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About Maternity Pay?(55 Posts)
So the baby broodiness has hit me hard recently. I'm still relatively young to start worrying about this and I never thought I'd be the type to start pining after a child but nonetheless it's the only thing I can think about!
I've obviously discussed this with my OH and he's worried about timings and costings. We have mortgage payments to make and although both of our wages have increased since we originally bought our house our spending has increased in line with this - we were frightfully frugal for the first year.
He would also like to get milestones like marriage and next job out the way and house renovations. An extravagant wedding is not something either of us are fussed about but to invite the families the expenditure would wipe out our savings.
To put his mind at ease I was doing the maths on how much I would be bringing in if I was on maternity. I want to make sure we wouldn't be in major difficulty or put too much strain on our savings.
The amount I'm entitled to came to £665 a month. I currently get paid nearly triple that after tax! How is that not going to put a strain on us and how are we expected to manage?
I know that your replies will probably be that we'll find a way to make it work but I'm worried about the logistics of it. There honestly isn't much we can cut back on and do I need to pay tax and does the cheque come in weekly or monthly instalments does it come from work or hmrc? Too many questions!!
I'm AhemExcuseMe, I've name changed because I'm new and didn't like the last one.
In answer to most of your concerns I have looked into childcare. The only local fee information I can find is two thirds of my wages, this means I'd only be contributing half of what I currently do to the household and would leave me with no spending money. This is a worry in itself but we do have other options we can explore - DP's mum is a CM.
Thinking about it I know IABU, I had just been doing the maths and there was no way I could spin it to make it more appealing, this then disappointed me because then it's going to be even harder to convince my OH that now is the right time to start trying. Probably because it isn't the right time; no matter how much I want it to be
I didn't really plan a second maternity leave when I had my first DC. If you go back part-time then SMP will be based on a smaller wage for DC2. I didn't have much of my savings left after the first maternity leave and had quite a bit less income to replenish them when planning DC2. It's worth considering if you're planning ahead.
And to go back to the OP, no it's not unreasonable that maternity pay doesn't match your income while you're working. That would be completely unaffordable if someone were being paid to cover your job and you were also being paid the same rate.
IMO the situation re: maternity and paternity entitlements is about right. Maternity leave is now very long (52 weeks if you want it) and transferable leave between the parents is a massive step forwards. Maternity pay will mean tightening your belts and saving beforehand for many, but it seems reasonable to me. Now childcare costs on the other hand i think are exorbitant and I think there should be more help for them, not just for those on relatively low incomes. As with many things I think those who earn just over the thresholds are hit hardest. If you don't earn much you get subsidies, if you earn loads you're probably ok, but middle earners do have a tough time
But maternity pay- no, I can't see what you feel is unreasonable about it.
If you are seriously saying you can't cut back anywhere to be able to set aside money for maternity leave, then how on earth will you manage after maternity leave when you have the additional several hundred pounds a month childcare costs? I don't want to rain on your parade , but for someone who is clearly wanting to plan this is detail, you seem to be ignoring the really expensive time which is when you go back to work. Many childcare providers insist on payment all year round: our nursery was fabulous but it was full pay 51 weeks a year, only shut for one week over Christmas. Some childminders may do a half pay retainer for times you're not using them but basically , expect childcare to be your biggest expense
The maternity leave itself is doable; if needs be, go back to work sooner, many women do.
It was only 3 months anyway when I had my first baby. With the second I could had another 3 months ( unpaid in those days!) but couldn't afford that
I do get where you're coming from OP because if you earn above the thresholds for any help with childcare etc then it can be tough. But that's how it used to be for all of us ( even for those on relatively low incomes ). We had to scrimp and save before kids, and then had a very lean time while they were pre- school, even having to remortgage to afford childcare. You need to look long term though. We're fine now our children are teenagers, and it's definitely been worth if long term to keep my career going. I think you just need to be very honest with eachother that having children IS a big financial drain.
I'm not sure where your £665 comes from . SMP is about £136 pw for 33 weeks and 90% of amount earned in specific weeks before baby is due for first 6 . Plus Child Benefit at about £20pw You employer may top this up with its own discretionary scheme but here may be strings attached. Try not view it as such a loss. Between you you would still have an income of over 2k after tax , presumably near 4k atm. Yes you might have to save now for alter and become more frugal again and prioritise your expenditure but that level of income should be ok for a while.
I agree that I had more disposable income on maternity leave than when working full time and paying for childcare....
We had a mortgage holiday with our two. We took 9 months off with dd and having a year with ds. It'll increase the monthly payments after but only by about £30. Then we put the excess maternity and dh's excess money into savings (what there was).
I would research how much childcare costs in your area. where I live a full time nursery place with cost you £1400 per month. If you live in an area with similar fees you will actually be worse off when you return to work than you would be on maternity leave. also what will you do if you have twins?
We saved up for maternity leave both times to accommodate loss of income (only got SMP). But you do need to think beyond maternity leave. Unless you are going back full time and have free child-care available full- time, you will need to find a way to live on less.
I have gone down to 4 days a week and pay for a childminder for 25 hrs a week (£4 an hour) and that has cost me at its worst when I had 2 children not a school, £1600 a month (2x £500 for childminder on a 5 week month and £600 loss of wages). Actually, after childcare vouchers probably more like £1450.
When we bought our house, we deliberately didn't borrow to the max as we knew we would want to have children and would have a lower income.
Your dp is thinking and planning ahead which is a good thing
Are you saving now? We saved a lot prechildren and used that to cover the loss of income when I was on maternity leave. But it's the childcare cost that are the killer, we have 3 DC, 2 at school and our childcare costs are higher than our mortgage.
Do you want to be put off? It's not just the financial costs, your body will never be the same again, your career will at best be at a standstill during the baby years.
Hahaha at maternity leave being a holiday.
I'm a nurse. I just went back to 14.5 hour shifts for a rest [ wink]
You will cope though. I was clearing over 2k a month and that got halved on maternity leave, you just cut your cloth accordingly and your priorities change. I used to spend a lot on clothes, nights/ meals out, holidays, travel to work etc.
Now I don't, and it's not because I can't as much as I don't want to. At all. Would much rather take DD to the park than go for afternoon cocktails.
DH and I also got married for a grand total of £500 last week. We had an amazing day.
Basically what I'm trying to say is, things are only as expensive as you make them. Apart from childcare. That's always bloody expensive!
Eh? You're currently being paid about £1900 per month, your partner presumably similar, and you can't cut back any more to save for mat leave? Is your mortgage really huge? I'm on less (about 1/3) than that with two kids and only earner/adult in the household, admittedly my mortgage is small but we could live on a lot less if I wasn't paying childcare and petrol to work- I think you need to look more realistically at your spending if you seriously want children soon tbh.
I'm dreading going back to work, I will be £150 worse off a month than on mat leave. Luckily I could ask for more hours as only work part time, plus 3 of the 4 days childcare will be covered by family.
Can't imagine what it would have been like had I still been in my FT, high earning role, coming down to earth with a bang!
YOu just do it though. If it wasn't doable, there'd be nobody having children
and sales of wine would be zero
I am probably being shallow, disingenuous or naive but can you not get promotion, pay rise or job move before getting pregnant. This is what happened to me (or I made it happen) just before I planned my pregnancy so I never got used to living on the higher salary - I just banked the difference to cover ML.
Or can your partner not look at his career plan and income to see how it can increase? Assuming he is money-oriented I would also hope he is ambitious.
I know this is much easier said than done but there are two ways of budgeting a) stopping money going out and b) getting more money in.
It sounds crazy, but you just manage. I earn a good six times what I get in maternity pay. We saved saved saved but unfortunately due to one reason or other managed to decimate our savings so are now surviving on dh wage and my mat pay. Yes we shop at aldi and don't go out as much (but honestly who does with a newborn), but it's not really a struggle at all. Makes me wonder how I managed to spend the extra 2/3 grand a bloody month that we had coming in! We did buy an awful lot of nappies, wipes and clothes whilst I was pregnant so the only outgoing for ds has been formula. We also dropped a car, I walk everywhere with ds in pram and dh uses car for work. It's much easier to find ways to save when you HAVE to.
We took a mortgage break for a year when I was on ML.
I have found it harder once back to work to cope, nursery fees, not having time to hunt for bargains, travelling costs. We are always skint and we've just found out we are having another baby. We must be mental.
Maternity leave is basically a long holiday that you can only take if you can afford it
Look, for most people, children means reduced disposable income. It's just how it is. You can save and plan ahead in your situation.
My one piece of advice would be to look at the cost of childcare and how it compares to your income. My mat leave is just coming to an end and, as you say, we've managed. BUT... if I were to use childcare when I go back, once travel costs are added in then I would actually be paying more to return to work than to stay at home. Seriously, childcare costs are a real eye opener.
It doesn't matter how much you have available for maternity leave as whatever you do have will end up in the same place - just arrange with your bank to have 1/3 paid directly to Tesco, 1/3 directly to Mothercare and the rest directly to your nearest bf friendly cafe at the start of each month ;-)
I know this is terrible whataboutery, but here in the US I am facing a maternity leave consisting of a maximum of 12 weeks off work with an income of 0 dollars. Yes, zero. There is no maternity pay of any kind in many states in the US. And there is no right to more than three months off for the mother plus three months for the father (and that's providing they qualify for family leave, not all do). I'm not pregnant yet (trying hard) but I'm sure when I am I will be dreaming of 1000 dollars a month in maternity pay. Oh and since my husband's a full time students, our household income will be 0 during my maternity leave. And I have no entitlement to benefits either. But this is definitely the greatest country on earth!
If it comes to it you'll just have to take less time off. I'd love to have a year off but we can't make it work financially on SMP only so I'll be back at work part time by time baby is ten weeks and full time by 5 months. Am not looking forward to it but you do what you need to - we decided to get pregnant so I need to take responsibility and do what is best for the family as a whole, even though it will be very hard.
Don't forget child benefit.
And you will save money on travel to work.
Rotter Lol at "luxury item"
Thanks for the replies all, mumaa I found yours really helpful.
I'm probably going overboard considering I'm not even pregnant
Like others have said, most save up for maternity leave. SMP is paid now for far longer than it used to be but obviously employers cant be expected to cover the employers true salary for nine months as its just not fair.
Its going back to work after you have to take into account. Childcare costs, another person to clothe and feed, hobbies, school trips etc.
You'll get plenty saying babies cost nothing but they do. Very wise to financially plan.
And just to piss on your chips a bit more actually it doesn't get much easier after the baby years. Wrap around before / after school club is eye watering and they have loooong holidays to cover plus clubs and hobbies and stuff. I thought we'd be better off once they were in school. We're not. Children are a luxury item
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You are probably living in a virtual reality!
One of my favorite movies is the Matrix which posits that Neo, the hero is living in a virtual reality without realizing this fact. I would like to playfully propose we are in fact living in a virtual reality and this is why numerology works. Let me try to convince you or at least disturb you. There is one planet Earth but there are thousands and thousands of video games. In another 20-50 years those video games will be replaced by superior virtual technology and we will have thousands and thousands of virtual realities instead. I think a civilization that creates virtual technology would also last a very long time unlike our current civilization.
As a Buddhist I think the fundamental problem of human existence is suffering ultimately caused by desire. This idea is encapsulated in the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. As a modern Buddhist I think the fundamental problem of technological civilizations is environmental degradation and war with weapons of mass destruction that follows from uncontrolled desire. Humans can learn to control desire or have all their desires met a million times more cheaply and more effectively via virtual reality technology. The second solution to the problem of human existence seems more realistic given human history. Civilizations that achieve virtual reality avoid the problems of war and environmental destruction and last for thousands and thousands of years and create millions upon millions of virtual realities. So from a purely logical point of view you are probably living in a virtual reality and that is why the Matrix is so disturbing. The premise of the Matrix is probably true.
Our parent reality could also be a virtual reality since there is no reason a virtual reality could not in turn create another virtual reality. If our parent reality is a virtual reality and we create a virtual reality then the virtual reality we create would be a third generation reality or V3. This means millions of virtual realties on one planet could in turn create millions of virtual realities. One actual reality could easily turn out billions of virtual realities! A more technical and less Buddhist version of the above argument was originally is provided by Nick Bostrom.
A Virtual Reality Would be More Numerological than a Non-Virtual Reality
Numerology is generally defined as a system, belief or tradition that emphasizes an esoteric relationship between numbers and physical objects or living things. I propose a virtual reality would be more numerological than a non-virtual reality. Programmers in our reality use modules and the programmers of our reality probably do the same. These modules mean there are many numerical patterns that are repeated again and again. A non-virtual reality would lack these modules and therefore these numerical patterns.
What would be really useful would be the cheat codes of a virtual reality. Cheat codes in video games are a key sequence, password, or series of steps that will provide the player some object, ability or access to a level or location. In a virtual reality this could be any combination of words and/or actions. Magic can be seen as an attempt to find those cheat codes without an understanding of the virtual reality situation those codes apply to. Cheat codes in video games are often eliminated when a video game is upgraded and perhaps this is what happened to some of the cheat codes that worked for mages and sages of the past in our virtual reality.
Designers of virtual realities might also employ numbers for symbolic and/or book marking purposes and this would apply to a virtual reality and not to a non-virtual reality. However, virtual realities probably fall into a continuum of two general categories just like video games.
What Type of Virtual Reality Do We Live in?
Some video games have as their main purpose to entertain and some video games have as their main purpose to educate and/or act as a simulation. Our reality is not very entertaining. I propose we are in some sort of historical simulation for the purposes of education. School children of a civilization that is hundreds of years more advanced than our own learn by watching us screw up. I propose the purpose of our reality is to act as a simulation to teach the children the follies of 21st century type civilizations and not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
This means numbers are used more as book marks in our virtual reality rather than as symbols as would be the case in an entertainment virtual reality. The programmers use certain numbers to let the little children watching our reality know that something important is about to happen and that they should pay attention. From our point of view these numbers are omens.
Visions of heaven may be visions of the fun virtual realities that have an entertainment value. Perhaps visions of hell are glimpses of virtual reality prisons used by the inhabitants of our parent reality to punish wrongdoers.
Many spiritual views posit a hierarchy of realities. Heaven stands above Earth. Perhaps some individual perceive the reality from which we are created, our parent reality, and call that reality heaven. Plato's Theory of Forms suggests another abstract reality that is more "real" than our reality. Perhaps Plato perceived something akin to the "machine code" of our reality and used the concepts available to create his theory.
The Golden Ratio
The reason one observes the golden ratio over and over again in nature is because this is a handy tool for the creators of our virtual reality! The original reality did not show this numerical pattern in nature. The golden ratio is an irrational number that never terminates or repeats or repeats and is uncountable. The creators of our reality could not use a golden ratio calculated to infinity since this is impossible.
The golden ratio used to create our reality has been calculated to some incredible degree of digits by the creators of our virtual reality but sooner or later we will create a computer that calculates the golden ratio to an even greater number of digits and when this happens this will cause an insoluble contradiction in the program that underpins our reality and our reality will literally dissolve. All forms in nature dependent on the golden ratio will be the first to go and as they are erased then so wills the rest of reality. We are not "real" brains connected to a virtual reality as is the case, in the movie, The Matrix, that will awaken, instead we are purely program constructs and when the program goes we go!
Astrology may be the filing system the makers of our virtual reality use to get a nice mix of physical and psychological types. Perhaps Western Astrology is used for the Western part of the program and Chinese Astrology is used for the Asian part of the program.
Perhaps this is the origin of the significance of 666. At some point in our future a tyrannical world government will recognize the true nature of our reality and ban social and intellectual conditions that allow the creation of a golden ratio that will destroy our reality. 666 is a rational number and as such the opposite of an irrational number. The rapture may refer to some humans that are uploaded to a new virtual reality that has been created as a backup for this virtual reality. The inhabitants of this virtual reality will have total understanding of the actual nature of their reality and operate in a way that is alien to us.
The following appeared in Avengers A.I. #4 about three years after I first posted this article:
The illustration refers to the "The Golden Knot". Is this some reference to the golden mean as a means to destroy our virtual reality? Is the truth is slowing entering the mass consciousness!
Code Reuse
If we are in fact programs in a virtual reality then we may be products of code reuse. Obviously human beings are some type of heuristic program. Some types of heuristic programs may be more data dependent in order to function effectively. This means the programmers are willing to let the heuristic program have some data that is interpreted as memories from prior lives i.e. reincarnation.
Older reused codes also become more complex and develop a nice little survival trick via trial and error. Those who develop this ability survive and those who cannot develop this ability do not survive. Old codes deal with the virtual reality at a deeper level than newer codes. So called "old souls" can more or less predict the future. These individuals are more able to predict how the virtual reality is going to work because they can access the machine code and/or assembly language part of the program before the high-level programming language, which is what we perceive as physical reality, goes into effect. Our virtual reality is so gigantic that the lag time between the lower order part of the program and the higher order part of the program is perceived as days, week and even years by us. Something sensed in the virtual realities equivalent of the machine code may take years to happen and the machine code version of our reality is really hard to understand. Something that is happening in the assembly language part of the program is a lot easier to understand and happens weeks later. People who can understand the machine code of our virtual reality are generally in bad shape when it comes to day to day living. This sort of person can judge a superlative horse but maybe not the color of the horse!
This may work out for some but all in all this is not a good place to be if you want little things like keep a job and food on the table. There is another category of person that focuses on the assembly part of the program and can see things a few days or weeks and months ahead of time and maybe is smart enough not to push their abilities too far in order to keep their sanity.
If you like this article then you will probably like:
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The document, as is always the case on this blog, is more up to date and comprehensive than the online version.
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Was the 'War on Terror' a good response to the 9/11 attacks?
The attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York on the morning of September 11th 2001 were the most significant event of the first decade of the 21st century and the war on terror that was fought as a result has spread around the globe and created the biggest conflicts of the century so far. The United States and her allies have justified invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, supporting unsavoury characters, detention without trial and interrogation that comes very close to torture on the basis of defending ourselves in the War on Terror. However has our mainly military response been the right reaction?
You can also add to the debate by leaving a comment at the end of the page.
Something had to be done
There was bound to be some kind of a reaction after the September 11th attacks. The only question was what it would be and how big. Militarily an attack on Afghanistan seemed to be possible, and indeed was won with surprisingly few US boots on the ground and little loss of life within a couple of months. Since then the conflict in Afghanistan, or more recently 'Afpak' has been the lynchpin of the fight to kill and capture terrorists and stop them carrying out more attacks.
The 9/11 attacks on the US were such a shock that the country needed some big and bold action to bring justice to the people who carried out the attack and make sure it could not happen again. As those who carried out the attacks were dead as they were suicide missions this meant going after their sponsors and training camps. This in turn meant an attack on Afghanistan and later on Iraq when their regimes were linked with terrorism. In the US politicians had to be on the bandwagon or else they would likely not be re-elected due to being labelled as 'soft on terror'.
There is no real reason except public opinion for why the response should have been military and more importantly should have gone on for so long. Defeating the Taliban militarily made sense but once that was done there should have been a switch in how the west carried out the war on terror to stabilise Afghanistan. Instead little was done for several years except special ops operations while the build up followed by war and necessary reconstruction of Iraq sucked funds away from Afghanistan which needed rebuilding to prevent the Taliban form coming back.
Takes terrorists out before they can attack
One of the main reasons for the war on terror is a belief that the US military can pre-empt attacks militarily themselves by killing or capturing terrorists before they can attack. This has over the last couple of years lead to an increasing use of drones to monitor and then take out suspected terrorists. Drones can also be used to attack areas where the US does not have a presence on the ground, particularly in Pakistan where militants can flee too from Afghanistan and where the Pakistani military has often been unwilling to engage them.
While pre-emption in international relations is likely to mean unjustifiable wars, as was shown by attacking Iraq on false pretences, in law enforcement it is vital. Nobody can sit idle and let themselves be bombed before attempting to convict. The US needed to find a new way of prompting across borders rather than waiting for terrorists to get within the US's borders. In order to do this there needs to be good intelligence so resulting in some of the unsavoury elements of the war on terror such as indefinite detention in Guantanamo bay and 'extraordinary rendition'.
While it is tempting to say that 'terrorists' have no right to stand trial they should still have rights. It may well be difficult to get the evidence this is no real reason to go around gung ho blowing them up from the air with drones rather than at least attempting to capture them and put them on trial. At the moment we are simply assuming that the US army is correct in its assessment when it decides it has someone in its scopes who needs to be killed.
No new big attacks on US soil
The proof is in the pudding. The War on Terror was to stop any more major attacks on US soil and so far it has succeeded in this goal.
There have however been numerous attacks on other U.S. allies most notably:
The bombing of a nightclub in Bali in October 2002 killing 202 people, including many Australians
March 2004 attacks on commuter train services in Madrid, Spain
July 2005 bombs on the Underground and a bus in London
The killing of Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani prime minister and a potential US ally in December 2007
This is not including the many thousands of attacks that have occurred in Afghanistan and Iraq against US forces and civilians. There have also been large numbers of suicide bombings throughout the Middle East including in relatively stable countries such as Turkey and Morocco.
More recently there have been two close misses where US law enforcement got lucky in preventing attacks on US soil. The attack on Northwest airlines flight 253 on its way to Detroit on December 25th 2009 where Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to detonate a bomb sown into his underwear. More recently there was an amateurish car bomb attack on Times Square on 1st May 2010 that failed to explode. With so many attacks it is difficult to say that the war on terror has succeeded in preventing terrorism.
War simply creates more resentment
If there is one way to make sure there are more people willing to give up their lives to fight it is to go and kill their families and destroy their homes. Unfortunately this has been exactly the approach that the USA and the west have taken in their war on terror. This makes being aggressive and fighting wars in the Islamic world counterproductive. The USA and its allies may well kill thousands of terrorists or members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban but it will make no difference while the conflict is at the same time providing as many recruits to the cause as are killed.
A simple evidence of this counter productivity is the growing number of bombings and the times of terrorism happening here and there. Another to prove that violence is fruitful in another violence: Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka on Tamil Tiger, etc.
War can also solve problems if it is successful. A successful and rapid conclusion to the conflict in Afghanistan not only denied Al Qaeda of their training bases and the Taliban of control of the country but also gave a chance to rebuild the country. This would mean that there was less of a hard line ideology being taught and disseminated potentially meaning a healing of divisions. It is only the failure to secure the country afterwards that is at fault allowing the Taliban to come back.
Has not made the world mores secure
According to Amnesty International "The war on terror, far from making the world a safer place, has made it more dangerous by curtailing human rights, undermining the rule of international law and shielding governments from scrutiny. It has deepened divisions among people of different faiths and origins, sowing the seeds for more conflict. The overwhelming impact of all this is genuine fear -- among the affluent as well as the poor."
"It is vital that we resist the manipulation of fear and challenge the narrow focus of the security agenda. The definition of security must be broadened to encompass the security of people, as well as states. That means a commitment to human rights. That means recognising that insecurity and violence are best tackled by effective, accountable states which uphold, not violate human rights,"
Far from making the world more secure the world has become more insecure as the US has become a major creator of conflict rather than the nation most involved in solving conflict. In the mean time many small scale conflicts are out of the public eye due to the much larger conflicts ongoing in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The starting point should be poverty
The war on terror has not been tackling the fundamental problems that fuel terrorism. This is a belief that the middle east is being left behind and that Muslims are not being represented at home and are being picked upon abroad. This is combined with problems of poverty throughout the Islamic world and with a large 'youth bulge' demographically.
Poverty is a cause because people across the Islamic world do not have much to live for due to having few prospects in life. There is often little education and in many countries much of that which is available is essentially a religious education that helps to radicalise people rather than empower them. This religious education in madrassas has been blamed for a lot of the terrorist plots coming particularly out of Pakistan. The Middle East in particular is also in the middle of a demographic youth bulge, where there is a very large number of young people compared to the overall population. In the middle east over 60% of the population is under 25. Historically this creates radicalisation and conflict. 80% of civil conflicts between 1970 and 1999 occurred in countries where 60 percent of the population or more were under the age of thirty. At the same time the Islamic world and particularly the middle east has always gone through long cycles of radicalisation that shifts between radical Islamism and radical nationalism with periods of calm in between. In this way there was a period of radical Islam at the end of the 19th century and a period of radical nationalism in the 1950s and 60s.
The result of this is that stirring the pot by launching wars into an unstable region was not the best way to prevent terrorism. Instead there needed to be a major effort to provide education that does not radicalise and to create economic growth the reduce poverty. Yes there was probably a need to do some targeted killing but too much and the radicalised youth becomes enrages while full scale war is a blunt instrument that was never likely to have positive results.
WoT is a war on Israel's enemies & 9/11 may be an Israeli op
And so the WoT may be totally misdirected.
First, there is overwhelming evidence against this conspiracy theory. The identities of all the plane hijackers are known and have been analyzed and later made public. The link to Al-Qaeda is obvious. Other than that, Al-Qaeda itself has on many occasions claimed responsibility for the attack (and quite proudly at that). Osama bin Laden would surely consider it an insult if someone were to claim that Israel did it.
Second, while Al-Qaeda surely does consider Israel as an enemy, (as do all Islamic fundamentalist networks), Israel surely did not think about Al-Qaeda as a direct threat. Rather Israel considers Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah as enemies. If Israel truly wanted to instigate USA to destroy its enemies then there would have been much more obvious targets.
Third, the war is not benefiting Israel in any way whatsoever. Quite contrarily, and for understandable reasons, the Muslim world's distrust and hatred of America (and invariably Israel) has sharpened as a result of the war. It is not, and it has never been, in Israel's interest to have a war like this.
WoT is a war on Israel's enemies, and 9/11 may be an Israeli op
The US has always managed to conflate its own interests with those of Israel. Keeping Israel secure has always been taken as the keystone of US policy in the middle east and this has meant that the USA is fighting Israel's enemies, condemning movements such as Hamas and even from time to time Fatah who are freedom fighters and so the Islamic world does not see the USA as a neutral arbiter and instead it becomes a target. And so the WoT may be totally misdirected and pointless.
The War on Terror is primarily a war on the U.S.'s enemies, it just happens that they are Israel's too. The USA needs to be involved in the Middle East to protect its oil supplies and to do this it needs to prop up the gulf states and prevent any attacks on the oil routes, whether this may come from Al Qaeda, Iraq or Iran. Iran in particular has always been against the US as much as against Israel due to the involvement of the US in overthrowing Mossadeq and propping up the Shah whom the current regime overthrew.
What do you think?
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Tanooki City is a city and one of worlds in YoshiEgg: Time Travel Adventures. You start game in this world.
- M'Icho (Past)
- Young YoshiEgg Nook (Past)
- Young Bloop (Past)
- YoshiEgg's Mother (Past)
- Tanooki Wizard (Present)
- Overman Supreme (Present)
- Purple Koopa Bro. (Present)
- Eskafina (Future)


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Sand Canyon Ranch
28856 N. Silver Saddle Circle Santa Clarita California 91387
Are you the property manager?
Sand Canyon Ranch in Canyon Country has created an impressive apartment community full of amenities for our residents. Each of our Canyon Country apartment rentals has been designed for your convenience amid a community of great features. If youd like to learn more about our apartment rentals, contact Sand Canyon Ranch today or fill out one of our online applications and take the first step in making Sand Canyon Ranch your new Canyon Country apartment home.Apartment Homes Designed for Your FamilyEach of our Canyon Country apartment rentals has a unique floor plan with either two or three bedrooms. Our spacious gourmet-ready kitchens are complete with built-in Whirlpool appliances, custom Oak cabinets, and plenty of space for cooking. Our second-floor units feature vaulted ceilings, and every one of our condo homes feature spectacular views of the Santa Clarita Valley and Canyon Country. Take a detailed look at our apartment rentals in our photo gallery or check out the apartments currently available at Sand C
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Saugus, Santa Clarita
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- California State University Northridge, CA
- Los Angeles Mission College, CA


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Red Symmetrical Stylish Bandage Dress
$99.00 $149.00
Stylish red bandage dress. This little number features a squared v-neck and is made from our signature high quality bandage dress material that is soft, stretchy, and thick. The dress hugs your body like a second skin to accentuate your curves.
Fashion Insights: Wear this dress to the hottest clubs in Vegas or simply for a night out. The dress fits like a glove so it supports your body and gives you shape. It is also resistant to "rising" so you can move freely on the dance floor.
- Neckline: Squared V-Neck
- Hemline/Train: Short, 3 to 4 inches above knee
- Sleeve Length: Sleeveless
- Back Details: Exposed Back with Zipper
- Fabric: Rayon, Spandex, Nylon
- Material: Stretchable with good thickness. Figure hugging
- Features: Anti-Static, Anti-Wrinkle, Breathable, Dry Clean
- Part of our famous bandage dress collection
Model wears "Size Small", her measurements:
- Height: 69" (175cm)
- Bust: 32" (82 cm)
- Waist: 25" (63 cm)
- Hips: 35" (90 cm)
- Weight: 106 pounds (48kg)
Also available in these colors:
Be ravishing in red with this Red Symmetrical Bandage Dress. Hot mama Nicole Scherzinger was our inspiration for this dress when we saw her gliding the red carpet at the Woman of the Year Awards in a stylish white backless dress.
Our style experts immediately thought of ravishing red and lo and behold ‰ۡóÁÌÎ?ÌÎ? we present to you the Red Symmetrical Stylish Bandage Dress. Show your sensual fiery side with this partly square necked, backless short hemmed dress right out of a fairytale. The high square neckline with a small v-shape shines the spotlight on your neck. We've added a zip to the lower half of the dress to give it a sexy playful vibe.
Keep makeup minimal. We want you to show off your gorgeous curves and that sexy back in this dress (and we believe women shouldn't be too dependent on make-up). Pair it with matching red, black or beige pumps and not much else. We'd say don't forget your red lipstick, but we have a feeling you've made a mental note of it already, haven't you?
All shipping is FREE, there are no additional costs to pay at check out. Please select one of the following options from those available BEFORE adding your item to the CART:
Standard - 3 to 5 business days
- Worldwide delivery.
- Orders are delivered within 3 to 5 business days, usually less.
- Tracking is provided within 60 hours of order.
USA Only - Overnight
- Orders placed before 12.00 PM Eastern Time will arrive next day (excluding holidays and weekends).
- Tracking is provided within 8 to 12 hours of order.
- USA delivery only.
USA Only - 2 Day
- Orders placed before 12.00 PM Eastern Time will arrive in 2 days (excluding holidays and weekends).
- Tracking is provided within 8 to 12 hours of order.
- USA delivery only.
Standard - 7 to 12 business days
- Worldwide delivery.
- Orders are delivered within 7 to 12 business days, usually less.
- Tracking is provided within 72 hours of order.
- This delivery option is for leggings and some dress types (non-bandage) only
Read more on Free Shipping.
60 Day Returns
If you are not 100% satisfied with your purchase you can return your order within 60 days of purchase, either for full refund, exchange or store credit.
- This includes items that do not fit or are uncomfortable to wear.
- All returns must be unworn, in the condition you received them and must not be altered, damaged or stained in any way.
- Customers are responsible for the return shipping costs although these will be refunded if the return is caused by an error on our part.
- This policy does not cover wholesale orders.
- Additionally, for a variety of reasons we cannot accept returns for either refund or exchange on swimwear items.
See our Return Policy here


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With smartphone usage on the up and IT literacy expanding, bringing Internet of Things (IoT) level connectivity is a natural progression for this tech-hungry continent...
Brett Parker 16 Aug 2016
Ministers from African member countries of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) mega project met in Pretoria on Wednesday to discuss future cooperation in radio astronomy...
26 Mar 2015
It took 14 years to sell 40 million laptops, but only four years to sell 40 million tablets...
Danette Breitenbach 12 Feb 2015
MTN Mobile Money users in Ivory Coast and Rwanda will be first to enjoy benefits of the new partnership between MTN and Skrill when the 'Pay by Skrill' service launches this month...
10 Sep 2014
A look at the evolving business model for (mobile governance) m-governance projects and the use of mobile technology as a catalyst for inclusive development.
Vijay Sai Pratap 27 Mar 2014
Running your own business can be challenging at the best of times, not to mention financially draining. But there are ways to cut costs, and all you really need is a fast, reliable Internet connection.
2 Aug 2013
The year 2013 for most brands, especially the ones coping with saturated markets in developed countries, will be a decisive one. Incorporating Africa into their corporate brand strategy, if they haven't done so, will be the better part of valour, so to speak.
Obaika Consulting Team 31 Jan 2013
No, the concepts of "tribalism", "gamification" and "engagement" aren't a promo for the latest computer game, but are in fact the trends that will characterise the way companies and consumers interact in 2013. The branding industry is constantly developing and. while the following trends are evolutions rather than dynamic, short-term changes, we believe there are 10 areas that will define the brandscape over the next year.
HKLM Exco Team 31 Jan 2013
As 2013 commences, afro-pessimism seems to cede to afro-optimism. There is a global consensus: Africa is poised for a great future. What will be the impact of Africa's growth on our industry? What will be the major trends of the year? In the business world, predicting the future is a crucial exercise.
Nandkishor Buty 30 Jan 2013
Forming part of the upmarket Manda Hill Centre in Lusaka, HiFi Corp opened its first store in Zambia in July 2012. Since then it has welcomed thousands of customers eager to experience its promise of tech shopping made easy.
21 Nov 2012
Audio Branding comes to Africa... Audio branding, also known as sound branding or sonic branding, is the use of sound to reinforce brand identity. Sound branding is increasingly becoming a vehicle for conveying a memorable message to consumers by taking advantage of the powerful memory sense of sound.
Lars Deutsch 16 Apr 2012
PARIS, FRANCE / DARMSTADT, GERMANY: The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) has launched its 2012 Mobile News Grants and Training Scheme, providing newspaper companies in Sub-Saharan Africa an opportunity to develop or expand their mobile platforms.
13 Mar 2012
SAN FRANCISCO, US: Apple has announced that the latest version of its hot-selling iPhones will be released in China and 21 other countries on 13 January. It is already available in South Africa.
6 Jan 2012
Bizcommunity.com has now expanded its operations into 16 new sectors and will soon venture into another 17, providing a whole new range of target audiences for advertisers. The most critical aspect of this is the quality of content and this is a formal invitation to you to become a recognised contributor on Bizcommunity.
Bizcommunity.com 3 Oct 2011


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"It will be a NEW BEGINNING, the finding of our TRUE nature and the full EXPOSURE of suppression and control. We think that it will be the EVOLUTION stepping stone in the GROWING of OURSELVES and our UNDERSTANDING of this WORLD, the UNIVERSE and ENERGY! The more believe and feel this way, the more this will be the outcome!"
Related quotes
"we are all trying to fit in our own way like the stars that shape the night sky, but how much we are trying to glow ?"
"Don't ever think that regret is always a mistake, and mistake is always a regret because one day, You will realize that this things is also the things that matters in our life!"
"If you want to find-out the person who never leaves you during the hardship,Go to mirror and take a look"


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Improve Your Internet Marketing With These Great Tips!
Improve Your Internet Marketing With These Great Tips!
Weâre pretty sure that a lot of Internet marketers and businesses are asking the question same question in the title. Depending on what your privacy settings is, you will be able to broadcast or announce whatever it is you want to announce through the news feed feature offered by Facebook. With 800+ million of people at Facebook today who are actively using the site each day, this means that you are open to a large number of potential clients all over the world. Showing customers the different ways they could increase their experience with the product via a purchasable upgrade is a smart way to drive them back to your store to buy more goods. People in Facebook cannot add anyone in their network if the person they want to add doesnât have a profile and vice versa. A great internet marketing tip that people should use is to include coupons or product codes for related products that people can use whenever you ship something to someone who has purchased an item from your site. Remember these tips, and you will see that you will be able to become successful in marketing in Facebook.
Different types of people in different age groups with different interests will create their own group inside Facebook. If Facebook had stop coming up with better and interesting innovations, it wouldn't be recognized as the most viewed website in the world in 2011. You could have a free e-newsletter or e-zine that you give only to members of your club. One of the unique features about Facebook is that it tracks what its users are doing without being too terribly nosey. If you just select keywords that are popular and write content that's irrelevant, your articles will lose a lot of credibility in search engines. A great Internet marketing idea is to set up a contest in which you give a great prize to anyone who can find five or more misspelled words in any of your content. Through Facebook, you will see that internet marketing has never been easier before.
You donât need to work hard in order to let people know about your website as the traffic is already here at likes. There are three ways to advertise in Facebook according to the helpful study made by Nielsen. There are also internet marketing gurus who are keen on adding earned media as another type thatâs on equal footing with the three. As you can see, Facebook will be able to provide you with what you need in order to market effectively on the internet. To ensure that your Facebook ad will work to your advantage, here are five unique ideas you can implement.
Due to the tons of information that it contains, Facebook enables advertisers to become specific on its target demographics (although extremely narrowing down your target to a very small number of people is not exactly advisable except when your ads have specific …


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Fill, Freeze, Then Carve?
Decorating By cakesrock Updated 2 Oct 2009 , 3:36am by cakesrock
Is it okay to fill with buttercream, freeze, then carve? Or is it imperative that you fill when it's fully thawed?
When should I let the settling occur?
I'd appreciate the advice.
Freeze, fill then carve. After carving crumbcoat and then while the buttercream is crusting up it will thaw out and settle. I try to allow two hours at least for this step. Then you can cover with fondant.
Hope this helps!
Quote by @%username% on %date%


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|Message view
|« Date » · « Thread »
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|"Hairong Kuang (JIRA)" <j...@apache.org>
|[jira] Commented: (HADOOP-6889) Make RPC to have an option to timeout
|Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:45:20 GMT
[ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HADOOP-6889?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=12895823#action_12895823 ] Hairong Kuang commented on HADOOP-6889: --------------------------------------- Kan, thanks for taking a look at the patch! I thought about introducing a configuration parameter. But clients or DataNodes want to have timeout for RPCs to DataNodes but no timeout for RPCs to NameNodes. Adding a rpcTimeout parameter makes this easy. > Make RPC to have an option to timeout > ------------------------------------- > > Key: HADOOP-6889 > URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HADOOP-6889 > Project: Hadoop Common > Issue Type: New Feature > Components: ipc > Affects Versions: 0.22.0 > Reporter: Hairong Kuang > Assignee: Hairong Kuang > Fix For: 0.22.0, 0.20-append > > Attachments: ipcTimeout.patch, ipcTimeout1.patch, ipcTimeout2.patch > > > Currently Hadoop RPC does not timeout when the RPC server is alive. What it currently does is that a RPC client sends a ping to the server whenever a socket timeout happens. If the server is still alive, it continues to wait instead of throwing a SocketTimeoutException. This is to avoid a client to retry when a server is busy and thus making the server even busier. This works great if the RPC server is NameNode. > But Hadoop RPC is also used for some of client to DataNode communications, for example, for getting a replica's length. When a client comes across a problematic DataNode, it gets stuck and can not switch to a different DataNode. In this case, it would be better that the client receives a timeout exception. > I plan to add a new configuration ipc.client.max.pings that specifies the max number of pings that a client could try. If a response can not be received after the specified max number of pings, a SocketTimeoutException is thrown. If this configuration property is not set, a client maintains the current semantics, waiting forever. -- This message is automatically generated by JIRA. - You can reply to this email to add a comment to the issue online.
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text: Posted September 17, 2013 I'd even consider QB if there's a stand out one coming out this year. Maybe someone we groom in case this Cam thing doesn't improve. You guys don't deserve Cam or a franchise QB. You better off with your delhommes, clausens, endersons. And live perpetual mediocrity where sports networks don't even bother to mention your team in their highlights. 1 person likes this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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The eperythrozoon are a group of related bacteria that do not have a cell wall. They are part of a family of similar bacteria known as the mycoplasma. They rarely infect humans, but can cause anemia in mice and pigs.
Although the eperythrozoon rarely cause disease in humans, treatment of an infected individual is complicated by the fact that penicillin and similar antibiotics do not affect eperythrozoon because those antibiotics attack bacteria by destroying the cell wall that is absent in mycoplasma bacteria. As such, streptomycin or other similar antibiotics are the only effective choice.


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Wednesday, September 7, 2016
VIZIO Launches Whole Home Audio Speaker System
Irvine-based VIZIO announced this morning that it has launched a new set of multi-room speakers, designed for whole home audio. According to VIZIO, the new VIZIO SmartCast Crave Pro and Crave 360 Speakers support Google Cast for audio streaming, and can be controlled by mobile devices through Wi-Fi. The new SmartCast Crave 360 Speakers have a MSRP of $249.99 and the Crave Pro speakers will have a MSRP of $299.99. Both are driven by a new, VIZIO SmartCast app, which lets users control their whole home audio experience. The new speakers and app compete with similar, but higher end systems offered by Sonos, as well as technology being licensed to other speaker manufacturers by DTS.


text: This modern hotel was renovated in 2007. The numerous facilities offered include a 24-hour reception, a safe, a currency exchange, lifts, a TV room, Internet access,a café, room and laundry service and medical assistance. The conference room is equipped with technical equipment, making it ideal for business guests. Parking spaces and a garage are also available for those arriving by car.


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St. George organizers — after missing both the November and December ballots — have been hanging their hopes on a March election to decide the fate of the proposed city in the southern part of East Baton Rouge Parish.
But now it seems that even a March election is going to be unlikely.
East Baton Rouge Parish Registrar of Voters Elaine Lamb said Tuesday that her office has not even begun the process of validating the estimated 18,000 signatures on a petition to incorporate, which was submitted more than a month ago, on Oct. 20.
As soon as organizers submitted the massive document for verification, Lamb said, her office became swamped with work preparing for the November primary and December general elections.
"We're probably not going to start checking until around the 15th of December, because we just don't have time," Lamb said.
She estimated that it will take at least a month, "maybe a little longer," to validate the signatures on the petition.
Once the petition is validated, the Governor's Office will call a special election. But the Secretary of State's Office must have the election proclamation in hand by Jan. 7 in order for the issue to make it onto the March 28 ballot.
Lamb said her office would not be taking election schedule deadlines into consideration when undertaking the process of validating signatures on the petitions.
Lionel Rainey, St. George spokesman, said he is hopeful they will still be able to have a March election.
"We're glad they're doing their due diligence, but we would really like to see it on the ballot as quickly as possible," he said.
The St. George incorporation petition is one of the largest signature drives to be completed in state history. Supporters of the new city, motivated by a desire to create an independent school system, collected signatures for more than a year. The city would have more than 100,000 residents and would span about 80 square miles, if successfully incorporated.
The group was aiming for about 18,000 signatures — which is about 25 percent of the registered voters in the boundaries of the proposed city. The exact number of signatures the group needs has yet to be determined by the Registrar's Office.
The process to validate signatures is laborious. Employees will have to look at each signature, checking to ensure it's in the proposed boundaries and comparing the petition signatures with signatures on their voter registration and other records to ensure each signature is valid.
The only somewhat comparable petition verification the office has overseen in recent memory was the city of Central, which required about 5,000 signatures.
Lamb has said she expects she'll need to bring in outside help from the Secretary of State's Office to complete the job.
The other scheduled elections for 2015 are May 2, Oct. 24 and Nov. 21.
Rainey said he hopes the process is not delayed until next fall, because the group organizing the effort is running out of funds.
"We're not going to be able to afford to run a yearlong campaign," he said. "But at the end of the day the most important thing is this is done accurately and legally and done right."
Earlier this year, the group's leaders said they were aiming for a fall election, but were not able to secure enough signatures in time.
Mary Olive Pierson, an attorney representing the city of Baton Rouge on St. George issues, said if and when the petition is approved by the Registrar, she will file a suit challenging the validity.
She has said she believes the election will be invalidated because St. George organizers have not yet outlined sufficient governmental plans, adding that they must be more comprehensive to pass legal muster.
Pierson also said she intends to challenge the provision of the law that states only people who live in the boundaries of the proposed city can vote on the issue.
Follow Rebekah Allen on Twitter, @rebekahallen. For more coverage of city-parish government, follow City Hall Buzz blog at http://blogs. theadvocate.com/cityhallbuzz.