text:
There's an ongoing battle between email marketing campaigns and ad campaigns. Sponsored ads on social media can be fantastic for brand awareness, sure. But are they as effective in targeting cart abandoners? More importantly, can they score the ROI of email marketing campaigns?
The above ROI is quite hard to come about and makes email marketing one of the most profitable mediums in today's eCommerce marketing efforts.
After all, one of the most significant flaws in any eCommerce business is not tracking and gently enticing cart abandoners. Cart abandoners are users who have expressed interest in the brand, have even gone so far as to proceed with a purchase but stopped before clicking the "Buy" button.
Of course, marketers can't bring in all abandoners. There will always be customers who fill their cart but second-guess themselves and end up with zero purchases. It happens to brick-and-mortar stores, and it's also bound to happen to eCommerce stores.
However, marketers invest a lot of time and resources to bring users to the brand's page – through ads or email – to let them go in a flash. This is where cart abandonment emails and email marketing automation enter the equation.
Cart Abandonment Emails: A Definition
Cart abandonment emails are a necessity, especially when it comes to eCommerce stores. Here's why, according to Baynard Institute:
Abandoned cart emails are emails that brands send to customers who have items in their cart waiting for them. Usually, these prospects have added something to their cart, gone through the checkout process, and then, for whatever reason, opted out before completing the purchase.
Brands that use email marketing never fail to use automated cart abandonment sequences. The reason behind that is that they enable marketers to create workflows that stem from a user's action – in this case, from the act of abandoning the cart. Ultimately, this allows users to understand the reason behind the email campaign. But on the other hand, marketers don't need to be on the verge of their seats for every user action.
Marketing automation that allows for abandoned cart emails is one of the most sought-after, especially in the eCommerce space:
According to the numbers above, 50% of users who clicked through an abandoned cart email sequence completed the purchase.
And since abandoned cart emails are reminders of the items that enticed the prospects in the first place, sending them as soon as possible only makes sense.
Cart Abandonment Email Tips
Of course, creating an automated abandoned cart email sequence is easier said than done. This means that customer retention is just as necessary as the perfect cart abandonment email. Additionally, according to Forbes, "consumers expect the checkout experience to be as simple and frictionless as possible".
Marketers need to implement the right techniques and invest in the right tools. Intuitive Drag-and-Drop email editors, automation that will support a brand's email marketing goals, good timing, and subject lines that make sense are amongst the essentials for any eCommerce brand.
However, none of the above is a solution in and of itself, seeing as marketers need to create a proper cart abandonment strategy to create email campaigns that will matter in the long run.
1. Pick Out the Right Tools and Templates
Before looking into the right tools, marketers should determine their goals and aspirations. SMART goals – specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound – will determine the success or failure of the brand's eCommerce marketing and its strategy as a whole.
Pinpointing the strategy will make a difference and shift the cart abandonment email campaigns in the right direction. Then come the tools that can assist brands in achieving those goals.
One of the best ways to bring interested users back onto your website, and more specifically, to your checkout, is to invest in an email marketing and marketing automation platform that features some of the following:
- Automation features that can help you create flows that stem from a specific user action
- An intuitive platform you could use without much – or any, for that matter – technical knowledge
- An email editor with minimal to no friction
- Advanced segmentation and personalization options
- Templates that can be tailor-made and match the recipients' expectations
- Subject line testers and tools that allow you to personalize beyond the person's first name
The above features can help retrieve those seemingly lost sales and save you some much-needed time and resources that can be invested in other marketing techniques and tactics.
Email, as mentioned above, provides a low-cost, low-risk, and high-reward option, provided marketers and brands use the right tools and methods. It's also a scalable and measurable way to retrieve what would have been a lost sale.
2. Study Your Data, Analytics and the Users' Behavior on Your Website
Of course, to create emails that are just what the user needs, you will need to analyze the users' behavior on your website and any social channels you maintain.
To gather that data, you need a tool to connect with those marketing outlets, organize it automatically, and create visuals that come in digestible forms, like charts and graphs. Such tools can help marketers create reports with real-time data and make informed decisions while having a holistic view of their customers and how they interact with the brand on all platforms.
Of course, never forget the users' behavior on your website. Implement heatmaps and segment between frequent buyers and one-timers, see what your audience says about you on social media platforms, and find the missing link between what your audience says online and how they act once they're using your website.
This will give you unique insights into what they love about your brand and what needs to be changed and optimized.
Some data may indicate that your prospect never went as far in the sales funnel as you would've liked. Proper performance management and data delivery tools will help you pick up where the user left off. This piece of information enables marketers to create tailor-made messages, especially when coupled with some behavioral targeting tools.
After all, those who opted out after entering their data were further down the funnel than those who just clicked the "Add to Cart" button and then forgot to take action.
If, for example, your data pinpoint an issue with your checkout process, you'll know that you need to optimize your checkout page. Combine that with a cart abandonment email that states you have a new and improved checkout page, and you'll more than likely have a winning cart abandonment email campaign.
3. Offer Discounts and Try to Cross-Sell
Why do customers abandon their shopping cart and never turn back?
As you can see, the issue lies with the shipping costs. More often than not, prospects end up seeing a significantly higher price than the one they'd started with. Which makes sense, seeing as there are not many customers who will think of the shipping cost right off the bat.
If the extra shipping cost is high enough for your prospect to opt out and harm your conversion rate and ROI efforts, your cart abandonment email could tackle that with some spot-on copy:
Make sure to issue a discount that either eliminates the shipping costs or, at least, can cut them in half. Of course, since a discount could harm your overall income, you should be careful when deciding the amount. It doesn't have to be high enough to break the bank, just high enough to encourage the user to proceed with a purchase.
You can't decide on the right amount without consulting your data first. Perhaps the reason people abandoned their cart isn't the cost but poor design on your eCommerce platform that leads to a poor customer experience altogether.
This is where a discount wouldn't save the day, so it would make sense to pair it with some cross-selling opportunity that could offer a more complete purchase to your prospect. Like so:
Purchasing two products at a slightly discounted price can give your eCommerce store some much-needed revenue. Cross-selling can increase your Average Order Value (AOV) while giving users some options for combining two products at a lower price.
If you're using chatbot technology, you could also include a link to your chatbot in your cart abandonment email and have users interact with your brand more naturally.
Using chatbot technology is a great way to gather more data as well. By having it ask users what they'd like to use their discount on, for example, or suggest cross-selling products, your user will experience a brand that cares enough to take their opinion into account. All the while, you'll be gathering some much-needed data that will work wonders for your personalization efforts.
Of course, cross-selling needs to be handled with caution, much like discounted prices. Cross-selling could be something that doesn't make sense for your store at the time, or it could result in overwhelming the customers and having them abandon your website and brand altogether.
4. Personalize Your Emails
It goes without saying that personalized emails are not optional anymore. And with good reason, as inboxes are swamped with emails – especially sales emails – and consumers are already wary of the email blasts of the past.
Personalized email copy is one of the things that can draw a user's attention, especially when it comes to abandoned cart emails. After all, cart abandonment emails stem from a user's action, and this fact alone calls for personalization.
Not sending cart abandonment emails is like leaving money on the table. Personalizing them only to the point where the email goes like "Hello [First Name]" won't do you any favors.
Your copy and content should be compelling, inviting, and portray the brand's values.
This email came to me after abandoning some "night essentials" in my cart
Let's see what the different components of email personalization are.
Your Subject Line
The first thing you'll need should be a subject line that attracts a user's attention. Of course, the subject line will need to go beyond a first name.
Like so:
This is a beautiful example of a subject line that will convert. It's catchy, it creates a mental image of a magical situation, and it reminds the user of their cart straight up.
Use different subject lines for different reasons. Don't shy away from using emojis – provided they fit your audience and brand's values – and see how you can boost your open rates and your chances of lowering your cart abandonment rate through your email campaigns.
Your Copy
Of course, a subject line can only help with your open rates, and that's about it. It would be best if you had more than that to get the CTR that will boost your revenue and sales.
Invest in different personalization types. For example, weather-based emails are a great way to cross-sell products complementary to the ones the user has left in their cart that make sense as far as their location is concerned.
Also, ensure you create small segments that take demographic and psychographic data into account. Even the most underused customer segments can make a difference. For example, segmenting according to the promotion used in the past is a brilliant way to understand whether the product's total price is what made the user abandon their cart in the first place.
After determining the data that will make a difference for each customer segment, find actionable verbs and power words that are just right. Make sure that the verbs you use create a sum of actions that can take users to the next step in a natural, seamless manner.
Your CTA Button
"Click here", "Read on", "See more" can make all the difference when used on your CTA button. A "Take me to my cart" CTA shows users exactly what their next action entails. It's a straightforward, actionable phrase that holds no secrets.
You can get as creative or as blunt as you want – and your brand's tone allows, of course.
Super Pro Tip: If you're still unsure what content your audience would love to see on your cart abandonment emails, or you just don't have enough data, try to create a survey and share it around on your social media platforms. This will give you unique insight into handling your content and show users you're a brand that cares about their opinion.
Not to mention the levels of engagement your brand can get by implementing something as simple as a survey that asks for their opinion on your content.
5. Use Social Proof and Encourage Email Sharing
A great deal of cart abandonment happens because of how wary users are nowadays due to email scams. We all know someone who never received their order, and there was no refund available.
This is where using social proof and encouraging email sharing and UGC can save the day.
A first-timer is far more likely to abandon their cart than a frequent buyer. And even though repeaters are more valuable, brands need lead generation options as well, seeing as the new leads are the ones that turn into repeaters.
Use ratings on your website, and take advantage of social proof on all of your platforms before creating your cart abandonment email campaign.
When showing customer reviews on the products the users have left in their cart, you gently lead them into re-thinking their decision. If someone with the same experiences found a specific product to be great, why shouldn't they enjoy it?
You can also use the ratings on your social media platforms as a hook and, of course, urge users to share your email on their profiles with a designated branded hashtag. That way, you'll reach their peers and turn your users into brand ambassadors. And a brand that interacts with its users is well-loved.
Your cart abandonment emails can also see a massive boost if you include your social media traffic in the decision-making process. Seeing what makes your audience tick regarding Facebook ads or whether an ad with an influencer performs better will allow you to create compelling content that resonates with their specific interests.
Social proof works like an a-typical ad in and of itself. It shows how users can use the product, whether the product is legitimate, and how the brand treats its customers.
The Takeaway
The above tips are essential for email marketing in general and in cart abandonment email campaigns more specifically.
However, these are not all. Remember to use a "From" address that goes beyond the classic "info@" or "[email protected]" to ensure credibility and add a personal touch.
Always optimize for mobile devices and use countdown timers to ensure you grasp the impulsive nature of the purchase.
Lastly, whatever you do, never forget to A/B test your email marketing campaigns every step of the way. That way, your content will always be optimized and ready to convert, and your customers will see just the right thing that will help them convert.


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subset: commoncrawl


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Update October 8, 2015: Android 5.1 ("Lollipop") OTAs
My old Galaxy Nexus died so I had to get a new phone. I would have loved to have replaced it with a new Nexus 5, but it's a work phone, and work is paying for it, and work has a contract with Verizon Wireless. So my options for a phone with a relatively stock version of Android were pretty limited—really just the Moto X. But I've had enough of the power-hungry AMOLED display of the Galaxy Nexus, and didn't want to deal with that again in a Moto X, so I picked the HTC One (M8), knowing people on xda-developers have already ported the stock Google Play Edition (GPE) build of Android to it.
When I got the phone, the first thing I did was install the so-called "DigitalHigh" GPE build from xda-developers, but what I found was anything other than a stock Android experience. There were so many tweaks, options, customizations, and glaring security issues (chmod 755 everything!) that it just put me off. Really, the whole xda-developers community puts me off. And since this is a blog, let me go on a little rant:
xda-developers, probably the largest Android modification community, is a place full of advertisements and would-be hackers who call themselves "developers" just because they can compile the Linux kernel and put it up on a slow, ad-ridden file host. No one uses their real names, no one hosts their own files, no one releases source code for their work, and no one documents what they do. And that's to say nothing about the users, who bring the community down in other ways, but for whom I feel, because I know I would hate to be stuck with the bloatware and skins the carriers and manufacturers collude to lock onto Android phones.
Clearly I don't think xda-developers is a very pleasant place. The problem is some people on there actually do really good, really interesting work. So it's an inescapable, conflicting, sometimes great, but usually frustrating source of information for Android.
That frustration led me to port the Google Play Edition build of Android to my new HTC One (M8) for Verizon myself, hopefully demonstrating the way I think Android modification should be done in the process. Some points:
- All of the modification is done in an automated way. I chose my favorite automation tool, Puppet, for the job, but shell scripts or Makefiles would work just the same. The point is to download, modify, and build everything required in a hands-off manner. Automation has the added benefit of doubling as a sort of documentation.
- All of the automation code is publicly available and version controlled.
- All of the code is committed with my real name, James Lee.
- Everything is hosted by me without ads, or is otherwise freely accessible—no file hosts.
- All modification is done with a light hand, only changing what absolutely must be changed. (Though I do make a concession to enable root access and the flashlight, but even that is done in a clean and transparent way that can be trivially disabled.)
I'm not going to pretend that this is novel, or innovative, or that it took some huge effort—it's just modifying some configuration files. If you want to give credit somewhere, look at CyanogenMod. They're doing Android right. They build from source and have a working version for the M8. Sadly, they'll always be playing catch-up to Google. Still, I have a lot of respect for that team of (real) developers, and I based a number of modifications to the GPE build on their code, so thank you!
Sorry this post was more ranty than usual, but as you can see, I have strong opinions on this subject. If you made it this far, here is the result of my automation:
SHA256: 6a907e0047ee20038d4ee2bcb29d980c83837fdd63ea4dd52e89f5695a5c7c14
I leave this file here as a convenience to those who know exactly what to do with it and who are capable of using and understanding my automation tools, but simply don't want to. If that is not you, then you probably shouldn't be modifying your phone.
I'm looking forward to seeing how well this works when Android 5.0 drops.
Android 5.0 ("Lollipop") has arrived and with a few small tweaks to my automation tools, I am pleased to provide a flashable image for the Verizon M8:
SHA256: c6cdb3b5dae7c2645ac9e6c7ebbc5720c9f035afde8fa4d7407247faf265b4a5
Compared to the 4.4.4 release, this build deviates even less from the official upstream image. In fact, the only modifications to what Google and HTC distribute are:
- Add the Verizon device ID to the Device Tree image for booting.
- Enable CDMA with two line changes in build.prop.
- Set an override flag on boot to allow screen casting to work—a feature that is more prominent in Android 5.0.
Compare that to the "DigitalHigh" release on XDA which disables important security mechanisms (SELinux, ADB security, file permissions), changes a whole lot of things that don't need to be—and shouldn't be—changed (like the I/O scheduler, data roaming, animation speeds, and various WiFi settings), and continues to deviate further as time passes, with inclusions like the HTC Sense camera. At this point, "DigitalHigh" can hardly be called the Google Play Edition, and many of the changes are downright harmful. I would strongly urge you not to use it.
With my automation tools, you can see exactly what modifications are required for Verizon support, and you can run it yourself so you know you're getting a build that is as close as possible to the way Google intended it to be.
Android 5.1 was released for the GPE M8 a couple of days ago, and I already have a build of it ready for Verizon M8 devices.
SHA256: dbd8b541b812f36282b1f7af08b97aaf85f816288084a2635edc02f520e2a2ed
Judging by the state of the Verizon M8 XDA forum, I believe I'm the first to have 5.1 on a Verizon M8. Another score for automation!
As some of you have noticed, some new OTAs have been pushed out for the Google Play Edition HTC M8. I've been on vacation so I haven't had a chance until yesterday to look into them, but now I've been able to tweak my automation code to get these updates working on the Verizon M8. The nice thing about these changes is that I can now use the publicly available incremental updates directly from Google rather than having to rely on the community to produce dumps of their updated devices. Anyway, here are the updates, to be applied in succession on top of the LMY47O.H4 build from above:
SHA256: cffdd511a0a06c5a9c8aad90803bd283f6be3a9e44fc5bd8df4d851a0a89a7c9
SHA256: cf03655ca37dd969777095261d6cf761c76d620be812daf191e8871ed3d548c3
SHA256: ed350a6c5cba9efa7d22ee10dfd04cf953e87820acc4d47999c4d0809f1fc905
SHA256: 30a8aec044a3ceda77c7f7a78b0679454acefa1ccaa2b56baa9c9038bfc341a8
Again, these files are provided as a convenience to those who know what they're doing.


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Introduction to the history of the Left: Changes in the meaning of class struggles
The Platypus Historians Group
Platypus Review 3 | March 2008
Why do we need a "history of the Left?"—
Platypus differs from other tendencies and organizations on the Left to the extent that we find it necessary and desirable to reexamine the history of the Left to help understand problems on the Left in the present. For focusing on the history of the Left and its problems, Platypus has been accused by a variety of Marxists of obscuring the "fundamental social divide" of the "class struggle" of the "proletariat" vs. the "bourgeoisie," in favor of emphasizing the ideological and political difference between the Right and the Left.[1]
A central insight of Platypus is that the existence of class society and its forms of oppression and exploitation do not necessarily generate, in response, an effective let alone emancipatory politics. The "materialist" conception of the history of the Left, offered by "orthodox" Marxists, claims that the Left emerges directly from struggles against oppression, whether of a "class" nature or otherwise. We consider this to be inadequate, and, moreover, a stumbling block for understanding what it would mean to struggle for social emancipation in the present.
The first fact that must be addressed by anyone trying to understand the history of the Left is that, although class society is thousands of years old, and, in this sense, one may indeed claim in the words of Marx and Engels's Communist Manifesto that "the history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle," such "struggles" either led nowhere or led to new social forms of oppression, that may, at best, have contained within them the seeds of further historical development. But it is only within the last couple of hundred years, since the late 18th Century (where our subsequent series on the history of the Left will begin)—and so in the history of capital—that the possibility of getting beyond all forms of social oppression has been put forward by mass social movements as a this-worldly possibility—and not as a utopian philosophical ideal or as the vision of a religiously promised Messianic future. The modern working class is not merely an object of society, like the slaves of the past were, but is an agent in the history of capital. This is where the "Left" and its history come in.
The history of capital may be seen as having a dual character: On the one hand, it opens up new possibilities for human degradation, for example, its stimulation of technical "progress" even threatens the very survival of the human species and its environment. But, on the other hand, it opens up a potential realm of human freedom that no previous stage of history could have offered. Thus socialism will either fulfill the promise of the best aspects of modern, (historically) "bourgeois" and "capitalist" culture, in socialism, or else the potential barbarism that always lurks under the surface of even the most successful phases of modern society threatens to render an emancipatory anticapitalist politics, or "Left," impossible.
The history of a single name can illustrate the problem of understanding the history of the Left: Spartacus, the Spartakusbund, and the Spartacist League (U.S.). While Spartacus led a massive slave revolt against the Roman Republic in the 1st century BCE, his revolt to free all slaves was historically doomed to failure. As such, Spartacus is a classically tragic historical figure. The fate of Spartacus's revolt revealed the (historical) truth of his society. While his struggle was heroic and admirable, it was incapable of being successful for reasons of social structure and historical development. (In a similar way, one may admire the Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis in WWII, although, as they themselves knew, their struggle was just as hopeless, but for other, more contingent reasons than for Spartacus: we can sympathize with their similar attempts to "do the right thing," no matter how "impractical" it proved to be.)
With the Spartakusbund of the radical internationalist Marxist German Social Democrats Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht during first World War 1914–19, however, the tragedy is of a completely different order. Here the tragedy is not that of a necessary failure but of an unnecessary one. The tragedy of Spartacus is that he and his fellow slaves could not alter the structure of the socialhistorical development of Roman society. The tragedy of the Spartakists, who were crushed during the failed German Revolution at the end of WWI 1918–19, is that if they had succeeded the pattern of modern history would have been radically different than what came to be. It is the unnecessary character of the resulting outcomes of Nazism and Stalinism that makes the German Spartakists' defeat in 1919 so tragic.
With the Trotskyist group the Spartacist League/U.S., founded in 1966 and named after the German Spartakists who were in turn named after the leader of the great slave revolt, we come to be in a late, tertiary phase in the history of the Left. Unlike its predecessor namesakes, the Spartacist League has encountered no great defeat through which the truth of its historical moment could be revealed, for the SL has never been in a position to influence history at all. Its politics are rather the virtual politics of a propaganda group —like all other sectarian "Marxist" groups of the late 20th Century—and hence one can judge such groups only by the content of their ideas, in the absence of their effective historical action. This is where Platypus's emphatically theoretical and ideological project of critique of the Left and development of critical historical consciousness of the Left might come into play.
For "orthodox Marxists," the meaning of a Leftist politics comes down to a belief in a deus absconditus—a "hidden god"—the "class struggle," which will, in the end, supposedly force the working class to take up its Historic Role. In the meantime all that such "Marxists" need to do is "hold the line" and repeat themselves like automata until someone, someday listens. This is called "historical"—or even "revolutionary"—"continuity." In this way, the "progressive politics" is understood in terms of struggles against oppression instead of in terms of social emancipation.
Platypus rejects the assumption that "resistance" is necessarily a good thing. Nor, alas, can we take comfort, as our "Marxist" predecessors could, in the "struggles" of "the working class." We do not believe that the problems of the Left over the last few decades, since the 1960s, can be understood as the result of "defeats" like that suffered by Luxemburg's Spartakusbund in 1919. Platypus's focus on questions of historical "regression" reveals a radically different problem and explanation from that of "defeat," although conditioned by it. We argue that the greatest problems the Left faces—including the prospect of its own extinction—arise from within the Left itself and are deeply rooted in its own history. Indeed, for us, the Right is a secondary phenomenon and its victories are the result of failures of the Left. Hence our focus is primarily on criticizing the existing "Left" and the history of its problematic selfunderstanding, rather than "fighting the Right." We do not share the false optimism that the "struggle continues," but face the stark reality that the struggles that defined the historical Left ended a while ago, in failure. We try to understand the meaning of this historical discontinuity for the present.
In our next and first proper installment of this series on the history of the Left, we will turn to the historical origins of the "Left" in the late 18th Century. |P
[1]. See, for example: Spartacus Youth Club (Chicago), "Platypus: Pseudo-'Marxist,' Pro-Imperialist, Academic Claptrap" (November 6, 2007).


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Celibrating our 47th year providing nutritious, healthy, snacks & baskets!!
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BitScope Blogs | How to connect test circuits and systems to BitScope. |
BitScopes as small as BS10 or as large as BS445 use an IDC-26 standard BitScope Smart Port for I/O. For BitScope Micro we've also created an IDC-10 based Diagnostic Port for I/O. Both connection standards are very similar and each supports a wide range of device and circuit connection choices. However, they are not identical. In addition to physical differences they are functionally different. The Diagnostic Port is effectively a subset of Smart Port which is aimed at Test & Measurement whereas the Smart Port is more general purpose. In all cases it's possible to connect the supplied mixed signal test clips to the analog and logic inputs. The differences appear in how to connect waveform and clock generator outputs, how to connect standard oscilloscope probes and whether BitScope can be used to power and control a circuit or device under test. BitScope Smart Port (IDC-26)Ever since the original design, BitScope has had a socket for connecting analog and digital signals. Originally a DB-25 connector and now IDC-26, this Smart Port interface also provides power, ground and control for a connected circuit and most models provide waveform and clock generators via the interface as well. Pictured here is BS10 with a pair of oscilloscope probe adapters, 8 logic channels and ground test clips and twisted pairs for power supply, voltage reference and the arbitrary waveform generator. Alternatively it's easy to connect a 26-way ribbon cable using off-the-shelf IDC connectors and of course it works with standard accessories such as LP103X. The Smart Port supports up to 4 analog channels, 8 logic channels, up to 3 power or voltage sources, a waveform and (switchable) clock generator. It is a smart interface in the sense that it provides dedicated serial I/O signals to control, program and monitor connected devices (on BitScope models that support this). The key card shown here identifies the default signal inputs and outputs. The analog inputs are electrically compatible with standard oscilloscope probes so simple twisted pair adapters can be used to connect them but normally connections are made using test clips & wires. BitScope Micro Diagnostic Port (IDC-10)The BitScope Micro Diagnostic Port is the IDC-10 based 10-pin alternative to the Smart Port. Whereas the Smart Port is designed for complete system I/O, the Diagnostic Port is intended for compact multi-function mixed signal test and measurement. It provides most of the functionality of the Smart Port but omits power and dedicated control lines. It provides shared access to BitScope's data acquistion and waveform generation capabilies instead of dedicated I/O for each signal. In addition to manual test & measurement it's suited to automated testing, passive signal monitoring and many similar data acquision purposes. It offers reassignable signal routing and a sensible pin layout to enable access to all of BitScope's analog and digital inputs, waveform and clock generators for a wide range of applications but it's not designed to power external circuits or control or program intelligent connected devices. BitScope HammerHead | Mixed Signal Oscilloscope InterfaceEvery BitScope is a Mixed Signal Oscilloscope whether it uses the Smart Port or Diagnostic Port to connect. From the very first model the Smart Port has always been accompanied by one or more BNC sockets to connect standard oscilloscope probes. However, new models including BS10 and BitScope Micro do not have BNC sockets but they are both electrically compatible with standard oscilloscope probes. We have defined a standard mixed signal oscilloscope interface for use with Smart Port and Diagnostic Port models to make it easy to use standard oscilloscope probes. We call this BitScope HammerHead. Instead of connecting oscilloscope probes direcly using a simple twisted pair adapter (as shown above) it offers a much more flexible alternative (shown here). The HammerHead plugs into the Smart Port or Diagnostic Port to provide a common standard for connections when used as a Mixed Signal Oscilloscope. There are version of HammerHead designed for BitScope Micro (MP01A) and BS10 (SP01A). In this case, HammerHead is connected with BitScope Micro, a pair of standard probes and 10 mixed signal test clips. With either model, the connections are similar; a pair of BNC sockets for the connection of oscilloscope probes and a 16-pin header mounted in between for connection to the logic, clock and waveform outputs. The HammerHead adapter provides all the benefits of larger model BitScopes but the convenience of a small mixed signal test instrument when not using scope probes. It's also possible to use HammerHead as a mounting device where all the connections are made and the BitScope simply plugged in as and when needed. In educational settings for example a single test system can be configured and the student's BitScope connected without needing to reconnect the probes and wires to the test circuit for each use. BitScope Port AdaptersBitScope HammerHead is just the first of a range of new port adapters designed for BitScope Micro, BS10 and other models due for release in 2015. All of them extend the range of features offered by these tiny BitScopes. Stay tuned! Related Posts |
Copyright © 2023 BitScope Designs


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Wedding Invite 5
Gorgeous invite template for laser cutting. Buy this invitations template, design, pattern. This beautiful cut pattern wedding card, is perfect for laser cutting. Download VECTOR file PDF, AI, EPS, SVG, CDR x4. You can scale and add or remove elements to personalize the design. Change this wedding invite in to wall art for interior design decor,kids decor, gifts, valentine card, mothers day card, coasters, wall stencils or add to your range of products. Cut out of wood, hardboard, Perspex acrylic. Our templates are all tested. Free designs every day. Wedding Invite 5.


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Sail technology has come a long way since the days tall ships were carried along by billowing clouds of canvas. In fact, new aerodynamic discoveries coupled with exotic materials have turned modern sails into veritable works of high tech art. Today, sailmakers know that the less a sail distorts (through stretching, shear, compression or shrinkage), the more force or drive remains available to power the boat - especially helpful when you're in a close race for that final buoy. Now, the innovative designers at North Sails have woven an interesting array of tricks into their unique new 3Di line of "canvas" - laminated, heat-molded sails that hold their shape so well, they come close to performing like rigid airfoils.
If you've ever tooled around in a wind-powered boat, you know that sailing is about change: constantly shifting wind speed and direction, variable currents and waves ranging from ripples to breakers - all conditions that can affect sail shape and negatively impact its performance. Key to the North sails' ability to resist both stretch and compression is their construction from various lengths and multiple layers of "spread filament tape" (SFT) oriented along several axes. SFT starts out as a single length of thread that has had its component fibers spread out and laid parallel to one another, then sprayed with thermoset adhesive for an overall thickness of about 35 microns.
Depending on the particular sail design, the SFT can be made of various combinations of Aramid (aromatic polyamide), carbon fiber or Dyneema (ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene or UHMWPE). Aramid is strong and resistant to both tension and compression, but is easily damaged by UV rays (none is exposed in completed sails). Carbon fibers are also resistant to tension and compression, but are stiff and fragile. Dyneema is resistant to tension but not compression, yet it's durable and resilient. North makes 20 different Aramid/Carbon/Dyneema SFT blends at its Nevada facility, each with a different set of properties, which provides great flexibility in customizing the final product. Special software guides the precise placement of each SFT strip, adding an extra dimension of quality control to the whole process.
Once the SFT strips are assembled, they are sandwiched between layers of non-woven polyester, then placed on heated 3D molds for consolidation (the bonding of materials with like properties). The end result is an almost isotropic sail (resistant to omnidirectional forces) that holds its shape well over a broad range of wind speeds, stretches less and maintains its designed structure for a longer period of time. Ultimately, it may seem like a lot of trouble to go through for a sail, but history shows the pursuit of optimal performance seldom occurs on the path of least resistance.
Source: North Sails
Check out the video below to see some of the sails in action:


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A Japanese company has offered me a gig helping translate an Android1 business application + documentation into English. Their staff will do a rough translation, and I will polish it into something reasonably professional.
This is my first writing job. My "qualifications" are availability, cheapness, and a fair technical background. (I also happen to think I can write good prose, but the client didn't bother to check that.) But still, I want this contract to be a success, and I hope it will lead to more work.
What work habits and routines do I need to establish in preparation for this new job?
1. Android OS is the operating system that drives most non-Apple smartphones and tablets.


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As Attorney General William Barr releases Robert Mueller's long-anticipated report into Russian interference in the 2016 election, we speak with world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author Noam Chomsky about what he sees as the political perils of "Russiagate."
Amy Goodman: Can you share your analysis of President Trump? You have lived through so many presidents. Explain President Trump to us and assess the massive response to him.
Noam Chomsky: Well, Trump is—you know, I think there are a number of illusions about Trump. If you take a look at the Trump phenomenon, it's not very surprising. Think back for the last 10 or 15 years over Republican Party primaries, and remember what happened during the primaries. Each primary, when some candidate rose from the base, they were so outlandish that the Republican establishment tried to crush them and succeeded in doing it—Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum. Anyone who was coming out of the base was totally unacceptable to the establishment. The change in 2016 is they couldn't crush him.
But the interesting question is: Why was this happening? Why, in election after election, was the voting base producing a candidate utterly intolerable to the establishment? And the answer to that is—if you think about that, the answer is not very hard to discover. During the—since the 1970s, during this neoliberal period, both of the political parties have shifted to the right. The Democrats, by the 1970s, had pretty much abandoned the working class. I mean, the last gasp of more or less progressive Democratic Party legislative proposals was the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act in 1978, which Carter watered down so that it had no teeth, just became voluntary. But the Democrats had pretty much abandoned the working class. They became pretty much what used to be called moderate Republicans. Meanwhile, the Republicans shifted so far to the right that they went completely off the spectrum. Two of the leading political analysts of the American Enterprise Institute, Thomas Mann, Norman Ornstein, about five or 10 years ago, described the Republican Party as what they called a "radical insurgency" that has abandoned parliamentary politics.
Well, why did that happen? It happened because the Republicans face a difficult problem. They have a primary constituency, a real constituency: extreme wealth and corporate power. That's who they have to serve. That's their constituency. You can't get votes that way, so you have to do something else to get votes. What do you do to get votes? This was begun by Richard Nixon with the Southern strategy: try to pick up racists in the South. The mid-1970s, Paul Weyrich, one of the Republican strategists, hit on a brilliant idea. Northern Catholics voted Democratic, tended to vote Democratic, a lot of them working-class. The Republicans could pick up that vote by pretending—crucially, "pretending"—to be opposed to abortion. By the same pretense, they could pick up the evangelical vote. Those are big votes—evangelicals, northern Catholics. Notice the word "pretense." It's crucial. You go back to the 1960s, every leading Republican figure was strongly, what we call now, pro-choice. The Republican Party position was—that's Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, all the leadership—their position was: Abortion is not the government's business; it's private business—government has nothing to say about it. They turned almost on a dime in order to try to pick up a voting base on what are called cultural issues. Same with gun rights. Gun rights become a matter of holy writ because you can pick up part of the population that way. In fact, what they've done is put together a coalition of voters based on issues that are basically, you know, tolerable to the establishment, but they don't like it. OK? And they've got to hold that, those two constituencies, together. The real constituency of wealth and corporate power, they're taken care of by the actual legislation.
So, if you look at the legislation under Trump, it's just lavish gifts to the wealth and the corporate sector—the tax bill, the deregulation, you know, every case in point. That's kind of the job of Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, those guys. They serve the real constituency. Meanwhile, Trump has to maintain the voting constituency, with one outrageous position after another that appeals to some sector of the voting base. And he's doing it very skillfully. As just as a political manipulation, it's skillful. Work for the rich and the powerful, shaft everybody else, but get their votes—that's not an easy trick. And he's carrying it off.
And, I should say, the Democrats are helping him. They are. Take the focus on Russiagate. What's that all about? I mean, it was pretty obvious at the beginning that you're not going to find anything very serious about Russian interference in elections. I mean, for one thing, it's undetectable. I mean, in the 2016 election, the Senate and the House went the same way as the executive, but nobody claims there was Russian interference there. In fact, you know, Russian interference in the election, if it existed, was very slight, much less, say, than interference by, say, Israel. Israel, the prime minister, Netanyahu, goes to Congress and talks to a joint session of Congress, without even informing the White House, to attack Obama's policies. I mean, that's dramatic interference with elections. Whatever the Russians tried, it's not going to be anything like that. And, in fact, there's no interference in elections that begins to compare with campaign funding. Remember that campaign funding alone gives you a very high prediction of electoral outcome. It's, again, Tom Ferguson's major work which has shown this very persuasively. That's massive interference in elections. Anything the Russians might have done is going to be, you know, peanuts in comparison. As far as Trump collusion with the Russians, that was never going to amount to anything more than minor corruption, maybe building a Trump hotel in Red Square or something like that, but nothing of any significance.
The Democrats invested everything in this issue. Well, turned out there was nothing much there. They gave Trump a huge gift. In fact, they may have handed him the next election. That's just a—that's a matter of being so unwilling to deal with fundamental issues, that they're looking for something on the side that will somehow give political success. The real issues are different things. They're things like climate change, like global warming, like the Nuclear Posture Review, deregulation. These are real issues. But the Democrats aren't going after those. They're looking for something else—the Democratic establishment. I'm not talking about the young cohort that's coming in, which is quite different. Just all of that has to be shifted significantly, if there's going to be a legitimate political opposition to the right-wing drift that's taking place. And it can happen, can definitely happen, but it's going to take work.
Amy Goodman: The world-renowned linguist and political dissident Noam Chomsky, speaking at the Old South Church in Boston last Thursday night. Go to democracynow.org to see more of the interview and to see his speech. You can go to democracynow.org for our video and audio podcasts, as well as transcripts of all of our shows.
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Your link to Freight Transportation throughout North America
Need truck transportation in Western Oregon? Look no further than TP Freight Lines. We blanket western Oregon from the Cascades to the coast and throw in a little bit of southwest Washington as well.
Our companies started in the 1920's and we're proud of our roots in the small communities of western Oregon. We treat our customers like our neighbors who we value as friends.


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Now let's talk about the 2012 vote. As you may know, there have been efforts in Florida to purge the voter rolls. This was done by the GOP. And Barack and his Justice Department were going to save the day! But Barack being Barack, a funny thing happened on the way to justice . . . Ed Hightower (WSWS) reports:
The decision to collaborate with Florida's voter purge is the latest evidence that the 2012 presidential election will be the most antidemocratic such election at least since the US Supreme Court helped George W. Bush steal the presidency by halting a state-required vote recount in the 2000 presidential election.
It is worth noting that in that election, Florida election officials, under the direction of Governor Jeb Bush, brother of then-candidate George W. Bush, targeted 12,000 supposed felons for removal from the voter rolls in a blatant attempt to keep African Americans away from the polls. Another 48,000 were targeted in 2004, again including huge numbers of eligible voters.
The Obama administration's backing down has profound political significance. First and foremost, it demonstrates once again that there exists no constituency within the ruling class that supports even the most fundamental of democratic rights. Democrats fear that any substantial protest or fight on the issue of democratic rights could touch off a broader social movement that could easily escape their control.
And then we've got the Syrian War and the US government taking sides and going with the 'rebels.' Chris Marsden (WSWS) explains:
The terrorist assassination in Damascus of three leading figures in the Syrian government took place in the government's National Security building, targeting a meeting of the cabinet at which Syrian President Bashar Assad himself was supposed to be present. It killed Assef Shawkat, the deputy head of the armed forces and Assad's brother-in-law, Defence Minister Dawoud Rahja and Chief of Crisis Operations Hassan Turkmani. Interior Minister Mohammad Shaar, head of intelligence Hisham Bekhtyar and other top officials were wounded.
The Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Liwa al-Islam (Brigade of Islam) both claimed responsibility, with the FSA stating that powerful bombs had been planted utilizing drivers and bodyguards working for Assad's inner circle.
The bombing of such a strategic centre of the Baathist regime could not have been carried out without high-level intelligence, contacts and trained operatives. It is hard to believe that it would have taken place without the knowledge and possibly the active connivance of the United States, Britain and other European imperialist powers that are directing the insurgency. Syria today is awash with advanced weaponry and military trainers and intelligence agents—funded to the tune of hundreds of millions by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.
At World Can't Wait, Tom Junod explains how Barack 'betters' Bush -- openly killing Americans:
It was a pre-emptive strike against a pre-emptive strike.
When Nasser al-Awlaki found out in early 2010 that his American-born son Anwar was on American kill list, he responded in a very American way: He sued. "I used every legal means possible to stop the killing of my son," he said in an interview this past spring. Snd so — despite the notoriety of Anwar al-Awlaki and the success of Anwar al-Awlaki in inspiring terrorist attacks against the United States — he contacted the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights, and they eventually filed a suit that attempted to enjoin the Obama Administration from carrying out its plans to kill him before he could carry out his alleged plans to kill Americans.
Nasser al-Awlaki did not win. Legal pre-emption was no match for the policy of lethal pre-emption. A federal judge ruled in December 2010 that despite the "profound questions" raised by the lawsuit, the father lacked the legal standing to sue on behalf of his son, and that the policy of targeted killing was a political issue outside the purview of the court. The hunt for Anwar al-Awlaki proceeded apace, and he was executed, by drone, on September 30, 2011, in the mountains of Yemen.
So was Samir Khan, an American citizen who'd left Charlotte, North Carolina, to travel by Anwar al-Awlaki's side as an Al Qaeda propagandist and web editor.
And Guantanamo remains open. Andy Worthington (WCW) notes:
Ten and a half years into the Guantánamo experiment, as it becomes ever harder for those who are still appalled by the prison's existence, and by the failures of all three branches of the US government — under Barack Obama — to close it, my friends and colleagues Jeffrey Kaye and Jason Leopold are to be commended for not giving up, and for digging away at the secrets that still shroud Guantánamo, and that, moreover, are still capable of providing a shock when uncovered, even if they are generally ignored by the mainstream media.
On Wednesday, the mainstream media decided to pay attention for a change, and Jeff and Jason's report on a drugging scandal at Guantánamo, published on Truthout, where Jason is the lead investigative reporter and Jeff, a full-time psychologist, is also a regular contributor, was picked up by mainstream media outlets including the Associated Press, AFP and Britain's Daily Mail.
Their article was based on the release of a Pentagon report, "Investigation of Allegations of the Use of Mind-Altering Drugs to Facilitate Interrogations of Detainees" that they requested through Freedom of Information legislation two years ago, and it paints a depressing story of prisoners at Guantánamo being given given powerful anti-psychotic medication and then, on occasions, interrogated, even though they were in no fit state to answer questions competently.
And yet the 'leaders' of the left like Tom Hayden still insist that Barack must get your vote. Barack doesn't deserve your vote. He's a Republican in Democrat clothing. Barack out of office means the Democrats have to regroup and go back to core beliefs. Barack with a second term means the Democratic Party becomes more like the Republican Party -- and there's already nearly no difference between the two.
Mitt Romney? If you're for him, good for you. He's a Republican. Doesn't hide it like Barack. Doesn't pretend to be the friend to the little guy like Barack does.
If I vote, I'll vote Jill Stein most likely. But more and more, I'm of the opinion that I just won't vote for president.
Regardless, I will not vote for Barack. He has not earned my vote, he does not deserve it.
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
July 20, 2012 (and, yes, today is the 20th, not yesterday). Chaos and
violence continue, a document -- a secret document -- Nouri wrote in
2009 just emerged, Ramadan starts Saturday Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani declares, Iraqis struggle with obtaining basic food stuffs,
we continue covering the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy Martin
Kobler's report on Iraq, we wonder when he'll stop being so squirmy when
it comes to LGBT issues, US Green Party presidential candidate Jill
Stein's running a questionable and ineffective campiagn, and much more.
morning there were many interesting articles about Martin Kobler's
presentation on Iraq to the United Nation's Security Council yesterday.
Kobler is the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Iraq. And the
few articles this morning about the presentation were nothing like what
Kobler delivered yesterday. (This afternoon, UPI produced a report that
demonstrated their correspondent saw the actual presentation.) But the
reports this morning were a lot like the press conference Kobler held
after -- about an hour after -- the Security Council presentation. You
have to wonder how editorial boards ever pretend to have an ethical
stature to call others out from when their reporters lie? A press
briefing is not the report Kobler presented to the UN Security Council.
Kobler's report was interesting for what it
said. It was even more interesting for what it didn't say but you
probably needed to hear the report to know that and you probably needed
to have heard the April report to be able to offer context in July.
April 10th was when he made his previous presentation and we covered that in the April 10th snapshot and the April 11th snapshot. His Thursday report we covered yesterday
and we'll continue that coverage now. When we left off yesterday, he
was talking about 12 acts of violence a day and over 1,300
Special Envoy Martin Kobler: Each victim is one victim too many. The
Iraqi authorities must continue to make every effort to identify the
perpetrators of these acts of violence and bring them to justice. These
attacks are intended to ignite further violence. Despite the
sufferings, Iraqis from all walks of life and religious backgrounds must
turn their backs on past divisions and unite for a peaceful future.
Mr. President, human rights are a cornerstone of Iraq's democratic
future and are at the core of United Nations mandate in Iraq. To this
end, UNAMI [United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq] continues to
support activities of the Ministry of Human Rights in ensuring that Iraq
meets its international humanitarian rights obligations. As I informed
the Council members last April, the Council of Representatives endorsed
the appointment of the Commissioners of Iraq's first Independent High
Commission for Human Rights. And I am pleased to further report the
commissioners have now met and started their work. UNAMI and UNDP
[United Nations Development Programme] are supporting the Commission in
this process. The findings of the 2011 United Nations report on the
Human Rights Situation in Iraq published in May underlined the fragility
of human rights situation in Iraq. The report's conclusions largely
coincided with the Ministry of Human Rights own findings. While it is
recognized that the government of Iraq has made progress in implementing
measures to protect and promote human rights, the impact on the overall
human rights situation remains limited. The UN is assisting the Iraqi
authorities in strengthening the rule of law and boosting protections
for human rights in Iraq to bring an end to abuses like arbitrary
arrests and detentions. The economic, culture and social rights of
Iraqis are also a matter of real concern. Poverty, high unemployment,
economic stagnation, environmental degradation and a lack of basic
services continue to effect large sections of the population. It is
vital that Iraqis -- in particular, vulnerable groups -- be provided
with better access to basic services, social welfare and community
development programs and opportunities for education. Nothing less is
required in order to provide for the success of future generations. The
rights of all Iraqis -- including minorities -- must be protected as
stipulated in the Iraqi Contrib -- Iraqi Constitution. Mr. President,
Iraq retains the death penalty for a large number of crimes. I
therefore reiterate the call by the Secretary-General [Ban Ki-moon] and
the High Commissioner of Human Rights for the government of Iraq to
establish a moratorium on all executions with a view to their
abolition. I welcome that the authorities of the Kurdistan Region
continue to implement a moratorium on carrying out executions which has
been in place since 2007.
not the end of his report. We'll continue noting from there in order
but we're breaking parts up. It was interesting how in both the written
report (July 11th) and the oral report Kobler gave yesterday, the
Russian bikers were ignored. 5 men threatened with the death penalty, 5
men arrested and beaten. An international incident and not a word on
it. But Kobler wasn't very interested in words. There was time to
whine about his budget taking a 20% cut next year but not time to note,
as the written report did:
and media professionals in Iraq continue to face arbitrary arrest and
detention and to suffer from intimidation and attacks as a result of
their profession. During the reporting period, UNESCO and UNOPS [United
Nations Office for Project Services] trained 240 media professionals in
Basra, Erbil and Baghdad on security, self-protection, risk management
and trauma first aid to enable them to cope with existing professional
threats and risks.
issue so bothered Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that he raised it twice
in the written report (the first time is quoted above). When Kobler
states he's repeating the Secretary-General's point about stopping death
penalty, he's referring to the written report (it's the 72nd paragraph
in the written report).
Iraq being discussed
before the UN. That means what topic gets touched on that the US media
usually ignores? Chapter VII. Iraq was placed in that status by the
UN as a result of Iraq's war on Kuwait.
Envoy Martin Kobler: Let me now turn to some of the regional and
international developments pertaining to Iraq. As you know, Prime
Minister Maliki's visit to Kuwait in March was followed by the historic
visit of the Emir of Kuwait [Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah] to
Baghdad to attend the Arab League Summit. These two visits have
markedly improved bi-later relations between Kuwait and Iraq and
facilitated the resumption of the meetings of the Joint Ministerial
Committee. Iraq has also taken decisive steps to finalize the
Iraqi-Kuwait border maintenance project in accordance with Resolution
833. At the request of both parties, the United Nations is preparing
now for maintenance work to start by 31st of October provided that key
prerequisites -- like the removal of obstacles on the borders -- are met
bringing all Chapter VII obligations pertaining to Kuwait to a
satisfactory close will boost prospects for bilateral trade,
investment, promote regional cooperation and lead to the restoration of
Iraq's rightful standing within the international community. In this
regard, I would also like to take the opportunity to welcome the
adoption of on 28th of June by the Council of Representatives of a law
ratifying the additional protocol to the Comprehensive Safeguards
Agreement of the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] and encourage
the government of Iraq to take the remaining steps to ensure its entry
into force as soon as possible. Mr. President, the intensity and
frequency of sand and dust storms mainly generated from inside Iraq has
increased in recent years. They have significant impact on public
health in Iraq and in the wider region -- especially for the most
vulnerable -- and they effect transport and trade. During my visit to
Kuwait in June and following an offer by the Emir of Kuwait to invest a
portion of Iraq's outstanding war compensation funds back into Iraq, I
proposed an environmental fund to combat sand and dust storms. If Iraq
and Kuwait agree, the fund could be used to undertake activities to
reduce this health hazard which is impeding daily life in the region.
Such activities might include improving water resource management, anti
desertification, re-forestification and agricultural projects. Mr.
President, needless to say that the ongoing violence in Syria is a
source of deep concern given the potential for the spread of instability
and violence, humanitarian fall out and political repercussions. The
UN system in Iraq is putting in place contingency plans for possible
humanitarian emergency. In this connection, I recently visited a
refugee camp in the Kurdistan Region for those displaced by the conflict
in Syria. So far, with 7,000 refugees, their number are manageable.
On 10th of July, the United Nations and League of Arab States
Joint-Special Envoy for Syria, Mr. Kofi Anan, visited Iraq and met with
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The government of Iraq was very clear
on the policy of a political transition that is Syrian-led and
Syrian-owned and ensures that the legitimate and democratic aspirations
of the Syrian people are fully realized.
there's a refugee camp in the KRG. And the KRG has a moratorium on the
death penalty. Wonder how much bleaker the state of Iraq would be
reported to the Security Council as being if the Special Envoy didn't
keep including the semi-autonomous KRG region?
As he continues, he'll note some basic numbers.
Envoy Martin Kobler: Mr. President, the United Nations in Iraq also
continues to support the development of effective, accountable and
transparent state institutions. My new deputy and resident humanitarian
coordinator for Iraq, Ms. Jacqueline Babcock, took up her duties on
13th of May. She has already shown her determination and leadership in
coordinating the UN country team to deliver as one. I have asked her to
ensure that the country team strengthens its presence and activities
across the country. This is taking shape in Basra. There, the UN funds
and programs can assist in bringing the quality of life in this oil rich
province to those levels found in other oil rich countries in the
region. Mr. President, let me briefly highlight two of the priority
areas with important political, security and development implications
where the UN system in Iraq is working together. Iraq is one of the
most youthful countries in the world with 50% of the population under
the age of 18. At the same time, the unemployment rate for youth is
more than double the domestic average with 23%. The UN system is
supporting programs aimed at increasing youth participation in social,
political and economic spheres. Building on the International Year of
Youth 2011, the UN is supporting civil-society groups to strengthen
their role in ensuring democratic spaces and freedom. The third UNDP
National Development Report focuses on youth and will be published later
this year. As with youth, women are important actors in Iraq's
development. Yet the illiteracy rate among Iraqi women is more than
double that of Iraqi men. In my meetings with the Iraqi governmental
interloculators, as well as women's civil-society organizations, I
advocate for the adoption and implementation of the proposed National
Strategy on the Advancement of Women. The UN family is working to
support women take up their role also in political and economic life.
The UN is also continuing to implement Security Council Resolution 1322
and to encourage the government to fulfill its committment in this
Now we're
getting to Camp Ashraf. Camp Ashraf were approximately 3,500 residents
who were Iranian dissidents. They came to Iraq in the 80s and had
protection up to the Iraq War. When the US-launched war toppled the
government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the US government --
largely via US military officers -- began a dialogue with the residents
which resulted in their surrendering their arms and becoming protected
persons under the Geneva Agreement and international law. Though never
legally revoked, that protection would be ignored once Barack Obama was
sworn in as US president. Nouri would twice attack the camp resulting
in multiple deaths and a large number of wounded. Humanitarian
organizations -- Amnesty, for example -- would decry the attacks but the
US government would remain silent. When you read over Kobler's remarks
in a second, focus on what's really harming Camp Ashraf right now.
Special Envoy Martin Kobler: Finally, Mr. President, I still remain
very concerned by the lack of progress in resolving the issue of Camp
Ashraf. 2,000 residents of Camp Ashraf have relocated to Camp Hurriyah
[Liberty] in the last months. Approximately 1,200 remain in Camp
Ashraf. The several deadlines set by the government of Iraq have been
extended. I thank the government of Iraq for their flexibility in this
regard and I appeal to the Iraqi authorities to continue the process to
resolve the relocation peacefully. Our committment is strictly
humanitarian, to facilitate a voluntary, temporary relocation of
residents to Camp Hurriyah as the first step of resettlement to
countries outside of Iraq; however, the success of a facilitator depends
at least on good will. Their can be no facilitation without
constructive and practical dialogue. We are faced with three main
challenges. First, recent weeks have witnessed difficulties in
maintaining dialogue between UNAMI and the residents and between the
residents and the government of Iraq reinforcing a perception that the
residents lack genuine will to participate in the process faciliated by
UNAMI. Second, responsiblity also falls on the many international
supporters. It is of great importance that they contribute to
positively influence the residents' position. And third, to date
almost no memeber-state has stepped forward to offer resettlement to
eligible, former Ashraf residents. There must be a way out of Hurriyah
in the foreseeable future. Without prospect for resettlement, the
ongoing process runs the risk of collapsing. The tempoary transit
location at Camp Hurriyah has the capacity to accomodate the remaining
1,200 residents and meets acceptable humanitarian standards. Both UNAMI
and UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] have
devoted substantial energy and resources to resolving this issue. More
than 100 staff are dedicated to the project in the meantime. I appeal
to the government of Iraq to be generous -- particularly in terms of
humanitarian needs like water and electricity and to avoid violence
under any circumstances. I also appeal to camp residents to abide by
Iraqi laws and avoid provocation and violence. Time is running out to
find a sustainable solution. The government's patience is wearing thin.
I would therefore like to echo the Secretary-General and urge Camp
Ashraf residents to cooperate with the Iraqi authorities and to relocate
from Camp Ashraf to Camp Hurriyah. It is also imperative that third
countries step forward to accept eligible residents for resettlement as
soon as possible without which there can be no durable solution.
The residents have stopped moving to Camp Liberty. They want to take items such as generators. Why?
Nouri doesn't want them to take items such as generators. Why?
Because both sides don't believe that the Camp Ashraf residents will soon leave Camp Liberty. Why don't they believe it?
no one's left so far and that's because other countries aren't willing
to take them in. In Nouri al-Maliki's view, Camp Liberty is just a
place to store Camp Ashraf residents for another lengthy period. In his
view, he's being conned and then in a year or two, he'll be told
they'll be moved somewhere else in Iraq. It's a view Camp Ashraf
residents can share. Because both they and Nouri have seen 1200 moved
and not resettled anywhere. They're just remaining in Camp Liberty, the
same way they remained in Camp Ashraf. If Nouri (or the government in
Tehran) is to believe that the residents are being resettled, they're
going to have to see some resettled. It's not that complicated.
are so many nations so reluctant to take them? Because the US
government refuses to do their job. Camp Ashraf residents are part of
the MEK. The MEK is considered a terrorist group by the US government
-- the Clinton administration put them on that list in the late 90s in
an effort to make an overture to the government of Iran. Though ordered
by a federal court to resolve the MEK status quickly, the State Dept
refused and now has until October to do so or the court will impose a
punishment. (Whether Barack Obama is re-elected president or not,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has already stated she will not serve
a second term in her post. An October deadline from the court is a
joke because the administration will treat it as such -- either because
they will quickly become a lameduck one or because they will be looking
for a new Secretary of State.) Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and
those under them have repeatedly and falsely equated MEK and Camp
Ashraf residents as one grouping.
The US
government does not recognize the MEK as protected persons. The US
government does recognize Camp Ashraf residents as protected persons.
This issue should have been resolved a long time ago, the US government
made promises and needs to keep them. The easiest way is to create an
excpetion for the Camp Ashraf residents. That's 3,200 people
currently. They are all in Iraq. Those in Iraq transferring out would
not be considered "terrorists." This is due to where they were located,
due to the stationary aspect of their location and due to the fact that
the US government already gave them protected persons status. That
status expires only when they are out of Iraq so it is in the US
government's best interests to get them out of Iraq quickly. The State
Dept could easily create a subgrouping of those residents in Iraq to
allow other countries to take them in.
refusal to do so means the Barack Obama administration will likely have
blood on their hands because one side will likely explode in a very
short time. This has been going on too long and neither Nouri nor the
residents are seeing any progress. If the US government can not
seriously assist the Camp Ashraf residents by creating a
subgrouping/classification for them and violence takes place, those
deaths -- Iraqis or Ashraf residents -- will be the responsibility of
the US White House.
There was a lot mentioned
in the report. A lot overlooked as well. As he winds down, Kobler
makes the decision that UNAMI itself -- and its budget -- is more
important than any Iraqi topic that he could include in the final
Special Envoy
Martin Kolber: Mr. President, in my introduction, I posed the question
of whether the people of Iraq still need UNAMI? I am convinced that
UNAMI is needed more than ever to help Iraq complete its transition to a
stable and prosperous democracy. UNAMI has the legitimacy and the
standing to represent the international community in Iraq. Iraqis from
all communities look to UNAMI to protect their aspirations and to ensure
their needs are met. With Security Council support, UNAMI will
continue its efforts to address the many outstanding issues crucial to
securing Iraq's future. The substantial cut of 20% of UNAMI's budget in
2013 requires that we do more with less. In this context, the mission
may need to reconsider some areas of operation. Mr. President, I
should like to sincerely thank the members of the council for their
continued support, the government of Iraq and the wider membership of
the United Nations as well as the staff of UNAMI for their unrelenting
commitment and dedication to implement our mandate. Thank you very
And that was
it. Last April, in his presentation to the UN Security-Council, he
refused to note the targeting of Iraq's LGBT community. In the written
report (written in March), there was a passing reference ("perception of
their sexual orientation") with the promise that the UN was in the
process of corroborating the reported deaths and would address it when
they had. It's months later, presumably the UN has been able to
corroborate those reports in some fashion by now. So why can't Martin
Kobler talk about it? It's not even in the written report (which was
published July 11th). There is no mention made of it. If Martin Kobler
wishes to represent Iraqis, he needs to represent all Iraqis. He needs
to find it in his comfort zone to use the terms "gay" and "lesbian."
If that's too much work for him, if it's too much of a stretch, he needs
to find a new position. The United Nations was silent as young
Iraqis were targeted -- males and females -- because they were believed
to be gay or to be Emo or both. Rolling Stone and NME covered it. But
the United Nations stayed silent. The US State Dept covered it in their
own human rights report. But the United Nations stayed silent. That's
It's especially unacceptable considering the United Nations' supposed position on this issue. As we noted when Kobler gave his last report to the Security Council:
Last month, Igor Volsky (Think Progress) noted
(March 7, 2012), "Earlier today, the UN Human Rights Council held the
first hearing 'to discuss discrimination and violence against LGBT
people." UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon issued a special message to
the council, decrying violence against the LGBT community as a
'monumental tragedy' that is a 'stain on our collective conscience' and a
'violation of international law' [. . .]" and he quotes UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon stating, "To those who are gay, lesbian,
bisexual or transgender, let me say -- you are not along. Your struggle
for an end to violence and discrimination is a shared struggle. Any
attack on you is an attack on the universal values the United Nations
and I have sworn to uphold."
Is Kobler not part of the UN? Has he sworn to do the same.
got a little talk about women in this presenation. That is new.
Previous presentations to the Security Council by the Special Envoy to
Iraq frequently left women out. But apparently, something more "gross"
and "disgusting" than women has been found by the office of Special
Envoy: Iraq's LGBTs.
It was really
disgusting to hear Kobler prattle on about violence and minorities and
never once note the attacks on Iraq's LGBT community. It was
You may remember that
Kobler silence on LGBT was an issue that continued past the two
snapshots on the April report. You may remember my noting UN friends
swore he'd include it when the figures were verified. The figures were
verified -- I've 'verified' that with UN friends this morning. And
still Kobler said nothing. There was time for budget and shout-outs,
but no time for Martin Kobler to find his comfort level with gays and
Martin Kobler better start
representing all of Iraq or become the leading face of homophobia in the
United Nations. On that last possibility, he's already well on his
As the Washington Post notes, the holy day of Ramadan is arriving. Alsumaria reports that Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has declared Saturday to be the first day of Ramadan. Al Mada carries a Ramadan greeting congratulating
all Iraqis and asking for their blessing in the coming year with God
Almighty strengthening their path to justice, freedom and security. Kitabat notes
that there are calls for the government to grant leave for employees on
days when the temperature reaches 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees
Fahrenheit). While the sun is up, those observing the Muslim holiday
are supposed to fast. Before sunrise and after sunset, those observing
the holiday can eat. However, food prices are rising in Iraq. Alsumaria is the latest this week to report
on the sharp increase in prices for basic items such as lentils. The
Ministry of Commerce is insisting that they got materials to the stores
in time so any increase in prices is not their fault. The article also
notes that the high prices might make Ramadan slowly disappear as a part
of Iraqi life -- as other habits have been forgotten in Iraq. It seems
unlikely that Ramadan could disappear from Iraq but then come reports
about how hard it is for some to observe it.
Al Mada notes
that unemployment is also a huge issue during the holy month and only
more so when the food prices increase. They speak with Hani Rseg who is
a construction worker and tells the paper that he didn't get any wages
for four months because contractors rarely get paid on time and when
money did come in, there was electricity, gasoline, water and other
things to pay for and only now is he able to shop for Ramadan. Police
officer Ahmed Radhi al-Hleaj states that he's paying a car loan and
wouldn't be able to afford Ramadan except that he's taken on a second
job working as a taxi driver.
Rahim Ruhayem (BBC News -- link is video) reports on Iraq's ration systems.
Rahim Ruhayem (BBC News -- link is video) reports on Iraq's ration systems.
Ruhayem: In distribution centers, few complain about waste or
abundance. Dawood is a construction worker in central Baghdad and he's
come to collect his monthly share. He told me the distribution system
is gradually fading away.
It's getting less and less, year by year, month by month. And there is
no variety. We get cooking oil. Sometimes rice, flour. No tea, no
washing powder, no salt. Many things have been scrapped. And they will
probably cancel the rest too. The whole thing will be finished soon.
We better get used to it.
Ruhayem: The government insists it has no plans to end the system, it
only talks of reform over the coming years. At a cost of about five
billion dollars a year, the Iraqi state hands out food to its people.
But some of these people need it a lot more than others. 23% of Iraqis
live below the poverty line. If the government wants to reform the
system, it has a delicate balance to strike between encouraging
productivity and less reliance on the state on one hand while making
sure on the other not to jeopardize the food security of those most in
need. Rahim Ruhayem, BBC News, Baghdad.
Census numbers might change the ration-card numbers but, as Al Mada points out, Iraq has not had a census since 1997 and both the 2007 and 2009 censuses were postponed (by Nouri). Today, Al Mada reports,
a member of Parliament's Finance Committee told the paper that the
government does not know the actual population in Iraq and depends upon a
random and inaccurate figure based on indicators and that their is a
wide difference between the Ministry of FInance's figure and the ration
card number and between the Ministry of Plannin's figure and the ration
car number.
Earlier this week, as continued unemployment was met with soaring food prices, Al Mada reported
that there are accusations in Hilla that food merchants are
intentionally introducing small amounts of food to the markets in order
to artifically pump up the prices by creating scarcity. This comes as
Babylon Province sees less and less items for sale that can be purchased
with ration cards. True or false, the federal government should be
addressing this item though they will most likely ignore it. If it
isn't true, the rumors will still take root because food prices are
increasing, ration items are becoming scarce and hunger isn't something
people can overlook the way they might endure electricity outages. So
as the hunger and anger builds, even if the rumors are false, a need to
hold someone accountable can build and, if it does, it could leave
food merchants targeted. If the rumors are true, the federal government
needs to deal with it (a) to show that it can deal with something, (b)
the economy cannot take higher prices (unless Nouri intends to expand
the ration card system) and (c) the federal government still has the
power to set controls on various aspects of retail within the
country. In addition, Nasiriyah reported
that in an effort to try to reach 12 hours of electricity a day for the
holy month of Ramadan, Iraqi is increasing energy imports from Iran.
Alsumaria notes that Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is calling on Iraqi Muslims to watch the crescent moon this evening to determine whether Ramadan is starting.
Nouri al-Maliki attempted to seize control of the news cycle but, as is
so often the case with Nouri, lost instead. He insisted that the White
House had conveyed, in a letter, their support for his attempts to
cancel the October contract the Kurdistan Regional Government signed
with ExxonMobil. No such thing happened. But some outlets live to be
sucker-punched. Let's note one of the few who realized that journalism
involves skepticism of official statements. Here's Kristin Deasy (Global Post) on those claims:
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki claimed late Thursday to have received a message from US President Barack Obama indicating that the US sided with Baghdad in its deepening row with Kurdistan over the management of the northern region's oil resources, reported Reuters.
The message from Baghdad -- which did not quote the alleged Obama letter directly or provide any copy of it -- welcomed the "positive" US position on the matter, which it said was "in the same manner as the Iraqi government is seeking," said Reuters.
To repeat, in the United States, there is no state control over oil companies. In Iraq, Nouri's lies can fly somewhat because that country has a history of nationalized oil companies. As a result, a casual news consumer would hear of Nouri's claim and think nothing of it. But in the US, where it's far more likely that a multi-national oil company will control the government than the goverment ever control an oil company, that claims is laughable on its face.
In October, ExxonMobil and the KRG signed their contract. Nouri's Baghdad-based government played angry, spurned lover sending one letter after another to ExxonMobil, each basically screeching, "How could you! After all we've been through!"
As Iraq's Minister of Oil confirmed in early 2012, ExxonMobil elected to ignore those letters and not respond. And Nouri had nothing else to offer. So last month he began making noise that the US government -- specifically the White House (Nouri has always been hugely unpopular in the US Congress) -- should break ExxonMobil's contract.
Which again demonstrates how stupid and not ready to be prime minister Nouri actually is. The White House has no control over ExxonMobil. And this was conveyed to Nouri -- as the Iraqi press noted. But with US Vice President Joe Biden's National Security Adviser Antony Blinken in Iraq, Nouri decided to spin the visit. It would have been laughable on any day but it was especially laughable yesterday when another major multi-national oil corporation elected to bypass Baghdad and sign with the KRG. David R. Baker (Fuel Fix) notes:
Chevron Corp. will hunt for oil in northern Iraq's Kurdish region — the company's first major effort in the volatile country since the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
The deal, made public Thursday, lands Chevron squarely in the midst of post-war Iraq's bitter oil politics, with rival regions and ethnic groups fighting over how to develop the country's vast petroleum reserves. Chevron faces significant risk, and the potential of great reward.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki claimed late Thursday to have received a message from US President Barack Obama indicating that the US sided with Baghdad in its deepening row with Kurdistan over the management of the northern region's oil resources, reported Reuters.
The message from Baghdad -- which did not quote the alleged Obama letter directly or provide any copy of it -- welcomed the "positive" US position on the matter, which it said was "in the same manner as the Iraqi government is seeking," said Reuters.
To repeat, in the United States, there is no state control over oil companies. In Iraq, Nouri's lies can fly somewhat because that country has a history of nationalized oil companies. As a result, a casual news consumer would hear of Nouri's claim and think nothing of it. But in the US, where it's far more likely that a multi-national oil company will control the government than the goverment ever control an oil company, that claims is laughable on its face.
In October, ExxonMobil and the KRG signed their contract. Nouri's Baghdad-based government played angry, spurned lover sending one letter after another to ExxonMobil, each basically screeching, "How could you! After all we've been through!"
As Iraq's Minister of Oil confirmed in early 2012, ExxonMobil elected to ignore those letters and not respond. And Nouri had nothing else to offer. So last month he began making noise that the US government -- specifically the White House (Nouri has always been hugely unpopular in the US Congress) -- should break ExxonMobil's contract.
Which again demonstrates how stupid and not ready to be prime minister Nouri actually is. The White House has no control over ExxonMobil. And this was conveyed to Nouri -- as the Iraqi press noted. But with US Vice President Joe Biden's National Security Adviser Antony Blinken in Iraq, Nouri decided to spin the visit. It would have been laughable on any day but it was especially laughable yesterday when another major multi-national oil corporation elected to bypass Baghdad and sign with the KRG. David R. Baker (Fuel Fix) notes:
Chevron Corp. will hunt for oil in northern Iraq's Kurdish region — the company's first major effort in the volatile country since the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
The deal, made public Thursday, lands Chevron squarely in the midst of post-war Iraq's bitter oil politics, with rival regions and ethnic groups fighting over how to develop the country's vast petroleum reserves. Chevron faces significant risk, and the potential of great reward.
In Iraq where safety has never been secured, Alsumaria reports
a Yezidi girl was burned alive in her Mosul home -- some are saying it
is suicide, no finding has been established yet. Alsumaria notes that
2011 saw 6 confirmed cases of murder and ten case of confirmed suicides
by burning -- in addition there were 85 who were injured by burning.
Yesterday NINA reported 1 Peshmerga died in a Kirkuk sticky bombing and two more were injured.
No emergence of security, no end to the political stalemate. Al Mada reports
the National Alliance (again) discussed their Reform Committee paper.
They've discussed it so much that they must know it by heart. NINA reports
that Iraqiya's Hani Ashur has declared "the reforms paper prepared by
the National Alliance on its way to failure, where there is no agreement
upon [it] even within the National Alliance and it became a mean to buy
time and not for the reforms, it will not see the light or [be] put on
the table of dialogue. The reform paper is not more than an attempt to
melt the crisis and the government is not serious in dealing with it,
and the crisis may [be] back to the first square."
In what may end up being the most explosive political news out of Iraq this week, Al Mada reports
the existence of a document signed by Nouri from October 2009 in which
he secretly asked then-House Speaker Ayad al-Samarri not to question
Hussain al-Shahristani. al-Shahristani is currently Iraq's Deputy Prime
Minister for Energy. Starting in the spring of 2006 (with Nouri's
becoming prime minister), al-Shahristani became the Minister of Oil.
Despite enjoying a great deal of soft press -- from The National Newspaper, Iraq Oil Report
and pretty much everyone else -- al-Shahristani has no major successes
to point to and Nouri conveyed in the letter that asking al-Sharistani
about corruption or violence would be harmful to the government's
interests. (al-Sharistani is a member of Nouri's State of Law
political slate.)
Kim Kelly (The Atlantic) focuses more on the present [art scene] and the emergence of what is thought to be a musical first in Iraq:
says her name is Anahita, the 28-years-old voice and vitriol behind
Janaza, which is believed to be Iraq's very first female-fronted,
black-metal band. Allow that notion --Iraq's very first female-fronted,
black-metal band -- to sink in for a moment. Her first recording, Burn the Pages of Quran,
boasts five distorted, primitive tracks that altogether run just shy of
an unlucky 13 minutes. She, along with a handful of other acts hailing
from the Middle East, are repurposing black metal's historically
anti-Christian ferocity to rail against Islam. In doing so, these bands
are serving up another example of how art and dissent can intersect in a region where dissent can sometimes have deadly consequences.
Saturday Anna Breslaw (Jezebel) reports that The Atlantic article might be a hoax and that the photos accompanying it have been used in publications previously for other metal bands. I meant to include that Monday (we noted it Saturday) but kept running out of space.
also hoped to cover Jill Stein's campaign this week and, at the very
least, run a press release from it. Not doing it. Not interested in the
pretense of Bain and how it just can't be understood! That's b.s. and
Bob Somerby's rightly called it out (Somerby most recently called out
the nonsense today).
If Jill and her campaign think repeating those rumors qualifies as
running for office, they're kidding themselves. And if they think
spending three paragraphs on this rumor and then tossing in one
paragraph on Barack is going to make people think they'll hold both
accountable, consider it again. We already saw 2008 when Rosa Clemente
-- Cynthia McKinney's running mate -- was trashing Hillary Clinton with
lies long after she was out of the race but Rosa never could find the
courage or strength to call out Barack. We're not in the mood for
it. If the Green Party thinks inflating their criticism of Barack a
tiny bit after three and half years of non-stop failures by Barack
qualifies as 'strong,' they're crazier than they think the voters are.
Run a real campaign or get out of the damn race.
Romney as president is a question mark. Barack Obama is not. If Dr.
Jill can't call out -- on a daily basis -- the treatement of Bradley
Manning, assissinating American citizens, killing due process and
Barack's war on whistle blowers and the Constitution, she's not fit for
office or, for that matter, for the campaign trail. Green Party needs
to beef up their game and Jill's campaign? It's been 7 days since she
gave the speech in Baltimore. Her campaign is still unable to post
video or a transcript of that speech to her website? Someone's not
looking like a real candidate.