text:
Signs Of The Time, Part 105
Lausanne, Switzerland-based IMD World Competitiveness Center, publisher of the World Competitiveness Yearbook, "the leading annual report on the competitiveness of countries," has just released its 28th edition of the publication. From their website:
The USA toppled as world's most competitive economy
IMD World Competitiveness rankings released
30 May 2016 – The USA has surrendered its status as the world's most competitive economy after being overtaken by China Hong Kong and Switzerland, according to the IMD World Competitiveness Center.
The sheer power of the economy of the USA is no longer sufficient to keep it at the top of the prestigious World Competitiveness Ranking, which it has led for the past three years.
The IMD World Competitiveness Center, a research group within IMD business school, has published the ranking each year since 1989 and it is widely regarded as the foremost annual assessment of the competitiveness of countries.
The 2016 edition ranks China Hong Kong first, Switzerland second and the USA third, with Singapore, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Canada completing the top 10…
"USA third"
Disappointing to hear, but not altogether shocking.
You can read the entire piece on IMD's website here.
Christopher E. Hill
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)
Peter Schiff Bullish On Foreign Stocks, Gold, And Silver
Euro Pacific Capital CEO/Chief Global Strategist Peter Schiff appeared on the FOX Business show Countdown to the Closing Bell last Wednesday. Host Liz Claman asked Schiff, who correctly-predicted the housing market crash and 2008 economic crisis, about where he was investing these days. He replied:
Well, my strategy has been the same for quite some time because I understand the problems that underlie the U.S. economy, how the Federal Reserve is exacerbating them in the name of trying to solve them, and so I want to invest abroad. We still favor equities, but I look at international equities. I look at value. I look at good dividends. And I want to own companies that are not dependent on the consumer…
A map was subsequently displayed that showed "Peter's Global Area Picks"- Australia, Chile, China, Denmark, Hong Kong, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Singapore, and Sweden.
Claman also brought up precious metals in the discussion. Particularly, silver. From their exchange:
CLAMAN: Let's put up the miners, because you feel that the miners now have an opportunity to really rise. Silver below $20 an ounce these days. That seems to me like a good buy because it's so cheap.
SCHIFF: Well, it did get as high as $50 a couple of years ago. But it started the rally from below $4. So, we're in a big bull market. We've been pausing for the last couple of years. But I think it's the pause that's going to refresh. I think what drove the metals market lower in 2013 was the false belief in a U.S. recovery, and the idea the Fed was through with QE, and that we were on the verge of a tightening cycle. None of that is true. We are slipping back into recession. Janet Yellen is going to launch an even bigger round of QE than what Bernanke launched. And this is going to be very bullish for gold and silver. But it's not going to be bullish for the U.S. economy.
"Safeguarding Your Portfolio By Investing Abroad"
YouTube Video
By Christopher E. Hill
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)
(Editor's notes: Info added to "Crash Prophets" page; I am not responsible for any personal liability, loss, or risk incurred as a consequence of the use and application, either directly or indirectly, of any information presented herein.)
U.S. Falls To 15th In Democracy Rankings
Back when I was toiling away on "The Most Hated Blog On Wall Street" a couple of years ago, I came across something that made me chuckle. I don't remember the source, but in the wake of all the government bailouts and intervention after the global financial crisis really reared its ugly head in 2008, it was said one of the most popular books in Russia at the time was Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations.
While in America, Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto was a hot item.
I have a feeling this was more commentary than fact, but what reminded me of this was something I stumbled on the other day on the Washington Times website. Jennifer Harper blogged on the Water Cooler on December 17:
A new rating of the most "democratic" nations on the planet places the U.S. in 15th place in a list of 104 countries. Who made the assessment? The Vienna, Austria-based Democracy Ranking annually rates the democracy among world populations based on "quality," taking into account such factors as political rights, civil liberty, press freedom, corruption, political stability, "gender gap" issues and myriad socioeconomic indicators.
Nordic nations — where governments tend to flirt with socialism — dominate the lead. The top 10 nations on the list are Norway, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, New Zealand, Germany, Ireland and Austria.
Harper noted that the United States dropped from 14th to 15th place in the latest rankings.
Next time some politician or somebody else proclaims we live in a model democracy, a beacon for the world to follow, I'll have to remember these rankings.
In the meantime, it's business as usual here in Amerika.
"Glenn Beck presents the Obama National Anthem"
YouTube Video
Just kidding. I'll keep toiling on in the plutocracy.
You can find out more about the Democracy Ranking's findings on their website here.
Harper, Jennifer. "'Most democratic': U.S. is 15th on the list." Water Cooler. 17 Dec. 2012. (http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2012/dec/17/most-democratic-us-15th-list/). 20 Dec. 2012.
Al-Qaeda-Trained Norwegian Awaits Order To Attack West
It was only a matter of time before the terrorists got their hands on the following. From the CBS News website on Monday:
A Norwegian man has received terrorist training from al Qaeda's offshoot in Yemen and is awaiting orders to carry out an attack on the West, officials from three European security agencies told The Associated Press on Monday.
Western intelligence officials have long feared such a scenario — a convert to Islam who is trained in terrorist methods and can blend in easily in Europe and the United States, traveling without visa restrictions.
Officials from three European security agencies confirmed Monday the man is "operational," meaning he has completed his training and is about to receive a target. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly. They declined to name the man, who has not been accused of a crime.
Norwegian? Oh well, so much for profiling…
"Best part of Aziz Ansari in Observe and Report"
(Warning! Strong language)
YouTube Video
"AP: Al Qaeda trains Norwegian to attack West." Associated Press. 25 June 2012. (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57460126/ap-al-qaeda-trains-norwegian-to-attack-west/). 27 June 2012.
'Shadow CIA' Calls End Of Terrorism A 'Myth'
One last post about terrorism this week. Scott Stewart of the global intelligence company Strategic Forecasting, Inc., or STRATFOR, has authored a series of Security Weekly reports entitled "Fundamentals of Terrorism." The first of these, "The Myth of the End of Terrorism," was released on February 23. It's a good, informative read, and serves as a reminder that just because major terror attacks directed against the United States and its interests haven't been too successful lately, the threat hasn't gone away. Reprinted with permission of STRATFOR:
The Myth of the End of Terrorism
By Scott Stewart
In this week's Geopolitical Weekly, George Friedman discussed the geopolitical cycles that change with each generation. Frequently, especially in recent years, those geopolitical cycles have intersected with changes in the way the tactic of terrorism is employed and in the actors employing it.
The Arab terrorism that began in the 1960s resulted from the Cold War and the Soviet decision to fund, train and otherwise encourage groups in the Middle East. The Soviet Union and its Middle Eastern proxies also sponsored Marxist terrorist groups in Europe and Latin America. They even backed the Japanese Red Army terrorist group. Places like South Yemen and Libya became havens where Marxist militants of many different nationalities gathered to learn terrorist tradecraft, often instructed by personnel from the Soviet KGB or the East German Stasi and from other militants.
The Cold War also spawned al Qaeda and the broader global jihadist movement as militants flocking to fight the Soviet troops who had invaded Afghanistan were trained in camps in northern Pakistan by instructors from the CIA's Office of Technical Services and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence directorate. Emboldened by the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, and claiming credit for the subsequent Soviet collapse, these militants decided to expand their efforts to other parts of the world.
The connection between state-sponsored terrorism and the Cold War ran so deep that when the Cold War ended with the Soviet Union's collapse, many declared that terrorism had ended as well. I witnessed this phenomenon while serving in the counterterrorism Investigations Division of the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) in the early 1990s. While I was in New York working as part of the interagency team investigating the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, a newly appointed assistant secretary of state abolished my office, declaring that the DSS did not need a Counterterrorism Investigations Division since terrorism was over.
Though terrorism obviously did not end when the Berlin Wall fell, the rosy sentiments to the contrary held by some at the State Department and elsewhere took away the impetus to mitigate the growing jihadist threat or to protect diplomatic facilities from it. The final report of the Crowe Commission, which was established to review the twin August 1998 bombing attacks against the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, explicitly noted this neglect of counterterrorism and security programs, as did the 9/11 Commission report.
The 9/11 terrorist attacks triggered a shift in international geopolitics by leading the United States to concentrate the full weight of its national resources on al Qaeda and its supporters. Ironically, by the time the U.S. government was able to shift its massive bureaucracy to meet the new challenge, creating huge new organizations like the Department of Homeland Security, the efforts of the existing U.S. counterterrorism apparatus had already badly crippled the core al Qaeda group. Though some of these new organizations played important roles in helping the United States cope with the fallout of its decision to invade Iraq after Afghanistan, Washington spent billions of dollars to create organizations and fund programs that in hindsight were arguably not really necessary because the threats they were designed to counter, such as al Qaeda's nuclear briefcase bombs, did not actually exist. As George Friedman noted in the Geopolitical Weekly, the sole global superpower was badly off-balance, which caused an imbalance in the entire global system.
With the continued diminution of the jihadist threat, underscored by the May 2011 death of Osama bin Laden and the fall in Libya of the Gadhafi regime (which had long employed terrorism), once again we appear on the brink of a cyclical change in the terrorism paradigm. These events could again lead some to pronounce the death of terrorism.
Several developments last week served to demonstrate that while the perpetrators and tactics of terrorism (what Stratfor calls the "who" and the "how") may change in response to larger geopolitical cycles, such shifts will not signal the end of terrorism itself.
The Nature of Terrorism
There are many conflicting definitions of terrorism, but for our purposes we will loosely define it as politically motivated violence against noncombatants. Many terrorist acts have a religious element to them, but that element is normally related to a larger, political goal: Both a militant anti-abortion activist seeking to end legalized abortion and a jihadist seeking to end the U.S. military presence in Iraq may act according to religious principles, but they ultimately are pursuing a political objective.
Terrorism is a tactic, one employed by a wide array of actors. There is no single creed, ethnicity, political persuasion or nationality with a monopoly on terrorism. Individuals and groups of individuals from almost every conceivable background — from late Victorian-era anarchists to Klansmen to North Korean intelligence officers — have conducted terrorist attacks. Because of the impreciseness of the term, Stratfor normally does not refer to individuals as terrorists. In addition to being a poor descriptor, "terrorist" tends to be a politically loaded term.
Traditionally, terrorism has been a tactic of the weak, i.e., those who lack the power to impose their political will through ordinary political or military means. As Carl von Clausewitz noted, war is the continuation of politics by other means; terrorism is a type of warfare, making it also politics by other means. Because it is a tactic used by the weak, terrorism generally focuses on soft, civilian targets rather than more difficult-to-attack military targets.
The type of weapon used does not define terrorism. For example, using a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device against an International Security Assistance Force firebase in Afghanistan would be considered an act of irregular warfare, but using it in an attack on a hotel in Kabul would be considered an act of terrorism. This means that militant actors can employ conventional warfare tactics, unconventional warfare tactics and terrorism during the same campaign depending on the situation.
Terrorist attacks are relatively easy to conduct if they are directed against soft targets and if the assailant is not concerned with escaping after the attack, as was the case in the Mumbai attacks in 2008. While authorities in many countries have been quite successful in foiling attacks over the past couple of years, governments simply do not have the resources to guard everything. When even police states cannot protect everything, some terrorist attacks invariably will succeed in the open societies of the West.
Terrorist attacks tend to be theatrical, exerting a strange hold over the human imagination. They often create a unique sense of terror dwarfing reactions to natural disasters many times greater in magnitude. For example, more than 227,000 people died in the 2004 Asian tsunami versus fewer than 3,000 on 9/11, yet the 9/11 attacks produced a worldwide sense of terror and a geopolitical reaction that has had a profound and unparalleled impact on world events over the past decade.
Cycles and Shifts
A number of events last week illustrate the changes happening in the terrorism realm and demonstrate that, while terrorism may change, it is not going to end.
On Feb. 17, the FBI arrested a Moroccan man near the U.S. Capitol in Washington who allegedly sought to conduct a suicide attack on the building. The suspect, Amine el Khalifi, is a clear example of the shift in the jihadist threat from one based on the al Qaeda core group to one primarily deriving from grassroots jihadists. As Stratfor has noted for several years, while these grassroots jihadists pose a more diffuse threat because they are harder for national intelligence and law enforcement agencies to focus on than hierarchical groups, the threat they pose is less severe because they generally lack the terrorist tradecraft required to conduct a large-scale attack. Because they lack such tradecraft, these grassroots militants tend to seek assistance to conduct their plots. This assistance usually involves acquiring explosives or firearms, as in the el Khalifi case, where an FBI informant posing as a jihadist leader provided the suspect with an inert suicide vest and a submachine gun prior to the suspect's arrest.
While many in the media tend to ridicule individuals like el Khalifi as inept, it is important to remember that had he succeeded in finding a real jihadist facilitator rather than a federal informant, he could have killed many people in an attack. Richard Reid, who many people refer to as the "Kramer of al Qaeda" after the bumbling character from the television show Seinfeld, came very close to taking down a jumbo jet full of people over the Atlantic because he had been equipped and dispatched by others.
Still, the fact remains that the jihadist threat now predominantly stems from unequipped grassroots wannabes rather than teams of highly trained operatives sent to the United States from overseas, like the team that executed the 9/11 attacks. This demonstrates how the jihadist threat has diminished in recent years, a trend we expect to continue. This will allow Washington to increasingly focus attention on things other than jihadism, such as the fragmentation of Europe, the transformation of global economic production and Iran's growing regional power. It will mark the beginning of a new geopolitical cycle.
Last week also brought us a series of events highlighting how terrorism may manifest itself in the new cycle. On Feb. 13, Israeli diplomatic vehicles in New Delhi, India, and Tbilisi, Georgia, were targeted with explosive devices. In Tbilisi, a grenade hidden under a diplomatic vehicle was discovered before it could detonate. In New Delhi, a sticky bomb placed on the back of a diplomatic vehicle wounded the wife of the Israeli defense attache as she headed to pick up her children from school.
On Feb. 14, an Iranian man was arrested after being wounded in an explosion at a rented house in Bangkok. The blast reportedly occurred as a group was preparing improvised explosive devices for use against Israeli targets in Bangkok. Two other Iranians were later arrested (one in Malaysia), and Thai authorities are seeking three more Iranian citizens, two of whom have reportedly returned to Iran, alleged to have assisted in the plot.
While these recent Iranian plots failed, they nonetheless highlight how the Iranians are using terrorism as a tactic in retaliation for attacks Israel and Israeli surrogates have conducted against individuals associated with Iran's nuclear program.
It is also important to bear in mind as this new geopolitical cycle begins that terrorism does not just emanate from foreign governments, major subnational actors or even transnational radical ideologies like jihadism. As we saw in the July 2011 attacks in Norway conducted by Anders Breivik and in older cases involving suspects like Eric Rudolph, Timothy McVeigh and Theodore Kaczynski in the United States, native-born individuals who have a variety of grievances with the government or society can carry out terrorist attacks. Such grievances will certainly persist.
Geopolitical cycles will change, and these changes may cause a shift in who employs terrorism and how it is employed. But as a tactic, terrorism will continue no matter what the next geopolitical cycle brings.
The Myth of the End of Terrorism is republished with permission of STRATFOR.
Analyzing The Recent Norway Terror Attack
There's a lot of material being released about the July 22 bombing/shootings in Norway. Not having the time these days to sort through it all, I was lucky enough to unearth the following analysis of the incident by Scott Stewart from the global intelligence company Strategic Forecasting, Inc., or STRATFOR. Stewart does a terrific job summarizing the attack, providing relevant details, and exploring the bigger picture. Reprinted with their permission…
Norway: Lessons from a Successful Lone Wolf Attacker
By Scott Stewart
On the afternoon of July 22, a powerful explosion ripped through the streets of Oslo, Norway, as a large improvised explosive device (IED) in a rented van detonated between the government building housing the prime minister's office and Norway's Oil and Energy Department building. According to the diary of Anders Breivik, the man arrested in the case who has confessed to fabricating and placing the device, the van had been filled with 950 kilograms (about 2,100 pounds) of homemade ammonium nitrate-based explosives.
After lighting the fuse on his IED, Breivik left the scene in a rented car and traveled to the island of Utoya, located about 32 kilometers (20 miles) outside of Oslo. The island was the site of a youth campout organized by Norway's ruling Labor Party. Before taking a boat to the island, Breivik donned body armor and tactical gear bearing police insignia (intended to afford him the element of tactical surprise). Once on the island he opened fire on the attendees at the youth camp with his firearms, a semiautomatic 5.56-caliber Ruger Mini-14 rifle and a 9 mm Glock pistol. Due to the location of the camp on a remote island, Breivik had time to kill 68 people and wound another 60 before police responded to the scene.
Shortly before the attack, Breivik posted a manifesto on the Internet that includes his lengthy operational diary. He wrote the diary in English under the Anglicized pen name Andrew Berwick, though a careful reading shows he also posted his true identity in the document. The document also shows that he was a lone wolf attacker who conducted his assault specifically against the Labor Party's current and future leadership. Breivik targeted the Labor Party because of his belief that the party is Marxist-oriented and is responsible for encouraging multiculturalism, Muslim immigration into Norway and, acting with other similar European governments, the coming destruction of European culture. Although the Labor Party members are members of his own race, he considers them traitors and holds them in more contempt than he does Muslims. In fact, in the manifesto, Breivik urged others not to target Muslims because it would elicit sympathy for them.
Breivik put most of his time and effort into the creation of the vehicle-borne IED (VBIED) that he used to attack his primary target, the current government, which is housed in the government building. It appears that he believed the device would be sufficient to destroy that building. It was indeed a powerful device, but the explosion killed only eight people. This was because the device did not bring down the building as Breivik had planned and many of the government employees who normally work in the area were on summer break. In the end, the government building was damaged but not destroyed in the attack, and no senior government officials were killed. Most of the deaths occurred at the youth camp, which Breivik described as his secondary target.
While Breivik's manifesto indicated he planned and executed the attack as a lone wolf, it also suggests that he is part of a larger organization that he calls the "Pauperes Commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici (PCCTS, also known as the Knights Templar), which seeks to encourage other lone wolves (whom Brevik refers to as "Justiciar Knights") and small cells in other parts of Europe to carry out a plan to "save" Europe and European culture from destruction.
Because of the possibility that there are other self-appointed Justiciar Knights in Norway or in other parts of Europe and that Breivik's actions, ideology and manifesto could spawn copycats, we thought it useful to examine the Justiciar Knights concept as Breivik explains it to see how it fits into lone wolf theory and how similar actors might be detected in the future.
An Opening Salvo?
From reading his manifesto, it is clear that Breivik, much like Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, believes that his attack is the opening salvo in a wider campaign, in this case to liberate Europeans from what Breivik views as malevolent, Marxist-oriented governments. These beliefs are what drove Breivik to attack the Norwegian Labor Party. As noted above, it is also clear that Breivik planned and executed his attack alone.
However, he also discusses how he was radicalized and influenced by a Serbian living in Liberia whom he visited there. And Breivik claims to have attended a meeting in London in 2002 to "re-found the Knights Templar." This organization, PCCTS, which was founded in 2002, is not related to the much older official and public chivalric order also known as the Knights Templar. According to Breivik, the PCCTS was formed with the stated purpose of fighting back against "European Jihad" and to defend the "free indigenous peoples of Europe." To achieve this goal, the PCCTS would implement a three-phase plan designed to seize political and military power in Europe. In his manifesto Breivik outlines the plan as follows:
• Phase 1 (1999-2030): Cell-based shock attacks, sabotage attacks, etc.
• Phase 2 (2030-2070): Same as above but bigger cells/networks, armed militias.
• Phase 3 (2070-2100): Pan-European coup d'etats, deportation of Muslims and execution of traitors.
As outlined in Breivik's manifesto, the 2002 meeting was attended by seven other individuals, two from England and one each from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece and Russia. He also asserts that the organization has members from Serbia (his contact living in Liberia), Sweden, Belgium and the United States who were unable to attend the meeting. Brevik states that all the members of the PCCTS were given code names for security, that his code name was "Sigurd," and that he was mentored by a member with the code name "Richard the Lionhearted" (presumably a Briton). Breivik claims that after meeting these individuals via the Internet he was carefully vetted before being allowed to join the group.
The diary section of Breivik's manifesto reveals that during the planning process for the attack Breivik traveled to Prague to obtain firearms and grenades from Balkan organized-crime groups there (he had hoped to obtain a fully automatic AK-47). Breivik was not able to procure weapons in Prague and instead was forced to use weapons he was able to obtain in Norway by legal means. It is interesting that he did not contact the Serbian member of the PCCTS for assistance in making contact with Balkan arms dealers. Breivik's lawyer told the media July 26 that although Breivik acted alone in conducting his attack, he had been in contact with two terror cells in Norway and other cells abroad. Certainly, Norway and its partners in EUROPOL and the United States will try to identify these other individuals, if they do in fact exist.
In phase one of the PCCTS plan, shock attacks were to be carried out by individuals operating as lone wolves or small cells of Breivik's so-called Justiciar Knights, who are self-appointed guardians who decide to follow the PCCTS code outlined in Breivik's manifesto and who are granted the authority to act as "a judge, jury and executioner until the free, indigenous peoples of Europe are no longer threatened by cultural genocide, subject to cultural Marxist/Islamic tyranny or territorial or existential threats through Islamic demographic warfare."
Breivik's manifesto notes that he does not know how many Justiciar Knights there are in Western Europe but estimates their number to be from 15 to 80. It is unclear if this is a delusion on his part and there are no other Justiciar Knights or if Breivik has some factual basis for his belief that there are more individuals like him planning attacks.
While some observers have noted that the idea of Justiciar Knights operating as lone wolves and in small cells is similar to the calls in recent years for grassroots jihadists to adopt lone wolf tactics, it is important to understand that leaderless resistance has been a central theme of white supremacist groups in the United States since the early 1990s. While Breivik did not express any anti-Semitism in his manifesto (something he has been heavily criticized for on U.S. anti-Semitic websites), clearly the anti-immigration and anti-Marxist ideology of the PCCTS has been influenced more by white hate groups than by al Qaeda.
Moreover, the concept of a self-identified Justiciar Knight is quite similar to the idea of a "Phineas Priest" in the leaderless resistance model propagated by some white supremacists in the United States who adhere to "Christian Identity" ideology. In this model, Phineas Priests see themselves as lone wolf militants chosen by God and set apart to be his "agents of vengeance" upon the earth. Phineas Priests also believe that their attacks will serve to ignite a wider "racial holy war" that will ultimately lead to the salvation of the white race.
Leaderless resistance has also been advocated by militant anarchists as well as animal rights and environmentalist activists who belong to such groups as the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front. So it is not correct to think of leaderless resistance merely as a jihadist construct — it has long been used by a variety of militant actors.
Lone Wolf Challenges
One of the great strengths of our enemies, the Western European cultural Marxist/multiculturalist regimes is their vast resources and their advanced investigation/forensic capabilities. There are thousands of video cameras all over European major cities and you will always risk leaving behind dna, finger prints, witnesses or other evidence that will eventually lead to your arrest. They are overwhelmingly superior in almost every aspect. But every 7 headed monster has an Achilles heel. This Achilles heel is their vulnerability against single/duo martyr cells. — Anders Breivik
As STRATFOR has long discussed, the lone wolf operational model presents a number of challenges for law enforcement, intelligence and security officers. The primary challenge is that, by definition, lone wolves are solitary actors, and it can be very difficult to determine their intentions before they act because they do not work with anyone else. When militants are operating in a cell consisting of more than one person, there is a larger chance that one of them will get cold feet and reveal the plot to authorities, that law enforcement and intelligence personnel will intercept a communication between conspirators, or that the authorities will be able to insert an informant into the group.
This ability to fly solo and under the radar of law enforcement has meant that some lone wolf militants such as Joseph Paul Franklin, Theodore Kaczynski and Eric Rudolph were able to operate for years before being identified and captured. Indeed, from Breivik's diary, we know he took several years to plan and execute his attack without detection.
As the Breivik case illustrates, lone wolves also pose problems because they can come from a variety of backgrounds with a wide range of motivations. While some lone wolves are politically motivated, others are religiously motivated and some are mentally unstable.
In addition to the wide spectrum of ideologies and motivations among lone wolves, there is also the issue of geographic dispersal. As we've seen from past cases, their plots and attacks have occurred in many different locations and are not confined just to Manhattan, London or Washington. Lone wolf attacks can occur anywhere.
Furthermore, it is extremely difficult to differentiate between those extremists who intend to commit attacks and those who simply preach hate or hold radical beliefs (things that are not in themselves illegal in many countries). Therefore, to single out likely lone wolves before they strike, authorities must spend a great deal of time and resources looking at individuals who might be moving from radical beliefs to radical actions. This is a daunting task given the large universe of potential suspects.
In spite of the challenges presented by lone wolf operatives, they are vulnerable to detection at several different stages of their attack cycle. One of these vulnerabilities comes during the planning stage when weapons are acquired. From reading Breivik's diary, it is clear that he felt exposed as he tried to purchase the chemicals he needed to build his IED. Because of this vulnerability, Breivik created an extensive cover story that included renting a farm in order to explain his purchase of a large quantity of ammonium nitrate fertilizer. The farm also provided a private, spacious place for him to construct his IED.
Breivik also exposed himself to potential detection when he traveled to Prague to attempt to purchase weapons. One of the criminals he contacted could have turned him in to authorities. (In June 2011 we saw a jihadist cell in Seattle detected and arrested while attempting to buy guns from a criminal acquaintance. Another small cell was arrested in New York in May 2011, also while attempting to obtain weapons.) Even if Breivik had succeeded in purchasing weapons in Prague, he would still have been vulnerable as he smuggled the weapons back into Norway in his car (though it is important to remember that EU countries have open borders so security checks would not have been too stringent).
Breivik also exposed himself to detection as he conducted surveillance on his targets. Interestingly, in his diary, Breivik goes into excruciating detail discussing how he manufactured his device based on information he was able to obtain from the Internet, but he mentions very little about how he selected specific targets or how he conducted surveillance on them. He mentions only that he visited the sites and programmed the locations into his GPS. He also discusses using a video camera to record his attack but does not mention if he used still or video cameras in his target surveillance. How Breivik specifically chose his targets and how he conducted surveillance on them will be important for the Norwegian authorities to examine.
Finally, Breivik mentions several times in his diary that the steps he was taking would be far more difficult if he were a foreign-born Muslim instead of a Caucasian Norwegian. This underscores a problem we have discussed with profiling suspects based on their ethnicity or nationality. In an environment where potential threats are hard to identify, it is doubly important to profile individuals based on their behavior rather than their ethnicity or nationality — what we refer to as focusing on the "how" rather than the "who."
Not All Lone Wolves are Equal
Finally, in the Breivik case we need to recognize that Norwegian authorities were dealing with a very capable lone wolf operator. While lone wolf theory has been propagated for many years now, there have been relatively few successful lone wolf attacks. This is because it takes a special individual to be a successful lone wolf assailant. Unlike many lone wolves, Breivik demonstrated that he possessed the intelligence and discipline to plan and carry out an attack that spanned several years of preparation. For example, he joined a pistol club in 2005 just in case he ever needed to buy a gun through legal means in Norway, and was able to rely on that alternate plan when his efforts to purchase firearms in Prague failed. Breivik was also driven, detail-oriented and meticulous in his planning. His diary documents that he was also extremely patient and careful during the dangerous trial-and-error process of manufacturing explosives.
It is rare to find a lone wolf militant who possesses all those traits, and Breivik stands in stark contrast to other European grassroots operatives like Nick Reilly or Bilal Abdullah and Kafeel Ahmed, who made amateurish attempts at attacks. Breivik appears to have been a hard worker who claims to have amassed some 500,000 euros by working a variety of jobs and selling a communications company. After some unsuccessful speculation on the stock market he still had enough money and credit to rent the farm and the vehicles he used in the attack and to buy the required bomb components, weapons and body armor. In his diary he says that he began his two tasks — writing the manifesto and conducting the attack — with a war chest of 250,000 euros and several credit cards.
Breivik also is somewhat unique in that he did not attempt to escape after his attacks or become a martyr by his own hand or that of the authorities. Instead, as outlined in his manifesto, he sought to be tried so that he could turn his trial into a grandstand for promoting his ideology beyond what he did with his manifesto and video. He was willing to risk a long prison sentence in order to communicate his principles to the public. This means that the authorities have to be concerned not only about other existing Justiciar Knights but also anyone who may be influenced by Breivik's message and follow his example.
There is also the possibility that individuals who do not adhere to Breivik's ideology will seek to exploit the loopholes and security lapses highlighted by this incident to conduct their own attacks. Breivik's diary provides a detailed step-by-step guide to manufacturing a successful VBIED, and the authorities will be scrutinizing it carefully to address the vulnerabilities Breivik exposed before those instructions can be used again.
Norway: Lessons from a Successful Lone Wolf Attacker is republished with permission of STRATFOR.
New Calls To Regulate Fertilizer, Ban Guns After Norway Violence
My prayers go out to all those affected by those atrocious acts committed in Norway last Friday.
In the aftermath of the shootings/bombing, new calls are emerging for increased regulation of fertilizer and firearms around the world. From Australia's Yass Tribune this morning:
Breivik allegedly made his bombs from the tonnes of readily available fertilizer and had easy access to the guns that he used in his killing spree. This begs the question of gun ownership and it is disturbing to hear that the Shooters and Fishers Party has already begun to influence our newly elected state government with the opening up of our state forests for the purpose of hunting and shooting. The party has also tried, so far unsuccessfully, to have shooting introduced into the state schools. Perhaps the sale of fertilizer, if it is not already regulated, should also be subject to closer scrutiny.
(Editor's note: Italics added for emphasis)
Also from the "land down under" today comes this from the Herald Sun:
THE shooting spree in Norway should force Australia to ban semi-automatic handguns, Greens leader Bob Brown says…
Senator Brown said reports the killer had used a semi-automatic handgun should force a re-think of Australia's laws.
"These would not necessarily be prohibited in Australia," he told reporters in Hobart.
"We Greens have repeatedly called for these to be made illegal. There are limited potential uses of them, but very, very few beyond that of the police forces.
"There is no good reason for semi-automatic pistols to be in circulation in Australia and it's one of those things that we mustn't wait for the worst to happen before we act."
(Editor's note: Italics added for emphasis)
Getting back to chemical fertilizer, Aled-Dilwyn Fisher wrote the following this morning on the "Views and News from Norway" website:
Calls for stronger regulation of the sale of ammonium nitrate fertilizers have been made following the suspected use of the materials in the bombing of Oslo on Friday July 22 – with experts suggesting that new EU regulations set to be introduced in Norway are not enough…
Meanwhile, the Danish government has already announced its intention to better regulate the distribution of fertilizer. Lars Barfoed, the Danish minister of justice, was reported by news agency NTB to have said that his government "will learn from this event, and for that reason we will obviously go through the rules in order to see if there is a need to tighten up."
(Editor's note: Italics added for emphasis)
History reminds us that violence of the magnitude that took place in Norway is nothing new, and bad people will keep using any means at their disposal to carry out such carnage, whether the tools be military-grade or off-the-shelf. All the guns and ammonium nitrate fertilizer in the world could disappear this very instant- and it would still be only a matter of time before the next mass casualty terror attack takes place.
Millett, Brian. "How safe are we from shooting and bombing?" Millett's Musings. 25 July 2011. (http://www.yasstribune.com.au/blogs/milletts-musings/how-safe-are-we-from-shooting-and-bombing/2236735.aspx?storypage=1). 25 July 2011.
"Norway shooting should force gun law change, says Greens leader Bob Brown." Herald Sun. 25 July 2011. (http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/norway-shooting-should-force-gun-law-change-says-greens-leader-bob-brown/story-e6frf7jx-1226101441515). 25 July 2011.
Fisher, Aled-Dilwyn. "Calls to regulate fertilizer after bomb." Views and News from Norway. 25 July 2011. (http://www.newsinenglish.no/2011/07/25/calls-to-regulate-fertilizer-after-bomb/). 25 July 2011.
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text: Lakeview is nestled on a gentle lawn where peacocks and swans roam the grounds before a placid lake which is in full view from our beautiful veranda. This comfortable, homelike facility completed in 1994, features a 26-bed Rehab Unit that offers short or long-term rehabilitative stays. In addition to our Rehab Unit, Lakeview has 79 long-term care beds with 10 personal care beds. Private and semi-private rooms are tastefully decorated. Lakeview Nursing Center is more than a place to stay. In fact, it's home to some of the nicest people on the Coast. Our staff and facility offer our residents and rehab patients the security, comfort and care of home. At Lakeview, we are committed to giving the best care possible, in addition to providing a variety of specialty and rehabilitative programs.


text:
Photo: Work One
Indiana's private sector lost nearly 6,000 jobs in September, the first decline in nearly a year, yet the state's employment rate also fell for the first time since April from 8.3 percent in August to 8.2 percent in September.
That is a change from recent trends. Indiana's unemployment rate had gone up or held steady for the past five months while, at the same time, the private sector created jobs.
University of Indianapolis economist Matt Will says while September's jobs report is not positive, it also is not time to panic. Will says month-to-month employment data tends to be inaccurate and that, to get a good picture, you have to look at trends.
"If for two or three months we see private sector jobs declining, then I'd be concerned," he says. "Right now, it's an anomaly. I would not be that concerned about it."
Will says part of the reason Indiana's unemployment rate dropped last month was a decline in the number of people looking for work. He says that is happening nationwide and could indicate trouble in the future.


text:
Talmudic and stone egg secrets, and first kiss at the altar!
Love Bytes: 10 must-click love and relationship links.
Last night, David Letterman revealed that he was recently blackmailed for $2 million for having sexual relationships with female members of his staff. Watch video here. [TresSugar]
The First Couple prove that absence does make the heart grow fonder through PDAs in Copenhagen yesterday. [HuffPo]
In honor of the Jewish new year, have kosher sex! Molly Mann reveals some Talmudic secrets. [DivineCaroline]
Academy Award-winning director, Roman Polanski, was convicted and will possibly be extradited to the U.S. for drugging and sleeping with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer in 1977. [BuzzFeed]
In their new book, Why Women Have Sex, psychologists Cindy and David Buss have collected years' worth of scientific studies and research, as well as the the voices of numerous women, in an effort to shed light on the female sexual experience. [limelife]
Some sexual experiences that women in our study reported just had devastating effects and long-lasting negative effects on their feelings of self-worth. But then for others, their sexual experiences provided the soaring height of euphoria and made them feel alive and vibrant.
New iPhone apps are now on the market for your already lazy boyfriend. They are supposed to assist in love, dating and... fapping? [Asylum]
Tucker Max responds to Courtney A.—the one-night stand who told all. [lemondrop]
Have you remembered to work out your vagina lately? Check out how the woman with the strongest vagina got hers. [TheFrisky]
Cameron Diaz recently told Cosmopolitan that she thinks kids are bad for the environment. Here are 10 more reasons why you should wait to have kids...(# 7 being You want to spend all morning in bed having sex…and all afternoon, too.) [Shine]
We've heard about about waiting to have sex, but what about waiting to KISS each other? Here's a couple that did just that. [Smitten]


text: THE DAILY LEADER: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2009 download printable copy majorityleader.house.gov · (202) 225-3130 FLOOR SCHEDULE FOR WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2009 House Meets At… Last Vote Predicted… 10:00 a.m.: Legislative Business Fifteen "One Minutes" Per Side 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. Suspensions (2 Bills) 1) S. 383 - Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program Act of 2009 (Sen. McCaskill – Financial Services) 2) S. 520 - To designate the United States Courthouse under construction at 327 South Church Street, Rockford, Illinois, as the "Stanley J. Roszkowski United States Courthouse" (Sen. Durbin – Transportation and Infrastructure) Senate Amendments to H.R. 146 - Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (Rep. Rahall – Natural Resources) (Subject to a Rule) Begin Consideration of H.R. 1404 - Federal Land Assistance, Management and Enhancement Act (Rep. Rahall – Natural Resources) (Subject to a Rule) Dispose of H.Res. __ - Raising a question of privileges of the House (Rep. Flake – Privileged Resolution) Postponed Suspension Vote (1 Bill) 1) H.Res. 273 - Recognizing the 188th anniversary of the independence of Greece and celebrating Greek and American democracy (Rep. Ros-Lehtinen – Foreign Affairs)


text:
Posting to alcts-eforum
I don't understand why the question should be reduced to all or nothing. If we want to simplify the current rule of three to, for instance, to trace only the first three, or four, or five, that's fine. But tracing every name for all materials is absolutely unworkable in the foreseeable future. Look at a dictionary. Right now, it's pretty easy and doesn't take much time, but I don't think too many people would want to trace every single name for those who helped to write the dictionary. It would help absolutely no one find anything.
So, if we want to do away with the rule of three for the sake of simplification, we immediately are forced to complicate that same rule when we decide: "Do not apply" in the case of dictionaries, in the case serials, in the case of wikis, in the case of … The number of exceptions to the rule would doubtless skyrocket and the practical cataloger would probably rely on the rule of "do as many as I feel like doing today, based on the amount of other work waiting on my desk and, let's face it, I had a hard night last night."
I think that if we are going to design a product that others want, we must focus on creating *standards that others can rely on,* (this is absolutely *not* the case that we have today, where we claim to follow standards but we don't) and that we can genuinely fulfill in a practical, everyday kind of way. Based on my own experience of seeing records that purport to follow AACR2/MARC21/LCSH/NAF/LCC and so on, I think that even the current standards may be set much too high. I don't know why this is so: is it because catalogers do not have enough time? Or that the standards are unreachable in a collective, sustained sense? Or that the catalogers have not been trained well enough in the first place? I think all are at fault, but especially the last reason makes sense to me. Morale may be an issue as well.
I don't think that libraries and other institutions are going to devote a larger chunk of their budgets to training and retraining. (What does this mean for training for RDA??) So, I think that eliminating the rule of three would ignore the reality of the working cataloger who has to deal with production quotas and is yet another example of that maxim, "Perfecting the irrelevant."


text:
2 up for nominations
Oxford United find themselves with Chris Wilder and Sean Rigg on short lists for npower League 2 manager and player awards for December.
With three straight wins Chris is nominated. The other two nominees are Gareth Ainsworth of Wycombe Wanderers and Gary Rowett of Burton Albion.
Winger Sean who has been in form throughout the month and finds himself up against Fleetwood Town goalkeeper Scott Davies and Rochdale striker Ashley Grimes
Both will know the outcomes on Friday when the reults will be announced on SKY Sports.


text:
Give Now
What do you know about Count Rumford? Learn about him on this Moment of Science.
Who are these color-gifted critters? Hawkmoths. Almut Kelber from Sweden's Lund University conducted an experiment that showed this surprising result. Imagine a room with a lot of artificial flowers in it, and the only ones with yummy sugar water in them are yellow or blue.


text:
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|Issues related to copyright and patents (see additional page for legislation)S. 866 Patent Quality Improvement Act S. 1013 Patent Abuse Reduction Act S. 1612 - Patent Litigation Integrity Act S. 1720 - Patent Transparency and Improvements Act H.R.845: Saving High-Tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes Act H.R 2639 - Patent Litigation and Innovation Act H.R. 2024 - End Anonymous Patents Act H.R. 3309 - Innovation Act H.R. 3349 - Innovation Protection Act H.R 3540 - Demand Letter Transparency Act HR 2766 - STOP Act
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For Advance Authorisation (Including Advance authorisation
for Annual Requirement) / Advance Release Order (ARO)/ Invalidation letter
[Please see guidelines (given at the end) before filling
the application].
1. IEC Number
2. Applicant Details
i. Name
ii. Address
3. RCMC Details
i. RCMC Number
ii. Date of Issue
iii. Issuing Authority
iv. valid upto
Products for which registered
4. Type of Exporter (please tick)
( v )
i. Merchant Exporter
ii. Manufacturer Exporter
iii. Service Provider
iv. Others (please specify)
v. Merchant cum Manufacturer
5. Industrial Registration Details
i. SSI
/ IEM / LOI or IL
Registration Number
iv. Products for which registered
6. Excise Details (For those registered with Central Excise Authority)
i. Excise Registration Number
ii. Issuing Authority
7. Status House Details:
i. EH / SEH / TH / STH /
ii. Certificate Number
iii. Date of Issue
iv. Issuing Authority
v. Valid Upto
8. Application Fee Details
Amount (Rs)
Demand Draft / Bank Receipt
/ Electronic Fund Transfer No
Date of Issue
Name of the Bank on which drawn
Bank Branch on which drawn
9. Total CIF value of Imports applied for
i. In Rupees
ii. In currency of imports
iii. In US $
10. Total FOB / FOR value of Exports to be made, including commission
ii. In currency of exports
11. Value Addition (in %):
12. Port of Registration as per paragraph 4.19 of HBP v1 (for the purpose of imports):
Application made for Export Product Group:
Application made under which Serial No. of SION:
Application made under Para 4.7 of HBP v1:
Yes / No
If reply is "Yes", whether Adhoc Norms fixed:
Yes / No
iii. Application made under Para 4A.25 of HBP v1 (for G&J sector).
14. Details of items to be exported / supplied under the Authorisation
S No
Item Description
Item Technical Characteristics
/ Quality etc.
ITC (HS) Code
Unit of Measurement
/ FOR Value
(in Rs)
FOB / FOR value (in freely
convertible currency)
15. Details of items sought to be imported duty free under the Authorisation
Item Technical Characteristics/Quality
ITC(HS) Code
Quantity in metric units
CIF Value
CIF value (in freely convertible
Total exemption from Customs
16. Details of other materials to be used in the export product and sought to be
imported / procured from sources other than the Authorisation
on which drawback benefits is to be availed (not to be filled if Drawback benefits
are not being claimed)
Imported Item
Indigenously Procured Item
Name, Technical Characteristics/Quality
17. Details of Outstanding Export Obligation against Advance Authorisation
(s) including Advance
Authorisation for Annual Requirements issued
Authorisation No
Authorisation Date
CIF Value (Rs)
FOB Value (Rs)
%age of EO fulfilled
Expiry Date of
EO period
Qty wise
Value wise
18. Details of exports / deemed supplies (including Intermediate supplies) made in the
preceding 3 licensing years
Licensing Year
FOB Value of exports
(in Rs Crore)
FOR Value of deemed supplies
Total Export Performance
(in Rs Crore)
19. Applicable in case of applications made for Advance Authorisation
for Annual requirements (AAL)
i. Entitlement of AAL (Rs)
ii. CIF Value of AAL already
obtained (Rs) during the licensing year
20. In case of exports made under Deemed Exports category (except for supplies to
Advance Authorisation
/ EOU / EHTP / STP / EPCG or intermediate supplies), please furnish
i. Name of the Project Authority
ii. Address of the Project
iii. Supply Order No
iv. Delivery period of Supply
v. Credit under which project
is financed
vi. Method by which order is
procured (ICB etc.)
21. In case of request for issuance of ARO / Invalidation letter, please furnish
i. Advance
Authorisation No
ii. Date of Issue of Advance
iii. Name (s) of the Indigenous
producer from where items are to be procured
iv. Address (s) of the Indigenous
producer from where items are to be procured
v. Regional Authority of the
Indigenous producer
vi. Items to be supplied by
the Indigenous producer
a. Description of individual
b. Quantity of individual items
to be procured
c. Value of individual items
to be procured
22. Address of the factory / premises where the items to be imported are proposed
to be used
23. Address of the jurisdictional Central Excise Authority under whose jurisdiction
the factory / premises falls
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please furnish
i. Name of the supporting manufacturer
ii. Address of the supporting
iii. SSI / LOI / IL regn. no.
and date of Supporting Manufacturer
iv. Products endorsed on SSI/IL/IEM
I/We hereby declare that the particulars and the statements made in this application
are true and correct to the best of my / our knowledge and belief and nothing has
been concealed or held there from. If found incorrect or false, it will render me
/ us liable for any penal action or other consequences as may be prescribed in law
or otherwise warranted.
I/We undertake to abide by the provisions of FT(D&R) Act, the Rules and Orders
framed there under, the FTP, HBP v1, HBP v2 and the ITC(HS) Classification of Export
& Import Items.
I / We hereby certify that none of the Proprietor/ Partner(s) / Director(s) / Karta
/ Trustee of the firm / company, as the case may be, is / are a Proprietor / Partner(s)
/ Director(s) / Karta / Trustee in any other firm / Company which has come to the
adverse notice of DGFT.
I/We hereby certify that the Proprietor/Partner(s)/Director(s)/Karta/Trustee, as
the case may be, of the firm/company is/are not associated as Proprietor/Partner(s)/Director(s)/Karta/Trustee
in any other firm/company which is in the caution list of RBI.
I/ We hereby declare that I/we have perused the list of SCOMET items as contained
in the Appendix 3 to the Schedule 2 of the ITC (HS) Classifications of Export-Import
Items, 2004-09 and that the item(s) exported / proposed to be exported does not
fall within this list and that I/ We agree to abide by the provisions of the Policy
for export of SCOMET items contained in the Foreign Trade Policy, Schedule 2 of
ITC (HS) and the HBP v1, irrespective of the scheme under which the item is exported
/ proposed to be exported (the underlined portion will be deleted in case an application
for export license for SCOMET item is being filed).
(Applicable in case of Advance Authorisation applications
under paragraph 4.7 of HBP v1only)
I/We hereby declare
that I
/ We shall abide by the final fixation of norms
by the Norms Committee (NC) and shall pay in cash to the Government Customs duty
together with interest (as notified) reckoned from the date of imports till the
date of deposit on the inputs imported in excess of the norms fixed by
I / We hereby declare that no export proceeds are outstanding beyond the prescribed
period as laid down by RBI or such extended period for which RBI permission has
been obtained.
I hereby certify that I am authorised to verify and sign
this declaration as per Paragraph 9.9 of the FTP.
Signature of the Applicant
Official Address
Residential Address
Email Address
( Please see paragraphs 4.4,
4.13, 4.14, 4.24A and 4A.25 of HBP v1
relevant to the
Scheme under which the application is being filed )
Two copies of the application must be submitted unless otherwise mentioned.
Each individual page of the application has to be signed by the applicant.
RCMC details need not be given if the same have already been updated in the IEC.
In case of request for ARO / Invalidation letter, applicant may furnish information
in respect of Sl No. 1, 2 & 20 of the application only.
For Advance
1. Bank Receipt (in duplicate)
/ Demand Draft / EFT details evidencing payment of application fee in terms of Appendix
Additional documents required:
In case of issue of Advance Authorisation
for Annual Requirements:
Statement of exports made in
the preceding licensing year duly certified by a Chartered Accountant / Cost and
Works Accountant in the format given in Appendix 26.
Self certified copy of the
manufacturing licence of the applicant firm or his supporting manufacturer.
(ii) Invalidation letter(s) incase
of supplies to an advance Authorisation holder. However, in case of switch
over from physical exports / deemed exports to intermediate supplies, such invalidation
letters can also be furnished at the time of redemption of advance authorisation.
(iii) In case of Deemed Export:
Project Authority certificate in case of supplies other
than (ii) above and to EOU / EHTP / STP / BTP units;
3. In cases where import of fuel has been sought for under
Advance Authorisation
/ Advance Authorisation
for Annual Requirements (excluding Advance
Authorisation applications for ad-hoc norms and those under Para 4.7 of
HBP v1)
a. Self certified copy of the
permission issued to the manufacturer exporter by the competent authority (concerned
State Electricity Board or Power Corporation or Regulatory Commission of the State)
under Section 44 of the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948 for the installation of captive
power plant based on the specified fuel unless the permission is specifically waived
by the State Electricity Board; and
Self certified copy of the letter intimating the
date of commissioning of the captive power plant from the concerned authority which
issued the permission letter is to be submitted.
Note: Import of only such fuel(s) shall be allowed which have
/ has been specified in the said permission.
Additional documents required in case of issue of Advance Authorisation under Para
4.7 of Handbook
Information as per Appendix-11A,
Technical Details of the export product as per the details
given in Appendix 33.
Chartered Engineer certificate
certifying the import requirements of raw materials in the format given in Appendix
Production and Consumption
data of the manufacturer / supporting manufacturer of the preceding three licensing
years, duly certified by the Chartered accountant / Cost & Works Accountant
/ Jurisdictional Excise Authority.
Please state 'Not Applicable' wherever the information
/ data is not applicable to you.


text:
BREAKING NEWS: This evening, the sad news was released that Nasar Ahmed lost his fight for life and passed away at 5.30pm in the Royal London Hospital. We send our condolences to his family and friends.
ORIGINAL STORY: A 14 year old pupil at Bow School, E3, is fighting for his life after falling ill at school – and the story of how he became ill is in dispute.
Nasar Ahmed has special needs, among which is a complex set of medical conditions including asthma and eczema, of which the school is fully aware. His family have described him as a gentle, smart and decent child. On Thursday, 10th November, Nasar became unwell at school, which called the emergency services. Paramedics attended and gave Nasar emergency treatment at the scene, before taking him to hospital – where he was admitted into intensive care. He us on a life support machine (pictured) and the family has been told he has a less than 1% chance of pulling through.
We extend our sympathies to Nasar, his parents and family, and his friends, for what he has been through. Already the community is concerned at the differences between the school's account of events leading up to Nasar being taken to hospital and the family's version of events. The school has issued a statement, the full text of which is below, that Nasar "said he felt unwell". The family has given a fuller account of the events leading up to Nasar feeling unwell.
The family believe that Nasar was physically near two boys who were fighting, and in the confusion Nasar accidentally tipped over a bin. The family understand that the Assistant Deputy Headteacher believed that Nasar tipped the bin over on purpose and put him in detention. They understand that Nasar became very upset at the prospect of detention and promised not to repeat the offence, pleading not to have to have detention. The school called Nasar's father at 11.40am to report that Nasar was in detention for the day, confined to a room in the basement of the school. The family later received an email from the school advising them that Nasar would be in detention for an additional 45 minutes after school.
It was in this detention room that Nasar was taken unwell. His family believe he became disorientated and began to panic, which brought on the asthma attack. At 2.40pm, Mr Zaman, Nasar's father, received a telephone call from a school receptionist who said that Nasar had been taken very ill. Mr Zaman left work and went straight to the school, where he found his son collapsed unconscious on the floor, surrounded by paramedics. The paramedics told Mr Zaman his son's heart and breathing had stopped, and they had almost given up hope before making one final attempt to revive him, which managed to re-establish his breathing, though not in a stable way. The family is very grateful to the paramedics and we also thank them for their professionalism.
The family has asked every one in the community to pray to Allah SWT for Nasar's recovery and to make dua for Nasar who is near to death. Although they are concentrating on spending time with Nasar now, they have made it clear that they expect the school to suspend the teacher involved in issuing the detention and to launch an immediate inquiry – involving the Local Authority and the police.
#Pray4NASAR #Justice4Nasar
The following statement is available on the Bow School website.
Important message from Head
Sudden illness of a student at Bow School, Thursday 10th November 2016
Firstly, the whole school community sends its thoughts and prayers to the student and his family at this very difficult and distressing time.
Further to a considerable amount of misinformation relating to this incident, I hope that the following brief statement will provide factual information about the event.
On Thursday 10th November 2016, in the afternoon, a student who was being supervised along with 3 others, said that he felt unwell. He showed signs of breathing difficulties that rapidly got worse. Additional adult help was immediately sought and two trained first aiders, who had full knowledge of the student's medical needs, were rapidly with the student. Simultaneously, an emergency call was made and the staff in attendance received expert advice over the phone, whilst waiting for the paramedics. Shortly afterwards, a rapid response paramedic was on site and was swiftly joined by a number of his colleagues who took control of providing emergency care, with support from staff at the school.
The school made immediate contact with the family and the student's parents came as quickly as they could, they were supported by a school translator and were briefed about their child's condition by the paramedics throughout.
The student was transferred to the Royal London Hospital by ambulance, accompanied by his family, and he remains in hospital and is still seriously unwell.
We continue to keep in contact with the family and our thoughts are with the student and his family at this time.
Cath Smith
Executive Headteacher
Bow School


text:
I'd like to tell you Joe Baum who created 167 restaurants in his lifetime. Among them were the four highest grossing eateries in the United States. They were Windows on the World, The Rainbow Room, The Four Seasons and Tavern on the Green.
Joe's philosophy was simple: "Our product," he said, "the measure of our success, is pleasure. We are in the pleasure business. We are organized, equipped and staffed to supply pleasure, at a profit, which means that any threats to pleasure are bad for business. We must constantly ask ourselves, "What more can we give?" What will it cost you to give 'em a glass of champagne or an extra oyster? The more pleasure you give, the more you will receive along with at least temporary job security and higher fees."
To illustrate the lengths Joe would go to provide his guests with a memorable occasion, I'll tell you a little story. One evening Joe hosted a dinner for the elite Confrerie des Chevaliers du Testevin at The Four Seasons restaurant in New York City. The Chevaliers were lifelong gourmets and wine connoisseurs without peer and this would be the ultimate test, even for the greatest of restaurateurs.
Joe planned and planned, and planned some more, and finally, the day before the dinner was to be held, the entire staff of the restaurant staged a full dress rehearsal of the exact meal.
The menu was extraordinarily complicated. Custom-made pyramid-shaped molds were manufactured. They were designed to enable the chefs to fill them with pyramid-shaped triangles of veal loin that were then inserted int the center of the fillets of beef…foie gras was placed inside the veal, truffles were positioned inside the foie gras…The entire presentation was created out of a progression of pyramid shapes. Everything was what we would now call —over the top. (The dessert of Pears en Chemise, the chemises (nightgowns) were made of gold leaf).
Never one to miss an opportunity to turn simple abundance into wild excess, Joe hung Chevaliers' ribbons from the ceiling enfolding each table as though it was a small pavilion. As a final coup, he built a platform into the restaurant's famous 20 foot-square marble reflecting pool in the center of the room so the waiters appeared to be walking on water.
Mercifully the actual feast went off perfectly but early the next morning, after a sleepless night, Baum grabbed the publicity man by his lapels, demanding to know the Chevaliers' reaction to his extravaganza.
"Well, Joe," said the cornered P.R. man, "The Chevaliers where so overwhelmed that they met at their hotel last night, after the dinner, to pass an extraordinary resolution — and here's what they said: We, the Chevaliers of the elite Confrerie, resolve unanimously that your was the finest meal every served in the history of the world!?
Baum let go of the man's (Roger Martin's) lapels and reflected for a full 10 seconds; then Joe blurted out, his face red with rage, "Goddamit, that just not good enough. Get me the chef. Goddamit. GODDAMIT!!!
Perfection is only rarely achieved. Striving, though, is a worthwhile endeavor…


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A local author plans to donate 10 percent of the profit from his new book to help people suffering from Multiple Chemical Sensitivity.
Oro Valley resident Matt Marine was diagnosed with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity in 2010. MCS is a limbic system disorder, resulting in severe reactions to chemicals and everyday household products like perfumes, fabric softeners, carpeting and paint.
Marine found an article published in the New York Times about The Dynamic Neutral Retraining System, new treatment for people suffering from MCS.
Marine attended a DNRS workshop in November 2011 and is now 50 percent recovered with a goal of complete recovery this year.
Marine will donate 10 percent of the profit from his soon-to-be released mystery novel, "Devil's Moon." Funds will directly help people suffering form MCS who cannot afford treatment.
The public is invited to a pre-release book signing party May 17 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Marriott Fairfield Inn & Suites on Oracle Rd. in Oro Valley.


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"From this day forward, there is no more gay marriage and straight marriage. In America, it's just marriage now." – A question about this.
Now that the same-sex marriage issue has been resolved with "a victory for America" there is only one question left to answer. Do you agree that those Christians (et al.) still defending the traditional definition of marriage should get the treatment of the losers in an historic win for civil rights. That is, the treatment of bigots – because that is what the Supreme Court has declared them to be: deniers of human rights. And how, actually, will you defend your position?
The new policy of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, says the CPSO, "protects patient rights ... while also respecting physicians' right to freedom of conscience and religion." Does this policy show an understanding of what conscience is, so that it could, in fact, respect it?
Would you like traditional or modern care? – You may not have a choice.
A writer for the New York Times wrote about the habit of "otherizing" other people – "people of a different faith, race, nationality, or sexuality – and [turning] that other-ness into a threat." R.R. Reno – soon to be Augustine College Weston Lecturer – shows what this really is
"My Canada is beautiful ... its greatest qualities being open-mindedness and freedom of choice." – Can an open-minded person be the opposite of himself? Some open-minded people, insistent that there are no absolutes to which they can commit (thus their adamant open-mindededness), might lack the awareness to notice that in reality they are the people who are quite ready to trample on others.


text: › Student Life » Malone Center for Career Engagement » Employer Services » Qualifed Employer Policy Home Student Information Online Resources Alumni Services Employer Services Meet the Staff Faculty Resources NACE Resources Plan a Visit ›Apply Now ›Give to Furman › Main Content Column 1Qualified Employer Policy The Office of Career Services provides recruiting services to qualified employers who offer legitimate employment opportunities to students/alumni of Furman University. We reserve the right to refuse to provide services if, in the sole opinion of this office, it appears that the employer is engaged in activities which may be interpreted as exploitative of our students/alumni. The Office of Career Services will review all factors presented in making a determination about providing services to employers. Factors which may indicate that the employer is engaged in prohibited practices include: Requirement that students/alumni pay a fee to the employer. Requirement that students/alumni purchase products from the employer as a condition of employment. Legal status of students/alumni as independent contractors rather than employees. Acquiring resumes to market job seekers to prospective employers. Other relevant factors which lead to an inference that the employer is engaged in a business which is premised on attracting employees for a short time, gaining short-term profits from their efforts and then terminating them. The Director of Career Services will consider all information available, including information provided by the potential employer, as well as information gained from persons acquainted with the employer. Recruitment of Furman students and alumni requires: an up-to-date, detailed position announcement, direct access to the employing organization (name of employer must be revealed), and a comprehensive profile of the employing organization outlining products, services, etc be sent to the Career Services Office. Notice to Third-Party Recruiters Third party recruiting firms, or any such entity that is retained by another organization to recruit prospective employees, have limited access to the services of the office. Such recruiting firms will be required to adhere to the guidelines for third-party recruiting as stated in the ethical standards of the National Association of Colleges and Employers. These guidelines are reproduced below: Third-party recruiters will disclose to students the name(s) of the client, or clients, that the third-party recruiter is representing and to whom the students' credentials will be disclosed. When deemed necessary, third-party recruiters will disclose information upon request to Career Services that would enable that office to verify that it is recruiting for a bona fide job opportunity. Information should include contact information for the organization for which the third party is providing recruiting services. Career services must respect the confidentiality of this information and may not publish it in any manner. Third-party recruiters attending career fairs will represent employers who have authorized them and will disclose to career services the names of the represented employers. Third-party recruiters will not disclose to any employer, including the client-employer, any student information without obtaining prior written consent from the student. Under no circumstances can student information be disclosed for other than the original recruiting purposes nor can it be sold or provided to other entities. Online job posting and resume referral services must prominently display their privacy policies on their web sites, specifying who will have access to student information. From the NACE Principles for Professional Conduct for Career Services and Employment Professionals. The Furman Office of Career Services further requires that third-party recruiting firms seeking to fill a specific job for a client organization must present to the Office of Career Services a letter of verification from the client, on letterhead stationery, stating that the recruiting firm is acting as an agent for that organization.


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City Guides >
Located in the northwestern part of Seattle, people travel from all around to participate in their annual Seafood and Heritage Festival which takes place in mid July. With their rich Scandinavian culture you're bound to see a just about every one the community dressed in traditional period clothing worn many years ago by in Nordic men and women. The festival offers a large variety of traditional contests and competitions that will definitely be an amazing sight to see.
You will be able to partake in some of the finest and freshest seafood available during this spectacular event. There will be plenty of activities for the children as this is typically a family oriented festival. There will be barbecues blazing with the aromatic smells of fresh salmon caught by local fishermen and a huge a variety of local delicacies.
Entertainment will be performed on two different stages. One stage will cater to strictly the children and provide a day's worth of fun entertainment to keep them busy. The other stage will be committed to more of a grownup type of entertainment. Also during this festival the city puts on their annual sidewalk sale for those of you who are interested in doing a little local shopping and possibly purchasing some nice souvenirs from this area. There will be a special area set up just for the children so they can sit around and play games, be entertained, or just enjoy a nice big ice cream cone!
Related Topics: Seattle, Food, City Guides
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Instructional Technology Tools
Voki - an avatar creation tool that can include your own voice
Note: limited characters available and audio messages are limited to 60 seconds with a free account
Inspiration - an application for concept mapping, a technique to represent knowledge graphically, a network of linked ideas or concepts.
Can be used for generating ideas, designing complex structures, communicating complex ideas, aiding learning by explicitly integrating new and old knowledge, assessing understanding or diagnosing misunderstanding
Note: free trial period is 30 days.
ToonDoo - a web tool for creating comic strips
Note: Comic strips need to be "public" in order to be shared
PuzzleMaker - a puzzle generation tool for instructors to create customized word searched, criss-crosses, math puzzles and more
Dipity - a free digital timeline tool where users can create, share, embed and collaborate on interactive, visually engaging timelines that integrate audio, video, images, text, links, social media, locations and timestamps
Note: free account allows you to create two new timelines
Panopto - A tool used to record lecture materials. You can easily record Powerpoint slides or your Desktop applications with voiceover to provide lecture materials in your online course.
Explain Everything - An easy-to-use design tool that lets you annotate, animate, and narrate explanations and presentations. You can create dynamic interactive lessons, activities, assessments, and tutorials using Explain Everything's flexible and integrated design.
Recordings from Explain Everything can also be incorporated into Panopto for playback. See the Panopto web site for details.
For iPad ($2.99)
Flash Card Machine - Create Flash Cards for your students to use to study
Prezi - Create online presentations; a web-based alternative to Powerpoint
Note: This service is free when used to create public presentations.
Jing - Screenshot and Screencast software
Note:Free Jing screencast is limited to 5 minutes
PowToon - Animated presentations
Free account includes limited styles, limited tunes, watermark, and a maximum length of 5 minutes.


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Gizmodo has seems to have got the real new apple iphone 4G, which they had found in the redwood city bar. This time it seems to be real images of the new iphone coming soon. As per the images it looks like a very close pretty much like the actual prototype, here are some images of the same
You can check out the gallery of other pictures of iphone 4g HD taken by gizmodo here.
iPhone 4G HD New Features
What's new
• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It's unclear if it's the 960×640 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the "Connect to iTunes" screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic
What's changed
• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminium border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery
Here is short video which shows how it looks exactly as compared to the old iPhone models
[ Via Gizmodo ]


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READ THE RULES!! | Introduce Yourself | Embed YouTube Videos | RPM Holiday/Theme Weeks | Rockman 10 Ranking | Music Archive (2012.01.01) | Betas/Trials/Promos | WikiSpace | Oekaki | Rockman 10 Boss Damage
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
All entries are due in by October 31st, 2011Voting will commence on November 1st, 2011 and will last until December 10th, 2011The winning logo will be announced on December 17th, 2011. The winning logo will be displayed on the RPM front page on December 17th, 2011 for the entire year of the 25th Anniversary
I think you mean 2012
I took care of it.While I don't mind that the logo keeps it simple, I wholly support this contest. I'm positive us RPMers could think up of something with a bit more flair and passion.
I will try with something.
Oh man, Akira's entering in. Might as well just give up, everyone.
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- Seiko Kinetic - Seiko Kinetic (SO-109)
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Isn't she?! I was so happy to get these pictures back!
© 2011-2018 CakesDecor.com. All Rights Reserved.
DISCLAIMER: Any posts on CakesDecor.com (CD) are posted by individuals acting in their own right and do not necessarily reflect the views of CD. CD will not be held liable for the actions of any user.


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I Wanna Be Your Lover
by Prince
How to play I Wanna Be Your Lover by Prince in Bass Guitar.
Raspberry Beret
by Prince
Learn how to play this incredible Prince's song "Raspberry Beret" in Bass Guitar with accurate tabs and video lesson.
Bad Medicine
by Bon Jovi
Let's learn how to play this rock classic by Bon Jovi, "Bad Medicine" in Bass Guitar.
Work it Out
by Beyonce
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Synchronicity II
by The Police
Learn how to play "Synchronicity II" by The Police in Bass Guitar.
Mother Love
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by Pearl Jam
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I've been remiss. I haven't updated people on how the #2k42m campaign ended up. I blame summer.
But, I think by the image above you know how we did. For the first time in Champlain History we had 2000+ alumni give to the institution in one campaign.
In my earlier post asking for Alumni to support #2k42m I wrote about how important an active alumni network is to a college, and how for Champlain this is a sign we are growing up from where we started.
This is a thank you to all the alum who donated to the #2k42m. Faculty and Staff at Champlain are responsible for building the campus, for creating the curriculum, for getting students ready for the next phase of their life. Alumni are responsible for helping the college to grow in many other ways. Active alumni organizations can (and should):
- Network where they live and work to tell the story of Champlain. Like our Colorado Alumni Group
- Offer internships (like this awesome one at Alchemy and Science) to current students.
- Fund scholarships for current students.
- Encourage families you know to consider Champlain as an education destination for their college-bound students.
- Push us (Faculty, Staff, Administration) to stay current so you can continue to feel pride in Champlain.
- Come up with new and interesting ways to fundraise and help us move from being so reliant on tuition.
I'm sure there are more reasons than this, but I'm here to ask you to consider the many different ways you can stay connected to Champlain. How you can help us continue to grow and be a college of distinction at a time when many are questioning the value of a college education? As Champlain Vice President Chuck Maniscalco wrote in a recent post about how Students Rate Higher Education on his blog, Champlain is getting many things right if you consider recommendations from outside sources like McKinsey. Alumni support will help us to keep getting things right.
So while this post is a thank you, it is also a challenge to all of you who gave even just ONE DOLLAR. Don't stop there.
How about next year you give two dollars? Or consider an ongoing gift of $5 per year. Or even $5 per month. If a group of you did that, imagine how that would help your Alma Mater?
And yes, I know many recent grads are paying back student loans for the cost of getting your education and you might feel that you paid enough, why give even more? My answer to that is simple. Because your tuition helped us to maintain what we were doing at that time. It paid my salary, it kept the lights on, it kept you fed, it helped Student Life provide programming for you, it helped grow our campus. But donations from you now will help us move beyond that. If we are to compete and stay relevant we must move away from being tuition dependent. One downturn in applications can have a huge negative impact on what we do every day. More ongoing and consistent donations from you will ensure we can continue our mission.
What do you say alumni? Can you keep the momentum going?


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Moviegoing Etiquette 101
We went to go see Up In The Air last night. In an effort to interact with as few humans as possible, we chose the 9:30 PM show on a Tuesday evening several weeks after the movie opened. We arrived at the theater a solid 15 minutes early to procure decent seats, even though we figured there would be ample seats to choose from. We were incorrect. The place was fucking packed.
We picked seats front-middlish, one off the aisle (frequent urinators know the drill). I noticed a small family to our right, talking loudly – a guy, a girl and a little kid, probably six or seven years old. (Kids love dramedies about the plight of middle-aged men who haven't anchored themselves emotionally, and they especially adore the undertones of economic plight/downsizing.) Surely they would shut the fuck up when the movie started though, we were just in the bullshit ads, not even to the previews yet.
During the previews, they actually managed to get louder – perhaps encouraged by the hilarity of seeing The Lovely Bones trailer for the 8,000th time. (If I see one more ad for either that or Legion, I'm probably going homicidal. Enough is enough, I feel like I'm being subjected to "There's Something Wrong With Esther" all over again.) Once the movie started, they were in full-fledged conversation mode; I strongly suspect they thought they were going to see Up. Given that my hearing sucks ass (something I will attribute to my five years of military service, not my five years of listening to Ratt way too loud) I busted out the first "sssshhhhhhhhhh." This seemed to incite the female to speak louder. A woman who'd moved to the aisle seat to my right got even more direct with a "please be quiet." The family lady then said, and I'm not making this up, "Oh no you didn't tell us to be quiet, mind your own damn business." They continued chatting and then gave the little kid a video game to play, with the sound on.
Time to call in the artillery, something I've never done in my life. But we didn't pay the unfortunate price of $12.50 to listen to a family of morons chat. (Not you, kid, it isn't your fault. You've got a tough road to hoe in life, though. Persevere.) It was the first time in my life (I think) that I've ever gone to get an usher. Of course, the kid with the flashlight uses no discretion and asks me to point at them from like three inches away. Which I did. The fucking woman went apoplectic and walked out to talk to the usher, feigning as if to hit the woman next to me on her way out.
She came back in two minutes later, at which point they went back to talking as loudly as possibly and basically being fuckfaces. Now the guy in the row in front of me went to get the usher, who this time took the male outside for a chat. The guy in front of me added a nice touch though as the lady went into her "oh no you didn't call security on us again" tirade, he evoked the "don't be that guy" campaign they show at the beginning of the movie. This didn't go over well.
The lady to my right left about ten minutes later, probably (and maybe rightfully) afraid what this person might do as they were walking out. The guy in front of me got into another altercation with the family after the mother (using this term loosely) kept threatening to spank the kid if he didn't shut up – he started yelling "spank" after every time the mother said it. This got the father (again with the loosely) involved, who asked the guy to come over there and say that and then called the guy a "pussy" since he didn't want to get into a fistfight at Up In The Air.
These fuckheads eventually left about 15 minutes before the end of the movie. A terrible time was had by all. If those two asshole parents happen to read this, here's what I'd like them to take away from this: go kill yourselves. At least then your kid would have a fighting chance in life.
(Seemingly Unnecessary, But People Are Fucking Morons) Moviegoing Etiquette 101
1. Shut the fuck up. They even have a commercial at the beginning that reiterates this. Movies are supposed to provide a brief respite from the numbing grind of daily life; listening to your thoughts/comments instead reminds everyone of the omnipresence of morons. I think getting rid of the dancing popcorn intro has led to the demise of the theater experience.
2. Turn off your phone. They also tell you this about 20x. (Personal revelation: when I was watching It's Complicated with my parents, my dad's phone went off during and he had a short conversation. I was mortified, but at least it was about a co-worker who was extremely ill in the hospital. It wasn't "hey, I'm just here watching a movie, what's up with you?")
3. By turn off your phone, I mean it should be unseen and unheard. Maybe taking a discrete quick glance at your messages halfway through would be okay, but holding it so the screen is in front of you throughout is purely a dickhead move.
4. Take off your headphones during the movie. I didn't realize this was even in play until last night: the couple behind us, who were also "sssshhhhing" the family, were having their own conversation. They were attempting to follow social norms and trying to be somewhat quiet, but the fact that the guy kept his headphones on throughout I think bumped up the volume somewhat on insight comments such as "ooohh, he's a pimp. That's Biggie style right there." (Personally, I disagreed. Clooney supposedly modeled his character after DJ Quik and you could really see the West Coast influence in his portrayal.)
5. If you are gonna smuggle in food, make sure it's on the quiet side. The price of concessions is outrageous, so I am down with bringing in your own gear. I've even been known to roll with a contraband Fresca or two. But there is a reason that theaters don't sell huge fucking bags of chips, they make a ridiculous amount of noise in both the "getting out of the bag" and the "eating" phases.
6. Don't kick the seat of the person in front of you. It's annoying as shit.
7. Don't lean back a ridiculous amount and crush the knees of the person behind you. It's annoying as shit.
8. If you have a kid – pause, as this may come as somewhat of a shock to many – you are responsible for making sure that they abide by the things on this list, as well. Kids are the preeminent kickers of the backs of chairs. Make them stop by – another pause as this is shocking to the anti-"spare the rod" crowd – telling them "no."
9. Frequent urinators: position yourselves accordingly. No one likes standing up to let your fat ass back in.
10. Don't look disgusted when someone sits in an empty seat near you. It's a movie, by definition a communal event. If they are following the rules here, it shouldn't ruin your fucking day so ease off on the sourpuss looks.
Now, about the movie. Was it good? I think so. I'll have to rent it to confirm.
Chilly17, wasted potential on offer


text: Justin Hamiltonis Adelaide's best comic and has more than six years experience in Australia and over seas including performing at the 'Sit'n'Spin' in Seattle and the prestigious 'Gershwin Room' in New York. Justin has been involved in shows at the Adelaide Fringe Festival since 1994. A weekly guest on Triple J Drive, Justin has also appeared on The Glass House. His good natured, high energy ranting has made him a favourite in his home town and the rest of Australia is catching on fast.