profitable than private banks. This concern about mismanagement is the principal reason why it is in the interests of every country with a SWF to favor the establishment of internationally agreed SWF best practices. Moreover, greater accountability of such funds is in the foreign policy interest of the United States because the mismanagement of SWF investments could lead to political as well as economic instability in countries with such funds.
Second, governments may manage SWF investments in pursuit of political objectives – raising national security concerns – or economic power objectives—for example, promoting state-owned or state-controlled national champions as global champions. Such behavior contributes not only to political conflicts between countries but also to economic distortions.
Third, financial protectionism may be encouraged in host countries in anticipation of the pursuit of political or economic objectives by the funds or in response to their actual actions. Development of and compliance with SWF best practices would help to diffuse this source of backlash against globalization. At the same time, countries receiving SWF investments should be as open as possible to such investments subject to the constraints of national security considerations narrowly defined.
Fourth in the management of their international assets, SWFs may contribute to market turmoil and uncertainty. They also may contribute to financial stability, but their net contribution is difficult to establish a priori, in particular if their operations are opaque but also because judgments can only be reached on a case by case basis.
Fifth, foreign government owners of the international assets may come into conflict with the governments of the countries in which they are investing. For example, government ownership adds a further dimension in balancing open markets and appropriate macroprudential regulation.
At this point, these concerns, with the important exception of the first – potential adverse implications for the home countries – are largely in the realm of the hypothetical. The others are much more salient in the context of cross-border investments by government-owned or government-controlled financial or non-financial corporations. Nevertheless, a loud, often acrimonious, public discourse about SWFs is underway in many countries, and not only in countries receiving SWF investments.
In my view, the challenge is to make the world safe for sovereign wealth funds through the establishment of an internationally agreed voluntary set of best practices. The natural place to start is with the current practices of individual funds today. To this end, I have created with the assistance of Doug Dowson a scoreboard for 46 of the 56 funds listed in table 1, including the 12 pension SWFs.[7] The scoreboard rates funds on their current practices and includes 33 elements grouped in four categories: structure, governance, accountability and transparency, and behavior. We have scored the funds based on systematic, regularly available, public information. At least one fund receives a positive score on each element. In fact at least several do.
Table 2 attached provides a summary of the scoreboard results for all elements and for each of the four categories.[8] These results point to three take-away observations:
First, all sovereign wealth funds are not the same. Nor is there one cluster of "good" funds and another cluster of "bad' funds. The overall scores range from 95 to 9 out a possible 100. The rating of each of them can be improved. The funds fall in three broad groups: 22 funds with scores above 60, 14 funds with scores below 30, and 10 funds in a middle group. Moreover, the grouping of scores is essentially identical if one examines only the category of accountability and transparency.[9]
Second, although each of the 12 representative pension SWFs is in the top group, that group of 22 funds also includes 10 nonpension SWFs. Thus, it is not unreasonable to hold nonpension SWFs to the standard of accountability of pension funds. Chile's pension and nonpension SWFs both score in the top group. On the other hand, China's National Social Security Fund is in the top group, but the China Investment Corporation is in the bottom group.
Third, it is essentially impossible to correlate the ratings of the individual funds with the economic or political characteristics of their government owners. For example, the top group includes seven of the 14 funds with estimated assets of more than $100 billion, but four are in the second group, and two are in the third group.[10] The top group includes funds of a number of developing countries, including Azerbaijan, Chile, China, Kazakhstan, Thailand, and Timor-Leste. The middle group includes funds of non-industrial countries as diverse as Russia, Mexico, Kuwait, and Singapore, whose two funds are in this group. Singapore's two funds have close-to-identical overall scores, but their scores differ on many individual elements. The bottom group includes three funds from Abu Dhabi each of which has an excellent reputation in financial markets.
For some this diversity of current practice illustrates the challenge in developing a common set of best practices. In my view, it illustrates the opportunity to converge on a common high standard. A senior representative of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is co-chairing, with the director of the IMF's monetary and capital markets department, the International Working Group of Sovereign Wealth Funds to develop "a set of SWF principles that properly reflects their investment practices and objectives."[11] The decision by the authorities of the United Arab Emirates to provide a co-chairman for this group implies a commitment by them to enhance substantially the accountability and transparency of their SWFs.
In his letter of invitation to testify before this committee today, Chairman Berman raised three issues, other than the phenomenon of SWFs and their accountability and transparency, on which I have not yet commented explicitly.
First, he asked whether sovereign wealth funds have the potential to disrupt financial markets. All investors with large portfolios have the potential to disrupt financial markets whatever their motivation. However, the very size of their portfolios helps to inhibit them from doing so, in other words, discourages them from shooting themselves in their feet.
At the same time, it is inappropriate in my opinion to view SWFs as cornucopias available to be tapped to rescue the U.S. or the global financial system. For every SWF investment in a U.S. financial institution, that fund has to disinvest, or not invest, in some other asset, normally in the United States or at least in U.S. dollars.
Some observers of private equity firms and hedge funds have concerns about their implications for the stability of our economy and financial system. I do not share most of those concerns though I have long favored increased transparency for large private equity firms and hedge funds. However, the facts do not support those who argue that SWFs are not like hedge funds and private equity firms in their speculative activities. Sovereign wealth funds invest in hedge funds, in private equity firms, and in other highly leveraged financial institutions whose activities, including the use of leverage, are indistinguishable from hedge funds and private equity firms. In effect, sovereign wealth funds are providing the capital that those firms subsequently leverage to generate high rates of return for the funds. They are no different from other investors except that their stakes may be measured in the billions rather than in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Second, Chairman Berman asked more generally whether the foreign policy and national security interests of countries with sovereign wealth funds pose a threat to the United States. It follows from what I have already said that my short answer is no.
I am not an expert on the foreign policy and national interests of each of the more than 30 countries with nonpension SWFs to say nothing of the additional countries that only have pension SWFs. However, it is clear that the interests the individual countries are diverse, and perceptions of those countries fluctuate over time, in part, reflecting differences in the development and evolution of their political and social systems.
Policymakers are primarily interested in issues of underlying investment control even if they do not agree on how to define that concept. In this context, government owned or controlled financial and nonfinancial corporations are much more relevant because, in general, their activities are more focused and more easily integrated with foreign policy and national security objectives.
Although some SWFs do take controlling interests via their investments, more than half of the 46 funds we scored have explicit policies against doing so. A substantial proportion of the remaining 22 funds also do not seek controlling interests, but they do not have explicit, public policies in this area. Of course, it is possible to pursue foreign policy or national security interests without taking a controlling investment interest, but it is more difficult, and the investment interest is likely to be more narrowly focused and more easily identified. The essential point is that the activities of a few countries that have sovereign wealth funds and may use them to pursue political and economic interests should not be conflated with the motivations of the vast majority of countries that have such funds.
Finally, Chairman Berman asked for thoughts on how the U.S. Congress and the Administration can best "manage" sovereign wealth fund investing in the United States. I interpret his question as asking how the Congress and Administration should best respond to the phenomenon of sovereign wealth funds.
Notwithstanding my view that the greatest risks associated with SWFs are to the citizens of the countries whose governments have accumulated the large stocks of international assets, authorities in the United States and other countries where those assets are invested also have legitimate concerns about how they will be managed. Those concerns focus primarily on acquisition of large or controlling stakes by foreign governments in private institutions. As noted, at present this is the exception not the rule for SWFs. However, one area of concern and potential conflict is the apparent use by a few countries, such as China and potentially Brazil, to use their SWFs to promote the expansion of their own economic enterprises.
Of course, the current, largely benign pattern could change, and foreign government-owned or government-controlled financial and nonfinancial corporations do acquire stakes in companies in other countries, including controlling stakes. The 2007 Foreign Investment and National Security Act (FINSA) revised the framework and procedures of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). With these changes and the existing powers of the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as other U.S. financial regulators, we are well positioned to evaluate and, if necessary, to mitigate, to block, or to pursue any U.S. acquisitions or investment by a SWF or other foreign government entity to protect our national security or to enforce our laws and regulations governing financial markets and institutions.
With respect to economic security concerns, the greatest risk to the U.S. economy is that we will erect unnecessary barriers to the free flow of capital into our economy and, in the process, contribute to the erection of similar barriers in other countries to the detriment of the health and continued prosperity of the U.S. and global economies. We may not in all cases be comfortable with the consequences of the free flow of finance and investment either internally or across borders, but on balance it promotes competition and efficiency. We should exhaust all multilateral approaches before pursuing bilateral remedies, and any such bilateral remedies should be narrowly focused.
To this end, I endorse the Administration's support of the OECD process designed to strengthen the framework that the United States and other OECD member countries use to govern foreign investment including by governmental entities. At present that framework does not, in principle, extend to non-members of the OECD though often it does in practice. The United States should support its explicit extension to all countries.
My hope is that the OECD process will provide sufficient reassurance to countries with sovereign wealth funds so that, with the facilitation of the IMF, they can reach agreement on and fully comply with a voluntary set of best practices for their funds.
How should that IMF-facilitated effort be judged when it is completed in the fall of this year?
One test is whether the resulting set of best practices covers substantively all the elements included in my scoreboard. Of course, it is not essential to cover them precisely in the form outlined in the appendix to this testimony. However, each element should be adequately addressed. A significant omission should be seen as falling short of expectations.
A second test of success is whether the best practices are embraced by substantially all countries with large SWFs. Table 1 lists 14 SWFs with more than $100 billion in total assets. If each of them were to adhere to the prospective set of best practices, it is less critical that the others do so immediately. For each country, including those that choose not to adhere fully or at all, the minimum expectation should be that the country would comply, or it should explain why it does not do so in whole or in part.
A third test is the quality of compliance by the countries that embrace the best practices. If they are drawn up properly, the best practices should be self-enforcing. Politicians, the media, financial-market participants, and the general public in the home and host countries should be able to determine the degree of compliance.
On the other hand, if the voluntary best practices agreed under the auspices of the IMF are less precise than they should be, it will be necessary to have some mechanism to report on compliance. That function might be lodged in the IMF or the World Bank, which have experience with respect to overseeing compliance with 12 of the many existing international standards and codes. As is the case with existing standards subject to IMF and World Bank surveillance and oversight, the resulting process of implicit naming and shaming, combined with peer pressure from other SWFs that want to avoid the application of draconian restrictions to their activities, should contribute to a high level of compliance within a short period.
Some may favor supervisory inspections of SWFs beyond those that would be covered by IMF and World Bank surveillance plus published, independent audits as called for in my scoreboard. To my knowledge, no official has said so publicly. However, to advocate this type of supervision would sharply escalate the SWF debate from one about the content of and adherence to internationally agreed voluntary best practices to one about explicit regulation. At this point, such an escalation is neither appropriate nor justified on the merits.
On the recipient side, many countries today have (very diverse) regimes covering foreign direct investment in their countries. Pending the establishment of a broad consensus on those regimes as they apply to government investments, such as is being pursued within the OECD, and perhaps even in that context, the United States and other similarly situated countries might reasonably decide to take account of a country's voluntary compliance with the international best practices for SWFs as one of a number of factors considered in making determinations about whether a particular SWF's investment should be blocked because of a threat to national security. For example, in a March 13 letter sent to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Representatives Barney Frank, Carolyn Maloney, and Luis Gutierrez suggested that a country's compliance with aspects of SWF best practices could be used by the CFIUS as a factor in determining whether the committee should grant that country a waiver from a full investigation under FINSA of an investment, for example, by a government-owned pension fund.
More controversially, some observers have suggested that an SWF that takes even a noncontrolling stake in a company should be forbidden from voting its shares, presumably increasing the probability that the investment is "passive." My understanding is that there is no generally accepted legal definition of a passive investment. (I note that the proposed CFIUS regulations implementing the FINSA instead seek to define interests that are "solely for the purpose of investment," which is a more limited approach.) To limit the voting rights of government investors, if applied uniformly, would disenfranchise as much as several trillion dollars of investments by U.S. state and local government pension funds. If the United States did not apply this type of restriction to domestic pension SWFs, it would still risk disenfranchising U.S. government pension funds in their investment operations abroad. The reason is that it would be difficult to apply such a restriction to foreign nonpension SWFs and not to foreign pension SWFs. As a consequence, foreign governments almost certainly would retaliate in kind.
U.S. Treasury Assistant Secretary Clay Lowery has suggested a more sensible approach: either an SWF should choose voluntarily not to vote its shares or it should disclose how it votes, as is now done voluntarily by some U.K. institutional investors and is required by the Securities and Exchange Commission for U.S. mutual funds. The objective of the SEC rule for mutual funds is to address concerns about conflicts of interest and, as noted earlier, similar concerns arise with respect to SWFs. Presumably, the SWF would not face a formal SEC reporting requirement in this area; that would raise a host of other process and jurisdictional issues and also serve to escalate the SWF debate.
In conclusion, the phenomenon of sovereign wealth funds is a permanent feature of our global economy and financial system. Their potential impacts on U.S. foreign policy, national security, and economic interests may be disquieting, but they do not endanger the United States. U.S. authorities should exhaust all multilateral approaches to make the world safe for SWFs – in the form of SWF best practices and open financial environments – before turning to any additional, bilateral remedies for concerns that to date are between minimal and nonexistent.
Scoreboard for Sovereign Wealth Funds
This appendix presents the elements of the scoreboard described in the testimony. For each of the 33 questions, if the answer is an unqualified yes, we score it as "1." If the answer is no, we score it as "0." However, partial scores of 0.25, 0.50, and 0.75 are recorded for many elements, indicated by (p) in the descriptions below.
The four categories in the scoreboard are listed below with subcategories where relevant. The words in bold are keyed to the results presented in table 3 for each SWF on each element.
1. Is the SWF's objective clearly communicated? (p)
Fiscal Treatment
2. Is the source of the SWF's funding clearly specified? (p)
3. Is nature of the subsequent use of the principal and earnings of the fund clearly stated? (p)
4. Are these elements of fiscal treatment integrated with the budget? (p)
5. Are the guidelines for fiscal treatment generally followed without frequent adjustment? (p)
Other Structural Elements
6. Is the overall investment strategy clearly communicated? (p)
7. Is the procedure for changing the structure of the SWF clear? (p)
8. Is the SWF separate from the country's international reserves?
9. Is the role of the government in setting the investment strategy of the SWF clearly established? (p)
10. Is the role of the managers in executing the investment strategy clearly established? (p)
11. Are decisions on specific investments made by the managers? (p)
12. Does the SWF have in place and publicly available guidelines for corporate responsibility that it follows? (p)
13. Does the SWF have ethical guidelines that it follows? (p)
Transparency and Accountability
Investment Strategy Implementation
14. Do regular reports on investments by the SWF include information on the categories of investments? (p)
15. Does the strategy use benchmarks? (p)
16. Does the strategy limit investments based on credit ratings? (p)
17. Are the holders of investment mandates identified?
Investment Activities
18. Do regular reports on the investments by the SWF include the size of the fund? (p)
19. Do regular reports on the investments by the SWF include information on its returns? (p)
20. Do regular reports on the investments by the SWF include information on the geographic location of investments? (p)
21. Do regular reports on the investments by the SWF include information on the specific investments? (p)
22. Do regular reports on the investments by the SWF include information on the currency composition of investments? (p)
23. Does the SWF provide at least an annual report on its activities and results? (p)
24. Does the SWF provide quarterly reports? (p)
25. Is the SWF subjected to a regular annual audit? (p)
26. Is the audit published promptly? (p)
27. Is the audit independent? (p)
28. Does the SWF indicate the nature and speed of adjustment in its portfolio? (p)
29. Does the SWF have limits on the size of its stakes? (p)
30. Does the SWF not take controlling stakes? (p)
31. Does the SWF have a policy on the use of leverage? (p)
32. Does the SWF have a policy on the use of derivatives? (p)
33. Are derivatives used primarily for hedging?
[1] Table 1 also lists the dates when the funds were established, the sources of their funding, and estimates of their size. The table includes 44 SWFs that I have been able to identify that are not hard-wired to government pension funds and 12 representative pension SWFs. Note that the data in table 1, in the other tables attached to this testimony, and described in the text include the government pension SWFs of Chile and Thailand that were not part of the analysis presented in my Blueprint for Sovereign Wealth Fund Best Practices released as Policy Brief 08-3 by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, April 1, 2008.
[2] International Monetary Fund, Global Financial Stability Report, April 2008, table 3. The total includes stock market capitalization, public and private debt securities, and commercial bank assets.
[3] This estimate includes $6 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, $6 trillion in government pension funds (excluding the U.S. social security fund and government pension funds that invest exclusively in government assets or are not involved in the management of marketable assets), and $3 trillion in assets of nonpension sovereign wealth funds.
[4] U.S. governmental financial assets include $3 trillion in state and local government pension funds, $50 billion in other sub-national SWF assets, and $40 billion in foreign exchange reserves.
[5] Based on various estimates, government pension funds around the world hold about $6 trillion in assets and roughly 25 percent of those are foreign.
[6] U.S. and foreign data on the international stocks and flows of financial assets generally do not distinguish government from non-government holders. The above estimate of assets controlled by U.S. governmental units includes federal government assets as reported by the Commerce Department (The U.S. Net International Investment Position at Yearend 2006, Bureau of Economic Analysis, BEA 07-31, June 28, 2007) plus estimated holdings of $750 billion by state and local government pension funds that are included in our statistics among private sector assets. In the same Commerce Department release, foreign official assets in the United States include foreign exchange reserves and some holdings of sovereign wealth funds, but the data as collected do not distinguish between the two categories.
[7] We scored the two new Russian SWFs as the single fund it was before its recent transformation. The remaining nine funds, indicated by "c" in table 1, are either too new to score or we could not find sufficient information to do so.
[8] Table 3 provides the results for each fund on each element. The appendix provides a list of the 33 elements.
[9] The two exceptions are the National Oil Account of São Tomé and Principe, which drops into the bottom group of funds, and Singapore's Temasek, which moves into the top group..
[10] The fourteenth was not scored: the nonreserve holdings reported by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency.
[11] See IMF press release 08/97 dated May 1, 2008, "International Working Group of Sovereign Wealth Funds is Established to Facilitate Work on Voluntary Principles."


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Hey everyone!
I have some exciting news to share (at least for me... I'm kind of a "nerd" about this sort of stuff)... anyway, I'm now officially a reporter on staff for the CU Independent!! At this point you are probably thinking, "Are you kidding me?! Newspapers are so 5 years ago..." Well, part of that is true. The CU Independent is the student-run newspaper on campus. There is one advisor, but all the editors, reporters, and content you read is made up by students. Contributing for the CU Independent is perfect for those of you interested in the journalism plus program. Writing for the paper helps you gain experience reporting, interviewing, writing stories, etc... but also gives you "clips" or publised pieces of work you do, which future journalistic employers ask for. It's ALL about gaining hands-on experience in order to prepare you for the future. I am posting the link to the CU Independent website. I should also mention the "paper" is only published online. Please add it to your "top sites" and "like" them on Facebook. Your readership allows us to keep writing and producing news! Also, if you plan on coming to CU you will want to read the paper in order to stay informed about everything that is happening on campus and in Boulder! Hopefully I can start sharing some of my stories with you once I start publishing them! For now, check out the paper and learn a little more about CU. :)

subset: commoncrawl


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text:
Read more: Click here to read a longer version of this story
A FLEXIBLE ring inserted into the vagina could offer long-term protection from HIV, herpes and pregnancy. It is the first device to deliver two drugs for different conditions at the same time and may help fight the spread of HIV.
Crucial to the battle against HIV in low-income countries is giving women a way of protecting themselves should their partner refuse to wear a condom. But trials of daily pills that cut the risk of HIV infection have mostly failed, as have vaginal gels that are used before and after sex. The problem isn't that the drugs are ineffective, it is that the gels and pills aren't used correctly, says Patrick Kiser at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
A vaginal ring developed by Kiser's team could offer an alternative. The ring is made of a malleable tube that contains two drugs – tenofovir, an anti-HIV drug, and levonorgestrel, a contraceptive. It can be inserted into the vagina by the woman and aims to protect her from HIV and pregnancy for up to three months. Once diffused into the vagina, both drugs should remain effective for several hours, which means the ring can be removed temporarily. "We're hoping to give women something that is easy to use," says Kiser. "You can [put it in and] forget about it for a few months. You can have sex while it's in place or take it out for brief periods of time."
In trials with sheep, the ring delivered tenofovir at similar doses to anti-HIV gels used in previous human trials – shown to reduce the rate of HIV infection by 54 per cent – together with effective levels of contraceptive. In other trials, tenofovir also protected against herpes (PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0088509). The team is hoping to start a human trial in the US.
"Combining HIV prevention with a contraceptive creates a dual commitment that may do better in terms of adherence," says Salim Karim of the South African Medical Research Council.
This article appeared in print under the headline "Contraceptive ring also offers HIV protection"
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text:
Around the building
The huge rocks placed near the Museum entrance tell about millions of years of the geological history. Exhibited in the order of their formation, they include a Gneiss from kópháza, a Devonian limestone rock from Szabadbattyán, a Permian sandstone from the Balaton Highlands. The Mesozoic is represented by sedimentary rocks (limestone with molluscs and ammonites). The last 65 million years produced rocks formed in volcanic, marine, and fresh water environment.
Inside the building
The Variety of LIFE – Exploring the natural world of Hungary
Would you believe that all organisms on Earth, including humans, are related to each other?
Lost Worlds – Age of Dinosaurs in Hungary
Do you think that there are dinosaur fossils in Hungary?
The first findings were found near IharkĂşt in the Transdanubian Mountains. Lifelike reconstructions were created from these fossils, which can be seen for the first time in the exhibition.
Underground secrets – minerals, rocks, gems
Minerals are parts of our everyday life. We can meet with their different forms. Think of the salt that can be found in our foods or the graphite that fill our pencils as well as the emerald or diamond that occur in jewelries.
Fin Whale Skeleton
Arriving through the Main Entrance, the visitor stops under the hanging skeleton of a fin whale.
African diorama around a real pond
Africa has played an important role in the history of the HNHM.
The rich diversity of coral reefs
A wonderful world comes to life at about 60 cm "depth" below the 122 square meter glass floor of the museum.
Opal from Kisnána (Dear Visitor! You can not see the Opal from Kisnána because it was moved to the Castle of Kisnána. Thank you for your understanding.)
Andesite belonging to the Miocene volcanic series if the Mátra (aged 15 million years) is excavated from the stone mine of Kisnána in the valley of Tarnóc.


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Around here IBM in Essex Jct just laid off 420 something folks. In this area this is huge!!!! Looks like VT Yankee, the nuke power plant in Southern VT ,, is laying off 60 also, big for that area too, for both, that's 1/3 the work force and real high paying jobs besides. That will make some of the Dems here take a big ,,gulp,,, trying to figure how to explain this one.
The economy just keeps getting better all the time though,,,,,,,right????? Not from where I stand and from what people tell me,,,,,it don't.
I live in a small town in S.W. Florida and an educated guess on TRUE unemployment would be 30-32%. There are sections of town where 1 out of every 3 or 4 house are abandoned and vacant.On the main drag coming in from the interstate, there are several strip centers that were being built when the bubble burst that are in various stages of unfinished.
Before the bubble burst, my home was assessed (for taxes) at $235,000. Now it's assessed at $34,000. Know what that does to your credit score?
If _Numba_One_Nigga_ helps us anymore, we're screwed.
ThirdWorld citizens (and presidents) make a ThirdWorld country
Damn sad to see whats happened to this country, it's sounding more like the depression era stories my Grand pa used to tell me. He was OK being road commissioner in my home town, but many weren't so lucky by the sounds. Tough times back then.
Getting that way again too by the looks. Lots of folks just gave up looking for full time work around here too, and just do side work now, especially the contractors. So who really knows what the unemployment rate is. Not much new construction here now but lots of redecorating and repairs happening, but mostly small stuff. The summer folks getting stuff done on there camps is what helps out around here. In winter , it's the ski areas and hunting and fishing that keeps the food on the table for many. Most jobs other than factory jobs are seasonal here. It's very hard to find a job you can depend on long term here.
Sure not like when we grew up,, for sure! Some of the places I've worked, I was there for years. Body shops 12-15 years, Forest Service 12+,19 counting seasonal,and the marina for over 27 before I got hurt and had to give up working altogether. I'd still be there otherwise.
I do worry for my son some sense he doesn't have a trade, but he has a job he recently got at a factory that's pretty stable and 2 of my daughters are nurses so there all set with there futures and my other daughter is a home maker with 5 kids,,,,no problem with job security there,,,,,poor girl!
Ya got to worry about this generation for sure, they just don't have the opportunities we had. It's going to be tough for them.


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Arusha — Tanzania says it cannot afford to be left behind in technologies that increase crop yields, reduce farm costs and increase farm profits, Arusha-based TPRI is pioneering GMO experiments.
With an ever-increasing global population and massive third world hunger, Africa has never been overly excited over genetically modified food. Instead, in many places, genetically modified food is treated as the greatest threat ever to human civilization.
Now Tanzania is thinking twice, and actually not dismissing GMO as a threat, as it joins six other African countries in conducting in-depth scientific research that would eventually open its doors to Genetically Engineered Products.
It will start the GMO's Confined Field Trials (CFT) in Southern parts of the country where cotton farming was stopped in 1968 in a government move then aimed at halting the spread of redball worm disease that affected cotton yield.
Depending on the outcome of the GM cotton, which Tanzanian scientists say will be positive and well received by the cotton farming communities, GM cassava will be their next target.
A cabinet paper on GMO policy has already been prepared and Parliament is scheduled to debate and approve the approaches towards GMO technologies in mid this year, according to Dr. Jeremiah Haki, Tanzanian agricultural ministry's Director for Research.
He says Tanzania, which largely depends on agriculture, cannot afford to be left behind in technologies that increase crop yields, reduce farm costs and increase farm profits.
Other countries that have already started genetically modified crops trials are Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Burkina Faso and Kenya. South Africa is the only African country that is already in commercial production of GM crops.
Tanzania is one of the countries that has ratified the Cartagena protocol on biosafety, an international law which was negotiated under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and has basic requirements for member countries to comply when pursuing GMO.
Dr. Sivramiah 'Shanthu' Shantharam, a Member of the WHO/FAO Consultative Committee on Biotechnology- Food Safety, was in Tanzania last week for a seminar aimed to equip East African plant inspectors on GMO technology.
Senior phytosanitary inspectors from Uganda's ministry of agriculture, phytosanitary services and commission for science and technology attended the GM training workshop in Arusha, so were their counterparts from Kenya Plant Heath Services and Commission for science and technology.
The objective of the workshop, which involved EA plant inspectors, included to familiarize phytosanitary inspectors with the principles and procedures of compliance and inspection required for the execution of safe confined field trials (CFTs) of GM crops (GMCs), as well as and to enhance the participants' understanding of concepts and issues associated with modern agrobiotechnology.
Kenyan and Ugandan participants said they were impressed with Tanzania's biosafety structure and hoped their governments would emulate their East African partner and start similar structures.
In Tanzania, the National Biotechnology Advisory Committee, NBAC, has been established under the Ministry of Science Technology and Higher Education (MSTHE) and placed at Commission for Science & Technology.
It is the national focal point for the biotechnology/biosafety activities in Tanzania.
The NBAC consists of members from various institutions which include policy makers, government agencies, R&D institutions, and the private sector. The NBAC is an advisory body regarding introduction and development of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in the country.
Decisions by this body take into account human and environmental safety, public concerns, ethical, and socio-economics factors.
Dr.Shantharam said that time was ripe for East Africa to start GM related experiments, saying Africa should start to benefit from GMO technology, that he said have the potentials of alleviating the problem of hunger in Third World countries.
Dr Hussein Mongi, Alpha Seed Company Director of Research and Development, said with the GMO training workshop, the East Africa region biosafety inspectors will be more efficient and effective in performing their responsibilities of enforcing biosafety regulations in their respective countries and eastern Africa as a whole.
The key benefit in regional biosafety regulations harmonization is to have in all the three countries personnel who are well-trained in the application of the same standard regulations and who can effectively and consistently enforce these regulations.
The GMO's Confined Field Trials (CFT) in Southern parts could be good news to members of parliament in Southern highland regions who have been calling on he government to find alternative means to re-start cotton production in the regions.
Once the bacterium is introduced into crops, they are programmed to kill pests that try to feed on them, protecting food crops from insects that might reduce agricultural yield, according to scientist Dr. Roshan Abdallah.
Tanzanian scientists will also research into a genetically modified form of cassava that will deter and resist virus that have been a major drawback to cassava growing in the country, Dr. Abdallah (Mrs) from the Tropical Pesticides Research Institute (TPRI), said.
Cassava is a major staple in the diet of as many as 500 million people, mostly in Africa but they have lately not been resistant to the infamous Cassava Mosaic, a virus that has ravaged crops across Eastern Africa.
Under GMO technology, many food plants are being genetically engineered to resist pests that include bacillus thuringiensis, commonly known as Bt, a bacterium that occurs naturally in the soil.
Genetic engineering makes it possible to locate the gene that produces Bt proteins lethal to insects and transfer the gene into crop plants.
Dr Gratian Bamwenda, the Director General of the Tropical Pesticides Research Institute (TPRI), says his institutions will closely monitor the development and testing of a genetically engineered products and provide scientific advices concerning their safety.
He said bio-safety review teams will assess the potential risks associated with GMOs and evaluates the possibility of the risk occurring and the magnitude of harm.
The scientist said where GMO related risks are identified, management measures are investigated, which will minimise the risks and ensure safety of the proposed activity.
Although there is still some ambivalence about the long-term effects of genetically modified foods, many consumers in East Africa are probably already eating these products without their knowledge.
South Africa and the United States have made trials in Bt maize and if maize has been imported from these countries it's possible that people have eaten these genetically modified products.
In Africa there are no laws at present which require food containers to have labels detailing the way their ingredients have been made and, as a result, there is no way that consumers can know what they are really eating.


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iPBIZ Software Development
iPBIZ is GreenBizCheck's (www.greenbizcheck.com) software development arm. The company has built a platform which assesses, weights, scores, reports and accredits large amounts of complex data suitable for many applications such as – awards programs, supply chain accreditation, certification programs, loan or insurance applications and many more…
The Meaning Of Life – its FREE
Please STOP and take a moment to read what I hope is my most profound blog entry ever.
It will only take a minute but could really change the way you look at life and success.
It came to me very early this morning at 430am with the birds chirping and the sun well into the sky. Our Government thinks it is funny not to introduce day light savings.
I always thought that The Meaning Of Life was…there is NO meaning of life – we live, we die and we need to make the most of every precious minute we have.
The team at GreenBizCheck is constantly thinking of new ways to better support our franchise owners and team members and help them grow their business quickly. Every day we send tips, articles, ideas and potential new business opportunities. We communicate regularly, we regularly offer feedback and encouragement. We do everything possible to assist.
The critical success factor in our business is meeting people and presenting our world-leading online environmental certification tool. The system is high-impact, low cost and guaranteed to help companies to save money and rapidly establish meaningful environmental credentials.
Once we are in front of business business decision makers, the product sells itself and the conversion of presentations to clients is only a matter of time.
Back to The Meaning of Life.
You will agree that knowledge is power. However, without applying that knowledge, the knowledge is useless.
So I go to the world's largest source of knowledge and type in "How to get meetings with decision makers" I am talking about Google Of course.
Google indexes billions of web pages and is by far the largest library in the world, hosted on 450,000 servers. Hopefully they are eco-friendly servers.
Every possible great idea on how to professionally obtain meetings appears in the Google search results.
I was amazed. If ever our team members are stuck and need to generate more clients – just go to Google and type in the problem – its all there. How to get meetings, close sales, organise presentations, build relationships – nearly every possible idea has been posted on the internet.
Just try it – how to save thousands of dollars by making your own tooth whitening paste for only a few dollars or, how to make your own organic insect repellent, how to find hubcaps for your 1985 $2000 BMW…It will change your life. Google could have the answer to The Meaning Of Life if you follow my logic that all the answers for a happy, fulfilled and successful life are readily available on the internet – for FREE.
One of my all time favourite expressions came from an old mate who owned an advertising agency in Sydney –
We Know What To Do, But We Must DO What We Know.
Google will give you any answer you need to achieve happiness and success.
Only YOU can DO something with that knowledge.
Hope this helps you – please humour me with at least one line of feedback or comment.
GreenBizCheck Update – Growth continues
After nearly three years of hard work, GreenBizCheck has now established itself as the only credible, online, action-based alternative to the international ISO environmental standard. Companies can visit http://www.greenbizcheck.com and access over 260 actions to green their business and receive bronze, silver or gold certification depending on their level of commitment and action.
The business community is increasingly recognising that good environmental citizenship is important on a number of fronts – cost savings, business efficiency, staff morale, government and international tenders, and maybe we should be doing more to reduce our impact on the environment…
Over the past six months, GreenBizCheck has been fortunate to appoint ten very capable franchise owners across Australia, New Zealand and now Singapore – our first step into the very vibrant Asian market.
After investing a tremendous amount of time, money and passion, it is gratifying for the GreenBizCheck team to see a steady increase in companies certifying and a strong uptake in strategic alliances with large, leading industry associations and certification suppliers.
We are very grateful for our head office team's hard work and the very enthusiastic participation of our franchise business owners and look forward to rapid expansion in 2011.
Why GreenBizCheck Franchised Its Green Business Certification Company
After experimenting with many distribution models to cement our first-to-market status and ensure we took on top quality people, we discovered franchising. Although the documentation is onerous and legal fees for the franchisor mind-blowing, franchising offers a distribution system which gives people the opportunity to run their own salable business. Franchising also provides a clear legal agreement so that each party knows where they stand and what is expected of them. Several research studies have shown the proven success of a franchise system over independently owned new business. To protect our market share -although barriers to entry are high with software delelopment costing in the hundreds of thousands of dollars – we need more people to get in front of business decision makers to show them how effective and simple it is to certify their office or retail outlet. Our success formula is simple – a short, professional presentation to ten business decision makers each week will yield substantial results financially and environmentally. Please see our franchise section (More Details on Owning A Green Business Certification Franchise).
Most of us dream of being our own boss, spending more time with the family and taking time off when we want, not when some low paying corporation allows us to. A GreenBizCheck franchise offers all this at a relatively low cost and fast return on investment, plus the opportunity to work in a field which is actually doing something very good – helping businesses go green in a very practical and cost efficient manner. GreenBizCheck certification is the first of its kind, low cost, high impact and comes with a full money back guarantee that companies will save the cost of certification in the first year. There is no risk and no excuse now for companies not to take action and implement the basics – reduce energy, water and waste and stand out as an environmentally responsible corporate citizen.
Now that we are though the hard stages of setting up a franchise model, we continue to appoint, train and support passionate franchise business owners who are energetic and keen to show businesses how beneficial it is to certify their business. No environmental experience is required, just enthusiasm and drive. More details at (GreenBizCheck)
Finally an airline realising that environmentally friendly is good for the bottom line
Normally I take the time to write my own stories on this blog. However, today I am up early for a flight and saw this article from one of my favorite websites http://www.environmentalleader.com – it is free to subscribe and provides excellent articles on what is happening in the corporate environmental world. If you stay up to date with real (not just sensationalized) environmental stories, you will start ignoring the hype and skepticism.
Congratulations to Singapore airlines for making an effort to set an example on fuel savings and emissions.
Singapore Airlines paints its jetliners blue and gold, but the carrier went green on a flight between Los Angeles and Singapore.
The airline said a Boeing 747-400 completed one of the more environmentally friendly flights over the Pacific on Tuesday, saving more than 11 tons of fuel and reducing carbon emissions by more than 37 tons.
Flight SQ11 departed Los Angeles International Airport on Jan. 31 and stopped in Tokyo before arriving in Singapore's Changi Airport early Tuesday. The aircraft used about 6% less fuel than normally required for a similar flight.
The flight was part of the Asia and Pacific Initiative to Reduce Emissions, or ASPIRE. The initiative is a partnership among carriers in the region to cut greenhouse gases and become more environmentally friendly, the airline said. SQ11 was ASPIRE's fifth green flight.
To be more fuel-efficient, the aircraft underwent a number of maintenance measures, such as a detailed engine wash and airframe polish, before the flight. The airline also worked with aviation authorities in the U.S., Japan and Singapore to ensure optimal air traffic conditions.
"The route an aircraft takes, the altitude at which it flies and the weather it encounters all affect the amount of fuel it burns and the carbon dioxide emitted," said Gerard Yeap, Singapore Airlines' senior vice president of flight operations. "Managing this effectively and in real time is therefore very important for the operating carrier and the environment."
When the final numbers came in, about 23,500 pounds of fuel were saved and more than 74,000 pounds of carbon emissions were eliminated, the airliner said. The flight was speedy too, because it came in about 30 minutes earlier than expected.
The passengers on the flight hardly noticed. In fact, most didn't even know they were part of a test.
Taking A Break
Just in case you are following my blog I have been taking a break. It has been nearly twelve months since I took a week off and did nothing. Right now, the anxiety of not completing many important tasks is almost outweighing the physical and mental need to have rest and do nothing! My compromise is to do simple and creative projects that are fun – such as creating a new logo for our software development company, setting up new bank accounts and reviewing legal documents. Now that I think about it, these are not very relaxing tasks. Time to spend time with my family and get off the computer for one week. You too – stop reading this and go do something fulfilling.
Happy New Year.
Decision Makers Are Just Too Busy
This week I desperately needed an electrician and a carpet cleaner. I can hear you yawn already, but hear me out.
I did not care how much they cost and had no concern if they did a good job – I just needed them right away. The problem was I could not find time in my day to search and call even one of these tradespeople even though it was urgent.
So here is my point – if extremely busy decision makers don't have the time to conduct even the most urgent priorities in their everyday lives, how can they possibly have time to assess, question and commit to purchasing the world's most beneficial products companies are trying to sell them?
The sales process is even harder than we think because we know we have a great product, with strong benefits at a great price, yet it is often painfully slow to generate consistent revenues. I believe the reason for slow sales is not about benefits or price, it is about decision makers literally having the time to say "yes sign me up."
The solution – for the best results in professional selling, my view is that we must regularly get in front of decision makers, build a strong relationship, conduct a compelling presentation and obtain commitment on the spot. If we don't close the sale right away – even the best product or service gets quickly lost in the crazy mayhem of everyday life.
By 2020 Demand For Natural Resources Will Outstrip Supply
By 2020, demand for natural resources will outstrip supply, resulting in higher and more volatile pricing in the consumer industry, according to a new research report. The report indicates that these pressures could significantly impact the profitability of consumer industry companies, and makes several recommendations for a sustainable industry.
The report, Sustainability for Tomorrow's Consumer, published by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, suggests that unless businesses can rapidly redesign their value chains to reduce resource use and decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, their ability to help economies grow, provide consistent shareholder returns and meet the needs of consumers will be threatened.
The report highlights the potential impact that rising prices of resources could have on businesses in the consumer industry. As an example, one company with revenues of $80 billion has 40 percent of its revenue tied up in covering the cost of resource-based inputs and a profit margin of around 10 percent. A ten percent increase in its resource-based inputs cost will result in an 80 percent decline in profits, assuming the company will not be able to transfer the cost increase to the consumer, according to the report.
This is a very sobering prediction which builds a strong case for the corporate sector to take action right now and stop talking about it!
Source: http://www.environmentalleader.com 21 Sep 2009
Passion in Presentations
Today I delivered our corporate presentation Green Business Is Good Business to 200 QUT professional staff at the Hyatt Sanctuary Cove. Sorry the video is not very attractive, but I will do better next time!
The feedback was that our passion for the topic really made us stand out. It made me think that passion and enthusiasm could actually be more important than content. Moreover, you could have the best content, but delivered without pep, wont have the same impact!
One of our Melbourne Associates Cliff Patrick commented that it is all about the singer, not the song.
The Best Sales People Born or Bred?
A recent LinkedIn discussion prompted me to comment: You will probably agree that sales people are the hardest of all to recruit because their CV's always look good, they speak well and their references are always glowing.
Only when I have hired, then trained them and sit next to them in meetings, do I really know what they are capable of. I need to really understand what will motivate someone to perform, especially in a tough market. The adage, Can Do, Will Do, Will Fit is critical and the recruitment process needs to cover all three areas. Psych testing helps the decision making process, as does behavioral interviewing – but nothing beats seeing them in action!
Another tactic that has helped my hiring success rate is to have current team members interview prospective staff without seeing a CV with any pre-conceived early judgments. In addition, I insist on gaining permission to speak with their immediate superiors at their past three jobs and have them physically demonstrate some of their professional business development skills. Rarely has a competitor's former sales person worked out, because it is the same person, selling the same product for a different company.
Finally, for what my 2 cents is worth…some of my best hires have been people with great passion and attitude and not necessarily a track record in the industry they are now applying to join. My view is that the best salespeople are bred with the right attitude not simply born with a gift. I am keen to hear your views on this topic, so please comment!!!
Who's Complaining?
Just in from the USA: The 21 Day no-complaint challenge.
How long can you go without complaining? Recently, the pastor of a Kansas City church told people in his congregation he wanted them to test their limits. "The one thing we can agree on," said Rev. Will Bowen, "is there's too much complaining." His challenge is for us to give up complaining, criticizing, gossiping or using sarcasm for 21 days. People who joined in were issued purple bracelets as a reminder of their pledge. If they caught themselves complaining, they were supposed to take off the bracelet, switch it to the opposite wrist and start counting the days from scratch. Rev. Bowen said it took him three and a half months to put together 21 complaint-free days. Now, about a half a million people around the world have requested free wristbands to rise to the challenge.
My fingers tremble as I attempt to comment on how badly I would cope with the 21 day challenge. No problem if you live on a farm in Kansas. Talking about my business travel experiences last night alone would doom me to wear the purple band of shame for at least three years. Why would I possible want to complain that the woman next to me on the plane was clearly suffering from Swine Flu, or that only kebab shops were still open by the time I landed in Wellington, NZ last night, or that it was one degree and I only had a business suit to wear, or the hotel was supposed to be 4 star and was really 1 star at best, or the hotel room smelled like a men's locker room that hadn't been cleaned for three years, or the bar fridge revved all night like a 747 at take-off, or the heating did not work and I had to huddle under a blanket last used on a sweating horse, or the traffic noise outside that made me think at any moment a truck would drive right into my lumpy, smelly, sloping bed that even a homeless person would reject.
I feel much better now. Imagine if I hadn't vented all that frustration and held it inside me for the sake of a purple rubber band. Something would have snapped and it wouldn't be the rubber band. Sorry Rev. Bowen, but unless your congregation live in a Kansas bubble you may be doing their mental health a significant disservice.
Blog For Your Health
Blogging is good for your health – your mental health that is. Many of you keep your body in shape with vigorous workouts, running or playing sport. Some of us take the dog for a fast walk every morning and hope that is enough. But what do we do for our mental health? Absolutely nothing. We rush to the doctor when our body plays up, but what about if our minds play up. I just read that by far, depression was the number one health issue for business owners. I can certainly understand why. We work so hard and constantly face pressures and demands from clients, suppliers, staff and financiers. In addition we need to give our families the attention they deserve and somehow fit in some rest and recovery time which is often impossible. In addition, we constantly strive to meet our own unrelenting high standards which push us to work long hours with little or no social or mental rest time. Often it all seems over-whelming and it is only the goal at the end that keeps us going.
One of the best forms of mental exercise is cognitive writing – which just means writing things down to get them out of your head and clear some much needed space. This is why blogging is so good. Get all your frustrations out, tell the world what you think and feel so much lighter knowing that you are not dwelling on major issues that can magically dissapear in a similar way to therapy with a psychologist. In simple terms, just talking about a problem makes it seem less burdonsom.
Blogging also works as it puts you in touch with the global community – connectivity is very important to human survival, especially for those who are working so hard and have little time for social interaction. A welcome call from my good school friend Rory, prompted me to write about this. He miraculously found my well hidden blog and called me up for a good laugh. We humorously recounted all the things that were wrong with the world – builders taking twice as long and charging twice as much for renovations, airline service, call centers in India, people who smoke and talk on their phones while driving and many more… Rory – you must get a blog, it is free and good for your health. I hadn't had such a good laugh for weeks. It made my day as I am so consumed by globalizing GreenBIzCheck that I had forgotten to laugh. In the early days of civilization, tribes would hunt together, eat together and sit around the fire conversing for hours on end. Their only real stress was where the next meal was coming from. We have so many more demands in our complex, highly evolved lives that mental fitness is more important than ever.
So, what are you waiting for, get blogging now and leave your ideas as a permanent and helpful legacy to the fast moving world around you.
Go to blogger.com or wordpress.com to get a free blog and tell me your best lessons in life!
Thanks LinkedIn Members
Recently I asked fellow group members for advice on quality on-line PR sites. Total strangers we very helpful and several operate in complimentary businesses. Let me share the PR websites recommended so other LinkedIn members can benefit:
http://www.prweb.com and http://www.handleyourownpr.com.au
Thomas Su also gives great advice:
Regarding PR sites, I have tried WOTNEWS and GET2PRESS recently – the problems are – they are basically systems that sent e-mails directly to editors who receive thousands of e-mails, unless it is very interesting, they will not even read them.
Which is why I have changed my technique, I don't need to send them to editors, but rather – create traffic for my own. I also have my Blog, so you can send out press releases and link back to either your company website or Blog. With Blog, you can also upload your Blog with LinkedIn and then link press releases.
Regular News articles on LinkedIn Groups are also useful – we have been doing this persistently since mid April – and our traffic for http://www.researchwhitepaper.com has gone up a lot.
I am ready to blog, yes I am!
Hoorar – I am now ready to start blogging.
Yet another online activity that is causing me to spend more time at my PC than any thing else.
Luckily I enjoy it.
http://www.ourmatephil.com inspired me!
Who needs human company anyway, it is over-rated and unproductive. Wrong. It frightens me that we could spend all our waking hours addicted to email, web surfing, e-commerce, twitter, facebook, linkedin, blogging and managing our massive collection of digital photos.
Where will it end????
- March 2014 (1)
- July 2013 (1)
- September 2011 (1)
- June 2011 (1)
- November 2010 (2)
- July 2010 (1)
- February 2010 (1)
- December 2009 (1)
- November 2009 (1)
- October 2009 (2)
- September 2009 (4)
- August 2009 (5)
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Visit Wild Blue Animal Rescue & Sanctuary Website
Address/ Contact Info
5975 Burgess Road
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80908
Member Patriot Special:
Adoption kit with food samples, toys and pet-related coupons
5975 Burgess Road Colorado Springs, Colorado
About Wild Blue Animal Rescue & Sanctuary
Wild Blue Animal Rescue & Sanctuary offers dog and cat adoptions to members of our program and will assist them in selecting their new best friend. The organization operates a no-kill, cage-free facility based upon its philosophy of creating a more harmonious relationship between animals and their caretakers. Adoptable pets live at the sanctuary for as long as it takes for them to find their forever homes.
Wild Blue was founded by a retired United States Air Force veteran who believes in the capacity of companion pets to provide emotional, physical and spiritual healing. The rescue is particularly focused on assisting soldiers who are suffering with PTSD and other service-related disabilities find a renewed sense of purpose through pet adoption.
Wild Blue Animal Rescue & Sanctuary welcomes monetary donations, as well as volunteers to assist with off-site adoption events.
Adoption fees include:


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BitchTapes: Women-Made Electronica Playlist
The history of electronic music arguably starts with the patenting of the theremin in 1928, and Clara Rockmore was there from its inception to champion the instrument as both an important technological and artistic advancement. This mix highlights the brilliant, creative women who make (and made) electronic music and their innovations in techniques, programs, and tools to make new sounds possible. Best with headphones.
Electronic Ladyland from BitchTapes on 8tracks Radio.
Track list:
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Comments8 comments have been made. Post a comment.
fabulous selection - many
fabulous selection - many thanks for this :)
More Information
I just wanted to say that I really like this mix and think it was conceived around a really interesting topic . I don't known much about these artists' work except for a bit about Clara Rockmore and Laurie Anderson. I was thinking, though, that this could potentially be a really engrossing post if it included a bit of bio or any interesting information regarding the ways in which these artists are/were being innovative. I'm listening to the mix now (on headphones *thumbs up*) but would love some more info!
I'm so happy to hear that
I'm so happy to hear that you're enjoying this mix! And I'm also glad to hear that a post with more bio and musical process details would be interesting to folks, because it is definitely something I'm working on. These musicians are endlessly fascinating to me. Bebe and Louis Barron were some of the first people ever to use recording tape! Daphne Oram co-founded the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and both Delia Derbyshire and Glynis Jones also worked there creating sounds and music for BBC programming! Laurie Spiegel creates music programs as well as making music and worked for both Bell Labs and Apple in the 70s and 80s! Basically there are so many interesting things about these women, and I do hope to write and share more with you soon.
Electric Ladyland is actually
Electric Ladyland is actually a current radio show on BBC 6. And it's hosted by Nemone Metaxas and there are podcasts. This just randomly reminded me about it. It's a good show.
holy crap this is awesome!
holy crap this is awesome!
We should be proud about her
We should be proud about her creativity and innovations that make electronic music in the position she dreamed.
Electric Ladyland
Wonderful mix,really enjoyed.
Thanks for the wonderful mix!
Hi Alley, thanks so much for bringing all these artists and their inspiring work together in this very flowing mix. Delia Derbyshire and Bebe Barron are both great heroes of mine and it was very interesting to hear their work in the context of some other artists who I had not yet come across. Thanks again, cheers John
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This profile for Cape Fear Pawn and Gun LLC is located in Castle Hayne, NC. Cape Fear Pawn and Gun LLC industry is listed as Nonclassifiable Establishments. There are no officers listed for this company.
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Business North - The Daily Briefing - Business Newspaper Online
Ice bar coming to Giants Ridge
An Ice Bar is opening at Giants Ridge on February 8. The Ice Bar will be created by Chris Swarbrick from Ice Occasions who is considered one of the state's best ice carvers, winning the St. Paul Winter Carnival's Multi-block competition three of the past four years.
Creation of the Ice Bar will be February 6-7, located at the base of the alpine mountain outside of The Lodge Condos with opening set for Friday, February 8 from 4-10 p.m. The Ice Bar will also be open Saturdays and Sundays from 12-10 p.m. until it melts. Construction of the Ice Bar will be chronicled on the Giants Ridge facebook page with videos and photos.
An Ice Bar Fest will be held two special days with music, BBQ and prize drawings on Friday, February 15 from 4-10 p.m. and Saturday, February 16 from 12-10 p.m.
The Ice Bar will have nightly bonfires, marshmallow roasting for hot drinks, Kraft premium beers, ales, wine, hot drinks, and an ice luge shot.
The Ice Bar is sponsored by Giants Ridge, Troon Golf, Prairie Vodka, Ice Hole, UV Vodka, Great River Brewery, Sunny Hill Distributing and Villas at Giants Ridge.
For more information on Giants Ridge please contact 218-865-8000 or 800-688-7669 or visit http://www.giantsridge.com/.Previous Daily Briefing Articles:
BusinessNorth - The business news source for Northeastern Minnesota and Northwestern Wisconsin.
P.O. Box 16223, Duluth, MN 55816
Phone: 218-720-3060 Fax: 218-720-3068 firstname.lastname@example.com


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Today I Love: Book Covers by Illustrator Sara Mulvanny
Ooo…look at these wonderful book covers designs by illustrator Sara Mulvanny (designed for Random House and Puffin Books). Don't you just love them! The Alice in Wonderland cover has to be the most clever once I've seen to date (the teacup/dress is genius). So, so good! You can see more of Sara's fabulous work on her portfolio here.
Image credit: Sara Mulvanny


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13.11.11 | A man and van Ltd. launches a complete relocation service available in all boroughs of London. Just call 020 3746 5554 for a quote.
02.11.11 | Our company has been awarded for best Man and Van comapny for the year 2011, delivering high-quality services in Greater London. | more
Dolores Santander
Incredibly fast and safe man and van services. I highly recommend their professional help for every type of move - office, home or cargo.
Anne Michaels
A Man and Van in London. the Answer to Your Moving Troubles
A Man and Van is all you need if you have scheduled relocation. Whether changing your home or even shifting your whole office to another floor or building should not make you feel like a cat on hot bricks. Leave your worries with us; we know perfectly how to guide you out of this situation. We will take care of everything and you will have some free time to attend to other matters of importance.
We could take charge of all the activities accompanying a certain relocation like packing, loading, transportation, unloading, unpacking, providing you with packing materials and covering the insurance of supposed risk of a certain breakage or lost of any of your possessions. However the extend of our assistance is a parameter you only could decide on. If you have the desire to manage one or several of the comprising processes, than we will limit our participation to the remaining stages.
Our mission is to relieve your daily load and stressful moving preparations. Our team is renowned for its professional approach and expertise. Our clientele actually multiplies thanks to the positive referrals of our customers. And what is more valid of publicity than satisfied and grateful clients.
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text:
The following is an archive of a post made to our
'vox-outreach mailing list'
by one of its subscribers.
On Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 07:38:17PM -0700, Jimbo wrote:
> I have a can of pee to lend. I might not be able to drop off because of my
> busy schedule. Next day off this week is Wednesday so maybe I can drop it
> off at someones house??? It all depends if I have anything held over so
> Wednesday is a good maybe.
Worked great, Jimbo! Can you swing by Davis to pick it up, or would you
like me to go out to your place? (Also, FYI, I've moved to a new place,
since you dropped it off.)
Thx much!
vox-outreach mailing list
Hosting provided by:
Sunset Systems
Sunset Systems offers preconfigured Linux
systems, remote system administration and
custom software development.
LUGOD: Linux Users' Group of Davis
PO Box 2082, Davis, CA 95617
Contact Us
LUGOD is a 501(c)7 non-profit organization
based in Davis, California
and serving the Sacramento area.
"Linux" is a trademark of Linus Torvalds.


text:
Honda Rearview Report: April 5 - April 11, 2014
"The New York International Auto Show begins next week, and we are thrilled to be showcasing some dynamic new products, and sharing new details on a very special vehicle launching next year, along with an extraordinary special guest hopping by!
On the Acura side, we head to New York with the power of the 'X' leading the way, in the form of the record-setting tandem of the Acura MDX and RDX light trucks. We're going to amp that energy up to the next level with the introduction of a new kind of thrill - the all-new 2015 TLX.
For Honda, we're going small in the Big Apple, but in the best possible way - with the introduction of the new benchmark in the subcompact segment, the incredible 2015 Fit, set to go on sale nationwide this month. And adding to the fun, we will be making a very special announcement about the all-new compact Honda SUV that will be coming to the U.S. market this winter.
Finally, everyone attending the auto show will have the opportunity to experience first-hand the next-generation of Honda's advanced humanoid robot, ASIMO. So, do like ASIMO and hop on by. We look forward to seeing everyone in the Big Apple!"
- John Mendel, Executive Vice President, Automobile Sales, American Honda Motor Co., Inc.


text:
Areas: New Hotels
One of Our New Hotels: Aloft New York-Hudson Yards at the Convention Center - Opening February, 2018
6 Hotels Match Your Selections
Sort By: Destination | Opening Date
Aloft Raleigh-Durham Airport Brier Creek - Opening November 1, 2015
10020 Sellona Street
Raleigh, North Carolina 27617 United States
Choose from lots of shopping and dining options in our upscale neighborhood of Brier Creek, near Research Triangle Park and other hotspots.
Aloft Boston Seaport - Opening February 4, 2016
401-403 D Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02210 United States
Stay in style with our state-of-the-art design—including tech-friendly accommodations and public spaces—in the Waterfront District.
Aloft Kathmandu Thamel - Opening July 1, 2017
Amit Marg
Kathmandu Nepal
T: To be Announced
The ultimate escape for culture-conscious and adventurous travelers, our hotel is in the heart of Kathmandu's buzzing Thamel district.
Aloft Chengdu Pixian - Opening January 1, 2019
Pihua Road, Pitong Town
Chengdu, Sichuan 518062 China
T: To be Announced
Stay in style in Western China's most scenic city! We're a quick trip to Pixian County's High Tech Zone, and a host of ancient attractions.
Aloft Chengdu East Railway Station - Opening January 1, 2019
Cnr of Yinghui Road and Jiancai Road
Chengdu, Sichuan China
T: To be Announced
Stay in style in West China's most mesmerizing city! Find endless fun at our downtown location next to the new high-speed railway station.
Aloft Tianjin Beichen - Opening June 1, 2019
South side of Shuangjing Road
Tianjin, Tianjin China
T: To be Announced
Loft-inspired modern style shakes up one of Tianjin's fastest-growing districts. We're close to the Hai River and several business parks.
= New and upcoming hotel


text:
Lucky Ball-Aki
No reviews
By installing you agree to the Terms of Use and other terms
PublisherPanos Karabelas
Download size1 MB
Last updated1/26/2012
Works with
- Windows Phone 8.1
- Windows Phone 8
- Windows Phone 7.5
App requires
- photo, music, and video libraries
- data services
- movement and directional sensor
- HD720P (720x1280)
- WVGA (480x800)
- WXGA (768x1280)
Supported languages (1)
English (United States)
Lucky Ball-Aki: Newton's magic 8 ball is a game which can answer all of your questions just by shaking a ball! What really sets it apart is that aims to reproduce the original magic 8 ball experience in a different yet fun and refreshing way, this is done by using smooth animation, vivid colors, great graphics and sounds, and with the help of the Euphoria physics engine which enables the ball to act and respond to your touch as if it was actually real. So now you can get your questions answered by the most interactive, simple, accurate and high quality magic 8 ball you can find! Details: - Innovative and minimalistic menu design with top-notch button animation system - Euphoria physics engine which uses newton's laws of motion in order to simulate a perfect ball behevior - Extremely rapid and smooth animation system - Smooth fade in/out effect system is used to display the ball's answers - Accelerometer info is used for the gravitational force that's applied to the ball and for the rotation of the ball's answers (if the answer is visible) - High quality sound effects - High quality graphics - Relaxing background and vivid colored text - Email support (touch the envelope) - An overall bug free and high quality game that's very easy to use Cheats: -Double tap the bouncing ball on the menu to activate negative answers mode cheat! A sound effect will be played and a duck toy will appear indicating that the cheat has been activated.


text:
Apple is set to change the tablet game again with the iPad 3 – rumoured to feature a Retina Display that'll match the pin-sharp resolution of the iPhone 4S's screen. The boys and girls from Cupertino invented tablets with the iPad – and, with the iPad 2, further changed people's perception of the devices from trinkets for fashionistas into useful tools.
Now Apple's planning another radical overhaul with the iPad 3 – a device that could potentially replace your TV and PC in one fell swoop. Here's everything we know so far.
– Stuff Gadget Awards 2011 Most Wanted (Future Gadget) winner– Apple iPad 3 and iPhone 5 to be larger– iPad 3 J1 and J2 Retina Display versions spotted– Apple going shopping for iPad 3 Retina Display– iPad 3 Retina Display going into production– iPad 3 and Apple TV to get Sharp LCD displays? – iPad 3 could get six-core Intel processor – IMHO– Apple iPad 3 to get super bright ultra hi-res screen– iPad 3 to launch March 2012– iPad 3 and iPad Mini coming in 2012?– iPad 3 to get 2048x1536 HD display? – iPad 3 units are going into production– Apple iPad 3 delayed– Guide to Apple iPad 3 rumours– iPad 3 to feature HD display– iPad 3 will be "the biggie"– Smart secondary displays to come on iPad 3– E Ink-LCD hybrid screen on iPad 3
You may also likeFujifilm unveils non-retro X-S1 superzoom bridge camHMV launches online film rentalsHTC G1 runs Ice Cream Sandwich
This article originally appeared at Stuff.tv
Copyright © Stuff.tv
Issue: 339 | June 2015
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text:
Washington Star Vaulter To Miss NCAAs With Broken Hand
By TIM KORTE
AP Sports Writer
SEATTLE (AP) -- Washington's Brad Walker, the NCAA indoor pole vault champion and a top American vaulter, will miss this weekend's NCAA West Regional and next month's NCAA meet after breaking a bone in his hand.
"Not exactly the way I wanted my season to end," Walker said Wednesday.
Walker experienced soreness in his right wrist and hand in recent weeks but didn't consider it unusual, just part of the routine for any vaulter. Then last Friday at practice, his condition worsened.
"I was using adhesive on the pole to help my hands stick," Walker said. "I planted, and it just kind of jammed. There was a lot of sharp pain."
X-rays disclosed a hairline fracture, which was confirmed Wednesday by an MRI. Walker was fitted with a cast, which he must wear for 10 weeks before starting rehabilitation.
"I have no idea how long it will be before I'm holding a pole again," he said.
Walker didn't know exactly which bone was broken but "the bone fracture is one of the slower healing bones," he said. "It doesn't get as much blood flow."
Walker won the NCAA indoor championships in March with a vault of 19 feet, 1/2 inch, tying him with Derek Miles of Team Nike for the top U.S. indoor mark this year.
Walker won the Pac-10 outdoor title on May 17, clearing 18-2 1/2. His best outdoor vault this spring is 18-6 1/2; The top U.S. outdoor jump this year is 18-10 1/2 by three athletes, none collegiate vaulters.
"It's unfortunate for Brad," Washington coach Greg Metcalf said. "He's a senior. He wins the NCAA indoor, then the Pac-10, and he was the odds-on favorite to win the NCAA outdoor title."
Walker will use his remaining NCAA eligibility to defend his indoor title next season. He won't be eligible for outdoor competition after that, but will focus next spring on making the U.S. Olympic team.
"This will give my body a break," Walker said. "I'll do some heavy leg lifting to build my speed back up. ... With another good indoor season, it would give me a good push going into the big outdoor meets in an Olympic year


text:
List Price: $15.98Publisher: Publications International, LimitedBinding: Book, Other Pages: 384Language: English
Warm and hearty soups and stews are what home cooking is all about. Savor the tantalizing aromas and delicious flavors of hundreds of dishes that will satisfy appetites of all sizes. Hearty Soups & Stews features American classics, global favorites, rich and creamy bisques, zesty chilies and, because no soup is complete without fresh, hot bread for dunking, more than 30 recipes for breads and rolls. Hearty Soup & Stews contains more than 250 recipes for the best soups, chowders, chilis, bisques and breads. Includes dozens of hints, tips, food facts and serving suggestions scattered throughout the recipes along with more than 125 full-color photographs. 8 3/4 X 8 3/4
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Hot couple, David Circus and TJ Lowell get amorous while looking at photos they took during their day tour of Madrid. David offs his shirt and TJ takes the hint, nuzzling his beard into Davids tummy and taking off Davids pants. Davids cock is narrowest at the base andwidens towards the fat tip, which is shrouded in thick foreskin, though TJs mouth does a good job at keeping most of it hidden. David then helps TJ out of his clothes and they make out like lovers savoring each others familiar tastes and appetites. TJ gravitates towards the twin cocoa-colored mounds of Davids ass, eating his fill, then standing to plunge his tongue into his lovers mouth so they can share the taste. TJs pecs are smooth and deep, and they heave in Davids grasp. The floor is where they fuck first, with TJ riding his lovers cock on a big fur rug. They conclude with a standing fuck, a contrast of black and white and give and take, with handsome TJs cock swinging to the momentum of Davids cock slamming into his
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text:
Results 1 to 1 of 1
Thread: Weird Lacrosse Habits
- Join Date
- May 2012
- Location
- Next to bill, who is next to tim, who is next to the Pizza Place, which is next to the movies, which is next to the leprechauns house, which is next to me.
- Posts
- 218
Weird Lacrosse Habits
Does anyone else have weird habits like twirling their stick? I do it when walking around my house I also compulsively pound my pocket. I just realized it when i picked up a stick with no mesh or pocket waiting to be strung and tried to pound a pocket and my hand went right through hahahManufacturers of Cera Mesh, Go here for Custom Stringing and Cera Mesh!


text:
We Did It! A Victory for VAWA
Recent Victories
Seventeen Indian migrant workers who were sentenced to death in March 2010 for the murder of a Pakistani national in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have had their death sentences revoked on appeal. They are expected to be deported to India in the coming weeks.
Liu Zhenggang, a designer, has been released. He was released on 24 June on medical grounds. He remains under surveillance at his home in Beijing, China.
Liu Zhenggang, a designer working at internationally renowned artist Ai Weiwei's design firm, was released from detention on 24 June. He is now at his home in Beijing, China and is under surveillance.
Fadhel Maki al-Manasif (previously spelled Fadel Makki al-Manasef), 26 years old, was told on April 30 to report to the criminal investigation department at the police station in al-'Awwamiya, a town in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. He went there the next day and was arrested, then was transferred between different police stations in the Eastern Province. On May 4, he was moved to al-Khobar prison, also in the Eastern Province, where he was allowed to see his family and lawyer twice a week. On May 18, he was transferred to the General Intelligence Prison in Dammam, the capital of the Eastern Province, where he was detained incommunicado again until his release.


text:
IT Home
Jobs for the Future
Computer Lab
Cisco Academy
Cisco Contacts
Prepare for
CCNA Certification
Prepare for
CCNP Certification
Prepare for
CCNA Security Certification
Cisco Certification
FAQ's (pdf)
Cisco Networking Academy
El Centro College, located in downtown Dallas, is an approved Cisco Networking Academy, offering CCNP (Cisco Certified Networking Professional), CCNA (Cisco Certified Networking Associate), Network Security, Wireless LANs, and Voice over IP (VoIP) training.
The Cisco Certification program offered at El Centro College trains students for a variety of IT jobs, including network support specialist, network control technician, hardware/telecom field support technician, LAN/WAN technician, network specialist, and network systems technician. These positions are in employment categories defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), American Electronics Association (AEA), and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Growth and demand are predicted for the next several years.
In addition to certification preparation, courses taken for credit can be applied toward one of the following awards, certificates or associate degrees.


text:
Best management practices / Environmental monitoring
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text: Angelina Jolie slept at the zoo Tue-27-May-14 11:40 Share this Tell Us What You Think WTF 0 LOL 0 FAIL 0 OMG 0 HOT 0 CUTE 0 ] By Jay-Jay FeeneyANGELINA JOLIE slept in an Australian zoo three times while shooting UNBROKEN in Sydney.Ang often took her kids to Taronga Zoo and ended up staying three times as part of the zoo's 'Roar & Snore' night, where guests can stay in tents overlooking Sydney Harbour. She said, "I loved working there. The children learnt how to surf and skate. We loved the zoo - I slept in the zoo three times by the time we left, with your crazy birds. "The first morning I woke up in the zoo, about 5 o'clock, I thought Brad was outside playing a trick on me with a whistle. It was your crazy birds! I didn't actually think it was possible to make that sound that early in the morning." You May Also Like How cute are these celebs when they were babies? The Edge crew find their celebrity doppelgangers Are these celebs hotter with or without glasses? Become a fan of The Edge on Facebook and on Twitter .