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Progress towards malaria control targets in relation to national malaria programme funding
Malaria Journal volume 12, Article number: 18 (2013)
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Malaria control has been dramatically scaled up the past decade, mainly thanks to increasing international donor financing since 2003. This study assessed progress up to 2010 towards global malaria impact targets, in relation to Global Fund, other donor and domestic malaria programme financing over 2003 to 2009.
Assessments used domestic malaria financing reported by national programmes, and Global Fund/OECD data on donor financing for 90 endemic low- and middle-income countries, WHO estimates of households owning one or more insecticide-treated mosquito net (ITN) for countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and WHO-estimated malaria case incidence and deaths in countries outside sub-Saharan Africa.
Global Fund and other donor funding is concentrated in a subset of the highest endemic African countries. Outside Africa, donor funding is concentrated in those countries with highest malaria mortality and case incidence rates over the years 2000 to 2003. ITN coverage in 2010 in Africa, and declines in case and death rates per person at risk over 2004 to 2010 outside Africa, were greatest in countries with highest donor funding per person at risk, and smallest in countries with lowest donor malaria funding per person at risk. Outside Africa, all-source malaria programme funding over 2003 to 2009 per case averted ($56-5,749) or per death averted ($58,000-3,900,000) over 2004 to 2010 tended to be lower (more favourable) in countries with higher donor malaria funding per person at risk.
Increases in malaria programme funding are associated with accelerated progress towards malaria control targets. Associations between programme funding per person at risk and ITN coverage increases and declines in case and death rates suggest opportunities to maximize the impact of donor funding, by strategic re-allocation to countries with highest continued need.
With support from development partners, low- and middle-income countries have intensified efforts to meet intervention coverage and impact targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) [1], the World Health Assembly (WHA) and the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership [2] (Table 1). International funding for malaria control increased from US$149 million in 2000 to approximately US$1.66 billion in 2011 [3, 4]. The Global Fund has been a major contributor to this scale-up, covering an estimated 40% of international assistance for malaria from 2003 to 2008, and 63% of international malaria funding in the year 2010 alone [3, 5]. Between 2002 and 2011, Global Fund-supported malaria programmes delivered 230 million insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and 230 million malaria treatments across 84 low- and middle-income countries [5, 6]. This external funding is complemented by the United States President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), which, since 2005, has been a significant donor for malaria control programmes in 19 countries in Africa and the Greater Mekong sub-region in Asia.
As a consequence of increased coverage with ITNs and artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), a growing number of countries have reported decreasing numbers of confirmed malaria cases and/or malaria-attributed hospital admissions and deaths since 2000; globally, malaria mortality has fallen by an estimated 25% [3, 7].
RBM and WHO estimate the financing need for effective malaria control to exceed US$5 billion every year through 2015; yet even at its 2011 peak, global funding available for malaria remained far below this need, with international disbursement totalling US$2 billion and domestic financing a lower amount [3, 8, 9]. To allocate available funding effectively and maximize the impact of investments, it is critical to understand how and where funding is advancing programme success in terms of population coverage achieved as well as health impact [3, 9].
This study compares changes in the proportion of households owning at least one ITN (for sub-Saharan Africa countries) and in malaria cases and deaths (for countries outside Africa) with levels of malaria programme funding (from the Global Fund, other donors and domestic governments) available to low- and middle-income countries over the period 2003 to 2010. Findings are discussed with a view towards informing donor investment strategies and allocation policies.
Malaria programme financing
Malaria programme funding in each endemic country was expressed as the cumulative funding between 2003 (the first year of Global Fund malaria disbursements) and December 2009, in current US dollars. To assess the effects of funding on progress with malaria control, given that available estimates on malaria cases and deaths extended to 2010, analysis of funding data was capped at December 2009, assuming a typical lag of one year to in-country spending, programme implementation [10] and ensuing impact on reducing malaria cases and deaths.
Allocations from the Global Fund were taken as disbursements through malaria grants [5, 11]. Other-donor gross disbursements included those from the USA President's Malaria Initiative [12], World Bank [13], and other bilateral and multilateral donors as reported through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC)'s Creditor Reporting System [14]. Domestic financing data was taken from reports by National Malaria Control Programmes to WHO through the annual World Malaria Report questionnaire [3]. Government funding is expressed as programme expenditures, or as budgets when a programme had not reported government expenditures [15].
Total country funding was converted into funding per-capita using national population sizes [16], and into funding per person at risk using WHO estimates of national populations at risk [3]. For analyses, countries were stratified into three groups, according to their level of funding from all donors (Global Fund and other donors combined) cumulated over 2003 to 2009 per person at risk (Additional file 1). All-donor funding was chosen as the criterion for country stratification, because donor funding has increased relatively more than domestic government funding over the period 2003 to 2009, and is more likely to be allocated to commodities and other variable costs of malaria programmes, as opposed to the more stable cost of human resources, which is usually covered by national governments.
Insecticide-treated bed net coverage estimates
ITN coverage was assessed as the proportion of households that own one or more ITNs, estimated every year by WHO and partners, for 41 malaria-endemic, low- and middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa over the years 2003 to 2010 [3]. The coverage estimation is based on data from nationally representative household surveys (Demographic and Health Surveys, Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys and Malaria Indicator Surveys), manufacturer reports of ITN procurement and National Malaria Programme reports of ITN distribution [17]. Coverage estimates refer to each country's population at risk of malaria transmission, assuming that in countries with <100% of the national population living at malaria risk, all available ITNs are owned by households in malarious areas [17]. ITN coverage estimates for national population at risk were not available for countries outside sub-Saharan Africa, where malaria transmission is often focused in certain regions, so that national surveys do not give a meaningful indication of the level of protection in populations actually living in areas with malaria transmission.
Malaria case and death estimates
Assessments focus on 49 malaria-endemic, low- and middle-income countries outside sub-Saharan Africa, after exclusion of Turkey, Paraguay and Kyrgyzstan, with income levels taken from the World Bank income classification of 2005 [18]. All of these 49 countries were eligible for Global Fund malaria support up to 2010. Turkey, Paraguay and Kyrgyzstan were excluded because they had very few cases throughout the 2000s and small populations at risk, resulting in extremely high levels of funding per person at risk that would have distorted analyses.
WHO's case estimates for these countries were based on numbers of reported, parasitologically confirmed malaria cases from national health information systems (HIS), adjusted for reporting completeness, the proportion of suspected malaria cases that are parasite-positive, the proportion of confirmed cases due to each Plasmodium species, and the extent to which patients use public sector health facilities [3, 15, 19, 20]. Death estimates were derived by multiplying the number of Plasmodium falciparum malaria cases estimated for each country by a fixed case fatality rate [3, 20]. Case and death estimates were evaluated over the period 2004 to 2010.
For most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the overall quality of surveillance data did not allow a convincing estimate of total cases to be made from reported cases [3]. For these countries, numbers of cases and deaths are estimated using an epidemiological model in which the trend in each country over time is a function of that country's increase in household ITN coverage [3]. The dependence of these case and death trend estimates on national ITN coverage trends, itself already considered as progress outcome earlier in the current analysis, precluded an independent assessment of case and death trends in relation to programme funding for the sub-Saharan African countries.
Malaria funding per case or death averted
Malaria funding allocated (cumulated over 2003–2009) was computed per case or death averted over 2004–2010 for each of the 49 countries outside sub-Saharan Africa. Each country's time trend in case or death rates over 2004–2010 was estimated in a linear regression, and the predicted value for each of these years compared with case and death rates over 2000–2003 as the baseline, while adjusting for annual population growth. The four-year period 2000 to 2003 (rather than 2003 or 2004 alone) served as the baseline period, because in low-endemic countries outside Africa, ongoing malaria funding serves not only to reduce case and death burden to below 2004 levels, but in the first place to prevent a resurgence to even much higher case and death rates (as seen in 2000 and in the decades before) that would likely reappear if the control stopped.
Country-level programme funding per case or death averted were then summarized for three country groups (tertiles) as the median and interquartile range across the 16 or 17 countries in each group.
Malaria financing
Total malaria programme funding in the 90 countries increased from US$317 million in 2003 to US$2.2 billion in 2009. The Global Fund, other donors and domestic governments accounted for 47%, 32% and 21%, respectively in 2009 (Figure 1a and b). From 2003 to 2009, Global Fund malaria funding increased 21-fold, other-donor malaria funding increased 14-fold, and domestic government funding increased two-fold. Among non-Global Fund donors, in 2009 the USA Presidential Malaria Initiative contributed around 60% of malaria disbursements in 2009, the World Bank 7%, and the United Kingdom direct bilateral funding through the Department for International Development 6%.
Over 2003 to 2009, funding from all sources combined increased from US$110 million to US$1.55 billion in sub-Saharan Africa (Figure 1a), and from US$207 million to US$620 million outside Africa (Figure 1b). Within sub-Saharan Africa, malaria funding from the Global Fund and other donors was concentrated in a common subset of countries, with half of total Global Fund funding going to only nine countries, and half of other-donor funding going to the same nine countries (Figure 1c). These nine countries were all in east and west Africa (Additional file 1), with stable high rates of malaria case incidence and mortality.
Domestic government funding, in contrast, was concentrated in countries of lower endemicity, with lower case and death rates, in the Americas, Caribbean and Southeast Asia (Figure 1b & d and Additional file 1). Among non-Africa countries, domestic funding increased from $174 million in 2003 to US$ 332 million in 2009 (Figure 1b). Within Africa, domestic funding increased more steeply, from US$ 48 million in 2003 to $125 million in 2009 (Figure 1a).
Insecticide-treated bed net coverage
ITN coverage in sub-Saharan Africa increased from 4% in 2003 to 63% in 2010 in the 14 countries with largest donor malaria funding per person at risk over 2003 to 2009, from 3% to 46% in the 14 countries with medium donor funding per person at risk, and from 2% to 36% in the 13 countries with lowest donor malaria funding per person at risk (Figure 2).
Malaria case and death declines, by level of donor funding
Among 49 countries outside sub-Saharan Africa, the 17 with highest donor malaria funding per person at risk had the highest rates of malaria cases and deaths over 2000–2003, and the largest subsequent declines in these rates, both proportionally and as rate differences compared to the 2000–2003 rates (Figure 3, red lines). Among these 17 countries, overall time trends were driven by the countries with largest numbers of cases and deaths: Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Laos and Timor Leste.
Among the 16 countries with an intermediate level of donor malaria funding per person at risk, an overall slight decline in case and death rates was driven by the relatively high-burden countries: Indonesia, Myanmar and Yemen, where case and death rates were stable; and Afghanistan and Bangladesh, where case and death rates declined (Figure 3, blue lines).
Among the 16 countries with lowest total donor malaria support per person at risk (Figure 3, green lines), the overall case and death rate decline trends were dominated by India, which experienced a very slight decline. Among these countries, Pakistan showed a stable or fluctuating trend, whereas case and death rates declined in most Latin American countries including Brazil.
Malaria funding per case or death averted
Among countries outside sub-Saharan Africa, programme funding from all sources summed over 2003–2009 per case prevented over 2004–2010 was US$78 (interquartile range US$45−146) in the 17 countries with highest donor funding per person at risk, US$56 (31−260) in the 16 countries with intermediate levels of donor funding per person at risk, and US$5,749 (506−30,227) in the 16 countries with lowest donor malaria support per person at risk (Table 2).
Per death prevented over 2004–2010, 2003–2009 funding averaged US$57,654 (24,997−5,484,870) in the 17 countries with highest donor funding per person at risk, US$92,286 (23,391−1,560,418) in the next 16 countries, and US$3,903,107 (368,839− 19,627,442) in the 16 countries with lowest donor malaria support per person at risk. The highest costs per death averted were estimated for countries with very few malaria deaths (Azerbaijan and Honduras in the highest-funding group; Democratic Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea and Iraq in the medium-funding group; and Mexico and El Salvador in the lowest-funding group), or with an increase in malaria deaths (Timor-Leste and Venezuela in the highest-funding group; Indonesia in the medium-funding group, and Dominican Republic and Costa Rica in the lowest-funding group). The presented upper limits of the interquartile ranges (indicating the cost level that 75% of countries in a funding-level group are below), however illustrate the wide ranges in cost per death averted among all countries.
The synthesis of malaria programme funding and control progress data from countries worldwide confirms that global malaria donor funding is generally well targeted to the countries with highest malaria transmission and case and death rates. Higher donor funding per person at risk was also associated with greater increases in household ITN ownership among African countries, confirming similar observations made earlier [10, 15, 17, 21]. Outside Africa, increased donor funding was associated with larger proportional malaria case and death rate declines.
Outside Africa, all-source programme funding per case averted or death averted tended to be lower in the countries with higher donor malaria support per person at risk (Table 2). These gradients illustrate an overall effective targeting of global donor allocations to countries with highest return on malaria investments. Nevertheless, there was large variation among countries within each group in programme funding per case or death averted, with overlapping ranges across the three tertiles of countries. Apparently, donor allocations partially counterbalance the enormous differences among countries in levels of domestic funding per person at risk and per case or death averted (Figure 1c and d), but they do not completely turn around the cross-country imbalances so as to maximize the possible health impact for available global funding.
The presented 'costs' per case or death averted should not be considered as cost-effectiveness ratios, which are typically lower (more favourable) [22, 23], for three reasons. First, case/death levels averaged over year 2000−2003 served as the baseline against which cases and deaths averted were calculated; however, in reality, case and death rates in the non-African countries evaluated might well resurge to above 2000−2003 levels if malaria programme funding and control stopped altogether. Second, the time horizon for cases and deaths averted was limited to 2010, without including additional impact achieved over 2011–2012 from the – comparatively large – programme spending in 2009–2010. Third, total funding on all malaria services included case management and programme administration, rather than just the cost of any single intervention.
Although donor malaria funding is generally well targeted to the highest-need countries with lowest ITN coverage and highest case and death rates at baseline, there remain exceptions. As noted before [10, 24–26], donor funding per person at risk was very high in some small countries of relatively low malaria burden and high income, including Bhutan, Comoros, Laos, Suriname, and in Africa Sao Tome and Principe and Equatorial Guinea (both excluded from analyses), Gabon, Namibia and Swaziland. In contrast, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria had surprisingly low donor malaria funding relative to their populations at risk.
A full mapping of malaria funding needs and gaps was beyond the scope of the current study, and would have to consider not only actual programme allocations but also countries' domestic funding capacity. In addition, economies of scale will tend to lower costs per person reached in large-scale, nation-wide programmes in the highest-endemic countries, compared to settings with only focal malaria that require more expensive pre-elimination and elimination strategies [27]. Also, effective progress in control does not necessarily mean that impact would be sustained after lowering the inputs – as experiences with malaria resurgence in Sri Lanka, Madagascar and other countries have shown. According to WHO estimates, overall global funding for malaria control falls short of the global need [3, 8, 9], and increasing overall malaria funding is equally important as optimizing funding allocations. Nevertheless, the large variation in funding per person at risk (Additional file 1) and the only moderately strong association between funding per case or death averted and level of national donor funding per person at risk (Table 2) suggest a scope for further enhancing value for money in international malaria financing, through more strategic allocation of available funding toward the highest-endemic countries with the highest continued need.
In 2011, the Global Fund revised its eligibility, prioritization and counterpart financing policy. From 2012 onwards all supported countries are required to make a minimum domestic government co-funding contribution, of a proportion increasing with country income and with the years of each grant [28, 29]. The increased counterpart financing requirement on upper-middle income countries should result in a gradual shift of portfolio allocations toward lower-income countries. This policy change therefore has the potential to facilitate better targeting of Global Fund funding to benefit countries with the highest continuing need, an approach also emphasized in the Global Fund's 2012–2016 Strategy 'Investing for impact'[30].
Uncertainties and potential inaccuracies in country ITN coverage and case and death trend estimates [20, 21, 31] limited the power to assess associations between funding and health impact. The methods for producing estimates of cases and deaths outside of Africa adjust the number of reported cases to take into account the proportion of cases that are not captured by a surveillance system. While helping to make numbers more comparable between countries, and filling gaps where data are missing, the estimates rely on relationships between variables that are uncertain, and draw upon data that may have been imprecisely measured, or measured in previous years and projected forward. Thus estimates of the number of malaria cases or deaths are accompanied by a large degree of uncertainty, and inferences concerning trends are less certain than those made directly from good quality surveillance data. In particular, the number of malaria deaths is estimated by using a fixed case fatality rate which does not take into account varying access to treatment. For sub-Saharan Africa, lack of data on malaria cases and deaths narrowed the analysis to household ownership of ITNs. Although a reasonable predictor of ITN usage [32, 33] and associated reductions in under-five mortality, malaria parasitaemia and anaemia [34–36], ownership of one or more ITNs is not a precise indicator of the extent to which universal protection for all household members is achieved.
A further limitation is incompleteness and varying quality of data on domestic government financing. Of the 90 malaria-endemic countries analysed, eight did not report domestic malaria funding to WHO for any of the years 2003 to 2009, and 25 countries did not report domestic funding in 2009. Under-reporting is plausible notably for domestic spending on malaria case management, which is typically not allocated specifically to the malaria programme but rather absorbed within districts' overall health budgets. While donor funding is sometimes allocated predominantly to commodity needs of malaria programmes [10, 15, 21], domestic contributions may more often concern the infrastructure, staff and programme management [3]. A recent assessment of global malaria funding over 2006 to 2010 found similar annual funding levels as this study for the Global Fund and other donors, but slightly higher domestic funding – the latter based on government budgets reported by grant recipients to the Global Fund, as opposed to the programme expenditures reported to WHO used here [26].
Because of these imperfections in both national funding and health outcome data, this study assessed their relationship only across groups of countries, and not at the level of individual countries. Importantly, whether in country groups or at the level of individual countries, 'ecological' correlations as found in the current observational analysis will not necessarily indicate a true causal impact of programme funding. Among several alternative explanations, programme funding may be associated with increased progress if donors' funding allocation criteria would effectively prioritize those countries with best programme implementation capacity. Notably the Global Fund selects proposals for grants based on technical soundness and demonstrated effectiveness, followed by performance-based grant renewal [5]. The current low per-person-at-risk donor in some countries in part reflects the challenges that these countries face with effective implementation owing to security concerns, civil strife, limited technical, managerial and strategic planning capacity. Re-allocating funding to such countries may not necessarily yield equally high returns on investment as observed in other countries.
Finally, the study did not consider allocative and technical efficiency in malaria programmes as determinants of progress in control. In reality, not only the funding amount, but also the appropriateness of its allocation across prevention, diagnosis and treatment services, and the − varying − efficiency in delivering these services [37] will influence the relations between funding and health outcome.
To refine these analyses will require improving country-level case and death trend estimates, based on the WHO's new guidelines for scaling-up malaria diagnosis [38] and for malaria surveillance [39, 40], and the ongoing roll-out of parasitological diagnosis notably in African countries [41]. On the financing tracking side, new standards are needed for reporting of national malaria programme financing, to improve quality, transparency, and completeness [42].
In conclusion, malaria programme financing from the Global Fund and other sources is associated with increased ITN coverage scale-up, a key determinant of malaria burden declines in Africa, and with larger proportional case and death rate declines among countries outside Africa. Achieving MDG6, WHA [43] and RBM targets globally will require accelerated case and death declines, through intensified scale-up of ITN distribution and other key prevention and treatment services. Outside Africa, programme funding per case or death prevented outside Africa tended to be lower in the countries that received higher donor funding per person at risk. The associations shown between funding and impact and the large variations in funding per person at risk suggest opportunities to advance malaria control and maximize the impact by increasing programme funding and strategically allocating available donor funds to countries with the highest continued need.
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We thank Dr Brian Williams (SACEMA) for statistical advice, and Dr George Korah (Global Fund) for advise on interpreting National Malaria Program finance data.
Additional information
Competing interests
The authors' views do not necessarily represent the decisions, policy or views of Erasmus MC/University Medical Center Rotterdam, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, or the World Health Organization. The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors' contributions
ELK and RC conceived and designed the study; MH and ELK implemented analyses; ELK, RC and RN drafted the manuscript; all authors contributed to results interpretation and writing of the final manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Electronic supplementary material
Additional file 1: all-donor and domestic funding national totals and funding per person at risk, estimated malaria cases and deaths rates in 2008 for countries outside sub-Saharan Africa, and population living in households owning ≥one ITN in sub-Saharan African countries in 2008. Countries sorted by level of all-donor funding per person at risk, separately within sub-Saharan Africa and outside sub-Saharan Africa. (XLSX 18 KB)
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Korenromp, E.L., Hosseini, M., Newman, R.D. et al. Progress towards malaria control targets in relation to national malaria programme funding. Malar J 12, 18 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-12-18
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-12-18
- Malaria/mortality
- Malaria/prevention and control
- Child health
- Programme impact
- Financing
- Health resources
- Investments
- Millennium Development Goals
- Resource-poor countries


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Akane Kishida (岸田 茜)Akane Kishida ultimate goal is to become a super model like her mother was. She is also a classmate of Najika.
Akane is in love with Daichi, but seeing that he secretly likes Najika, she feels devastated and tries her best to make him stay away from her. Later on Akane falls in love with Seiya Mizuno.
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Vladimir Kagan knew how to design dramatic show-stoppers. We love these one-of-a-kind three-legged sculptural chairs, expertly restored and reupholstered with new feathers and cushioning. Keeping with a very chic, very cool vibe, our designers chose an elegant but poppish lipstick red velvet from Italian luxury label, Loro Piana. Kiss kiss bang bang!
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Mid 20th Century
27.5 W x 29 D x 25 H x 19.5 SH in
Loro Piana Velvet
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Sections of the French press are breaking the silence that has prevailed in France over the resurgence of German militarism, exposing rising tensions between the major European powers. Within the French bourgeoisie there are deep concerns that German rearmament is a fundamental threat to the interests of French imperialism.
After European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called for the creation of an "EU joint army" in a March 8 interview with Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper, Le Monde published an article titled "Germans in uniform."
The French media and political establishment are for the most part remaining silent on Juncker's proposal for an EU army, which would be dominated by Germany. Le Monde wrote, "The proposal, which has largely gone unnoticed in France, has become very popular on the other side of the Rhine." Le Monde went on to cite German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, who welcomed Juncker's proposal, saying, "Our future, as Europeans, will one day depend on a European army."
Le Monde drew a parallel with the situation after World War II, when Washington forced Paris to acquiesce to the rearmament of West Germany, which was directed against the USSR. The newspaper wrote: "The French had to submit to what they wanted to avoid: the rearming of Germany and its integration into NATO. Sixty-five years later, History seems to be repeating itself. Europe again wants Germans in uniform, as it is threatened by the Islamic State (IS) and Vladimir Putin." However, as Le Monde bluntly added, "The French… are not in a hurry to see Germans in uniform."
The newspaper summarily dismissed Berlin's attempts to mask the reassertion of its imperialist interests under the veneer of an all-European project. It explained Berlin's calculations as follows: "We cannot scare our neighbors as we re-arm. It is better to give a European gloss to our re-militarization."
Fundamental contradictions of European capitalism are reasserting themselves. Berlin and Paris are planning joint projects, such as combat drones, and have sought to work together to negotiate a cease-fire in Ukraine to prevent the US from precipitating outright war with Russia. However, the policy of rearmament across Europe is sharpening deeply rooted tensions between Germany and France, who fought wars three times in the last century-and-a-half: the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871 and the two world wars of the 20th century.
On Otto von Bismarck's two hundredth birthday on April 1, the "Iron Chancellor" was hailed by political and media circles in Germany. Bismarck led a series of wars that unified the German states and established a powerful German Empire led by Prussia. Having defeated France in the Franco-Prussian war, he established Germany as the leading power in continental Europe.
Berlin's decision to applaud Bismarck as a model for today--even through his policy in continental Europe was largely based on a strategy of crushing and then diplomatically isolating France--has been met mainly with stony silence, but there have been some criticisms in the French media.
In an April 2 article entitled "Germany gives itself over to the cult of Bismarck," French business daily Les Echos wrote: "Paying homage to Otto is inevitably complicated, as the Prussian had multiple facets. In France, his name and pointed helmet remain associated with the Franco-Prussian war and the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine. And some Greek ministers could see their views on Germany confirmed by reading his principle of realpolitik: 'Great crises form a climate beneficial to Prussia's growth, as we exploit them without fear and possibly without scruples.'"
Under the surface of rhetoric about European integration and solidarity, unresolved conflicts embedded in the bloody history of European and world capitalism threaten the international working class. Now, as in the war-torn twentieth century, the only progressive way forward is a united struggle of the international working class against war.
French imperialism is just as reactionary as its German counterpart. While it raises concerns about German rearmament, it does not object to a policy of aggressive war. It reacts out of fear of its more powerful competitors.
In its article on the European army, Le Monde pointed to a broad crisis of US-European relations as a driving force for German rearmament. "Germany distrusts America, as Merkel has not forgiven Obama for bugging her personal telephone," the newspaper wrote, adding, "America is playing a dangerous game in Russia, pushing the Europeans in the back and inciting them to take a harsher line and accentuate tensions with Putin."
Since a fascist-led coup ousted the pro-Russian Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014, Washington has escalated the conflict with Russia. Although Paris and Berlin backed the coup in Kiev, they have opposed sharp economic sanctions against Russia as well as US moves to arm the Kiev regime against Russia.
After press reports emerged this February of a push by factions within the Obama administration and the military/intelligence establishment for Washington to directly arm Kiev, Germany and France rushed to propose a diplomatic solution to the fighting in Ukraine. Before negotiating a cease-fire in Ukraine, French President Hollande warned that with Russia, "We have gone in the space of a few months from having differences, to conflict, to war…We are in a state of war, and a war that could be total."
For now, fears of a world war provoked by Washington are bringing Berlin and Paris closer together. However, under the surface of joint attempts to de-escalate tensions with Russia and plan for a common European defense, an arms race is developing between the European imperialist powers.
A major factor in this is the reckless policy of French imperialism itself. France pushed aggressively, in the face of German opposition, for a US-led war in Libya in 2011 and a subsequent war drive against Syria. Berlin refused to participate in the Libyan war and opposed Paris' plans for a Mediterranean sphere of influence in its former colonial empire, under the rubric of a "Union of the Mediterranean."
In the months leading up to the Libyan war, France signed a military alliance with Britain that pointedly excluded Germany. Paris clearly hoped to rely on its greater military strength, including its possession of nuclear weapons, to offset the economic dominance of Berlin. This strategy has blown up in France's face.
It faces a resurgence of German militarism that has been prepared for some time and was clearly articulated in a speech by German President Joachim Gauck on the Day of German Unity in 2013. Gauck declared that Germany was "not an island" that could abstain "from political, economic and military conflicts." At the Munich Security Conference in early 2014, he announced an end to "the policy of military abstention" by Germany.
After major increases in its military budget, Germany has finally overtaken France in military spending, reaching €32.4 billion per year, while French defense spending fell slightly to €31.4 billion. With France now poised to increase its military spending, and an arms race set to erupt within Europe, the initial expressions of concern over German militarism are being raised in the French media.


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Tasmanian Land Conservancy
Tasmanian Land Conservancy (TLC) is a not-for-profit, apolitical, science and community-based organisation that raises funds from the public to protect irreplaceable sites and rare ecosystems by buying and managing private land in Tasmania. TLC's vision is to be a global leader in nature conservation.
We support Tasmanian Land Conservancy because:
Tasmania is our home and its natural values are imperative to keep it as beautiful as it is today for tomorrows generation. Without treasuring our natural environment, the eco-system that we live in today won't exist tomorrow. It is that simple.
Staying at Change provides: Purchase and protect approximately 5m2 of land in Tasmania.
Want to know more about Tasmanian Land Conservancy?Visit their website


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We had a nice day today. My daughter and I worked together to get everything in the crockpot for supper. She even took the trash out with very little prompting. So, I decided as a treat we could make a cake together.Watching her try to break eggs was very amusing. Her first couple of attempts looked more like she was squishing the eggs than cracking them. We were originally going to put the sugar free frosting on it. But, then I noticed that the Betty Crocker sugar-free frosting had maltitol. Sugar alcohols and me don't mix very well. Instead we frosted the cake with dark chocolate (fully sugared) frosting. I wish I could say that I watched my family eat their slices of cake and happily sipped my tea. Nope, not me. We all sang the unbirthday song, and then I had a slice too. My insulin guess was off by a bit, but I got it better by supper time.
Photo credit: darrenhester from morguefile.com


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Austrian elections: The never-ending story
It's a never-ending story. Five months after Green Party-affiliated candidate Alexander van der Bellen narrowly beat far-right candidate Norbert Hofer, Austria still has no president and no definite date for another election.
The original result was annulled by Austria's Constitutional Court because of vote-counting irregularities.
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A rerun scheduled for 2 October has now also been derailed - by glue that won't stick. A number of envelopes sent to voters for their mail votes won't stay closed.
Rather than run the risk of another election fiasco, and a possible renewed constitutional challenge to the outcome, the Austrian interior minister has asked parliament to approve a postponement to 4 December.
A week is a long time in politics. Two months is even longer and opinion polls in recent months had given Hofer a marginal edge over Van der Bellen.
In August, his narrow lead grew to 53 percent against 47 percent, before dropping back to a 52-48 margin.
Emergency decree
The lead diminished after the shock of attacks in Germany and France in the summer began to wane, a post-coup political row with Turkey stagnated, and a summer surge of refugees failed to materialise.
The absence, so far, of overwhelming new refugee numbers has not stopped hardliners - most notably the interior minister himself, as well as foreign minister Sebastian Kurz - from demanding firmer action.
They want an extraordinary parliamentary decree declaring a nationwide state of emergency and effectively halting all new asylum requests to be passed even before the self-imposed cap of 37,500 requests is reached.
The cap was agreed on by the Social Democrats (SPO) and the junior coalition partner the People's Party, to which Kurz belongs.
The new leader of the SPO, chancellor Christian Kern, who was still head of the Austrian Railways when the first round of the presidential election was held six months ago, has suggested there is no need for an emergency degree unless there is actually an emergency.
But he's being undercut by hardliners in his own party such as defence minister Hans-Peter Doskozil, who is a former senior police officer and is a political protege of the governor of the Austrian state of Burgenland. The Burgenland is ruled by an SPO coalition with the far-right Freedom Party, and the governor is said to be in favour of such a coalition on the national level too.
More election rumours
In a possible nod to this hard-line pressure within his own party, Kern surprised friend and foe alike by undiplomatically calling for a complete end to EU accession talks with Turkey following the attempted coup.
He issued the call on the same night in which thousands of supporters of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan demonstrated in the streets of Vienna without the necessary prior registration. Not to be outdone, Hofer subsequently suggested a hold be put on granting Austrian citizenship to Turks.
Renewed coalition bickering sparked by these differing opinions, and other disagreements, both between and within the two governing parties, have refuelled rumours that early legislative elections are in the offing well before the end of the current government's full term.
In taking a tough line on refugees, some suggest, certain politicians from the two mainstream parties may be preparing to take the wind out of the sails of the far-right Freedom Party, which has for months dominated national opinion polls, while at the same time paving the way for a coalition with the far right should they still triumph in early elections.
In any event, the hard-nosed - some say populist - tone of certain mainstream party ministers on the refugee crisis resonates with the key anti-immigrant, pro-security focus of Hofer's presidential campaign, and may provide impetus to far-right support for it from the electorate mainstream.
This support could increase further if there are any more Islamist attacks before the now-postponed rerun, if the refugee crisis rears its head again, or if the political spat with Turkey takes a further turn for the worse, especially with renewed demonstrations by Erdogan supporters in Austrian cities.
Candidates still hopeful
"A lot will depend on developments that may still occur in Austria," Hofer spokesman Martin Glier told EUobserver.
In the annulled vote, Van der Bellen beat Hofer by only 35,000 votes, so any such developments - or the absence thereof - may be crucial in determining how many people decide to vote for the candidate they didn't vote for last time.
Polls indicate that voter turnout is going to remain high. The irritation, anger, bemusement and disbelief sparked by yet another twist in the drawn-out presidential saga are not yet translating into voter fatigue.
Meanwhile, both Van der Bellen and Hofer remain indefatigably confident. Glier acknowledged that despite the postponement the race was still "tight", but he said Hofer's chances were "intact".
Asked if Van der Bellen retained confidence that he would be Austria's next president, his spokesman Reinhard Pickl-Herk had one word for EUobserver: "Yes."


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LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A US soldier pleaded guilty on Monday to killing five of his colleagues in Iraq four years ago, in a plea deal to escape a death sentence, a military spokesman said.
Army Sergeant John Russell was accused of the May 2009 killings at a clinic for soldiers suffering from war-related stress at Camp Liberty, the largest US base in Iraq.
Russell, who has previously denied responsablity, "said 'I killed these people,' he acknowledged that," said Gary Dangerfield, a spokesman for the Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM), south of Seattle.
He added, however, that Russell has not admitted premeditated murder, which prosecutors have been trying to prove.
"He's just saying he murdered them. He didn't say it was premeditated, based upon his mental condition," Dangerfield told AFP.
"What we've agreed upon is the death penalty will be taken off the table, so that ... the maximum he will face is life in prison without parole," he said, adding the sentence will be decided at a court martial.
Russell, who has been held at JBLM in the north-western US state of Washington, was present for Monday's plea hearing.
At the time, the Camp Liberty killings were the single deadliest toll on US forces in a month in Iraq, and came at a sensitive moment in the US military's occupation of the country it invaded in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein.


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Of Workmen, Tools and Logical Argument
I've often heard the saying "It's a poor workman who blames his tools". Remember in 2009: Twitter: blaming Ruby for their mistakes. While I agree with the substance of that post (that Twitter could've picked different tools or made Ruby suffice), seeing that saying again kind of set me off. Hence the present missive…
Whenever I hear (It's a poor workman who blames his tools) used as a blanket statement it bugs me. You know, some tools really are better than others. And you know, sometimes a (workman) chooses or must make do with poor ones. Again, I'm not talking about Ruby here—I'm talking about that saying.
A quick search yielded some fascinating history on the origins of that saying. It looks like the saying started off rather differently:
Mauves ovriers ne trovera ja bon hostill. [A bad workman will never find a good tool.] (French proverb, late 13th C. )
And that usage prevailed for about six centuries or so until this:
Good workmen never quarrel with their tools. (Byron, _Don Juan_, 1818)
which is pretty close to the prevalent version I hear all the time in the software community.
The earliest version says (a poor workman can't do good work, no matter how good the tools are). Now I can get behind that one. No controversy there.
The latest version says a good workman can do good work no matter how poor the tools are. That presumes that the workman cannot choose his tools. For if he could choose his tools then he would be evaluated on his ability to choose them, and choosing bad ones would reflect poorly on his ability. Or perhaps the workman wouldn't even bother choosing tools at all since all tools are equally usable (to the good workman.) And that just seems absurd on its face.
Tools do matter, and the ability to pick good ones often sets the very best workmen apart from their peers.


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Automotive Tyre Plant - Manufacturing Plant, Detailed Project Report, Profile, Business Plan, Industry Trends, Market Research, Survey, Manufacturing Process, Machinery, Raw Materials, Feasibility Study, Investment Opportunities, Cost And Revenue
|The Indian tyre industry has come of age with the manufacture of almost all types of tyres. The industry has an estimated turnover of close to Rs 100 bn. It is made up of 40 players with an installed capacity of 57.3 mn tyres. The industry claims a perceptible export market. The tyre industry in India has had a long history of over 75 years. Three major multinationals, Firestone, Goodyear and Dunlop, have been operating for a long time. Later came in CEAT. During the 1960s and 1970s the dominance of the MNCs was greatly diluted with the entry of Premier, Inchek and MRF. The Indian presence did not stop there. Several new Indian plants were set up, which included those of Modis, JKs, Raunaq Singh group's Apollo Tyres, TVS group and Vikrant. Firestone was acquired by Modis, Dunlop by Manu Chabbria group and CEAT by Duncans (later RPG group). Birla Tyres made a late comer's entry into the industry. The demand of tyres flows from three segments - orginal equipment (OE), replacements and exports. Of the three, the replacement market is the primary source of demand, followed by the OE segment and exports. In India, a large & diverse country, conditions under which tyres are used for different purposes constitute an astonishing variety. Climatic conditions are vastly different & instances may be when trucks with some tyres have to travel through arid, wet, hot, cold & snow-covered conditions in various types of terrains. Overloading of trucks, buses or cars much beyond the permitted load bearing capacities of these vehicles is a regular feature. Hence, in the developing countries like India, where the road conditions are not comparable with developed countries, preference, so far has been towards bias angle. Although some radial passenger car tyres have also been introduced in the market. The commercial vehicles users, especially those engaged in conveying goods by trucks, tempos, etc for transporting goods; need to load goods strictly as per loading capacity. Overloading directly affects the life of the tyre. Few Indian Major Players are as under: Apollo Tyres Ltd. Balkrishna Industries Ltd. Bridgestone India Pvt. Ltd. Ceat Ltd. Dewan Tyres Ltd. Dunlop India Ltd. Eco Wheels Pvt. Ltd. Falcon Tyres Ltd. Goodyear India Ltd. Govind Rubber Ltd. J K Tyre & Inds. Ltd. Krypton Industries Ltd. M R F Ltd. Modi Rubber Ltd. Modi Tyres Co. Pvt. Ltd. Modistone Ltd. Monotona Tyres Ltd. Poddar Tyres Ltd. Raam Tyres Ltd. Rado Tyres Ltd. Ralson (India) Ltd. Ralson Industries Ltd. S Kumars Tyre Mfg. Co. Ltd. Suntec Tyres Ltd. T V S Srichakra Ltd.
|Plant capacity: 300000 Tyres Car, 200000 Tyres Trucks per annum
|Plant & machinery: 718 Lakhs
|Working capital: -
|T.C.I: Cost of Project : 2114 Lakhs
|Return: 40.00%
|Break even: 68.00%
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Adaptive Contract Design for Crowdsourcing Markets: Bandit Algorithms for Repeated Principal-Agent Problems
Main Article Content
Crowdsourcing markets have emerged as a popular platform for matching available workers with tasks to complete. The payment for a particular task is typically set by the task's requester, and may be adjusted based on the quality of the completed work, for example, through the use of "bonus" payments. In this paper, we study the requester's problem of dynamically adjusting quality-contingent payments for tasks. We consider a multi-round version of the well-known principal-agent model, whereby in each round a worker makes a strategic choice of the effort level which is not directly observable by the requester. In particular, our formulation significantly generalizes the budget-free online task pricing problems studied in prior work. We treat this problem as a multi-armed bandit problem, with each "arm" representing a potential contract. To cope with the large (and in fact, infinite) number of arms, we propose a new algorithm, AgnosticZooming, which discretizes the contract space into a finite number of regions, effectively treating each region as a single arm. This discretization is adaptively refined, so that more promising regions of the contract space are eventually discretized more finely. We analyze this algorithm, showing that it achieves regret sublinear in the time horizon and substantially improves over non-adaptive discretization (which is the only competing approach in the literature). Our results advance the state of art on several different topics: the theory of crowdsourcing markets, principal-agent problems, multi-armed bandits, and dynamic pricing.
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Published on September 18th, 2013 | by AlexandreG.0
The 10 Best Nirvana Songs
They are part of a group of the few rock bands who can see their music withstand the corrosion of the time. Besides this great achievement, Nirvana managed to influence the musical direction of the last decade of the century, marking a new generation of young people up to the present day.
Back in 1988 Nirvana recorded their debut album 'Bleach' with mere 600$. No band in the world could do a album that good with that amount of money on those years. No one could bet at the time , that Nirvana's trademark loud/soft dynamic mood would change the sound of the world on the following years. And for that matter, much of the guilty were of these songs:
10- The Man Who Sold the World ('MTV Unplugged – New York', 1994)
This song written and performed by David Bowie is the title track of his third album, released back in 1970. Since then, the song has been covered by a number of other artists, but no one have do it with so many inspiration as Nirvana did. A stunning performance was recorded by the band in 1993 during their MTV Unplugged appearance, and it was released on their 'MTV Unplugged in New York' album the following year.
About the cover Bowie once said: 'I was simply blown away when I found that Kurt Cobain liked my work, and have always wanted to talk to him about his reasons for covering The Man Who Sold the World…it was a good straight forward rendition and sounded somehow very honest. It would have been nice to have worked with him, but just talking with him would have been real cool'.
9- You Know You're Right ('Nirvana', 2002)
'You Know You're Right' it's the first song on the compilation album, 'Nirvana' (2002), and the last song recorded by the band, before frontman Kurt Cobain's death. This song eventually had became object of an legal wrangling between Love (who blocked the song until 2002) and surviving Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic.
When was liberated was released as a promo single and pick number 1 at US Mainstream Rock Tracks and US Modern Rock Tracks.
8- In Bloom ('Nevermind', 1991)
'In Bloom' was the fourth and final single from the 'Nevermind' album, and originally was recorded as a punk rock song, but Cobain soothed the song in order to stay balanced on the album. It was supported by a black and white music video, which parodied musical performances of 1960s variety shows. The music video won Best Alternative Video at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1993.
It was a hit single, and brought to Nirvana many of the fans Cobain claimed to despise on the lyrics: '…He's the one/Who likes all our pretty songs/And he likes to sing along/And he likes to shoot his gun/But he knows not what it means…'
7- Come as You Are ('Nevermind', 1991)
Cobain recorded his guitar solo in two takes, lyrically 'Come as You Are' leave the listeners with many interpretations, however, the vocalist stated that it's about human behavior and how people often act contradictory to what you might expect. Although Cobain were afraid about the similarities of this song with Killing Joke's 'Eighties' , it eventually become 'Nevermind' second single and peaked at number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Don't be surprised if one day you go to Aberdeen, Washington, and find a Town Board with the inscription: 'Welcome to Aberdeen: Come As You Are'.
6- Pennyroyal Tea ('In Utero', 1993)
Written in a time when Cobain was struggling with terrible stomach acid pains, he explains that : 'Penny royal tea is a herbal abortive… I have so many friends who have tried to use that, and it never worked. The song is about a person who's beyond depressed; they're in their death bed, pretty much…'.
'Pennyroyal Tea' is a typical Nirvana's song: It starts slow like they were a different band, then distorted guitars are supported by a booming bass/drums giving the song another dimension. It's impossible not to fall in love for their acoustic version recorded at 'MTV Unplugged in New York'.
The song wasn't released as the third single from 'In Utero' because of the death of Cobain in the same month.
5- About a Girl ('Bleach', 1987)
Kurt Cobain is not at all Punk Rock 'freak', he really love The Beatles and R.E.M for example, and you can heard their influences in this amazing,i shall say, pop rock song. Released among heavy songs in 'Bleach' album, it's the acoustic version that opens 'MTV Unplugged in New York' that has since become one of the most favorite songs from Nirvana's repertoire. 'About a Girl' was written after Cobain spent an entire afternoon listening to 'Meet The Beatles!' album.
About putting this song on the first album Cobain explained: 'I was heavily into pop, I really liked R.E.M., and I was into all kinds of old '60s stuff. But there was a lot of pressure within that social scene, the underground — like the kind of thing you get in high school. And to put a jangly R.E.M. type of pop song on a grunge record, in that scene, was risky'.
4- Lithium ('Nevermind', 1991)
'Lithium' is a song about a guy that turns to religion after his girlfriend dies. Musically this song is a perfect example of the Nirvana's trademark, starting the music in a soft mode , giving then a kick making the music highly distorted until calm once again.
'Lithium' was released as the third single from 'Nevermind' and feature a cover photo by Cobain. In the United States, the single charted at number 64 on the Billboard Hot 100 single chart, peaked at number 16 and 25 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock and Modern Rock Tracks respectively.
3- Heart-Shaped Box ('In Utero', 1993)
Despite the hard times of writting and composing 'Heart-Shaped Box' with the band , it was released as the first single from the group's third and final studio album, 'In Utero', in 1993. The song was a tremendous success reaching number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, and on the other side of the Atlantic it peaked number five on UK Singles Chart. As for the video that supported the song, it was directed by Anton Corbijn winning two awards, including Best Alternative Video at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1994.
Cobain said that the inspiration for the song came when he was watching documentaries about children with cancer. He told to his biographer: ' Anytime I think about it, it makes me sadder than anything I can think of.' We can heard him singing : ' She eyes me like a pisces when I am weak / I've been locked inside your Heart Shaped box for weeks / I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap / I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black '
2- All Apologies ('In Utero', 1993)
'All Apologies' was the band's third number one at Modern Rock Tracks. The second single of the band's album 'In Utero' was released as a double A-side with the song 'Rape Me'. Since 1990, 'All Apologies' have passed through some different record processes: It starts to be a folk music in its first demo, then during the record sessions for 'In Utero' there were many problems with the direction of the song and with the production of Steve Albini, finally it ends in an extraordinary performance on 'MTV Unplugged in New York' in 1993.
Cobain dedicated the song to his wife Courtney Love and their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, not the lyrics but the song's mood that in the words of Cobain was 'Peaceful, happy, comfort,'.
1- Smells Like Teen Spirit ('Nervermind', 1991)
This choice for number one is not a cliché, but the honest truth. 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' was the song that broke Nirvana and ushered in a new era of music. It's their best song , probably the best song of the 90's and has ensured position among the best songs ever.
The inspiration for the song composition were Pixies, who at the time were a band that Cobain admired a lot: ' I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily that I should have been in that band—or at least a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard.'
Written by Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl and produced by Butch Vig, this song put the alternative rock movement on the mainstream. It was the band's biggest hit topping the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks chart for one week, reaching number six on the Billboard Hot 100. Everybody know the music video too, which won two MTV Video Music Awards and was in heavy rotation on music television.
Smells Like Teen Spirit
All Apologies
Heart-Shaped Box
About a Girl


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Time to Take Extinction Off Our Plates
by Guest Blogger
March 19, 2014
© Ricardo Funari / Lineair / Greenpeace
This is a guest post from our friends at the Center for Biological Diversity
Our planet has a livestock problem.
Consider the sheer weight of the industry: In the last 100 years, the biomass of cattle across the globe has increased by almost 250 percent. Compare that to elephants, whose biomass declined by 90 percent.
In fact, if all wild terrestrial mammals climbed on the biomass scale together, the worlds cattle would still outweigh them by 16 times.
Instead of going on a diet to lose some of that livestock weight, the global taste for meat has only grown. Meat production tripled between 1980 and 2010 and will likely double again by 2020. And it will only get worse as human population pushes toward 10 billion by mid-century.
Thats why the Center for Biological Diversity just launched the Earth-friendly Diet campaign. Were asking people who care about wildlife and the planet to join together and pledge to eat less meat.
The biomass numbers are eye-opening, but what all those cows, sheep, pigs and other livestock mean for the environment and other species is far more shocking. According to the United Nations, livestock production is responsible for more global greenhouse gas emissions than cars, trains, and airplanes combined.
In a 2009 report, Slaughtering the Amazon, Greenpeace highlighted the extent of the cattle industrys impact on Amazon deforestation an average of one acre every 8 seconds destroyed for grazing or feed crops. The loss of one of the most biodiverse regions in the world is devastating.
But you dont have to travel far to see the toll of cattle on the landscape and wildlife. In the western United States, cattle grazing causes more ecological damage and has contributed to the decline of more endangered species than any other form of extractive land use. At least 175 endangered species that live on federal lands are threatened by livestock, including keystone species like wolves, which were already once driven to the brink of extinction by the industry. And throughout the country, more than 35,000 miles of rivers home to fish, amphibians, and birds have been polluted by factory farms.
From climate change to land degradation, pollution to water use, habitat loss to fossil fuel consumption, the meat industry has a ravenous appetite for resources and destruction.
And Americans are hungry for what theyre selling we eat more meat per person in this country than almost anyone else in the world. Our planet and our country in particular has a livestock problem, and its up to us to break the habit. Every day we make choices about what to eat. Its time we choose to take extinction off our plates.
As someone who cares about the environment, you probably think a lot about food choices, such as avoiding palm oil linked to deforestation and choosing organic. Those are no doubt important.But one of the biggest, most all-around effective things you can do for the planet is to reduce your meat consumption.
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University found that shifting your diet just one day a week from eating meat to plant-based alternatives saves more greenhouse gases than eating an entirely locally sourced diet.
If youre already limiting your meat consumption, or even if youve already cut meat from your diet, you can still help. With 7 billion people, 21 billion cattle, and countless other livestock in the world, we need to reach as many people as possible to join the movement, take the pledge and spread the word. When you leave more room for veggies on your plate, you leave more room for wildlife on the planet. Learn more and take the pledge at www.TakeExtinctionOffYourPlate.com.


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Tennis Champion Serena Williams has announced she will miss the remainder of the tennis season because she is expecting her first child later this year.
A spokeswoman for Williams issued a statement to the media saying Serena is pregnant.
The 35-year-old Williams won her 23rd Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open in January – a little less than 12 weeks ago.
She has not competed since, citing a knee injury when withdrawing from tournaments at Indian Wells, California, and Key Biscayne, Florida.
Williams announced her engagement to Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of social media outlet Reddit, last December.


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Hong Kong-native Thomas Woo is one of the founders of gourmet lifestyle specialty store city'super. Woo began his career in retail in Tokyo's Seibu department store and from there returned home to work with Hong Kong Seibu. He helped start city'super in Hong Kong 14 years ago; Woo was appointed president in 2002. The chain opened its first store in Shanghai last month. He spoke to CHINA ECONOMIC REVIEW about why the chain picked Shanghai as its first step onto the mainland, and buying a better toothbrush.
Q: What is the difference between city'super and an ordinary grocery store?
A: We describe ourselves as a lifestyle specialty store. Of course we are a retailer, but we have three major components. One is the international food markets, in which we bring in the best gourmet food and wine from around the word. The second part is F&B, which means catering, food service, restaurants. We also have a capability in food production. In Shanghai, we have a French-style restaurant inside the store. The third part is what we call lifestyle products, which we call the Life division. This is non-foods – personal care, kitchenware, stationery, gifts, daily necessities – but all high quality. If you want to pamper yourself with a better toothbrush, for example, you can buy it here. That makes us quite different from other supermarkets. Our customers don't come to us for basic grocery needs, they come to enjoy the shopping experience.
Q: What do you mean by "shopping experience?"
A: Actually, in our store, because we are bringing in products from all over the world, looking at all these different foods is kind of a discovery journey. You might not know what it is, but you want to try it. Every time you come here you find something new. Another part is, you can actually have cooked food to take away, or you can sit down in a casual and comfortable environment to eat it. And all our food is made from our own products, safe and healthy. We also have a "culture club," which is a space where we have chefs inside to teach you how to make different recipes from different cuisines using our ingredients. In our store, every day we host different sessions to share different cooking methods. That is very entertaining and educational.
Q: Why Shanghai and why now?
A: We started in Hong Kong, but over the past 10 years, numerous projects in China have come to us and asked us to take a look, including projects in Shanghai. We have been regularly looking at different locations in China, looking at what people want, how they live. We realized back in 2007 that while Shanghai is changing every three months, it is shaping itself into a truly cosmopolitan city again. It used to be the New York of Asia, and in the last five years this has accelerated very quickly. You can see people from all different walks of life, people from all over the world, and the Shanghainese themselves are rapidly raising their standard of living. We think that 2010, with the Expo, is the beginning of Shanghai being a truly cosmopolitan city. It's just the beginning – it's not mature yet – but still. It was a similar situation when we first started in Hong Kong. Hong Kong was also experiencing very high growth. In the 1980s and early 1990s a lot of residents who had emigrated started coming back. A lot of them had raised children abroad, and were very cosmopolitan, and that drove demand for lifestyle stores like ours. We think Shanghai will experience a similar growth trend.
Q: Why did do you decide to start in Pudong and not Puxi?
A: We also intend to be in Puxi of course, but the International Finance Center complex just opened up in Pudong on April 28. We believe in this project, and that's why we started in Pudong. But we will go to Puxi as our next step.
Q: Why did you decide against Beijing?
A: Both Shanghai and Beijing are very charming cities, and both are attractive to us. But Shanghai does have a historical background of being very receptive to foreign concepts, which is why we want to start here first. But it doesn't mean that we won't go to Beijing.
Q: How do you deal with the regulations on getting food into China? Do you handle your own logistics?
A: Good question. Importing food into China is not an easy task. However, it can be done. We do it mostly ourselves, and we are still learning different categories – there are so many, and they each have different requirements. It's a learning process, but it's a fact of life in China.
Q: Are your customers mostly Chinese or foreigners?
A: We think in the beginning it's going to be half and half, especially since we are in Lujiazui financial district where there are a lot of foreigners around. But we think that in the future, the local customers will become the majority, according to the demographic ratio here.


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In this video, Betty demonstrates how to make Shortbread for Valentine's Day. This would make a great last-minute choice, if you want to impress someone special to you. It is quick and easy and has very few ingredients, yet looks elegant and dramatic.
|1 Cup (16 tbs) , softened
|Confectioners sugar
|1/2 Cup (8 tbs)
|All purpose flour
|2 Cup (32 tbs)
|For topping
|Colored sugar
|2 Tablespoon (or more as needed (you can also use plain white sugar but red colored sugar to make shortbread perfect for valentine's day))
1. In a large bowl, take softened butter and using an electric mixer, on medium speed beat until light and fluffy.
2. Gradually add confectioner's sugar and beat well.
3. Stir in all-purpose flour and mix until completely incorporated. (Dough will be stiff.)
4. Into a 15-inch by 10-inch by 1-inch jelly roll pan, transfer the dough and press to spread evenly. Prick dough with a fork as shown in the video.
5. Pop the pan in refrigerator for 1 ½ hours to chill.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degree F.
7. Pop the pan in oven and bake for 5 minutes.
8. Reduce heat to 300 degree F and bake for an additional 10 to 20 minutes. Shortbread is done when it starts to turn golden brown.
9. Remove from oven and place pan on a wire rack to cool for 2 minutes.
10. Sprinkle sugar on top and immediately cut shortbread into desired shapes.
11. Place cut cookies on a cooling rack and let it cool completely.
12. Serve shortbread with a glass of iced tea.
Serving size
Calories 360Calories from Fat 203
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 23 g35.4%
Saturated Fat 14 g70%
Trans Fat 0 g
Sodium 3 mg0.13%
Total Carbohydrates 35 g11.7%
Dietary Fiber %
Sugars 11 g
Protein 3 g6%
Vitamin A % Vitamin C %
Calcium % Iron %
Calories 2880Calories from Fat 1624
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 184 g283.2%
Saturated Fat 112 g560%
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0
Sodium 24 mg1.04%
Total Carbohydrates 280 g93.6%
Dietary Fiber 0 0%
Sugars 88 g
Protein 24 g48%
Vitamin A 0% Vitamin C 0%
Calcium 0% Iron 0%
*Based on a 2000 Calorie diet


text: Happy Monday, I'm back in city and in the office for the week. I have a meeting and a presentation to prepare. Rolled up to my desk this morning to some Chinese New Year goodies! Nice to show up to presents at the office haha. Stayed at work pretty late this evening and am now back home relaxing a little before bed…getting up early tomorrow to get back at it. I love being in the routine up waking up early, you can get so much more done in a day. But lazy mornings are soooo nice once in a while of course. Pretty nice views from Vancouver General Hospital, eh? It's a pretty epic city to live in. Have a good night babeskillets, Tita xx


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Dimensions: 4.0 x 1.4 x 1.4 inches
For adults, take one (1) teaspoonful (5ml) twice daily, preferably with a meal. Can be used in oatmeal, mixed with yogurt, cottage cheese, salad dressings, blended beverages and protein drinks. As a reminder discuss the supplements and medicines you take with your health care providers. Free of: yeast, wheat, milk or milk derivates, lactose, sugar, preservatives, soy, artificial flavor, sodium (less than 5mg preserving).
The products and the claims made about specific products on or through this site have not been evaluated by the United States Food and Drug Administration and are not approved to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease. The information provided on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other health care professional or any information contained on or in any product label or packaging. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosis or treatment of any health problem or for prescription of any medication or other treatment. You should consult with a health care professional before starting any diet, exercise or supplementation program, before taking any medication, or if you have or suspect you might have a health problem.
© 2023 Siraj Islamic Lifestyle Store. All Rights Reserved.


text: DecisionDatabases.com adds a new research report "Global Smart Thermostat Market Research Report - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2014 - 2021". The report does an in-depth study of the current market dynamics and future projections using analytical tools such as Porter's Five Forces Model, value chain analysis, market attractiveness analysis, company share analysis, and brand share analysis. The smart thermostat is an advanced technology to remotely control the temperature of central heating system of houses/ industries with the help of smart phone, desktop or tablet. Smart thermostat gives more user-friendly and efficient control over the central heating system. According to the report growing demand for energy-saving devices, rising energy prices and increasing need to optimize power consumption are major factors, which are expected to fuel demand for smart thermostat market.