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Brian Micklethwait's Blog
In which I continue to seek part time employment as the ruler of the world.Home
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Category archive: Globalisation
I've been reading Bryson's At Home: A Short History of Private Life, and very entertaining and informative it is too. Strangely, one of the best things about it for me was that he explained, briefly and persuasively, both the rise to global stardom and the fall from global stardom of British agriculture. The rise was a lot to do with the idea of crop rotation. I remember vaguely being told about this in a prep school history class, but although I did remember the phrase "crop rotation", I didn't care about it or about what it made possible.
Here is Bryson's description of this key discovery:
The discovery was merely this: land didn't have to be rested regularly to retain its fertility. It was not the most scinitillatingof insights, but it changed the world.
Traditionally, most English farmland was divided into long strips called furlongs and each furlong was left fallow for one season in every three - sometimes one season in two - to recover its ability to produce healthy crops. This meant that in any year at least one-third of farmland stood idle. In consequence, there wasn't sufficient feed to keep large numbers of animals alive through the winter, so landowners had no choice but to slaughter most of their stock each autumn and face a long, lean period till spring.
Then English farmers discovered something that Dutch farmers had known for a long time: if turnips, clover or one or two other suitable crops were sown on the idle fields, they miraculously refreshed the soil and produced a bounty of winter fodder into the bargain. It was the infusion of nitrogen that did it, though no one would understand that for nearly two hundred years. What was understood, and very much appreciated, was that it transformed agricultural fortunes dramatically. Moreover, because more animals lived through the winter, they produced heaps of additional manure, and these glorious, gratis ploppings enriched the soil even further.
It is hard to exaggerate what a miracle all this seemed. Before the eighteenth century, agriculture in Britain lurched from crisis to crisis. An academic named W. G. Hoskins calculated (in 1964) that between 1480 and 1700, one harvest in four was bad, and almost one in five was catastrophically bad. Now, thanks to the simple expedient of crop rotation, agriculture was able to settle into a continuous, more or less reliable prosperity. It was this long golden age that gave so much of the countryside the air of prosperous comeliness it enjoys still today, ...
The fall of British agriculture was all mixed up with refrigeration, which enabled the wide open spaces of the late nineteenth century world to make masses of food and to transport it to hungry urban mouths everywhere before it went bad. Prices fell below what the farmers of Britain (where there were no wide open spaces by global standards) could match.
One of my favourite computer functions is Screen Capture. For years, I didn't know how to do this. How is "prt sc" screen capture? I used to just photo the screen. Then I got told, and more to the point, told at a time just before I found many uses for this procedure, and as a result, I actually got it fixed in my head.
So it is that I am able to capture fleeting moments like this one:
That was the passage of play that turned the game England's way, today, on day one of the test match at Headingley. Sri Lanka went from 228-5 and motoring to 229-9, in nine balls. In among all this, Broad got a hat trick, but didn't even realise and had to be told! There was then a little last wicket stand and they got to over 250, but the big damage had been done.
Here is another interesting moment, which is the moment when they show me all the guys who worked on Adobe Photoshop, while I am loading Adobe Photoshop.
But, the trouble is, when I do a Screen Capture while that is happening, it doesn't work. What gets captured is the moment when Adobe Photoshop is finally loaded. Until then, I guess my computer is too busy loading Photoshop to do a Screen Capture. Either all that, or else I just wasn't doing it right, as is entirely possible.
But instead of obsessing about what I might or might not be doing wrong, I instead simply photographed the moment, just like old times:
The reason I wanted to photo this was all the Indian names, in among the occasional regular American ones. Interesting. Where are they all based, I wonder? I'm guessing somewhere in the USA, but what do I know? Adobe seems to have a lot of places where they could be. And of course, if something like Adobe doesn't know how to plug a global network of co-workers together, who does? From where I sit, these Indian guys could be anywhere. Even so, like I say, interesting.
A lot of the Americans I read on the Internet say that Obama is destroying America, and he seems to be doing as much as he can along these lines. But there is a lot of ruin in a country, and a lot of ruin in American. This screen shot suggests that at least parts of the good old American upward economic mobility ladder are working just fine.
Is this book … :
… the same book as this book?:
It turns out that they are the same book. Hannan:
I set out to answer these questions in my book, published in North America as Inventing Freedom and in the rest of the Anglosphere as How we Invented Freedom.
But, are they precisely the same? I mean: same intro? Same preface? Any other small tinkerings? If the Yanks (maybe the Brits?) changed the damn title, what the hell else did they change?
I find this kind of thing intensely annoying. The whole point of reading something like a book, or watching something like a movie, is that you read (or watch) precisely the same object as everybody else. (This being one reason why I so particularly resent censorship. It prevents me, again and again, from seeing what others elsewhere are seeing.)
The best you can say about this muddle is that at least this/these book/books seem to be coming out at approximately the same time.
How we invented Freedom is nevertheless in the post.
This morning, in connection with a Samizdata posting about Europe, I found myself googling for info about London's new container port, which I had heard about, but which I heard about some more last night.
It looks rather impressive:
I found that picture here, that being how things were looking in May of this year.
The Unions are not happy.
I have a vague recollection of posting something here about some big new cranes arriving in London, for, presumably, this. Yes, here. These cranes are "taller than the London Eye", according to the quote I found then. So, these cranes ought to be visible and photo-able from quite a distance. Stanford-Le-Hope here I come.
At his talk chez moi on Friday Feb 22nd (see below) on How globalisation has made the world less rather than more homogenised, Michael Jennings intends to show us some photos. Indeed, he will be dropping by earlier in the week to make sure that the relevant technology can be guaranteed to work properly on the night. This may also require some creativity with the seating.
Here, in the meantime, are a few photos that he has emailed to me, together with commentary. Enjoy.
This is in Sukhomi, Abkhazia, a breakaway non-recognised state that is de jure part of Georgia (and is supported by Russia). Mango is a fashion label that grew out of a stall in the Ramblas market in Barcelona, and is now to globalised retail what the sub-prime market is to home ownership.
An interesting phenomenon occurs when there is a market for a particular international business, and that international business does not operate in that particular market for whatever reason: because the market is too small, too distant, too poor, too corrupt, or there are political problems. Clones of the business will often spring up. These can be particularly entertaining in places where there is no trademark law, trademark law is weak, or where it can be legally difficult to pursue claims from the owner of the trademark. This burger place in northern Cyprus in no way resembles Burger King. Obviously.
One of the most extreme cases in which this phenomenon occurred was in South Africa under apartheid. Many international companies boycotted the country, which in some ways was a modern country with a sizeable middle class, economy and legal system. (In various other ways, it wasn't and isn't.) South Africa in 1990 was therefore full of quite good clones of international businesses, that until then were constrained as to where they could operate, but faces competition only from one another at home. Post 1990, the international businesses that they were clones of entered South Africa in a big way, and the South Africans themselves were subsequently able to compete in the wider world. The South African clones weren't good enough or rich enough to compete in the home markets of the major internationals, and have subsequently expanded into countries that are poorly served by the internationals for a variety of reason - this means Africa, parts of Eastern Europe, parts of Asia, parts of the Middle East. Politically dubious markets of questionable legitimacy a lot the time. One often finds South Africans and Russians side by side.
One could write an entire book about fake Apple Stores. The ones in China (this one is in Tianjin) are the most awesome. The entire story of international brands in China is itself fascinating. Everyone is there, because of the perceived size and importance of the market. Yet the country is far more chaotic, far more unstable, far more corrupt, for more authoritarian, has weaker copyright and patent laws and a weaker rule of law in general than many of the markets these companies would generally consider operating in.
India is more problematic in some ways: bureaucratic beyond words, and culturally difficult in ways that make foreign business models work less well, or at least require a lot more adaptation. (Imagine you are McDonald's, and you are told that you are not permitted to use either beef nor pork in the food you sell). There have historically been limits on foreign investment. Supermarkets are only now in the process of being legalised. Very large companies can find entry to the Indian market - car makers or mobile phone companies. Medium sized companies - which is where most of the interesting stuff happens - find it much harder.
It's going to be an interesting evening.
As already mentioned here, my next Last Friday of the Month (i.e. Feb 22 – please arrive at my home between 7pm and 8pm) speaker is to be my good friend Michael Jennings. The long version of his talk's title is:
How the globalisation of commerce has made the world less rather than more homogenised, and what I have learned out this by travelling the world.
Which I will hereby shorten down to:
How globalisation has made the world less rather than more homogenised.
As all his friends will unite in telling you, Michael has done a lot of travelling.
Emails will soon be going out confirming all this, and in particular drawing the emailee's attention to the following, which is Michael writing at a little more length about the kinds of thing he intends to be talking about:
Around a decade ago, a friend of mine decried the fact that the American clothing chain "The Gap" was expanding around the world, and destroying the local character of the cities she was visiting. I then asked her in which cities, precisely, she had seen their stores. She paused for a moment, and said "New York, Toronto, London, and Paris".
At the time she said this, The Gap had stores in precisely five countries in the world: The United States, Canada, The United Kingdom, France, and Japan. (They have since spread a little wider, but not much wider. And certainly, not much deeper. In many of the countries they operate in, they might have one or two stores in the capital city, but they are not a brand that ordinary people will interact with on a day to day basis.) This said far more about her than it did about The Gap: she travelled to the very small number of places that were its target market - places containing people similar to her - and assumed that this was "the world".
An observation I made then was one that has been confirmed to me since: when you find someone who decries the corporate homogenisation of the world caused by globalisation, one immediately realises that they haven't travelled very widely. With more thought, one also realises they haven't travelled very deeply. The number of interesting restaurants in a city is strongly correlated with the number of McDonald's outlets and the number of fast food chains present, and it is a positive correlation. The number of interesting coffee shops (and Bubble Tea cafes, and Polynesian Cava outlets) is strongly correlated to the number of Starbucks outlets, and once again it is a positive correlation.
The question really, is whether correlation is causation. Does the spread of McDonald's and Starbucks cause local ecosystems of food, drink, and other retail outlets to become more complex and more sophisticated? If so, how do they spread, and why do they spread?
I have spent much of the last five years travelling the world, chasing the answers to these questions in various countries and quasi-countries. (Quasi-countries such as Northern Cyprus, Palestine, or Kosovo are particularly interesting, in that the forces that spread businesses and cultures are impeded and obstructed in certain ways, while simultaneously being not obstructed in other ways that they are obstructed in real countries, and one can learn a lot about what these forces are from this.) In doing so, I have learned much about the spread of international corporations, but also much about real estate booms and cheap money. The spread of international business confirms, in many ways, the starkness of international borders and the power of international institutions and how these things trump commerce. A quick glance at shopping malls and high streets in a foreign country can tell huge amounts of information about the governance and legal systems of a country - merely through the presence and absence of brands, and through what alternatives fill the gaps left by the absence of international brands.
On February 22 I shall attempt to draw and share some conclusions from what I have learned.
As to Michael's question about correlation, causation, and so on, between on the one hand Starbucks et al, and on the other hand greater eating diversity, my untravelled guess would be that both are caused by globalisation, and in particular by lots of foreigners descending on the place, because of easier and cheaper travel, more globalised business activity, and so on. Some of these foreigners want their familiar stuff, i.e. Starbucks. And other foreigners welcome the change to get away from all that, and want sample local delicacies and diversions, perhaps guided by local work colleagues. Opposite sides of the same global coin, you might say.
But what do I know? Less than Michael Jennings, that's for sure. He has not merely travelled. He has travelled, to use his own excellent phrase, deeply.
If you want to attend this event, email me, or leave a comment here, and I'll get back to you to confirm that you will be very welcome, as you surely will be.
Just listened to an interview on Radio 3 with the author of The Last Lingua Franca. Publisher spiel:
In this provocative and persuasive new book, Nicholas Ostler challenges our assumption that English will continue to dominate as the global lingua franca. Drawing on his encyclopaedic knowledge of world languages and their history, Ostler reveals that just as past great languages like Latin and Sanskrit have died out, so English will follow.
Sounds interesting. Not because he is necessarily completely right, but because he sounds like he knows a lot about the rise and fall of languages generally.
This posting is just me reminding myself about this book, so that I buy it in paperback. Which it definitely will be because it's a Penguin.
After a blog hiatus of nearly four days (explained in comment number 2 here), Antoine's Norlonto Review is back and swinging.
I of course liked this:
Good start.
I get a real sense of globalisation when I check out the lists of skyscrapers around the world that are under construction.
It seems that not everybody has been told about the Credit Crunch.
Here's a link showing proposed buildings and those under construction. A quick run through struck me with how few are in Europe (apart from Russia). I'm sure Brian Micklethwait has linked to this site before.
Yes, I must have, because I regularly go there. But never to this particular bit of it, I don't think. I tried to turn the big picture into a graphic that I could shrink and put here, but failed.
If not, he will now!
Another striking thought is how many are in cities that most sophisticated multiculturally-correct do-gooders of the sort that support green campaigns but drop trash in parks couldn't place on a map, such as Hyderabad, Incheon, Pusan, Tianjin, and Wuhan, to only name some of the first 25 listed. It reminds me of this list, of Chinese and European cities with over 2.5 million inhabitants.
The East is on the up and up.
If you want further proof of that, in Mumbai, there's this guy who lives in his own billion dollar tower. And yes the b at the start of "billion" is not a bisprint, like that was. Bigger and closer-up picture here. Picture showing surroundings, and article, here.
Yes, I'm having another attack of link constipation, and another posting along these lines is called for.
Soros Whores. A blog flagged up by its author on the LA email list. Not saying I agree. Just saying: interesting. I don't care for libertarian class analysis, because it seems to say that, come the libertarian revolution, it will be my duty to murder my sister, who spent her working life being an NHS doctor, and her husband, who spent his working life being first a social worker and then a social work bureaucrat. I like these two people a hell of a lot more than quite a few libertarians I can think of. Or to put it another way, if such a revolution ever does erupt, don't count on me. I might decide to be on the other side.
Infallible Systems Limited. The website of a charmingly named enterprise which I encountered and photoed the sign of, on a recent photo-ing expedition. It turns out they do roofing. Infallible because, presumably, it never leaks or caves in. I thought it was some kind of electronic security firm until I found the website.
Étang de Montady. Good picture here. The point being, I photoed this mysterious thing from an airplane, in 2005, but without having any clue as to what it was. And then, on September 30th 2010, a commenter called Steve told me. How he found this posting, I have no idea. I asked. He didn't say.
A speech by somebody called S. Paul Forest about ObamaCare, which I first heard about here, and which I strongly suspect might be quite a lot of the answer to my Samizdata question here, about just what it is that everybody I don't hate in America hates. I have no idea who S. Paul Forest is.
Also Obama-related, a Daily Telegraph blog posting about that interview he did with Rolling Stone, during which he apparently said this:
There are some strong and sincere libertarians who are in the Tea Party who generally don't believe in government intervention in the market or socially.
I can remember thinking: it's only a matter of time before lefty politicians start talking up libertarianism in order to split their Conservative-stroke-libertarian opposition. But that was more than a decade ago. And after I'd given up hoping, now it's happening. Obama is trying to screw with the Tea Party, by talking up some of it and trashing the rest. Plus, there may even be some genuine Marxist-type respect, deep calling to deep, etc. I haven't seen much comment from other libertarians about this little plug for our movement from The Most Powerful Man in the World. Has anyone else seen any responses to that?
Come to think of it, I can remember when the Daily Telegraph had a policy of never mentioning the L word either, presumably in case it made difficulties for Conservatives.
That's enough for one enema posting.
My problem (one of my problems) is that I accumulate open windows, to things I don't want to forget about, and which I am hence reluctant to shut. But these open windows, and all the advertising shite they come with, clog up my computer, or so it feels to me.
Now I am sure there is a better answer to this problem than the one that follows, but for now, my answer, today, is to stick a few such links here, where they won't vanish in half a day and where anyway I know my way around.
The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet. Note, incidentally, the disastrous headline punctuation. Punctuation in headlines says you can't have a full stop at the end of a headline, but that you can have whatever punctuation you like in the middle of the headline, fullstops included. Bizarre. (Not that that's why the piece interests me.)
That Codevilla piece about the American ruling class. Actually I think a major part of this story is that it isn't only the American ruling class. It's a global, or at least beyond national, class. The entire West that was is starting to be ruled by a united gang of interconnected people. Rulers of The World Unite. You have nothing to lose but the love of your dreary little voters. (To "love", should I add "consent"?)
On the Validity and Necessity of Atheist Criticism of Islam. I like Edmund Standing a lot. Mostly I agree with this. But, I think he makes too little of the differences between Christianity and Islam. Christianity is bonkers but Islam is downright evil. (Although, I do admit that Christian anti-semitism is deeply embedded in it.) The problem I have with Islam is not only that it is so false. It is that it so nasty. Allah does not exist, but if Allah does exist he should be opposed. This is somewhat less true of the various Christian versions of God, especially nowadays.
The Vanity Fair Sarah Palin piece. I want to read this to see if it actually says anything more than: she's a politician! Is she going to run for President? If she gets to be President will she be a quite good one, as Reagan (won the Cold War - only talked about stopping the US state spending rise) was. Will President Palin, that is to say, actually stop the US state spending rise?
The Chinese state media global offensive. Were a time traveller from a hundred years hence to invite me to guess what sparked the Big War of 2037, I'd guess China versus someone, rather than Islam versus anyone. Islam has the will to Big War, but looks unlikely at all soon to command the means to wage it. (I include Iran in that judgement. There is more to having a Bomb than just having a Bomb. You must also have the means to attack the other guy's Bomb, and to defend your remaining Bombs, which you must also have.) And I have long believed that being able to fight wars is more important in their causation than merely wanting to. I mean, few great powers unambiguously want to fight major wars, because they have too much to lose. But, from time to time, they still did, and might one day again. Hopefully The Bomb will continue to work its terrifying magic, and Great Wars Between Great Powers will continue to not happen, but how long will that last?
I want to do a Big Piece on Samizdata about all that, Real Soon Now. Globalisation as we now know it, i.e. the version where we don't fight global wars against one another, is more caused by The Bomb (which first happened in 1945) than by Modern Electronic Communications (which first happened in 1842). See Global Ruling Class, uniting of, above.
That should clear out my computer's tubes a little.
Matthew Peter Dunn was born on May 5th 1992, in Egham. Ah, the thrill of a local boy making good. Egham is just down the hill from Englefield Green, infancy place of me, and was our local railway station. Still is, whenever I visit the parental home, currently still the property of us siblings. Dunn took 3-48 for Surrey - well, the Surrey reserves - against the Bangladesh touring side. Too bad the other Surrey bowlers only managed another three wickets between them. I remember when Surrey playing the big touring side was a huge deal. I remember Surrey defeating Australia in 1956, thanks to a guy called Laker, with help from a guy called Lock. England also beat Australia in 1956, thanks to a guy called Laker, with help from a guy called Lock, but Surrey beating them was like another test match being won. Arguably, Surrey then were a better team than England.
English county cricket now is in what the newspapers call turmoil, and for once I think they may not be exaggerating. Currently there are two ways to do well as a county. You can win all your games, in front of a scattering of old age pensioners and weirdos. Or, you can build a ground capable of coining money for you, if only you could find some version of cricket capable of putting enough bums on all your seats. And the biggest fact concerning English cricket now seems to be that there are now more county grounds capable of accommodating a big crowd than there are big test matches to go around. All the test friendly grounds want something else as well, to ensure their annual income.
Surrey are currently losing all their matches and are at the bottom of every English county league for every sort of cricket. They are quite possibly the absolute worst, at playing cricket, that they've ever been. But, they have a huge ground, with huge stands, including a huge new stand that they had built only a few years ago. So Surrey are now extremely responsive to the opinion of the people running the Indian Premier League that the English counties are sitting on a gold mine, in the form of a cricket tournament that, they say, could and should happen in the English summer that the television viewers of India would enjoy watching. The time zone thing being, in England, spot on. At the moment, the International TwentyTwenty slogfest happening in the West Indies involves some games starting at about 9 am, and none of them happening in the evening, because India wants that. Ergo, no local excitement, exacerbated by there being no West Indians in most of the teams, what with only one of the teams being "the West Indies". In the IPL, all the teams have Indians, and the games happen at India-friendly times, so the local (i.e. Indian) excitement is very strong, and looks great on the telly, in such places as England. In the West Indies right now, the cricket is claimed to be of a higher quality than that played in the IPL, but the seats are mostly empty.
This evening I am giving the first 6/20 talk of the year at Christian Michel's home, about ... cricket! I have spent great chunks of the last few days, and all of today so far, fretting about this talk, in particular about how to impose a coherent structure on it all, but I think I've now cracked it. I will start my talk not fifty or sixty years ago but right now, with two fascinating test matches, one still in progress involving England, and another just concluded which did not involve England, that non-involvement being at least half of my point. Despite being neither an Australian or in Australia, nor a Pakistani or in Pakistan, I was, thanks to the internet, able to follow that game ball by ball, and could have followed all of it if I hadn't wanted any sleep at night-time for the duration.
From the various emails I sent him about this talk, Christian cobbled together this spiel to send out to his potential congregation, which says what I have in mind to talk about:
Brian's talk will be about cricket. But, hey, don't stop reading if you are like me continentally utterly indifferent to that drawn-out ritual of white-robed males adopting in turn indecent postures. I have reassuring news. Brian won't talk only about cricket. He has been a fan of the game since he was shorter than a wicket. His devotion is at a distance nowadays, through television and the internet, and through these tiny windows he will explore with us the changes in the world over the noughties. Yes, the rise of "Twenty20" cricket; the emergence of India, with more fans of the game than there are people in Europe; the power shift from the old white Commonwealth to the Asian subcontinent – but not only. Cricket will take us through the changing texture of everyday life caused by the IT revolution, the faces of nationalism, the decline of big media, and many other issues besides. 'Just change "cricket" to whatever you are a fan of', Brian tells me, 'and see if what I say about my passion applies to your enthusiasm'
Wow. That sounds like a lot. Wish me luck.
Mixed metaphor alert!
You hear people joking about this combination of images, but it seems that the Prime Minister of Australia just said it for real:
Mr Rudd made it clear that the deal had been an exercise in saving the international climate change process.
"As of 24 hours ago, these negotiations stood on the point of total collapse … at midnight last night, we were staring into the abyss," he said.
He said the "big step forward" in the talks came with rich and poor countries agreeing to the goal of containing global warming to 2ºC.
Spotted by commenter FrancisT (on this). FrancisT links to this blog. His blog?
UPDATE: Perry de Havilland liked it too.
I spent a while wondering whether what follows was worth posting at all, but although it looks at familiar stuff, maybe it does this in a not completely familiar way. If you spend the next however long reading it all, but then find that you feel otherwise, then, as my friend Paul Marks would say: My apologies! And anyway, as I always say when I feel unsure of the point of any particular posting, my most important reader is me. So, back to what I prepared earlier. ...
Life is full of those First Big Formative Experiences. First Solo Journey. First Fight. First Time You Are Robbed. First Time Your Realise Your Parents Are Merely Human Rather Than Archetypes. First Sex. First Child. First Time You Kill Someone. First Big Grown-up Type Battle (like a child custody battle or a radical politics battle or a battle for the control of a business). Almost all of us have some of these Big Experiences. Few have all of them.
To this list I now find myself wanting to add another one, which is about when you first participate in a news story, before it breaks, and you then read about it in the newspapers or see it on the telly. And what you learn is that, just like your parents, journalists are only human, and that they get all kinds of things subtly to totally wrong, just as you would if you were trying to make immediate sense of some drama that you'd only just heard about.
Often what you see, from right next to the touchline or even from on the pitch, is that the journalists themselves had a far bigger hand in creating the story, or in blowing it up out of all proportion, than they ever let on. They do things like stick shouty exclamation marks after what were actually just bits of normal-voiced conversation. They increase the point size, as it were, of what was said. The mere words may be reasonably accurate. But the tone of how they were spoken is a flat-out lie, often deliberate. They often then take the made-up screaming of one side to the other side, and by the time they have done their work the screaming has become genuine. (This is one of the things you often learn about those Grown-up Battles. There are often people people who make a living out of such battles, and who hence have a vested interest in creating them out of next to nothing. See also: divorce lawyers.) The business of the media, after all, is selling news, and if there is no news, they are constantly tempted to create it, because they can.
All of which doesn't just poison their first blundering reportage of the thing you saw before they did, but carries on poisoning everything they subsequently say. For if the media have previous in reporting a previous version of the story in some deliberately false way of this sort, they will be reluctant to change this version, in the light of new facts, however obvious.
The internet now universalises and greatly amplifies the above experiences. The internet connects you to the gossip of the participants in any story you happen to be interested in, before the mainstream media get involved in it because of something dramatic suddenly happening to the story.
Consider that ruckus that Dell Computers suffered a few years back. It went roughly like this. Various people bought some particular variety of Dell computer, and lots of these computers went wrong in the same way. Dell at first tried to bluster it out. No big problem, nothing fundamentally wrong, a few malfunctions but not a widespread problem, blah blah. But the victims of this mistake were now internet connected, and they all told each other about their identical problems. What would have been lots of separate and futile failed conversations about the damn computer merged into one very successful conversation. Within a few days, Dell was obliged to retreat. Yes, there is a big problem, grovel grovel. Send them all back and we'll mend them, send you another, etc.
The key thing is the internet connectedness of the complainers, to each other.
Had it been left to the regular newspapers, the Dell story would never have been put together quickly enough to count. First, newspapers don't connect readers with each other, only with newspapers, and that only very clunkily. Second, newspapers don't want to piss off a big advertiser, so they give prominence to the nothing-to-see-here excuses of the big company and only slowly, if ever, do they put together the real story. And what if they just did an admiring profile of Dell, and what if that involved a, you know, deal of some kind, spoken or unspoken, maybe involving more and implausibly over-priced advertising?
Climategate illustrates a lot of the above. Many a climate scientist, you suspect, had one of his Big Life Experiences, when he said, in what he thought was mere conversation but to a journalist, that maybe temperatures and sea levels might rise, and yes, I suppose they could rise quite a bit, provided this and provided that, and if we were all really unlucky, can't completely rule that out, blah blah, and he then read his words back the following morning, with him personally quoted and everything, like he's Someone Important, as: We Are All Doomed!!!! At which point he obviously says: Fucking liars. But perhaps he also says: But, maybe, come to think of it, useful fucking liars.
For a long time, the dubiousness, the fake certainty, the sheer made-up-ness, of the AGW argument was known to a few sceptics, and to their more numerous but frankly rather resigned readers (such as me), who learned the alternative story, very approximately, but who could think of no way to do anything with it except place tiny blog-bets on it eventually proving to be true. But the sceptics and us readers were all connected, just like the dubious scientists that we were complaining about, and when that treasure trove of CRU internal information finally emerged, we were ready at once to make entire sense of it. And because the regular newspapers were all part of the story, in the form of the nonsense they had been printing about it over the years, and especially in the form of the particular deluge of nonsense they had saved up for this Copenhagen meeting (which was the very same circumstance, presumably, which precipitated the CRU leak), they couldn't and still cannot allow themselves to report adequately even those bits of the story that they have approximately now understood.
The other crucial thing about Climategate is that Important People Now Read The Internet, that is, people who make actual real-world decisions. When big cheese politicians start making decisions differently, because of Climategate, and despite the silence of the old-school media, then Climategate becomes impossible for the old-school media to ignore. Carry on ignoring Climategate completely, and the old-school media risk becoming a complete and very public irrelevance, like a Dell computer that is never going to work because Dell refuse to admit that there's a problem, at which point people in large numbers (the key decision makers in the case of the Dell story) just refuse to buy any more Dell computers because they don't trust them any more. (Which didn't happen with Dell, I hasten to add, although I do seem to recall being told that Dell are doing a bit less well than in the past.)
The answer is for the old-school media to become part of the new-school media, as the clever people in the old-school media pretty much all now are. Instead of moaning about the internet, they (the clever old-school-but-now-also-new-school journalists) have become avid internet readers. When the internet gets excited about something, well, there's another story. No need for them to apologise for having been led by specialist bloggers to a big story. That is now their job.
I get the very strong feeling that in the USA, the old-school media people are determined to be irrelevant, but that in Britain, the old-school media people, some of them anyway, are fighting quite hard to mutate into new-school people. In the USA, new media start-ups seem to be making most of the gains. In Britain, old-school media organs going new-school are making a much bigger impact.
James Delingpole is now a perfect illustration of this trend, of old-school mutating into new-school.
One of the features of the new-school media is that they are global, certainly global in the sense of reaching everyone on earth who can read and type in the language concerned. You can become an Anglosphere media force-to-be-reckoned-with, without ever leaving London, or for that matter without ever leaving Dubai or Naples or Timbuktu. Ditto the Hispanosphere, the Sinosphere, the Hindisphere. You can smash media rivals in other countries in your language sphere without even going there, any more than those Japanese motorbike companies had to open factories in Britain or America in order to smash the British or American motorbike industries (the language of motorbiking being universal). One of the features of Climategate is how it has bounced around the world, with a bunch of politicos in one spot inflaming the story everywhere,
I'm sure I could bring this posting elegantly in to land, with some further reference to some Big Life Experience, but I can't think of anything along those lines. Simply stopping will have to suffice.
There will be more and hopefully rather more coherent Climategate blah blah from me Real Soon Now, because this evening I will be doing a recorded conversation with Bishop Hill (whom Delingpole has been linking to quite a lot lately). Should be interesting.
The day before yesterday I posted a big piece about ClimateGate at Samizdata, or whatever we're calling it all today, my second Samizdata effort on this topic, hence my relative inactivity here during the last week or so. All about why I think this story is huge (so far so obvious), and how I think it will stick around for quite a while because of the peculiar nature of the climate argument (that being the vaguely original bit), and because of the sheer number of individual, guilty persons who are now ready for and in need of skewering, because they fell for this fraud and decided to bugger up the world in accordance with it.
The first draft of this even made the claim that we are now be living through is the second great History Date of the twenty first century, the first being Sept 11th 2001. Sadly, I don't think that's necessarily true, however much I might wish it to be. To be an authentic History Date an event has to be agreed by everybody in all parts of the political solar system to be a Big Thing, even as everyone simultaneously slags each other off about what it all means and what to do about it. The trouble with ClimateGate - and, as I've already hinted above, one of the problems is that we aren't even agreeing what to call it - is that a huge slab of dupes and frauds would like nothing better than for the whole ghastly business to be totally forgotten. For ClimateGate, or whatever, to win out and find its place next to Hastings, Magna Carta, the Great Fire of London, the Glorious Revolution, Trafalgar, Waterloo and the rest of them, then my team in this ruckus would have to win the battle of the history books. Which we yet might, but this is not certain, to put it mildly.
This piece (one of the many on this topic linked to by the ever-invaluable Instapundit – never forget what a difference he has made and still makes to the world) confirms everything I said in my Samizdata pieces, about how the internet has totally changed the rules for arguments like this. Love the 2001 A Space Odyssey pastiche. Apparently, in the USA, whenever and wherever a big, pompous, biased, dead-tree organ now ventures onto the www with a piece about Global Warming, Copenhagen, etc., but without mentioning the shenanigans at UEA, CRUgate, ClimateGate, GlobalWarmingGate, ... commenters are piling in in their derisive dozens and even hundreds to remind them.
Fox News is all over it, in the person of Glenn Beck. (I loved his mispronunciation of "East Anglia" - something like "Angleela"- the other day, on an earlier video, I think, than that one.) My friend Adriana Lukas recently told me that she told a good mate of hers at Fox News about this story when it first broke, and it was the first he'd heard of it. Kudos Adriana. Although they would have heard about it from someone soon enough. It's a different world, like my piece says.
And what do you know, only seconds, literally, after I had put up my big bit, Johnathan Pearce posted another bit on the same topic, just as foreseen/feared here. I hope JP and others commenting on that earlier piece are right that this kind of duplication doesn't matter, helps even. Certainly this story is big enough to merit constant multiple Samizdata postings, every day.
A commenter on that Johnathan Pearce Samizdata piece said this:
At least now we can all agree, on both sides of the Climate Change debate, that Global Warming was caused by Mann.
Hah! Wonder why I never thought of stroke came across that gag before.
And this may just be my favourite SQotD ever.
I recently emailed Bishop Hill (one of ClimateGate's global blogstars) asking if he'd be willing to do an interview with me, along the lines of this one, in connection with his wit and wisdom generally, but in particular in connection with his forthcoming book. And guess what, he has just emailed back saying yes. But he is mind-bogglingly busy just now, so don't hold your breath. That won't be happening any day soon, but in a few weeks, probably. I'm looking forward to that a lot.
Michael Jennings has now just put up another excellent ClimateGate piece, also at Samizdata.
Regular readers of this blog will know that many a day of torpor here has been rescued by an incoming Michael J email, often (as there) with follow up comment from him of far greater sophistication, interest and intelligence than all but my very best postings here.
Michael Jennings is one of those people who likes - needs even - to know that people are interested in what he has to say before he says it, as is not quite the case with everyone, is it? Hence some of his best bits of writing often take the form of comments, in answer to direct questions to which he happens to have a very good answer which someone has just asked and clearly would really like to know about. But with this ClimateGate thing, I imagine he feels confident that people all over the place will be extremely interested in anything even semi-coherent that he has to say about that, and of course what he does say is far better than that.
Next, a couple of quotes from others about how this is all rather Bolshevik.
An incoming email to Instapundit recently went thus:
I now have a sense of what it was like living under Communism in Eastern Europe. The state-owned (in our case, establishment) press won't report on reality so people had to turn to Samizdat to learn what's actually happening in their world. It's rather amazing. Also, having an Army of Davids go through these emails will pay dividends for years.
Indeed, and another Army of Davids asking those who swallowed this nonsense whole what they were thinking of, and what they are still doing, and why, and meanwhile what their expenses claims are looking like, should also now be assembling. Count me, in. (And see below.)
And see also this, from one of the comments on Michael J's piece:
I had a sudden thought last night with regards to the "mainstream" response, particularly the self-serving response from UEA itself. It is rather like claiming that Lysenko was just a rogue element within Soviet biology, and in any case his findings are supported by the overwhelming majority of Soviet biologists working in many places around the Soviet union and its satellite states, so the Lamarckian consensus within Soviet science remains intact.
I am now working on a piece provisionally called something like: Now is the time to subject the government of the world to Guidoisation - i.e., basically, to start blogging about it in a big (i.e.much bigger and more mainstream A-list blogger way), and to make it personal. Who are the people doing it, where (Copenhagen will be a good place to accelerate the rolling of this ball), when, how, at what cost both in terms of public policy and in terms of the hotel and salary bills for their fatcat selves, what did these people do in the past (i.e.what mere countries have they already screwed with), and what have they said in the past (before they'd even got to the screwing their own country stage), what crackpot bolshevik groups were they in when even younger, who are they now arrived to, and why won't the regular damn media report on all this (because they are part of the damn problem is why – let me tell you about what the owner of the Daily Deadtree was doing with whom last weekend), blah blah, blah blah. I believe I may have some rather original and fruitful insights to offer about this.
Who the hell, exactly, and just for starters, is this Michael Mann creature? (I've not read that Wikipedia entry and would not trust it as far as I could spit it. When the left fascists have an axe to grind about anyone or anything, then Wikipedia is just leftist agitprop, with all critical but true additions edited out pronto. And did I recently hear something about Wikipedia collapsing, or did I merely imagine it?) Last night at a book signing I attended, somebody told me that Michael Mann is a total bastard, far worse than any kind of regular scientist gone wrong, more like a cross between Lysenko and Beria. So, as Arthur Seldon of the IEA used to ask of anyone interesting in a bad way: who he? What he making from all this? Who he married to? Where he based? Who he conned? How many years he deserve in jail?
But, I promise nothing.
I wonder, might "Cruleak" be a good name for all this? Just a thought, and probably not a very good one. But I do agree with another of the commenters on Michael J's piece that all these thingy-gates are becoming very tedious.


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Search Result
Search Tags: potomac
20 participate in Brunswick plunge into Potomac
About 20 people plunged into the Potomac River in Brunswick for the sixth annual Freezin' for a Reason charity event.
Tags: Brunswick, Polar Bear Plunge, Potomac
Williamsport Polar Plunge draws 400 chill seekers
Tags: Polar Bear Plunge, WILLIAMSPORT, Potomac
Potomac riverkeeper Ed Merrifield retiring
The man who protects the Potomac River from pollution is retiring from his job as the waterway's riverkeeper.
Tags: Ed Merrifield, Potomac, riverkeeper
Strasburg's emus are missing
Steven Strasburg is missing his emus. Two of them to be exact.
Tags: emu, steven strasburg, Potomac
Lawmakers support sewer for billionaire's art gallery
Potomac billionaire and Danaher Corp. co-founder Mitchell Rales is receiving support from Montgomery County lawmakers over his request to connect his art gallery to a sewer.
Tags: Danaher Corp., Mitchell Rales, Potomac
'Frankenfish' found in Potomac tributary may break world record
"We have an unofficial world record that was caught here on the Potomac River, over 18 pounds. And that's pretty big," says Potomac River bass fishing guide Steve Chaconas.
Tags: michelle basch, Frankenfish, snakehead, Potomac, fishing
Victim hospitalized after Potomac house shooting
Montgomery County Police say the victim opened the front door and was confronted by a man.
Horrific crash that forever changed air transit marks 30th anniv.
For longtime Washingtonians, it may be hard to believe that a generation has passed since the disaster that shocked the nation and led to much-needed changes to safety in the air.
Tags: Dave McConnell, Air Florida Flight 90, Air Florida, 14th Street Bridge, crash, plane, PotomacListen
Hi: 75 °F | Lo: 56 °F

subset: commoncrawl


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Probe continues into death at FBO
The investigation into the apparently accidental death of line employee Joyce Miller, 29, on February 28 at Wilson Air Center's Charlotte/Douglas International Airport FBO continues, according to president Bob Wilson. "We are unable to make any further statement until it is completed," he told AIN, adding that Wilson Air Center has "conducted a review of our procedures." The Charlotte, N.C. coroner's office released a provisional report on the cause, stating that the fatal accident resulted from "compressional asphyxia due to blunt trauma due to struck/run over by vehicle."
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My very first podcast so I thought I'd put it up. I'll put up the podcasts that followed in the next few days and hopefully lead to a brand new podcast I'm working on. The same name and the same topics with, hopefully, improved production by a very novice podcaster.
-Ryan Painter
Great birthday kick off. :)
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Scaffold theme by Mike Harding.


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Billing & Insurance
When the health and well-being of you or your family are at issue, insurance should be the last thing on your mind. But too often, we're overwhelmed with fears of enormous out-of-pocket expenses or being unable to pay for the care that we need. That's why Rochelle Community Hospital accepts a variety of health plans to meet your unique healthcare needs - so you can stop worrying and start getting better.
Insurance Plans Contracted with RCH
Please contact your insurance provider prior to scheduling services to verify coverage. For additional information concerning your specific health plan's access to RCH, contact Doris Dickey at 815-562-2181, ext. 1620 or e-mail Doris here.
- The Alliance
- Blue Cross of Chicago
- CAPPCARE/Beechstreet
- Champus/TriCare
- ChoiceCARE
- CIGNA/State of Illinois Only
- Coventry/PersonalCare and PersonalCare Medicare Advantage
- DeKalb County Healthcare
- Health Network
- Humana Health Plan
- Humana Medicare
- Physicians Care Network (PCN)
- Preferred Health Network
- SwedishAmerican Health Alliance
- United Health Care
In the meantime, the following policies and guidelines should be helpful:
- Medicare Deductibles and Coinsurance
- Group/Private Medical Insurance
- Medicare Coverage
- Medicaid Coverage
- Patients with No Medical Insurance
- Financial Assistance
- Payment Options
- Physician Billing
Payment Options
For your convenience, we have established a number of ways you may make payments on the bills you owe at Rochelle Community Hospital. These include: cash payments, personal check and credit card (MasterCard and Visa). If you know you will have trouble paying your bills at the hospital, please contact the credit department at 815-562-2181, ext. 1600 to make special arrangements.
Physician Billing
The billing you receive from the hospital will be for hospital services only. You may receive bills from physicians who assisted in your care whom you did not see in person. These bills are for professional services rendered by these doctors in diagnosing and interpreting test results while you were a patient. These physicians are required to submit separate bills. Some of these physicians may not participate in the same insurance plans as the hospital. You may have a greater financial liability for out-of-network services. Benefit questions should be directed to the patient's healthcare plan and subscriber's certificate of coverage. If you have a question about these bills, please call the number printed on the statement you receive from them.


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Free Public Seminars
Each year Hutchins presents a series of free public seminars.
The Webber Lecture is an annual speech presented by a leading speaker whose topic is always one of Ethics. State Governors, Professor Lowitja O'Donoghue, Supreme Court Judges and others have presented the Webber Lecture, named in honour of The Reverend Michael Webber, formerly Dean of Hobart.
More specialised seminars on reading, writing and numeracy are presented in the Early Learning Centre and offer parents, teachers and boys helpful insights into those areas of learning.
Finally, a series of general educational seminars is offered - delivered by the Headmaster or other Guest Lecturers - on topics such as boys' education, gender balances in school, choosing the right school and life-style education.
Further information on any of these Seminars may be obtained from the Director of Development or the Headmaster's Personal Assistant. Contact Reception on 6221 4200.


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Google Analytics on the fritz
Ian Lurie Mar 24 2010
It's not just you. Google Analytics is timing out, running slowly and generally being a nightmare this morning. There are widespread reports from Europe to the US that Google Analytics' reporting interface is loading slowly. I haven't even been able to load a report.
Just making sure you know you're not going crazy.
It doesn't appear to be affecting load times for the ga.js script, and some folks report it's loading just fine, which makes me think it's got something to do with their content distribution network. Further bulletins as events warrant.
Update: 9:25 AM – Seems to be back, running at a decent clip.
Ian Lurie
Ian Lurie is CEO and founder of Portent Inc. He is co-author of the 2nd edition of the Web Marketing All-In-One for Dummies and wrote the sections on SEO, blogging, social media and web analytics. He's recorded training for Lynda.com, writes regularly for the Portent Blog and has been published on AllThingsD, Forbes.com and TechCrunch. And, Ian speaks at conferences around the world, including SearchLove, MozCon, SIC and ad:Tech. Read More
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One workaround was to go to an internal link instead of their main landing page.
That worked during the outage fiasco.
In time-sensitive situations like this, I turn to http://search.twitter.com. I quickly found the answer by searching for 'google analytics down'.
Just an FYI for if it ever happens again.


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Call us: +1-415-738-4000
The architecture of an Ehcache node can include a number of tiers that store data. One of the most important aspects of managing cached data involves managing the life of those data in those tiers.
Use the figure at right with the definitions below to understand the life of data in the tier of Ehcache nodes backed by the Terracotta Server Array (TSA), available with BigMemory Max. These definitions apply similarly in standalone Ehcache, which is limited to two tiers (heap and disk). BigMemory Go can add an off-heap tier to standalone nodes.
The sections below explore in more detail the aspects of managing data life in Ehcache and the TSA, including the pinning features of Automatic Resource Control (ARC).
Cache entries expire based on parameters with configurable values. When eviction occurs, expired elements are the first to be removed. Having an effective expiration configuration is critical to optimizing use of resources such as heap and maintaining cache performance.
To add expiration, edit the values of the following
<cache> attributes and tune these values based on results of performance tests:
timeToIdleSeconds – The maximum number of seconds an element can exist in the cache without being accessed. The element expires at this limit and will no longer be returned from the cache. The default value is 0, which means no TTI eviction takes place (infinite lifetime).
timeToLiveSeconds – The maximum number of seconds an element can exist in the cache regardless of use. The element expires at this limit and will no longer be returned from the cache. The default value is 0, which means no TTL eviction takes place (infinite lifetime).
maxEntriesLocalDisk – The maximum sum total number of elements (cache entries) allowed on the disk tier for the cache. If this target is exceeded, eviction occurs to bring the count within the allowed target. The default value is 0, which means no eviction takes place (infinite size is allowed). A setting of 0 means that no eviction of the cache's entries takes place, and consequently can cause the node to run out of disk space.
eternal – If the cache's
eternal flag is set, it overrides any finite TTI/TTL values that have been set.
See How Configuration Affects Element Eviction for more information on how configuration can impact eviction. See this BigMemory Max document on distributed cache configuration for definitions of other available configuration properties.
Data that should remain in the cache regardless of resource constraints can be pinned.
Entire caches can be pinned using the
pinning element in cache configuration. This element has a required attribute (
store) to specify which data tiers the cache should be pinned to:
<pinning store="localMemory" />
store attribute can have one of the following values:
For example, the following cache is configured to pin its entries:
<cache name="Cache1" ... >
<pinning store="inCache" />
The following cache is configured to pin its entries to heap only:
<cache name="Cache2" ... >
<pinning store="localMemory" />
Pinning as a setting exists in the local Ehcache client memory. It is never replicated or distributed in a cluster. Pinning achieved programmatically will not be persisted — after a restart the pinned entries are no longer pinned. Cache pinning in configuration is reinstated with the configuration file.
To unpin all of a cache's pinned entries, clear the cache. Specific entries can be removed from a cache using
Cache.remove(). To empty the entire cache, use
Cache.removeAll(). If the cache itself is removed (
Cache.dispose() or
CacheManager.removeCache()), then any data still remaining in the cache is also removed locally.
Caches can also be cleared using the Terracotta Management Console.
The following example shows a cache with certain expiration settings:
<cache name="myCache"
maxEntriesLocalDisk="10000" eternal="false" timeToIdleSeconds="3600"
timeToLiveSeconds="0" memoryStoreEvictionPolicy="LFU">
Note the following about the myCache configuration:
timeToIdleSeconds) causes that element to be evicted.
timeToLiveSeconds). However, unexpired entries may still be flushed based on other limitations (see How to Size Caches).
maxEntriesLocalDisk). This is the effective maximum number of entries myCache is allowed. Note, however, that this value may be exceeded as it is overridden by settings such as pinning.
Pinning takes priority over configured cache sizes. For example, in the following cache pinning configuration overrides the
maxEntriesOnHeap setting:
<cache name="myCache"
... >
<pinning store="localHeap" />
While expired cache entries (even ones that have been pinned) can always be flushed and eventually evicted from the cluster, most non-expired elements can as well if resource limitations are reached. However, elements resident in a pinned cache cannot be evicted if they haven't expired.
|Potentially, pinned caches could grow to an unlimited size. Caches should never be pinned unless they are designed to hold a limited amount of data (such as reference data) or their usage and expiration characteristics are understood well enough to conclude that they cannot cause errors.


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this is outstanding! i am not really a huge cheesecake or gingersnap fan, but the combination is delicious, especially warm from the oven!! i messed it up last year and it did not come out "streusally", more of a glaze that hardened and became crispy....so good!
Ginger Streusel-Topped Cheesecake
steph1 Posted: 11/24/09
Daily Specials


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Found January 16, 2013 on Bush League Chronicle:
PLAYERS: Branden Dawson, Adreian Payne
TEAMS: Michigan State Spartans, Penn State Nittany Lions
TEAMS: Michigan State Spartans, Penn State Nittany Lions
On Wednesday, a pair of Michigan State basketball players were involved in an altercation which resulted in a busted lip and a dented wall.Head coach Tom Izzo identified the players as forward Branden Dawson and center Adreian Payne via statement. Neither player started the Spartans' game against Penn State on Wednesday as punishment."A scuffle that began as two players needling each other resulted in a dented wall," Izzo said in his statement. "We'll deal with this appropriately, and the players will willingly accept responsibility for paying for any property damage. I've spent my entire afternoon meeting with the players involved, and they are both sincerely remorseful. What makes matters even more confusing is that they are off-campus roommates. As a result of their actions, neither one will start tonight's game."The incident was said to have occurred in the second-floor lobby of the Nittany Lion Inn during the morning. Michigan State will be asked to pay for the damage to the wall.No arrests or charges have been made. Neither play needed medical attention after sustaining just minor scratches.Dawson is averaging 10.5 points and 6.1 rebounds per game this season. Payne is averaging 8.5 points and 7.2 rebounds per contest.Via Detroit Free Press
Original Story: http://www.theblcblog.com/2013/01/a-p...
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MSU's Branden Dawson and Adreian Payne involved in fight
Michigan State Basketball: Dawson, Payne help No. 18 Spartans beat Penn State
Payne's big half lifts No. 18 Spartans
Report: Spartan teammates fight on Penn State campus
Transfer Kearney quickly swayed by ASU visit
Former Michigan State RB Le'Veon Bell Highlight Video
Video: Manti Te'o Thanked His 'Girlfriend's Family' After Win at Michigan State
Payne scores 20 as No. 18 MSU holds off PSU
Michigan State's Tom Izzo wins humanitarian award
Podcast: Allen Trieu Talks Michigan State
Devers Looking For Spartan Offer
Police investigate fight between MSU hoops players
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A Note From Your Director
Welcome to the SERA Web Page and the section for Wild Wonderful West Virginia. I am Richard Dillon, K8VE, and I live in Buckhannon. I am available to answer any questions or help you with any matter that involves FM repeater operation, regardless of where you live. I travel West Virginia extensively and I am knowledgeable of the geography of the state and know which repeaters are on the air and those that are not.
Mike, Glen and I will handle coordination matters in West Virginia. Like most of the country, the "two-meter" spectrum is crowded. We encourage all repeater applicants to consider construction in 50 MHz, 222 MHz, 440 MHz, 902 MHz and above.
Feel free to contact me by telephone, e-mail, or by radio, with any questions or concerns. In the spirit of enjoyment and enhancement of Amateur Radio, thank you in advance for your cooperation and the recognition & adherence to the SERA Coordination Policy & Guidelines.
Thank You
WV Director
Repeater Journal Correspondent
Please welcome Beth Broschart, KD8PMI, of Elkins, WV as our new West Virginia Repeater Journal Correspondent.
Take the time to change your mailing list, whether it be by U.S. Postal Service or e-Mail. If you have pictures, feel free to
submit them. Beth is anxious to report on all amateur radio activity in West Virginia!


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Home Care & Aging Related Links
A new browser window will open for each link
Able Data - Listings of assistive technology products and devices for people with disabilities.
Accent on Living - Information on rehabilitation aids and devices.
Agency for Health Care Policy and Research Alzheimer's Association
American Academy of Home Care Physicians
American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Care
American Academy of Pain Management
American Association of Retired Persons
American Parkinson Disease Association
CDC National Prevention Information Network
Meals on Wheels Association of America
National Association for Continence
National Association for Home Care - includes consumer information.
National Center on Elder Abuse
National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse
National Digestive Disease Information Clearinghouse
National Family Caregivers Association
National Health Information Center - A source for health information resources.
National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute
National Hispanic Council of Aging
National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization
National Institute on Aging National Institute of Arthritis & Musculoskeletal & Skin Disease
National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke
National Institute of Deafness & Other Communication Disorders
National Kidney & Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse
National Osteoporosis Foundation
Self Help for Hard of Hearing People
Sexuality Information & Education Council for the US
Society for the Advancement of Geriatric Anesthesia
The Simon Foundation for Continence
Visiting Nurse Associations of America - represents VNA home health and hospice agencies.
- Interprofessional Education
- Medical Students
- Ambulatory Rotation Goals and Objectives
- Minimum Geriatric Competencies for Residents
Knowledge & Skills Checklist
- Geriatric Consult Clinic Presentation Sample
IHI Courses
Transitional Care
- Medicare Qualifiers
- House Officer's Association Alliance (HOAA)
- Fellowship Information
- Educational Resources
- Research Awards
- Research Activities
- Faculty
- Patient Care
- Home Instead Center for Successful Aging


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What an exceptional "home". The room and house and grounds are so beautiful and serene! We had such a fabulous stay here! Gracious hosts, outstanding breakfasts, and unexpected treat of a snack tray.
Sam and Terri
Harry is a professional Forester and manages the 270+ acre family tree farm. He would love to share his knowledge and take you on a "field trip" if you let us know ahead of time.
Kathe is a professional Home Economist and enjoys using her skills to decorate the Inn and cook your great breakfasts and snacks.
Meet Harry
Meet Kathe


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Calvert, St. Mary's and Charles County
Story Category: Live Updates »
16 Organizations Partner to Expand Opportunities for Children in Nature
In a new effort supporting Governor Martin O'Malley's Children in Nature (CIN) initiative, 16 state, federal, county and private organizations are coming together to improve and expand opportunities for children to learn about, play in and experience our natural world. The new public-private effort ? which officially re-establishes the Governor's Partnership for Children in Nature ? will be responsible for putting the state's CIN plan into action.
"Our original partnership developed a national model to provide our young people a chance to connect with their natural world, learn about their environment and grow to become responsible stewards," said Governor O'Malley. "This new partnership will expand our ability to make these opportunities a reality for all Maryland children."
Established by Governor O'Malley in 2008, the Partnership created a list of ambitious goals, including creating better access to green spaces, increasing outdoor opportunities through school and community activities, assisting schools in planning for required environmental literacy programs and providing professional development opportunities for educators. The new partnership has agreed to commit staff and resources to accomplish these goals over the next five years.
Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary, John R. Griffin, and Interim State Superintendent of Public Schools, Bernard Sandusky, will co-chair the partnership. A dozen additional organizations ? including the Parks and People Foundation, Genesee Valley Outdoor Learning Center and the Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation ? have signed a Participation Pledge, declaring their commitment to support the Partnership in reaching its new goals.
Under the original partnership, Governor O'Malley created the Maryland Conservation Corps (formerly Civic Justice Corps), a summer work program in State Parks for at risk youth; issued the Maryland Children's Outdoor Bill of Rights; and helped shepherd the State Board of Education's approval of the pre-K through grade 12 environmental literacy program and graduation requirement for all Maryland students.
Last week, Governor O'Malley demonstrated his continued support for the initiative proposing nearly $23 million in the FY2013 capital budget for State Parks and other public Land projects. This money will fund trail improvements, natural play areas, outdoor classrooms and green jobs for young people.
For more information on the Children in Nature program visit, dnr.maryland.gov/cin/.
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Corrector pen
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- Arun Jaitley
- Arvind Kejriwal
- Mayawati
- Narendra Modi
- Nitin Gadkari
- Palaniappan Chidambaram
- Parkash Singh Badal
- Rahul Gandhi
- Sonia Gandhi
- Sushma Swaraj
- Uddhav Thackeray
- Aam Aadmi Party
- Bharatiya Janata Party
- Bahujan Samaj Party
- Congress
- Janata Dal (United)
- Samajwadi Party
- Shiv Sena
- Trinamool Congress
- Left Parties
Aam Aadmi Party questions Rahul Gandhi on gas pricing issue
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has questioned the silence of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi over the Reliance gas issue, and also asked him whether he would give ticket to ministers who have corruption charges against them in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
In a letter to Gandhi dated February 22, party's National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal launched an attack against the Congress leader saying, "Why are you and BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi quiet on this crucial issue. It is widely believed that if UPA comes to power you will become the Prime Minister.
"People say, no important decision is taken by the UPA government without asking your family. People want to know this from you whether you support the government's decision of Mukesh Ambani selling gas at 8 dollars per unit," Kejriwal said.
He also asked Gandhi whether Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, was funding the party for seeking favours in return from the government, and when the AAP-led Delhi government ordered to register an FIR against Ambani and Petroleum Minister Veerappa Moily over the issue, why did senior Congress members oppose the decision?
"People also say that the decision to double the gas price was taken just before the elections. Has Mukesh Ambani funded the party with unaccounted money for bagging some favours? If its not the case then what is it.
"When AAP-led government asked the Anti-Corruption Branch to lodge an FIR against Ambani, senior Congress and BJP leaders vehemently opposed. Do these parties have strong bond with Mukesh Ambani?" Kejriwal said in his letter.
The former Delhi Chief Minister also asked Gandhi whether the party would give Lok Sabha ticket to ministers against whom there are charges of allegedly indulging in corrupt practices.
"From time to time, your ministers like Moily, Salman Khurshid, Kamal Nath, P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal, had have been charged with corruption. Will you give them party ticket this time," the letter added.
Last week, the AAP had written a similar letter to BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and asked him to
come clean over the issue.


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The Los Angeles Lakers passed down the news during the game against Oklahoma City that Center Jordan Hill has a hip injury which will require surgery and he'll be out for the season.
This is a huge blow to an already injured team, especially since Hill had proven to be a very important, explosive player off the bench. He was averaging 6.7 points and 5.7 rebounds in 15.8 minutes, but it's the things he does that can't be quantified that were most helpful.
He was a defensive presence on a team that has lacked a ton of defensive energy already this season. Most importantly, Hill played with urgency and desire which has also been lacking on too many occasions this season. The player tweeted:
Right now, Dwight Howard is currently out with an injury, as is Pau Gasol, so Robert Sacre is left as the main option for the team at center. This isn't horrible, but the rookie, who has been playing in the D-League for most of the season, will now have a ton of responsibility. He needs to work on his rebounding and overall aggressiveness if he wants to contribute to the team.
I guess everybody heard the news, man I can't believe it,just keep me in y'all prayers. #LUVYALL— Jordan Craig Hill (@jordanchill43) January 12, 2013
The worst part of this is that Hill is one of the guys who really wants to play, as was evidenced by him sitting on the bench with the team in a suit during the game, and not behind it. He will no doubt still be contributing to the energy as much as possible. Out of all of their injuries so far, this may be the worst for the Lakers.


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The feathers and body of a bald eagle hit by a car on a Portland freeway will be used for Native American ceremonies.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the body of the eagle was turned over to them from the Audubon Society after it was euthanized.
A federal spokesman said that is standard protocol when dealing with federally protected animals like bald or golden eagles.
Portland firefighters were flagged down by a driver on I-84 at 102nd Avenue about 12:30 p.m. Feb. 20. The eagle was feeding on something on the side of the freeway when it was hit.
The eagle was taken to the Audubon Society of Portland in critical condition. It was diagnosed with a broken leg, paralysis in both legs, a fractured vertebra and a blood clot pushing on the bird's spinal column.
Veterinarians said it could not have survived in the wild or in captivity, so the eagle was euthanized.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife workers said the eagle's frozen body will be sent to the National Eagle Repository in Denver.
From there, the eagle's feathers and body parts will be distributed to Native American tribes for use in cultural and religious ceremonies.
It is illegal to sell them, so federal workers said this is a way to work with and accommodate the needs of the tribes.
Copyright 2013 KPTV-KPDX Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.


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Find great deals on quality Chico County, California hotels & resorts, or indulge at one of our luxury resorts. Take advantage of the many amenities that can be included with your stay such as in-room internet access, wifi, room service, fitness center, pool, hot tub, steam room, and shuttle services to and from the airport. Browse our Chico County, California hotels and resorts and plan your Chico County, California vacation today!
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Chico, California Hotels & Resorts - Residence Inn by Marriott? is the extended-stay hotel that helps you feel connected while away from home and maintain a balance of work and life. Our homelike
Chico, California Hotels & Resorts - The Chico, CA, the Rodeway Inn® offers easy access to California State University-Chico and Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park.
Chico, California Hotels & Resorts - Located 5 minutes from Historic Downtown Chico, the Courtyard by Marriott surrounds travelers with the conveniences that make business and pleasure travel
San Diego, California Hotels & Resorts - Hotel is located in Old Town close to all major attractions in San Diego and just a 5 minutes walk to the Trolley line and 3 mile from San Diego Airport. We offer free wireless internet and a con't breakfast.
Desert Hot Springs, California Hotels & Resorts - sea mountain is the upscale awarded luxury clothing optional mineral spa located in palm springs -ranked as best celebrity spa in the usa by msn this desert oasis brings the vibe of Jamaica right to the southern california area-incredible couples spa
Oakland , California Hotels & Resorts - The Executive Inn & Suites Embarcadero Cove designed to take full advantage of the setting, rooms and publice space open up to the waterfront at every opportunity. Located just 5 minutes from famous Jack London Square on a slice of San Francisco Bay.
Sacramento, California Hotels & Resorts - Le Rivage Hotel and Spa offers everything for leisure and business travelers. Situated on the Sacramento river it also is the ideal location for a staycation.
Huntington Beach , California Hotels & Resorts - Shorebreak Hotel® is an upscale lifestyle Huntington Beach hotel, centrally located along the alluring California coastline in the original Surf City USA.
Lawndale, California Hotels & Resorts - OUR SPACIOUS GUESTROOMS WERE NEWLY RENOVATED. AAA 3 diamond rating.Best Western South Bay Hotel is located 4.5 miles from Los Angeles Intl. airport. We provide FREE 24/7 Airport Shuttle, wireless internet access, parking and CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST.
Sanger, California Hotels & Resorts - Wonder Vallley Family Camp is the ultimate family vacation where everyone is a kid again! Located in the foothills of the scenic Sierra Nevadas, Wonder Valley is an all-inclusive resort, where families can choose from over 50+ activities!


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If you've got a larger, round-shaped outlet in the wall then you're in luck, because that's a 220-volt outlet (usually rated at 40 amps or more), which means you can buy a more powerful welder if you choose. (Side note: If your washer and dryer are located in the garage and the dryer runs on electricity, then you may find a 220 outlet there as well. You can plug the welder in to it whenever you're not doing laundry. Just remember that most breaker switches for residential dryers are rated at 30 amps, and if you upgrade yours to a larger-capacity breaker switch for a high-powered welder, the dryer will no longer be protected properly. (The wiring is not likely rated for the additional amperage either.)
The power supply is an area you do not want to skimp on if you plan to weld thick material. When in doubt about your power supply, get an electrician to upgrade the wiring and outlets in your garage. A few hundred dollars spent now will at the least ensure that your new welder works properly, and it'll prevent your house from burning down due to overloaded circuits.
Got Gas?
Most of us refer to wire-feed welders as MIG welders, but MIG (metal inert gas) isn't a welder, it's a welding process that uses a solid-core welding wire surrounded by a shielding gas (usually a 75/25 percent mix of carbon dioxide and argon) that flows out of the gun or torch. It's the industry standard when it comes to building custom cars. But, many wire-feed welders will also work without shielding gas when you internally change the polarity from positive to negative and install flux-core wire in place of solid-core wire. The core of this wire shields the weld puddle as it burns and does not require any gas.
The benefit of welding without gas by using flux-core wire is that you can weld outdoors in windy conditions. Wind tends to disrupt the shielding gas, which makes it difficult to weld. The manner in which the flux-core wire is deposited into the weld also allows deeper penetration than the MIG process, which means the same welder can penetrate thicker mateiarial. The downside to flux-core welding is that it produces more weld splatter, smoke that you don't want to inhale, and heat, which makes it more difficult to cleanly weld thin material like sheetmetal without burning holes in it.
Welding with gas ups the initial cost of a new welder because of the required high-pressure bottle and regulator. And you'll have to refill the bottle later on, so there is an ongoing operating cost there as well. If you're welding indoors and care about the look of your project, and your welder will adequately penetrate the material using shield gas, then MIG welding is the way to go.
Shielding gas is something that a wire-feed welder will use up as you weld. The same goes for wire, contact tips, and torch nozzles. Just like the family dog, your new welder will require care and feeding, so you'll want to factor in the cost and availability of these consumables before making a welder purchase. An Internet search for local welding supply stores such as Airgas and Praxair should be a vital part of the process, especially if you buy your welder online. You'll want to make sure that good-quality consumables for your particular welder are readily available nearby.
Duty Cycle
This is a specification that matters if you're going to be welding for long periods of time with the welder on its highest power setting. The higher the setting, the shorter the duty cycle, which is the amount of time you can continuously pull the trigger on the torch versus the time the welder needs to sit and cool off. It's usually expressed as a percentage, which can be misleading when comparing the duty cycle of one machine with another. The key here is to know the length of time used in the rating. Some manufacturers rate duty cycle over a 5-minute period, while others use a 10-minute period. For example, a 60 percent duty cycle over a 10-minute period means you can weld for 6 minutes and then the machine must cool off for the next 4 minutes before you can pull the trigger again. If that same rating is over a 5-minute period, then the welder is only good for 3 minutes of continuous work. Don't worry about buying the welder with the greatest duty cycle if you're primarily going to be spot-welding sheetmetal or working on smaller projects.
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The Datsun brand has been resurrected and is here in India. The Go is their first offering and looks set to give the small car segment more get up and go. Find out how good the Go is as we put it through a rigorous road test
It's a small world, they say, but in truth, how small is small? When you stop at a traffic light, how often do you recognise anyone there? It's usually faces you've never seen before. It's quite a big world, it is. So, when the small hatchback segment gets a rather big challenger with a new face and an extremely competitive price-tag, it's almost certain that feathers will be ruffled.
Datsun is a company that began manufacturing operations in 1931. The brand-name remained until 1986, with Nissan exporting models using the 'Datsun' name. It was then phased out, but now, the name is back, returning as the entry-car brand for growing and upcoming markets. Nissan have positioned Datsun as the 'brand of the risers' and it makes complete sense. For a first car, you would expect something convenient, frugal and spacious with low maintenance and easy driveability, and the Go ticks all those boxes, or so it seems.
Take a good look at the car and, barring the front grille, it's very Micra. The proportions are rather generous for the segment; there's no question about that. The quality of sheet metal and levels of fit-and-finish are not too bad at all. The angular light clusters go well with the design theme, and each part looks well-integrated, unlike some of its competition, which look as if the creators merely rummaged through the parts bin.