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Israel Gawthrop is my 2x great uncle – he is the brother of my 2x great grandmother Ellen Gawthrop and the son of Martin Gawthrop and Ann Kighley.
Israel was born in Cowling, West Yorkshire. His first occupations in the census returns are
1851 – farmers son employed on farm
1861 – cotton carder
1871 – cotton carder
In 1881 he is recorded as "manager of cotton mill" – and I believe this is a position he held until his death in 1906.
There are numerous references to Israel in the local newspapers of the time. I have picked the article below because I think it reflects a man who had respect for the workforce in the mill he managed and that the "hands" as they are described in the article respected him as a boss. When you imagine what working conditions must have been like in the Victorian mills of Lancashire and elsewhere then to have management and the workers all pulling together must have been good for everyone – or at least a better place to work than some.
On Saturday last, the senior employees of Jas. Suttard and Sons met at Mrs. Badger's Commercial Hotel, to partake of a treat supplied chiefly at the expense of the firms who have replenished the mill with new machinery.
The dinner was of a most recherche character, and reflected the greatest credit upon the worthy hostess. The juvenile portion (or half-timers) did justice to a substantial tea provided for them in the Oddfellows' Hall, where the senior portion afterwards adjourned, and participated in the subsequent proceedings.
Mr. Israel Gawthrop (manager) was elected as chairman, and Mr. James Proctor (book-keeper) as vice-chairman.
In opening the proceedings the Chairman said, – If there was one thing that affected him more than another in coming to Sabden, it was the fear of having an uncultivated lot of hands to contend with. The putting in of new machinery was very trifling as compared to it. But, to his great surprise, he met with a very decent set of hands to conduct (hear, hear). When they came to have a class of hands who wanted nothing but right, and a master who wanted nothing more, it was a very easy task to stand between them; he was very glad to be able to say that, both as regarded the masters and operatives, for he had never heard any of the workpeople say "I won't" when he asked them to do anything (hear, hear). He did not know that he ever met with a firm more urgent to get on than those under whom they worked. The masters had been very diligent in their business habits, and their concern at Sabden had required a great deal – the machinery
putting in, and all the other things to attend to – but he was very happy to tell them that it had not affected the masters, and they need not be frightened that anyone would come and say "You must stop work" (applause). They had met with some energetic and upright masters, who were worthy of a good class of hands, so he hoped they would do their best, and he was sure the masters would do the same to them (applause).
The Vice-chairman next called upon several gentlemen, who spoke in eulogistic terms of Mr. Gawthrop's past conduct, after which – Mr. S Hartley (card-master) presented the souvenirs, which consisted of a handsome timepiece of black Parian marble, with a brass plate placed under the dial, which bore the following inscription tersely engraved: "Presented to Mr. Israel Gawthrop, manager at the Victoria Mill, Sabden, by the workpeople, as a token of respect and esteem, July 19th 1873." There was also a beautiful work-box presented to his wife. The combined presents amounted to near £10.
In returning thanks for the testimonial Mr. Gawthrop said that so far as he was aware, he had done nothing to merit the present. His object in coming to the place was to try to collect as good a class of hands as he could, and having collected them, he had tried to do justice both to them and his masters. He hoped the good feeling that existed between them that night might be of lasting duration (hear, hear). Whenever the present stood before him it would remind him of their respect and kindness, and act as a stimulant to do what was right and just (hear, hear) – and he assured them it would be handed down to his children, hoping it would have the same effect upon them (hear, hear). In conclusion, he recapitulated his thanks, and said he would try to do justice to all parties, if he did not do right his conscience pricked him, and he accepted the present as given in that feeling (loud applause).
The rest of the evening was spent in singing, games, etc. Mr. R Laycock presided most efficiently at the piano.
Votes of thanks were given to all those who had in any degree contributed to the dinner or entertainment.
The National Anthem terminated the proceedings of the evening.


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Guest poem submitted by Janice:
(Poem #1876) The Weary Blues
Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, I heard a Negro play. Down on Lenox Avenue the other night By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light He did a lazy sway . . . He did a lazy sway . . . To the tune o' those Weary Blues. With his ebony hands on each ivory key He made that poor piano moan with melody. O Blues! Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool. Sweet Blues! Coming from a black man's soul. O Blues! In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan-- "Ain't got nobody in all this world, Ain't got nobody but ma self. I's gwine to quit ma frownin' And put ma troubles on the shelf." Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor. He played a few chords then he sang some more-- "I got the Weary Blues And I can't be satisfied. Got the Weary Blues And can't be satisfied-- I ain't happy no mo' And I wish that I had died." And far into the night he crooned that tune. The stars went out and so did the moon. The singer stopped playing and went to bed While the Weary Blues echoed through his head. He slept like a rock or a man that's dead
I started out by reading this poem like I read any other poem... and I found that I fell into a rhythm, swaying, saying the words softly under my breath... I could feel the smoky, dim atmosphere fill my room... I could hear the blues player in my head, in front of me, all around me. This is a poem, like the blues, that is pervasive, and all-encompassing, touched by melancholy, it stays with you. I read that Langston Hughes used to write his poetry sitting in little blues bars... and I think that out of all his poems this one captures the fact beautifully. Read it over and over again... you still fall into that rhythm... it's got you by the collar! janice.

subset: commoncrawl


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The case for UK real estate debt in 2016
The growing scarcity of bank lending in the commercial property sector continues to create opportunities for alternative debt providers seeking to generate secure income. Now, a slowdown in property price growth has further improved prospects for the asset class, says Vincent Nobel (pictured), Head of Real Estate Debt at Hermes Investment Management…
The new lending landscape: The disintermediation of the European real estate lending market, catalysed by the financial crisis and its aftermath, continues. This market is no longer dominated by clearing banks, though they maintain large lending books. Instead, more loans are being provided by specialist fund managers sourcing capital from pension funds and insurance companies. These lenders have long time horizons that are better suited to the relatively illiquid nature of commercial mortgage debt and can execute loans with greater speed and flexibility – which is often welcomed by borrowers.
In our view, this opportunity is sustainable in the long run as banks are likely to maintain less-leveraged balance sheets in the face of capital-adequacy regulation such as Basel III, the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) IV and the "slotting" regime specifically determining how much capital UK banks must hold against their commercial real estate (CRE) loans.
Why the UK? Investors contemplating whether to add or increase commercial property exposure must consider how to access the market. With the rapid rate of CRE price and rental growth since the financial crisis, direct ownership has been a very popular option, with 63 per cent of UK commercial properties owned by investors at the end of 2013[1]. However, the rate of rental growth is now beginning to slow, with average prime yields falling between September 2013 and September 2015 and hitting record lows in some sectors, reducing the opportunity set for new entrants[2]. Despite this, there is still strong demand for real estate and the UK is one of the most well-regulated and structurally undersupplied markets in the world.
The senior debt opportunity: Investing in senior loans, where returns are entirely driven by income rather than capital growth, provides access to UK real estate without being immediately exposed to possible declines in capital value. Lenders in the UK also benefit from operating in the most creditor-friendly jurisdiction and one of the most liquid markets in Europe.
The risk-reward profile of this type of debt is also very attractive for institutional investors. Loan-to-value (LTV) ratios for senior debt investments are typically between 60 per cent-70 per cent, compared with 70 per cent-90 per cent for mezzanine debt. For senior loans in particular, leverage has remained about 10 per cent-20 per cent below pre-2008 levels, persisting at a more sustainable level than loans originated prior to the financial crisis.
Loan margins vary depending on the supply of capital and the credit risk of the individual investments. Senior loans can carry margins of 250-300bps in the current market versus 600-800bps for mezzanine loans. With total returns from direct ownership expected to average 4.5 per cent per annum over the next five years[3], we believe senior real estate debt provides an attractive low-risk alternative.
Our integrated approach: The Hermes Real Estate Senior Debt Fund aims to generate net returns exceeding LIBOR plus 2 per cent by investing in loans with equivalent risk to corporate bonds rated A- or BBB. It is managed within a 22-person real estate investment team managing GBP7.4bn of assets. While the six-person Hermes real estate debt team uses its expertise in credit investing to evaluate loan structures and borrowers, we work intensively with our real estate equity specialists to independently assess underlying properties, tenants and business plans. This dual expertise enhances our insight into key deal parameters, allowing us to provide loans for experienced borrower groups that manage properties that demonstrate strong long-term fundamentals. It also enables us to act swiftly and decisively to execute deals and continuously maintain meaningful dialogue throughout transactions.
In 2015, we saw more than 146 loan opportunities worth in excess of GBP10 billion, and selectively allocated a combined GBP250 million to eight of these transactions.
[1] Understanding UK Commercial Property Investments', Investment Property Forum, June 2015.
[2] 'Quarterly Marketbeat: United Kingdom', Cushman and Wakefield December 2015.
[3] Property Market Analysis, 2016


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our trip part I
This is where we stayed for the first three nights. We had a great view of part of the city, as well as this giant black and white viking/mermaid/monster mural on our room wall.
Jeremiah was pretty happy to have Stumptown next door to the hotel lobby, it's one of his favorite roasters.
I loved this little Scandinavian shop. Mia (sorry if I spelled your name wrong!) was this sweet, lovely Swede who gave us several tips on places to see and eat, as well as great conversations about design and travel. Sorry I forgot to get a picture of her!
Behind our hotel was a whole city block of food carts. I wanted to try everything but we ended up sharing a bratwurst since we already had lunch plans that we didn't want to cancel.
Other Stories
10 comments:
Wow- what amazing pictures and looks like a fab break. That shop looks to die for! JxReplyDelete
The picture with Roxie in the baby carriage is so cute!! <3 Looks that you have had a really nice time there :) hugsReplyDelete
portland looks great. wonderful photos!ReplyDelete
xo, Anna of (green gable)
your trip looks so fun! i have yet to explore this part of portland (and my family lives there!)ReplyDelete
Looks great, I love little hotels like that where every room is a bit different!ReplyDelete
love the images from your trip. especially the first where we get a little hint of gorgeous YOU!ReplyDelete
so excited to see your pics! can't wait to see more. :)ReplyDelete
loove these photos, jennifer! looks like an amazing trip. you are beautiful!ReplyDelete
Looks like a great trip! A nice photos indeed :) I showed a couple of your Ace hotel-images, with links back to you off course. Please let me know if you´re not ok with that... Have a great weekend! Lena.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 18, 2012
How did you like the Ace Hotel, I'm thinking of booking here for our trip?ReplyDelete
Thank you for your comments, I love hearing from you!
Questions, comments or sponsorship inquires, please contact me via the 'contact' link.


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Faculty Profile: Rebecca "Becko" Copenhaver
May 29, 2013
Professor of philosophy
Joined the Lewis & Clark faculty in 2001
Named 2013 Teacher of the Year
What does the Teacher of the Year honor mean to you?
It means that the people whose opinion I value most (students) think I succeed sometimes in what matters most: making sure that they learn. Teaching is not magic—you have to experiment, and you fail a lot. What amazes me about Lewis & Clark students is how trusting, patient, and forgiving they are. They understand how much their education means to us, and they allow us to go down blind alleys and try novel approaches because they trust that we have their learning as our highest priority.
What classes do you teach during the year?
It differs from year to year. The philosophy department is very committed to premajor education, so all of us enjoy teaching 100- and 200-level courses such as Introduction to Philosophy and Ethics. We also contribute to the first-year core course, Exploration and Discovery. When a department commits to premajor education the way ours does, you get the chance to develop student mentor relationships right from the start.
Because we're a small department, we teach our specialized courses only every other year. I teach our course in Early Modern Philosophy, which covers the 17th and 18th centuries. I also teach our courses in the Philosophy of Mind and Philosophy of Language. My own research is focused on these areas, so these courses are an exciting opportunity to do student research.
I'm especially eager about a 400-level course I'll be teaching in the fall on imagination. Imagination is at the root of our most fundamental mental capacities: reason, action, and emotion. Our imaginative abilities allow us to envision possible outcomes, anticipate consequences, and place ourselves in perspectives other than our own. And I've never really studied it. We'll work through the current research in philosophy and psychology on imagination and students will work on original research projects.
What is your the focus of your personal research?
Well, I'm a bit of an odd duck. Most philosophers focus on a single figure, time period, or area of philosophy, like ethics. While most of my publications have focused on the 18th-century philosopher Thomas Reid, I chose to work on him because he's interested in the wide range of philosophical issues I find most interesting: the intersections between perception, language, scientific method, morals, and aesthetics. It turns out that Lewis & Clark is the perfect place to be for a researcher like me because my colleagues are similarly enthused about taking the broad view of philosophy. We take our philosophy where we find it. That's pretty rare these days, and I feel very lucky to be with colleagues who approach philosophy with such honest curiosity.
Please share an example or two of how students surprise and astonish you.
You'd have to be there. That sounds flip, but I mean it. I have two prints of famous paintings in my office that I use to illustrate what philosophy is about. The first is of an old guy with a white beard reading a book—it's Rembrandt's Philosopher Reading. That's what most people picture when they think of philosophy. The second is a cacophonous group of people assembled in large space immersed in conversation. That's what philosophy is. It's Raphael's School of Athens. Philosophy is a many thousands year old conversation among the living and the dead, about the most important things.
So, philosophy is dialogue, it's conversation, it's an ineliminably social, human, practice. I learn something every time I do philosophy—and most people I do philosophy with are my students! I learn from them constantly.
The trick is to get beginning students into the conversation quickly. It's pretty funny—imagine you have taught someone to ride a bike, and she makes great progress, and you are riding together through, say, Forest Park, and the person turns to you and says, "This is great. But when do we get to ride bikes?" Teaching philosophy is like that. Students always want to know when they get to do philosophy. By the time they get impatient and impertinent enough to ask you that question, they've been doing it for quite some time.
Can you say a little more about how and why "teaching didn't come naturally" to you?
Well, since I said it, I should be honest about it. I wasn't very good at it. When I went to graduate school, no one mentored us about teaching. You were just thrown into a classroom and told to do it. I hated it. I'm a perfectionist and it became clear that I could never be perfect, or even good, at teaching. There would always be one or two (or twenty) students I just couldn't reach. I felt like the proverbial catcher in the rye—losing kids over the cliff in droves. And of course that made me resentful and insecure—the worst possible combination of emotions to bring to the classroom.
What changed? In my last years at Cornell, I had the opportunity to teach in the university's first-year core course—a course like our Exploration and Discovery. Instructors for that course took a class designed to teach you how to teach. I realized I was a lousy teacher because I hadn't approached teaching the same way I approach everything else. I hadn't approached it as something I could learn from others and get better at.
I got very lucky when I arrived at Lewis & Clark because I had so many people who could help me become a better teacher. Nick Smith was my main mentor, and he is an extraordinary teacher (not to mention a brilliant philosopher). He taught me to be confident but open, and to use my personality in the classroom rather than sublimate it. I also learned a lot from colleagues who arrived at the college at the same time as I did. I learned from Jerusha Detweiler-Bedell how to focus on students rather than myself. That simple but powerful lesson changed everything about how I teach. I learned from Paul Powers to create assignments that would bring out the different strengths of different students rather than to just assign the sorts of things I had been most comfortable with as a student. So, though I am the only kind of teacher I can be, the teacher that I am is really due to what my colleagues taught me.
How, if at all, are students today different from students when you arrived here in 2001? How are you different?
I saw some graffiti in the bathroom some years ago. It said: "Fly, follow your dreams, gravity will hold you down," and my first thought was, yeah, so will poverty. I don't see much of that sentiment these days. Lewis & Clark students are more focused and driven. They realize there is no such thing as majoring in "changing the world."
You change the world by having something to contribute to the community more than good intentions and what you think are the right beliefs. You change the world by being a biologist, an artist, an entrepreneur, a mother, an economist, a neighbor, a historian, a teacher. You change the world by bringing real work and real wisdom to it. Being there is not enough.
While I lament the economic conditions that play a role in our students' realism about their futures, I don't lament their ambition in the least. I have tremendous confidence in this generation and an optimism I haven't felt in quite some time.
I am very different. I had a difficult graduate school experience and when I arrived at Lewis & Clark, my confidence was shot. But thankfully my colleagues saw something in me. Nick Smith, Curtis Johnson, and Rob Kugler all mentored me with herculean patience. They knew I would never be happy here as anything other than a philosopher—as someone whose identity is grounded in her scholarly contributions to the field. They also knew I couldn't be happy unless I could help shape Lewis & Clark through service and teaching.
I'm very happy now. I get to do the research I love with colleagues like Jay Odenbaugh, who inspires me daily to push against the rigid habits of my mind. I get to teach students whose brilliance is matched only by their ambition to make the world more just and peaceful. And I get to shape the vision of the college thanks to Dean Jordan, who trusts me to contribute something more than good intentions and what I think are the right beliefs.
Anything else you'd like to add?
I want to thank all my students. You would think that year after year, at some point their effect on your life would be blunted, but it's just not so. My students are relentlessly powerful in their ability, as I said, to surprise and astonish me. One of my favorite poets, Stephen Dunn, puts this point better than I could in his poem "Sweetness,"—"Often a sweetness comes / as if on loan, stays just long enough / to make sense of what it means to be alive, / then returns to its dark source. / As for me, I don't care / where it's been, or what bitter road / it's traveled / to come so far, to taste so good."


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Overview Senators' services Information technology Human resource management Records management Financial management Factors, events and trends influencing performance Evaluation Performance outlook
Provision of office, chamber and committee room support; information technology and ceremonial services; security advice for senators and Senate office-holders in Parliament House.
The 2011 senators' survey reported high levels of satisfaction with the provision of support services in most areas. The levels of satisfaction were:
The Black Rod's Office is led by the Usher of the Black Rod and has five functional areas, as shown in figure 19.The Usher of the Black Rod also performs duties as a clerk at the table in the Senate chamber, and is a member of the department's executive responsible for a range of governance matters.
The primary function of the Black Rod's Office is to provide support services to the Senate chamber and committees and to senators when they are using their Parliament House offices.
The Senators' Services Section:
The Information Technology Section provides senators with information technology hardware and support services in their Parliament House offices and limited support services and equipment when they are away from Parliament House. The section also supports the department and its staff.
The Human Resource Management Section delivers human resource management services for the department, including payroll services for senators and departmental staff, and administers the department's human resource management information system. The Records Management Unit is part of the section also. This unit is responsible for the management of the department's records and administers the department's records management system.
The Financial Management Section delivers the department's financial management, accounting and budgeting services. The section also administers the department's financial management information system, provides secretariat support to the Audit and Evaluation Committee, manages the internal audit contract and develops and maintains the risk management framework and fraud control plan.
During the year, the Senators' Services Section continued to provide a wide range of services to senators and the department. This included assisting the President to respond to requests to the presiding officers for approval to conduct activities within the parliamentary precinct.
During 2010–11 considerable planning and coordination was undertaken in support of the opening of the 43rd Parliament, and on the day, staff from the section also played a significant support role. In the reporting period, planning also commenced for the July 2011 swearing-in of newly elected and re-elected senators by the Governor-General.
During 2010–11, the section:
The section provided high-quality reprographic and delivery services for the department and, under contract, other parliamentary departments. Turnaround times were met consistently, ensuring that printed information was available when required, even at short notice, and assisting committees to meet their tight deadlines for delivery of reports.
In addition to regular printing requests, the section also provided printing support for the Opening of Parliament and the Parliament House Open Day.
During 2010–11, the section completed 1,207 printing jobs. Of these, 256 were for committees, 749 were in direct support of Senate chamber activities and senators, and 18 were for other parliamentary departments. The total value of work produced was $449,464, of which $183,559 was attributable to committee work. This was a decrease of $65,255 on the previous year's total, reflecting a reduction in printing work for the department as a whole (including committee printing requests) over the election period.
The planned review of the methodology and software tool used for the management and costing of printing and desktop publishing work was deferred because higher priorities intervened during the reporting period. However, it is expected that the review will be finalised in 2011–12.
The section continued to provide a high standard of delivery services to senators, their staff and departmental staff. Scheduled run times were met for all deliveries, including internal stationery deliveries.
In 2010–11, the office continued to work cooperatively with the other parliamentary departments. In particular, it:
As in recent years, online publishing activities and testing activities continued to dominate much of the section's workload.
A wide variety of documents relevant to both the department and the chamber were published online. Other significant non-routine publishing activities included:
Service Pack 3 for the new standard operating system was tested and released to senators and their staff. The rollout of the new standard operating system to departmental users, commenced late in the previous reporting period, gained momentum and with the exception of the Table Office, was completed. The section was also involved directly and indirectly in a number of upgrades to departmental applications, such as the financial management information and records management systems.
The 2010 federal election also generated a significant amount of work at different points in the year. Early post-election activities included the ministerial reshuffle and major changes to the Senate website, primarily for the Committee Office, to reflect the new parliament. Preparatory activities for the commencement of the new Senate and the new senators dominated the later part of the year.
Other high priority activities included:
The section also continued to provide input to wider parliamentary projects managed by the Department of Parliamentary Services, most significantly the project to replace the Commonwealth Parliament website. The department's web publishing team, together with a number of staff across the department, contributed significant time to this project.
During the year, the Human Resource Management Section was responsible for monthly payments of salary for senators and fortnightly payments of salary for departmental staff. The section participated in an internal audit of online leave application forms and commenced another internal audit on the department's implementation of its performance communication scheme. The internal audit into online leave application forms reported favourably on the controls in place in relation to those forms.
The section developed the following new human resource material:
Additionally, the section revised various human resource management advices and the following human resource policies and procedures:
A review of the human resource authorisations and delegations was also commenced.
The two-year project to review all of the department's human resource policies and procedures is nearing completion with the remaining three to be reviewed in the next reporting period.
The section provided administrative support to 31 externally-advertised recruitment activities for the department and continued to support managers and staff in relation to matters requiring human resource management technical support and guidance.
During the reporting period, an e-recruitment solution for the department's employment vacancies was implemented. This has enabled prospective applicants to apply for positions online and has encouraged a more efficient use of resources to manage recruitment for these vacancies.
Two other significant projects completed were the development of department-specific work level standards and a learning and development framework. Work level standards describe broad job requirements, key duties and responsibilities, required skills and attributes, the operating context and characteristics that embody effective performance at a particular classification in the department. They were developed in consultation with staff.
The learning and development framework, and its associated training calendar, was an outcome of the structural review of 2010 and is a syllabus-based curriculum covering both parliamentary-specific topics and skills for the workplace. Two six-monthly training calendars were prepared for the 2011 calendar year. These outline learning and development opportunities available to staff. The section also continued to work in consultation with the other parliamentary departments on learning and development opportunities.
Further enhancements to the department's human resource management information system were also investigated, including the capture of documentary evidence for certain leave types and changes that will allow applications for some allowances to be made online.
The records management subsection is responsible for:
The department completed a revision of its record-keeping policy in 2010–11 and the subsection issued a series of record-keeping advices to replace the former record-keeping procedure manual.
During 2010–11, 1,162 files were created, 1,418 files were requested or returned, 1,142 files were sentenced and disposal action was completed on 763 files. The annual registry file census was conducted in July 2010. The census confirmed that files are easily located and registry procedures are well controlled.
An upgrade to the TRIM system to accommodate the department's new standard operating system was rolled out in 2010–11. The upgrade will also accommodate electronic document management.
The Financial Management Section ensures that the department meets its external reporting responsibilities; manages the department's budget; develops and applies financial management policies; and maintains appropriate governance structures. The section also delivers accounting services. During 2010–11, the section:
Following the opening of the 43rd Parliament in September 2010, planning commenced for the changeover in June/July 2011 of the 12 retiring senators and 12 new senators elected at the 2010 election whose terms commenced on 1 July 2011. In accordance with customary practice, all senators were asked for their preferences regarding office suites (which are allocated according to seniority) with the outcome that a total of 34 office moves were required. Planning for these moves was undertaken by the office and the moves commenced on 24 June 2011 with an expected completion date in the first week of August 2011.
As the Senate was scheduled to sit on 4 July 2011 (after rising on 23 June 2011), the usual winter recess period for the preparation and reallocation of suites was not immediately available, so a number of new senators will be in temporary office accommodation for the sitting week commencing 4 July 2011. The cooperation of both retiring and continuing senators was appreciated in ensuring a smooth changeover with minimal disruption to the work of senators and committees during the June and July sitting periods.
Much of the work of the office involves frequent direct contact with senators, their staff and other clients, presenting an ongoing opportunity to receive feedback on the office's services. This informal feedback continued to be very positive. More formal feedback is received through the biennial survey of senators' satisfaction which was carried out between February and May 2011. This year's senators' survey reported high levels of satisfaction with the provision of support services in most areas.
Section heads met regularly with the Usher of the Black Rod to review operational matters relating to the whole office, and also met with their teams to consider performance and work-related issues.
Outputs are evaluated through reports from the various management information systems.
A major focus for the Black Rod's Office spanning the end of this reporting period and the early part of the 2011–12 financial year is the changeover of the Senate. The Black Rod's Office undertook detailed planning for the changeover and initiated various activities to facilitate the reallocation of suites to continuing and new senators which will occur in the next reporting period and to prepare new senators and their staff for their arrival at Parliament House for the sittings scheduled for 4 to 7 July 2011. The office will also coordinate the formalities relating to the attendance of the Governor-General and the swearing-in of new senators on the first day of the July sittings.
The Black Rod's Office will also continue ongoing activities and projects to support the department, such as the trial of electronic document management using the department's records management system, TRIM; further enhancements to the department's human resource management information system for processing long service leave; the preparation of a new determination for Senior Executive Service (SES) staff; and the negotiation of a new enterprise agreement for non-SES staff.
In addition, following the completion of a comprehensive style guide for the furniture replacement project and the purchase of trial furniture from various vendors to test the market during 2010–11, it is expected that this project will move into the procurement phase in 2011–12.
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text: Sat Apr 28 2007 23:36: Went out for a morning walk in the East Village. Ate at the neo-automat. The automat food was like the school lunch food you'd get on field trips. Plus the coin slot was jammed so I didn't even get the cool automat experience. They do sell insane amounts of frites, with sauces. You can get a KFC-sized bucket of french fries for $10. But elsewhere in the neighborhood are several dedicated frites places which I suspect are probably better.


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Now all of us are so much busy with our lives that we hardly get any personal time for ourselves. But in our life, there are some works that can't be ignored. Grocery shopping is one of them, but with online shopping accessible for groceries as well it's easier to buy them and get them delivered to our doorsteps. The prices are also cheaper than the traditional stores, thanks to coupon sites like Couponhaat that list discount deals for grocery shopping. With the use of these sites, you cannot only order your favourite Domino's pizza, but also easily purchase the required groceries at great prices. Discussed below are some advantages of online grocery shopping
- As you don't have to go out for shopping, this means you don't lose a single second in the heavy traffic and it also saves the transportation cost. At the time of placing the order, you can even schedule the delivery time. And nowadays, there are some online stores delivering groceries within an hour of ordering. A 10-15 km round trip results in huge loss of time, which can be easily saved by using an online grocery site. This time can be used to do more important things by which you can become much more productive. It not only saves your time, but also helps the environment by cutting the expenditure of petrol and diesel.
- For those having a baby, it's impossible to go out for grocery shopping. Imagine the other situations like unavailability of parking, lifting heavy food items, and bending down, which are tough jobs, but these are very common too; though by using a grocery site, one can easily ignore these issues. It's a luxury to have the groceries delivered to your door.
- While purchasing groceries online, the products will come in more organized way, which is easier to store. But in case of buying it from the local grocery store, items normally come in scattered condition, which calls for extra time to organize.
- In online grocery shopping, all the food prices are mentioned earlier and so it brings immense clarity, but when you go the local store the price of the products may differ as these stores normally charge different prices for different customers.
- These online grocery stores manage their own storage of groceries, which helps them to maintain the quality and availability of the products. Some websites offer special grocery items, which are totally chemical-free.
- Besides allowing the control your time, it also helps you buy the perfect food for your health as they support the diet chart.
- With online grocery shopping, you will never buy anything in excessive amount, which means you only purchase the necessary items, but in the normal grocery store most of the people buy something extra, which might not be important, so it makes a huge loss.
These are the main advantages of online grocery shopping.


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Facebook's initial public offering jumped 18 percent from its $38 share price on Thursday, but then fell back to its original price and hovered there, causing many investors and analysts to question buying the stock.
On Friday, Facebook shares opened at $42, but dropped to $40 at this writing. Most of the stock volatility came from first-come buyers trying to sell as the shares as they gained momentum, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"It's a total disaster because the stock is trading right at the IPO price," Francis Gaskins, editor of IPOdesktop.com in Marina del Rey told the Times. "They didn't want that in a million years. A traditional IPO is up 10 percent or 15 percent."
It's a far cry from the rapturous high-fiving going on at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg rang the bell to start trading Friday, but gaming the stock market has never been easy. Facebook still made $16 billion on the IPO, even at the $38 price, and some say that Facebook stock could easily rise 30 percent in trading, according to Reuters.


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The Seven-Year-Itch: Are You Bored With Your Business?
This story appears in the August 2000 issue of HomeOfficeMag.com. Subscribe »
Gil Gordon was in business for four years when his motivation hit a brick wall: No matter how well he did, no matter how pleased his clients were, his business cycles were like a roller coaster.
Billings swung wildly from month to month. Some months were strong, others left him wondering why he had left his day job as a director with Johnson & Johnson. And his emotional swings were carried in tow.
This wasn't good for business or his self-confidence, especially since Gordon, president of Gil Gordon Associates, a Monmouth Junction, New Jersey, human resources and telecommuting consulting firm, was working in a then-fledgling field hardly brimming with clients jumping to send employees home to work.
"I was struck by, and probably a bit depressed by, the realization that no matter what I did, I would probably always be living on a business roller-coaster," Gordon recalls now, more than 15 years after encountering that first wall. "The good news was that the numbers at the end of the year always turned out OK, and still do. But if I look at it on a monthly basis, there can be wild swings. I wasn't upset by the fact that there were low points, but by the fact that I seemed destined for that eternal cycle of low points and high points and couldn't do much about it."
Whatever the cause, whatever the outcome, Gordon is not alone in facing business swings and the "seven-year itch" homebased entrepreneurs often face. Fickle clients, cyclical business patterns and motivational mood swings can cause you to question your whole purpose in working as an entrepreneur from home.
These psychological issues aren't uncommon. How they're handled can determine whether a homebased entrepreneur continues to call the business address "home," or heads back to the relative safety and security of the corporate environment. And often, the itch is not a one-time event. While he's never given too much thought to returning to a corporate job, Gordon has felt the itch three times in an 18-year at-home career.
Even if you're more successful that you ever imagined, a lack of motivation--and even boredom--can still strike, says Jim Rohrbach, a motivational and business coach in Chicago. Rohrbach calls it the "boredom of success."
In the early stages of a new company--especially a homebased business where the owner is challenged by working in a new environment as well as by running a business--motivation is drawn from the desire to succeed long-term, Rohrbach says. But once relative success has been achieved, the challenge to succeed often fades and people long for more excitement in their businesses.
The antidote? To create a bigger mission for the business, Rohrbach says. Large goals take many steps to achieve, and each can erase boredom and keep the entrepreneur focused.
Another way to combat motivational brick walls is to get out and about. Schedule networking meetings, sales calls and lunches with peers, clients or allies. Create new business ideas or a Big Target project. (The Big Target is a long-term project designed to excite and invigorate the business owner to complete a worthwhile project.)
Journalist and author Jeff Zbar has worked from home since the 1980s. He writes about home business, teleworking, marketing, communications and other SOHO issues.
Taking A Break For A Fresh Perspective
Paulette Ensign has felt the itch several times since launching her homebased publishing company, Tips Products International, in 1982. Writer's block, stalled motivation, whatever you call it, Ensign has found one common solution: travel. She even relocated from Westchester County, New York, to San Diego to find a warm climate and enlightened community--two factors she believed would help spur her creativity and motivation. They have. Now she'll take quick overnight trips every six to eight weeks to Los Angeles, Phoenix or a nearby resort to help clear her mind. The trips aren't expensive; just relaxing and invigorating, she says.
In fact, Ensign says if she waits too long to take a break, her internal clock will chime in. She'll feel stressed and burned-out and start to feel the need to hit the road. Her telltale signs: to-do and project lists that don't get done, awaking in the morning and not being excited about work, being abrupt with people on the phone, and lacking enthusiasm and motivation for the business. "When going to the post office is the highlight of my day, I know something's wrong," she muses.
While she doesn't take work with her on her weekend jaunts, Ensign does comes back brimming with new ideas, she boasts. Whether it's a new tips booklet, new distribution channels or new marketing messages, she says, "all that energy just comes back."
Battling Business Lulls
James W. Chan, Ph.D., president of Philadelphia-based firm, Asia Marketing and Management, has felt the sting of wicked business cycles and loss of enthusiasm for working from home. Usually for Chan, the two go hand in hand, he says. Six years into his homebased management consulting career, the Chinese crackdown on the protesters in Tiananamen Square scared away clients hoping to work with China--and led to a drop in Chan's business.
A direct mailing to 3,000 potential clients resulted in only one job. The phone didn't ring and boredom grew. Chan found himself watching more television than ever, he says.
"I was walking around my home office like a restless animal in a cage. I began to doubt my abilities. I wondered if I was in the right business. I was looking at want ads," he recalls. "I made so little money that I didn't have to pay taxes. It was the first time I realized how good one could feel to be a taxpayer: Paying taxes means you're making money."
The start-up motivation Chan had felt early on evaporated during this lull. He found a new job only to have his feelings of boredom and burn-out intensify after accepting the post. The pay was good, but he loathed being an employee again.
The yearning to work solo again actually fueled Chan's entrepreneurial fires. He continued consulting freelance with several former clients, which buoyed his spirits.
When he quit the day job and returned to consulting full time in 1991, Chan learned one important lesson: Business failure is not personal failure. He read books about mythology, religion, philosophy and poetry to gain perspective from others who had suffered setbacks, and quickly realized that his failure was no indictment of James Chan.
"To me, my business was my child. When I felt that I couldn't do it full time, I felt like I had failed," says Chan, who wrote Spare Room Tycoon: The 70 Lessons of Sane Self-Employment (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, $22) based on his experiences. "One of the lessons I learned was starting a business is an encounter with forces far more powerful than yourself. I came to realize that success isn't totally in our control no matter how hard we work or how devoted our cause is. Slowly I regained a sense of achievement, excitement and wonder."
Sometimes even strong business isn't enough to stave off the itch, Gordon admits. One time, Gordon "hit the wall" while in the midst of a large client training project. Halfway into the project, he realized how unclear the project definition was "and how I felt I was stuck in a big deep hole."
Interim reviews of the work started to get increasingly frustrating, and it became clear that the product he was planning to deliver--one which he and the client had agreed to--wasn't the product the client wanted. But the client couldn't be any more specific, and was growing frustrated. Eventually, the two parted company with the project not completed. But at least Gordon was free of the quagmire, he admits.
It's not uncommon to become mired in a large project or just not know where to begin on a challenging assignment for an important client. The resulting emotions can leave you grasping for direction. Gordon admits to scanning want ads several times during these emotional lows, although he says he never seriously considered leaving his benefits-rich home office, where he could call his own shots and watch his two children grow up.
"Both of these instances provided good learning opportunities, but they weren't much fun when I was in the middle of them," Gordon admits today. "Both are a kind of 'pick yourself up and move on' experience: frustrating and de-motivating when they happen, but not fatal by any means."
Find Out If You're Suffering From The Seven-Year-Itch
Is your entrepreneurial fire still burning? Still feeling the same spirit as you did when you first launched your business? Many businesses suffer motivational challenges after five to seven years, once the start-up passions have subsided and the business becomes, well, just business.
Answer the following questions to see if you're facing motivational lapses.
- Are you unhappy with work or do you dislike what you're doing, even when you're busy and making money?
- Are you unfocused? Do you dread the coming day when you awaken in the morning?
- Are you abrupt with people--family, peers, clients or vendors? Are you inexplicably on edge with others? Do you have an unexplained feeling of anxiety?
- Has your productivity taken a nose-dive? Does your to-do list never get any smaller? Are you facing the same unfinished projects today as you were last week?
- Have you considered the prospect of taking a full-time job where you do nothing more than your core task and you don't have to handle business development or the finances?
Tips To Boost Your Motivation
If you're touched by the seven-year-itch--regardless of how long you've been in business--you may need some diversions to break up your day and add variety to your work and personal life. Here are some possible alternatives to the everyday:
- Get out. Network with peers, have lunch with clients, volunteer with associations--escape the cocoon that can be the home office and meet with others. Hearing tales of their successes and challenges will remind you that you're not alone.
- Meet with your confidants. Find those people you trust most and tell them what you're feeling--especially feelings of failure, anxiety or worry. Unloading your concerns and hearing the feedback of others can be therapeutic, professionally and physically.
- Get away. Take a vacation, even if it's only a weekend away at a local retreat. In fact, the best time to take a break is when business is slow. Leave the work at home. Let your mind rest so it can work again.
- Create a MasterMind group. First coined by author Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich (Fawcett Books, $6.99), a MasterMind group is a core clutch of allies with whom you can share experiences, fears, challenges and new business ideas. In the best of times, it's a good way to bounce business ideas off trusted peers. In dire times, it's good for the spirit to vent feelings of angst. Just look for positive outcomes, and don't make it a belly-aching session.
- Be an entrepreneur. Tackle a new project, branch out into new areas, or create a new project that will re-energize your focus and revive your pioneering spirit.
- Create a Big Target Project. This is a long-term project, something that, once completed, will become a powerful reminder to your clients and peers of the businessperson you are. It can be a book, an audiocassette series, a new promotional package for your business, a new Web site, a proprietary research project about your industry, a new business--anything that can be done in 12 to 24 months. It has to be hands-on--you can't just pass it off to a subcontractor to create. Unlike the rote-ness of daily work, the Big Target focuses your energy on a single project and enlivens your spirit every day to complete it.
- Keep a diary. Instead of bearing the emotional strain of business cycles or feelings of depression, put your thoughts in writing. Reading and re-reading about your own emotions will reveal how out-of-balance you can be. This exercise will reveal a pattern of emotions and help lend perspective.
- Reassess your calling and purpose. Is what you're doing--either working from home or your profession itself--what you really want to be doing? Honestly re-examine and list those things that bring you joy, pride, satisfaction, fulfillment and a sense of success. Advises James Chan, "If you really don't want to do what you've been doing, don't be afraid to change your own life script."


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Re-posted from Anarchist News
On Tuesday night November 25th, a group of people enraged by the police murder of Mike-Mike Brown, and inspired by the rebellious acts that have spread across the country, vandalized the Durham National Guard Armory on Stadium Dr. Messages were painted on the front doors and over a dozen windows were smashed out.
The National Guard is now on the streets of St. Louis and Ferguson, continuing the racist cops' war on behalf of the rich against the poor.
This act followed an exciting night of protest in downtown Durham, in which a diverse hundreds of people spoke out about their experiences at the hands of the police, blocked streets, set off fireworks, spray-painted buildings with anti-police and anti-prison messages, and blocked the northbound side of Highway 147.
We hope all of these acts contribute to a continued escalation in local, combative struggle against racism, capitalism, and the state.
For anarchy,


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How Streets are Plowed in Minneapolis
Snow plowing and ice control is performed by Minneapolis Public Works. From early November to late March, City staff monitor roadway and weather conditions 24-hours a day, seven days a week and can respond to winter conditions at any time with a variety of equipment and personnel. Proper and timely response to winter weather conditions is paramount to the safety of the traveling public, the economic viability of the city and neighborhood livability.
When do we plow?
Public Works considers all winter precipitation events to be a form of winter weather emergency. Whether it's a freezing drizzle or a snowstorm that drops 14 inches of snow, appropriate crews are dispatched in response to the conditions. The response may range from a few sand/salt trucks to cover freezing bridge decks, to a full mobilization of up to 100 snow plows in a publicly declared Snow Emergency. Plow operators and support staff may work continuous back-to-back 12-hour shifts as necessary. Appropriate snow and ice control operations are always performed, regardless of whether or not the severity of the event warrants a Snow Emergency declaration.
Snow Emergency
City ordinance states that a Snow Emergency may be declared when conditions warrant that effective and complete plowing can only be accomplished when vehicles are not on the street and in the way. The declaration of a Snow Emergency is actually a trigger that initiates a predefined set of parking regulations that allow for the complete plowing of streets.
A typical Snow Emergency usually follows a sequence of events something like this:
As the first snow begins to fall, sand/salt trucks with underbody plows are dispatched to predetermined routes on the most heavily used streets to keep traffic flowing.
As the snow accumulation becomes plowable, motor graders and other plowing equipment are sent to bolster the effort.
When it is evident that a Snow Emergency declaration is required, Public Works officials will notify the media and the Citys 311 agents, update the 348-SNOW hotline and City website, send an e-alert to all Snow Emergency Alert subscribers and inform all other communications outlets. Snow plowing staff automatically gear up for 12-hour shifts to commence the Snow Emergency enforcement and plowing at 9 p.m., when all available equipment is put into operation. Tagging and towing are carefully coordinated with the plowing to move vehicles that aren't in compliance with Snow Emergency parking regulations.
Plowing of alleys will begin at an appropriate time during this period and will be completed in about 12 hours.
After the end of the three phases of the Snow Emergency, follow-up plowing, sanding and salting and miscellaneous clean up will follow for as long as is required.
There is no exact amount of snowfall that automatically defines the declaration of a Snow Emergency. Typically, a four- to five-inch snowfall will be enough to require one but previous accumulations, forecasted weather conditions and time of year all come into consideration when Public Works officials make decisions. No two snow events and circumstances are exactly alike, so each potential declaration requires careful consideration. For example, a 3½ inch snowfall in January, following some lighter accumulations, may require a Snow Emergency while a six inch snowfall in March with an anticipated immediate warming trend may not.
The basics
Snow and ice control is performed on the following:
- 1,040 miles of streets
- 57 miles of parkways
- 3,700 alleys (about 400 miles)
- 100 dead end-streets and cul-de-sacs
- 250 bridge sidewalks
- 7 pedestrian bridges
To get some perspective, consider that each street must be plowed in two directions and many streets have multiple lanes. There are some 3,200 "lane miles" that, set end to end, would stretch from Minneapolis to Seattle and back! Also consider that our 3,700 alleys translate to about 400 miles, which means we have more miles of alleys to plow than most suburbs have streets!
City employees using City-owned equipment perform almost all of the snow and ice control in Minneapolis. The snow fighting fleet for street and alley plowing consists of:
- 39 tandem-axle dump trucks with sander units and plows
- 15 tandem-axle dump trucks with plows
- 15 single-axle dump trucks with sander units and plows
- 3 motor graders
- 12 front-end loaders with spade-nosed buckets or plows
- To round out the fleet, 15 motor graders and four front-end loaders equipped with front and side plows are rented for the winter season and staffed by City operators
- Finally, to accomplish the alley plowing in the shortest time frame, 20 front-end loaders with operators are contracted on an as-needed basis
What is the snow plowing budget?
The average annual cost for Minneapolis' snow and ice control effort is about $13 million. The budget is established to handle "normal" winter seasons. However the City budget process is on a calendar year so it is sometimes hard to answer the question, "So, how's your snow budget doing this season?" It starts all over again in January.
In a season or year with below average snowfalls, the majority of the budget is still required to cover the base cost for readiness. Even with very little snowfall, we still incur costs for base staffing and equipment and materials that we must have on hand.
Parking enforcement
When a Snow Emergency is declared, City Ordinance states that illegally parked vehicles may be impounded (tagged and towed) to provide for effective snow plowing. Contrary to some popular opinion, the Public Works Department is not in the business of towing cars to generate revenue. Our mission is to provide safe passage by plowing and clearing snow off the streets. Towing cars is time consuming, frustrating, difficult to coordinate, and hampers efforts to do an efficient and quality job. It would be better if people complied with the parking regulations so not a single car would have to be towed. Unfortunately, too many people either don't pay attention, or choose to ignore the rules – so ordinances and procedures were developed to deal with them.
Until a number of years ago, most complaints about enforcement were from people who were upset that their vehicle was towed. The tide turned in the mid-1990s to where the majority of the calls came from people complaining that the cars that were illegally parked on their street were not towed, resulting in a poor snow clearing. In response, Public Works has increased its towing capability to approximately 80 tow trucks that may remove, on average, 1,500 illegally parked vehicles each Snow Emergency. This is still only about 20 percent of the cars that are illegally parked.
The parking citations are issued under the authority of Hennepin County, so only a portion of the revenue from a ticket comes to the City. These funds are returned to the general fund that supports the snow plowing budget. All revenues generated by towing and Impound Lot storage fees are used to compensate towing contractors and support the operation and maintenance of the Minneapolis Impound Lot.
Last updated Dec 3, 2018


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I will have another giveaway starting on my blog tomorrow
and the winner is...
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
The winner of the Tim Irving photo giveaway is......*drum roll*.....Rachel!!! Congrats, dah'ling. Please e-mail me soon :)
Labels: Giveaway I love competitions Winner
11 comments
Another giveaway? Can't wait to see what it's about.ReplyDelete
That was a fabulous giveaway!ReplyDelete
Congrats to the winner!ReplyDelete
I love that photo...he is dreamy!
Congrats Rachel!!!ReplyDelete
Damn! Always knew Rachael was going to get it! ;)ReplyDelete
Congratulations Rachel!! :DReplyDelete
Lovely photo....damn!
- Anonymous9 September 2009 at 16:22
Well done Rachel!!!!ReplyDelete
Yay Rachel! Enjoy!ReplyDelete
And I shall enjoy a little Heath :)
lucky fish, had all my fingers and toes crossed for that one, such a gorgeous give-away, cant wait for the next one! Enjoy Rachel!ReplyDelete
congrats to he winner :)ReplyDelete
Thanks guys!!ReplyDelete
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Three books that are related to the JMSC have been published this month.
The first, The Great Game of Political Reform: Wen Jiabao's Seven Speeches on Political Reform, was compiled by the director of the China Media Project (CMP), Qian Gang.
The book is a collection of essays and other writing done in 2010 on the subject of political reform in China. The subject matter for the book was chosen as a result of seven speeches on political reform given by Chinese Premier, Wen Jiaobao (温家宝), between August 20 and September 30, 2010.
Contributors include Yanhuang Chunqiu editor Du Daozheng (杜导正), New Century editor-in-chief Hu Shuli (胡舒立), Beijing Film Academy professor Cui Weiping (崔伟平), blogger and former foreign ministry official Yang Hengjun (杨恒均), Yazhou Zhoukan editor-in-chief Qiu Liben (邱立本), writer Yu Jie (余杰), Southern Weekend columnist Xiao Shu (笑蜀), as well as drafters (or "writer's groups"), who are often anonymous and who offer defences against pro-reform arguments in People's Daily, Seeking Truth and other publications.
David Bandurski, a research associate at the CMP wrote on the project's website, "One of the biggest overarching China stories of 2010 has to be the enigmatic tug-of-war over the issue of political reform, a debate that has been visible at times in China's media and has shifted at other times to overseas media……the voices on political reform inside China, and within the broader Chinese community globally, were rich and varied."
"The book is an essential read for anyone interested in the current and future climate of political reform in China, or in how this sensitive issue has been addressed by media inside China," Bandurski added.
The second book is called Changing Media, Changing China edited by Susan Shirk. Shirk is a professor at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego and an expert on Chinese politics. She was also Deputy Assistant Secretary of State during the Clinton administration.
China Media Project director, Qian Gang, and research associate, David Bandurski, were asked to contribute a chapter to the book. They we wrote an overview of changes in China's press, and how the factors of commercialisation, journalistic professionalism, the internet and other new media are working together to open up interesting new spaces for expression in the country.
"This book is valuable because it offers a broad but expert view on changes in China's media and the impact they are having in China today," said David Bandurski. "The book covers many and varied aspects of the media, including television, the internet, newspapers, business journalism and the influence the media has had on China's court system."
The third book is Humanities Now: Perspectives across Cultures by Leo Lee Ou-fan. Lee is Emeritus Professor of Chinese Studies at Harvard University and a cultural critic who looks specifically at China. He came to give a series of six eponymous lectures at HKU in 2009; they focused on strategic moments in history in which art forms across cultures appear to illuminate each other. By exploring works of modern artists and thinkers from both East and West, Lee aimed to recover the ethical significance of the humanities for today.
The lectures were in Chinese and were co-organised by HKU's School of Humanities and the JMSC's Project for Public Culture.
The lectures and the writing of the book, which is published by Oxford University Press and also in Chinese, were sponsored by the the JMSC's Project for Public Culture, the Azalea (1972) Endowment Fund, the HKU Culture and Humanities Fund and Muse Magazine. Podcasts of the six lectures can be heard and/or viewed at: http://jmsc.hku.hk/leolee/.


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The federal government is expanding the spy network, this time by adding an intelligence agency at the Department of Defense. The Defense Clandestine Service (DCS) is now active and operating under the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). According to the organization's website, DCS's mission will be to conduct:
human intelligence (HUMINT) operations to answer national-level defense objectives for the President, the Secretary of Defense, and senior policymakers. The civilian and military workforce of the DCS conducts clandestine and overt intelligence operations in concert with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and our Military Services to accomplish their mission in defense of the Nation.
The basic idea is that the new spies will work in conjunction with their counterparts at the CIA's National Clandestine Service to expand the scope of the federal intelligence community's surveillance operations.
Re-tasking the DIA to a more CIA-like reliance on human intelligence gathering is part of this mission.
To successfully carry out this new covert program, the Pentagon has provided the DCS with plenty of staff. As noted by the Washington Post in December, "When the expansion is complete, the DIA is expected to have as many as 1,600 "collectors" in positions around the world, an unprecedented total for an agency whose presence abroad numbered in the triple digits in recent years."
As the Washington Post story reports, not all of the new "collectors" will work undercover. Over the next five years, however, DCS will identify and train many more operatives who will be assigned to deep-cover positions and will work with the military's Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).
It is this blending (convergence) of the civilian intelligence apparatus with the traditional military establishment that is not only worrisome and a threat to the Fourth Amendment, but may be a violation of the law, as well.
In the days since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the CIA has become nothing less than an armed unit of the U.S. armed forces. Routinely agents of this otherwise intelligence-gathering organization are deployed with special-ops soldiers on assignments in the "War on Terror."
Regardless of potential legal problems, this convergence of the civilian and military resources is not being hidden.
In a paper exploring the legal ramifications of the increasing military/civilian convergence, Professor Robert Chesney of the University of Texas School of Law describes an appearance by former Director of the CIA Leon Panetta where he tries to justify his operational control of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Professor Chesney writes:
Leon Panetta appeared on PBS Newshour not long after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. He was the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency at that time, and during the course of the interview he took up the question of the CIA's role in the attack. It had been "a 'title 50' operation," he explained, invoking the section of the U.S. Code that authorizes the activities of the CIA. As a result, Panetta added, he had exercised overall "command."
This surely confused at least some observers. The mission had been executed by U.S. Navy SEALs from Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) after all, and both operational and tactical command seemed to have resided at all times with JSOC personnel. But for those who had been following the evolution of the CIA and JSOC during the post-9/11 period, Panetta's account would not have been surprising. The bin Laden raid was, from this perspective, merely the latest example of an ongoing process of convergence among military and intelligence activities, institutions, and authorities.
The DCS website confirms the federal government's quest for civilian/military convergence. Under the heading "What Does a Case Officer Do?" DSC states, "Our elite corps of Case Officers deploy globally alongside warfighters and interagency partners to protect our National security."
Soldiers ("warfighters") and spies working together to "protect our national security" globally, including inside the United States.
Professor Chesney summarizes the relevant legal (and constitutional question) in his paper. He writes:
the convergence trend undermines the existing legal architecture along the rule-of-law dimension by exposing latent confusion and disagreement regarding which substantive constraints apply to military and intelligence operations. Is international law equally applicable to all such operations? Is an agency operating under color of "Title 50" at liberty to act in locations or circumstances in which the armed forces ordinarily cannot?
Title 50 is the section of the U.S. Code governing the legal authority of the CIA. Title 10, on the other hand, is the provision covering the authority of the armed forces. As the two sections reveal, there are "distinct spheres of intelligence and military operations and that each is subject to a distinct set of standing statutory authorizations and constraints."
Regardless of these legal and statutory realities, for years the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has included funds for the purchase of combat gear for use by the Department of Homeland Security (and other domestic intelligence and security departments of the federal government) to help control mobs in cases of national emergency.
These purchases, along with the convergence of intelligence operations being accomplished by the creation of the Defense Clandestine Service and the deployment of CIA agents in the role of soldiers, intentionally blur the lines around military authority over the civilian population.
The DCS declares that it is "mission focused" and that mission is to accelerate the convergence of the military and the civilian authorities and obliterate constitutional boundaries around privacy and civil liberties.
Finally, there is no denying that the surveillance state is expanding and that Americans at home and abroad are nearly constantly under the watchful and never-blinking eye of intelligence officers. From phone taps to traffic cameras connected to the National Security Agency, the federal government is not only violating statutory law, but is circumventing the Constitution. On several fronts, the United States is being treated as a theater of the "War on Terror" and citizens are being treated as suspects.
Photo: the Pentagon


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I like it!
|Dimensions (mm)
|5.5 x 5.5 x 3mm
|Weight (carats)
|1.2 carats
|No Treatment
Very Beautiful Ceylon Multi Color Sapphire Collector's Gem
Clarity:Inclusion seen in pictures
Color : Blue Green & yellow Seen in picture
will be ships within 3 business days after receiving payment
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Very nice piece.
Much clearer in person.
Will make a nice cut stone.
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Salaams and Salutations Ladies,
Its been a long time...TOO long.
Here is my pic for Pink Hijab Day. I'm wearing a Pearl Daisy Pink Drape scarf (currently out of stock). It is SOOO soft and silky. I will be doing an upcoming post on my recent Pearl Daisy haul as well as my collection *yeaahh*
So show your support for Breast cancer this month and change your Facebook profile pic.
Also check out THESE stores that are donating or discounting this month.
Primo Moda is offering 10% off today in support of Pink Hijab Day.
Pearl Daisy is offering 10% for early EID.
The Souq is donation proceeds from the sale of all PINK hijabs and accessories to Breast Cancer awareness.
B Beautiful
Umm Amirah
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Pink Hijab Day 2011
Beauty by Umm Amirah at 11:12 AM 2 comments
Labels: hijabi, Pink Hijab Day, You've got the look
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Mass. Air Guard to train in skies over southern Vt. and NH
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) � The skies will be active over southern Vermont and New Hampshire when the Massachusetts Air National Guard conducts flight training this month.
The exercises will take place during the day on Wednesday and again on Jan. 30.
Air Guard officials say the training flights will involve F-15 fighter jets finding and escorting nonmilitary aircraft to a regional airport.
The 104th Fighter Wing is preparing for an upcoming inspection.
Officials say the Vermont communities of Rutland, Wells, Granville, Bennington, West Dover, Manchester, Dorset and Pawlet as well as Claremont and Keene, N.H., may notice increased aircraft activity during those days.


text:
Saturday, 5 July 2008
Eat y'self fitter (2)
So if someone eats their way through half a tube of Pringles while watching the football, does that mean they've eaten 50 biscuits in one go?
17 comments:
- Devil's Kitchen said...
"The Jaffa cake - is it a cake, is it a biscuit - saga is well-known, with its makers desperate to prove it was in fact a biscuit, so that it wouldn't be subject to VAT. (Cakes are, biscuits aren't; don't ask me why)."
Well, Kerry, you are a member of Parliament and so maybe—just maybe—you ought to go and look it up? Or if you are unable to do it yourself, could you not ask one of the members of staff that you spent £90,611 of our money on last year to do it for you?
For the record, I have no idea if the biscuit distinction was in the original EU Directive on VAT or wether it was gold-plating by our government. I suspect it's the former, but why don't you go and find out?
- Sun Jul 06, 08:06:00 pm
- Fidothedog said...
Well if one is worried about eating 50 biscuits in one go, there is always the "John Prescott" method of weight reduction:
Two fingers down the throat...
- Sun Jul 06, 09:37:00 pm
- Kerry said...
Yes, I'll get my massively overpaid and underworked team of researchers and caseworkers to spend the rest of the week checking obscure bits of tax legislation, with instructions not to stop until they find out exactly which categories Hula Hoops, Wotsits and Quavers fall into. And let's not forget Twiglets.
For all those who constantly raise the expenditure on staff and office costs - would you rather I didn't employ anyone, didn't follow up on casework, didn't have anyone answer the phones or open the door to the hundreds of people who contact me asking me for help or advice each year? What point exactly are you making? Or are you just trying to score cheap political points?
- Mon Jul 07, 06:01:00 pm
- Devil's Kitchen said...
Several things: first, I appreciate that your staff are probably busy.
Second: my point about your expenditure was to highlight the fact that you are joint 60th, out of 646, for staff costs. That would imply that you either employ a greater number of staff than the norm, or that you pay them more. I imagine that, either way, they could find some time.
Thirdly, and most importantly, MPs should not primarily be social workers; for that, we employ... well... social workers.
You are legislators: that is your prime function. You are, in fact, one of only 646 people who can make law in this country.
One might have thought that, as a legislator, it was reasonably important that you understood the laws on which you vote.
As such, if there is a piece of law that you don't know about, then I think that I might reasonably expect you to look it up.
"Yes, I'll get my massively overpaid and underworked team of researchers and caseworkers to spend the rest of the week checking obscure bits of tax legislation, with instructions not to stop until they find out exactly which categories Hula Hoops, Wotsits and Quavers fall into. And let's not forget Twiglets."
That was not what I was asking at all. What I was pointing out is that you should understand why there are different categories for VAT: not only because it is one of the government's primary revenue streams with income projected at over £80 billion this year, but because they also affect your constituents' lives.
You might like to start with the 1972 European Communities Act, for instance.*
And are you aware of the EU Commission's recent proposed changes to VAT? These, too, will affect your constituents. True, since VAT is an EU imposed tax, there is little that you can do to change rates or categorisations, but you should know about it nonetheless.
To return to my third point, laws are important because they control how people in this country live. And yes, the laws that you vote on are vastly more important than your casework; but the laws that you pass also affect your constituency casework.
Am I scoring political points? Sure, but not party political points: I am a classical liberal/libertarian and thus have a pretty low opinion of MPs of all stripes.
You just offered yourself up as a target by declaring your ignorance.
* If I, as an interested amateur, can be bothered to look this stuff up, then I think that it is reasonable that you -- who are employed full-time, and employ others, to do this work -- should also do so.
- Wed Jul 09, 12:52:00 am
- Bishop Hill said...
would you rather I didn't employ anyone, didn't follow up on casework, didn't have anyone answer the phones or open the door to the hundreds of people who contact me asking me for help or advice each year?
Philip Hollobone manages it.
- Wed Jul 09, 08:45:00 am
- Old Holborn said...
Careful now Kerry.
Remember who pays your wages, expenses and perks.
US. The "little people", the "children".
- Wed Jul 09, 09:06:00 am
- Jack of Kent said...
"For all those who constantly raise the expenditure on staff and office costs - would you rather I didn't employ anyone, didn't follow up on casework, didn't have anyone answer the phones or open the door to the hundreds of people who contact me asking me for help or advice each year?"
Perhaps if you didn't waste time blogging on silly stuff like this then you wouldn't need so much staff to cover you in doing your proper and important job.
- Wed Jul 09, 01:57:00 pm
- TheFatBigot said...
Those with responsibility for making new laws need to understand how any proposed new law affects existing law. In order to do that they need to know what the existing law is and what lies behind it. "Don't ask me why" is not an option.
Everything you said about the Jaffa cake case was wrong. You should have looked it up before opining, it took me 30 seconds to find the judgment of the VAT tribunal online without the assistance of any staff.
The onus now seems to be on you to prove that you are not just lobby fodder. I look forward to following your Parliamentary work to see whether you can do so.
- Wed Jul 09, 06:09:00 pm
- Kerry said...
Disgraceful isn't it. An MP arrives home at 10.30pm after a full day in Westminster, and chooses to switch on Newsnight and do some blogging, when she should be holding constituency surgeries or dictating letters to her overpaid and underworked staff. And on Sunday she spent two hours posting a reply on her blog to smokers, when she should have been .... what? Having a life?
I understand entirely why some foods are VAT-able and others aren't. I just don't get the bizarre logic which classes some items as basic food stuffs when they clearly aren't. And OK, I got the Jaffa cake thing the wrong way round (which now makes the Pringles thing even more bizarre). It was a light-hearted blog, posted because I thought some people might find it amusing. If you want an in-depth discussion of the anomalies of VAT regulations I'm sure there's an HMRC expert somewhere out in the blogosphere who'd be only too willing to indulge you.
My staffing costs are relatively high primarily because my office is busy. And that's down to three factors. (A) I have a high immigration/ asylum caseload; (B) I have a lot of politically engaged/ politically aware people in my constituency, who write me lots of letters and sign up to postcard campaigns (I get 10 times more policy letters than the MP I share an office with); and (C) I actually bother to write back to everyone who contacts me and take up their concerns, even if they've just signed a petition or a postcard.
And if you want evidence of what I do when I'm not blogging, you can check out my main website or theyworkforyou.com. Like the child
poverty debate I did this afternoon, for example.
But better stop now - wouldn't want to be accused of not doing 'proper work'. Although I seem to get just as much stick for not replying to blog posts... Can I win? Why do I do this? Some bizarre idea that politicians ought to be a little bit more open and accessible to the public? Or am I the Max Moseley of Westminster and just get some weird kick out of all the abuse?
- Wed Jul 09, 06:49:00 pm
- Old Holborn said...
"Why do I do this?"
The money? The power? The perks? The feeling of self importance? The greed? The contempt for little people?
We really should be hanging more of you lot.
- Wed Jul 09, 06:57:00 pm
- Kerry said...
Just to clarify things yet again... Why do I this? was a reference to blogging, not being an MP.
Very few MPs blog, and even fewer allow unmoderated comments. Some don't allow comments at all.
I don't want to go down that path, but the alternative seems to be providing a public platform for unpleasant people to use me as a proxy for venting all their vitriol about politicians and the political process. (On which point, I really appreciate the fact there is a proper debate going on on the Kill the Poor tag - I may even join in at some point.)
- Wed Jul 09, 07:25:00 pm
- Old Holborn said...
"Very few MPs blog, and even fewer allow unmoderated comments. Some don't allow comments at all."
I'm sorry, are you trying to set yourself up as some sort of Joan of Arc?
I am a libertarian. Which means by default that YOU are one of crazy 646 who decide everything for the 60 million who live in this country.
War in Iraq? YOU decided that. Poverty in the world? YOU can change it. You and the other 645 have decided and ruled over every single aspect of my life. I got no say in the Lisbon Treaty. Or 42 days internment. YOU DID THOUGH.
In the next year, there will grinding poverty because YOU screwed it up. You won't feel it of course, you're "doing your bit".
Of course you will blame "external factors" but the only people who could change anything are the crazy 646. And they've done nothing. You've done NOTHING.
So, you have earned my utter contempt. Only sixty years ago, we really did hang politicians and only a few short years ago, we really did riot over unjust taxes.
Whereas 60 million of us used to have to listen to your voices, we now have our own ( well, until our masters in Brussels put a stop to that) so I will shout at the top of my voice to all that will listen that ALL of our woes, every single last one of them is down to YOU and your 645 colleagues, because none of us, apart from you, can change a damn thing.
You WILL be held accountable.
- Wed Jul 09, 07:39:00 pm
- Lass said...
I've just had a look at Kerry's TheyWorkForYou profile, and decided to look beyond the simple stats on her expenditure to her "proper work". She's above average for the number of debates she's spoken in and above average for the number of written questions. Yes, she is joint 60th in staffing costs, but she is also 34th in the number of emails received via TheyWorkForYou. I don't know what proportion of MPs' correspondence this would on average be, but guess it's a rough guide and Kerry has already said she responds to it all.
I've had a look at some of the other comments on recent posts too. I just don't understand how some of you can be so rude to someone who seems to take her role as a representative pretty seriously. Apologies if I'm wrong, but I'm presuming that not all these people are in Kerry's area, which leaves me wondering why people are commenting here and not on their own MPs blogs. Maybe they don't bother to write one, to show they have a human side and what their interests are, and that they are not just a grey suit on a green bench.
- Wed Jul 09, 09:22:00 pm
- LDN said...
Old Holborn - she wasnt elected until 2005 and as such could not have voted for the war. A simple Google search would have prevented such a glaring error
- Wed Jul 09, 10:05:00 pm
- LDN said...
ps. pringles are not biscuits - cant be dunked in tea and cant be covered in chocolate. Case closed.
- Thu Jul 10, 10:24:00 pm
- Kerry said...
Spoken like a true northener! And, as I spotted in the newsagents today, you can now get Pringles in bags. Crisp bags.
- Fri Jul 11, 12:21:00 am
- Dick Puddlecote said...
Boy! How did I ever miss this bundle of fun? Kerry getting a well-deserved and astute kicking. Great fun, thanks to all involved.
My personal favourite was "Why do I do this? Some bizarre idea that politicians ought to be a little bit more open and accessible to the public?"
Followed by one post after another since where valid comments that disagreed with Kerry's were ignored and/or ridiculed. My sides hurt. :-)
- Wed Jul 30, 01:42:00 am


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Eddie Murphy Double-Marathon
Just a short and sweet report this week – in sharp contrast to the race itself, I might add. I was running in the Eddie Murphy Memorial last Sunday – the race was to commemorate the life of an Irish runner named Eddie Murphy, who had completed 45 marathons before his untimely death in April 2011. There was a half-marathon, full marathon, a 30-mile ultra and a 52.4 mile double-marathon on the day. Between the four events, there were 100 competitors, of which 17 (including yours truly) attempted the double.
It was an absolutely miserable day in Sixmilebridge, Co. Clare from start to finish. The route was run on a one-mile loop of the village. If memory serves correctly, about one third of that loop was uphill, which was fine at the beginning but got progressively more difficult as the day wore on. We began the double at 7am and the rain began to pelt down a couple of hours later. It never stopped. About halfway through, gale-force headwinds began to push against us on the downhill portion of the route – so much for the recovery part of the route! At one point near the end, I even saw a lightning strike in a nearby field – that really speaks volumes about the mentality of the competitors, lightning literally struck and nobody batted an eyelid!
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I failed to finish this time. Obviously it was incredibly disappointing, firstly because that had never happened to me before and secondly, because I was only seven or eight miles from the end. However, the medical team judged that I was pretty close to hypothermia, and made a judgment call. In hindsight, it turned out to be correct, although at the time, it didn't stop me complaining in the loudest possible language! After about an hour in the back of the ambulance, the lads dropped me off at a local B&B, where I stayed on till lunchtime the next day. I'd just like to say a quick word of thanks to them for looking after me, and getting me back to said B&B in once piece! Final stats on the day were 46 miles in just over nine and a half hours. Tomorrow morning, I'm back on the road for a marathon in the Phoenix Park. Soon after that's done, I'll hopefully have a full report up from the Dublin marathon from the end of October. For now, some shut-eye is definitely required…