text:
Space for classes is limited and reservations must be made no later than 24 hours in advance. You are welcome to call anytime to be put on a cancellation list for a class that has been filled, or a class that starts in less than 24 hours.
Cancellation Policy:
Cancellations made up to 48 hours in advance of class start time will receive a full refund. No refunds or credits will be given for a cancellation made less than 24 hours before the class. Cancellations can be made by calling 903-581-2665.
When a class is cancelled due to not meeting minimum attendance or inclement weather, we will contact you by email or telephone and issue a full refund or a transfer to another class of equal value. If you miss a class for other concerns, our standard cancellation policy applies.
What to Expect:
Great cooking isn't about recipes, it's about techniques. In our classes you'll work together with other students in a fun, hands-on environment led by our professional chef instructors.
Learn fundamental skills for a lifetime of great cooking
Work side-by-side with other students to prepare each dish
Interact with classmates and the instructor for a rich learning experience
Classes are 2 hours, unless otherwise noted above, and each student enjoys a generous taste of every dish
Held in our professional teaching kitchens, each class is led by an experienced chef instructor
Hands-on classes are limited to 16 participants


text:
Data & statistics on Domestic heating emissions by appliance type Huntly Fuel PM10 kg – 21 results
◀ Prev 1 Next ▶
Language. English only please... for now.
Phrase search. You can use double quotes to make phrases (e.g. "mobile phones").
Booleans. You can use a plus '+' to make a word mandatory, or a minus '–' to exclude it (e.g. +gas –oil production)
Vocabulary. We have only limited synonyms - please try different words in your query.
Questions? Please email us: helpdesk [at] zanran [dot] com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Milano Navy Blue Paisley Self Bow Tie
Detailed and contemporary, OTAA's Milano Navy Blue Paisley Self Tie Bow Tie makes an artistic statement. Milan is a Northern Italian city that has influenced movements in art and architecture over the course of centuries. Home to magnificent landmarks such as the Duomo di Milano and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, modern day Milan is rich with the remnants of its noble ancestry. The artistic inclination of Milan is reflected through the exquisite features of this untied bow tie.
Paisley patterns have long held regal associations; they were reserved for noble regalia in Ancient Persia. Finessed with an artisanal paisley teardrop pattern, this Milano Navy Blue Paisley Untied Bow Tie will undoubtedly add a sophisticated accent to your ensembles. OTAA's hand-stitched approach to tailoring means this self tie bow tie is smooth to the touch and emanates a high-quality presence as part of formal attires. The indulgent navy palette is met with ebullient red and yellow teardrop features for a refined outlook.
Product Code : C304-UTBT
This item's measurements are
OTAA aims to provide our customers with an exceptional shopping experience. We understand that there may be rare occasions where shoppers are not completely satisfied, and it is important for us to hear your feedback. Simply email us your questions at firstname.lastname@example.com or call us on +61 (03) 9548 4793, alternatively send us a text on +61414987199 we will be happy to attend to your needs. More questions? Contact Us Now.
Free Postage within Australia.
We Ship World Wide and offer DHL Express on all international orders - Find out more about our Delivery Options.


text:
Why Adults on Mission?
Adults on Mission groups provide a dynamic way for both men and women to grow in Christ and answer His call to make disciples. Through missions projects and outreach, studying the Bible and praying for missions, each meeting offers opportunities and resources to be involved with missions in our everyday lives. Adults on Mission is also adaptable to several kinds of churches and gatherings, including church plants, small groups, language churches or even a gathering or friends at a local coffee shop — there is something relevant for everyone in Adults on Mission.
Let us help you get started!
For resources and updates related to Adults on Mission, sign up for our emails.
Don't forget to follow us!


text:
8C by the Sea
We all have regrets in life. Some are small, others not so much. Some of us have that one major regret – that one Big Mistake which we wish we could go back in time and correct. And it often involves love, lust, or both.
Sometime in 2003, Alfa Romeo, which had been mostly absent from any news coverage in the US since 1995, was suddenly on the cover of all the auto magazines and blogs with photos of its stunning new, outrageously gorgeous 8C Competizione Concept. It was pure sex on wheels. Alfisti all over the world, or anyone with a pulse for that matter, immediately lusted over it. It instantly sparked new life, energy, and interest in the great marque we all love. I had to have it. No, I needed it!
Unlike many concepts, it wasn't trying too hard to be some overly designed teenage science fiction vision of the future. Nor was it just a rehashed version of a design that was visionary some 30 years ago but bastardized for today's market. Instead, it was simple, yet different than anything else out there. All the lines just worked. One look and your heart beat went up. It was a modern classic.


text:
31 products
The best place to hide something from the prying eyes of others is to wrap it up and bury it beneath a secret panel in the floor, isn't it? We at Shiva think there's a much better solution: hide it in plain sight.
That doesn't mean simply letting it all hang loose and draped on the coffee table. We've got a range of solutions that offer superb privacy while cunningly disguised as ordinary household products. OK, so it's a little crafty, but if you have a private life with private delights that you take a little innocent pleasure in every so often, it makes sense to be discrete. One person's pleasure can be another's poison, so keeping your little treasures to yourself can spare a lot of unnecessary judgement and bother.
Take a look at a few of our simple offerings, like our Gillette Shaving Foam Can. On the face of it, it's just a can of shaving foam like any other. But it's got a little secret: lift this humble little canister out of the bathroom cabinet and you'll find a secret cylindrical chamber of generous proportions simply by unscrewing the base. Just don't expect to get any shaving foam out of it!
Or check out our Stash Fire Extinguisher. It won't look out of place in any kitchen but like the last item, it won't emit any foam either. Twist off the base and you'll find a pleasingly large stash chamber.
Our Socket Safe takes secret stashing to a whole new level of ingenuity. To anyone other than you, it looks like an ordinary double electrical socket. But you'll be the only one who knows that if you flip down the fake front plate, you'll open a little stash chamber that's perfect for keeping precious items safely out of sight.
Hide in plain sight - but be crafty.


text:
Continuing to read the mediator series because I want to know how it ends.
This book is just as good as the last one, with new interesting characters that the book is more focused on than the plot. I like the character of Paul, because he's so mysterious it's hard to tell whether he's good or bad most of the time. My favourite character in this book though was Jack, I thought he was really cute and quite smart for a boy his age, and his character also showed how Suze could have been without her dad.
Suze's stepdad Andy is digging in the backyard to put in a hot tub, and Suze is awoken in her sleep by Maria Diego who wants her to stop the digging or she'll hurt her. Suze doesn't give in and tells Jesse that she thinks his bones are buried there and he tells her that he won't move on to the next plain because his murder is proven. However after the bones are found, Jesse goes missing and it's because Jack, a young mediator Suze has been babysitting exorcized him because Maria told him to. Suze then exorcizes herself to get Jesse's soul and bring him back to earth. She then exorcizes Maria and Diego then Jesse kisses her.


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How A Serial Series Writer Makes It Work
Before we begin, I'd like to thank Nikki at Storm Goddess Book Reviews for letting me pop in to talk about my latest release, SAVAGE ANGEL and The Earth Angels paranormal romance series!
Though I've only recently been published, I've been writing novels since I was fourteen. Believe it or not, almost all of these projects have been connected in some way. I've always thought of it as "my world", a place where anything can happen, and one person's story always leads to another, and another, and another.
The Earth Angels series, my latest from Carina Press, is no different in that regard. But since I knew I wanted the story arc to have a defined beginning, middle and end, it had to be much tighter in focus. How I started: first I had the idea of what it would be like to be a modern-day descendant of the Nephilim, an ancient race of human-angel hybrids. Second, I wanted to take familiar paranormal themes—a superhero, a wounded loss-of-powers warrior, a lover-turned-fighter and a soldier—and display these characters within the series. And lastly I needed a common foe to tie it all together.
What would a common foe be for a band of almost-human super-powered beings with hints of angelic DNA? A demonic apocalypse, of course. ;)
All of this needed a TON of research, so I started with character outlines. The heroine of SAVAGE ANGEL was the first character that came to mind. All the modern-day Nephilim have special abilities, but I wanted Sara (currently the only woman with angelic DNA in the series) to be the ultimate super soldier. Right away she appeared in my mind as being calmly capable in any battle situation, but her social skills are nonexistent. She's awkward and self-conscious, and almost painfully shy around the man who makes her tremble, Gideon Mandeville. To have a character like this brought to her knees through the force of love was a ton of fun to write!
Once I had outlined all the protagonists for the four Earth Angels books, I went in search of an appropriate villain. Ack, there were so many demons to choose from! But I finally settled on a reaaaaallllllly terrible spawn of hell who has some of the sneakiest—and most insidiously terrifying—powers I've come across. The big reveal of who their ultimate foe is will be revealed later, so I can't talk about it now, but trust me—this demon can threaten an apocalypse like nobody's business, and in such a way you'll never see it coming. He's deliciously evil. >:)
There's no right or wrong way to build a series, but for me it's all about the characters. Unless the series is open-ended—and I have one of those coming out with Carina Press later this year—it was important to have a clear path of where I wanted this four-part story to go. It might be time-consuming in the beginning, but it's so worth it when you reach the end and have a tight, organized series that has absolute resolution.
Question: Do you like a series that you know is 1.) finished, 2.) open-ended or 3.) has a finite amount of books to it, but is not yet complete?


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Hi, I have an expired vBulletin license and am stuck at 3.8.2.
My forum has been compromised a few times in the past 5 months. Nothing has been defaced but its obviously still worrying. The first time this happened, all of my .js files were edited to include some extra iframe/call or something (can't quite recall).
The second time, I remember index.php and global.php were both edited to have some sort of strange code added at the very top (before the vB copyright comment). I assume it was some sort of shell (!!).
I've researched the release notes for vB 3.8.3 - 3.8.7 as well as the bugs in their tracker website (forgot the name). It seems to me that vB 3.8.2 is itself safe. There was some sort of scary exploit regarding the FAQ but it seems to have only been for 3.8.6 - so I should be safe.
This means the exploit has to be caused by some plugin. It seems I'm running a very old version of ibProArcade: 2.6.5. Is this likely the cause of my problems? Can someone PM me details of how an attacker can compromise my site with this version of the arcade? (If you look at my vb.org history hopefully you'll see that I'm not trying to phish details in order to exploit other forums!).
Finally, in order to fix this, is it enough to turn the Arcade "OFF" in the Main settings and then disable the product through the ACP Product Manager? Or should I remove the .php file(s) associated with it as well? (Is it only arcade.php?)
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text:
Wind lines in the sand of the eastern Sahara Desert
Leaving Abu Simbel set into motion the longest day of traveling of my entire trip. We drove three hours from Abu Simbel, checked out of our hotel, and got a ridiculously good Egyptian pizza. It was like regular pizza, but had two layers of crust. One thick and one thin on top. It was greasy. It was cheesy. It was delicious and completely filled me up for our overnight train ride to Cairo. The train was supposed to leave at 6:30pm and get in at 5am. The guys working on the train laughed and said that they never get in at 5am. They said 6:30, if we were lucky.
Our sleeper car.
Our sleeper car was not nearly as posh as our first class car had been. However, it was good enough for me. It was a lot more comfortable to stretch out in a bed to sleep for eight hours than trying to figure out how to get comfortable in a bus seat. They even served us dinner and breakfast. In the early morning, we rolled into Giza and hopped off the train.
Thea in the Black Desert.
We met our driver who was going to take us to our desert tour at the station. Unfortunately, we didn't meet Betty's mom's friend's friend, Thea, there. They went to the station that was actually in Cairo. After too many phone calls and a ton of confusion, we met up with Thea and were off to the desert.
Desert road.
I had wanted to bike the desert road since I had considered making this trip. It seemed like it would be a lot better biking because I would be avoiding the busy Nile Valley. However, I also liked the idea of biking through nothingness for days. However, since we ran out of time and the ferry wasn't running, biking it wasn't going to happen. Squeezing in a tour could. We searched the Internet for tour companies and finally settled on one marketed by a German woman. Normally, I try to go with locals, but I didn't want any miscommunications or questionable business practices to vex my last few days of my trip.
Desert panorama
Betty in the desert.
After our 5 hour drive through the desert to the Bahariya oasis, I got to meet the German woman. She spoke perfect English and then directed me to her Egyptian husband who actually ran the business. He did not speak perfect English and I quickly realized the website was to sucker in people like me. The best part is that the Egyptian guy didn't even guide the tour. He passed me off to a Bedouin guy with his own truck and supplies who spoke even less English. I felt bamboozled, but it didn't matter. Our guide was brilliant and we had a great time.
A close up of the Black Desert.
Black Desert panorama.
Thea and Betty hiking in the Black Desert.
After a quick late breakfast, Thea, Betty, and I set out with our guide, Reda. We drove on paved roads for a few minutes, but soon turned off into the sand. Our first stop was the Black Desert. It is black because of volcanic rocks that are in the area. I have no idea where the nearest active volcano is (maybe Etna in Italy or Uganda), but a volcano from long produced enough black rocks to still cover most of the area. I was envisioning pitch black desert just like the black beaches of Hawaii and Greece. This was just a dusting, but was still great.
Sand swept desert dune road.
Desert dune.
Desert rock formations.
After a short hike in the Black Desert, Reda took us who knows where to do off roading tricks like spinning his wheels out, up and down dunes, doing donuts, and fish tailing. I was definitely a little nervous. However, our guide had been doing this for 10 years and knew what he could and couldn't do. I had to keep reminding myself of that and eventually started to enjoy it.
Agabat Valley.
Agabat Valley.
Sand dunes in the Agabat Valley.
Our original plan had been to spend one night in the desert, that would have been at the White Desert. By staying a second night, we got to the visit and sleep in the beautiful Agabat Valley. The valley is where the yellow sands of the Sahara Desert meet the white cliffs of the White Desert to make brilliant formations. Betty found some sea shells lodged in these rock formations. This area used to be part of the ocean. There is something so serene about that part of the desert and the formations that we saw. I can't really say what.
An arch in the Agabat Valley.
I was going to just include this picture of Thea on an overhanging rock, then Betty showed me this photo of me taking the original photo.
The moon rising in the desert.
When we went to set up camp for the night, our guide would accept a little help but not much. He didn't need it. He was a machine and was used to doing this stuff. The first thing he would do was set up a three-sided wind shield. One side was against the car and the other two came our perpendicular from it. We ate, and later slept, in this space. After that, he got right to cooking dinner. He started a small fire to cook the meat in and used a gas cooker to cook everything else. The meal that he whipped up was one of the best of my entire trip, except for maybe the meal he made the next night.
Our view from the campsite in Agabat Valley.
Sunset in the Agabat Valley.
After dinner, we went for a stroll, but didn't do much else. We had Bedouin tea from the fire. We enjoyed the stars. We slept. It was wonderful. The calm and serene of the desert night was a great way to slow down the trip. We had been going, going, going since we left Dabab. Zoom to Cairo before leaving as fast as we could to see Luxor quickly, then Aswan, then Abu Simbel, then all the way back to Cairo, and finally down to the desert. The desert was the perfect place to unwind. I can't recommend it enough.
This is where we found some of the petrified coral and shells.
In the morning, we went for one last stroll around the area. Thea ventured the farthest and found the most interesting thing we saw in the desert. She found petrified coral. The first pieces we saw were very smooth and looked like wood. However, the second larger pieces that we found were clearly coral. It is so amazing to see these things from the sea in the middle of the desert. We always learn about these things in natural history classes, but it is another thing to see it. Look at those pictures and imagine it all being underwater.
Me hiking in the Black Desert.


text:
Are you looking for cheap camo wedding dresses? There are some beautiful camo wedding dresses with affordable prices to choose from. Here, we have collected some of them for you. One of these dresses may be the dress that you really want. Have a look at the first dress above. It is a cheap camo wedding dress with floor length. Come with ball gown, it is sexily designed with sweetheart neckline. This dress is available at Ali Express.
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For cheap plus size camo wedding dress, this dress is perfect. Designed strapless with long train, it will make any bride looks absolutely amazing. For details, you can visit Ali Express. Find out more other cheap camo wedding dresses at Ali Express.


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SA's payment system has achieved great things but innovation is constrained due to a huge gap in the market, according to a partner at Genesis Analytics, Richard Ketley.
Speaking at the South African Reserve Bank's Payments Innovation Conference in Joburg in early October, the managing partner of their Financial Services Strategy practice said that the Payments Association of South Africa ensures the efficient negotiation of product rules and implementation of new products, while Bankserve, the national switch can implement network products and ensure local processing and pricing, and virtually all products are fully inter-operable.
"The efficiency of the payments system is reflected in the very high level of banking penetration with 77% of the population have at least some sort of bank account and card. Government has played its part by ensuring that SASSA cards are inter-operable payment cards and welfare recipients can benefit from the widespread payments infrastructure' said Ketley.
"But innovation is constrained: Both MNO's (mobile network operators) have withdrawn from trying to offer low-cost mobile money accounts that have been so successful in other markets,' said Ketley.
He also said there has been limited success in the roll out of lower cost alternatives to conventional point of sale devices, the cross-border money transfer environment is tightly regulated and no roadmap has been laid out for low-cost instant EFT.
"There remains a huge gap in the market between actual customer behaviour and innovation that assumes customer comfort with transacting via a smartphone app."
Ketley said that going forward the challenge will be to create a regulatory environment which is more conducive to innovation while recognising the enormous changes required of the regulators who were principally established to ensure solid liquidity and credit risk management in banks.


text:
Episode #42: Unbridled Pessimism/
This week on the show, Kevin and Phil talk about:
- The Grizzlies went 5–1 in their six game home stand, which helps solidify their place in the standings.
- What's the deal with Jeff Green?
- Dave Joerger and his long term future with the team. Is there a disconnect between the coach and the front office?
- Is Elliot Williams a legit NBA player? Were the Grizzlies right to move on?
- The Grizzlies play some interesting young teams this week: Denver and Minnesota (and Orlando next week).
The Beyond the Arc podcast is available on iTunes, so you can subscribe there! It'd be great if you could rate and review the show while you're there. You can also find and listen to the show on Stitcher and on PlayerFM.
You can call our Google Voice number and leave us a voicemail, and we might talk about your question on the next show: 234–738–3394
You can download the show here or listen below:


text:
- Who We Are
- The Orange County Humane Society (OCHS) is dedicated to the protection of abused, unwanted, neglected and under-appreciated animals.
You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.
Ways to help
Did you know that there is more ways to help the animals then just donating money. Just doing a few of your everyday tasks, you could be helping our animals. How, you ask? Just click on the links below to find out how!!
Do you…
…shop online?
Well make shopping a little more satisfying. No more feeling bad for buying yourself something new. Do you shop online at Gap, Macy's, or maybe Target? Your everyday store purchases could help our animals!!! A portion of your purchase will be donated to our organization just by shopping through goodshop.com. or benevolink.com. It's safe and secure, just put our name where they ask who you are shopping for, EASY!!! You shop and we benefit!!!
…search online?
Each day we are searching online for something new. So why not help raise money for OCHS while you search. How easy is that!!!!
Are you just throwing away those empty cartridges? Changed your cell phone recently? Don't throw it away; your trash is our fortune!! Donate your old cartridges or cell phone and we get a donation for each one!!! Get your work to help out too!!! Ask how you can start shipping the cartridges for free from your job. No hassles or inconvenience. Contact firstname.lastname@example.com
…sell on Ebay?
Everyone does it now, buy things you need and sell things you don't. What if your sales could help OCHS out!! Well it can, link your Ebay account to our Missionfish account and a percentage of your sales will be donated to our organization!!!
Do you love animals? Wish you could have one? Go for walks every evening? Why not volunteer your time at OCHS and your everyday walk could be accompanied by our 4 legged friends.
…buy magazines?
Your magazine subscription could help our pets in need. Just by ordering your subscription through magfunding.com, with every subscription made, a donation is made to our cause!!!
…go to your local grocery store?
Your membership to Ralphs or Albertsons could help our company reach our goals. Just by linking your membership card to our organization. You purchases will raise funds to help our animals.
…have an old car?
…have old stuff?
Your trash may be our treasure. Old towels, old cages, old cars, we could use them all!!!
…know people or companys?
OCHS is always looking for people and companies willing to help. Maybe you know the owner of a local business, or a friend in high places. Your connections could be the link we are looking for!!
…need to buy a present?
Why not give the gift of a dog or cat? I know we say animals should not be presents, but you can give them a certificate to get one!!! This way they can choose the pet of their choice and get one when they are ready!!!!
Since you are shopping for pet supplies anyway, shop at pawscorp.com and a portion of the profit will help support our shelter animals! Look for specials that the entire profit goes to our shelter animals!
senior pet special!!!
Pets 7 years or older are $65
Hours of Operation
Thank you to the OC Humane Society team for introducing us to Maxwell (now Bruno) he has been an amazing addition to our little family. He knows all of his basic commands and even knows heel! A surprise to us since he was found as a stray.


text:
Sacred Place
I may have mentioned before that each week at our office meeting, one of the staff members begins the meeting with a devotional. This week was my turn. Sometimes, when I'm searching for a devotional topic, I turn to the book by Frederick Buechner called Beyond Words: Daily Readings in the ABC's of Faith.
The book was a gift to me on October 16, 2005. I had been asked by the Lay Leader of the church we attend to give the sermon on Laity Sunday. During the writing of the sermon (which took me months), I asked him if he remembered the source of a quote I had heard - he did; the author of the quote was Buechner.
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.
The book was an appreciation gift for the sermon, and before he gave it to me, he had placed a bookmark on the page. The bookmark is still there.
The actual passage is longer than the quote I have above, and I read the few paragraphs at the office meeting, and talked about calling. I am grateful that I have been called to this place, and that I have found joy in the work that I do. It is a sacred place.
I pray you find (or have found) that place.
Labels: Call


text:
Fired for Doing His Job, Accountant Says
DALLAS (CN) – Robert Half International and AccounTemps, a staffing firm, fired an accountant for reporting the misappropriation of millions of dollars in mortgage customer money, the man claims in court.
Charles Blakley sued the two firms and Irving-based mortgage lender Caliber Funding LLC & Associates, in Dallas County Court.
In his pro se complaint, Blakley claims that as a senior accountant for the three defendants, he discovered "unusual Caliber corporate errors and/or improprieties with Caliber homeowner HUD-1 closing cost interest accrual charges and calculations."
He claims the defendants called the errors or improprieties "systemic issues" that would be fixed.
Blakley claims the defendants used borrower money for Caliber's corporate expenditures.
He claims he uncover and diagnose "various Caliber accounting improprieties, misapplication of homeowner-specific funds, misappropriation of homeowner- specific funds, errors and other universal corporate improprieties that needed to be escalated to an independent audit body."
"Specifically, defendants misappropriated customer/borrower mortgage insurance premiums diverting those funds into Caliber operational accounts not authorized by customers/borrowers," Blakley says in the complaint.
He claims he informed the defendants several times that the activity was illegal.
On Nov. 21, 2012, after he refused to sign off on journal entries and portfolio statements relating to Caliber's mortgage insurance premium and appraisal activities, the defendants' employees became "infuriated," Blakley says.
He says Caliber fired him that day for refusing to sign the fraudulent statements.
"Caliber collusively conspired with RHI to hide, smear and cover up the circumstances surrounding the details for wrongful termination of the plaintiff," the complaint states.
"Defendants gave knowingly false and reckless statements to independent investigators involving the plaintiff's employment."
He says the defendants claim, falsely, that he was not fired, but that he quit by "walking out on his shift after yelling and being unprofessional while Caliber customers were present."
"Furthermore, defendants egregiously asserted plaintiff assaulted an employee on his way out of the offices on the day he was terminated," the complaint states. "Defendants' outrageous assertions about the plaintiff quitting on November 16, 2012, and plaintiff's egregious misconduct were proven to be patently false and utterly unfounded which an independent investigation agreed and sided with the plaintiff in December 2012."
A Robert Half spokeswoman declined to comment.
Blakley seeks actual and punitive damages for wrongful termination, conspiracy, defamation and negligence.


text: A recent article in American Banker highlights the Federal Trade Commission's idea of banning remotely created checks (RCC), also referred to as Pre-Authorized Drafts (PAD) by telemarketers. These merchants create RCCs by using bank account and routing numbers, creating a "check image" for payment processing. These are unsigned checks that are governed mostly by state laws without full recourse when unauthorized transactions are made.


text:
Brexit and the ageing population: how Britain has changed since 2004
- Published: Sep 21, 2017
- Author: Peter Kenway
- Category: Economic Policy
Many factors lie behind Brexit. Boris Johnson's recent 10 point plan for a successful Brexit has been heavily criticised for its reference to that figure of £350 million a week but taken as a whole, his article was an attempt to replay the line that he took during the referendum campaign, that Brexit meant freedom. The influence of this idea runs deep. For example, when Labour council leaders console themselves with the thought that Brexit will mean a relaxation in the rules governing state aid to industry, it's the freedom of their increased room for action that they're thinking of.
One of Johnson's freedoms is to create "an immigration [system] that suits the UK". In his intervention in the Brexit debate a few days earlier, Tony Blair had proposed immigration controls on EU citizens as part of a settlement which would allow Britain to remain within the EU. Blair knew his proposal would be compared unfavourably with his government's decision in 2004 to allow citizens of the "A8" central and east European countries who joined the EU that year access to work in the UK like anyone from the other 14 member-states.[1] When the A8 joined, existing members had the right to restrict the new EU citizens' access to their own labour markets for seven years. The UK was one among just three members who decided not to do that.
To deal with the charge of inconsistency, Blair justified the earlier decision on the grounds that at that time, "the economy was strong [and] the workers were needed". He then moved to head off the comparison altogether by insisting that the "real point is that the times were different; the sentiment was different; and intelligent politics takes account of such change".
Fair enough, but if that is so, what has happened since 2004 to mean that times are now "different"? That's the question we concerned with here. Measured by the number of people living in the UK who are "foreign-born", migration to the UK is at the heart of this discussion. Its purpose, however is to set this migration in the wider context of the changes within the UK. A detailed discussion of the migration statistics themselves can be found here.
At first sight, Blair's claim that "the economy was strong and workers were needed" is unremarkable. There are two parts to it. As we have argued before, the first, about the economy is wrong – but also instructive. 2004 was the year it became clear that the economy was not recovering properly from the dotcom bust at the turn of the millennium. Northern Rock crashed ten years ago this month. The recession did not begin until a year later. The reason why those events were so serious was that they struck an economy which had been ailing since 2004. Since what is wrong now is linked to what was wrong then, it is going to be worth having another look at 2004 in due course.
For now, we will focus on the second part of Blair's claim, that "workers were needed". Why would politicians have thought this in 2004? Figure 1, which shows the UK's population in 2004 and in 2016, gives a clue. The place to focus is the top slice of the two population bars which shows the number of people in the UK aged 65 and above. Over the 12 years, the size of this group grew by almost a quarter, up 2.3 million from 9.5 million to 11.8 million. Growth on this scale in this part of the population was wholly foreseeable.
Figure 1: the UK population by age band and (for 16 to 64s) country of birth[2]
The concern about this growth from the policy maker's perspective is that the elderly are deemed to be a part of the population that is "economically dependent", mainly retired and as age takes its toll, placing a high demand on the health service and social care. The old-age dependency ratio (OADR) is the ratio of the population aged 65 and above to the population aged 16 to 64 ("working-age"). The higher the ratio, the greater the number of pensioners there are to be "supported" by those of working-age. Over the 12 years, this ratio rose from 0.247 to 0.285.
The key to Blair's claim lies in the extra detail that figure 1 provides about the working-age population which is divided between those who were born in the UK and those who were not. The net increase of 2.8 million in the size of the working-age group is made up of an increase of 3.2 million in the part of it born abroad and a decrease of 0.5 million in the part born in the UK (or living other than in a private home). Even with an increase of almost three-quarters in the number of foreign-born people of working-age, the OADR rose. Without that increase, the rise would have been greater still (to 0.309). In short, a concern about the economic consequences of Britain's aging population provides a basic justification for the decision to take advantage of the A8 countries' accession to the EU in 2004 to attract more workers into Britain.
"Foreign-born" obviously does not just include those born elsewhere in the EU. What has happened since 2004 is not the result of unfettered migration but of a combination of relative easy internal EU migration and completely controlled immigration from outside the EU.
But if the growth in the foreign-born population of working-age is a sensible economic response to the UK's aging population, the combination of the two effects has done something extraordinary to the overall population. Over the 12 years from 2004 to 2016, the UK population grew by 5.6 million people or 9.5 per cent. Figure 2 compares that rate of growth with four previous 12-year periods. The 9.5 per cent since 2004 is over twice the 4.1 per cent between1992 to 2004, more than four times the 2.2 per cent rate between 1980 and 1992. While population growth approached eight per cent over the 12 years to 1968, we have to go back to before the First World War to find growth rates comparable to those of recent years.
When we bear in mind that this unprecedented rate growth is associated with at least two major shifts in the composition of the population, namely the ageing of the UK-born and a rising share for the foreign-born, what we have been experiencing since 2004 is social change on a grand scale.
Figure 2: growth of the UK population over four, 12-year periods[3]
In the next blog, we will look at a range of data about how key public services have fared over those 12 years. This more tangible evidence will offer a way to link the social change observed here to some of the discontents beneath Brexit.
For now, we can draw two conclusions. First, the years since 2004 have been a period of both rapid and deep population change in Britain. Second, while a much higher number of foreign-born people, mainly among those of working-age, is a key element of this, the driver of change has been the ageing UK population. This identification of ageing as the driver reflects both the fact that it has to be taken as a "given" by government and the judgement that the resulting rise in the economic dependency ratio merited a relaxed attitude towards immigration from the A8 countries who joined the EU in that year.
Looking back, the question this poses is whether more should have been done to prepare for, and manage, the change that was taking place. Would there have been merit in a slower pace of change? Would a justification based on more than the economic interest – workers were needed – have provided a stronger explanation for such a potentially significant change? Looking forward, if the answers to either of these questions is yes, then might that not apply to Brexit too?
[1] Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia – along with Malta and Cyprus.
[2] Source: ONS licensed under the Open Government Licence: Mid-year Population Estimates, table 3 and Annual Population Survey, via Nomis, for the working-age split. The figures for the UK born 16 to 64 include a further 0.5 million (2004) and 0.6 million (2016) not living in private homes (irrespective of where born).
[3] Source: ONS licensed under the Open Government Licence: Mid-year Population Estimate, table 1


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Moving Image Source
A brief heads up to everyone in Termiteland: former Village Voice film editor, friend and former boss of Emmet and I, and honorary Termite Dennis Lim has launched his new venture and it's worth heading over to check it out. It's Moving Image Source, and the press release I received on it describes the site as a home for "original articles by leading critics, authors, and scholars; a calendar that highlights major retrospectives, festivals, and gallery exhibitions at venues around the world; and a regularly updated guide to online research resources."
But all you really need to know is Mr. Lim's in control and, with that being the case, there will be things worth reading over there (The initial onslaught includes pieces by Termite favs Jonathan Rosenbaum and Michael Atkinson. It's been added to our links on the left rail; I'll be clicking over regularly and advise you to do the same.


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Whoops, I'm white.
Whoops, I'm white.
Wigga plz...
Neo Geo AES #011035 #036442 | Neo Geo CD #0002814 #0015959 | MVS Executive | Razion 1cc Club President | NG.com Top Trader
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Over heard at my D&D Group:
"I'm black from the waist down."
Pre-Order now to avoid disappointment.
Originally Posted by Walter Benjamin
You two should do a movie called black chicks!
Someone made a thread like this on another forum I am on, last week but he was actually black.
dude, you're awful at this, you didn't even tried.
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The Wîcihitowin Aboriginal Engagement Conference took place in Saskatoon last week — an event which drew attention to issues relevant to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal participants.
The Conference focussed on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 'Calls to Action', with the work being done in communities across Saskatchewan.
Regina Mayor Michael Fougere attended the session. He says the conversation was blunt at times, but Fougere says it's the process of healing.
"An opportunity about engaging First Nations people, indigenous people in our community," Fougere said. "But also talking about Truth and Reconcilliation. What Regina has done to promote that cause."
Fougere says the conference was vital to rebuilding and repairing relationships with the Indigenous peoples.
"My view is that, in order to have reconcilliation, you need to have the truth," Fougere said. "And that's really what this is all about. It's another venue for hearing the truth about how Indigenous peoples feel. What they wen through. What their experiences were."
Fougere says discussion at the Wîchitowin Aboriginal Engagement Conference was frank.
"The coversations we were having were respectful, from the heart and very blunt," Fougere said. "But very respectful. Most of the non-indigenous people i have talked to accept this as being a process of healing and coming together as a community."
Fougere says Regina is working towards the creation of a Community Action Plan which is long-term community blueprint that will ensure Regina is more diverse and inclusive.


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Located in the spectacular countryside surrounding Tavira this villa has beautiful views. \n\nWith an open plan lounge dining area with patio doors that leads to a terrace with fantastic views. The fully fitted kitchen has a separate access to the terrace. Off the hallway is a double bedroom with doors leading to a secluded patio area and a shower room. Upstairs are two double bedrooms with terraces and a second bathroom plus an office room. Outside you have a number of terraces on different levels and the pool with fabulous views towards the countryside plus sunbathing space a fruit garden and vegetable area. Underneath the pool is a double garage and a workshop area, plus a BBQ area leading to the front terrace. There are some neighbouring houses nearby in this hamlet access is by a 3km track which leads to the tarmac road and Tavira which is 8km away. This would suit those perfectly looking for a peaceful countryside property with spectacular views of the hills.
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This guy's motto is really very simple "Go out and transform the world".
Here he is doing exactly that at the ski fields in Val D'isere, France.
This guy's motto is really very simple "Go out and transform the world".
Here he is doing exactly that at the ski fields in Val D'isere, France.
It's amazing what can be done with a few bits of paper and an imagination.
Here, he turns the UN building in New York in to something else entirely. I'd say it's a change for the better, wouldn't you?
Of course, we may have understated the art just a little.
I mean, it probably takes a little more than just paper and imagination. TO be fair to him, you do need to be pretty handy with a pair of scissors!
If I'm to be perfectly honest, there is no way that I could handle a pair of scissors with such precision so as to create works of art of this quality.
But the real magnificence is in the vision. Here, he turns the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore in to the key to success!
We've come a long way, haven't we? Even statues are getting in on the selfie age.
Do you think there is an underlying statement buried within this work of art?
It really is an amazingly unique art that Paper boy has himself engaging in.
I mean, nobody else has ever looked at these places and thought to transform them with paper. It's genius!
How long will it be before somebody (perhaps the owners and management at the Bellagio Hotel) get the idea to put massive sea-dwellers in the waters of the hotel?
Doesn't this almost seem natural?
It's just Simba, Timon, and Pumba, taking an evening stroll across the Gateshead Millennium Bridge.
No biggie...
What's better than playing a spot of tennis for your daily dose of exercise?
Well, playing tennis completely naked at Bliss Dance in Vegas might be a pretty good place to start!
Here, Paper Boy lets King Kong loose on New York City.
It is kind of weird that King Kong should be holding one of those old school planes. Perhaps if Kong was there in September of 2001...


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General Discussion / Re: Helper script for updating Retrode firmware on Linux (or macOS+dfu-programmer)« on: 05/Apr/2018 04:32:35 PM »
I used this script on Mac OS X 10.13.4 and it worked great.
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Delivered Arrangement, $300
Delivered Arrangement, $300
Designer's choice arrangement including lush seasonal blooms with accent foliage and textures. Housed in a low muted toned ceramic vessel. Photo shows general size and style – designs will vary based on availability of product and color requests.
For delivery only within the Los Angeles area most Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Deliveries will be completed between 11am and 4pm. Additional delivery fees will apply as noted on the checkout page.


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He's got the image flopped, and his spelling is
atrocious, and he doesn't know 70mm is only sideways
for Imax, and it has magnetic sound, but I enjoyed this
article about aspect ratio. I know I'm obsessed with
it this year, but it's kind of important, if you're going
to break through the boundaries, to know what they are.
Movie shapes.
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Shape of The Movies
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Madison Street Capital arranged a minority equity and debt investment for their client ARES Security Corporation. Corbel Structured Equity Partners engaged the minority recapitalization. A lot of earnest work was put in by Madison Street Capital to find a logical partner for the new structure that ARES Security Corp. will be involved in. Both Madison Street Capital and ARES have superior teams that will make for an exciting and successful future.
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The first teaser of Halal The Film – a movie based on the controversial triple talaq law was released Sunday afternoon.
Directed by National Award Winner Shivaji Lotan Patil, the movie features Chinmay Deepak Mandlekar, Priyadarshan Jadhav, Pritam Kagne, Vijay Chavan, Vimal Mhatre, Chaya Kadam, Amol Kagne and Sanjay Sugaokar.
The one-minute-long video shows two Muslim couples – one couple has a public Triple Talaq, while the other couple conducts the practice within the confines of a house. Muslim men can legally divorce their wives by pronouncing the word 'talaq' (the Arabic word for divorce) three times.
Halal The Film premiered at the Pune International Film Festival 2016 and was also screened at 2016 Aurangabad International Film Festival 2016. It also won six awards at the 53rd Maharashtra State Film Awards.
Watch the teaser:


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Maneet Dharia DDS, FIDIA
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I would have thought that the tapering of QE would bring higher interest rates. In reality, just the threat of tapering brought on higher interest rates, while the actual tapering commencing in December 2013 lowered them substantially. Something is rotten in the state of (monetary) Denmark...
When the market doesn't do what you think it should do, there is a message in that, too. I often like to say that when something doesn't quite fit on the great macro chessboard of interconnected financial markets, be they bonds, stocks, or currencies. In this case, the QE tapering is producing a rally in Treasurys and all related fixed-income instruments, as nearly all of them are priced off of them in some sort of a spread. Those spreads can shrink or widen, but as the benchmark rate underneath the spread is moving, all fixed-income instruments are likely to move, too.
Now that the monthly rate of QE has gone down to $45 billion and $40 billion of Treasurys, auction bids went away — reducing demand — why did bonds rally between December and April?!
It could be that as the Fed's gigantic balance sheet, standing at $4,336,649 million grows, it has a constantly growing number of maturing bonds. The bigger the balance sheet, the more maturing amounts to be reinvested into new bonds. This reinvestment factor has grown significantly in influence in the interest-rate markets as the Fed's balance sheet has risen from $800 billion or so five years ago to its present terrifying level. So the bigger the balance sheet, the less fresh QE is necessary to have the same effect on interest-rate markets.
My reasoning made some sense to me, but I decided to call a familiar bond expert who had drawn a line in the sand for the 10-year Treasury yield to rise to 3% well before it got there. He also called for mini tapers from the Fed before the Fed announced them. I figured 30 years in the trenches of the bond market would count for a lot as far as insights, so I called Mike Lanier who is a managing director of Dial Capital Management.
We spent 1 hour and 48 minutes on the phone, and I got the sense that he was almost as confused as I was. "It is pretty clear that the Fed is re-equitizing banks. When you borrow short and lend long in a steep yield curve, it is free money. The Fed has been making up the Great Losses from the Great Recession in the banking sector, that is about a given."
He had a point. It is easy for a bank to make money in a steep yield curve. If the fed funds rate is at 10 basis points and some short-term Treasury debt instruments are higher in yield —the two-year note is exactly at 38 basis points as of the time of this writing — the difference is free carry profits and real money for the banks. The banks don't care what the absolute level of interest rates is; they care about the relative one. If they make money in a steep yield curve, they could care less if the fed funds rate is at 10 basis points.
"Those Treasury auctions have not produced a market-based interest benchmark rate for some time. If the Fed dominates 70%-80% of the auction, then how is this a market-based interest rate?" Lanier continued. As the Fed was tapering with decreased deficits and issuance, it was still the largest force in Treasury auctions.
Then we stumbled upon a topic that would likely only be known to insiders of the bond market. The Merrill Lynch High-Yield index he was following was acting strange. You would not see it on the surface of the index, but in different categories of bonds. Year to date — as of the time we spoke a week ago Thursday — BB bonds were outperforming B bonds.
"In a benign interest-rate and credit environment it is usually the other way around; single Bs outperform BBs as they yield more. I have never seen this before. So the master high-yield index is comprised of 48% BBs, 35% Bs, and 17% CCC. Year-to-date (through May 15, 2014), BBs had returned 4.47%, Bs had returned 3.68%, while CCCs had returned 4.06%. So there is a flight to quality from the more-liquid single Bs to BBs; the CCC part of the market is small and many big players don't own them or they have small positions so that is why they have not been hit as hard as single Bs."
I told Lanier that there was something strange in the stock market, too. Higher-beta stocks like biotechs, Internet companies, and many Chinese equities listed in the U.S. had come down hard since March without this showing up in the S&P 500. Some sort of gigantic rotational correction where the CBOE Volatility Index VIX, +9.63% had barely budged, while individual groups of stocks had, in some cases, seen sharp corrections that some have referred to as mini crashes. That looked like the type of rotational correction between single Bs and BBs in the bond market.
There was something that bothered Lanier, though. "At present, we have the lowest perceived level of default in the bond market. This is because the Fed has been too aggressive. The Greenspan put had become the Bernanke put and very well may morph into a Yellen put. We are at an all-time high in corporate profits and margins. Those margins cannot expand forever on the substitution of technology for people. If things cannot get any better..."
"While the bond market has had a huge move since the lows in 2008, it is not as overstretched as at some points in the mid-1990s and 2000s. There is a back-of-the-envelope ratio that bond traders use that still looks OK. If you divide mid-investment-grade corporate yield by Treasury yield, you get a ratio of 1.6. So, such corporates yield 60% more than Treasuries. That is still OK. In more overstretched bond markets, I have seen this below 50%. In more normal recessions like in 2002, I have seen this at 97%. So parts of the bond market are still OK.
"There is something though that people miss with the tapering," he concluded. "As the Fed is half done, there has been very little volatility midway through the process — there was some at the very mention of it a year ago. When the Fed gets toward the end of the tapering, this may change as it will no longer be dominating Treasury auctions, so there may be wider spreads to Treasurys and more normal bond-market moves where investors set the rates. When the Fed was crowding out investors sucking up 80% of auctions — that was not a market. It would be nice for the bond market to get back to normal again."
Ivan Martchev is an investment specialist with institutional money manager Navellier and Associates. The opinions expressed are his own. This is neither a recommendation to buy nor sell any financial instrument mentioned in this article.