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This page can be viewed at http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=peter_franck
It was "all a big bluff…. Basically, it was all a show for the American public." [Agence France-Presse, 6/6/2003]
US Secretary of State Colin Powell presents the Bush administration's case against Saddam to the UN Security Council, in advance of an expected vote on a second resolution that the US and Britain hope will provide the justification to use military force against Iraq. (Powell 2/5/2003) At the insistence of Powell, CIA Director George Tenet is seated directly behind him to the right. "It was theater, a device to signal to the world that Powell was relying on the CIA to make his case that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction," Vanity Fair magazine will later explain. (Bamford 2004, pp. 371-2; Burrough et al. 5/2004, pp. 232) In his speech before the Council, Powell makes the case that Iraq is in further material breach of past UN resolutions, specifically the most recent one, UN Resolution 1441 (see November 8, 2002). Sources cited in Powell's presentation include defectors, informants, communication intercepts, procurement records, photographs, and detainees. (Powell 2/5/2003) Most of the allegations made by Powell are later demonstrated to be false. "The defectors and other sources went unidentified," the Associated Press will later report. "The audiotapes were uncorroborated, as were the photo interpretations. No other supporting documents were presented. Little was independently verifiable." (Hanley 8/9/2003)
Iraq's December 7 Declaration Was Inaccurate - Powell contends that Iraq's December 7 declaration was not complete. According to UN Resolution 1441 the document was supposed to be a "currently accurate, full and complete declaration of all aspects" of its programs to develop weapons of mass destruction. But Saddam has not done this, says Powell, who explains that Iraq has yet to provide sufficient evidence that it destroyed its previously declared stock of 8,500 liters of anthrax, as it claimed in the declaration. Furthermore, notes the secretary of state, UNSCOM inspectors had previously estimated that Iraq possessed the raw materials to produce as much as 25,000 liters of the virus. (Chivers 2/5/2003; Powell 2/5/2003; Warrick 2/6/2003)
Iraq Has Ties to Al-Qaeda - Powell repeats earlier claims that Saddam Hussein's government has ties to al-Qaeda. Powell focuses on the cases of the militant Islamic group Ansar-al-Islam and Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born Palestinian, who had received medical treatment in Baghdad during the summer of 2002 (see December 2001-Mid-2002). (Powell 2/5/2003) However, just days before Powell's speech, US and British intelligence officials—speaking on condition of anonymity—told the press that the administration's allegations of Iraqi-al-Qaeda ties were based on information provided by Kurdish groups, who, as enemies of Ansar-al-Islam, should not be considered reliable. Furthermore, these sources unequivocally stated that intelligence analysts on both sides of the Atlantic remained unconvinced of the purported links between Iraq and al-Qaeda (see February 3-4, 2003). (Sengupta 2/3/2003; Smith and Rennie 2/4/2003) Powell also claims that Iraq provided "chemical or biological weapons training for two al-Qaeda associates beginning in December 2000." The claim is based on a September 2002 CIA document which had warned that its sources were of "varying reliability" and that the claim was not substantiated (see September 2002). The report's main source, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, an al-Qaeda operative who offered the information to CIA interrogators while in custody, later recounts the claim (see February 14, 2004). (CNN 9/26/2002; Jehl 7/31/2004; Isikoff 7/5/2005) Larry Wilkerson, Powell's chief of staff, will later say that neither he nor Powell ever received "any dissent with respect to those lines… indeed the entire section that now we know came from [al-Libi]." (Isikoff and Hosenball 11/10/2005) Senior US officials will admit to the New York Times and Washington Post after the presentation that the administration was not claiming that Saddam Hussein is "exercising operational control" of al-Qaeda. (Gordon 2/6/2003; Pincus 2/7/2003)
Iraq Has Missiles Capable of Flying Up to 1,200 Kilometers - Describing a photo of the al-Rafah weapons site, Powell says: "As part of this effort, another little piece of evidence, Iraq has built an engine test stand that is larger than anything it has ever had. Notice the dramatic difference in size between the test stand on the left, the old one, and the new one on the right. Note the large exhaust vent. This is where the flame from the engine comes out. The exhaust vent on the right test stand is five times longer than the one on the left. The one of the left is used for short-range missiles. The one on the right is clearly intended for long-range missiles that can fly 1,200 kilometers. This photograph was taken in April of 2002. Since then, the test stand has been finished and a roof has been put over it so it will be harder for satellites to see what's going on underneath the test stand." (Powell 2/5/2003; Chivers 2/5/2003) But according to the Associated Press, "… UN missile experts have reported inspecting al-Rafah at least five times since inspections resumed Nov. 27, have studied the specifications of the new test stand, regularly monitor tests at the installation, and thus far have reported no concerns." (Hanley 2/7/2003) Similarly, Reuters quotes Ali Jassem, an Iraqi official, who explains that the large stand referred to in Powell's speech is not yet in operation and that its larger size is due to the fact that it will be testing engines horizontally. (Ladki 2/7/2003; Steele 2/15/2003) Several days later, Blix will report to the UN that "so far, the test stand has not been associated with a proscribed activity." (Steele 2/15/2003)
Iraqis Attempted to Hide Evidence from Inspectors - Powell shows the UN Security Council satellite shots depicting what he claims are chemical weapons bunkers and convoys of Iraqi cargo trucks preparing to transport ballistic missile components from a weapons site just two days before the arrival of inspectors. "We saw this kind of housecleaning at close to 30 sites," Powell explains. "We must ask ourselves: Why would Iraq suddenly move equipment of this nature before inspections if they were anxious to demonstrate what they had or did not have?" (Powell 2/5/2003) But the photos are interpreted differently by others. An unnamed UN official and German UN Inspector Peter Franck both say the trucks in the photos are actually fire engines. (Stober 3/18/2003; Agence France-Presse 6/6/2003)
'Literally Removed the Crust of the Earth' - Another series of photos—taken during the spring and summer of 2002—show that Iraqis have removed a layer of topsoil from the al-Musayyib chemical complex. This piece of evidence, combined with information provided by an unnamed source, leads Powell to draw the following conclusion: "The Iraqis literally removed the crust of the earth from large portions of this site in order to conceal chemical weapons evidence that would be there from years of chemical weapons activity." (Powell 2/5/2003; Warrick 2/6/2003) Showing another series of pictures—one taken on November 10 (before inspections) and one taken on December 22—Powell says that a guard station and decontamination truck were removed prior to the arrival of inspectors. Powell does not explain how he knows that the truck in the photograph was a decontamination truck. (Powell 2/5/2003; Warrick 2/6/2003; DeYoung and Pincus 2/6/2003) AP reporter Charles Hanley says that some of Powell's claims that Iraq is hiding evidence are "ridiculous." Powell says of a missile site, "This photograph was taken in April of 2002. Since then, the test stand has been finished and a roof has been put over it so it will be harder for satellites to see what's going on underneath the test stand." Hanley later says, "What he neglected to mention was that the inspectors were underneath, watching what was going on." (Moyers 4/25/2007)
Communication Intercepts Demonstrate Iraqi Attempts to Conceal Information from Inspectors - Powell plays recordings of three conversations intercepted by US intelligence—one on November 26, another on January 30, and a third, a "few weeks" before. The conversations suggest that the Iraqis were attempting to hide evidence from inspectors. (Chivers 2/5/2003; Powell 2/5/2003; Reid 2/6/2003; Sydney Morning Herald 2/7/2003) Senior administration officials concede to the Washington Post that it was not known "what military items were discussed in the intercepts." (Priest and Pincus 2/13/2003) Some critics argue that the intercepts were presented out of context and open to interpretation. (Sydney Morning Herald 2/7/2003; Sydney Morning Herald 2/9/2003) Others note that the conversations were translated from Arabic by US translators and were not analyzed or verified by an independent specialist. (Breslin 2/6/2003)
Biological Weapons Factories - Colin Powell says that US intelligence has "firsthand descriptions" that Iraq has 18 mobile biological weapons factories mounted on trucks and railroad cars. Information about the mobile weapons labs are based on the testimonies of four sources—a defected Iraqi chemical engineer who claims to have supervised one of these facilities, an Iraqi civil engineer (see December 20, 2001), a source in "a position to know," and a defected Iraqi major (see February 11, 2002). Powell says that the mobile units are capable of producing enough dry biological agent in a single month to kill several thousand people. He shows computer-generated diagrams and pictures based on the sources' descriptions of the facilities. Powell says that according to the chemical engineer, during the late 1990s, Iraq's biological weapons scientists would often begin the production of pathogens on Thursday nights and complete the process on Fridays in order to evade UNSCOM inspectors whom Iraq believed would not conduct inspections on the Muslim holy day. (Chivers 2/5/2003; Powell 2/5/2003; Warrick 2/6/2003; Marshall 2/11/2003) Powell tells the delegates, "The source was an eyewitness, an Iraqi chemical engineer, who supervised one of these facilities. He actually was present during biological agent production runs. He was also at the site when an accident occurred in 1998. Twelve technicians died from exposure to biological agents." He displays models of the mobile trucks drawn from the source's statements. (CBS News 11/4/2007) Responding to the allegation, Iraqi officials will concede that they do in fact have mobile labs, but insist that they are not used for the development of weapons. According to the Iraqis, the mobile labs are used for food analysis for disease outbreaks, mobile field hospitals, a military field bakery, food and medicine refrigeration trucks, a mobile military morgue and mobile ice making trucks. (Plesch 2/5/2003; ABC News 5/21/2003) Iraq's explanation is consistent with earlier assessments of the UN weapons inspectors. Before Powell's presentation, Hans Blix had dismissed suggestions that the Iraqis were using mobile biological weapons labs, reporting that inspections of two alleged mobile labs had turned up nothing. "Two food-testing trucks have been inspected and nothing has been found," Blix said. And Ewen Buchanan, spokesman for the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, said, "The outline and characteristics of these trucks that we inspected were all consistent with the declared purposes." (Plesch 2/5/2003; ABC News 5/21/2003)
'Curveball' Primary Source of Claims - Powell's case is further damaged when it is later learned that one of the sources Powell cited, the Iraqi major, had been earlier judged unreliable by intelligence agents at the Defense Intelligence Agency (see February 11, 2002). In May 2002, the analysts had issued a "fabricator notice" on the informant, noting that he had been "coached by [the] Iraqi National Congress" (INC) (see May 2002). But the main source for the claim had been an Iraqi defector known as "Curveball," who was initially believed to be the brother of a top aide to Ahmed Chalabi. The source claimed to be a chemical engineer who had helped design and build the mobile labs. His information was passed to Washington through Germany's intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), which had been introduced to the source by the INC. In passing along the information, the BND noted that there were "various problems with the source." And only one member of the US intelligence community had actually met with the person—an unnamed Pentagon analyst who determined the man was an alcoholic and of dubious reliability. Yet both the DIA and the CIA validated the information. (Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity 8/22/2003; Drogin and Miller 3/28/2004; Landay and Brown 4/4/2004; Newsweek 4/19/2004; Isikoff 7/19/2004) Powell says that the US has three other intelligence sources besides Curveball for the mobile bioweapons labs. Powell will be infuriated to learn that none of those three sources ever corroborated Curveball's story, and sometimes their information contradicted each other. One of the three had failed a polygraph test and was determined to have lied to his debriefers. Another had already been declared a fabricator by US intelligence community, and had been proven to have mined his information off the Internet. (Drogin and Karlin 11/27/2007) In November 2007, Curveball is identified as Rafid Ahmed Alwan. Serious questions about Curveball's veracity had already been raised by the time of Powell's UN presentation. He will later be completely discredited (see November 4, 2007).
Further Problems with Mobile Lab Claims - In addition to the inspectors' assessments and the dubious nature of the sources Powell cited, there are numerous other problems with the mobile factories claim. Raymond Zilinskas, a microbiologist and former UN weapons inspector, argues that significant amounts of pathogens such as anthrax, could not be produced in the short span of time suggested in Powell's speech. "You normally would require 36 to 48 hours just to do the fermentation…. The short processing time seems suspicious to me." He also says: "The only reason you would have mobile labs is to avoid inspectors, because everything about them is difficult. We know it is possible to build them—the United States developed mobile production plants, including one designed for an airplane—but it's a big hassle. That's why this strikes me as a bit far-fetched." (Warrick 2/6/2003) After Powell's speech, Blix will say in his March 7 report to the UN that his inspectors found no evidence of mobile weapons labs (see March 7, 2003). (CNN 3/7/2003; Agence France-Presse 3/7/2003; King et al. 3/7/2003) Reporter Bob Drogin, author of Curveball: Spies, Lies and the Con Man Who Caused a War, says in 2007, "[B]y the time Colin Powell goes to the UN to make the case for war, he shows the world artists' conjectures based on analysts' interpretations and extrapolations of Arabic-to-German-to-English translations of summary debriefing reports of interviews with a manic-depressive defector whom the Americans had never met. [CIA director George] Tenet told Powell that Curveball's information was ironclad and unassailable. It was a travesty." (Holland 10/22/2007)
'Four Tons' of VX Toxin - Powell also claims that Iraq has "four tons" of VX nerve toxin. "A single drop of VX on the skin will kill in minutes," he says. "Four tons." Hanley later notes, "He didn't point out that most of that had already been destroyed. And, on point after point he failed to point out that these facilities about which he was raising such alarm were under repeated inspections good, expert people with very good equipment, and who were leaving behind cameras and other monitoring equipment to keep us a continuing eye on it." (Moyers 4/25/2007)
Iraq is Developing Unmanned Drones Capable of Delivering Weapons of Mass Destruction - Powell asserts that Iraq has flight-tested an unmanned drone capable of flying up to 310 miles and is working on a liquid-fueled ballistic missile with a range of 745 miles. He plays a video of an Iraqi F-1 Mirage jet dispersing "simulated anthrax." (Powell 2/5/2003; Chivers 2/5/2003; Graham 2/6/2003) But the Associated Press will later report that the video was made prior to the 1991 Gulf War. Apparently, three of the four spray tanks shown in the film had been destroyed during the 1991 military intervention. (Hanley 8/9/2003)
Imported Aluminum Tubes were Meant for Centrifuge - Powell argues that the aluminum tubes which Iraq had attempted to import in July 2001 (see July 2001) were meant to be used in a nuclear weapons program and not for artillery rockets as experts from the US Energy Department, the INR, and the IAEA have been arguing (see February 3, 2003) (see January 11, 2003) (see August 17, 2001) (see January 27, 2003). To support the administration's case, he cites unusually precise specifications and high tolerances for heat and stress. "It strikes me as quite odd that these tubes are manufactured to a tolerance that far exceeds US requirements for comparable rockets," he says. "Maybe Iraqis just manufacture their conventional weapons to a higher standard than we do, but I don't think so." Powell also suggests that because the tubes were "anodized," it was unlikely that they had been designed for conventional use. (Powell 2/5/2003; Warrick 2/5/2003; Warrick 3/8/2003) Powell does not mention that numerous US nuclear scientists have dismissed this claim (see August 17, 2001) (see September 23, 2002) (see December 2002). (Albright 10/9/2003) Powell also fails to say that Iraq has rockets identical to the Italian Medusa 81 mm rockets, which are of the same dimensions and made of the same alloy as the 3,000 tubes that were intercepted in July 2001 (see After January 22, 2003). (Gellman and Pincus 8/10/2003) This had been reported just two weeks earlier by the Washington Post. (Richburg 1/24/2003) Moreover, just two days before, Powell was explicitly warned by the US State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research not to cite the aluminum tubes as evidence that Iraq is pursuing nuclear weapons (see February 3, 2003). (Wetzel 7/29/2003)
Iraq Attempted to Acquire Magnets for Use in a Gas Centrifuge Program - Powell says: "We… have intelligence from multiple sources that Iraq is attempting to acquire magnets and high-speed balancing machines. Both items can be used in a gas centrifuge program to enrich uranium. In 1999 and 2000, Iraqi officials negotiated with firms in Romania, India, Russia and Slovenia for the purchase of a magnet production plant. Iraq wanted the plant to produce magnets weighing 20 to 30 grams. That's the same weight as the magnets used in Iraq's gas centrifuge program before the Gulf War." (Powell 2/5/2003; Gordon 2/6/2003) Investigation by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] will demonstrate that the magnets have a dual use. IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei said a little more than a week before, on January 27, in his report to the Security Council: "Iraq presented detailed information on a project to construct a facility to produce magnets for the Iraqi missile program, as well as for industrial applications, and that Iraq had prepared a solicitation of offers, but that the project had been delayed due to 'financial credit arrangements.' Preliminary investigations indicate that the specifications contained in the offer solicitation are consistent with those required for the declared intended uses. However, the IAEA will continue to investigate the matter…." (see January 27, 2003) (Annan 1/27/2003 ) On March 7, ElBaradei will provide an additional update: "The IAEA has verified that previously acquired magnets have been used for missile guidance systems, industrial machinery, electricity meters and field telephones. Through visits to research and production sites, reviews of engineering drawings and analyses of sample magnets, IAEA experts familiar with the use of such magnets in centrifuge enrichment have verified that none of the magnets that Iraq has declared could be used directly for a centrifuge magnetic bearing." (see March 7, 2003) (CNN 3/7/2003)
Iraq Attempted to Purchase Machines to Balance Centrifuge Rotors - Powell states: "Intercepted communications from mid-2000 through last summer show that Iraq front companies sought to buy machines that can be used to balance gas centrifuge rotors. One of these companies also had been involved in a failed effort in 2001 to smuggle aluminum tubes into Iraq." (Powell 2/5/2003; Gordon 2/6/2003)
Powell Cites Documents Removed from Home of Iraqi Scientist Faleh Hassan - Powell cites the documents that had been found on January 16, 2003 by inspectors with the help of US intelligence at the Baghdad home of Faleh Hassan, a nuclear scientist. Powell asserts that the papers are a "dramatic confirmation" that Saddam Hussein is concealing evidence and not cooperating with the inspections. The 3,000 documents contained information relating to the laser enrichment of uranium (see January 16, 2003). (Coughlin 1/18/2003; Jahn 1/18/2003; BBC 1/19/2003; Powell 2/5/2003) A little more than a week later, in the inspectors' February 14 update to the UN Security Council (see February 14, 2003), ElBaradei will say, "While the documents have provided some additional details about Iraq's laser enrichment development efforts, they refer to activities or sites already known to the IAEA and appear to be the personal files of the scientist in whose home they were found. Nothing contained in the documents alters the conclusions previously drawn by the IAEA concerning the extent of Iraq's laser enrichment program." (Steele 2/15/2003; BBC 2/17/2003; Hanley 8/9/2003)
Iraq is Hiding Missiles in the Desert - Powell says that according to unidentified sources, the Iraqis have hidden rocket launchers and warheads containing biological weapons in the western desert. He further contends that these caches of weapons are hidden in palm groves and moved to different locations on a weekly basis. (Powell 2/5/2003) It will later be suggested that this claim was "lifted whole from an Iraqi general's written account of hiding missiles in the 1991 war." (Hanley 8/9/2003)
Iraq Has Scud Missiles - Powell also says that according to unnamed "intelligence sources," Iraq has a few dozen Scud-type missiles. (Hanley 8/9/2003)
Iraq Has Weapons of Mass Destruction - Secretary of State Colin Powell states unequivocally: "We… have satellite photos that indicate that banned materials have recently been moved from a number of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction facilities. There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more." Elsewhere in his speech he says: "We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more." (Powell 2/5/2003; CNN 2/5/2003)
Governments, Media Reaction Mixed - Powell's speech will fail to convince many skeptical governments, nor will it impress many in the European media. But it will have a tremendous impact in the US media (see February 5, 2003 and After).
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If you've bought multiple Cloak of Virtue's, the item that enchants your cloak to turn it in to a legendary will choose the first cloak in your inventory to enchant. Bank any off-spec cloaks before using it.
I've made a bug post on the EU testing forum, but if someone could point this out on the US one as well that would be great.

subset: commoncrawl


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As you have probably heard by now, the groundbreaking and legendary adult film maker Max Hardcore, was recently found guilty for the production of "Obscenity," and sentenced to 46 months in federal prison, and fined Eighty-Five Thousand Dollars! Other artists who have been convicted of Obscenity in the past include comedian Lenny Bruce and author James Joyce.
Max Hardcore's films were found to be illegal because they "violated community standards." With the assistance of the judge, the prosecutor inflamed the jury as they painting Max Hardcore as a violent predator – even though there was no real violence at all! Thoroughly prejudiced, the jury ignored the fact that Max's scripted and staged productions involved only willing and well paid participants of legal age. The jury even ignored the glowing praise by one of his so-called victims who starred in three of the five movies on trial.
Take a quick look at history and you will find that most truly great art violates community standards. Max Hardcore was sentenced to prison because he is a creative, brilliant, groundbreaking pornographer. Instead of being tried in Los Angeles, where he lives and works, he was tried in a conservative part of Florida, because some of his internet servers happened to be located there. This sets a very dangerous precedent to all those who have blogs or websites no matter where you live!
Humanity progresses through offensive ideas. Socrates was sentenced to death for corrupting the youth of Athens. Copernicus and Galileo were arrested for proving that Earth was not the center of the universe. Jesus was crucified for teaching a religion of peace and acceptance.
The freedom of speech is the right to pursue and develop ideas, and to share those ideas with the world. It is the right to pursue greatness and truth. It is the right to do art, to do science. It is to express yourself with the help of others, so long as everyone is participating of their own free will.
By jailing a truly groundbreaking artist, the government has not just taken away one man's freedom. They have taken away the right to pursue new ideas, to challenge and improve the accepted ways of doing things, to seek artistic greatness. And they have taken this right not only from Max Hardcore, but from every one of us.
Stanton Audemars
Rattled Films
You Can Do Something About this!
Max Hardcore was never a rich man, but has financed this case up to this point, and spent nearly all his money. To carry it onward to the appeals process, Max now needs the help of all people who know the importance of Freedom of Speech, and the Sanctity of one's own home.
Now is the time to show you mean business, and contribute whatever you can, be it $20, $100, $1,000, or more, every dollar counts! Max has set up a fund so he can mount a robust appeal, and get this case thrown out, for so many good reasons, that it shows the conservative elements of the Justice Department that people aren't going to stand for being treated like unpatriotic citizens anymore! Here's what you can do:
Contribute by Check or Money Order:
Make checks Payable, and Send them to:
Sirkin, Pinales & Schwartz, LLP
Attorneys at Law
920 Fourth & Race Tower
105 West 4th Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-2726
(Memo Note on check that it's for the Max Hardcore Defense Fund)
Contribute using a Credit or Debit Card! Call them at: 513 721-4876
(Say you want to contribute to the Max Hardcore Defense Fund)
True, not everyone is fond of Max.
According to wikipedia,
Max Hardcore (born Paul F. Little on August 10, 1956 in Racine, Wisconsin, U.S.A.) is a controversial male porn star and producer whose films usually feature him engaging in a variety of sexual acts with young women who dress and act like prepubescent girls.
Although Hardcore often depicts his actresses as young and sometimes beneath the age of consent, they are not actually under 18. In his film Max Extreme 4, an actress over the age of 18 was portraying a character who states that she is 12 years old.
Based on these movies, the city of Los Angeles in 1998 charged him with child pornography and distribution of obscenity. The fact that the actress was over the age of 18 was not disputed; they brought charges based solely on the fact that the actress was portraying a character who was under eighteen years of age.
Just before the case was brought to trial in 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the statute prohibiting adults from portraying children in films and books was unconstitutional (See Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition). Based on this ruling, the child pornography charges against Hardcore were dismissed. The misdemeanor charge of distribution of obscenity was retained, but the jury failed to reach a verdict. An additional obscenity charge was subsequently levied against him by L.A., again resulting in a hung jury. Hardcore commented that "it was a frivolous waste of public resources."
On October 5, 2005, the offices of Max World Entertainment were raided by the FBI. Five video titles and the office's computer servers were seized, ostensibly for research toward a federal obscenity indictment or a charge related to the 2257 record-keeping law. In response to this action, Hardcore released the following statement: "Once again, the government is wasting tax dollars and otherwise invaluable law enforcement resources to try to force a minority view of morality on all of America. Five of my movies have been targeted by the Federal Prude Patrol. There is no indication of any crime to be alleged except obscenity. If indicted, I will fight to protect my liberty, as well as the liberty of consenting adults to watch other adults engage in lawful, consensual, pleasurable sexual action. Shame on the Bush Department of Justice. I am proud of the movies I make and proud of those who buy and sell those movies."
In 2007 Max Hardcore was indicted by the United States Department of Justice Obscenity Prosecution Task Force on 10 counts of federal obscenity charges in Tampa, Florida and was found guilty on all charges in June 2008. He has been sentenced to 46 months in prison. Also on October 3 2008 the official Max Hardcore domain was forfeited, making the current official website http://www.MaxHardcoreTV.com.
Glenn Greenwald writes in Salon,
So, to recap, in the Land of the Free: if you're an adult who produces a film using other consenting adults, for the entertainment of still other consenting adults, which merely depicts fictional acts of humiliation and degradation, the DOJ will prosecute you and send you to prison for years. The claim that no real pain was inflicted will be rejected; mere humiliation is enough to make you a criminal. But if government officials actually subject helpless detainees in their custody to extreme mental abuse, degradation, humiliation and even mock executions long considered "torture" in the entire civilized world, the DOJ will argue that they have acted with perfect legality and, just to be sure, Congress will hand them retroactive immunity for their conduct. That's how we prioritize criminality and arrange our value system.
this site suggests that some of Max's scenes really were rape. However, if that is the case, why were no charges of rape ever filed, with the evidence being so easily available?
Susannah Breslin writes,
In Max Hardcore movies–"Anal Agony," "Hardcore Schoolgirls," "Max! Don't Fuck Up My Mommy!"–women are verbally and physically degraded in an unprecedented myriad of ways. They are choked, slapped, throat-fucked, penetrated with fists, given enemas, pile-driven, urinated upon, vomited upon, and in some instances instructed to drink from glasses the money shots that have been delivered into their rectums. Most of the time, Little as Hardcore is the perpetrator of these acts. Not infrequently, his scenes are fraught with pedophilia themes, beginning when he stumbles upon his subjects in playgrounds, where they sit alone, in pigtails, talking baby-talk, and sucking on lollipops. Mostly, the sex scenes end with his latest costar a mess and Hardcore triumphant. Even for the most jaded porn watcher, Little's ouevre is over the top. Watching Little's work is less like watching a porn movie than it is akin to witnessing a vivisection. On the screen, Hardcore bends over the female bodies before him, sometimes with speculum in hand, as if attempting to get at something within her at which he can never quite get, and so to which he is doomed to return, his methods more and more hardcore.
She continues,
Because if you're going to talk about how far we've come when it comes to porn, if you're going to posit Paul "Max Hardcore" Little as the latest victim of the Bush administration, if you're going to lament one more strike against your First Amendment rights, you should bear witness as to what a porn star drenched in vomit looks like.
Fair enough. I've watched dozens and maybe even hundreds of Max's films, going back over a decade. I've certainly watched hundreds that have been inspired by his work. Unless and until there is evidence of actual rape proven in a court of law, I tend to agree with Greenwald as reported in his exchange with Breslin:
I really don't care what consenting adults do with one another in order to entertain themselves or please themselves sexually–I'm not a busy body trying to sit in judgment of what other adults choose to do with themselves, especially in their sex lives. Not even the Government claimed that these films involved minors or non-consent, so as far as I'm concerned, it's nobody's business what they do, and whatever they do isn't going to change my mind in the slightest.
Breslin reports,
In 2005, the Bush administration launched its so-called "War on Porn," forming the Obscenity Prosecution Task Force, a Department of Justice outfit dedicated to pursuing obscenity prosecutions, and the FBI began recruiting for a "porn squad," otherwise known as the Adult Obscenity Squad, focused on "manufacturers and purveyors" of pornography.
She also finds irony in the following:
Little's defense, Greenwald points out, is the same defense the Bush administration has used to defend interrogation techniques used on detainees: "because the acts in question didn't involve the infliction of severe pain, they weren't illegal." In the case of Little's videos, he asserts, "There was no suggestion that any serious violence was ever inflicted or that the adult actors in the film were anything other than completely consensual." In conclusion, he proclaims: "So, to recap, in the Land of the Free: if you're an adult who produces a film using other consenting adults, for the entertainment of still other consenting adults, which merely depicts fictional acts of humiliation and degradation, the DOJ will prosecute you and send you to prison for years.
What's ironic about that? The Bush gang tortured people who did not consent. Max either tortured women who did consent – not a crime, and not even wrong – or he tortured women who did not consent. In which case, the Bush gang should have charged him with rape. They did not. Is it because they did not have a case? If they did have a case, why didn't they charge him?
And why is the same bunch who makes excuses for non-concensual torture so willing to go after concensual torture – because they wish to monopolize the act, or keep it out of sight and out of mind?
Where is all of this leading?
Delaware Libertarian offers a clue:
From News.com.au:
THE Federal Government is planning to make internet censorship compulsory for all Australians and could ban controversial websites on euthanasia or anorexia.
Australia's level of net censorship will put it in the same league as countries including China, Cuba, Iran and North Korea, and the Government will not let users opt out of the proposed national internet filter when it is introduced.
Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy Minister Stephen Conroy admitted the Federal Government's $44.2 million internet censorship plan would now include two tiers – one level of mandatory filtering for all Australians and an optional level that will provide a "clean feed", censoring adult material.
Despite planning to hold "live trials" before the end of the year, Senator Conroy said it was not known what content the mandatory filter would bar, with euthanasia or pro-anorexia sites on the chopping block.
"We are talking about mandatory blocking, where possible, of illegal material," he told a Senate Estimates Committee.
Previously the net nanny proposal was going to allow Australians who wanted uncensored access to the web the option to contact their internet service provider and be excluded from the service.
So… Australia is going to have mandatory, state-instituted internet filtering, which is basically designed to eliminate anything the Australian government decides would be bad for its citizens to see, a list which apparently includes at this point any website discussing anorexia or euthanasia.
But, as my non-Libertarian friends never tire of telling me: there is no such thing as a slippery slope. There is no such thing as a slippery slope. Thereisnosuchthingasaslipperyslope.
However, the CIA interrogators who videotaped the torture and degradation of non-consenting prisoners are still free.
The same Justice Department that defended the legality of "enhanced interrogation" methods has named mainstream adult pornography a top enforcement priority.


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Devon Teachers Enriching NRICH - Part 2
Age 5 to 11
Article by Helen Edginton and Liz Woodham
Published February 2011.
In the
first part of this article
, we described how the Enriching Mathematics Project in Devon came about. Having been introduced to the NRICH website and 'rich' mathematical tasks, teachers in the county agreed to trial some of the investigations and games with their children and complete evaluation forms, reflecting on the lessons as they did so. Four months after this initial launch, we all met again and the teachers shared their experiences of how NRICH had impacted on teaching and learning in their classrooms.
During the afternoon of our second day, the Lead Teachers took the lead! In the
previous part
of this article, we heard about examples of problems used by three of the Lead Teachers: Katie, Barbara and Anna. They highlighted changes in the ways the children worked and ways that they themselves as teachers had developed. In this article, we will share the comments of three more Lead Teachers: Jayne, Amy and Justine.
Sweet problems
Jayne, a Year 3 teacher at St Leonard's Primary School, told us about one of her experiences of using NRICH problems. In this instance, she had wanted to find an activity to use with her whole class, many of whom have behavioural issues. She wanted to focus on appropriate use of apparatus and meta-cognition.
She found the
Sweets in a Box
To begin with, Jayne modelled how she would have started a solution on the board, verbalising her thinking. She deliberately made a mistake and asked the pupils how they could improve what she had done. They talked in pairs about what they would do and then carried out their plans. Jayne encouraged them to use everything and anything in terms of equipment.
Jayne reported that it was interesting to see their different methods of representation - some drew images, some used multilink. Some went on to investigate multi-layered boxes and some changed the rules slightly so that they could ignore diagonal lines. One child used symbols to represent the sweets. Pairs went on to make a poster, which described their thinking as they had been working on the problem.
Jayne summarised her presentation with the following comments:
children made their own decisions
they were challenged, regardless of their starting point
the class worked for two hours!
the task naturally promoted use of apparatus
the pupils refined and reviewed as they worked
the problem encouraged them to talk.
Positive problems
Amy is a Year 6 teacher at Whipton Barton Junior School. She began by explaining that the majority of her class didn't like taking risks in mathematics and some children also exhibited very challenging behaviour.
Amy had a go at
Consecutive Numbers
with four children.
Amy told us that one of the group, I'll call him K, often displayed aggressive behaviour and found working with others very difficult. She told the group that she would take some still photos, but then secretly filmed them as they worked. We saw a few clips of key moments. One showed K and his partner very excited at being able to predict some of the results of the calculations. Another clip showed K spotting a mistake in the working of the other pair of children. He politely and carefully went through the correct version with them several times until they saw their error, which Amy reported was a real break-through as previously he would have been very dismissive of, and rude about, their mistake.
Amy said that K really wanted to share the investigation with the rest of the class. He suggested that if each pupil started on a different number, they would then have lots of examples to see whether the pattern always worked. He 'pestered' Amy over several days to allow him to try this out, which he did. He'd been thinking about it at home and suggested that each member of the class began on their number in the register. Unfortunately, some of the children couldn't cope with the addition and subtraction of negative numbers, so not all the arithmetic was correct and Amy had to intervene, but it was great to see K so determined to lead a maths session with his peers.
Amy reflected that filming in this way had also enabled her to think about her own interventions, which had been important for her own professional development. She found herself wondering what would have happened if she hadn't said ..., or if she had said... at particular moments.
Amy commented that, gradually, the children in her class have got much better at working in groups and communicating with each other about mathematics, and they now have the confidence to try things out. This has also transferred into other curriculum areas. Amy led a staff INSET about NRICH in the autumn term of 2009.
Problems with Multiplication
Justine, a Year 5/6 teacher at Newton Ferrers C of E Primary School, wanted to see how some of her higher-attaining children applied their knowledge and she was keen to assess their reasoning and explanations. She worked with a small group and didn't tell them these intended learning objectives.
They watched the video in the problem
Multiplying with Lines
, without any explanation from Justine. (It is impossible to convey the contents of the video here without losing the impact, so I urge you to take a look before reading on!) The children asked to see it again so they watched it one more time. The challenge was to figure out why this method for multiplication works and Justine simply let them get on with it. They began asking their own questions, such as "Does it work with all numbers?", "Does it work with decimals?" ... Justine asked the group if they could relate this method to other methods of multiplication with which they were familiar. One pair videoed themselves comparing this line method with the grid method, explaining the links. Justine reported that the children were inspired by the task and it took away barriers as they had no idea what she as the teacher was looking for!
This afternoon session led by the Lead Teachers was amazingly inspiring. The teachers' presentations were informed by a rich range of evidence including children's work, photographs, dictaphone recordings and video clips. Liz was completely bowled over by their commitment and drive, their enthusiasm for mathematics and the overwhelming desire they each had to create engaging, challenging and meaningful mathematical experiences for their children. Reflecting on the afternoon sometime later, Liz was particularly struck by the following:
Several teachers' willingness to adapt the existing NRICH resources to suit their learners demonstrates a professionalism and confidence that truly impressed her.
The fact that Barbara was inspired to create her own 'NRICH-style' problems- it is interesting that she herself had a clear idea of what made an 'NRICH-style' challenge and by identifying those characteristics, she was able to make resources which offered the same kind of experiences herself.
On many occasions, the children were motivated to ask 'what if ...?' questions and to create their own versions of the activities.
It was evident that some learners began to think about mathematics and particular problems beyond the classroom situation. Isn't this exactly what we would like children to be doing - mulling over a problem over a series of days or weeks?
Modelling a solution, possibly making mistakes, and inviting children to improve and continue it is a powerful approach.
All the teachers had high expectations of all their learners.
Being involved with this project seemed to prompt some teachers to reflect on their own practice, carefully considering the questions and prompts used, and deliberately deciding not to share the learning objectives with the group.
The feedback day was a resounding success and Liz would like to think that everyone went away feeling very inspired and enthused - she certainly did. She was so taken aback by the quality of the teachers' responses, not just the Lead Teachers', but also the feedback received from everyone who filled in a form, that she cannot stop talking about it. Since March, Helen and Liz have been busy collating the information we have received in over 200 feedback forms! Some of the comments Liz is able to act upon relatively easily where appropriate and others she has been sharing with NRICH colleagues. It is only through constructive feedback that the NRICH website will continue to improve and therefore Liz is indebted to all the Devon primary teachers who took part in this project.
To celebrate the success of this partnership between Devon and NRICH, further dissemination is planned through links with
, SWMA (South West Maths Association), SWGATE and the
Devon primary maths website
This article first appeared in Primary Mathematics, a journal published by
The Mathematical Association
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The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice.
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Millennium Mathematics Project


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To ensure that all employees perform their jobs to the best of their abilities, the university has a performance appraisal process which stresses the importance of employees being recognized for good performance and receiving appropriate suggestions for improvement as necessary. Consistent with this goal, performance will be evaluated in writing at least once each year by supervisors. This performance appraisal provides an opportunity for the employee and supervisor to discuss job related performance and to establish goals for improvement and further development. The goal of the performance appraisal is to enhance the employee's job performance while establishing good communication channels between the employee and the supervisor.
Supervisor reviews employee job description (update if needed and email a copy to the Director of Compensation).
Supervisor reviews employee attendance record from previous year
Supervisor seeks feedback from employee regarding past year accomplishments/challenges and future year goals
Supervisor completes performance appraisal
Supervisor meets with employee to discuss performance appraisal
Supervisor forwards completed appraisal to Department Head for review and signature
Department Head forwards signed performance appraisal to Human Resources
Department specific forms previously approved by Human Resources will still be accepted.


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I (My Dog) Found a Bunny NestPosted on 29 April 2010 by Dawn Keller
It's a fairly common situation this time of year. Somehow or another, you found a nest of baby bunnies in the yard. Maybe you were mowing the yard, gardening, or your dog actually did the sleuthing. In any case, what do you do?
First and foremost, don't disturb the bunny nest. If it was disturbed through your activities or by your dog, then repair the nest as well as you can. Any injured bunnies should be removed from the nest, but the uninjured bunnies should be left in the nest. We realize that the nest might be inconvenient, but it is against Illinois state law to knowingly disturb or relocate the nest - so leave it alone!
Second, place any injured bunnies in a box with plenty of bedding. If they are eyes-open, then it helps reduce their stress by also providing a small box for hiding. Lining the box with shredded paper towel works well. We use boutique-style Kleenex boxes placed on their side with all plastic around the opening removed. Place the box inside in a quiet, warm area away from pets, children and human noises. Resist the temptation to check on them frequently. We (humans) are stressful to wildlife, so checking on them can actually reduce the bunnies chance of survival.
Third, provide supplemental heat for any eyes-closed bunnies. The best way for the public to provide heat is to place a heating pad SET ON LOW TEMPERATURE under half of the box. This way the bunnies can get on or off of the heat as necessary.
Fourth, DO NOT FEED THEM OR GIVE THEM WATER. The leading cause of death of orphaned wildlife admitted to Flint Creek Wildlife is because well-intentioned members of the public fed the animals before they brought the animals to us. As a member of the public, you cannot possibly have the know-how, equipment or proper food to properly care for injured and orphaned wildlife. Additionally, it is against the law to care for wildlife without possessing permits from the state and/or federal government (state for mammals, federal for birds).
Fifth, promptly get the bunnies to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. Our website contains a list of licensed wildife rehabilitators in Illinois. If you are from another state, contact your Department of Natural Resources for a list of licensed rehabilitators in your state.
Sixth, take steps to protect the nest from your dog/lawn service/etc. Using chicken wire, construct a fence around the nest. The fence should have two arches (8" high by 6" wide) cut in the bottom for Mom Bunny's access and should be large enough diameter that the dog cannot reach the nest even if he reaches through the arch with his paw. Stake the fence into the ground around the nest. If the original disturbance was aerial (Crows, Blue Jays, etc.), then you can also add a chicken wire top so that it becomes a cylindrical cage.
Last, leave the nest alone. Resist the urge to check on the bunnies. The more often you check, the more likely the nest will be found by predators.
Additional notes:
- Mom bunnies only feed their babies twice per day. Just because you don't see Mom at the nest does not mean that the nest is abandoned. You will likely never see Mom Bunny regardless of the excellent care she provides.
- Bunnies do not have good survival rates in captivity. It is always best to leave bunnies with their mom to give them the best chance of survival.
- Mom bunnies will still care for their babies after a nest disturbance.
- The trick of placing string or twigs over the nest to see if Mom Bunny came to feed the babies doesn't work well. It's really best to assume that Mom is taking care of the babies. It can be hard, but it's best to just stay away.
- If you find a dead adult rabbit, don't assume it is the Mom Bunny. If you are able, check to see if the dead adult is a nursing female. This provides important information in assessing the best course of action.
- Don't relocate the nest. First, nest relocation illegal. Second, why would you think the Mom Bunny will find the new location? If I moved your house to another street, how would YOU know where to look?
We have also posted a new decision tree "My Dog Found a Nest of Baby Bunnies" on our website.


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Selling or thinking of selling your home? Here are the 4 major points buyers focus on when looking at a house:
A lot of time is spent in bathrooms. Time doing hair and makeup, showering or having baths to relax as well as occasionally taking time to read a magazine or book. Considering this we know that buyers will be very critical of the details – is it bright? Are the mirrors the right size? Is there enough counter space? Is there a soaker tub?
The main goal is to allow them to be able to picture themselves living in the space. The best way to do that is by making sure the room is in tip-top shape and staged correctly. Check that the grout is clean in the bath or shower, amenities are unused and a fresh loofa or bar of soap is in the shower. These little details will keep the room feeling fresh and give potential buyers the opportunity to imagine the space as their own.
Living space.
This is the space that is lived in the most and often used for entertaining. Maximize the space here – remove extra clutter to keep it open for easy mobility. Keep pillows, blankets and the like to a minimum so that there is space to sit and relax. Take care to dust the mantle and all ledges so that when buyers take a second to sit and observe they are not distracted by dust.
Many people consider this the most important space in the house! This room will be used for entertaining, cooking meals, and serving holiday feasts. Function is the key selling point here. Make certain to remove any clutter, take away any small appliances that do not increase the décor or fit the persona of the kitchen. Ensure everything is clean, including the inside of the fridge, as it will assist the buyer in envisioning themselves cooking and entertaining.
The senses have a huge impact on what a buyer thinks and how they remember a home. Make sure there is no overwhelming scents guarantying the buyer takes away their memories of the space – not just how it smelled. A helpful tip is to place a dab of vanilla on a light bulb or two throughout the house to give it a welcoming smell that is not overpowering.
Overall, make certain your home is appealing to the senses, clean, and clutter-free. This will ensure it leaves a lasting positive impression on possible home buyers!


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We've Made Some Big Mistakes. How Can We Clean Up the Mess?
Sandy's husband had an ATV accident a few years ago. They were both in between jobs at the time and had no insurance. They still have $20,000 in medical bills to pay, in addition to $8,000 in credit card debt. Dave tells them where to start in order to clean up the mess.Read Transcript


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Laundry/Half Bath Reveal...Finally!
And now for those of you who care at all why it has taken so long for us to finish, I have a little story about the reason (I promise to be brief). Some very good friends of ours had a "minor" catastrophe with their house. What started out as simply having a french door to their deck replaced ended up being a major remodel of one side of their house. The contractor who was putting in the door discovered a problem with their subfloor which was rotting. (Hey the house is over 200 years old, so what do you expect?) The rotting floor discovery led to a cracked beam discovery which led to a structural engineer telling them that they had to brace up the second floor...yada yada yada. So since the Hubby is a home improvement contractor, he helped them put the whole thing back together. And since this project was in addition to his other job commitments, he spent his spare time there working on their house instead of at our house. And you know what? That's okay with me. We love our friends. Their house is now fine. And our laundry room/bathroom is now finished. Sooooo after that super long explanation....here's the laundry/bath...
We went for a cottage-y farmhouse feel...
I really wish I had some before pictures, but the Hubby had torn out everything before we even moved in. I'm not exaggerating. There was no floor, no vanity, not even a toilet. He had to put a toilet in the first day we lived in the house. True story.
I love this mirror. Picked it up forever ago. It's followed us from house to house, but it looks perfect here. (I'll have to take it with us if we ever move though!)
Here is one of the locker baskets I had tucked away, it was too wide for the shelves I'll show you in a minute, but it looks great on the floor with extra towels tucked inside!
A great idea for holding those pesky drier sheets. (And q-tips - never know when you might need 'em.)
The shelf with the washer/dryer...see the little green light on the washer...yeah, it's running...pretty much always! :)
A little side note for those of you with design-oriented minds. We decided to go ahead and mix metals here...all of the fixtures are a brushed nickel, and the accents are an oil rubbed bronze (or a painted black...it all looks the same to me) but we figured, if we're aiming to look cottage, then we can mix and match finishes because it gives it an acquired-over-time feel. Besides I like the way it all looks together - which is what really matters.
Oh, and these pumpkins? Not in the bathroom...in the kitchen....just here to remind me to say Happy Halloween!
Have a lovely weekend~


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Heather Gaudio Fine Art is pleased to present "Melissa Meyer: Hitting the Right Notes," her first solo exhibition with the gallery. The show will open with a public reception for the artist on May 12th, 4-6pm and will be on view through June 23rd.
Meyer's abstract paintings have a signature calligraphy and rhythmic curvilinear vernacular that are more complex than they initially seem. Like a good bottle of wine, her works open up when allowed to breathe and the more one looks, the more notes are savored. Meyer has had a lengthy career with over forty solo exhibitions. Her work is in many notable private and public collections.


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New products introduced over the last week include three new hedged equity ETFs from Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, three new funds from BMO Global Asset Management, and a new emerging markets income fund from Neuberger Berman.
In addition, Direxion launched a new long/short global currency fund, Ramius announced its new event-driven equity mutual fund, and American Independence Financial Services announced a strategic partnership with Cougar Global Investments on investment solutions.
Here are the latest developments of interest to advisors:
1) Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management Launches Three New Funds
Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management announced Tuesday the launch of three new hedged equity ETFs on the db X-trackers platform. The new funds track MSCI hedged equity indexes and provide direct exposure to several international equity markets, while aiming to protect against fluctuations in value of the U.S. dollar and non-U.S. currencies.
The three new ETFs are: db X-trackers MSCI Asia Pacific ex Japan Hedged Equity Fund (DBAP); db X-trackers MSCI Europe Hedged Equity Fund (DBEU); and db X-trackers MSCI United Kingdom Hedged Equity Fund (DBUK). DBEU, DBUK and DBAP seek investment results that correspond generally to the performance of the MSCI Europe USD Hedged Index, the MSCI United Kingdom USD Hedged Index and the MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex Japan Index, respectively.
BMO Global Asset Management Introduces Three New Funds
BMO Global Asset Management recently announced the launch of three new funds.
The BMO TCH Emerging Markets Bond Fund (MEBIX) seeks to maximize total return from current income and capital appreciation, investing in debt securities issued by emerging market governments, companies located in emerging markets, or issuers whose primary business or trading activities are conducted in emerging markets.
The BMO Micro-Cap Fund (BMMYX) seeks to provide capital appreciation by investing, using a disciplined quantitative process, in common stocks of U.S. companies similar in size to those within the Russell Microcap Index based on company fundamentals.
BMO Global Low Volatility Fund is designed to provide investors with long-term returns similar to U.S. large cap stocks but with less volatility. The fund seeks capital appreciation by investing in stocks of U.S. companies similar in size to those in the Russell 1000 Index.
Neuberger Berman Launches Emerging Markets Income Fund for U.S. Investors
Neuberger Berman Group LLC announced recently the launch of the Neuberger Berman Emerging Markets Income Fund (NERAX, NERCX, NERIX). Lead managers for the fund are Rob Drijkoningen and Gorky Urquieta, co-heads of the firm's emerging markets debt team, as well as Jennifer Gorgoll, Raoul Luttik, Nish Popat, and Bart van der Made.
The 22-person investment team includes 12 portfolio managers, 6 credit analysts and four economists and strategists, operating from offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Direxion Launches Long/Short Global Currency Fund
Direxion announced Tuesday that it has expanded its suite of alternative-strategy mutual funds with the introduction of the Direxion Long/Short Global Currency Fund (DXAFX). DXAFX offers investors a way to obtain direct exposure to currencies in a range of markets around the world.
The actively managed fund utilizes a rules-based, long/short investment approach developed by Direxion based on the methodology of the Morgan Stanley Multi FX Enhanced V10 USD Index. It can take a long or short position in 19 eligible currencies in both developed and emerging markets. Its strategy places equal emphasis on four factors — interest rates, inflation, open interest and stock index performance—when determining whether to invest long or short on an individual currency. The strategy is designed to target a volatility level of 10%, and rebalances portfolio allocations on a monthly basis, at a minimum. Ramius Launches Event Driven Equity Mutual Fund
Ramius, the global investment management business of Cowen Group, announced the launch of the Ramius Event Driven Equity Fund (REDIX, REDAX), an actively managed alternative mutual fund providing investors with daily liquidity and exposure to a broad spectrum of transformative corporate events. The strategy focuses on publicly listed companies that are targets of shareholder activism, mergers, spinoffs, recapitalizations and restructurings.
Co-portfolio managers Andrew Cohen and Ethan Johnson oversee investments in the fund, which will be managed by Ramius Advisors LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ramius.
American Independence, Cougar Global Investments Announce Teaming
American Independence Financial Services announced Tuesday a strategic partnership with Cougar Global Investments Ltd. Under the agreement, American Independence will provide separately managed accounts (SMAs) and funds based on Cougar Global's ETF-based macroeconomic assessment of risk (MAR) strategy to address downside risk management. American Independence will provide oversight, marketing, administration and execution. The portfolios will be marketed to financial intermediaries in the U.S.
The Cougar Global MAR strategies employ a top-down investment discipline that seeks to achieve the compound growth rate required for investors to meet their specific financial goals over time, while managing downside risk and projecting the probability of negative returns in any given year. The investment process incorporates multiple macroeconomic scenario analyses and third-party research. It then constructs portfolios designed to perform with the appropriate risk/return trade-offs for its four models: MAR tactical conservative growth, MAR tactical moderate growth, MAR tactical growth and MAR tactical aggressive growth.
Read the Sept. 27 Portfolio Products Roundup at ThinkAdvisor.


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First Look: Land Rover Defender DC100 Concept
Just what would an all-new Land Rover Defender look like? According to the automaker, perhaps something like this new DC100 concept, which is destined for an official debut at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show.
Land Rover has issued only this rendering of the concept, but it seems to retain some of the hallmarks of the beloved Defender 90 (i.e. boxy profile, stubby wheelbase, exposed spare tire) while simultaneously working in cues (i.e. fender vents, flared wheel wheels, large wheels, etc.) that are increasingly ingrained into modern Land Rover design DNA.
"Replacing the iconic Defender is one of the biggest challenges in the automotive design world," Gerry McGovern, Land Rover's director of design, said in a prepared release. "It is a car that inspires people world wide. This isn't a production-ready concept, but the beginning of a four-year journey to design a relevant Defender for the 21st century."
Speaking of that four-year journey, Land Rover used the release of this teaser image to also publicly confirm it intends on launching a new Defender around the world in 2015. Officials say they hope to use this concept to engage with customers on what features should be included in the actual production vehicle.
One thing that is still undecided is whether or not the Defender will make a return to North America. While previous reports suggested the all-new design could be engineered to meet NHTSA and FMVSS standards, Land Rover's official stance is there is "no current decision on whether or not the next-generation Defender will come to North American markets."
So, then, it's up to you -- the fans, the enthusiasts, the Defender die-hards -- to voice your opinion. Is Land Rover on the right track? Should the DC100 -- or something like it -- roll into showrooms in four years, if not sooner? Or should McGovern's team head back to the drawing boards and start from scratch? Send your thoughts in the comments section below.
For more information on the Defender Concept and other news breaking from the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show, please stay tuned to Automobilemag.com.


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By Michael Hoffman
Today in Thailand, on China's doorstep, explosions are being blamed on an "Iranian national." Until now, China has refused to support a war on Iran.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, stated: "Israel has bombed its embassies in New Delhi, India and Tbilisi, Georgia to tarnish Iran's friendly ties with the host countries," adding, "Israel perpetrated the terrorist actions to launch psychological warfare against Iran."
False flag operations are a means by which the secret services of nations like the Israeli entity and the US Federal government rule the world. The Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the 9/11 terror attacks are but two examples of this.
The media are complicit by reporting the bombings in India and Thailand according to the American/Israeli script, rather than stating the fact that the Mossad is an organization known to have mastered false flag "black ops," and then launching an investigation into the likelihood that the recent attacks attributed to Iran are the work of the CIA and/or the Mossad.
Mossad Commander Tamir Pardo
The psychological warfare includes constantly maintaining the American people in a pressure cooker of extreme anxiety over the likelihood of an imminent terror attack by supposed Iranian agents operating in the U.S.
Classic war propaganda from Mossad's mouthpiece: The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 14, 2012
This dose of ludicrous fear-mongering comes in the form of a nearly half-page editorial in the Wall Street Journal titled, "The Iranian Threat to New York City." Like 9 years ago with Iraq, the media drums of war are again beating, this time for destroying the Iranian nation based on false flag bombs planted by the Mossad and CIA and blamed on Iran.
The author, Mitchell D. Silber, the New York City Police Department's chief of intelligence, writes the following gibberish: "As the West's conflict with Iran over its nuclear program heats up, New York City — with its large Jewish population — becomes an increasingly attractive target." This rhetoric is almost identical to Zionist propaganda in the New York Times ten years ago asserting a "mushroom cloud" over the U.S. if we didn't stop Saddam Hussein.
Mr. Silber does not tell his frightened Wall Street Journal readers that Iran's own Judaic community, which is entirely at the mercy of the government, lives in comfort and safety. Silber is giving advance cues to the American people so that if Mossad plants a bomb in a Judaic neighborhood in New York, the public will immediately surmise, "Iran's behind it!" This is lynch mob thinking which the Wall Street Journal ought to denounce rather than enhance.
Record of Terror by U.S. and Israelis Dwarf Alleged Acts by Iran
Harvard University Prof. Steven M. Walt observes: "...two very capable states -- the United States and Israel -- threatening to attack a country that hardly seems worth the effort. The U.S. and Israel together spend more than $700 billion each year on their national security establishments; Iran spends about $10 billion. The U.S. and Israel have the most advanced military hardware in the world; Iran's weapons are mostly outdated and lack spare parts. The U.S. and Israeli militaries are well-educated and very well-trained; not true of Iran.
"The United States has thousands of nuclear weapons and Israel has several hundred, while Iran has a vast arsenal of -- zero. Iran does have a nuclear enrichment program (which is the reason for all the war talk), but the most recent National Intelligence Estimates have concluded that Iran does not presently have an active nuclear weapons program.
"The United States has several dozen military bases in Iran's immediate vicinity; Iran has exactly none in the Western hemisphere. The United States has powerful allies in every corner of the world; Iran's friends include a handful of minor nonstate actors like Hezbollah or minor-league potentates like Bashar al Assad (who's not looking like an asset these days) or Hugo Chávez.
"Moreover, the United States has fought four wars since 1990. It has bombed, invaded or occupied a half dozen countries in that period, leading to the deaths of thousands of people.
"Israel has been colonizing the West Bank since 1967, it invaded and occupied much of Lebanon from 1982 to 1999, and its armed forces pummeled Lebanon again in 2006 and Gaza in 2008-09.
"Prominent U.S. politicians have repeatedly called for "regime change" in Iran, and U.S. government officials now report that Israel has been murdering civilian scientists in Iran, in cahoots with the MEK, a terrorist organization that is still on the State Department's terrorist "watchlist." Iran's past conduct is far from pure, but it has done nothing remotely similar in recent years..."
As Prof. Walt points out, the United States and Europe are not actually threatened by Iran, even as we terrorize the Iranians with crippling sanctions, sabotage of their infrastructure and assassination of their scientists. All of these acts are, as Rep. Ron Paul has stated, acts of war.
Iran does threaten the status quo in two areas: in Palestine, where the rest of the world, including the Arab world, are sunk in complacency concerning the periodic masacres which the Israelis inflict and the ongoing theft and occupation of Palestinian land; and in countries such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia which viciously repress Shiite populations. In Bahrain the Shia are a majority tyrannized by a Sunni minority.
Neither situation is any of our business. We should be sending medical and humanitarian aid and goodwill and cultural ambassadors to all sides in the Middle East, and otherwise taking a hands off approach to these never-ending religious wars which are none of our affair, especially in view of our "budget deficit."
Thanks to a Zionist-dominated American media however, and church leaders who teach that contemporary Israelis are genetic descendants of Abraham and the Israeli state is a Biblical (rather than a Talmudic) nation, we have a U.S. Congress which is Israeli-occupied territory.
Not all the fault is with the Traditional Enemies of Truth. For the past thirty years the Iranians and Syrians have done almost nothing to cultivate influence over the propagation and marketing of news and information in the United States. As a result of their neglect, quite naturally their enemies have obtained a monopoly on reporting conflicts to the American people.
If Iran does become a threat it will be due to the fact that we made them a threat and goaded them into attacking us, just as the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt did to Japan on the eve of America's entry into World War Two (cf. Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoover's Secret History of the Second World War, edited by George H. Nash; and Day of Deceit by Robert B. Stinnett).
We've forgotten the lies that prodded us into war just nine years ago
In a speech by then President George W. Bush of October 7, 2002, Bush cited alleged Iraqi chemical, biological and nuclear programs - as well as concerns about possible Iraqi connections to international terrorist groups. With respect to how close Iraq was to developing a nuclear weapon, Bush said that "we don't know exactly." He went on to state that "If the Iraqi regime is able to produce, buy, or steal an amount of highly enriched uranium a little larger than a single softball, it could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year."
In the face of requests that the U.S. provide further evidence in support of its position that Iraq was failing to comply with U.N. resolution 1441 and that a resort to military force would be necessary unless Iraq's behavior changed, Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003. The bulk of Powell's remarks involved his presentation of "additional information about what the United States knows about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, as well as Iraq's involvement with Al Qaeda associates. In his February 5 presentation to the U.N. Security Council, Secretary of State Colin Powell charged that Iraq had begun constructing mobile facilities to produce biological weapons.
On September 8, 2002, the New York Times published a front page article by Michael Gordon and Judith Miller about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction which was one of the most serious cases of misreporting in the entire run-up to the war. The piece provided a major boost to the administration's case for war and proved to be wrong in almost every detail.
Michael Massing writes: "It was the prospect of Saddam Hussein's getting an atomic bomb that caused the most fear about his regime, and it was this fear that the Bush administration most sought to fan as it pushed the case for war. Yet it had little concrete evidence to show that Iraq was actively seeking a bomb. Enter the New York Times. In that September 8 story, Gordon and Miller, leaning heavily on Bush officials, offered the aluminum tubes as evidence that Iraq was actively seeking a nuclear weapon. The article did not simply raise this as a possibility — it asserted it in bold and unequivocal language. 'US Says Hussein Intensifies Quest for A-Bomb Parts' ran the headline. Iraq, the lead declared, 'has stepped up its quest for nuclear weapons and has embarked on a worldwide hunt for materials to make an atomic bomb, Bush administration officials said today."
Another New York Times report by government mouthpieces Gordon and Miller, published on Sept. 13 was heavily slanted to the CIA's position. It iced out critics of the claims that Iraq was trying to gain nuclear weapons and insulted the critics, trivializing and dismising them. Prior to Sept. 13 David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security warned Judith Miller concerning her support for CIA claims. He states: "...an administration official was quoted as saying that 'the best' technical experts and nuclear scientists at laboratories like Oak Ridge supported the CIA assessment. These inaccuracies made their way into the story despite several discussions that I had with Miller on the day before the story appeared — some well into the night. In the end, nobody was quoted questioning the CIA's position, as I would have expected."
Massing notes "...the Times's heavy reliance on official sources and its dismissal of other sources...on the critical issue of whether Iraq was actively seeking a nuclear bomb, the International Atomic Energy Administration (IAEA) had found strong indications that it was not. And how did the Times cover these key statements? With two short, pro forma stories buried inside the A section...The Times ran three front-page stories on Colin Powell's speech to the U.N. Security Council speech, one by Michael Gordon...Gordon offered unqualified praise for Powell's assertions about Iraq's WMD. 'The case Mr. Powell presented today regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction' was 'remorseless,' Gordon wrote. "Even the skeptics," he added, 'had to concede that Mr. Powell's presentation had been an important milestone in the debate. Critics may try to challenge the strength of the administration's case and they will no doubt argue that inspectors be given more time. But it will be difficult for the skeptics to argue that Washington's case against Iraq is based on groundless suspicions and not intelligence information.'
"On the nuclear issue, Gordon wrote, Powell 'presented new details to buttress the administration's case;' in particular, he cited Powell's claim that the United States 'has intercepted aluminum tubes that had a special coating that would make them useful for making centrifuges to enrich uranium.' Remarkably, Gordon did not see fit to mention the IAEA findings that undermined this claim and that he, Gordon, had twice written about in the previous month. So, at this key juncture in the debate on Iraq, Gordon uncritically transmitted a key US claim, one that the inspectors had effectively discredited. In the light of such reporting, is it any surprise that the IAEA findings had such limited impact?"
Doomed to repeat ruinous scripts from past wars
The American people continue to maintain faith in the credibility of the corporate media and as a result of this willful gullibility, they are on a nightmarish merry-go-round, doomed to repeat ruinous scripts from past wars like the war with Iraq, which was fought on the basis of a barrel of (now forgotten) lies about weapons of mass destruction and Iraqi tries to Al Qaeda.
Any armed resistance against Israeli occupation on the part of national liberation organizations such as Hezbollah, which years ago liberated the El Khiam concentration camp in Lebanon from the control of the Israeli proxies who ran that hellhole, is considered "terrorism." In the eyes of the West the sacred nation of fraudsters who deceitfully call themselves "Israel" cannot be opposed by force of arms. Shiite Islam views the Israelis as Nazis and uses the same tactics against them which the much hallowed partisans of World War Two employed against the Germans.
America's Talmudic mentality will not entertain the analogy however: bombing German Nazis is considered heroic; bombing Israeli Nazis is regarded as the lowest form of demonic evil. Unfortunately for the Zionist occupiers of the U.S. government and media, much of the rest of the world doesn't buy this Talmudic double-standard.
We doubt that the recent spate of bombings on the doorstep of China and Russia, and in India's backyard, will be viewed by the governments of those nations as Iranian in origin.
What a coincidence that the three nations most sympathetic to Iran are suddenly experiencing "Iranian" bombings within or near their territory.
Copyright ©2012 www.revisionisthistory.org
Hoffman is the author of Judaism Discovered and Judaism's Strange Gods, and co-author of The Israeli Holocaust Against the Palestinians. He wrote the introduction and compiled the annotated bibliography for Johann Andreas Eisenmenger's The Traditions of the Jews. Hoffman edits Revisionist History newsletter. His work is supported solely through donations from readers and the sale of his books, recordings and newsletters.


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text:
Today is one of those days where you don't have the energy to do anything, just because you've had too much sleep.
I woke up at 8 (arghhh..noooo) and then, finding no reason to wake up, slept.
Woke up at 9.15. Snoozed
Woke up at 10. Snoozed.
Woke up at 11. Snoozed.
Woke up close to 12 and decided to enjoy the 4 1/2 hours of sunshine left during this long winter.
Seriously, snooze must be the most destructive invention ever after nuclear bombs and baked beans.
But ironically, even after getting all that sleep i just didn't have the energy to do something productive. No reading
Not even lifting weights
And then i skyped a bit (there's always energy to chat) :)
And then Yazid came to visit Butlers Wharf (rarely anyone comes here, sob3). He couldn't stand my room's *ehem2* 'lack of tidyness' because i think he has OCD, so we decided to go outside and grab a bite.
On the way from my hall to London Bridge, you can see these things:
1) Statues of indecent Londoners (i think its the Western version of 7 Puteri mandi2)
2) City Hall @ Mayor's office @ The Glass Gonad
3) HMS Belfast, a battleship turned museum
Finally, fresh air. Then we ate greasy fried wings and chips, which constitutes 1/3 of my diet nowadays.
Now I feel refreshed!!!! (dance) After this blog post, i'll start studying. Probably. Or after facebook. Or after this song on Youtube. Too many distractions lah. No wonder im exhausted.
p/s: Goodluck to people getting their AS results tomorrow!! :))
Monday, January 25, 2010
Today is one of those days where you don't have the energy to do anything, just because you've had too much sleep.
Posted by The Author at 2:46 AM
2 comments:
- Yazid Fauzi said...
i saw my name!haha
(siap OCD lg?apa kes??)
btw,keep up ur blog.keep updating!
hope after this you will be more productive!=D
- January 26, 2010 at 6:28 AM
- The Author said...
yazid, OCD 2 cmpliment.hahaha
- January 26, 2010 at 7:02 AM


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Amanda Seyfried appears in the April Elle holding a lamb. If this sounds familiar, it's because the March issue of Elle Japan, widely distributed online, had Penelope Cruz clutching the same animal. What's up?
Kate Berg, the head of corporate communications at Elle's parent company, offered her personal theory when we asked: "In my humble and completely random opinion, it seems like a 'Spring is Here' reference (a la –March goes out like a lamb, and Spring Lamb, etc.)" Convincing!
Of course, the association of spring with lambs isn't just seasonal; it's also religious. There's the Paschal Lamb, traced back to the Exodus story celebrated on Passover, of Jews smearing their doors with lamb's blood. There's Jesus as Agnus Dei, that sacrificial lamb of God whose resurrection is celebrated by Christians around this time. Does that make Seyfried or Cruz the Virgin Mary? Discuss.