text:
[subjects: Riyadh bombings
on May 12, war on terrorism, oversight of charities and
banking system]
Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Washington, DC
Q There are some people who believe that this -- that the Riyadh attack marked a complete change in direction for al Qaeda, that while they had been targeting leadership figures before, that this really was a declaration of war against the Royal family. Could you address that, that the Royal family is now specifically a target of al Qaeda.
MR. AL-JUBEIR: I said a month ago, or almost a month ago, that this is a declaration of war against Saudi Arabia and against the Saudi state. We will rise to the challenge and we will destroy them.
It's that simple. They -- we have always -- we have maintained for a long time that the two countries in the crosshairs of this murderous organization are Saudi Arabia and the United States. The targets that they have chosen have always been targets intended to destroy the U.S.-Saudi relationship. I think what they're trying to do is trigger a conflict between the U.S. and the Muslim world.
We have to make sure that they don't succeed.
We've made great strides in unraveling their organization, in breaking up cells. We have -- we know more about how they move funds and how they try to smuggle explosives, and we learn more every day. And I think -- I don't think, I know -- that we will win. But it may take a little bit of time.
With regards to your point, yes, absolutely. We are convinced that they have declared war on Saudi Arabia, and we just have to rise to the challenge.
Q Secretary Powell said this morning that he's reaching out to all leaders in the region to really bring the hammer down on Hamas and the PIJ. Saudi has so often gotten a bad rap when it comes to this, but do you think any longer that when the administration says, "Everyone needs to do more," that they're talking about Saudi Arabia? Or to whom do you think he's directing these remarks?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: I think to everyone, including the United States.
We have always maintained that when it comes to peace, that -- as the crown prince said at the Arab summit in Beirut a year ago, that peace does not emanate from the barrel of a gun or the exploding warhead of a missile, it emanates from the heart, and we need to set that as our objective. We need to work towards that objective, and we need to undermine the ability of people to use violence and terrorism to undermine us on both sides.
We have -- I hear reports constantly or charges about Saudi funding Hamas. We've said no, that's not the case. Could it be that some Saudi individuals are funding Hamas? Very likely. Hamas raises a lot of money in the United States. But in terms of as a government or a policy, we have taken a position that we condemn terrorism in all its forms, and regardless of where it occurs, and we do not fund terrorists.
Q Could I follow --MODERATOR: (OFF MIKE)
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Yes.
Q The foreign minister said a year ago, and perhaps more recently, that there's nothing wrong with funding Hamas. So I'm unclear as to when --
MR. AL-JUBEIR : Yes.
Q When was the Saudi government decision to no longer fund Hamas?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: What we do is, our funding to the Palestinians goes to build institutions, to help them build infrastructure -- schools, hospitals, roads -- to provide medicine to them.
Q Through Hamas?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Through -- usually we run it through international organizations -- the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Red Cross, the International Red Crescent -- and through the Palestinian Authority. That's where -- how we -- where our funds go through.
A lot of the institutions may be run or managed by the political wing of Hamas. That may be the case; I'm not an expert on this. But we do not fund terrorism.
Yes, sir?
Q Just to follow on both of those questions, in citing your statistics, where you -- (OFF MIKE) -- the direction obviously has been towards al Qaeda. Have you seen evidence of charitable contributions -- (OFF MIKE) ? And also, you guaranteed that it had stopped, that the pertinent process had been put in place, yet you seemed to contradict yourself with the answer to Andrea's question, when you said: Well, it may go into the political arm of these organizations.
MR. AL-JUBEIR : Yeah, I think what I was -- what I'm saying here is we have total control of where the money of Saudi charities goes; we know exactly where it goes. We have -- where there was some suspicious activity, that we worked with the charities to shut down those offices. We have rules in our banking system now that allow us to track every dollar that leaves Saudi Arabia. So, that's one part of the equation.
With regards to support for the Palestinians, yes, we give the Palestinians a lot of support, because they deserve it: 50 or 60 percent of them live under the poverty line; they have no medicine; their infrastructure is in shambles; they can't even pay salaries for their security personnel; the hospitals are missing equipment. And so, we provide support to the Palestinians, just like the United States provides support to the Palestinians. Do we as a government give money to Hamas? No. We give money to the Palestinian Authority or we give money to the Palestinians through international organizations that are doing relief work in the territories.
Q Just a follow-up. Have you had to shut down any charities, or have any charities, or have any charities curbed activities specifically for money going to Hamas or any --
MR. AL-JUBEIR: I just told you. We don't -- we raised -- we had --
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Okay. We had a -- we raised money for the Palestinians a year ago in a telefund that raised over $100 million. Before the telefund was over, we were accused of supporting suicide bombers. Not a dollar had left Saudi Arabia at the time. The funds were given to each national relief organizations that operate in the Palestinian territories. And those relief organizations provide us with an accounting. How one jumps from that to supporting suicide bombings is beyond me.
Q (OFF MIKE) -- payments made to the families of suicide bombers via Saudi Arabia?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: We give money to Palestinian families in need. We have a list. That list includes several thousand families. If a family loses a breadwinner and they're living in poverty, yes, we give them money. Are some of those families, families who had a suicide bomber? Yes. But do we give them money because their son or daughter was a suicide bomber? No. Do we give -- is that money an incentive for them to commit acts of terrorism? No. Because if the family's in need, they will get the money. It's not -- we're not saying, "Go blow yourself up and we'll give you money."
Our religious establishment, our senior religious theologian, the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, two years ago condemned suicide bombings. He said it's against -- it violates the teachings of Islam. Life -- you have life in trust. You cannot take your own life. That's against Islam. And you also cannot take the life of innocent people.
Q So, they're not known as martyrdom payments or anything like that.
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Because what -- I think where the -- where the confusion came is when we refer to people as "martyrs", it's anyone who died innocently. A Palestinian who gets blown up by an Israeli missile is a martyr. A Palestinian who gets run over by a bulldozer is a martyr. That's -- I think that's what created the confusion. In America people thought "martyr" equals "suicide bomber". How can we think of suicide bombers as martyrs when our chief religious theologian said it contradicts the teachings of Islam?
Q But it -- what is -- so you don't think there should be an effort to try to not provide payments to the families of suicide bombers -- (OFF MIKE) ?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Well, yes -- well, correct. But we have -- if you have 5,000 or 10,000 families that need help, do you punish the family because their son did something you disapprove of? I think morally guilt should not transfer. The bin Laden family -- Osama bin Laden was a murderer who murdered several thousand people. Do we go out and punish the rest of the bin Laden family? I don't think that that's morally right. Does the fact that they still have businesses in Saudi Arabia, that, the same argument would say, if they have the same businesses in Saudi -- if they continue to have businesses in Saudi -- are we as Saudis condoning or supporting what Osama bin Laden did because we didn't punish his family?
Q Well, just -- just to follow up the last question, how does someone get on that list of 5,000 to 10,000 families?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: We ask the people in the territories to provide us a list with those who are needy, and we obtain the list of people who are needy, and we give money. In most cases, the support that we provide is not cash. In most cases it's blankets, it's medicine, it's food, it's -- and we have an accounting of it.
Q Has the United States asked the Saudi government at all to curb those payments to the families of suicide bombers?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: I -- again, I take issue with the point of payment to the families of suicide bombers. Your government, when they built a school or they build a hospital, and the family of a suicide bomber uses it, are you supporting suicide bombings? Of course you're not. There are three and half million Palestinians in the territory that are living in abject poverty. Sixty percent of them. They don't have jobs. They don't have hope. It takes them four hours to cross a 10-mile area because of checkpoints. They are crying out for help. And so we provide that help, like other countries, including the United States. But in helping the Palestinians, we are not encouraging violence and we're not encouraging suicide bombings. I think it's the other way around. It's when people do so that they turn violent.
Q You've addressed what the kingdom is doing, broadly speaking, in terms of charities, in terms of organizations, what the government is doing. What is the status of individual Saudis who want to support organization X either within the kingdom, or send money abroad?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Right.
Q What restrictions, if any, are there in that regard, and what could -- what can you do about it? What have you done?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Here is what we've done. We've taken care of the structural part, in terms of our financial system, we've taken care of the issue involving charities.
I think I may not have been clear, and if that's the case, then I apologize. But what we -- the next step for us now is to find out how we can curtail any possible support from individuals. Will we be able to do it? I hope we do, but I doubt it, because if an individual transfers money from Saudi Arabia to another country, unless that other country cooperates with us, there's very little we can do to track it.
But having said that, the systems and the mechanisms that we now have in place, I believe, are more than what exists in any other country in the world with regards to charities and charitable activities and tracking of funds and so forth. But it's not perfect, and we need to continue to work on this issue. We have -- or we believe that the most effective way of controlling this is on a multilateral basis, where countries are required to keep track of these things so that when funds get moved around, we don't lose -- we continue to have an audit trail, so to speak and we can identify where it goes.
Q Could you explain a bit more what led to the restrictions on the operations of Saudi charities abroad? I mean, al-Haramain, for instance, had several operations abroad that (OFF MIKE) , continued to operate. Was this a specific response to the Riyadh bombings or had it been in the works longer than that?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: It had been in the works longer than this. What we have done is we looked at charities, we audited our charities, we determined that many of them did not have financial control mechanisms because they don't -- we don't pay taxes, so they don't have a tax- exempt status that they need to protect. The bookkeeping was not -- I don't want to use the word "sloppy," but it was not up to par. So we worked with the charities on putting in place financial control mechanisms, requiring them to have external auditors and external audits and having people who are responsible, like a board of directors.
On the domestic side, it was fine because charities tend to operate on more of a local or city level. We then looked at the charities that operate outside Saudi Arabia and we found that the various offices of those charities in many cases had -- the head office had little control over them.
In the case of al-Haramain, we worked with the U.S. to shut down the offices in Bosnia and in Somalia, I believe in March of last year, and we submitted the names of the individuals who worked in those offices to the United Nations as being involved in terrorism. We looked at the other offices of al-Haramain and we discovered that in many cases the financial controls were not up to par. The individuals working in those offices, the vast majority of them were non-Saudis, about whose background the head organization knew very little. And so we worked with the organization, and they came to the conclusion that the best thing they can do is shut down those offices.
We then went back to our other charities and said, "We have a new law coming out that will require all international efforts by our charities to cease and to be directed through only one entity. And until such time, you should stop all your international activities."
I think we have been unfairly criticized for what our charities do and don't do. In most cases they support -- they spend a lot of money helping people in need. Now, I don't think there should be any ground for anyone to stand on in criticizing Saudi Arabia when it comes to the actions of Saudi charities.
Yes? And then I'll come back.
Q You mentioned taking steps beyond these financial measures; for instance, educating clerics who might have been inclined to encourage political extremism. Criticisms have been raised regarding some textbooks and other curricula in Saudi schools. Is this something that the Kingdom will be looking at as well?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Yes, we have been. We have looked at -- we're looking at our textbooks. We have had a couple -- a number of studies with regards to the Saudi educational system and how we can bring it up to speed so that our students and our young can have a world-class education. We have started two pilot programs, one in Riyadh and one in Jeddah, with new teaching methods, and we're assessing to see how that works. And depending on how effective it is, we may roll it out on a nationwide basis. We have talked to experts from around the world about how one can improve the methods of education. And yes, this is an issue that we're looking at very, very seriously.
Q But specifically about political issues that may have been included in the previous curricula?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: When we looked at the previous curriculum, there were approximately 5 percent -- one of the studies recommended that 5 percent of what is in the textbooks should be deleted; that another 10 percent should be dealt with either by different ways of teaching, or by deleting, or by a combination of the two. This was the recommendation of one of the reports.
For us, the most important issue in terms of our educational system is the ability to provide our students who graduate from our public schools with a world-class education that will allow them to succeed in the modern world. And that's what -- that's why we're looking so seriously at this issue.
Q You mentioned some Saudi money may have ended up in the political side of Hamas. Do you have any way or have you set up any -- (OFF MIKE) -- to find out how much -- (OFF MIKE) ?
And then just the second part of the question, does Saudi Arabia view Hamas as more of a liberation movement than terrorism?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Well, I think I'll start with the second part first. Anytime you take the life of innocent people, that's unacceptable; that's terrorism. Anytime you try to fight for your independence, that's a liberation movement. But that one does not condone the other. When we provide funding, we give funding through international organizations or to the Palestinian Authority. And so that's -- we've had this discussion with the U.S. and with others for years. Most of the funding, I believe, that Hamas raises, it raises in this country.
Q With all due respect to your comments, I'm kind of confused, because last week, in Sharm el Sheikh, the president mentioned this issue of funding going to Palestinian groups other than the Palestinian Authority, specifically to Crown Prince Abdullah. And then yesterday, the president felt it necessary to repeat it. Is he ill-informed?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: We, as I said earlier, as a government, don't provide funding, except through channels. Are there individuals who may or may not be providing funding? Probably. Can we determine who those individuals are? Unless we have the information and unless we have the audit trail, we can't. And so, this is a -- I don't know what the term for it is, but it's trying to prove a negative. Can you stop funding from America to various terrorist organizations around the world? Does that mean people should not ask the U.S. to try to do more in this area? Of course it should. I think that's the context.
We have worked, after the summit meeting between Crown Prince Abdullah and President Bush in Crawford, Texas last spring, on getting an agreement between the various Palestinian factions to work with the Palestinian Authority in order to move the peace process forward. We have not succeeded, because the targeted assassinations of Palestinian leaders by Israel continues; the closures continue; the uprooting of trees and the demolition of homes continues; the humiliation of the occupation continues; and that environment makes it difficult to move the two parties together. What we've tried to do since the crown prince's peace initiative is to try to put an objective on the table and try to work to get both sides to move in that direction so we can get beyond this senseless violence and the senseless killing on both sides.
And now we're facing a challenge. We have had a great summit at Sharm el-Sheikh and at Aqaba. We have a road map that can take us, hopefully, from the current difficult situation that the region is in towards the path of peace. And we are now facing our first serious challenge. And how we deal with it is going to determine whether the peace process proceeds in a positive fashion or not.
But we can't deal with it if we look at it strictly from the prism of violence. What -- we end up with tit for tat. Someone is assassinated. A bus gets blown up. Other people are shot or assassinated. More violence. And it's been going on like this for years.
Isn't it time that people step back and say, "If the approach of violence has not worked, let's try something else"? And that's what we're advocating for both sides.
Q Thank you. If I may move to the subject of Iraq, recent reports coming from Iraq indicate that Iran is gaining ground inside Iraq -- (OFF MIKE) . And Saudi Arabia has always been wary about -- (OFF MIKE) -- the first Gulf War. Are you particularly concerned that the -- (OFF MIKE) -- Shi'ite majority in Iraq is also gaining ground inside Iraq. Are you concerned? Are you talking about this with the American officials?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Our main concern in -- with regards to Iraq is for the well-being and the welfare of the Iraqi people. We also believe strongly that it is important to maintain the territorial integrity of Iraq and the independence of Iraq.
We also believe strongly that Iraq's future should be decided by the Iraqi people themselves without any outside interference.
And so, having said that, we are not as well informed on the ground as, for example, the U.S. would be, because we don't have people in Iraq. And so yes, we hear reports of Iranian involvement. We hear reports of potentially other involvement. And I go back to my earlier point, which is, it is up to the Iraqis to decide what type of government they want and who their leaders should be, free from any interference by any outside power.
Q Adel, if I can, I'd like to return to Hamas. Does the Saudi government consider the attack that happened yesterday in Jerusalem to have been a terrorist attack or an act of liberation?
And if I could also ask you -- because in your press release you say that the Saudi government is engaging Iran specifically on the matter of potential al Qaeda operatives -- (OFF MIKE) -- who may have been behind the Riyadh bombings -- is the Saudi government convinced that the attacks were planned in Iran?
And do you have any idea which al Qaeda operatives are in Iran now?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Okay. Well, with regard to the first part of your question, any time innocent people are killed, it's terrorism. That's obvious. And we've repeatedly condemned it in all of its forms, regardless of where it occurs.
With regard to the potential al Qaeda members who are in Iran, the Riyadh bombing was perpetrated by al Qaeda, we're very convinced. Al Qaeda is run by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, and they may be in Afghanistan or Pakistan, along the border area there. We have seen the reports about al Qaeda members possibly being in -- having fled or hiding in Iran or in other places. And we are -- we have engaged the Iranian government, as we have engaged other governments, about extraditing any Saudis implicated in terrorism from those countries to Saudi Arabia.
If you recall, we have had some Saudis extradited from Iran to Saudi Arabia. We have had individuals extradited, Saudis as well as of other nationalities that we were seeking extradited to us from other countries -- Yemen, Sudan and various other countries.
With regards to the identities of who may or may not be in Iran, I can't get into that because unless we ascertain the identities ourselves, we're really going possibly on speculation. The Iranians have been, in the past, cooperative with us when it comes to extraditing Saudi individuals linked to al Qaeda or having fled to Iran from Afghanistan. And we will continue to work with them, and we expect and we hope that they will continue to be as forthcoming with us on this issue as they have been in the past.
Q As you know, Hamas has claimed responsibility for yesterday's terrorist attack in Jerusalem. How can the Saudi government justify supporting an organization that conducts acts of terrorism?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Well, I -- as I mentioned earlier, we provide funding to the Palestinians through the Palestinian Authority, like the U.S. government does, and through international relief organizations -- the UN High Commission for Refugees, the Palestinian Red Cross and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. That's how we as a government provide funding to the Palestinians.
Q Are you prepared to condemn Hamas for carrying out this act of terrorism?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: We condemn terrorism in all its forms and all its shapes. Any time you kill innocent people, it's condemnable, whether it's perpetrated by one side or the other. Our objective is to move beyond this violence and towards a situation where people can lead normal lives.
Q Why not say we condemn Hamas for this act of terrorism?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Well, again, we have condemned terrorism in all its forms, regardless of where it takes place.
I think that the prime minister of Israel has to think very seriously about his policies. He promised the Israeli public peace and security over two years ago. They have neither peace nor security. Doesn't that beg the question, perhaps there's a better way? There is a peace offer on the table from the Arab world that has the support of most countries in the world. It's a reasonable offer, it's a fair offer. The only government that has not responded to it positively is the Israeli government.
And so, when you deny or you don't go along with a peace settlement, or you don't accept it in principle, then I would think from a practical perspective it becomes difficult to sit down with your adversary and try to work out a settlement. We're hoping they can do this, because then, hopefully, we can move from a period in which innocent people are dying on both sides to a period in which people on both sides can lead normal lives.
Q (OFF MIKE) -- in terms of the Saudi aid to the Palestinian Authority, not organizations but to the PA, does Saudi money go to Chairman Arafat or to Mr. Fayyad?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: We give --
Q Who controls the money that you give? Is it under the control of Chairman Arafat, or is it under control, in essence, of the Finance minister?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Yeah, I need to get back to you on this. But I -- I would imagine when it goes to the Palestinian Authority, whoever is in charge of their finances, that's who controls it. And so --
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Yeah, I would imagine so. But it's not -- the objective is to provide it to help Palestinians meet their payments, for the salaries of their security people, and things of that nature. It's -- we don't play politics.
Q Yes. You have mentioned that the attacks have brought a jolt to Saudi Arabia. And then you also talked about the textbooks and ways you were going to -- suggesting you were opening up Saudi society.
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Yes.
Q However, there is a very prominent newspaper editor, Jamal Khashoggi, who was just dismissed, fired for presumably being too open in the kind of reporting that this newspaper was making. Does that suggest there are limits to how far Saudi Arabia can move --
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Yeah. What we have -- I think what -- Jamal Khashoggi is one of our most prominent journalists. He was writing and expressing his views in a direct fashion, in particular since September 11. I would expect that he will continue to do so. When he became editor of a newspaper, a prominent newspaper in Saudi Arabia, you become responsible for what happens in that newspaper. There was a cartoon that was published that depicted a suicide bomber, a Saudi cleric dressed as a suicide bomber, strapped with explosives around his body. On the explosives was written a fatwa. That is essentially a charge that says that our religious ulema are condoning or supporting or justifying the murder of innocent people. And this is not the case. Our religious -- our Senior Council of Ulema has been consistent in condemning the killing of innocent people. I think -- and again, I believe that that had more to do with it than --
Q But isn't -- (OFF MIKE) ?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: I'll get to that in a moment -- that had more to do with his dismissal than him expressing his opinions. Because when you accuse people of being murderers, that is a form of incitement. And just like we cannot allow people to use religion to incite others, we shouldn't allow people to incite against religion. There has to be a moderate balance within this debate. Was it a wise decision? I can't answer that question. Did it -- is it -- but I was trying to justify to you what the background of it was, and that's really what it is. We need to have a serious debate. We need to temper the rhetoric that comes from both sides.
Q Just to follow up, I mean, generally, these sorts of cartoons, you know, are designed to generate debate. And you did say at the beginning of your presentation that about 300 imams had been dismissed --
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Right.
Q -- there are another 1,000 or so that are undergoing additional training. So, is that -- (OFF MIKE) -- the point of these sorts of cartoons, which may be exaggerated, but make a point and generate discussion, why is it difficult that --
MR. AL-JUBEIR : Yeah. That's a view and an opinion. And you know, I'm -- this is not a decision that I am involved in. But I was giving you my opinion as to what I believed the case was. We have had another newspaper editor, I believe, 10 years ago or so who was dismissed, also because of a cartoon that questioned the existence of God. So, maybe there's a link between dismissing editors and cartoons. (Laughter.) But what you may not think is important and what you may think is a form of stimulating debate, other societies may think of as unacceptable. And we just have to respect our differences here.
Q (Off mike) -- you continue to say that money from the Saudi government specifically goes to help international organizations and the Palestinian Authority. Do you consider the political wing of Hamas to be a legitimate international organization to -- (OFF MIKE) ? And if you think it's acceptable to give money to the political wing of Hamas, knowing that they support radical militants -- wing of Hamas, how is that --
MR. AL-JUBEIR : Yeah. What did Ronald Reagan say? Here you go again. (Laughter) We give money to the Palestinian Authority and we give money to the UN High Commission for Refugees, to the International Red Cross and to the International Red Crescent --
Q And -- (OFF MIKE) .
MR. AL-JUBEIR: -- and their affiliates. That's where we give our money as a government. We have -- we raise money -- when money is raised in Saudi Arabia, as was several times for the Palestinians or for the Bosnians or for the Afghans or for -- that money is channeled through international organizations, as I mentioned to you. That's --
Q Is one of those the political wing of Hamas?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: No. Hamas is not an international relief organization. It is not recognized as such. It doesn't have -- it may do charitable work in the territories; but no, it is not an international relief organization.
Q But you did say money goes to -- (OFF MIKE) -- Hamas.
MR. AL-JUBEIR: I said money may end up there, but not from us. Money may end up to institutions. If you have a hospital and you buy the hospital equipment, and that hospital is run or managed by the political wing of Hamas, maybe -- I don't know all the -- I've never been to the territories. I don't know that any Saudi has. But that's not the objective. And I think just as you raise those questions about Saudi funding, the same applies to American funding.
Q Outside the charitable activities in the territories, I want to get back to the other statements you made about charities internationally. On the one hand, you say it's illegal for them now to operate overseas; on the other hand, you say "we've asked them to stop operating." And clearly, they all have their assets out of your control. They're all overseas. I was in Riyadh 10 days ago and -- (OFF MIKE) -- was raising money for Bosnia and Chechnya and Africa. Are you saying that if we were to walk into the office for the Supreme Committee for the Donations of Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina in Sarajevo today, that no one would be there, the doors would be shut, and that no money is being distributed?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Okay. What I said is that we have our regulations, which you have a copy of, that require our charities -- first, in December we required them to coordinate all their activities with the Foreign Ministry. And then we asked the charities to stop all of their -- freeze all of their activities until such time as we had a new procedure for how they can operate outside Saudi Arabia.
Q But have they?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Now we have a draft law that is being discussed in our Consultative Council that requires -- that sets up one entity through which all foreign activities are channeled. And this entity is subject to oversight, it's subject to financial controls, and it's subject to legal requirements.
The governor of the Central Bank or our government has asked the charities that until such time as this law is passed, they must freeze all their international operations.
Now one of our charities, al-Haramain, announced that it was closing all of its foreign offices. If you're telling me, "Did they close all of them," I don't think they're there yet. We know that they've closed four or five, and they're in the process of shutting down another two.
Are the others winding down their operations? I hope so. When you look at a charity like WAMY that is not a Saudi charity. It -- there are charities that are headquartered in Saudi Arabia that are multinational charities, that belong to the Organization of Islamic Conference, that belong to other multinational organizations. And those charities we are working through the head organization in order to see how we can bring them under control.
Q Those are the charities who have been the biggest concern --
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Well, then don't accuse us of it, because if the United Nations is headquartered in New York, is America responsible for everything the U.N. does? Of course not. We can deal with Saudi charities, and we have dealt with Saudi charities. We're looking at other charities in which we have membership, like WAMY and others, and we are working the process through this. Our objective is to have total control over the funding. Our objective is to make sure that people do not raise money in Saudi Arabia and spend it elsewhere without a total accounting.
Q How close are you now?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: I think we are right now closer than perhaps any other country in the world, including the U.S.
MODERATOR: Last question.
Q Isn't a major loophole if more charities start coming to Saudi Arabia and raise money without going through these new channels you're trying to set up? And are you trying to close that loophole?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Yes.
Q (OFF MIKE) -- can you not bring those international charities under the same system that --
MR. AL-JUBEIR: That's what we're working on. The -- we have some leverage with these organizations, because we are a very big player in the Muslim world, and we use that leverage. The objective is to make sure that nobody can raise money in Saudi Arabia and spend it elsewhere without us knowing exactly where those funds went. And that's where we're working.
I want to also remind you that there are a lot of charities that claim to be subsidiaries of charities based in Saudi Arabia that in fact are not. You have the Islamic Relief Organization here in America. The parent company disassociated itself from them years ago, and did so publicly. And until today, I see reports that people say "a branch of a Saudi charity." It's not, it's an American charity based in America that raises money in America.
And so we want to be careful about how we characterize the legal status of various organizations. But the objective is to make sure that people do not take advantage of the generosity of our people and put the money that they receive from Saudi donors for uses that the Saudi donors do not approve of.
Maybe I'll take one question.
Q You mentioned that your senior religious leaders condemn terrorism. I think that doesn't automatically mean that there aren't other religious leaders who secretly support terrorists.
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Correct.
Q When you implemented your program of cooperation with Imams, were there some Imams who refused to cooperate?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: They have no choice. If they refuse, they're sacked, they lose their job. We jailed three Imams who, when we were looking for the 19 suspects, they issued a fatwa on the Internet and they said that the -- it's an obligation of citizens to help the fugitives not to help the government in apprehending them. Which we located the three of them and they're in jail now.
Maybe -- okay.
Q How did Crown Prince Abdullah feel the Sharm el-Sheikh conference went?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Extremely well. We were very positive. The president showed commitment, he showed determination, he showed a desire to move the peace process forward. He was extremely well- informed about the issues. He was sensitive about the various factors that needed to come into play. And I believe he impressed the leaders of the region as a leader and as somebody who is committed to finding a resolution to this seemingly intractable problem.
The personal relationship between him and the other leaders was very warm and very good. He understood the challenges that the Palestinian prime minister faces, and he expressed his support for the Palestinian prime minister and a desire to work with him to achieve those objectives.
So I think the Sharm el-Sheikh conference went very well.
Q A follow-up?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Yes.
Q What is the Crown Prince's view on the attacks on Dr. Rantisi?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: Our view has been, and remains, that we are against the assassinations of individuals. We don't believe -- A, we believe it's morally wrong; B, we believe that they do not achieve any objective other than further fueling hate and provoking reactions and responses which, in turn, provoke more reactions and responses, which in turn keeps the cycle of violence going and accelerating. They have not worked. They have not deterred anyone. All they've done is provoked reactions, which have led to the deaths of innocent people.
And so there has to be another way out of this besides shooting each other or blowing each other up, and that's what we're trying to urge people.
Q Do you think it was in any way justified by the coming together of Hamas and the other groups that they support?
MR. AL-JUBEIR: We -- there was a process underway to try to negotiate an agreement between the Palestinian Authority and between Hamas and Islamic Jihad on a cease-fire.
One of the conditions was that the Israelis would agree to stop suicide -- or, to stop the targeted assassinations. Israel was not willing to do so.
The chief of the Egyptian intelligence service, Mr. Suleiman, was scheduled to go to the territories to talk to Hamas and PIJ and Palestinian Authority the day of that assassination attempt. And the assassination attempt took place, his visit was delayed; I think he went subsequent to that. But the objective of his visit was to try to move the parties towards -- the Palestinian parties towards agreement on a cease-fire that would then allow the implementation of the road map to proceed. When you engage in an assassination attempt in the midst of efforts to try to broker an agreement that I would think would be beneficial to the Israelis, that's not wise leadership.
Okay. Thank you, everyone.


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UPDATE: Our gallery issue has been fixed. So check out that A1 again. Much of the speculation is now over as Audi's just let loose some details and a slew of pictures on their new A1 concept car for the Tokyo Auto Show. It's called the A1 Metroproject Quattro, and it's the same A1 plug-in hybrid concept car we told you we were expecting to see in Japan just a month or so ago. Under the hood is a 150 bhp 1.4-liter TFSI engine with power directed to the front wheels through an S-tronic dual-clutch gearbox. But wait, here's the cool part. There's a 41 HP electric motor right atop the rear axle delivering an additional load of torque on those rear wheels when you put the foot down. This A1 is a true plug-in hybrid, with the electric motor capable of powering the concept car on its own in urban areas for up to 62 miles in pure electric mode and the motor can be recharged from any power socket. On the interior you've got a radio system that looks very much like the radio from the Camaro concept car (why? We've no idea) and a very interesting cell phone thing (more on that shortly). We're looking forward to seeing this bad boy live next week.
Because our galleries are all fubar at the moment, hit the jump for another picture.

subset: commoncrawl


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An answer to another question derived a formula for the volume of a delta-ball in $O(n)$. I am wondering if there is a (constructive) way to draw samples uniformly at random from such a region.
For my purposes, an acceptance-rejection scheme is not viable. I am trying to study the behavior of an integral over $O(n)$ of a function that is very small outside of certain regions, so accepting samples that lie within the ball is no different (from a computational perspective) from sampling from $O(n)$ in its entirety.
Alternatively, any other non-uniform sampling scheme on $O(n)$ might be of interest, especially if it concentrates more samples around diagonal matrices $\text{diag}(\pm1,\dots,\pm1)$.


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Front-end Web Development
Learn HTML, CSS and JavaScript - and put them to good use! This class, taught by Jeffrey Carl Faden, is aimed at beginners who are interested in web development, as well as seasoned professionals looking to brush up on the latest and greatest.
Frontend web development is all about making code that runs in the browser (versus code that runs on the server). There isn't a big focus on web design (creating wireframes and mockups), but we do cover best practices for turning these designs into beautiful code.
This class is for everyone! Complete beginners and more experienced developers are welcome at any time. If you're new to the class, consider coming to the lecture at 7:30 for a recap.
The space and the class are entirely free to attend. You do not have to be a Noisebridge member.
Please bring any kind of laptop.
Lectures start promptly at 8pm on Mondays and go for two hours. There is a half-hour recap starting at 7:30pm. Please try to arrive early as physical space is limited.
Labs start at 8pm on Thursdays and can go up to two hours.
This class runs in a weekly series, and the curriculum takes about 5 months from start to finish. Don't let it discourage you if you're starting from the middle - attend recaps and labs and you should be able to catch up!
Noisebridge, 2169 Mission St., San Francisco, 94114 (at 18th St., near 16th St. BART station). Getting Here
The lecture is currently held in the Church classroom, which is in the back of the space.
The lab is currently held in the Turing classroom, the room past the wood shop.
Read up on getting in to the space. TL;DR: ring the bell!
Keep Informed
Join the WebDev or Noisebridge-announce mailing lists to be notified of upcoming class topics via email.
If you can't make it, subscribe to a mailing list to be notified when you can watch a live stream of the lecture! If you missed it, previous lecture streams are available for viewing on the Previous Classes page!
Weekly classroom-style presentation on HTML/CSS/JS. The lecture starts every Monday at 8pm. We also have a recap starting at 7:30pm, where we'll cover the (very) basics:
- Explaining "frontend" vs. "backend"
- Discussing tools of the trade
- Explaining the separation between structure, presentation, and behavior
- Writing a basic HTML page
- Styling the page with basic CSS
Class for 2013-03-18: Version control (Git) and the command line
This class is a general overview on version control and the command line. I've taught how to use an FTP client to upload files to the web, but the truth is that most developers don't do that anymore - rather, they collaborate with their peers by using version control systems, which allows them to keep track of their work in a reliable fashion and push it to the web.
Again, this class isn't about web development per se - it's just an important introduction to using the command line to work with Git, one of the most popular version control systems. You'll be creating your own repository and checking in your work.
If you want to get a head start, here's what you can do:
- Sign up for a free account at GitHub
- Install Git. If you're on Windows, install Git for Windows (all default options are fine).
Join the Google+ Event to be notified of the video livestream (you don't have to be a Google+ member).
Previous classes
We discuss a different topic in-depth every week. Some previous topics have been:
- CSS selectors, positioning, floats
- Turning a professional mockup into HTML and CSS
- JavaScript
- jQuery and plugins
- File transfer and AJAX
- HTML5 and CSS3
- Mobile web
- Progressive enhancement: cross-browser compatibility and accessibility
- Web frameworks and other "backend" web development topics
We also meet for a weekly lab/workshop where we work on an assignment that covers the material learned in the lecture earlier in the week. Those working on their own personal projects are also more than welcome to come and solicit help. Every Thursday at 8pm in the Turing classroom.


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10 U.S. Cities with the Most Tattoos
Ink is a thing of beauty in these towns, from Angelina Jolie's birthplace to Kat Von D's old hangout
According to two Harris Interactive polls (taken in 2003 and 2008) and a Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology study from 2006 -- between 14 percent and 25 percent of the country's adults have at least one tattoo, with the most tattooed people being between ages 25 and 29, and living in the West. Of the 2,000-plus people surveyed by Harris Interactive, those who had tattoos thought body art was "sexy," "rebellious," "attractive" and "spiritual." With that said, those without tattoos said they thought the opposite. Translation: If you want your tattoo to look sexy, a) get a mark that's pretty to look at, and b) move to a town where it will be appreciated.
To find out which towns in America were most tattoo-friendly, we perused chat forums and looked up every state in several public directories, including Yellow Pages, Google listings, Tattoo Yellow Pages and AAA Tattoo Directory, to find those with the most listed tattoo and permanent makeup shops. Then we looked up which cities in those states had the most shops listed per capita with populations based on latest U.S. Census numbers. We also took into consideration the city's demographics and whether or not it hosted tattoo conventions, remembering that not all tattoo parlors were listed in the directories. See which cities love ink the most, and let us know if we left one out.
SEE NEXT PAGE: No. 10: Los Angeles, Calif.
Older comments
Some of these cities completely surprised me!
by GigiSD Tuesday, April 23, 2013 at 06:08PM Report as inappropriate
getting a tattoo soon after i lose 50 pounds..tattoos are amazing and sexy
by sdavi60 Sunday, March 24, 2013 at 04:25PM Report as inappropriate
tattoos are all over nomatter where u live there will always be someone there that has at least 1 i myself have 3 and almost everyone i no has a tatto i think a tattoo is sexy
by littlesweets801 Sunday, March 17, 2013 at 01:51PM Report as inappropriate
by butterfly11 Friday, March 15, 2013 at 05:08PM Report as inappropriate
I live in Atlanta, GA and see tattooed people every where. Maybe it's just the places I go. But I am beginning to notice tattoo parlors in so many places. I wonder where we were on the list.
by lanereidbeauty Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 12:21PM Report as inappropriate
Wow! Many of these were not surprises, but some were.
by NillaButterfly Saturday, December 22, 2012 at 05:51PM Report as inappropriate
Proud to see my city on the list!! :]
by Lamexicana1 Saturday, December 1, 2012 at 04:17PM Report as inappropriate
Cool article
by yestfl Saturday, December 1, 2012 at 11:24AM Report as inappropriate
by LittleBunny Tuesday, November 6, 2012 at 08:05PM Report as inappropriate
very interesting!
by Chris213 Sunday, September 30, 2012 at 06:00PM Report as inappropriate
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Norfolk State guards Pendarvis Williams (11) and Jamel Fuentes (3) pressure Virginia guard Joe Harris (12) during the second half of an NIT first-round college basketball game in Charlottesville, Va., Tuesday, March 19, 2013. Virginia won 67-56. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Seton Hall's Derrick Gordon won't pursue pro basketball to become a firefighter
After a successful career that included stops at Western Kentucky, UMass and Seton Hall, Derrick Gordon, Division I college basketball's first openly gay player, will not pursue professional opportunities and will instead become a firefighter.
The 6-foot-3 Gordon averaged 8.0 points and 3.3 rebounds per game as a senior for the Pirates, helping the team reach the NCAA tournament during his graduate transfer year. By making the NCAA tournament with Seton Hall this past season, Gordon became the first college basketball player to reach the event with three different teams.
A tenacious perimeter defender who could have earned a pro contract if he stuck with basketball, Gordon will instead pursue a career as a firefighter in San Francisco.
"I've had an amazing basketball career and want to thank everybody who has always been there supporting me every step on the way," Gordon said via his Instagram. "But I'm making a change in my career…I will now be working towards becoming a San Francisco Firefighter!! I'm excited about this and looking forward to having a long career!!"
While Gordon likely would have never made the NBA on talent alone, his defensive prowess would have likely given him a shot overseas or in the D League. It's hard to say why Gordon is making this decision, but given what we saw with all of the attention surrounding Michael Sam when he tried to play in the NFL, Gordon was probably going to face a lot of scrutiny wherever he decided to play.
Hopefully Gordon finds his calling as a firefighter and brings the same energy and leadership that he brought on the floor to helping other people outside of basketball.
Washington guard Markelle Fultz pulls off sick spin and dunk at FIBA U18 Americas
Washington incoming freshman guard Markelle Fultz is going to be one of the premier players in the country next season as his unique game is going to be fascinating to watch.
The 6-foot-5 Fultz is currently playing with the USA U18 team in Chile for the FIBA U18 Americas as he's second on the team in scoring and first in assists as the Americans play Canada for the title on Saturday.
Against the host country, Fultz had an electric spin move in the paint and finished with an easy dunk. If you're not willing to stay up late to watch this dude play this year, then set your DVRs, because Fultz is going to have some fun moments during the season.
(H/t: Jonathan Wasserman, Bleacher Report)
POSTERIZED: Class of 2016 forward Chris Seeley has a massive dunk on defender
The Las Vegas AAU events are all going on this week and it's the final event for rising seniors.
At the Las Vegas Fab 48, forward Chris Seeley of the Splash City 17U team put down one of the best poster dunks of the summer as he skied over a defender for an emphatic finish.
The Class of 2016 forward attends Central High School in Fresno, California as he's receiving plenty of buzz for his recent play.
Five-star forward Jarred Vanderbilt cuts list to nine
LAS VEGAS, NV — Five-star Class of 2017 forward Jarred Vanderbilt has been one of the most sought-after recruits in the country since he was a freshman in high school.
The 6-foot-8 native of Houston is beginning to wind things down in the recruiting process as he cut his list to nine schools on Friday. Vanderbilt's list includes some of the most storied programs in college basketball and plenty of schools from his home state of Texas.
"I just followed my heart. Went with the schools I liked the most and who I have the best relationships with. Thear were the schools I could see myself playing for," Vanderbilt told NBCSports.com.
Regarded as the No. 13 overall prospect in the Rivals.com national rankings, Vanderbilt is currently recovering from a broken fifth metatarsal in his left foot.
Vanderbilt will see a doctor in three-to-four weeks as he's currently in a boot to help his foot heal.
Report: Michigan State and Penn State will play at the Palestra
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo has previously expressed a desire to coach a game at the legendary Palestra in Philadelphia and it appears he'll get his chance in a Big Ten game this season.
According to a report from Brendan F. Quinn of MLive, Penn State will use the Palestra as its home gym for the Jan. 7, 2017 Big Ten game against Michigan State. It is the only time the two teams are scheduled to play during Big Ten season and Penn's home gym will offer a unique setting for the game.
Since the capacity of the Palestra is 8,722, it should make for a fun atmosphere for both programs since this will be a game both fan bases will likely want to attend.
With Nittany Lions head coach Pat Chambers making Philadelphia a major recruiting priority for his program, a game like this in Philadelphia makes sense while Michigan State has always been open to playing games in unique settings such as aircraft carriers.
The Palestra has been a college basketball mainstay since it was built in 1927 as it hosts all Penn home games and, in the past, hosted a lot of Big 5 Philadelphia college games between La Salle, Penn, Saint Joseph's, Temple and Villanova.
Overall, a fun idea that should make for an interesting experience for both programs. It's not often that a team will change its home venue for a conference game, but it could be the start of something we see other schools look to do.


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I would like to create a widget of content from my RSS feed, so to put into an HTML website.
The output should be similar to what you get from the RSS widget in WordPress.
What webapp offers a good service for something like this?
closed as not constructive by phwd♦ Feb 8 '12 at 21:58
As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance.If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
Have a look at WidgetEasy for a simple, no-frills way for creating a widget.
If you want to customize & tweak the colours, background et al, WebRSS is a good solution.
Both the sites, however don't seem to support Atom feeds - you'll have to use this web app for that.


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Let $\mathcal C_d$ denote the set of all $d-$dimensional convex compact subsets with barycenter at the origin of the $d$-dimensional Euclidean space $\mathbb E^d$. Given an element $C\in\mathcal C_d$ with boundary $\partial C$, define $\Sigma_0\subset \partial C$ by $\Sigma_0=\partial C\cap(-\partial C)$. The complement $\partial C\setminus \Sigma_0$ is open and can be partitioned into two open subsets $\Sigma_\pm$ defined by $$\Sigma_-=\lbrace P\in\partial C\vert -P\in\mathrm{Int}(C)\rbrace$$ and $$\Sigma_+=\lbrace P\in \partial C\vert -P\not\in C\rbrace\ .$$ Set $\rho(C)=\mathrm{Area}(\Sigma_+)/\mathrm{Area}(\Sigma_-)$ (using the convention $\rho(C)=1$ if $\Sigma_+=\Sigma_-=\emptyset$ which happens exactly if $C$ is centrally symmetric) where $\mathrm{Area}(\Sigma_\pm)$ is the $(d-1)$ dimensional area.
The function $\rho:\mathcal C_d\longrightarrow [1,\infty)$ is invariant under the action of the linear group on $\mathcal C_d$ and is bounded. What is its maximal value (and on which convex sets is it achieved)?
Added: My argument for the invariance under the linear group is flawed. I am also no longer sure that $\rho$ is bounded (my proof used invariance under the linear group).
(Added after a moments thought: One remedy is to replace $\rho(C)$ by $\mathrm{Vol}(C)/\mathrm{Vol}(C\cap(-C))$ which is obviously invariant under linear transformations and which is bounded.)
A probably naive guess for the maximum is the value of $\rho$ on a simplex. In dimension $2$, one gets $\rho(\Delta)=2$ if $\Delta\in\mathcal C_2$ is a triangle and in dimension $3$ one gets $\rho(\Delta)=3$ for $\Delta$ a simplex in $\mathcal C_3$. I ignore the value of $\rho$ on simplices of dimension $\geq 4$ (question Name of a polytope is motivated by the computation of these values).
A similar invariant which has perhaps been studied is obtained by considering $\lambda_C=\max_L_+\mathrm{length}(L_+\cap C)/\mathrm{length}((-L_+)\cap C)$ where the maximum is over the set of all half-lines rooted at the origin. The invariant $\lambda(C)$ is also bounded and invariant under the action of the linear group on $\mathcal C_d$. (Here I am sure since this is obvious.)


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5 'Luxury' Toys for the Children of Wealthy Douchebags
#2. The Superplexus
You know those little wooden mazes you have to tilt to move a ball through? This is the $30,000 version:
"Thanks, but I would have preferred literally anything else."
That's the Superplexus, and it actually looks kind of awesome ...
To an adult.
Look at that kid. He's posing for the picture trying to sell this thing, and he looks downright suicidal.
"Come on, you bastard, make a fart noise. Just one!"
An adult sees that ornate orb and appreciates the craftsmanship of the ramps and the intricate challenge of the puzzle -- because after decades on this mean old earth, we have become disillusioned with the simpler things in life and require increasingly baroque distractions. A kid can stack three pillows on top of each other and happily spend the rest of the day defending Fort Fluffenblock from the evil machinations of the cat.
According to the seller, completing the maze requires a minimum of 425 turns through an obstacle course that "challenges the limits of your manual dexterity and spatial understanding." A single mistake will knock the ball completely off and force you to start over.
Because those are the two things children love most: punishing difficulty curves and exercises in extreme patience.
#1. Luxury Playhouses
Perhaps the most prominent status symbol of the fantastically rich is the home. Some more affluent members of society live in mansions so grand and opulent that they'll never visit half of the rooms inside them. If there's any perfect, cutting metaphor for the empty pretense of the purposelessly rich, it is the sprawling, dusty, unused mansion.
Now, finally, children can have their own!
"Shall we sup at home, dear sister, or abscond to our parent's manse?" - Some little shithead
You're looking at the Grand Victorian Playhouse and two children who, judging by their facial expressions, have already started drinking to quiet the unrest inside. There's no way those kids love their new playhouse. That little boy wants to take his shirt off and stand screaming atop Castle Greyskull; that little girl wants to frolic through Snow White's forest. Neither one of them, if asked what their ideal play environment would be, would answer "A tasteful Craftsman, papa!" But that's what they got. And they'd better appreciate it: It starts at $20,000. Period-correct furniture, a skylight and an additional wing will set you back even more, but really, can you put a price on disappointing your children?
If that old school Victorian look isn't for you -- you want to raise a douchebag, sure, but not an anachronistic one -- the next step up is the $50,000 Mediterranean Villa:
"Our 4-year-old is really into Spanish tile."
It actually comes with connections for cable, electricity and water, with optional air-conditioning and Wi-Fi. That doesn't leave a lot to the imagination. So ... what game are your kids "playing" in here, exactly? Is it the "you can't legally move out for ten more years, but mommy is hungover and your shrill little child's voice is like a dagger in her skull, so kindly go live in the yard" game?
Then there's La Petite Maison, which, at $76,000, costs more than many actual, full-size houses in some parts of the country:
"Doing your own gardening? You must be new money."
In addition to all of the features of the Villa, La Petite Maison sports a full kitchen and a media room. Wait ... a full kitchen? Never mind that your kid could be playing unsupervised with a working stove -- you're encouraging your children to cook for themselves? What's next, cleaning? That's preposterous. But Lupita, your housekeeper, couldn't possibly fit through that tiny doorway -- she has the squat, bulky shoulders of the peasant class. Maybe you should see if her 8-year-old daughter is available on weekends ...
You can read more from Mark at Zug and McSweeney's Internet Tendency. Or check out his personal website. Jacopo della Quercia is on Twitter, or Also, check out this article he wrote for the Huffington Post.
For more completely ridiculous playthings, check out The 8 Most Wildly Irresponsible Vintage Toys and The 36 Worst Action Figures From Iconic Toy Lines.
If you're pressed for time and just looking for a quick fix, then check out 4 Questions for the (Now Bankrupt) Tupac Hologram Company.


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Meet and Communicate with Fun Singles Near You on BBW Personals Plus
Register now to search thousands of members and post your FREE profile!
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HOME MLB Cleveland Indians Gear Cleveland Indians T-Shirts Cleveland Indians T-Shirts Short Sleeved (314 items) Product ID: 852046
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Get your young Indians fan ready to cheer on Grady Sizemore and for the cool temps in Cleveland with this layered long sleeve tee from Majestic. It features a team name printed across the front, Sizemore's name and #24 on the back, and vibrant team colors to show off his Indians pride. The red long sleeves underneath will keep your young one warm for the beginning of baseball season. He'll be begging you to bring him back to Progressive Field to see his Indians win again and again!
- 100% Cotton fabric
- Imported
- Lightweight ribbed T-shirt
- Officially licensed Indians tee
- Rib-knit collar
- Screen print graphics
- Sewn-in double layer collar, sleeves & hem
- Long sleeve
- Screen print graphics
- Imported
- Brand: Majestic
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I found these three images, which obviously have something in common. 'Curvy ribs'. But the question I'm asking today is, who did it better?
The first image is from Cave Restaurant located in Sydney, Australia. Koichi Takada Architects have used these curved panels to help with acoustics in the space and creating a very warm and cosy place with the visually interesting timber.
Next up is Banq restaurant in Boston, by Office dA. This space clad in a wood-slatted system cleverly hides all of the mechanical, plumbing, and lighting systems on the longitudinal axis, while offering a virtual canopy under which to dine.
Finally, we have the retail store, Boutique Runway, by CLS Architetti. This time all painted white, the architects go for an uber modern feel with their ribs to emulate a cold cave-like feel, and also helps guide the customers through the space.
Personally, Banq is my number 1. What's yours?
Cave images via Contemporist, Banq images via Yatzer, Boutique Runway via Dezeen.


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ATLANTA - First Data Corp.'s SpendTrend report, which tracks same-store consumer spending via credit, signature debit, PIN debit and EBT cards, found that in early December, year-over-year dollar volume growth was 6.6%, a decrease from November's strong growth of 8.1%.
Overall dollar volume growth was healthy in light of tougher year-over-year comparables, according to the report. Seasonality also had an impact on overall growth as the first two weeks of December often see a slowdown in spending following the pre-holiday and Black Friday sales in late November.
With the holiday season well underway, consumers were more cautious and value-oriented, said First Data. In early December, consumers made more frequent purchases, but average ticket size was smaller. This was reflected in overall average ticket size, which declined 1.5%, excluding fuel. Transaction growth picked up in early December as year-over-year growth rose 8.1%, compared with November's growth of 7.7%.


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One of my friends asked me whether or not the inclusion of the category of Grothendieck toposes into elementary toposes has a left adjoint. We are looking at the categories of geometric morphisms. I am not really sure how to start but nothing seems to rule it out immediately.
No, it doesn't. If it did, then it would preserve limits. But the category of Grothendieck toposes and geometric morphisms has a terminal object, namely the category of sets, while there are elementary toposes not admitting any geometric morphism to Set (for instance, any small elementary topos).


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30X48 US American 50 Star Sewn Nylon Boat Flag - Taylor Made
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Sewn Nylon 50-Star American Flags.
Proudly display your patriotism with the Taylor Made Nylon American Flag. Made of durable polyester, this marine flag flies strong even in the worst …
Stars and stripes are SEWN to make each flag
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Here is what I want to have
My category Structure in WP admin
Cat Parent
-Cat Child 1
-Cat Child 2
-Cat Child 3
-Cat Child 1
This what I want to have in one template:
It show the list of post in Cat Parent Children Category
Cat Child 1
-Post1 Child 1
-Post2 Child 1
-Post3 Child 1
-So on... .
Cat Child 2
-Post1 Child 2
-Post2 Child 2
-Post3 Child 2
-So on... .
Cat Child 3
-Post1 Child 3
-Post2 Child 3
-Post3 Child 3
-So on... .
Does anyone have done it before or anyone have an idea on how to code this?


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Badger complies with the Leaping Bunny Standard and our products and ingredients are never tested on animals.
This product is USDA Certified Organic, meaning it is made from ingredients grown and processed without chemical fertilizers, growth hormones, GMOs, or synthetic pesticides.
Give to loved ones and receive smiles & accolades!
Product InfoIngredientsRating & ReviewsVideoDirections For UseProduct FAQs
Organic Gift Box for New Moms and Dads
The perfect set for a new baby or baby shower gift—featuring calming, soothing Badger Baby essentials plus an adorable 100% Organic cotton "onesie" from Under the Nile. Includes one Diaper Cream 2.9oz tube, one Baby Balm .75oz tin, and one Night Night Balm .75oz tin. Comes packaged and ready for gifting in a 100% recycled box tied with a cheerful yellow ribbon and tag adorned with original Badger art.
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Organic Cotton Badger Onesie: Short-sleeve, 0-6 month onesie, made by our friends at Under the Nile.
Enter your email to receive our newsletter and get a 15% off coupon code.


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CHICAGO (January 31, 2013)--A new survey released Thursday finds that employers around the country planned to cut more than 40,000 jobs this month.
Challenger, Gray and Christmas says the January number is up 24 percent from December, but down 24 percent from a year ago and it says its records dating back 20 years only show two years with fewer cuts in the first month of the year.
The cuts could be more than offset by planned hiring.
The outplacement firm's survey found companies expected to make more than 60,000 hiring announcements this month.
The January job cuts were led by the financial and retail sectors.


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Home > Mercedes > 2010 Mercedes Benz ML450 Hybrid
Below you will find the high resolution car wallpaper for 2010 Mercedes Benz ML450 Hybrid. You may use the car wallpaper for any of the following widescreen screen resolutions:
1920x1200 | 1680x1050 | 1440x900 | 1280x800
2010 Mercedes Benz ML450 Hybrid
In this particular application, Mercedes-Benz mates a gasoline engine a specially designed 3.5-liter Atkinson-cycle V6 with a continuously variable transmission (CVT), twin electric motors, four clutches and the company's 4Matic all-wheel drive. The combination delivers 335 horsepower and 381 pound-feet of torque, while returning 21 mpg in city driving and 24 mpg on the highway. Zero-to-60 acceleration takes 7.8 seconds, and top speed is just over 130 mph.


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As ever-larger American cities jockey to be the next big municipal bankruptcy, it's tempting for city leaders to look for that "magic bullet" to lift their crumbling burgs back to prosperity.
Like, I don't know, a nice big arena, maybe? Oh, right, that arena will probably just saddle your backwater town with millions of dollars more in debt. I know it's disappointing, but just because your city isn't doing well financially probably doesn't mean that you will be able to upend all known laws of sociology, urban studies, and economics in order to grab the juicy pie from the sky. What else will not save your failing city?
- An expensive new stadium for your professional sports team. That team can pay for it itself. If that team moves to L.A., fuck that team.
- An infinite number of miles of new highways, to help your unemployed citizens go nowhere faster.
- More urban sprawl. Suburbs are already the new slums.
- A kitschy tourist attraction. We can Google that.
- More big box stores.
- Drastic tax cuts. Rich people don't want to live in your crappy town no matter how cheap it is.
- A monorail.
Who will still move the fuck away as quick as they can apply to an out-of-state college. But hey, maybe they'll have fond memories and come back and visit one day when they're successful. And you can sell them some peanut brittle. Recovery is a slow process.


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text:
Breaking Up With a Broken-Down Car Is Hard to Do
When David Groeger was 17 years old, his parents bought him a white, 1998 Mustang convertible as a birthday present.
"In high school, it was the coolest car that was," says Mr. Groeger, who grew up on Long Island, N.Y. "People knew me for that car."
People still do. Mr. Groeger, now a 32-year-old lawyer in Farmingdale, N.Y. still has that Mustang—even though, he says, "I've put as much money into keeping this car running as it would [cost] to buy a new one." Among the repair bills: about $5,000 spent to replace the engine after the original melted down on the New Jersey Turnpike three years ago. He also has replaced the canvas top—it was ripped and leaking—and had two vanity plates stolen, including one that read DAGSBABY.
"My really close friends would love to see me get a new car," he says. Members of his family "get worried about safety." But Mr. Groeger says he's sticking with his Mustang. Even when the engine died, he says, he couldn't bring himself to scrap his beloved "Sally."
So strong is the emotional bond, in fact, that he even had the car's pony logo tattooed prominently on his shoulder—which he says makes it tough to trade up.
"What do I do, get a Hyundai tattoo?"
Nearly half of the 250 million cars registered in the U.S. are now 11 years old or older, according to R.L. Polk & Co., an automotive-market data company. And while many people drive older cars because they can't afford a better vehicle, there are plenty who could ditch their old car or truck, but don't. They like the values an old car reflects—dependability, frugality, a rejection of a throwaway, planned-obsolescence culture. Old cars can remind their owners of youth, family and adventures. Some old cars are more than machines to their owners. They have personalities. They have names.
In a 2010 paper, researchers at the University of Michigan's psychology department found that subjects who were prompted to think of their cars in anthropomorphic, or humanizing, terms expressed hesitation about dumping an old one, even after they indicated it was unreliable.
"There are really strong norms against replacing people because they are no longer adequate," says Jesse Chandler, one of the paper's lead researchers, who now works for a public relations company in Ann Arbor, Mich. Transferring those feelings to cars, however, can mean paying for expensive repairs. Mr. Chandler says he is pursuing new research, looking at how interpersonal relationships affect the relationships people have with their cars.
A trusty vehicle can inspire fierce loyalty. Robert Hill and his wife, Andrea, have a 1985 Mercedes-Benz 380 SE—nickname: Brunhilde—that is still going strong after 190,000 miles. "We use that Mercedes like a rented donkey," says Mr. Hill, 64, a retired medical researcher who lives in Santa Rosa, Calif., and calls Brunhilde the best car he's ever owned. "I'm going to be buried in that car," he says.
Alexander Edwards of Strategic Vision, Inc., a California-based market-research company, says his surveys find that people who keep a vehicle for more than 10 years tend to value comfort, reliability and security. "They're more likely to garden and go to coffee shops," he says, "and do home DIY projects." They're more likely than the average consumer to have libertarian political views, he says, and have little interest in luxury features—unless they have a practical purpose.
The average new-car buyer is now keeping a vehicle for nearly six years—up from almost four years on average in 2001, says Polk vice president Mark Seng. The rising longevity poses a dilemma for auto makers. On one hand, they like to showcase testimonials from customers about the durability of their cars. But the longer life span means the average consumer will buy only nine vehicles in a lifetime instead of 13, Mr. Seng says.
Me & My Car
Nikki Montgomery, a morning radio show host at WDEZ in Wausau, Wis., says she doesn't plan to let go of her 2005 Pontiac Grand Prix any time soon, even though it has 180,000 miles on it—more than a decade's worth of driving, based on the national average of about 13,476 miles a year.
"The seats kind of hug you," Ms. Montgomery says. "I feel like the car is built for me." General Motors Co. GM 1.77 % killed the Pontiac brand as part of its 2009-2010 bankruptcy, so Ms. Montgomery can't get a new Grand Prix.
Ms. Montgomery and her husband have a newer SUV, but she's attached to her old sedan, which she calls dependable and fuel efficient. But she says her husband has set a boundary for her relationship with the Grand Prix: "My husband said, 'No, you cannot name a car.'"
Parting with a beloved set of wheels can be an emotional jolt. Orlando Soria, 30, says he wept when he cleaned out his 1999 Volvo V70 before donating it to benefit National Public Radio last September. Mr. Soria, a West Hollywood, Calif., interior designer who works for HGTV and private clients, says the car had been part of his life since he was a junior in high school and reminded him of road trips with his parents. Among the artifacts discovered when he cleaned out the car were cassette tapes of Japanese lessons his mother had listened to during drives.
Giving away the Volvo, he says, was a "final goodbye to the end of your adolescence." As for his new Toyota Prius? "I have no emotional connection to it," he says. "I don't identify with it at all."
Inside the Mind of the Jalopy Driver
Clinging to a car isn't just about money. Here's what one automotive research firm discovered when it surveyed consumers who held on to their cars for 10-plus years:
- They like to travel overseas
- They look for security in their relationships
- They have a college degree
- They tend toward libertarian political views
- They like to garden and do their own home repairs
Source: Strategic Vision, Inc.
Big repair bills for a blown engine or worn-out transmission are often what finally kill an old car, says J.J. Jobst, owner of Schaumburg Automedics, an independent repair shop in Schaumburg, Ill. The end can be emotional. "I've had people cry on me," he says, when he's delivered the news that saving an old car will cost more than it's worth. But Mr. Jobst says even a major repair can be less expensive than signing up for a new car payment, "if you're going to keep it for three or four years."
As chief executive of Vehicle Donation to Any Charity, which operates a car-donation program based in Point Richmond, Calif., Mark Jones has ample experience with people overly attached to a jalopy.
In fact, he's one of them, he says, having finally unloaded his Volvo 850 sedan just last month after 17 years of loyal service. The 53-year-old from Orinda, Calif., says he kept it because he likes to hang on to cars for a long time and "get my money's worth." He also asks, "Do we want to consume that much?"
He had offered the car to his teenage children to drive to school, telling them stories of his own adolescent adventures bombing around in a friend's 1963 Plymouth Valiant wagon. But his children complained they'd be embarrassed to roll up in his old Volvo to a parking lot filled with BMWs and newer cars. (It got to the point, he says, where the family dog Rocco was the only one who would happily ride with him.)
The end came when the radiator blew up, and his mechanic estimated the repair at $1,200. Mr. Jones says he almost chose to get the car fixed, but ultimately decided to let go. "I knew my family would kill me."
Corrections & Amplifications
Nikki Montgomery drives a Pontiac Grand Prix. A caption in a previous version of this story incorrectly identified her car as a Pontiac Grand Am.
Write to Joseph B. White at email@example.com


text:
Dear friends,
Is there any known bound on sum of independent but not identically distributed geometric random variables? I have to show that the tail of the sum drops exponentially (like in the Chernoff bounds for the sum of iid geom. variables).
Formally, if $X_i$ ~ Geom($p_i$), and $X = \sum_{i=1}^n X_i$, and it is known that $E[X]=\Theta(n)$,
Is it possible to show that $\Pr(X < 2E[X]) > 1 - \delta ^n$, where $\delta < 1$?
Thank you in advance, Michael.


text:
To the editor:
On April 22 and 23, I had the privilege of attending the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College National Security Roundtable, sponsored by the USCGSC Foundation, at the Lewis & Clark Center in Fort Leavenworth.
Through this program, the CGSC and the School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) offers those in the business community the opportunity to interact with instructors and soldiers in the School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) and to learn about contemporary national security issues.
I am writing simply to express my appreciation for the CGSC's outreach and for the soldiers' allowing us into their classes and exercises. Though I was born and raised in Leavenworth, and always felt that I had a good understanding of the importance of the Fort to the Leavenworth community, the Roundtable program provided me with a greater appreciation for the challenging levels of education being offered at the CGSC and SAMS, and for the professionalism of their respective educators and students.
Presenters spoke of the need to continually work to develop trust between civilian citizens and our Army.
I left the Roundtable program confident in the quality and competence of those soldiers being educated at the CGSC and SAMS, and I would encourage others in the Leavenworth community to also seek out opportunities to engage with our Army's future leaders.
Location, ST | website.com


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Churg-Strauss syndrome, which used to be known as allergic granulomatosis and allergic granulomatous angiitis, is a highly variable illness. Some people have only mild symptoms, whereas others experience severe or life-threatening complications. There are three stages, or phases, of Churg-Strauss syndrome, each with its own signs and symptoms, but not everyone develops all three phases or in the same order. This is especially true when the disease is caught and treated before the most serious damage occurs.
Churg-Strauss stages may include:
This is usually the first stage of Churg-Strauss syndrome. It's marked by a number of allergic reactions, including:
An eosinophil is a type of white blood cell that helps your immune system fight certain infections. Normally, eosinophils make up only a small percentage of white blood cells, but in Churg-Strauss syndrome, abnormally high numbers of these cells (hypereosinophilia) are found in your blood or tissues, where they can cause serious damage.
Signs and symptoms of hypereosinophilia depend on which part of your body is affected. Your lungs and digestive tract — including your stomach and esophagus — are involved most often.
Broadly speaking, signs and symptoms of the hypereosinophilia phase may include:
The hallmark of this stage of Churg-Strauss syndrome is severe blood vessel inflammation (vasculitis). By narrowing blood vessels, inflammation reduces blood flow to vital organs and tissues throughout your body, including your skin, heart, peripheral nervous system, muscles, bones and digestive tract. Occasionally, your kidneys may also be affected.
During this phase, you may feel generally unwell and have unintended weight loss, swollen lymph nodes, weakness and fatigue.
Depending on which organs are affected, you may also experience:
See your doctor anytime you develop signs and symptoms such as breathing difficulties or a runny nose that doesn't go away, especially if it's accompanied by persistent facial pain. Also see your doctor if you have asthma or hay fever that suddenly worsens. Churg-Strauss syndrome is rare, and it's more likely that these symptoms have some other cause, but it's important that your doctor evaluate them.
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text:
When I picked up the mail for the levy committee the other day, the sole piece was a cream colored Hallmark card with an out of town return address. It didn't look like our typical mail. Inside, I found a check for $100 and a hand-written note "Hope this can help further your cause!" The sender signed her name followed by "Class of '45." Wow! Sixty eight years later and this woman still has a heart for her hometown and Alma Mater. I can think of no better example that represents what is meant by "Once a Big Red, always a Big Red" than this.
During the course of our most recent campaign to pass an operating levy for Bellaire Local Schools, we have heard every excuse imaginable. But unless you come to me and say "I just can't or don't want to pay the money, I am not willing to accept any of them.
Don't tell me there was fraud. (There was none.) Don't tell me it's because they are changing the school colors. (They are not.) Don't blame it on a student essay contest or the fact we used tax dollars to have a fire truck lead a mile-long parade of hopeful students. (Those men were already on duty and were happy to provide a community service, but if it makes you feel better, we'll send them $20 to cover the cost of fuel.)
Don't tell me we shouldn't have gotten into financial trouble. (Mistakes were made. They have been corrected. How long do you intend to punish the students for the adult's mistakes?) Don't say there is no need to pass a levy because the governor is going to implement a sales tax to fund education. (There is no such plan.) Don't say it's because the superintendent is double-dipping. (He's not. He retired and collects a pension that he earned.
He went back to work like a lot of retirees do. He collects a salary FOR WHICH HE WORKS. Two separate funds. One costs us nothing.) Don't accuse the school of wasting money funding these levy campaigns. (They are not. The committee raises all its own funds.) Just don't. Enough excuses. If you don't value education and recognize the connection between good schools and the health of your community, then just say you don't want to pay the money. While I won't understand your way of thinking, at least I will know you are being truthful.
Most importantly, don't let anyone tell you this levy is going to cost you $1,200 a year. Unless your property is valued at a half-million dollars, it will not. The owner of a $50,000 home in Bellaire will only pay a little over $10 per month ($5.25 with homestead exemption.)
Our committee is stressing three things: This is your community, these are your kids, and these are your schools.
You can't deny this is your community. You live here. Maybe you don't have kids in the schools. Maybe you send yours to a private or parochial school or open-enroll them elsewhere. You still live here so the quality of your public school district has a direct effect on the health of your community. Good public schools build a stronger, better educated workforce; help attract the talented, able people we need to run our businesses and our educational, cultural and non-profit institutions; help attract and retain high quality, environmentally friendly employers offering good, well-paying jobs; reduce school dropouts, delinquency, crime, incarcerations and welfare costs; increase property values; support the local economy; and enhance the quality of life for all of us-for the entire community.
These are your kids. Not mine, you say? Yes, they belong to all of us. Despite the increase in private, charter and home schooling, almost 90% of school-aged children in the U.S. will receive a public education. It's imperative we give them the best opportunities possible.
How well-educated they are when they graduate will have a direct bearing on what and how they contribute to your community.
These are your schools. You built them. You should be proud of them. We have made the cuts necessary to operate our district in a sound and responsible fiscal manner. Now it's time to raise the level of education our students are receiving and make our district attractive to parents looking for the best educational opportunities for their children. People are moving into the valley. Many say we are on the brink of an economic boon. Please don't allow Bellaire to lose out on this opportunity for growth and improvement.
The 1946 graduate gets it. I get it. Our committee gets it. Our students get it. We have lost so much yet despite that our teachers and students continue to excel. With your support, we can offer them so much more. Funds from the levy will enhance the quality of education and provide greater opportunities by restoring lost programs. Technology, badly in need of upgrades and expansion, will be targeted. Transportation improvements and school safety will also be addressed.
Give us five years to prove we are up to the task. This is a five-year limited levy. If we fail to deliver on these goals, you will have the option to vote down a renewal. Give us a chance. Our kids are worth it. Bellaire is worth it.
Susan Badia West